Woodsy neighbours of Tan and Teckle

Front matter

M\dTeddG

^1=1 of TAN AND TECKLE

CHARLES LEE BRYSON'S NATURE STORIES

Preface

SO many kind messages have come to me, especially from young folks, regarding " Tan and Teckle," the book issued three years ago, that I feel sure of a welcome at least from the children for this, a second series of stories about the little wild people of meadow, field and woodland.

The basis of all these stories is my experience as one of the three barefoot boys on the old farm in Southern Indiana, when nothing that lived was too small and despised to excite curiosity, and curiosity gratified never failed to reveal some new trait — new to us, at least — of bird or reptile or insect. This foundation was, of course, built upon by later reading and study.

PREFACE

The stories are meant especially for young folks, for I feel sure that if the little ones become interested in even the simple things related here, a foundation will be laid for many a delightful hour when they come to watch on their own account how the spider works, the cricket fiddles, the caterpillar spins and the moth comes forth from his cocoon.

There is so much that every day passes unnoticed right under our eyes, and so much is yet to be learned of the lives of our tiny neighbours that live near the ground, that no child ever need be lonely or idle so long as there is an ant or a fly or a bee or a spider that he can watch. These little stories are not meant to be lessons in natural history so much as to call the attention of the young folks to things so easy to see but so often neglected, and to set them to observing and studying and experimenting for themselves.

C. L. B.

Denver, Col.