initial commit of ebook 37811HEADmain

1 files changed, 3505 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/37811.txt b/37811.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88eec3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/37811.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3505 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Rambles with John Burroughs, by Robert John De Loach
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Rambles with John Burroughs
+
+Author: Robert John De Loach
+
+Release Date: October 20, 2011 [EBook #37811]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES WITH JOHN BURROUGHS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: JOHN BURROUGHS]
+
+
+
+
+    RAMBLES WITH JOHN BURROUGHS
+
+    R. J. H. De LOACH
+
+
+    _Illustrated with photographs by the Author_
+
+    RICHARD G. BADGER
+    THE GORHAM PRESS
+    BOSTON
+
+
+    _Copyright 1912 by Richard G. Badger_
+    _All Rights Reserved_
+
+    _The Gorham Press, Boston, Mass._
+
+
+    To
+    THE DEAR OLD UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
+    and her Noble faculty who have ever inspired me
+    I dedicate this little volume
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+There is a longing in every student's life some time or other to share
+his pleasure with the world, and if he happens to find himself in the
+proper environment he cannot forego that pleasure. His studies, his
+anxieties, his loves and his devotions are a part of him and he cannot
+give himself to the world without giving these.
+
+My personal contact with John Burroughs has meant a great deal to me and
+these papers represent in a measure what I have enjoyed, though they
+come far short of what I would like them to be. Some of them were
+written among his native hills and it is hoped they will give the flavor
+of his own experiences. Others were written at odd times on trains, on
+boats, and in my study here, where I have enjoyed re-reading so many
+times his essays on Nature. The qualities of the man and his papers have
+always made a direct appeal to me, and I love to come in contact with
+him and spend days with him.
+
+Long before they were printed in book form, I had collected most of his
+poems in my old scrap book and studied them. Their simplicity and beauty
+combined with their perfect rhythm impressed me and almost at one
+reading I was able to remember them line for line.
+
+The names of Burroughs and Whitman are forever linked together and one
+can hardly think of one in certain relations without thinking of the
+other. To the literary public they have many ideals in common, and their
+bonds of sympathy have been knit together forever in Burroughs essays.
+To be associated with Burroughs is therefore to get many interesting and
+valuable hints on the life and works of Whitman. While I write this
+preface Mr. Burroughs talks with me in the evenings on the possible
+future influence of Whitman on American literary methods and criticism.
+The reader will not be surprised therefore, to find in this collection
+of papers, one on the relation of these two grand old men.
+
+I have not attempted to interpret John Burroughs. He is his own
+interpreter and the very best one. In writing the papers, I have had in
+mind only just what he has meant to me. How he has affected me and
+changed the course of my life. How he has given me new eyes with which
+to see, new ears with which to hear, and a new heart with which to love
+God's great out-o'-doors.
+
+Athens, Ga. January, 1911.
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+
+    The Simple Life
+    Around Slabsides and the Den
+    John Burroughs in the South
+    Around Roxbury
+    The Old Clump
+    John Burroughs as Poet
+    John Burroughs and Walt Whitman
+    John Burroughs and the Birds
+
+
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    John Burroughs
+    In the Old Barn
+    The Old Stone Wall built by Deacon Scudder
+    The Study
+    Slabsides
+    Burroughs Listening to the Cardinal in Georgia
+    At the Bars in front of The Old Burial Ground
+    Over the Site of his Grandfather's Old Home
+    Under a Catskill Ledge where he has often been protected from the
+      rain in summer
+    A Catskill Mountain Side
+    Under the Old Grey Ledge
+    On the Summit of the Old Clump
+    Looking across the Pasture Wall
+    Stones marking Site of Thoreau's Cabin
+    Pointing out the Junco's Nest
+    My Chickadee's Nest
+
+
+
+
+THE SIMPLE LIFE
+
+
+The great majority of people consider that this expression about defines
+a summer outing, or a camping trip and that is the end of it. They
+cannot associate it with any form of living for they have not tried the
+simple life. A few weeks in summer they are in the habit of unfolding
+their tents and going away to the mountains where they can for a short
+while rid themselves of conventionalities and try out nature. On such
+occasions they are forced to do most of their own work, and hence are
+primarily interested in reducing this to the minimum. Usually those who
+seek this form of the simple life are glad when the spell is over and
+they are back safely in the home.
+
+Once in awhile and perhaps at long intervals, the world gives birth to a
+character tuned in a lower key than the average of us, that by virtue of
+its inborn love of simplicity and lack of things to worry over, prefers
+to remove the deadly weights of the conventional and to live in harmony
+with the forces of the world. In this way native merits are allowed to
+expand and grow. Such persons are meek and lowly with much humility of
+spirit and usually gifted with a great capacity for love. Unconsciously
+they are continually weeding out everything from their lives that tends
+in any way to abate their natural forces, and by the time they are far
+on the way of life they have become entirely free from those things that
+hold most of us aloof from the best the world has to offer.
+
+The human race has given very few such characters to the world, in fact
+not a great enough number to formulate in any sense a law of the
+probability and chance of their production. Diogenes is an illustration
+of such a character, who after an early life of luxury, settled upon an
+extremely simple life during his later years, and grew in wisdom and
+understanding in proportion to his devotion to such life. Gilbert White
+after a thorough college training refused many offers to appointments to
+honorable posts in order to live simply at the Wakes and make a complete
+record of the Natural History about Selburne. In preference to large
+paying positions in many parts of the Kingdom, he chose clerical work at
+very low pay that he may remain at home and not miss any important event
+in the Natural History thereabouts. Thoreau is another type of the
+advocate of the simple life. He could have remained about Concord all
+his days as other men and have amounted to as little as many of them
+did, if he had preferred. But instead, he deliberately planned an
+experiment in plain living and high thinking. It has been thought by
+many that he was an extremist, but how many of us there are who would
+gladly take his claim to immortality. His experiment was a success. So
+soon as he cast off all obstacles to free thinking, his mind seized on
+the things he most loved and desired, and made him famous.
+
+Another character that belongs in this category, and the one in whom we
+are the most concerned in the present paper, is John Burroughs. Born in
+one of the most beautiful sections of a great country, and reared on a
+farm where he learned first hand the secrets of nature, he has never
+departed far from the simple life. At the age of seventy-five he still
+finds greatest comfort away from any human habitation, and the earth
+beneath--the sky above, and nothing to mar his inner musings. Strange to
+say the happiest environment that ever comes to him is amid the very
+hills where he first saw the light. Recently, he confessed as he lifted
+his eyes to a Catskill sunrise: "How much these dear old hills mean to
+me! When in my playful youth little did I think as I went along this
+roadway to school every morning that some day I should fall back upon
+these scenes for thought, love, inspiration! O what a wholesome effect
+they have upon me!" This I am sure is not an exaggerated statement of
+the case. He really longs to get back among the hills of his nativity on
+the return of summer, and so long as health and strength permits he
+will 'return to the place of his birth, though he cannot go back to his
+youth.' There in the quiet of the country, nestled among those beautiful
+hills and valleys, he can get into the free and wholesome open air and
+live as he likes, while the many pleasant memories of his earlier days
+seem to act as a lubricant to his already active mind.
+
+A simple life is not necessarily a life of idleness, but may on the
+other hand be the very busiest of lives. In fact, is the product of any
+mind as wholesome, as pure, as great as it might be when the denominator
+is not reduced to its lowest terms? Let us not get the little summer
+visit to the mountains confused with the larger simple life. Very few
+campers on a summer vacation ever know the real joy of a quiet life as
+Thoreau lived it at Walden Pond, or as Burroughs lives it at Slabsides
+in spring and at Woodchuck Lodge in summer. Such a life as I am writing
+about is a psychological condition as well as a physical environment,
+and results from a choice or preference of two or more methods of
+living. It carries with it no regrets, no envy, no covetousness. Perhaps
+such a life would prove impossible when forced upon one, but happy
+indeed is he who, having lived as other men, learns "to reduce the
+necessities of subsistence to their lowest terms" and proves, "that in
+every life there is time to be wise, and opportunity to tend the growth
+of the spirit." 'Tis then and only then that he can "share the great,
+sunny, joyous life of the earth, or be as happy as the birds are! as
+contented as the cattle on the hills! as the leaves of the trees that
+dance and rustle in the wind! as the waters that murmur and sparkle to
+the sea!"
+
+All of this I think John Burroughs has realized if ever any man has
+realized it. Sitting in an old barn about a hundred yards from Woodchuck
+Lodge, his summer home, in his home-made chair, and for his writing desk
+an old chicken coop with one board-covered side, and a large piece of
+heavy manila paper covering this, is the way I found him at work. In
+front of the opening or barn door was The Old Clump, the mountain of his
+boyhood days to inspire, to uplift him. Even the summer home in which he
+lives savors too much of the conventional. To be absolutely free is a
+consummation devoutly to be sought for--and this he finds, experiences,
+cherishes. Writing at seventy-five? Yes, thinking and writing,--but
+writing, thinking and living best when living simplest. With his dark
+brown wash-suit and cap on, he is not afraid to sit or roll on mother
+earth nor to climb a tree if necessary. Before breakfast we go to gather
+some apples for the table, and nothing would do but I should hold the
+basket while he mounted the tree and picked the apples. Then over the
+brow of the hill after breakfast to get potatoes for dinner--but to
+stop long enough at the old barn for a snap-shot of him and to learn of
+the junco's nest built in the hay only six feet from his chicken-coop
+desk. The bird as busy in her work rearing her young as Burroughs
+writing his essays, and the two blend beautifully in the picturesque
+barn. This is the only record, he tells me, of a junco nesting under
+human habitation, so I get two very good pictures of the bird entering
+the nest.
+
+Only a few weeks before, he had remodeled Woodchuck Lodge and put a
+rustic porch on it. His niece, referring to Mr. Burroughs during the
+time, says: "I never saw a happier person than Uncle John was then. He
+would work all day and rest well at night, and was in a happy mood all
+the time. If there ever was such a thing as a happy person on earth, I
+think he was then." And nothing delights him more now than to point out
+the different pieces of furniture he made with his own hands. Every
+piece of it is up to the standard of the Craftsman, and the buffet and
+dining table quite tasty, while the rustic reading table and cot showed
+considerable ingenuity in the adaptation of odd-shaped pieces of bark
+covered wood to man's needs. All in all, it was an excellent piece of
+work, and far more picturesque than any factory work I ever saw.
+
+This man of whom we write is in many respects a wonderful man. His first
+dash into literature was purely and simply Transcendentalism, a kind
+of a mixture of Emersonian philosophy and metaphysics, and is by no
+means poor literature, but perhaps far too complicated or vague for the
+mental fibre of its author. So he starts from the first again and writes
+about the common things of the farm and forest. "It was mainly to break
+the spell of Emerson's influence," he says, "and get upon ground of my
+own that I took to writing upon out-door themes." The selection has been
+a happy one and has probably done much to recast, as it were, the author
+of _Expression_--to reduce his denominator, if not increase the
+numerator. Thinking and writing on every-day themes has induced him to
+almost get out and live with the animals and plants. It has very largely
+been responsible for the growth of his sane, wholesome mind housed in
+such a healthy body. Under no other conditions it seems to me could he
+have given to the world "so much of sane thinking, cool judgment,
+dispassionate reasoning, so many evidences of a calm outlook upon life
+and the world." In fact, could he have experienced these things in
+conventional life? His philosophy is well ripened and at the same time
+wonderfully human and appreciative. Each new book from his pen shows in
+every way the intense enthusiasm of the author for the great study that
+he has made his life work.
+
+[Illustration: BURROUGHS IN THE OLD BARN IN WHICH HE DOES HIS WRITING]
+
+We may ask, how does he spend his time in this country home when not
+actually engaged in writing? Going about from farm to farm talking to
+the common people about the seasons, the crops, and perhaps now and then
+advising with them on some phase of farm work, such as curing hay or
+mowing grain. Sometimes he goes to the mountains and under some ledge of
+rocks he will be found studying the nature of the geological formation
+of the earth. A small angled stone in his hand, he picks into the side
+of the stone wall and makes some interesting discovery. While thus
+engaged, he hears in the hemlock forest behind him lively bird notes,
+and suddenly turning gets a glimpse of the author when for the first
+time in that particular woods he sees the warbling or white-eyed vireo.
+On his return he follows up a stone fence for several hundred feet to
+get a little study of the chipmunk, or to locate a new flower that he
+happens not to have seen this season. He knows where it ought to be, but
+has not located it yet. With the growth, color, and size of a particular
+species he associates its environment and perhaps learns something new
+about this too before he reaches home again. Wherever his fancy leads
+him, whether it be to the trout stream or the mountain side, he shows a
+wonderful vigor, keen vision, and alert attention to the life about him
+that is apparent in all his writings. I find no other writer on Natural
+History themes quite up to Burroughs in honesty and keenness of
+observation, delicacy of sentiment, and eloquent simplicity of style.
+
+For the past few years, Burroughs' mind has turned to philosophy rather
+than Nature study--the _causes of things_ rather than _things_. This is
+to be expected of one who has given the mind opportunity for consecutive
+development for the past half century. He has always been a philosopher,
+but only his two last volumes of essays--_Ways of Nature_, and _Leaf and
+Tendril_ show the deeper currents in his life. It is in these that we
+see him much concerned about the constitution of nature and the history
+of creation. His mind has ripened to this, and it is surprising to know
+how versatile he is on the structure of organic beings, and the
+geological formation of the earth's crust, and the evolution of life.
+Perhaps no nature writer, ancient or modern, is so largely responsible
+for the universal interest in the nature study movement at the present
+time, as John Burroughs. How many he leads to an appreciation of nature!
+and how many personal friends he has among all classes of people! Then
+too his writings have recently found their way to the schools--thanks to
+Miss Burt. With all his love for the freedom of the woods and mountains,
+he is a sociable being, and is thereby subject to many interruptions
+from friends. But despite this he has accomplished far more in the way
+of substantial writing than the average author, and recently said that
+if he keeps up his present rate he will soon have his shelves filled
+with his own writings. One thing is quite conspicuous about his
+relation to other people--His friends are the warmest of friends, and
+whenever I have been with him, he has had a good deal to say about them.
+In his _Indoor Studies_, he confesses that he is too conscious of
+persons. "I feel them too much, defer to them too much, and try too hard
+to adapt myself to them." But there is a certain influence he has felt
+from friends that has, in all probability, given him a calmer and more
+beautiful outlook upon the world. Often he is invited to dine with the
+rich, but always reluctantly accepts, and I think the best part of it to
+him is his return to the simple life. He says: "I am bound to praise the
+simple life, because I have lived it and found it good. When I depart
+from it, evil results follow. I love a small house, plain clothes,
+simple living. How free one feels, how good the elements taste, how
+close one gets to them, how they fit one's body and one's soul!"
+
+
+II
+
+Not many years after I had known Mr. Burroughs personally, it occurred
+to me to look up his literary record and see just how his years have
+been spent and associate with this the fruit of his labors. The long
+jump from _Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person_ (1867), his first
+book to _Leaf and Tendril_ (1908), his last volume, marks a wonderful
+change in interest and study. But the record is made, the books stand
+for themselves, and we would not have it otherwise. This is the way of
+nature and of her best interpreter, John Burroughs, whose nature books
+almost have the fresh and sweet flavor of wild strawberries, and tell in
+unmistakable language the author's love for and knowledge of the
+out-door world in which he has spent so much of his life. Reared in the
+country, he knows country life and country people and loves them. In his
+early years, his mind must have been very susceptible to impressions of
+truthful observations, which formed a setting for his after work. Of
+this I think he is still conscious, judging from the advice he gives
+teachers in a copy of the Pennsylvania School Journal I happen to have
+before me. "I confess, I am a little skeptical about the good of any
+direct attempt to teach children to 'see nature.' The question with me
+would be rather how to treat them or lead them so that they would not
+lose the love of nature which as children, they already have. Every girl
+and every boy up to a certain age loves nature and has a quick eye for
+the curious and interesting things in the fields and woods. But as they
+grow older and the worldly habit of mind grows upon them, they lose this
+love; this interest in nature becomes only so much inert matter to them.
+The boy may keep up his love of fishing and of sport, and thus keep in
+touch with certain phases of nature, but the girl gradually loses all
+interest in out-door things.
+
+"If I were a teacher I would make excursions into the country with my
+children; we would picnic together under the trees, and I would contrive
+to give them a little live botany. They should see how much a flower
+meant to me. What we find out ourselves tastes so good! I would as far
+as possible let the child be his own teacher. The spirit of
+inquiry--awaken that in him if you can--if you cannot, the case is about
+hopeless.
+
+"I think that love of nature which becomes a precious boon and solace in
+life, does not as a rule show itself in the youth. The youth is a poet
+in feeling, and generally he does not care for poetry. He is like a
+bulb--rich in those substances that are to make the future flower and
+fruit of the plant.
+
+"As he becomes less a poet in his unconscious life, he will take more
+and more to poetry as embodied in literary forms. In the same way, as he
+recedes from nature, as from his condition of youthful savagery, he is
+likely to find more and more interest in the wild life about him. Do not
+force a knowledge of natural things upon him too young."
+
+If Mr. Burroughs had been taught nature after the academic fashion, he
+would never have developed the love for the subject that is so evident
+in all his out-door books. My impression is that his early environment
+was best suited to him and he was the child so "like a bulb." He
+absorbed nature without having any consciousness of what it meant. "I
+was born of and among people," he says, "who neither read books nor
+cared for them, and my closest associations since have been with those
+whose minds have been alien to literature and art. My unliterary
+environment has doubtless been best suited to me. Probably what little
+freshness and primal sweetness my books contain is owing to this
+circumstance. Constant intercourse with bookish men and literary circles
+I think would have dwarfed or killed my literary faculty. This perpetual
+rubbing heads together, as in literary clubs, seems to result in
+literary sterility. In my own case at least what I most needed was what
+I had--a few books and plenty of things." The roaming over the hills and
+mountains and following up trout streams was most conducive to his life,
+and thus it was he spent his odd hours and rest-days. This gave him
+"plenty of real things," and just what they have meant to him you will
+be able to learn from his twelve out-door volumes. But what brought all
+this long string of books out of him? How comes it that he turned to
+literature as a profession? From the earliest he had a passion for
+authorship, and when in the "teens" resolved to become a writer. "It
+was while I was at school, in my nineteenth year," he says, "that I saw
+my first author; and I distinctly remember with what emotion I gazed
+upon him, and followed him in the twilight, keeping on the other side of
+the street.... I looked upon him with more reverence and enthusiasm than
+I had ever looked upon any man.... I suppose this was the instinctive
+tribute of a timid and imaginative youth to a power which he was
+beginning vaguely to see--the power of letters."
