20 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



how often unobserved and how seldom appreciated. To be 

 convinced of this we need but drive through the country and 

 observe the homes of those who live there. In many cases the 

 natural beauties of the surroundings were not considered when the 

 home site was chosen. If there is evidence of consideration at all, 

 it is usually that of convenience only, just as if the wants of the 

 body were all, and those of the soul nothing. Why not endear 

 our homes by their settings? Why not have them removed 

 somewhat from the gaze of the public, nestling among great 

 trees and looking out over cheerful and lovely stretches of green 

 fields, or if possible looking off to the distant hills? Why not 

 bring a bit of the cool wood home and some of the swamp ever- 

 greens and arrange them there naturally as far as possible? Such 

 homes are twice blessed. In their making they enrich the soul 

 of those who bestow their thoughts on them, and later as ap- 

 propriately artistic units they take their place in the whole scheme 

 of natural beauty. 



With this scheme man has little to do. All that is required 

 of him is to be observant, appreciative and sympathetic. He 

 will find that it is not only one of lines and colour, but also of 

 mocds. These moods continually influence the picture of nature. 

 Generally speaking, they are associated with the seasons and 

 more particularly with that thing we daily speak of — the weather. 



In the country the seasons always send their harbingers. In 

 the approach of spring we know it is upon us even when the 

 thermometer still registers below zero. Spring is in the air. 

 The cold evenings seem to be suffused with a strange quietness 

 and tenseness, and the sky takes on tints of warmer glow. But 

 this picture is not distinctive of the farm without its inhabitants — 

 boy and all. The boy feels the call of spring though he be still 

 skating on the pond in the hollow. As the days grow warmer he 

 feels that "sap's runnin'," and he throws a handspring on the 

 first dry scd. The cattle too are not mute in answering the call 

 frcm the fields. The fowls regain their voices. The robin finds 

 his way back from his indolent life in the south and proclaims 

 his new found joy. The swollen torrents, the bursting buds, 

 the vibrant charge that permeates all, makes the soul of man 

 expand to conceptions of higher truths — a possible rich and new 

 beginning from a worn out past. 



