PEEFATORY NOTE 



I HAVE often said, to myself, " Why stould not 

 one name h.is books as lie names his children, arbi- 

 trarily, and let the name come to mean much or 

 little, as the case may be ? " In the case of the 

 present volume — probably my last collection of Out- 

 of-door Papers — I have taken this course, and have 

 given to the book the name of my place here on the 

 Hudson, "Eiverby," by the river, where the sketches 

 were written, and where for so many years I have 

 been an interested spectator of the life of nature, as, 

 with, the changing seasons, it has ebbed and flowed 

 past my door. 



J. B. 