+
+By this time Mr. Burroughs had begun to see his own thoughts in print in
+a country newspaper. He also began writing essays about the same time
+and sending them to various periodicals only to receive "them back
+pretty promptly." These perhaps rather conventional papers on such
+subjects as _Genius_, _Individuality_, _A Man and His Times_, etc.,
+served a great purpose. They tutored the author of them into his better
+papers that were welcomed by the editor of the Atlantic Monthly and
+other leading periodicals. In his twenty-first year, he discovered
+Emerson--so to speak--in a Chicago book-store, and says: "All that
+summer I fed upon these essays and steeped myself in them." No doubt
+Emerson's essays had a wonderful influence on this young reader and
+almost swamped him. They warped him out of his orbit so far, that had he
+not resolved to get back upon ground of his own, we would never have
+had _Wake Robin_. Emerson had complete possession of him for a time and
+was hard to shake off, but constant writing upon out-door themes did the
+work, and put Burroughs back in possession of himself.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD STONE WALL IN FRONT OF THE BURROUGHS HOME, BUILT
+BY DEACON SCUDDER. THE CATSKILLS DIMLY SHOW IN THE DISTANCE]
+
+In the year 1863, he went to Washington apparently to join the army, but
+somehow never did. Instead of this, he received an appointment in the
+Treasury, as a guardian of a vault, to count the money that went in or
+came out. During this time he had many leisure moments which he put to
+good account writing his nature sketches that make up his first nature
+book, _Wake Robin_. Before he had been in the National Capital a great
+while he became acquainted with the poet Walt Whitman, and immediately
+fell in with him. Whitman's poetry was not new to Burroughs who had
+already developed a taste for it. The man Whitman seemed to be an
+embodiment of the poetry, _Leaves of Grass_, and Burroughs was so
+greatly moved by a study of the man that he soon began making notes of
+this study which resulted in his first book--_Notes on Walt Whitman as
+Poet and Person_ (1867). This little volume is one of the best, raciest
+and freshest books on Whitman, and certainly is as readable as
+Burroughs' later book on _Whitman: A Study_, (1896).
+
+To any man, who would rise in the world, one thing must become evident;
+he must know that the idle moments must be the busiest of all. On this
+basis Burroughs worked. While at his work in the Treasury, he recalled
+his many experiences in the Western Catskills, and wrote these
+experiences. His Sundays and Holidays were spent in the woods around the
+National Capital that he may each season increase his knowledge about
+natural history. The Atlantic Monthly began to publish his nature papers
+about 1864, the year after he reached Washington, and has continued to
+do so at regular intervals ever since. In fact at the present time that
+periodical has three of Burroughs' essays yet unpublished. _Wake Robin_,
+a collection of these early nature sketches and his first book on
+out-door themes, was published in 1871, just four years after the little
+book on Whitman came from the press. Perhaps we have no more readable
+book on bird life than this volume of nature sketches, which won for the
+writer immediate and complete success.
+
+Mr. Joel Benton formally introduced Burroughs to American literary
+people in the old Scribner's Monthly in 1876 while his third volume,
+_Winter Sunshine_ (1875), was fresh in the mind of the public. In this
+timely article Mr. Benton claims: "What first strikes me in Mr.
+Burroughs's work, even above its well-acquired style, is the unqualified
+weight of conscience it exhibits. There is no posturing for effect; an
+admiration he does not have he never mimics. We find in him, therefore,
+a perfectly healthy and hearty flavor. Apparently, he does not put his
+pen to paper hastily, or until he is filled with his subject. What has
+been aptly termed the secondary, or final stage of thought, has with him
+full play.... A natural observer of things, he summons all the facts,
+near or remote--there is no side-light too small--and, when the material
+is all in, it seems to undergo a long incubation in his mind; or shows
+at least that reflection has done its perfect and many-sided work. Under
+his careful treatment and keen eye for the picturesque, the details get
+the proper artistic distribution and stand forth in poetic guise. The
+essay, when it appears, comes to us freighted with 'the latest news'
+from the meadows and the woods, and bears the unmistakable imprint of
+authenticity." This is a good testimonial from a good source, especially
+since it is the first public utterance of an opinion by an authority, on
+the quality of Burroughs' literary work. In a recent letter, Mr. Benton
+writes: "I did not say Burroughs was made by me, or that he remembers
+the priority of my article, but that I had the privilege and honor of
+being the first to write about him." This paper, I am sure, renewed his
+hopes for literary distinction and fame, and perhaps encouraged him to
+greater efforts.
+
+In _Birds and Poets_ (1877), we find our nature student measuring other
+men's observations by his own deductions. He is beginning to branch out
+in literature and note nature references in the poets and now and then
+calls them to taw for stepping beyond the bounds of truth. Here we find
+Burroughs as much of a student of literature as he is of nature, and as
+delightful in his literary references as one could desire. Ten years
+after his appointment, he tired of his clerkship in the Treasury, as he
+resigned in 1872 to become receiver for a broken bank in Middletown, New
+York. Pretty soon after leaving Washington, he was made bank examiner
+for the Eastern part of New York State, which position he held till
+1885. Since this last date he has depended entirely on literature and on
+a small farm for a livelihood. He purchased a place up the Hudson river
+at West Park about 1873 and began immediately to build a stone mansion
+which he named Riverby, and in which he has lived since its completion.
+But stone houses did not prove best suited for his literary work and he
+built a small bark covered study only a few yards from Riverby in which
+he has done most of his literary work. The most active period of his
+literary career was when he settled at West Park. Mention has already
+been made of _Birds and Poets_ (1877). The magazines are full of his
+essays at this time and the volumes come thick in the blast: _Locust and
+Wild Honey_ (1879), _Pepacton and Other Sketches_ (1881), _Fresh_
+_Fields_ (1884), _Signs and Seasons_ (1886). The increased revenue from
+his books and literary work, supplemented by his little grape farm,
+enabled him to resign as Bank examiner in 1885, as above suggested, and
+he has never held office of any kind since. It was about at the age of
+fifty that Mr. Burroughs seems to have developed a considerable
+consciousness of literature as an art, as a consequence of which we find
+him beginning to write papers on literary criticism and _Indoor Studies_
+(1889). From this time on his nature books are written in a different
+key, just as interesting but not quite as enthusiastic, and in most of
+them a touch of nature philosophy. In 1886 there appeared in the Popular
+Science Monthly an essay by him under the caption, _Science and
+Theology_, which showed pretty clearly the deeper currents of his mind.
+This paper was followed by others of its kind for several years until
+they were collected into a volume, _The Light of Day_, Religious
+Discussions and Criticism from the Naturalist's Point of View (1900).
+Studies on such themes are the logical outcome of the growth and
+development of a mind like that of Burroughs', and in the present case
+the papers are accompanied with that "unqualified weight of conscience"
+referred to in Mr. Benton's article and are valuable discussions on
+themes that never grow old.
+
+Again we find him delighting himself and the reading public on his
+out-door observations around _Riverby_ (1894), his stone house by the
+Hudson, in the preface to which he expresses the belief that this is to
+be his last volume of out-door essays. _Whitman: A Study_ (1896), and
+_Literary Values_ (1902), are books for the critic and are fully up to
+the standard in that field of activity. This book on Whitman is claimed
+by many scholars to be the best criticism of Whitman yet published. It
+is a strong defense of the "Good Gray Poet" and his literary method.
+Beginning with the year 1900, and perhaps a little earlier, there
+developed a great demand from the public for a larger crop of nature
+books and a great many of our good writers, seeing this demand, began to
+try to fill it whether they were naturalists or not, and the consequence
+was that a great many fake nature stories got before the reading public.
+This, of course, bore heavily on Mr. Burroughs' mind who had lived so
+long with nature trying to understand her ways and laws, who in 1903
+issued his protest against this practice in a strong article, "Real and
+Sham Natural History," in the March Atlantic Monthly of that year. This
+paper brought forth a warfare between the two schools of nature study in
+America, the romantic school and the scientific or the sane or sober
+school, which did not end till about 1908, and in fact, a little fruit
+of the controversy still crops out here and there in magazines and
+papers. In this controversy Burroughs won the battle of his life. The
+main point at issue was: Do animals have reason to any degree in the
+sense that man has reason? Burroughs claimed that they do not, and the
+romantic school claimed that they do, and to prove the claim hatched up
+a great many fairy tales about the animals and declared that these
+statements were made from observations under their own eyes. Before it
+was over, Burroughs had won the strong support of Mr. Frank M. Chapman,
+the ornithologist; Dr. Wm. M. Wheeler, W. F. Ganong, and Mr. Roosevelt,
+then the President of the United States, together with a great many
+other distinguished naturalists.
+
+It was natural and fitting that Burroughs should be the first one to
+come to the rescue of popular natural history, when it seemed to be
+falling into the hands of romancers, as he was and is the dean of
+American nature writers and is our best authority on the behavior of
+animals under natural conditions. The result of this controversy was the
+publication of _Ways of Nature_ (1905), containing all the papers which
+were the outcome of the currents of thought and inquiry that the
+controversy set going in his mind. The volume contains many fine
+illustrations of his claims and is a complete answer to the many attacks
+made upon him by his enemies in this controversy.
+
+At the urgent request of his many friends he collected in a volume and
+published his poems, _Bird and Bough_ (1906), which for perfect cadence
+and simple sweetness have not been surpassed by any of our minor poems.
+In 1903, he went west with President Roosevelt and spent the month of
+April in Yellowstone Park studying natural history with him. The
+President surprised Mr. Burroughs in his broad knowledge and
+enthusiastic study of nature. The little volume, _Camping and Tramping
+with Roosevelt_ (1907), contains an account of this trip and brings out
+Mr. Roosevelt's strong points as a naturalist. During the last few years
+his philosophy has been ripening and a great deal of his energy has been
+spent in working out natural philosophy rather than natural history,
+though he has never gotten away from the latter. His last volume of
+essays, _Leaf and Tendril_ (1908), contains a resume of his studies
+along this line and are, perhaps, the most readable of all of his late
+books. Another volume of papers is now in the hands of the printers,
+which will likely appear in print next spring (1912).
+
+The names and dates of appearance of his many volumes are as follows,
+and mark the evolution of his mind:
+
+    1867--Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person.
+    1871--Wake Robin.
+    1875--Winter Sunshine.
+    1877--Birds and Poets.
+    1879--Locusts and Wild Honey.
+    1881--Pepacton and Other Sketches.
+    1884--Fresh Fields.
+    1886--Signs and Seasons.
+    1889--Indoor Studies.
+    1894--Riverby.
+    1896--Whitman: A Study.
+    1900--The Light of Day.
+    1902--Literary Values.
+    1902--John James Audubon, A Biography.
+    1904--Far and Near.
+    1905--Ways of Nature.
+    1906--Bird and Bough.
+    1907--Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt.
+    1908--Leaf and Tendril.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEN, BURROUGHS' STUDY NEAR HIS STONE MANSION,
+RIVERBY, AT WEST PARK]
+
+This does not include a great many papers that were never printed in
+book form, nor many of his books and parts of them edited by other
+writers. This list is a good account of a life well spent, and treats of
+almost all phases of our American natural history. In the main, Mr.
+Burroughs has been a stay-at-home pretty much all his life, though he
+has been about some. In 1872, he was sent to England, and returned there
+of his own accord in the eighties. An account of these visits will be
+found in the two volumes, _Winter Sunshine_ and _Fresh Fields_. From
+Alaska, 1899, and the island of Jamaica, 1902, he brought back material
+for most of the volume, _Far and Near_. In recent years he has visited
+the Golden West and Honolulu, an account of which we shall doubtless see
+in his volume now in press. The best part of all his travels is
+undoubtedly his return to the simple life at West Park and Roxbury, New
+York. His little bark covered study near by Riverby, where he has done
+so much of his writing, was his first love up to a few years ago. At
+present, his Roxbury summer home, Woodchuck Lodge, seems to be his place
+of greatest interest. In either place, he can lounge about as he sees
+fit and feel at ease, as he can no where else.
+
+Wherever he goes he continues writing in his ripe old age, and only last
+summer (1911), completed eight new essays while on an extended stay at
+Woodchuck Lodge. In the morning, from eight till twelve, he does his
+best work, and in the afternoon he rambles around the old place of his
+birth and among his neighbors. In the preparation of the above eight
+essays, he writes: "I lost eight pounds of flesh which I do not expect
+to regain." He is now beginning to "serenely fold his hands and wait"
+for the inevitable end, though the chances are he will live many years
+and win many battles against Nature Fakers and put many awkward students
+of nature in the paths of righteous observation. Strong and healthy, he
+can climb fences, ascend mountain heights with very little fatigue.
+Writing of his experiences with a party of friends in California,
+March, 1911, he says: "During the mountain climbing the other day, I set
+the pace and tired them all out. Mr. Brown, of the Dial, is sixty-six,
+but he had to stop and eat a sandwich and have some coffee before the
+top was reached." Not many of the school of literary men to which he
+belongs are now living. But what does he say to this: "The forces that
+destroy us are going their appointed ways, and if they turned out or
+made an exception on our account, the very foundations of the universe
+would be impeached." If needs be, I am sure he can boldly and
+fearlessly,
+
+                     "Sustained and soothed
+    By an unfaltering trust, approach _the end_,
+    Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
+    About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams,"
+
+and if needs be, I am as well persuaded that he can for another score of
+years, teach the world how to observe nature. He is optimistic and has
+always been, because he has always found plenty to do. His friends enjoy
+each victory he makes, and are glad to see so much interest center about
+his name as the years roll by.
+
+
+
+
+AROUND SLABSIDES AND THE DEN
+
+
+It was a cloudy day in December when I made my first trip up the Hudson
+River to the home of John Burroughs, and how well I recall the
+invitation into the Den. On opening the door I stood face to face with
+the object of my pilgrimage, the distinguished naturalist, a man of low
+stature, rather small frame, a well formed head and sharp eyes, and much
+younger in appearance than his photographs would indicate. His hair is
+white, but he can read without glasses and see birds better with the
+natural eye than I can. He had on a brown jersey wool coat or jacket,
+beneath which was a vest and trousers of spotted brown and dark to
+match, all of which were well set to his body and limbs. His shoes were
+of cloth and rubber with rubber bottoms. When he walked out he put on a
+short gray overcoat, a small crushed brown or gray hat, and arctic
+overshoes. His general appearance would not indicate that you were with
+John Burroughs, but if you got a clear view of his face and eye, you
+could not mistake him for an ordinary man.
+
+West Park, the little station on the West Shore branch of the New York
+Central and Hudson River R. R., is a small village with not more than a
+hundred houses, and is quiet and almost puts one in a dreaming mood,
+when he thinks of being in the land of the great Literary Naturalist,
+who drew the most of his neighbors there. The Burroughs home, popularly
+known as Riverby, is in perfect keeping with the nature of the man.
+Hidden from the street behind a number of evergreens, it presents rather
+a secluded appearance, and is a part _of_ nature rather than apart
+_from_ nature. The house seems as if it sprang up from the soil, the
+lower half not yet above the ground. About twenty-five or thirty yards
+from the house is the study, which is pre-eminently the place of
+interest to the visitor. On entering this cozy little den--I found Mr.
+Burroughs reading Evolution and Ethics, by Huxley, and upon remarking
+that I noted what he was reading, his reply was that he had thought of
+writing something along that line and he wished to see what had already
+been said. "Right at this time," he said, "my mind is rather in a
+chaotic condition. I am not sure just what I shall hit upon next. I
+cannot definitely plan out my writing; but rather write when the mood
+comes on. I feel that I want to write on a particular subject and just
+get about it."
+
+When I expressed my appreciation of his great service in the way of
+interpreting nature, and reducing life from the conventional to the
+simple, he remarked at once: "I have never run after false gods, but
+have always tried to get at the truth of things, and let come of it what
+may. I do not believe in hiding the truth. Whatever I have accomplished
+in the way of writing, I attribute to this fact." This led me to ask him
+about "Real and Sham Natural History" (an essay written by him that
+appeared in the March Atlantic, 1903). He leant back in his chair and
+after a wholesome laugh, "Yes, I found it necessary to say something
+about the tendency of men like Thompson and Long who were taking
+advantage of their skill as writers and their popularity, to fool the
+people with those nature myths. If they had not advertised them as
+truth, it would have been all right. But when I saw that they persisted
+in teaching that the stories were true to nature, I could not stand it
+any longer. I just had to expose them! I could not rest till I had told
+the people that such stories were false!" Here Mr. Burroughs grew quite
+spirited, and his very manner indicated his lack of patience with those
+who make an effort to falsify nature. "I do not think that Long will
+ever forgive me for telling on him, but Seton Thompson is quite
+different. He seems to be all right and has shown me much courtesy at
+two or three dinners in New York. His wife, however, seems to have been
+hurt worse than Thompson himself. She is a little shy of me yet. I trust
+however that she will soon be all right. I have dined with them and she
+treated me very nicely."
+
+"Are these the only two that were offended by the article?" I asked.
+"What do you think of Miss Blanchon?"
+
+"She is a very pleasing writer, and writes rather for the younger
+readers. She is generally reliable--never says a thing that she is not
+convinced is true. I have been out with her and she has a very keen eye.
+She reads nature well. I think she is a genuine nature student."
+
+"I note that in the preface to your little volume of poems, some one
+could forgive you everything but your poetry. Who was so unkind to you?"
+
+After talking at length about the polemical essay, it interested me very
+much to hear Mr. Burroughs say that after all the article was probably
+of passing importance only and had likely served its purpose, so let it
+drop. He had seen good evidence of the fruit it had borne.
+
+Already it had become evident that he was worried about this false
+spirit among certain unreliable writers, and soon he began to tell me of
+his new article soon to appear in Outing (and which did appear in the
+February number, 1907). He had no patience with these Fake writers, and
+did not see any reason for the editors to allow themselves to be duped
+in such a manner. I shall not forget the expression he used in
+portraying his efforts to deal with such writers. "I just 'spank' them
+good for telling such lies. I have no patience with such writers, who
+doubtless are trying to follow in the steps of Long, and I cannot
+content myself to remain silent. If they did not vow that such stories
+were actual observations, I could forgive them. But here is where the
+danger comes." At times he showed his impatience, then he would tell one
+of these unbelievable stories, and burst into wholesome laughter.
