62 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



that would have been up in another day 

 or two ; and as to the thousand other things, 

 plantain, thistles, and the like, you 

 have only to whistle to them, and out they 

 come. But in August well, that 's dif- 

 ferent. And weeds are so outrageously 

 healthy. Or, do they merely seem so ? 

 The energy of vice and destructiveness 

 always seems greater than that of virtue, 

 probably because it is forced so disagree- 

 ably on our notice. Ugly dogs, ugly men, 

 armies, beasts of prey, birds, fishes what 

 waste of ferocity and excess of effort in 

 working their purpose ! Yet I don't be- 

 lieve this tale that all is fear and suffering 

 in the lesser world. Insects, at all events, 

 do not suffer before they are eaten. Harsh- 

 ness is but a little part of nature, and ben- 

 efits go with it. Though the storm, the 

 flood, the thunderbolt, work harm, look on 

 the fields, and see what kindness is in the 

 sun and air and rain. 



If we would let the weeds alone, or if 

 we would be good to them and water them 

 and cut away the corn and potatoes and 

 geraniums when they encroached, who 



