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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36173-0.txt b/36173-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e22a5e --- /dev/null +++ b/36173-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4686 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rambler's lease, by Bradford Torrey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Rambler's lease + +Author: Bradford Torrey + +Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #36173] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAMBLER'S LEASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, +Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been +left as in the original. No typographical corrections have been made. +Words in italics in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words +in bold in the original are surrounded by =equal signs=. + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Books by Mr. Torrey. | + | | + | | + | BIRDS IN THE BUSH. 16mo, $1.25. | + | A RAMBLER'S LEASE. 16mo, $1.25. | + | | + | | + | HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + A RAMBLER'S LEASE + + + BY + + BRADFORD TORREY + + + I have known many laboring men that have got good estates in + this valley.--BUNYAN + + Sunbeams, shadows, butterflies, and birds.--WORDSWORTH + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1892 + + + + + Copyright, 1889, + BY BRADFORD TORREY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's +woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort +the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this +feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this +public way, to hold _a rambler's lease_ of their property. Should it +please them to do so, they may accept the papers herein contained as a +kind of return, the best he knows how to offer, for the many favors, +alike unproffered and unasked, which he has received at their hands. His +private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it; and +taking this view of the matter, he cannot help thinking that some of +his more prosperous neighbors would do well, in legal phrase, to perfect +their titles. He would gladly be of service to them in this regard. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + MY REAL ESTATE 1 + + A WOODLAND INTIMATE 22 + + AN OLD ROAD 45 + + CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER 70 + + A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD 99 + + BEHIND THE EYE 114 + + A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE 121 + + NEW ENGLAND WINTER 140 + + A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE 164 + + A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION 182 + + ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM 189 + + BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 206 + + BASHFUL DRUMMERS 214 + + + + +A RAMBLER'S LEASE. + + + + +MY REAL ESTATE. + + Yet some did think that he had little business here.--WORDSWORTH. + + +Every autumn the town of W---- sends me a tax-bill, a kindly remembrance +for which I never fail of feeling grateful. It is pleasant to know that +after all these years there still remains one man in the old town who +cherishes my memory,--though it be only "this publican." Besides, to +speak frankly, there is a measure of satisfaction in being reminded now +and then of my dignity as a landed proprietor. One may be never so rich +in stocks and bonds, government consols and what not, but, acceptable as +such "securities" are, they are after all not quite the same as a +section of the solid globe itself. True, this species of what we may +call astronomic or planetary property will sometimes prove +comparatively unremunerative. Here in New England (I know not what may +be true elsewhere) there is a class of people whom it is common to hear +gossiped about compassionately as "land poor." But, however scanty the +income to be derived from it, a landed investment is at least +substantial. It will never fail its possessor entirely. If it starve +him, it will offer him a grave. It has the prime quality of permanence. +At the very worst, it will last as long as it is needed. Railroads may +be "wrecked," banks be broken, governments become bankrupt, and we be +left to mourn; but when the earth departs we shall go with it. Yes, the +ancient form of speech is correct,--land is _real_; as the modern phrase +goes, translating Latin into Saxon, land is _the thing_; and though we +can scarcely reckon it among the necessaries of life, since so many do +without it, we may surely esteem it one of the least dispensable of +luxuries. + +But I was beginning to speak of my tax-bill, and must not omit to +mention a further advantage of real estate over other forms of property. +It is certain not to be overlooked by the town assessors. Its +proprietor is never shut up to the necessity of either advertising his +own good fortune, or else submitting to pay less than his rightful share +of the public expenses,--a merciful deliverance, for in such a strait, +where either modesty or integrity must go to the wall, it is hard for +human nature to be sure of itself. + +To my thinking there is no call upon a man's purse which should be +responded to with greater alacrity than this of the tax-gatherer. In +what cause ought we to spend freely, if not in that of home and country? +I have heard, indeed, of some who do not agree with me in this feeling. +Possibly tax-rates are now and then exorbitant. Possibly, too, my own +view of the subject might be different were my quota of the public levy +more considerable. This year, for instance, I am called upon for +seventy-three cents; if the demand were for as many dollars, who knows +whether I might not welcome it with less enthusiasm? On such a point it +would be unbecoming for me to speak. Enough that even with my fraction +of a dollar I am able to rejoice that I have a share in all the town's +multifarious outlay. If an additional fire-engine is bought, or a new +school-house built, or the public library replenished, it is done in +part out of my pocket. + +Here, however, let me make a single exception. I seldom go home (such +language still escapes me involuntarily) without finding that one or +another of the old roads has been newly repaired. I hope that no mill of +my annual seventy or eighty cents goes into work of that sort. The +roads--such as I have in mind--are out of the way and little traveled, +and, in my opinion, were better left to take care of themselves. There +is no artist but will testify that a crooked road is more picturesque +than a straight one; while a natural border of alder bushes, +grape-vines, Roxbury wax-work, Virginia creeper, wild cherry, and such +like is an inexpensive decoration of the very best sort, such as the +Village Improvement Society ought never to allow any highway surveyor to +lay his hands on, unless in some downright exigency. What a +short-sighted policy it is that provides for the comfort of the feet, +but makes no account of those more intellectual and spiritual pleasures +which enter through the eye! It may be answered, I know, that in matters +of general concern it is necessary to consult the greatest good of the +greatest number; and that, while all the inhabitants of the town are +supplied with feet, comparatively few of them have eyes. There is force +in this, it must be admitted. Possibly the highway surveyor (the +highwayman, I was near to writing) is not so altogether wrong in his +"improvements." At all events, it is not worth while for me to make the +question one of conscience, and go to jail rather than pay my taxes, as +Thoreau did. Let it suffice to enter my protest. Whatever others may +desire, for myself, as often as I revisit W----, I wish to be able to +repeat with unction the words of W----'s only poet,[5:1]-- + + "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood!" + +And how am I to do that, if the "scenes" have been modernized past +recognition? + +My own landed possessions are happily remote from roads. Not till long +after my day will the "tide of progress" bring them "into the market," +as the real-estate brokers are fond of saying. I have never yet been +troubled with the importunities of would-be purchasers. Indeed, it is a +principal recommendation of woodland property that one's sense of +proprietorship is so little liable to be disturbed. I often reflect how +altered the case would be were my fraction of an acre in some peculiarly +desirable location near the centre of the village. Then I could hardly +avoid knowing that the neighbors were given to speculating among +themselves about my probable selling price; once in a while I should be +confronted with a downright offer; and what assurance could I feel that +somebody would not finally tempt me beyond my strength, and actually buy +me out? As it is, my land is mine; and, unless extreme poverty overtakes +me, mine it is reasonably certain to remain, till death shall separate +us. + +Whatever contributes to render life interesting and enjoyable goes so +far toward making difficult its final inevitable surrender; and it must +be confessed that the thought of my wood-lot increases my otherwise +natural regret at being already so well along on my journey. In a sense +I feel my own existence to be bound up with that of my pine-trees; or, +to speak more exactly, that their existence is bound up with mine. For +it is a sort of unwritten but inexorable law in W----, as in fact it +appears to be throughout New England, that no pine must ever be allowed +to reach more than half its normal growth; so that my trees are certain +to fall under the axe as soon as their present owner is out of the way. +I am not much given to superstition. There are no longer any dryads, it +is to be presumed; and if there were, it is not clear that they would be +likely to take up with pines; but for all that, I cherish an almost +affectionate regard for any trees with which I have become familiar. I +have mourned the untimely fate of many; and now, seeing that I have been +entrusted with the guardianship of these few, I hold myself under a kind +of sacred obligation to live as long as possible, for their sakes. + +It is now a little less than a fortnight since I paid them a visit. The +path runs through the wood for perhaps half a mile; and, as I sauntered +along, I heard every few rods the thump of falling acorns, though there +was barely wind enough to sway the tree-tops. "Mother Earth has begun +her harvesting in good earnest," I thought. The present is what the +squirrels call a good year. They will laugh and grow fat. Their oak +orchards have seldom done better, the chestnut oaks in particular, the +handsome, rosy-tipped acorns of which are noticeably abundant. + +This interesting tree, so like the chestnut itself in both bark and +leaf, is unfortunately not to be found in my own lot; at any rate, I +have never discovered it there, although it grows freely only a short +distance away. But I have never explored the ground with anything like +thoroughness, and, to tell the truth, am not at all certain that I know +just where the boundaries run. In this respect my real estate is not +unlike my intellectual possessions; concerning which I often find it +impossible to determine what is actually mine and what another's. I +have written an essay before now, and at the end been more or less in +doubt where to set the quotation marks. For that matter, indeed, I +incline to believe that the whole tract of woods in the midst of which +my little spot is situated belongs to me quite as really as to the +various persons who claim the legal ownership. Not many of these latter, +I am confident, get a better annual income from the property than I do; +and even in law, we are told, possession counts for nine points out of +the ten. They are never to be found at home when I call, and I feel no +scruple about carrying away whatever I please. My treasures, be it said, +however, are chiefly of an impalpable sort,--mostly thoughts and +feelings, though with a few flowers and ferns now and then; the one set +about as valuable as the other, the proprietors of the land would +probably think. + +In one aspect of the case, the lot which is more strictly my own is just +now in a very interesting condition, though one that, unhappily, is far +from being uncommon. Except the pines already mentioned (only six or +eight in number), the wood was entirely cut off a few years before I +came into possession, and at present the place is covered with a thicket +of vines, bushes, and young trees, all engaged in an almost desperate +struggle for existence. When the ground was cleared, every seed in it +bestirred itself and came up; others made haste to enter from without; +and ever since then the battle has been going on. It is curious to +consider how changed the appearance of things will be at the end of +fifty years, should nature be left till then to take its course. By that +time the contest will for the most part be over. At least nineteen +twentieths of all the plants that enlisted in the fight will have been +killed, and where now is a dense mass of shrubbery will be a grove of +lordly trees, with the ground underneath broad-spaced and clear. A noble +result; but achieved at what a cost! If one were likely himself to live +so long, it would be worth while to catalogue the species now in the +field, for the sake of comparing the list with a similar one of half a +century later. The contrast would be an impressive sermon on the +mutability of mundane things. But we shall be past the need of +preaching, most of us, before that day arrives, and not unlikely shall +have been ourselves preached about in enforcement of the same trite +theme. + +Thoughts of this kind came to me the other afternoon, as I stood in the +path (what is known as the town path cuts the lot in two) and looked +about. So much was going on in this bit of earth, itself the very centre +of the universe to multitudes of living things. The city out of which I +had come was not more densely populous. Here at my elbow stood a group +of sassafras saplings, remnants of a race that has held the ground for +nobody knows how long. One of my earliest recollections of the place is +of coming hither to dig for fragrant roots. At that time it had never +dawned upon me that the owner of the land would some day die, and leave +it to me, his heir. How hard and rocky the ground was! And how hard we +worked for a very little bark! Yet few of my pleasures have lasted +better. The spicy taste is in my mouth still. Even in those days I +remarked the glossy green twigs of this elegant species, as well as the +unique and beautiful variety of its leaves,--some entire and oval, +others mitten-shaped, and others yet three-lobed; an extremely pretty +bit of originality, suiting admirably with the general comely habit of +this tree. There are some trees, as some men, that seem born to dress +well. + +Along with the sassafras I was delighted to find one or two small +specimens of the flowering dogwood (_Cornus florida_),--another original +genius, and one which I now for the first time became acquainted with as +a tenant of my own. Its deeply veined leaves are not in any way +remarkable (unless it be for their varied autumnal tints), and are all +fashioned after one pattern. Its blossoms, too, are small and +inconspicuous; but these it sets round with large white bracts +(universally mistaken for petals by the uninitiated), and in flowering +time it is beyond comparison the showiest tree in the woods, while its +fruit is the brightest of coral red. I hope these saplings of mine may +hold their own in the struggle for life, and be flourishing in all their +beauty when my successor goes to look at them fifty years hence. + +Having spoken of the originality of the sassafras and the dogwood, I +must not fail to mention their more abundant neighbor, the witch-hazel, +or hamamelis. In comparison with its wild freak of singularity, the +modest idiosyncrasies of the other two seem almost conventional. Why, if +not for sheer oddity's sake, should any bush in this latitude hold back +its blossoms till near the edge of winter? As I looked at the half-grown +buds, clustered in the axils of the yellow leaves, they appeared to be +waiting for the latter to fall, that they might have the sunlight all to +themselves. They will need it, one would say, in our bleak November +weather. + +Overfull of life as my wild garden patch was, it would not have kept its +(human) possessor very long from starvation. One or two barberry bushes +made a brave show of fruitfulness; but the handsome clusters were not +yet ripe, and even at their best they are more ornamental than +nutritive,--though, after the frost has cooked them, one may go farther +and fare worse. A few stunted maple-leaved viburnums (_this_ plant's +originality is imitative,--a not uncommon sort, by the bye) proffered +scanty cymes of dark purplish drupes. Here and there was a spike of red +berries, belonging to the false Solomon's-seal or false spikenard (what +a pity this worthy herb should not have some less negative title!); but +these it would have been a shame to steal from the grouse. Not far off a +single black alder was reddening its fruit, which all the while it +hugged close to the stem, as if in dread lest some chance traveler +should be attracted by the bright color. It need not have trembled, for +this time at least. I had just dined, and was tempted by nothing save +two belated blackberries, the very last of the year's crop, and a single +sassafras leaf, mucilaginous and savory, admirable as a relish. A few +pigeon-berries might have been found, I dare say, had I searched for +them, and possibly a few sporadic checkerberries; while right before my +eyes was a vine loaded with large bunches of very small frost-grapes, +such as for hardness would have served well enough for school-boys' +marbles. Everything has its favorable side, however; and probably the +birds counted it a blessing that the grapes _were_ small and hard and +sour; else greedy men would have come with baskets and carried them all +away. Except some scattered rose-hips, I have enumerated everything that +looked edible, I believe, though a hungry man's eyes might have +lengthened the list materially. The cherry-trees, hickories, and oaks +were not yet in bearing, as the horticultural phrase is; but I was glad +to run upon a clump of bayberry bushes, which offer nothing good to eat, +to be sure, but are excellent to smell of. The leaves always seem to +invite crushing, and I never withhold my hand. + +Among the crowd of young trees--scrub oaks, red oaks, white oaks, +cedars, ashes, hickories, birches, maples, aspens, sumachs, and +hornbeams--was a single tupelo. The distinguished name honors my +catalogue, but I am half sorry to have it there. For, with all its +sturdiness, the tupelo does not bear competition, and I foresee plainly +that my unlucky adventurer will inevitably find itself overshadowed by +more rapid growers, and be dwarfed and deformed, if not killed outright. +Some of the very strongest natures (and the remark is of general +application) require to be planted in the open, where they can be free +to develop in their own way and at leisure. But this representative of +_Nyssa multiflora_ took the only chance that offered, I presume, as the +rest of us must do. + +Happy the humble! who aspire not to lofty things, demanding the lapse of +years for their fulfillment, but are content to set before themselves +some lesser task, such as the brevity of a single season may suffice to +accomplish. Here were the asters and golden-rods already finishing their +course in glory, while the tupelo was still barely getting under way in +a race which, however prolonged, was all but certain to terminate in +failure. Of the golden-rods I noted four species, including the +white--which might appropriately be called silvery-rod--and the +blue-stemmed. The latter (_Solidago cæsia_) is to my eye the prettiest +of all that grow with us, though it is nearly the least obtrusive. It is +rarely, if ever, found outside of woods, and ought to bear some name +(sylvan golden-rod, perhaps) indicative of the fact. + +As a rule, fall flowers have little delicacy and fragrance. They are +children of the summer; and, loving the sun, have had almost an excess +of good fortune. With such pampering, it is no wonder they grow rank and +coarse. They would be more than human, I was going to say, if they did +not. It is left for stern winter's progeny, the blossoms of early +spring-time, who struggle upward through the snow and are blown upon by +chilly winds,--it is left for these gentle creatures, at once so hardy +and so frail, to illustrate the sweet uses of adversity. + +All in all, it was a motley company which I beheld thus huddled together +in my speck of forest clearing. Even the lands beyond the sea were +represented, for here stood mullein and yarrow, contesting the ground +with oaks and hickories. The smaller wood flowers were not wanting, of +course, though none of them were now in bloom. Pyrola and winter-green, +violets (the common blue sort and the leafy-stemmed yellow), strawberry +and five-finger, saxifrage and columbine, rock-rose and bed-straw, +self-heal and wood-sorrel,--these, and no doubt many more, were there, +filling the chinks otherwise unoccupied. + +My assortment of ferns is small, but I noted seven species: the brake, +the polypody, the hay-scented, and four species of +shield-ferns,--_Aspidium Noveboracense_, _Aspidium spinulosum_, variety +_intermedium_, _Aspidium marginale_, and the Christmas fern, _Aspidium +acrostichoides_. The last named is the one of which I am proudest. For +years I have been in the habit of coming hither at Christmas time to +gather the fronds, which are then as bright and fresh as in June. Two of +the others, the polypody and _Aspidium marginale_, are evergreen also, +but they are coarser in texture and of a less lively color. Writing of +these flowerless beauties, I am tempted to exclaim again, "Happy the +humble!" The brake is much the largest and stoutest of the seven, but it +is by a long time the first to be cut down before the frost. + +Should I ever meet with reverses, as the wealthiest and most prudent are +liable to do, and be compelled to part with my woodland inheritance, I +shall count it expedient to seek a purchaser in the spring. At that +season its charms are greatly enhanced by a lively brook. This comes +tumbling down the hill-side, dashing against the bowlders (of which the +land has plenty), and altogether acting like a thing not born to die; +but alas, the early summer sees it make an end, to wait the melting of +next winter's snow. Many a happy hour did I, as a youngster, pass upon +its banks, watching with wonder the swarms of tiny insects which +darkened the foam and the snow, and even filmed the surface of the brook +itself. I marveled then, as I do now, why such creatures should be out +so early. Possibly our very prompt March friend, the phÅ“be, could +suggest an explanation. + +A break in the forest is of interest not only to such plants as I have +been remarking upon, but also to various species of birds. No doubt the +towhee, the brown thrush, and the cat-bird found out this spot years +ago, and have been using it ever since for summer quarters. Indeed, a +cat-bird snarled at me for an intruder this very September afternoon, +though he himself was most likely nothing more than a chance pilgrim +going South. This member of the noble wren family and near cousin of +the mocking-bird would be better esteemed if he were to drop that +favorite feline call of his. But this is his bit of originality +(imitative, like the maple-leaved viburnum's), and perhaps, if justice +were done, it would be put down to his credit rather than made an +occasion of ill-will. + +Once during the afternoon a company of chickadees happened in upon me; +and, taking my cue from the newspaper folk, I immediately essayed an +interview. My imitation of their conversational notes was hardly begun +before one of the birds flew toward me, and, alighting near by, +proceeded to answer my calls with a mimicry so exact, as fairly to be +startling. To all appearance the quick-witted fellow had taken the game +into his own hands. Instead of my deceiving him, he would probably go +back and entertain his associates with amusing accounts of how cleverly +he had fooled a stranger, out yonder in the bushes. + +It would have seemed a graceful and appropriate acknowledgment of my +rightful ownership of the land on which the cat-bird and the titmice +were foraging, had they greeted me with songs. But it would hardly have +been courteous for me to propose the matter, and evidently it did not +occur to them. At all events, I heard no music except the hoarse and +solemn asseverations of the katydids, the gentler message of the +crickets, and in the distance an occasional roll-call of the grouse. My +dog--who is a much better sportsman than myself, but whose +companionship, I am ashamed to see, has not till now been mentioned--was +all the while making forays hither and thither into the surrounding +woods; and once in a while I heard, what is the best of all music in his +ears, the whir of "partridge" wings. Likely as not he thought it a queer +freak on my part to spend the afternoon thus idly, when with a gun I +might have been so much more profitably employed. He could not know that +I was satiating myself with a miser's delights, feasting my eyes upon my +own. In truth, I fancy he takes it for granted that the whole forest +belongs to me--and to him. Perhaps it does. As I said just now, I +sometimes think so myself. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5:1] Since this essay was originally published (in the _Atlantic +Monthly_) I have been assured that the author of _The Old Oaken Bucket_ +was not born in W----, but in the next town. Being convinced against my +will, however, and finding the biographical dictionaries divided upon +the point, I conclude to let the text stand unaltered. + + + + +A WOODLAND INTIMATE. + + Surely there are times + When they consent to own me of their kin, + And condescend to me, and call me cousin. + JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. + + +It is one of the enjoyable features of bird study, as in truth it is of +life in general, that so many of its pleasantest experiences have not to +be sought after, but befall us by the way; like rare and beautiful +flowers, which are never more welcome than when they smile upon us +unexpectedly from the roadside. + +One May morning I had spent an hour in a small wood where I am +accustomed to saunter, and, coming out into the road on my way home +again, fell in with a friend. "Wouldn't you like to see an oven-bird's +nest?" I inquired. He assented, and turning back, I piloted him to the +spot. The little mother sat motionless, just within the door of her +comfortable, roofed house, watching us intently, but all unconscious, +it is to be feared, of our admiring comments upon her ingenuity and +courage. Seeing her thus devoted to her charge, I wondered anew whether +she could be so innocent as not to know that one of the eggs on which +she brooded with such assiduity was not her own, but had been foisted +upon her by a faithless cow-bird. To me, I must confess, it is +inexplicable that any bird should be either so unobservant as not to +recognize a foreign egg at sight, or so easy-tempered as not to insist +on straightway being rid of it; though this is no more inscrutable, it +may be, than for another bird persistently, and as it were on principle, +to cast her own offspring upon the protection of strangers; while this, +in turn, is not more mysterious than ten thousand every-day occurrences +all about us. After all, it is a wise man that knows what to wonder at; +while the wiser he grows the stronger is likely to become his conviction +that, little as may be known, nothing is absolutely unknowable; that in +the world, as in its Author, there is probably "no darkness at all," +save as daylight is dark to owls and bats. I did not see the oven-bird's +eggs at this time, however, my tender-hearted companion protesting that +their faithful custodian should not be disturbed for the gratification +of his curiosity. So we bade her adieu, and went in pursuit of a +solitary vireo, just then overheard singing not far off. A few paces +brought him into sight, and as we came nearer and nearer he stood quite +still on a dead bough, in full view, singing all the while. When my +friend had looked him over to his satisfaction,--never having met with +such a specimen before,--I set myself to examine the lower branches of +the adjacent trees, feeling no doubt, from the bird's significant +behavior, that his nest must be somewhere in the immediate neighborhood. +Sure enough, it was soon discovered, hanging from near the end of an oak +limb; a typical vireo cup, suspended within the angle of two horizontal +twigs, with bits of newspaper wrought into its structure, and trimmed +outwardly with some kind of white silky substance. The female was in it +(this, too, we might have foreseen with reasonable certainty); but when +she flew off, it appeared that as yet no eggs were laid. The couple +manifested scarce any uneasiness at our investigations, and we soon +came away; stopping, as we left the wood, to spy out the nest of a +scarlet tanager, the feminine builder of which was just then busy with +giving it some finishing touches. + +It had been a pleasant stroll, I thought,--nothing more; but it proved +to be the beginning of an adventure which, to me at least, was in the +highest degree novel and interesting. + +I ought, perhaps, to premise that the solitary vireo (called also the +blue-headed vireo and the blue-headed greenlet) is strictly a bird of +the woods. It belongs to a distinctively American family, and is one of +five species which are more or less abundant as summer residents in +Eastern Massachusetts, being itself in most places the least numerous of +the five, and, with the possible exception of the white-eye, the most +retiring. My own hunting-grounds happen to be one of its favorite +resorts (there is none better in the State, I suspect), so that I am +pretty certain of having two or three pairs under my eye every season, +within a radius of half a mile. I have found a number of nests, also, +but till this year had never observed any marked peculiarity of the +birds as to timidity or fearlessness. Nor do I now imagine that any such +strong race peculiarity exists. What I am to describe I suppose to be +nothing more than an accidental and unaccountable idiosyncrasy of the +particular bird in question. Such freaks of temperament are more or less +familiar to all field naturalists, and may be taken as extreme +developments of that individuality which seems to be the birthright of +every living creature, no matter how humble. At this very moment I +recall a white-throated sparrow, overtaken some years ago in an +unfrequented road, whose tameness was entirely unusual, and, indeed, +little short of ridiculous. + +Three or four days after the walk just now mentioned I was again in the +same wood, and went past the vireos' nest, paying no attention to it +beyond noting that one of the birds, presumed to be the female, was on +duty. But the next morning, as I saw her again, it occurred to me to +make an experiment. So, quitting the path suddenly, I walked as rapidly +as possible straight up to the nest, a distance of perhaps three rods, +giving her no chance to slip off, with the hope of escaping unperceived. +The plan worked to a charm, or so I flattered myself. When I came to a +standstill my eyes were within a foot or two of hers; in fact, I could +get no nearer without running my head against the branch; yet she sat +quietly, apparently without a thought of being driven from her post, +turning her head this way and that, but making no sound, and showing not +the least sign of anything like distress. A mosquito buzzed about my +face, and I brushed it off. Still she sat undisturbed. Then I placed my +hand against the bottom of the nest. At this she half rose to her feet, +craning her neck to see what was going on, but the moment I let go she +settled back upon her charge. Surprised and delighted, I had no heart to +pursue the matter further, and turned away; declaring to myself that, +notwithstanding I had half promised a scientific friend the privilege of +"taking" the nest, such a thing should now never be done with my +consent. Before I could betray a confidence like this, I must be a more +zealous ornithologist or a more unfeeling man,--or both at once. Science +ought to be encouraged, of course, but not to the outraging of honor and +common decency. + +On the following day, after repeating such amenities as I had previously +indulged in, I put forth my hand as if to stroke the bird's plumage; +seeing which, she raised her beak threateningly and emitted a very faint +deprecatory note, which would have been inaudible at the distance of a +few yards. At the same time she opened and shut her bill, not +snappishly, but slowly,--a nervous action, simply, it seemed to me. + +Twenty-four hours later I called again, and was so favorably received +that, besides taking hold of the nest, as before, I brushed her tail +feathers softly. Then I put my hand to her head, on which she pecked my +finger in an extremely pretty, gentle way,--more like kissing than +biting,--and made use of the low murmuring sounds just now spoken of. +Her curiosity was plainly wide awake. She stretched her neck to the +utmost to look under the nest, getting upon her feet for the purpose, +till I expected every moment to see her slip away; but presently she +grew quiet again, and I withdrew, leaving her in possession. + +By this time a daily interview had come to be counted upon as a matter +of course, by me certainly, and, for aught I know, by the vireo as well. +On my next visit I stroked the back of her head, allowed her to nibble +the tip of my finger, and was greatly pleased with the matter-of-fact +manner in which she captured an insect from the side of the nest, while +leaning out to oversee my manÅ“uvres. Finally, on my offering to lay +my left hand upon her, she quit her seat, and perched upon a twig, +fronting me; and when I put my finger to her bill she flew off. Even now +she made no outcry, however, but fell immediately to singing in tones of +absolute good-humor, and before I had gone four rods from the tree was +back again upon the eggs. Of these, I should have said, there were +four,--the regular complement,--all her own. Expert as cow-birds are at +running a blockade, it would have puzzled the shrewdest of them to +smuggle anything into a nest so sedulously guarded. + +Walking homeward, I bethought myself how foolish I had been not to offer +my little _protégée_ something to eat. Accordingly, in the morning, +before starting out, I filled a small box with leaves from the garden +rose-bush, which, as usual, had plenty of plant-lice upon it. Armed in +this manner, as perhaps no ornithologist ever went armed before,--I +approached the nest, and to my delight saw it still unharmed (I never +came in sight of it without dreading to find it pillaged); but just as I +was putting my hand into my pocket for the box, off started the bird. +Here was a disappointment indeed; but in the next breath I assured +myself that the recreant must be the male, who for once had been +spelling his companion. So I fell back a little, and in a minute or less +one of the pair went on to brood. This was the mother, without question, +and I again drew near. True enough, she welcomed me with all her +customary politeness. No matter what her husband might say, she knew +better than to distrust an inoffensive, kind-hearted gentleman like +myself. Had I not proved myself such time and again? So I imagined her +to be reasoning. At all events, she sat quiet and unconcerned; +apparently more unconcerned than her visitor, for, to tell the truth, I +was so anxious for the success of this crowning experiment that I +actually found myself trembling. However, I opened my store of dainties, +wet the tip of my little finger, took up an insect, and held it to her +mandibles. For a moment she seemed not to know what it was, but soon she +picked it off and swallowed it. The second one she seized promptly, and +the third she reached out to anticipate, exactly as a tame canary might +have done. Before I could pass her the fourth she stepped out of the +nest, and took a position upon the branch beside it; but she accepted +the morsel, none the less. And an extremely pretty sight it was,--a wild +wood bird perched upon a twig and feeding from a man's finger! + +She would not stay for more, but flew to another bough; whereupon I +resumed my ramble, and, as usual, she covered the eggs again before I +could get out of sight. When I returned, in half an hour or thereabouts, +I proffered her a mosquito, which I had saved for that purpose. She took +it, but presently let it drop. It was not to her taste, probably, for +shortly afterward she caught one herself, as it came fluttering near, +and discarded that also; but she ate the remainder of my rose-bush +parasites, though I was compelled to coax her a little. Seemingly, she +felt that our proceedings were more or less irregular, if not positively +out of character. Not that she betrayed any symptoms of nervousness or +apprehension, but she repeatedly turned away her head, as if determined +to refuse all further overtures. In the end, nevertheless, as I have +said, she ate the very last insect I had to give her. + +During the meal she did something which as a display of nonchalance was +really amazing. The eggs got misplaced, in the course of her twisting +about, and after vainly endeavoring to rearrange them with her feet, as +I had seen her do on several occasions, she ducked her head into the +nest, clean out of sight under her feathers, and set matters to rights +with her beak. I was as near to her as I could well be, without having +her actually in my hand, yet she deliberately put herself entirely off +guard, apparently without the slightest misgiving! + +Fresh from this adventure, and all aglow with pleasurable excitement, I +met a friend in the city, a naturalist of repute, and one of the +founders of the American Ornithologists' Union. Of course I regaled him +with an account of my wonderful vireo (he was the man to whom I had half +promised the nest); and on his expressing a wish to see her, I invited +him out for the purpose that very afternoon. I smile to remember how +full of fears I was, as he promptly accepted the invitation. The bird, I +declared to myself, would be like the ordinary baby, who, as everybody +knows, is never so stupid as when its fond mother would make a show of +it before company. Yesterday it was so bright and cunning! Never was +baby like it. Yesterday it did such and such unheard-of things; but +to-day, alas, it will do nothing at all. However, I put on a bold face, +filled my pen-box with rose-leaves, exchanged my light-colored hat for +the black one in which my pet had hitherto seen me, furnished my friend +with a field-glass, and started with him for the wood. The nest was +occupied (I believe I never found it otherwise), and, stationing my +associate in a favorable position, I marched up to it, when, lo, the +bird at once took wing. This was nothing to be disconcerted about, the +very promptness of the action making it certain that the sitter must +have been the male. The pair were both in sight, and the female would +doubtless soon fill the place which her less courageous lord had +deserted. So it turned out, and within a minute everything was in +readiness for a second essay. This proved successful. The first insect +was instantly laid hold of, whereupon I heard a suppressed exclamation +from behind the field-glass. When I rejoined my friend, having exhausted +my supplies, nothing would do but he must try something of the kind +himself. Accordingly, seizing my hat, which dropped down well over his +ears, he made up to the tree. The bird pecked his finger familiarly, and +before long he came rushing back to the path, exclaiming that he must +find something with which to feed her. After overturning two or three +stones he uncovered an ant's nest, and moistening his forefinger, thrust +it into a mass of eggs. With these he hastened to the vireo. She helped +herself to them eagerly, and I could hear him counting, "One, two, +three, four," and so on, as she ate mouthful after mouthful. + +Now, then, he wished to examine the contents of the nest, especially as +it was the first of its kind that he had ever seen out-of-doors. But the +owner was set upon not giving him the opportunity. He stroked her head, +brushed her wings, and, as my note-book puts it, "poked her generally;" +and still she kept her place. Finally, as he stood on one side of her +and I on the other, we pushed the branch down, down, till she was fairly +under our noses. Then she stepped off; but even now, it was only to +alight on the very next twig, and face us calmly! and we had barely +started away before we saw her again on duty. Brave bird! My friend was +exceedingly pleased, and I not less so; though the fact of her making no +difference between us was something of a shock to my self-conceit, +endeavor as I might to believe that she had welcomed him, if not in my +stead, yet at least as my friend. What an odd pair we must have looked +in her eyes! Possibly she had heard of the new movement for the +protection of American song-birds, and took us for representatives of +the Audubon Society. + +Desiring to make some fresh experiment, I set out the next morning with +a little water and a teaspoon, in addition to my ordinary outfit of +rose-leaves. The mother bird was at home, and without hesitation dipped +her bill into the water,--the very first solitary vireo, I dare be +bound, that ever drank out of a silver spoon! Afterwards I gave her the +insects, of which she swallowed twenty-four as fast as I could pick them +up. Evidently she was hungry, and appreciated my attentions. There was +nothing whatever of the coquettishness which she had sometimes +displayed. On the contrary, she leaned forward to welcome the tidbits, +one by one, quite as if it were the most natural thing in the world for +birds to be waited upon in this fashion by their human admirers. Toward +the end, however, a squirrel across the way set up a loud bark, and she +grew nervous; so that when it came to the twenty-fifth louse, which was +the last I could find, she was too much preoccupied to care for it. + +At this point a mosquito stung my neck, and, killing it, I held it +before her. She snapped at it in a twinkling, but retained it between +her mandibles. Whether she would finally have swallowed it I am not able +to say (and so must leave undecided a very interesting and important +question in economic ornithology), for just then I remembered a piece of +banana with which I had been meaning to tempt her. Of this she tasted at +once, and, as I thought, found it good; for she transfixed it with her +bill, and, quitting her seat, carried it away and deposited it on a +branch. But instead of eating it, as I expected to see her do, she fell +to fly-catching, while her mate promptly appeared, and as soon as +opportunity offered took his turn at brooding. My eyes, meanwhile, had +not kept the two distinct, and, supposing that the mother had returned, +I stepped up to offer her another drink, but had no sooner filled the +spoon than the fellow took flight. At this the female came to the rescue +again, and unhesitatingly entered the nest. It was a noble reproof, I +thought; well deserved, and very handsomely administered. "Oh, you +cowardly dear," I fancied her saying, "he'll not hurt you. See me, now! +I'm not afraid. He's queer, I know; but he means well." + +I should have mentioned that while the squirrel was barking she uttered +some very pretty _sotto voce_ notes of two kinds,--one like what I have +often heard, and one entirely novel. + +A man ought to have lived with such a creature, year in and out, and +seen it under every variety of mood and condition, before imagining +himself possessed of its entire vocabulary. For who doubts that birds, +also, have their more sacred and intimate feelings, their esoteric +doctrines and experiences, which are not proclaimed upon the tree-top, +but spoken under breath, in all but inaudible twitters? Certainly this +pet of mine on sundry occasions whispered into my ear things which I had +never heard before, and as to the purport of which, in my ignorance of +the vireonian tongue, I could only conjecture. For my own part, I am +through with thinking that I have mastered all the notes of any bird, +even the commonest. + +I wondered, by the bye, whether my speech was as unintelligible to the +greenlet as hers was to me. I trust, at all events, that she divined a +meaning in the tones, however she may have missed the words; for I never +called without telling her how much I admired her spirit. She was all +that a bird ought to be, I assured her, good, brave, and handsome; and +should never suffer harm, if I could help it. Alas! although, as the +apostle says, I loved "not in word, but in deed and in truth," yet when +the pinch came I was somewhere else, and all my promises went for +nothing. + +Our intercourse was nearing its end. It was already the 10th of June, +and on the 12th I was booked for a journey. During my last visit but one +it gratified me not a little to perceive that the wife's example and +reproof had begun to tell upon her mate. He happened to be in the nest +as I came up, and sat so unconcernedly while I made ready to feed him +that I took it for granted I was dealing with the female, till at the +last moment he slipped away. I stepped aside for perhaps fifteen feet, +and waited briefly, both birds in sight. Then the lady took her turn at +sitting, and I proceeded to try again. She behaved like herself, made +free with a number of insects, and then, all at once, for no reason that +I could guess at, she sprang out of the nest, and alighted on the ground +within two yards of my feet, and almost before I could realize what had +occurred was up in the tree. I had my eyes upon her, determined, if +possible, to keep the pair distinct, and succeeded, as I believed, in so +doing. Pretty soon the male (unless I was badly deceived) went to the +nest with a large insect in his bill, and stood for some time beside it, +eating and chattering. Finally he dropped upon the eggs, and, seeing him +grown thus unsuspicious, I thought best to test him once more. This time +he kept his seat, and with great condescension ate two of my plant-lice. +But there he made an end. Again and again I put the third one to his +mouth; but he settled back obstinately into the nest, and would have +none of it. For once, as it seemed, he could be brave; but he was not to +be coddled, or treated like a baby--or a female. There were good +reasons, of course, for his being less hungry than his mate, and +consequently less appreciative of such favors as I had to bestow; but it +was very amusing to see how tightly he shut his bill, as if his mind +were made up, and no power on earth should shake it. + +If any inquisitive person raises the question whether I am absolutely +certain of this bird's being the male, I must answer in the negative. +The couple were dressed alike, as far as I could make out, save that the +female was much the more brightly washed with yellow on the sides of the +body; and my present discrimination of them was based upon close +attention to this point, as well as upon my careful and apparently +successful effort not to confuse the two, after the one which I knew to +be the female (the one, that is, which had done most of the sitting, and +had all along been so very familiar) had joined the other among the +branches. I had no downright proof, it must be acknowledged, nor could I +have had any without killing and dissecting the bird; but my own strong +conviction was and is that the male had grown fearless by observing my +treatment of his spouse, but from some difference of taste, or, more +probably, for lack of appetite, found himself less taken than she had +commonly been with my rather meagre bill of fare. + +This persuasion, it cannot be denied, was considerably shaken the next +morning, when I paid my friends a parting call. The father bird, +forgetful of his own good example of the day before, and mindless of all +the proprieties of such a farewell occasion, slipped incontinently from +the eggs just as I was removing the cover from my pen-box. Well, he +missed the last opportunity he was likely ever to have of breakfasting +from a human finger. So ignorant are birds, no less than men, of the day +of their visitation! Before I could get away,--while I was yet within +two yards of the nest,--the other bird hastened to occupy the vacant +place. _She_ knew what was due to so considerate and well-tried a +friend, if her partner did not. The little darling! As soon as she was +well in position I stepped to her side, opened my treasures, and gave +her, one by one, twenty-six insects (all I had), which she took with +avidity, reaching forward again and again to anticipate my motions. +Then I stole a last look at the four pretty eggs, having almost to force +her from the nest for that purpose, bade her good-by, and came away, +sorry enough to leave her; forecasting, as I could not help doing, the +slight probability of finding her again on my return, and picturing to +myself all the sweet, motherly ways she would be certain to develop as +soon as the little ones were hatched. + +Within an hour I was speeding toward the Green Mountains. There, in +those ancient Vermont forests, I saw and heard other solitary vireos, +but none that treated me as my Melrose pair had done. Noble and gentle +spirits! though I were to live a hundred years, I should never see their +like again. + +The remainder of the story is, unhappily, soon told. I was absent a +fortnight, and on getting back went at once to the sacred oak. Alas! +there was nothing but a severed branch to show where the vireos' nest +had hung. The cut looked recent; I was thankful for that. Perhaps the +"collector," whoever he was, had been kind enough to wait till the +owners of the house were done with it, before he carried it away. Let +us hope so, at all events, for the peace of his own soul, as well as for +the sake of the birds. + + + + +AN OLD ROAD. + + Methinks here one may, without much molestation, be thinking + what he is, whence he came, what he has done, and to what the + King has called him.--BUNYAN. + + +I fall in with persons, now and then, who profess to care nothing for a +path when walking in the woods. They do not choose to travel in other +people's footsteps,--nay, nor even in their own,--but count it their +mission to lay out a new road every time they go afield. They are +welcome to their freak. My own genius for adventure is less highly +developed; and, to be frank, I have never learned to look upon +affectation and whim as synonymous with originality. In my eyes, it is +nothing against a hill that other men have climbed it before me; and if +their feet have worn a trail, so much the better. I not only reach the +summit more easily, but have company on the way,--company none the less +to my mind, perhaps, for being silent and invisible. It is well enough +to strike into the trackless forest once in a while; to wander you know +not whither, and come out you know not where; to lie down in a strange +place, and for an hour imagine yourself the explorer of a new continent: +but if the mind be awake (as, alas, too often it is not), you may walk +where you will, in never so well known a corner, and you will see new +things, and think new thoughts, and return to your house a new man, +which, I venture to believe, is after all the main consideration. +Indeed, if your stirring abroad is to be more than mere muscular +exercise, you will find a positive advantage in making use of some +well-worn and familiar path. The feet will follow it mechanically, and +so the mind--that is, the walker himself--will be left undistracted. +That, to my thinking, is the real tour of discovery wherein one keeps to +the beaten road, looks at the customary sights, but brings home a new +idea. + +There are inward moods, as well as outward conditions, in which an old, +half-disused, bush-bordered road becomes the saunterer's paradise. I +have several such in my eye at this moment, but especially one, in +which my feet, years ago, grew to feel at home. It is an almost ideal +loitering place, or would be, if only it were somewhat longer. How many +hundreds of times have I traveled it, spring and summer, autumn and +winter! As I go over it now, the days of my youth come back to me, +clothed all of them in that soft, benignant light which nothing but +distance can bestow, whether upon hills or days. This gracious effect is +heightened, no doubt, by the fact that for a good while past my visits +to the place have been only occasional. Memory and imagination are true +yoke-fellows, and between them are always preparing some new pleasure +for us, as often as we allow them opportunity. The other day, for +instance, as I came to the top of the hill just beyond the river, I +turned suddenly to the right, looking for an old pear-tree. I had not +thought of it for years, and the more I have since tried to recall its +appearance and exact whereabouts, the less confident have I grown that +it ever had any material existence; but somehow, just at that moment my +mouth seemed to recollect it; and in general I have come to put faith +in such involuntary and, if I may say so, sensible joggings of the +memory. I wonder whether the tree ever was there--or anywhere. At all +events, the thought of it gave me for the moment a pleasure more real +than any taste in the mouth, were it never so sweet. Thank fortune, +imaginative delights are as far as possible from being imaginary. + +The river just mentioned runs under the road, and, as will readily be +inferred, is one of its foremost attractions. I speak of it as a "river" +with some misgivings. It is a rather large brook, or a very small river; +but a man who has never been able to leap across it has perhaps no right +to deny it the more honorable appellation. Its source is a spacious and +beautiful sheet of water, which heretofore has been known as a "pond," +but which I should be glad to believe would hereafter be put upon the +maps as Lake Wessagusset. This brook or river, call it whichever you +please, goes meandering through the township in a northeasterly +direction, turning the wheels of half a dozen mills, more or less, on +its way; a sluggish stream, too lazy to work, you would think; passing +much of its time in flat, grassy meadows, where it idles along as if it +realized that the end of its course was near, and felt in no haste to +lose itself in the salt sea. Out of this stream I pulled goodly numbers +of perch, pickerel, shiners, flatfish, and hornpouts, while I was still +careless-hearted enough ("Heaven lies about us in our infancy") to enjoy +this very amiable and semi-religious form of "sport;" and as the river +intersects at least seven roads that came within my boyish beat, I must +have crossed it thousands of times; in addition to which I have spent +days in paddling and bathing in it. Altogether, it is one of my most +familiar friends; and--what one cannot say of all familiar friends--I do +not remember that it ever served me the slightest ill-turn. It passes +under the road of which I am now discoursing, in a double channel (the +bridge being supported midway by a stone wall), and then broadens out +into an artificial shallow, through which travelers may drive if they +will, to let their horses drink out of the stream. First and last, I +have improved many a shining hour on this bridge, leaning industriously +over the railing. I can see the rocky bed at this moment,--yes, and the +very shape and position of some of the stones, as I saw them thirty +years ago; especially of one, on which we used to balance ourselves to +dip up the water or to peer under the bridge. In those days, if we +essayed to be uncommonly adventurous, we waded through this low and +somewhat dark passage; a gruesome proceeding, as we were compelled to +stoop a little, short as we were, to save our heads, while the road, to +our imagination, seemed in momentary danger of caving in upon us. +Courage, like all other human virtues, is but a relative attribute. +Possibly the heroic deeds upon which in our grown-up estate we plume +ourselves are not greatly more meritorious or wonderful than were some +of the childish ventures at the recollection of which we now condescend +to feel amused. + +On the surface of the brook flourished two kinds of insects, whose +manner of life we never tired of watching. One sort had long, +wide-spreading legs, and by us were known as "skaters," from their +movements (to this day, I blush to confess, I have no other name for +them); the others were flat, shining, orbicular or oblong, lead-colored +bugs,--"lucky bugs" I have heard them called,--and lay flat upon the +water, as if quite without limbs; but they darted over the brook, and +even against the current, with noticeable activity, and doubtless were +well supplied with paddles. Once in a while we saw a fish here, but only +on rare occasions. The great unfailing attraction of the place, then as +now, was the flowing water, forever spending and never spent. The +insects lived upon it; apparently they had no power to leave it for an +instant; but they were not carried away by it. Happy creatures! We, +alas, sporting upon the river of time, can neither dive below the +surface nor mount into the ether, and, unlike the insects ("lucky bugs," +indeed!), we have no option but to move with the tide. We have less +liberty than the green flags, even, which grow in scattered tufts in the +bed of the brook; whose leaves point forever down stream, like so many +index fingers, as if they said, "Yes, yes, that is the way to the sea; +that way we all must go;" while for themselves, nevertheless, they +manage to hold on by their roots, victorious even while professing to +yield. + +To my mind the river is alive. Reason about it as I will, I never can +make it otherwise. I could sooner believe in water nymphs than in many +existences which are commonly treated as much more certain matters of +fact. I _could_ believe in them, I say; but in reality I do not. My +communings are not with any haunter of the river, but with the living +soul of the river itself. It lags under the vine-covered alders, hastens +through the bridge, then slips carelessly down a little descent, where +it breaks into singing, then into a mill-pond and out again, and so on +and on, through one experience after another; and all the time it is not +dead water, but a river, a thing of life and motion. After all, it is +not for me to say what is alive and what dead. As yet, indeed, I do not +so much as know what life is. In certain moods, in what I fondly call my +better moments, I feel measurably sure of being alive myself; but even +on that point, for aught I can tell, the brook may entertain some +private doubts. + +Just beyond the bridge is an ancient apple orchard. This was already +falling into decay when I was a boy, and the many years that have +elapsed since then have nearly completed its demolition; although I dare +say the present generation of school-boys still find it worth while to +clamber over the wall, as they journey back and forth. Probably it will +be no surprise to the owner of the place if I tell him that before I was +twelve years old I knew the taste of all his apples. In fact, the +orchard was so sequestered, so remote from any house,--especially from +its proprietor's,--that it hardly seemed a sin to rob it. It was not so +much an orchard as a bit of woodland; and besides, we never shook the +trees, but only helped ourselves to windfalls; and it must be a severe +moralist who calls _that_ stealing. Why should the fruit drop off, if +not to be picked up? In my time, at all events, such appropriations were +never accounted robbery, though the providential absence of the owner +was unquestionably a thing to be thankful for. He would never begrudge +us the apples, of course, for he was rich and presumably generous; but +it was quite as well for him to be somewhere else while we were +gathering up these favors which the winds of heaven had shaken down for +our benefit. There is something of the special pleader in most of us, it +is to be feared, whether young or old. If we are put to it, we can draw +a very fine distinction (in our own favor), no matter how obtuse we may +seem on