110 THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



CHAPTER III 



TO THE TEACHER 



The thought in this chapter is evident, namely, that love for the 

 out of doors is dependent upon knowledge of the out of doors. The 

 more we know and the better we understand, the more perfect and 

 marvelous nature seems and the more lovely. The toadfish looks 

 loathly, but upon closer study he becomes very interesting, even ad- 

 mirable — one of the very foundations of real love. So, as a teacher 

 and as a lover of nature, be careful never to use the words " ugly " 

 or " nasty " or " loathly "; never shrink from a toad; never make a 

 wry face at a worm ; never show that you are having a nervous fit at 

 a snake; for it all argues a lack of knowledge and understanding. 

 All life, from Man to the Amoeba, is one long series of links in a 

 golden chain, one succession of wonderful life-histories, each vastly 

 important, all making up the divinely beautiful world of life which 

 our lives crown, but of which we are only a part, and, perhaps, no 

 more important a part than the toadfish. 



FOR THE PUPIL 



The toadfish of this story is Batrachus tau, sometimes called oyster- 

 fish or sapo. The fishing-frog or angler is by some called toadfish, as 

 is also the swell-fish or common puffer of the Atlantic Coast. 

 Page 21 



Buzzards Bay : Where is Buzzards Bay ? Do you know Whittier's 

 beautiful poem, The Prayer of Agassiz, which begins : — 



" On the isle of Penikese 

 Ringed about by sapphire seas." 



Where is Penikese ? What waters are those " sapphire seas," and 

 what was Agassiz doing there ? 

 Page 23 



Davy Jones : Who is Davy Jones ? Look him up under Jones, 

 Davy, in your dictionary of Proper Names. Get into the " looking 

 up " habit. Never let anything in your reading, that you do not 

 understand, go unlooked up. 



