THE DESERT REJOICES 



WHAT was foretold in Judea is fulfilled in 

 Arizona the desert has blossomed like the 

 rose. 



I could hardly believe it, a month ago, when a 

 Tucson business man, who in the kindness of 

 his heart had turned the city upside down, al- 

 most, seeking to find a home for a man who was 

 not a consumptive and did not wish to live in a 

 hospital or a pest-house I could hardly believe 

 it, I repeat, when he said : " Oh, you must n't 

 go back to Texas yet. You must stay and see 

 the desert in bloom. After these unusual rains 

 and snowfalls it will soon be all like a flower 

 garden." " So may it turn out," I thought ; 

 " but time will tell." 



He spoke, according to the privilege of pro- 

 phets, in the language of hyperbole ; for, al- 

 though his prediction has come true, its fulfill- 

 ment is more than a little straitened and stingy. 

 The desert has blossomed, but it is like a flower 

 garden only in this respect that there are 

 flowers in it. They are numbered by millions, 

 indeed ; or, rather, they are beyond all thought 



