Grass is Green 



have much these same conditions when standing 

 on the creek's bank and looking over the water. 

 Then, all the world 's out of reach ; but in a boat 

 every object is close at hand, and there is very little 

 that escapes us. Another important fact is that 

 wild life is less timid when we are sitting in a boat, 

 and permits nearer approach than when we attempt 

 to draw close by walking or creeping. A boat is 

 the naturalist's third hand, and better than all the 

 legs of a centipede. 



I left the landing while the day was young, leav- 

 ing to chance what port I should make, trusting 

 any point at which I should touch would prove 

 a snug harbor. The tide was running out, so I 

 started up-stream, pulling against the current while 

 my arms were fresh, but before going many rods 

 it seemed all unnecessary, and I said : Why not 

 here ? Why hurry past this tree and that meadow 

 for those that are next to them ? Bottle the mud 

 on the Smith and Jones farms, and no one is the 

 wiser, if the labels are changed. If we measure a 

 mile by its objects of interest, few men have ever 

 traveled so far. 



I stopped rowing and commenced looking. 

 There were long and narrow avenues up the weedy 

 marshes, and here and there a track of a meadow 

 mouse that had come down at low tide to the 

 creek's edge. Under the water, these tracks were 

 still plainly visible, and many were centered about 

 the half-decayed bloom stalks of the beautiful 

 90 



