PREFACE 
|? this book is inspired by love of that beau- 
tiful estate which has descended to us by 
inheritance, it is inspired even more by love 
of the open, which is in a still deeper sense our 
native land. While these woods and streams, 
these mountains and deserts, are the legacy of 
the American people, the chief beauty and 
interest of this country is the inheritance of 
such of them alone as are qualified by under- 
standing and by sympathy to receive it— 
they who having eyes, see, and having ears, 
hear. There are many, however, who, en- 
grossed in affairs, have sold their birthright, 
this finer, more beautiful inheritance, for a 
mess of pottage. To them, above all, this 
book is addressed in the hope that it may call 
them back to their own—to their native land. 
m. DL K. 
