LUTHER BURBANK 



The hard part, always, is to make the start. 



We who are late sleepers, for example, know 

 the weeks of discouraging attempts it takes to 

 fix the habit of arising at seven instead of eight, 

 or at six instead of seven. Yet, once we have 

 thoroughly accustomed ourselves to the new hour 

 of av.'akening, it is just as difficult to get back to 

 the old hour as it was to get away from it. 



It is as if the tendencies within us, having 

 accommodated themselves to each other and to 

 our surroundings, cling together tenaciously to 

 maintain the equilibrium between themselves; 

 when we change our surroundings they adjust 

 themselves to the change with difficulty; but once 

 adjusted, hold together as firmlj' again as they 

 held before. 



So in plant life; when we transplant a flower or 

 a tree, it shows signs, in accommodating itself to 

 its new surroundings, of evident distress; it looks 

 sickly, its leaves droop, it gives many outward 

 proofs of the inward struggle which it is under- 

 going. 



As soon, however, as its suddenly scattered 

 tendencies have collected themselves, the plant 

 begins an era of immediate improvement, and 

 does as well or better than it did before trans- 

 planting — as well, in fact, as its new surroundings 

 will permit. 



[144] 



