Nature and Ctilhire 5 1 



ing away of dirt, litter, and garbage; but Nature, 

 like a spunky woman, goes at it with a high spirit 

 and cheerful resolve. Even plants will not take up 

 their ammonia and phosphates and other fertilizers 

 in the rough. The roots demand clean cooking, as 

 the leaves demand pure air. The love of Nature 

 for purity is exhibited on every hand. Sunshine 

 will kill the germs of smallpox in a few hours; 

 pestilence lurks only where man has debarred her. 

 As I was fishing on a lake I noticed an animal with 

 white bars on black, moving along the shore toward 

 me, and I quietly pulled out farther and went around 

 him. I knew he had both the capacity and dispo- 

 sition for making himself disagreeable. And yet 

 he could make himself unpleasant only in a shallow 

 way. The discomfort which he could inflict upon 

 the nostrils would be a small matter compared with 

 the painful repugnance produced by a human moral 

 counterpart. I suppose if that really handsome 

 animal had noticed that I went out of my way to 

 avoid meeting with him, he might have said I was 

 exclusive and proud; and that, the dear knows, he 

 had no desire for my company! 



Nature utilizes everything in her wide domains 

 for the benefit of everything else; makes all helpful 

 to all, and each to each. This region of sand is 

 now covered with a bountiful crop of whortleberries 

 in their two varieties of black and blue, tens of 

 thousands of bushels of them, which freely offer a 

 six weeks' festival to all who choose to partake of 



