THE BROWN SEED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1935, Page 24

THE BROWN SEED

(By "Wandering Water,'" Waimana, for the "Fairy Ring.") THE sunflower ana the! -granny--bonnet had their" hepds well out of the ground and the poppy family"" were taking full possession, of easily half of the corner, while a lanky, bleached-looking cornflower ■was showing off a bit because it actually had a bud. About .this time the brown seed was pushing towards the light and feeling somewhat-uncomfortable in its brown jacket. It came .up between the sunflower1 and granny-bonnet,' who elbowed it rather >■?■' "What's'your: name?" snapped'the granny-bonnet,' and;', this sbnflower turned her head away. The brown seed looked up from its' diminutive position with a terrified expression. "I don't know," she said shyly. "Don't.know what".your name is?" said the sunflower icily. "Goodness me!" ■ ; - : : : . ■ , ' ; "Already quite an \interest'was being taken in--the brown' seed. For so long had the snapdragons, the asters, pansies, poppies, and numbers of the well-known variety of flowers lived in the corner that they did not regard the intrusion of a stranger in a friendly light—besides there was hardly any room. There were seven of the Dianthus family and they were all so fat, the cornflower had ten children, not to mention the Crimson Poppy, who was a grandmother, and liked to have all her family round her, because she said they were a comfort in her old age! Then there were the Verbenas, who were all old maids and still wore crinoline skirts in defiance of flower-garden fashions They, had spread themselves all over the corner, much to the annoyance of prim people like the Hollyhocks, who liked to keep their own counsel. They said it was because they had the spirit of adventure and 'travellingrbroadened the-mind—but Granny Bonnet had been known to shake her frilly head and say it was all because the Verbenas had such a common taste for gossip! "Mind you," whispered a purple pansy, showing off her new frock to her who was looking very worn out in the same old-thing i wouldnt mind saying she knows her name all right, but she's afraid to tell anyone—a common weed, my dear, 111 be bound! Well, I wouldn't like her chance living next to that haughty sunflower!" a ../^Probably wouldn't-have any," laughed her neighbour, who was a jolly person. You're so used to my careless ways." rai iif.* e time the brown seed was six inches high, the flowers in - the corner, had come to accept her • very much as permanent. "I don't think 111 grow much more, do you?" she asked the sunflower. They wer£ on speaking terms now. "You're -terribly thin," said a little aster, pinching bit m »bS»tt^«ff f-l^ COrnf WaS a very im P°rtant P^ce of ground, »An )? / £ rt W3S °nly a very odd Part of an unusually lovely garden-the kind where sweet alysum runs riot in the border along a Quarters & Th " hydrangea and native ferns grow at close Sf™^™ here. ar= n'ka" Palms in shady places and flowers like fieesia an^^wei« *re ;sorted, s out and grown, in plots, one for: each colour. , ...The.-VJioK^o* the, corner? hated the gardener"; -He ,was *i>little man with a^scriminating hand where, weeds were concerned.^ They verily in'w oTfh 1" footsteps. He wouldi^^S, to. a convinced way'" and~ The very ro'cker^'; hlVould say, aw a vHSth la s dnL WaS' W *hhimshe VOuld laugh deUghtedly and send him away with some sw.eet nonsense ringing in his ears. The corner was n Sess eCfor yhnvth--: Said- S*e ] iked "s° ™& because she had f fondness for. anything,wth a mmdof its-own. "And I like to see them grow the way- they seem t 0 like , to do(> , - she would ™ grow do a thing among them and year, after,-year they'come up on their own and flower for me. They're so independent!" ■-■ ■.•■■> ,h y so inferior!1; contradicted the gariener, A"and.'yotfi actually lady always felt sorry. "It's a lovely place for it to branch out" 7 she would sigh ; .*,.or "A bud, w.ould just look right, -there " ' i a ,,^^"^V^* han a the4ady,:':with, curling lovely ll ue%&r:--9 n w; arm days^she^would sit>with'a ; b'obk nealr4h#^r|er^d the.yftowers would bend in'4he-wind 'and^rekcn^ut to \£vMx£Ts££ wmwmzmmssS