A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 



we begin by clearing away all the stouter 

 and better-adapted native competitors. Go, 

 dock and thistle ; go, grass and nettle ! We 

 will have pansies here, and sweet-peas, and 

 gilly-flowers ! So we root them all up, 

 turn and break the stiff clods, put in rich 

 leaf-mould, manure it from the farmyard, 

 and plant at measured distances the com- 

 ponents of our nosegay. Tall white garden 

 lilies take the place of knotweed ; the lark- 

 spur mocks the sky where the dandelion 

 spread before its golden constellations. Yet 

 even so, we have not permanently secured 

 our end. Original sin reappears as ragwort 

 and hawkweed. Every day or two we 

 must go round and "weed the beds," as 

 we say ; the very familiarity of phrase and 

 act blinds our minds to the truth that what 

 we are really doing is to limit the struggle, 

 to check the competition. We pull up here 

 a shepherd's-purse and there a chickweed, 

 that the Iceland poppies may have room 

 to raise their black-capped buds, and that 

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