WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 37 



Was evidently a little the best chance of light, 

 air, and sole proprietorship on the pole. And 

 the vine started for the pole, and began to climb 

 it with determination. Here was as distinct an 

 act of choice, of reason, as a boy exercises when 

 he goes into a forest, and, looking about, decides 

 which tree he will climb. And, besides, how did 

 the vine know enough to travel in exactly the 

 right direction, three feet, to find what it wanted ? 

 This is intellect The weeds, on the other hand, 

 have hateful moral qualities. To cut down a 

 weed is, therefore, to do a moral action. I feel 

 as if I were destroying sin. My hoe becomes an 

 instrument of retributive justice. I am an apos 

 tle of Nature. This view of the matter lends a 

 dignity to the art of hoeing which nothing else 

 does, and lifts it into the region of ethics. Hoe&quot; 

 ing becomes, not a pastime, but a duty. And 

 you get to regard it so, as the days and the 

 weeds lengthen. 



