150 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



BLACK-EYED SUSAN 



But while the cardinal flower may enliven 

 the swampy recesses with its cheering color, 

 there is a more dashing flower, whose out- 

 spoken presence, it seems to me, must be 

 frankly gladdening to every one who sees 

 it and who does not own the land on which 

 it grows. For we have gotten an artificial 

 but most understandable bias against the 

 sort of plants we call weeds. So I think 

 probably the owner of the pasture is little 

 inclined to rejoice over an intruding group 

 of "black-eyed Susans." But when no 

 question of ownership arises, the laughing 

 audacity, the sturdy wholesomeness of the 

 black-eyed Susan and its unblushingly 

 flaunted color must make it a cheering sight 

 to every passer on the road, and a golden 

 store of treasure-trove to him, be he child 

 or grown man, who has crossed the bars 

 and is wading knee-deep in the clover. 

 They tell me this jaunty flower came to us 

 first with seed oats from Kansas. How 

 true this is I do not know, but if it did, I am 

 sure, to the nature lover at least, if not to the 



