20 Outlook to Nature 



at her work, the child at its play these all 

 are worth the stroke of the artist. 



I saw a man walking across the fields, with 

 spade on his shoulder and dog at his side ; I saw 

 his firm long stride ; I saw his left arm swing ; 

 I saw the weeds fall beneath his feet ; I saw the 

 broad straight path that he left in the grass. 

 There were brown fields, and woods in the first 

 tint of autumn. I saw birds ; and in the dis- 

 tance was the rim of the sky. And beyond him, 

 I saw the open ditch to which he was returning. 



The great writers. 



With the nature writers I like to include 

 some of the authors who do not write specific 

 natural history topics. If they write from the 

 out-of-doors, with a keen love of it and a 

 knowledge of what it comprises, adding to it 

 touches of good human nature, then they lead 

 men to the open as effectively as those to whom 

 we customarily apply the term "nature writer/* 

 The landscape is as important as any object 

 that it contains, and the human sentiment is 

 more important than either. 



