THE SUMMER AFIELD 5 



and the bumblebee that carries the fertilizing pollen 

 are related : the bumblebee and the mouse that eats 

 up its grubs are related; and every one knows that 

 mice and cats are related ; thus the clover, the bumble- 

 bee, the mouse, the cat, and, finally, the farmer, are 

 all so interrelated that if the farmer keeps a cat, 

 the cat will catch the mice, the mice cannot eat the 

 young bumblebees, the bumblebees can fertilize the 

 clover, and the clover can make seed. So if the farmer 

 wants clover seed to sow down a new field with, he 

 must keep a cat. 



I think it is well for you to have some one thing 

 in which you are particularly interested. It may be 

 flowers or birds or shells or minerals. But as the 

 whole is greater than any of its parts, so a love and 

 knowledge of nature, of the earth and the sky over 

 your head and under your feet, with all that lives 

 with you there, is more than a knowledge of its 

 birds or trees or reptiles. 



But be on your guard against the purpose to spread 

 yourselves over too much. Don't be thin and super- 

 ficial. Don't be satisfied with learning the long Latin 

 names of things while never watching the ways of 

 the things that have the names. As they sat on the 

 porch, so the story goes, the school trustee called 

 attention to a familiar little orange-colored bug, 

 with black spots on his back, that was crawling on 

 the floor. 



"I s'pose you know what that is?" he said. 