ordinary occasions. + +Remembering how voracious and undiscriminating my juvenile appetite was, +I cannot help wondering that I am still alive,--a feeling which I doubt +not is shared by many a man who, like myself, had a country bringing-up. +We must have been born with something more than a spark of life, else it +would certainly have been smothered long ago by the fuel so recklessly +heaped upon it. But we lived out-of-doors, took abundant exercise, were +not studious overmuch (as all boys and girls are charged with being +nowadays), and had little to worry about, which may go far to explain +the mystery. + +It provokes a smile to reckon up the many places along this old road +that are indissolubly connected in my mind with the question of +something to eat. At the foot of the orchard just now spoken of, for +example, is a dilapidated stone wall, between it and the river. Over +this, as well as over the bushes beside it, straggled a small wild +grape-vine, bearing every year a scanty crop of white grapes. These, to +our unsophisticated palates, were delicious, if only they got ripe. That +was the rub; and as a rule we gathered our share of them (which was all +there were) while they were yet several stages short of that desirable +consummation, not deeming it prudent to leave them longer, lest some +hungrier soul should get the start of us. Graping, as we called it, was +one of our regular autumn industries, and there were few vines within +the circle of our perambulations which did not feel our fingers tugging +at them at least once a year. Some of them hung well over the river; +others took refuge in the tops of trees; but by hook or by crook, we +usually got the better of such perversities. No doubt the fruit was all +bad enough; but some of it was sweeter (or less sour) than other. +Perhaps the best vine was one that covered a certain superannuated +apple-tree, half a mile west of our river-side orchard, before +mentioned. Here I might have been seen by the hour, eagerly yet +cautiously venturing out upon the decayed and doubtful limbs, in quest +of this or that peculiarly tempting bunch. These grapes were purple (how +well some things are remembered!), and were sweeter then than Isabellas +or Catawbas are now. Such is the degeneracy of vines in these modern +days! + +Altogether more important than the grapes were the huckleberries, for +which, also, we four times out of five took this same famous by-road. +Speaking roughly, I may say that we depended upon seven pastures for our +supplies, and were accustomed to visit them in something like regular +order. It is kindly provided that huckleberry bushes have an +exceptionally strong tendency to vary. We possessed no theories upon the +subject, and knew nothing of disputed questions about species and +varieties; but we were not without a good degree of practical +information. Here was a bunch of bushes, for instance, covered with +black, shiny, pear-shaped berries, very numerous, but very small. They +would do moderately well in default of better. Another patch, perhaps +but a few rods removed, bore large globular berries, less glossy than +the others, but still black. These, as we expressed it, "filled up" much +faster than the others, though not nearly so "thick." Blue berries (not +blueberries, but blue huckleberries) were common enough, and we knew one +small cluster of plants, the fruit of which was white, a variety that I +have since found noted by Doctor Gray as very rare. Unhappily, this +freak made so little impression upon me as a boy that while I am clear +as to the fact, and feel sure of the pasture, I have no distinct +recollection of the exact spot where the eccentric bushes grew. I should +like to know whether they still persist. Gray's Manual, by the way, +makes no mention of the blue varieties, but lays it down succinctly that +the fruit of _Gaylussacia resinosa_ is black. + +The difference we cared most about, however, related not to color, +shape, or size, but to the time of ripening. Diversity of habit in this +regard was indeed a great piece of good fortune, not to be rightly +appreciated without horrible imaginings of how short the season of berry +pies and puddings would be if all the berries matured at once. You may +be sure we never forgot where the early sorts were to be found, and +where the late. What hours upon hours we spent in the broiling sun, +picking into some half-pint vessel, and emptying that into a larger +receptacle, safely stowed away under some cedar-tree or barberry bush. +How proud we were of our heaped-up pails! How carefully we discarded +from the top every half-ripe or otherwise imperfect specimen! (So early +do well-taught Yankee children develop one qualification for the +diaconate.) The sun had certain minor errands to look after, we might +have admitted, even in those midsummer days, but his principal business +was to ripen huckleberries. So it seemed then. And now--well, men are +but children still, and for them, too, their own little round is the +centre of the world. + +All these pastures had names, of course, well understood by us children, +though I am not sure how generally they would have been recognized by +the townspeople. The first in order was River Pasture, the owner of +which turned his cattle into it, and every few years mowed the bushes, +with the result that the berries, whenever there were any, were +uncommonly large and handsome. Not far beyond this (the entrance was +through a "pair of bars," beside a spreading white oak) was Millstone +Pasture. This was a large, straggling place, half pasture, half wood, +full of nooks and corners, with by-paths running hither and thither, and +named after two large bowlders, which lay one on top of the other. We +used to clamber upon these to eat our luncheon, thinking within +ourselves, meanwhile, that the Indians must have been men of prodigious +strength. At that time, though I scarcely know how to own it, glacial +action was a thing by us unheard of. We are wiser now,--on that point, +at any rate. Two of the other pastures were called respectively after +the railroad and a big pine-tree (there _was_ a big pine-tree in W---- +once, for I myself have seen the stump), while the remainder took their +names from their owners, real or reputed; and as some of these +appellations were rather disrespectfully abbreviated, it may be as well +to omit setting them down in print. + +To all these places we resorted a little later in the season for +blackberries, and later still for barberries. In one or two of them we +set snares, also, but without materially lessening the quantity of game. +The rabbits, especially, always helped themselves to the bait, and left +us the noose. At this distance of time I do not begrudge them their good +fortune. I hope they are all alive yet, including the youngster that we +once caught in our hands and brought home, and then, in a fit of +contrition, carried back again to its native heath. + +All in all, the berries that we prized most, perhaps, were those that +came first, and were at the same time least abundant. Yankee children +will understand at once that I mean the checkerberries, or, as we were +more accustomed to call them, the boxberries. The very first mild days +in March, if the snow happened to be mostly gone, saw us on this same +old road bound for one of the places where we thought ourselves most +likely to find a few (possibly a pint or two, but more probably a +handful or two) of these humble but spicy fruits. Not that the plants +were not plentiful enough in all directions, but it was only in certain +spots (or rather in very uncertain spots, since these were continually +shifting) that they were ever in good bearing condition. We came after a +while to understand that the best crops were produced for two or three +years after the cutting off of the wood in suitable localities. Letting +in the sunlight seems to have the effect of starting into sudden +fruitfulness this hardy, persistent little plant, although I never could +discover that it thrived better for growing permanently in an open, +sunny field. Perhaps it requires an unexpected change of condition, a +providential nudge, as it were, to jog it into activity, like some +poets. Whatever the explanation, we used now and then in recent +clearings (and nowhere else) to find the ground fairly red with berries. +Those were red-letter days in our calendar. How handsome such a patch +of rose-color was (though we made haste to despoil it), circling an old +stump or a bowlder! The berries were pleasant to the eye and good for +food; but after all, their principal attractiveness lay in the fact that +they came right upon the heels of winter. They were the first-fruits of +the new year (ripened the year before, to be sure), and to our thinking +were fit to be offered upon any altar, no matter how sacred. + +I have called the subject of my loving meditations a by-road. Formerly +it was the main thoroughfare between two villages, but shortly after my +acquaintance with it began a new and more direct one was laid out. Yet +the old road, half deserted as it is, has not altogether escaped the +ruthless hand of the improver. Within my time it has been widened +throughout, and in one place a new section has been built to cut off a +curve. Fortunately, however, the discarded portion still remains, well +grown up to grass, and closely encroached upon by willows, alders, +sumachs, barberries, dogwoods, smilax, clethra, azalea, button-bush, +birches, and what not, yet still passable even for carriages, and more +inviting than ever to lazy pedestrians like myself. On this cast-off +section is a cosy, grassy nook, shaded by a cluster of red cedars. This +was one of our favorite way-stations on summer noons. It gives me a +comfortable, restful feeling to look into it even now, as if my weary +limbs had reminiscences of their own connected with the place. + +Right at this point stands an ancient russet-apple tree, which seems no +older and brings forth no smaller apples now than it did when I first +knew it. How natural it looks in every knot and branch! Strange, too, +that it should be so, since I do not recall its ever contributing the +first mouthful to my pleasures as a schoolboy gastronomer. In those +times I judged a tree solely by the New Testament standard, very +literally interpreted,--"By their fruits ye shall know them." Now I have +other tests, and can value an old acquaintance of this kind for its +picturesqueness, though its apples be bitter as wormwood. + +I am making too much of the food question, and will therefore say +nothing of strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, cranberries +(which last were delicious, as we took them out of their icy ovens in +the spring), pig-nuts, hazel-nuts, acorns, and the rest. Yet I will not +pass by a small clump of dangleberry bushes (a September luxury not +common in our neighborhood) and a lofty pear-tree. The latter, in truth, +hardly belongs under this head; for though it bore superabundant crops +of pears, not even a child was ever known to eat one. We called them +iron pears, perhaps because nothing but the hottest fire could be +expected to reduce them to a condition of softness. My mouth is all in a +pucker at the mere thought of the rusty-green bullets. It did seem a +pity they should be so outrageously hard, so absolutely untoothsome; for +the tree, as I say, was a big one and provokingly prolific, and, +moreover, stood squarely upon the roadside. What a godsend we should +have found it, had its fruit been a few degrees less stony! Such +incongruities and disappointments go far to convince me that the +creation is indeed, as some theologians have taught, under a curse. + +My appetite for wild fruits has grown dull with age, but meanwhile my +affection for the old road has not lessened, but rather increased. In +itself the place is nowise remarkable, a common country back road (its +very name is Back Street); but all the same I "take pleasure in its +stones, and favor the dust thereof." There are none of us so +matter-of-fact and unsentimental, I hope, as never to have experienced +the force of old associations in gilding the most ordinary objects. For +my own part, I protest, I would give more for a single stunted cluster +of orange-red berries from a certain small vine of Roxbury wax-work, +near the entrance to Millstone Pasture aforesaid, than for a bushel of +larger and handsomer specimens from some alien source. This old vine +still holds on, I am happy to see, though it appears to have made no +growth in twenty years. Long may it be spared! It was within a few rods +of it, beside the path that runs into the pasture, that I shot my first +bird. Newly armed with a shotgun, and on murder bent, I turned in here; +and as luck would have it, there sat the innocent creature in a birch. +The temptation was too great. There followed a moment of excitement, a +nervous aim, a bang, and a catbird's song was hushed forever. A mean +and cruel act, which I confess with shame, and have done my best to +atone for by speaking here and there a good word for this poorly +appreciated member of our native choir. I should be glad to believe that +the schoolboys of the present day are more tender-hearted than those +with whom I mixed; but I am not without my doubts. As Darwin showed, all +animals in the embryonic stage tend to reproduce ancestral +characteristics; and our Anglo-Saxon ancestors (how easy it seems to +believe it!) were barbarians. + +This same Millstone Pasture, by the bye, was a place of special resort +at Christmas time. Here grew plenty of the trailing plant which we knew +simply as "evergreen," but which now, in my superior wisdom, I call +_Lycopodium complanatum_. This, indeed, was common in various +directions, but the holly was much less easily found, and grew here more +freely than anywhere else. The unhappy trees had a hard shift to live, +so broken down were they with each recurring December; and the more +berries they produced, the worse for them. Their anticipations of +Christmas must have been strangely different from those of us +toy-loving, candy-eating children. But who thinks of sympathizing with a +tree? + +As for the wayside flowers, they are, as becomes the place, of the very +commonest and most old-fashioned sorts, more welcome to my eye than the +choicest of rarities: golden-rods and asters in great variety and +profusion, hardhack and meadow-sweet, St. John's wort and loosestrife, +violets and anemones, self-heal and cranes-bill, and especially the +lovely but little-known purple gerardia. These, with their natural +companions and allies, make to me a garden of delights, whereunto my +feet, as far as they find opportunity, do continually resort. What +flowers ought a New Englander to love, if not such as are characteristic +of New England? + +And yet, proudly and affectionately as I talk of it, Back Street is not +what it once was. I have already mentioned the straightening, as also +the widening, both of them sorry improvements. Furthermore, there was +formerly a huge (as I remember it) and beautifully proportioned +hemlock-tree, at which I used to gaze admiringly in the first years of +my wandering hither. What millions of tiny cones hung from its pendulous +branches! The magnificent creation should have been protected by +legislative enactment, if necessary; but no, almost as long ago as I can +remember, long before I attained to grammar-school dignities, the owner +of the land (so he thought himself, no doubt) turned the tree into +firewood. And worse yet, the stately pine grove that flourished across +the way, with mossy bowlders underneath and a most delightsome density +of shade,--this, too, like the patriarchal hemlock, has been cut off in +the midst of its usefulness. + + "Their very memory is fair and bright, + And my sad thoughts doth cheer!" + +Now there is nothing on the whole hillside but a thicket of young +hard-wood trees (I would say deciduous, but in New England, alas, all +trees are deciduous), through which my dog loves to prowl, but which +warns me to keep the road. Such devastations are not to be prevented, I +suppose, but at least there is no law against my bewailing them. + +Even in its present decadence, however, my road, as I said to begin +with, is a kind of saunterer's paradise. When we come to particulars, +indeed, it is nothing to boast of; but waiving particulars, and taking +it for all in all, there is no highway upon the planet where I better +enjoy an idle hour. There is a boy of perhaps ten years whose +companionship is out of all reason dear to me; and nowhere am I surer to +find him at my side, hand in hand, than in this same lonely road, +although I know very well that those who meet or pass me here see only +one person, and that a man of several times ten years. But thank Heaven, +we are not always alone when we seem to be. + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER. + + I am bold to show myself a forward guest. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +Let it be said at the outset that the seeker after bird's-nests is never +without plenty of company, of one sort and another. For instance, I was +out early one cloudy morning last spring, when I caught sight of a +handsome black and white animal nosing his way through the bushes on one +side of the path. He had come forth on the same errand as myself; and I +thought at once of the veery's nest, for which I had been looking in +vain, but which could not be far from the very spot where my black and +white rival was just at this moment standing. I wondered whether he had +already found it; but I did not stay to ask him. In spite of his beauty, +and in spite of our evident community of interest, I felt no drawings +toward a more intimate acquaintance. I knew him by name and +reputation,--_Mephitis mephitica_ the scientific folk call him, with +felicitous reverberative emphasis,--and that sufficed. At another time, +a few weeks later than this, I overheard an unusual commotion among the +birds in our apple orchard. "Some rascally cat!" I thought; and, picking +up a stone, I hastened to put a stop to his depredations. But there was +no cat in sight; and it was not till I stood immediately under the tree +that I discovered the marauder to be a snake, just then slowly making +toward the ground, with a young bird in his jaws. Watching my +opportunity, while he was engaged in the delicate operation of lowering +himself from one branch to another, I shook the trunk vigorously, and +down he tumbled at my feet. Once and again I set my heel upon him; but +the tall grass was in his favor, and he succeeded in getting off, +leaving his dead victim behind him.[71:1] + +It is noble society in which we find ourselves, is it not? In the front +rank are what we may call the _professional_ oölogists,--such as follow +the business for a livelihood: snakes, skunks, weasels, squirrels, cats, +crows, jays, cuckoos, and the like. Then come the not inconsiderable +number of persons who, for a more or less strictly scientific purpose, +take here and there a nest with its contents; while these are followed +by hordes of school-boys, whom the prevalent mania for "collecting" +drives to scrape together miscellaneous lots of eggs,--half-named, +misnamed, and nameless,--to put with previous accumulations of +postage-stamps, autographs, business cards, and other like precious +rubbish. + +Alas, the poor birds! These "perils of robbers" and "perils among false +brethren" are bad enough, but they have many others to encounter; +"journeyings often" and "perils of waters" being among the worst. Gentle +and innocent as they seem, it speaks well for their cunning and +endurance that they escape utter extermination. + +This phase of the subject is especially forced upon the attention of +observers like myself, who search for nests, not mischievously, nor even +with the laudable design of the scientific investigator, but solely as a +means of promoting friendly acquaintance. We may not often witness the +catastrophe itself; but as we go our daily rounds, now peeping under the +bank or into the bush, and now climbing the tree, to see how some timid +friend of ours is faring, we are only too certain to come upon first one +home and then another which has been rifled and deserted since our last +visit; till we begin to wonder why the defenseless and persecuted +creatures do not turn pessimists outright, and relinquish forever their +attempt to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." + +Thinking of these things anew, now that I am reviewing my last spring's +experiences, it is doubly gratifying to recall that I robbed only one +nest during the entire season, and that not of malice, but by accident. +It happened on this wise. A couple of solitary vireos had taken up +their abode on a wooded hillside, where they, or others like them, had +passed the previous summer, and one day I proposed to a friend that we +make it our business to search out the nest. It proved to be not very +difficult of discovery, though, when we put our eyes upon it, it +appeared that we had walked directly by it several times, all in sight +as it was, suspended from near the end of an oak-tree branch, perhaps +nine feet from the ground. It contained five eggs, including one of the +cow-bird; but just as my companion was about to let go the branch, which +he had been holding down for my convenience, the end snapped, up went +the nest, and out jumped four of the eggs. We were sorry, of course, but +consoled ourselves with the destruction of the parasite, which otherwise +would very likely have been the death of the vireos' own offspring. +Meanwhile, the birds themselves took matters coolly. One of them fell to +singing as soon as we withdrew, while the other flew to the nest, looked +in, and without a word resumed her seat. After all, the accident might +turn out to be nothing worse than a blessing in disguise, we said to +each other. But before many days it became evident that the pair had +given up the nest, and I carried it to a friend whom I knew to be in +want of such a specimen for his cabinet. + +It is worth noticing how widely birds of the same species differ among +themselves in their behavior under trial. Their minds are no more run in +one mould than human minds are. In their case, as in ours, innumerable +causes have worked together to produce the unique individual result. +Much is due to inheritance, no doubt, but much likewise to accident. One +mother has never had her nest invaded, and is therefore careless of our +presence. Another has so frequently been robbed of her all that she has +grown hardened to disaster, and she also makes no very great ado when we +intrude upon her. A third is still in a middle state,--alive to the +danger, but not yet able to face it philosophically,--and she will +become hysterical at the first symptom of trouble. + +At the very time of the mishap just described I was keeping watch over +the household arrangements of another and much less stoical pair of +solitary vireos. These, as soon as I discovered their secret (which was +not till after several attempts), became extremely jealous of my +proximity, no matter how indirect and innocent my approaches. Even when +I seated myself at what I deemed a very respectful distance the sitting +bird would at once quit her place, and begin to complain in her own +delightfully characteristic manner,--chattering, scolding, and warbling +by turns,--refusing to be pacified in the least until I took myself off. +Once I remained for some time close under the nest, on purpose to see +how many of the neighbors would be attracted to the spot. With the +exception of the wood wagtails, I should say that nearly all the small +birds in the immediate vicinity must have turned out: black-and-white +creepers, redstarts, chestnut-sided warblers, black-throated greens, a +blue golden-wing, red-eyed vireos, and a third solitary vireo. If they +were moved with pity for the pair whose lamentations had drawn them +together, they did not manifest it, as far as I could see. Perhaps they +found small occasion for so loud a disturbance. Possibly, moreover, as +spectators who had honored me with their presence (and that in the very +midst of their busy season), they felt themselves cheated, and, so to +speak, outraged, by my failure to finish the tragedy artistically, by +shooting the parent birds and pulling down the nest. Creatures who can +neither read novels nor attend upon dramatic performances may be +presumed to suffer at times for lack of a pleasurable excitement of the +sensibilities. At all events, these visitors contented themselves with +staring at me for a few minutes, and then one by one turned away, as if +it were not much of a show after all. To the interested couple, however, +it was a matter of life and death. The female especially (or the sitter, +for the sexes are indistinguishable) hopped close about my head, +sometimes uttering a strangely sweet, pleading note, which might have +melted a heart much harder than mine. Her associate kept at a more +cautious remove, but made amends by continuing to scold after the danger +was all over. By the bye, I noticed that in the midst of the commotion, +as soon as the first agony was past, the one who had been sitting was +not so entirely overcome as not to be able to relish an occasional +insect, which she snatched here and there between her vituperative +exclamations. Faithful and hungry little mother! her heart was not +broken, let us hope, when within a week or so some miscreant, to me +unknown, ravaged her house and left it desolate. + +Not many rods from the vireos' cedar-tree was a brown thrasher's nest in +a barberry bush. It had an exceedingly dilapidated, year-old appearance, +and I went by it several times without thinking it worth looking at, +till I accidentally observed the bird upon it. She did not budge till I +was within a few feet of her, when she tumbled to the ground, and limped +away with loud cries. Perceiving that this worn-out ruse did not avail, +she turned upon me, and actually seemed about to make an attack. How she +did rave! I thought that I had never seen a bird so beside herself with +anger. + +Shortly after my encounter with this irate thrush I nearly stepped upon +one of her sisters, brooding upon a ground nest; and it illustrates +what has been said about variety of temperament that the second bird +received me in a very quiet, self-contained manner; giving me to +understand, to be sure, that my visit was ill-timed and unwelcome, but +not acting at all as if I were some ogre, the very sight of which must +perforce drive a body crazy. + +In the course of the season I found three nests of the rose-breasted +grosbeak. The first, to my surprise, was in the topmost branches of a +tall sweet-birch, perhaps forty feet above the ground. I noticed the +female flying into the grove with a load of building materials, and a +little later (as soon as my engagement with an interesting company of +gray-cheeked thrushes would permit) I followed, and almost at once saw +the pair at their work. And a very pretty exhibition it was,--so pretty +that I returned the next morning to see more of it. It must be admitted +that the labor seemed rather unequally divided: the female not only +fetched all the sticks, but took upon herself the entire business of +construction, her partner's contribution to the enterprise being +limited strictly to the performance of escort duty. When she had fitted +the new twigs into their place to her satisfaction (which often took +considerable time) she uttered a signal, and the pair flew out of the +wood together, talking sweetly as they went. The male was aware of my +presence from the beginning, I think, but he appeared to regard it as of +no consequence. Probably he believed the nest well out of my reach, as +in fact it was. He usually sang a few snatches while waiting for his +wife, and, as he sat within a few feet of her and made no attempt at +concealment, it could hardly be supposed that he refrained from offering +to assist her for fear his brighter colors should betray their secret. +Some different motive from this must be assigned for his seeming want of +gallantry. To all appearance, however, the parties themselves took the +whole proceeding as a simple matter of course. They were but minding the +most approved grosbeak precedents; and after all, who is so likely to be +in the right as he who follows the fashion? Shall one bird presume to be +wiser than all the millions of his race? Nay; as the Preacher long ago +said, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be." Nothing +could have been more complacent and affectionate than the lady's voice +and demeanor as often as she gave the finishing touches to a twig, and +called to her companion, "Come, now, let's go for another." Naturally, +the female is the one most concerned about the stability and comfortable +shape of the nest, and possibly she does not count it prudent to entrust +her spouse with any share in so delicate and important an undertaking; +but, if so, she must know him for an arrant bungler, since the structure +which she herself puts together is a most shabby-looking affair, +scarcely better than the cuckoo's. + +Such happiness as that of these married lovers was perhaps too perfect +to last. At any rate, it was only a week before their idyl all at once +turned to tragedy. A sharp _click, click!_ attracted my attention, as I +passed under their birch (on my way to call upon a pair of chickadees, +who were keeping house in a low stump close by), and, glancing up, I saw +the bushy tail of a red squirrel hanging over the edge of the nest. The +male grosbeak was dashing wildly about the invader, while a wood +thrush, a towhee bunting (who looked strange at such a height), a +red-eyed vireo, and a blue golden-winged warbler were surveying the +scene from the adjacent branches,--though the thrush withdrew in the +midst of the tumult, and fell to singing (as one may see happy young +couples going merrily homeward after witnessing the murder of Duncan or +Desdemona). Meanwhile, the squirrel, having finished his work, descended +leisurely toward the ground, snickering and chuckling, as if he felt +immensely pleased with his achievement. Probably his emotions did not +differ essentially from those of a human sportsman, but it was lucky for +him, nevertheless, that I had no means of putting an end to his mirth. I +could have blown his head off without compunction. When he had gone, and +the visiting birds with him, the grosbeak returned to his nest, and in +the most piteous manner hovered about the spot,--getting into the nest +and out again,--as if completely dazed by the sudden disaster. +Throughout the excitement the female did not show herself, and I +wondered whether she could have submitted to be killed rather than +desert her charge. To the honor of her kind be it said that the +supposition is far from incredible. + +My second nest of this species was within twenty rods of the first, and +was in use at the same time; but it met with no better fate, though I +was not present to see it robbed. The third was more prosperous, and, +unless something befell the young at the last moment, they were safely +launched upon the wing. This nest was situated in a clump of witch-hazel +bushes, at a height of eight or nine feet. I remarked a grosbeak singing +near the spot, and, seeing him very unwilling to move away, concluded +that his home could not be far off. It was soon found,--a slight, +shapeless, frail-looking bundle of sticks, with the female upon it. I +took hold of the main stem, just below her, and drew her towards me; but +she would not rise, although I could see her moving uneasily. I had no +heart to annoy her; so I called her a good, brave bird, and left her in +peace. Her mate, all this while, kept on singing; and to judge from his +behavior, I might have been some honored guest, to be welcomed with +music. The simple-hearted--not to say simple-minded--fearlessness of +this bird is really astonishing; especially in view of the fact that his +showy plumage makes him a favorite mark for every amateur taxidermist. +He will even warble while brooding upon the eggs, a delicious piece of +absurdity, which I hope sooner or later to witness for myself. + +While watching my first couple of grosbeaks I suddenly became aware of a +wood thrush passing back and forth between the edge of a brook and a +certain oak, against the hole of which she was making ready her summer +residence. She seemed to be quite unattended; but just as I was +beginning to contrast her case with that of the feminine grosbeak +overhead, her mate broke into song from a low branch directly behind me. +_She_ had all the while known where he was, I dare say, and would have +been greatly amused at my commiseration of her loneliness. The next +morning she was compelled to make longer flights for such stuff as she +needed; and now it was pleasant to observe that her lord did not fail to +accompany her to and fro, and to sing to her while she worked. + +The wood thrush has the name of a recluse, and, as compared with the +omnipresent robin, he may deserve the title; but he is seldom very +difficult of approach, if one only knows how to go about it, while his +nest is peculiarly easy of detection. I remember one which was close by +an unfenced road, just outside the city of Washington; and two or three +years ago I found another in a barberry bush, not more than fifteen feet +from a horse-car track, and so near the fence as to be almost within +arm's-length of passers-by. This latter was in full view from the +street, and withal was so feebly supported that some kind-hearted +neighbor had taken pains to tie up the bush (which stood by itself) with +a piece of dangerously new-looking rope. And even as I write I recall +still a third, which also was close by the roadside, though at the very +exceptional elevation of twenty-five or thirty feet. + +It is one of the capital advantages of the ornithologist's condition +that he is rarely called upon to spend his time and strength for naught. +If he fails of the particular object of his search, he is all but sure +to be rewarded with something else. For example, while I was +unsuccessfully playing the spy upon a pair of my solitary vireos, a +female tanager suddenly dropped into her half-built nest in a low +pine-branch, at the same time calling softly to her mate, who at once +came to sit beside her. Unfortunately, one of the pair very soon caught +sight of me, and they made off in haste. I lingered about, till finally +the lady appeared again, with her beak full of sticks, standing out at +all points of the compass. She was so jealous of my espionage, however, +that it looked as if she would never be rid of her load. No sooner did +she alight in the tree than she began to crane her neck, staring this +way and that, and _chipping_ nervously; then she shifted her perch; then +out of the tree she went altogether; then back again; then off once +more; then back within a yard of the nest; then away again, till at last +my patience gave out, and I left her mistress of the field. All this +while the male was in sight, flitting restlessly from tree to tree at a +safe distance. I have never witnessed a prettier display of connubial +felicity than this pair afforded me during the minute or two which +elapsed between my discovery of them and their discovery of me. I felt +almost guilty for intruding upon such a scene; but, if they could only +have believed it, I intended no harm, nor have I now any thought of +profaning their innocent mysteries by attempting to describe what I saw. + +The male tanager, with his glory of jet black and flaming scarlet, is in +curious contrast with his mate, with whose personal appearance, +nevertheless, he seems to be abundantly satisfied. Possibly he looks +upon a dirty greenish-yellow as the loveliest of tints, and regards his +own dress as nothing better than commonplace, in comparison. Like the +rose-breasted grosbeak and the wood thrush, however, he is brought up +with the notion that it belongs to the female to be the carpenter of the +family; a belief in which, happily for his domestic peace, the female +herself fully concurs. + +As a general thing, handsomely dressed people live in handsome houses +(emphasis should perhaps be laid on the word _dressed_), and it would +seem natural that a like congruity should hold in the case of birds. + +But, if such be the rule, there are at least some glaring exceptions. I +have alluded to the rude structure of the rose-breast, and might have +used nearly the same language concerning the tanager's, which latter is +often fabricated so loosely that one can see the sky through it. Yet +these two are among the most gorgeously attired of all our birds. On the +other hand, while the wood pewee is one of the very plainest, there are +few, if any, that excel her as an architect. During the season under +review I had the good fortune to light upon my first nest of this +fly-catcher; and, as is apt to be true, having found one, I immediately +and without effort found two others. The first two were in oaks, the +third in a hornbeam; and all were set upon the upper side of a +horizontal bough ("saddled" upon it, as the manuals say), at the +junction of an offshoot with the main branch. Two of them were but +partially done when discovered, and I was glad to see one pair of the +birds in something very like a frolic, such a state as would hardly be +predicted of these peculiarly sober-seeming creatures. The builder of +the second nest was remarkably confiding, and proceeded with her +labors, quite undisturbed by my proximity and undisguised interest. It +was to be remarked that she had trimmed the outside of her nest with +lichens before finishing the interior; and I especially admired the very +clever manner in which she hovered against the dead pine-trunk, from +which she was gathering strips of bark. Concerning her unsuspiciousness, +however, it should be said that the word applies only to her treatment +of myself. When a thrasher had the impertinence to alight in her oak she +ordered him off in high dudgeon, dashing back and forth above him, and +snapping spitefully as she passed. She knew her rights, and, knowing, +dared maintain. When a bird builds her nest in any part of a tree she +claims every twig of it as her own. I have even seen the gentle-hearted +chickadee resent the intrusion of a chipping sparrow, though it appeared +impossible that the latter could be suspected of any predatory or +sinister design. + +The shallowness of the wood pewee's saucer-shaped nest, its position +upon the branch, and especially its external dress of lichens, all +conspire to render it inconspicuous. It is an interesting question +whether the owner herself appreciates this, or has merely inherited the +fashion, without thought of the reasons for it. The latter supposition, +I reluctantly confess, looks to me the more probable. It must often be +true of other animals, as it is of men, that they build better than they +know. Their wisdom is not their own, but belongs to a power back of +them,--a power which works, if you will, in accordance with what we +designate as the law of natural selection, and which, so to speak, +enlightens the race rather than the individual. + +After all, it is the ground birds that puzzle the human oölogist. +Crossing a brook, I saw what I regarded as almost infallible signs that +a pair of Maryland yellow-throats had begun to build beside it. Unless I +was entirely at fault, the nest must be within a certain two or three +square yards, and I devoted half an hour, more or less, to ransacking +the grass and bushes, till I thought every inch of the ground had been +gone over; but all to no purpose. Continuing my walk, I noticed after a +while that the male warbler was accompanying me up the hillside, +apparently determined to see me safely out of the way. Coming to the +same brook again the next morning, I halted for another search; and lo! +all in a moment my eye fell upon the coveted nest, not on the ground, +but perhaps eight inches from it, in a little clump of young +golden-rods, which would soon overgrow it completely. The female +proprietor was present, and manifested so much concern that I would not +tarry, but made rather as if I had seen nothing, and passed on. It was +some time before I observed that she was keeping along beside me, +precisely as her mate had done the day before. The innocent creatures, +sorely pestered as they were, could hardly be blamed for such +precautions; yet it is not pleasant to be "shadowed" as a suspicious +character, even by Maryland yellow-throats. + +This was my first nest of a very common warbler, and I felt particularly +solicitous for its safety; but alas! no sooner was the first egg laid +than something or somebody carried it off, and the afflicted couple +deserted the house on which they had expended so much labor and +anxiety. + +Not far beyond the yellow-throats' brook, and almost directly under one +of the pewees' oaks, was a nest which pretty certainly had belonged to a +pair of chewinks, but which was already forsaken when I found it, though +I had then no inkling of the fact. It contained four eggs, and +everything was in perfect order. The mother had gone away, and had never +come back; having fallen a victim, probably, to some collector, human or +inhuman. The tragedy was peculiar; and the tragical effect of it was +heightened as day after day, for nearly a fortnight at least (I cannot +say for how much longer), the beautiful eggs lay there entirely +uncovered, and yet no skunk, squirrel, or other devourer of such +dainties happened to spy them. It seemed doubly sad that so many +precious nests should be robbed, while this set of worthless eggs was +left to spoil. + +I have already mentioned the housekeeping of a couple of chickadees in a +low birch stump. Theirs was one of three titmouse nests just then +claiming my attention. I visited it frequently, from the time when the +pair were hard at work making the cavity up to the time when the brood +were nearly ready to shift for themselves. Both birds took their share +of the digging, and on several occasions I saw one feeding the other. +After the eggs were deposited, the mother (or the sitter) displayed +admirable courage, refusing again and again to quit her post when I +peered in upon her, and even when with my cane I rapped smartly upon the +stump. If I put my fingers into the hole, however, she followed them out +in hot haste. Even when most seriously disturbed by my attentions the +pair made use of no other notes than the common _chickadee, dee_, but +these they sometimes delivered in an unnaturally sharp, fault-finding +tone. + +My two other titmouse nests were both in apple-trees, and one of them +was in my own door-yard, though beyond convenient reach without the help +of a ladder. The owners of this last were interesting for a very decided +change in their behavior after the young were hatched, and especially as +the time for the little ones' exodus drew near. At first, +notwithstanding their door opened right upon the street, as it were, +within a rod or two of passing horse-cars, the father and mother went in +and out without the least apparent concern as to who might be watching +them; but when they came to be feeding their hungry offspring, it was +almost laughable to witness the little craftinesses to which they +resorted. They would perch on one of the outer branches, call +_chickadee, dee_, fly a little nearer, then likely enough go further +off, till finally, after a variety of such "false motions," into the +hole they would duck, as if nobody for the world must be allowed to know +where they had gone. It was really wonderful how expert they grew at +entering quickly. I pondered a good deal over their continual calling on +such occasions. It seemed foolish and inconsistent; half the time I +should have failed to notice their approach, had they only kept still. +Toward the end, however, when the chicks inside the trunk could be heard +articulating _chickadee, dee_ with perfect distinctness, it occurred to +me that possibly all this persistent repetition of the phrase by the old +birds had been only or mainly in the way of tuition. At all events, the +youngsters had this part of the chickadese vocabulary right at their +tongues' end, as we say, before making their _début_ in the great world. + +But it was reserved for my third pair of tits to give me a genuine +surprise. I had been so constant a visitor at their house that I had +come to feel myself quite on terms of intimacy with them. So, after +their brood was hatched, I one day climbed into the tree (as I had done +more than once before), the better to overlook their parental labors. I +had hardly placed myself in a comfortable seat before the couple +returned from one of their foraging expeditions. The male--or the one +that I took for such--had a black morsel of some kind in his bill, +which, on reaching the tree, he passed over to his mate, who forthwith +carried it into the hollow stub, in the depths of which the hungry +little ones were. Then the male flew off again, and presently came back +with another beakful, which his helpmeet took from him at the door, +where she had been awaiting his arrival. After this performance had been +repeated two or three times, curiosity led me to stand up against the +stub, with my hand resting upon it; at which the female (who was just +inside the mouth of the cavity) slipped out, and set up an anxious +_chickadee, dee, dee_. When her mate appeared,--which he did almost +immediately,--he flew into what looked like a downright paroxysm of +rage, not against me, but against the mother bird, shaking his wings and +scolding violently. I came to the unhappy lady's relief as best I could +by dropping to the ground, and within a few minutes the pair again +approached the stub in company; but when the female made a motion to +take the food from her husband's bill, as before, he pounced upon her +spitefully, drove her away, and dived into the hole himself. Apparently +he had not yet forgiven what he accounted her pusillanimous desertion of +her charge. All in all, the scene was a revelation to me, a chickadee +family quarrel being something the like of which I had never dreamed of. +Perhaps no titmouse ever before had so timorous a wife. But however that +might be, I sincerely hoped that they would not be long in making up +their difference. I had enjoyed the sight of their loving intercourse +for so many weeks that I should have been sorry indeed to believe that +it could end in strife. Nor could I regard it as so unpardonable a +weakness for a bird to move off, even from her young, when a man put his +fingers within a few inches of her. Possibly she ought to have known +that I meant no mischief. Possibly, too, her doughty lord would have +behaved more commendably in the same circumstances; but of that I am by +no means certain. To borrow a theological term, my conception of bird +nature is decidedly anthropomorphic, and I incline to believe that +chickadees as well as men find it easier to blame others than to do +better themselves. + +Here these reminiscences must come to an end, though the greater part of +my season's experiences are still untouched. First, however, let me +relieve my conscience by putting on record the bravery of a black-billed +cuckoo, whom I was obliged fairly to drive from her post of duty. Her +nest was a sorry enough spectacle,--a flat, unwalled platform, carpeted +with willow catkins and littered with egg-shells, in the midst of which +latter lay a single callow nestling, nearly as black as a crow. But as I +looked at the parent bird, while she sat within ten feet of me, eying +my every movement intently, and uttering her wrath in various cries +(some catlike mewings among them), my heart reproached me that I had +ever written of the cuckoo as a coward and a sneak. Truth will not allow +me to take the words back entirely, even now; but I felt at that moment, +and do still, that I might have been better employed mending my own +faults than in holding up to scorn the foibles of a creature who, when +worst came to worst, could set me such a shining example of courageous +fidelity. It is always in order to be charitable; and I ought to have +remembered that, for those who are themselves subject to imperfection, +generosity is the best kind of justice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71:1] The birds at once became quiet, and I went back complacently to +my book under the linden-tree. Who knows, however, whether there may not +have been another side to the story? Who shall say what were the +emotions of the snake, as he wriggled painfully homeward after such an +assault? Myself no vegetarian, by what right had I belabored him for +liking the taste of chicken? It were well, perhaps, not to pry too +curiously into questions of this kind. Most likely it would not flatter +our human self-esteem to know what some of our "poor relations" think of +us. + + + + +A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD. + + Thus, without theft, I reap another's field.--SIDNEY LANIER. + + +I was passing some days of idleness in a shallow Vermont valley, +situated at an elevation of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, circled by +wooded hills, and intersected by an old turnpike, which connects the +towns near Lake Champlain with the region beyond the mountains. Small +farmhouses stood here and there along the highway, while others were +scattered at wide intervals over the lower slopes of the outlying hills. + +With all the brightness and freshness of early summer upon it, it was +indeed an enchanting picture; but even so, one could not altogether put +aside a feeling of something like commiseration for the people who, year +in and year out, from babyhood to old age, found in this narrow vale, +with its severity of weather, and its scarcity of social comforts and +opportunities, their only experience of what we fondly call this wide, +wide world. + +From my inn I had walked eastward for perhaps a mile; then at the little +school-house had taken a cross-road, which presently began to climb. +Here I passed two or three cottages (one of them boasting the +singularity of paint), and after a while came to another, which appeared +to be the last, as the road not far beyond struck into the ancient +forest. First, however, it ran up to a small plateau, where, out of +sight from the house, lay a scanty quarter of an acre, in which the old +parable, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," +was in the primary stage of its fresh annual fulfillment. The ground was +but newly cleared, and the brambles still felt themselves its true and +rightful possessors. Who was this puny-looking, good-for-nothing +foreigner, that they should be turned out of house and home for his +accommodation? So they seemed to be asking among themselves, as they +lifted up their heads here and there in the midst of the pale-green +shoots. The crows, on the other hand, bade the newcomer welcome,--as +the wolf welcomes the lamb. Against these hungry lovers of his crop (who +loved not unwisely, but too well), the farmer had fenced his field with +a single string, stretched from corner to corner. He must put +extraordinary faith in the considerateness of the birds, a looker-on +might think; such a barrier as this could be, at the most, nothing more +than a polite hint of ownership, a delicate reminder against thoughtless +trespassing, a courteously indirect suggestion to such as needed not a +physical, but only a moral, restraint. Or one might take it as an appeal +to some known or fancied superstitiousness on the crows' part; as if the +white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to +meddle. But the rustic would have laughed at all such far-fetched +cockneyish inferences. This strange-seeming device of his was simply an +attempt to take the suspicious in their own suspiciousness; to set +before Corvus a hindrance so unmistakably insufficient that he would +mistrust it as a cover for some deep-laid and deadly plot. Probably the +scheme had not been crowned with complete success in the present +instance, for from a pole in the middle of the inclosure a dead crow was +dangling in the breeze. This was a more business-like signal than the +other; even a cockney could hardly be in doubt as to its meaning; and +the farmer, when I afterwards met him, assured me that it had answered +its purpose to perfection. The crow is nobody's fool. "Live and learn" +is his motto; and he does both, but especially the former, in a way to +excite the admiration of all disinterested observers. In the long +struggle between human ingenuity and corvine sagacity, it is doubtful +which has thus far obtained the upper hand. Nor have I ever quite +convinced myself which of the contestants has the better case. "The crow +is a thief," the planter declares; "he should confine himself to a wild +diet, or else sow his own garden." "Yes, yes," Corvus makes reply; "but +if I steal your corn, you first stole my land." Unlike his cousin the +raven,--who, along with the Indian, has retreated before the +pale-face,--the crow is no ultra-conservative. Civilization and modern +ideas are not in the least distasteful to him. He has an unfeigned +respect for agriculture, and in fact may be said himself to have set up +as gentleman-farmer, letting out his land on shares, and seldom failing +to get his full half of the crop; and, like the shrewd manager that he +is, he insures himself against drought and other mischances by taking +his moiety early in the season. As I plant no acres myself, I perhaps +find it easier than some of my fellow-citizens to bear with the faults +and appreciate the virtues of this sable aboriginal. Long may he live, I +say, this true lover of his native land, to try the patience and sharpen +the wits of his would-be exterminators. + +The crow's is only the common lot. The whole earth is one field of war. +Every creature's place upon it is coveted by some other creature. Plants +and animals alike subsist by elbowing their rivals out of the way. Man, +if he plants a corn-field, puts in no more grains than will probably +have room to grow and thrive. But Nature, in her abhorrence of a vacuum, +stands at no waste. She believes in competition, and feels no qualms at +seeing the weak go to the wall. + + "The good old rule + Sufficeth her, the simple plan, + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can." + +If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns without number. Her +recklessness equals that of some ambitious military despot, to whom ten +thousand or a hundred thousand dead soldiers count as nothing, if only +the campaign be fought through to victory. + +Man's economy and Nature's prodigality,--here they were in typical +operation, side by side. The corn was in "hills" uniformly spaced, and +evidently the proprietor had already been at work with plough and hoe, +lest the weeds should spring up and choke it; but just beyond stood a +perfect thicket of wild-cherry shrubs, so huddled together that not one +in twenty could possibly find room in which to develop. If they were not +all of them stunted beyond recovery, it would be only because a few of +the sturdiest should succeed in crowding down and killing off their +weaker competitors. + +The import of this apparent wastefulness and cruelty of Nature, her +seeming indifference to the welfare of the individual, is a question on +which it is not pleasant, and, as I think, not profitable, to dwell. We +see but parts of her ways, and it must be unsafe to criticise the +working of a single wheel here or there, when we have absolutely no +means of knowing how each fits into the grand design, and, for that +matter, can only guess at the grand design itself. Rather let us content +ourselves with the prudent saying of that ancient agnostic, Bildad the +Shuhite: "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." The wisest of us +are more or less foolish, by nature and of necessity; but it seems a +gratuitous superfluity of folly to ignore our own ignorance. For one, +then, I am in no mood to propose, much less to undertake, any grand +revolution in the order of natural events. Indeed, as far as I am +personally concerned, I fear it would be found but a dubious improvement +if the wildness were quite taken out of the world,--if its wilderness, +according to the word of the prophet, were to become all like Eden. +Tameness is not the only good quality, whether of land or of human +nature. + +As I sat on my comfortable log (the noble old tree had not been cut +down for nothing), birds of many kinds came and went about me. +Wordsworth's couplet would have suited my case:-- + + "The birds around me hopped and played, + Their thoughts I cannot measure;" + +but I could hardly have rounded out the quotation; for, joyful as I +believed the creatures to be, many of their motions were plainly not +"thrills of pleasure," but tokens of fear. It was now the very heyday of +life with them, when they are at once happiest and most wary. There were +secrets to be kept close; eggs and little ones, whose whereabouts must +on no account be divulged. For the birds, too, not less than the corn, +the bramble, and the cherry, not less even than the saint, find this +earthly life a daily warfare. + +The artless ditty of the mourning warbler came to my ears at intervals +out of a tangle of shrubbery, and once or twice he allowed me glimpses +of his quaint attire. I would gladly have seen and heard much more of +him, but he evaded all my attempts at familiarity. Nor could I blame him +for his furtive behavior. How was he to be certain that I was no +collector, but only an innocent admirer of birds in the bush? Sought +after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist, the mourning +warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion in fighting shy of every +animal that walks upright. + +It is evident, however, that for birds, as for ourselves, the same thing +often has both a bright and a dark side. If men are sometimes heartless, +and never to be altogether confided in, yet at the same time their +doings are in various respects conducive to the happiness and increase +of feathered life; and this not only in the case of some of the more +familiar species, but even in that of many which still retain all their +natural shyness of human society. A clearing like that in which I was +now resting offers an excellent illustration of this; for it is a rule +without exceptions that in such a place one may see and hear more birds +in half an hour than are likely to be met with in the course of a long +day's tramp through the unbroken forest. The mourning warbler himself +likes a roadside copse better than a deep wood, jealous as he may be of +man's approach. Up to a certain point, civilization is a blessing, even +to birds. Beyond a certain point, for aught I know, it may be nothing +but a curse, even to men. + +Here, then, I sat, now taken up with the beautiful landscape, and anon +turning my head to behold some fowl of the air. I might have mused with +Emerson,-- + + "Knows he who tills this lonely field, + To reap its scanty corn, + What mystic fruit his acres yield + At midnight and at morn," + +--only "mystic fruit" would have been rather too high-sounding a phrase +for my commonplace cogitations. Hermit thrushes, olive-backed thrushes, +and veeries, with sundry warblers and a scarlet tanager, sang in chorus +from the woods behind me, while in front bluebirds, robins, song +sparrows, vesper sparrows, and chippers were doing their best to +transform this fresh Vermont clearing into a time-worn Massachusetts +pasture; assisted meanwhile by a goldfinch who flew over my head with an +ecstatic burst of melody, and a linnet who fell to warbling with +characteristic fluency from a neighboring tree-top. At least two pairs +of rose-breasted grosbeaks had summer quarters here; and busy enough +they looked, flitting from one side of the garden to another, yet not +too busy for a tune between whiles. One of the males was in really +gorgeous plumage. The rose-color had run over, as it were (like Aaron's +"precious ointment"), and spilled all down his breast. It is hard for me +ever to think of this brilliant, tropically dressed grosbeak as a true +Northerner; and here once more I was for the moment surprised to hear +him and the olive-backed thrush singing together in the same wood. Could +such neighborliness have any patriotic significance? I was almost ready +to ask. Across the corn-field a Traill's flycatcher was tossing up his +head pertly, and vociferating _kwee-kwee_. I took it for a challenge: +"Find my nest if you can, brother!" But I found nothing. Nor was I more +successful with a humming-bird, who had chosen the tip of a charred +stub, only a few rods from my seat, for his favorite perch. Again and +again I saw him there preening his feathers, and once or twice I tried +to inveigle him into betraying his secret. Either his house was further +off than I suspected, however, or else he was too cunning to fall into +my snare. At any rate, he permitted me to trample all about the spot, +without manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness. + +What a traveler the humming-bird is! I myself had come perhaps three +hundred miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome journey, +notwithstanding I had been brought nearly all the way in a carriage +elaborately contrived for comfort, and moving over iron rails. But this +tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it +may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly at home again in this +Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as +the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a +marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of +flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one +of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and +forth are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human +beings must look in his eyes! I wonder if he is never tempted to laugh +at us. Who knows but humming-birds have it for a by-word, "As awkward +as a man"? + +My ruminations were suddenly broken in upon by the approach of a +carriage, driven by a boy of perhaps ten years, a son of the farmer from +whose land I was, as it were, gathering the first fruits. We had made +each other's acquaintance the day before, and now, as he surmounted the +hill, he stopped to inquire politely whether I would ride with him. Yes, +I answered, I would gladly be carried into the forest a little way. It +proved a very little way indeed; for the road was heavy from recent +rains, and the poor old hack was so short of breath that he could barely +drag us along, and at every slump of the wheels came to a dead +standstill. "Pity for a horse o'er-driven" soon compelled me to take to +the woods, in spite of the protestations of my charioteer, who assured +me that his steed _could_ trot "like everything," if he only would. It +is an extremely unpatriotic Vermonter, I suspect (I have never yet +discovered him), who will not brag a little over his horse; and I was +rather pleased than otherwise to hear my flaxen-haired friend set forth +the good points of his beast, even while he confessed that the "heaves" +were pretty bad. I was glad, too, to find the youngster in a general way +something of an optimist. When I asked him how long the land had been +cleared, he pointed to one corner of it, and responded, using the +pronoun with perfect _naïveté_, "We cleared up that piece last fall;" +and on my inquiring whether it was not hard work, he replied, in a tone +of absolute satisfaction, "Oh, yes, but you get your pay for it." +Evidently he believed in Green Mountain land, which I thought a very +fortunate circumstance. "Be content with such things as ye have," said +the Apostle; and it is certainly easier to obey the precept if one looks +upon his own things as the best in the world. My youthful philosopher +seemed to consider it altogether natural and reasonable that prosperity, +instead of coming of itself, should have to be earned by the sweat of +the brow. Perhaps the crow and the cherry-tree are equally +unsophisticated. Perhaps, too, men's fates are less uneven than is +sometimes supposed. For I could not help thinking that if this boy +should retain his present view of things, he would pass his days more +happily than many a so-called favorite of fortune. + +On my way back to the inn I met an old man from the lowlands, driving +over the mountains for the first time since boyhood. "You have a pretty +good farming country here," he called out cheerily,--"a little rolling." +He took me for a native, and I hope to be forgiven for not disclaiming +the compliment. + +As I write, I find myself wondering how my nameless farmer's crop is +prospered. In my corner of the world we have lately been afflicted with +drought. I hope it has been otherwise on his hillside plateau. In my +thought, at all events, his corn is now fully tasseled, and waves in a +pleasant mountain wind, all green and shining. + + + + +BEHIND THE EYE. + + As what he sees is, so have his thoughts been.