The Tupelo journal., 1906-08-24
BY MARGARET

D. 4
Nature study is supposed to be a
quite different thing from the study
of books. In a way it may be true
that the two kinds of study are not
very much alike, but in another way
they cannot be separated. Nature is
around us wherever we turn; above
ms stretches the sky; we breathe the
air; we have, whether we live in town
or in the country, the sights and
sounds of nature near us all the time.
If we have only a little back yaro
with a small plot of grass and a pot
or two of flowers, if our only &C
%quaintance with birds is derived from
a canary or a parrot in a cage, we still
may study nature, although not with
the same degree of interest that Will
be ours when we make excursions to
green fields.
| take it for granted that the girls
who are studying nature are doing SO
to some purpose. Every one OF us
ought to know by sight and touch the
trees in the locality nearest u homes.
We should know them by their pecu-
liarities of bark and branch and bud
and leaf. We should know the flow
ers that grow in our countryside, rec
ognizing them by their pe%culiarities
of root, stem and flower, of color and
perfume.
We should likewise know the birds.
Nothing is more absorbing than the
study of birds. They are fascinating
little creatures. Their habits, man
ners and customs are not so very OPP
posite our own when we really pene-
trate their secrets. In a single rather
small ~neighborhood in New Jersey a
bird lover last summer counted no
less thar So varieties of birds. Their
migrations, their nests, then patience
In finding food for their young, the
mothers and fathers care in show
ing the young birds how to fly, all
these are interesting parts of nature
study. But it is not so much of this
that | am thinking as l write to you,
as of The way in which we may help
one another in these days. Girls who
live in the country ought to have a
mission to their city cousins, and
when spring and summer bring their
pleasant days boxes of wild flowers
and garden flowers, too, should be
sent weekly to the schOolrooms where
the pupils have no easy way of get
aing specimens for themselves.
Schools III different parts of the coun-
try should exchange flowers, shells
and other interesting properties of the
nature study class, and it would not
be at all a bad idea if there were a
regular system of correspondence be-
tween JEAN of the little village and
Betty of the big city, all about the work
each was doing in her study of nature.
Another helpful thing that | recon-
mend is the marking of passages in
the poetry and prose that you read with
an especial look to their bearing on ma
ture. You will find that the poets care
a great deal about the winds and the
waves, the sky and the earth, and that
real poetry is full of beautiful illusions
to the phenomena of the world we live
in. Tennyson, whom you will study
in your classes in English literature, has
SO UluCu lllllldlS huOWicuSc VI udIulc
that his poetry is almost a guide book
to the flowers of his native land. Long
fellow, Whittier and Emerson have a
great deal to say about nature. When
you read the great masters of fiction
you will find that they have whole pages
devoted to descriptions of scenery and
that some of them paint nature in words
as if with the brush of an artist.
A good plan is to have a commonplace
book and whenever you find something
that you like write it down for future
reference.
When | was a girl we studied botany
out under the trees. There was a Far
ticularly charming bit of woodland near
our school, and our nature study was
always carried on out of doors. Our
teacher had a seat on a gray rock, COW
cred with a blanket shawl. Maybe you
never heard of a blanket shawl, but il
you had gone with Miss Jane and had
been privileged to carry her Scotch
plaid over your arm you would have