Insects 219 



coaxed to full blowth with the very nicest 

 care. The first long white frilly-edged 

 trumpets came out on them when they were 

 no more than knee-high, but towards the 

 last they grew taller than your head, and 

 correspondingly branchy. Every flower they 

 opened was poisoned at sunset after. Joe 

 and Patsy tramped about, armed with long- 

 necked quill-stoppered bottles, full of cobalt 

 mixed in honey, and shook drops of it deep 

 in the flower-hearts. Next morning they 

 came again to snip ofF the poisoned blossoms 

 — if left to wither, the poison ran down the 

 stalk and killed the plant. With half a dozen 

 blooms to the weed it was no great task, but 

 when the blooming was fairly on, and fifty 

 opened upon each plant, it was something 

 considerable. Since it is so considerable, a 

 wildly inventive genius has sprung upon 

 tobacco-growing communities an imitation 

 jimson bloom of staring white glass, which 

 can be tied to a stick, and poisoned once for 

 always, but the planters rarely insult the 

 intelligence of their enemies with a make- 

 shift so crude. 



A cent each for dead flies is no great price, 

 but what with doubling on the early ones, 

 between snatching and poison, Joe and Patsy 

 turned a very pretty penny. Major Baker 

 let them do the work because it required in- 



