ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



What the earth does for the "muddy ves- 

 ture of decay" of man and beast, she also 

 does for every other unsightly object on her 

 premises. If a farmer has old stumps and 

 tumble-down stone walls, the earth will do 

 her best to drape them with vines, ferns, and 

 bramble-bushes. The recent efforts to abol- 

 ish unseemly back yards is comforting proof 

 that mankind at last is taking the cue from 

 the greatest of all landscape gardeners, the 

 earth. 



Finally, considering the million miracles 

 of the soil, one is as much struck by the glad 

 alacrity with which the earth gives good 

 gifts to her children as by her wondrous 

 power itself. The under-mother likes to 

 say "Yes" to her children, whether they ask 

 for pansies or potatoes, or for clay for bricks 

 and pottery. And, although in some states 

 she does give a stone with the bread, if not 

 for it, she might justify her course as an in- 

 direct direction for raising men. 



Then here's to the dear enchantress, 

 earth, whom we love in her fair green kirtle 

 or brown; the earth, who all our lives is 



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