sons, An Idyl of the Honey-Bee from Pepacton,
and The Pastoral Bees from Locusts and Wild Honey. The Introduction,
by Miss Mary E. Burt, gives an account of the use of Mr. Burroughs's
writings in Chicago schools.

In No. 36, Sharp Eyes, and Other Papers, the initial paper, Sharp
Eyes, is drawn from Locusts and Wild Honey, The Apple comes from Winter
Sunshine, A Taste of Maine Birch and Winter Neighbors from Signs and
Seasons, and Notes by the Way (on muskrats, squirrels, foxes, and
woodchucks) from Pepacton.

The collection called A Bunch of Herbs, and Other Papers, forming No.
92 of the Series, was designed with special reference to what the author
has to say of trees and flowers, and contains A Bunch of Herbs from
Pepacton, Strawberries from Locusts and Wild Honey, A March Chronicle
and Autumn Tides from Winter Sunshine, A Spray of Pine and A Spring
Relish from Signs and Seasons, and English Woods: A Contrast from Fresh
Fields.

INTRODUCTION.

It is seldom that I find a book so far above children that I cannot
share its best thought with them. So when I first took up one of John
Burroughs's essays, I at once foresaw many a ramble with my pupils
through the enchanted country that is found within its breezy pages. To
read John Burroughs is to live in the woods and fields, and to associate
intimately with all their little timid inhabitants; to learn that--

"God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,
To give sign, we and they are his children, one family here."

When I came to use Pepacton in my class of the sixth grade, I soon
found, not only that the children read better but that they came rapidly
to a better appreciation of the finer bits of literature in their
regular readers, while their interest in their new author grew quickly
to an enthusiasm. Never was a little brother or sister more real to
them than was "Peggy Mel" as she rushed into the hive laden with stolen
honey, while her neighbors gossiped about it, or the stately elm that
played sly tricks, or the log which proved to be a good bedfellow
because it did not grumble. Burroughs's way of investing beasts, birds,
insects, and inanimate things with human motives is very pleasing
to children. They like to trace analogies between the human and the
irrational, to think of a weed as a tramp stealing rides, of Nature as a
tell-tale when taken by surprise.

The quiet enthusiasm of John Burroughs's essays is much healthie