NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS 



CHAPTER I 



TO THE TEACHER 



" It must be a lovely place in the summer ! " the dull and irritating 

 often say to me, referring to my home in the country. What they 

 mean is, of course, " How wretched a place the country is in winter ! " 

 But that attitude toward winter grows less and less common. We 

 are learning how to enjoy the winter; and it is my hope that this 

 volume may distinctly contribute to the knowledge that makes for 

 that joy. Behind such joy is love, and behind the love is understand- 

 ing, and behind the understanding is knowledge. 



The trouble with those who say they hate winter is a lack of knowl- 

 edge. They do not know the winter ; they never tramp the woods 

 and fields in winter; they have no calendar of the rare, the high- 

 festival days of winter. 



Such a day is the one of this opening chapter " Hunting the 

 Snow." And the winter is full of them; as full as the summer, I had 

 almost said! The possibilities of winter for nature-study, for tramps 

 afield, for outdoor sport for joy and health and knowledge and 

 poetry are quite as good as those of summer. Try it this winter. 

 Indeed, let the coldest, dullest, deadest day this winter challenge you 

 to discover to yourself and to your pupils some sight, some sound, 

 some happening, or some thought of the world outside that shall add 

 to their small understanding, or touch their ready imaginations, 

 or awaken their eager love for Nature. 



And do not let the rarer winter days pass (such as the day that 

 follows the first snow-fall) without your taking them or sending 

 them a-hunting the snow, else you will fail in duty as grievously as 

 you would if you allowed a child to finish his public-school educa- 

 tion without hearing of Bunker Hill. 



In reading this first chapter lay emphasis upon : (1) the real ex- 

 citement possible without a gun in such a hunt; (2) the keener, higher 



