Midsummer 



who begrudges every flower that is picked 

 without purpose, to be thrown aside, a 

 repulsive, disfigured object, a few mo- 

 ments later. Certainly it seems unintel- 

 ligent, if not wasteful and irreverent, to 

 be possessed with an irresistible desire 

 wantonly to destroy an exquisite organ- 

 ism. Yet so frequent is this form of un- 

 intelligence that when the companioned 

 flower-lover discovers a group of what he 

 fears might be considered tempting blos- 

 soms, his instinct is to pounce upon them 

 with outstretched arms and protect them 

 from an almost certain onslaught. 



Thoreau says somewhere that life should 

 be lived *' as tenderly and daintily as one 

 would pluck a flower," so it is possible 

 that in the neighborhood of Walden the 

 ruthless flower-gatherers were in the mi- 

 nority, for one would regret to see a life 

 lived as roughly and without semblance of 

 daintiness as one see, in less fortunate lo- 

 calities, flowers plucked by the dozen. 



79 



