r A FOREWORD 



BEFORE my window lies an enchanting landscape. 

 It embraces a stretch of open rolling country, beauti- 

 ful as the eye could wish to rest upon. The sun 

 with its slanting rays is not giving it heat enough in 

 these winter months to make it blossom in its radiant 

 beauty, but the mind goes easily back through the 

 few brown months to the time when the field not far 

 away was waving with its rich yellow grain so soon 

 to be food for those who planted it. Beyond this 

 field lies an orchard where, in regular and orderly 

 rows, stand the apple trees whose bright blossoms in 

 the spring make the landscape so beautiful and whose 

 fruit in the fall serves so richly for our enjoyment. 

 A little farther on, a pasture is filled with sleek-coated 

 cows, feeding quietly and patiently until the evening 

 when they will return to their stalls to yield their rich 

 milk. Still farther on lies a tract of forest. The 

 varied shades of the beeches, the tulip poplars and 

 the chestnuts make an exquisite contrast and give to 

 the landscape its attractive background framed in by a 

 distant hill. Behind this hill flows a mighty river 

 carrying on its breast the ships by which we share 



