222 In Touch with Nature. 



between manual and mental labor. The latter 

 may be far more onerous. The idleness I advo- 

 cate is that which allows the world to be our 

 teacher. As I write these words the river is flow- 

 ing by, bearing many a storm- riven branch and 

 uprooted tree towards the ocean. Do you sup- 

 pose that to idly drift with these, careless of where 

 the journey ended, would not be to your gain? 

 Is it possible that the river would withhold all it 

 knows because you forcibly wrested nothing from 

 it ? Let us idle away this summery September 

 day, and count our gains in the moonlight. Who 

 ever encountered the chaotic side of Nature? 

 Turn your back on the workshop and stroll along 

 a country highway. Here, perhaps, you will come 

 nearest to wasting your time ; but such a disaster 

 can be avoided. Why a highway is so common- 

 place is a problem to solve while lying in the 

 shade. There is seldom ground so barren but a 

 weed will find roothold, and a weed is not beyond 

 the pale of a botanist's consideration. No fence 

 was ever so intensely ugly that a spider shunned 

 it ; and what a marvel is a spider's web ! Earth- 

 worms will break the monotony of a smoothly- 