+"Nothing but lies," he said. "A bigger lie was never told."
+
+After I had been gone for an hour to walk around the little West Shore
+station, I returned to the "Study" and found Mr. Burroughs cutting wood
+for his study fire. I said to him: "You still enjoy cutting your wood,
+do you?" "Yes," he says, "I find some daily exercise aside from my
+walks, necessary in order for me to keep my health. I feel better when I
+take my daily exercise."
+
+"What kind of wood is this you use?"
+
+"Beech."
+
+When we had taken the wood to the study, the time had come for us to
+journey over the mountains to Slabsides, and that was what I was eager
+to do. For I was anxious to see the far-famed cabin in the woods. As we
+followed the beaten pathway up the rugged mountain side, Mr. Burroughs
+appeared perfectly at ease, and would tell of the famous visitors who
+had come along the same path with him to Slabsides.
+
+Nothing pleased him more than to speak of his high appreciation of
+President Roosevelt, and of the day the President and Mrs. Roosevelt
+spent at Riverby and Slabsides.
+
+[Illustration: SLABSIDES, THE WOODLAND RETREAT OF JOHN BURROUGHS]
+
+"They came right along this path with me that warm August day in 1903.
+The President was full of life, and would jump and sport along the
+mountain path as a child would do. I am very much impressed with him as
+a man."
+
+"Do you remember the incident that occurred between you and the Chicago
+editor, where he spoke of you going to the Park to teach the President
+Natural History, in reply to which you state that President Roosevelt
+knew more western Natural History than four John Burroughs rolled into
+one?" "Yes, and I believe he does with reference to that big game in the
+west. You see he lived out west a great deal and has a very keen eye.
+Where did you see that?"
+
+"How did you enjoy your stay in the Park with the President?"
+
+"Oh! I had a very pleasant time except I got quite tired often and it
+was cold out there. The ground was covered with snow all the time."
+
+Directly we were beyond the loftiest part of the mountains in a roadway,
+and with all the anticipation of an enthusiast, I said, "What clearing
+is that in the distance? Is that Slabsides on the right there? O, I
+shall never forget this moment!"
+
+Mr. Burroughs answered in a very quiet way: "Yes, there is the little
+house called Slabsides, which you have heard so much about, and the
+clearing beyond is my famous celery farm."
+
+Now we were almost in front of Slabsides and Mr. Burroughs cast his eyes
+to the ground and saw by the roadside a small flower in which he
+manifested much interest, and called my attention to it. But my eyes
+were fixed on the very odd, yet beautiful house, that we were about to
+enter. The thought that here is a house that nature lovers, literateurs,
+college boys and girls, business men, working men, and all classes and
+conditions of humanity had made pilgrimages to see, caused my first
+sight of it to sink deeply into my heart. The house was so well suited
+to its environment that one might call it Nature's own. The bark covered
+slabs out of which it was built, the rustic looking doors, floors and
+steps, made me happier than anything I had ever seen, except the man who
+built it and called it home. The scattered shelves on the rustic walls
+filled with all kinds of books indicated what the house was built for.
+The table on one side of the room, covered with papers of every
+description, and letters, the little ink-well and goose quill pen, all
+contributed to my interest in the place. On the table lay a book
+containing a list of the names of visitors to Slabsides, in which I was
+asked to write my name. By this time Mr. Burroughs had found a letter
+from President Roosevelt which I read with considerable anxiety. It was
+full of sane and healthy thoughts.
+
+Mr. Burroughs did not fail to express his high regard for the President.
+
+The plain open fireplace and the cooking utensils scattered in the room
+were all suggestive of Mr. Burroughs' philosophy of life; plain living
+and high thinking, or as Thoreau would have it, "Lessening the
+Denominator."
+
+To my surprise, there was an upstairs to Slabsides, and the great
+philosopher and poet, on taking me up in the second story of his little
+house, told me that he had entertained more than a half dozen men and
+women, two or three days at a time, at Slabsides.
+
+On returning to the sitting room, we rested for a short while, during
+which time I asked him some questions on the American poets. He was at
+home in that field, and freely expressed himself. I asked what he
+thought of Longfellow, and if he had ever seen him. "No," said he, "I
+never had but one opportunity of seeing him, and thinking that I might
+have a better some day, neglected that, but Longfellow died before
+another opportunity presented itself. I think he was a real poet, and I
+like him very much. He was not elemental like Whitman, nor as serious as
+Emerson, but wrote some fine verse."
+
+"Do you enjoy your stay over here at Slabsides?"
+
+"Yes! But not like I did a few years ago. Nature appeals to me here as
+it does nowhere else. I built this house in order to get further away
+from the conventionalities of life, and to get a first hand acquaintance
+with Nature. The Hudson is such a highway for the yachts of millionaires
+of New York and other cities, that I wanted to withdraw into the
+wilderness, to get back from the river, and live close to Nature's
+heart, and I bought this little place. It has given me a great deal of
+pleasure, and I have never had cause to regret the investment."
+
+Around Slabsides have been built a number of other summer houses,
+probably the most interesting one of which is that of Ernest Ingersoll,
+who is a warm friend of John Burroughs, and who bought his land from the
+latter on which to build.
+
+It was of much interest to me to hear the distinguished Naturalist tell
+of his celery farm, and the ancient lake bottom in which it is located.
+To the south of the little farm is a spring which we visited at his
+suggestion. For the spring is one of the integral parts of Slabsides and
+the celery farm. While standing at the spring, and discussing the little
+farm generally, we heard distinctly the whistle of a bird in upper air,
+which he told me was that of a pine grosbeak come down to spend the
+winter. I rejoiced to hear also the sound of the goldfinch.
+
+When I was leaving Slabsides, I could not help but turn back two or
+three times to get another and yet another glimpse, for I had been
+helped by my visit, my soul had been enriched, and I was loath to wind
+around the mountain path, beyond the eminence behind which I could no
+longer see the never-to-be-forgotten little sylvan home. I could not
+help but say to the naturalist that Thoreau and Walden Pond had been on
+my mind much of the hour.
+
+Before we reached the Den, I expressed my appreciation of "Bird and
+Bough," and remarked that the poems were quite musical and suggested the
+power of natural objects to incite poetic vision, and my belief that
+such poetry would have a tendency to influence the poets of the future,
+to sing more songs of nature. About this time we entered the Den again,
+where John Burroughs gave free expression to his feelings in reference
+to his own poems. He would have it, that there was more truth than
+poetry in them, that there was some real good natural history in them.
+
+I referred to some of his critics and what they had said about him, and
+could not help but feel deeply impressed with his wholesome view about
+the whole question of literature. "These things do not worry me at all.
+I take the position that any man's writings must live by merit alone,
+and the bad will drop out and the good live on. Every writer must be
+judged finally, by whatever of his writings that stand the test of
+time."
+
+Just as I heard him make these remarks I arose to bid the great
+philosopher good-bye, for it was nearing train time and I had to return
+to New York that evening.
+
+The day had been an epoch making day for me. I had long loved the
+writings of John Burroughs, and had had some correspondence with him,
+but now for the first time, had my fondest hope come true. His whole air
+is one of pleasantness and when he speaks he says words of wisdom.
+Frequently as I sit in my study, I live that day over, and live in the
+hope of making many other pilgrimages to Riverby and to Slabsides, and
+of bringing away renewed inspiration from the poet-naturalist.
+
+His conclusions in natural history are reached after careful study and
+the closest observation, and are not to be controverted. I was much
+impressed with his keenness of intellect and frank confessions. He
+predicted the controversy in the school of nature writers, which was so
+noticeably before the public last year, 1907-1908, and assured me of the
+necessity of calling a halt on the Fake Natural History writers, whose
+stories have duped so many of the Magazine editors. Most of these Fake
+writers are masters of the English language and to their credit be it
+said, are able to make the stories sound well and catch the public mind,
+and if they would only advertise them as myths, they would be of great
+educational value to the public, but when such myths are held to be
+actual occurrences in Nature, they destroy the usefulness of such
+talent, and tend to place editors at a discount. The new writers may
+consider themselves in advance of the old school naturalists, and more
+in keeping with the progressive age in which they live, but give me the
+man or the school that does not trifle with facts in all his nature
+pictures. Give me the man or school that sees wisely and turns the
+mirror up to nature. This is what we have in White, Thoreau and
+Burroughs.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN BURROUGHS IN THE SOUTH
+
+
+I
+
+Shall I ever forget the morning that John Burroughs, a basket in one
+hand and hand bag in the other, walked up from the train to my house?
+
+His eyes caught a glimpse of every bird on the ground, in the trees and
+in the air above, and he would rejoice saying: "I hear the thrasher
+somewhere!" "There is a robin!" "How many jays you have down here!"
+"There is a tree in full bloom; it looks like one of the plums!" These
+bits of natural history made him feel at home, and as if he were among
+his neighbors. Every flower seemed to be a revelation and an inspiration
+to him, and his very love for them proved a great inspiration to me. He
+noted with special emphasis that our Spring in Georgia is at least a
+month earlier than theirs in New York. The weather was ideal while Mr.
+Burroughs was here, and, as a result of this, he would often, while
+walking in the late afternoon, speak of the saffron sky and of the
+season it foretold.
+
+When urged to feel at ease, he would reply: "I want to invite my soul;
+just walk around and take things easy. I like to saunter around." It
+is remarkable to see how vitally all objects of natural history affect
+him now, and he 72 years of age. They seem to be a part of him. Go to
+Nature with him and you will be especially impressed with his remarkable
+keenness of perception, and ability to read and enjoy the 'fine print
+and foot notes.' He looks into the secrets of Nature and interprets
+them. He goes to the woods because he loves to go. When he returns he
+tells, in his essays, just what he saw and felt. In the evenings his
+conversations lead up to these things, and the philosophy of natural
+history. He will be found putting two and two together to make four, and
+of course when he finds that some other writer on these matters makes
+five out of two and two, he knows it and is ready to challenge it.
+
+[Illustration: BY A SOUTHERN WOODLAND BROOK, LISTENING TO THE CARDINAL
+GROSBEAK]
+
+Few men are so prominently before the American world of letters at this
+time as John Burroughs, and any incident in his life interests a great
+many people. He has long been considered the Dean of American Nature
+writers, and his essays for the past few years have been drifting toward
+human interests. Now he is working out a complete system of philosophy
+about human and animal life, and is at the same time, in a certain
+sense, a check upon our present crop of Nature writers. No time in the
+history of any literature has the tendency been so strong to exaggerate
+about every-day occurrences, as it is at this time among American
+Nature writers to tell incredible stories about our remaining wild
+animals and birds. It is this unwarranted tendency that brings forth
+from Mr. Burroughs such essays as "Real and Sham Natural History," or
+"The Credible and Incredible in Nature." Under normal conditions, he is
+a calm, peaceful prophet of Nature, but try to perpetrate upon the
+reading public such stories as I have suggested above, and he buckles on
+his sword and goes forth to set straight the crooked paths.
+
+The difference in the time of printing the books is not greater than the
+difference in the nature of the contents of _Wake Robin_ (1867), and
+_Ways of Nature_ (1905). The former is the plain and simple record of
+the observations of an enthusiastic lover of Nature, while the latter
+goes into animal psychology and natural philosophy, without showing any
+loss of enthusiasm manifested in the first.
+
+
+II
+
+His visit through the South during the Winter and early Spring of 1908,
+is rather significant, especially among his literary and Nature-lover
+friends. It is another evidence of his determination to understand
+Nature under all conditions, and removes far from us the idea that he is
+a local figure like Thoreau or White.
+
+When it was known that Mr. Burroughs intended to spend part of the
+Spring of 1908, traveling through the South and visiting in Florida,
+nothing seemed more fitting than to have him stop in Georgia. This he
+consented to do, and was with us a week beginning March 4. As soon as he
+consented to visit in Georgia, an effort was made to have him meet
+"Uncle Remus," and Mr. Harris was invited to call on Mr. Burroughs, but
+on account of sickness that finally got the better of Mr. Harris and
+caused his death, July 3, also on account of business details during the
+combining of The Home Magazine with _Uncle Remus's Magazine_, the two
+men did not meet. In expressing his regrets, "Uncle Remus" wrote of his
+debt and relation to Mr. Burroughs as follows:
+
+     There is not in the wide world a man whom I would rather meet
+     than John Burroughs. He is the only man in the country who is
+     living the ideal life. I have just been re-reading his essay on
+     Walt Whitman, and I feel closer to him than ever. There are
+     some details of the deal with the Western Magazine still to
+     settle, and I am sorry indeed, not to be able to accept your
+     invitation. I thank you for thinking of me. Give Mr. Burroughs
+     my love.
+
+                                       Faithfully yours,
+                                            JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.
+
+Both of these men have lived the simple life, and yet, "Uncle Remus"
+thought that "Oom John," as Mr. Roosevelt calls Burroughs, was the only
+man in the country living the ideal life. One thing is evident, no man
+ever enjoyed life more than Mr. Burroughs, and as per his own statement,
+work has been the secret of his happiness. "Oh, the blessedness of
+work," he says, "of life-giving and life-sustaining work! The busy man
+is the happy man; the idle man is the unhappy. When you feel blue and
+empty and disconsolate, and life seems hardly worth living, go to work
+with your hands,--delve, hoe, chop, saw, churn, thrash, anything to
+quicken the pulse and dispel the fumes. The blue devils can be hoed
+under in less than a half hour."
+
+This, he goes on to say, is his own experience, and therefore he has
+always found something to do. Not many days ago he wrote: "I have
+recently got to work again and hope to keep at it." And he will keep at
+it as long as life shall last.
+
+Mr. Burroughs was born April 3, 1837, on a small farm amid the Catskills
+at Roxbury, New York, where he lived during the early years of his life.
+The love of the farm still clings to him, and you will frequently hear
+him say, "Anything that savors of the farm is very pleasant to me, and
+recalls my early years at Roxbury on the old home farm." He belongs to
+that class of men who got an education by working most of the time and
+going to school when there was little work to do. In order to gain his
+way to the academy, he had to earn his own money, as his parents were
+poor and there were nine children in the family. To earn the necessary
+money, he taught school and with the money he thus earned, went to
+Ashland Academy. Afterwards, he closed his school days at Cooperstown in
+1854, where he studied one term. Upon leaving school, the spirit of
+adventure seized him, and he went to Illinois and spent some time
+teaching. But because of the girl he loved, he soon returned to New
+York, and married in 1857, while teaching in a small town in the east
+central part of the state. The two have enjoyed a wide acquaintance
+among the literary characters of America for the last half century. To
+them has been born one child, Julian Burroughs, who is already known in
+the literary world as a Nature writer.
+
+
+III
+
+Mr. Burroughs was teaching when his first essay was accepted and printed
+in the Atlantic Monthly, November, 1860. He continued teaching till
+1863, when he went to Washington City to enlist in the army, but finding
+many objections to such a life, he entered the Treasury Department in
+January, 1864. Here he served in various capacities, and finally became
+chief of the organization division of the Comptroller of Currency. In
+1873, he resigned to become receiver of a bank in Middletown, N. Y. He
+was afterwards made bank examiner in the Eastern part of New York state,
+which position he held till 1885. Since then he has relied on his
+writings and his fruit farm for a living.
+
+He has always been an optimist, and at 72 years of age is full of
+sunshine. In religious belief he is perhaps, a fatalist. He is willing
+to bide his time fearlessly, for his portion. His experience is largely
+a home experience, though he has been to England twice, to Alaska once,
+and to the island of Jamaica, and for the past two years has spent his
+winters in California and Hawaii. These visits have each been the
+inspiration for several essays. His literary work has always been a
+labor of love, and with these few exceptions, together with several
+short papers on men and literature, his essays have been the outgrowth
+of his contact with Nature up on the Hudson River and around Washington
+City. His books number 18 volumes of essays and one volume of poems.
+Since the recent school of Nature fakers has come so prominently into
+public notice, his mind has shown remarkable activity in his efforts to
+hold Nature writers to the truth. Only a few years ago he added some
+land over the mountain to his estate, and in a beautiful rich valley,
+about a mile from Riverby, he has built with his own hands, out of
+rough bark-covered slabs, his rustic retreat called "Slabsides." For
+several years he has spent part of his time in this primitive-looking
+house, which he says was built because he wished to get back to Nature.
+Many books and periodicals are in this sylvan home, and its owner has
+often spent days at a time there, communing with Nature, and taking
+notes on the return of Spring, the songs of new bird visitors, and the
+ways of wood folks. Nothing has ever made so deep an impression on the
+writer as the sight of Mr. Burroughs in and around "Slabsides."
+
+No man of the century has put himself in an attitude to get more out of
+life than Burroughs. His peace of mind and satisfaction with life as he
+finds it and makes it, are largely responsible for his power as a
+writer. No man can read his sane, wholesome truths about Nature, men,
+and literature, without growing better and more satisfied with life, and
+more resigned to the ways of the Powers that be.
+
+Most of what follows is the result of conversations in the evenings with
+Mr. Burroughs on natural history, literature and people, the three
+things about which he talks very freely when you know him. The first
+evening he was with us the discussion led to his recent essay, "The
+Divine Soil," and he, with a soul full of this interesting subject, went
+into the matter at length, giving his idea of Man and Nature, of the
+possible age of the earth, and the gradual wearing away of the
+continents. As well as I remember, he said:
+
+"It will take only about 6,000,000 years--a brief period in the history
+of creation--for all the continents to wear away, at the present rate.
+In trying to indicate what is meant by the long periods of time that it
+has taken for Nature to reach the present stage of development, one
+author used this figure: That it had existed and had been forming as
+long as it would take to wear away the Alps Mountains by sweeping across
+them with a thin veil once every thousand years.
+
+"What progress man is making upon the earth! At the present rate, he
+will soon be able to harness the winds, the waves of the sea and even
+the tide waters. He will store up electricity in batteries to be used at
+his will. All these things will become necessary when the population
+grows out of proportion to our present resources. No doubt man's
+progress will be as great in the future as it has been in the past, and
+just what he will be found doing when all the present supplies of Nature
+are exhausted, no one can tell. One thing becomes evident, he will learn
+to use much of the energy that is now lost. Necessity will soon become
+the mother of many inventions.
