30 BOULDER REVERIES. 



become a devotee to nature, his life might be 

 many fold the better and his contentment 

 greater. 



VII. 



Sept. 10, '99. A perfect autumn day, with 

 the temperature of that genial kind which leads 

 one to lounge on grassy slope or shelving bank 

 and dream, and plan and ponder. On such ;i 

 day there often arises in my soul a temptation 

 to leave behind the past to throw aside all ties 

 of kin and friendship to launch all hopes, all 

 fears, all possessions, upon an unknown sea and 

 trust to fate for luck. 'Tis the same feeling that 

 doubtless inspired the stanza : 



" I've bartered my sheets for a star lit bed; 

 I've traded my meat for a crust of bread ; 

 I've changed my book for a sapling cane, 

 And I'm off to the end of the world again." 



The odor of crushed prickly-ash leaves is with 

 me pleasing, penetrating unlike that of any 

 other plant. As I drive or walk along streams 

 or through low ground woodlands in early 

 autumn, two odors often come to me two which 

 arc always welcome. The one, that of the great 



