My First Summer 



and build large piles of seed husks, leaves, 

 straw, etc., over their nests. Their food 

 seems to be mostly insects and plant leaves, 

 seeds and sap. How many mouths Nature 

 has to fill, how many neighbors we have, 

 how little we know about them, and how 

 seldom we get in each other's way! Then 

 to think of the infinite numbers of smaller 

 fellow mortals, invisibly small, compared 

 with which the smallest ants are as masto- 

 dons. 



"June 14. The pool-basins below the 

 falls and cascades hereabouts, formed by 

 the heavy down-plunging currents, are kept 

 nicely clean and clear of detritus. The heav- 

 ier parts of the material swept over the falls 

 are heaped up a short distance in front of the 

 basins in the form of a dam, thus tending, 

 together with erosion, to increase their size. 

 Sudden changes, however, are effected during 

 the spring floods, when the snow is melting 

 and the upper tributaries are roaring loud 

 from "bank to brae." Then boulders that 



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