A "Board Walk" of the Woods 



in his pathway on the walk. He is 

 like the men who laid out our western 

 highways along rigid section lines. Go 

 straight through, no matter what hills 

 and rocks and swamps and forests lie 

 in the line of the surveyor's instru- 

 ments! Never mind the lines of easy 

 grade and shortest distance! Be an 

 ant, and blast and flounder and cut 

 your way through granite rock, through 

 bottomless pits, through virgin forests, 

 no matter at what cost to yourself! 



I do not try to follow these Forest 

 City ants into the underbrush. It 

 would be too distressing to contem- 

 plate the nervous energy they would 

 have to dissipate piloting something 

 twice as big as themselves through the 

 weeds and sumac bushes, into which 

 they ultimately make their way; so 

 I leave them to their tasks, glad only 

 that I usually see the busy, burly 

 athletes in time to avoid stepping on 

 them and thus bring probably useful 

 careers to an untimely end. 



[103] 



