SEPTEMBER DAYS 
241 
Yet, In relating their wonder and beauty to Jo^ 
seph, I was somehow not enthusiastic. 
“Shall we make the effort and have them next 
year?” he asked. “It seems that every one expects 
to see them in a garden in September.” 
“Not for my pleasure,” I answered, and Joseph 
questioned no further. Perhaps he thought that, 
despite their astonishing beauty, at the bottom of 
my heart I had the same feeling about dahlias that 
he had concerning petunias. 
Yet, when Miss Wiseman had asked me if hers 
were not beautiful, and this and that one an especial 
beauty, I had answered “Yes.” They have a 
beauty which I can see and admire, but it is one that 
I do not feel. I could never love dahlias. 
“If we have more asters next September, great 
quantities of them, as many as Miss Wiseman has 
of dahlias, I think our September garden will be 
attractive enough,” I said to Joseph. For an in- 
stant he looked troubled ; then he confessed frankly : 
“There is a beetle, besides the blue-aphis, that 
bothers the asters and eats their roots.” 
“What will you do about it?” I asked, feeling 
sure that he would overcome it in some way. 
“Oh,” he said, “it must be taken off by hand. I 
have mixed some kerosene, gasoline and benzine 
in a can, and, when I go about, I tap each plant 
until the beetles fall into the mixture. They die 
quickly then, you may be sure. Perhaps I shall 
have to go after them twice a day as long as they 