+
+"The largeness of the Universe has always been a subject of much
+thought for me. I like to think that we are making our voyage on such a
+large scale. The Heaven and Hell that we used to hear so much about, are
+no longer considered the one up and the other down. There is no up nor
+down in Nature, except relative to our own earth. The farthest visible
+star, so many million times a million miles away, is only a short
+distance in infinite space, from which we could doubtless see as much
+further, and as many more worlds as we now see from our old earth. I
+like Whitman because his largeness puts one in tune with Nature in the
+larger sense. No other poet with which I am acquainted, gives one such
+large and wholesome views about the world in which we live."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE BARS IN FRONT OF THE OLD HOME BURIAL GROUNDS]
+
+
+IV
+
+On the following evening, which was the evening of March 5, Mr.
+Burroughs entered fully into a discussion of Emerson, Thoreau and
+Whitman. His conversation ran about as follows:
+
+"Thoreau was somewhat eccentric and did not reach a large class of
+people like Emerson, who always savored of youth, and stimulates all who
+read him. Thoreau was original, however, and his books breathe the
+breath of real things. Whitman was larger than Thoreau, and encompassed
+the whole world, instead of a little nook of the woods like Walden
+Pond. He used to breakfast with us on Sunday mornings when we lived in
+Washington, and he never reached our house on time for meals. Mrs.
+Burroughs would fret and worry and get hot while the breakfast would get
+cold. One moment she would be at the door looking down the street,
+another she would be fanning with her apron, wishing that man would come
+on. Presently, Walt could be seen, and he would swing off the car,
+whistling as if a week was before him in which to get to his breakfast.
+To have him in our home was a great pleasure to us. He always brought
+sunshine and a robust, vigorous nature. Once Mrs. Burroughs had prepared
+an extra good meal, and Walt seemed to enjoy it more than usual. After
+eating most heartily he smiled, saying: 'Mrs. Burroughs knows how to
+appeal to the stomach as Mr. Burroughs does to the mind.' I often saw
+him on the front of a horse car riding up the streets of Washington. Far
+down the street, before I could see his face, his white beard and hair
+could be seen distinctly. He usually rode with one foot upon the front
+railing, and was with Peter Doyle, a popular cab driver, oftener than he
+was with any one else. Doyle was a large Irishman with much native wit,
+and was a favorite of Whitman's.
+
+"The Atlantic is my favorite of American periodicals, and I like to see
+my papers printed in it. It seems always to hold to a very high
+standard of excellence. I remember well when the magazine was launched
+in November of 1857. I was teaching at the time, and having purchased a
+copy, in the town in which I was teaching, I returned home and remarked
+to Mrs. Burroughs that I liked the new magazine very much and thought it
+had come to stay. Somehow, the contents made me feel assured of its
+success. I was married in September before the magazine appeared in
+November. My first essay was printed in the Atlantic in November of
+1860, three years after it had been launched. I was very proud, indeed,
+when I had received the magazine and found my own work in print in it.
+The essay was 'Expression' and was purely Emersonian. Now I knew it
+would never do for me to keep this up, if I hoped for great success.
+This essay was so like Emerson, that it fooled Lowell, the editor of the
+Atlantic, and Mr. Hill, the Rhetorician, who quoted a line from it
+giving Emerson as the author. (Here Mr. Burroughs laughed.) You know, it
+was not customary to sign names to articles written for periodicals in
+those days. I was so much worried about this Emersonian mask that I
+resolved to lay it off. So I began to write of things that I knew about,
+such as birds and flowers, the weather and all out-door Nature. I soon
+found that I had hit upon my feet, that I had found my own.
+
+"The title of my first book was 'Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and
+Person,' and was published in 1867. Later I wrote a book on 'Whitman: A
+Study.' Since I first turned attention to Whitman, he has never released
+hold upon me. I found a more wholesome air in his than in any other
+poetry, and when I met him and learned to love him, his attractive
+personality strengthened my love for his writings. He is the one
+mountain in our American Literary Landscape. There are some beautiful
+hills.
+
+"I don't seem to be in a mood to write poetry. One cannot write when he
+thinks to do so. He must have a deep consciousness of his message, if he
+would say something that will hold water. Probably I shall find my muse
+again some day; I don't know.
+
+"I have always been a lover of the farm. I am a man of the soil. I
+enjoyed the smell of that manure as we passed up the road today. It
+recalled my early days when I used to put it out on the farm. Anything
+that savors of the farm and of farm life is pleasant to me. Nothing
+makes me happier than my annual visits back to my old home in the
+Catskills. When Mrs. Burroughs and I decided to buy a home and move away
+from Washington, I could not decide just where would be best for us to
+settle, so we thought to get near New York and at the same time as near
+the old home as possible. We have enjoyed our life at Riverby very much,
+and it is convenient in every way. We have a great many visitors, and
+like to see them come.
+
+"At this time America has no great writer, but many who use pretty
+English. They seem to have no great message. Stedman wrote well, but his
+essays always savored too much of the mid-night oil. They read as if the
+best of his energy had been spent in something else, and the tired
+mid-night hours turned to literary work. They are not fresh like
+Lowell's essays. I do not think anything he wrote has lasting qualities,
+with the possible exception of two or three poems. Aldrich wrote sweet
+verse, but it is sweet in the sense that a peach or a plum is sweet. It
+has no fast colors. Trowbridge is one of our best present-day writers,
+and much of his work will be unknown to the next generation. He is a man
+of attractive personality and exceptionally pleasing manners. Mrs.
+Burroughs and I have, for a long time, enjoyed his friendship. As for my
+own writings, I sometimes wonder just how they have affected people, and
+what my life has meant. I have always hoped that some would be helped by
+my books. A short time ago, I had a letter from a preacher in the upper
+part of New York state, who had just finished a book on 'The Gospel of
+Christ,' and he asked me if I would write a book on 'The Gospel of
+Nature.' After I received the letter and began to think about the
+matter, I was much perplexed as to whether there is a gospel of Nature.
+I have since then written something along the line suggested, but I do
+not know whether it will ever appear in print. It is always interesting
+to have suggestions from any one about what I should write. Writing is
+more a product of the soul than of the will.
+
+"I once asked President Roosevelt what he would do when he left the
+White House. He replied quickly: 'Oh, I'll find plenty to do. Don't
+worry about that.' And he will find plenty to do. He is a man of intense
+activity, and will always be happiest when he is busiest. I admit that
+he takes large liberties as the executive of the nation, but he is a
+natural leader and controller of men. When he sets his head to do a
+thing, he keeps digging away till it is done. He is full of resources. I
+have just received a letter from him consenting to be interviewed by my
+friend, William Bayard Hale. Hale is a good man, and will give a most
+reliable account of his visit to the White House."
+
+John Burroughs, who is destined to be called "the good gray naturalist,"
+is a man who enters freely into the life of those who admire him and his
+writings. Recently it was my delight to read and discuss one of his
+short poems, "The Return," with Mrs. Burroughs, and I could not resist
+the temptation to remark that Mr. Burroughs must have been homesick for
+the old place when he wrote it.
+
+The wife said: "Yes; you have no idea how true that is! Mr. Burroughs
+often goes back to his old home at Roxbury, up in the Catskills, and
+walks over the farm and through the woods where he used to go when he
+was a boy, and he always tells me how sad it makes him feel. I sometimes
+think that he would like to live his life over, he has so many fond
+memories and pleasant recollections of his early life."
+
+THE RETURN
+
+    He sought the old scenes with eager feet,
+      The scenes he had known as a boy,
+    "Oh, for a draught of those fountains sweet,
+      And a taste of that vanished joy!"
+
+    He roamed the fields, he wooed the streams,
+      His schoolboy paths essayed to trace;
+    The orchard ways recalled his dreams,
+      The hills were like his mother's face.
+
+    O sad, sad hills! O cold, cold hearth!
+      In sorrow he learned this truth--
+    One may return to the place of his birth,
+      He cannot go back to his youth.
+
+
+
+
+RAMBLES AROUND ROXBURY
+
+
+I
+
+To one who is interested in the most beautiful things in nature a day
+trip up the Hudson by boat in mid-summer is a real treat. Here you get a
+general idea of the palisades and are far more impressed with their
+beauty and significance than is possible when taking a hurried trip by
+rail. You are constantly shifting the scenes from hill to hill, from
+mountain to mountain and from outline to outline, each scene
+characterized by its particular fascinating beauty, till you reach the
+climax as you approach the Highlands. Here you get the best the Hudson
+has to offer, and you almost feel suddenly lifted above yourself as you
+approach these round mountain peaks clad in dark and light green, and
+reflected almost as perfectly in the calm gentle flowing river.
+
+An additional charm is added to the trip as you approach West Park, a
+small station on the West Shore Railroad, about five miles above
+Poughkeepsie, the home of John Burroughs, the great literary naturalist,
+the interpreter of Nature, the delightful man of many parts. From the
+boat you can see Riverby, his stone house, and the small bark covered
+study near by. Perhaps if he were here, we could see him in the little
+summer house overlooking the river, taking his mid-day rest. But he is
+back at the old home farm in the western Catskills, at Roxbury, enjoying
+again the scenes of his boyhood, or better, as he himself puts it,
+"drinking from the fountains of his youth." From time to time, he goes
+back to his native heath and rambles over his favorite boyhood haunts,
+and climbs the hills and stone walls he used to climb. He was born in a
+farm house in one of the valleys just above the little town of Roxbury,
+to the northwest, on one of the best farms in that part of the state of
+New York, and the homing instinct appeals to him no more than the desire
+to get back to the farm he helped develop, and to enjoy the free open
+air of the hills and mountains.
+
+[Illustration: EATING RASPBERRIES ON THE SITE OF HIS GRANDFATHER'S
+HOUSE, LONG SINCE TORN AWAY]
+
+"Well, you did come didn't you," are the first words he spoke as I
+stepped off the afternoon train from Kingston Point. Yes, he was there
+and what a warm and welcome hand-shaking he gave me! Soon plans were
+perfected for our journey up the hill from the railway station to
+Woodchuck Lodge, a farm house where Mr. Burroughs keeps house of late
+years while he visits his old home. This house is on the south and west
+edge of his brother's farm, in the direction of the station, and is a
+comfortable place for his summer work. He thinks that he will fit it up
+and spend part of every summer in it as long as he lives. John Burroughs
+had been tramping all day with some friends, and but for his vigor of
+manhood, would have been too tired to meet the train that afternoon, but
+one of the party said he was right in for meeting the train, and never
+thought of yielding the task to another. When he gets back among his
+native hills he is no longer aged, despite his gray hairs, nor does he
+credit his own lines, "One may go back to the place of his birth, He
+cannot go back to his youth." Here he is back to his youth and it is not
+to be denied. He is as optimistic as any young man ever was.
+
+With all his optimism, however, there are many sad hints mingled. Before
+we had reached Woodchuck Lodge, he pointed many scenes of his childhood,
+and said in a little undertone: "These are the scenes upon which my eyes
+first opened, and I sometimes think I would not mind if they closed for
+the last time upon them. I would not mind if I come to the end of my
+journey right here among these hills." As we went slowly up the
+hillside, he began pointing out the many places of interest about the
+town, among which was the Roxbury Academy, a large two-story frame
+building, that he longed to attend as a young man but never did. The
+academy looked about as it did sixty years ago, and was conducted
+practically along the same lines. Many modern ideas and methods had
+crept into the curriculum, but the tendency was to stick to the
+traditions of the past. "This little brook here used to be a famous
+trout stream when I was a boy. Many are the times I have fished up and
+down it when a bare-foot boy, and have caught some fine fish in it too.
+They are all about gone now, so many people have moved in and taken the
+timber from the valley of the brook, and have fished it out. We shall go
+up by the edge of that pond and follow the trail around the upper end of
+it, instead of going around the roadway. In this way we can make our
+walk some shorter." His mind wandered from one thing to another as he
+led the way up the hill. Now he would be pointing out some interesting
+flower or plant, now some bird or nest, and in it all he found joy and,
+as truly, shared it with me.
+
+The small artificial pond we were passing was stocked with fish, and I
+was told by the keeper had a half million trout in it. Pointing back
+toward the town Mr. Burroughs said: "Over there is the famous Gould
+Memorial Church, built by Helen Gould, and just to the left of the
+church you will see the Gould home, in front of which is a beautiful
+park." As we approached the upper end of the pond he saw a gopher run up
+a tree and disappear in a hollow, a sight he had never witnessed before,
+and he remarked with some pride: "One never gets too old to learn. I
+thought I knew the gopher pretty well, but this is the first time I ever
+saw one hide himself in a tree after that manner." About this time a
+hyla sounded his familiar note in a small tree just across the brook,
+and Mr. Burroughs hastened to that part of the bog and lingered about
+this tree till we heard a vesper sparrow singing his evening hymn on the
+stone wall just beyond the bog. "I never tire of such music as that. The
+vesper sparrow sings for me many months in the year and has been doing
+so as long as ever I can remember, but its music is as fresh and sweet
+today as it was the first time I ever heard it. There is something
+strange about the constancy of nature and the inroads she makes upon
+one's mind and soul." It would hardly be a mistake to say that the
+appeal which nature makes to John Burroughs has kept before him all
+these years high ideals and a great purpose, and has been responsible
+for his success as a writer. He has been constant in his love for and
+devotion to nature, but has had to wait (and he has done it patiently)
+for the great welcome the world is now giving him. His circle of
+admirers was very much restricted for many years during the beginnings
+of his literary career, but he kept before him the lessons of nature,
+and never lacked for enthusiasm to reflect truth when the appeal came.
+
+The afternoon was beautiful. As we approached Woodchuck Lodge the
+shadows were growing long and dim, and the sky was beginning to turn
+saffron, but there was some signs of discontentment in the weather,
+which did not fail to bring fruit before morning, for there was a strong
+wind from the east before mid-night, which brought clouds with a little
+sprinkling of rain and a considerable drop in temperature before
+morning. The walk had ended and we were tired, but how refreshing was
+the shredded wheat and fresh sweet milk, the home-made loaves, the maple
+cookies (Mr. Burroughs' boyhood favorites) and the beautiful white
+honey. This repast was fit for a king, and served in this simple manner,
+tasted better than it would have on any king's table. Whatever else he
+was doing, once in awhile I could hear him sigh: "I get so home sick for
+these dear old scenes of my early days! I cannot stay away from them
+long at a time! I come back every year and spend some time following up
+the paths I helped to make around the old home place! Mrs. B. used to
+come with me, but she doesn't enjoy it now like she did years ago. It is
+the best of tonics for me."
+
+After the evening meal, Mr. Burroughs took me over to the old Burroughs'
+home, where his brother now lives, and who could have experienced
+greater pleasure than I, when it was announced that I was to occupy
+Uncle John's room for the time of my stay! To think that I should look
+out from the windows that he looked from, and would see the scenes that
+inspired him so much during the formative period of his life, was all
+joy to me. To know the interesting family of his brother, and to sleep
+under the roof that had for so many years, brought happiness to the man
+whom I had gone far to see, these were experiences that add much to
+one's resources of life. Here in this beautiful valley among the hills
+of the western Catskills, nestled the village in which grew the boy who
+now, at seventy three years young, brings people from all parts of the
+world to his door. A man who has put man and Nature on good terms and
+brought happiness to thousands of homes. No wonder he sighs for the
+hills and for the home of his youth! They gave him his first love for
+Nature.
+
+His interest in the affairs of the farm was keen. He would ask his
+nephew: "How is your crop of oats turning out? Aren't you afraid to
+leave the shocks in the field too long? I should think they would begin
+to rot. When are you going to cut the field up by the road?" Nothing of
+interest about the farm escaped his attention, and though his interest
+was altogether a personal interest, you would think he was getting half
+the revenue of the crop.
+
+
+II
+
+Before going to the woods and mountains the next morning, Mr. Burroughs
+showed me a copy of the Atlantic Monthly containing his essay,
+"Expression," published in November, 1860, and asked if I cared to read
+the essay. I found it interesting and as perfect a piece of work as John
+Burroughs ever did. It begins: "The law of expression is the law of
+degrees,--much, more, most.... There is no waste material in a good
+proverb; it is clear meat like an egg,--a happy result of logic, with
+the logic left out, and the writer who shall thus condense his wisdom,
+and as far as possible give the two poles of thought in every
+expression, will most thoroughly reach men's minds and hearts." Thus
+ends the first paragraph of the essay, and it continues to abound in
+Transcendentalism to the end. The following is the last and much quoted
+paragraph: "Johnson's periods act like a lever of the third kind, the
+power always exceeds the weight raised." It is filled with proverbs and
+brilliant thought. Perhaps it is Emersonian, but certainly it is
+different from anything Emerson ever did. It is so entirely different
+from anything else Burroughs did that one can hardly feel while reading
+it that he is following after the author of "Wake Robin," or "Winter
+Sunshine." It is so well done, however, that one cannot help but feel
+that if he had given himself over to that form of literature, he would
+have rivaled Emerson, or any other writer, in that field of expression.
+
+Wake Robin, though keyed in a much lower tone than the essay, is as
+fresh as the morning dew, and sparkles as much, and we cannot help but
+feel that Mr. Burroughs did the proper thing when he came down from his
+high perch of Transcendentalism.
+
+After breakfast was over, and the chores were done, we prepared for the
+morning tramp in the hills. Our itinerary, which had already been mapped
+out by Mr. Burroughs, lead down the road by the old home farm and up the
+lane beyond to the south and east. In the corner of a meadow, to the
+right of the road beyond the Burroughs' house, is an old family grave
+yard, and when we reached this, Mr. Burroughs stopped and gave a little
+history of the farm and of several of the people who had been planted
+there in the city of the dead. "Ezra Bartram owned this farm before
+father, and sold it to father. Bartram built the house in which I was
+born. When I was a young boy father built the house you see down there
+now. Edna Bartram, the grand-daughter of Ezra, was my first sweetheart
+and I recall now just how she looked." We entered the old grave yard
+from the bars in the stone fence, and Mr. Burroughs had much pleasure
+reading the names and telling of the people who were buried there. When
+he came to the name of Jeremiah Dart, he recalled that he had three
+sons, Dave, Abe and Rube, and that Rube once worked for his father. The
+Scudders were teachers and preachers. The Corbins were successful
+farmers and respectable people. "Deacon Jonathan Scudder had a farm
+joining father's farm on the southwest, and well do I remember how
+straight he was. The Deacon built that fence over there beyond our farm,
+and I can see him now as straight as a rod, picking up stones in that
+pasture. He never bent except at the hips. How he ever built that wall
+is a puzzle. But he was forever going through the pasture picking up
+stones and putting them on the fence one by one. He was thrifty and
+always had things done right about him." Mr. Burroughs went on across
+the grave yard and came to a name that interested him a great deal.
