A Thousand-Mile Walk 



better than wander over the country and look 

 at weeds and blossoms. These are hard times, 

 and real work is required of every man that is 

 able. Picking up blossoms does n t seem to be 

 a man s work at all in any kind of times.&quot; 



To this I replied, &quot;You are a believer in the 

 Bible, are you not?&quot; &quot;Oh, yes.&quot; &quot;Well, you 

 know Solomon was a strong-minded man, and 

 he is generally believed to have been the very 

 wisest man the world ever saw, and yet he con 

 sidered it was worth while to study plants; 

 not only to go and pick them up as I am doing, 

 but to study them; and you know we are told 

 that he wrote a book about plants, not only of 

 the great cedars of Lebanon, but of little bits of 

 things growing in the cracks of the walls. 1 



&quot;Therefore, you see that Solomon differed 

 very much more from you than from me in this 

 matter. I 11 warrant you he had many a long 

 ramble in the mountains of Judea, and had he 



1 The previously mentioned copy of Wood s Botany, used 

 by John Muir, quotes on the title page I Kings iv, 33 : &quot; He 

 spake of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon even unto the 

 hyssop that springeth out of the wall.&quot; 



[ 24] 



