ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



the value of some of her gifts by adding to 

 them the element of surprise and mystery. 

 In other realms, the pearl in the oyster, and 

 the richly blended coloring on the backs of 

 toads and frogs are cases in point. Whether 

 nature, in pursuing this course, wishes 

 merely to add zest to the pleasures she gives, 

 or slyly to symbolize the moral that one 

 should not too hastily judge by appearances, 

 one may not know. But certain it is that 

 one may make a prolonged examination of 

 her benefactions to man in myriad lines and 

 in every one there will be found several ex- 

 amples of her habit of hiding the thimble 

 where she is almost sure her children will not 

 get warm for years or even centuries. 



Returning to the corn, by which the reader 

 has been sidetracked, if one had never seen 

 its white fragrant petals bloom in a well- 

 shaken popper, who ever would have guessed 

 by mere inspection of its hard, dry, odor- 

 less kernels, that heat could instantly wiz- 

 ardize them into deliciously redolent blos- 

 soms? 



A still more striking illustration of na- 



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