NATURE AND ANIMAL LIFE 



deliberate purpose in the one case than in the other, 

 A wild plant's one thought, one ambition, is to 

 mature its seed. When it starts in the spring it has 

 the whole season before it, and it runs the stalk up 

 to its full stature; but if it gets a late start its ab- 

 breviated stalk seems like an act of conscious 

 intelligence; it must hasten with its seed before the 

 season passes. The second or third nest of a bird in 

 spring is usually a much more hasty affair than the 

 first. The time is precious, and the young must not 

 get too late a start in life. 



I fancy that to all human beings the spring gives 

 an impulse toward new fields, new activities, that 

 is quite independent of any will or purpose of their 

 own. We are all children of one mother after all and 

 are tied to her apron-strings. The pulse of the life 

 of the globe is felt alike in all of us, feeble or strong. 

 Our power of will, of purpose, carries but a little 

 way against the tendencies of race, of climate, of 

 the age, or the tides of the seasons. 



I have often asked myself if we should count it an 

 act of intelligent foresight in the birds when they 

 build their nests near our houses and roadways, ap- 

 parently seeking the protection from their enemies 

 which such places are supposed to afford. I have 

 concluded that the idea of protection does not in- 

 fluence them any more than it does the rats and the 

 mice that infest our houses, or the toads that lurk 

 under our porch floors. How should a robin, or a 

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