THE WIZARDRY OF THE SOIL 



mute a part of her homely substance into 

 redolent forests of pine, hemlock, and bal- 

 sam, and other parts into deciduous trees 

 with leaves of a thousand different pat- 

 terns?" 



"How do I do it? Ah, child, does your 

 fairy-book ever tell how the magician turned 

 the charcoal to gold, or the owl back again 

 into the beautiful princess that she was? 

 No more shall I spoil my stories by telling 

 how my subterranean magic is wrought. 

 But, O, such wonderful secrets as some of 

 them are! Some day a few of my secrets 

 will be found out. Others will baffle the 

 children of men while the world stands. 

 One of the most complex of them all is the 

 way I can supply in the same garden bed 

 different colors and odors to plants which 

 are growing side by side. I never mix those 

 children up, but I must tend them as care- 

 fully as you humans do an 'incubator 

 baby.' " 



Thus the great earth magician might 

 speak if her more eloquent silence could be 

 translated into the cruder speech of man. 



37 



