Theophrastus, to say nothing of our friend _so-and-so_ whom we always
thought rather tiresome but with whom we now have something in common.
We shall take up our daily grind to-morrow with a new zest for having
forgotten it for a few hours, and find it less of a grind than usual;
moreover, we now have an object to encourage another stroll in the country.

If we continue as we have begun we shall soon find ourselves prying into
the more scientific works on botany, and perhaps eventually extending our
interest to the birds, the beasts and the boulders. One of these days we
may become quite proficient amateur naturalists, but this is only by the
way; the real advantage to us has been the externalizing of our interests.

This is the most desultory way possible of cultivating the fad. One may go
a step further and transplant the wild flowers and the weeds. A busy and
successful professional friend of mine, besides having a cabinet shop in
his stable, finds (or makes) time to go to the woods with his trowel.
He has quite a wild-flower bank in his garden. I cannot give definite
directions as to their setting out--I think he just throws them down
anywhere--a fair percentage seem to thrive,--I can remember the
larger bur-marigold, the red and white bane-berry, rattlesnake-weed,
rattlesnake-plantain, blood root, live-for-ever, wood betony, pale
corydalis, and fern-leaved foxglove, and there are many more.

Mushrooms and ferns offer fertile fields for special study. If the worrier
has an altruistic turn he will find satisfaction in bestowing duplicates
upon his friends, thus still further externalizing his interests. He will
be surprised to find how many things there are in the world that he never
noticed.

Whether our tastes lead us in the direction of photography, pottery,