HASTY OBSERVATION 263 



it, have they not known the wheat to disappear en- 

 tirely, and the chess to be there in its place 1 



But like so many strange notions that are current 

 in the rural districts, this notion is the result of 

 incomplete observation. The cheat grass was there 

 all the while, feebler and inconspicuous, but biding 

 its time ; when the wheat failed and gave up posses- 

 sion of the soil, the grass sprang forward and took 

 its place. 



Nature always has a card to play in that way. 

 There is no miracle nor case of spontaneous genera- 

 tion about the curious succession of forest trees — 

 oak succeeding pine, or poplar succeeding birch or 

 maple — if we could get at the facts. Nature only 

 lets loose germs which the winds or the birds and 

 animals have long since stored there, and which have 

 only been waiting their opportunity to grow. 



A great many people are sure there is such a crea- 

 ture as a glass snake, a snake which breaks up into 

 pieces to escape its enemies, and then when danger 

 is past gets itself together again and goes its way. 



Not long since a man published an account in 

 a scientific journal of a glass snake which he had 

 encountered in a hay-field, and which, when he at- 

 tempted to break its head, had broken itself up into 

 five or six pieces. He carefully examined the pieces 

 and found them of regular lengths of three or four 

 inches, and that they dovetailed together by a nice 

 and regular process. He left the fragments in the 

 grass, and when he returned from dinner they were 

 all gone. He therefore inferred the snake had re- 



