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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



" BUT YOU, STRAGGLER, WHAT 

 ARE YOU DOING ? 



Oh, I just make collections for my own pleas- 

 ure. I do not care about other people." 



form a "Rubiyat" of only three words, 

 "What's the use?" One can be selfish, 

 even in the love of nature. Are all these 

 miles of communion with nature, is all 

 this physical weariness endured for self 

 or for the good of others ? How will the 

 world be made happier and better by my 

 labor? Which is the more commendable, 

 to help self, or to help others? 



At that moment my eye was attracted 

 by a clambering grapevine with a profu- 

 sion of tendrils. How mutually help- 

 ful, how each supports and is supported 

 in the climbing toward a life that shall 

 be higher and better lighted. 



But you, straggler, what are you do- 

 ing? Only clinging, intertwining for 

 self. 



O foolish tendril ! O unhappy vine ! 

 you cannot reach highest happiness for 

 self or others in being an individual. 



No other tendrils have intertwined so 

 gracefully, so firmly, — but it is all lost, 

 for you are only acting for self. 



O foolish tendril ! You neither sup- 

 port nor are supported. I believe that 

 you are unhappy. 



No others have struggled harder, but 

 by your selfishness you have lost your 

 own happiness, and have added to the 

 burden already borne by the vine.. O 

 foolish tendril ! 



fORRESPONDENCE 



■~~ and Information 



SOME ASTONISHING EXPERIENCES 



WITH FOXES. 



A Fox in the Kitchen. 



Margaretville, N. Y. 

 To the Editor of "The Guide to Na- 

 ture"/ — 

 I was visiting my parents on their 

 farm in this vicinity, and as breakfast 

 was being prepared, my mother aroused 

 us with the startling information that 

 their was a fox in the back kitchen. We 

 thought at first that she must be mis- 

 taken, but peeping through a window 

 we saw a fox snugly curled up on a pile 



of burlap bags near the door that led to 

 the living rooms. The doors and win- 

 dows were quickly closed, and father 

 went to the cellar and secured an empty 

 barrel which he succeeded in placing 

 over the fox. 



The door of the room in which the 

 fox had wandered had been left open all 

 night, and it was the opinion of my par- 

 ents that the animal had been hard 

 chased the day before by the hounds and 

 had sought shelter there. Several 



hounds had been heard on the hillside. 

 We kept the animal for some time and 



