VIII 



TO return to our first lesson, of quietude: it 

 was impressed upon me unconsciously, like 

 most good lessons, before I had any thought that 

 I was learning the true way of the woods. The 

 teacher was Nature herself (she seldom fails to 

 quiet boy or man if left alone with him), and the 

 school-room was a lonely berry-pasture surrounded 

 by pine and hardwood forests. The berry-pickers, 

 a happy and carefree lot, often let me go with 

 them while I was yet too small to find my way 

 among the tall swamp-blueberry bushes, and 

 would leave me under a tree at the edge of the 

 woods, with an armful of berry-laden branches to 

 keep me busy while they wandered far away in 



[i9Sl 



