The Fall of the Year

With only half a chance our smaller wild animals--the fox, the mink, the ’coon, the ’possum, the rabbit--would thrive, and be happy forever on the very edges of the towns and ci...

As you head into Maurice River Cove from Delaware Bay by boat, the great eagle’s nest of Garren’s Neck Swamp soon looms into view. It is a famous nest, and an ancient nest; for...

Never fear. Robin knows as well as you that the north wind doth blow, and is now far away on his journey to the South; Muskrat knows, too, and is building his warm winter lodge;...

I was winding up my summer vacation with a little fishing party all by myself, on a wharf whose piles stood deep in the swirling waters from Buzzards Bay. My heavy-leaded line h...

It is a burning July day,--one o’clock in the afternoon of the year,--and all is still around the fields and woods. All is still. All is hushed. But yet, as I listen, I hear thi...

No, you never went “leafing”--not unless you are simon-pure country-bred. You do not know what the word means. You cannot find it in the unabridged dictionary--not in the sense...

You ought to hear the scream of the hen-hawks circling high in the air. In August and September and late into October, if you listen in the open country, you will hear their pie...

_Honk_, _honk_, _honk!_ I was out of bed in an instant; but before I had touched the floor, there was a patter of feet in the boys’ room, the creak of windows going up, and--sil...

You ought to go out into the fields and woods as many as six times this fall, even though you have to take a long street-car ride to get out of the city. Let me give you just si...

We have had a week of almost unbroken rain, and the water is standing over the swampy meadow. It is a dreary stretch,--this wet, sedgy land in the cold twilight,--drearier than...

You ought to see the sky--every day. You ought to see, as often as possible, the breaking of dawn, the sunset, the moonrise, and the stars. Go up to your roof, if you live in th...

Thanksgiving at Grandfather’s farm was more than a holiday. It was a great date on the calendar, for it divided the year in halves as no other single day of the three hundred an...

cecropia, the promethea, and the basket worm; and that for chapter VIII, a sprig of alder, with the old fruit and a budded catkin. The subjects of the other initials require no...

Go yourself frequently into the fields and woods, or into the city parks, or along the water front--anywhere so that you can touch nature directly, and look and listen for yours...

I have had many a person ask me, “What is the best way to learn about the out of doors?” and I always answer, “Don’t try to learn _about_ it, but first go out of the house and g...

We hear so much of the drudgery of farm life, of its dreariness, and meagre living that this chapter, aside from its picture of cheer and plenty, should be made the text for a g...

“There were thousands of persons who could have gold eggs if they cared. But eagles’ eggs! Money could not buy such a sight as this.” Which means, that the simple joys of the ou...

Notice again that in the three chapters on things to see and do and hear a few of the _characteristic_ sights and sounds and doings have been mentioned. Let the whole teaching o...

Let the pupils continue this list of examples of winter preparations by watching and observing for themselves. Every field, every tree, every roadside, will reveal the work done...

I have chosen the fox in this chapter to illustrate this very interesting and striking fact that wild animals, birds and beasts, thrive in the neighborhood of man if given the l...

The thought in this chapter is evident, namely, that love for the out of doors is dependent upon knowledge of the out of doors. The more we _know_ and the better we _understand_...

This is a chapter on the large wholesomeness of contact with nature; that even the simple, humble tasks out of doors are attended with a freedom and a naturalness that restore o...

This chapter and the next (chapter IX) should be taken together as a single study of the provision of nature against the severity of winter’s cold, chapter VIII being a detailed...

Let the chapter be read aloud by one pupil, with as much feeling as possible to the paragraph beginning, “I love the sound of the surf,” etc.; for this part is story, action, mo...

Perhaps you are in a crowded school-room in the heart of a great city. What can you do for your pupils there? But what _can’t_ you do? You have a bit of sky, a window surely, an...

There are several practical uses to which you can put this chapter, and the similar chapters, VII and XII: they can be made the purpose for field excursions with the class. Such...

Suggestions as to the practical uses to which this chapter can be put may be gathered from the notes to chapter IV and chapter XII, each of which is similar to this one.