162 NA TURE-STUD Y REVIEW [17:4— April, 1921 



every camp has an experience unto itself with respect to hermits. 

 Not only that but every individual camper has a different reaction 

 to the experience. The stories and drawings therefore show an 

 individuality of response. A few of these are selected at random 

 from the notebooks. These quotations have not been changed. 

 They are borrowed from the personal property of the owner for a 

 definite cause and not for criticism. And let it be emphasized 

 that nature councilors are not to trespass o.n this private property 

 with a red eye or a red pencil for spelling, split infinitives, or 

 vertical twists to the penmanship. The nimiber of poets and 

 writers killed off by this method will never be revealed but let 

 us not kill the spirit in camps. And as Mrs. Comstock says in her 

 Handbook oj Nature-Study "These books, of whatever quality, are 

 precious beyond price to their owners. And why not? For they 

 represent what cannot be bought or sold, personal experience 

 in the happy world of out-of-doors." 



Mr. Dyer {The Hermit). From the field book of "Btmips", age 

 eleven years, the youngest girl at Chequesset. 



'* His grandfather settled here years ago. The pond was named 

 for him. The lilac bushes and the fruit trees indicate the great 

 age of the place. The Hermit has planted boughs on the north 

 side of his com to protect it from the cold. He also made a wheel- 

 barrow with much patience and care. He has made a little bird 

 house on the top of a stick driven into an old stump which has been 

 there for many years. He has some timbers left from those used 

 to build his house. Back of his house he has made a chicken coop 

 of pine boughs. He has placed boards on either side to weigh 

 the boughs down and keep them together. He shows his interest 

 in flowers and trees by planting and taking care of both. Around 

 his garden is a fence to prevent the deer's (they are seen frequently 

 in this region) from eating all the beans over night as they did one 

 year. Years ago the house used to be almost up to the water's 

 edge but the new house which Mr. Dyer made himself is back 

 much farther. Mr. Dyer seems to take an interest in camp girls 

 and is not a bit timid about answering questions." 



Photo Mount Sheets :x These are special sheets for snapshots. 

 These little "pleasantries" like the principal on compound interest, 

 double in value in a few years. Is it any wonder that this book, 

 probably Volume I of the author, becomes so highly prized as years 

 roll on ? 



