New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-01
Back to Nature
Delightful Studies Of Life in the
Berkshires

GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES. By
Walter Prichard Eaton. ll.iS,fatI III 'o''''
syo pp. 1908 Doubleday. Page 90
Some time or other in his youth Mr..
Eaton must have heard the story, as all
writer-folk do, of the man who sat
incoming and yearning over his blank
paper. unable to make anything of the
great tale of the great ones OF the
earth which he hankered TO write.
Meantime his neighbor across the way
wrote a story of what was taking place
in his backyard, and, moreover, sold it.
So when his apprenticeship to news
papers and the streets of the city was
ended, Mr. Eaton went back to his
native New England and sat him down
to write of what he found there.
The Berkshres are his backyard-a
fairly extensive one-not the Berk-
shires of the big summer estates of
the wealthy, but the Berkshires of scat
tered upland farms and stretches OF
forest, of hamlets and hills. lie has
life, the life of the farmers and the
four-footed ones which haunt the fields
and forests The reading public should
be glad of his migration, for he writes
of that life with singular grace and
charm, whether describing an upland
pasture which filings its green mantle
- l. 4 81 Al
dance OF deer mice in the snow on
moonlight night. From time to time
the author deserts his chosen field for
an excursion abroad as when, in this
volume. he describes Glacier Park and
the Rocky Mountains in certain de-
lightful chapters. Mostly, however, he
sticks to his last; always he remains
the press agent of nature. And as a
press agent to do good work must be
thoroughly in sympathy with his sub
ject. so Mr.. Eaton has studied and APP
preciated Nature as manifested IN his
Berkshire backyard in all her moods,
sunshine or storm.
Green Trails and Upland Pastures"
is a collection of Nature studies
nature appropriations some of which
have appeared before in various maya
zines, some of them new. They reward
reading or re-reading. Those who love
the outdoors world as he does but who
have not his opportunities for daily
communion with II may get vicarious
Measure from these excursions INTO
fields and woods and intimate records
of sunsets, the waving of grain fields
like sea waves under the winds, the
growth OF flowers, the habits OF bird,
and beasts. Those who have never
tracked a pheasant as he stalked along
i'm winter. placing one foot directly IN
front of the other, leaving plain
record in the snow, or learned Of deer,
weasels. foxes, mink, from their tell
tale tracks, may not only obtain pleas
ure and instruction, but are likely to
be stimulated to a deep and wholesome
interest in the existence of that part
of the world with which too few Of US.
Din these bothersome, hpstllng days OF
urban life, keep in touch.
IL is the duty of press agent TO
stimulate general interest in the sub
iect Of which he writes. Mr.. Eaton.
whose writings spring from a genuine
love and understanding of fields and
flowers. brooks and mountains and all
their creatures. Is able to enlist and
hold the interest even of those grown
a bit blase and not over-enthuslastic
about descriptive writing There IS
sentiment in this book, but fortunately
not sentimentality; it is too simple
and stright going for that. Sentimen-
tally. indeed. would not thrive on
showshoe tramps through a forest
wnen trees were cracking and grooming
from the frost. or on a mountain top
with nothing above one but the blue
bowl of sky. Nor would it flourish in
conjunction with the quiet humor Mr.
Eaton displays in his anecdotes -ehar-
acteristic flashes of New england
human nature. or the disposition and
habits Of his dogs.
For this volume Mr.. Walter King
Stone has supplied some charming
! illustrations, well reproduced in color.