CHAPTER II. 



BOYHOOD AND BIEDS. 



THE Hunter Naturalist is formed in childhood. " The little 

 leaven thatleaveneth the whole lump," commenceth its strange 

 ferment in that unconscious time when the sun is yet the gol- 

 den wonder, and all of earth's apparelings glitter in the splen- 

 dor of the dew. 



Why is it that with our scathed brows relaxed we watch 

 the gambols of the "little ones" with such pleasure? Is it 

 not that the sweet simplicity and natural grace of every im- 

 pulse and movement of the healthy child recalls our earliest 

 associations of the lovable, the piquant and the pleasing, as 

 exhibited in the life of the Natural World ? 



We may grow to be paste-board, and painted men and 

 women, to be sure, and learn to admire the antics of bedizened 

 monkeys, which would be even miscalled " Human Brats!" 

 but such terrific perversions, thanks to the illimitable blue 

 that is universed in the deep eye of one true child of God and 

 Nature I can do little harm. We pity while we despise 

 yet, in the other, the chubby insolence of exuberant fun 

 provokes the laughter of deep joy. Ha 1 ha ! we laugh, and 

 let our sides go quaking with the tranquil stir of bliss that 

 God has left us something natural even in the children of our 

 loins as well as in his " unhoused wilds !" 



If I feel now that the sanctifying pleasure of renewing the 

 reminiscences of my earlier life in connection with Birds, 

 and Flowers, and wild scenes, can afford to others a proxi- 



