THE HUSH OF THE CORN 



^55 



good seed, this making of bread out of 

 nothing ? 



The story of the hero who brought fire 

 from Heaven for the service of man has 

 come down to us, but what of the greater 

 than Prometheus who entered into council 

 witli the Earth and " the maturing sun, 

 conspiring with them how to load and 

 bless " the sons of men with this gift of 

 gifts ? 



Was he some savage genius watching, 

 and taking a hint from the bird he meant 

 to snare, as it pecked the seed off the dry 

 grass ? Perhaps — and many a savage 

 has no doubt before now made shift 

 to stay his hunger with bird seed — but 

 the prophetic insight, the skill in hus- 

 bandry', and the patience necessary for 

 carrying out such a tedious course of 

 cultivation and development, bespeak 

 savagery of a noble sort indeed. 



challenged him to wrestle. Each time 

 the youth was overthrown, and on the 

 third night lay dead uj)on the ground ; 

 but before the final combat he foretold 

 the issue and bade Hiawatha bury his 

 body and watch and tend the grave. So 

 Hiawatha laid him in soft earth and up- 

 rooted the weeds, and scared away 

 marauding birds and animals — 



" Till at length a small green feather 

 From the earth shot slowly upward, 

 And before the summer ended. 

 Stood the maize in all its beauty, 

 With its shining robes about it, 

 And its long soft yellow tresses." 



Perhaps the savage people which could 

 produce so beautiful a story might, after 

 all, be equal even to this greatest of 

 human achievements — the evolution of 

 Corn. 



^m 



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XllK bLO^X iNlOVlNC \\AGONS GATllhK LI' TIIL LONG KANKS.' 



Native American legend — by the mouth 

 of Longfellow — tells us the story of the 

 beginning of the maize : how that 

 Hiawatha, son of the West wind, in a 

 time of famine was visited on three suc- 

 cessive nights by a beautiful youth, wlin 



On the margin of the field, from a lonely 

 ash is heard the little song of the yellow- 

 hammer. Perhaps the aspect of the 

 scene — a vast e.xpanse of cornland, with 

 never a glimpse of a milk-suggesting 

 meadow — gives an additional ])()ignancy 



