94 With Feet to the Earth 



winter our roads are bad ; that in spring 

 they are worse ; that in summer one is in 

 danger of sunstroke. It is in autumn that 

 the roads are hardest ; then the air is 

 bracing, the summer revellers have gone 

 home, and the skies and woods are glorious. 

 Have you a knack for sketching ? Then 

 take a sketch-book with you. A camera 

 will do more and do it quicker, but it is 

 heavy, it implies plates, chemicals, and 

 dark rooms, while the sketch gives results 

 that the photograph cannot As you look 

 at the drawing in later years it all comes 

 back to you, because your attention was 

 vigorously applied to the subject. They 

 say that you will remember a view if 

 you look at it so long and steadily that 

 when you turn away you can still see it. 

 On the same principle the theme of the 

 drawing stays by you. You recall how 

 the rocks shone gray in the morning sun, 

 how the cloud-plumes swirled above the 

 hills, how the light danced on the brook, 

 and what a field of golden-rod spread be- 

 yond it ; you remember the freshness of 

 the breeze laden with odors from the bal- 



