their enemy, for if a plant
falls at its mother's knee it is doomed to death, or a miserable
stunted life.

Every seed has its own little plan of escape. Some of them are pitiful
enough and stamped with failure, like the tiny screw of the Lucerne,
which might be of some use if the seed were started on its flight from
a considerable elevation, but as it is, it has hardly turned over
before it hits the ground. But the next seed tries the same
plan--always hoping for a happier result. With better success, the
maple seed uses its little spreading wings to conquer space, and if the
wind does its part the plan succeeds, and that the wind generally can
be depended upon to blow is shown by the wide dissemination of maple
trees.

More subtle still are the little tricks that seeds have of getting
animals and people to give them a lift on their way. Many a bird has
picked a bright red berry from a bush, with a feeling of gratitude, no
doubt, that his temporal needs are thus graciously supplied. He
swallows the sweet husk, and incidentally the seed, paying no attention
to the latter, and flies on his way. The seed remains unchanged and
undigested, and is thus carried far from home, and gets its chance.
So, too, many seeds are provided with burrs and spikes, which stick in
sheep's wool, dog's hair, or the clothing of people, and so travel
abroad, to the far country--the land of growth, the land of promise.

There is something pathetically human in the struggle plants make to
reach the light; tiny rootlets have been known to pierce rocks in their
stern determination to reach the light that their soul craves. They
refuse to be resigned to darkness and despair! Who has not marveled at
the intelligence shown by the canary vine, the wild cucumber plant, or
the morning glory, in the way their tendrils reach out and find the
rusty nail or sliver on the fence--anything on which they can rise into
the higher air; even as you and I reach out the trembling tendrils of
our souls for something solid to rest upon?

There is no resignation in Nature, no quiet folding of the hands, no
hypocritical saying, "Thy will be done!" and giving in without a
struggle. Countless millions of seeds and plants are doomed each year
to death and failure, but all honor to them--they put up a fight to the
very end! Resignation is a cheap and indolent human virtue, which has
served as an excuse for much spiritual slothfulness. It is still
highly reve