WEEDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

WEEDING.

DISCOVERING THE FLOWERS.

UT D.J. A. - y

" Our front garden sadly needs weeding," I said, as I carefully folded my serviette and placed it in • its ring. This remark seemed to precipitate my entire family into a mood of profound meditation, so deep and solemn was the silence which ensued. " Contact with mother earth is excellent for tho health; tones up the liver, aids digestion, and braces the nerves," I added presently. "My health is pretty good just now," my eldest son remarked cheerfully. "So's mine," my second son, whose English is being attended to at the Grammar school, declared. 'The girls, though, are in an alarming and deplorable state. ' The rejoinder of the girls was forcible and explicit, but I did not wait to participate in the melee which ensued. Instead, I heaved a. sigh, put on my most battered hat, went out Dy the front door, and bowed myself among the dahlias and snap-dragons, and—weeded. Presently one of my neighbours sauntered by. " I'm glad to see that you are working at it," he remarked. " It was getting time that something was done." I rose in alarm. " I knew it was becoming weedy," I confessed, " but I I was not aware that it was causing j anxiety among the neighbours. I say,I hope you have not missed any meals, or lost any sleep over it." " Oh, no," ho rejoined carelessly, " still, I m glad to see you at it. It would bo a pity to spoil a nico neighbourhood with one untidy garden, you know." I was so hurt and humbled that he had passed beyond the reach of my voico before I could frame a suitable reply. After a time, Miss Brown came to call on my wife. As she passed flong the garden path my sorrow found a vent. "It is a crying shame that all the weeds should be in my garden. Whenever I come to your place there is not a weed to be seen," I said sadly. " But we work after them, and keep them down,' she replied, severely, and passed on to my front door. I gazed after her, then turned to contemplate the tall thistles and branching clover, and, I think I— blushed. So work was the only cure for weeds. I once more bent low and plucked at. the weeds with the energy of desperation. I must have cleared a space of quite half a yard when my attention was diverted to something at the back of the house. This matter detained mo for some time, but presently, when I could no longer decently pretend that further absence from the front was necessary,_ I returned to my weeding, and bent wearily to my task. Only a short time had elapsed, however, when, to my great joy, our front door opened, and a lady whom X had always regarded, as a high-minded, good woman, and a true friend, came down the front steps. "Ah!" I cried, * " you do not know how glad I am. to Gee you. I know that I can count on you for help in a case of this kind." "Certainly,' she replied, with an engaging smile. Pushing back her sleeves, she bent low and pulled up a very fine weed, then, turning to the gateway, " that woman " actually passed through it and walked brazenly up, the street, bearing in her hand the weed which she had stolen from, my garden, holding it out beside her as she walked with a mincing gait. I could not see her face, but the air rang with sardonic laughter, while I bowed once more among the weeds, speechless with sorrow, over our broken friendship, and appalled by the discovery that this person, whom I had always regarded as a charming flower, was, after all, only a weed. It was a terrible disillusionment. ■'■ Some Flowers. It is a world of weeds, but also of flowers. I was nursing my morbid mood, what timo I tore at the stubborn weeds, when I beheld approaching that rarest of all beings, a woman of real intellectual acumen. • She stopped when she had reached that part of the fence which was nearest to me, and because great minds always think alike, we agreed about the weather and the prevalence of weeds. She had been present at a gathering to which I had delivered an address, and this great woman actually stated that it was tho best speech she had ever heard. She went on to say that if civilisation would take my advice and put the child in the central place there would soon be no weeds. What wisdom lurks in this? I was cheered, even exhilarated. I put from me a certain passage from a great Book which indicates the susceptibility of fools to flattery, and wjien the doctor came and leaned 'on the fence, I was in so urbane a mood that I had mercy on him, and refrained from relating to him my symptoms, though wo did, as an afterthought, discuss tho bearing of weeding upon the diseases of the liver. However, our conversation presently trailed away into the subject of weeds, and some remarks of the doctor's started in ' in me a glimmering of thought, which, at first hazy and indistinct, presently took firmer outline, and, at last, flashed full orbed ar.d clear as sunlight. The doctor certainly represented one line of effort among many which a Christian civilisation makes to save the weeds. Older and cruder civilisations have known little of this redemptive effort, and have ruthlessly destroyed them. Even yet there are those who advocate this policy. And,, alas, weeds are so numerous and various, and constitute so great a hindrance to the growth of all useful and good things that, in one's darker moods, or when one is called upon to grapple with the problems created by them, there comes the realisation that life's, tragedy often is, not that men die, but that some are permitted to live to cast their shadow over the lives of those affiliated with them. . Useful Weeds. And yet, a weed is merely a plant whose virtues still remain undiscovered, and whose potentialities are yet dormant. Most of them are medicines, many have been evolved into fruits and flowers. " I roust really see someone who is in the way of being a scholar about this, I thought. If I had possessed " Alf's Button, ! the response could scarce have been swifter. Before me stood my friend, I may say, my young friend, Jack Jobson. Jack is distinctly in the way of being a scholar, for has he not just passed his examination in the first standard of the public school? " Jack," I said, "what do vou think of weeds?" "I think they're fine. Give me some of those milk thistles for my bunny." I hastened to comply, and if Jack forgot to say " please "* he expressed heartfelt thanks. Weeds were good for bunniesaye and for other creaturs as well. Who could say what purpose was served by the various varieties of weeds which God permitted in His great scheme of tho "Id. Perhaps, after all, they would not mar the final glory of the garden. "■Hello, Mr. Man." I Jooked up. Large blue eyes, glowing auburn hail, white, regular teeth, a pink and. rounded complexion. . Oh, the loveliest mite ol womanhood I had seen for many a day. My daddy doesn't let any weeds grow in our garden, and he doesn't wear an old hat." " Darling," I said, " I can see for myself that your daddy has no weeds. He is a very lucky fellow not to wear an old hat."

The vision faded, and I gazed moodily at the flowers, and wondered if daddy were really so fortunate as he seemed. I remembered that when I began to cultivate this garden, five years ago, it was barren beyond words. But I have allowed the weeds to grow to full height, and then have buried them. This light soil, once so heavy and intractable, has been rendered friable by weeds. That gorgeous scarlet geranium stands on a weed dump. Without the weeds my garden would have remained infertile. I sat down on the front steps and blooded while the «un sank in the west. Perhaps, after all, the weeds in life's garden were planted by a kindly hand.