

Chumfo, the Super-sense 



ception, which I would call his "sensibility" had 

 not our novelists bedeviled that good word by 

 making it the symbol of a false or artificial emotion- 

 alism. Every wild creature is finely "sensible" 

 in the true meaning of the word, his sensitiveness 

 being due to the fact that there is nothing dead 

 or even asleep in nature ; the natural animal or the 

 natural man is from head to foot wholly alive and 

 awake. And this because every atom of him, or 

 every cell, as a biologist might insist, is of itself 

 sentient and has the faculty of perception. Not 

 till you understand that first principle of chumfo 

 will your natural history be more than a dry 

 husk, a thing of books or museums or stuffed 

 skins or Latin names, from which all living interest 

 has departed. 



I am sometimes asked, "What is the most in- 

 teresting thing you find in the woods?" the ques- 

 tion calling, no doubt, for the name of some bird 

 or beast or animal habit that may challenge our 

 ignorance or stir our wonder. The answer is, that 

 whether you search the wood or the city or the 

 universe, the only interesting thing you will ever 

 find anywhere is the thrill and mystery of awaken- 

 ing life. That the animal is alive, and alive in a 

 way you ought to be but are not, is the last and 

 most fascinating discovery you are likely to make 

 in nature's kingdom. After years of intimate 



[351 



