PREFACE. 



These papers, describing the common objects of Nature 

 around the "Hub," and originally published, from time to 

 time, in the Popular Science Monthly, Lippincott's Magazine, 

 Cottage Hearth, Outing, American Naturalist, Harper's Young 

 People, and Our Sunday Afternoon, to all of which publica- 

 tions the writer owes grateful acknowledgments, have since 

 been written out at greater length, and now presume again to 

 start together on their journey. 



If these gleanings from wood and field may in any direc- 

 tion invite young people to use their eyes and ears in exam- 

 ining and considering the works of Nature, or if "children 

 of larger growth," whose' circumstances and vocations do 

 not often permit them to ramble over enchanted grounds, 

 may be interested for an hour in reading the simple sketches, 

 the author will feel that they have not been written in vain. 



HOKACE LUNT. 



Boston, 1888. 



