CHAPTER XI 



A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO DO THIS SUMMER 



FIRST, select some bird or beast or insect that 

 lives with you in your dooryard or house or 

 near neighborhood, and keep track of his 

 doings all summer long, jotting down in a diary 

 your observations. You might take the white-faced ' 

 hornet that builds the big paper nests in the trees; 

 or the mud wasp, or the toad under the steps, or the 

 swifts in the chimney, or the swallows in the barn. It 

 hardly matters what you take, for every life is inter- 

 esting. The object is to learn how to follow up your 

 study, how to watch one life long enough, and under 

 circumstances different enough, to discover its many- 

 sidedness, its fascination and romance. Such careful 

 and prolonged study will surely reveal to you some- 

 thing no one else has seen, too. It will be good train- 

 ing in patience and independence. 



Along with this study of one life, keep a list of 

 all the beasts, birds, insects, flowers, etc., that live 

 I mean, that build nests or dig holes and rear fami- 

 lies in your dooryard or in this " haunt " that I 



