ysterious Mountain Laurel Mound

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

As the world war storm clouds formed over Europe, the ambassador of Lilliland advised all sides that Lilliland, like Switzerland, was a neutral country and its borders should be respected completely. All soldiers and their weapons would be asked to leave Lilliland at once and their tools of war might be confiscated. Since Lilliland had a police force, but no army, the tools of war were really useless.

After the war started, something very strange happened. The gardeners who worked around the Baron’s Castle were very busy planting the garden. They planted mountain laurel in one section that made the castle grounds very colorful and attractive. The gardeners were as serious and dedicated a group of men as could be found anywhere.

As the mountain laurel gardeners were just about to complete their work, a military vehicle wandered into the middle of the garden, obviously quite lost. It was discovered that the soldiers had their map turned upside down and made a wrong turn in the road some miles away.

The soldiers were rounded up, all four of them, fed a warm meal, and put up at a local hotel for the for the evening, and sent back to their lines without their guns or vehicles.

The Baron asked Professor Hamblin how to handle the situation. Professor Hamblin said that the guns should be down so that they would never be useable again. The vehicle would be returned to the base from which it came.

The ambassador contacted his counterpart in the warring country about having the vehicle driven away. This matter took too many days and the castle gardeners became angry and impatient. Extra volunteer gardeners were brought in and all of a sudden the vehicle disappeared. No one knew where it went.

There mysteriously appeared a mound of dirt, covered with mountain laurel, in the middle of the castle garden, but no one thought to carefully inspect it. The Baron admired the mountain laurel mound in his garden. His fiancée, Lady Angela, and Professor Hamblin both commented on how wonderful and colorful the garden seemed this season.