10 With Feet to the Earth 



in spring because of our physical and 

 mental sympathy with nature. Even in 

 the physical distress of summer heat one 

 feels the life-tides in the earth, the air. 

 The sun is the reason for them. Life mul- 

 tiplies as he is near. Antaeus-like, you are 

 vigorated, calmed, assured, and sane when 

 you touch the ground and bury your 

 anxieties beneath it Behold the stum- 

 blings of the new family of lady-bugs why 

 lady-birds ? in the catnip ; watch the 

 spiders setting their gins for flies ; see the 

 jewels on the insects that hum and toddle 

 through the herbage : their life is in your 

 veins ; it is common to us all. How little 

 suffices ! With Omar Khayyam, we realize 

 at these moments that bread and drink, a 

 book, a tree, a song, and love are all we need. 

 We envy millionaires in our bad and un- 

 productive hours. All their money cannot 

 buy the health and delight of this idleness 

 at the wayside, spent in chewing shreds of 

 bark and fancy. The best things are free 

 to all of us. Never be so purse-rich as to 

 refuse them. 



As walking is the most economical, it is 



