THE OUTDOOR WORLD 
73 
the skill and hard work are proficient 
and notable, while the entire camp un- 
questionably embodies at the present 
time the highest ideal for a girls’ camp. 
The editor of this magazine, assisted 
by his daughter, took with him this 
year twelve girls from Connecticut, 
New York. New Jersey and Canada. No 
matter how good a camp may be, the 
difficulties are in the personal intro- 
duction. No matter how perfect the 
facilities may be, it needs a friend to 
make them fairly available. It is in 
connection with personal introduction 
and care that the editor of this maga- 
zine gave special attention to his guests. 
He and his daughter arrived with the 
twelve girls at the opening of camp 
and remained during the month of July. 
Then he returned for the closing days 
of camp and delivered to their parents, 
and without a single mishap, the camp- 
ers that had been placed in his care. 
Directed Effort in the Woods. 
BY FRANCIS ROI.T- WHEELER, BEE TREE, 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
Camp life is valuable, directed camp 
life is invaluable. Many campers, how- 
ever. girls especially, lose much of the 
value of a stay in the Big Woods be- 
cause they scatter their energies. Few 
girls intend to become hunters of big 
game, and there is not the same 
urgency for them to become crack 
shots or keen trailers as there is for 
boys. 
Fortunately for the world, the femi- 
nine character tends to the finer sides 
of life and beauty of mind is an even 
more valuable asset than beauty of fig- 
ure or beauty of face. Camp life, then, 
should combine the development of 
mental beauty with physical health. 
Beauty possesses its own laws. One 
of the first of these is single-minded- 
ness. No girl or boy can know all 
about the woods, all the birds, all the 
trees, all the ferns, all the fungi, all the 
insect life, but any girl or boy can go 
deep enough into one subject to pene- 
trate beneath the superficial husk and 
find the beauty within. 
These are but generalities. Let them 
be placed in concrete form. How ex- 
quisite a thing is the veining of a leaf ! 
How varied ! How decorative ! How 
infinitely superior to the daintiest lace 
ever made by patient fingers! Yet to 
skeletonize leaves is an easy thing to 
do. Place them in a little rain water 
containing a pinch of yeast. When the 
membraneous portion becomes soft, it 
can be washed away with an ordinary 
paint-brush, in running water. A bor- 
der of skeletonized leaves attached to 
the margin of a white china plate with 
balsam and then washed over with sili- 
cate of soda — liquid glass — can create 
the daintiest patterns imaginable. 
Leaves and flowers of all sorts can 
be preserved in their natural colors. 
Some of the bigger blossoms take a lit- 
tle trouble, but almost every one can 
be done. 
Few people use a camera effectively, 
photography should be directed. One 
girl left a fixed tripod and, every even- 
ing, photographed the sunset from the 
same point. The result was a series of 
one hundred photographs, unique 
studies of clouds and sky. Another 
sought and found the most noble speci- 
mens of trees, each of a different 
species. Another learned to photograph 
the wild flowers, and so on, through a 
long list. 
Learn to do one thing well, and you 
will learn to love it. Each morning 
will hold the promise of some new 
beauty in that thing. But, if the day 
comes, without a plan, without there 
being any quest, there is grave danger 
that the day may dribble along and be 
lost. Concentrate on one thing until 
the beauty of that one thing takes pos- 
session of you. 
Look for Thoughts in Nature. 
Afterwards I went to look for 
thoughts. Every day now I do look for 
thoughts in flowers. Sometimes they 
are hidden away in the flower-bell, and 
sometimes I find them on a wild rose, 
and sometimes they are among the 
ferns, and sometimes I climb away up 
in the trees to look for them. So 
many thoughts do abide near unto us. 
They come from heaven and live 
among the flowers and the ferns, and 
often I find them in the trees. I do so 
love to go on searches for the thoughts 
that do dwell near about. — Opal White- 
ley — when seven years of age — in “The 
Atlantic Monthly.” 
The beauty inherent in Nature 
Must in our souls abide, 
If we would thrill w th pleasure 
Whene’er we come beside. 
— Emma Peirce. 
