254 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



around oneself a shell like that of a 

 turtle. The turtle may all day be sub- 

 merged but not a drop of water will 

 penetrate his shell. 



But to return to the Wabanaki 

 School. Its location is ideal. It stands 

 next to the ideal home of the natural- 

 ist, Ernest Thompson Seton, and Mr. 

 Seton is inspiring these young people 

 with the desire and the intention to 

 get at nature with the heartfelt love 

 of the Indian. He will show them 

 how to make nature their real home. 

 Too many of us treat the child as we 

 treat the adult, but as Dr. Stanley Hall 

 has said, "The child is in so different a 

 world that it is almost impossible for 

 us to imagine it." I think that he has 

 somewhere used this illustration, "A 

 reasoning electric light might well 

 claim there are no shadows," for the 

 simple reason that the light has never 

 seen anything from the shadow's point 

 of view. There is danger that we older 

 ones will look at the young folks' 

 world wholly from the illuminated 

 point of the adult insight. 



But Mr. Seton has the rare faculty 

 of getting into the child world through 

 the fancies, some of them fantastic and 

 at times almost ludicrous, of the prim- 

 itive Indian, and he seems to be con- 

 vinced that this is what the child needs. 

 We predict that the Ernest Thompson 

 Seton Chapter of The Agassiz Asso- 

 ciation will take the lead, if our other 

 private schools are not watchful, in the 

 real heartfelt method, in the real edu- 

 cational ef^ciency of getting near to 

 the heart of nature. The pupils and 

 teachers study, play and sleep out of 

 doors. It is really a school in nature. 



Any parent desirous to place a child 

 in that kind of environment should 

 send to Mrs. Dudley of the Wabanaki 

 School, Greenwich, Connecticut, for 

 the catalogue of the school that has 

 taken this totally new point of view. 

 It is not that she is doing something 

 a little better; it is that she has taken 

 hold of the prol)lem by an entirely dif- 

 ferent handle. Perhaps you would like 

 to have your boy or girl get into the 

 environment amid these beautiful sur- 

 roundings, magnificent buildings and 

 in the company of a thoroughly profi- 

 cient corps of teachers. 



Appreciation of the Commonplace. 



BY WILLIAM J. BLACKBURN^ JR., COLUM- 

 BUS^ OHIO. 



We are prone to overlook the fact 

 that most of the beauty in this world 

 is spread out before us daily, and needs 

 only to be looked at, to be appreciated. 

 In this way we are apt to lose much of 

 the sunshine and happiness which the 

 Creator intended each of his children 

 to enjoy. Too often "having eyes, we 

 see not, and having ears, we hear not." 



Anyone possessing the least bit of 

 an artistic nature can see the glory of 

 a brilliant autumn sunset, and must 

 enjoy the hazy skies, the passage of 

 belated flocks of birds on their trip to 

 the sunny southlands, or the changing 

 tints of red and gold in any Indian 

 Summer landscape. Few, however, 

 notice the fresh green of lawn and the 

 orchard, the rare beauty of scattered, 

 golden dandelions springing up here 

 and there, or the drifting showers of 

 leaves that fall noiselessly at the touch 

 of each passing zephyr. 



We love the fleecy purity of the first 

 fall of snow, as it blankets hill and val- 

 ley in whitest ermine, but we forget 

 to examine a few of the perfect snow- 

 flakes — those marvels of geometric 

 design. 



We gaze in awe at the fiery trail of a 

 flashing meteor, but rarely think to go 

 out under the crystal skies of winter 

 and look up reverently into the infinite 

 depths of heaven and notice the ma- 

 jesty of the great constellations, the 

 marvelous mistiness of the Pleiades, or 

 the mysterious glow of the Galaxy. 



Each time we notice one of the 

 beauties of Nature — and Solomon has 

 said, "He hath made all things beauti- 

 ful in their time." — we add a real 

 treasure to our store, and make our 

 lives a little richer. Let it be the in- 

 nocent smile of an infant, the ringing 

 laugh of a little child, the song of a 

 bird, the rich color of a flower, the 

 chirping of a cricket, or the twinkle 

 of a distant star — it has drawn us a 

 little closer to the warm, sympathetic 

 heart of Nature, and has made us a lit- 

 tle nobler, a little truer, and a little 

 better child of God. 



