HASTY OBSERVATION 265 



To observe nature and know her secrets, one 

 needs not only a sharp eye, but a steady and 

 patient eye. You must look again and again, 

 and not be misled by appearances. All the 

 misinformation about the objects and phenom- 

 ena of nature afloat among country people is the 

 result of hasty and incomplete observation. 



In parts of the country where wheat is grown 

 there is quite a prevalent belief among the farm- 

 ers that if the land is poor or neglected, the 

 wheat will turn into chess or cheat grass. 

 Have they not seen it, have they not known the 

 wheat to disappear entirely, and the chess to be 

 there in its place? 



But like so many strange notions that are 

 current in the rural districts, this notion is the 

 result of incomplete observation. The cheat 

 grass was there all the while, feebler and in- 

 conspicuous, but biding its time; when the 

 wheat failed and gave up possession of the soil 

 the grass sprang forward and took its place. 



Nature always has a card to play in that way. 

 There is no miracle nor case of spontaneous 

 generation about the curious succession of forest 

 trees — oak succeeding pine, or poplar succeed- 

 ing birch or maple — if we could get at the facts. 

 Nature only lets loose germs which the winds 

 or the birds and animals have long since stored 

 there, and which have only been waiting their 

 opportunity to grow. 



A great many people are sure there is such a 

 creature as a glass snake, a snake which breaks 

 up into pieces to escape its enemies, and then 



