The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1922-07-05
YOUR GARDENS BEST FRIEND
LOUISE II. GUYOL in Our Dumb Animals

Quick! Quock! Come quickly" Pat,
tiptoeing from the rose-bed, called in a
loud whisper and beckokned to his
brothers and his sister.
Nat flew across the lawn, followed
by Bill and Pill.
"Sh-sh-sh," Pat warned as the chill
dren drew near and he led them, again
on tiptoe, toward the rQse-bed and
signed to them to kneel at it's edge.
1t was a cloudy day, soft and gray,
but not raining. The low branches of
a big rosebush made shadow Of dark
er gray and in that shadow sat q fat,
old toad
Across his shoulders was spot Of
very bright green, but all around his
forelegs was what looked like heavy
gray material, all wrinkled up.
"HoW funny" Nat started to whis-
per- but Pat put finger on his lips
and signed to him to watch Hoppy- the
Toad.
Hoppy put his right foot in his mouth
pulled and he tugged, and off came all
of the wrinkled old gray material that
was around his right foreleag. Then
he put his left foot in his mouth and
he tugged and he pulled and he pulled
and he tugged, and off came all the
wrinkled old gray material that was
around his left foreleg
And there was Hoppy, all dressed up
in brand-new suit of clothes
Now what do You suppose Hoppy-
the-Toad did with his old clothes? He
didn't have them lying around so that
his poor, tired mother would come
along, byand-by, and have to say, 90,
| am SO tired Of picking up after that
child" But there was no closet un-
der the rose bush, nor any nice little
tacks on the garden wall, nor even q
little clothes-hamper where he could
throw his cast-off coat and trousers.
SO, what do you s'pose he did
He ate 'em up!
Yes, sir. That's what the toad al
ways does. And Nat and Pat and Bill
nd Lil, who live in the Happy House
and play in the Gay Garden that sur
rounds it, sa whim do it. And so can
you, on any nice, coolish, grayish day,
just before it rains, or early any ev-
ening, when the sun goes down.
"Itsn't he beautiful whispered pat.
All the other children nodded, and
Hoppy- -the-Toad admired himself, first
over his left shoulder and then over
his right. He, too, thought himself
quite beautiful in his nice new coat
and trousers, and so he winked his
heavy eyes at the four nice children
and this is what he seemed to say to
them:-
"Now! I'd best get busy and work
for you nice children, who never hurt
me, nor any of my kin-fois. And SO
I'll go help you in your garden, be-
cause If didn't help you, you know,
you would never have any vegetables
nor flowers, nor plants Of any kind"
And away he hoped, to work for
Pat and Nat and Bill and Iii, because
they were so good to him.
Hoppy will help you, too, if you will
let him, and this is the way that he
will do its
There are great many insects that
are not good for gardens. They eat
our young, green leaves; they cut our
baby iplants down at the base; they lag
eggs by the hundreds in the buds be-
fore they came to flower. And these
eggs hatch out and the young grub that
comes from the egg eats his way from
the inside to the outside Of our vege-
tables and our fruit and our rose-blos-
SONS.
You may work in your garden till
your back seems broken and your
hands are blistered, and you can't
catch all these insects.
Hoppy-the-Toad can.
That's his business.
Watch him some day, when the sun
Is not too bright, or watch him, as did
the children Of the GIappy House, un-
der the shadow Of low hanging bushes
On soft, gray days.
See him there, never winking, never
blinking, never moving Suddenly the
tiny fingers resting on the groud, will
quivcr like lightning and then the lit
tie hand darts to his nose and seems
to scratch very fast and very furious
W. Its yery funny, but you mustn't