In the Open Intimate Studies And Appreciations of Nature

beloved sprite. It is good to inhale the mint crushed underfoot and to roll between the fingers the new leaves of the sweetbrier to see again the first anemones - the wind-children,- the mandrakes canopies, the nestling erythronium and the spring beauty, like a delicate carpet or to seek the clin- tonia in its secluded haunts, and to feel the old childlike joy at sight of ladys-slippers. It is worth while to be out-of-doors all of one day, now and then, and to really know what is morning and what evening to observe the progress of the day as one might attend a spettacle, though this requires leisure and a free mind. The spirit of the woods will not lend itself to a mere fair-weather devotion. You must cast in your lot with the wild and take such weather as befalls. If you do not now and then spend a day in the snow, you miss some impressions that no fair weather can give. When you have walked for a time in the spring shower, you have a new and larger sympathy with the fields. The shining leaves, glistening twigs, jeweled cobwebs and the gentle cadence of the falling rain all tell you it is no time to stay indoors. Life in the woods sharpens the nose, the eyes, the ears. There are nose-feasts, eye-feasts, ear- feasts. What if the frost-grapes are sour-they are fair to look at. Some things are for the palate and some for the eye... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.