June-time Fancies. 



"Many men travel to the Nile to see the lotus flower 

 who have never seen in their glory the lotuses of 

 their native streams." Thoreau. 



Tuesday evening, June 6, 1911. In camp ! 

 For the first time this season my canvas shelter 

 is stretched taut. For the first time at even- 

 tide I too am stretched out upon the lap of 

 earth and gazing starward into her canopy of 

 sky. Just as the sun was sinking I drove the 

 last stake which holds my tent in place. It is 

 pitched for a fortnight or so on a little terrace 

 two miles east of Bainbridge, Indiana, and by 

 the side of a small stream which zigzags its way 

 through a woods pasture on the farm of one 

 J. M., an old boyhood friend of mine. Forty 

 years ago this pasture was a large sugar camp 

 the one where I partook in the first li stir-off" 

 at which I was a guest. Much of the area in the 

 lowland where the maples then stood has been 

 cleared and is now in cultivation, but along the 

 brook and on the slopes and hills to the south 

 and west the underbrush has been allowed to 

 grow and many of the original trees still stand. 



One-third of a mile to the east the brook 

 empties into Walnut Creek, the stream where 



5-B28 65 



