ii6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



not do it then, why do it now?" 



"A young man said to a father : 'I 

 suppose you will refuse if I ask for 

 the hand of your daughter." The father 

 replied, "Yes, I will refuse ; but if 

 you had put it the other way, that you 

 were bound to have my daughter if 

 you had to kill me first, you could 

 have had her. As it is, you have defeat- 

 ed yourself at the start, and I do not 

 want a son-in-law of that type of mind. 

 A man who defeats himself on pro- 

 positions at the start needs to be look- 

 ed after by some one else most of the 

 time." 



"I have had under my care many an 

 one whose history would make a novel, 

 and yet the entire lii.'-tory would be of no 

 real consequence to the world. If the 

 same people had been engaged in some 

 .?tudy of .science their lives woulil ha\c 

 been completely filled, there would ha'c 

 been a life-satisfaction for them, and the 

 social world would have profited by their 

 presence instead of being subjected to 

 a destructive attrition resulting from 

 their friction applied to its surface. To- 

 morrow social efficiency experts will 

 utilize such waste material." 



;i< ^ :); H= 



"How quickly sympathy changes a 

 man's entire point of view? In camp 

 in the north we were all very fond of 

 wild goslings for the camp table. One 

 day I captured a couple of them wdien 

 going off salmon fishing; kept them in 

 the canoe all day for company, and to- 

 ward evening handed a little fresh 

 grass toward them. They came up and 

 took it out of my hand, and I never 

 could kill goslings after that. 



"Although meat is a necessary article 

 of diet for most people I suppose that as 

 we get older we all dislike more and 

 more the idea of having anything killed. 

 Hot roast duck stuft'ed with chestnuts, 

 mushrooms and sausage, and served 

 with a flood of rich brown gravy is 

 pretty good, but any one who has had 

 cunning little yellow downy ducklings 

 climbing all over his feet and hands 

 and has watched them grow under his 

 care, would rather have someone's else 

 ducks killed for his dinner. When eat- 

 ing roast duck I always try to imagine 

 that it was raised by somebody who 

 didn't know Timmie from Dickie. — 

 somebody who raised impersonal ducks. 



"I often wish the pathetic did not ap- 

 peal to me so deeply, for it does not 

 seem to belong to a broad shouldered 

 bear hunter who is about six feet in 

 height. When I find a little dead bird ly- 

 ing upon its back with feet outstretched 

 in mute appeal against a decree which 

 could bring destruction to one so little 

 and innocent, I always know w^here 

 tears start from in women. It is from a 

 place away down deep. It requires 

 something of an effort to put aside the 

 feeling on the ground that it is woman- 

 ly, and not masculine in origin." 



^ ^ :^ ^ ^ 



"Thousands of women of education 

 and refinement spend a large part of 

 every day in card playing. This is done 

 largely by time-wasters of the elim 



HE IJUDS A nSTAClIIi BRANCH AND A 

 THOUGHT. 



