Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
I remember in the Beech-woods seeing r brown and yellow 
Mushrooms, and being told that one kind was good and 
the other bad, the difference being in the markings on the 
underside. But, after all, Cassava-cakes are made from the 
deadly poisonous Manioc, prepared in what seems to be a 
similar way to the Russian Mushroom method. And even 
our well-beloved Potato, should its fruit be cooked instead of 
its root, would poison us all most effectually. I travelled 
once in this neighbourhood in company with a distinguished 
Scotch fungologist who was very anxious to make a convert 
of me, and was perpetually rushing into the hedges after 
tempting morsels which he tried to persuade me to swallow, 
but I never had courage enough. 
September 20. — Boy went away to school for the first 
time to-day. We spent the morning in the Greenhouse, 
instructing Gardener to take special care of his garden and 
fill it with Pansies. “There’s Pansies, that’s for thoughts ! ” 
The small man is very partial to Pansies — Pansies, Flower 
of Love. In the meantime his garden looks rather like an 
African cemetery, with its blue and white rags tied to sticks, 
presumably to frighten the birds, but rather suggestive of 
“ Loup-Garou ” and “ Duppy.” But it will be haunted for 
me by the ghost of my nursery bairn. A boy never comes 
back the same from school as he went, they say. Well, he 
is away — he departed this afternoon, hugging a big green- 
and-red French football, cheery and ready for his plunge 
into the unknown world, having bid an airy farewell to the 
little comrades who were wont to share the minnow-fishing 
in his beloved river. “ We twa hae paidlit in the burn ”... 
September 21.— The last day of Summer! She is gone 
on the Swallow wings, like little Maia, to the sunny lands. 
What mischief the late high winds have wrought in the 
garden, levelling the flowers ! Yet one can still glean a 
basketful if one is not too particular. Farewell Summers 
and Pentstemons, Japan Anemones, pink and white 
(how I love them !), Lobelias, Day-lilies, Marigolds, and a 
few Evening Primroses — Snapdragons, Snaplions some 
people call them — and many-coloured Scabious, or “ My 
228 
