| CHAPTER | | PAGE |
| 1. | How Our First Ancestors Lived | [1] |
| 2. | How Our Needs Differ from Those of the First Men | [9] |
| 3. | The Earth as It Was Before the Coming of Civilized Men | [18] |
| 4. | Nature's Unequal Distribution of Her Gifts | [25] |
| 5. | The Land of the Poor People | [32] |
| 6. | What the Muddy Rivulet Has to Say | [39] |
| 7. | How Far Will Nature Restore Her Wasted Gifts? | [44] |
| 8. | The Soil—The Most Important Gift of Nature | [51] |
| 9. | Things of Which Soil Is Made | [57] |
| 10. | How the Soil Is Made | [61] |
| 11. | How Vegetation Holds the Soil | [67] |
| 12. | What Happens Where There Is No Protecting Carpet of Vegetation | [73] |
| 13. | The Use and Care of Water | [81] |
| 14. | Could We Get Along without the Trees? | [89] |
| 15. | Where Has Nature Spread the Forest? | [96] |
| 16. | What Are the Enemies of the Trees? | [104] |
| 17. | How the Forests Are Wasted | [112] |
| 18. | How the Forests Suffer from Fires | [119] |
| 19. | Evils that Follow the Destruction of the Forests | [125] |
| 20. | How Our Government Is Helping to Save the Forests | [130] |
| 21. | Our Forest Playgrounds | [139] |
| 22. | What Is Happening to the Wild Flowers | [144] |
| 23. | Nature's Penalty for Interfering with Her Arrangements | [150] |
| 24. | What Shall We Do When the Coal, Oil, and Gas Are Gone? | [155] |
| 25. | Need for Protection of Creatures That Live in the Water | [162] |
| 26. | Man More Destructive than the Other Animals | [171] |
| 27. | What Is Happening to the Animals and Birds | [176] |
| 28. | The Tragedies of Milady's Hat and Cape | [183] |
| 29. | The Court of the Animals and Birds | [188] |
| 30. | The Birds Our Good Friends and Pleasant Companions | [195] |
| 31. | How to Bring the Wild Creatures Back Again | [203] |
| | Index | [213] |