Wild Animal Ways

"When I look at the names of the animals whose stories are given here, I feel much as an artist might in looking at sundry portraits of his friends and ideals painted by himself."

"Some of these I personally knew. Some are composites, and are merely natural history in story form. Way-atch, Atalapha, and Foam are the latter kind."

"Foam is an effort to show how the wild things instinctively treat themselves in sickness. They have their herbs, their purges, their sudorifics, their hot an cold baths, their mud baths, their fasting, their water sluicing, their massage, their rest cure, and their sun treatment."

"The final scene when the Razor-back utterly defeated the Bear was witnessed and related to me long ago my a Michigan lumberman, whose name I cannot recall. The minor incidents are largely from personal observation of wild hogs in various parts of America. I am in hopes that some will see the despised Razor-back in a more friendly light when they realize the strong and wise little soul that lurks behind those blinking eyes."

-- Ernest Thompson Seton