142 Conservation Reader 



We have lived in houses so long, where the air is often 

 close and impure and where we have no need of sharp senses 

 for protection, that we have lost some of the strength and 

 sturdy self-reliance of our wild ancestors. 



We have become partly dulled to the beauty out of doors, 

 because we have been so constantly employed by the busi- 

 ness of making a living. But the forest playgrounds are 

 calling us to return for a little time each year to the wilds 

 that were once our home, and to renew our acquaintance 

 with the trees, the streams and the rocks, and with the 

 wild creatures that Uve among them. To be able to make 

 our beds on the leaves under the trees, and to build a fire 

 of sticks and cook our own food, seems quite natural and 

 like old and familiar times. 



The stories and legends that have come down to us about 

 the forests and the imaginary people who lived in them 

 were believed to be true by the people of long ago. The 

 deep, dark woods once covered nearly all Europe where 

 our ancestors lived. To be lost in the woods was to be in 

 danger of meeting the strange and mysterious people who 

 were thought to Hve in their depths. Among these beings, 

 some of whom were good and others bad, were fairies, 

 nymphs, gnomes, and ogres. When people ceased to be- 

 heve so much in these stories, they began to lose their fear 

 of the woods. Among some of these people there grew up 

 a lot'^e and fascination for the trees which they believed 

 were the dwelHng places of spirits or divinities. 



If in our great forest playgrounds we can lead this out- 

 of-door Hf e for a few weeks each year, it will make us health- 

 ier, stronger, and happier. We no longer fear any mysteri- 

 ous creatures in the woods or the forces of Nature as shown 



