138 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



thought and boring you because it does not 

 stimulate. Thus it brings about in you a per 

 fect state of poise most restful in itself and 

 in a complete harmony with the midsummer 

 season. 



Yes, fishing is good, and hunting is good, 

 and all the sports are good in their turn 

 even sitting in a rocking-chair on a boarding- 

 house piazza has, perhaps, its charms and its 

 benefits for some; but when the sun is hot 

 and the wind is cool, when the hay is in and 

 the yellowing fields lie broad, when the woods 

 have gathered their birds and their secrets to 

 their very hearts, when the sky is deeply, 

 warmly blue, and the clouds pile soft or float 

 thin and light, then give me a pail and let me 

 wander up, up, to the great open berry lots. 

 I will let the sun shine on me and the wind 

 blow me, and I will love the whole big 

 world, and I will think not a single thought, 

 and at sundown I will come home with a full 

 pail and a contentedly empty mind. 



