# The Way of the Wild (Hawkes)

Books by Clarence Hawkes Animal Biographies
Black Bruin.The Biography of a Bear.
King of the Flying Sledge.The Biography of a Reindeer.
King of the Thundering Herd.The Biography of an American Bison.
Piebald, King of Broncos.The Biography of a Wild Horse.
Shaggycoat.The Biography of a Beaver.
Shovelhorns.The Biography of a Moose.
A Wilderness Dog.The Biography of a Gray Wolf.
Nature Stories
Tenants of the Trees.
Trails to Woods and Waters.
The Way of the Wild.
Wanted a Mother.A Story for Children.
Frontispiece see page 170
The Way of the Wild
Stories of Field and Forest
By Clarence Hawkes Author of "Trails to Woods and Waters," "Shaggycoat," "A Wilderness Dog," "Wanted a Mother," etc.
Illustrated by Charles Copeland
Philadelphia George W. Jacobs & Company Publishers
Copyright, 1923, by George W. Jacobs & Company
All rights reserved Printed in U. S. A.
Dedicated to all those who love a winding woodland path and the great out of doors
The animal story of to-day is as much a product of evolution as was the steam engine or the wireless telegraph, and it came in answer to a need.
With music and art made alluring in the public schools and many of the simpler studies taught by means of exciting games, woodcraft had to be put in a form that should appeal to the imagination of children.
Thus it was that Charles G. D. Roberts, Clarence Hawkes, and others came to the front, with their stories of wild life. Stories just as faithful to the facts as the nature essay, and much more interesting to the youthful mind. The result has been of general benefit, for where one person was reading nature books twenty-five years ago, a dozen are reading them now. Not only the animal story, but the nature essay, and even more scientific works are profiting by the increase of interest. So ​at the present time, children ten or twelve years of age know very much more about nature, the coming of the seasons, the wild flowers, and the migrations of the birds, than do their parents.
That about twenty volumes of these animal stories recently published should have come from the pen of one without eyesight seems at first thought a contradiction of facts, but with the reading of Clarence Hawkes' autobiography, "Hitting the Dark Trail," which has just found its way into French, this marvel is made plain.
Beethoven produced some of his best symphonies after he lost his sense of hearing. He was able to do this because the laws of music and harmony were firmly established in his soul while he could still hear. So it was with Clarence Hawkes.
For the first fourteen years of his life he not only was possessed of a pair of very keen eyes, that took in everything about him in the field and woods, but he also had the gift of remembering and correlating the things he saw. So ​minute and faithful were these boyhood observations that they furnished material for his first eight nature books.
Hunting, fishing, camping, tramping were his chief delight, and these early pictures of the out-of-doors were to stand him in good stead in after years.
I have read many of Clarence Hawkes' books and have always found them true to nature, and of gripping interest. Books that it would be safe and profitable to put in the hands of any young reader whom you wished to introduce to the denizens of field and forest. "Shaggycoat," "Shovelhorns," "A Wilderness Dog," and others are books that will give you the known facts about these animals, in a manner that will both entertain and instruct. While if you wish to know more of this author's life and struggles, read "Hitting the Dark Trail," which has been such an inspiration to the blinded soldiers of the United States, England and France.
Ernest Thompson Seton.
Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1954, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 69 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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