72 LUTHER BURBANK 



ulous, properly interpreted, than things we may 

 observe everywhere about us — say in any vegeta- 

 ble garden — or that you may yourself perform at 

 any time in your own room. 



Suppose, for example, that you were to take a 

 tiny seed no larger than a grain of sand, and 

 place it in a bowl on the window sill. 



You may leave it there indefinitely and it will 

 give no sign that it differs in any wise from the 

 grain of sand. 



Yet if you wish to perform a miracle along the 

 lines of that alleged to be performed by the 

 grower of the mango tree, you have only to pour 

 a cup of water over the seed. Then in due course 

 a transformation will be effected. The little seed 

 will germinate and put forth a sprout and a sys- 

 tem of rootlets and lift its head into the air and 

 presently develop a bud that will increase and 

 finally open and develop into a living plant. 



This, surely, is a feat of conjuring that more 

 than duplicates the alleged miracle of the Hindu 

 fakir even though we were to take that perform- 

 ance at its face value. 



To be sure, we have required more time for 

 our miracle than he required for his; but what, 

 after all, are a few days more or less in the per- 

 formance of such a feat? And, indeed, are we 

 not entitled to a little latitude of time consider- 



