CHAPTER III 



THE BABY CACTUS 



Out In the vast desert land In ages long gone by, the stifling 

 sun had burned everything to a cinder. This seeming an- 

 nihilation was but part of that great plan wherein the desert 

 regions of the earth have been transformed Into the greatest 

 flower garden of all creation; where Time has chiseled out 

 the filigree of lacework and pattern for the hills and val- 

 leys; where erosion has painted the beautiful pictures on 

 the faces of mountains and hills; where volcanic action has 

 juggled the rocks and mountain sides Into fantastic shapes 

 and designs, piling them up and leveling them out again for 

 ages untold, until the Divine decree was accomplished. For 

 God has walked amidst all this seeming turbulence, and with 

 Infinite patience has brought forth verdure and flowers the 

 like of which do not exist anywhere else on earth ; and to-day 

 when Man ventures Into the great arid wastes It would seem 

 that he little anticipates the hidden loveliness to be found 

 there — the wonder of desert creations, flowers and then more 

 flowers, blossoms of rare and seductive beauty, of exotic 

 and sensuous fragrance. Flowers that cannot be painted 

 by brush or In coloring to do justice to the delicate waxlike 

 originals. Flowers that seem like delicate souls wrapped 

 In somber lifeless bodies, trying to gain expression through 

 their beautiful colorings and evanescent perfume In the dry 

 atmosphere of their monotonous existence, out In the great 



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