mow as much in the course of a day. But certainly labor is no fetich
of his, and he has a real genius for loafing. In another man his
leisurely rambling with its pauses to rest on rock or grassy bank or
fallen tree, his mind meanwhile absolutely free from the feeling
that he ought to be up and doing, might be shiftlessness. But how
else could he have acquired his delightful intimacy with the woods
and fields and streams, and with wild life in all its moods? Surely
most of our hustling, untiring workers would be better off if they
had some of this same ability to cast aside care and responsibility
and get back to Nature--the good mother of us all.

CLIFTON JOHNSON.
Hadley, Mass., 1910.

NOTE.--The pictures in this volume were all made in the Catskills
and are the results of several trips to the regions described in the
essays.




IN THE CATSKILLS



I

THE SNOW-WALKERS