4 INTRODUCTION. 



of a weed as a tramp stealing rides, of Nature as a 

 tell-tale when taken by surprise. 



The quiet enthusiasm of John Burroughs's essays is 

 much healthier than the over-wrought dramatic action 

 which sets all the nerves a-quiver, — nerves already 

 stimulated to excess by the comedies and tragedies 

 forced upon the daily lives of children. It is espe- 

 cially true of children living in crowded cities, shut 

 away from the woods and hills, constant witnesses of 

 the effects of human passion, that they need the tonic 

 of a quiet literature rather than the stimulant of a 

 stormy or dramatic one, — a literature which develops 

 gentle feelings, deep thought, and a relish for what is 

 homely and homespun, rather than a literature wlrch 

 calls forth excited feelings. 



The essays in this volume are those in which my 

 pupils have expressed an enthusiastic interest, or 

 which, after careful reading, I have selected for future 

 use. I have found in them lew pages so hard as to 

 require over much study, or a too frequent use of the 

 dictionary. John Burroughs, more than almost any 

 other writer of the time, has a prevailing taste for sim- 

 ple words and simple constructions. " He that runs 

 may read " him. I have found many children under 

 eleven years of age who could read a whole page with- 

 out hesitating. If I discover some words which I fore- 

 see will cause difficulty, I place such on the black- 

 board and rapidly pronounce and explain them before 

 the reading. Generally, however, I find the text the 

 best interpreter of its words. What follows explains 

 what goes before, if the child is led to read on to the 

 end of the sentence. It is a mistake to allow children 

 to be frightened away from choice reading by an occa- 

 sional hard word. There is no better time than hid 



