Friendly Spying 



dered in upon me from the roadside or strayed in 

 from neighboring fields. I must be there to tell 

 them that both were diligently sought for, lifted 

 with protestations from surroundings where they 

 felt themselves at home, and encouraged to ac- 

 commodate themselves to a more cultivated life. 

 And the blueweed in the border just beyond, first 

 cousin to anchusa, but descendant of some rude 

 pioneering branch. Are my guests not to know 

 that at the risk of ridicule I stopped for it at a 

 grimy little station, a mere place for backing and 

 filling, and lifted it from the cinders in which 

 with its rough hardihood it chose to live? They 

 will not see, unless I tell them, that it is needed 

 by the yellow daisies; that its vmcouthness and 

 unconsciousness of its rough beauty, lend a con- 

 trast to the daisies' airy and sophisticated grace. 

 But while such arrangements for the most part 

 have been planned and have reason behind their 

 apparent shiftlessness, what am I to say when 

 they walk through my rose garden and are halted 

 by a mullein in the very center of the path? Of 

 one thing I am certain : they must not treat with 

 violence that stalwart sentinel. The countersign 



[105] 



