Songs of the Fields 



Long farm. This season, when a study of them 

 Mas A\'anted in their prime, the cameras Avere loaded, 

 and the trijj made in all confidence — not a lily was 

 to he found, nor the ghost of a lily. Even more, 

 the emhankment next the woods was cut away at 

 least a foot in depth, and leveled. Then hegan a 

 search all over my country fen- a large bed of them, 

 with no results. A week had not helped matters, 

 when my critic came from a drive and announced 

 that beside the railroad, half way to Bryant, was 

 a superb growth of lilies tliat, she tliought, was 

 just what I wanted. She brought one for a sam- 

 ple, and she was not mistaken. 



So great -v^-as the fear tliat flower himters miglit 

 gather them or railroad employees mow the land 

 that the trip was made in the rain. A glance 

 showed what had hapjiened. Tlie railroad com- 

 pany had cvit down the embankment beside the 

 Long farm and filled in a low j^lace near the Lim- 

 berlost crossing M'ith the earth. In so doing they 

 had transplanted my lilies, and greatly to the ad- 

 vantage of the flowers; for liere they were in a 

 moist location, and were shaded all the long, hot 

 afternoons. As a result these lilies prove that they 

 grew in closer clusters, taller, and with blooms 

 very nearly twice the size of the average wild lily. 

 After the studies were secured and the flowers 

 were needed no longer, they peeped at me from 

 several fence corners around the Limberlost, Can- 



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