8 LUTHER BURBANK 



Till at length a small green feather 

 From the earth shot slowly upward, 

 Then another and another, 

 And before the summer ended 

 Stood the maize in all its beauty 

 With its shining robes about it, 

 And its long, soft yellow tresses; 



And still later, when the Autumn 

 Changed the long green leaves to yellow 

 And the soft and juicy kernels 

 Grew like wampum hard and yellow 

 Then the ripened ears he gathered." 



Once when a large cucumber was found growing in a 

 glass bottle, which had a neck barely large enough to admit 

 the stem, no one inquired, for every one knew, who it was 

 that had placed it in the bottle when the great yellow 

 petals were falling and the tiny cucumber was just begin- 

 ning its growth, and had, day after day, watched its de- 

 velopment in its prison house of glass, as it lay hidden 

 beneath a tangle of vines. 



In the garden grew curious gourds from which were ob- 

 tained nest eggs, water bottles, and drinking cups. And 

 the melons ! Great, juicy, pink-fleshed watermelons ! Was 

 there ever a boy who did not like watermelons? The 



