"Sit down for a moment," I say to the departing guest. And there we
sit in the shade of the porch while aspiring city creatures pluck my
poppies and sweat under the brazen sun. And when their arms are
sufficiently weighted with my yellow glories, I go down with the
rifle over my arm and disburden them. Thus have I become convinced
that every situation has its compensations.
Confiscation was successful, so far as it went; but I had forgotten
one thing; namely, the vast number of the city folk. Though the old
transgressors came no more, new ones arrived every day, and I found
myself confronted with the titanic task of educating a whole cityful
to the inexpediency of raiding my poppy field. During the process of
disburdening them I was accustomed to explaining my side of the case,
but I soon gave this over. It was a waste of breath. They could not
understand. To one lady, who insinuated that I was miserly, I said:
"My dear madam, no hardship is worked upon you. Had I not been
parsimonious yesterday and the day before, these poppies would have
been picked by the city hordes of that day and the day before, and
your eyes, which to-day have discovered this field, would have beheld
no poppies at all.
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