--MATTHEW + ARNOLD. + + +Nothing is seen until it is separated from its surroundings. A man looks +at the landscape, but the tree standing in the middle of the landscape +he does not see until, for the instant at least, he singles it out as +the object of vision. Two men walk the same road; as far as the +bystander can perceive, they have before them the same sights; but let +them be questioned at the end of the journey, and it will appear that +one man saw one set of objects, and his companion another; and the more +diverse the intellectual training and habits of the two travelers, the +greater will be the discrepancy between the two reports. + +And what is true of any two men is equally true of any one man at two +different times. To-day he is in a dreamy, reflective mood,--he has been +reading Wordsworth, perhaps,--and when he takes his afternoon saunter +he looks at the bushy hillside, or at the wayside cottage, or down into +the loitering brook, and he sees in them all such pictures as they never +showed him before. Or he is in a matter-of-fact mood, a kind of +stock-market frame of mind; and he looks at everything through +economical spectacles,--as if he had been set to appraise the acres of +meadow or woodland through which he passes. At another time he may have +been reading some book or magazine article written by Mr. John +Burroughs; and although he knows nothing of birds, and can scarcely tell +a crow from a robin (perhaps for this very reason), he is certain to +have tantalizing glimpses of some very strange and wonderful feathered +specimens. They must be rarities, at least, if not absolute novelties; +and likely enough, on getting home, he sits down and writes to Mr. +Burroughs a letter full of gratitude and inquiry,--the gratitude very +pleasant to receive, we may presume, and the inquiries quite impossible +to answer. + +Some men (not many, it is to be hoped) are specialists, and nothing +else. They are absorbed in farming, or in shoemaking, in chemistry, or +in Latin grammar, and have no thought for anything beyond or beside. +Others of us, while there may be two or three subjects toward which we +feel some special drawing, have nevertheless a general interest in +whatever concerns humanity. We are different men on different days. +There is a certain part of the year, say from April to July, when I am +an ornithologist; for the time being, as often as I go out-of-doors, I +have an eye for birds, and, comparatively speaking, for nothing else. +Then comes a season during which my walks all take on a botanical +complexion. I have had my turn at butterflies, also; for one or two +summers I may be said to have seen little else but these winged blossoms +of the air. I know, too, what it means to visit the seashore, and +scarcely to notice the breaking waves because of the shells scattered +along the beach. In short, if I see one thing, I am of necessity blind, +or half-blind, to all beside. There are several men in me, and not more +than one or two of them are ever at the window at once. Formerly, my +enjoyment of nature was altogether reflective, imaginative; in a +passive, unproductive sense, poetical. I delighted in the woods and +fields, the seashore and the lonely road, not for the birds or flowers +to be found there, but for the "serene and blessed mood" into which I +was put by such friendship. Later in life, it transpired, as much to my +surprise as to anybody's else, that I had a bent toward natural history, +as well as toward nature; an inclination to study, as well as to dream +over, the beautiful world about me. I must know the birds apart, and the +trees, and the flowers. A bit of country was no longer a mere landscape, +a picture, but a museum as well. For a time the poet seemed to be dead +within me; and happy as I found myself in my new pursuits, I had fits of +bewailing my former condition. Science and fancy, it appeared, would not +travel hand in hand; if a man must be a botanist, let him bid good-by to +the Muse. Then I fled again to Emerson and Wordsworth, trying to read +the naturalist asleep and reawaken the poet. Happy thought! The two men, +the student and the lover, were still there; and there they remain to +this day. Sometimes one is at the window, sometimes the other. + +So it is, undoubtedly, with other people. My fellow-travelers, who hear +me discoursing enthusiastically of vireos and warblers, thrushes and +wrens, whilst they see never a bird, unless it be now and then an +English sparrow or a robin, talk sometimes as if the difference between +us were one of eyesight. They might as well lay it to the window-glass +of our respective houses. It is not the eye that sees, but the man +behind the eye. + +As to the comparative advantages and disadvantages of such a division of +interests as I have been describing, there may be room for two opinions. +If distinction be all that the student hungers for, perhaps he cannot +limit himself too strictly; but for myself, I think I should soon tire +of my own society if I were only one man,--a botanist or a chemist, an +artist, or even a poet. I should soon tire of myself, I say; but I might +have said, with equal truth, that I should soon tire of nature; for if I +were only one man, I should see only one aspect of the natural world. +This may explain why it is that some persons must be forever moving from +place to place. If they travel the same road twice or thrice, or even +to the hundredth time, they see only one set of objects. The same man is +always at the window. No wonder they are restless and famished. For my +own part, though I should delight to see new lands and new people, new +birds and new plants, I am nevertheless pretty well contented where I +am. If I take the same walks, I do not see the same things. The botanist +spells the dreamer; and now and then the lover of beauty keeps the +ornithologist in the background till he is thankful to come once more to +the window, though it be only to look at a bluebird or a song sparrow. + +How much influence has the will in determining which of these several +tenants of a man's body shall have his turn at sightseeing? It would be +hard to answer definitely. As much, it may be, as a teacher has over his +pupils, or a father over his children; something depends upon the +strength of the governing will, and something upon the tractability of +the pupil. In general, I assume to command. As I start on my ramble I +give out word, as it were, which of the men shall have the front seat. +But there are days when some one of them proves too much both for me +and for his fellows. It is not the botanist's turn, perhaps; but he +takes his seat at the window, notwithstanding, and the ornithologist and +the dreamer must be content to peep at the landscape over his shoulders. + +On such occasions, it may as well be confessed, I make but a feeble +remonstrance; and for the sufficient reason that I feel small confidence +in my own wisdom. If the flower-lover or the poet must have the hour, +then in all likelihood he ought to have it. So much I concede to the +nature of things. A strong tendency is a strong argument, and of itself +goes far to justify itself. I borrow no trouble on the score of such +compulsions. On the contrary, my lamentations begin when nobody sues for +the place of vision. Such days I have; blank days, days to be dropped +from the calendar; when "those that look out of the windows be +darkened." The fault is not with the world, nor with the eye. The old +preacher had the right of it; it is not the windows that are darkened, +but "those that look out of the windows." + + + + +A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE. + + I've gathered young spring-leaves, and flowers gay.--KEATS. + + +I looked forward to the month with peculiar interest, as it was many +years since I had passed a November in the country, and now that it is +over I am moved to publish its praises: partly, as I hope, out of +feelings of gratitude, and partly because it is an agreeable kind of +originality to commend what everybody else has been in the habit of +decrying. + +In the first place, then, it was a month of pleasant weather; something +too much of wind and dust (the dust for only the first ten days) being +almost the only drawback. To me, with my prepossessions, it was little +short of marvelous how many of the days were nearly or quite cloudless. +The only snow fell on the 11th. I saw a few flakes in the afternoon, +just enough to be counted, and there must have been another slight +flurry after dark, as the grass showed white in favorable spots early +the next morning. Making allowance for the shortness of the days, I +doubt whether there has been a month during the past year in which a man +could comfortably spend more of his time in out-of-door exercise. + +The trees were mostly bare before the end of October, but the apple and +cherry trees still kept their branches green (they are foreigners, and +perhaps have been used to a longer season), and the younger growth of +gray birches lighted up the woodlands with pale yellow. Of course the +oak-leaves were still hanging, also; and for that matter they are +hanging yet, and will be for months to come, let the north wind blow as +it may. I wonder whether their winter rustling sounds as cold in other +ears as in mine. My own feeling is most likely the result of boyish +associations. How often I waded painfully through the forest paths, my +feet and hands half frozen, while these ghosts of summer shivered +sympathetically on every side as they saw me pass! I wonder, too, what +can be the explanation of this unnatural oak-tree habit. The leaves are +dead; why should they not obey the general law,--"ashes to ashes, dust +to dust"? Is our summer too short to ripen them, and so to perfect the +articulation? Whatever its cause, their singular behavior does much to +beautify the landscape; particularly in such a district as mine, where +the rocky hills are, so many of them, covered with young oak forests, +which, especially for the first half of November, before the foliage is +altogether faded, are dressed in subdued shades of maroon, beautiful at +all hours, but touched into positive glory by the level rays of the +afternoon sun. + +I began on the very first day of the month to make a list of the plants +found in bloom, and happening, a week afterward, to be in the company of +two experienced botanical collectors, I asked them how many species I +was likely to find. One said thirty. The other, after a little +hesitation, replied, "I don't know, but I shouldn't think you could find +a dozen." Well, it is true that November is not distinctively a floral +month in Massachusetts, but before its thirty days were over I had +catalogued seventy-three species, though for six of these, to be sure, +I have to thank one of the collectors just now mentioned. Indeed, I +found thirty-nine sorts on my first afternoon ramble; and even as late +as the 27th and 28th I counted twelve. All in all, there is little doubt +that at least a hundred kinds of plants were in bloom about me during +the month. + +Having called my record a chronicle, I should be guilty of an almost +wanton disregard of scriptural models if I did not fill it largely with +names, and accordingly I do not hesitate to subjoin a full list of these +my November flowers; omitting Latin titles,--somewhat unwillingly, I +confess,--except where the vernacular is wanting altogether, or else is +more than commonly ambiguous:--creeping buttercup, tall buttercup, field +larkspur, celandine, pale corydalis, hedge mustard, shepherd's-purse, +wild peppergrass, sea-rocket, wild radish, common blue violet, bird-foot +violet, pansy, Deptford pink, common chickweed, larger mouse-ear +chickweed, sand spurrey, knawel, common mallow, herb-robert, storksbill, +red clover, alsyke, white clover, white sweet clover, black medick, +white avens, common cinque-foil, silvery cinque-foil, witch-hazel, +common evening-primrose, smaller evening-primrose, carrot, blue-stemmed +golden-rod, white golden-rod (or silvery-rod), seaside golden-rod, +_Solidago juncea_, _Solidago rugosa_, dusty golden-rod, early +golden-rod, corymbed aster, wavy-leaved aster, heart-leaved aster, +many-flowered aster, _Aster vimineus_, _Aster diffusus_, New York aster, +_Aster puniceus_, narrow-leaved aster, flea-bane, horse-weed, +everlasting, cudweed, cone-flower, mayweed, yarrow, tansy, groundsel, +burdock, Canada thistle, fall dandelion, common dandelion, sow thistle, +Indian tobacco, bell-flower (_Campanula rapunculoides_), fringed +gentian, wild toad-flax, butter and eggs, self-heal, motherwort, +jointweed, doorweed, and ladies' tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_). + +Here, then, we have seventy-three species, all but one of which +(_Spiranthes cernua_) are of the class of exogens. Twenty-two orders are +represented, the great autumnal family of the _Compositæ_ naturally +taking the lead, with thirty species (sixteen of them asters and +golden-rods), while the mustard, pink, and pulse families come next, +with five species each. The large and hardy heath family is wanting +altogether. Out of the whole number about forty-three are indigenous. +Witch-hazel is the only shrub, and, as might have been expected, there +is no climbing plant. + +In setting down such a list one feels it a pity that so few of the +golden-rods and asters have any specific designation in English. Under +this feeling, I have presumed myself to name two of the golden-rods, +_Solidago Canadensis_ and _Solidago nemoralis_. With us, at all events, +the former is the first of its genus to blossom, and may appropriately +enough wear the title of early golden-rod, while the latter must have +been noticed by everybody for its peculiar grayish, "dusty-miller" +foliage. It has, moreover, an exceptional right to a vernacular name, +being both one of the commonest and one of the showiest of our roadside +weeds. Till something better is proposed, therefore, let us call it the +dusty golden-rod. + +It must in fairness be acknowledged that I did not stand upon the +quality of my specimens. Many of them were nothing but accidental and +not very reputable-looking laggards; but in November, especially if one +is making a list, a blossom is a blossom. The greater part of the asters +and golden-rods, I think, were plants that had been broken down by one +means or another, and now, at this late day, had put forth a few stunted +sprays. The narrow-leaved aster (_Aster linariifolius_) seemed +peculiarly out of season, and was represented by only two heads, but +these sufficed to bring the mouth-filling name into my catalogue. Of the +two species of native violets I saw but a single blossom each. My pansy +(common enough in gardens, and blooming well into December) was, of +course, found by the roadside, and the larkspur likewise, as I made +nothing of any but wild plants. + +At this time of the year one must not expect to pick flowers anywhere +and everywhere, and a majority of all my seventy-three species (perhaps +as many as two thirds) were found only in one or more of three +particular places. The first of these was along a newly laid-out road +through a tract of woodland; the second was a sheltered wayside nook +between high banks; and the third was at the seashore. At this last +place, on the 8th of the month, I came unexpectedly upon a field fairly +yellow with fall dandelions and silvery cinque-foils, and affording also +my only specimens of burdock, Canada thistle, cone-flower, and the +smaller evening-primrose; in addition to which were the many-flowered +aster, yarrow, red clover, and sow thistle. In truth, the grassy +hillside was quite like a garden, although there was no apparent reason +why it should be so favored. The larger evening-primrose, of which I saw +two stalks, one of them bearing six or eight blossoms, was growing among +the rocks just below the edge of the cliff, in company with abundance of +sow thistle, all perfectly fresh; while along the gravelly edge of the +bank, just above them, was the groundsel (_Senecio vulgaris_), looking +as bright and thrifty as if it had been the first of August instead of +near the middle of November. + +Perhaps my most surprising bit of good luck was the finding of the +Deptford pink. Of this, for some inscrutable reason, one plant still +remained green and showed several rosy blossoms, while all its fellows, +far and near, were long since bleached and dead. Fortune has her +favorites, even among pinks. The frail-looking, early-blooming +corydalis (we have few plants that appear less able to bear exposure) +was in excellent condition up to the very end of the month, though the +one patch then explored was destitute of flowers. These were as pretty +as could be--prettier even than in May, I thought--on the 16th, and no +doubt might have been found on the 30th, with careful search. The little +geranium known as herb-robert is a neighbor of the corydalis, and, like +it, stands the cold remarkably well. Its reddening, finely cut leaves +were fresh and flourishing, but though I often looked for its flowers, I +found only one during the entire month. The storksbill, its less known +cousin, does not grow within my limits, but came to me from Essex +County, through the kindness of a friend, being one of the six species +contributed by her, as I have before mentioned. + +The hardiness of some of these late bloomers is surprising. It is now +the 2d of December, and yesterday the temperature fell about thirty +degrees below the freezing-point, yet I notice shepherd's-purse, +peppergrass, chickweed, and knawel still bearing fresh-looking flowers. +Nor are they the only plants that seem thus impervious to cold. The +prostrate young St. John's-wort shoots, for instance, all uncovered and +delicate as they are, appear not to know that winter with all its rigors +is upon them. + +It was impossible not to sympathize admiringly with some of my belated +asters and golden-rods. Their perseverance was truly pathetic. They had +been hindered, but they meant to finish their appointed task, +nevertheless, in spite of short days and cold weather. I have especially +in mind a plant of _Solidago juncea_. The species is normally one of the +earliest, following hard upon _Solidago Canadensis_, but for some reason +this particular specimen did not begin to flower till after the first +heavy frosts. Indeed, when I first noticed it, the stem leaves were +already frost-bitten; yet it kept on putting forth blossoms for at least +a fortnight. Whatever may be true of the lilies of the field, this +golden-rod was certainly a toiler, and of the most persistent sort. + +Early in the month the large and hardy Antiopa butterflies were still +not uncommon in the woods, and on the 3d--a delightful, summer-like +day, in which I made a pilgrimage to Walden--I observed a single +clouded-sulphur (Philodice), looking none the worse for the low +temperature of the night before, when the smaller ponds had frozen over +for the first time. + +Of course I kept account of the birds as well as of the flowers, but the +number, both of individuals and of species, proved to be surprisingly +small, the total list being as follows:--great black-backed gull, +American herring gull, ruffed grouse, downy woodpecker, flicker, blue +jay, crow, horned lark, purple finch, red crossbill, goldfinch, snow +bunting, Ipswich sparrow, white-throated sparrow, tree sparrow, +snowbird, song sparrow, fox sparrow, Northern shrike, myrtle warbler, +brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, golden-crowned +kinglet, and robin. Here are only twenty-five species; a meagre +catalogue, which might have been longer, it is true, but for the +patriotism or prejudice (who will presume always to decide between these +two feelings, one of them so given to counterfeiting the other?) which +would not allow me to piece it out with the name of that all too +numerous parasite, the so-called English sparrow. + +My best ornithological day was the 17th, which, with a friend +like-minded, I passed at Ipswich Beach. The special object of our search +was the Ipswich sparrow, a bird unknown to science until 1868, when it +was discovered at this very place by Mr. Maynard. Since then it has been +found to be a regular fall and winter visitant along the Atlantic coast, +passing at least as far south as New Jersey. It is a mystery how the +creature could so long have escaped detection. One cannot help querying +whether there can be another case like it. Who knows? Science, even in +its flourishing modern estate, falls a trifle short of omniscience. + +My comrade and I separated for a little, losing sight of each other +among the sand-hills, and when we came together again he reported that +he had seen the sparrow. He had happened upon it unobserved, and had +been favored with excellent opportunities for scrutinizing it carefully +through a glass at short range; and being familiar with its appearance +through a study of cabinet specimens, he had no doubt whatever of its +identity. This was within five minutes of our arrival, and naturally we +anticipated no difficulty in finding others; but for two or three hours +we followed the chase in vain. Twice, to be sure, a sparrow of some sort +flew up in front of us, but in both cases it got away without our +obtaining so much as a peep at it. Up and down the beach we went, +exploring the basins and sliding down the smooth, steep hills. Every +step was interesting, but it began to look as if I must go home without +seeing _Ammodramus princeps_. But patience was destined to have its +reward, and just as we were traversing the upper part of the beach for +the last time, I caught a glimpse of a bird skulking in the grass before +us. He had seen us first, and was already on the move, ducking behind +the scattered tufts of beach-grass, crouching and running by turns; but +we got satisfactory observations, nevertheless, and he proved to be, +like the other, an Ipswich sparrow. He did not rise, but finally made +off through the grass without uttering a sound. Then we examined his +footprints, and found them to be, so far as could be made out, the same +as we had been noticing all about among the hills. + +Meanwhile, our perambulations had not been in vain. Flocks of snow +buntings were seen here and there, and we spent a long time in watching +a trio of horned larks. These were feeding amid some stranded rubbish, +and apparently felt not the slightest suspicion of the two men who stood +fifteen or twenty feet off, eying their motions. It was too bad they +could not hear our complimentary remarks about their costumes, so +tastefully trimmed with black and yellow. Our loudest exclamations, +however, were called forth by a dense flock of sea-gulls at the distant +end of the beach. How many hundreds there were I should not dare to +guess, but when they rose in a body their white wings really filled the +air, and with the bright sunlight upon them they made, for a landsman, a +spectacle to be remembered. + +Altogether it was a high day for two enthusiasts, though no doubt it +would have looked foolish enough to ordinary mortals, our spending +several dollars of money and a whole day of time,--in November, at +that,--all for the sake of ogling a few birds, not one of which we even +attempted to shoot. But what then? Tastes will differ; and as for +enthusiasm, it is worth more than money and learning put together (so I +believe, at least, without having experimented with the other two) as a +producer of happiness. For my own part, I mean to be enthusiastic as +long as possible, foreseeing only too well that high spirits cannot last +forever. + +The sand-hills themselves would have repaid all our trouble. Years ago +this land just back of the beach was covered with forest, while at one +end of it was a flourishing farm. Then when man, with his customary +foolishness, cut off the forest, Nature revenged herself by burying his +farm. We did not verify the fact, but according to the published +accounts of the matter it used to be possible to walk over the grave of +an old orchard, and pick here and there an apple from some topmost +branch still jutting out through the sand. + +Among the dunes we found abundance of a little red, heath-like plant, +still in full blossom. Neither of us recognized it, but it turned out to +be jointweed (_Polygonum articulatum_), and made a famous addition to my +November flower catalogue. + +In connection with all this I ought, perhaps, to say a word about our +Ipswich driver, especially as naturalists are sometimes reprehended for +taking so much interest in all other creatures, and so little in their +fellow-men. As we drew near the beach, which is some five miles from the +town, we began to find the roads quite under water, with the sea still +rising. We remarked the fact, the more as we were to return on foot, +whereupon the man said that the tide was uncommonly high on account of +the heavy rain of the day before! A little afterward, when we came in +sight of a flock of gulls, he gravely informed us that they were "some +kind of ducks"! He had lived by the seashore all his life, I suppose, +and of course felt entirely competent to instruct two innocent cockneys +such as he had in his wagon. + +Four days after this I made a trip to Nahant. If _Ammodramus princeps_ +was at Ipswich, why should it not be at other similar places? True +enough, I found the birds feeding beside the road that runs along the +beach. I chased them about for an hour or two in a cold high wind, and +stared at them till I was satisfied. They fed much of the time upon the +golden-rods, alighted freely upon the fence-posts (which is what some +writers would lead us never to expect), and often made use of the +regular family _tseep_. Two of them kept persistently together, as if +they were mated. One staggered me by showing a blotch in the middle of +the breast, a mark that none of the published descriptions mention, but +which I have since found exemplified in one of the skins at the Museum +of Comparative Zoölogy, in Cambridge. + +"A day is happily spent that shows me any bird I never saw alive +before." So says Dr. Coues, and he would be a poor ornithologist who +could not echo the sentiment. The Ipswich sparrow was the third such +bird that I had seen during the year without going out of New England, +the other two being the Tennessee warbler and the Philadelphia vireo. + +Of the remainder of my November list there is not much to be said. +Robins were very scarce after the first week. My last glimpse of them +was on the 20th, when I saw two. Tree sparrows, snowbirds, chickadees, +kinglets, crows, and jays were oftenest met with, while the shrike, +myrtle warbler, purple finch, and song sparrow were represented by one +individual each. My song sparrow was not seen till the 28th, after I had +given him up. He did not sing (of course he scolded; the song sparrow +can always do that), but the mere sight of him was enough to suggest +thoughts of springtime, especially as he happened to be in the +neighborhood of some Pickering hylas, which were then in full cry for +the only time during the month. Near the end of the month many wild +geese flew over the town, but, thanks to a rebellious tooth (how happy +are the birds in this respect!), I was shut indoors, and knew the fact +only by hearsay. I did, however, see a small flock on the 30th of +October, an exceptionally early date. As it chanced, I was walking at +the time with one of my neighbors, a man more than forty years old, and +he assured me that he had never seen such a thing before. + +For music, I one day heard a goldfinch warbling a few strains, and on +the 21st a chickadee repeated his clear phÅ“be whistle two or three +times. The chickadees are always musical,--there is no need to say that; +but I heard them _sing_ only on this one morning. + +Altogether, with the cloudless, mild days, the birds, the tree-frogs, +the butterflies, and the flowers, November did not seem the bleak and +cheerless season it has commonly been painted. Still it was not exactly +like summer. On the last day I saw some very small boys skating on the +Cambridge marshes, and the next morning December showed its hand +promptly, sending the mercury down to within two or three degrees of +zero. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND WINTER. + + While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons, I trust that + nothing can make life a burden to me.--THOREAU. + + +Those who will have us all to be studying the Sacred Books of the East, +and other such literature, are given to laying it down as an axiom that +whoever knows only one religion knows none at all,--an assertion, I am +bound to acknowledge, that commends itself to my reason, notwithstanding +the somewhat serious inferences fairly deducible from it touching the +nature and worth of certain convictions of my own, which I have been +wont to look upon as religious. I cannot profess ever to have pried into +the mysteries of any faith except Christianity. So, of course, I do not +understand even that. And the people about me, so far as I can discover, +are all in the same predicament. Yet I would fain believe that we are +not exactly heathen. Some of my neighbors (none too many of them, I +confess) are charitable and devout. They must be pleasing to their +Creator, I say to myself, unless He is hard to please. Sometimes I go so +far as to think that possibly a man may be religious without _knowing_ +even his own religion. Let us hope so. Otherwise, we of the laity are +assuredly undone. + +And what is true of creeds and churches is true likewise of countries +and climates. We grow wise by comparison of one thing with another, not +by direct and exclusive contemplation of one thing by itself. Human +knowledge is relative, not absolute, and the inveterate stayer at home +is but a poor judge of his own birthplace. + +All this I have in lively remembrance as I sit down to record some +impressions of our New England winter. With what propriety do I +discourse upon winter in Massachusetts, having never passed one anywhere +else? Had I spent a portion of my life where roses bloom the year round, +then, to be sure, I might assume to say something to the purpose about +snow and ice. + +But if the "tillers of paper" wrote only of such topics as they +possessed full and accurate acquaintance with, how would the Scripture +be fulfilled? "Of making many books" there surely would be an end, and +that speedily. I venture to think, moreover, that a man may never have +set foot beyond the boundaries of his native city, and yet prove a +reasonably competent guide to its streets and by-ways. His information +is circumscribed, but such as it is, it is precise and to the point. +Though he assure you soberly that the principal thoroughfare of his +tenth-rate town is more magnificent than any in New York or London, you +may none the less depend upon him to pilot you safely out of its most +intricate and bewildering corner. Indeed, he might fairly claim +membership in what is, at present, one of the most flourishing of +intellectual guilds: I mean the sect of the specialists; whose creed is +that one may know something without knowing everything, and who choose +for their motto: Remain ignorant in order that you may learn. + +In this half-developed world there is nothing so perfect as to be past a +liability to drawbacks and exceptions. The best of beef is poisonous to +some eaters, and strawberries are an abomination to others; and in like +manner there is no climate, nor any single feature of any climate, but +by some constitutions it will be found unendurable. The earth is to be +populated throughout, so it would appear; and to that end sundry +necessary precautions have been taken against human inertia. A certain +proportion of boys must be born with a propensity for wandering and +adventure; and the most favored spot must not contain within itself all +conceivable advantages. If everybody could stand the rigors of New +England weather, what would become of the rest of the continent? + +Unless I misjudge myself, I should soon tire of perpetual summer. Like +the ungrateful Israelites with the manna, my soul would loathe such +light bread. To my provincial mind, as I believe, nothing else could +ever quite take the place of a rotation of the seasons. There should be +rain and shine, cold and heat. A change from good weather to bad, and +back again, is on the whole better than unbroken good weather. Dullness +to set off brightness, night to give relief to the day, such is the wise +order of nature; and I do not account it altogether a token of +depravity that honest people, who love a paradox without knowing it, +find perfection, of no matter how innocent a sort, just a little +wearisome. Therefore, I say, let me have a year made up of well-defined +contrasts; in short, a New England year, of four clearly marked seasons. + +It is often alleged, I know, that we really have only three seasons; +that winter leaps into the lap of summer, and spring is nothing but a +myth of the almanac makers. I shall credit this story when I am +convinced of the truth of another statement, equally current and equally +well vouched, that every successive summer is the hottest (or the +coldest) for the last twenty-five years. As there is no subject so much +talked about as the weather, so, almost of course, there is none so much +lied about. Winter claims most of March, as the astronomers give it +leave to do, I believe; but April and May, despite a snow-storm or two +in the former, and a torrid week in the latter, are neither summer nor +winter, but spring; somewhat fickle, it is true, more or less uncertain +of itself, but still retaining its personal identity. + +As for our actual winter, it may enhance its value in our eyes if we +take into account that the three other seasons all depend upon it for +their peculiar charms. In the case of spring this dependence is palpable +to every one. Berate as we may its backwardness and deceit, muffle +ourselves never so pettishly against its harsh breath, yea, even deny it +all claim to its own proper title, yet anon it gets the better of our +discontent, and we thank our stars that we have lived to see again the +greening of the grass, and to hear once more the song of a bird. A mild +day in March is like a foretaste of heaven; the first robin seems an +angel; while saxifrage, anemones, and dandelions win kindly notice from +many a matter-of-fact countryman who lets all the June roses go by him +unregarded. It is pleasures of this kind, natural, wholesome, and +universal, that largely make up the total of human happiness. Our +instinct for them only strengthens with age. They are like the "divine +ideas" of Olympian bards,-- + + "Which always find us young, + And always keep us so." + +All this glory of the revival would be wanting but for the previous +months of desolation. The hepatica is not more beautiful than many +another flower, but it takes us when we are hungry for the sight of a +blossom. What can we do? When it peeps out of its bed of withered +leaves, puts off its furs, and opens to the sunlight its little purple +cup, we have no choice but to love it as we cannot love the handsomer +and more fragrant hosts that follow in its train. + +And as winter over and gone sets in brighter relief the warmth and +resurrection of springtime, so does the shadow of its approach lend a +real if somewhat indefinable attractiveness to the fall months. The +blooming of the late flowers, the ripening of leaf and fruit, the frosty +air, the flocking of birds, all the thousand signs of the autumnal +season take on a kind of pathetic and solemn interest, as being but +prelusive to the whiteness and deadness so soon to cover the earth. +Indeed, if there were no winter, there could be neither spring nor +autumn; nay, nor any summer. Leave out the snow and ice, and the whole +round year would be metamorphosed; or, rather, the year itself would +pass away, and nothing be left but time. + +I am not yet a convert to the pessimistic doctrine that "all pleasure is +merely relief from pain;" but I gladly believe that pain has its use in +heightening subsequent happiness, and that one man's evil qualities +(mine, for example) may partly atone for themselves by setting off the +amiable characteristics of worthier men around him. It consoles me to +feel that my neighbors seem better to themselves and to each other +because of the abrupt antithesis between their dispositions and mine. It +is better than nothing, if my failure can serve as a background for +their virtuous success. With reverent thankfulness do I acknowledge the +gracious and far-reaching frugality which, by one means and another, +saves even my foolishness and imperfection from running altogether to +waste. + +Viewed in this light, as an offset or foil for the remainder of the +year, we may say that the worse the winter is, the better it is. Within +reasonable limits, it can hardly be too long or too rigorous. And just +here, as it appears to me, our New England climate shows most admirably. +Without being unendurably hot or insufferably cold, it does offer us an +abundant contrast. An opposition of one hundred and twenty-five degrees +between January and July ought to be enough, one would say, to impress +even the dullest imagination. + +But winter has its positively favorable side, and is not to be passed +off with merely negative compliments; as if it were like a toothache or +a tiresome sermon,--something of which the only good word to be said is, +that it cannot last forever. It is not to be charged as a defect upon +cold weather that some people find it to disagree with them. We might as +well chide the hill for putting a sick man out of breath. It is with +persons as with plants: some are hardy, others not. The date-palm cannot +be made to grow in Massachusetts; but is Massachusetts to blame for the +palm-tree's incapacity? All things of which the specific office is to +promote strength (exercise, food, climate) presuppose a degree of +strength sufficient for their use. So it is with cold weather. Its +proper effect is to brace and invigorate the system; but there must be +vigor to start with. The law is universal: "To him that hath shall be +given." + +Enough, then, of apologies and negative considerations. There was never +a good Yankee, of moderately robust health, and under fifty years of +age, that did not welcome cold weather as a friend. Ask the school-boys, +especially such as live in country places, whether summer or winter +brings the greater pleasure. Two to one they will vote for winter. Or +look back over your own childhood, and see whether the sports of +winter-time do not seem, in the retrospect, to have been the very crown +of the year. How vivid my own recollections are! Other seasons had their +own distinctive felicities; the year was full of delights; but we +watched for the first snow-fall and the first ice as eagerly as I now +see elderly and sickly people watching for the first symptoms of summer. +As well as I can remember, winter was never too long nor too cold, +whatever may have been true of a single day now and then, when the old +school-house, with its one small stove, and its eight or ten large +windows, ought, in all reason, to have been condemned as uninhabitable. +But the frolics out-of-doors! It makes the blood tingle even now to +think of them. How brief the days were! How cruel the authority that +kept us in the house after dark, while so many of our mates were still +"sliding down hill" (we knew nothing of "coasting" where I was born), or +skating in the meadow! Childhood in the sunny South must be a very tame +affair, New England youngsters being judges. + +Trifles of this kind, if any be moved to call them such, are not to be +sneered out of court. Fifteen years form no small part of a human life, +and whatever helps us to grow up happy contributes in no slight degree +to keep us happy to the end. "When I became a man I put away childish +things"? Yes, it may be; but the very things that I boast of outgrowing +have made me what I am. In truth, when it comes to such a question as +this, I confess to putting more faith in the verdict of healthy children +than in the unanimous theories and groans of whole congresses of +valetudinarians. I am not yet so old nor so feeble but I gaze with +something of my youthful enthusiasm upon the first snow. It quickens my +pulse to see the ponds frozen over, although my skates long since went +out of commission; and I still find comfort in a tramp of five or six +miles, with the path none too good, and the mercury half-way between the +freezing point and zero. I like the buffeting of the north wind, and am +not indisposed once in a while to wrestle with the frost for the +possession of my own ears. Well as I love to loiter, I rejoice also in +weather which makes loitering impossible; which puts new springs into a +man's legs, and sets him spinning over the course whether he will or no. +It will be otherwise with me by and by, I suppose, seeing how my +venerable fellow-citizens are affected, but for the present nothing +renews my physical youth more surely than a low temperature; a fact +which I welcome as evidence that I am not yet going down-hill, however +closely I may be nearing the summit. + +Winter does us the honor to assume that we are not weaklings. Summer may +coddle and flatter, but cold weather is no sentimentalist. Its kindest +and tenderest mood has something of a stoical severity about it. It lays +its finger without mercy on our most vulnerable and sensitive spots. +But withal, as I have said, if we really possess any reserved strength, +it knows how to bring it out and make the most of it. What a fullness of +vitality do we suddenly develop as we come into close quarters with this +well-intentioned but rough and ready antagonist! In fine, winter is one +of those rare and invaluable friends of whom Emerson speaks, who enable +us to do what we can. To its good offices it is largely attributable, no +doubt, that in the long run the inhabitants of temperate regions have +always been too powerful for their rivals within the tropics. Frigidity +is like poverty, a blessing to those who can bear it. + +Winter in New England is not a time for gathering flowers out-of-doors, +though, taking the years together, there is no month of the twelve +wherein one may not pick a few blossoms even in Massachusetts; but if it +effaces one set of pictures, it paints for us another; and a wise and +liberal taste will reckon itself a debtor to both. To say nothing of the +half-dozen mornings on which every tree and bush is arrayed in all the +splendor of diamonds, or the other half-dozen when they bow themselves +under masses of new-fallen snow,--making no account of such exceptional +pageants, which, indeed, are often so destructive as to lose much of +their glory in the eyes of provident spectators,--I, for my own part, +find a beauty in the very commonest of winter landscapes. Let the ground +be altogether white, or altogether brown, or let it be covered so thinly +that the grass-blades show dark above the snow; in any case, white or +brown, or white _and_ brown, to me it is all beautiful; beautiful in +itself, and also by contrast with the greenness before and after; while, +as for the trees, I like them so well in their state of undress that I +question sometimes whether their leafy garments do not conceal more +loveliness than they confer. We are grateful, of course, to pines and +spruces; but what if all trees were evergreen? A questionable +improvement, surely. No; suggestive and solemn as the falling of the +leaves must ever be to us who read our own destiny in the annual +parable, it would be sadder still if there were no such alternation, no +diversity, but only one monotonous year on year of changeless verdure. + +Winter beauty, such as I have been hinting at, is not far to seek, +whether by townsman or rustic. Bostonians have only to cross the +Mill-Dam,--a rather too fashionable promenade, it is true, but even here +one may be tolerably certain of elbow-room on a January morning. Often +have I taken this road to health and happiness, waxing enthusiastic as I +have proceeded, admiring the snow-bound scene with a fervor which the +most opulent of summer landscapes seldom excites; and, pushing on with +increasing exhilaration, have brought up at last on Corey Hill, where +the inquisitive north-wind has very likely abbreviated my stay, but has +never yet spoiled my rapture at the wonderful white world underneath. + +Economy has its pleasures, it is said, for all healthily constituted +minds. We like, all of us, to make much out of little; to do a notable +piece of work with ordinary tools; to treat a meagre and commonplace +theme in such a manner that whoever begins to read has no alternative +but to finish; to tempt an epicure with the daintiest of repasts out of +the simplest and fewest of every-day materials; to paint a picture +which has nothing in it, but compels the eye; in a word, to demonstrate +to others, and not less to ourselves, that the secret of success lies in +the man and not in the stuff. It is good, once in a while, to take +advantage of a disadvantage to show what we can do. + +On the same principle we are glad to find ourselves, if only not too +often, in unpropitious circumstances. Otherwise how should we ever make +proof of our philosophy? It heightens my confidence in the goodness at +the heart of things to see how, as if by instinct, men of sound natures +inevitably right the scale in seasons of loss and scarcity. If half the +fortune disappears, the other half straightway doubles in value. Faith +easily puts aside calculation, and proves, off-hand, that a part is +equal to the whole. + +Thus it is with me as a lover of out-door life, and especially as a +field student of ornithology. At no time of the year does the fellowship +of the birds afford me keener enjoyment than in the dead of winter. In +June one may see them everywhere, and hear them at all hours; a few more +or a few less are nothing to make account of; but in January the sight +of a single brown creeper is sufficient to brighten the day, and the +twittering of half a dozen goldfinches is like the music of angels. + +As a certain outspoken philosopher would not visit some of his relatives +because he disliked to be alone, so do I in my jaunts avoid the highway +whenever it is possible, even in midwinter. What so lonesome as the +presence of people with whom we must not speak, or, worse yet, with whom +we must speak, but only about the weather and like exciting topics! As I +have intimated, however, it is usually the public street or nothing with +me during the cold season. All the more grateful am I, therefore, to +those familiar winter birds, some of whom are sure to bid me good +morning out of the hedges and shade-trees as I go past. Not unlikely a +shrike sits motionless and dumb upon a telegraph wire, or in contrary +mood whistles and chirrups industriously from some tree-top. _He_ is no +angel, that is plain enough; but none the less I am glad to meet him. If +he fails of being lovable, he is at least a study. It is wonderful how +abruptly his whim changes; how disconnected his behavior seems; how +quickly and unexpectedly he can pass from the most perfect quiescence +into a fit of most intense activity. I came upon such a fellow the other +day in crossing the Common, who, just as I espied him, swooped upon a +bunch of sparrows in an elm. He missed his aim, and in half a minute +made a second attempt upon a similar group in another tree. This time he +singled out one of the flock, and took chase after it; but the terrified +creature ducked and turned, and finally got away, whereupon the shrike +betook himself to a perch, and fell to making all manner of +noises,--squeaks, whistles, twitters, and what not,--hopping about +nervously meanwhile. The passers-by all stopped to look at the show +(perhaps because they saw me staring upward), till finally a laborer +yielded to the school-boy instinct and let fly a stone. The scamp was +not greatly frightened by this demonstration, and merely flew to the tip +of one of the tall cotton-woods, where he immediately resumed his vocal +practice. + +It ought to be helpful to a man's independence of spirit to fall in +once in a while with such a self-reliant and nonchalant brother. For +one, I wish I were better able to profit by his example. He seems made +for hard times and short rations. Doubtless it is a delusion of the +fancy, but he and winter are so connected in my thought that I can +hardly conceive of him as knowing what summer means, or as caring to +know. + +To a person of my tastes it is one of winter's capital recommendations +that it brings its own birds with it, thus affording sundry +ornithological pleasures which otherwise one would be compelled to go +without. The tree-sparrows, for instance, are very good cold-weather +acquaintances of mine. There is nothing peculiarly taking about their +dress or demeanor; but they are steady-going, good-humored, diligent +people, whose presence you may always depend upon. I lately witnessed a +very pretty trick of theirs. It was in the marsh just over the fence +from Beacon Street, where a company of the birds, a dozen perhaps, were +breakfasting off the seeds of evening primrose. Less skillful acrobats +than their neighbors and frequent traveling companions, the red-poll +linnets, it is not easy for them to feed while hanging upon the pods. +So, taking the weeds one by one, they alighted at the very tip, and then +with various twitchings and stampings shook the stalk as violently as +possible, after which they dropped quickly upon the snow to gather up +the results of their labors. As I say, it was an extremely pretty +performance, and by itself would have rewarded me for my morning tramp, +putting me in mind, as it did, of happy hours long since past, when I +climbed into the tops of nut-trees on business of the same sort. One of +the principal uses of friendship, human or other, is this of keeping the +heart young. + +I hope I am not lacking in a wholesome disrespect for sentimentality and +affectation; for artificial ecstasies over sunsets and landscapes, birds +and flowers; the fashionable cant of nature-worship, which is enough +almost to seal a true worshiper's lips under a vow of everlasting +silence. But such repugnances belong to the library and the parlor, and +are left behind when a man goes abroad, either by himself or in any +other really good company. For my own part the first lisp of a +chickadee out of a wayside thicket disperses with a breath all such +unhappy and unhallowed recollections. Here is a voice sincere, and the +response is instantaneous and irresistible. + +It would be a breach of good manners, an inexcusable ingratitude, to +write never so briefly of the New England winter without noting this, +the most engaging and characteristic enlivener of our winter woods; who +revels in snow and ice, and is never lacking in abundant measures of +faith and cheerfulness, enough not only for himself, but for any chance +wayfarer of our own kind. He is every whit as independent as the shrike, +but in how opposite a manner!--with a self-reliance that is never +self-sufficiency, and bravery that offers no suspicion of bravado. Happy +in himself, he is at the same time of a most companionable spirit. +Perfect little philosopher! What a paradise New England would be if all +her inhabitants were like him! + +In such a winter climate as ours it is emphatically true that we "know +not what shall be on the morrow." The season is not straitened in its +resources, and caters to all tastes in a way which some may look upon +as fickleness, but which I prefer to regard as catholicity. Its days are +of many types, and it spreads them out before us like a patient +shopkeeper,--as if it recognized in the Yankee a customer hard to suit. +I do not mean to affirm that the weather and I are never at odds; but +all in all, in the long run and theoretically, I approve its methods. +What a humdrum round life would be if nothing ever happened but the +expected! I wonder if there are beings anywhere who have forgotten how +it feels to be surprised. The children of this world, at all events, +were not intended for any such condition of fixity. When there is no +longer anything new _under_ the sun, it will be time to get above it. + +Even in so simple and regular a proceeding as a morning walk, one wishes +always to see something new, or failing of that, something old in a new +light; an easy enough task, if one has eyes. For as we cannot drink +twice of the same river, so we cannot twice take the same ramble. I went +over the same course yesterday and to-day; but yesterday's landscape and +sky were different from to-day's. I saw different birds, and had +different thoughts; and after all, the principal part of a walk is what +goes on in the mind. Still, the activities of the intellect are greatly +under the influence of external surroundings, a fact which makes largely +in favor of a varied year like that we have been praising. The +experience of it tends to widen and diversify the thinking of men. In a +smaller degree it answers the same end as travel. For aught I know, it +may possibly have its little share in the onerous task of liberalizing +systems of theology. Who shall say that our New England climate, with +its frequent and extreme contrasts,--what I have called its habit of +catholicity,--may not have had more or less to do with that diffusion of +free thought which has made the home of the Pilgrims the birthplace of +heresies without number? The suggestion is fanciful, perhaps. Let it +pass. Such profundities do not come within my province. Only I must +believe that, even in the matter of weather, it is good for us to be +educated out of bigotry into a large-minded toleration. Hence it is, in +part, that I give my suffrage for our Massachusetts winter, which not +only widens the scope of the year, but contains within itself a variety +wellnigh endless. + +I have kept my subject out-of-doors. It is well always to have at least +one point of originality. Let it be mine, in the present instance, that +I have said nothing about the pleasures of the fireside, about long +evenings and drawn curtains. If I were in winter's place, I should not +greatly care to hear people tell how comfortable they could make +themselves by jealously shutting me out. Their speech might be eloquent, +and their language eulogistic; but somehow I should not feel that they +were praising _me_. + + + + +A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE. + + I will go lose myself.