146 BOULDER REVERIES. 



the cows lying in the shade of an old apple tree ; 

 the hollyhocks and peonies and larkspurs of the 

 yards and gardens; the old-fashionedness, rest- 

 ful quiet of it all ! Just why the picture of its 

 July and August days, when the dog-fennel was 

 in its prime, should be so anchored in my mind 

 I can not fathom. Yet we dream most of our 

 boyhood or youthful days, and in the years of 

 partial senility old men prate most of them. 



To this woodland slope I often come on pur- 

 pose to meet or hear reptile, bird or mammal in 

 a state of nature, innocent and wild. The days 

 of each individual of these different forms of 

 life are spent in accomplishing three things: 

 First, the finding of a sufficient food supply to 

 keep the life fluid moving freely; second, the 

 exercise of sufficient caution and outlook to pre- 

 vent its capture and use for food by some higher 

 form of life; third, in proper season, the meet- 

 ing and choosing of one of its kind in order that 

 its race may not perish from the earth. All 

 forms of animate life, high or low as their de- 

 gree may be, must ever keep these three factors 



