Travels in a Tree-top 33 



well-nigh obliterated, and nothing really bet- 

 ter has replaced it. On the other hand, a 

 modern "country place," where Nature is 

 pared down until nothing but the foundation- 

 rocks remain, is, to say the least, an eyesore. 

 There is more pleasure and profit in an Indian 

 trail than in an asphaltum driveway. 



Westward lie the meadows, and beyond 

 them the river. Seen as a whole, they are 

 beautiful and, like all of Nature's work, will 

 bear close inspection. The bird's-eye view 

 to-day was too comprehensive to be alto- 

 gether enjoyable : it was bewildering. How 

 completely such a tract epitomizes a conti- 

 nent ! The little creek is a river ; the hil- 

 lock, a mountain ; the brushland, a forest ; 

 the plowed traft, a desert. If this fat were 

 not so generally forgotten we would be better 

 content with what is immediately about us. 

 Mere bigness is not everything. So, too, 

 with animal life. We spend time and money 

 to see the creatures caged in a menagerie, and 

 never see the uncaged ones in the thicket be- 

 hind the house. Every lion must roar, or we 

 have not seen the show ; a lion rampant is 

 everything, a lion couchant, nothing. There 

 was no visible violence in the meadows to- 



