Joan Silver-pin 
315 
before the photographer did. The cats did not have 
to watch the wind and sun and rain, to pick out plates 
and pack plate-holders, and gather ray-fillers and 
cloth and lens, and adjust the tripod, and fix the 
camera and focus, and think, and focus, and think, 
and then wait — - till the wind ceased blowing. So 
when they found it, they broke down every slender 
stalk and rolled in it till the ground was tamped down 
as hard as if one of our lazy road-menders had been 
at it. Valerian has in England as an appropriate folk 
name, “ Cats’-fancy.” The pretty little annual, Ne- 
mophila, makes also a favorite rolling-place for our 
cat ; while all who love cats have given them Catnip 
and seen the singular intoxication it brings. The 
sight of a cat in this strange ecstasy over a bunch 
of Catnip always gives me a half-sense of fear ; she 
becomes such a truly wild creature, such a miniature 
tiger. 
In The Art of Gardening , by J. W., Gent., 1683, 
the author says of Marigolds : “ There are divers 
sorts besides the common as the African Marigold, 
a Fair bigge Yellow Flower, but of a very Naughty 
Smell.” I cannot refrain, ere I tell more of the 
Marigold’s naughtiness, to copy a note written in 
this book by a Massachusetts bride whose new hus- 
band owned and studied the book two hundred years 
ago ; for it gives a little glimpse of old-time life. In 
her exact little handwriting are these words : — - 
“ Planted in Potts, 1720: An Almond Stone, an Eng- 
lish Wallnut, Cittron Seeds, Pistachica nutts, Red Damsons, 
Leamon seeds, Oring seeds and Daits.” 
