He looked through the kitchen window, but the yard was empty and all he could see, among the thistles and scrap iron, was a dilapidated cart with two rusty wheels.

NEWYORKER: Waiting

The down of thistles flying through the air.

NEWYORKER: Hawthorne on His Way Home

His half of the pasture filled with thistles.

NEWYORKER: Silver or Lead

He was seen first by the gravedigger, a man who was nearly blind, and who did not trust his eyes to tell him that a tiger, braced on its hind legs, was rummaging through the churchyard garbage heap, mouthing thistles in the early-morning sunlight.

NEWYORKER: The Tiger��s Wife