FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>  
done what he could to deface it. Here is a curious fact: the human being is capable of a certain amount of civilization under the pressure of the necessities of city life. He--or she--will learn to dispose inoffensively of the waste and rubbish that drag after him like a trail wherever he goes. He--and always likewise she--can be taught to burn his waste paper, to bag his rags, to barrel his ashes, to burn the refuse from his table, to hide the relics of china and glass. In fact, he _can_ live in a modern house with no back yard, no "glory-hole" whatever. Yet if one would see how superficial his culture, how easy his relapse into barbarism, he need only open his windows upon an empty lot. This tempting space, this unguarded bit of the universe, brings out all the savage within him. Ashes and old boots, broken glass, worn-out tin pans, and newspapers whose moment is over, alike drift naturally into that unfortunate spot. The lot under my window had suffered at the hands of lawless men,--not to say women,--for it offered the eternal oblivion of "over the back fence" to no less than ten kitchens with their presiding genii. Nor was this all. The lot and all the land about it had belonged to an unsettled estate, and for years had been a dumping-ground for carts, long before the surrounding buildings had begun their additions to its stores. But last spring a change came to it. Its nearly fenced condition for the first time allowed Mother Nature a chance, and anxious, like other mothers, to hide the evil deeds of her children, she went busily to work, "With a hand of healing to cover the wounds And strew the artificial mounds And cuttings with underwood and flowers." We may call them weeds, but forever blessed be the hardy, rapid-growing, ever-ready plants we name so scornfully! What else could so quickly answer the mother's purpose? She had not time to evolve a century-plant, or elaborate an oak-tree, before man would be upon it again. She did the best she could, and the result was wonderful. When I returned from the country I found, to my delight, in place of the abomination of desolation I have described, a beautiful green oasis in the world of stone and brick. From fence to fence flourished and waved in the breeze an unbroken forest. The unsightly heaps had become a range of hills, sloping gently down to the level on one side, and ending on the other in an abrupt declivity, with the highest peak bare
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   >>  



Top keywords:
cuttings
 

mounds

 

growing

 

flowers

 

forever

 
blessed
 
underwood
 

allowed

 
Mother
 

Nature


anxious

 

chance

 
condition
 

fenced

 
change
 

mothers

 
spring
 
healing
 

wounds

 

busily


children

 

artificial

 

elaborate

 

flourished

 

breeze

 

unbroken

 

unsightly

 

forest

 

beautiful

 

abrupt


ending

 
declivity
 

highest

 

sloping

 

gently

 
desolation
 

purpose

 
evolve
 

century

 
stores

mother
 

answer

 
scornfully
 
quickly
 

country

 

returned

 
delight
 

abomination

 
wonderful
 

result