HARTLAND NATURE CLUB 
HOW IT BEGAN 
On a day in October, over fifteen years ago, in a little white 
farm house far up among Vermont’s green hills, four friends 
stood in front of a curio cupboard while the owner showed and 
described her treasured possessions. 
“This is a great horn spoon, and this a flowered luster 
pitcher, and this a quaint old wood carving. They all came to 
me from my Scotch ancestors. These are king and queen conch 
shells from the West Indies, and this is a whale’s tooth from 
Cape Cod. They were given me by an old sea captain.” 
The tooth was passed around to test its surprising weight. 
“Look at this bit of clapboard from one of the original 
Pilgrim houses of Plymouth, Massachusetts. This fragment of 
brick is from the first fort there. Here is a bit of gold from our 
own mines near Plymouth, and this is silver ore that my sister 
and I got at Silver Plume, Colorado.” 
“What,” exclaimed one, “can that be on the top shelf—that 
plume-like plum colored thing of such graceful shape?” 
“Oh, that was given me by Mrs. Alfred Bell when I taught 
school in the Densmore District. I was only sixteen years old 
at that time, and she started me on the collection of curios by 
giving me all these marine specimens. I have had a curio cup¬ 
board ever since.” 
As they looked and wondered an idea seemed to strike all 
in the group at once. And in one breath the four exclaimed, 
“Let’s have a Nature Club in Hartland!” 
They talked it over as they examined the rest of the collec¬ 
tion. There were specimens of plants from North Carolina and 
from Colorado, and from England, each full of reminiscence for 
the collector. Then they went out into the garden, beautiful with 
autumn’s flowers and fruit, and looked away to the far hills, 
ablaze with color. When they parted, their thought had become 
a purpose: “We will organize that club.” 
