IV 



DAME NATURE AND HER CHILDREN 



WHEN I saw a chipmunk going by my door, 

 busily storing up his winter supphes in his 

 den in the bank a few yards below, I thought how 

 curious it is that these wild creatures, thrown en- 

 tirely upon their own resources in the great merci- 

 less world of wild nature, with no one to care for 

 them or advise them, should get on so well, and 

 apparently have such a good time of it. I was, of 

 course, looking at the subject from the human point 

 of view; and I could not help thinking how many 

 appliances, how much science, how much coopera- 

 tion, and what laws and government, and the like 

 we all require in order to live out our lives as suc- 

 cessfully as the wild creatures do. 



In summer and winter, in storm and cold, in all 

 seasons and in all places, by night as by day, with- 

 out organization, or power of reason, or supervision, 

 or leaders, or defenders, or government, or schools, 

 or churches, there they go, well and happy, equal 

 to all, or nearly all, emergencies, and making fewer 

 mistakes than we human beings do. Think of our 

 elaborate helps and conveniences ; of our machinery 

 for taking us abroad, or for preserving us at home; 



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