Indian Summer 59 



him in or be run over. So it seemed, at 

 least, until the unexpe&ed wagon did appear, 

 when I found the problem might be solved 

 by climbing over, but I preferred jumping, 

 the ditch, and did so. The teamster, as he 

 passed, hailed me with " What you lost ?" 

 and set me down as a liar when I told him 

 " Nothing." No one could be in such a 

 place without an errand, so he thought, and 

 I had no gun to suggest the hunter. But I 

 had an errand, and before the day was done 

 found I had lost much in not having come to 

 this wildwood road years ago. 



Thoreau has said, " Nature gets thumbed 

 like an old spelling-book," but by how many ? 

 Carry fringed gentian to town, and by the 

 gaping crowd you will be thought to have 

 plucked it from some garden enclosure or 

 found a hothouse door unlocked. I am sur- 

 prised at Thoreau's remark the more because 

 my path has so seldom led me among these 

 asserted familiars of the out-door world. On 

 the contrary, how all-prevalent is ignorance 

 and unusual is earth-knowledge ! To be of 

 the earth earthy is beyond question pre- 

 eminently desirable, and yet how generally 

 we study to keep clear of it, lest the black 



