t I had no shingling hammer and all the
cash I had in the world was seventy-five cents, which I at once
expended in purchasing the necessary hammer. Next morning when I
reached the job, my new hammer in hand, all ready to go to work, I was
surprised and--what shall I say--dismayed, to find another man already
at work, while the owner calmly came to me and said, 'I guess you'll
have to let that job go, as this man here has undertaken to do it for
one dollar a thousand.'

"How disappointed I was! I had spent my last cent, had a hammer that
was no use to me now, and no job. But I kept a stiff upper lip and
work soon came, and I've never been so hard up since."

Mr. Harwood in describing this period in the life of Mr. Burbank says:
"The man who was to become the foremost figure in the world in his
line of work, and who was to pave the way by his own discoveries and
creations for others of all lands to follow his footsteps, was a
stranger in a strange land, close to starvation, penniless, beset by
disease, hard by the gates of death. But never for an instant did this
heroic figure lose hope, never did he abandon confidence in himself
nor did he swerve from the path he had marked out. In the midst of all
he kept an unshaken faith. He accepted the trials that came, not as a
matter of course, not tamely, nor with any mock heroism, but as a
passing necessity. His resolution was of iron, his will of steel, his
heart of gold; he was fighting in the splendid armor of a clean
life."

As a result of his industry, in a few years, Mr. Burbank was able to
buy four acres of land where he started a nursery. From the first this
enterprise was successful. Upon this plot he built a modest home where
he still resides. Here, and on a larger plot a few miles distant, all
his remarkable experiments have been made.

Before we learn more about his achievements I am sure we should like
to become better acquainted with the man. Suppose, then, we invite
Professor Edward Wickson of the University of California, who knows
him well, to tell us about him.

"Mr. Burbank is of medium stature and rather slender form; light eyes
and dark hair, now rapidly running to silver. His countenance is very
mobile, lighting up quickly and as quickly receding to the seriousness
of earnest attention, only to rekindle with a smile or relax into a
laugh, if the subject be in the lighter vein. He is exceedingly quick
in apprehension, seeming to anticipate the speaker