THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



horses drink. The sun was shining 

 through the grove in which the farm- 

 house stood, and it made a trembling 

 streak of light in the broad, rippling 

 band of shadows, the reflection of the 

 grove in the running waters. The few 

 clouds in the western sky, and the 

 nearer trees were fringed by the light 

 of the setting sun. ''What a picture 

 it would make!" I thought, so I took 



BY THE DITCH THE WILD SUNFLOWER 



AND THE PLUME GRASS GREW 



HIGHER THAN MY HEAD. 



three snap-shots, all of which were 

 good. 



Our camping-place was on a green 

 grassy plot of ground between the 

 river and a little strip of tangled thicket 

 of brush, vines and trees. We hob- 

 bled our horses, turned them loose and 

 prepared our evening meal by a camp- 

 fire of dry willows. The trees and 

 shrubs near our camp were draped in 

 clematis, or virgin bower, and across 



the river this plant formed a fairy 

 bower indeed. 



I resolved that I would not leave this 

 place without making an excursion 

 over the more attractive part of the 

 ranch and taking pictures of what 

 pleased my fancy ; so, in the morning,. 

 with in)- camera, I recrossed the river. 

 Air. Rector, the owner of the ranch, 

 w as not at home ; but his intelligent 

 wife and her bright little children were 

 there. Airs. Rector welcomed me in 

 the free, hospitable spirit of the West, 

 and, from her, I learned many interest- 

 ing" things about the country. The 

 house and its surroundings were beau- 

 tiful. There was not another such a 

 dwelling for scores of miles. In the 

 garden all kinds of vegetables seemed 

 to thrive. When we were there the 

 corn was in tassel and the pumpkins 

 anel melons were still in bloom. I 

 started for a walk over a part of the' 

 ranch. By the irrigating ditch, the 

 wild sunflower and the grasses grew 

 higher than my head, forming a minia- 

 ture jungle. Between the ditch and 

 the river were many green, grassy 

 glades hidden among dense thickets 

 of willows. I wondered what insects 

 lived in the thickets and visited the 

 flowers and what birds lived and nest- 

 ed here. A little farther up the river 

 were long, crooked lakes, or bayous, 

 the former courses of the river. In 

 some portions of these, there was open 

 water, while, in other portions, were 

 dense growths of rank vegetation such 

 as cat-tails, grasses, the giant bulrush, 

 and other sedges. These reedy places 

 swarmed with blackbirds. As I ap- 

 proached, I could hear them puddling 

 in the water and the}- flew out in ones 

 twos and scattered groups like bees 

 from a hive. They sometimes collected 

 in thousands and it made me think of 

 boyhood scenes in Minnesota when 

 they used to fly by in large flocks 

 neither end of which could be seen for 

 a long time. This was an ideal nesting 

 place for blackbirds and waterfowls. 

 T wished to know what beautiful and 

 strange forms of minute life existed 

 in these reedy bayous but I had not a 

 microscope with me or time to investi- 

 gate. 



Tn one place, a crescent-shaped 



