A "Board Walk" of the Woods 



and I admired not only his courage but 

 his grace and sinuous beauty. 



There is an almost infinite variety of 

 life to be seen along this same wood- 

 land walk, and I prefer it any day or 

 night to that wider one by the sea, 

 so dear to most of you. There are 

 conventions held here that I had 

 rather attend than any that ever as- 

 semble there. No long-winded ad- 

 dresses of welcome are delivered; no 

 tiresome technical stuff is inflicted. 

 All is informal; quite the reverse of 

 the conventional. The crows or blue 

 jays may be holding noisy conferences 

 in the branches overhead, but this 

 does not interfere in the least. 



By the way, a young jay just out of 

 the nest is one of the funniest and 

 fuzziest of all bird-land "babies." Just 

 a fearless bunch of fluffy blue-gray silk, 

 he will sit on a lower branch near the 

 walk as you go by, and regard you 

 with an air of expectant innocence 

 that makes you wish you had some- 

 [107] ' 



