Writing about the birds and always treating them in
connection with the season and their environment, was, while I was
a government clerk, a kind of vacation. It enabled me to live over
again my days amid the sweet rural things and influences. The
paper just referred to is, as you may see, mainly written out of my
memories as a farm boy. The enthusiasm which Audubon had begotten
in me quickened and gave value to all my youthful experiences and
observations of the birds.
[This brings us to the time when our subject is fairly launched on
early manhood. He has regular employment--a clerkship in the office
of the Comptroller of the Currency, which, if not especially
congenial in itself, affords him leisure to do the things he most
wishes to do. He is even now growing in strength and efficiency
as an essayist.--C. B.]
SELF-ANALYSIS
March, 1909
My Dear Friend,--
You once asked me how, considering my antecedents and youthful
environment, I accounted for myself; what sent me to Nature, and
to writing about her, and to literature generally. I wish I could
answer you satisfactorily, but I fear I cannot. I do not know,
myself; I can only guess at it.
I have always looked upon myself as a kind of sport; I came out
of the air quite as much as out of my family.
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