INTRODUCTION XI 



gone a-fishing, or camping, or canoeing, and new 

 literary material has been the result. My corn has 

 grown while I loitered or slept. The writing of 

 the book was only a second and finer enjoyment 

 of my holiday in the fields or woods. Not till the 

 writing did it really seem to strike in and become 

 part of me. 



A friend of mine, now an old man, who spent 

 his youth in the woods of northern Ohio, and who 

 has written many books, says, " I never thought of 

 writing a book till my self-exile, and then only to 

 reproduce my old-time life to myself." The writ- 

 ing probably cured or alleviated a sort of homesick- 

 ness. Such in a great measure has been my own 

 case. My first book, " Wake-Kobin," was written 

 while I was a government clerk in Washington. It 

 enabled me to live over again the days I had passed 

 with the birds and in the scenes of my youth. I 

 wrote the book sitting at a desk in front of an iron 

 wall. I was the keeper of a vault in which many 

 millions of bank-notes were stored. During my 

 long periods of leisure I took refuge in my pen. 

 How my mind reacted from the iron wall in front 

 of me, and sought solace in memories of the birds 

 and of summer fields and woods ! Most of the 

 chapters of "Winter Sunshine" were written at 

 the same desk. The sunshine there referred to is 

 of a richer quality than is found in New York or 

 New England. 



