148 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



chief end of man is to bring the apparently evil to a 

 useful purpose and give to everything a chance for 

 right character. 



Curious, is it not ? that our worst pests are the out- 

 laws among our friends, the fellows who have organ- 

 ized for plunder, like the crows and the English spar- 

 rows. On the other hand our best friends are de- 

 scendants of savage animals. Degeneration in bird 

 or insect or animal is exactly like degeneration in hu- 

 man folk, the very worst thing to get on with. Bed- 

 bugs are the degenerate descendants of a very decent 

 ancestor, while our most beautiful and useful birds 

 are of saurian or serpent origin. All the difference 

 was that the snakes went hissing through the grass, 

 while the songsters went singing skyward. 



It was well ordered of Nature that we should 

 earn our bread by the sweat of the brow. It will 

 not hurt us to have sharp rivalry. " Ye blackberry," 

 says Poor Richard, u is a great help to us; for it hath 

 power not only to give us sweet fruit, but to quicken 

 patience and persistence; and one shall be the better 

 for being sometimes pricked along the road of daily 

 duties." All the same it is a fine thing for us to cre- 

 ate thornless blackberries and seedless grapes and in 

 other ways to improve the world. That is the best 

 kind of a monument you can have. 



And then how we Americans do waste. Last win- 

 ter, when I went to my Florida home, the orange 

 orchards were paved with golden globes. " Take 

 all you want," said my neighbor, who owned three 



