Midsummer to Michaelmas 
take Master Toad along, to give him a situation as Assistant- 
Gardener in the Greenhouse, but he was indifferent to Boy’s 
tender apostrophe of him as a Darling Toad and hopped 
hastily away into the Snowberry hedge. Few people seem to 
like Toads ; they think they are poisonous, which, I believe, 
is quite a mistake. Sir Joseph Banks was fond of Toads ; 
there is an old story he was seen sprawling on a lawn 
kissing a Toad ! Toads can be tamed, and are quite nice 
pets, I have heard. I think it was Dr. Johnson who called 
Miss Burney once a little Toadling, as a term of endear- 
ment. This used to be an old Scotch term of endearment. 
I do not know if very small brown Toads are always to be 
found at Sandhurst, but I remember being vastly delighted 
long ago with finding in a walk by the lake in the grounds 
of Sandhurst a multitude of tiny Toadlings about the size 
of Beetles. An old Scotch word for a Toad was Bade, an 
Anglo-Saxon word really. Podda was Frog in Icelandic, 
and a Podle was a Tadpole. A Padell was a small leather 
bag. Certainly a Toad looks very like an old leather pouch, 
I think. My Blue Thistle is looking very pretty, although, 
unluckily, I have only the pale-blue kind. I have been 
told that in Roumania there are sometimes whole acres of 
the Blue Thistle, which looks like a turquoise sea when 
the sun shines on it. The Globe Thistle ( Echinops ) is also 
very effective in garden and vase. I like the fashion of 
green glass vases ; it becomes some flowers mightily, especially 
this one. 
August 6. — I saw a Squirrel hurrying up a Fir-tree to-day, 
carrying something in his mouth ; he looked so funny ! A 
friend of ours one day saw a mother Squirrel carrying her 
little one ; it had its front paws clasped round Mother 
Squg’s neck. I do wish I had seen it. They are said to 
eat Mushrooms. I should like to see a Squirrel nibbling 
round a Mushroom. In very hard winters I think they must 
gnaw the bark of the trees ; at least branches of trees look 
peeled high up, in places where certainly Rabbits could 
not get at them. There is a lovely Harrisi White Lily out 
in the garden to-day, and others coming on. White 
Lilies are very sacred flowers ; they have been dedicated 
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