+"Nath Chase was the first to introduce top-knot chickens in our
+community, and O how I wanted some of those chickens!"
+
+[Illustration: RESTING UNDERNEATH A CATSKILL LEDGE WHERE HE HAS OFTEN
+BEEN PROTECTED FROM THE RAIN IN SUMMER]
+
+From this grave yard we went over the hill to the east, following the
+public road, till we came to a large patch of raspberries on the left of
+the road, which were growing in a hole surrounded by heaps of stone and
+brickbats. Mr. Burroughs did not tell me why his fancy led him there,
+but I knew when he told me that his father was born there, and that it
+was his grandfather's place. He was loath to leave here, but sat down on
+one of the old timbers in the centre of the place where the house stood
+and ate raspberries for some time. "How delicious these berries are! Far
+better it seems to me than any cultivated berries that ever grew."
+Having said this, he gave me a handful that I might try those he himself
+was gathering. From this place we went to the site of his grandfather's
+barn, where Mr. Burroughs discovered a few years ago his father's
+initials cut in a slab of stone. "These letters, 'C. A. B.' stand for
+Chauncey A. Burroughs, my father, born in 1803, who must have cut them
+here many, many years ago. I was very glad to make the discovery."
+
+Just as we began our journey toward the nearby woods, he pointed out to
+me the little red school on the edge of the opposite hillside, where he
+got most of his education. "That school and the grounds about it, are
+about as they were when I was in school there over sixty years ago. The
+house was painted red then as it is now, and on some of the old seats I
+can see where some of my schoolmates cut their names." The call of a
+sharp shinned hawk attracted our attention from the school house, to the
+woods. Now we halted for several moments in the lower edge of the
+meadow. Mr. Burroughs thought they must have found some prey and that we
+might see what it was if we kept still and quiet. But the hawks went
+across the valley in the direction of the school house and we never saw
+what was the cause of the disturbance.
+
+Going south from here, we came to some beautiful woods, at the bottom of
+which flowed a clear cool brook. At the upper edge of the hill was an
+outcrop of stratified rock. This was of the greatest interest to the
+naturalist, who, just back from the petrified forests of Arizona and the
+Yosemite valley, where he had enjoyed the companionship of John Muir,
+was chuck full of Geology and the Geological history of the earth. "You
+can see the effects of water in this perfect stratification here," he
+would say, as he pointed out the leaves of stone so perfectly marked
+there in the hillside. "If we could just roll back the pages of history
+a few millions of years, we could read some interesting and wonderful
+stories of the formation of Mother Earth's crust. Just look at the wave
+marks of the sea along the edges of the hill! How I wonder if old Triton
+did not have a great task allaying the waves that folded these pages! O
+what a small part man plays in the history of the earth! The creature of
+the hour and a mere speck on the face of nature." There is a sadness and
+sweetness in the associations with a man like this, and I could not help
+but think of Wordsworth's little poem as I listened to John Burroughs
+tell about his idea of the earth in its relation to man, and of how
+little man studies Mother Earth.
+
+    "The world is too much with us; late and soon,
+    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
+    Little we see in Nature that is ours;
+    We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
+    This sea that bears her bosom to the moon;
+    The winds that will be howling at all hours,
+    And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers;
+    For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
+    It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
+    A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
+    So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
+    Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
+    Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
+    Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
+
+There is kept before your mind the unquestionable seriousness of the
+influences of cosmic forces; the effects of an intimate relationship
+with Nature. Burroughs always sees the better and larger side of things.
+You never hear any of the nature prattle so common among the less
+serious students.
+
+At this moment the red-eyed vireo burst in full song only a few feet
+from us and a Rubenstein would not have commanded our attention quicker.
+"The little fellow is doing almost the work of two," said the
+naturalist, so fluent was the song. He came within close range and
+softened down into a low mellow song, whereupon Mr. Burroughs remarked:
+"His audience is not quite as large as he first thought, so he is tuning
+his harp down accordingly." Here we came into the settlement roadway
+and returned to the Lodge for dinner.
+
+
+III
+
+In the afternoon, we set out early from Woodchuck Lodge for a long tramp
+through the pasture south of the Burroughs farm and in the direction of
+the Nath Chase farm. Back through the woods between the Lodge and the
+old farm, were scattered apple trees, which had some apples on them. Mr.
+Burroughs told something of the history of some of these apple trees,
+that they had been grafted many years ago by his father, and that others
+had been planted by the cattle as they followed the pathway through this
+pasture. There were signs that the gray squirrels had been eating the
+apples. We saw several piles of chips and a few apple seeds scattered on
+the wall fence, which the squirrels had chosen for a festal hall. On
+this wall, the naturalist would lean and look off over the hills toward
+the town of Roxbury, and tell of the neighbors who had settled this
+field and that. His mind sometimes seemed to be on,
+
+                   "Far-off things,
+    And battles long ago."
+
+Suddenly he looked around and said: "It's sweet to muse over one's early
+years and first experiences. I was just thinking of the many times I
+had gone through these woods. But O, how I dislike to see these trees
+cut down for wood, when so many are already down and rotting. This patch
+of woods extended to the bottom of the hillside, when I was a boy, and I
+think it was much prettier then than it is now." A very interesting
+piece of natural history pointed out to me beyond this pasture, was the
+tendency of birch to trace its roots over large areas of stone almost
+barren of soil. It has a preference for rocky places. The root of this
+tree will sometimes trace a small crevice in the stone twenty or thirty
+feet and does not seem to reach into any soil throughout its whole
+length.
+
+At the edge of the flat grass covered hill beyond the pasture, was a
+perpendicular wall of several feet in height,--the outcrop of the same
+stratification of stone we had observed during the earlier part of the
+day. A number of birch roots had reached all the way down to the bottom
+of this ledge and fastened themselves in the soil below. Several phoebe
+nests had been built on the shelves of rock along under the ledge, which
+the naturalist pointed out to me. Under one ledge that extended over at
+least twelve feet, was a phoebe's nest that Mr. Burroughs thought had
+been there for more than a quarter of a century. On the table of rock
+beneath the nest was a pile of waste ten or twelve inches in height, and
+there was enough material in the nest itself to build more than a dozen
+phoebe's nests. The place was so inaccessible to other animals, that the
+birds took advantage of this, and doubtless made of it hereditary
+property, handing it down from generation to generation since its
+discovery.
+
+Passing on down through the Scudder pasture toward the lower woods, to
+the south, we met a lad herding cattle for the night, and after a few
+words with him, we turned to the left and went up the side of a steep
+hill through a deep hemlock forest. This was a pretty hard climb, and I
+kept looking for Mr. Burroughs to stop and blow a little, but not a bit
+of it. He took the lead and kept up the climb without even a hint of
+exhaustion. In fact, I had begun to wish that he would stop and rest for
+a moment, when pointing up to a white wall of stone he said, "There is
+the Old Gray Ledge. It looks like a white house from here. This is one
+of the most beautiful places you will find in this part of the Catskill
+mountains, and O, the times I have come here for rest and study!" There
+is a rough broken surface of rock wall at least seventy-five feet high,
+all covered with moss and lichens, and almost as gray as whitewash on a
+stone house. In the hemlocks toward the valley from here, are hundreds
+of fine timber trees, and we could hear among them nut-hatches,
+chickadees and titmice. We spent almost an hour about this beautiful
+place, discussing in a friendly way, neighbors and people, great and
+small. Our next task was to get to the top of the Old Gray Ledge, which
+we did by going a little distance south and picking the place that
+showed the least resistance. The woods on the top of the Ledge were
+level and consisted of much shrubbery and some large hardwood trees and
+a few hemlocks and pines. We soon came out of the woods to the west and
+entered a pasture on the Nath Chase farm, from which we could see across
+the beautiful valley to the south and many mountain peaks, among which
+were a few that Mr. Burroughs said he could see from the top of a
+mountain by Slabsides, down at West Park. This was the connecting link
+between the old and the new home.
+
+Turning around, we could see to the north across the valley, in which
+was the Burroughs farm and the Old Clump beyond. There was a swift
+breeze from the northeast and the air was quite cool for the early part
+of August. But after our climb up The Old Gray Ledge, it was quite
+wholesome and renewed our strength. The pure swift mountain breeze
+fitted well with my own feelings, for I had begun to feel the effects of
+a steady pull up the hill and needed oxygen and ozone. But best of all,
+I had enjoyed the day with the man who brought the pleasures of the
+woods and the mountains to me, and I felt that I had been blest. I had
+felt the sympathies and love of a strong poetic pulse. I had a
+glimpse of something that,
+
+        "Made the wild blood start
+    In its mystic springs,"
+
+and I wondered if we have any greater heights to look forward to! I
+wondered if we should ever find in the trackless paths of eternity a joy
+that would eclipse this! I thought I had learned "that a good man's life
+is the fruit of the same balance and proportion as that which makes the
+fields green and the corn ripen. It is not by some fortuitous
+circumstances, the especial favor of some god, but by living in harmony
+with immutable laws through which the organic world has evolved, that he
+is what he is." We reached the Lodge just as the sun was going down, and
+soon the evening meal was over. I went back across the hill to the old
+home for the night, and as I passed down the road way, I called to mind
+many things that had interested me during the day. After I had retired
+for the night and sleep had been induced, the joys, the pleasures, the
+happiness of the day, haunted me in my dreams, and I knew that I had
+'staid my haste and made delays, and what was mine had known my face.'
+
+[Illustration: A CATSKILL MOUNTAIN SIDE WHERE THE PHOEBE BUILDS]
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD CLUMP
+
+
+It is Sunday morning, and the mists are beginning to roll away and the
+summer sun of August just beginning to smile once more upon a world of
+beauty and of love, after the ugly days during the latter part of the
+week. The cattle are lowing to the north and to the south, and the
+shadows of the clouds are floating o'er the meadows less swiftly. The
+mountain peaks are clearing up after their cloud-baths. When I reached
+the Lodge in the early morning, I found John Burroughs preparing
+breakfast, and I brought the water and the wood and stirred the malted
+wheat while he prepared some other foods.
+
+After the meal was over, I read the papers and walked around in
+neighboring meadows, while Mr. Burroughs went down to the home farm for
+a pail of milk. The flickers were playing in the corner of the pasture
+to the south, and the goldfinches seemed to be feeding their young in
+the large apple trees across the road, but I never found a nest. To the
+west I saw an indigo bird flitting about some shrubbery by the stone
+fence, which attracted me that way. I thought perhaps something had
+disturbed the birds' nest, but I looked in vain for some vindication of
+my suspicion.
+
+By this time, Mr. Burroughs had returned and all were ready to begin our
+climb to the summit of the Old Clump, the mountain most beloved of all
+by the naturalist, and the one about which he speaks oftenest. His
+father's farm extends far up the southeast side of this mountain and, of
+course, he played on and about it when he was a young boy. The face of
+this mountain doubtless made inroads on his character, and stimulated
+him to a love of nature. For on the summit of it, he sits or rolls and
+dreams of former--and he almost thinks better--days.
+
+Here on the summit of this mountain is where Mr. Burroughs wrote,
+"Mid-summer in the Catskills," August, 1905, which is possibly the best
+poem he ever wrote, with the exception "Waiting." Just as we had left
+the Lodge, we came to a tree under which was a large boulder. The
+naturalist mounted this boulder and sat for a moment sighing: "How many
+times, I have played upon this rock when I was a boy. I remember mother
+used to look this way when she did not find us about the house." Below
+this boulder, two of the small boys in the party found a vesper
+sparrow's nest, in which we all became interested, but in order to get
+back to dinner we must be away and up the mountain. To go straight up
+the side of the Clump would have been a hard climb, so we went angling
+across toward the east, and after passing the boys' sleeping place in
+the trees, we turned back to the north and west, following the old
+pathway that leads from the Burroughs farm to the mountain top. Not far
+had we followed this path before we came to a spring flowing with cool,
+clear water, and nestled in the side of the mountain. Here we all
+quenched our thirst, Mr. Burroughs taking the lead. "Many times have I
+quenched my thirst here at this spring," he said. "The Naiads have
+welcomed me here for more than sixty years, and still they guard this
+sacred fountain for me. Narcissus meets me here every summer with
+refreshing beauty after my hard pull up the mountain. I still join the
+great god Pan in making love to the wood nymphs hereabouts. O, there are
+so many ways of getting happiness in these places." Imagine how
+delightful it was to hear the voice of John Burroughs as he told these
+stories of his love for these his native scenes! There was every
+indication that he was experiencing much happiness as he recalled his
+first walks up the mountain and of his first sight of that spring.
+
+The mountain woods were beautifully decked with flowers everywhere, the
+_antenaria_ perhaps taking the lead so far as numbers go. This was
+particularly plentiful about the top of the mountain. Soon we were on
+the highest peak from which we could see the many neighboring peaks in
+all directions, and the blue folds of the ridges, layer upon layer for
+many miles to the south and east. What a fine view-point! The
+exhilaration of the mountain air, how much it means after a long hard
+climb! Down in the valley are markings of the farms with the long
+straight stone fences, so delicate and so finely drawn! The panoramic
+view of the valleys present the colorings and fine markings of maps on
+the pages of a book, but much more beautiful, and in these parts more
+perfect. The liquid depths of air and long vistas are a feast to the
+eyes.
+
+I was anxious to know where Mr. Burroughs was nestled on this lofty peak
+when he wrote the poem of which mention has been made, and asked him to
+point out the place when we reached it. "It is over near the northeast
+edge of the summit, and we shall soon be there." As we pushed our way
+between two large boulders where, Mr. Burroughs told us it had long been
+the custom for young men to kiss their girls as they helped them through
+there, and of the many he, himself, had kissed there, we came to a large
+open grassy spot. Here the naturalist sat down and rolled over in the
+grass, indicating that he had at last reached home. About twenty paces
+off toward the eastern edge of the mountain top, was a large flat rock,
+almost as level as a table top, just beneath which was a fine growth of
+large trees, the tops of which were a little above the table of stone.
+"Here," he said, "is where I began writing 'Midsummer in the
+Catskills'."
+
+The poem begins as follows:
+
+    "The strident hum of sickle bar,
+    Like giant insect heard afar,
+      Is on the air again;
+    I see the mower where he rides
+    Above the level grassy tides
+      That flood the meadow plain."
+
+"I remember," he says, "on that day I saw, in the field toward the Betsy
+Bouton place, the cradlers walking through the fields of grain, and it
+made a deep impression on me."
+
+    "The cradlers twain with right good will,
+    Leave golden lines across the hill,
+      Beneath the mid-day sun.
+    The cattle dream 'neath leafy tent
+    Or chew the cud of sweet content
+      Knee-deep in pond or run."
+
+We could see the cattle in the nether pasture on the old Burroughs' home
+place, and my mind was full of the above lines which I had committed to
+memory when they were first printed.
+
+    "The dome of day o'erbrims with sound
+    From humming wings on errands bound
+      Above the sleeping fields."
+
+What a picture of bees in the upper air freighting honey from field to
+hive and storing it away for the winter supply! The two following
+stanzas perhaps interpret the beauty of the situation better than any
+other part of the poem:
+
+    "Poised and full is summer's tide
+    Brimming all the horizon wide,
+      In varied verdure dressed;
+    Its viewless currents surge and beat
+    In airy billows at my feet
+      Here on the mountain crest.
+
+    "Through pearly depths I see the farms,
+    Where sweating forms and bronzed arms
+      Reap in the land's increase;
+    In ripe repose the forests stand
+    And veiled heights on every hand
+      Swim in a sea of peace."
+
+The truth of these lines lay out before us. There lay the grain in the
+fields where the cradlers had reaped in the land's increase. There stood
+the veiled heights on every side which John Burroughs named beginning on
+the right: Table mountain, Slide mountain, Double Top mountain and
+Graham. From the front of Woodchuck Lodge he had already named for us
+Bald Mountain, Hack's Flats, Schutle's and the one we were now on. Truly
+they were all veiled heights as we viewed them from the summit of the
+Old Clump.
+
+As I loitered about among the boulders on the mountain I became much
+interested in the names cut in the large boulders of people who had
+lived in the Burroughs community, and seeing that Mr. Burroughs himself
+was also interested in them, I began to ask him about them, and I copied
+many of them in my note book. Nothing pleased the Naturalist better than
+to tell of the people who used to be his neighbors, and I think he
+remembered them all. As we looked out again across the valley, his eyes
+got a glimpse of the old Betsy Bouton place, and he recalled that she
+was a widow who had one daughter and two sons. "These were the laziest
+human beings I ever saw,--these boys. They would sit up by the fire and
+mumble, while the mother brought in the wood and the water, and cooked
+the meals, and the daughter would do the milking. Nothing could the
+mother get out of them, but to sit around the open fire and grumble at
+their hard lot, and that they had so much to do. She used to have a hard
+time getting them up and ready for school."
+
+From here we could see the vicinity of the little red school house where
+John Burroughs had gone to school sixty years before, and he told of his
+experience with Jay Gould. Jay paid him for writing an essay, and he
+paid Jay eighty cents for a grammar and an algebra. "These were my
+first grammar and algebra, and I paid for them with the money I had
+earned selling sugar from my individual boiling pan in the sugar bush. I
+shall tell you about it and show you where I boiled the sugar, as we go
+down that way."
+
+[Illustration: UNDER THE OLD GRAY LEDGE]
+
+He enjoyed telling of one certain student--a schoolmate of his who had
+long curly hair. "His hair was as curly as you ever saw and turned under
+at the bottom. O, how I longed to have my hair look like his did! I
+thought it was the prettiest hair I ever saw grow."
+
+Our descent from the mountain top was easy. We followed the path to the
+right coming down, and the decline was a little more gradual. The upper
+Burroughs pasture extended almost half-way up the mountain side. It was
+separated from the lower pasture by a stone wall. I never saw so many
+stones and small boulders in one place as I saw in this lower pasture.
+The ground was almost covered. There was certainly a much larger crop of
+these than of grass. Here I thought Deucalion and Pyrrha must have
+failed to convert stones into people, but continued throwing, even to
+the tiring of Jupiter's patience. Rolling them down the long steep hill
+afforded some fine sport for us. Mr. Burroughs told of a very
+interesting incident in his early life. "I remember," he said, "when I
+was a young chap I used to roll stones down this hill very often. One
+day I got a large, round boulder high up the mountain side and turned
+it loose with a good push. Those bars down there had just been finished
+by father and had cost him considerable work and worry. The stone was
+heavy and was almost a disc, and had gathered considerable momentum as
+it neared the base of the hill, and ran directly into the bars and
+literally knocked them to pieces. Perhaps I could not have remembered
+the incident so well if this had been all, but as a further reminder,
+father gave me a pretty severe lashing. I remember how out of patience
+he was at my carelessness."
