INTRODUCTION 



IN this fourth and last volume of these outdoor 

 books I have taken you into the summer fields and, 

 shall I hope ? left you there. After all, what better 

 thing could I do ? And as I leave you there, let me 

 say one last serious word concerning the purpose 

 of such books as these and the large subject of 

 nature-study in general. 



I believe that a child's interest in outdoor life is a 

 kind of hunger, as natural as his interest in bread 

 and butter. He cannot live on bread and butter 

 alone, but he ought not to try to live without them. 

 He cannot be educated on nature-study alone, but 

 he ought not to be educated without it. To learn to 

 obey and reason and feel these are the triple ends 

 of education, and the greatest of these is to learn to 

 feel. The teacher's word for obedience ; the arithme- 

 tic for reasoning ; and for feeling, for the cultivation 

 of the imagination, for the power to respond quickly 

 and deeply, give the child the out-of-doors. 



" If I could teach my Rugby boys but one thing," 

 said Dr. Arnold, " that one thing should be poetry." 

 Why? Because poetry draws out the imagination, 

 quickens and refines and deepens the emotions. The 

 first great source of poetry is Nature. Give the child 

 poetry; and give him the inspiration of the poem, 



