“Old Bill” Suggests—

In quiet English villages a few hundred years ago, where character was judged by critics on the basis of lifelong observation in the terrifying intimacy of a small community, the gossips used to say, of some dynamic soul, that “in much corn is some cockle.”

It is a nice phrase; one can fairly see the cockle-burrs.

The funny thing is that, while a big crop can afford a few weeds, it usually has not given them room to grow. The excuse is there, but the real doers don’t need it.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.