Evening star., 1932-05-11

We'll, for such bad start, yesterday
turned out to be a very nice day. after
all, didn't it?" asked the man with the
cigarette.
YES" chorused his companions, in
cluding the man with the pipe.
If the latter had said what he
thought. however, his monologue would
have run something along this order:
" 1t was good day in the beginning
cloudy day is just as good as a bright
one, rainy day as sunshiny one, II
you are interested in gardening"
There can be little doubt that interest
in even the smallest plot of ground
changes ones attitude on this entire
question.
The gardener insensibly over the
years comes to accept Nature as she is,
not as he would have her be. Thus he
becomes sort of natural optimiSt, un-
forced. unbeSought
No one has pointed him a moral, or
told him of the many advantages of
being optimistic. No one has urged
him to adopt certain frame of mind
for his own good" or for any one
elSe's good, for that matter.
He becomes incurably optimistic about
the weather because he not only finds
he must. not being able to help himself,
but because there is great personal
satisfaction in it.
He shares in the state of mind" if 1t
can be called that, of all the living,
growing things with roots in the earth.
Trees and grass and peonieS and iris
and all the other things which grow
and thrive in the Spring must accept
dark days with bright. showers in place
OF sun, dryneSs at times and Super
wetness at other times.
Theirs is not the choice, to have
what they might wish, or even what
they often sorely need, but what they
have to do is to put up with the weather
as 1t comes, and to make the best of it
if they can.
Here is lesson sorely needed by hu-
manity.
1t is not the fashion any more to
speak OF lessons" or to feel that the
things of Nature can point a moral to
any human being.
The good poems of our own Bryant
and LOngfellow are often regarded as
pedantic and terribly old-faShioned. be-
cause those cultured gentlemen found,
or thought they found, more than mere
beauty in a gentian flower or in a scene
of natural charm.
Yet there was a place in the reading
NOlluy NllEll l1tty MIOIt, IOT IDaL WHICH
adorned a moral and pointed a tale, and
it is probably true that thousands of
men and women of today, not easily
bluffed by the Self-appointed censors of
what one should admire, still have a
fondneSs for a bit of morality in their
reading, and even of sentiment. too.
1t is not necessary to dwell upon
these aspects of the case; it is enough
to insist that they are there, and per-
nit the reader to discover them for
himself.
What may be essential is to point out
again the advantage which an interest
in gardening subjects confers upon the
average human being.
Since the weather is one thing which
he cannot help, as We say, it Is de-
cidedly to his credit, in every way, If he
manages to be interested in it as it ar
rives.
He comes into the possession, grad
ually, bit by bit, of whole department
of life and living which thousands of
his fellow men seem to know nothing
at all about.
He is one of the millions Of modern
city dwellers, men and women who,
through the turn of fate, have found it
unnecessary to be interested in the
weather ON account of their livelihood
The farmer scans the sky and the
sailor watches his barometer. each be-
cause he has to; he must know what
the weather is going to be, if possible,
so that he may make his plans accord
ingly
The city man, on the other hand, has
a different way OF earning his living, a
scheme Of things in which Nature plays
but an indirect part Nature, mother of
us all, is reduced to the paltry role of
helper or spoiler of a picnic!
x
Now this is an absurd, even terrible,