44 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
foolhardy and thoughtless destruction of 
this beautiful and rare plant. 
Through the influence of the leaders of the 
camp a band of young people called .“Flower 
Friends” was organized, and they devoted 
themselves to transplanting and replanting 
some of the rarer native plants of the region 
to suitable localities. It is not stated whether 
they succeeded with all of them, but the 
cardinal flower, Indian pipe, grass-of-Par- 
nassus, ferns, etc., were some of the plants 
with which they experimented. It is doubt- 
ful if the. Indian pipe, w r hich is a true para- 
site. could be successfully transplanted. In 
fact, much of the d ; fficulty with orchids, 
arbutus, laurel, rhododendron, hemlocks, 
etc., is due to the fact that there are sym- 
biot c fungi on their roots and they require 
sour soil and no manure or cultivat’on. 
The Garden clubs of America are advo- 
cating the making of wild flower gardens, 
but it is a question whether the protection 
of the natural habitats would not be best — 
E’izabeth G. Button, Secretary-Treasurer 
Wild Flower Preservation Society of 
America. 
God’s Country. The Trail to Flappiness. By 
James Ol’ver Curwood. New York City: 
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. 
I suggested to the pub’ishers that they 
send us an editorial copy of this book on 
account of my belief that it will interest our 
readers. I was impelled to do this by reason 
of an enthusiastic telephone message from 
one of our friends who has discovered that 
he is livng in God’s Country, and that he is 
fa’thfully following the trail to happiness. 
The author maintains that he has found the 
heart of nature. He has. It has opened it- 
self to him. He has learned much of its 
language. But he came to th s understand- 
ing through appalling adventures and much 
bloodshed as a hunter of big animals in the 
wild. He has learned to appreciate the im- 
portance of life in every form and is now 
trying to give, as he states, a c'earer vision 
of what has happened hi recent vears: “The 
mad cuesting of a thousand milh'on people 
for a spiritual thing which thev cannot find.” 
Amidst a mu'tiplicitv of religions he says 
that he has found one that fills the soul with 
faith and confidence. There are many asser- 
t ; ons in the book which some of us cannot 
accept but it is consistent in his claim: 
“Nature is God. It is God that lives in the 
rose, in the violet, in the tree, just as he 
lives in the heart of man. It is God that 
breathes in the grass which makes the earth 
sweet to tread upon, and it is God that lives 
in the song of birds. His ‘Ffe’ is all-en- 
compassing, the vital spark of all existent 
things.” The author advances a long step 
farther than John Burroughs in his “Accept- 
ing the Universe.” Instead of denying the 
existence of God, he accepts all nature as 
God. He closes his argument with these 
thoughtful words: 
“Yes: the world is crying aloud for a great 
faith, even as it smashes itself into moral 
fragments on the rocks of its own egoism 
and its own selfishness. But there has come 
a rent in its armor, and as it commits crimes 
and plans for st'll greater crimes, it also 
begins to realize its colossal wickedness. 
And in its terror it shrieks aloud for a mani- 
festation of the Divine Power. It demands 
proof. 
“And aga’n I say that the proof is so 
near that the world looks over its head — 
and does not see it. Not until man’s egoism 
crumbles will he understand. For ghosts 
will not come back from the dead to quiet 
his frenzies, nor will angels descend from 
out of the heavens. The Divine Power is 
too great and all-encompassing for that. 
God, speaking of that power as God, is not 
a trickster. He is not a mountebank. He is 
not a lawyer arguing his case. He is Life. 
And this Life That Never Dies has no favor- 
ites. Such is my humble faith.” 
As a kind of benediction he describes an 
old unpainted farmhouse in a little sleepy 
valley that he loves and wherein dwell an 
aged couple in poverty and in suffering, yet 
in that house there are happmess and true 
fa'th. Fie says that all nature seems to re- 
joice in that faith, that the birds build their 
nests under the porches and there is melody 
in the trees. He asserts that faith in the 
goodness of nature is an equivalent to faith 
in God and is what all mankind needs. 
“Here are suffering — and peace; few of 
the riches of man, but an unlimited wealth 
of contentment and faith. These two, pris- 
oned to the end of their days, have found 
what all the world is seeking. The little old 
house of the hollow, even with its -tragedy, 
is glad. And life has made it so, the under- 
standing of life, the voice and living presence 
of life as it whispers about me now in the 
golden sheen of Indian summer.” 
Waiting in the Wilderness. By Enos A. 
Mills. Garden City, New York: Double- 
day, Page & Company. 
Like his previous book, “Adventures of a 
Nature Guide,” this is a tale of life among 
the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, its pri- 
vations and dangers, its beauty, its adven- 
ture — and its peace. Again Enos A. Mills 
opens for us a window upon the cool vistas 
of nature and lets in a draught of refreshing 
mountain air. 
It is full of Mr. Mills’ delightful and 
characteristic humor. 
If you love the outdoors, if you enjoy 
writing that stirs and stimulates and keeps 
you absorbed, even though it is not fiction, 
you will like this book. 
To a Fern. 
BY CHARLOTTE E. SMITH, GREENWICH, CONN. 
O beaut'ful fern, all day 
By the brook you wave and turn 
In the wind, in the wind; 
All day you turn your head 
In your cool and shady bed, 
Little fern, little fern. 
O dear little fern, when I saw you last 
You were small and half hidden 
In the moss and the grass, 
But now you’re straight and tall, 
The loveliest fern of all, 
At last, at last! 
