‘A FOREWORD 
BEFoRE my window lies an enchanting landscape. 
It embraces a stretch of open rolling country, beauti- 
ful as the eye could wish to rest upon. The sun 
with its slanting rays is not giving it heat enough in 
these winter months to make it blossom in its radiant 
beauty, but the mind goes easily back through the 
few brown months to the time when the field not far 
away was waving with its rich yellow grain so soon 
to be food for those who planted it. Beyond this 
field lies an orchard where, in regular and orderly 
rows, stand the apple trees whose bright blossoms in 
the spring make the landscape so beautiful and whose 
fruit in the fall serves so richly for our enjoyment. 
A little farther on, a pasture is filled with sleek-coated 
cows, feeding quietly and patiently until the evening 
when they will return to their stalls to yield their rich 
milk. Still farther on lies a tract of forest. The 
varied shades of the beeches, the tulip poplars and 
the chestnuts make an exquisite contrast and give to 
the landscape its attractive background framed in by a 
distant hill. Behind this hill flows a mighty river 
carrying on its breast the ships by which we share 
I 
