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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



looks upon these city people as fools. 

 "What fools these mortals be" — to the 

 one who does not understand the inner 

 meaning of the apparent foolishness. 



In illustration of this, an incident 

 from actual life comes vividly to my 

 mind. A backwoods farmer had been 

 appointed school committeeman. He 

 engaged an enthusiastic city girl, fresh 

 from the normal school, with all her 



customed to city life, to pavements and 

 straight streets, that the fullness of the 

 year at the beginning of September 

 came to her with all the charm and 

 novelty of a new world. The stolid 

 farmer could not understand it. 



When he arrived at home and while 

 the teacher was in her room, his wife 

 inquired, "Well, Waldo, what do you 

 think of her?" Then he burst into ex- 



Froiu " Harper's Bazar." 

 Copyright, 1912. by Harper & Brothers. 



THE BOY: Ye're like all the rest of the city folks that moves out 

 here. Never satisfied till ye transplant a lot o' toadstools an' p'ison ivy. 



enthusiasm and ideals not yet calloused 

 by the routine and the drudgery that 

 come to any one in any line of work. 

 The farmer drove to the station to meet 

 this enthusiastic young lady. She had 

 all the complacency of a child, and 

 went into ecstasies at the charms of 

 the country road, the flowers, the 

 birds, the sky. She had been so ac- 



pression, "I tell ye, Sarah, I don't know 

 what to think of her. She is the 

 strangest piece I ever saw. She did 

 nothing but say, 'Ah, Oh my, and Isn't 

 that beautiful,' and over nothing but a 

 passel 'o brakes by the roadside." 



I am inclined to think that this boy 

 is like Waldo. It may be that the man 

 and his wife are bringing in toadstools 



