264 
POTHOLES Sin 
UT I am in hopes that some of the children who 
read this book wil say, “I do not think it fair to 
call children half blind and only half alive. I know I 
am not half blind. I saw all those things that Mrs. 
Dana saw along that country road, and” (perhaps some 
of them may add) ‘“‘a good deal more too. I know all 
the different flowers by sight, and the sunny hollows 
where the first ones come. I know where ever so many 
of the birds build their nests, and how their different 
eggs are marked and colored. Often I go down to the 
little pool in the woods where they come for their bath. 
I know how the caterpillars wrap themselves in leaves 
and come out beautiful butterflies. I have peeped into 
the hollow of the tree where the red squirrel is bringing 
up its family; and I have seen how the pretty green 
katydid scrapes his wings along his sides, and makes 
the sound, ‘Katy did, Katy didn’t,’ and oh, so many 
more things that I have not time to tell them all.” 
Ah! that is just it. The child that knows how to use 
his eyes can see so much, so many wonderful things! 
That is why I am so anxious that he or she should 
not miss through carelessness the revelations that come 
to the child alone. 
It seems as though the woods and fields were more 
ready to tell their stories, to whisper their secrets, to 
children than to grown people. If people learn to use 
their eyes and ears only after they are grown, I hardly 
think that they will ever read quite the same stories, 
