Art Out-of-Doors 
one will be able to identify all the plants 
in the neighborhood of his home, except 
grasses and mosses and such small fry. 
I know that what I say is true, because it 
is not long since I made the experiment 
myself. I did not want to make it, for I 
was very busy in other ways ; and, while I 
never was so foolish as to think that I 
should enjoy less by learning more, I did 
not even dimly imagine how much more I 
should enjoy by learning a very little. 
Compelled by a wisely insistent friend to 
open my botany, I was amazed to find that 
the identifying of plants was quite as amus- 
ing and a great deal easier than the reading 
of verbal puzzles ; that when one was iden- 
tified it became like a personal possession, 
doubly beautiful, doubly interesting; and 
that as soon as I had identified a few, the 
whole aspect of the summer world was 
changed for me. It was as though all my 
life I had gone with veiled eyes among peo- 
ple whose language I could not speak, and 
now the veil had been lifted and the lan- 
guage explained. I really saw the things 
that were before me — the little as well as 
344 
