2IO 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



hitched. I went with the crowd into 

 the cemetery and standing near the 

 grave watched the pallbearers bring 

 in the casket, lay the Mowers one siue 

 and adjust the straps. The minister 

 came forward with a little earth in Ins 

 hand just ordinary everyday earth, 

 but as he was about to say, "Earth to 

 earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," 1 

 rushed forward and grabbed him by 

 the hand. "Hold on. Let me see what 

 you have in your hand." Naturally he 

 was a little surprised but he opened his 

 hand and I gazed upon him and then 

 gazed mysteriously upon the little 

 particles of dirt in his hand. I searched 

 my pockets for my lens and, looking 

 intently on the particles of earth, I 

 said, "Please tell me, do you find these 

 little things very entertaining?" 



Then 1 found myself in a padded 

 cell of a lunatic asylum bound hand 

 and foot as a dangerous maniac. I 

 struggled and of course that freed me 

 from the tangle of the bedclothes and 

 I was ready to start again- I could not 

 bear the thought of being a maniac and 

 began to philosophize and to wonder if 

 insanity comes from a microbe. Then 

 in my somnambulistic tour 1 came to 

 Pasteur's laboratory. The great man 

 was studying a microbe. Around him 

 were the multitudes whose lives he had 

 saved. However, I did not stop to look 

 at the people but rushed to Pasteur and 

 his microbe. "You big, big man, why 

 do you fritter away your time in this 

 way?" He exclaimed, "Look, look! I 

 have found it. And now I can save 

 thousands of lives and help the world 

 to help itself." I had to look through 

 his microscope a second time and even 

 to rub my eyes before I could see any- 

 thing, and even when I did see a tiny 

 and transparent something I was al- 

 most in doubt as to whether I had seen 

 it or not. But I hugged Pasteur and 

 shouted joyfully : "At last I have found 

 you. You come to my maniac cell, you 

 crazy headed man-" But still I seemed 

 to be possessed by a delirum for I ad- 

 ded, "Please tell me, do you find these 

 little things very entertaining?" Just 

 as things began to happen I heard some 

 one calling, "Wake up! wake up! you 

 must be lying in a cramped position to 

 give such a yell as that." 



It was only a series of painful dreams 

 and a restless night. I hope I shall not 



often have such nights. I should like 

 to rid my brain of that awful memory 

 of that perfectly proper question, that 

 ignorantly innocent tone, "Please tell 

 me, do you find these little things very 



entertaining?' 



Four Years on the Campus without 

 Knowing the Campus. 



As we have recently published letters 

 about the pitcher-shaped leaves of the 

 ash, Mr. Frank B. Hopkins of North 

 Salem, Indiana, thought he could sup- 

 ply us with specimens because he re- 

 called such leaves as growing on an ash 

 on the campus at Bloomington. He 

 learned of one of the alumnae who was 

 to visit the school, and requested her to 

 get the leaves for him- He writes: 



"I carefully mapped the campus and 

 described the tree and the leaves, then 

 rested in the blissful tho Mo rht f hnt a 

 graduate of the school could find any- 

 thing on the grounds. But abs! her 

 mind had been filled with other and 

 more sentimental things in her under- 

 graduate davs, for lo! she b-r-o-u-g-h-t 

 me b-i-r-c-h !" 



Now where can an expression be 

 found to describe a circumstance like 

 that? But the pitiful thing is that that 

 ahimna of Bloomington is far from be- 

 ing alone. Ask any graduate of almost 

 anv high school or college what is to 

 be found on the campus, and it is doubt- 

 ful whether he can mention one one- 

 hundredth part of the objects to be ob- 

 served there. He may know of the 

 things many thousand miles awav, and 

 yet have no cognizance of the things 

 about his own home. The alumna is 

 herself not so pitable as is the lamen- 

 table fact for which she stands. After 

 four vears in college and with member- 

 ship in the faculty of another school, 

 she did not know the leaf of the ash 

 tree from that of the birch. But why 

 should we deplore the fact? Tt mav be 

 duplicated and more than duplicated in 

 almost any school. 



Goldfish, reports Robert T. Hance of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, are 

 easily raised in aquaria from the egg. 



Sow an act and reap a habit ; sow a 

 habit and reap a character ; sow a char- 

 acter and reap a destiny. — Anonymous. 



