The Burpoe Family Little Library (Photo provided — Michael Burpoe)

Situated near the fork between Beechwood Drive and Cherry Tree Lane, the Burpoe Family’s Little Library is a charming sight nestled among towering pines and a yellow Forsythia bush.

The instructions are written clearly on the glass of the magnetic door window:

Take a Book.

Leave a Book.

Mounted on a waist height wooden beam, the Little Library acts as a repository for books of all types.

The fantasy, sci-fi, and YA books turn over frequently, disappearing one day and returning a few weeks later, the occasional note on an inside cover or a page-corner dogeared the only signs of its previous owner; a transient passenger in the stream of books that pass through.

Classics like “The Alchemist,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” or “The Scarlet Letter” may last only a day before they are scooped up to be rifled through at the reader’s leisure instead of at the insistence of an English teacher (sorry, Mrs. Peer); another soul who has found that reading may be more enjoyable without the pressures of a test.

When a celebrity bestseller drops by they sometimes last a little longer, and they leave me guessing at who the previous owner might have been. Really? You liked him enough to buy and read a 700 page autobiography about them? Though perhaps I am the unenlightened, as my incredulousness is often replaced by confusion when that book, too, is taken in due time.

Occasionally, some (confused) soul misreads the prompt, and seizes the opportunity to dump, guilt-free, their old college psychology textbooks. Their logic sound, their execution … flawed.

Most wonderful of all are the children’s books. They represent the truest love a book can spread. That another child might benefit from these books after the original owner has grown is the best type of legacy a tree might leave.

The Beechwood neighborhood is 0.7 miles in circumference and situated in a loop, the perfect distance to walk your dog, which also happens to be the secret to the success of the Burpoe Family’s Little Library.

Situated among the books is a small cup of dog biscuits, which magically refills with the help of some friendly neighbors. A true Pavlovian experiment, every dog in the neighborhood knows to rejoice at the site of this vending machine of bone-shaped treats, the promise of tasty snacks locked just behind that door, if only their human would just take a quick look inside. The subliminal message is as easy to understand as the instructions on the door. Inside these doors lay treats. Treats for doggos and treats for humans.

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Michael Burpoe lives in Saranac Lake.