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us drawings instead of a letter, we shall accept them for dues. 

 In some grades, your teacher may wish you to do this as " busy 

 work;" or, if she prefers, you can make your nature-study the 

 topic for your language or drawing lessons. Whichever you do, 

 we hope you may be permitted to write as you would talk. We 

 do not care to know so much about your scholarship as to learn 

 your way of thinking and seeing. 



The letters that we receive from members of the Junior Natur- 

 alist Clubs are very interesting, and we find that there are many 

 ways in which they regard the same questions. Some seem to 

 think that " to get the answer " the quickest way possible is all 

 that is necessary. Such answers do not mean much and we are 

 not satisfied with them, because they show very little thought. 



After a busy day's work, I often walk home by a path that 

 leads me across a high bridge, where it is a great rest to lean on the 

 railing and gaze into the gulf beneath. The hemlocks, whose 

 tips do not reach as high as the floor of the bridge, spread their 

 boughs until they partially screen the bounding waters on the 

 rocky stairs beneath. I think of other days when a comrade joined 

 me in the same pleasure of a five minutes' silent contemplation. 

 If you ask me what I see in that chasm that rests me so much, 

 I might tell you that I am watching the water run down hill. 

 This would be " giving an answer," yet it would not express 

 what I feel and what is really to be seen in the shadowy depth. 



Some of the letters tell us the number of legs which a tent 

 caterpillar has, the stripes on its back, and all that kind of detail, 

 and so far as it goes it is all right. What we want, however, is 

 more thought given to the subject. Besides learning all we can 

 about it in its present condition, we must look upon the cater- 

 pillar as the second link of a chain containing four parts. To 

 understand some of the marvels of its life, we must understand 

 Nature's method of causing each link to be a preparation for the 

 following one. 



The only way this insect survives our severe storms of 

 winter is in the egg state. These eggs are covered with a thick coat 

 of varnish which furnishes a protection as effective as that pro- 

 tecting the paint on the finest coach. The varnish on President 

 Mc Kinley's carriage is of no better quality than that which the 



