32 



WINTER 



does not grow interesting as soon as you begin to 

 watch and study it? Large things, small things, 

 Bengal tigers or earthworms all things will sur- 

 prise and interest you if you will study them for a 

 season. ^ 



I have a friend, 'for instance, who has shot more 

 tigers, in more lands, than any other living man ; who 

 knows more about tiger habits and the tempers of 

 ,the dangerous beasts than any other man ; and who, ; 

 as I am writing this, is himself writing a book which 

 is to be called " Tiger Lands." That will be an ex- 

 citing book, no doubt, for he has had adventures 

 that made my hair stand up on my head, just to 

 hear about. Yet I very much doubt if that book, 

 with all its man-eaters, will be any more interesting 

 or any more valuable to us than Darwin's book on 

 earthworms. 



So am I going to sigh because there are no birds 

 in last year's nests? Had the poem said, "there 

 are no mice in last year's nests," that might have 

 made me sad, perhaps ; though I am sure that I 

 could go into the woods almost any winter day and 

 find plenty of old stump 8 w ^ n mice in them. And 

 I am equally sure that there will be plenty of birds 

 in next summer's nests; so, until the robins come 

 back and build new nests, I am going to look out 

 of the window these dark December days, and think 

 of White-Foot in Robin's old nest, high up there 

 in the slender sapling, where no cat can climb to 



