104 A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD. 



" The good old rule 

 Sufficeth her, the simple plan, 

 That they should take who have the power, 

 And they should keep who can." 



If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns 

 without number. Her recklessness equals 

 that of some ambitious military despot, to 

 whom ten thousand or a hundred thousand 

 dead soldiers count as nothing, if only the 

 campaign be fought through to victory. 



Man's economy and Nature's prodigality, 

 here they were in typical operation, side 

 by side. The corn was in " hills " uni- 

 formly spaced, and evidently the proprietor 

 had already been at work with plough and 

 hoe, lest the weeds should spring up and 

 choke it ; but just beyond stood a perfect 

 thicket of wild-cherry shrubs, so huddled 

 together that not one in twenty could possi- 

 bly find room in which to develop. If they 

 were not all of them stunted beyond recov- 

 ery, it would be only because a few of the 

 sturdiest should succeed in crowding down 

 and killing off their weaker competitors. 



The import of this apparent wastefulness 

 and cruelty of Nature, her seeming indiffer- 

 ence to the welfare of the individual, is a 



