7BRNS AS A HOBBY 



itself, botany, zoology, or geology, any one of these 

 will answer the varied requirements of an ideal 

 hobby. Potentially they possess all the elements of 

 sport. Often they require not only perseverance 

 and skill but courage and daring. They are a 

 means of health, a relaxation to the mind from ordi- 

 nary cares, and an absorbing interest. Any one of 

 them may be used as a doorway to the others. 



If parents realized the value to their childrens' 

 minds and bodies of a love for plants and animals, 

 of any such hobby as birds or butterflies or trees or 

 flowers, I am sure they would take more pains to 

 encourage the interest which instinctively a child 

 feels in these things. It must be because such real- 

 ization is lacking that we see parents apparently 

 either too indolent or too ignorant to share the 

 enthusiasm and to satisfy the curiosity awakened 

 in the child's active mind by natural objects. 



Of course it is possible that owing to the strange 

 reticence of many children, parents may be uncon- 

 scious of the existence of any enthusiasm or curiosity 

 of this sort. As a little child I was so eager to know 

 the names of the wild flowers that I went through 

 my grandfather's library, examining book after book 

 on flowers in the vain hope of acquiring the desired 

 information. Always after more or less tedious 

 reading, for I was too young to master tables of 

 contents and introductions, I would discover that 

 the volume under examination was devoted to 

 garden flowers. But I do not remember that it oc- 

 curred to me to tell anyone what I wanted or to ask 



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