178 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



evening when the children are merrily recounting 

 the experiences of the day we are impressed with 

 the fact that they see accurately and recount 

 truthfully, and judge by the evidence. 



These children are in love with their activities. 

 Burroughs has said that knowledge acquired with- 

 out love will not stick. The most amazing things 

 brought out by the Trail School are the accuracy 

 with which the children see and acquire facts and 

 the correctness with which they describe what they 

 have seen. 



It might be thought that our ways of doing things 

 would make the children unsystematic; but when 

 reached by that magnificent incentive called in- 

 terest the child goes after anything — difficult, easy, 

 pleasant, or otherwise. It is a joy to do it. We 

 found that the children quickly developed the 

 mental habit of being systematic just through 

 interest. It was not long before a child system- 

 atically and persistently followed an interest by 

 specializing upon it, thus forming the acquaintance 

 also of the things related to it. 



A few weeks of this meant one hundred per cent 

 health. The child learned to use his senses, 

 learned to see and to hear; he accumulated facts, 

 materials which compelled thought and developed 

 the imagination. He became a reasoner. The 

 mind grew like a wild garden. When it was all 

 over most of the children had developed interests 

 in world subjects that had not been even men- 