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +There are two sayings of Scripture which to my mind seem peculiarly +appropriate for pleasant Sundays,--"Behold the fowls of the air," and +"Consider the lilies." The first is a morning text, as anybody may see, +while the second is more conveniently practiced upon later in the day, +when the dew is off the grass. With certain of the more esoteric +doctrines of the Bible (the duty of turning the other cheek, for +example, or of selling all that one has and giving to the poor) we may +sometimes be troubled what to do,--unless, like the world in general, we +turn them over to Count Tolstoï and his followers; but such precepts as +I have quoted nobody is likely ever to quarrel with, least of all any +"natural man." For myself, I find them always a comfort, no matter what +my mood or condition, while their observance becomes doubly agreeable +when I am away from home; the thought of beholding a strange species of +fowl, or of considering a new sort of lily, proving even more attractive +than the prospect of listening to a new minister, or, what is somewhat +less probable, of hearing a new sermon. + +Thus it was with me, not long ago, when I found myself suddenly left +alone at a small hotel in the Franconia Valley. The day was lowery, as +days in the mountains are apt to be; but when duty goes along with +inclination, a possible sprinkling is no very serious hindrance. +Besides, a fortnight of "catching weather" had brought me into a state +of something like philosophical indifference. I must be reckoned either +with the just or with the unjust,--so I had come to reason,--and of +course must expect now and then to be rained on. Accordingly, after +dinner I tucked my faithful umbrella under my arm, and started up the +Notch road. + +I had in view a quiet, meditative ramble, in harmony with the spirit of +the day, and could think of nothing more to the purpose than a visit to +a pair of deserted farms, out in the woods on the mountain-side. The +lonesome fields and the crumbling houses would touch my imagination, and +perhaps chasten my spirit. Thither would I go, and "consider the +lilies." I am never much of a literalist,--except when a strict +construction favors the argument,--and in the present instance it did +not strike me as at all essential that I should find any specimens of +the genus _Lilium_. One of the humbler representatives of the great and +noble family of the _Liliaceæ_--the pretty clintonia, now a little out +of season, or even the Indian cucumber-root--would come fairly within +the spirit of the text; while, if worst came to worst, there would +certainly be no scarcity of grass, itself nothing but a kind of +degenerate lily, if some recent theories may be trusted. + +I followed the highway for a mile or two, and then took a wood-road (a +"cart-path" I should call it, if I dared to speak in my own tongue +wherein I was born) running into the forest on the left. This brought me +before long to a "pair of bars," over which I clambered into a grassy +field, the first of the two ancient clearings I had come out to see. The +scanty acres must have been wrested from the encompassing forest at no +small cost of patience and hard labor; and after all, they had proved +not to pay for their tillage. A waste of energy, as things now looked; +but who is to judge of such matters? It is not given to every man to see +the work of his hands established. A good many of us, I suspect, might +be thankful to know that anything we have ever done would be found +worthy of mention fifty years hence, though the mention were only by way +of pointing a moral. + +The old barn was long ago blown down, and as I mounted the fence a +woodchuck went scampering out of sight among the timbers. The place was +not entirely uninhabited, as it seemed, in spite of appearances: and as +I turned toward the house, the door of which stood uninvitingly open, +there sat a second woodchuck in the doorway, facing me, intent and +motionless, full of wonderment, no doubt, at the unspeakable +impertinence of such an intrusion. I was glad to see _him_, at any rate, +and made haste to tell him so; greeting him in the rather unceremonious +language wherewith the now famous titmouse is said to have addressed +our foremost American gentleman and philosopher:-- + + "Good day, good sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places." + +But the churlish fellow had no notion of doing the honors, and by the +time I had advanced two or three paces he whisked about and vanished +inside the door. "Well done!" I thought. "Great is evolution. Woodchucks +used to be cave-dwellers, but they are getting to live above ground, +like the rest of us. So does history repeat itself. Who knows how soon +they may be putting up cottages on their own account?" Perhaps I gave +the creature more credit than really belonged to him. I followed him +into the house, but he was nowhere to be seen, and it is not unlikely +that he lived in a cave, after all. Nearly half the flooring had rotted +away, and there was nothing to hinder his getting into the cellar. He +may have taken the old farmhouse as a convenient portico for his burrow, +a sort of storm-porch, as it were. In his eyes this may be the final end +and aim, the teleological purpose, of all such board-and-shingle +edifices. Mr. Ruskin seems to hold that a house falls short of its +highest usefulness until it has become a ruin; and who knows but +woodchucks may be of the same opinion? + +This particular house was in two parts, one of them considerably more +ancient than the other. This older portion it was, of which the floor +had so badly (or so well) fallen into decay; while the ceiling, as if in +a spirit of emulation, had settled till it described almost a semicircle +of convexity. To look at it, one felt as if the law of gravity were +actually being imposed upon. + +It must have marked an epoch in the history of the household, this +doubling of its quarters. Things were looking well with the man. His +crops were good, his family increasing; his wife had begun to find the +house uncomfortably small; they could afford to enlarge it. Hence this +addition, this "new part," as no doubt they were in the habit of calling +it, with pardonable satisfaction. It was more substantially built than +the original dwelling, and possessed, what I dare say its mistress had +set her heart upon, one plastered room. The "new part"! How ironical +the words sounded, as I repeated them to myself! If things would only +stay new, or if it were men's houses only that grew old! + +The people who lived here had little occasion to hang their walls with +pictures. When they wanted something to look at, they had but to go to +the window and gaze upon the upper slopes of Mount Lafayette and Mount +Cannon, rising in beauty beyond the intervening forest. But every New +England woman must have a bit of flower garden, no matter what her +surroundings; and even here I was glad to notice, just in front of the +door, a clump of cinnamon rose-bushes, all uncared for, of course, but +flourishing as in a kind of immortal youth (this old-fashioned rose must +be one of Time's favorites), and just now bright with blossoms. For +sentiment's sake I plucked one, thinking of the hands that did the same +years ago, and ere this, in all likelihood, were under the sod; +thinking, too, of other hands, long, long vanished, and of a white +rose-bush that used to stand beside another door. + +On both sides of the house were apple-trees, a few of them still in +good trim, but the greater number decrepit after years of buffeting by +mountain storms. A phÅ“be sat quietly on the ridge-pole, and a chipper +was singing from the orchard. What knew they of time, or of time's +mutations? The house might grow old,--the house and the trees; but if +the same misfortune ever befalls phÅ“bes and sparrows, we are, +fortunately, none the wiser. To human eyes they are always young and +fresh, like the buttercups that bespangled the grass before me, or like +the sun that shone brightly upon the tranquil scene. + +Turning away from the house and the grassy field about it, I got over a +stone wall into a pasture fast growing up to wood: spruces, white pines, +red pines, paper birches, and larches, with a profusion of meadow-sweet +sprinkled everywhere among them. A nervous flicker started at my +approach, stopped for an instant to reconnoitre, and then made off in +haste. A hermit thrush was singing, and the bird that is called the +"preacher"--who takes no summer vacation, but holds forth in "God's +first temple" for the seven days of every week--was delivering his +homily with all earnestness. He _must_ preach, it seemed, whether men +would hear or forbear. He had already announced his text, but I could +not certainly make out what it was. "Here we have no continuing city," +perhaps; or it might have been, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, +all is vanity." It should have been one of these, or so I thought; but, +as all church-goers must have observed, the connection between text and +sermon is sometimes more or less recondite, and once in a while, like +the doctrine of the sermon itself, requires to be taken on faith. In the +present instance, indeed, as no doubt in many others, the pew was quite +as likely to be at fault as the pulpit. The red-eye's eloquence was +never very persuasive to my ear. Its short sentences, its tiresome +upward inflections, its everlasting repetitiousness, and its sharp, +querulous tone long since became to me an old story; and I have always +thought that whoever dubbed this vireo the "preacher" could have had no +very exalted opinion of the clergy. + +I stayed not to listen, therefore, but kept on through the wood, while a +purple finch pitched a tune on one side of the path (he appeared to +feel no compunctions about interrupting the red-eye's exhortation), and +a squirrel sprung his rattle on the other; and presently I came to the +second farm: a large clearing, bounded by the forest on all hands, but +after these many years still yielding a very respectable hay-crop (so +does the good that men do live after them), and with a house and barn +still standing at the lower end. I reached the house just in time to +escape a shower, making an enforced obeisance as I entered. It was but +the ghost of a dwelling,--the door off its hinges, and no glass in the +four small windows; but it had a substantial quality about it, +notwithstanding, as a not very tall man was liable at any moment to be +reminded should he carry himself a trifle too proudly under the big +unhewn timbers. It is better to stoop than to bump your head, they +seemed to be saying. Hither came no tourists but the rabbits; and they, +it was plain, were not so much tourists as permanent residents. As I +looked at the blank walls and door-posts, after a fortnight's experience +among the mountains, I felt grateful at the sight of boards on which +Brown of Boston and Smith of Smithfield had not yet inscribed their +illustrious names. I had left the city in search of rest and seclusion. +For the time, in the presence of Nature herself, I would gladly have +forgotten the very existence of my all-too-famous countrymen; and I +rejoiced accordingly to have found one lonely spot to which their +restless feet had not yet penetrated. Tall grass grew untrodden quite up +to the door-sill; raspberry vines thrust their arms in at the pane-less +windows; there was neither paint nor plastering; and the tiny cupboard +was so bare that it set my irreverent fancy to quoting Mother Goose in +the midst of my most serious moralizings. + +The owner of this farm, like his neighbor, had planted an apple orchard, +and his wife a patch of cinnamon roses; and, not to treat one better +than another, I picked a rose here also. There is no lover of flowers +but likes to have his garden noticed, and the good housewife would have +been pleased, I knew, could she have seen me looking carefully for her +handsomest and sweetest bud. + +By this time the shower was over, and a song-sparrow was giving thanks. +I might never have another opportunity to follow up an old forest path, +of which I had heard vague reports as leading from this point to the +railway. "It starts from the upper corner of the farm," my informant had +said. To the upper corner I went, therefore, through the rank, wet +grass. But I found no sign of what I was looking for, and with some +heartfelt but unreportable soliloquizings, to the effect that a +countryman's directions, like dreams, are always to be read backwards, I +started straight down toward the lower corner, saying to myself that I +ought to have had the wit to take that course in the beginning. Sure +enough, the path was there, badly overgrown with bushes and young trees, +but still traceable. A few rods, and I came to the brook. The bridge was +mostly gone, as I had been forewarned it probably would be, but a single +big log answered a foot passenger's requirements. Once across the +bridge, however, I could discover no sign of a trail. But what of that? +The sun was shining; I had only to keep it at my back, and I was sure +to bring up at the railroad. So I set out, and for a while traveled on +bravely. Then I began to bethink myself that I was not going up-hill +quite so fast as it seemed I ought to be doing. Was I really approaching +the railway, after all? Or had I started in a wrong direction (being in +the woods at the time), and was I heading along the mountain-side in +such a course that I might walk all night, and all the while be only +plunging deeper and deeper into the forest? The suggestion was not +pleasurable. If I could only see the mountain! But the thick foliage put +that out of the question. + +After a short debate with myself I concluded to be prudent, and make my +way back to the brook while I still had the sun to guide me; for I now +called to mind the showeriness of the day, and the strong likelihood +that the sky might at any moment be overcast. Even as things were, there +was no assurance that I might not strike the brook at some distance from +the bridge, and so at some distance from the trail, with no means of +determining whether it was above or below me. I began my retreat, and +pretty soon, luckily or unluckily,--I am not yet certain which,--in +some unaccountable manner my feet found themselves again in the path. + +Now, then, I would carry out my original intention, and I turned +straight about. For a while the path held clear. Then it was blocked by +a big tree that had toppled into it lengthwise. I must go round the +obstruction, and pick up the trail at the other end. But the trail would +not be picked up. It had faded out or run into the ground. Finally, when +I was just on the point of owning myself beaten, my eyes all at once +fell upon it, running along before me. A second experience of the same +kind set me thinking how long it would take to go a mile or two at this +rate (it was already half past four o'clock), even if I did not in the +end lose my way altogether. But I kept on till I was stopped, not by a +single windfall, but by a tangle of half a dozen. This time I hunted for +a continuation of the path on the further side till I was out of +patience, and then determined to be done with the foolish business, and +go back by the way I had come. A very sensible resolve, but when I came +to put it into execution it turned out to be too late. The path was +lost entirely. I must fall back upon the sun; and if the truth is to be +told, I commenced feeling slightly uncomfortable. The bushes were wet; +my clothing was drenched; I had neither compass nor matches; it +certainly would be anything but agreeable to spend the night in the +forest. + +Happily there was, for the present, no great danger of matters coming to +such a pass. If the sun would only shine for half an hour longer I could +reach the brook (I could probably reach it without the sun), and even if +I missed the bridge I could follow the stream out of the woods before +dark. I was not frightened, but I was beginning to tremble lest I should +be. The loss of the path was in itself little to worry about. But what +if I should lose my wits also, as many a man had done in circumstances +no worse, and with consequences most disastrous? Unpleasant stories came +into my head, and I remember repeating to myself more than once (candor +is better than felicity of phrase), "Be careful, now; don't get +rattled!" Then, having thus pulled myself together, as an Englishman +would say, I faced the sun and began "stepping westward," though with no +thought of Wordsworth's poem. A spectator might have suspected that if I +was not "rattled," I was at least not far from it. "Now who is this," he +might have queried, + + "whose sore task + Does not divide the Sunday from the week?" + +Meanwhile I was, of course, on the lookout for any signs of the missing +path, and after a time I descried in the distance, on one side, what +looked like a patch of bushes growing in the midst of the forest. I made +for it, and, as I expected, found myself once more on the trail. This +time I held it, reached the bridge, crossed it, and, still keeping up my +pace, was presently out in the sunshine of the old farm, startling a +brood of young partridges on the way. Happy birds! _They_ were never +afraid of passing a night in the woods. A most absurd notion! But man, +as he is the strongest of all animals, so is he also the weakest and +most defenseless. + +This last reflection is an afterthought, I freely acknowledge. At the +moment I was taken up with the peacefulness of the pastoral scene into +which I had so happily emerged, and was in no mood to envy anybody. How +bright and cheerful the ragworts and buttercups looked, and what sweet +and homelike music the robin made, singing from one of the apple-trees! +The cool north wind wafted the spicy odor of the cinnamon roses to my +nostrils; but--alas for the prosaic fact!--the same cool wind struck +through my saturated garments, bidding me move on. The pessimistic +preacher was right when he said, "Truly the light is sweet, and a +pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." I wonder whether +he was ever bewildered in a dark wood. From boyhood I have loved the +forest, with its silence, its shadows, and its deep isolation, but for +the present I had had my fill of such mercies. + +As I came out upon the highway, it occurred to me what Emerson says of +Thoreau,--that "he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, +and therefore never willingly walked in the road." My own taste, I was +obliged to admit, was somewhat less fastidious. Indeed, my boots, +soaked through and through as they were, made very grateful music +striking along the gravel. And after supper, while walking back and +forth upon the piazza, in all the luxury of slippers and a winter +overcoat, I turned more than once from the glories of the sunset to gaze +upon the black slope of Lafayette, thinking within myself how much less +comfortable I should be up yonder in the depths of the forest, so dark +and wet, without company, without fire, without overcoat, and without +supper. After all, mere animal comfort is not to be despised. Let us be +thankful, I said, for the good things of life, of no matter what grade; +yes, though they be only a change of clothing and a summer hotel. + +It was laughable how my quiet ramble had turned out. My friend, the +red-eyed vireo, may or may not have stuck to his text; but if he had +seen me in the midst of my retreat, dashing through the bushes and +clambering over the fallen trees, he certainly never would have guessed +mine. "Consider the lilies," indeed! He was more likely to think of a +familiar Old Testament scripture: "The wicked flee when no man +pursueth." + + + + +A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION. + + So waved the pine-tree through my thought. + EMERSON. + + +In outward, every-day affairs, in what we foolishly call real life, man +is a stickler for regularity, a devout believer in the maxim, "Order is +heaven's first law." He sets his house at right angles with the street; +lays out his grounds in the straightest of straight lines, or in the +most undeviating of curves; selects his shade-trees for their trim, +geometrical habit; and, all in all, carries himself as if precision and +conformity were the height of virtue. Yet this same man, when he comes +to deal with pictorial representations, makes up his judgment according +to quite another standard; finding nothing picturesque in tidy gardens +and shaven lawns, discarding without hesitation every well-rounded, +symmetrical tree, delighting in disorder and disproportion, loving a +ruin better than the best appointed palace, and a tumble-down wall +better than the costliest and stanchest of new-laid masonry. It is hard +to know what to think of an inconsistency like this. Why should taste +and principle be thus opposed to each other, as if the same man were +half Philistine, half Bohemian? Can this strong æsthetic preference for +imperfection be based upon some permanent, universal law, or is it only +a passing whim, the fashion of an hour? + +Whatever we may say of such a problem,--and where one knows nothing, it +is perhaps wisest to say nothing,--we may surely count it an occasion +for thankfulness that a thing so common as imperfection should have at +least its favorable side. Music would soon become tame, if not +intolerable, without here and there a discord; and who knows how stupid +life itself might prove without some slight admixture of evil? From my +study-windows I can see sundry of the newest and most commodious +mansions in town; but I more often look, not at them, but at a certain +dilapidated old house, blackening for want of paint, and fast falling +into decay, but with one big elm before the door. I have no hankerings +to live in it; as a dwelling-place, I should no doubt prefer one of the +more modern establishments; but for an object to look at, give me the +shanty. + +Human nature is nothing if not paradoxical. In its eyes everything is +both good and bad; and for my own part, I sometimes wonder whether this +may not be the sum of all wisdom,--to find everything good in its place, +and everything bad out of its place. + +Thoughts like these suggest themselves as I look at the pitch-pine, +which, to speak only of such trees as grow within the range of my own +observation, is the one irregular member of the family of cone-bearers. +The white or Weymouth pine, the hemlock, the cedars, the spruces, the +fir, and the larch, these are all, in different ways, of a decidedly +symmetrical turn. Each of them has its own definite plan, and builds +itself up in fastidious conformity therewith, except as untoward outward +conditions may now and then force an individual into some abnormal +peculiarity. And all of them, it need not be said, have the defect of +this quality. They are not without charm, not even the black spruce, +while the Weymouth pine and the hemlock are often of surpassing +magnificence and beauty; but a punctilious adherence to rule must of +necessity be attended with a corresponding absence of freedom and +variety. The pitch-pine, on the other hand, if it works upon any set +scheme, as no doubt it does, has the grace to keep it out of sight. Its +gift is genius rather than talent. It has an air, as genius always has, +of achieving its results without effort or premeditation. Its method is +that of spontaneity; its style, that of the picturesque-homely, so dear +to the artistic temperament. Its whole make-up is consistent with this +germinal or controlling idea. Angular in outline, rough and ragged in +its bole, with its needles stiff and its cones hard and sharp, it makes +no attempt at gracefulness, yet by virtue of its very waywardness it +becomes, as if in spite of itself, more attractive than any of its +relatives. + +The Puritans of New England are mostly dead; the last of their spiritual +descendants, we may fear, will soon be dead likewise; but as long as +_Pinus rigida_ covers the sandy knolls of Massachusetts, the sturdy, +uncompromising, independent, economical, indefatigable, all-enduring +spirit of Puritanism will be worthily represented in this its sometime +thriving-place. + +For the pitch-pine's noblest qualities are, after all, not artistic, but +moral. Such unalterable contentment, such hardiness and persistency, are +enough to put the stoutest of us to shame. Once give it root, and no +sterility of soil can discourage it. Everything else may succumb, but +it--it and the gray birch--will make shift to live. Like the resin that +exudes from it, having once taken hold, it has no thought of letting go. +It is never "planted by the rivers of water," but all the same its leaf +does not wither. No summer so hot and dry, no winter so cold and wet, +but it keeps its perennial green. What cannot be done in one year may, +perchance, be accomplished in three or four. It spends several seasons +in ripening its fruit. Think of an apple-tree thus patient! + +The pitch-pine is beautiful to look at, and "profitable for doctrine, +for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," but it +would be a shame not to add that it is also most excellent to smell of. +If I am to judge, scarcely any odor wears better than this of growing +turpentine. There is something unmistakably clean and wholesome about +it. The very first whiff savors of salubrity. "The belief in the good +effects of pine forests in cases of phthisis is quite unanimous" (so I +read the other day in a scientific journal), "and the clinical evidence +in favor of their beneficial influence is unquestioned." Who can tell +whether our New England climate, with all its consumptive provocations, +might not be found absolutely unendurable but for the amelioration +furnished by this generously diffused terebinthine prophylactic? + +When all is said, however, nothing else about the pitch-pine ever +affects me so deeply as its behavior after man has done his worst upon +it. It would appear to have some vague sense of immortality, some +gropings after a resurrection. The tree was felled in the autumn, and +the trunk cut up ignominiously into cord-wood; but in the spring the +prostrate logs begin to put forth scattered tufts of bright green +leaves,--life still working under the ribs of death,--while the stump, +whether "through the scent of water" I cannot say, is perhaps sending up +fresh shoots,--a piece of _post-mortem_ hopefulness the like of which no +white pine, for all its seemingly greater vitality, was ever known to +exhibit. But leaves and shoots alike come to nothing. If a pitch-pine +die, it shall not live again. The wood's blind impulses, if not false in +themselves, were at least falsely interpreted. Alas! alas! who has not +found it so? What seemed like the prophetic stirrings of a new life were +only the last flickerings of a lamp that was going out. + + + + +ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM. + + I walk about; not to and from.--CHARLES LAMB. + + +Taking a walk is something different from traveling afoot. The latter I +may do when on my way to the cars or the shop; but my neighbor, seeing +me at such times, never says to himself, "Mr. ---- is taking a walk." He +knows I cannot be doing that, so long as I am walking for the sake of +getting somewhere. Even the common people understand that utilitarianism +has nothing to do with the true peripatetic philosophy. + +The disciples of this philosophy, the noble fraternity of saunterers, +among whom I modestly enroll myself, are not greatly concerned with any +kind of merely physical activity. They believe that everything has both +a lower and a higher use; and that in the order of evolution the lower +precedes the higher. Time was when walking--going erect on one's hind +limbs--was a rare accomplishment, sufficient of itself to confer +distinction. Little by little this accomplishment became general, and +for this long time now it has been universal; yet even to the present +day it is not quite natural; else why does every human infant still +creep on all-fours till it is taught otherwise? But of all who practise +the art, only here and there a single individual has divined its loftier +use and significance. The rest are still in the materialistic +stage--pedestrians simply. In their view walking is only a convenience, +or perhaps I should say an inconvenience; a cheap device for getting +from one place to another. They resort to it for business, or, it may +be, for health. Of strolling as a means of happiness they have scarcely +so much as heard. They belong to the great and fashionable sect of the +wise and prudent; and from all such the true peripatetic philosophy is +forever hidden. We who are in the secret would gladly publish it if we +could; but by its very nature the doctrine is esoteric. + +Whoso would be initiated into its mysteries must first of all learn how +not to be in a hurry. Life is short, it is true, and time is precious; +but a day is worth nothing of itself. It is like money,--good only for +what it will buy. One must not play the miser, even with time. "There is +that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Who does +not know men so penurious of minutes, so everlastingly preoccupied, that +they seldom spend an hour to any good purpose,--confirming the paradox +of Jesus, "He that loveth his life shall lose it"? And between a certain +two sisters, was not the verdict given in favor of the one who (if we +take the other's word for it) was little better than an idler? The +saunterer has laid to heart this lesson. On principle, he devotes a part +of his time to what his virtuous townsmen call doing nothing. "What +profit hath a man of all his labor?" A pertinent inquiry; but I am not +aware that the author of it ever suggested any similar doubt as to the +net results of well-directed idleness. A laborious, painstaking spirit +is commendable in its place; it would go hard with the world to get on +without it; but the fact remains that some of the very best things of +this life--things unseen and (therefore) eternal--are never to be come +at industriously. It is useless to chase them. We can only put +ourselves in their way, and be still. The secret is as old as mysticism +itself: if the vision tarry, wait for it. + +Walking, then, as adepts use the word, is not so much a physical as a +spiritual exercise. And if any be disposed to look askance at this form +of expression, as if there were possibly a suggestion of profanity about +it, they will please bethink themselves of an ancient sacred book (to +which, according to some friendly critics, I am strangely fond of +referring), wherein is narrated the history of a man who went out into +the fields at eventide to meditate. _He_ could never have misunderstood +our speech, nor dreamed of its needing justification. And your true +saunterers of the present day, no matter what their creed, are of +Isaac's kin,--devout and imaginative souls, who may now and then be +forced to cry with the Psalmist, "O that I had wings!" but who, in all +ordinary circumstances, are able to _walk_ away and be at rest. Like the +patriarch, they have accustomed their feet to serve them as ministers of +grace. + +It must be a bad day indeed when, on retreating to the woods or the +fields, we find it impossible to leave the wearisome world--yes, and our +more wearisome selves, also--behind us. As a rule, this result is not +the better attained by quickening the gait. We may allow for exceptions, +of course, cases in which a counter-excitement may peradventure be of +use; but most often it is better to seek quietness of heart at a quiet +pace; to steal away from our persecutors, rather than to invite pursuit +by too evident a purpose of escape. The lazy motion is of itself a kind +of spiritual sedative. As we proceed, gazing idly at the sky, or with +our attention caught by some wayside flower or passing bird, the mind +grows placid, and, like smooth water, receives into itself the image of +heaven. What a benediction of repose falls upon us sometimes from an old +tree, as we pass under it! So self-poised it seems; so alive, and yet so +still! It was planted here before we were born. It will be green and +flourishing long after we are dead. In it we may behold a perfect +illustration of the dignity and peace of a life undeviatingly obedient +to law,--the law of its own being; never in haste, never at a loss, but +in every fibre doing, day by day, its appropriate work. Sunshine and +rain, heat and cold, calm and storm,--all minister to its necessities. +It has only to stand in its place and grow; happy in spring-time, with +its buds and leaves; happy in autumn, with its fruit; happy, too, in +winter,--repining not when forced to wait through months of bareness and +dearth for the touch of returning warmth. Enviable tree! As we +contemplate it, we feel ourselves rebuked, and, at the same time, +comforted. We, also, will be still, and let the life that is in us work +itself out to the appointed end. + +The seeing eye is a gift so unusual that whoever accustoms himself to +watch what passes around him in the natural world is sure to be often +entertained by the remarks, complimentary and otherwise, which such an +idiosyncrasy calls forth. Some of his neighbors pity him as a +ne'er-do-well, while others devoutly attribute to him a sort of +superhuman faculty. If only _they_ had such eyes! But, alas! they go +into the woods, and they see nothing. Meanwhile the object of their envy +knows well enough that his own vision is but rudimentary. He catches a +glimpse now and then,--nothing more. Like his neighbors, he, too, prays +for sight. Sooner or later, however, he discovers that it is a blessing +to be able on occasion to leave one's scientific senses at home. For +here, again, surprising as it may seem, it is necessary to be on our +guard against a superserviceable activity. There are times when we go +out-of-doors, not after information, but in quest of a mood. Then we +must not be over-observant. Nature is coy; she appreciates the +difference between an inquisitor and a lover. The curious have their +reward, no doubt, but her best gifts are reserved for suitors of a more +sympathetic turn. And unless it be here and there some creature +altogether devoid of poetic sensibility, some "fingering slave,"-- + + "One who would peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,"-- + +unless it be such a person as this, too poor to be conscious of his own +poverty, there can be no enthusiastic student of natural history but has +found out for himself the truth and importance of the paradoxical +caution now suggested. One may become so zealous a botanist as almost to +cease to be a man. The shifting panorama of the heavens and the earth no +longer appeals to him. He is now a specialist, and go where he will, he +sees nothing but specimens. Or he may give himself up to ornithology, +till eye and ear grow so abnormally sensitive that not a bird can move +or twitter but he is instantly aware of it. He _must_ attend, whether he +will or no. So long as this servitude lasts, it is idle to go afield in +pursuit of joys "high and aloof," such as formerly awaited him in +lonesome places. Better betake himself to city streets or a darkened +room. For myself, I thankfully bear testimony that when I have been thus +under the tyranny of my own senses I have found no more certain means of +temporary deliverance than to walk in the early evening. Indeed, I have +been ready, many a time, to exclaim with Wordsworth,-- + + "Hail, Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour!" + +Then the eye has no temptation to busy itself with petty details; "day's +mutable distinctions" are removed from sight, and the mind is left +undistracted to rise, if it can, into communion with the spirit of the +scene. + +After all, it is next to nothing we are able to tell of the pleasures of +such fellowship. We cannot define them to ourselves,--though they are +"felt in the blood and felt along the heart,"--much less to another. +Least of all need we attempt to explain them to any Philistine; the +walls of whose house are likely enough hung with "chromos," but who +stares at you for a fool or a sentimentalist (which comes, perhaps, to +nearly the same thing), when he catches you standing still before one of +Nature's pictures. How shall one blest with a feeling for the woods put +into language the delight he experiences in sauntering along their shady +aisles? He enjoys the stillness, the sense of seclusion, the flicker of +sunlight and shadow, the rustle of leaves, the insect's hum, the passing +of the chance butterfly, the chirp of the bird, or its full-voiced song, +the tracery of lichens on rock and tree, the tuft of ferns, the carpet +of moss, the brightness of blossom and fruit,--all the numberless sights +and sounds of the forest; but it is not any of these, nor all of them +together, that make the glory of the place. It is the wood--and this is +something more than the sum of all its parts--which lays hold upon him, +taking him, as it were, out of the world and out of himself. Let +practical people sneer, and the industrious frown; we who retain our +relish for these natural and innocent felicities may well enough be +indifferent to neighborly comments. Whatever worldlings may think, the +hour is not wasted that brings with it tranquillity of mind and an +uplifting of the heart. We seem to be going nowhere and looking for +nothing? Yes; but one may be glad to visit the Land of Beulah, though he +have no special errand thither. Who ever saw a child but was fond of an +idle hour in the woods? And for my part, while, I have with me the +children (and the dogs and the poets) I count myself in excellent +company; for the time, at least, I can do without what is vulgarly +esteemed good society. A man to whom a holiday affords no pleasure is +already as good as dead; nothing will save him but to be born again. We +have heard of convicts so wonted to prison cells that they could feel +at home nowhere else; and we have known men of business whose feet, when +they stopped going the regular humdrum round, knew no other course to +take but to steer straight for the grave. It behooves us to heed the +warning of such examples, and now and then to be idle betimes, lest the +capacity for idleness be extirpated by disuse. + +The practice of sauntering may especially be recommended as a corrective +of the modern vice of continual reading. For too many of us it has come +to be well-nigh impossible to sit down by ourselves without turning +round instinctively in search of a book or a newspaper. The habit +indicates a vacancy of mind, a morbid intellectual restlessness, and may +not inaptly be compared with that incessant delirious activity which +those who are familiar with death-bed scenes know so well as a symptom +of approaching dissolution. Possibly the two cases are not in all +respects analogous. Books are an inestimable boon; let me never be +without the best of them, both old and new. Still, one would fain have +an occasional thought of one's own, even though, as the common saying +is, it be nothing to speak of. Meditation is an old-fashioned exercise; +the very word is coming to have an almost archaic sound; but neither the +word nor the thing will altogether pass into forgetfulness so long as +the race of saunterers--the spiritual descendants of Isaac--continue to +inherit the earth. + +There is little danger that the lives of any of us will be too solitary +or lived at too leisurely a rate. The world grows busier and busier. +Those whose passion for Nature is strongest and most deep-seated are +driven to withhold from her all but the odds and ends of the day. We +rebel sometimes; the yoke grows unendurable; come what may, we will be +quit of it; but the existing order of things proves too strong for us, +and anon we settle back into the old bondage. And perhaps it is better +so. Even the most simple and natural delights are best appreciated when +rarely and briefly enjoyed. So I persuade myself that, all in all, it is +good for me to have only one or two hours a day for the woods. Human +nature is weak; who knows but I might grow lazy, were I my own master? +At least, "the fine point of seldom pleasure" would be blunted. + +The ideal plan would include two walks: one in the morning for +observation, with every sense alert; the other toward night, for a mood +of "wise passiveness," wherein Nature should be left free to have her +own way with the heart and the imagination. Then the laureate's prayer +might be fulfilled:-- + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more, + But more of reverence in us dwell; + That mind and soul, according well, + May make one music, as before." + +But this strict division of time is too often out of the question, and +we must contrive, as best we can, to unite the two errands,--study and +reverie: using our eyes and ears, but not abusing them; and, on the +other hand, giving free play to fancy and imagination, without +permitting ourselves to degenerate into impotent dreamers. Every walker +ought to be a faithful student of at least one branch of natural +history, not omitting Latin names and the very latest discoveries and +theories. But, withal, let him make sure that his acquaintance with +out-of-door life is sympathetic, and not merely curious or scientific. +All honor to the new science and its votaries; we run small risk of too +much learning; but it should be kept in mind that the itch for finding +out secrets is to be accounted noble or ignoble, according as the spirit +that prompts the research is liberal or petty. Curiosity and love of the +truth are not yet identical, however it may flatter our self-esteem to +ignore the distinction. One may spend one's days and nights in nothing +else but in hearing or telling some new thing, and after all be no +better than a gossip. It would prove a sorry exchange for such of us as +have entered, in any degree, into the feeling of Wordsworth's lines,-- + + "To me, the meanest flower that blows can give + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"-- + +and I believe the capacity for such moods to be less uncommon than many +suppose,--it would be a sorry bargain, I say, for us to lose this +sensitiveness to the charm of living beauty, though meanwhile we were to +grow wiser than all the moderns touching the morphology and histology of +every blossom under the sun. + + "Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail against her beauty?" + +Not we, certainly; but we will be bold to add, with Tennyson himself,-- + + "Let her know her place; + She is the second, not the first." + +In treating a theme of this kind, it is hard not to violate Nature's own +method, and fall into a strain of exhortation. Our intercourse with her +is so good and wholesome, such an inexhaustible and ever-ready resource +against the world's trouble and unrest, that we would gladly have +everybody to share it. We say, over and over, with Emerson,-- + + "If I could put my woods in song, + And tell what's there enjoyed, + All men would to my gardens throng, + And leave the cities void." + +But this may not be. At best, words can only hint at sensations; and the +hint can be taken only by as many as are predestined to hear it. As I +have said, the doctrine is esoteric. How are those who have never felt +the like to understand the satisfaction with which I recall a certain +five or ten minutes of a cool morning in May, a year or more ago? I was +drawing towards home, after a jaunt of an hour or two, when I came +suddenly into a sheltered and sunny nook, where a bed of the early +saxifrage was already in full bloom, while a most exquisite little +bee-fly of a beautiful shade of warm brown was hovering over it, +draining the tiny, gold-lined chalices, one by one, with its long +proboscis, which looked precisely like the bill of a humming-bird. An +ordinary picture enough, as far as words go,--only a little sunshine, a +patch of inconspicuous and common flowers, and a small Bombylian without +even the distinction of bright colors. True; but my spirit drank a +nectar sweeter than any the insect was sipping. And though, as a rule, +an experience of this sort were perhaps better left unspoken,-- + + "A thought of private recollection, sweet and still," + +yet the mention of it can do no harm, while it illustrates what I take +to be one of the principal advantages of the saunterer's condition. His +treasures are never far to seek. His delight is in Nature herself, +rather than in any of her more unusual manifestations. He is not of that +large and increasingly fashionable class who fancy themselves lovers of +Nature, while in fact they are merely admirers, more or less sincere, of +fine scenery. Not that anything is too beautiful for our rambler's +appreciation: he has an eye for the best that earth and heaven can +offer; he knows the exhilaration of far-reaching prospects; but he is +not dependent upon such extraordinary favors of Providence. He has no +occasion to run hither and thither in search of new and strange sights. +The old familiar pastures; the bushy lane, in which his feet have +loitered year after year, ever since they began to go alone; an +unfrequented road; a wooded slope, or a mossy glen; the brook of his +boyish memories; if need be, nothing but a clump of trees or a grassy +meadow,--these are enough for his pleasure. Fortunate man! Who should be +happy, if not he? Out of his own doorway he steps at will into the +Elysian fields. + + + + +BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY. + + Gay creatures of the element, + That in the colors of the rainbow live.--MILTON. + + Speak to me as to thy thinkings.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +It happened to me once to spend a long summer afternoon under a +linden-tree, reading "Middlemarch." The branches were loaded with +blossoms, and the heavy perfume attracted the bees from far and near, +insomuch that my ears were all the time full of their humming. +Butterflies also came, though in smaller numbers, and silently. Whenever +I looked up from my book I was sure to find at least one or two +fluttering overhead. They were mostly of three of our larger sorts,--the +Turnus, the Troilus, and the Archippus (what noble names!), beautifully +contrasted in color. The Turnus specimens were evidently the remnant of +a brood which had nearly passed away; their tattered wings showed that +they had been exposed to the wear and tear of a long life, as +butterflies reckon. Some of them were painful to look at, and I +remember one in particular, so maimed and helpless that, with a sudden +impulse of compassion, I rose and stepped upon it. It seemed an act of +mercy to send the wretched cripple after its kindred. As I looked at +these loiterers, with their frayed and faded wings,--some of them half +gone,--I found myself, almost before I knew it, thinking of Dorothea +Brooke, of whose lofty ideals, bitter disappointments, and partial joys +I was reviewing the story. After all, was there really any wide +difference between the two lives? One was longer, the other shorter; but +only as one dewdrop outlasts another on the grass. + + "A moment's halt, a momentary taste + Of Being from the well amid the waste, + And lo! the phantom caravan has reach'd + The Nothing it set out from." + +Then I fell to musing, as I had often done before, upon the mystery of +an insect's life and mind. + +This tiger swallow-tail, that I had just trodden into the ground,--what +could have been its impressions of this curious world whereinto it had +been ushered so unceremoniously, and in which its day had been so +transient? A month ago, a little more or a little less, it had emerged +from its silken shroud, dried its splendid party-colored wings in the +sun, and forthwith had gone sailing away, over the pasture and through +the wood, in quest of something, it could hardly have known what. Nobody +had welcomed it. When it came, the last of its ancestors were already +among the ancients. Without father or mother, without infancy or +childhood, it was born full-grown, and set out, once for all, upon an +independent adult existence. What such a state of uninitiated, +uninstructed being may be like let those imagine who can. + +It was born adult, I say; but at the same time, it was freer from care +than the most favored of human children. No one ever gave it a lesson or +set it a task. It was never restrained nor reproved; neither its own +conscience nor any outward authority ever imposed the lightest check +upon its desires. It had nobody's pleasure to think of but its own; for +as it was born too late to know father or mother, so also it died too +soon to see its own offspring. It made no plans, needed no estate, was +subject to no ambition. Summer was here when it came forth, and summer +was still here when it passed away. It was born, it lived upon honey, it +loved, and it died. Happy and brief biography! + +Happy and brief; but what a multitude of questions are suggested by it! +Did the creature know anything of its preëxistence, either in the +chrysalis or earlier? If so, did it look back upon that far-away time as +upon a golden age? Or was it really as careless as it seemed, neither +brooding over the past nor dreaming of the future? Was it aware of its +own beauty, seeing itself some day reflected in the pool as it came to +the edge to drink? Did it recognize smaller butterflies--the white and +the yellow, and even the diminutive "copper"--as poor relations; +felicitating itself, meanwhile, upon its own superior size, its +brilliant orange-red eye-spots, and its gorgeous tails? Did it mourn +over its faded broken wings as age came on, or when an unexpected gust +drove it sharply against a thorn? Or was it enabled to take every +mischance and change in a philosophical spirit, perceiving all such +evils to have their due and necessary place in the order of Nature? Was +it frightened when the first night settled down upon it,--the horrible +black darkness, that seemed to be making a sudden end of all things? As +it saw a caterpillar here and there, did it ever suspect any +relationship between the hairy crawling thing and itself; or would it +have been mortally offended with any profane lepidopteran Darwin who +should have hinted at such a possibility? + +The Antiopa butterfly, according to some authorities a near relative of +the tiger swallow-tail, has long been especially attractive to me +because of its habit of passing the winter in a state of hibernation, +and then reappearing upon the wing before the very earliest of the +spring flowers. A year ago, Easter fell upon the first day of April. I +spent the morning out-of-doors, hoping to discover some first faint +tokens of a resurrection. Nor was I disappointed. In a sunny stretch of +the lonely road, I came suddenly upon five of these large +"mourning-cloaks," all of them spread flat upon the wet gravel, sucking +up the moisture while the sun warmed their wings. What sight more +appropriate for Easter! I thought. These were some who had been dead, +and behold, they were alive again. + +Then, as before under the linden-tree, I fell to wondering. What were +they thinking about, these creatures so lately born a second time? Did +they remember their last year's existence? And what could they possibly +make of this brown and desolate world, so unlike the lingering autumnal +glories in the midst of which, five or six months before, they had +"fallen asleep"? Perhaps they had been dreaming. In any event, they +could have no idea of the ice and snow, the storms and the frightful +cold, through which they had passed. It was marvelous how such frail +atoms had withstood such exposure; yet here they were, as good as new, +and so happily endowed that they had no need to wait for blossoms, but +could draw fresh life from the very mire of the street. + +This last trait, so curiously out of character, as it seems to us, +suggests one further inquiry: Have butterflies an æsthetic faculty? They +appreciate each other's adornments, of course. Otherwise, what becomes +of the accepted doctrine of sexual selection? And if they appreciate +each other's beauty, what is to hinder our believing that they enjoy +also the bright colors and dainty shapes of the flowers on which they +feed? As I came out upon the veranda of a summer hotel, two or three +friends exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. ----, you should have been here a few +minutes ago; you would have seen something quite in your line. A +butterfly was fluttering over the lawn, and noticing what it took for a +dandelion, it was just settling down upon it, when lo, the dandelion +moved, and proved to be a goldfinch!" Evidently the insect had an eye +for color, and was altogether like one of us in its capacity for being +deceived. + +To butterflies, as to angels, all things are pure. They extract honey +from the vilest of materials. But their tastes and propensities are in +some respects the very opposite of angelic; being, in fact, thoroughly +human. All observers must have been struck with their quite Hibernian +fondness for a shindy. Two of the same kind seldom come within hail of +each other without a little set-to, just for sociability's sake, as it +were; and I have seen a dozen or more gathered thickly about a precious +bit of moist earth, all crowding and pushing for place in a manner not +to be outdone by the most patriotic of office-seekers. + +It is my private heresy, perhaps, this strong anthropomorphic turn of +mind, which impels me to assume the presence of a soul in all animals, +even in these airy nothings; and, having assumed its existence, to +speculate as to what goes on within it. I know perfectly well that such +questions as I have been raising are not to be answered. They are not +meant to be answered. But I please myself with asking them, +nevertheless, having little sympathy with those precise intellectual +economists who count it a waste to let the fancy play with insoluble +mysteries. Why is fancy winged, I should like to know, if it is never to +disport itself in fields out of which the clumsy, heavy-footed +understanding is debarred? + + + + +BASHFUL DRUMMERS. + + He goes but to see a noise that he heard. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +At the back of my father's house were woods, to my childish imagination +a boundless wilderness. Little by little I ventured into them, and among +my earliest recollections of their sombre and lonesome depths was a +long, thunderous, far-away drumming noise, beginning slowly and +increasing in speed till the blows became almost continuous. This, +somebody told me, was the drumming of the partridge. Now and then, in +open spaces in the path, I came upon shallow circular depressions where +the bird had been dusting, an operation in which I had often seen our +barnyard fowls complacently engaged. At other times I was startled by +the sudden whir of the bird's wings as he sprang up at my feet, and went +dashing away through the underbrush. I heard with open-mouthed wonder of +men who had been known to shoot a bird thus flying! All in all, the +partridge made a great impression upon my boyish mind. + +By and by some older companion initiated me into the mystery of setting +snares. My attempts were primitive enough, no doubt; but they answered +their purpose, taking me into the woods morning and night, in all kinds +of weather, and affording me no end of pleasurable excitement. Once in a +great while the noose would be displaced (the "slip-noose," we called +it, with unsuspected pleonasm), and the barberries gone. At last, after +numberless disappointments, I actually found a bird in the snare. The +poor captive was still alive, and, as I came up, was making frantic +efforts to escape; but I managed to secure him, in spite of my trembling +fingers, and then, though the deed looked horribly like murder, I killed +him (I would rather not mention how), and carried him home in triumph. + +Many years passed, and I became in my own way an ornithologist. One by +one I scraped acquaintance with all the common birds of our woods and +fields; but the drumming of the partridge (or of the ruffled grouse, as +I now learned to call him) remained a mystery. I read Emerson's +description of the "forest-seer:"-- + + "He saw the partridge drum in the woods; + He heard the woodcock's evening hymn; + He found the tawny thrushes' broods; + And the shy hawk did wait for him;" + +and I thought: "Well, now, I have seen and heard the woodcock at his +vespers; I have found the nest of the tawny thrush; the shy hawk has sat +still on the branch just over my head; but I have _not_ seen the +partridge drum in the woods. Why shouldn't I do that, also?" I made +numerous attempts. A bird often drummed in a small wood where I was in +the habit of rambling before breakfast. The sound came always from a +particular quarter, and probably from a certain stone wall, running over +a slight rise of ground near a swamp. The crafty fellow evidently did +not mean to be surprised; but I made a careful reconnoissance, and +finally hit upon what seemed a feasible point of approach. A rather +large boulder offered a little cover, and, after several failures, I one +day spied the bird on the wall. He had drummed only a few minutes +before; but his lookout was most likely sharper than mine. At all +events, he dropped off the wall on the further side, and for that time I +saw nothing more of him. Nor was I more successful the next time, nor +the next. Be as noiseless as I could, the wary creature inevitably took +the alarm. To make matters worse, mornings were short and birds were +many. One day there were rare visiting warblers to be looked after; +another day the gray-cheeked thrushes had dropped in upon us on their +way northward, and, if possible, I must hear them sing. Then the pretty +blue golden-winged warbler was building her nest, and by some means or +other I must find it. + +Thus season after season slipped by. Then, in another place, I +accidentally passed quite round a drummer. I heard him on the right, and +after traveling only a few rods, I heard him on the left. He must be +very near me, and not far from the crest of a low hill, over which, as +in the former instance, a stone wall ran. He drummed at long intervals, +and meanwhile I was straining my eyes and advancing at a snail's pace +up the slope. Happily, the ground was carpeted with pine needles, and +comparatively free from brush and dead twigs, those snapping nuisances +that so often bring all our patience and ingenuity to nought. A section +of the wall came into sight, but I got no glimpse of the bird. Presently +I went down upon all fours; then lower yet, crawling instead of +creeping, till I could look over the brow of the hill. Here I waited, +and had begun to fear that I was once more to have my labor for my +pains, when all at once I saw the grouse step from one stone to another. +"Now for it!" I said to myself. But the drumming did not follow, and +anon I lost sight of the drummer. Again I waited, and finally the fellow +jumped suddenly upon a top stone, lifted his wings, and commenced the +familiar roll-call. I could see his wings beating against his sides with +quicker and quicker strokes; but an unlucky bush was between us, and +hoping to better my position, I moved a little to one side. Upon this, +the bird became aware of my presence, I think. At least I could see him +staring straight at me, and a moment later he dropped behind the wall; +and though I remained motionless till a cramp took me, I heard nothing +more. "If it had not been for that miserable bush!" I muttered. But I +need not have quarreled with an innocent bush, as if it, any more than +myself, had been given a choice where it should grow. A wiser man would +have called to mind the old saw, and made the most of "half a loaf." + +Another year passed, and another spring came round. Then, on the same +hillside, a bird (probably the same individual) was drumming one April +morning, and, as my note-book has it, "I came within one" of taking him +in the act. I miscalculated his position, however, which, as it turned +out, was not upon the wall, but on a boulder surrounded by a few small +pine-trees. The rock proved to be well littered, and clearly was the +bird's regular resort. "Very good," said I, "I will catch you yet." + +Five days later I returned to the charge, and was rewarded by seeing the +fellow drum once; but, as before, intervening brush obscured my view. I +crept forward, inch by inch, till the top of the boulder came into +sight, and waited, and waited, and waited. At last I pushed on, and lo, +the place was deserted. There is a familiar Scripture text that might +have been written on purpose for ornithologists: "Let patience have her +perfect work." + +This was April 14th. On the 19th I made the experiment again. The +drummer was at it as I drew near, and fortune favored me at last. I +witnessed the performance three times over. Even now, to be sure, the +prospect was not entirely clear, but it was better than ever before, and +by this time I had learned to be thankful for small mercies. The grouse +kept his place between the acts, moving his head a little one way and +another, but apparently doing nothing else. + +Of course I had in mind the disputed question as to the method by which +the drumming noise is produced. It had seemed to me that whoever would +settle this point must do it by attending carefully to the first slow +beats. This I now attempted, and after one trial was ready, off-hand, to +accept a theory which heretofore I had scouted; namely, that the bird +makes the sound by striking his wings together over his back. He +brought them up, even for the first two or three times, with a quick +convulsive movement, and I could almost have made oath that I heard the +beat before the wings fell. