140 WINTER 



misplaced. (2) The nest abandoned by the bird may be taken up by 

 the mouse. The deadest, commonest of things may prove full of life 

 and interest upon close observation. Summer may go ; but winter 

 comes and brings its own interests and rewards. So does youth go 

 and old age come. There is nothing really abandoned in nature 

 nothing utterly lacking interest. (3) A mouse is not a Bengal tiger; 

 but he is a whole mouse and in the completeness of his life just as large 

 and interesting as the tiger. If the small, the common, the things 

 right at hand, are not interesting, it is not their fault not the mouse's 

 fault but ours. 



FOR THE PUPIL 

 PAGE 30 



white-foot: the deer, or wood mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). 

 PAGE 32 



" There are no birds in last year's nest" : a line from a poem by 



Longfellow called " It is not always May." 

 PAGE 33 



Darwin's book on earthworms : Read in this book how the worms 



make garden soil. 



CHAPTER IV 



TO THE TEACHER 



If you have at hand " The Fall of the Year," read again the sug- 

 gestions on page 112 for the chapter on " Things to See this Fall," 

 making use of this chapter as you did of that (1) as the object of a 

 field excursion or of several excursions until all the things sug- 

 gested here have been seen; (2) as a test of the pupil's actual study 

 of nature; for there is scarcely a city child who cannot get far enough 

 into nature (though he get no farther than the city park), and often 

 enough to see most of the things pointed out in this chapter; (3) as 

 suggestions for further study and observation by the pupils things 

 that they have seen which might be added to these ten here, and 

 written about for composition work in English. 



FOR THE PUPIL 



Here are ten different things for you to see this winter, and most 

 of them, whether you live in the city or country, you can see, pro- 



