LUTHER BURBANK 



growing at its face value, it would still be no more 

 miraculous, properly interpreted, than things we 

 may observe everywhere about us say in any 

 vegetable garden or that you may yourself per- 

 form 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 tum- 

 blerful 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 swell and open 

 into a beautiful flower. 



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 



[8] 