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I waited +till he drummed again; and now I was by no means so positive in my +conviction. If an observer wishes to be absolutely sure of a thing,--I +have learned this by long experience,--let him look at it once, and +forever after shut his eyes! On the whole, I return to my previous +opinion, that the sound is made by the downward stroke, though whether +against the body or against the air, I will not presume to say. + +A man who is a far better ornithologist than I, and who has witnessed +this performance under altogether more favorable conditions than I was +ever afforded, assures me that his performer _sat down_! My bird took no +such ridiculous position. So much, at least, I am sure of. + +When he had drummed three times, my partridge quit his boulder (I was +near enough to hear him strike the dry leaves), and after a little +walked suddenly into plain sight. We discovered each other at the same +instant. I kept motionless, my field-glass up. He made sundry nervous +movements, especially of his ruff, and then silently stalked away. + +I could not blame him for his lack of neighborliness. If I had been shot +at and hunted with dogs as many times as he probably had been, I too +might have become a little shy of strangers. To my thinking, indeed, the +grouse is one of our most estimable citizens. A liking for the buds of +fruit-trees is his only fault (not many of my townsmen have a smaller +number, I fancy), and that is one easily overlooked, especially by a man +who owns no orchard. Every sportsman tries to shoot him, and every +winter does its worst to freeze or starve him; but he continues to +flourish. Others may migrate to sunnier climes, or seek safety in the +backwoods, but not so the partridge. He was born here, and here he means +to stay. What else could be expected of a bird whose notion of a lover's +serenade is the beating of a drum? + + + + + OUT-DOOR BOOKS, + + Both Prose and Poetical. + + +=Agassiz, Alexander and Elizabeth C.= Seaside Studies in Natural History. +Illustrated. 8vo, $3.00. + +=Agassiz, Prof. Louis.= Methods of Study in Natural History. With +Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. First Series. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt +top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. Second Series. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +=Bailey, Prof. L. H., Jr.= Talks Afield, about Plants and the Science of +Plants. With 100 Illustrations. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Bamford, Mary E.= Up and Down the Brooks. In Riverside Library for Young +People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents. + +=Barrows, Samuel J. and Isabel C.= The Shaybacks in Camp. Ten Summers +under Canvas. With Map of Lake Memphremagog. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Burroughs, John.= Works. Each volume, 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. + + Wake Robin. New Edition, revised. Illustrated. + + The Same. _Riverside Aldine Edition._ 16mo, $1.00. + + Winter Sunshine. New Edition, revised. + + Birds and Poets, with other Papers. + + Locusts and Wild Honey. + + Pepacton, and other Sketches. + + Fresh Fields. + + Signs and Seasons. + +Birds and Bees. Essays by JOHN BURROUGHS. With introduction by MARY E. +BURT. In Riverside Literature Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. + +Sharp Eyes, and other Papers. By JOHN BURROUGHS. In Riverside Literature +Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. The above two pamphlets, 16mo, +boards, 40 cents, _net_. + +=Cary, Alice.= Pictures of Country Life. Short Stories. 12mo, $1.50. + +=Cooper, James Fenimore.= Cooper Stories. Narratives of Adventure selected +from COOPER'S Works. Stories of the Prairies. Stories of the Woods. +Stories of the Sea. 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Illustrated with 600 Figures and Analyses drawn from Nature, +by CHARLES EDWARD FAXON, and engraved by PHILIBERT and EUGENE PICART. +Describing 422 species belonging to the forest Flora of North America, +exclusive of varieties, 12 vols., each containing 30 Plates. Each, 4to, +$25.00, _net_. + + _Vols. I. and II. now ready. It is intended to publish the + work at the rate of two volumes a year, as nearly as possible, + until it is finished._ + +=Sylvester, Herbert Milton.= Homestead Highways. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50. + +Prose Pastorals. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50. + +=Thomas, Edith M.= The Round Year. Prose Papers. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. + +=Thoreau, Henry D.= Each volume, 12mo, gilt top, $1.50. + + Walden; or, Life in the Woods. (_See below._) + + A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. + + Excursions in Field and Forest. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Rambler's lease + +Author: Bradford Torrey + +Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #36173] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAMBLER'S LEASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, +Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been +left as in the original. No typographical corrections have been made. +Words in italics in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words +in bold in the original are surrounded by =equal signs=. + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Books by Mr. Torrey. | + | | + | | + | BIRDS IN THE BUSH. 16mo, $1.25. | + | A RAMBLER'S LEASE. 16mo, $1.25. | + | | + | | + | HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + A RAMBLER'S LEASE + + + BY + + BRADFORD TORREY + + + I have known many laboring men that have got good estates in + this valley.--BUNYAN + + Sunbeams, shadows, butterflies, and birds.--WORDSWORTH + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1892 + + + + + Copyright, 1889, + BY BRADFORD TORREY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's +woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort +the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this +feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this +public way, to hold _a rambler's lease_ of their property. Should it +please them to do so, they may accept the papers herein contained as a +kind of return, the best he knows how to offer, for the many favors, +alike unproffered and unasked, which he has received at their hands. His +private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it; and +taking this view of the matter, he cannot help thinking that some of +his more prosperous neighbors would do well, in legal phrase, to perfect +their titles. He would gladly be of service to them in this regard. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + MY REAL ESTATE 1 + + A WOODLAND INTIMATE 22 + + AN OLD ROAD 45 + + CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER 70 + + A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD 99 + + BEHIND THE EYE 114 + + A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE 121 + + NEW ENGLAND WINTER 140 + + A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE 164 + + A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION 182 + + ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM 189 + + BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 206 + + BASHFUL DRUMMERS 214 + + + + +A RAMBLER'S LEASE. + + + + +MY REAL ESTATE. + + Yet some did think that he had little business here.--WORDSWORTH. + + +Every autumn the town of W---- sends me a tax-bill, a kindly remembrance +for which I never fail of feeling grateful. It is pleasant to know that +after all these years there still remains one man in the old town who +cherishes my memory,--though it be only "this publican." Besides, to +speak frankly, there is a measure of satisfaction in being reminded now +and then of my dignity as a landed proprietor. One may be never so rich +in stocks and bonds, government consols and what not, but, acceptable as +such "securities" are, they are after all not quite the same as a +section of the solid globe itself. True, this species of what we may +call astronomic or planetary property will sometimes prove +comparatively unremunerative. Here in New England (I know not what may +be true elsewhere) there is a class of people whom it is common to hear +gossiped about compassionately as "land poor." But, however scanty the +income to be derived from it, a landed investment is at least +substantial. It will never fail its possessor entirely. If it starve +him, it will offer him a grave. It has the prime quality of permanence. +At the very worst, it will last as long as it is needed. Railroads may +be "wrecked," banks be broken, governments become bankrupt, and we be +left to mourn; but when the earth departs we shall go with it. Yes, the +ancient form of speech is correct,--land is _real_; as the modern phrase +goes, translating Latin into Saxon, land is _the thing_; and though we +can scarcely reckon it among the necessaries of life, since so many do +without it, we may surely esteem it one of the least dispensable of +luxuries. + +But I was beginning to speak of my tax-bill, and must not omit to +mention a further advantage of real estate over other forms of property. +It is certain not to be overlooked by the town assessors. Its +proprietor is never shut up to the necessity of either advertising his +own good fortune, or else submitting to pay less than his rightful share +of the public expenses,--a merciful deliverance, for in such a strait, +where either modesty or integrity must go to the wall, it is hard for +human nature to be sure of itself. + +To my thinking there is no call upon a man's purse which should be +responded to with greater alacrity than this of the tax-gatherer. In +what cause ought we to spend freely, if not in that of home and country? +I have heard, indeed, of some who do not agree with me in this feeling. +Possibly tax-rates are now and then exorbitant. Possibly, too, my own +view of the subject might be different were my quota of the public levy +more considerable. This year, for instance, I am called upon for +seventy-three cents; if the demand were for as many dollars, who knows +whether I might not welcome it with less enthusiasm? On such a point it +would be unbecoming for me to speak. Enough that even with my fraction +of a dollar I am able to rejoice that I have a share in all the town's +multifarious outlay. If an additional fire-engine is bought, or a new +school-house built, or the public library replenished, it is done in +part out of my pocket. + +Here, however, let me make a single exception. I seldom go home (such +language still escapes me involuntarily) without finding that one or +another of the old roads has been newly repaired. I hope that no mill of +my annual seventy or eighty cents goes into work of that sort. The +roads--such as I have in mind--are out of the way and little traveled, +and, in my opinion, were better left to take care of themselves. There +is no artist but will testify that a crooked road is more picturesque +than a straight one; while a natural border of alder bushes, +grape-vines, Roxbury wax-work, Virginia creeper, wild cherry, and such +like is an inexpensive decoration of the very best sort, such as the +Village Improvement Society ought never to allow any highway surveyor to +lay his hands on, unless in some downright exigency. What a +short-sighted policy it is that provides for the comfort of the feet, +but makes no account of those more intellectual and spiritual pleasures +which enter through the eye! It may be answered, I know, that in matters +of general concern it is necessary to consult the greatest good of the +greatest number; and that, while all the inhabitants of the town are +supplied with feet, comparatively few of them have eyes. There is force +in this, it must be admitted. Possibly the highway surveyor (the +highwayman, I was near to writing) is not so altogether wrong in his +"improvements." At all events, it is not worth while for me to make the +question one of conscience, and go to jail rather than pay my taxes, as +Thoreau did. Let it suffice to enter my protest. Whatever others may +desire, for myself, as often as I revisit W----, I wish to be able to +repeat with unction the words of W----'s only poet,[5:1]-- + + "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood!" + +And how am I to do that, if the "scenes" have been modernized past +recognition? + +My own landed possessions are happily remote from roads. Not till long +after my day will the "tide of progress" bring them "into the market," +as the real-estate brokers are fond of saying. I have never yet been +troubled with the importunities of would-be purchasers. Indeed, it is a +principal recommendation of woodland property that one's sense of +proprietorship is so little liable to be disturbed. I often reflect how +altered the case would be were my fraction of an acre in some peculiarly +desirable location near the centre of the village. Then I could hardly +avoid knowing that the neighbors were given to speculating among +themselves about my probable selling price; once in a while I should be +confronted with a downright offer; and what assurance could I feel that +somebody would not finally tempt me beyond my strength, and actually buy +me out? As it is, my land is mine; and, unless extreme poverty overtakes +me, mine it is reasonably certain to remain, till death shall separate +us. + +Whatever contributes to render life interesting and enjoyable goes so +far toward making difficult its final inevitable surrender; and it must +be confessed that the thought of my wood-lot increases my otherwise +natural regret at being already so well along on my journey. In a sense +I feel my own existence to be bound up with that of my pine-trees; or, +to speak more exactly, that their existence is bound up with mine. For +it is a sort of unwritten but inexorable law in W----, as in fact it +appears to be throughout New England, that no pine must ever be allowed +to reach more than half its normal growth; so that my trees are certain +to fall under the axe as soon as their present owner is out of the way. +I am not much given to superstition. There are no longer any dryads, it +is to be presumed; and if there were, it is not clear that they would be +likely to take up with pines; but for all that, I cherish an almost +affectionate regard for any trees with which I have become familiar. I +have mourned the untimely fate of many; and now, seeing that I have been +entrusted with the guardianship of these few, I hold myself under a kind +of sacred obligation to live as long as possible, for their sakes. + +It is now a little less than a fortnight since I paid them a visit. The +path runs through the wood for perhaps half a mile; and, as I sauntered +along, I heard every few rods the thump of falling acorns, though there +was barely wind enough to sway the tree-tops. "Mother Earth has begun +her harvesting in good earnest," I thought. The present is what the +squirrels call a good year. They will laugh and grow fat. Their oak +orchards have seldom done better, the chestnut oaks in particular, the +handsome, rosy-tipped acorns of which are noticeably abundant. + +This interesting tree, so like the chestnut itself in both bark and +leaf, is unfortunately not to be found in my own lot; at any rate, I +have never discovered it there, although it grows freely only a short +distance away. But I have never explored the ground with anything like +thoroughness, and, to tell the truth, am not at all certain that I know +just where the boundaries run. In this respect my real estate is not +unlike my intellectual possessions; concerning which I often find it +impossible to determine what is actually mine and what another's. I +have written an essay before now, and at the end been more or less in +doubt where to set the quotation marks. For that matter, indeed, I +incline to believe that the whole tract of woods in the midst of which +my little spot is situated belongs to me quite as really as to the +various persons who claim the legal ownership. Not many of these latter, +I am confident, get a better annual income from the property than I do; +and even in law, we are told, possession counts for nine points out of +the ten. They are never to be found at home when I call, and I feel no +scruple about carrying away whatever I please. My treasures, be it said, +however, are chiefly of an impalpable sort,--mostly thoughts and +feelings, though with a few flowers and ferns now and then; the one set +about as valuable as the other, the proprietors of the land would +probably think. + +In one aspect of the case, the lot which is more strictly my own is just +now in a very interesting condition, though one that, unhappily, is far +from being uncommon. Except the pines already mentioned (only six or +eight in number), the wood was entirely cut off a few years before I +came into possession, and at present the place is covered with a thicket +of vines, bushes, and young trees, all engaged in an almost desperate +struggle for existence. When the ground was cleared, every seed in it +bestirred itself and came up; others made haste to enter from without; +and ever since then the battle has been going on. It is curious to +consider how changed the appearance of things will be at the end of +fifty years, should nature be left till then to take its course. By that +time the contest will for the most part be over. At least nineteen +twentieths of all the plants that enlisted in the fight will have been +killed, and where now is a dense mass of shrubbery will be a grove of +lordly trees, with the ground underneath broad-spaced and clear. A noble +result; but achieved at what a cost! If one were likely himself to live +so long, it would be worth while to catalogue the species now in the +field, for the sake of comparing the list with a similar one of half a +century later. The contrast would be an impressive sermon on the +mutability of mundane things. But we shall be past the need of +preaching, most of us, before that day arrives, and not unlikely shall +have been ourselves preached about in enforcement of the same trite +theme. + +Thoughts of this kind came to me the other afternoon, as I stood in the +path (what is known as the town path cuts the lot in two) and looked +about. So much was going on in this bit of earth, itself the very centre +of the universe to multitudes of living things. The city out of which I +had come was not more densely populous. Here at my elbow stood a group +of sassafras saplings, remnants of a race that has held the ground for +nobody knows how long. One of my earliest recollections of the place is +of coming hither to dig for fragrant roots. At that time it had never +dawned upon me that the owner of the land would some day die, and leave +it to me, his heir. How hard and rocky the ground was! And how hard we +worked for a very little bark! Yet few of my pleasures have lasted +better. The spicy taste is in my mouth still. Even in those days I +remarked the glossy green twigs of this elegant species, as well as the +unique and beautiful variety of its leaves,--some entire and oval, +others mitten-shaped, and others yet three-lobed; an extremely pretty +bit of originality, suiting admirably with the general comely habit of +this tree. There are some trees, as some men, that seem born to dress +well. + +Along with the sassafras I was delighted to find one or two small +specimens of the flowering dogwood (_Cornus florida_),--another original +genius, and one which I now for the first time became acquainted with as +a tenant of my own. Its deeply veined leaves are not in any way +remarkable (unless it be for their varied autumnal tints), and are all +fashioned after one pattern. Its blossoms, too, are small and +inconspicuous; but these it sets round with large white bracts +(universally mistaken for petals by the uninitiated), and in flowering +time it is beyond comparison the showiest tree in the woods, while its +fruit is the brightest of coral red. I hope these saplings of mine may +hold their own in the struggle for life, and be flourishing in all their +beauty when my successor goes to look at them fifty years hence. + +Having spoken of the originality of the sassafras and the dogwood, I +must not fail to mention their more abundant neighbor, the witch-hazel, +or hamamelis. In comparison with its wild freak of singularity, the +modest idiosyncrasies of the other two seem almost conventional. Why, if +not for sheer oddity's sake, should any bush in this latitude hold back +its blossoms till near the edge of winter? As I looked at the half-grown +buds, clustered in the axils of the yellow leaves, they appeared to be +waiting for the latter to fall, that they might have the sunlight all to +themselves. They will need it, one would say, in our bleak November +weather. + +Overfull of life as my wild garden patch was, it would not have kept its +(human) possessor very long from starvation. One or two barberry bushes +made a brave show of fruitfulness; but the handsome clusters were not +yet ripe, and even at their best they are more ornamental than +nutritive,--though, after the frost has cooked them, one may go farther +and fare worse. A few stunted maple-leaved viburnums (_this_ plant's +originality is imitative,--a not uncommon sort, by the bye) proffered +scanty cymes of dark purplish drupes. Here and there was a spike of red +berries, belonging to the false Solomon's-seal or false spikenard (what +a pity this worthy herb should not have some less negative title!); but +these it would have been a shame to steal from the grouse. Not far off a +single black alder was reddening its fruit, which all the while it +hugged close to the stem, as if in dread lest some chance traveler +should be attracted by the bright color. It need not have trembled, for +this time at least. I had just dined, and was tempted by nothing save +two belated blackberries, the very last of the year's crop, and a single +sassafras leaf, mucilaginous and savory, admirable as a relish. A few +pigeon-berries might have been found, I dare say, had I searched for +them, and possibly a few sporadic checkerberries; while right before my +eyes was a vine loaded with large bunches of very small frost-grapes, +such as for hardness would have served well enough for school-boys' +marbles. Everything has its favorable side, however; and probably the +birds counted it a blessing that the grapes _were_ small and hard and +sour; else greedy men would have come with baskets and carried them all +away. Except some scattered rose-hips, I have enumerated everything that +looked edible, I believe, though a hungry man's eyes might have +lengthened the list materially. The cherry-trees, hickories, and oaks +were not yet in bearing, as the horticultural phrase is; but I was glad +to run upon a clump of bayberry bushes, which offer nothing good to eat, +to be sure, but are excellent to smell of. The leaves always seem to +invite crushing, and I never withhold my hand. + +Among the crowd of young trees--scrub oaks, red oaks, white oaks, +cedars, ashes, hickories, birches, maples, aspens, sumachs, and +hornbeams--was a single tupelo. The distinguished name honors my +catalogue, but I am half sorry to have it there. For, with all its +sturdiness, the tupelo does not bear competition, and I foresee plainly +that my unlucky adventurer will inevitably find itself overshadowed by +more rapid growers, and be dwarfed and deformed, if not killed outright. +Some of the very strongest natures (and the remark is of general +application) require to be planted in the open, where they can be free +to develop in their own way and at leisure. But this representative of +_Nyssa multiflora_ took the only chance that offered, I presume, as the +rest of us must do. + +Happy the humble! who aspire not to lofty things, demanding the lapse of +years for their fulfillment, but are content to set before themselves +some lesser task, such as the brevity of a single season may suffice to +accomplish. Here were the asters and golden-rods already finishing their +course in glory, while the tupelo was still barely getting under way in +a race which, however prolonged, was all but certain to terminate in +failure. Of the golden-rods I noted four species, including the +white--which might appropriately be called silvery-rod--and the +blue-stemmed. The latter (_Solidago cæsia_) is to my eye the prettiest +of all that grow with us, though it is nearly the least obtrusive. It is +rarely, if ever, found outside of woods, and ought to bear some name +(sylvan golden-rod, perhaps) indicative of the fact. + +As a rule, fall flowers have little delicacy and fragrance. They are +children of the summer; and, loving the sun, have had almost an excess +of good fortune. With such pampering, it is no wonder they grow rank and +coarse. They would be more than human, I was going to say, if they did +not. It is left for stern winter's progeny, the blossoms of early +spring-time, who struggle upward through the snow and are blown upon by +chilly winds,--it is left for these gentle creatures, at once so hardy +and so frail, to illustrate the sweet uses of adversity. + +All in all, it was a motley company which I beheld thus huddled together +in my speck of forest clearing. Even the lands beyond the sea were +represented, for here stood mullein and yarrow, contesting the ground +with oaks and hickories. The smaller wood flowers were not wanting, of +course, though none of them were now in bloom. Pyrola and winter-green, +violets (the common blue sort and the leafy-stemmed yellow), strawberry +and five-finger, saxifrage and columbine, rock-rose and bed-straw, +self-heal and wood-sorrel,--these, and no doubt many more, were there, +filling the chinks otherwise unoccupied. + +My assortment of ferns is small, but I noted seven species: the brake, +the polypody, the hay-scented, and four species of +shield-ferns,--_Aspidium Noveboracense_, _Aspidium spinulosum_, variety +_intermedium_, _Aspidium marginale_, and the Christmas fern, _Aspidium +acrostichoides_. The last named is the one of which I am proudest. For +years I have been in the habit of coming hither at Christmas time to +gather the fronds, which are then as bright and fresh as in June. Two of +the others, the polypody and _Aspidium marginale_, are evergreen also, +but they are coarser in texture and of a less lively color. Writing of +these flowerless beauties, I am tempted to exclaim again, "Happy the +humble!" The brake is much the largest and stoutest of the seven, but it +is by a long time the first to be cut down before the frost. + +Should I ever meet with reverses, as the wealthiest and most prudent are +liable to do, and be compelled to part with my woodland inheritance, I +shall count it expedient to seek a purchaser in the spring. At that +season its charms are greatly enhanced by a lively brook. This comes +tumbling down the hill-side, dashing against the bowlders (of which the +land has plenty), and altogether acting like a thing not born to die; +but alas, the early summer sees it make an end, to wait the melting of +next winter's snow. Many a happy hour did I, as a youngster, pass upon +its banks, watching with wonder the swarms of tiny insects which +darkened the foam and the snow, and even filmed the surface of the brook +itself. I marveled then, as I do now, why such creatures should be out +so early. Possibly our very prompt March friend, the phÅ“be, could +suggest an explanation. + +A break in the forest is of interest not only to such plants as I have +been remarking upon, but also to various species of birds. No doubt the +towhee, the brown thrush, and the cat-bird found out this spot years +ago, and have been using it ever since for summer quarters. Indeed, a +cat-bird snarled at me for an intruder this very September afternoon, +though he himself was most likely nothing more than a chance pilgrim +going South. This member of the noble wren family and near cousin of +the mocking-bird would be better esteemed if he were to drop that +favorite feline call of his. But this is his bit of originality +(imitative, like the maple-leaved viburnum's), and perhaps, if justice +were done, it would be put down to his credit rather than made an +occasion of ill-will. + +Once during the afternoon a company of chickadees happened in upon me; +and, taking my cue from the newspaper folk, I immediately essayed an +interview. My imitation of their conversational notes was hardly begun +before one of the birds flew toward me, and, alighting near by, +proceeded to answer my calls with a mimicry so exact, as fairly to be +startling. To all appearance the quick-witted fellow had taken the game +into his own hands. Instead of my deceiving him, he would probably go +back and entertain his associates with amusing accounts of how cleverly +he had fooled a stranger, out yonder in the bushes. + +It would have seemed a graceful and appropriate acknowledgment of my +rightful ownership of the land on which the cat-bird and the titmice +were foraging, had they greeted me with songs. But it would hardly have +been courteous for me to propose the matter, and evidently it did not +occur to them. At all events, I heard no music except the hoarse and +solemn asseverations of the katydids, the gentler message of the +crickets, and in the distance an occasional roll-call of the grouse. My +dog--who is a much better sportsman than myself, but whose +companionship, I am ashamed to see, has not till now been mentioned--was +all the while making forays hither and thither into the surrounding +woods; and once in a while I heard, what is the best of all music in his +ears, the whir of "partridge" wings. Likely as not he thought it a queer +freak on my part to spend the afternoon thus idly, when with a gun I +might have been so much more profitably employed. He could not know that +I was satiating myself with a miser's delights, feasting my eyes upon my +own. In truth, I fancy he takes it for granted that the whole forest +belongs to me--and to him. Perhaps it does. As I said just now, I +sometimes think so myself. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5:1] Since this essay was originally published (in the _Atlantic +Monthly_) I have been assured that the author of _The Old Oaken Bucket_ +was not born in W----, but in the next town. Being convinced against my +will, however, and finding the biographical dictionaries divided upon +the point, I conclude to let the text stand unaltered. + + + + +A WOODLAND INTIMATE. + + Surely there are times + When they consent to own me of their kin, + And condescend to me, and call me cousin. + JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. + + +It is one of the enjoyable features of bird study, as in truth it is of +life in general, that so many of its pleasantest experiences have not to +be sought after, but befall us by the way; like rare and beautiful +flowers, which are never more welcome than when they smile upon us +unexpectedly from the roadside. + +One May morning I had spent an hour in a small wood where I am +accustomed to saunter, and, coming out into the road on my way home +again, fell in with a friend. "Wouldn't you like to see an oven-bird's +nest?" I inquired. He assented, and turning back, I piloted him to the +spot. The little mother sat motionless, just within the door of her +comfortable, roofed house, watching us intently, but all unconscious, +it is to be feared, of our admiring comments upon her ingenuity and +courage. Seeing her thus devoted to her charge, I wondered anew whether +she could be so innocent as not to know that one of the eggs on which +she brooded with such assiduity was not her own, but had been foisted +upon her by a faithless cow-bird. To me, I must confess, it is +inexplicable that any bird should be either so unobservant as not to +recognize a foreign egg at sight, or so easy-tempered as not to insist +on straightway being rid of it; though this is no more inscrutable, it +may be, than for another bird persistently, and as it were on principle, +to cast her own offspring upon the protection of strangers; while this, +in turn, is not more mysterious than ten thousand every-day occurrences +all about us. After all, it is a wise man that knows what to wonder at; +while the wiser he grows the stronger is likely to become his conviction +that, little as may be known, nothing is absolutely unknowable; that in +the world, as in its Author, there is probably "no darkness at all," +save as daylight is dark to owls and bats. I did not see the oven-bird's +eggs at this time, however, my tender-hearted companion protesting that +their faithful custodian should not be disturbed for the gratification +of his curiosity. So we bade her adieu, and went in pursuit of a +solitary vireo, just then overheard singing not far off. A few paces +brought him into sight, and as we came nearer and nearer he stood quite +still on a dead bough, in full view, singing all the while. When my +friend had looked him over to his satisfaction,--never having met with +such a specimen before,--I set myself to examine the lower branches of +the adjacent trees, feeling no doubt, from the bird's significant +behavior, that his nest must be somewhere in the immediate neighborhood. +Sure enough, it was soon discovered, hanging from near the end of an oak +limb; a typical vireo cup, suspended within the angle of two horizontal +twigs, with bits of newspaper wrought into its structure, and trimmed +outwardly with some kind of white silky substance. The female was in it +(this, too, we might have foreseen with reasonable certainty); but when +she flew off, it appeared that as yet no eggs were laid. The couple +manifested scarce any uneasiness at our investigations, and we soon +came away; stopping, as we left the wood, to spy out the nest of a +scarlet tanager, the feminine builder of which was just then busy with +giving it some finishing touches. + +It had been a pleasant stroll, I thought,--nothing more; but it proved +to be the beginning of an adventure which, to me at least, was in the +highest degree novel and interesting. + +I ought, perhaps, to premise that the solitary vireo (called also the +blue-headed vireo and the blue-headed greenlet) is strictly a bird of +the woods. It belongs to a distinctively American family, and is one of +five species which are more or less abundant as summer residents in +Eastern Massachusetts, being itself in most places the least numerous of +the five, and, with the possible exception of the white-eye, the most +retiring. My own hunting-grounds happen to be one of its favorite +resorts (there is none better in the State, I suspect), so that I am +pretty certain of having two or three pairs under my eye every season, +within a radius of half a mile. I have found a number of nests, also, +but till this year had never observed any marked peculiarity of the +birds as to timidity or fearlessness. Nor do I now imagine that any such +strong race peculiarity exists. What I am to describe I suppose to be +nothing more than an accidental and unaccountable idiosyncrasy of the +particular bird in question. Such freaks of temperament are more or less +familiar to all field naturalists, and may be taken as extreme +developments of that individuality which seems to be the birthright of +every living creature, no matter how humble. At this very moment I +recall a white-throated sparrow, overtaken some years ago in an +unfrequented road, whose tameness was entirely unusual, and, indeed, +little short of ridiculous. + +Three or four days after the walk just now mentioned I was again in the +same wood, and went past the vireos' nest, paying no attention to it +beyond noting that one of the birds, presumed to be the female, was on +duty. But the next morning, as I saw her again, it occurred to me to +make an experiment. So, quitting the path suddenly, I walked as rapidly +as possible straight up to the nest, a distance of perhaps three rods, +giving her no chance to slip off, with the hope of escaping unperceived. +The plan worked to a charm, or so I flattered myself. When I came to a +standstill my eyes were within a foot or two of hers; in fact, I could +get no nearer without running my head against the branch; yet she sat +quietly, apparently without a thought of being driven from her post, +turning her head this way and that, but making no sound, and showing not +the least sign of anything like distress. A mosquito buzzed about my +face, and I brushed it off. Still she sat undisturbed. Then I placed my +hand against the bottom of the nest. At this she half rose to her feet, +craning her neck to see what was going on, but the moment I let go she +settled back upon her charge. Surprised and delighted, I had no heart to +pursue the matter further, and turned away; declaring to myself that, +notwithstanding I had half promised a scientific friend the privilege of +"taking" the nest, such a thing should now never be done with my +consent. Before I could betray a confidence like this, I must be a more +zealous ornithologist or a more unfeeling man,--or both at once. Science +ought to be encouraged, of course, but not to the outraging of honor and +common decency. + +On the following day, after repeating such amenities as I had previously +indulged in, I put forth my hand as if to stroke the bird's plumage; +seeing which, she raised her beak threateningly and emitted a very faint +deprecatory note, which would have been inaudible at the distance of a +few yards. At the same time she opened and shut her bill, not +snappishly, but slowly,--a nervous action, simply, it seemed to me. + +Twenty-four hours later I called again, and was so favorably received +that, besides taking hold of the nest, as before, I brushed her tail +feathers softly. Then I put my hand to her head, on which she pecked my +finger in an extremely pretty, gentle way,--more like kissing than +biting,--and made use of the low murmuring sounds just now spoken of. +Her curiosity was plainly wide awake. She stretched her neck to the +utmost to look under the nest, getting upon her feet for the purpose, +till I expected every moment to see her slip away; but presently she +grew quiet again, and I withdrew, leaving her in possession. + +By this time a daily interview had come to be counted upon as a matter +of course, by me certainly, and, for aught I know, by the vireo as well. +On my next visit I stroked the back of her head, allowed her to nibble +the tip of my finger, and was greatly pleased with the matter-of-fact +manner in which she captured an insect from the side of the nest, while +leaning out to oversee my manÅ“uvres. Finally, on my offering to lay +my left hand upon her, she quit her seat, and perched upon a twig, +fronting me; and when I put my finger to her bill she flew off. Even now +she made no outcry, however, but fell immediately to singing in tones of +absolute good-humor, and before I had gone four rods from the tree was +back again upon the eggs. Of these, I should have said, there were +four,--the regular complement,--all her own. Expert as cow-birds are at +running a blockade, it would have puzzled the shrewdest of them to +smuggle anything into a nest so sedulously guarded. + +Walking homeward, I bethought myself how foolish I had been not to offer +my little _protégée_ something to eat. Accordingly, in the morning, +before starting out, I filled a small box with leaves from the garden +rose-bush, which, as usual, had plenty of plant-lice upon it. Armed in +this manner, as perhaps no ornithologist ever went armed before,--I +approached the nest, and to my delight saw it still unharmed (I never +came in sight of it without dreading to find it pillaged); but just as I +was putting my hand into my pocket for the box, off started the bird. +Here was a disappointment indeed; but in the next breath I assured +myself that the recreant must be the male, who for once had been +spelling his companion. So I fell back a little, and in a minute or less +one of the pair went on to brood. This was the mother, without question, +and I again drew near. True enough, she welcomed me with all her +customary politeness. No matter what her husband might say, she knew +better than to distrust an inoffensive, kind-hearted gentleman like +myself. Had I not proved myself such time and again? So I imagined her +to be reasoning. At all events, she sat quiet and unconcerned; +apparently more unconcerned than her visitor, for, to tell the truth, I +was so anxious for the success of this crowning experiment that I +actually found myself trembling. However, I opened my store of dainties, +wet the tip of my little finger, took up an insect, and held it to her +mandibles. For a moment she seemed not to know what it was, but soon she +picked it off and swallowed it. The second one she seized promptly, and +the third she reached out to anticipate, exactly as a tame canary might +have done. Before I could pass her the fourth she stepped out of the +nest, and took a position upon the branch beside it; but she accepted +the morsel, none the less. And an extremely pretty sight it was,--a wild +wood bird perched upon a twig and feeding from a man's finger! + +She would not stay for more, but flew to another bough; whereupon I +resumed my ramble, and, as usual, she covered the eggs again before I +could get out of sight. When I returned, in half an hour or thereabouts, +I proffered her a mosquito, which I had saved for that purpose. She took +it, but presently let it drop. It was not to her taste, probably, for +shortly afterward she caught one herself, as it came fluttering near, +and discarded that also; but she ate the remainder of my rose-bush +parasites, though I was compelled to coax her a little. Seemingly, she +felt that our proceedings were more or less irregular, if not positively +out of character. Not that she betrayed any symptoms of nervousness or +apprehension, but she repeatedly turned away her head, as if determined +to refuse all further overtures. In the end, nevertheless, as I have +said, she ate the very last insect I had to give her. + +During the meal she did something which as a display of nonchalance was +really amazing. The eggs got misplaced, in the course of her twisting +about, and after vainly endeavoring to rearrange them with her feet, as +I had seen her do on several occasions, she ducked her head into the +nest, clean out of sight under her feathers, and set matters to rights +with her beak. I was as near to her as I could well be, without having +her actually in my hand, yet she deliberately put herself entirely off +guard, apparently without the slightest misgiving! + +Fresh from this adventure, and all aglow with pleasurable excitement, I +met a friend in the city, a naturalist of repute, and one of the +founders of the American Ornithologists' Union. Of course I regaled him +with an account of my wonderful vireo (he was the man to whom I had half +promised the nest); and on his expressing a wish to see her, I invited +him out for the purpose that very afternoon. I smile to remember how +full of fears I was, as he promptly accepted the invitation. The bird, I +declared to myself, would be like the ordinary baby, who, as everybody +knows, is never so stupid as when its fond mother would make a show of +it before company. Yesterday it was so bright and cunning! Never was +baby like it. Yesterday it did such and such unheard-of things; but +to-day, alas, it will do nothing at all. However, I put on a bold face, +filled my pen-box with rose-leaves, exchanged my light-colored hat for +the black one in which my pet had hitherto seen me, furnished my friend +with a field-glass, and started with him for the wood. The nest was +occupied (I believe I never found it otherwise), and, stationing my +associate in a favorable position, I marched up to it, when, lo, the +bird at once took wing. This was nothing to be disconcerted about, the +very promptness of the action making it certain that the sitter must +have been the male. The pair were both in sight, and the female would +doubtless soon fill the place which her less courageous lord had +deserted. So it turned out, and within a minute everything was in +readiness for a second essay. This proved successful. The first insect +was instantly laid hold of, whereupon I heard a suppressed exclamation +from behind the field-glass. When I rejoined my friend, having exhausted +my supplies, nothing would do but he must try something of the kind +himself. Accordingly, seizing my hat, which dropped down well over his +ears, he made up to the tree. The bird pecked his finger familiarly, and +before long he came rushing back to the path, exclaiming that he must +find something with which to feed her. After overturning two or three +stones he uncovered an ant's nest, and moistening his forefinger, thrust +it into a mass of eggs. With these he hastened to the vireo. She helped +herself to them eagerly, and I could hear him counting, "One, two, +three, four," and so on, as she ate mouthful after mouthful. + +Now, then, he wished to examine the contents of the nest, especially as +it was the first of its kind that he had ever seen out-of-doors. But the +owner was set upon not giving him the opportunity. He stroked her head, +brushed her wings, and, as my note-book puts it, "poked her generally;" +and still she kept her place. Finally, as he stood on one side of her +and I on the other, we pushed the branch down, down, till she was fairly +under our noses. Then she stepped off; but even now, it was only to +alight on the very next twig, and face us calmly! and we had barely +started away before we saw her again on duty. Brave bird! My friend was +exceedingly pleased, and I not less so; though the fact of her making no +difference between us was something of a shock to my self-conceit, +endeavor as I might to believe that she had welcomed him, if not in my +stead, yet at least as my friend. What an odd pair we must have looked +in her eyes! Possibly she had heard of the new movement for the +protection of American song-birds, and took us for representatives of +the Audubon Society. + +Desiring to make some fresh experiment, I set out the next morning with +a little water and a teaspoon, in addition to my ordinary outfit of +rose-leaves. The mother bird was at home, and without hesitation dipped +her bill into the water,--the very first solitary vireo, I dare be +bound, that ever drank out of a silver spoon! Afterwards I gave her the +insects, of which she swallowed twenty-four as fast as I could pick them +up. Evidently she was hungry, and appreciated my attentions. There was +nothing whatever of the coquettishness which she had sometimes +displayed. On the contrary, she leaned forward to welcome the tidbits, +one by one, quite as if it were the most natural thing in the world for +birds to be waited upon in this fashion by their human admirers. Toward +the end, however, a squirrel across the way set up a loud bark, and she +grew nervous; so that when it came to the twenty-fifth louse, which was +the last I could find, she was too much preoccupied to care for it. + +At this point a mosquito stung my neck, and, killing it, I held it +before her. She snapped at it in a twinkling, but retained it between +her mandibles. Whether she would finally have swallowed it I am not able +to say (and so must leave undecided a very interesting and important +question in economic ornithology), for just then I remembered a piece of +banana with which I had been meaning to tempt her. Of this she tasted at +once, and, as I thought, found it good; for she transfixed it with her +bill, and, quitting her seat, carried it away and deposited it on a +branch. But instead of eating it, as I expected to see her do, she fell +to fly-catching, while her mate promptly appeared, and as soon as +opportunity offered took his turn at brooding. My eyes, meanwhile, had +not kept the two distinct, and, supposing that the mother had returned, +I stepped up to offer her another drink, but had no sooner filled the +spoon than the fellow took flight. At this the female came to the rescue +again, and unhesitatingly entered the nest. It was a noble reproof, I +thought; well deserved, and very handsomely administered. "Oh, you +cowardly dear," I fancied her saying, "he'll not hurt you. See me, now! +I'm not afraid. He's queer, I know; but he means well." + +I should have mentioned that while the squirrel was barking she uttered +some very pretty _sotto voce_ notes of two kinds,--one like what I have +often heard, and one entirely novel. + +A man ought to have lived with such a creature, year in and out, and +seen it under every variety of mood and condition, before imagining +himself possessed of its entire vocabulary. For who doubts that birds, +also, have their more sacred and intimate feelings, their esoteric +doctrines and experiences, which are not proclaimed upon the tree-top, +but spoken under breath, in all but inaudible twitters? Certainly this +pet of mine on sundry occasions whispered into my ear things which I had +never heard before, and as to the purport of which, in my ignorance of +the vireonian tongue, I could only conjecture. For my own part, I am +through with thinking that I have mastered all the notes of any bird, +even the commonest. + +I wondered, by the bye, whether my speech was as unintelligible to the +greenlet as hers was to me. I trust, at all events, that she divined a +meaning in the tones, however she may have missed the words; for I never +called without telling her how much I admired her spirit. She was all +that a bird ought to be, I assured her, good, brave, and handsome; and +should never suffer harm, if I could help it. Alas! although, as the +apostle says, I loved "not in word, but in deed and in truth," yet when +the pinch came I was somewhere else, and all my promises went for +nothing. + +Our intercourse was nearing its end. It was already the 10th of June, +and on the 12th I was booked for a journey. During my last visit but one +it gratified me not a little to perceive that the wife's example and +reproof had begun to tell upon her mate. He happened to be in the nest +as I came up, and sat so unconcernedly while I made ready to feed him +that I took it for granted I was dealing with the female, till at the +last moment he slipped away. I stepped aside for perhaps fifteen feet, +and waited briefly, both birds in sight. Then the lady took her turn at +sitting, and I proceeded to try again. She behaved like herself, made +free with a number of insects, and then, all at once, for no reason that +I could guess at, she sprang out of the nest, and alighted on the ground +within two yards of my feet, and almost before I could realize what had +occurred was up in the tree. I had my eyes upon her, determined, if +possible, to keep the pair distinct, and succeeded, as I believed, in so +doing. Pretty soon the male (unless I was badly deceived) went to the +nest with a large insect in his bill, and stood for some time beside it, +eating and chattering. Finally he dropped upon the eggs, and, seeing him +grown thus unsuspicious, I thought best to test him once more. This time +he kept his seat, and with great condescension ate two of my plant-lice. +But there he made an end. Again and again I put the third one to his +mouth; but he settled back obstinately into the nest, and would have +none of it. For once, as it seemed, he could be brave; but he was not to +be coddled, or treated like a baby--or a female. There were good +reasons, of course, for his being less hungry than his mate, and +consequently less appreciative of such favors as I had to bestow; but it +was very amusing to see how tightly he shut his bill, as if his mind +were made up, and no power on earth should shake it. + +If any inquisitive person raises the question whether I am absolutely +certain of this bird's being the male, I must answer in the negative. +The couple were dressed alike, as far as I could make out, save that the +female was much the more brightly washed with yellow on the sides of the +body; and my present discrimination of them was based upon close +attention to this point, as well as upon my careful and apparently +successful effort not to confuse the two, after the one which I knew to +be the female (the one, that is, which had done most of the sitting, and +had all along been so very familiar) had joined the other among the +branches. I had no downright proof, it must be acknowledged, nor could I +have had any without killing and dissecting the bird; but my own strong +conviction was and is that the male had grown fearless by observing my +treatment of his spouse, but from some difference of taste, or, more +probably, for lack of appetite, found himself less taken than she had +commonly been with my rather meagre bill of fare. + +This persuasion, it cannot be denied, was considerably shaken the next +morning, when I paid my friends a parting call. The father bird, +forgetful of his own good example of the day before, and mindless of all +the proprieties of such a farewell occasion, slipped incontinently from +the eggs just as I was removing the cover from my pen-box. Well, he +missed the last opportunity he was likely ever to have of breakfasting +from a human finger. So ignorant are birds, no less than men, of the day +of their visitation! Before I could get away,--while I was yet within +two yards of the nest,--the other bird hastened to occupy the vacant +place. _She_ knew what was due to so considerate and well-tried a +friend, if her partner did not. The little darling! As soon as she was +well in position I stepped to her side, opened my treasures, and gave +her, one by one, twenty-six insects (all I had), which she took with +avidity, reaching forward again and again to anticipate my motions. +Then I stole a last look at the four pretty eggs, having almost to force +her from the nest for that purpose, bade her good-by, and came away, +sorry enough to leave her; forecasting, as I could not help doing, the +slight probability of finding her again on my return, and picturing to +myself all the sweet, motherly ways she would be certain to develop as +soon as the little ones were hatched. + +Within an hour I was speeding toward the Green Mountains. There, in +those ancient Vermont forests, I saw and heard other solitary vireos, +but none that treated me as my Melrose pair had done. Noble and gentle +spirits! though I were to live a hundred years, I should never see their +like again. + +The remainder of the story is, unhappily, soon told. I was absent a +fortnight, and on getting back went at once to the sacred oak. Alas! +there was nothing but a severed branch to show where the vireos' nest +had hung. The cut looked recent; I was thankful for that. Perhaps the +"collector," whoever he was, had been kind enough to wait till the +owners of the house were done with it, before he carried it away. Let +us hope so, at all events, for the peace of his own soul, as well as for +the sake of the birds. + + + + +AN OLD ROAD. + + Methinks here one may, without much molestation, be thinking + what he is, whence he came, what he has done, and to what the + King has called him.