My Ambition Grows 31 
bottom of the pots for drainage, and one bright Sunday morn- 
ing at the dark of the moon (to obey the almanac) I began the 
holy work of planting some of the seeds. Later I planted 
others at intervals of a week apart, writing the name and date 
of planting on each pot. Every sunny window and warm 
corner in the house was laid under contribution to my pur- 
poses. My forcing-house was a long mantle shelf over a wood 
stove, which was kept at temperate heat day and night. When 
the first seed leaves appeared, the pot containing the new-born 
was placed in the sun in a contrivance made by fitting a shal- 
low frame into the lower casing of a window, with cleats nailed 
across the ends from six to nine inches apart, and narrow 
shelves four inches wide were set on the cleats. When three 
pairs of leaves appeared, each seedling was transplanted into 
a separate pot and placed in the cool shade on the top of a low 
bookcase which served asa cold frame. By the time the seed- 
lings had recovered entirely they were ready for the fourth 
stage, which was to take them into a sunny chamber upstairs 
with a south exposure, but no fire, where an even temperature 
of about 60° was maintained. As I had no appliances, I used 
anything at hand; and when a large table became too full, I 
took out the shallow drawers of an old-fashioned bureau and 
filled them with my pots, resting one end of a drawer on the 
window-sill, the other on the edge of the table, and in this way 
increased my area of possible sunshine three or four times. 
This last stage of hardening is imperative; for if seedlings are 
kept long in a warm living-room they grow spindling and very 
tender and are quite unprepared for the changeable weather 
and high winds of our Northern spring. 
By May I had several hundred plants, and the chamber 
had an attenuated smell of a real greenhouse. While this 
method of propagation gave me a good start, I have never 
tried it since. In the first place it is an enormous care, and 
