Your editor had an interesting talk a few days ago with one of our
best-known naturalists, who said: "Boys and girls are the keenest
observers, if they are interested in anything. We naturalists get much
of our most valuable information through their quick eyes and minds."
"And," he added, "the more they see, the more they want to see and know,
and they are constantly coming to me for facts, asking me why I do not
write good books."
"Well, why don't you?"
"I'll tell you why. It is because I want to write a book which will tell
them _just_ what they want to know, and I do not know what our boys and
girls are interested in. If I write about pets, what kind of pets are
they most interested in--dogs or cats, horses or birds, squirrels or
fishes? If I write about wild animals, must it be about their homes and
what they do, or about the best ways to hunt and trap them? Then, again,
I am not sure if they are not more interested in hunting for beautiful
and curious things on the seashore--shells, crabs, sea-anemones, and
such things."
Your editor believes in asking the boys and girls to say for themselves
what they want, and then to give that to them in the best possible way.
Therefore he answered: "Ask the boys and girls what they want. Do not
ask one or two, but just ask one or two thousand, and give them just
what they ask for--no more and no less." As he cannot write a letter to
you all, will you not, each one of you, write a letter addressed to
"Naturalist, care of Editor of GREAT ROUND WORLD, 5 West 18th Street,"
and in this letter say just what you would like: a book about birds,
pets, bees, wild animals, shells, fishes, or snakes--for he knows all
about these things, and can write a book on any or all of these
subjects, or, indeed, anything that has to do with woods, fields, or
ocean, and the wonderful and interesting things found in them. We hope
that our promise to this naturalist, that our boys and girls can and
will tell him what he wants to know, will not lead to a disappointment.