208 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 



offensive traits. Probably it felicitates it- 

 self upon its shrewdness, and pities the poor 

 estate of its defenseless neighbors. How 

 they must envy its happier fortune ! It sees 

 them browsed upon by the cattle, and can 

 hardly be blamed if it chuckles a little to 

 itself as the greedy creatures pass it by un- 

 touched. School-girls and botanists break 

 down the golden-rods and asters, and pull 

 up the gerardias and ladies '-tresses; but 

 neither school-girl nor collector often trou- 

 bles the thistle. It opens its gorgeous 

 blossoms and ripens its feathery fruit unmo- 

 lested. Truly it is a great thing to wear an 

 armor of prickles ! 



"The human nature of plants," have 

 I any reader so innocent as not to feel at 

 this moment the appropriateness of the 

 phrase? Can there be one so favored as 

 not to have some unmistakable thistles 

 among his Christian townsmen and acquain- 

 tance? Nay, we all know them. They are 

 the more easily discovered for standing al- 

 ways a little by themselves. They escape 

 many slight inconveniences under which 

 more amiable people suffer. Whoever finds 

 himself in a hard place goes not to them for 



