Evening star., 1932-05-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

attitude to take toward this great
earth, this vast universe in which
mankind finds itself, to play It's role
under sun and shadow.
Yet it is, consciously or uncon-
sciously, the attitude OF thousands
upon thousands of human beings who
have no direct understanding or liking
for the growing things of the earth.
When they think of the weather at
all, they approach it only from the
viewpoint of special pleader. wen:
for bad start" says one, thinking OF
the gloomy morning and the bright
afternoon, yesterday turned out to be
a very nice day, after all
The truth is that the day did not
turn out" to be anything, but was
itself all the time.
The day was the day and the clouds
Of the morning were as much part
of it as the sunshine of the afternoon.
The rain at am. was part OF
it and the drizzle of the breakfast
hour was part of it.
Part of it, too. was the green OF
the grass and of the freshly-leaved
shrubs. of the new leaves of the trees
and the green of prive: and barberry,
favorite hedges.
There are two good attitudes of
mind, which one comes to comprehend
better as he grows older; one is that
it is best to be able to do as many
things as possible, if for no other rea-
son than that fewer things will have
an opportunity to offend one, and, sec
ond that it is best to broaden ones
interests as far as one can. since then
one is able to like more people, events,
facts, etc.
The good interest of gardening falls
more into the second classification than
the first, although it partakeS some
thing Of that virtue also.
If one has broadened his interests
in life to include gardening, on a small
or large scale, as an amateur or pro-
fessional, in a theoretical or actual
way, he will find that never again will
he regard the weather as If it were
simply something to put him out of
countenance or to add a sort of celeS-
tial beam to his moments of play.
If he sells automobiles for a living
he will cease to regard a rainy day
as specially directed against his shining
lacquerS; he will know that the forces
which bring the raindrops still know
nothing at all about all these queer
moving objects, which seem to be so
alive and yet which are so inert in
themselves.
For all that man has been able to
do to her, Nature has not changed one
jot during the historical era. She
brings her sunshine and her rain, her
wind and her thunder and lightning,
practically the same as in the days when
Titus CaruS LucretiuS found it expedi-
ent to say to the Romans that such dis
plays were not from Jove, but were
merely natural results of natural
causes. however ineXplicable those
causes might be.
The gardener allies himself with one
Of the grand factors Of the world, its
weather, as caused by physical and
chemical factors beyond his control
(Whether man will ever have any real
control of them is doubtful, although
stranger things have happened)
The man or woman who likes to gar
den has this advantage over the sports
man-that his sport" goes on just as
well on a wet day as on a dry one: in
fact, often enough the rainy day is pre-
cisely the sort of weather demanded by
his plants.
What a soothing sensation it is.
known only to gardeners, to look upon
vegetation whose very appearance calls
for water; to think. well, 1 do not feel
much in the mood for sprinkling, but
I guess l will have to do it,; then to
notice a small dark cloud: to watch it
develop, to see the sky become over
cast; to hear the rain drops begin to
patter down; then to watch it come
down in earnest, and see the grass be-
come greener every moment, to watch
the flowers and shrubs freshen in the
breeze which accompanies it
This is one of the joys of the gar
dener, to feel, not that nature is doing
ones work, but that ones work is re-
ceiving the benefits of her immortal
deeds, actions as old as the hills. yet
as fresh and new as the latest rain.