234 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



GOING DOWN TO THE BROOK. 



Many of us need to "let down the bars" to really get into the realms of nature. 



is for the cows that supply your home 

 with overflowing pails of milk." I 

 then learned the funny situation that he 

 is a real Thoreauite in that he does not 

 milk cows but the heavens and the earth 

 when he wants inspiration, and that 

 lane is the road to such places of in- 

 spiration. "But don't you do any 

 farming?" I insisted. "No," he said, 

 "I just like to walk around and dream 

 about things. I shouldn't want to be 

 bothered with farming, not even with 

 raising our own garden 'sass,' but I 

 have one thing that belongs to real farm 

 life and that I want to show you." He 

 took me to the old-fashioned dining room 

 where he went into ecstacies over the 

 old-fashioned fireplace. "Here," he ex- 

 claimed, "is the greatest rest I have. I 

 like to sit here and watch the flames 

 and think of the long ago. I am a 

 lover of the antique, I like things that 

 suggest dreams of the past. I do not 

 like the turmoil and the hustle of active 

 farm life. I want to stand near the 

 brook and let the water run by and 

 have the other fellow use it on the 

 water wheel. It is enough for me to 

 see and dream and think and enjoy." 



Here seems to be a somewhat ludi- 

 crous situation. A man that went from 

 the busy city to a farm, and probably 

 made himself a target for ridicule from 



his country neighbors. "Ha, ha! he 

 couldn't do it. Doesn't know how. 

 Gave it up and just lives there." Little 

 do they know that he is after all farm- 

 ing to the best advantage. 



So laughed the neighbors at Henry 

 David Thoreau of Concord, when he 

 left that little village and went to live 

 in a cabin by a pond. There he did not 

 enter into extensive rural occupations 

 but dreamed and philosophized and in- 

 fluenced the world more than he could 

 have done by the bustling activities of 

 an active agricultural life. 



By sticking to his profession and liv- 

 ing in the country, Mr. Opper has 

 done the wise thing. I believe that 

 many a city man fails to get all that 

 he might from his country home be- 

 cause he puts around and over it tne 

 glint of the dollars. 



"Can We Make the Hens Pay?" "Is 

 It Worth While to Keep a Few Pigs?" 

 "How Much Hay to an Acre?" These 

 and other questions are discussed in 

 some periodicals that are urging peo- 

 ple to go to the country. But this 

 magazine is a magazine of guidance 

 to nature, not to suburbs, nor to 

 the country, nor to the economic 

 phases thereof. It believes that a 

 serene, care free love of old Mother 

 Nature is the best. Do not leave 



