io8 LUTHER BURBANK 



smooth. These were allowed to remain in the school. 

 The next year, when they were clad in white, they looked 

 very beautiful. Soon small, green, gnarly berries took the 

 place of the snowy blooms, and later, when the fruit was 

 ripe, it was nearly as hard, knotty, and tasteless as when 

 it was green. The master now understood well that the 

 task of making his pupils of the envelope perfect would 

 be a difficult one, still he persevered. 



Seeds were saved, and the following spring the kinder- 

 garten was crowded with more young berry pupils. Their 

 promotions were made on their willingness to leave off 

 their weapons of defense, so the little fellows had to un- 

 dergo the test. When one was found that appeared to be 

 making a desperate struggle to free himself from thorns, 

 he was given a place in the Gold Ridge school. 



Year after year for several years thornless vines were 

 promoted from the kindergarten, until finally twenty 

 thousand or more berry scouts had lain down their arms 

 and stood in great ranks in the Gold Ridge school, an 

 honor to their teacher and a blessing to all boys and 

 girls who had received the stab of the sharp thorns on the 

 blackberry vines. 



Thornless surely felt proud when the world's great 

 scientists, who visited the school, took his long, slender, 

 smooth arms in their hands, placed them against their 

 cheeks, stroked his glossy coat, and praised him for his 

 beauty and for the delight he is to bring to the world. 



