62 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



at the entrance to a 'Shinto' shrine in 

 Japan. There are various kinds. Some 

 have small tablets of various forms in 

 the middle above. Some are very plain 

 and the others very showy and charm- 

 ing. 



"Enclosed please find a sheet of pa- 

 per on which 'Little Japan' is written 

 in Japanese characters. My friend, 

 Mr. Tokuta Yamada, has Written it. 

 He writes the best hand in Kyoto. 



"The Japanese for 'Little Japan' is 

 pronounced 'Sho Nihon' or 'Sho Nip- 

 pon.' " 



The accompanying is the Japanese 

 for "Little Japan" written especially 

 for us by Mr. Yamada. 



Accident to Professor Brown. 



Professor Henry W. Brown of Col- 

 by College, founder of the Wantonoit 

 Club, a nature organization which has 

 selected The Guide; to Nature; as its 

 official organ, has recently been seriously 

 injured in an automobile accident in 

 the White Mountains. Professor Brown 

 had been giving inspirational addresses 

 before a New Hampshire Y. M. C. A. 

 convention at North Conway and was 

 stricken down by a recklessly driven ma- 

 chine, suffering two bone breaks and 

 other injuries. He is at the Sisters' Hos- 

 pital, Waterville, Maine, and hopes by 

 July to be able to go on with his Wanto- 

 noit activities at Beckett and elsewhere. 



Supplication. 



BY RICHARD WALTHAM HANES, STAMFORD, CONN. 



Dear Lord, please let me grow to be, 



Each year, more like unto a tree. 



For while it ever heavenward grows, 



The wind of fate through its branches 

 blows; 



Still each season it strives to be 



More beautiful, dear Lord, for Thee. 



When winds of age have passed it by, 

 It stands against the sunset sky — 

 A warrior in coat of gray, 

 Watching the night embrace the day. 

 So dear Lord, help me strive to be 

 A stalwart sentinel for Thee. 



Mother Nature's Smiles. 

 The flowers have come into their own," 



Evolved from earth by Springtime wiles; 

 How cheery, after Winter's flown! — 



For flowers are Mother Nature's Smiles. 



— Emma Peirce. 



From Over Eighty Years Young. 



West Gloucester, Mass. 

 To the Editor : 



On this bright, March morning, I 

 have been reading the latest issue of 

 The Guide to Nature, in which I found 

 an unusual number of interesting ar- 

 ticles and two fine poems, "Time's 

 Symphony" and "The Sequence," both 

 of which appealed to the best and the 

 purest within my soul. Annie F. Mey- 

 er's letter claimed special attention. 

 Only two weeks in the whole year to be 

 out of the city, and yet yearning day 

 by day for a sight of the woods, for a 

 tramp over the hills, and eager for a 

 glimpse of a bluebird, a hermit thrush 

 and other birds and longing to hear 

 their melodious music. 



>!: % $z ^c ^c 



I wish that every human being that 

 seeks with ardent desire and finds a 

 revelation of the Divine Creator in 

 each leaf and bud and flower and bird 

 could have the glorious month of June 

 in which to watch and to welcome the 

 birds and enjoy the outcropping of leaf, 

 bud and blossom on the trees of the 

 forest and beside the roadways. And 

 this true lover of nature ought to have 

 as her "inalienable right," the month 

 of September. 



"Whose golden days, 

 Serenely still, intensely bright, 

 Fade on the umbered hills away, 

 And melt into the coming night." 



Nature is ever an open book to minds 

 attuned aright. No blots or misstate- 

 ments mar its pages. 



By the last of May we are sure to 

 find not only that Mother Nature has 

 spread her green carpet, but has also 

 decorated it with lady's slippers, ane- 

 mone, arbutus( bird's-foot violet and 

 other early blossoms. 



Emerson says, "There is a guidance 

 for each one of us and by lowly listen- 

 ing we shall hear and receive the right 

 messages." 



After more than eighty years of life, 

 I have found that the right place for 

 listening is in some sequestered nook 

 of nature's vast temple where are hid 

 treasures of wisdom and knowledge and 

 where Mother Nature, the monitor, is 

 always ready to incline her own listen- 

 ing ear and to impart wonderful know- 



