BESIDE the road that leads to town the thistle thrives apace, and if you
cut the blamed thing down, two more will take its place. The sunflowers
flourish in the heat that kills the growing oats; the weeds keep living
when the wheat and corn have lost their goats. The roses wither in the
glare that keeps the prune alive, the orchards fail of peach and pear
while cheap persimmons thrive. The good and useful men depart too soon
on death’s dark trip; they just have fairly made a start when they must
up and skip. A little cold, a little heat will quickly kill them off; a
little wetting of their feet, a little hacking cough; they’re tender as
the blushing rose of evanescent bloom; too quickly they turn up their
toes and slumber in the tomb. And yet the world is full of scrubs who
don’t know how to die, a lot of picayunish dubs, who couldn’t, if they’d
try. Year after year, with idle chums, they hang around the place, until
at last their age becomes a scandal and disgrace. And thus the men of
useful deeds die off, while no-goods thrive; you can’t kill off the
human weeds, nor keep the wheat alive.
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