In Touch with Nature. 



W E carry too much with us when we go into the 

 woods. I had rather dine upon a handful of wild 

 strawberries than gorge myself with canned apri- 

 cots. Doing the former, one is ready to realize 

 what is transpiring; the latter, and the chances 

 are you will feel like a fool. Eat, as a matter of 

 necessity, when in the field ; but do not poison 

 the fresh air of a wilderness with the fumes from 

 a frying-pan. It is a woful error to carry the city 

 in a grip-sack whenever we take to wild life. It 

 forces the thoughts of civilization to the front, 

 and we are simply out of place, while anxious to 

 be in touch with nature. Town trumpery in the 

 woods is mental poison. Twist a broad oak-leaf 

 into a funnel, and you have a goblet worthy of 

 pure spring water ; and if a mussel-shell, reflect- 

 ing all the hues of a sunset sky, is not a spoon to 



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