flies see something
good inside, crawl up to the top and then over and in--and then can't
get out--but just buzz and buzz and buzz--and make a lot of fuss about
it--bluebottles and all--no respecter of persons--and when it gets full
of the quick and dead in flydom, Bridget takes it out in the back yard
and dumps it. Very simple ... clean, peaceful, effective.

My, My! But it's a far cry back to those days, isn't it? And wouldn't
you like right this minute to sneak into the cool, curtain-down,
ever-so-quiet dining-room again ... and nose around to see if anything
edible bad been overlooked--and see one of those dear old round
fly-screens guarding the sugar!

The Autumn Leaves

There were three recognized uses for leaves in the Autumn--first, to be
banked by the wind along fences or sidewalk edges and provide
kicking-ground for exuberant youngsters returning home from school;
second, to be packed around the foundations of the house as a measure
for interior comfort in winter; and, third, to be pressed between the
pages of the big Bible and kept for ornamental purposes until they
crumbled and had to be thrown away. This last-named use was always
questioned by every red-blooded boy, and more tolerated than
accepted--a concession to the women of earth, from little sister with
her bright-hued wreath to mother and grandmother with their book of
pressed leaves.

Even for purposes of comfort their use was more or less
secondary--granted because the banking-up process was a man's job and
an out-door enterprise. Then, too, it was a lot of fun to rake the big
yard and get the fallen leaves into one or two huge piles; and
wheelbarrow them to the edge of the house where old Spencer had driven
the wooden pegs that held the boards ready to receive the leaves. Load
after load was dumped into the trough-like arrangement and stamped down
tight and hard by old Tom's huge feet and little Willie's eager but
ineffective ones--and then the top board was fastened down, and never a
cold winter wind could find its way under the floors with such a
protective bulwark around the house.... And in the spring the boards
had to be taken down--and countless bleached bugs fairly oozed out into
the spring sunlight--and the snow-wet soggy leaves were raked out and
burned, and the smoke was so thick and heavy that it hardly got out of
the yard.

But the real use of leaves--their only legitimate function in the
Autumn, according to all accepte