CHAPTER XVIII 



A DAY WITH MR. BURBANK 



TF in this chapter some impression may be 

 -*- conveyed of the tremendous strain under 

 which this great work is done, a point will 

 have been gained. If it shall serve in any 

 measure to check the advance of the thou- 

 sands of people who annually, and in steadily 

 increasing numbers, visit Mr. Burbank out of 

 a natural curiosity, the full end will have been 

 reached. 



Far too often the day with Mr. Burbank 

 begins in care, advances in anxiety, closes in 

 exhaustion. Not the least but often the greatest 

 cause for this lies in the visits of the thought- 

 less, people with the best and kindest of inten- 

 tions but with lamentable lack of foresight. 

 No man ever lived with wider and richer hos- 

 pitality, with stancher friends; no man ever 

 enjoyed intercourse with personal friends more 

 keenly. Surely, even a man who has made a 

 great place in the world, who in a certain 



290 



