A few years ago, while recovering from an illness, I conceived the
idea of writing some reminiscent lines on country life in the Wayne
Highlands. And during the interval of a few days I produced some five
hundred couplets,--a few good, some bad and many indifferent--and such
speed would of necessity invite the indifferent. A portion of these
lines were published in 1907. However, I had hoped to revise and
republish them, with additions of the same type, at a later date as a
souvenir volume of verses for those who spend the summer months among
these hills--as well as for the home-fast inhabitants. But in
substituting the following collection of verses I hope my judgment will
be confirmed by those who chance to read these simple stanzas of one,
who--
"Loves not man the less, but Nature more
From those our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."