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    [Illustration: A SUMMER EVENING--NIGHT HERONS (page 54)]


    The Dallas Lore Sharp Nature Series




    SUMMER

    by

    DALLAS LORE SHARP


    AUTHOR OF "THE LAY OF THE LAND," "THE FACE OF THE FIELDS,"
    "WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON," "THE FALL OF THE YEAR,"
    "WINTER," "THE SPRING OF THE YEAR," ETC.


    ILLUSTRATED BY
    ROBERT BRUCE HORSFALL


    BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
    HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
    The Riverside Press Cambridge


    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY PERRY MASON COMPANY
    COPYRIGHT, 1913 AND 1914, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY
    COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE CENTURY COMPANY
    COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.
    COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY DALLAS LORE SHARP

    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


    The Riverside Press
    CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS
    U. S. A


    TO

    ROBERT BRUCE HORSFALL
    THE FRIEND AND ARTIST
    OF THESE FOUR BOOKS




    CONTENTS


    INTRODUCTION                                      ix
       I. THE SUMMER AFIELD                            1
      II. THE WILD ANIMALS AT PLAY                     9
     III. A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO SEE THIS SUMMER      18
      IV. THE COYOTE OF PELICAN POINT                 27
       V. FROM T WHARF TO FRANKLIN FIELD              39
      VI. A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO HEAR THIS SUMMER     46
     VII. THE SEA-BIRDS' HOME                         57
    VIII. THE MOTHER MURRE                            65
      IX. MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS                     79
       X. RIDING THE RIM ROCK                         88
      XI. A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO DO THIS SUMMER      100
     XII. THE "CONY"                                 112
          NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS                      123



    ILLUSTRATIONS


    A SUMMER EVENING--BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS        _Frontispiece_
    RED CLOVER AND BUMBLEBEE                                         4
    RED SALAMANDER, OLD AND YOUNG                                    7
    NEWTS                                                            7
    HIPPOPOTAMUS--"IT WAS HIS GAME OF SOLITAIRE"                     9
    THE OTTER AND HIS SLIDE                                         12
    "FOLLOW MY LEADER"                                              14
    BUTTERFLIES AT PLAY--"WHIRLING OVER MT. HOOD'S POINTED PEAK"    16
    RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD AND NEST                              20
    ORCHIDS                                                         22
    YOUNG COWBIRD IN VIREO'S NEST                                   25
    COYOTE--"WHAT A SHOT!"                                          28
    ARGIOPE, THE MEADOW SPIDER                                      44
    CICADA--"DOG-DAYS-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z"                                48
    "THE BATS FLITTING AND WAVERING ABOUT"                          49
    RED-EYED VIREO--"DO YOU BELIEVE IT?"                            52
    TUFTED PUFFINS                                                  59
    BRANDT'S CORMORANT                                              63
    A MOTHER SPIDER WITH HER SACK OF EGGS                           67
    THE FATHER STICKLEBACK ON GUARD                                 68
    CALIFORNIA MURRE--"WITH THREATENING BEAK WATCHED THE TWO MEN
        COME ON"                                                    75
    PETRELS--"SKIMMING THE HEAVING SEA LIKE SWALLOWS"               80
    RIDING THE RIM ROCK--"NECK AND NECK WITH A BIG WHITE STEER"     97
    SASSAFRAS                                                      105
    DEADLY NIGHTSHADE                                              106
    POISON SUMACH                                                  107
    POISON IVY                                                     108
    VIRGINIA CREEPER                                               109
    THE DEADLY MUSHROOMS                                           110
    POKE BERRIES                                                   111
    THE CONY, OR PIKA                                              116




INTRODUCTION


In this fourth and last volume of these outdoor books I have taken you
into the summer fields and, shall I hope? left you there. After all,
what better thing could I do? And as I leave you there, let me say one
last serious word concerning the purpose of such books as these and
the large subject of nature-study in general.

I believe that a child's interest in outdoor life is a kind of hunger,
as natural as his interest in bread and butter. He cannot live on
bread and butter alone, but he ought not to try to live without them.
He cannot be educated on nature-study alone, but he ought not to be
educated without it. To learn to obey and reason and feel--these are
the triple ends of education, and the greatest of these is to learn to
feel. The teacher's word for obedience; the arithmetic for reasoning;
and for feeling, for the cultivation of the imagination, for the power
to respond quickly and deeply, give the child the out-of-doors.

"If I could teach my Rugby boys but one thing," said Dr. Arnold, "that
one thing should be poetry." Why? Because poetry draws out the
imagination, quickens and refines and deepens the emotions. The first
great source of poetry is Nature. Give the child poetry; and give him
the inspiration of the poem, the teacher of the poet--give him
Nature. Make a poet of the child, who is already a poet born.

How can so essential, so fundamental a need become a mere fad of
education? A child wants first to eat, then to play, then he wants to
know--particularly he wants to know the animals. And he does know an
elephant from a kangaroo long before he knows a Lincoln from a
Napoleon; just so he wants to go to the woods long before he asks to
visit a library.

The study of the ant in the school-yard walk, the leaves on the
school-yard trees, the clouds over the school-house roof, the sights,
sounds, odors coming in at the school-room windows, these are
essential studies for art and letters, to say nothing of life.

And this is the way serious men and women think about it. Captain
Scott, dying in the Antarctic snows, wrote in his last letter to his
wife: "Make our boy interested in natural history if you can. It is
better than games. Keep him in the open air."

I hope that these four volumes may help to interest you in natural
history, that they may be the means of taking you into the open air of
the fields many times the seasons through.

    DALLAS LORE SHARP.
    MULLEIN HILL, February, 1914.




SUMMER




CHAPTER I

THE SUMMER AFIELD


The word summer, being interpreted