2 6 IN WINTER. 



thought I wander a second time over the same 

 ground. Scarcely regarded incidents come well 

 to the fore and throw a flood of light upon what 

 lacked at the time any evidence, on the creat- 

 ure's part, of complicated thought. 



Herein, I - think, lies the secret of so much 

 disappointment when some people and they 

 are many wander in the fields. Filled with en- 

 thusiastic desire upon laying down the teeming 

 pages of Thoreau and Burroughs, they expect to 

 see with another's eyes and appreciate with 

 another's brain. They see a bird, a mammal, or 

 a host of butterflies, and then ask themselves 

 upon the spot, Well ! what of them ? The bare 

 fact of their presence is all that the minds of in- 

 experienced ramblers encompass. The wild life 

 they have met excites a passing thrill and they 

 give no further heed to it. And it never occurs 

 to many to recall the incidents. Being a bit dis- 

 appointed then, why give heed to the subject 

 later ? On the contrary, if at the close of the 

 day, in the hills and hollows of the blazing wood 

 upon the andirons, if the walk was in winter, we 

 picture the scenes of the recent ramble, these 

 same birds or mammals, or whatsoever else we 

 saw, will be seen again in a new light. Why 

 those birds and not others were where we found 

 them ; why the field-mice or rabbits or a weasel 

 were where we saw them or it, will become evi- 



