THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



celebrated in poetry and song: august Fuji-san with 

 its perfect cone and snowy mantle; the Pine-clad 

 islets of Matsushima; the Inland Sea with its hun- 

 dreds of islands clad with verdure to the water's edge; 

 the Nikko region with its mountains and lakes, its 

 waterfalls and woods, and hundreds of other places 

 more or less famous. In October, when the woods 

 assume their autumn splendour, children from pri- 

 mary and secondary schools, high schools and colleges 

 with their teachers and professors make excursions 

 of three or four days' duration to noted places and 

 revel in the feast of colour. The railways offer 

 cheap fares and from all the large towns and cities 

 children, youths, and maidens journey to the moun- 

 tain woods. In the autumn in the Nikko region I 

 have seen thousands of scholars, boys and girls 

 varying from eight to twenty years of age (and a 

 happy, orderly throng they were), enjoying to the full 

 the scenery, breathing in the freshest of mountain air, 

 and building up healthy minds and bodies. Their 

 joyousness was wholesomely infectious and it was 

 good to mingle with them. As I look back on the 

 many pleasant experiences I have enjoyed in that 

 pretty land none gives me greater pleasure than the 

 memories of those throngs of happy scholars in the 

 woods and woodland paths of Nikko, Chuzenji, and 

 Yumoto. 



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