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Etext prepared by Lynn Hill, hill_lynn@hotmail.com
To Mr. and Mrs. Chas. J. Herr whose kind beneficence andinterest in the Great Out-of-Doors made this book possible;these Wayside Sketches are affectionately dedicated
"I see the spectacle of morning from the hill tops over againstmy house, from daybreak to sunrise, with emotions which an angelmight share. The long, slender bars of cloud float like goldenfishes in the crimson light. From the earth, as from a shore, Ilook out into the silent sea. I seem to partake its rapidtransformations; the active enchantment reaches my dust, and Idilate and conspire with the morning wind. Give me health and aday and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.
"To the body and mind which have been cramped by anxious work orcompany, Nature is medicinal and restores their tone. Thetradesman, the attorney, comes out of the din and craft of thestreet and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. Inthe eternal calm he finds himself. The health of the eye seemsto demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can seefar enough."
Scenery, as well as "the prophet," is "not without honor" savein its own country. Therefore thousands of travellers are inEurope today, gazing in open mouthed wonder at the Swiss Alps orfloating down the Rhine pretending to be enraptured, who nevergave a passing thought to the Adirondacks, or the incomparablebeauty of the Hudson, which perhaps lie at their very doors.
It is not our purpose to make the reader appreciate Europeanscenery less but American scenery more. "America first" shouldbe our slogan, whether in regard to political relations or totravel. Many Americans do not know how to appreciate their ownnatural scenery. Much has been written about the marvelousscenery of western North America, but few have spoken a word ofpraise in regard to the beauty of our eastern highlands.
The pleasure we take in travel as well as in literature isenhanced by a knowledge of Nature. Thoreau, Burroughs, Bryantand Muir—how much you would miss from their glowing pageswithout some knowledge of the plants and birds. Truly did theIndian say, "White man heap much book, little know."
To one who is at least partially familiar with the plant andbird world, travel holds so much more of interest and enthusiasmthan it does to one who cannot tell mint from skunk cabbage, ora sparrow from a thrush. Having made acquaintance with theflowers and the birds, every journey will take on an addedinterest because always there are unnumbered scenes to attractour attention; which although observed many times, grow morelovely at each new meeting.
We remember, in crossing the ocean, how few there were who foundlittle or no delight in the ever changing sea with its richdawns and sunsets or abundance of strange animal life. It iswell to have one or more hobbies if you know when to leave offriding them, and you may thus turn to account many sparemoments. In the lovely meadows of the Meuse; along the historicbanks of the scenic