FINDING FERNS TO TRANSPLANT 75 
ered with a bluish bloom, such as we see on grapes. 
The little parts that would later open out and be 
green were then dull red. Neither of us doubted 
that Mr. Percy was right, and that some day this 
strange little bunch of sprigs would turn, into our 
own beautiful maidenhair fern. It then looked 
much less like it than a baby looks like a man. 
Joseph thought it very wonderful that Mr. Percy 
should be able to tell what all the little sprigs and 
tiny green things were going to be when once they 
were full grown. We thought he must have wan- 
dered many times in the woods and observed 
sharply the things he saw. He quickly set himself 
about taking up the maidenhairs, since he said they 
also would thrive in our home garden. Their root- 
stocks were not as hard to handle as those of the 
fiddleheads. They were more slender and wiry, 
and stayed nearer the surface of the earth. Soon 
we had five of them in the basket. 
“They will make a showing this year,’’ Mr. 
Percy said, “and, every year after, the clumps will 
grow larger and more beautiful.” 
There were hepaticas and windflowers where 
these maidenhair ferns were uncoiling. The wind- 
flowers were now in full bloom in our own wood- 
border, not far from the place where Joseph had 
planted the hepaticas. They looked so frail and 
delicate that I felt quite afraid to walk among them. 
“This year,” Mr. Percy said, “the season is back- 
ward. It is now the twenty-fourth of April, and I 
