28 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



ingly large portion of the human kind is 

 born, lives, and dies on the alluvial soil of 

 the Nile, the Ganges, the Yangtse, and the 

 Rhine. And just as from the hills comes 

 the renewing soil, from the hills come the 

 rulers of the population in the valleys, or 

 the guiding spirits of their settlers if the 

 settlement is of modern happening. 



I think it would surprise most of us, if we 

 could see a map of our own country with 

 a red line drawn around all its patches of 

 alluvial soil, to realize how much of the 

 fairest and richest of our land would be 

 found thus encircled. 



THE REVIVAL OF LIFE 

 The newness of the year first shows itself 

 in the bird world, in the greater activity of 

 those feathered friends who have been with 

 us all winter long. 



THE MEADOW-LARK CALLS 



The song sparrows who have simply 

 chirped about the thickets, only on rare 

 occasions bursting into genuine song, now 

 send out their distinctive triple challenge 



