PEEFATORY NOTE 



I HAVE often said to myself, ''Why should 

 not one name his books as he names his chil- 

 dren, arbitrarily, and let the name come to 

 mean much or little, as the case may be?'' 

 In the case of the present volume — probably 

 my last collection of Out-of-door Papers — I 

 have taken this course, and have given to the 

 book the name of my place here on the Hud- 

 son, ''Eiverby," by the river, where the 

 sketches were written, and where for so many 

 years I have been an interested spectator of 

 the life of nature, as, with the changing sea- 

 sons, it has ebbed and flowed past my door. 



J. B. 





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