tting away from the worry of life.

Yesterday was an October day of rare brightness and warmth. I spent the
most of it in a wild, wooded gorge of Rock Creek. A tree which stood
upon the bank had dropped some of its fruit in the water. As I stood
there, half-leg deep, a wood duck came flying down the creek.

Presently it returned, flying up; then it came back again, and sweeping
low around a bend, prepared to alight in a still, dark reach in the
creek which was hidden from my view. As I passed that way about half an
hour afterward, the duck started up, uttering its wild alarm note. In
the stillness I could hear the whistle of its wings and the splash of
the water when it took flight. Near by I saw where a raccoon had come
down to the water for fresh clams, leaving its long, sharp track in the
mud and sand. Before I had passed this hidden stretch of water, a pair
of strange thrushes flew up from the ground and perched on a low branch.

Who can tell how much this duck, this footprint on the sand, and these
strange thrushes from the far North enhanced the interest and charm of
the autumn woods?

Birds cannot be learned satisfactorily from books. The satisfaction is
in learning them from nature. One must have an original experience with
the birds. The books are only the guide, the invitation. But let me say
in the same breath that the books can by no manner of means be dispensed
with.

In the beginning one finds it very difficult to identify a bird in any
verbal description. First find your bird; observe its ways, its song,
its calls, its flight, its haunts. Then compare with your book. In this
way the feathered kingdom may soon be conquered.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 10: By John Burroughs, an American writer on nature (1837- ).]

EXPRESSION: This and the selection which follows are fine examples
of descriptive writing. Read them so that your hearers will
understand every statement clearly and without special effort on
their part. Talk about the various objects that are mentioned, and
tell what you have learned about them from other sources.

BEES AND FLOWERS[11]

Fancy yourself to be in a pretty country garden on a hot summer's
morning. Perhaps you have been walking, or reading, or playing, but it
is getting too hot now to do anything. So you have chosen the shadiest
nook under the walnut tree, close to some pretty flower bed.

As you lie there you notice a gentle buzzing near you, a