XIII 
READING THE BOOK OF NATURE 
N studying Nature, the important thing is not 
so much what we see as how we interpret what 
we see. Do we get at the true meaning of the facts? 
Do we draw the right inference? The fossils in the 
rocks were long observed before men drew the right 
inference from them. So with a hundred other 
things in nature and life. 
During May and a part of June of 1903, a drouth 
of unusual severity prevailed throughout the land. 
The pools and marshes nearly all dried up. Late 
in June the rains came again and filled them up. 
Then an unusual thing happened: suddenly, for 
two or three days and nights, the marshes about me 
were again vocal with the many voices of the hyla, 
the “peepers” of early spring. That is the fact. 
Now, what is the interpretation ? With me the peep- 
ers become silent in early May, and, I suppose, leave 
the marshes for their life in the woods. Did the 
drouth destroy all their eggs and young, and did 
they know this and so come back to try again? 
How else shall one explain their second appearance 
in the marshes? But how did they know of the de- 
231 
