THE MISSING TOOTH 81 



Shall I stop beside this small bundle of whitening 

 bones or shall I turn my head away and pass on? 

 Shall I allow you to stop with me in our winter 

 ramble and let you see the tragedy here in the flat- 

 tened meadow grass, or shall I hide from your eyes 

 the dark, the bitter, the tragic in the lives of the 

 wild things out of doors? 



I think it is best to hide nothing from you. Real 

 love for nature is largely sympathy with nature; 

 and there can be no sympathy without intimate and 

 full understanding of the struggle and suffering in 

 the lives out of doors. There is a dark story in this 

 little bundle of bones. Do you wish to hear it? There 

 is a fierce, cruel threat in the growl of the winter 

 wind. Do you wish to hear that? There is menace 

 and death in the shrill scream of the hawk. Do you 

 wish to hear that? Or do you wish to hear only the 

 song of the robin? only the whisper of the summer 

 breeze? only the story of the life and love and joy 

 of things? 



No, there are two sides to life two sides to your 

 life, the bright and dark sides ; two sides to the lives 

 of all men, and to the lives of all things. Summer 

 is the bright side of Nature's life ; winter is the dark 

 side. Summer and winter are both needed to round 

 out the life of the year; so tears and laughter seem 

 to be needed in our lives; joy and sorrow, peace and 

 suffering, rest and hardship these, or something 

 like them, seem to be needed in the lesser lives of 



