WHY SOME PEOPLE SEE NOTHING 103 



desolation. One would never dream that it 

 was occupied. 



How different our way ! We cannot put 

 up even a tent without changing the whole 

 neighborhood, beginning at once to deface 

 and destroy. Nay, we cannot even walk 

 through the woods without leaving it strewn 

 with our wreckage, flowers plucked and left 

 to die, twigs snapped off from pure thought- 

 lessness, leaves carelessly picked and scat- 

 tered far and wide. Some of us, indeed, have 

 not outgrown the vandalism of marking our 

 path through the beautiful works of Nature 

 with paper bags and tin cans. It seems im- 

 possible for a human being except per- 

 haps an American Indian to pass along 

 any part of the earth's surface without mar- 

 ring or defacing it. 



It is no matter of surprise that some peo- 

 ple complain they never see the interesting 

 things that others do. It is simply because 

 they make themselves so obvious in their usual 

 noisy progress through the woods. They are 

 heard a long way off, and every bird silently 

 withdraws, the spirit of the woods retreats 

 to its deepest fastnesses ; " The very trees 



