NEW GLEANINGS IN FIELD AND WOOD 



pushed out two or three feet over the barren surface 

 and then seemed to hesitate hke a traveler in the 

 desert whose strength begins to fail. The first 

 knot, or, one might say, the first encampment, was 

 about one foot from the last one upon the turf, the- 

 next one about eight inches farther in; then the 

 distance dropped to six inches, then to four. I 

 think the runner finally gave it up and stopped 

 reaching out. Each group of leaves apparently 

 draws its main sustenance from the one next be- 

 hind it, and when this one fails to reach the soil it 

 loses heart and can give little succor to the next in 

 front. The result is that the stools become smaller 

 and smaller, and the distances between them less 

 and less, down the whole line. 



Nature's methods are seen in the little as well 

 as in the big, and these little purple runners of the 

 vine pushing out in all directions show the all- 

 round-the-circle efforts of Nature as clearly as do 

 the revolving orbs in sidereal space. Her living 

 impulses go out in all directions. She scatters her 

 seeds upon the barren as well as upon fertile spots. 

 She sends rains and dews upon the sea as well as 

 upon the land. She knows not our parsimony nor 

 our prudence. We say she is blind, but without 

 eyes she is all-seeing; only her creatures who live to 

 particular ends, and are limited to particular 

 spheres, have need of eyes. Nature has all time 

 and all space and all ends. Delays and failure she 



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