CHILDREN OF MY TRAIL SCHOOL 165 



lecture. Another is of a blind Indian in British 

 Columbia who took rne several miles up and then 

 down a swift mountain stream, guided by touch, 

 sound, and his imagination. 



Many a time the children and I drew maps and 

 pictures with sticks in the sand. Sometimes we 

 set down a part of the multiplication table. On a 

 big sand map we located beaver colonies, big trees, 

 little trees, places where we had camped, places 

 where we had seen mountain sheep, places we had 

 explored. One of the places the children best re- 

 membered was the top of the Twin Peaks, where we 

 had lain down and with magnifying glasses care- 

 fully looked at the tiny dwarf flowers. Another 

 was that strange timberline of dwarfed and twisted 

 trees on the side of Long's Peak. Still another was 

 Chasm Lake, an utterly wild place, where there 

 were ice-piles, snow-drifts, flowers, and lichened 

 rocks; and where a big, fat woodchuck had come 

 out to eat scraps of lunch from our fingers. On 

 the sand map we also marked places unexplored — 

 spots where we hoped soon to go and to make dis- 

 coveries. 



We try to develop in the child mind the spirit of 

 exploration, so he may enjoy the search for facts, 

 both in books and in the outdoors. Before lon^ 

 he eagerly hunts through books or appeals to in- 

 dividuals to satisfy some interest roused on the 

 trail. The results have been immeasujable and 

 inspiring. With eye and ear and nose the children 



