CHIPPING SPARROW, 



Spizella socialis Bonaparte. 



Plate XXIII. Fig. 2. 



stranger, if thou hast learned a. truth -which needs 



No school of long experience, that the world 



Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen 



Bnough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares 



To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood 



And TJew the haunts of Nature. The calm shade 



Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze 



That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm 



To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here 



Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men 



And made thee loathe of thy life. 



■ W. C. Bryant. 



]^) EAUTIFUL and idyllic country seats are scarce in this country, and comparatively 

 scarce are the true lovers of Nature. Although there is happiness, peace, beauty 



and charm in country life, the young men only too often leave the associations of their 

 early childhood and help to increase the population of our large and smoky cities. The 

 friction of their kind, the stir of multitudes, the thrill of competition, the struggle for 

 success, prove irresistible to the young, and once inured to it the mature man rarely 

 desires to leave it for a more healthful, happy, and quiet existence. The woods, the 

 brooks, the birds and planl;s take a subordinate place in the young man's fancy. But 

 in the evening of his days, after the stress of life's work is over, there will inevitably 

 return the longing to possess and transfigure some portion of the earth's surface. This 

 desire comes naturally to almost every man. The idea of rest in declining years seems 

 to be inseparably connected w^ith rural scenes. The paradise to be regained is never 

 within the walls of the city. This is true even of the city -born and city-bred, and it is 

 doubly true of those reared in the country, and when they take up with renewed 

 interest the occupations of their childhood, they find, to their surprise, that in addition to 

 the flowers or fruit which reward their care there is an ideal harvest of associations which 

 may make their closing years rich with a beauty and pathos all their own. Every leaf 

 and flower, every tree and shrub, every bird in the garden and woodland touches some 

 mystic chord of memory and association, and the glory of that far-off time gilds their 

 downward pathway with a tender radiance and revives the spirit of early youth.* 



Of all this I w^as reminded when for the first time I visited the beautiful country 

 seat of Ex-Governor Francis A. Hoffmann of Illinois — who writes his books and articles 

 on agriculture and horticulture under the nom de plume "Hans Buschbauer." Born and 

 bred in the country, he took for many years a high rank in business as well as in society 

 and politics in the western metropolis, Chicago. But the noise and the enervating life 

 of the great city created in him the desire to return to the country. In Jefferson County, 

 Wis., a fine piece of land was selected. In cultivating the soil, in the planting of trees and 

 shrubs, and in observing the coming and going and nesting of the birds he found health 

 and recreation. From the broad veranda of the house, built in the convenient southern 



• Compare "Garden and Forest," Vol. V, p. 193. The Love of Nature. 



