174 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
strings of yellow perch and dace and pickerel; and 
they took their first lessons in that noble art. Best of 
all, they were learning to love with an abiding love the 
wild things of the field, the wood, the water and the 
air, a love which afterwards developed into reverence 
for the wonderful Nature around them. Bird and in- 
sect and flower entered into their life, and have since 
added no small charm to the pleasure of existence, for 
the interest in these things has not been lost amid the 
toil and the coil incident to a busy, earnest manhood. 
Books were scarcer in those days than they are now, 
but somehow the boys learned to know many things 
which were handed down from preceding generations of 
boys by oral tradition. They did not know all the birds 
by name, but they had names for all the common ones 
and knew their habits. Their quick eyes could detect 
a night-hawk sitting along a high limb, and they could 
dissolve any doubt about it by hitting the limb with a 
stone if one was near, or by jarring the tree, to make 
the bird fly. They knew where to look for a pigeon- 
woodpecker’s nest, how to get a chipmunk out of his 
hole, and the places along the river where you could be 
sure to get a good string of fish. 
Most of the lore learned in this way is not for- 
gotten. It is usually learned by heart and becomes a 
part of one’s nature: It helps us, also, very much to 
appreciate book-lore, and, perhaps, aids in developing 
