Along the Road

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20422, 12 February 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

Along the Road

By the Swagger;

STANDING IN THE of the little lawn we surveyed the scene, and the lad termed it “a complete knock-out.” I laughed. Last winter we had a day or two in the garden round the house, and collected a big heap of weeds, clippings and useless plants. Among the plants were a lot of bulbs that produce a small red flower, straggley and not at all attractive. They multiply rapidly, so we decided to root out the bed. Then came the question of what to do with our heap. It so happened that there was a marked dent in the lawn at one end. I fancy a tree grew there many years ago, but whatever the i (cause the Ground Had Subsided, and there was this unsightly dip. I had often intended to till it up. by top-dressing it with soil heavily and often, but now I had what the lad calls a brain-wave. We o.ut the turf into reasonably small squares and staeked Umo neatly on one aide. Then we excavated until all the good soil had been shifted, into the hole we tossed the spoil from the garden, having first deposited a fewold enamel plates and dishes that were quite useless. We tramped the lot down firmly, covered it with soil, replaced the turf, rolled that, spread a little good soil over the lot and both felt certain that when the lump had subsided that lawn would be nice and level. The “kno<ik-out,” as the boy puts it came later. The lawn is level, but apparently we did not bury those bulbs deep enough. They have all grown and they push up above the grass in a surprisingly short time. I cut that lawn once a week, and sometimes twice, but those bulbs belong to the undaunted variety, i believe that if I cut the lawn daily they would evolve some method of pushing up a spout over-night. Last week we were busy so the lawn was left for eight days. Then we inspected it together, and the bulbs were Making a Fine Showing, fully three or four inches long, and seemingly hundreds of them. I am not quite sure what to do about it. llow are we t» kill the bulb that must he some inches below the surface Meantime I intend to keep on cutting, and arn sure that they intend to keep on growing. Personally I never admired that plant when it was growing In the garden. As a bulb it was a poor specimen. The flower is, as I said, red and straggley. and I think it goes to a sort of berry. liut now, needs must, I am an admirer. The way it comes

AN OCCASIONAL COLUMN

aeain and again. Each time it must be a new leaf or iwo that it pushes up for they are ill pointed, whereas after I have finished cutting they are all blunt. I admire the way it tries to grow, and if it were not for the* fact that the lawn must he preserved I think I should let it grow. It is drawing strength from some source that I cannot see and pushes its little leaves up to the light time after time. That is the Spirit. It brought back to me that little leaflet I once saw—it must be many years ago—entitled, if I remember ar’ght ‘ Yourself.” It frank talk to men and ‘he thing that i • • m< mbi :• clearest v is the statem jnt that “no man is beaten until he says so himself.” It does n >1 matter c.liat the neighbours or • . woi Id - r icy will pro! any jump to the conclusion that the man Uv V have seen fall once or twice is beaten. I have h< ird it sai 1 ibout men who dt i ik too much. The truth is that no man is beaten until he admits that he is beaten. If lie falls, but picks himself up and goes on, if he suffers A bad reverse but comes back to fight on, then, whatever others may say, he is not beaten. 1 remember, too, talking about it with a comrade of those days, and he added: “ And if he goes out saying ‘you can’t beat me’ then he wasn't beaten.” That surely was what the poet meant when he said: “We fall—to rise. Are baffled—to fight better. Sleep—to wake.” That, it seems to me, is the plain lesson of those buried bulbs. Until they say they are beaten then it is of little use my saying it. They make keep up this struggle for years, i shouldn't be surprised, and until they give up 1 shall not be able to claim a victory. And it is the same with each one of us. We all have tendencies, temperaments. weaknesses to fight. They keep springing up making us miserable, and, sometimes despondent. Well, no one is beaten. Until He Says So Himself. While we are prepared to keep on trying, to keep on lighting, the possibility of a win is there. Hut when we say that we are beaten, ihen there <-,111 be no such possibility. Baffled—to fight better. That is the thing. I have seen men whom iiie doctors had said were beyond cure. Their weaknesses had, in tiie eyes of the expci ts, conquered them. But once I saw the love of a good woman so strengthen a man in that condition that he came back and won wonderfully. lie said that he could, and it was Emerson who said: “He can who thinks lie can.”