BOOKS FOR HOLIDAYS 269 



Longfellow, Korner; now Bret Harte or Kip- 

 ling; now Shelley or Herrick or Tennyson; 

 now Poe and Coleridge; and again Emerson or 

 Browning or Whitman. Sometimes one wishes 

 to read for the sake of contrast. To me Owen 

 Wister is the writer I wish when I am hungry 

 with the memories of lonely mountains, of vast 

 sunny plains with seas of wind-rippled grass, of 

 springing wild creatures, and lithe, sun-tanned 

 men who ride with utter ease on ungroomed, 

 half-broken horses. But when I lived much 

 in cow camps I often carried a volume of Swin- 

 burne, as a kind of antiseptic to alkali dust, 

 tepid, muddy water, frying-pan bread, sow-belly 

 bacon, and the too-infrequent washing of sweat- 

 drenched clothing. 



Fathers and mothers who are wise can train 

 their children first to practise, and soon to like, 

 the sustained mental application necessary to 

 enjoy good books. They will do well also to 

 give each boy or girl the mastery of at least 

 some one foreign language, so that at least one 

 other great literature, in addition to our own 

 noble Enghsh literature, shall be open to him 

 or her. Modern languages are taught so easily 

 and readily that whoever really desires to learn 

 one of them can soon achieve sufficient com- 

 mand of it to read ordinary books with reason- 



