physician of thirty years' practice asks in all seriousness how
often the lions bring forth their young, and whether it is true
that there is a relation between the years in which they breed
and the increased productivity of human beings. One correspondent
begs Mr. Burroughs to tell him how he and his wife and Theodore
Roosevelt fold their hands (as though the last-named ever folded
his), declaring he can read their characters with surprising
accuracy if this information is forthcoming. In this instance,
I think, Mr. Burroughs folded his hands serenely, leaving his
correspondent waiting for the valued data.

The reader will doubtless be interested to see the kind of letter
the children sometimes get from their friend. I am fortunate in
having one written in 1887 to a rhetoric class in Fulton, New York,
and one in 1911, written to children in the New York City schools,
both of which I will quote:--


West Park, N. Y., February 21, 1887

My Dear Young Friends,--

Your teacher Miss Lawrence has presumed that I might have something
to say to a class of boys and girls studying rhetoric, and, what is
more, that I might be disposed to say it. What she tells me about
your interest in my own writings certainly interests me and makes me
wish I might speak a helpful word to you. But let me tell you that
very little conscious rhetoric has gone into the composition of those
same writings.