32 THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 



first great help to real seeing is to go into the woods 

 knowing what you hope to see seeing it in your 

 eye, as we say, before you see it in the out-of-doors. 

 No one would ever see a tree-toad on a mossy tree or 

 a whip-poor-will among the fallen leaves who did not 

 have tree-toads and whip-poor-wills in mind. Then, 

 secondly, look at the thing hard until you see in it 

 something peculiar, something different from any- 

 thing like it that you ever saw before. Don't dream 

 in the woods; don't expect the flowers to tell you 

 their names or the wild things to come up and ask 

 you to wait while they perform for you 



