4. INTRODUCTION. 
of a weed as a tramp stealing rides, of Nature as a 
tell-tale when taken by surprise. 
The quiet enthusiasm of John Burroughs’s essays is 
much healthier than the over-wrought dramatic action 
which sets all the nerves a quiver, — nerves already. 
stimulated to excess by the comedies and tragedies 
forced upon the daily lives of children. It is espe- 
cially true of children living in crowded cities, shut 
away from the woods and hills, constant witnesses of 
the effects of human passion, that they need the tonic 
of a quiet literature rather than the stimulant of a 
stormy or dramatic one, —a literature which develops 
gentle feelings, deep thought, and a relish for what is 
homely and homespun, rather than a literature which 
calls forth excited feelings. 
The essays in this volume are those for which my 
pupils have expressed an enthusiastic interest, or 
which, after careful reading, I have selected for futuro 
use. I have found in them few pages so hard as to 
require over much study, or a too frequent use of the 
dictionary. John Burroughs, more than almost any 
other writer of the time, has a prevailing taste for sim- 
ple words and simple constructions. ‘“ He that runs 
may read” him. I have found many children under 
eleven years of age who could read a whole page with- 
out hesitating. If I discover some words which I fore- 
see will cause difficulty, I place such on the black- 
board and rapidly pronounce and explain them before 
the reading. Generally, however, I find the text the 
best interpreter of its words. What follows explains 
what goes before, if the child is led to read on to the 
end of the sentence. It is a mistake to allow children 
to be frightened away from choice reading by an occa 
sional hard word. There is no better time than his 
