36 The Nature-Study Idea 



world through imagination and feeling and sym- 

 pathy. Note the intent and sympathetic face 

 as the child watches the ant carrying its grains 

 of sand and pictures to itself the home and the 

 bed and the kitchen and the sisters and the 

 school that comprise the ant's life. What does 

 the flower think? Who are the little people 

 that teeter and swing in the sunbeam ? What is 

 the brook saying as it rolls over the pebbles? 

 Why is the wind so sorrowful as it moans on 

 the house-corners in the dull November days? 

 There are elves whispering in the trees, and 

 there are chariots of fire rolling on the long, 

 low clouds at twilight. Wherever it may look, 

 the young mind is impressed with the mystery 

 of the unknown. The child looks out to nature 

 with great eyes of wonder. 



We cannot say that the good poets have not 

 known nature, because they have not inter- 

 preted by fact alone. Have they not left us the 

 essence and flavor of the fields and the woods 

 and the sky? And yet they were not scientists. 

 So different are these types of interpretation 



