A DAY WITH MR. BURBANK 



right men, he has taken on a workman highly 

 recommended to him, only to discover him 

 just in the nick of time doing something that 

 would result in serious, perhaps irreparable, 

 harm. Indeed, more than once such harm has 

 been done, and the discharged man, perhaps, 

 never knew what it was that caused his re- 

 lease. Possibly, if some new weather situation 

 has arisen, the order of the day may at once 

 be changed to meet the new conditions. 



Some of the men are pulling out tiny weeds 

 in the midst of long rows of delicate green 

 plants no higher than a man's thumb ; some 

 are spreading some particular kind of soil 

 over the earth where a test calling for this 

 soil is to be begun ; some are hoeing out the 

 weeds among larger plants, some are laying 

 out beds, or sorting bulbs in the storehouse, 

 or transplanting delicate plants from the 

 greenhouse to outside beds, or any one of a 

 thousand and one other duties. Every man 

 is working as though his life depended upon it, 

 and every one of them feels in his heart of 

 hearts a strong fine throb of pride that he 

 is thought capable, by the gentle man who 

 goes in and out among them from day 



293 



