[Illustration: A HAWK IN SIGHT] A Year in the Fields SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS: WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY CLIFTON JOHNSON BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge Copyright, 1875, 1877, 1879, 1881, 1886, 1894, and 1895, BY JOHN BURROUGHS. Copyright, 1896 and 1901, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. _All rights reserved_ NOTE Taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by the necessity for again reprinting _A Year in the Fields_, the publishers have added to the volume a biographical sketch of Mr. Burroughs and a number of new illustrations. BOSTON, _September_, 1901. CONTENTS JOHN BURROUGHS: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH I. A SNOW-STORM II. WINTER NEIGHBORS III. A SPRING RELISH IV. APRIL V. BIRCH BROWSINGS VI. A BUNCH OF HERBS. FRAGRANT WILD FLOWERS WEEDS VII. AUTUMN TIDES VIII. A SHARP LOOKOUT LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. A HAWK IN SIGHT RIVERBY, MR. BURROUGHS'S HOME ON THE HUDSON "SLABSIDES" TRACKS IN THE SNOW THE STUDY OUT FOR A WALK THE OLD APPLE-TREE WINTER AT RIVERBY ON THE HUDSON WOOD FOR THE STUDY FIRE AN EVENING IN SPRING AT THE STUDY DOOR A WOODLAND BROOK AN APRIL DAY THE HOME OF A SPIDER A BIRD SONG IN THE WOODS PICKING WILD FLOWERS A FLOWER IN A WOODLAND ROADWAY A STALWART WEED AMONG THE ROCKS ON THE EDGE OF A CATSKILL "SUGAR BUSH" A CATSKILL ROADWAY BEECHNUTS (Mr. Burroughs's Boyhood Home seen in the distance.) BY THE STUDY FIRE JOHN BURROUGHS A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY CLIFTON JOHNSON In the town of Roxbury, among the western Catskills, was born April 3, 1837, John Burroughs. The house in which he first saw the light was an unpainted, squarish structure, only a single story high, with a big chimney in the middle. This house was removed a few years later, and a better and somewhat larger one, which still stands, was built in its place. The situation is very pleasing. Roundabout is a varied country of heights, dales, woods and pastures, and cultivated fields. The dwelling is in a wide upland hollow that falls away to the east and south into a deep valley, beyond which rise line on line of great mounding hills. These turn blue in the distance and look like immense billows rolling in from a distant ocean.