+
+Passing through these bars we went through the sugar maple bush, that
+had longer than he could remember, supplied the family with syrup and
+sugar. The old vat and the furnace were there and the shell of a house
+to ward off the cold winds of April,
+
+    "While smoking Dick doth boil the sap."
+
+I was thinking of _Spring Gladness_, and _The Coming of Phoebe_,
+
+    "When buckets shine 'gainst maple trees
+      And drop by drop the sap doth flow,
+    When days are warm, but nights do freeze,
+      And deep in woods lie drifts of snow,
+    When cattle low and fret in stall,
+      Then morning brings the phoebe's call,
+        'Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe'."
+
+As we came down to the roadway that leads from the old farm to Woodchuck
+Lodge, Mr. Burroughs pointed out to us a junco's nest just outside the
+road. This nest had afforded him much pleasure during his present stay
+up at Roxbury, as he saw it two or four times a day, as he passed by on
+his way to his brother's home for milk. On the crest of the hill between
+the two houses--the old home and Woodchuck Lodge--I stopped and looked
+for several moments at the place of the naturalist's birth, and at the
+farm, with all the beautiful meadows and pastures, for I knew that I
+would not see them again soon. When it was told me that all these
+meadows and woods and stone walls, look now as they did sixty and more
+years ago, I could understand how a country lad, born and reared among
+such scenes, could grow into a great naturalist. I could now enjoy and
+understand some of the qualities of his literary productions. The
+country was a new one to me and altogether unlike any I had seen, but
+having tasted of it through the medium of good literature, I was
+prepared to make the best of my opportunity to study it. What
+particularly impressed me, and what was so different from the scenes of
+my childhood, was the buckwheat fields dotting the meadows here and
+yonder, and the long straight stone fences marking the meadows and
+hillsides. "These walls were built by a generation of men that had
+ginger," Mr. Burroughs said, "a quality so much lacking these days."
+
+No words could express the happiness that had come to me during the week
+that I was rambling through the Catskills. While going down through the
+meadow in front of Woodchuck Lodge, on my way to the railroad station, I
+seemed to be flooded with memories of a happy experience. These memories
+still haunt me and may they continue to do so even unto the end of time.
+I had learned better than I ever knew, that "this brown, sun-tanned,
+sin-stained earth is a sister to the morning and the evening star," and
+that it has more of beauty and love written on it than has ever been
+read by all the poets in the distant ages past; that there are still
+left volumes for the interpreter. I had taken a little journey in the
+divine ship as it sailed over the divine sea. I had heard one talk of
+the moral of the solar system,--of its harmony, its balance, its
+compensation, and I thought that there is no deeper lesson to be
+learned.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN BURROUGHS AS POET
+
+
+A few years ago Herr Brandes, the great French critic, in commenting
+upon the method of criticism used by Saint Beuve, sounded a pretty harsh
+note to the old school of critics, on method and material in poetry,
+which in a measure explains what I am about to say of the poetry of John
+Burroughs. "At the beginning of the century," he says, "imagination was
+considered the essential quality in poetry. It was his capacity of
+invention which made the poet a poet; he was not tied down to nature and
+reality, but was as much at home in the supernatural as in the actual
+world. But as romanticism, by degrees, developed into realism, creative
+literature, by degrees, gave up its fantastic excursions into space....
+It exerted itself even more to understand than to invent."
+
+An observer cannot fail to see in modern poetry a tendency to beautify
+objects of nature, and facts of science. Past ages were taken up with
+the heroic, the legendary in poetry. Legends were creations of the mind
+and in turn subjects for all poetic effort. Some moral and spiritual
+lesson or truth, must be taught by the introduction of ideals drawn
+purely from imagination. Such an ideal was many times created for the
+special lesson at hand. The Homeric poems, Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's
+Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost, are all poems of this
+character. They are founded on the unknown and the unknowable, yet they
+bring to us suggestions that inspire us and make us better for having
+read them. Milton never knew how Paradise was lost, nor even that it
+ever was lost. Dante did not know the history of the departed soul, nor
+did Homer and Virgil know what part the gods and heroes played in the
+fall of the city of Troy, nor has the riddle of the origin of the Latin
+and Greek races ever been written. Yet such themes give us pleasure when
+they come from the great poets, who actually believed what they were
+writing to be true, and the poems themselves will live forever.
+
+We have reached a new order of things in the present era of the world's
+history, and we must look to something else for poetic inspiration, as
+well as to interpret the origin of things in the light of the last word
+on evolution. The minor poets have about worn these old themes
+threadbare, and the public mind is beginning to look to something else
+for entertainment. People are now seeking the poetic interpretation of
+facts of science and of nature, and the poet of the future will have the
+peculiar task of giving us new eyes with which to see truth, instead of
+leading us into fields of fancy.
+
+John Burroughs is an interpreter of this latter kind. He has gone to
+nature with the poet's eye, and has needed no fiction to get us
+interested in what he is trying to tell us. The facts need only to be
+seen with the poet's eyes to make them beautiful, and he has translated
+them in terms of the human soul, without having to create beings of
+fancy to interest us while he tells the message. This is what
+differentiates his prose and poetry from the poetry of the past. It is
+true, he ranges from the commonplace to the sublime, but in it all with
+unfaltering devotion to truth, which should be the aim of every poet and
+is the aim of every true poet, despite the claims of some that
+literature is only to entertain, and should never be taken seriously. If
+it is not serious, it is not literature, and if it is serious, it will
+always have, as its entering wedge, some fundamental truth. The whole
+aim of Burroughs is to lead humanity into the proper method of
+interpreting the truths of nature, and if all his poetry is not the
+best, he has sacrificed poetry rather than truth and owns up to it like
+a man. He says: "My poetry is not the free channel of myself that my
+prose is. I, myself, do not think that my poetry takes rank with my
+prose." His best poetry takes rank with his or any body's prose.
+Replying to some questions with reference to _Mid-summer in the
+Catskills_, Mr. Burroughs says: "It was an attempt to paint faithfully,
+characteristic mid-summer scenes of that locality. I do not think it
+ranks high as poetry, but it is true. The genesis of such a poem, or of
+any poem, is hidden in the author's subconsciousness." Perched on a
+mountain top that overlooked the beautiful valleys amid the Catskill
+mountains, and seeing the many activities of farm life in August, Mr.
+Burroughs saw the beauty and simplicity of the situation, and could not
+forego his duty of telling it to the world.
+
+    "The strident hum of sickle-bar,
+    Like giant insect heard afar,
+      Is on the air again;
+    I see the mower where he rides
+    Above the level grassy tides
+      That flood the meadow plain."
+
+From beginning to end the poem paints the rural life amid the Catskills
+in its busiest season, and associates with it all the best in Nature. It
+is literally a poet's vision of his own country, after many years
+absence from the fields he paints. How many times he himself has gone.
+
+    "Above the level grassy tides,
+    That flood the meadow plain,"
+
+but perhaps without seeing the beauty that the scene now brings to him.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE SUMMIT OF THE OLD CLUMP, LOOKING IN THE VALLEY
+BELOW "WHERE SWEATING FORMS AND BRONZED ARMS REAP IN THE LAND'S
+INCREASE"]
+
+Far different from this is his first poetry, which is the expression of
+a youth groping in the dark for some unknown god, with his only guide
+that of faith in the world, faith in himself and faith in his fellowman.
+He says of his early poem: "Waiting was written in 1862, during a rather
+gloomy and doubtful period of my life. I was poor, was in doubt as to my
+career, did not seem to be able to get hold of myself, nor to bring
+myself to bear upon the problems before me. Yet underneath all was this
+abiding faith that I should get what belonged to me; that sooner or
+later I should find my own. The poem was first printed in the old
+Knickerbocker Magazine of New York, in the fall of 1862. I received
+nothing for it. I builded better than I knew. It has proved a true
+prophesy of my life."
+
+    "Serene I fold my hands and wait,
+      Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
+    I rave no more 'gainst Time or Fate,
+      For lo! my own shall come to me.
+
+    "I stay my haste, I make delays,
+      For what avails this eager pace?
+    I stand amid the eternal ways,
+      And what is mine shall know my face.
+
+    "Asleep, awake, by night or day,
+      The friends I seek are seeking me;
+    No wind can drive my bark astray,
+      Nor change the tide of destiny.
+
+    "What matter if I stand alone?
+      I wait with joy the coming years;
+    My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
+      And garner up its fruits of tears.
+
+    "The waters know their own, and draw
+      The brook that springs in yonder heights;
+    So flows the good with equal law
+      Unto the soul of pure delights.
+
+    "The stars come nightly to the sky;
+      The tidal wave unto the sea;
+    Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
+      Can keep my own away from me."
+
+It is this willingness to wait the results of his efforts without
+fretting or worrying, to which Mr. Burroughs owes his success. This I
+think, is what has toned and sweetened his prose and poetry, and makes
+him so readable. He looks for truth and finds it, and lets it ripen into
+expression in his mind, and we get the good after the smelting process
+has completed its work, and the dross all worked off. The above poem has
+been a true prophesy of his life. His own has come to him, and he is now
+experiencing the richest reward for his long years of waiting and
+patience. If too much success comes to us in the beginning of any
+career, the career is most likely to suffer, or possibly better, we are
+likely to develop a little vain glory and never return to the proper
+attitude to truth and service. Mr. Burroughs in his plain simple way has
+been 'still achieving, still pursuing,' and has long since learned 'to
+labor and to wait.' His attitude toward his work is almost as pleasant
+as the work itself. Never in a hurry--though he always manages to get
+much done. The melancholy days have been 'few and far between' with him,
+though we do see some few sad but wholesome lines in his poetry. These
+almost sound like some homesick visitor in a foreign land. The following
+from the poem, "In Blooming Orchards," is a good illustration of this:
+
+    "My thoughts go homeward with the bees;
+      I dream of youth and happier days--
+    Of orchards where amid the trees
+    I loitered free from time's decrees,
+      And loved the birds and learned their ways.
+
+    "Oh, orchard thoughts and orchard sighs,
+      Ye, too, are born of life's regrets!
+    The apple bloom I see with eyes
+    That have grown sad in growing wise,
+      Through Mays that manhood ne'er forgets."
+
+"The Return" is another of his poems in which this longing for the days
+of his youth crops out:
+
+    "O sad, sad hills! O cold, cold hearth!
+      In sorrow he learned this truth--
+      One may go back to the place of his birth,
+    He cannot go back to his youth."
+
+Again in "Snow Birds" he says:
+
+    "Thy voice brings back dear boyhood days
+      When we were gay together."
+
+His contact with out-door life and his habits of observation are
+unmistakably those of a poet. "In the rugged trail through the woods or
+along the beach we shall now and then get a whiff of natural air, or a
+glimpse of something to
+
+        "Make the wild blood start
+    In its mystic springs."
+
+Burroughs says himself, 'the very idea of a bird is a symbol and a
+suggestion to the poet. How many suggestions to the poet in their flight
+and song! Indeed, is not the bird the original type and teacher of the
+poet, and do we not demand of the human thrush or lark that he shake out
+his carols in the same free manner as his winged prototype?... The best
+lyric pieces, how like they are to certain bird-songs!--clear, ringing,
+ecstatic, and suggesting that challenge and triumph which the outpouring
+of the male bird contains.' Again he says 'Keats and Shelly have
+pre-eminently the sharp semi-tones of the sparrows and larks.'
+
+But what shall we say of Burroughs? His poetry is somewhat
+matter-of-fact, like the songs of the Indigo bunting and the Thrushes,
+and we cannot help but feel that the songs of these birds had the effect
+on him that Burns speaks of in one of his letters: "I never hear the
+loud, solitary whistle of the curlew in a summer noon, or the wild,
+mixing cadence of a troop of gray plovers in an autumnal morning,
+without feeling an elevation of the soul like the enthusiasm of devotion
+or poetry." Verily he has achieved his purpose. 'He has brought home the
+bough with the bird he heard singing upon it. His verse is full of the
+spirit of the woods and fields; the winds of heaven blow through it;
+there is the rustle of leaves, the glint of sunlight; the voices of the
+feathered folk are present. One finds himself in touch with out-doors in
+every line.' O, what a blessing when one can drink from the great
+fountain of Nature! When one can be so inured with the larger and more
+wholesome truths of the universe that he forgets to fret and to make
+records of the negative forces of the world! This we claim is
+pre-eminently true of Burroughs. He tells truths about Nature in his
+simple, musical verse, and almost vindicates Wordsworth's definition of
+poetry: "The breath and finer spirit of all knowledge," or "The
+impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science." I
+would almost say of him what Dryden said of Chaucer: "He is a perpetual
+fountain of good sense." Perhaps Mr. Dowden, in speaking of Coleridge's
+poetry, comes nearer than any one else to the truth about Burroughs'
+poetry. "These poems contemplate and describe Nature in a resting and
+meditative temper. There is no passionate feeling in their delight. The
+joy he has in the beauty of the world is the joy of dreaming, often only
+a recollected joy in what he has seen. He found in poetry, paths of his
+imagination. The pensiveness, the dying fall, the self-loving
+melancholy, are harmonized by him with Nature." Thoreau says in one of
+his books: "Very few men can speak of Nature with any truth. They
+overstep her modesty somehow or other, and confer no favor." The richest
+flavor in the poetry of John Burroughs is the flavor of truth, and
+'beauty is truth, truth beauty.' Unlike Thoreau, he never forgets his
+fellowmen, nor has he ever failed to find beauty in man as well as in
+Nature.
+
+    "He sees the mower where he rides
+    Above the level grassy tides
+      That flood the meadow plain,"
+
+and writes a poem. He dislikes the conventional in man no less than he
+dislikes the conventional in poetry, but man unaffected is as beautiful
+as the Nature that surrounds him.
+
+A few years ago when Mr. E. H. Harriman took a number of friends to
+Alaska on what was known as The Harriman Alaska Expedition, John
+Burroughs was selected as a purely literary man to write a narrative of
+the Expedition. In addition to the story of the trip, Mr. Burroughs was
+so inspired with the new scenery of those Borean Hills that the muse
+seized him and the result was three of his best poems: _To the Oregon
+Robin_, _To the Golden Crown Sparrow of Alaska_, and _To the Lapland
+Longspur_. Since that trip in 1899, he has written no verse, I believe,
+except _The Return_. Before then he was an irregular contributor of
+poetry to the current magazines since the appearance of _Waiting_, in
+1862. He says now that he does not seem to be in a mood for poetry, but
+that he may find his muse again some day. The total number of his poems
+in print amounts to only thirty-five and none of them are lengthy. The
+longest of all is his very life which is to me one continuous poem. His
+verses are only sparks from the life in which they grew, and never rise
+to the height of the fountain head.
+
+Perhaps one way to test a poet is to measure him by the number of single
+line poems that can be found in his poetry; lines that make the real
+poem of a number of verses. Pope thought that a long poem was a
+contradiction of terms, and we certainly know many references in the
+poets to suggestive lines that are almost poems in themselves.
+Wordsworth's _Solitary Reaper_ contains one or two passages of this
+kind.
+
+    "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
+    For old, unhappy, far-off things,
+    And battles long ago."
+
+or the following from the _Ode_:
+
+    "Our noisy years seem moments in the being
+    Of the eternal Silence."
+
+Another of his most exquisite lines is,
+
+    "And the stars move along the edges of the hills."
+
+Walter Pater finds in Wordsworth's poetry an extraordinary number of
+these short passage poems, which he called 'delicious morsels.'
+Coleridge says of Wordsworth: "Since Milton, I know of no poet with so
+many felicitous and unforgetable lines." Many critics have found these
+suggestive lines in the poets, and I find Wordsworth full of them.
+The lines of this kind that I find in the poetry of John Burroughs are
+rather numerous for the amount of poetry he gave to the world, and some
+of them are as fine as the language has.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING ACROSS THE PASTURE WALL IN THE DIRECTION OF THE
+NATHAN CHASE FARM]
+
+    "Like mellow thunder leagues away,"
+
+    "I hear the wild bee's mellow chord,
+      In airs that swim above,"
+
+    "Once more the tranquil days brood o'er the hills,
+    And sooth earth's toiling breast,"
+
+    "The dome of day o'erbrims with sound
+    From humming wings on errands bound,"
+
+    "Pausing in the twilight dim,
+    Hear him lift his evening hymn,"
+
+    "Again from out the garden hives
+      The exodus of frenzied bees;
+    The humming cyclone onward drives,
+      Or finds repose amid the trees."
+
+    "Then waiting long hath recompense,
+      And all the world is glad with May."
+
+"Oh, skater in the fields of air," he says of the swallow. How well
+this expresses the flight of the swallow!
+
+    "The robin perched on treetop tall
+    Heavenward lifts his evening call."
+
+    "Forth from the hive go voyaging bees,
+      Cruising far each sunny hour."
+
+There are many passages of this kind in his poems and they express the
+moods of Nature, perhaps as well as it is possible for them to be put in
+words. In _Arbutus Days_, he uses the following figure to paint a spring
+day:
+
+    "Like mother bird upon her nest
+      The day broods o'er the earth."
+
+To him the common things are all beautiful and if we only have the eyes
+to see with, they are made beautiful for us by him. Recognizing the fate
+of every insincere book, he declares: "Only an honest book can live;
+only absolute sincerity can stand the test of time. Any selfish or
+secondary motive vitiates a work of art, as it vitiates a religious
+life. Indeed, I doubt if we fully appreciate the literary value of
+staple, fundamental human virtues and qualities--probity, directness,
+simplicity, sincerity, love." He is probably not an inspired poet, but I
+shall claim for him that he is an honest singer, a sincere interpreter
+of Nature, and every virtue referred to in the above quotation he has
+woven into _Bird and Bough_. What he says of another we can
+appropriately say of him: "This poet sees the earth as one of the orbs,
+and has sought to adjust his imagination to the modern problems and
+conditions, always taking care, however, to preserve an outlook into the
+highest regions."