--BUNYAN. + + +I fall in with persons, now and then, who profess to care nothing for a +path when walking in the woods. They do not choose to travel in other +people's footsteps,--nay, nor even in their own,--but count it their +mission to lay out a new road every time they go afield. They are +welcome to their freak. My own genius for adventure is less highly +developed; and, to be frank, I have never learned to look upon +affectation and whim as synonymous with originality. In my eyes, it is +nothing against a hill that other men have climbed it before me; and if +their feet have worn a trail, so much the better. I not only reach the +summit more easily, but have company on the way,--company none the less +to my mind, perhaps, for being silent and invisible. It is well enough +to strike into the trackless forest once in a while; to wander you know +not whither, and come out you know not where; to lie down in a strange +place, and for an hour imagine yourself the explorer of a new continent: +but if the mind be awake (as, alas, too often it is not), you may walk +where you will, in never so well known a corner, and you will see new +things, and think new thoughts, and return to your house a new man, +which, I venture to believe, is after all the main consideration. +Indeed, if your stirring abroad is to be more than mere muscular +exercise, you will find a positive advantage in making use of some +well-worn and familiar path. The feet will follow it mechanically, and +so the mind--that is, the walker himself--will be left undistracted. +That, to my thinking, is the real tour of discovery wherein one keeps to +the beaten road, looks at the customary sights, but brings home a new +idea. + +There are inward moods, as well as outward conditions, in which an old, +half-disused, bush-bordered road becomes the saunterer's paradise. I +have several such in my eye at this moment, but especially one, in +which my feet, years ago, grew to feel at home. It is an almost ideal +loitering place, or would be, if only it were somewhat longer. How many +hundreds of times have I traveled it, spring and summer, autumn and +winter! As I go over it now, the days of my youth come back to me, +clothed all of them in that soft, benignant light which nothing but +distance can bestow, whether upon hills or days. This gracious effect is +heightened, no doubt, by the fact that for a good while past my visits +to the place have been only occasional. Memory and imagination are true +yoke-fellows, and between them are always preparing some new pleasure +for us, as often as we allow them opportunity. The other day, for +instance, as I came to the top of the hill just beyond the river, I +turned suddenly to the right, looking for an old pear-tree. I had not +thought of it for years, and the more I have since tried to recall its +appearance and exact whereabouts, the less confident have I grown that +it ever had any material existence; but somehow, just at that moment my +mouth seemed to recollect it; and in general I have come to put faith +in such involuntary and, if I may say so, sensible joggings of the +memory. I wonder whether the tree ever was there--or anywhere. At all +events, the thought of it gave me for the moment a pleasure more real +than any taste in the mouth, were it never so sweet. Thank fortune, +imaginative delights are as far as possible from being imaginary. + +The river just mentioned runs under the road, and, as will readily be +inferred, is one of its foremost attractions. I speak of it as a "river" +with some misgivings. It is a rather large brook, or a very small river; +but a man who has never been able to leap across it has perhaps no right +to deny it the more honorable appellation. Its source is a spacious and +beautiful sheet of water, which heretofore has been known as a "pond," +but which I should be glad to believe would hereafter be put upon the +maps as Lake Wessagusset. This brook or river, call it whichever you +please, goes meandering through the township in a northeasterly +direction, turning the wheels of half a dozen mills, more or less, on +its way; a sluggish stream, too lazy to work, you would think; passing +much of its time in flat, grassy meadows, where it idles along as if it +realized that the end of its course was near, and felt in no haste to +lose itself in the salt sea. Out of this stream I pulled goodly numbers +of perch, pickerel, shiners, flatfish, and hornpouts, while I was still +careless-hearted enough ("Heaven lies about us in our infancy") to enjoy +this very amiable and semi-religious form of "sport;" and as the river +intersects at least seven roads that came within my boyish beat, I must +have crossed it thousands of times; in addition to which I have spent +days in paddling and bathing in it. Altogether, it is one of my most +familiar friends; and--what one cannot say of all familiar friends--I do +not remember that it ever served me the slightest ill-turn. It passes +under the road of which I am now discoursing, in a double channel (the +bridge being supported midway by a stone wall), and then broadens out +into an artificial shallow, through which travelers may drive if they +will, to let their horses drink out of the stream. First and last, I +have improved many a shining hour on this bridge, leaning industriously +over the railing. I can see the rocky bed at this moment,--yes, and the +very shape and position of some of the stones, as I saw them thirty +years ago; especially of one, on which we used to balance ourselves to +dip up the water or to peer under the bridge. In those days, if we +essayed to be uncommonly adventurous, we waded through this low and +somewhat dark passage; a gruesome proceeding, as we were compelled to +stoop a little, short as we were, to save our heads, while the road, to +our imagination, seemed in momentary danger of caving in upon us. +Courage, like all other human virtues, is but a relative attribute. +Possibly the heroic deeds upon which in our grown-up estate we plume +ourselves are not greatly more meritorious or wonderful than were some +of the childish ventures at the recollection of which we now condescend +to feel amused. + +On the surface of the brook flourished two kinds of insects, whose +manner of life we never tired of watching. One sort had long, +wide-spreading legs, and by us were known as "skaters," from their +movements (to this day, I blush to confess, I have no other name for +them); the others were flat, shining, orbicular or oblong, lead-colored +bugs,--"lucky bugs" I have heard them called,--and lay flat upon the +water, as if quite without limbs; but they darted over the brook, and +even against the current, with noticeable activity, and doubtless were +well supplied with paddles. Once in a while we saw a fish here, but only +on rare occasions. The great unfailing attraction of the place, then as +now, was the flowing water, forever spending and never spent. The +insects lived upon it; apparently they had no power to leave it for an +instant; but they were not carried away by it. Happy creatures! We, +alas, sporting upon the river of time, can neither dive below the +surface nor mount into the ether, and, unlike the insects ("lucky bugs," +indeed!), we have no option but to move with the tide. We have less +liberty than the green flags, even, which grow in scattered tufts in the +bed of the brook; whose leaves point forever down stream, like so many +index fingers, as if they said, "Yes, yes, that is the way to the sea; +that way we all must go;" while for themselves, nevertheless, they +manage to hold on by their roots, victorious even while professing to +yield. + +To my mind the river is alive. Reason about it as I will, I never can +make it otherwise. I could sooner believe in water nymphs than in many +existences which are commonly treated as much more certain matters of +fact. I _could_ believe in them, I say; but in reality I do not. My +communings are not with any haunter of the river, but with the living +soul of the river itself. It lags under the vine-covered alders, hastens +through the bridge, then slips carelessly down a little descent, where +it breaks into singing, then into a mill-pond and out again, and so on +and on, through one experience after another; and all the time it is not +dead water, but a river, a thing of life and motion. After all, it is +not for me to say what is alive and what dead. As yet, indeed, I do not +so much as know what life is. In certain moods, in what I fondly call my +better moments, I feel measurably sure of being alive myself; but even +on that point, for aught I can tell, the brook may entertain some +private doubts. + +Just beyond the bridge is an ancient apple orchard. This was already +falling into decay when I was a boy, and the many years that have +elapsed since then have nearly completed its demolition; although I dare +say the present generation of school-boys still find it worth while to +clamber over the wall, as they journey back and forth. Probably it will +be no surprise to the owner of the place if I tell him that before I was +twelve years old I knew the taste of all his apples. In fact, the +orchard was so sequestered, so remote from any house,--especially from +its proprietor's,--that it hardly seemed a sin to rob it. It was not so +much an orchard as a bit of woodland; and besides, we never shook the +trees, but only helped ourselves to windfalls; and it must be a severe +moralist who calls _that_ stealing. Why should the fruit drop off, if +not to be picked up? In my time, at all events, such appropriations were +never accounted robbery, though the providential absence of the owner +was unquestionably a thing to be thankful for. He would never begrudge +us the apples, of course, for he was rich and presumably generous; but +it was quite as well for him to be somewhere else while we were +gathering up these favors which the winds of heaven had shaken down for +our benefit. There is something of the special pleader in most of us, it +is to be feared, whether young or old. If we are put to it, we can draw +a very fine distinction (in our own favor), no matter how obtuse we may +seem on ordinary occasions. + +Remembering how voracious and undiscriminating my juvenile appetite was, +I cannot help wondering that I am still alive,--a feeling which I doubt +not is shared by many a man who, like myself, had a country bringing-up. +We must have been born with something more than a spark of life, else it +would certainly have been smothered long ago by the fuel so recklessly +heaped upon it. But we lived out-of-doors, took abundant exercise, were +not studious overmuch (as all boys and girls are charged with being +nowadays), and had little to worry about, which may go far to explain +the mystery. + +It provokes a smile to reckon up the many places along this old road +that are indissolubly connected in my mind with the question of +something to eat. At the foot of the orchard just now spoken of, for +example, is a dilapidated stone wall, between it and the river. Over +this, as well as over the bushes beside it, straggled a small wild +grape-vine, bearing every year a scanty crop of white grapes. These, to +our unsophisticated palates, were delicious, if only they got ripe. That +was the rub; and as a rule we gathered our share of them (which was all +there were) while they were yet several stages short of that desirable +consummation, not deeming it prudent to leave them longer, lest some +hungrier soul should get the start of us. Graping, as we called it, was +one of our regular autumn industries, and there were few vines within +the circle of our perambulations which did not feel our fingers tugging +at them at least once a year. Some of them hung well over the river; +others took refuge in the tops of trees; but by hook or by crook, we +usually got the better of such perversities. No doubt the fruit was all +bad enough; but some of it was sweeter (or less sour) than other. +Perhaps the best vine was one that covered a certain superannuated +apple-tree, half a mile west of our river-side orchard, before +mentioned. Here I might have been seen by the hour, eagerly yet +cautiously venturing out upon the decayed and doubtful limbs, in quest +of this or that peculiarly tempting bunch. These grapes were purple (how +well some things are remembered!), and were sweeter then than Isabellas +or Catawbas are now. Such is the degeneracy of vines in these modern +days! + +Altogether more important than the grapes were the huckleberries, for +which, also, we four times out of five took this same famous by-road. +Speaking roughly, I may say that we depended upon seven pastures for our +supplies, and were accustomed to visit them in something like regular +order. It is kindly provided that huckleberry bushes have an +exceptionally strong tendency to vary. We possessed no theories upon the +subject, and knew nothing of disputed questions about species and +varieties; but we were not without a good degree of practical +information. Here was a bunch of bushes, for instance, covered with +black, shiny, pear-shaped berries, very numerous, but very small. They +would do moderately well in default of better. Another patch, perhaps +but a few rods removed, bore large globular berries, less glossy than +the others, but still black. These, as we expressed it, "filled up" much +faster than the others, though not nearly so "thick." Blue berries (not +blueberries, but blue huckleberries) were common enough, and we knew one +small cluster of plants, the fruit of which was white, a variety that I +have since found noted by Doctor Gray as very rare. Unhappily, this +freak made so little impression upon me as a boy that while I am clear +as to the fact, and feel sure of the pasture, I have no distinct +recollection of the exact spot where the eccentric bushes grew. I should +like to know whether they still persist. Gray's Manual, by the way, +makes no mention of the blue varieties, but lays it down succinctly that +the fruit of _Gaylussacia resinosa_ is black. + +The difference we cared most about, however, related not to color, +shape, or size, but to the time of ripening. Diversity of habit in this +regard was indeed a great piece of good fortune, not to be rightly +appreciated without horrible imaginings of how short the season of berry +pies and puddings would be if all the berries matured at once. You may +be sure we never forgot where the early sorts were to be found, and +where the late. What hours upon hours we spent in the broiling sun, +picking into some half-pint vessel, and emptying that into a larger +receptacle, safely stowed away under some cedar-tree or barberry bush. +How proud we were of our heaped-up pails! How carefully we discarded +from the top every half-ripe or otherwise imperfect specimen! (So early +do well-taught Yankee children develop one qualification for the +diaconate.) The sun had certain minor errands to look after, we might +have admitted, even in those midsummer days, but his principal business +was to ripen huckleberries. So it seemed then. And now--well, men are +but children still, and for them, too, their own little round is the +centre of the world. + +All these pastures had names, of course, well understood by us children, +though I am not sure how generally they would have been recognized by +the townspeople. The first in order was River Pasture, the owner of +which turned his cattle into it, and every few years mowed the bushes, +with the result that the berries, whenever there were any, were +uncommonly large and handsome. Not far beyond this (the entrance was +through a "pair of bars," beside a spreading white oak) was Millstone +Pasture. This was a large, straggling place, half pasture, half wood, +full of nooks and corners, with by-paths running hither and thither, and +named after two large bowlders, which lay one on top of the other. We +used to clamber upon these to eat our luncheon, thinking within +ourselves, meanwhile, that the Indians must have been men of prodigious +strength. At that time, though I scarcely know how to own it, glacial +action was a thing by us unheard of. We are wiser now,--on that point, +at any rate. Two of the other pastures were called respectively after +the railroad and a big pine-tree (there _was_ a big pine-tree in W---- +once, for I myself have seen the stump), while the remainder took their +names from their owners, real or reputed; and as some of these +appellations were rather disrespectfully abbreviated, it may be as well +to omit setting them down in print. + +To all these places we resorted a little later in the season for +blackberries, and later still for barberries. In one or two of them we +set snares, also, but without materially lessening the quantity of game. +The rabbits, especially, always helped themselves to the bait, and left +us the noose. At this distance of time I do not begrudge them their good +fortune. I hope they are all alive yet, including the youngster that we +once caught in our hands and brought home, and then, in a fit of +contrition, carried back again to its native heath. + +All in all, the berries that we prized most, perhaps, were those that +came first, and were at the same time least abundant. Yankee children +will understand at once that I mean the checkerberries, or, as we were +more accustomed to call them, the boxberries. The very first mild days +in March, if the snow happened to be mostly gone, saw us on this same +old road bound for one of the places where we thought ourselves most +likely to find a few (possibly a pint or two, but more probably a +handful or two) of these humble but spicy fruits. Not that the plants +were not plentiful enough in all directions, but it was only in certain +spots (or rather in very uncertain spots, since these were continually +shifting) that they were ever in good bearing condition. We came after a +while to understand that the best crops were produced for two or three +years after the cutting off of the wood in suitable localities. Letting +in the sunlight seems to have the effect of starting into sudden +fruitfulness this hardy, persistent little plant, although I never could +discover that it thrived better for growing permanently in an open, +sunny field. Perhaps it requires an unexpected change of condition, a +providential nudge, as it were, to jog it into activity, like some +poets. Whatever the explanation, we used now and then in recent +clearings (and nowhere else) to find the ground fairly red with berries. +Those were red-letter days in our calendar. How handsome such a patch +of rose-color was (though we made haste to despoil it), circling an old +stump or a bowlder! The berries were pleasant to the eye and good for +food; but after all, their principal attractiveness lay in the fact that +they came right upon the heels of winter. They were the first-fruits of +the new year (ripened the year before, to be sure), and to our thinking +were fit to be offered upon any altar, no matter how sacred. + +I have called the subject of my loving meditations a by-road. Formerly +it was the main thoroughfare between two villages, but shortly after my +acquaintance with it began a new and more direct one was laid out. Yet +the old road, half deserted as it is, has not altogether escaped the +ruthless hand of the improver. Within my time it has been widened +throughout, and in one place a new section has been built to cut off a +curve. Fortunately, however, the discarded portion still remains, well +grown up to grass, and closely encroached upon by willows, alders, +sumachs, barberries, dogwoods, smilax, clethra, azalea, button-bush, +birches, and what not, yet still passable even for carriages, and more +inviting than ever to lazy pedestrians like myself. On this cast-off +section is a cosy, grassy nook, shaded by a cluster of red cedars. This +was one of our favorite way-stations on summer noons. It gives me a +comfortable, restful feeling to look into it even now, as if my weary +limbs had reminiscences of their own connected with the place. + +Right at this point stands an ancient russet-apple tree, which seems no +older and brings forth no smaller apples now than it did when I first +knew it. How natural it looks in every knot and branch! Strange, too, +that it should be so, since I do not recall its ever contributing the +first mouthful to my pleasures as a schoolboy gastronomer. In those +times I judged a tree solely by the New Testament standard, very +literally interpreted,--"By their fruits ye shall know them." Now I have +other tests, and can value an old acquaintance of this kind for its +picturesqueness, though its apples be bitter as wormwood. + +I am making too much of the food question, and will therefore say +nothing of strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, cranberries +(which last were delicious, as we took them out of their icy ovens in +the spring), pig-nuts, hazel-nuts, acorns, and the rest. Yet I will not +pass by a small clump of dangleberry bushes (a September luxury not +common in our neighborhood) and a lofty pear-tree. The latter, in truth, +hardly belongs under this head; for though it bore superabundant crops +of pears, not even a child was ever known to eat one. We called them +iron pears, perhaps because nothing but the hottest fire could be +expected to reduce them to a condition of softness. My mouth is all in a +pucker at the mere thought of the rusty-green bullets. It did seem a +pity they should be so outrageously hard, so absolutely untoothsome; for +the tree, as I say, was a big one and provokingly prolific, and, +moreover, stood squarely upon the roadside. What a godsend we should +have found it, had its fruit been a few degrees less stony! Such +incongruities and disappointments go far to convince me that the +creation is indeed, as some theologians have taught, under a curse. + +My appetite for wild fruits has grown dull with age, but meanwhile my +affection for the old road has not lessened, but rather increased. In +itself the place is nowise remarkable, a common country back road (its +very name is Back Street); but all the same I "take pleasure in its +stones, and favor the dust thereof." There are none of us so +matter-of-fact and unsentimental, I hope, as never to have experienced +the force of old associations in gilding the most ordinary objects. For +my own part, I protest, I would give more for a single stunted cluster +of orange-red berries from a certain small vine of Roxbury wax-work, +near the entrance to Millstone Pasture aforesaid, than for a bushel of +larger and handsomer specimens from some alien source. This old vine +still holds on, I am happy to see, though it appears to have made no +growth in twenty years. Long may it be spared! It was within a few rods +of it, beside the path that runs into the pasture, that I shot my first +bird. Newly armed with a shotgun, and on murder bent, I turned in here; +and as luck would have it, there sat the innocent creature in a birch. +The temptation was too great. There followed a moment of excitement, a +nervous aim, a bang, and a catbird's song was hushed forever. A mean +and cruel act, which I confess with shame, and have done my best to +atone for by speaking here and there a good word for this poorly +appreciated member of our native choir. I should be glad to believe that +the schoolboys of the present day are more tender-hearted than those +with whom I mixed; but I am not without my doubts. As Darwin showed, all +animals in the embryonic stage tend to reproduce ancestral +characteristics; and our Anglo-Saxon ancestors (how easy it seems to +believe it!) were barbarians. + +This same Millstone Pasture, by the bye, was a place of special resort +at Christmas time. Here grew plenty of the trailing plant which we knew +simply as "evergreen," but which now, in my superior wisdom, I call +_Lycopodium complanatum_. This, indeed, was common in various +directions, but the holly was much less easily found, and grew here more +freely than anywhere else. The unhappy trees had a hard shift to live, +so broken down were they with each recurring December; and the more +berries they produced, the worse for them. Their anticipations of +Christmas must have been strangely different from those of us +toy-loving, candy-eating children. But who thinks of sympathizing with a +tree? + +As for the wayside flowers, they are, as becomes the place, of the very +commonest and most old-fashioned sorts, more welcome to my eye than the +choicest of rarities: golden-rods and asters in great variety and +profusion, hardhack and meadow-sweet, St. John's wort and loosestrife, +violets and anemones, self-heal and cranes-bill, and especially the +lovely but little-known purple gerardia. These, with their natural +companions and allies, make to me a garden of delights, whereunto my +feet, as far as they find opportunity, do continually resort. What +flowers ought a New Englander to love, if not such as are characteristic +of New England? + +And yet, proudly and affectionately as I talk of it, Back Street is not +what it once was. I have already mentioned the straightening, as also +the widening, both of them sorry improvements. Furthermore, there was +formerly a huge (as I remember it) and beautifully proportioned +hemlock-tree, at which I used to gaze admiringly in the first years of +my wandering hither. What millions of tiny cones hung from its pendulous +branches! The magnificent creation should have been protected by +legislative enactment, if necessary; but no, almost as long ago as I can +remember, long before I attained to grammar-school dignities, the owner +of the land (so he thought himself, no doubt) turned the tree into +firewood. And worse yet, the stately pine grove that flourished across +the way, with mossy bowlders underneath and a most delightsome density +of shade,--this, too, like the patriarchal hemlock, has been cut off in +the midst of its usefulness. + + "Their very memory is fair and bright, + And my sad thoughts doth cheer!" + +Now there is nothing on the whole hillside but a thicket of young +hard-wood trees (I would say deciduous, but in New England, alas, all +trees are deciduous), through which my dog loves to prowl, but which +warns me to keep the road. Such devastations are not to be prevented, I +suppose, but at least there is no law against my bewailing them. + +Even in its present decadence, however, my road, as I said to begin +with, is a kind of saunterer's paradise. When we come to particulars, +indeed, it is nothing to boast of; but waiving particulars, and taking +it for all in all, there is no highway upon the planet where I better +enjoy an idle hour. There is a boy of perhaps ten years whose +companionship is out of all reason dear to me; and nowhere am I surer to +find him at my side, hand in hand, than in this same lonely road, +although I know very well that those who meet or pass me here see only +one person, and that a man of several times ten years. But thank Heaven, +we are not always alone when we seem to be. + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER. + + I am bold to show myself a forward guest. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +Let it be said at the outset that the seeker after bird's-nests is never +without plenty of company, of one sort and another. For instance, I was +out early one cloudy morning last spring, when I caught sight of a +handsome black and white animal nosing his way through the bushes on one +side of the path. He had come forth on the same errand as myself; and I +thought at once of the veery's nest, for which I had been looking in +vain, but which could not be far from the very spot where my black and +white rival was just at this moment standing. I wondered whether he had +already found it; but I did not stay to ask him. In spite of his beauty, +and in spite of our evident community of interest, I felt no drawings +toward a more intimate acquaintance. I knew him by name and +reputation,--_Mephitis mephitica_ the scientific folk call him, with +felicitous reverberative emphasis,--and that sufficed. At another time, +a few weeks later than this, I overheard an unusual commotion among the +birds in our apple orchard. "Some rascally cat!" I thought; and, picking +up a stone, I hastened to put a stop to his depredations. But there was +no cat in sight; and it was not till I stood immediately under the tree +that I discovered the marauder to be a snake, just then slowly making +toward the ground, with a young bird in his jaws. Watching my +opportunity, while he was engaged in the delicate operation of lowering +himself from one branch to another, I shook the trunk vigorously, and +down he tumbled at my feet. Once and again I set my heel upon him; but +the tall grass was in his favor, and he succeeded in getting off, +leaving his dead victim behind him.[71:1] + +It is noble society in which we find ourselves, is it not? In the front +rank are what we may call the _professional_ oölogists,--such as follow +the business for a livelihood: snakes, skunks, weasels, squirrels, cats, +crows, jays, cuckoos, and the like. Then come the not inconsiderable +number of persons who, for a more or less strictly scientific purpose, +take here and there a nest with its contents; while these are followed +by hordes of school-boys, whom the prevalent mania for "collecting" +drives to scrape together miscellaneous lots of eggs,--half-named, +misnamed, and nameless,--to put with previous accumulations of +postage-stamps, autographs, business cards, and other like precious +rubbish. + +Alas, the poor birds! These "perils of robbers" and "perils among false +brethren" are bad enough, but they have many others to encounter; +"journeyings often" and "perils of waters" being among the worst. Gentle +and innocent as they seem, it speaks well for their cunning and +endurance that they escape utter extermination. + +This phase of the subject is especially forced upon the attention of +observers like myself, who search for nests, not mischievously, nor even +with the laudable design of the scientific investigator, but solely as a +means of promoting friendly acquaintance. We may not often witness the +catastrophe itself; but as we go our daily rounds, now peeping under the +bank or into the bush, and now climbing the tree, to see how some timid +friend of ours is faring, we are only too certain to come upon first one +home and then another which has been rifled and deserted since our last +visit; till we begin to wonder why the defenseless and persecuted +creatures do not turn pessimists outright, and relinquish forever their +attempt to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." + +Thinking of these things anew, now that I am reviewing my last spring's +experiences, it is doubly gratifying to recall that I robbed only one +nest during the entire season, and that not of malice, but by accident. +It happened on this wise. A couple of solitary vireos had taken up +their abode on a wooded hillside, where they, or others like them, had +passed the previous summer, and one day I proposed to a friend that we +make it our business to search out the nest. It proved to be not very +difficult of discovery, though, when we put our eyes upon it, it +appeared that we had walked directly by it several times, all in sight +as it was, suspended from near the end of an oak-tree branch, perhaps +nine feet from the ground. It contained five eggs, including one of the +cow-bird; but just as my companion was about to let go the branch, which +he had been holding down for my convenience, the end snapped, up went +the nest, and out jumped four of the eggs. We were sorry, of course, but +consoled ourselves with the destruction of the parasite, which otherwise +would very likely have been the death of the vireos' own offspring. +Meanwhile, the birds themselves took matters coolly. One of them fell to +singing as soon as we withdrew, while the other flew to the nest, looked +in, and without a word resumed her seat. After all, the accident might +turn out to be nothing worse than a blessing in disguise, we said to +each other. But before many days it became evident that the pair had +given up the nest, and I carried it to a friend whom I knew to be in +want of such a specimen for his cabinet. + +It is worth noticing how widely birds of the same species differ among +themselves in their behavior under trial. Their minds are no more run in +one mould than human minds are. In their case, as in ours, innumerable +causes have worked together to produce the unique individual result. +Much is due to inheritance, no doubt, but much likewise to accident. One +mother has never had her nest invaded, and is therefore careless of our +presence. Another has so frequently been robbed of her all that she has +grown hardened to disaster, and she also makes no very great ado when we +intrude upon her. A third is still in a middle state,--alive to the +danger, but not yet able to face it philosophically,--and she will +become hysterical at the first symptom of trouble. + +At the very time of the mishap just described I was keeping watch over +the household arrangements of another and much less stoical pair of +solitary vireos. These, as soon as I discovered their secret (which was +not till after several attempts), became extremely jealous of my +proximity, no matter how indirect and innocent my approaches. Even when +I seated myself at what I deemed a very respectful distance the sitting +bird would at once quit her place, and begin to complain in her own +delightfully characteristic manner,--chattering, scolding, and warbling +by turns,--refusing to be pacified in the least until I took myself off. +Once I remained for some time close under the nest, on purpose to see +how many of the neighbors would be attracted to the spot. With the +exception of the wood wagtails, I should say that nearly all the small +birds in the immediate vicinity must have turned out: black-and-white +creepers, redstarts, chestnut-sided warblers, black-throated greens, a +blue golden-wing, red-eyed vireos, and a third solitary vireo. If they +were moved with pity for the pair whose lamentations had drawn them +together, they did not manifest it, as far as I could see. Perhaps they +found small occasion for so loud a disturbance. Possibly, moreover, as +spectators who had honored me with their presence (and that in the very +midst of their busy season), they felt themselves cheated, and, so to +speak, outraged, by my failure to finish the tragedy artistically, by +shooting the parent birds and pulling down the nest. Creatures who can +neither read novels nor attend upon dramatic performances may be +presumed to suffer at times for lack of a pleasurable excitement of the +sensibilities. At all events, these visitors contented themselves with +staring at me for a few minutes, and then one by one turned away, as if +it were not much of a show after all. To the interested couple, however, +it was a matter of life and death. The female especially (or the sitter, +for the sexes are indistinguishable) hopped close about my head, +sometimes uttering a strangely sweet, pleading note, which might have +melted a heart much harder than mine. Her associate kept at a more +cautious remove, but made amends by continuing to scold after the danger +was all over. By the bye, I noticed that in the midst of the commotion, +as soon as the first agony was past, the one who had been sitting was +not so entirely overcome as not to be able to relish an occasional +insect, which she snatched here and there between her vituperative +exclamations. Faithful and hungry little mother! her heart was not +broken, let us hope, when within a week or so some miscreant, to me +unknown, ravaged her house and left it desolate. + +Not many rods from the vireos' cedar-tree was a brown thrasher's nest in +a barberry bush. It had an exceedingly dilapidated, year-old appearance, +and I went by it several times without thinking it worth looking at, +till I accidentally observed the bird upon it. She did not budge till I +was within a few feet of her, when she tumbled to the ground, and limped +away with loud cries. Perceiving that this worn-out ruse did not avail, +she turned upon me, and actually seemed about to make an attack. How she +did rave! I thought that I had never seen a bird so beside herself with +anger. + +Shortly after my encounter with this irate thrush I nearly stepped upon +one of her sisters, brooding upon a ground nest; and it illustrates +what has been said about variety of temperament that the second bird +received me in a very quiet, self-contained manner; giving me to +understand, to be sure, that my visit was ill-timed and unwelcome, but +not acting at all as if I were some ogre, the very sight of which must +perforce drive a body crazy. + +In the course of the season I found three nests of the rose-breasted +grosbeak. The first, to my surprise, was in the topmost branches of a +tall sweet-birch, perhaps forty feet above the ground. I noticed the +female flying into the grove with a load of building materials, and a +little later (as soon as my engagement with an interesting company of +gray-cheeked thrushes would permit) I followed, and almost at once saw +the pair at their work. And a very pretty exhibition it was,--so pretty +that I returned the next morning to see more of it. It must be admitted +that the labor seemed rather unequally divided: the female not only +fetched all the sticks, but took upon herself the entire business of +construction, her partner's contribution to the enterprise being +limited strictly to the performance of escort duty. When she had fitted +the new twigs into their place to her satisfaction (which often took +considerable time) she uttered a signal, and the pair flew out of the +wood together, talking sweetly as they went. The male was aware of my +presence from the beginning, I think, but he appeared to regard it as of +no consequence. Probably he believed the nest well out of my reach, as +in fact it was. He usually sang a few snatches while waiting for his +wife, and, as he sat within a few feet of her and made no attempt at +concealment, it could hardly be supposed that he refrained from offering +to assist her for fear his brighter colors should betray their secret. +Some different motive from this must be assigned for his seeming want of +gallantry. To all appearance, however, the parties themselves took the +whole proceeding as a simple matter of course. They were but minding the +most approved grosbeak precedents; and after all, who is so likely to be +in the right as he who follows the fashion? Shall one bird presume to be +wiser than all the millions of his race? Nay; as the Preacher long ago +said, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be." Nothing +could have been more complacent and affectionate than the lady's voice +and demeanor as often as she gave the finishing touches to a twig, and +called to her companion, "Come, now, let's go for another." Naturally, +the female is the one most concerned about the stability and comfortable +shape of the nest, and possibly she does not count it prudent to entrust +her spouse with any share in so delicate and important an undertaking; +but, if so, she must know him for an arrant bungler, since the structure +which she herself puts together is a most shabby-looking affair, +scarcely better than the cuckoo's. + +Such happiness as that of these married lovers was perhaps too perfect +to last. At any rate, it was only a week before their idyl all at once +turned to tragedy. A sharp _click, click!_ attracted my attention, as I +passed under their birch (on my way to call upon a pair of chickadees, +who were keeping house in a low stump close by), and, glancing up, I saw +the bushy tail of a red squirrel hanging over the edge of the nest. The +male grosbeak was dashing wildly about the invader, while a wood +thrush, a towhee bunting (who looked strange at such a height), a +red-eyed vireo, and a blue golden-winged warbler were surveying the +scene from the adjacent branches,--though the thrush withdrew in the +midst of the tumult, and fell to singing (as one may see happy young +couples going merrily homeward after witnessing the murder of Duncan or +Desdemona). Meanwhile, the squirrel, having finished his work, descended +leisurely toward the ground, snickering and chuckling, as if he felt +immensely pleased with his achievement. Probably his emotions did not +differ essentially from those of a human sportsman, but it was lucky for +him, nevertheless, that I had no means of putting an end to his mirth. I +could have blown his head off without compunction. When he had gone, and +the visiting birds with him, the grosbeak returned to his nest, and in +the most piteous manner hovered about the spot,--getting into the nest +and out again,--as if completely dazed by the sudden disaster. +Throughout the excitement the female did not show herself, and I +wondered whether she could have submitted to be killed rather than +desert her charge. To the honor of her kind be it said that the +supposition is far from incredible. + +My second nest of this species was within twenty rods of the first, and +was in use at the same time; but it met with no better fate, though I +was not present to see it robbed. The third was more prosperous, and, +unless something befell the young at the last moment, they were safely +launched upon the wing. This nest was situated in a clump of witch-hazel +bushes, at a height of eight or nine feet. I remarked a grosbeak singing +near the spot, and, seeing him very unwilling to move away, concluded +that his home could not be far off. It was soon found,--a slight, +shapeless, frail-looking bundle of sticks, with the female upon it. I +took hold of the main stem, just below her, and drew her towards me; but +she would not rise, although I could see her moving uneasily. I had no +heart to annoy her; so I called her a good, brave bird, and left her in +peace. Her mate, all this while, kept on singing; and to judge from his +behavior, I might have been some honored guest, to be welcomed with +music. The simple-hearted--not to say simple-minded--fearlessness of +this bird is really astonishing; especially in view of the fact that his +showy plumage makes him a favorite mark for every amateur taxidermist. +He will even warble while brooding upon the eggs, a delicious piece of +absurdity, which I hope sooner or later to witness for myself. + +While watching my first couple of grosbeaks I suddenly became aware of a +wood thrush passing back and forth between the edge of a brook and a +certain oak, against the hole of which she was making ready her summer +residence. She seemed to be quite unattended; but just as I was +beginning to contrast her case with that of the feminine grosbeak +overhead, her mate broke into song from a low branch directly behind me. +_She_ had all the while known where he was, I dare say, and would have +been greatly amused at my commiseration of her loneliness. The next +morning she was compelled to make longer flights for such stuff as she +needed; and now it was pleasant to observe that her lord did not fail to +accompany her to and fro, and to sing to her while she worked. + +The wood thrush has the name of a recluse, and, as compared with the +omnipresent robin, he may deserve the title; but he is seldom very +difficult of approach, if one only knows how to go about it, while his +nest is peculiarly easy of detection. I remember one which was close by +an unfenced road, just outside the city of Washington; and two or three +years ago I found another in a barberry bush, not more than fifteen feet +from a horse-car track, and so near the fence as to be almost within +arm's-length of passers-by. This latter was in full view from the +street, and withal was so feebly supported that some kind-hearted +neighbor had taken pains to tie up the bush (which stood by itself) with +a piece of dangerously new-looking rope. And even as I write I recall +still a third, which also was close by the roadside, though at the very +exceptional elevation of twenty-five or thirty feet. + +It is one of the capital advantages of the ornithologist's condition +that he is rarely called upon to spend his time and strength for naught. +If he fails of the particular object of his search, he is all but sure +to be rewarded with something else. For example, while I was +unsuccessfully playing the spy upon a pair of my solitary vireos, a +female tanager suddenly dropped into her half-built nest in a low +pine-branch, at the same time calling softly to her mate, who at once +came to sit beside her. Unfortunately, one of the pair very soon caught +sight of me, and they made off in haste. I lingered about, till finally +the lady appeared again, with her beak full of sticks, standing out at +all points of the compass. She was so jealous of my espionage, however, +that it looked as if she would never be rid of her load. No sooner did +she alight in the tree than she began to crane her neck, staring this +way and that, and _chipping_ nervously; then she shifted her perch; then +out of the tree she went altogether; then back again; then off once +more; then back within a yard of the nest; then away again, till at last +my patience gave out, and I left her mistress of the field. All this +while the male was in sight, flitting restlessly from tree to tree at a +safe distance. I have never witnessed a prettier display of connubial +felicity than this pair afforded me during the minute or two which +elapsed between my discovery of them and their discovery of me. I felt +almost guilty for intruding upon such a scene; but, if they could only +have believed it, I intended no harm, nor have I now any thought of +profaning their innocent mysteries by attempting to describe what I saw. + +The male tanager, with his glory of jet black and flaming scarlet, is in +curious contrast with his mate, with whose personal appearance, +nevertheless, he seems to be abundantly satisfied. Possibly he looks +upon a dirty greenish-yellow as the loveliest of tints, and regards his +own dress as nothing better than commonplace, in comparison. Like the +rose-breasted grosbeak and the wood thrush, however, he is brought up +with the notion that it belongs to the female to be the carpenter of the +family; a belief in which, happily for his domestic peace, the female +herself fully concurs. + +As a general thing, handsomely dressed people live in handsome houses +(emphasis should perhaps be laid on the word _dressed_), and it would +seem natural that a like congruity should hold in the case of birds. + +But, if such be the rule, there are at least some glaring exceptions. I +have alluded to the rude structure of the rose-breast, and might have +used nearly the same language concerning the tanager's, which latter is +often fabricated so loosely that one can see the sky through it. Yet +these two are among the most gorgeously attired of all our birds. On the +other hand, while the wood pewee is one of the very plainest, there are +few, if any, that excel her as an architect. During the season under +review I had the good fortune to light upon my first nest of this +fly-catcher; and, as is apt to be true, having found one, I immediately +and without effort found two others. The first two were in oaks, the +third in a hornbeam; and all were set upon the upper side of a +horizontal bough ("saddled" upon it, as the manuals say), at the +junction of an offshoot with the main branch. Two of them were but +partially done when discovered, and I was glad to see one pair of the +birds in something very like a frolic, such a state as would hardly be +predicted of these peculiarly sober-seeming creatures. The builder of +the second nest was remarkably confiding, and proceeded with her +labors, quite undisturbed by my proximity and undisguised interest. It +was to be remarked that she had trimmed the outside of her nest with +lichens before finishing the interior; and I especially admired the very +clever manner in which she hovered against the dead pine-trunk, from +which she was gathering strips of bark. Concerning her unsuspiciousness, +however, it should be said that the word applies only to her treatment +of myself. When a thrasher had the impertinence to alight in her oak she +ordered him off in high dudgeon, dashing back and forth above him, and +snapping spitefully as she passed. She knew her rights, and, knowing, +dared maintain. When a bird builds her nest in any part of a tree she +claims every twig of it as her own. I have even seen the gentle-hearted +chickadee resent the intrusion of a chipping sparrow, though it appeared +impossible that the latter could be suspected of any predatory or +sinister design. + +The shallowness of the wood pewee's saucer-shaped nest, its position +upon the branch, and especially its external dress of lichens, all +conspire to render it inconspicuous. It is an interesting question +whether the owner herself appreciates this, or has merely inherited the +fashion, without thought of the reasons for it. The latter supposition, +I reluctantly confess, looks to me the more probable. It must often be +true of other animals, as it is of men, that they build better than they +know. Their wisdom is not their own, but belongs to a power back of +them,--a power which works, if you will, in accordance with what we +designate as the law of natural selection, and which, so to speak, +enlightens the race rather than the individual. + +After all, it is the ground birds that puzzle the human oölogist. +Crossing a brook, I saw what I regarded as almost infallible signs that +a pair of Maryland yellow-throats had begun to build beside it. Unless I +was entirely at fault, the nest must be within a certain two or three +square yards, and I devoted half an hour, more or less, to ransacking +the grass and bushes, till I thought every inch of the ground had been +gone over; but all to no purpose. Continuing my walk, I noticed after a +while that the male warbler was accompanying me up the hillside, +apparently determined to see me safely out of the way. Coming to the +same brook again the next morning, I halted for another search; and lo! +all in a moment my eye fell upon the coveted nest, not on the ground, +but perhaps eight inches from it, in a little clump of young +golden-rods, which would soon overgrow it completely. The female +proprietor was present, and manifested so much concern that I would not +tarry, but made rather as if I had seen nothing, and passed on. It was +some time before I observed that she was keeping along beside me, +precisely as her mate had done the day before. The innocent creatures, +sorely pestered as they were, could hardly be blamed for such +precautions; yet it is not pleasant to be "shadowed" as a suspicious +character, even by Maryland yellow-throats. + +This was my first nest of a very common warbler, and I felt particularly +solicitous for its safety; but alas! no sooner was the first egg laid +than something or somebody carried it off, and the afflicted couple +deserted the house on which they had expended so much labor and +anxiety. + +Not far beyond the yellow-throats' brook, and almost directly under one +of the pewees' oaks, was a nest which pretty certainly had belonged to a +pair of chewinks, but which was already forsaken when I found it, though +I had then no inkling of the fact. It contained four eggs, and +everything was in perfect order. The mother had gone away, and had never +come back; having fallen a victim, probably, to some collector, human or +inhuman. The tragedy was peculiar; and the tragical effect of it was +heightened as day after day, for nearly a fortnight at least (I cannot +say for how much longer), the beautiful eggs lay there entirely +uncovered, and yet no skunk, squirrel, or other devourer of such +dainties happened to spy them. It seemed doubly sad that so many +precious nests should be robbed, while this set of worthless eggs was +left to spoil. + +I have already mentioned the housekeeping of a couple of chickadees in a +low birch stump. Theirs was one of three titmouse nests just then +claiming my attention. I visited it frequently, from the time when the +pair were hard at work making the cavity up to the time when the brood +were nearly ready to shift for themselves. Both birds took their share +of the digging, and on several occasions I saw one feeding the other. +After the eggs were deposited, the mother (or the sitter) displayed +admirable courage, refusing again and again to quit her post when I +peered in upon her, and even when with my cane I rapped smartly upon the +stump. If I put my fingers into the hole, however, she followed them out +in hot haste. Even when most seriously disturbed by my attentions the +pair made use of no other notes than the common _chickadee, dee_, but +these they sometimes delivered in an unnaturally sharp, fault-finding +tone. + +My two other titmouse nests were both in apple-trees, and one of them +was in my own door-yard, though beyond convenient reach without the help +of a ladder. The owners of this last were interesting for a very decided +change in their behavior after the young were hatched, and especially as +the time for the little ones' exodus drew near. At first, +notwithstanding their door opened right upon the street, as it were, +within a rod or two of passing horse-cars, the father and mother went in +and out without the least apparent concern as to who might be watching +them; but when they came to be feeding their hungry offspring, it was +almost laughable to witness the little craftinesses to which they +resorted. They would perch on one of the outer branches, call +_chickadee, dee_, fly a little nearer, then likely enough go further +off, till finally, after a variety of such "false motions," into the +hole they would duck, as if nobody for the world must be allowed to know +where they had gone. It was really wonderful how expert they grew at +entering quickly. I pondered a good deal over their continual calling on +such occasions. It seemed foolish and inconsistent; half the time I +should have failed to notice their approach, had they only kept still. +Toward the end, however, when the chicks inside the trunk could be heard +articulating _chickadee, dee_ with perfect distinctness, it occurred to +me that possibly all this persistent repetition of the phrase by the old +birds had been only or mainly in the way of tuition. At all events, the +youngsters had this part of the chickadese vocabulary right at their +tongues' end, as we say, before making their _début_ in the great world. + +But it was reserved for my third pair of tits to give me a genuine +surprise. I had been so constant a visitor at their house that I had +come to feel myself quite on terms of intimacy with them. So, after +their brood was hatched, I one day climbed into the tree (as I had done +more than once before), the better to overlook their parental labors. I +had hardly placed myself in a comfortable seat before the couple +returned from one of their foraging expeditions. The male--or the one +that I took for such--had a black morsel of some kind in his bill, +which, on reaching the tree, he passed over to his mate, who forthwith +carried it into the hollow stub, in the depths of which the hungry +little ones were. Then the male flew off again, and presently came back +with another beakful, which his helpmeet took from him at the door, +where she had been awaiting his arrival. After this performance had been +repeated two or three times, curiosity led me to stand up against the +stub, with my hand resting upon it; at which the female (who was just +inside the mouth of the cavity) slipped out, and set up an anxious +_chickadee, dee, dee_. When her mate appeared,--which he did almost +immediately,--he flew into what looked like a downright paroxysm of +rage, not against me, but against the mother bird, shaking his wings and +scolding violently. I came to the unhappy lady's relief as best I could +by dropping to the ground, and within a few minutes the pair again +approached the stub in company; but when the female made a motion to +take the food from her husband's bill, as before, he pounced upon her +spitefully, drove her away, and dived into the hole himself. Apparently +he had not yet forgiven what he accounted her pusillanimous desertion of +her charge. All in all, the scene was a revelation to me, a chickadee +family quarrel being something the like of which I had never dreamed of. +Perhaps no titmouse ever before had so timorous a wife. But however that +might be, I sincerely hoped that they would not be long in making up +their difference. I had enjoyed the sight of their loving intercourse +for so many weeks that I should have been sorry indeed to believe that +it could end in strife. Nor could I regard it as so unpardonable a +weakness for a bird to move off, even from her young, when a man put his +fingers within a few inches of her. Possibly she ought to have known +that I meant no mischief. Possibly, too, her doughty lord would have +behaved more commendably in the same circumstances; but of that I am by +no means certain. To borrow a theological term, my conception of bird +nature is decidedly anthropomorphic, and I incline to believe that +chickadees as well as men find it easier to blame others than to do +better themselves. + +Here these reminiscences must come to an end, though the greater part of +my season's experiences are still untouched. First, however, let me +relieve my conscience by putting on record the bravery of a black-billed +cuckoo, whom I was obliged fairly to drive from her post of duty. Her +nest was a sorry enough spectacle,--a flat, unwalled platform, carpeted +with willow catkins and littered with egg-shells, in the midst of which +latter lay a single callow nestling, nearly as black as a crow. But as I +looked at the parent bird, while she sat within ten feet of me, eying +my every movement intently, and uttering her wrath in various cries +(some catlike mewings among them), my heart reproached me that I had +ever written of the cuckoo as a coward and a sneak. Truth will not allow +me to take the words back entirely, even now; but I felt at that moment, +and do still, that I might have been better employed mending my own +faults than in holding up to scorn the foibles of a creature who, when +worst came to worst, could set me such a shining example of courageous +fidelity. It is always in order to be charitable; and I ought to have +remembered that, for those who are themselves subject to imperfection, +generosity is the best kind of justice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71:1] The birds at once became quiet, and I went back complacently to +my book under the linden-tree. Who knows, however, whether there may not +have been another side to the story? Who shall say what were the +emotions of the snake, as he wriggled painfully homeward after such an +assault? Myself no vegetarian, by what right had I belabored him for +liking the taste of chicken? It were well, perhaps, not to pry too +curiously into questions of this kind. Most likely it would not flatter +our human self-esteem to know what some of our "poor relations" think of +us. + + + + +A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD. + + Thus, without theft, I reap another's field.--SIDNEY LANIER. + + +I was passing some days of idleness in a shallow Vermont valley, +situated at an elevation of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, circled by +wooded hills, and intersected by an old turnpike, which connects the +towns near Lake Champlain with the region beyond the mountains. Small +farmhouses stood here and there along the highway, while others were +scattered at wide intervals over the lower slopes of the outlying hills. + +With all the brightness and freshness of early summer upon it, it was +indeed an enchanting picture; but even so, one could not altogether put +aside a feeling of something like commiseration for the people who, year +in and year out, from babyhood to old age, found in this narrow vale, +with its severity of weather, and its scarcity of social comforts and +opportunities, their only experience of what we fondly call this wide, +wide world. + +From my inn I had walked eastward for perhaps a mile; then at the little +school-house had taken a cross-road, which presently began to climb. +Here I passed two or three cottages (one of them boasting the +singularity of paint), and after a while came to another, which appeared +to be the last, as the road not far beyond struck into the ancient +forest. First, however, it ran up to a small plateau, where, out of +sight from the house, lay a scanty quarter of an acre, in which the old +parable, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," +was in the primary stage of its fresh annual fulfillment. The ground was +but newly cleared, and the brambles still felt themselves its true and +rightful possessors. Who was this puny-looking, good-for-nothing +foreigner, that they should be turned out of house and home for his +accommodation? So they seemed to be asking among themselves, as they +lifted up their heads here and there in the midst of the pale-green +shoots. The crows, on the other hand, bade the newcomer welcome,--as +the wolf welcomes the lamb. Against these hungry lovers of his crop (who +loved not unwisely, but too well), the farmer had fenced his field with +a single string, stretched from corner to corner. He must put +extraordinary faith in the considerateness of the birds, a looker-on +might think; such a barrier as this could be, at the most, nothing more +than a polite hint of ownership, a delicate reminder against thoughtless +trespassing, a courteously indirect suggestion to such as needed not a +physical, but only a moral, restraint. Or one might take it as an appeal +to some known or fancied superstitiousness on the crows' part; as if the +white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to +meddle. But the rustic would have laughed at all such far-fetched +cockneyish inferences. This strange-seeming device of his was simply an +attempt to take the suspicious in their own suspiciousness; to set +before Corvus a hindrance so unmistakably insufficient that he would +mistrust it as a cover for some deep-laid and deadly plot. Probably the +scheme had not been crowned with complete success in the present +instance, for from a pole in the middle of the inclosure a dead crow was +dangling in the breeze. This was a more business-like signal than the +other; even a cockney could hardly be in doubt as to its meaning; and +the farmer, when I afterwards met him, assured me that it had answered +its purpose to perfection. The crow is nobody's fool. "Live and learn" +is his motto; and he does both, but especially the former, in a way to +excite the admiration of all disinterested observers. In the long +struggle between human ingenuity and corvine sagacity, it is doubtful +which has thus far obtained the upper hand. Nor have I ever quite +convinced myself which of the contestants has the better case. "The crow +is a thief," the planter declares; "he should confine himself to a wild +diet, or else sow his own garden." "Yes, yes," Corvus makes reply; "but +if I steal your corn, you first stole my land." Unlike his cousin the +raven,--who, along with the Indian, has retreated before the +pale-face,--the crow is no ultra-conservative. Civilization and modern +ideas are not in the least distasteful to him. He has an unfeigned +respect for agriculture, and in fact may be said himself to have set up +as gentleman-farmer, letting out his land on shares, and seldom failing +to get his full half of the crop; and, like the shrewd manager that he +is, he insures himself against drought and other mischances by taking +his moiety early in the season. As I plant no acres myself, I perhaps +find it easier than some of my fellow-citizens to bear with the faults +and appreciate the virtues of this sable aboriginal. Long may he live, I +say, this true lover of his native land, to try the patience and sharpen +the wits of his would-be exterminators. + +The crow's is only the common lot. The whole earth is one field of war. +Every creature's place upon it is coveted by some other creature. Plants +and animals alike subsist by elbowing their rivals out of the way. Man, +if he plants a corn-field, puts in no more grains than will probably +have room to grow and thrive. But Nature, in her abhorrence of a vacuum, +stands at no waste. She believes in competition, and feels no qualms at +seeing the weak go to the wall. + + "The good old rule + Sufficeth her, the simple plan, + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can." + +If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns without number. Her +recklessness equals that of some ambitious military despot, to whom ten +thousand or a hundred thousand dead soldiers count as nothing, if only +the campaign be fought through to victory. + +Man's economy and Nature's prodigality,--here they were in typical +operation, side by side. The corn was in "hills" uniformly spaced, and +evidently the proprietor had already been at work with plough and hoe, +lest the weeds should spring up and choke it; but just beyond stood a +perfect thicket of wild-cherry shrubs, so huddled together that not one +in twenty could possibly find room in which to develop. If they were not +all of them stunted beyond recovery, it would be only because a few of +the sturdiest should succeed in crowding down and killing off their +weaker competitors. + +The import of this apparent wastefulness and cruelty of Nature, her +seeming indifference to the welfare of the individual, is a question on +which it is not pleasant, and, as I think, not profitable, to dwell. We +see but parts of her ways, and it must be unsafe to criticise the +working of a single wheel here or there, when we have absolutely no +means of knowing how each fits into the grand design, and, for that +matter, can only guess at the grand design itself. Rather let us content +ourselves with the prudent saying of that ancient agnostic, Bildad the +Shuhite: "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." The wisest of us +are more or less foolish, by nature and of necessity; but it seems a +gratuitous superfluity of folly to ignore our own ignorance. For one, +then, I am in no mood to propose, much less to undertake, any grand +revolution in the order of natural events. Indeed, as far as I am +personally concerned, I fear it would be found but a dubious improvement +if the wildness were quite taken out of the world,--if its wilderness, +according to the word of the prophet, were to become all like Eden. +Tameness is not the only good quality, whether of land or of human +nature. + +As I sat on my comfortable log (the noble old tree had not been cut +down for nothing), birds of many kinds came and went about me. +Wordsworth's couplet would have suited my case:-- + + "The birds around me hopped and played, + Their thoughts I cannot measure;" + +but I could hardly have rounded out the quotation; for, joyful as I +believed the creatures to be, many of their motions were plainly not +"thrills of pleasure," but tokens of fear. It was now the very heyday of +life with them, when they are at once happiest and most wary. There were +secrets to be kept close; eggs and little ones, whose whereabouts must +on no account be divulged. For the birds, too, not less than the corn, +the bramble, and the cherry, not less even than the saint, find this +earthly life a daily warfare. + +The artless ditty of the mourning warbler came to my ears at intervals +out of a tangle of shrubbery, and once or twice he allowed me glimpses +of his quaint attire. I would gladly have seen and heard much more of +him, but he evaded all my attempts at familiarity. Nor could I blame him +for his furtive behavior. How was he to be certain that I was no +collector, but only an innocent admirer of birds in the bush? Sought +after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist, the mourning +warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion in fighting shy of every +animal that walks upright. + +It is evident, however, that for birds, as for ourselves, the same thing +often has both a bright and a dark side. If men are sometimes heartless, +and never to be altogether confided in, yet at the same time their +doings are in various respects conducive to the happiness and increase +of feathered life; and this not only in the case of some of the more +familiar species, but even in that of many which still retain all their +natural shyness of human society. A clearing like that in which I was +now resting offers an excellent illustration of this; for it is a rule +without exceptions that in such a place one may see and hear more birds +in half an hour than are likely to be met with in the course of a long +day's tramp through the unbroken forest. The mourning warbler himself +likes a roadside copse better than a deep wood, jealous as he may be of +man's approach. Up to a certain point, civilization is a blessing, even +to birds. Beyond a certain point, for aught I know, it may be nothing +but a curse, even to men. + +Here, then, I sat, now taken up with the beautiful landscape, and anon +turning my head to behold some fowl of the air. I might have mused with +Emerson,-- + + "Knows he who tills this lonely field, + To reap its scanty corn, + What mystic fruit his acres yield + At midnight and at morn," + +--only "mystic fruit" would have been rather too high-sounding a phrase +for my commonplace cogitations. Hermit thrushes, olive-backed thrushes, +and veeries, with sundry warblers and a scarlet tanager, sang in chorus +from the woods behind me, while in front bluebirds, robins, song +sparrows, vesper sparrows, and chippers were doing their best to +transform this fresh Vermont clearing into a time-worn Massachusetts +pasture; assisted meanwhile by a goldfinch who flew over my head with an +ecstatic burst of melody, and a linnet who fell to warbling with +characteristic fluency from a neighboring tree-top. At least two pairs +of rose-breasted grosbeaks had summer quarters here; and busy enough +they looked, flitting from one side of the garden to another, yet not +too busy for a tune between whiles. One of the males was in really +gorgeous plumage. The rose-color had run over, as it were (like Aaron's +"precious ointment"), and spilled all down his breast. It is hard for me +ever to think of this brilliant, tropically dressed grosbeak as a true +Northerner; and here once more I was for the moment surprised to hear +him and the olive-backed thrush singing together in the same wood. Could +such neighborliness have any patriotic significance? I was almost ready +to ask. Across the corn-field a Traill's flycatcher was tossing up his +head pertly, and vociferating _kwee-kwee_. I took it for a challenge: +"Find my nest if you can, brother!" But I found nothing. Nor was I more +successful with a humming-bird, who had chosen the tip of a charred +stub, only a few rods from my seat, for his favorite perch. Again and +again I saw him there preening his feathers, and once or twice I tried +to inveigle him into betraying his secret. Either his house was further +off than I suspected, however, or else he was too cunning to fall into +my snare. At any rate, he permitted me to trample all about the spot, +without manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness. + +What a traveler the humming-bird is! I myself had come perhaps three +hundred miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome journey, +notwithstanding I had been brought nearly all the way in a carriage +elaborately contrived for comfort, and moving over iron rails. But this +tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it +may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly at home again in this +Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as +the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a +marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of +flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one +of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and +forth are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human +beings must look in his eyes! I wonder if he is never tempted to laugh +at us. Who knows but humming-birds have it for a by-word, "As awkward +as a man"? + +My ruminations were suddenly broken in upon by the approach of a +carriage, driven by a boy of perhaps ten years, a son of the farmer from +whose land I was, as it were, gathering the first fruits. We had made +each other's acquaintance the day before, and now, as he surmounted the +hill, he stopped to inquire politely whether I would ride with him. Yes, +I answered, I would gladly be carried into the forest a little way. It +proved a very little way indeed; for the road was heavy from recent +rains, and the poor old hack was so short of breath that he could barely +drag us along, and at every slump of the wheels came to a dead +standstill. "Pity for a horse o'er-driven" soon compelled me to take to +the woods, in spite of the protestations of my charioteer, who assured +me that his steed _could_ trot "like everything," if he only would. It +is an extremely unpatriotic Vermonter, I suspect (I have never yet +discovered him), who will not brag a little over his horse; and I was +rather pleased than otherwise to hear my flaxen-haired friend set forth +the good points of his beast, even while he confessed that the "heaves" +were pretty bad. I was glad, too, to find the youngster in a general way +something of an optimist. When I asked him how long the land had been +cleared, he pointed to one corner of it, and responded, using the +pronoun with perfect _naïveté_, "We cleared up that piece last fall;" +and on my inquiring whether it was not hard work, he replied, in a tone +of absolute satisfaction, "Oh, yes, but you get your pay for it." +Evidently he believed in Green Mountain land, which I thought a very +fortunate circumstance. "Be content with such things as ye have," said +the Apostle; and it is certainly easier to obey the precept if one looks +upon his own things as the best in the world. My youthful philosopher +seemed to consider it altogether natural and reasonable that prosperity, +instead of coming of itself, should have to be earned by the sweat of +the brow. Perhaps the crow and the cherry-tree are equally +unsophisticated. Perhaps, too, men's fates are less uneven than is +sometimes supposed. For I could not help thinking that if this boy +should retain his present view of things, he would pass his days more +happily than many a so-called favorite of fortune. + +On my way back to the inn I met an old man from the lowlands, driving +over the mountains for the first time since boyhood. "You have a pretty +good farming country here," he called out cheerily,--"a little rolling." +He took me for a native, and I hope to be forgiven for not disclaiming +the compliment. + +As I write, I find myself wondering how my nameless farmer's crop is +prospered. In my corner of the world we have lately been afflicted with +drought. I hope it has been otherwise on his hillside plateau. In my +thought, at all events, his corn is now fully tasseled, and waves in a +pleasant mountain wind, all green and shining. + + + + +BEHIND THE EYE. + + As what he sees is, so have his thoughts been.