Reminiscent and Personal 21 



health into our muscles. Indeed, so power- 

 fully does he persuade my brother that he 

 goes to his cabin in the dead of winter, 

 fishes with Indians on northern lakes, and 

 hangs his bare arms over clothes-lines to 

 roast in the sun, when he has nothing else 

 to do, hoping to get back to his original 

 brown. Is it any wonder that this sterling 

 old fellow has sent down his influence 

 through generations of his successors, and 

 that when we reach the forest we recognize 

 our home, howbeit vaguely ? 



Nature ! Kind, though savage protector. 

 It never seems lonely where its spirit moves. 

 I own to a love for it, keen and real, and 

 find my best employments in its company. 

 In youth I remember hugging trees in the 

 woods, patting their bark and whispering to 

 them ; swinging in their branches, lying on 

 the turf beneath them and chewing grass, 

 no better a way of devouring nature than 

 we have in eating berries, but wilder. And 

 in a certain village there are codgers who 

 smile as I pass and whisper, " That's the 

 city feller that comes up here and goes 

 barefoot." I recall the looks of polite dis- 