+
+
+
+
+JOHN BURROUGHS AND WALT WHITMAN
+
+
+A certain publisher, who honored very much Walt Whitman, could have paid
+him no higher tribute than to have closed the preface to Whitman's Poems
+as follows: "To have met Whitman was a privilege, to have been his
+friend was an honor. The latter was mine; and among the many
+reminiscences of my life, none are to me more pleasing than those which
+gather about the name of 'The Good Grey Poet'."
+
+John Burroughs was for thirty years the intimate friend and constant
+associate of Walt Whitman, and I have heard him say that those were
+among the most pleasant years of his life. All who ever knew Whitman,
+and became in any way intimate with him, have practically the same to
+say of him. No writer ever unfolded himself and his greatness more
+completely than Whitman, and yet we have a great many excellent critics
+who are pretty harsh on him. This we believe is so, because the critics
+have not read the poet aright. They have failed to get out of the poems
+what was put in them. Whitman is not a poet according to classical
+standards, but as a "Creator" he is.
+
+Emerson says of his poetry: "I find it the most extraordinary piece of
+wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." Julian Hawthorne says
+of it: "Original and forceful, Whitman cannot be judged by ordinary
+literary standards. His scornful trampling upon all metrical rules, and
+his freedom in treating of matters, usually passed in silence, have so
+far been a decided barrier to the approval of his work."
+
+Professor Underwood of the California University has the following good
+word for the poet: "Pupils who are accustomed to associate the idea of
+poetry with regular classic measure in rhyme, or in ten-syllabled blank
+verse or elastic hexameter, will commence these short and simple prose
+sentences with surprise, and will wonder how any number of them can form
+a poem. But let them read aloud with a mind in sympathy with the picture
+as it is displayed, and they will find by Nature's unmistakable
+response, that the author is a poet, and possesses the poets'
+incommunicable power to touch the heart."
+
+Professor Pattee of the Pennsylvania State College, on the other hand
+says: "It is certainly true that to the majority of readers, 'Leaves of
+Grass', contains a few good things amid a disgusting mass of rubbish.
+
+"Whitman is confessedly the poet of the body. His book is not upward. He
+grovels in the earthly and disgusting parts of human life and
+experience. His egotism is remarkable.
+
+"All the great poets have looked away from their disgusting surroundings
+and fleshly fetters, into a world of their creation that was bright and
+ethereal, but Whitman cries: 'I am satisfied with the perishable and the
+casual.' This alone would debar him from the company of the great
+masters of song."
+
+Professor Newcomer of Stanford University, divides honors by offending
+and defending:
+
+First: "It deliberately violates the rules of art, and unless we admit
+that our rules are idle, we must admit Whitman's defects."
+
+Second: "It is diffuse, prolix."
+
+Third: "This is perhaps the most that can be charged--he was needlessly
+gross."
+
+Fourth: "The innovations in his vocabulary are inexcusable."
+
+In the following, he as faithfully defends the poet.
+
+First: Of the charged egotism: "It was not to parade himself as an
+exceptional being, but rather as an average man to hold the mirror up to
+other men and declare his kinship with them."
+
+Second: "Taking Whitman simply at his own valuation we get much. The
+joys of free fellowship, the love of comrades, none has sung more
+heartily or worthily. And his courage and optimism are as deep as
+Emerson's."
+
+Third: "He became the truest laureate of the war, and of Lincoln the
+idol of the people."
+
+Fourth: "Comerado this is no book. Who touches this touches a man! As
+such, therefore, the book must go down to posterity, not a perfect song,
+but a cry vibrant still with the feeling of the man who uttered it."
+
+Professor Newcomer closes his estimate by the declaration that Whitman
+stands for the American people, but not in the sense that Washington or
+Lincoln or Lowell does, and that his office was somewhat like one who
+stands by and cheers while the procession goes by. He thinks that
+Whitman did not sit in the seats of the mighty.
+
+Charles W. Hubner is much more charitable and in fact just, with our
+poet of the body. He says: "Proclaiming the sanctity of manhood and
+womanhood, the power and eminence of God within us and without us; the
+divine relationship of body and soul; the eternalness of spirit and
+matter, he aims to teach us that all of these are manifestations of the
+Almighty spirit, present within and without all things, and out of whom
+all created things have come." How far this critic removes Whitman from
+the class of those who stood by and cheered while the procession moved
+on! Hubner makes him a _real teacher_ and revealer of divine laws and
+eternal truth.
+
+Joel Chandler Harris has also given a vivid picture and a most wholesome
+interpretation of Whitman: "In order to appreciate Whitman's poetry and
+his purpose, it is necessary to possess the intuition that enables the
+mind to grasp in instant and express admiration, the vast group of facts
+that make man--that make liberty--that make America. There is no poetry
+in the details; it is all in the broad, sweeping, comprehensive
+assimilation of the mighty forces behind them--the inevitable,
+unaccountable, irresistible forward movement of man in the making of the
+republic." These estimates pro and con could be multiplied indefinitely.
+
+How much more beautiful it is to face this new force in American poetry
+and deal with it justly, than to stand off and bark like some of our
+lesser critics have done and are doing! A recent comment upon Whitman
+says he has come to stay, and we must make up our minds to study him and
+to dispose of him by getting in sympathy with him, rather than by
+decrying him. This seems the just way, and the only safe way to deal
+with any great original force in literature.
+
+John Burroughs has undoubtedly interpreted Whitman better than any other
+critic, and unquestionably owes Whitman more than any one else. He has
+found in the poet what so many others have found in Burroughs. "Whitman
+does not to me suggest the wild and unkempt, as he seems to do to many;
+he suggests the cosmic and the elemental.... He cherished the hope that
+he had put into his 'Leaves', some of the tonic and fortifying quality
+of Nature in her more grand and primitive aspects." From Whitman, I
+am constrained to believe, Burroughs has drawn much of his primitive
+strength as a writer. Whitman opened the book of Nature to him, and led
+him into a certain wilderness of beauty. At twenty, Burroughs began to
+read Whitman's poems, and says of them: "I was attracted by the new
+poet's work from the first. It seemed to let me into a larger, freer air
+than I found in the current poetry.... Not a poet of dells and fells,
+but of the earth and the orbs." He knew that he had found in Whitman a
+very strong and imposing figure, but he was doubly reassured when he
+came upon the statement from the English critic, John Addington Symonds,
+that Whitman had influenced him more than any other book except the
+Bible,--more than Plato, more than Goethe.
+
+[Illustration: THE PILE OF STONES MARKING THE SITE OF THOREAU'S CABIN,
+BY WALDEN POND]
+
+It was about the year 1858, when Burroughs first began reading Whitman
+and five years after that, in 1863, when Burroughs moved to Washington,
+the two men began to cultivate each other and were frequent companions
+till Whitman moved to Camden in 1873.
+
+The friendship of the two men became so beautiful and grew so sacred,
+till Mr. Burroughs visited him every year in Camden, from 1873 till
+1891, when he saw the poet for the last time. Whitman also visited Mr.
+Burroughs, who had gone back up the Hudson in 1873, and built his home
+at West Park, New York.
+
+The peculiar mountain wilderness around Slabsides induced the Naturalist
+to name the woods about his home, Whitman Land, and now you will hear
+him speak of the border of "Whitman Land," when he approaches Slabsides.
+I have sometimes thought that Whitman's influence on him, more than
+Thoreau's, induced him to retreat to the woods and build Slabsides,
+where he could "follow out these lessons of the earth and air." So much
+of this elemental power or force has he seen in Whitman, that he
+honestly, and probably justly, thinks him "the strongest poetic pulse
+that has yet beat in America, or perhaps in Modern times." A study of
+the poet is to him an application of the laws of Nature to higher
+matters, and he pleads guilty to a "loving interest in Whitman and his
+work, which may indeed amount to one-sided enthusiasm." But this is
+honest, real, and not affected.
+
+After a long study of the art of poetry and the artists, together with a
+thorough appreciation of form and beauty in all art, Burroughs declares
+there is once in a great while "born to a race or people, men who are
+like an eruption of life from another world, who belong to another
+order, who bring other standards, and sow the seeds of new and larger
+types; who are not the organs of the culture or modes of their time and
+whom their times for the most part decry and disown--the primal,
+original, elemental men. It is here in my opinion that we must place
+Whitman; not among the minstrels and edifiers of his age, but among its
+prophets and saviors. He is nearer the sources of things than the
+popular poets--nearer the founder and discoverer, closer akin to the
+large, fervent, prophetic, patriarchal men, who figure in the early
+heroic ages. His work ranks with the great primitive books. He is of the
+type of the skald, the bard, the seer, the prophet." In another place,
+Burroughs thinks that one can better read Whitman after reading the
+Greeks, than after reading our finer artists, and I have found this
+true.
+
+We cannot wonder that he finds Whitman "the one mountain in our literary
+landscape," though, as he appropriately says there are many beautiful
+hills. Tall and large, he grew more beautiful in his declining years,
+and "the full beauty of his face and head did not appear till he was
+past sixty." However he was dressed, and wherever he was, one could not
+fail to be impressed "with the clean, fresh quality of the man." To me,
+his poems have this same clean, fresh quality, and I never read one of
+them that I don't feel far more satisfied with my lot.
+
+Whitman says: "I do not call one greater and one smaller. That which
+fills its place is equal to any." To him, as to any prophet of the soul,
+greatness is filling one's place, and the poor get as much consolation
+out of this almost, as they do from Christ's beatitude: "Blessed are
+the poor for they shall inherit the earth." To make a world, it takes
+many kinds of individuals, and Whitman did not rank them severally
+according to money, culture and social position. If a man filled his
+place, he was equal to any one else, for that is the whole duty of man.
+
+He did not grovel in the earthly and disgusting, as one of our
+"artistic" critics has said above. He alluded to many things that the
+over-nice could call disgusting, but he saw and painted only the
+beautiful in it all. For an instance that happens to come to my mind, he
+alludes to the battle of Alamo, but overlooks the military display, the
+common part of the slaughter. This may be found in any battle, and why
+Alamo and Goliad, if only to picture an army! Certainly there were more
+imposing dress parades than that. But after Fannin had surrendered and
+had accepted honorable terms that were offered by the Mexican General
+Urrea, Santa Anna orders the entire body of United States Soldiers
+executed, and on that bright and beautiful sunshiny Palm Sunday, they
+were marched out upon the neighboring prairie and shot down in cold
+blood, and their bodies committed to the flames! Such a horrible picture
+has not been recorded elsewhere in the history of this republic. What
+then does Whitman say?
+
+    "Tis the tale of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve
+      young men.
+    Retreating, they formed in a hollow square, with their baggage for
+      breastworks;
+    Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy's, nine times their
+      number was the price they took in advance;
+    Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone;
+    They treated for an honorable capitulation, received writing and
+      seal, gave up their arms, and marched back prisoners of war.
+    They were the glory of the race of rangers;
+    Matchless with horse, rifle, song, supper, courtship,
+    Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud, and affectionate,
+    Bearded, sunburnt, drest in the free costume of hunters,
+    Not a single one over thirty years of age.
+    The second First-day morning they were brought out in squads and
+      massacred--it was beautiful early summer;
+    The work commenced about five o'clock, and was over by eight.
+
+    None obeyed the command to kneel;
+    Some made a mad and helpless rush--some stood stark and straight;
+    A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart--the living and dead
+      lay together;
+    The maimed and mangled dug in the dirt--the newcomers saw them there;
+    Some, half-killed, attempted to crawl away;
+    These were despatched with bayonets, or battered with the blunts of
+      muskets;
+    A youth not seventeen years old seiz'd his assassin till two more
+      came to release him;
+    The three were all torn, and covered with the boy's blood.
+
+    At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies:
+    That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young
+      men."
+
+After reading this picture of the horrible battle or slaughter at
+Goliad, who wonders that the battle cry at San Jacinto was, "Remember
+the Alamo!" or "Remember Goliad!" And still less do we wonder that the
+Mexicans, while scattered after the battle could be heard on all sides,
+"Me no Alamo!" "Me no Goliad!" Our poet has given the best picture we
+shall ever get of the Alamo and Goliad. The burden of his big, warm
+heart was to portray in vivid colors, the tragedy of the four hundred
+and twelve young men, and how manly they suffered.
+
+John Burroughs has observed from the notes of Mr. Charles W. Eldridge,
+that Emerson was not only an admirer of Whitman, but that every year
+from 1855 to 1860, he sought Whitman in his Brooklyn home. The two men
+were together much, but Walt never sought Emerson. When he was invited
+by Emerson to Concord, he refused to go, perhaps because he feared that
+he would see too much of that "literary coterie that then clustered
+there, chiefly around Emerson."
+
+Burroughs is also responsible for the suggestion that Whitman burst into
+full glory at one bound, and his work from the first line is Mature. At
+the age of thirty-five, a great change came over the man and his habits
+were different thereafter. His first poem, "Starting from Paumanook,"
+outlines his work, observes Burroughs, and he fulfills every promise
+made.
+
+    "I conned old times;
+    I sat studying at the feet of the great Masters,
+    Now, if eligible, O that the great Masters might return and study me!
+
+    The Soul:
+    Forever and forever--longer than soil is brown and solid--longer than
+      water ebbs and flows.
+    I will mate the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the
+      most spiritual poems--
+    And I will mate the poems of my body and mortality,
+    For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my Soul,
+      and of immortality."
+
+And so he did. As perfect as the last or any part of his work is the
+first. But the poet is true to himself and to the great undertaking.
+
+In what particular qualities does Whitman differ from the other poets?
+Especially the poets who conform to the traditions of the past.
+
+"When Tennyson sends out a poem," observes Burroughs, "it is perfect,
+like an apple or a peach; slowly wrought out and dismissed, it drops
+from his boughs, holding a conception or an idea that spheres it and
+makes it whole. It is completed, distinct and separate--might be his, or
+might be any man's. It carries his quality, but it is a thing of itself,
+and centers and depends upon itself. Whether or not the world will
+hereafter consent, as in the past, to call only beautiful creations of
+this sort, _poems_, remains to be seen. But this is certainly not what
+Walt Whitman does, or aims to do, except in a few cases. He completes no
+poems apart from himself. His lines or pulsations, thrills, waves of
+force, indefinite dynamic, formless, constantly emanating from the
+living centre, and they carry the quality of the Author's personal
+presence with them in a way that is unprecedented in literature."
+
+The more I read Whitman the more I am drawn to him, and feel the
+greatness of the man. His poems have meant to me recently, what
+Emerson's Essays meant to me as a younger man. In about the same way
+they affect me now, only my love for the poems grows with each reading.
+
+It is well to recall that so much was John Burroughs inspired by his
+early contact with Whitman that his first book was, _Notes on Walt
+Whitman, as Poet and Person_, which was printed in 1867. A little later,
+in 1877, he renewed his study of the poet, in his last essay in _Birds
+and Poets_. The title of the essay is "The Flight of the Eagle," and is
+one of Burroughs' best papers. Still later, in about 1895, he wrote his
+final word on Whitman, in his volume, _Whitman: A Study_. This last
+volume is a complete interpretation of the poet. The poems of the man
+are given full treatment, and it is perhaps the best defense of Whitman
+in print.
+
+The publishers of these books have long expected to get John Burroughs
+to write a biography of Whitman, but his many other literary activities,
+have combined to banish their hopes, and in his stead, Mr. Bliss Perry,
+in 1905, was asked to write the biography, which was published in 1906.
+
+In recent years, Whitman has been gaining pretty general acceptance, and
+most of the papers in current literature expose his merits. His enemies
+are growing fewer and fewer, and those who still survive are not so
+bold. They are on the defensive instead of the offensive. He is such a
+potent factor in the present day literature of America, that our only
+conclusion is that he is with us to stay, and the sooner we learn to
+'Walk the open road' with him, the better will we be prepared for the
+future critic of American literature.
+
+Bliss Perry thinks that on account "of the amplitude of his
+imagination," and "the majesty with which he confronts the eternal
+realities," instead of the absolute perfection of his poems, he is bound
+to a place somewhere among the immortals.
+
+Mr. Perry has made a critical study of Whitman, and his judgment and
+conclusions are charitable and will stand. No critic can ever give an
+adequate conception of Whitman's poems. As he, himself said, "They will
+elude you." In order to understand in any degree his eccentricities and
+his poetic freedom, one must go to the poems and read them as a whole.
+One will either turn away from them for a breath of air, or he will be
+forever won by them.
+
+I happened to be among the latter class, and I must agree with his most
+enthusiastic critics, that he is a real poet, and one of the few that
+make you think and feel. Most of our other American poets have said some
+pretty things in verse but are not elemental. They lack the "high
+seriousness," the all-essential quality of a real poet. This quality we
+cannot fail to recognize in Whitman, from the beginning to the end, if
+we tolerate him.
+
+Mr. Stedman's paper on Whitman, though less readable than Burroughs',
+and far more labored than Mr. Perry's, contains many excellent
+estimates of Whitman's democracy, and a lover of Whitman cannot afford
+to be ignorant of his fine judgments. He thinks that Whitman is well
+equipped as a poet--having had such genuine intercourse "With Nature in
+her broadest and minutest forms."
+
+
+
+
+JOHN BURROUGHS AND THE BIRDS
+
+
+One day while I was at West Park, John Burroughs and I had started over
+the mountains to Slabsides, and just as we had crossed the railroad we
+noticed a small flock of English sparrows in some nearby trees. We both
+halted suddenly and after a moment's silence he said: "I think the
+English sparrow will eventually develop some form of song. Listen to
+that suppressed sound so near to song! I have often wondered if all
+birds do not develop song by degrees, and if so, how long it takes or
+has taken such birds as the thrushes, the song sparrows and the wrens to
+develop their songs. Bird songs have always been an interesting study to
+me." It would be hard for me to conceive of one of his books being
+complete without some mention of bird life in it. I am sure he would not
+attempt to complete a Nature book and leave birds out of it.
+
+One of our first American Bird Societies, which was organized in 1900,
+was named after him, but I am not sure that this ever pleased him, as he
+was not an ornithologist in any restricted sense, and he certainly sees
+how much better it is for the organization to have been renamed and
+after Audubon, our greatest Ornithologist. Whenever I have been with
+him, and a bird of any kind appeared in sight or in hearing, he was sure
+to observe it first, and has been the means of sharpening my eyes and
+ears. Each of the little stories that follow, has been the result
+directly, or indirectly, of my walks in the woods with him. No school
+library is quite complete without a copy of his Wake Robin as it savors
+of that peculiar delight with which out-door life imbues him, as no
+other book he ever wrote, and I must say, puts one in tune with Nature
+as no book with which I am acquainted. The two essays _Spring at the
+Capitol_ and _The Return of the Birds_, give one the true spirit of the
+Naturalist, and have the best spirit of the out-door world in every
+paragraph and sentence.
