BY THE WAYSIDE 
.53 
field'of literature that may be of great 
help in this work through the inspiration 
it lends and the recreation it affords. 
Turn to the words of those who know 
nature best through intimate association 
with her. Read Thoreau’s account of 
his life in the woods, and Burrough’s “A 
Year in the Fields,” with its thoughts for 
the changing seasons. Live in the de¬ 
lightful pages of William Hamilton Gib¬ 
son’s “Eye Spy” and “Studio Neighbors. 1 ’ 
Take “A Journey to Nature” with Mow- 
bray, for a story. Become acquainted 
with the cardinal bird of the south 
through James Lane Allen’s “Kentucky 
Cardinal.” Do you know how amusing 
Elizabeth is in her trials over her “Ger¬ 
man Garden,” and how refreshing in her 
account of the winter picnic on the Bal¬ 
tic? Read Prof. L. H. Bailey’s new book, 
“The Outlook to Nature” and find out, if 
you do not already know, how much we 
need poetry in nature study work—in life. 
Find out which poet suits you best for 
a nature poet. Be sure to test Riley, 
Sidney Lanier, Frank D. Sherman, Em- 
_ / 
ily Dickinson, as well as Emerson, Words¬ 
worth, Lowell and Bryant. 
Choose the best songs on nature; for 
lower grades try Mrs. Gaynor’s “Autumn,” 
“Lady Bug,” and “Buttercups,” and 
Neidlinger’s “Mr. Frog.” 
Read all the good'animal stories that 
come your way, not omitting Ernest 
Thompson Seton’s, which are entirely 
safe for grown people, for they know that 
the crow is apt to be a stupid bird, and 
will readily see that brilliant Silverspot 
represented the combined traits of the 
brightest crows of the whole tribe. 
William J. Long’s stories are good for 
everybody, so are those of Charles D. 
Roberts in “Kindred of the Wild.” 
David Starr Jordan has edited a little 
00 k called “True Tales of Birds and 
Beasts 1 that contains a bright storv of 
some twin baby bears, and another about 
a seal. 
Tell Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” to 
children and you will enjoy their pleas¬ 
ure in hearing it as much as they do the 
storv. 
Read Professor W. E. D. Scott’s “The 
Story of a Bird Lover,” which enables 
one to realize that the world has grown 
steadily more humane in the matter of 
taking the lives of birds since the days 
when Prof. Scott, as a very young man, 
was employed in skinning birds at a sal¬ 
ary of $30 a week, sometimes handling as 
many as one hundred fiftv birds a day. 
We can help the girls to know and feel 
this; we can help the boys to think 
about it before they want to go forth with 
guns. One lad had been so influenced 
by his teacher that when the father bade 
him shoot the woodpecker in the front 
yard, he said, “No, I guess not; I prom¬ 
ised Mr. Blank I’d be kind of careful 
about the way I used my gun.” 
I think we are rather more careful in 
the way we use our guns in the north 
than they are in the south, where, they 
told me, every man and boy, white and 
black, has a gun. We want our boys to 
be careful how they use their guns. We 
must teach all of our children as early as 
possible to know and protect the birds, 
the trees and the wild flowers. 
Make children feel that their first-hand 
knowledge is of the right kind so far as it 
goes. Have a definite purpose in the 
out-door nature study work. Encourage 
the pupils to help make nature studv 
literature through their own well-kept 
note books, their truthful records of what 
their senses have brought to them. Then 
show them in the indoor work where to 
find the things that books will tell them 
to further their knowledge. 
Jennie R. Faddis. 
