its
wind-waved mass one can get little glimpses of the thing that backs it
all, the storm-defying shaft, the enduring rigid living growing trunk of
massive timber that gives it the nobility of strength, and adds value to
the rest; sometimes it must be sought for, but it always surely is
there, ennobling the lesser pretty things.

I hope this tree is a fair image of my fairy tale. I know my child
friends will love the piney fringes and the jewel cones, and they can
find the unyielding timber in its underlying truth, if they seek for it.
If they do not, it is enough to have them love the cones.

All are not fairy tales. Other chapters set forth things to see, thing
to do, things to go to, things to know, things to remember. These,
sanctified in the blue outdoors, spell "Woodcraft," the one pursuit of
man that never dies or palls, the thing that in the bygone ages gifted
him and yet again will gift him with the seeing eye, the thinking hand,
the body that fails not, the winged soul that stores up precious
memories.

It is hoped that these chapters will show how easy and alluring, and how
good a thing it is.

While they are meant for the children six years of age and upward, it is
assumed that Mother (or Father) will be active as a leader; therefore it
is addressed, first of all, to the parent, whom throughout we shall call
the "Guide."

* * * * *

Some of these stories date back to my school days, although the first
actually published was "Why the Chicadee Goes Crazy Twice a Year." This
in its original form appeared in "Our Animal Friends" in September,
1893. Others, as "The Fingerboard Goldenrod," "Brook-Brownie," "The
Bluebird," "Diablo and the Dogwood," "How the Violets Came," "How the
Indian Summer Came," "The Twin Stars," "The Fairy Lamps," "How the
Littlest Owl Came," "How the Shad Came," appeared in slightly different
form in the _Century Magazine_, 1903 and 1904.

* * * * *

My thanks are due to the Authorities of the American Museum who have
helped me with specimens and criticism; to the published writings of Dr.
W. J. Holland and Clarence M. Weed for guidance in insect problems; to
Britton and Browne's "Illustrated Flora, U. S. and Canada"; and to the
Nature Library of Doubleday, Page & Co., for light in matters botanic;
to Mrs. Daphne Drake and Mrs. Mary S. Dominick for many valuable
suggestions, and to my wife, Grace Gallatin Seton, for he