+
+Mr. Sharpe rightly thinks that Burroughs is more than a scientist, for
+he is always hiding his science in love and genuine interest, though he
+is generally true to the facts. As an evidence of his genuineness he
+refuses to go to Nature in 'the reporter fashion, but must camp and
+tramp with her' in order for the truth to sink in and become part of
+him. Then he gives up only that which has clung to him, and certainly we
+do not find in his writings anything but the reflection of some phase of
+Nature. Go to the fields and the mountains with him, and you will soon
+be impressed that he is on speaking terms with bird life in almost
+every detail. This sincerity has impressed me as much as his ability to
+see and read Nature.
+
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE CHICKADEE'S NEST
+
+Usually when I find a bird's nest in a conspicuous place, I have a
+peculiar feeling that the bird has not chosen wisely, but I suspect that
+most birds that are on good terms with man, choose to brave his presence
+rather than risk themselves further away from man, and out where birds
+of prey and animals dangerous to them, are accustomed to go. They seem
+to think that man will do to trust, while they know that Nature knows no
+other law but struggle and destruction.
+
+The little nest about which I am now to tell was in an old decayed
+fencepost about three feet from the ground on the south side of the lane
+that leads down through the pasture and to the lake beyond. It was
+easily accessible to all that passed along the lane, and besides, the
+chickadee is so motherly in her habits and so innocent of all that is
+going on about her, that one can see her on the post or even in the door
+of the little house almost any time. The interest I had taken in the
+nest, caused me to frighten her away many times as I passed down the
+lane on my morning and afternoon walks. I thought that I would by this
+means train her to be a little more cautious, but she seemed to take my
+warning as a joke and finally became so gentle that I could almost put
+my hand on her.
+
+When I knew that many of the day laborers had discovered my nest and had
+become somewhat curious about it, I began to entertain grave doubts as
+to whether the brood would ever come off. For very few people have a
+real love for birds and bird-life, and most people rather delight to
+tell of their brutality to the bird kingdom, when they were smaller.
+Many times have I sat and listened to men tell of how many bird nests
+they broke up when they were boys, and they seemed to think that a boy
+could spend his time no better. Some of my neighbors have large
+collections of birds' eggs that were taken in this spirit, and I think
+they belong to that class of 'Oologists,' spoken of by Burroughs as the
+worst enemies of our birds, 'who plunder nests and murder their owners
+in the name of science.'
+
+While I was out one morning for my usual walk, my attention was
+attracted by an unusually joyful song, "_Chickadee-Dee, Chickadee-Dee_,"
+in rapid succession, a little softer and sweeter than I had heard from
+my black cap this season, and I decided to see if there was not some
+love-making going on. As Seton-Thompson says, I 'froze' for a few
+moments and saw what it all meant. The mother bird was building her nest
+in the post to which I have already referred. The male bird did not
+appear till three days after, but how interested he was when he did come
+upon the scene. When these little birds decided to neighbor with me my
+heart rejoiced, for I had often during the winter seen the vacant home
+and wondered if it would be occupied in the summer, and if so by whom.
+As soon as I knew that my chickadees were really to stay I thought to
+myself: Well I shall have one good neighbor at least. On the morning of
+the 26th of April, I looked into the nest to see what progress was being
+made with the new home, and found the female bird on, but she made no
+attempt to fly away. I went away whistling and at the same time thinking
+that I should soon see some fledgelings with open mouths for food, and
+that I would in all probability, have the pleasure of giving them a
+morsel occasionally. To aid the mother in this way helps to get in
+sympathy with bird life. For then we feel that we have become partly
+responsible for their health and daily _bread_. I had often aided mother
+birds in feeding their young, though I do not remember to have rendered
+such service to chickadees. I have, however, known for a long time that
+chickadees are noted for their gentleness and fearlessness. When they
+meet honesty they are always ready to make friends and will cheer you
+with their little familiar ditty, but they seem to divine evil, and will
+get on the other side of the tree from the boy that carries a
+sling-shot. Nature seems to have taught them what and whom to fear.
+
+[Illustration: POINTING OUT THE JUNCO'S NEST BY A MOUNTAIN ROADSIDE]
+
+I shall never forget how provoked I was, when I passed down the lane on
+Monday morning, May 4th, and found that some vandal had been there and
+robbed and partially destroyed the nest on Sunday, the day before. I was
+cross all day and could not collect myself. Everything in my office went
+wrong and what little work I did that day had to be done over later.
+This little nest had meant a great deal to me, and the most interesting
+stage of its development had not yet been reached. If it had been any
+other nest probably it would not have affected me so seriously or
+grieved me so much, but this little family had, in a measure, become a
+part of my own family, and I had a most tender feeling for it. The poor
+mother bird I saw in some small oaks not far from the wrecked home and I
+watched her for a long time, that I might see just what emotions she
+would express to me. The sadness of her song chickadee-dee,
+chickadee-dee, was evident, but she uttered these words in rapid
+succession. The following seemed to be her feeling:
+
+
+SOLILOQUY OF THE CHICKADEE
+
+"Alas! How fallen is man! I never yet have given cause for complaint,
+nor cost man anything. My deeds have been deeds of kindness. I am calm
+and peaceful among my neighbors, and have ever loved man's humanity.
+Never did I think that such a fate as this awaited me at the hand of man
+whom I have cheered all seasons of the year, in May and December alike,
+as he has gone forth to and from his daily labor. Had this misfortune
+been brought on by some cat or mink or weasel, or even by some of my
+bird enemies, I could have reconciled myself to it. But I have been
+man's best friend and he knows it. My numberless ancestors have been
+among man's best supporters. My dream has been, during these many days
+of toil and care, to watch my happy little family of birds grow up in
+the ways of chickadees, that they too could soon be able to go forth
+prepared for the battle of life and partake of the great feast of
+insects and worms and insect eggs, so abundant over there in the
+orchards and lawns and to which all farm crops would become a prey
+without us.
+
+"But alas! My hopes are blighted and my dream turned into a nightmare.
+Only one egg pipped, so I could glimpse the little mouth beneath! A ray
+of sunshine! A consummation devoutly to be wished for! My little ones
+breaking through those prison walls, soon to become my companions!
+
+"Today it is all over. A funeral dirge instead of songs of joy and
+gladness! Some vandals have wrecked my home and destroyed my
+prospective little ones! I almost wish they had taken me too. What have
+I done to cost me this? You said you would protect me, O man! Are you
+doing it? Have I proved unworthy of your good will and friendship? My
+record will bear me witness before any court in the land."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Presently the male bird came upon the spot, but had very little to say.
+What little he did say seemed to be very consoling to the mother bird.
+As he receded to the thick of the pasture again, the mother bird began
+anew her low melancholy song. How can we ever reconcile such thoughtless
+deeds with the higher forms of civilization! But we must return to the
+nest. It was not entirely destroyed, and I gathered the remains, which
+contained two eggs covered in the litter torn from the walls of the
+nest. I sawed off the post just below the nest cavity and put it in my
+office. The eggs were white with brownish red spots. The nest was made
+of fibrous roots, jute fiber lined with hair. Dr. Bachman found one made
+of fine wool, cotton and some fibres of plants, containing pure white
+eggs, the nest being in a hollow stump about four feet from the ground.
+It is safe to say that the chickadee is a resident bird throughout the
+United States and is rather abundant in the Southern states.
+
+I have often thought that we could make ourselves far happier if we
+studied birds aesthetically, rather than economically, but it seems that
+we shall for a long time to come, count the worth of any factor in
+Nature by utilitarian methods. If we must do so, let us see what kind of
+showing our chickadee makes for herself. Let us see just what relation
+she bears to plant life. Edward H. Furbush finds that the chickadee
+feeds upon tent caterpillars and their eggs; both species of the
+cankerworm moth and their larvae; codling moths with their larvae; the
+forest tent caterpillar, and the larva chrysalis and imago of the gypsy
+and brown tail moths. They also eat the lice and their eggs of the apple
+and willow. We see then that a great deal can be said in their favor.
+Another thing so favorable to our little friend is that of all his or
+her habits of life, we know of nothing bad. All that can be said is in
+her favor, more than can be said of many of us.
+
+The sad story of my chickadee's nest will suggest to all thinking people
+the reason why so many of our valuable birds are so rapidly vanishing or
+diminishing in numbers, and the urgent need for an immediate check upon
+our wreckless slaughter. Upon a careful count in several parts of the
+country it has been found that birds are a natural check upon insect
+pests, and not to protect and welcome them is to foster the growth of
+these pests. The fate of this little nest is likewise the fate of many
+thousand nests annually, of useful birds. Who could ever estimate the
+gallons of innocent blood shed at the hands of the untrained and
+wilfully evil bands of boys roving the woods on the Sabbath!
+
+
+ROBINS
+
+Recently in a letter to the Burroughs' Nature Study Clubs of a Southern
+state John Burroughs wrote:
+
+     "If your club can help to send back the robin to us in the
+     spring with his breast unstained with his own blood, but
+     glowing with the warmth of your shining and hospitable land, I
+     shall rejoice that it bears my name."
+
+The people in the Northern United States have courted favor with the
+robin and in every way possible protect him, and are always ready to
+welcome him back after the winter is over, and in fact, the robin is to
+be praised for his summer popularity as much as he is to be pitied for
+his winter treatment in the south. One writer says his return to the
+north 'is announced by the newspapers like that of eminent or notorious
+people to a watering place, as the first authentic notification of
+spring.' There, where robins are appreciated, they become quite tame and
+build and raise their young in the orchards and about the houses. Birds
+are not altogether unlike people in that they never forget favors. They
+always know in what sections of country they are welcomed.
+
+When robin redbreast returns south, he comes driven by the chilly blasts
+of the Ice King of the north, and I regret to say has to face the
+Southern people with fear and trembling. Parents allow boys to take guns
+and go out and kill anything legally or illegally, and such boys always
+develop the brutal and barbarous instinct of murder--taking innocent
+blood. The following I clipped from the locals of a weekly newspaper in
+the Southern part of Georgia:
+
+"They have about succeeded in killing all the robins out at 'Robin's
+Roost,' near Robert's Mill. Thousands of these birds had been flying to
+a ford near there to roost, and they offered fine sport for those who
+like shooting."
+
+The reporter of the above seemed to count it a success to kill all the
+robins. Moreover he affirms that killing them is fine sport. This spirit
+of slaughter is no doubt born in us, but it does seem that we could
+teach the young how to love, to protect, and to enjoy rather than to
+kill! kill! kill! Some boys I know can hardly bear to see a live bird of
+any kind, but are perfectly at ease if they can kill something. They
+take some weapon with them as religiously as they take their books to
+school, in order that nothing escape them. They are always hoping to see
+some form of bird life to persecute or slaughter. Our public schools
+are beginning to interest themselves in bird protection, and I am glad
+to say, have accomplished great good wherever they have tried to teach
+simple lessons of bird life to school children.
+
+The robin is too valuable to exterminate as he feeds upon noxious weed
+seeds and injurious insects, and usually has a good appetite and
+certainly never eats useful plants in the south. His practical value to
+Orchards and Agriculture generally, should be impressed upon parents and
+a love for him impressed upon the younger minds. When we cannot appeal
+through either of these channels, we should arouse the sympathy of the
+public. Robins ordinarily come south to spend the winter, as the weather
+is much warmer and they get a greater food supply. But in 1905, a small
+flock of them wintered near Lake Forest, Illinois. This I think was due
+to the fact that the birds did not care to face their enemies of the
+South. In that section of country from Lake Forest to Waukegan,
+Illinois, not a robin had been shot for several years past. The birds
+knew their friends and preferred to brave the Northern winter with them,
+rather than come down south where our youths are forever running through
+the woods with gun on shoulder ready to take life.
+
+Burroughs says: "Robin is one of our most native and democratic birds;
+he is one of the family (in the north) and seems much more to us than
+those rare exotic visitors with their distant and high-bred ways." The
+carol of the robin is very inspiring as you hear him:
+
+    "Heavenward lift his evening hymn,"
+
+or perhaps when you first wake in the morning at early dawn, and listen
+to his love song, as he perches on some treetop in the edge of a nearby
+woods. How rich his red breast looks from such a perch just as the sun
+comes above the horizon and reflects its first rays against him! Just
+one experience like this in the whole year, how much it would add to
+life's pleasures! "With this pleasing association with the opening
+season, amidst the fragrance of flowers and the improving verdure of the
+fields, we listen with peculiar pleasure to the simple song of the
+robin. The confidence he reposes in us by making his abode in our
+gardens and orchards, the frankness and innocence of his manners,
+besides his vocal powers to please, inspire respect and attachment, even
+in the truant schoolboy, and his exposed nest is but rarely molested,"
+says Nuttall, who writes eloquently of the robin.
+
+The robin sings in autumn as well as in spring, and his autumn song is
+by no means inferior to his spring song, and I have always loved the old
+song, _Good-bye to Summer_, because of the special tribute to the
+robin's song, the chorus of which goes,
+
+    "O, Robin, Robin, redbreast!
+    O, Robin, Robin, dear!
+    O, Robin, sing so sweetly,
+    In the falling of the year!"
+
+It is rather interesting to note, however, that they usually sing in
+concert when they return south in the autumn. You can hear them in great
+numbers singing while feeding around a patch of _Ilex glabra_, the
+berries of which afford them considerable food in mid-winter. I love to
+welcome them back to the south in the autumn, and to hear their
+beautiful concert song.
+
+
+BLACKBIRDS
+
+It is rather remarkable to note how easy it is to cultivate the
+friendship of birds, even birds that are ordinarily quite wild. When I
+used to go to my office in the early morning, I always scattered a few
+handfuls of grits around the back window that I might accommodate some
+of my special friends to a breakfast, and it required only a short time
+for me to win the confidence of so many birds that I had to limit them
+to quite a short breakfast. At first no blackbirds came near me or my
+place of business. Soon they would sit on nearby trees and return to the
+grounds immediately after I returned from the yard back into the house.
+I had among my daily visitors not less than three or four hundred of
+these welcome friends. They would play around in the yard very amusingly
+and pick at each other much like children and afforded me much amusement
+and many pleasant moments in the course of a week.
+
+Blackbirds have very little music in them or rather get very little out
+of themselves. John Burroughs has this to say of their music: "Their
+voices always sound as if they were laboring under a severe attack of
+influenza, though a large flock of them heard at a distance on a bright
+afternoon of early spring produce an effect not unpleasing. The air is
+filled with crackling, splintering, spurting semi-musical sounds, which
+are like pepper and salt to the ear." I really enjoy the mingled sounds
+produced by a great congregation of them, and often follow a flock of
+them down the creek side to their favorite resting place, just to hear
+them. They are always in great flocks here during the winter, and
+sometimes when feeding along on a hillside, the rear ranks marching over
+the bulk to the front in rapid succession, present an appearance
+somewhat like heavy waves of the sea, and one a short distance looks on
+with admiration and even surprise, to see such symmetry and uniformity
+in their movement.
+
+One cannot fail to appreciate how much good a great flock of them do in
+a day as they move across a field covered with noxious grass and weed
+seeds. They seem to form an army in order to co-operate with man in
+every possible way to balance up the powers of nature. Weeds prevent
+crops from growing. Every seed that germinates in the soil and is
+allowed to grow, if only for a short while, tends to exhaust the soil.
+If the birds get these seeds in winter before germination begins, the
+useful plants will have a much larger fund of food from which to draw.
+Once in a while our blackbirds get a little grain and the farmer
+condemns them and looks upon them only with a murderer's eye. The birds
+do a hundred times more good than evil, and should not be condemned on
+such slight provocation. Their hard fare during the winter makes them
+rush into the fields sometimes in spring and get a taste of grains
+useful to man, but surely they should be pitied rather than censured,
+and so long as I can get them to depend on me for help, I am going to
+put out a mite for their breakfast. With sorrow I bid them good-bye each
+spring, but with renewed delight I hail with joy their return in autumn
+with their young.
+
+
+THE NUTHATCH
+
+Could I ever be satisfied were I located in some nook of this old earth
+where the voice of the nuthatch is not heard once in a while! His simple
+song--I speak of the white-breasted nuthatch--beats time to my daily
+routine of laboratory and field work and its very simplicity adds
+dignity to my little friend's life. All will easily recognize this
+useful little neighbor. His coat is of light blueish gray above, with a
+crown, nap, and upper back black. His tail and wings have black
+markings, while his lower parts and sides of head are white in the main.
+It is remarkable to find the nuthatch so ready to make friends with us,
+when he is generally considered a forest bird in this part of the
+country.
+
+I see two or three of them near my office every day, and take much
+delight in my study of them and their habits. They have a peculiar way
+of perching, head downward, on the trunk of a tree and go that way most
+of the time. A small white-breasted bird on the trunk of a tree with
+head downward, is pretty good evidence that it is the nuthatch. This
+attitude is so natural that the older ornithologists--Audubon and
+Wilson--claim that they sleep in that position. I am not prepared to
+affirm or deny the rumor as my study of this bird, and all other birds,
+is restricted to their daylight comedies and tragedies, though I do
+often hear certain members of bird families singing at all hours of the
+night during certain seasons.
+
+His song is, as above stated, quite simple only one note repeated over
+and over--konk-konk, konk-konk, two strokes generally in rapid
+succession--a kind of a nasal piping, or as one bird lover has said:
+"A peculiar, weird sound, somewhat like the quack of a duck, but higher
+keyed and with less volume, having a rather musical twang."
+
+[Illustration: MY CHICKADEE'S NEST]
+
+During the winter months he finds much time to search about on the
+ground for food, and consequently his crop is at such time partly filled
+with noxious weed seeds. In spring and summer, he searches all round the
+trunks and branches of trees for small insects and insect eggs, and as
+you approach him to study him he seems entirely unconscious of your
+presence, which I have thought almost approaches human affectation, and
+I wonder if this is not one of the alluring arts of the white-breasted
+nuthatch. Birds, in some way or other, express almost all human
+attributes, love, hate, anger, joy, sorrow, if we only are able to read
+them, and it is not unreasonable to assume that they are sometimes
+affectatious. The Southern mocking bird certainly seems to border vanity
+sometimes.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles with John Burroughs, by
+Robert John De Loach
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES WITH JOHN BURROUGHS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 37811.txt or 37811.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/1/37811/
+
+Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.