Introduction 



Indiana, and Illinois. On these expeditions he 

 had disciplined himself to endure hardship, 

 for his notebooks disclose the fact that he often 

 went hungry and slept in the woods, or on the 

 open prairies, with no cover except the clothes 

 he wore. 



"Oftentimes," he writes in some unpublished 

 biographical notes, "I had to sleep out with- 

 out blankets, and also without supper or break- 

 fast. But usually I had no great difficulty in 

 finding a loaf of bread in the widely scattered 

 clearings of the farmers. With one of these big 

 backwoods loaves I was able to wander many 

 a long, wild mile, free as the winds in the glori- 

 ous forests and bogs, gathering plants and feed- 

 ing on God's abounding, inexhaustible spiritual 

 beauty bread. Only once in my long Canada 

 wanderings was the deep peace of the wilder- 

 ness savagely broken. It happened in the maple 

 woods about midnight, when I was cold and my 

 fire was low. I was awakened by the awfully 

 dismal howling of the wolves, and got up in 

 haste to replenish the fire.'* 

 [x] 