--MATTHEW + ARNOLD. + + +Nothing is seen until it is separated from its surroundings. A man looks +at the landscape, but the tree standing in the middle of the landscape +he does not see until, for the instant at least, he singles it out as +the object of vision. Two men walk the same road; as far as the +bystander can perceive, they have before them the same sights; but let +them be questioned at the end of the journey, and it will appear that +one man saw one set of objects, and his companion another; and the more +diverse the intellectual training and habits of the two travelers, the +greater will be the discrepancy between the two reports. + +And what is true of any two men is equally true of any one man at two +different times. To-day he is in a dreamy, reflective mood,--he has been +reading Wordsworth, perhaps,--and when he takes his afternoon saunter +he looks at the bushy hillside, or at the wayside cottage, or down into +the loitering brook, and he sees in them all such pictures as they never +showed him before. Or he is in a matter-of-fact mood, a kind of +stock-market frame of mind; and he looks at everything through +economical spectacles,--as if he had been set to appraise the acres of +meadow or woodland through which he passes. At another time he may have +been reading some book or magazine article written by Mr. John +Burroughs; and although he knows nothing of birds, and can scarcely tell +a crow from a robin (perhaps for this very reason), he is certain to +have tantalizing glimpses of some very strange and wonderful feathered +specimens. They must be rarities, at least, if not absolute novelties; +and likely enough, on getting home, he sits down and writes to Mr. +Burroughs a letter full of gratitude and inquiry,--the gratitude very +pleasant to receive, we may presume, and the inquiries quite impossible +to answer. + +Some men (not many, it is to be hoped) are specialists, and nothing +else. They are absorbed in farming, or in shoemaking, in chemistry, or +in Latin grammar, and have no thought for anything beyond or beside. +Others of us, while there may be two or three subjects toward which we +feel some special drawing, have nevertheless a general interest in +whatever concerns humanity. We are different men on different days. +There is a certain part of the year, say from April to July, when I am +an ornithologist; for the time being, as often as I go out-of-doors, I +have an eye for birds, and, comparatively speaking, for nothing else. +Then comes a season during which my walks all take on a botanical +complexion. I have had my turn at butterflies, also; for one or two +summers I may be said to have seen little else but these winged blossoms +of the air. I know, too, what it means to visit the seashore, and +scarcely to notice the breaking waves because of the shells scattered +along the beach. In short, if I see one thing, I am of necessity blind, +or half-blind, to all beside. There are several men in me, and not more +than one or two of them are ever at the window at once. Formerly, my +enjoyment of nature was altogether reflective, imaginative; in a +passive, unproductive sense, poetical. I delighted in the woods and +fields, the seashore and the lonely road, not for the birds or flowers +to be found there, but for the "serene and blessed mood" into which I +was put by such friendship. Later in life, it transpired, as much to my +surprise as to anybody's else, that I had a bent toward natural history, +as well as toward nature; an inclination to study, as well as to dream +over, the beautiful world about me. I must know the birds apart, and the +trees, and the flowers. A bit of country was no longer a mere landscape, +a picture, but a museum as well. For a time the poet seemed to be dead +within me; and happy as I found myself in my new pursuits, I had fits of +bewailing my former condition. Science and fancy, it appeared, would not +travel hand in hand; if a man must be a botanist, let him bid good-by to +the Muse. Then I fled again to Emerson and Wordsworth, trying to read +the naturalist asleep and reawaken the poet. Happy thought! The two men, +the student and the lover, were still there; and there they remain to +this day. Sometimes one is at the window, sometimes the other. + +So it is, undoubtedly, with other people. My fellow-travelers, who hear +me discoursing enthusiastically of vireos and warblers, thrushes and +wrens, whilst they see never a bird, unless it be now and then an +English sparrow or a robin, talk sometimes as if the difference between +us were one of eyesight. They might as well lay it to the window-glass +of our respective houses. It is not the eye that sees, but the man +behind the eye. + +As to the comparative advantages and disadvantages of such a division of +interests as I have been describing, there may be room for two opinions. +If distinction be all that the student hungers for, perhaps he cannot +limit himself too strictly; but for myself, I think I should soon tire +of my own society if I were only one man,--a botanist or a chemist, an +artist, or even a poet. I should soon tire of myself, I say; but I might +have said, with equal truth, that I should soon tire of nature; for if I +were only one man, I should see only one aspect of the natural world. +This may explain why it is that some persons must be forever moving from +place to place. If they travel the same road twice or thrice, or even +to the hundredth time, they see only one set of objects. The same man is +always at the window. No wonder they are restless and famished. For my +own part, though I should delight to see new lands and new people, new +birds and new plants, I am nevertheless pretty well contented where I +am. If I take the same walks, I do not see the same things. The botanist +spells the dreamer; and now and then the lover of beauty keeps the +ornithologist in the background till he is thankful to come once more to +the window, though it be only to look at a bluebird or a song sparrow. + +How much influence has the will in determining which of these several +tenants of a man's body shall have his turn at sightseeing? It would be +hard to answer definitely. As much, it may be, as a teacher has over his +pupils, or a father over his children; something depends upon the +strength of the governing will, and something upon the tractability of +the pupil. In general, I assume to command. As I start on my ramble I +give out word, as it were, which of the men shall have the front seat. +But there are days when some one of them proves too much both for me +and for his fellows. It is not the botanist's turn, perhaps; but he +takes his seat at the window, notwithstanding, and the ornithologist and +the dreamer must be content to peep at the landscape over his shoulders. + +On such occasions, it may as well be confessed, I make but a feeble +remonstrance; and for the sufficient reason that I feel small confidence +in my own wisdom. If the flower-lover or the poet must have the hour, +then in all likelihood he ought to have it. So much I concede to the +nature of things. A strong tendency is a strong argument, and of itself +goes far to justify itself. I borrow no trouble on the score of such +compulsions. On the contrary, my lamentations begin when nobody sues for +the place of vision. Such days I have; blank days, days to be dropped +from the calendar; when "those that look out of the windows be +darkened." The fault is not with the world, nor with the eye. The old +preacher had the right of it; it is not the windows that are darkened, +but "those that look out of the windows." + + + + +A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE. + + I've gathered young spring-leaves, and flowers gay.--KEATS. + + +I looked forward to the month with peculiar interest, as it was many +years since I had passed a November in the country, and now that it is +over I am moved to publish its praises: partly, as I hope, out of +feelings of gratitude, and partly because it is an agreeable kind of +originality to commend what everybody else has been in the habit of +decrying. + +In the first place, then, it was a month of pleasant weather; something +too much of wind and dust (the dust for only the first ten days) being +almost the only drawback. To me, with my prepossessions, it was little +short of marvelous how many of the days were nearly or quite cloudless. +The only snow fell on the 11th. I saw a few flakes in the afternoon, +just enough to be counted, and there must have been another slight +flurry after dark, as the grass showed white in favorable spots early +the next morning. Making allowance for the shortness of the days, I +doubt whether there has been a month during the past year in which a man +could comfortably spend more of his time in out-of-door exercise. + +The trees were mostly bare before the end of October, but the apple and +cherry trees still kept their branches green (they are foreigners, and +perhaps have been used to a longer season), and the younger growth of +gray birches lighted up the woodlands with pale yellow. Of course the +oak-leaves were still hanging, also; and for that matter they are +hanging yet, and will be for months to come, let the north wind blow as +it may. I wonder whether their winter rustling sounds as cold in other +ears as in mine. My own feeling is most likely the result of boyish +associations. How often I waded painfully through the forest paths, my +feet and hands half frozen, while these ghosts of summer shivered +sympathetically on every side as they saw me pass! I wonder, too, what +can be the explanation of this unnatural oak-tree habit. The leaves are +dead; why should they not obey the general law,--"ashes to ashes, dust +to dust"? Is our summer too short to ripen them, and so to perfect the +articulation? Whatever its cause, their singular behavior does much to +beautify the landscape; particularly in such a district as mine, where +the rocky hills are, so many of them, covered with young oak forests, +which, especially for the first half of November, before the foliage is +altogether faded, are dressed in subdued shades of maroon, beautiful at +all hours, but touched into positive glory by the level rays of the +afternoon sun. + +I began on the very first day of the month to make a list of the plants +found in bloom, and happening, a week afterward, to be in the company of +two experienced botanical collectors, I asked them how many species I +was likely to find. One said thirty. The other, after a little +hesitation, replied, "I don't know, but I shouldn't think you could find +a dozen." Well, it is true that November is not distinctively a floral +month in Massachusetts, but before its thirty days were over I had +catalogued seventy-three species, though for six of these, to be sure, +I have to thank one of the collectors just now mentioned. Indeed, I +found thirty-nine sorts on my first afternoon ramble; and even as late +as the 27th and 28th I counted twelve. All in all, there is little doubt +that at least a hundred kinds of plants were in bloom about me during +the month. + +Having called my record a chronicle, I should be guilty of an almost +wanton disregard of scriptural models if I did not fill it largely with +names, and accordingly I do not hesitate to subjoin a full list of these +my November flowers; omitting Latin titles,--somewhat unwillingly, I +confess,--except where the vernacular is wanting altogether, or else is +more than commonly ambiguous:--creeping buttercup, tall buttercup, field +larkspur, celandine, pale corydalis, hedge mustard, shepherd's-purse, +wild peppergrass, sea-rocket, wild radish, common blue violet, bird-foot +violet, pansy, Deptford pink, common chickweed, larger mouse-ear +chickweed, sand spurrey, knawel, common mallow, herb-robert, storksbill, +red clover, alsyke, white clover, white sweet clover, black medick, +white avens, common cinque-foil, silvery cinque-foil, witch-hazel, +common evening-primrose, smaller evening-primrose, carrot, blue-stemmed +golden-rod, white golden-rod (or silvery-rod), seaside golden-rod, +_Solidago juncea_, _Solidago rugosa_, dusty golden-rod, early +golden-rod, corymbed aster, wavy-leaved aster, heart-leaved aster, +many-flowered aster, _Aster vimineus_, _Aster diffusus_, New York aster, +_Aster puniceus_, narrow-leaved aster, flea-bane, horse-weed, +everlasting, cudweed, cone-flower, mayweed, yarrow, tansy, groundsel, +burdock, Canada thistle, fall dandelion, common dandelion, sow thistle, +Indian tobacco, bell-flower (_Campanula rapunculoides_), fringed +gentian, wild toad-flax, butter and eggs, self-heal, motherwort, +jointweed, doorweed, and ladies' tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_). + +Here, then, we have seventy-three species, all but one of which +(_Spiranthes cernua_) are of the class of exogens. Twenty-two orders are +represented, the great autumnal family of the _Compositæ_ naturally +taking the lead, with thirty species (sixteen of them asters and +golden-rods), while the mustard, pink, and pulse families come next, +with five species each. The large and hardy heath family is wanting +altogether. Out of the whole number about forty-three are indigenous. +Witch-hazel is the only shrub, and, as might have been expected, there +is no climbing plant. + +In setting down such a list one feels it a pity that so few of the +golden-rods and asters have any specific designation in English. Under +this feeling, I have presumed myself to name two of the golden-rods, +_Solidago Canadensis_ and _Solidago nemoralis_. With us, at all events, +the former is the first of its genus to blossom, and may appropriately +enough wear the title of early golden-rod, while the latter must have +been noticed by everybody for its peculiar grayish, "dusty-miller" +foliage. It has, moreover, an exceptional right to a vernacular name, +being both one of the commonest and one of the showiest of our roadside +weeds. Till something better is proposed, therefore, let us call it the +dusty golden-rod. + +It must in fairness be acknowledged that I did not stand upon the +quality of my specimens. Many of them were nothing but accidental and +not very reputable-looking laggards; but in November, especially if one +is making a list, a blossom is a blossom. The greater part of the asters +and golden-rods, I think, were plants that had been broken down by one +means or another, and now, at this late day, had put forth a few stunted +sprays. The narrow-leaved aster (_Aster linariifolius_) seemed +peculiarly out of season, and was represented by only two heads, but +these sufficed to bring the mouth-filling name into my catalogue. Of the +two species of native violets I saw but a single blossom each. My pansy +(common enough in gardens, and blooming well into December) was, of +course, found by the roadside, and the larkspur likewise, as I made +nothing of any but wild plants. + +At this time of the year one must not expect to pick flowers anywhere +and everywhere, and a majority of all my seventy-three species (perhaps +as many as two thirds) were found only in one or more of three +particular places. The first of these was along a newly laid-out road +through a tract of woodland; the second was a sheltered wayside nook +between high banks; and the third was at the seashore. At this last +place, on the 8th of the month, I came unexpectedly upon a field fairly +yellow with fall dandelions and silvery cinque-foils, and affording also +my only specimens of burdock, Canada thistle, cone-flower, and the +smaller evening-primrose; in addition to which were the many-flowered +aster, yarrow, red clover, and sow thistle. In truth, the grassy +hillside was quite like a garden, although there was no apparent reason +why it should be so favored. The larger evening-primrose, of which I saw +two stalks, one of them bearing six or eight blossoms, was growing among +the rocks just below the edge of the cliff, in company with abundance of +sow thistle, all perfectly fresh; while along the gravelly edge of the +bank, just above them, was the groundsel (_Senecio vulgaris_), looking +as bright and thrifty as if it had been the first of August instead of +near the middle of November. + +Perhaps my most surprising bit of good luck was the finding of the +Deptford pink. Of this, for some inscrutable reason, one plant still +remained green and showed several rosy blossoms, while all its fellows, +far and near, were long since bleached and dead. Fortune has her +favorites, even among pinks. The frail-looking, early-blooming +corydalis (we have few plants that appear less able to bear exposure) +was in excellent condition up to the very end of the month, though the +one patch then explored was destitute of flowers. These were as pretty +as could be--prettier even than in May, I thought--on the 16th, and no +doubt might have been found on the 30th, with careful search. The little +geranium known as herb-robert is a neighbor of the corydalis, and, like +it, stands the cold remarkably well. Its reddening, finely cut leaves +were fresh and flourishing, but though I often looked for its flowers, I +found only one during the entire month. The storksbill, its less known +cousin, does not grow within my limits, but came to me from Essex +County, through the kindness of a friend, being one of the six species +contributed by her, as I have before mentioned. + +The hardiness of some of these late bloomers is surprising. It is now +the 2d of December, and yesterday the temperature fell about thirty +degrees below the freezing-point, yet I notice shepherd's-purse, +peppergrass, chickweed, and knawel still bearing fresh-looking flowers. +Nor are they the only plants that seem thus impervious to cold. The +prostrate young St. John's-wort shoots, for instance, all uncovered and +delicate as they are, appear not to know that winter with all its rigors +is upon them. + +It was impossible not to sympathize admiringly with some of my belated +asters and golden-rods. Their perseverance was truly pathetic. They had +been hindered, but they meant to finish their appointed task, +nevertheless, in spite of short days and cold weather. I have especially +in mind a plant of _Solidago juncea_. The species is normally one of the +earliest, following hard upon _Solidago Canadensis_, but for some reason +this particular specimen did not begin to flower till after the first +heavy frosts. Indeed, when I first noticed it, the stem leaves were +already frost-bitten; yet it kept on putting forth blossoms for at least +a fortnight. Whatever may be true of the lilies of the field, this +golden-rod was certainly a toiler, and of the most persistent sort. + +Early in the month the large and hardy Antiopa butterflies were still +not uncommon in the woods, and on the 3d--a delightful, summer-like +day, in which I made a pilgrimage to Walden--I observed a single +clouded-sulphur (Philodice), looking none the worse for the low +temperature of the night before, when the smaller ponds had frozen over +for the first time. + +Of course I kept account of the birds as well as of the flowers, but the +number, both of individuals and of species, proved to be surprisingly +small, the total list being as follows:--great black-backed gull, +American herring gull, ruffed grouse, downy woodpecker, flicker, blue +jay, crow, horned lark, purple finch, red crossbill, goldfinch, snow +bunting, Ipswich sparrow, white-throated sparrow, tree sparrow, +snowbird, song sparrow, fox sparrow, Northern shrike, myrtle warbler, +brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, golden-crowned +kinglet, and robin. Here are only twenty-five species; a meagre +catalogue, which might have been longer, it is true, but for the +patriotism or prejudice (who will presume always to decide between these +two feelings, one of them so given to counterfeiting the other?) which +would not allow me to piece it out with the name of that all too +numerous parasite, the so-called English sparrow. + +My best ornithological day was the 17th, which, with a friend +like-minded, I passed at Ipswich Beach. The special object of our search +was the Ipswich sparrow, a bird unknown to science until 1868, when it +was discovered at this very place by Mr. Maynard. Since then it has been +found to be a regular fall and winter visitant along the Atlantic coast, +passing at least as far south as New Jersey. It is a mystery how the +creature could so long have escaped detection. One cannot help querying +whether there can be another case like it. Who knows? Science, even in +its flourishing modern estate, falls a trifle short of omniscience. + +My comrade and I separated for a little, losing sight of each other +among the sand-hills, and when we came together again he reported that +he had seen the sparrow. He had happened upon it unobserved, and had +been favored with excellent opportunities for scrutinizing it carefully +through a glass at short range; and being familiar with its appearance +through a study of cabinet specimens, he had no doubt whatever of its +identity. This was within five minutes of our arrival, and naturally we +anticipated no difficulty in finding others; but for two or three hours +we followed the chase in vain. Twice, to be sure, a sparrow of some sort +flew up in front of us, but in both cases it got away without our +obtaining so much as a peep at it. Up and down the beach we went, +exploring the basins and sliding down the smooth, steep hills. Every +step was interesting, but it began to look as if I must go home without +seeing _Ammodramus princeps_. But patience was destined to have its +reward, and just as we were traversing the upper part of the beach for +the last time, I caught a glimpse of a bird skulking in the grass before +us. He had seen us first, and was already on the move, ducking behind +the scattered tufts of beach-grass, crouching and running by turns; but +we got satisfactory observations, nevertheless, and he proved to be, +like the other, an Ipswich sparrow. He did not rise, but finally made +off through the grass without uttering a sound. Then we examined his +footprints, and found them to be, so far as could be made out, the same +as we had been noticing all about among the hills. + +Meanwhile, our perambulations had not been in vain. Flocks of snow +buntings were seen here and there, and we spent a long time in watching +a trio of horned larks. These were feeding amid some stranded rubbish, +and apparently felt not the slightest suspicion of the two men who stood +fifteen or twenty feet off, eying their motions. It was too bad they +could not hear our complimentary remarks about their costumes, so +tastefully trimmed with black and yellow. Our loudest exclamations, +however, were called forth by a dense flock of sea-gulls at the distant +end of the beach. How many hundreds there were I should not dare to +guess, but when they rose in a body their white wings really filled the +air, and with the bright sunlight upon them they made, for a landsman, a +spectacle to be remembered. + +Altogether it was a high day for two enthusiasts, though no doubt it +would have looked foolish enough to ordinary mortals, our spending +several dollars of money and a whole day of time,--in November, at +that,--all for the sake of ogling a few birds, not one of which we even +attempted to shoot. But what then? Tastes will differ; and as for +enthusiasm, it is worth more than money and learning put together (so I +believe, at least, without having experimented with the other two) as a +producer of happiness. For my own part, I mean to be enthusiastic as +long as possible, foreseeing only too well that high spirits cannot last +forever. + +The sand-hills themselves would have repaid all our trouble. Years ago +this land just back of the beach was covered with forest, while at one +end of it was a flourishing farm. Then when man, with his customary +foolishness, cut off the forest, Nature revenged herself by burying his +farm. We did not verify the fact, but according to the published +accounts of the matter it used to be possible to walk over the grave of +an old orchard, and pick here and there an apple from some topmost +branch still jutting out through the sand. + +Among the dunes we found abundance of a little red, heath-like plant, +still in full blossom. Neither of us recognized it, but it turned out to +be jointweed (_Polygonum articulatum_), and made a famous addition to my +November flower catalogue. + +In connection with all this I ought, perhaps, to say a word about our +Ipswich driver, especially as naturalists are sometimes reprehended for +taking so much interest in all other creatures, and so little in their +fellow-men. As we drew near the beach, which is some five miles from the +town, we began to find the roads quite under water, with the sea still +rising. We remarked the fact, the more as we were to return on foot, +whereupon the man said that the tide was uncommonly high on account of +the heavy rain of the day before! A little afterward, when we came in +sight of a flock of gulls, he gravely informed us that they were "some +kind of ducks"! He had lived by the seashore all his life, I suppose, +and of course felt entirely competent to instruct two innocent cockneys +such as he had in his wagon. + +Four days after this I made a trip to Nahant. If _Ammodramus princeps_ +was at Ipswich, why should it not be at other similar places? True +enough, I found the birds feeding beside the road that runs along the +beach. I chased them about for an hour or two in a cold high wind, and +stared at them till I was satisfied. They fed much of the time upon the +golden-rods, alighted freely upon the fence-posts (which is what some +writers would lead us never to expect), and often made use of the +regular family _tseep_. Two of them kept persistently together, as if +they were mated. One staggered me by showing a blotch in the middle of +the breast, a mark that none of the published descriptions mention, but +which I have since found exemplified in one of the skins at the Museum +of Comparative Zoölogy, in Cambridge. + +"A day is happily spent that shows me any bird I never saw alive +before." So says Dr. Coues, and he would be a poor ornithologist who +could not echo the sentiment. The Ipswich sparrow was the third such +bird that I had seen during the year without going out of New England, +the other two being the Tennessee warbler and the Philadelphia vireo. + +Of the remainder of my November list there is not much to be said. +Robins were very scarce after the first week. My last glimpse of them +was on the 20th, when I saw two. Tree sparrows, snowbirds, chickadees, +kinglets, crows, and jays were oftenest met with, while the shrike, +myrtle warbler, purple finch, and song sparrow were represented by one +individual each. My song sparrow was not seen till the 28th, after I had +given him up. He did not sing (of course he scolded; the song sparrow +can always do that), but the mere sight of him was enough to suggest +thoughts of springtime, especially as he happened to be in the +neighborhood of some Pickering hylas, which were then in full cry for +the only time during the month. Near the end of the month many wild +geese flew over the town, but, thanks to a rebellious tooth (how happy +are the birds in this respect!), I was shut indoors, and knew the fact +only by hearsay. I did, however, see a small flock on the 30th of +October, an exceptionally early date. As it chanced, I was walking at +the time with one of my neighbors, a man more than forty years old, and +he assured me that he had never seen such a thing before. + +For music, I one day heard a goldfinch warbling a few strains, and on +the 21st a chickadee repeated his clear phÅ“be whistle two or three +times. The chickadees are always musical,--there is no need to say that; +but I heard them _sing_ only on this one morning. + +Altogether, with the cloudless, mild days, the birds, the tree-frogs, +the butterflies, and the flowers, November did not seem the bleak and +cheerless season it has commonly been painted. Still it was not exactly +like summer. On the last day I saw some very small boys skating on the +Cambridge marshes, and the next morning December showed its hand +promptly, sending the mercury down to within two or three degrees of +zero. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND WINTER. + + While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons, I trust that + nothing can make life a burden to me.--THOREAU. + + +Those who will have us all to be studying the Sacred Books of the East, +and other such literature, are given to laying it down as an axiom that +whoever knows only one religion knows none at all,--an assertion, I am +bound to acknowledge, that commends itself to my reason, notwithstanding +the somewhat serious inferences fairly deducible from it touching the +nature and worth of certain convictions of my own, which I have been +wont to look upon as religious. I cannot profess ever to have pried into +the mysteries of any faith except Christianity. So, of course, I do not +understand even that. And the people about me, so far as I can discover, +are all in the same predicament. Yet I would fain believe that we are +not exactly heathen. Some of my neighbors (none too many of them, I +confess) are charitable and devout. They must be pleasing to their +Creator, I say to myself, unless He is hard to please. Sometimes I go so +far as to think that possibly a man may be religious without _knowing_ +even his own religion. Let us hope so. Otherwise, we of the laity are +assuredly undone. + +And what is true of creeds and churches is true likewise of countries +and climates. We grow wise by comparison of one thing with another, not +by direct and exclusive contemplation of one thing by itself. Human +knowledge is relative, not absolute, and the inveterate stayer at home +is but a poor judge of his own birthplace. + +All this I have in lively remembrance as I sit down to record some +impressions of our New England winter. With what propriety do I +discourse upon winter in Massachusetts, having never passed one anywhere +else? Had I spent a portion of my life where roses bloom the year round, +then, to be sure, I might assume to say something to the purpose about +snow and ice. + +But if the "tillers of paper" wrote only of such topics as they +possessed full and accurate acquaintance with, how would the Scripture +be fulfilled? "Of making many books" there surely would be an end, and +that speedily. I venture to think, moreover, that a man may never have +set foot beyond the boundaries of his native city, and yet prove a +reasonably competent guide to its streets and by-ways. His information +is circumscribed, but such as it is, it is precise and to the point. +Though he assure you soberly that the principal thoroughfare of his +tenth-rate town is more magnificent than any in New York or London, you +may none the less depend upon him to pilot you safely out of its most +intricate and bewildering corner. Indeed, he might fairly claim +membership in what is, at present, one of the most flourishing of +intellectual guilds: I mean the sect of the specialists; whose creed is +that one may know something without knowing everything, and who choose +for their motto: Remain ignorant in order that you may learn. + +In this half-developed world there is nothing so perfect as to be past a +liability to drawbacks and exceptions. The best of beef is poisonous to +some eaters, and strawberries are an abomination to others; and in like +manner there is no climate, nor any single feature of any climate, but +by some constitutions it will be found unendurable. The earth is to be +populated throughout, so it would appear; and to that end sundry +necessary precautions have been taken against human inertia. A certain +proportion of boys must be born with a propensity for wandering and +adventure; and the most favored spot must not contain within itself all +conceivable advantages. If everybody could stand the rigors of New +England weather, what would become of the rest of the continent? + +Unless I misjudge myself, I should soon tire of perpetual summer. Like +the ungrateful Israelites with the manna, my soul would loathe such +light bread. To my provincial mind, as I believe, nothing else could +ever quite take the place of a rotation of the seasons. There should be +rain and shine, cold and heat. A change from good weather to bad, and +back again, is on the whole better than unbroken good weather. Dullness +to set off brightness, night to give relief to the day, such is the wise +order of nature; and I do not account it altogether a token of +depravity that honest people, who love a paradox without knowing it, +find perfection, of no matter how innocent a sort, just a little +wearisome. Therefore, I say, let me have a year made up of well-defined +contrasts; in short, a New England year, of four clearly marked seasons. + +It is often alleged, I know, that we really have only three seasons; +that winter leaps into the lap of summer, and spring is nothing but a +myth of the almanac makers. I shall credit this story when I am +convinced of the truth of another statement, equally current and equally +well vouched, that every successive summer is the hottest (or the +coldest) for the last twenty-five years. As there is no subject so much +talked about as the weather, so, almost of course, there is none so much +lied about. Winter claims most of March, as the astronomers give it +leave to do, I believe; but April and May, despite a snow-storm or two +in the former, and a torrid week in the latter, are neither summer nor +winter, but spring; somewhat fickle, it is true, more or less uncertain +of itself, but still retaining its personal identity. + +As for our actual winter, it may enhance its value in our eyes if we +take into account that the three other seasons all depend upon it for +their peculiar charms. In the case of spring this dependence is palpable +to every one. Berate as we may its backwardness and deceit, muffle +ourselves never so pettishly against its harsh breath, yea, even deny it +all claim to its own proper title, yet anon it gets the better of our +discontent, and we thank our stars that we have lived to see again the +greening of the grass, and to hear once more the song of a bird. A mild +day in March is like a foretaste of heaven; the first robin seems an +angel; while saxifrage, anemones, and dandelions win kindly notice from +many a matter-of-fact countryman who lets all the June roses go by him +unregarded. It is pleasures of this kind, natural, wholesome, and +universal, that largely make up the total of human happiness. Our +instinct for them only strengthens with age. They are like the "divine +ideas" of Olympian bards,-- + + "Which always find us young, + And always keep us so." + +All this glory of the revival would be wanting but for the previous +months of desolation. The hepatica is not more beautiful than many +another flower, but it takes us when we are hungry for the sight of a +blossom. What can we do? When it peeps out of its bed of withered +leaves, puts off its furs, and opens to the sunlight its little purple +cup, we have no choice but to love it as we cannot love the handsomer +and more fragrant hosts that follow in its train. + +And as winter over and gone sets in brighter relief the warmth and +resurrection of springtime, so does the shadow of its approach lend a +real if somewhat indefinable attractiveness to the fall months. The +blooming of the late flowers, the ripening of leaf and fruit, the frosty +air, the flocking of birds, all the thousand signs of the autumnal +season take on a kind of pathetic and solemn interest, as being but +prelusive to the whiteness and deadness so soon to cover the earth. +Indeed, if there were no winter, there could be neither spring nor +autumn; nay, nor any summer. Leave out the snow and ice, and the whole +round year would be metamorphosed; or, rather, the year itself would +pass away, and nothing be left but time. + +I am not yet a convert to the pessimistic doctrine that "all pleasure is +merely relief from pain;" but I gladly believe that pain has its use in +heightening subsequent happiness, and that one man's evil qualities +(mine, for example) may partly atone for themselves by setting off the +amiable characteristics of worthier men around him. It consoles me to +feel that my neighbors seem better to themselves and to each other +because of the abrupt antithesis between their dispositions and mine. It +is better than nothing, if my failure can serve as a background for +their virtuous success. With reverent thankfulness do I acknowledge the +gracious and far-reaching frugality which, by one means and another, +saves even my foolishness and imperfection from running altogether to +waste. + +Viewed in this light, as an offset or foil for the remainder of the +year, we may say that the worse the winter is, the better it is. Within +reasonable limits, it can hardly be too long or too rigorous. And just +here, as it appears to me, our New England climate shows most admirably. +Without being unendurably hot or insufferably cold, it does offer us an +abundant contrast. An opposition of one hundred and twenty-five degrees +between January and July ought to be enough, one would say, to impress +even the dullest imagination. + +But winter has its positively favorable side, and is not to be passed +off with merely negative compliments; as if it were like a toothache or +a tiresome sermon,--something of which the only good word to be said is, +that it cannot last forever. It is not to be charged as a defect upon +cold weather that some people find it to disagree with them. We might as +well chide the hill for putting a sick man out of breath. It is with +persons as with plants: some are hardy, others not. The date-palm cannot +be made to grow in Massachusetts; but is Massachusetts to blame for the +palm-tree's incapacity? All things of which the specific office is to +promote strength (exercise, food, climate) presuppose a degree of +strength sufficient for their use. So it is with cold weather. Its +proper effect is to brace and invigorate the system; but there must be +vigor to start with. The law is universal: "To him that hath shall be +given." + +Enough, then, of apologies and negative considerations. There was never +a good Yankee, of moderately robust health, and under fifty years of +age, that did not welcome cold weather as a friend. Ask the school-boys, +especially such as live in country places, whether summer or winter +brings the greater pleasure. Two to one they will vote for winter. Or +look back over your own childhood, and see whether the sports of +winter-time do not seem, in the retrospect, to have been the very crown +of the year. How vivid my own recollections are! Other seasons had their +own distinctive felicities; the year was full of delights; but we +watched for the first snow-fall and the first ice as eagerly as I now +see elderly and sickly people watching for the first symptoms of summer. +As well as I can remember, winter was never too long nor too cold, +whatever may have been true of a single day now and then, when the old +school-house, with its one small stove, and its eight or ten large +windows, ought, in all reason, to have been condemned as uninhabitable. +But the frolics out-of-doors! It makes the blood tingle even now to +think of them. How brief the days were! How cruel the authority that +kept us in the house after dark, while so many of our mates were still +"sliding down hill" (we knew nothing of "coasting" where I was born), or +skating in the meadow! Childhood in the sunny South must be a very tame +affair, New England youngsters being judges. + +Trifles of this kind, if any be moved to call them such, are not to be +sneered out of court. Fifteen years form no small part of a human life, +and whatever helps us to grow up happy contributes in no slight degree +to keep us happy to the end. "When I became a man I put away childish +things"? Yes, it may be; but the very things that I boast of outgrowing +have made me what I am. In truth, when it comes to such a question as +this, I confess to putting more faith in the verdict of healthy children +than in the unanimous theories and groans of whole congresses of +valetudinarians. I am not yet so old nor so feeble but I gaze with +something of my youthful enthusiasm upon the first snow. It quickens my +pulse to see the ponds frozen over, although my skates long since went +out of commission; and I still find comfort in a tramp of five or six +miles, with the path none too good, and the mercury half-way between the +freezing point and zero. I like the buffeting of the north wind, and am +not indisposed once in a while to wrestle with the frost for the +possession of my own ears. Well as I love to loiter, I rejoice also in +weather which makes loitering impossible; which puts new springs into a +man's legs, and sets him spinning over the course whether he will or no. +It will be otherwise with me by and by, I suppose, seeing how my +venerable fellow-citizens are affected, but for the present nothing +renews my physical youth more surely than a low temperature; a fact +which I welcome as evidence that I am not yet going down-hill, however +closely I may be nearing the summit. + +Winter does us the honor to assume that we are not weaklings. Summer may +coddle and flatter, but cold weather is no sentimentalist. Its kindest +and tenderest mood has something of a stoical severity about it. It lays +its finger without mercy on our most vulnerable and sensitive spots. +But withal, as I have said, if we really possess any reserved strength, +it knows how to bring it out and make the most of it. What a fullness of +vitality do we suddenly develop as we come into close quarters with this +well-intentioned but rough and ready antagonist! In fine, winter is one +of those rare and invaluable friends of whom Emerson speaks, who enable +us to do what we can. To its good offices it is largely attributable, no +doubt, that in the long run the inhabitants of temperate regions have +always been too powerful for their rivals within the tropics. Frigidity +is like poverty, a blessing to those who can bear it. + +Winter in New England is not a time for gathering flowers out-of-doors, +though, taking the years together, there is no month of the twelve +wherein one may not pick a few blossoms even in Massachusetts; but if it +effaces one set of pictures, it paints for us another; and a wise and +liberal taste will reckon itself a debtor to both. To say nothing of the +half-dozen mornings on which every tree and bush is arrayed in all the +splendor of diamonds, or the other half-dozen when they bow themselves +under masses of new-fallen snow,--making no account of such exceptional +pageants, which, indeed, are often so destructive as to lose much of +their glory in the eyes of provident spectators,--I, for my own part, +find a beauty in the very commonest of winter landscapes. Let the ground +be altogether white, or altogether brown, or let it be covered so thinly +that the grass-blades show dark above the snow; in any case, white or +brown, or white _and_ brown, to me it is all beautiful; beautiful in +itself, and also by contrast with the greenness before and after; while, +as for the trees, I like them so well in their state of undress that I +question sometimes whether their leafy garments do not conceal more +loveliness than they confer. We are grateful, of course, to pines and +spruces; but what if all trees were evergreen? A questionable +improvement, surely. No; suggestive and solemn as the falling of the +leaves must ever be to us who read our own destiny in the annual +parable, it would be sadder still if there were no such alternation, no +diversity, but only one monotonous year on year of changeless verdure. + +Winter beauty, such as I have been hinting at, is not far to seek, +whether by townsman or rustic. Bostonians have only to cross the +Mill-Dam,--a rather too fashionable promenade, it is true, but even here +one may be tolerably certain of elbow-room on a January morning. Often +have I taken this road to health and happiness, waxing enthusiastic as I +have proceeded, admiring the snow-bound scene with a fervor which the +most opulent of summer landscapes seldom excites; and, pushing on with +increasing exhilaration, have brought up at last on Corey Hill, where +the inquisitive north-wind has very likely abbreviated my stay, but has +never yet spoiled my rapture at the wonderful white world underneath. + +Economy has its pleasures, it is said, for all healthily constituted +minds. We like, all of us, to make much out of little; to do a notable +piece of work with ordinary tools; to treat a meagre and commonplace +theme in such a manner that whoever begins to read has no alternative +but to finish; to tempt an epicure with the daintiest of repasts out of +the simplest and fewest of every-day materials; to paint a picture +which has nothing in it, but compels the eye; in a word, to demonstrate +to others, and not less to ourselves, that the secret of success lies in +the man and not in the stuff. It is good, once in a while, to take +advantage of a disadvantage to show what we can do. + +On the same principle we are glad to find ourselves, if only not too +often, in unpropitious circumstances. Otherwise how should we ever make +proof of our philosophy? It heightens my confidence in the goodness at +the heart of things to see how, as if by instinct, men of sound natures +inevitably right the scale in seasons of loss and scarcity. If half the +fortune disappears, the other half straightway doubles in value. Faith +easily puts aside calculation, and proves, off-hand, that a part is +equal to the whole. + +Thus it is with me as a lover of out-door life, and especially as a +field student of ornithology. At no time of the year does the fellowship +of the birds afford me keener enjoyment than in the dead of winter. In +June one may see them everywhere, and hear them at all hours; a few more +or a few less are nothing to make account of; but in January the sight +of a single brown creeper is sufficient to brighten the day, and the +twittering of half a dozen goldfinches is like the music of angels. + +As a certain outspoken philosopher would not visit some of his relatives +because he disliked to be alone, so do I in my jaunts avoid the highway +whenever it is possible, even in midwinter. What so lonesome as the +presence of people with whom we must not speak, or, worse yet, with whom +we must speak, but only about the weather and like exciting topics! As I +have intimated, however, it is usually the public street or nothing with +me during the cold season. All the more grateful am I, therefore, to +those familiar winter birds, some of whom are sure to bid me good +morning out of the hedges and shade-trees as I go past. Not unlikely a +shrike sits motionless and dumb upon a telegraph wire, or in contrary +mood whistles and chirrups industriously from some tree-top. _He_ is no +angel, that is plain enough; but none the less I am glad to meet him. If +he fails of being lovable, he is at least a study. It is wonderful how +abruptly his whim changes; how disconnected his behavior seems; how +quickly and unexpectedly he can pass from the most perfect quiescence +into a fit of most intense activity. I came upon such a fellow the other +day in crossing the Common, who, just as I espied him, swooped upon a +bunch of sparrows in an elm. He missed his aim, and in half a minute +made a second attempt upon a similar group in another tree. This time he +singled out one of the flock, and took chase after it; but the terrified +creature ducked and turned, and finally got away, whereupon the shrike +betook himself to a perch, and fell to making all manner of +noises,--squeaks, whistles, twitters, and what not,--hopping about +nervously meanwhile. The passers-by all stopped to look at the show +(perhaps because they saw me staring upward), till finally a laborer +yielded to the school-boy instinct and let fly a stone. The scamp was +not greatly frightened by this demonstration, and merely flew to the tip +of one of the tall cotton-woods, where he immediately resumed his vocal +practice. + +It ought to be helpful to a man's independence of spirit to fall in +once in a while with such a self-reliant and nonchalant brother. For +one, I wish I were better able to profit by his example. He seems made +for hard times and short rations. Doubtless it is a delusion of the +fancy, but he and winter are so connected in my thought that I can +hardly conceive of him as knowing what summer means, or as caring to +know. + +To a person of my tastes it is one of winter's capital recommendations +that it brings its own birds with it, thus affording sundry +ornithological pleasures which otherwise one would be compelled to go +without. The tree-sparrows, for instance, are very good cold-weather +acquaintances of mine. There is nothing peculiarly taking about their +dress or demeanor; but they are steady-going, good-humored, diligent +people, whose presence you may always depend upon. I lately witnessed a +very pretty trick of theirs. It was in the marsh just over the fence +from Beacon Street, where a company of the birds, a dozen perhaps, were +breakfasting off the seeds of evening primrose. Less skillful acrobats +than their neighbors and frequent traveling companions, the red-poll +linnets, it is not easy for them to feed while hanging upon the pods. +So, taking the weeds one by one, they alighted at the very tip, and then +with various twitchings and stampings shook the stalk as violently as +possible, after which they dropped quickly upon the snow to gather up +the results of their labors. As I say, it was an extremely pretty +performance, and by itself would have rewarded me for my morning tramp, +putting me in mind, as it did, of happy hours long since past, when I +climbed into the tops of nut-trees on business of the same sort. One of +the principal uses of friendship, human or other, is this of keeping the +heart young. + +I hope I am not lacking in a wholesome disrespect for sentimentality and +affectation; for artificial ecstasies over sunsets and landscapes, birds +and flowers; the fashionable cant of nature-worship, which is enough +almost to seal a true worshiper's lips under a vow of everlasting +silence. But such repugnances belong to the library and the parlor, and +are left behind when a man goes abroad, either by himself or in any +other really good company. For my own part the first lisp of a +chickadee out of a wayside thicket disperses with a breath all such +unhappy and unhallowed recollections. Here is a voice sincere, and the +response is instantaneous and irresistible. + +It would be a breach of good manners, an inexcusable ingratitude, to +write never so briefly of the New England winter without noting this, +the most engaging and characteristic enlivener of our winter woods; who +revels in snow and ice, and is never lacking in abundant measures of +faith and cheerfulness, enough not only for himself, but for any chance +wayfarer of our own kind. He is every whit as independent as the shrike, +but in how opposite a manner!