266 



THE GUIDE T< ) NATURE 



The nightingale has such homel) 

 clothes, listen ! Ah! The macaw wears 

 gi »rge< 'lis robes, listen ! Bah ! 



There is no denying thai weeds are 

 weeds; but when a weed does a weed's 

 work it is not useless. God created 

 the weed as well as the rose. 



Butterflies of fashion! What a slan- 

 der upon the butterflies, who in cen- 

 turies have not changed the style <>i 

 their dress. 



The swallow skims the surface of 

 the lake and thinks he knows the 

 water; the fish below know they know. 



hare not despise even the earth of 

 thy garden, to he sure it is not so fair 

 as the sunshine and the dew, hut is it 

 not just as needful for the life and 

 health of the plants? 



God's sweet breath of spring has 

 kissed the brown branches of the ugly 

 apple tree down in the orchard and lo ! 

 they have burst forth in a chorus of 

 pink and wdiite glory! 



A bunch of flowers, a dozen children 

 of the street, unite the two and lo! you 

 have transformed the stony street in- 

 to a very Eden for a minute or two ; 

 it often takes but a little thought on 

 our part to create a dozen happy little 

 temporary millionaires. 



Mr. Roosevelt and the English Birds. 

 In The Outlook, Mr. Theodore 

 Roosevelt writes of English song birds 

 and their songs with as much obvious 

 zest and discrimination as if to see and 

 hear them had been one of the main 

 objects of his visit to England. One 

 day, between the funeral of King Ed- 

 ward and the Guildhall speech, he 

 found or made the time, amidst official, 

 social and academic honors and o >oor- 

 tunities that would have bewildered 

 a head less sound and flattered a man 

 less sincere, he stole away into the 

 fields and woods with a delightful and 

 learned companion, and there made 

 first-hand acquaintance with the sing- 

 ing birds which till then had been his 

 friends only in familiar books. And 

 now, while still, as always, very fully 

 occupied, and at the same time playing 

 a public role that calls constantly for 

 great tact and wisdom, he once more 

 finds or makes the time to tell Ameri- 



can readers of this naturalist's excur- 

 sii m. 



Altogether aparl from the charm and 

 value of the Outlook article as a con- 

 tribution to bird-lore, this character- 

 istic episode of Mr. Roosevelt's days 

 in England carries a stimulus and a 

 challenge. Is any one of us more en- 

 grossed with large atrairs, or weighed 

 with graver responsibilities, than was 

 Air. Roosevelt when he dropped for 

 half a day out of the insistent world 

 and barkened eagerly to the notes of 

 the nightingale, the cuckoo, and t he 

 English robin? We take both our 

 business and ourselves too seriously. 

 ( )ur sense of proportion is benumbed, 

 because we have too long laid one- 

 sided emphasis on isolated projects 

 and pursuits. We are possessed by 

 our daily tasks ; we can no longer shake 

 ourselves free of them. We quickly 

 lose the power of interesting ourselves 

 in anything except the immediate ob- 

 jects of our endeavors, which are mag- 

 nified under our unflickering attention 

 till they react upon us hypnotically, 

 enslaving us to them. We come to 

 consider ourselves too busv to snare 

 the time for any pleasure, any duty, 

 that does not seem to belong in the 

 little world to which we have deliber- 

 ately restricted our thinking and our 

 feeling. 



Once again the many-sided Mr. 

 Roosevelt has reminded us that the 

 world has countless interests, and 

 shown us how to turn, with equal 

 profit and enjoyment, from the greater 

 to the lesser elements of a fully round- 

 ed life. It is a lesson sorely needed. 

 When we have mastered it the greater 

 tasks that engage us — nerha^s not so 

 great as our habits and conceits would 

 make them — will no longer hold abso- 

 lute dominion over us ; we shall begin 

 to live more comnletely. It will be 

 easier then to reach the busy man, be- 

 come less busv in his own eyes, and 

 to engage his interest and help, 

 whether it be in some vast project in 

 his own snecialty or something far 

 more remote, such as a olan to con- 

 serve forests which he has never seen, 

 for a future which he cannot himself 

 enjoy. — -A merican Forestry. 



