Preface 



year. To be sure, he can pitch its beauty into 

 a cart and carry it off, and would, doubtless, to 

 make a dollar; but I carry treasure from it 

 every time I chance there and lie is none the 

 poorer. I hope his legal and my ideal interests 

 will never conflict. 



He who walks to best advantage goes to the 

 country empty-handed and so is free to bring 

 back what he finds. To reverse this order is 

 often walking to no purpose. To take one's 

 town-troubles and town-interests into the fields 

 to give them an airing, may do them good, but 

 not yourself. Go as empty-handed and empty- 

 headed as you can. Unload all your cares in 

 the house or in the street and when the open 

 country is reached, you are in a truly receptive 

 frame of mind. You have an appetite for novel 

 impressions. The natural replaces the artifi- 

 cial so completely that, on returning, you scarce- 

 ly know yourself, and find it hard to explain 

 why so many really petty annoyances incident 

 to town-life vex one so mightily. 



It is a comfort to know that always within 

 reach is some nook or comer in Nature 's realm 

 where one's real self can come to the surface; 

 so, when the chickadee warbles. Hear me! you 



ix 



