ches. Were they discouraged? Not a particle; they simply
rested comfortably upon whatever they had chanced to fall and grew again
from this new basis. Meanwhile the plants in front of them and on the
opposite side of the way began to feel discouraged, and a fine lot of
asters, now within the shadow, were attacked by facial paralysis and
developed their blossoms only on one side.

The middle of October, the week before the coming of Black Frost, the
garden executioner, the cosmos, now heavy with buds, settled down to
bloom. Two large jars were filled with them, after much difficulty in
the gathering, and then the axe fell. Sometimes, of course, they behave
quite differently, and those who can spare ground for a great hedge
backed by wall or fence and supported in front by pea brush deftly
insinuated betwixt and between ground and plants, so that it restrains,
but is at the same time invisible, may feast their eyes upon a spectacle
of billows of white and pink that, at a little distance, are reminiscent
of the orchards of May.

But if you, Mary Penrose, are leaning toward cosmos and reading in the
seed catalogue of their size and wonderful dawn-like tints, remember
that the best of highly hybridized things revert unexpectedly to the
commonest type, and somewhere in this family of lofty Mexicans there
must have been a totally irresponsible wayside weed. Then turn backward
toward the front of the catalogue, find the letter A, and buy, in place
of cosmos, aster seeds of every variety and colour that your pocket will
allow.

Of course the black golden-rod beetle may try to dwell among the aster
flowers, and the aphis that are nursery maids to the ants infest their
roots; you must pick off the one and dig sulphur and unslaked lime
deeply into the soil to discourage the other, but whatever labour you
spend will not be lost.

Other annuals there are, and their name is legion, that are pretty
enough, perhaps, and well adapted to special purposes, like the
decorative and curious tassel flower, cockscombs, gourds, four o'clocks,
etc., and the great tribe of "everlastings" for those people, if such
there be, who still prefer dried things for winter bouquets, when an
ivy-wreathed window filled with a succession of bulbs, ferns, or oxalis
is so easily achieved! It is too harsh, perhaps, to call these minor
annuals unworthy, but as they are unimportant and increase the labour
rather than add to the pleasure, they are really unworth