LUTHER BURBANK 



growing at its face value, it would still be no more 

 miraculous, properly interpreted, than things we 

 may observe everywhere about us — say in any 

 vegetable garden — or that you may yourself per- 

 form at any time in your own room. 



Suppose, for example, that you were to take a 

 tiny seed no larger than a grain of sand, and place 

 it in a bowl on the window-sill. 



You may leave it there indefinitely and it will 

 give no sign that it differs in any wise from the 

 grain of sand. 



Yet if you wish to perform a miracle along the 

 lines of that alleged to be performed by the grower 

 of the mango tree, you have only to pour a tum- 

 blerful of water over the seed. Then in due course 

 a transformation will be effected. The little seed 

 will germinate and put forth a sprout and a sys- 

 tem of rootlets and lift its head into the air and 

 presently develop a bud that will swell and open 

 into a beautiful flower. 



This, surely, is a feat of conjuring that more 

 than duplicates the alleged miracle of the Hindu 

 fakir even though we were to take that perform- 

 ance at its face value. 



To be sure, we have required more time for 

 our miracle than he required for his; but what, 

 after all are a few days more or less in the per- 

 formance of such a feat? And, indeed, are we not 



[8] 



