X 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
John Burroughs, Boy and Man. By Clara 
Barrus, M. D. Garden City, New York: 
Doubleday, Page & Company. 
In this book Dr. Barrus has well por- 
trayed. so far as words can do it, the boy- 
hood of John Burroughs, that part of his 
life about which all of us most desired to 
learn. Dr. Barrus had already described 
Burroughs the adult, and some of his youth 
in her interesting book, “Our Friend, John 
Burroughs,” but the greater part of his boy- 
hood still remained unrecorded. 
The work is well done, but it is greatly 
to be regretted that the book contains no 
illustrations of John Burroughs before his 
hair became gray. The book does not tell 
means of the long ago, the old times which 
will never come again. 
On account of these old-time reminis- 
cences, aside from the nature study interest, 
the book is thoroughly enjoyable. Our 
younger readers will enjoy and we hope 
profit by this introductory statement from 
Mr. Burroughs: 
“My dear Young Friends: 
“The most precious things of life are near 
at hand, without money and without price. 
Each of you has the whole wealth of the 
universe at your very doors. All that I ever 
had, and still have, may be yours by stretch- 
ing forth your hand and taking it. 
“John Burroughs.” 
JOHN BURROUGHS, THE GRAND, BELOVED NATURALIST. 
Cut lent by Doubleday, Page & Company. 
us if no photographs of him were taken in 
those early days. If we could not get one 
of him in his early boyhood, we should like 
to see what he looked like when he was, let 
us say, half as old as he is now. 
Through long association with Mr. Bur- 
roughs, Dr. Barrus has had excellent oppor- 
tunity to learn many desirable facts. Sum- 
mer and winter for many years she has wan- 
dered with him over the fields and hills, and 
through the woods where he roamed as a 
boy. In those rambles he pointed out the 
places where the narrated events occurred. 
He explained in detail the curious ways and 
In this connection it is well to read what 
Dr. Barrus says regarding Mr. Burroughs’s 
essays : 
“Do you wonder why you so enjoy read- 
ing those essays — even forget that you are 
reading? It is because he had such a good 
time writing them. We usually do well what 
we like to do. When anyone finds some- 
thing he especially likes to do, and can do 
just a little better than anyone else, and in 
a way all his own, it is probably his par- 
ticular work in the world. It is often nearer 
than he dreams.” 
Dr. Barrus has commendably limited her 
