Phillips] BURROUGHS NATURE CLUB 157 



the Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild in December, 19 14. She had 

 been studying Burroughs for a year and a half. 



" Dear Friends : 



"I am overjoyed to find myself face to face with you, whom 

 I have always wished to meet in order to say 'Thank you,' not 

 as I have been saying it, in a letter, but in words spoken from the 

 very bottom of the hearts of all P. S. — with much love and 

 thanks and gratitude. 



"I think you would be delighted if you could really know how 

 much good you have done and how many little souls you have 

 gladdened and uplifted by thoughtful kindness and beautiful 

 actions. Ever since I was a little girl, or to be exact, ever since 

 I came to America, six years ago, I was as happy as a lark every 

 time I received some beautiful violets, daisies, pansies, or what- 

 ever flowers came to us in Mrs. Pitt's wonder box. 



"And when at 3 o'clock I was allowed to take my violets 

 home, how my mother wou 1 :d rejoice because she, too, loved 

 flowers. The one who liked them best, though, was father, for 

 he had lived in the country in Austria, and, now, in America, he 

 says he sees nothing but bricks and pavements and machines. 

 He has often said: 'Das ist ein stucklen von Gottes Himmel,' 

 which means that it is like a bit of God's sky, when I've gone 

 home with my violets. 



"And not only was I made happy, but thousands of other lit- 

 tle girls just like me. Of course, when I was younger I never had 

 much thought of any thanks or gratitude to the kind and loving 

 folk to whom I really owed the pleasure of seeing Nature as of- 

 ten as I did; but now that I am a big girl, I can reason and think 

 more and I realize how hard it is for you people to pick these 

 flowers and pack them so carefully. 



"As far as I remember, I myself have been only twice out in 

 the open country. The only other time that I have ever got a 

 glimpse of Nature was when one of my teachers, Miss Blank, 

 took me to Staten Island and to Central Park. The rest of Na- 

 ture that I have ever come in contact with came to me through 

 your efforts. And, indeed, the flowers and twigs did help me 

 a great deal especially in my Burroughs' work. I was helped 

 to understand better what Mr. Burroughs has written in his 

 Nature books, and I know I learned pansies and Jacks-in-the- 

 pulpit and lilacs from the very ones you sent to our school. 



"Not only was I helped in the Burroughs work, but when I 

 read a poem about flowers, for instance 'The Daffodils,' or 'The 

 Fringed Gentian,' I understand that poem better, and my im- 

 agination could stretch out farther because of all the wild flowers 

 I had seen in school and which had come from you. 



"So I bring to you from my whole school heartiest thanks, and 

 I for one am delighted to have been able to express to you just 



