114 THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



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size of a small haystack : This is no exaggeration. From one nest 

 of a fish hawk (and this nest was probably built first by a fish 

 hawk) that blew down from the top of an old house chimney in the 

 Maurice River Marshes, the author knew six one-horse cartloads 

 of loose sticks to be taken. 



PAGE 40 



such a sight as this : Have you ever seen a sunset more gorgeous 

 than any artist could paint and any rich man could buy ? Ever 

 had a smell of trailing arbutus that no perfumer could equal, that 

 all the money in the world could not create ? Old Midas had a 

 golden touch and turned his daughter into gold. Was he not more 

 than willing to be the poorest man in his kingdom if only he 

 might be rid of the fatal touch, be a natural man again and have 

 his loving little daughter a natural child again ? To be your nat- 

 ural selves, and to enjoy your beautiful natural world is better 

 than to be anything else, or to have anything else, in the world. 



CHAPTER VI 



TO THE TEACHER 



We hear so much of the drudgery of farm life, of its dreariness, and 

 meagre living that this chapter, aside from its picture of cheer and 

 plenty, should be made the text for a good deal of comment upon the 

 many other phases of farm life that make for the fullest kind of exist- 

 ence ; namely, the independence of the farmer; the vast and interesting 

 variety of his work ; his personal contact with domestic animals, his 

 fruit-trees, garden, and fields of grain; his intimate acquaintance with 

 the weather ; his great resourcefulness in meeting insect plagues, 

 blights, and droughts ; his out-of-door life that makes him strong 

 and long-lived, etc., etc. 



If you are a country teacher it is one of your great missions to 

 show the boys that they should stay upon the farm, or rather that 

 the farm is a good place to stay on for life ; if you are a city teacher 

 it should be your mission to head many a boy country ward for life 

 with the understanding that it requires more sound sense and re- 

 sourcefulness to make a successful farmer than it does to make a 

 bank president. 



