126 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



for his all too short visit. Every hour 

 of his stay was filled with an exposition 

 of his novel and thrilling method of 

 nature study which is best described 

 in his own words, "I do not teach na- 

 ture study. What I like to do is to in- 

 troduce young people to Nature and to 

 help build np a firm understanding be- 

 tween them." He introduced us royal- 

 ly and I think our understanding is 

 many times what it was. Indeed it 

 could hardly be anything else after our 

 walks with "Daddy" Bigelow, our 

 story telling contests and the lovely 

 woods games we played. Star gazing 

 became a joy when the heavens were 

 revealed to us as a mammoth circus in 

 which we placed the animals and who 

 could forget a detail of the solar system 

 when we made our own living one, on 

 the grass. 



I doubt if there is a single "Clubber" 

 today who is not a convert to the theory 

 that "it is better to know one thing and 

 be able to use the English language to 

 tell about it, than to have many, many 

 crosses on one's 'checking list.' ' 



DADDY BIGELOW 



Of campers we have quite a charmin' 

 variety. 



Far removed from larnin' and piety. 



But I'll advance you without improp- 

 riety 



Our Daddy Bigelow's the flower of 

 them all. 



Here is a health to you, Daddy, dear 

 friend. 



How you've got such a knack sure I 

 can't comprehend ; 



Powerfullest preacher and tenderest 

 teacher. 



Faith, may your visit to us never end! 



Not for Pity but for Love. 



Pity is commendable but it is not so 

 good either for the recipient or for the 

 giver as is love. "But the greatest of 

 these is love." That expression sounds 

 familiar. It has been said by thous- 

 ands of people and preached eloquentlv 

 by hundreds and yet how comparative- 

 ly few practice it. Thousands of dol- 

 lars are given for pity where one dol- 

 lar is given for love, but if love is real- 

 ly the greatest thing in the world, this 

 situation should be reversed. Money, 

 as an indication of the relative values 



of pity and love, is far more readily ob- 

 tained on solicitation when the object 

 is to relieve suffering rather than to 

 increase happiness or personal uplift 

 and improvement. It is right that 

 millions should be given to alleviate 

 the suffering of the victims of the bat- 

 tle field, to help the suffering victims 

 of sickness, poverty, misfortune, acci- 

 dent. The immense and innumerable 

 gifts along these lines speak well for 

 human nature. But with all the com- 

 mendation that should be given for 

 gifts to relieve any form of suffering 

 or misfortune, I hear ringing a higher 

 praise, "But the greatest of these is 

 love." It is easy to circulate a sub- 

 scription paper or to sell tickets to ob- 

 tain gifts for the alleviation of some 

 form of suffering. We give to our 

 friends and members of the family be- 

 cause they give to us. The ideal is 

 much higher if we give to make some 

 one happier, to induce him to think 

 better and cleaner thoughts, to know 

 what it means to live a better life, if 

 we give with no expectation of remun- 

 eration, no expectation of complacency 

 to our own feelings because we have 

 relieved a little suffering. Should not 

 the consolation of giving happiness and 

 betterment to a fellow being be even 

 greater than the consolation of having 

 alleviated suffering? For the greatest 

 of these is love. Yet the sweetest and 

 most gracious things of life come from 

 kindly disposition toward our friends 

 and acquaintances. A pleasant smile, 

 a jovial word to a friend on the street 

 is as much needed and valued in this 

 present age as is the penny dropped in- 

 to the cup of the blind man selling lead 

 pencils from the curbstone. Suppose 

 one were limited amid the good things 

 of life to these pennies, and that we 

 had not the ability to be kind and help- 

 ful to our fellows, much would be tak- 

 en out of life ! 



rt is evidently easy to obtain monev 

 to take some man into court to restrain 

 him from pounding his horses, but how 

 difficult it is to obtain monev to help 

 a boy to grow into a man that shall re- 

 spect every form of animal life. How 

 easy it evidently is to put out the 

 moneyed hand of law to say, "You 

 shall not shoot that bird and wear it 

 on a hat." It is easv to obtain a dol- 



