104 



SUMMER 



Then follow that up by getting out the next 

 morning before sunrise, say at half-past three o'clock, 

 an hour before the sun bursts over the eastern hills. 

 If you are not a stump or a stone, the sight and the 

 smell the whole indescribable freshness and won- 

 der of it all will thrill you. Would you go to the 

 Pyramids or Niagara or the Yellowstone Park? Yes, 

 you would, and you would take a great deal of 

 trouble to see any one of these wonders! Just as 

 great a wonder, just as thrilling an experience, is 

 right outside of your bedroom early any June, July, 

 or August morning! I know boys and girls who 

 never saw the sun get up! 



VII 



You ought to spend some time this summer on a 

 real farm. Boy or girl, you need to feel ploughed 

 ground under your feet; you need the contact with 

 growing things in the ground; you need to handle 

 a hoe, gather the garden vegetables, feed the chick- 

 ens, feed the pigs, drive the cows to pasture, help 

 stow away the hay and all the other interesting 

 experiences that make up the simple, elemental, and 

 wonderfully varied day of farm life. A mere visit is 

 not enough. You need to take part in the digging 

 and weeding and planting. The other day I let out 

 my cow after keeping her all winter in the barn. 

 The first thing she did was to kick up her heels and 

 run to a pile of fresh earth about a newly planted 



