Chapter I: Preface

I am aware that for the most part the title of my book is an allegory rather than an actual description; but readers who have followed me heretofore, I trust, will not be puzzled or misled in the present case by any want of literalness in the matter of the title. If the name carries with it a suggestion of the wild and delectable in nature, of the free and ungarnered harvests which the wilderness everywhere affords to the observing eye and ear, it will prove sufficiently explicit for my purpose.

ESOPUS-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.

CONTENTS
I. THE PASTORAL BEES
II. SHARP EYES
III. STRAWBERRIES
IV. IS IT GOING TO RAIN?
V. SPECKLED TROUT
VI. BIRDS AND BIRDS
VII. A BED OF BOUGHS
VIII. BIRDS'-NESTING
IX. THE HALCYON IN CANADA
INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN BURROUGHS From a photograph WHIP-POOR WILL From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes TROUT STREAM From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason YELLOW BIRCHES From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason LEDGES From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason KINGFISHER (colored) From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY