IN THE OPEN | [ 



morning and what evening; to observe the prog- 

 ress of the day as one might attend a speftacle, 

 though this requires leisure and a free mind. The 

 spirit of the woods will not lend itself to a mere 

 fair-weather devotion. You must cast in your lot 

 with the wild and take such weather as befalls. 

 If you do not now and then spend a day in the 

 snow, you miss some impressions that no fair 

 weather can give. When you have walked for a 

 time in the spring shower, you have a new and 

 larger sympathy with the fields. The shining 

 leaves, glistening twigs, jeweled cobwebs and the 

 gentle cadence of the falling rain all tell you it is 

 no time to stay indoors. 



Life in the woods sharpens the nose, the eyes, 

 the ears. There are nose-feasts, eye-feasts, ear- 

 feasts. What if the frost-grapes are sour they 

 are fair to look at. Some things are for the palate 

 and some for the eye. The fragrance of blackber- 

 ries is as delicate as the flavor, a spicy aroma, a 

 woodsy bouquet, and to eat without seeing or 

 smelling is to lose much. Clustered cherries, so 

 lustrous black with their red stems, refresh the 

 inner and the outer man. You may safely become 

 a gourmand with respeft to these wild flavors. 



