XXV. 



THISTLEDOWN BLOWS. 



IN spite of much unseasonable rain, the corn in the 

 Home Close still looks promising enough ; and if we 

 only get a little overdue sunshine for the ripening of the 

 grain, we may yet save a decent harvest this critical 

 summer. But the field is full of thistles, as it always is ; 

 and nothing one can do seems to be of much good in 

 eradicating them. The down continually blows over 

 from Shapwick Grange, the next farm, as it is now 

 doing indeed at this very moment ; and so long as the 

 Shapwick people go on neglecting their Further Croft, 

 there is no chance of our Home Close getting really 

 clear of the troublesome intruders. 



Nature, indeed, has been very prodigal to thistles ; 

 she has given them every advantage and no enemies on 

 earth, except farmers and donkeys. Just look at such a 

 head as this that I have cut off clean with a swish of my 

 stick, and then consider what fraction of a chance the 

 wheat or the wheat-growers have got against it. Each 

 stalk supports some dozen heads of blossom at least ; and 

 each head contains a hundred separate flowers, every one 

 of them destined to produce in due time a winged and 

 tufted seed. The thistles are members of the great com- 

 posite family, like the daisies and the dandelions ; and 

 they have their little bells clustered together after the 

 common composite fashion into close and compact flower- 

 heads. If you cut the head through with your knife, 

 longitudinally it is difficult to tear it open because of 