--with a self-reliance that is never +self-sufficiency, and bravery that offers no suspicion of bravado. Happy +in himself, he is at the same time of a most companionable spirit. +Perfect little philosopher! What a paradise New England would be if all +her inhabitants were like him! + +In such a winter climate as ours it is emphatically true that we "know +not what shall be on the morrow." The season is not straitened in its +resources, and caters to all tastes in a way which some may look upon +as fickleness, but which I prefer to regard as catholicity. Its days are +of many types, and it spreads them out before us like a patient +shopkeeper,--as if it recognized in the Yankee a customer hard to suit. +I do not mean to affirm that the weather and I are never at odds; but +all in all, in the long run and theoretically, I approve its methods. +What a humdrum round life would be if nothing ever happened but the +expected! I wonder if there are beings anywhere who have forgotten how +it feels to be surprised. The children of this world, at all events, +were not intended for any such condition of fixity. When there is no +longer anything new _under_ the sun, it will be time to get above it. + +Even in so simple and regular a proceeding as a morning walk, one wishes +always to see something new, or failing of that, something old in a new +light; an easy enough task, if one has eyes. For as we cannot drink +twice of the same river, so we cannot twice take the same ramble. I went +over the same course yesterday and to-day; but yesterday's landscape and +sky were different from to-day's. I saw different birds, and had +different thoughts; and after all, the principal part of a walk is what +goes on in the mind. Still, the activities of the intellect are greatly +under the influence of external surroundings, a fact which makes largely +in favor of a varied year like that we have been praising. The +experience of it tends to widen and diversify the thinking of men. In a +smaller degree it answers the same end as travel. For aught I know, it +may possibly have its little share in the onerous task of liberalizing +systems of theology. Who shall say that our New England climate, with +its frequent and extreme contrasts,--what I have called its habit of +catholicity,--may not have had more or less to do with that diffusion of +free thought which has made the home of the Pilgrims the birthplace of +heresies without number? The suggestion is fanciful, perhaps. Let it +pass. Such profundities do not come within my province. Only I must +believe that, even in the matter of weather, it is good for us to be +educated out of bigotry into a large-minded toleration. Hence it is, in +part, that I give my suffrage for our Massachusetts winter, which not +only widens the scope of the year, but contains within itself a variety +wellnigh endless. + +I have kept my subject out-of-doors. It is well always to have at least +one point of originality. Let it be mine, in the present instance, that +I have said nothing about the pleasures of the fireside, about long +evenings and drawn curtains. If I were in winter's place, I should not +greatly care to hear people tell how comfortable they could make +themselves by jealously shutting me out. Their speech might be eloquent, +and their language eulogistic; but somehow I should not feel that they +were praising _me_. + + + + +A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE. + + I will go lose myself.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +There are two sayings of Scripture which to my mind seem peculiarly +appropriate for pleasant Sundays,--"Behold the fowls of the air," and +"Consider the lilies." The first is a morning text, as anybody may see, +while the second is more conveniently practiced upon later in the day, +when the dew is off the grass. With certain of the more esoteric +doctrines of the Bible (the duty of turning the other cheek, for +example, or of selling all that one has and giving to the poor) we may +sometimes be troubled what to do,--unless, like the world in general, we +turn them over to Count Tolstoï and his followers; but such precepts as +I have quoted nobody is likely ever to quarrel with, least of all any +"natural man." For myself, I find them always a comfort, no matter what +my mood or condition, while their observance becomes doubly agreeable +when I am away from home; the thought of beholding a strange species of +fowl, or of considering a new sort of lily, proving even more attractive +than the prospect of listening to a new minister, or, what is somewhat +less probable, of hearing a new sermon. + +Thus it was with me, not long ago, when I found myself suddenly left +alone at a small hotel in the Franconia Valley. The day was lowery, as +days in the mountains are apt to be; but when duty goes along with +inclination, a possible sprinkling is no very serious hindrance. +Besides, a fortnight of "catching weather" had brought me into a state +of something like philosophical indifference. I must be reckoned either +with the just or with the unjust,--so I had come to reason,--and of +course must expect now and then to be rained on. Accordingly, after +dinner I tucked my faithful umbrella under my arm, and started up the +Notch road. + +I had in view a quiet, meditative ramble, in harmony with the spirit of +the day, and could think of nothing more to the purpose than a visit to +a pair of deserted farms, out in the woods on the mountain-side. The +lonesome fields and the crumbling houses would touch my imagination, and +perhaps chasten my spirit. Thither would I go, and "consider the +lilies." I am never much of a literalist,--except when a strict +construction favors the argument,--and in the present instance it did +not strike me as at all essential that I should find any specimens of +the genus _Lilium_. One of the humbler representatives of the great and +noble family of the _Liliaceæ_--the pretty clintonia, now a little out +of season, or even the Indian cucumber-root--would come fairly within +the spirit of the text; while, if worst came to worst, there would +certainly be no scarcity of grass, itself nothing but a kind of +degenerate lily, if some recent theories may be trusted. + +I followed the highway for a mile or two, and then took a wood-road (a +"cart-path" I should call it, if I dared to speak in my own tongue +wherein I was born) running into the forest on the left. This brought me +before long to a "pair of bars," over which I clambered into a grassy +field, the first of the two ancient clearings I had come out to see. The +scanty acres must have been wrested from the encompassing forest at no +small cost of patience and hard labor; and after all, they had proved +not to pay for their tillage. A waste of energy, as things now looked; +but who is to judge of such matters? It is not given to every man to see +the work of his hands established. A good many of us, I suspect, might +be thankful to know that anything we have ever done would be found +worthy of mention fifty years hence, though the mention were only by way +of pointing a moral. + +The old barn was long ago blown down, and as I mounted the fence a +woodchuck went scampering out of sight among the timbers. The place was +not entirely uninhabited, as it seemed, in spite of appearances: and as +I turned toward the house, the door of which stood uninvitingly open, +there sat a second woodchuck in the doorway, facing me, intent and +motionless, full of wonderment, no doubt, at the unspeakable +impertinence of such an intrusion. I was glad to see _him_, at any rate, +and made haste to tell him so; greeting him in the rather unceremonious +language wherewith the now famous titmouse is said to have addressed +our foremost American gentleman and philosopher:-- + + "Good day, good sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places." + +But the churlish fellow had no notion of doing the honors, and by the +time I had advanced two or three paces he whisked about and vanished +inside the door. "Well done!" I thought. "Great is evolution. Woodchucks +used to be cave-dwellers, but they are getting to live above ground, +like the rest of us. So does history repeat itself. Who knows how soon +they may be putting up cottages on their own account?" Perhaps I gave +the creature more credit than really belonged to him. I followed him +into the house, but he was nowhere to be seen, and it is not unlikely +that he lived in a cave, after all. Nearly half the flooring had rotted +away, and there was nothing to hinder his getting into the cellar. He +may have taken the old farmhouse as a convenient portico for his burrow, +a sort of storm-porch, as it were. In his eyes this may be the final end +and aim, the teleological purpose, of all such board-and-shingle +edifices. Mr. Ruskin seems to hold that a house falls short of its +highest usefulness until it has become a ruin; and who knows but +woodchucks may be of the same opinion? + +This particular house was in two parts, one of them considerably more +ancient than the other. This older portion it was, of which the floor +had so badly (or so well) fallen into decay; while the ceiling, as if in +a spirit of emulation, had settled till it described almost a semicircle +of convexity. To look at it, one felt as if the law of gravity were +actually being imposed upon. + +It must have marked an epoch in the history of the household, this +doubling of its quarters. Things were looking well with the man. His +crops were good, his family increasing; his wife had begun to find the +house uncomfortably small; they could afford to enlarge it. Hence this +addition, this "new part," as no doubt they were in the habit of calling +it, with pardonable satisfaction. It was more substantially built than +the original dwelling, and possessed, what I dare say its mistress had +set her heart upon, one plastered room. The "new part"! How ironical +the words sounded, as I repeated them to myself! If things would only +stay new, or if it were men's houses only that grew old! + +The people who lived here had little occasion to hang their walls with +pictures. When they wanted something to look at, they had but to go to +the window and gaze upon the upper slopes of Mount Lafayette and Mount +Cannon, rising in beauty beyond the intervening forest. But every New +England woman must have a bit of flower garden, no matter what her +surroundings; and even here I was glad to notice, just in front of the +door, a clump of cinnamon rose-bushes, all uncared for, of course, but +flourishing as in a kind of immortal youth (this old-fashioned rose must +be one of Time's favorites), and just now bright with blossoms. For +sentiment's sake I plucked one, thinking of the hands that did the same +years ago, and ere this, in all likelihood, were under the sod; +thinking, too, of other hands, long, long vanished, and of a white +rose-bush that used to stand beside another door. + +On both sides of the house were apple-trees, a few of them still in +good trim, but the greater number decrepit after years of buffeting by +mountain storms. A phÅ“be sat quietly on the ridge-pole, and a chipper +was singing from the orchard. What knew they of time, or of time's +mutations? The house might grow old,--the house and the trees; but if +the same misfortune ever befalls phÅ“bes and sparrows, we are, +fortunately, none the wiser. To human eyes they are always young and +fresh, like the buttercups that bespangled the grass before me, or like +the sun that shone brightly upon the tranquil scene. + +Turning away from the house and the grassy field about it, I got over a +stone wall into a pasture fast growing up to wood: spruces, white pines, +red pines, paper birches, and larches, with a profusion of meadow-sweet +sprinkled everywhere among them. A nervous flicker started at my +approach, stopped for an instant to reconnoitre, and then made off in +haste. A hermit thrush was singing, and the bird that is called the +"preacher"--who takes no summer vacation, but holds forth in "God's +first temple" for the seven days of every week--was delivering his +homily with all earnestness. He _must_ preach, it seemed, whether men +would hear or forbear. He had already announced his text, but I could +not certainly make out what it was. "Here we have no continuing city," +perhaps; or it might have been, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, +all is vanity." It should have been one of these, or so I thought; but, +as all church-goers must have observed, the connection between text and +sermon is sometimes more or less recondite, and once in a while, like +the doctrine of the sermon itself, requires to be taken on faith. In the +present instance, indeed, as no doubt in many others, the pew was quite +as likely to be at fault as the pulpit. The red-eye's eloquence was +never very persuasive to my ear. Its short sentences, its tiresome +upward inflections, its everlasting repetitiousness, and its sharp, +querulous tone long since became to me an old story; and I have always +thought that whoever dubbed this vireo the "preacher" could have had no +very exalted opinion of the clergy. + +I stayed not to listen, therefore, but kept on through the wood, while a +purple finch pitched a tune on one side of the path (he appeared to +feel no compunctions about interrupting the red-eye's exhortation), and +a squirrel sprung his rattle on the other; and presently I came to the +second farm: a large clearing, bounded by the forest on all hands, but +after these many years still yielding a very respectable hay-crop (so +does the good that men do live after them), and with a house and barn +still standing at the lower end. I reached the house just in time to +escape a shower, making an enforced obeisance as I entered. It was but +the ghost of a dwelling,--the door off its hinges, and no glass in the +four small windows; but it had a substantial quality about it, +notwithstanding, as a not very tall man was liable at any moment to be +reminded should he carry himself a trifle too proudly under the big +unhewn timbers. It is better to stoop than to bump your head, they +seemed to be saying. Hither came no tourists but the rabbits; and they, +it was plain, were not so much tourists as permanent residents. As I +looked at the blank walls and door-posts, after a fortnight's experience +among the mountains, I felt grateful at the sight of boards on which +Brown of Boston and Smith of Smithfield had not yet inscribed their +illustrious names. I had left the city in search of rest and seclusion. +For the time, in the presence of Nature herself, I would gladly have +forgotten the very existence of my all-too-famous countrymen; and I +rejoiced accordingly to have found one lonely spot to which their +restless feet had not yet penetrated. Tall grass grew untrodden quite up +to the door-sill; raspberry vines thrust their arms in at the pane-less +windows; there was neither paint nor plastering; and the tiny cupboard +was so bare that it set my irreverent fancy to quoting Mother Goose in +the midst of my most serious moralizings. + +The owner of this farm, like his neighbor, had planted an apple orchard, +and his wife a patch of cinnamon roses; and, not to treat one better +than another, I picked a rose here also. There is no lover of flowers +but likes to have his garden noticed, and the good housewife would have +been pleased, I knew, could she have seen me looking carefully for her +handsomest and sweetest bud. + +By this time the shower was over, and a song-sparrow was giving thanks. +I might never have another opportunity to follow up an old forest path, +of which I had heard vague reports as leading from this point to the +railway. "It starts from the upper corner of the farm," my informant had +said. To the upper corner I went, therefore, through the rank, wet +grass. But I found no sign of what I was looking for, and with some +heartfelt but unreportable soliloquizings, to the effect that a +countryman's directions, like dreams, are always to be read backwards, I +started straight down toward the lower corner, saying to myself that I +ought to have had the wit to take that course in the beginning. Sure +enough, the path was there, badly overgrown with bushes and young trees, +but still traceable. A few rods, and I came to the brook. The bridge was +mostly gone, as I had been forewarned it probably would be, but a single +big log answered a foot passenger's requirements. Once across the +bridge, however, I could discover no sign of a trail. But what of that? +The sun was shining; I had only to keep it at my back, and I was sure +to bring up at the railroad. So I set out, and for a while traveled on +bravely. Then I began to bethink myself that I was not going up-hill +quite so fast as it seemed I ought to be doing. Was I really approaching +the railway, after all? Or had I started in a wrong direction (being in +the woods at the time), and was I heading along the mountain-side in +such a course that I might walk all night, and all the while be only +plunging deeper and deeper into the forest? The suggestion was not +pleasurable. If I could only see the mountain! But the thick foliage put +that out of the question. + +After a short debate with myself I concluded to be prudent, and make my +way back to the brook while I still had the sun to guide me; for I now +called to mind the showeriness of the day, and the strong likelihood +that the sky might at any moment be overcast. Even as things were, there +was no assurance that I might not strike the brook at some distance from +the bridge, and so at some distance from the trail, with no means of +determining whether it was above or below me. I began my retreat, and +pretty soon, luckily or unluckily,--I am not yet certain which,--in +some unaccountable manner my feet found themselves again in the path. + +Now, then, I would carry out my original intention, and I turned +straight about. For a while the path held clear. Then it was blocked by +a big tree that had toppled into it lengthwise. I must go round the +obstruction, and pick up the trail at the other end. But the trail would +not be picked up. It had faded out or run into the ground. Finally, when +I was just on the point of owning myself beaten, my eyes all at once +fell upon it, running along before me. A second experience of the same +kind set me thinking how long it would take to go a mile or two at this +rate (it was already half past four o'clock), even if I did not in the +end lose my way altogether. But I kept on till I was stopped, not by a +single windfall, but by a tangle of half a dozen. This time I hunted for +a continuation of the path on the further side till I was out of +patience, and then determined to be done with the foolish business, and +go back by the way I had come. A very sensible resolve, but when I came +to put it into execution it turned out to be too late. The path was +lost entirely. I must fall back upon the sun; and if the truth is to be +told, I commenced feeling slightly uncomfortable. The bushes were wet; +my clothing was drenched; I had neither compass nor matches; it +certainly would be anything but agreeable to spend the night in the +forest. + +Happily there was, for the present, no great danger of matters coming to +such a pass. If the sun would only shine for half an hour longer I could +reach the brook (I could probably reach it without the sun), and even if +I missed the bridge I could follow the stream out of the woods before +dark. I was not frightened, but I was beginning to tremble lest I should +be. The loss of the path was in itself little to worry about. But what +if I should lose my wits also, as many a man had done in circumstances +no worse, and with consequences most disastrous? Unpleasant stories came +into my head, and I remember repeating to myself more than once (candor +is better than felicity of phrase), "Be careful, now; don't get +rattled!" Then, having thus pulled myself together, as an Englishman +would say, I faced the sun and began "stepping westward," though with no +thought of Wordsworth's poem. A spectator might have suspected that if I +was not "rattled," I was at least not far from it. "Now who is this," he +might have queried, + + "whose sore task + Does not divide the Sunday from the week?" + +Meanwhile I was, of course, on the lookout for any signs of the missing +path, and after a time I descried in the distance, on one side, what +looked like a patch of bushes growing in the midst of the forest. I made +for it, and, as I expected, found myself once more on the trail. This +time I held it, reached the bridge, crossed it, and, still keeping up my +pace, was presently out in the sunshine of the old farm, startling a +brood of young partridges on the way. Happy birds! _They_ were never +afraid of passing a night in the woods. A most absurd notion! But man, +as he is the strongest of all animals, so is he also the weakest and +most defenseless. + +This last reflection is an afterthought, I freely acknowledge. At the +moment I was taken up with the peacefulness of the pastoral scene into +which I had so happily emerged, and was in no mood to envy anybody. How +bright and cheerful the ragworts and buttercups looked, and what sweet +and homelike music the robin made, singing from one of the apple-trees! +The cool north wind wafted the spicy odor of the cinnamon roses to my +nostrils; but--alas for the prosaic fact!--the same cool wind struck +through my saturated garments, bidding me move on. The pessimistic +preacher was right when he said, "Truly the light is sweet, and a +pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." I wonder whether +he was ever bewildered in a dark wood. From boyhood I have loved the +forest, with its silence, its shadows, and its deep isolation, but for +the present I had had my fill of such mercies. + +As I came out upon the highway, it occurred to me what Emerson says of +Thoreau,--that "he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, +and therefore never willingly walked in the road." My own taste, I was +obliged to admit, was somewhat less fastidious. Indeed, my boots, +soaked through and through as they were, made very grateful music +striking along the gravel. And after supper, while walking back and +forth upon the piazza, in all the luxury of slippers and a winter +overcoat, I turned more than once from the glories of the sunset to gaze +upon the black slope of Lafayette, thinking within myself how much less +comfortable I should be up yonder in the depths of the forest, so dark +and wet, without company, without fire, without overcoat, and without +supper. After all, mere animal comfort is not to be despised. Let us be +thankful, I said, for the good things of life, of no matter what grade; +yes, though they be only a change of clothing and a summer hotel. + +It was laughable how my quiet ramble had turned out. My friend, the +red-eyed vireo, may or may not have stuck to his text; but if he had +seen me in the midst of my retreat, dashing through the bushes and +clambering over the fallen trees, he certainly never would have guessed +mine. "Consider the lilies," indeed! He was more likely to think of a +familiar Old Testament scripture: "The wicked flee when no man +pursueth." + + + + +A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION. + + So waved the pine-tree through my thought. + EMERSON. + + +In outward, every-day affairs, in what we foolishly call real life, man +is a stickler for regularity, a devout believer in the maxim, "Order is +heaven's first law." He sets his house at right angles with the street; +lays out his grounds in the straightest of straight lines, or in the +most undeviating of curves; selects his shade-trees for their trim, +geometrical habit; and, all in all, carries himself as if precision and +conformity were the height of virtue. Yet this same man, when he comes +to deal with pictorial representations, makes up his judgment according +to quite another standard; finding nothing picturesque in tidy gardens +and shaven lawns, discarding without hesitation every well-rounded, +symmetrical tree, delighting in disorder and disproportion, loving a +ruin better than the best appointed palace, and a tumble-down wall +better than the costliest and stanchest of new-laid masonry. It is hard +to know what to think of an inconsistency like this. Why should taste +and principle be thus opposed to each other, as if the same man were +half Philistine, half Bohemian? Can this strong æsthetic preference for +imperfection be based upon some permanent, universal law, or is it only +a passing whim, the fashion of an hour? + +Whatever we may say of such a problem,--and where one knows nothing, it +is perhaps wisest to say nothing,--we may surely count it an occasion +for thankfulness that a thing so common as imperfection should have at +least its favorable side. Music would soon become tame, if not +intolerable, without here and there a discord; and who knows how stupid +life itself might prove without some slight admixture of evil? From my +study-windows I can see sundry of the newest and most commodious +mansions in town; but I more often look, not at them, but at a certain +dilapidated old house, blackening for want of paint, and fast falling +into decay, but with one big elm before the door. I have no hankerings +to live in it; as a dwelling-place, I should no doubt prefer one of the +more modern establishments; but for an object to look at, give me the +shanty. + +Human nature is nothing if not paradoxical. In its eyes everything is +both good and bad; and for my own part, I sometimes wonder whether this +may not be the sum of all wisdom,--to find everything good in its place, +and everything bad out of its place. + +Thoughts like these suggest themselves as I look at the pitch-pine, +which, to speak only of such trees as grow within the range of my own +observation, is the one irregular member of the family of cone-bearers. +The white or Weymouth pine, the hemlock, the cedars, the spruces, the +fir, and the larch, these are all, in different ways, of a decidedly +symmetrical turn. Each of them has its own definite plan, and builds +itself up in fastidious conformity therewith, except as untoward outward +conditions may now and then force an individual into some abnormal +peculiarity. And all of them, it need not be said, have the defect of +this quality. They are not without charm, not even the black spruce, +while the Weymouth pine and the hemlock are often of surpassing +magnificence and beauty; but a punctilious adherence to rule must of +necessity be attended with a corresponding absence of freedom and +variety. The pitch-pine, on the other hand, if it works upon any set +scheme, as no doubt it does, has the grace to keep it out of sight. Its +gift is genius rather than talent. It has an air, as genius always has, +of achieving its results without effort or premeditation. Its method is +that of spontaneity; its style, that of the picturesque-homely, so dear +to the artistic temperament. Its whole make-up is consistent with this +germinal or controlling idea. Angular in outline, rough and ragged in +its bole, with its needles stiff and its cones hard and sharp, it makes +no attempt at gracefulness, yet by virtue of its very waywardness it +becomes, as if in spite of itself, more attractive than any of its +relatives. + +The Puritans of New England are mostly dead; the last of their spiritual +descendants, we may fear, will soon be dead likewise; but as long as +_Pinus rigida_ covers the sandy knolls of Massachusetts, the sturdy, +uncompromising, independent, economical, indefatigable, all-enduring +spirit of Puritanism will be worthily represented in this its sometime +thriving-place. + +For the pitch-pine's noblest qualities are, after all, not artistic, but +moral. Such unalterable contentment, such hardiness and persistency, are +enough to put the stoutest of us to shame. Once give it root, and no +sterility of soil can discourage it. Everything else may succumb, but +it--it and the gray birch--will make shift to live. Like the resin that +exudes from it, having once taken hold, it has no thought of letting go. +It is never "planted by the rivers of water," but all the same its leaf +does not wither. No summer so hot and dry, no winter so cold and wet, +but it keeps its perennial green. What cannot be done in one year may, +perchance, be accomplished in three or four. It spends several seasons +in ripening its fruit. Think of an apple-tree thus patient! + +The pitch-pine is beautiful to look at, and "profitable for doctrine, +for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," but it +would be a shame not to add that it is also most excellent to smell of. +If I am to judge, scarcely any odor wears better than this of growing +turpentine. There is something unmistakably clean and wholesome about +it. The very first whiff savors of salubrity. "The belief in the good +effects of pine forests in cases of phthisis is quite unanimous" (so I +read the other day in a scientific journal), "and the clinical evidence +in favor of their beneficial influence is unquestioned." Who can tell +whether our New England climate, with all its consumptive provocations, +might not be found absolutely unendurable but for the amelioration +furnished by this generously diffused terebinthine prophylactic? + +When all is said, however, nothing else about the pitch-pine ever +affects me so deeply as its behavior after man has done his worst upon +it. It would appear to have some vague sense of immortality, some +gropings after a resurrection. The tree was felled in the autumn, and +the trunk cut up ignominiously into cord-wood; but in the spring the +prostrate logs begin to put forth scattered tufts of bright green +leaves,--life still working under the ribs of death,--while the stump, +whether "through the scent of water" I cannot say, is perhaps sending up +fresh shoots,--a piece of _post-mortem_ hopefulness the like of which no +white pine, for all its seemingly greater vitality, was ever known to +exhibit. But leaves and shoots alike come to nothing. If a pitch-pine +die, it shall not live again. The wood's blind impulses, if not false in +themselves, were at least falsely interpreted. Alas! alas! who has not +found it so? What seemed like the prophetic stirrings of a new life were +only the last flickerings of a lamp that was going out. + + + + +ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM. + + I walk about; not to and from.--CHARLES LAMB. + + +Taking a walk is something different from traveling afoot. The latter I +may do when on my way to the cars or the shop; but my neighbor, seeing +me at such times, never says to himself, "Mr. ---- is taking a walk." He +knows I cannot be doing that, so long as I am walking for the sake of +getting somewhere. Even the common people understand that utilitarianism +has nothing to do with the true peripatetic philosophy. + +The disciples of this philosophy, the noble fraternity of saunterers, +among whom I modestly enroll myself, are not greatly concerned with any +kind of merely physical activity. They believe that everything has both +a lower and a higher use; and that in the order of evolution the lower +precedes the higher. Time was when walking--going erect on one's hind +limbs--was a rare accomplishment, sufficient of itself to confer +distinction. Little by little this accomplishment became general, and +for this long time now it has been universal; yet even to the present +day it is not quite natural; else why does every human infant still +creep on all-fours till it is taught otherwise? But of all who practise +the art, only here and there a single individual has divined its loftier +use and significance. The rest are still in the materialistic +stage--pedestrians simply. In their view walking is only a convenience, +or perhaps I should say an inconvenience; a cheap device for getting +from one place to another. They resort to it for business, or, it may +be, for health. Of strolling as a means of happiness they have scarcely +so much as heard. They belong to the great and fashionable sect of the +wise and prudent; and from all such the true peripatetic philosophy is +forever hidden. We who are in the secret would gladly publish it if we +could; but by its very nature the doctrine is esoteric. + +Whoso would be initiated into its mysteries must first of all learn how +not to be in a hurry. Life is short, it is true, and time is precious; +but a day is worth nothing of itself. It is like money,--good only for +what it will buy. One must not play the miser, even with time. "There is +that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Who does +not know men so penurious of minutes, so everlastingly preoccupied, that +they seldom spend an hour to any good purpose,--confirming the paradox +of Jesus, "He that loveth his life shall lose it"? And between a certain +two sisters, was not the verdict given in favor of the one who (if we +take the other's word for it) was little better than an idler? The +saunterer has laid to heart this lesson. On principle, he devotes a part +of his time to what his virtuous townsmen call doing nothing. "What +profit hath a man of all his labor?" A pertinent inquiry; but I am not +aware that the author of it ever suggested any similar doubt as to the +net results of well-directed idleness. A laborious, painstaking spirit +is commendable in its place; it would go hard with the world to get on +without it; but the fact remains that some of the very best things of +this life--things unseen and (therefore) eternal--are never to be come +at industriously. It is useless to chase them. We can only put +ourselves in their way, and be still. The secret is as old as mysticism +itself: if the vision tarry, wait for it. + +Walking, then, as adepts use the word, is not so much a physical as a +spiritual exercise. And if any be disposed to look askance at this form +of expression, as if there were possibly a suggestion of profanity about +it, they will please bethink themselves of an ancient sacred book (to +which, according to some friendly critics, I am strangely fond of +referring), wherein is narrated the history of a man who went out into +the fields at eventide to meditate. _He_ could never have misunderstood +our speech, nor dreamed of its needing justification. And your true +saunterers of the present day, no matter what their creed, are of +Isaac's kin,--devout and imaginative souls, who may now and then be +forced to cry with the Psalmist, "O that I had wings!" but who, in all +ordinary circumstances, are able to _walk_ away and be at rest. Like the +patriarch, they have accustomed their feet to serve them as ministers of +grace. + +It must be a bad day indeed when, on retreating to the woods or the +fields, we find it impossible to leave the wearisome world--yes, and our +more wearisome selves, also--behind us. As a rule, this result is not +the better attained by quickening the gait. We may allow for exceptions, +of course, cases in which a counter-excitement may peradventure be of +use; but most often it is better to seek quietness of heart at a quiet +pace; to steal away from our persecutors, rather than to invite pursuit +by too evident a purpose of escape. The lazy motion is of itself a kind +of spiritual sedative. As we proceed, gazing idly at the sky, or with +our attention caught by some wayside flower or passing bird, the mind +grows placid, and, like smooth water, receives into itself the image of +heaven. What a benediction of repose falls upon us sometimes from an old +tree, as we pass under it! So self-poised it seems; so alive, and yet so +still! It was planted here before we were born. It will be green and +flourishing long after we are dead. In it we may behold a perfect +illustration of the dignity and peace of a life undeviatingly obedient +to law,--the law of its own being; never in haste, never at a loss, but +in every fibre doing, day by day, its appropriate work. Sunshine and +rain, heat and cold, calm and storm,--all minister to its necessities. +It has only to stand in its place and grow; happy in spring-time, with +its buds and leaves; happy in autumn, with its fruit; happy, too, in +winter,--repining not when forced to wait through months of bareness and +dearth for the touch of returning warmth. Enviable tree! As we +contemplate it, we feel ourselves rebuked, and, at the same time, +comforted. We, also, will be still, and let the life that is in us work +itself out to the appointed end. + +The seeing eye is a gift so unusual that whoever accustoms himself to +watch what passes around him in the natural world is sure to be often +entertained by the remarks, complimentary and otherwise, which such an +idiosyncrasy calls forth. Some of his neighbors pity him as a +ne'er-do-well, while others devoutly attribute to him a sort of +superhuman faculty. If only _they_ had such eyes! But, alas! they go +into the woods, and they see nothing. Meanwhile the object of their envy +knows well enough that his own vision is but rudimentary. He catches a +glimpse now and then,--nothing more. Like his neighbors, he, too, prays +for sight. Sooner or later, however, he discovers that it is a blessing +to be able on occasion to leave one's scientific senses at home. For +here, again, surprising as it may seem, it is necessary to be on our +guard against a superserviceable activity. There are times when we go +out-of-doors, not after information, but in quest of a mood. Then we +must not be over-observant. Nature is coy; she appreciates the +difference between an inquisitor and a lover. The curious have their +reward, no doubt, but her best gifts are reserved for suitors of a more +sympathetic turn. And unless it be here and there some creature +altogether devoid of poetic sensibility, some "fingering slave,"-- + + "One who would peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,"-- + +unless it be such a person as this, too poor to be conscious of his own +poverty, there can be no enthusiastic student of natural history but has +found out for himself the truth and importance of the paradoxical +caution now suggested. One may become so zealous a botanist as almost to +cease to be a man. The shifting panorama of the heavens and the earth no +longer appeals to him. He is now a specialist, and go where he will, he +sees nothing but specimens. Or he may give himself up to ornithology, +till eye and ear grow so abnormally sensitive that not a bird can move +or twitter but he is instantly aware of it. He _must_ attend, whether he +will or no. So long as this servitude lasts, it is idle to go afield in +pursuit of joys "high and aloof," such as formerly awaited him in +lonesome places. Better betake himself to city streets or a darkened +room. For myself, I thankfully bear testimony that when I have been thus +under the tyranny of my own senses I have found no more certain means of +temporary deliverance than to walk in the early evening. Indeed, I have +been ready, many a time, to exclaim with Wordsworth,-- + + "Hail, Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour!" + +Then the eye has no temptation to busy itself with petty details; "day's +mutable distinctions" are removed from sight, and the mind is left +undistracted to rise, if it can, into communion with the spirit of the +scene. + +After all, it is next to nothing we are able to tell of the pleasures of +such fellowship. We cannot define them to ourselves,--though they are +"felt in the blood and felt along the heart,"--much less to another. +Least of all need we attempt to explain them to any Philistine; the +walls of whose house are likely enough hung with "chromos," but who +stares at you for a fool or a sentimentalist (which comes, perhaps, to +nearly the same thing), when he catches you standing still before one of +Nature's pictures. How shall one blest with a feeling for the woods put +into language the delight he experiences in sauntering along their shady +aisles? He enjoys the stillness, the sense of seclusion, the flicker of +sunlight and shadow, the rustle of leaves, the insect's hum, the passing +of the chance butterfly, the chirp of the bird, or its full-voiced song, +the tracery of lichens on rock and tree, the tuft of ferns, the carpet +of moss, the brightness of blossom and fruit,--all the numberless sights +and sounds of the forest; but it is not any of these, nor all of them +together, that make the glory of the place. It is the wood--and this is +something more than the sum of all its parts--which lays hold upon him, +taking him, as it were, out of the world and out of himself. Let +practical people sneer, and the industrious frown; we who retain our +relish for these natural and innocent felicities may well enough be +indifferent to neighborly comments. Whatever worldlings may think, the +hour is not wasted that brings with it tranquillity of mind and an +uplifting of the heart. We seem to be going nowhere and looking for +nothing? Yes; but one may be glad to visit the Land of Beulah, though he +have no special errand thither. Who ever saw a child but was fond of an +idle hour in the woods? And for my part, while, I have with me the +children (and the dogs and the poets) I count myself in excellent +company; for the time, at least, I can do without what is vulgarly +esteemed good society. A man to whom a holiday affords no pleasure is +already as good as dead; nothing will save him but to be born again. We +have heard of convicts so wonted to prison cells that they could feel +at home nowhere else; and we have known men of business whose feet, when +they stopped going the regular humdrum round, knew no other course to +take but to steer straight for the grave. It behooves us to heed the +warning of such examples, and now and then to be idle betimes, lest the +capacity for idleness be extirpated by disuse. + +The practice of sauntering may especially be recommended as a corrective +of the modern vice of continual reading. For too many of us it has come +to be well-nigh impossible to sit down by ourselves without turning +round instinctively in search of a book or a newspaper. The habit +indicates a vacancy of mind, a morbid intellectual restlessness, and may +not inaptly be compared with that incessant delirious activity which +those who are familiar with death-bed scenes know so well as a symptom +of approaching dissolution. Possibly the two cases are not in all +respects analogous. Books are an inestimable boon; let me never be +without the best of them, both old and new. Still, one would fain have +an occasional thought of one's own, even though, as the common saying +is, it be nothing to speak of. Meditation is an old-fashioned exercise; +the very word is coming to have an almost archaic sound; but neither the +word nor the thing will altogether pass into forgetfulness so long as +the race of saunterers--the spiritual descendants of Isaac--continue to +inherit the earth. + +There is little danger that the lives of any of us will be too solitary +or lived at too leisurely a rate. The world grows busier and busier. +Those whose passion for Nature is strongest and most deep-seated are +driven to withhold from her all but the odds and ends of the day. We +rebel sometimes; the yoke grows unendurable; come what may, we will be +quit of it; but the existing order of things proves too strong for us, +and anon we settle back into the old bondage. And perhaps it is better +so. Even the most simple and natural delights are best appreciated when +rarely and briefly enjoyed. So I persuade myself that, all in all, it is +good for me to have only one or two hours a day for the woods. Human +nature is weak; who knows but I might grow lazy, were I my own master? +At least, "the fine point of seldom pleasure" would be blunted. + +The ideal plan would include two walks: one in the morning for +observation, with every sense alert; the other toward night, for a mood +of "wise passiveness," wherein Nature should be left free to have her +own way with the heart and the imagination. Then the laureate's prayer +might be fulfilled:-- + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more, + But more of reverence in us dwell; + That mind and soul, according well, + May make one music, as before." + +But this strict division of time is too often out of the question, and +we must contrive, as best we can, to unite the two errands,--study and +reverie: using our eyes and ears, but not abusing them; and, on the +other hand, giving free play to fancy and imagination, without +permitting ourselves to degenerate into impotent dreamers. Every walker +ought to be a faithful student of at least one branch of natural +history, not omitting Latin names and the very latest discoveries and +theories. But, withal, let him make sure that his acquaintance with +out-of-door life is sympathetic, and not merely curious or scientific. +All honor to the new science and its votaries; we run small risk of too +much learning; but it should be kept in mind that the itch for finding +out secrets is to be accounted noble or ignoble, according as the spirit +that prompts the research is liberal or petty. Curiosity and love of the +truth are not yet identical, however it may flatter our self-esteem to +ignore the distinction. One may spend one's days and nights in nothing +else but in hearing or telling some new thing, and after all be no +better than a gossip. It would prove a sorry exchange for such of us as +have entered, in any degree, into the feeling of Wordsworth's lines,-- + + "To me, the meanest flower that blows can give + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"-- + +and I believe the capacity for such moods to be less uncommon than many +suppose,--it would be a sorry bargain, I say, for us to lose this +sensitiveness to the charm of living beauty, though meanwhile we were to +grow wiser than all the moderns touching the morphology and histology of +every blossom under the sun. + + "Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail against her beauty?" + +Not we, certainly; but we will be bold to add, with Tennyson himself,-- + + "Let her know her place; + She is the second, not the first." + +In treating a theme of this kind, it is hard not to violate Nature's own +method, and fall into a strain of exhortation. Our intercourse with her +is so good and wholesome, such an inexhaustible and ever-ready resource +against the world's trouble and unrest, that we would gladly have +everybody to share it. We say, over and over, with Emerson,-- + + "If I could put my woods in song, + And tell what's there enjoyed, + All men would to my gardens throng, + And leave the cities void." + +But this may not be. At best, words can only hint at sensations; and the +hint can be taken only by as many as are predestined to hear it. As I +have said, the doctrine is esoteric. How are those who have never felt +the like to understand the satisfaction with which I recall a certain +five or ten minutes of a cool morning in May, a year or more ago? I was +drawing towards home, after a jaunt of an hour or two, when I came +suddenly into a sheltered and sunny nook, where a bed of the early +saxifrage was already in full bloom, while a most exquisite little +bee-fly of a beautiful shade of warm brown was hovering over it, +draining the tiny, gold-lined chalices, one by one, with its long +proboscis, which looked precisely like the bill of a humming-bird. An +ordinary picture enough, as far as words go,--only a little sunshine, a +patch of inconspicuous and common flowers, and a small Bombylian without +even the distinction of bright colors. True; but my spirit drank a +nectar sweeter than any the insect was sipping. And though, as a rule, +an experience of this sort were perhaps better left unspoken,-- + + "A thought of private recollection, sweet and still," + +yet the mention of it can do no harm, while it illustrates what I take +to be one of the principal advantages of the saunterer's condition. His +treasures are never far to seek. His delight is in Nature herself, +rather than in any of her more unusual manifestations. He is not of that +large and increasingly fashionable class who fancy themselves lovers of +Nature, while in fact they are merely admirers, more or less sincere, of +fine scenery. Not that anything is too beautiful for our rambler's +appreciation: he has an eye for the best that earth and heaven can +offer; he knows the exhilaration of far-reaching prospects; but he is +not dependent upon such extraordinary favors of Providence. He has no +occasion to run hither and thither in search of new and strange sights. +The old familiar pastures; the bushy lane, in which his feet have +loitered year after year, ever since they began to go alone; an +unfrequented road; a wooded slope, or a mossy glen; the brook of his +boyish memories; if need be, nothing but a clump of trees or a grassy +meadow,--these are enough for his pleasure. Fortunate man! Who should be +happy, if not he? Out of his own doorway he steps at will into the +Elysian fields. + + + + +BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY. + + Gay creatures of the element, + That in the colors of the rainbow live.--MILTON. + + Speak to me as to thy thinkings.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +It happened to me once to spend a long summer afternoon under a +linden-tree, reading "Middlemarch." The branches were loaded with +blossoms, and the heavy perfume attracted the bees from far and near, +insomuch that my ears were all the time full of their humming. +Butterflies also came, though in smaller numbers, and silently. Whenever +I looked up from my book I was sure to find at least one or two +fluttering overhead. They were mostly of three of our larger sorts,--the +Turnus, the Troilus, and the Archippus (what noble names!), beautifully +contrasted in color. The Turnus specimens were evidently the remnant of +a brood which had nearly passed away; their tattered wings showed that +they had been exposed to the wear and tear of a long life, as +butterflies reckon. Some of them were painful to look at, and I +remember one in particular, so maimed and helpless that, with a sudden +impulse of compassion, I rose and stepped upon it. It seemed an act of +mercy to send the wretched cripple after its kindred. As I looked at +these loiterers, with their frayed and faded wings,--some of them half +gone,--I found myself, almost before I knew it, thinking of Dorothea +Brooke, of whose lofty ideals, bitter disappointments, and partial joys +I was reviewing the story. After all, was there really any wide +difference between the two lives? One was longer, the other shorter; but +only as one dewdrop outlasts another on the grass. + + "A moment's halt, a momentary taste + Of Being from the well amid the waste, + And lo! the phantom caravan has reach'd + The Nothing it set out from." + +Then I fell to musing, as I had often done before, upon the mystery of +an insect's life and mind. + +This tiger swallow-tail, that I had just trodden into the ground,--what +could have been its impressions of this curious world whereinto it had +been ushered so unceremoniously, and in which its day had been so +transient? A month ago, a little more or a little less, it had emerged +from its silken shroud, dried its splendid party-colored wings in the +sun, and forthwith had gone sailing away, over the pasture and through +the wood, in quest of something, it could hardly have known what. Nobody +had welcomed it. When it came, the last of its ancestors were already +among the ancients. Without father or mother, without infancy or +childhood, it was born full-grown, and set out, once for all, upon an +independent adult existence. What such a state of uninitiated, +uninstructed being may be like let those imagine who can. + +It was born adult, I say; but at the same time, it was freer from care +than the most favored of human children. No one ever gave it a lesson or +set it a task. It was never restrained nor reproved; neither its own +conscience nor any outward authority ever imposed the lightest check +upon its desires. It had nobody's pleasure to think of but its own; for +as it was born too late to know father or mother, so also it died too +soon to see its own offspring. It made no plans, needed no estate, was +subject to no ambition. Summer was here when it came forth, and summer +was still here when it passed away. It was born, it lived upon honey, it +loved, and it died. Happy and brief biography! + +Happy and brief; but what a multitude of questions are suggested by it! +Did the creature know anything of its preëxistence, either in the +chrysalis or earlier? If so, did it look back upon that far-away time as +upon a golden age? Or was it really as careless as it seemed, neither +brooding over the past nor dreaming of the future? Was it aware of its +own beauty, seeing itself some day reflected in the pool as it came to +the edge to drink? Did it recognize smaller butterflies--the white and +the yellow, and even the diminutive "copper"--as poor relations; +felicitating itself, meanwhile, upon its own superior size, its +brilliant orange-red eye-spots, and its gorgeous tails? Did it mourn +over its faded broken wings as age came on, or when an unexpected gust +drove it sharply against a thorn? Or was it enabled to take every +mischance and change in a philosophical spirit, perceiving all such +evils to have their due and necessary place in the order of Nature? Was +it frightened when the first night settled down upon it,--the horrible +black darkness, that seemed to be making a sudden end of all things? As +it saw a caterpillar here and there, did it ever suspect any +relationship between the hairy crawling thing and itself; or would it +have been mortally offended with any profane lepidopteran Darwin who +should have hinted at such a possibility? + +The Antiopa butterfly, according to some authorities a near relative of +the tiger swallow-tail, has long been especially attractive to me +because of its habit of passing the winter in a state of hibernation, +and then reappearing upon the wing before the very earliest of the +spring flowers. A year ago, Easter fell upon the first day of April. I +spent the morning out-of-doors, hoping to discover some first faint +tokens of a resurrection. Nor was I disappointed. In a sunny stretch of +the lonely road, I came suddenly upon five of these large +"mourning-cloaks," all of them spread flat upon the wet gravel, sucking +up the moisture while the sun warmed their wings. What sight more +appropriate for Easter! I thought. These were some who had been dead, +and behold, they were alive again. + +Then, as before under the linden-tree, I fell to wondering. What were +they thinking about, these creatures so lately born a second time? Did +they remember their last year's existence? And what could they possibly +make of this brown and desolate world, so unlike the lingering autumnal +glories in the midst of which, five or six months before, they had +"fallen asleep"? Perhaps they had been dreaming. In any event, they +could have no idea of the ice and snow, the storms and the frightful +cold, through which they had passed. It was marvelous how such frail +atoms had withstood such exposure; yet here they were, as good as new, +and so happily endowed that they had no need to wait for blossoms, but +could draw fresh life from the very mire of the street. + +This last trait, so curiously out of character, as it seems to us, +suggests one further inquiry: Have butterflies an æsthetic faculty? They +appreciate each other's adornments, of course. Otherwise, what becomes +of the accepted doctrine of sexual selection? And if they appreciate +each other's beauty, what is to hinder our believing that they enjoy +also the bright colors and dainty shapes of the flowers on which they +feed? As I came out upon the veranda of a summer hotel, two or three +friends exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. ----, you should have been here a few +minutes ago; you would have seen something quite in your line. A +butterfly was fluttering over the lawn, and noticing what it took for a +dandelion, it was just settling down upon it, when lo, the dandelion +moved, and proved to be a goldfinch!" Evidently the insect had an eye +for color, and was altogether like one of us in its capacity for being +deceived. + +To butterflies, as to angels, all things are pure. They extract honey +from the vilest of materials. But their tastes and propensities are in +some respects the very opposite of angelic; being, in fact, thoroughly +human. All observers must have been struck with their quite Hibernian +fondness for a shindy. Two of the same kind seldom come within hail of +each other without a little set-to, just for sociability's sake, as it +were; and I have seen a dozen or more gathered thickly about a precious +bit of moist earth, all crowding and pushing for place in a manner not +to be outdone by the most patriotic of office-seekers. + +It is my private heresy, perhaps, this strong anthropomorphic turn of +mind, which impels me to assume the presence of a soul in all animals, +even in these airy nothings; and, having assumed its existence, to +speculate as to what goes on within it. I know perfectly well that such +questions as I have been raising are not to be answered. They are not +meant to be answered. But I please myself with asking them, +nevertheless, having little sympathy with those precise intellectual +economists who count it a waste to let the fancy play with insoluble +mysteries. Why is fancy winged, I should like to know, if it is never to +disport itself in fields out of which the clumsy, heavy-footed +understanding is debarred? + + + + +BASHFUL DRUMMERS. + + He goes but to see a noise that he heard. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +At the back of my father's house were woods, to my childish imagination +a boundless wilderness. Little by little I ventured into them, and among +my earliest recollections of their sombre and lonesome depths was a +long, thunderous, far-away drumming noise, beginning slowly and +increasing in speed till the blows became almost continuous. This, +somebody told me, was the drumming of the partridge. Now and then, in +open spaces in the path, I came upon shallow circular depressions where +the bird had been dusting, an operation in which I had often seen our +barnyard fowls complacently engaged. At other times I was startled by +the sudden whir of the bird's wings as he sprang up at my feet, and went +dashing away through the underbrush. I heard with open-mouthed wonder of +men who had been known to shoot a bird thus flying! All in all, the +partridge made a great impression upon my boyish mind. + +By and by some older companion initiated me into the mystery of setting +snares. My attempts were primitive enough, no doubt; but they answered +their purpose, taking me into the woods morning and night, in all kinds +of weather, and affording me no end of pleasurable excitement. Once in a +great while the noose would be displaced (the "slip-noose," we called +it, with unsuspected pleonasm), and the barberries gone. At last, after +numberless disappointments, I actually found a bird in the snare. The +poor captive was still alive, and, as I came up, was making frantic +efforts to escape; but I managed to secure him, in spite of my trembling +fingers, and then, though the deed looked horribly like murder, I killed +him (I would rather not mention how), and carried him home in triumph. + +Many years passed, and I became in my own way an ornithologist. One by +one I scraped acquaintance with all the common birds of our woods and +fields; but the drumming of the partridge (or of the ruffled grouse, as +I now learned to call him) remained a mystery. I read Emerson's +description of the "forest-seer:"-- + + "He saw the partridge drum in the woods; + He heard the woodcock's evening hymn; + He found the tawny thrushes' broods; + And the shy hawk did wait for him;" + +and I thought: "Well, now, I have seen and heard the woodcock at his +vespers; I have found the nest of the tawny thrush; the shy hawk has sat +still on the branch just over my head; but I have _not_ seen the +partridge drum in the woods. Why shouldn't I do that, also?" I made +numerous attempts. A bird often drummed in a small wood where I was in +the habit of rambling before breakfast. The sound came always from a +particular quarter, and probably from a certain stone wall, running over +a slight rise of ground near a swamp. The crafty fellow evidently did +not mean to be surprised; but I made a careful reconnoissance, and +finally hit upon what seemed a feasible point of approach. A rather +large boulder offered a little cover, and, after several failures, I one +day spied the bird on the wall. He had drummed only a few minutes +before; but his lookout was most likely sharper than mine. At all +events, he dropped off the wall on the further side, and for that time I +saw nothing more of him. Nor was I more successful the next time, nor +the next. Be as noiseless as I could, the wary creature inevitably took +the alarm. To make matters worse, mornings were short and birds were +many. One day there were rare visiting warblers to be looked after; +another day the gray-cheeked thrushes had dropped in upon us on their +way northward, and, if possible, I must hear them sing. Then the pretty +blue golden-winged warbler was building her nest, and by some means or +other I must find it. + +Thus season after season slipped by. Then, in another place, I +accidentally passed quite round a drummer. I heard him on the right, and +after traveling only a few rods, I heard him on the left. He must be +very near me, and not far from the crest of a low hill, over which, as +in the former instance, a stone wall ran. He drummed at long intervals, +and meanwhile I was straining my eyes and advancing at a snail's pace +up the slope. Happily, the ground was carpeted with pine needles, and +comparatively free from brush and dead twigs, those snapping nuisances +that so often bring all our patience and ingenuity to nought. A section +of the wall came into sight, but I got no glimpse of the bird. Presently +I went down upon all fours; then lower yet, crawling instead of +creeping, till I could look over the brow of the hill. Here I waited, +and had begun to fear that I was once more to have my labor for my +pains, when all at once I saw the grouse step from one stone to another. +"Now for it!" I said to myself. But the drumming did not follow, and +anon I lost sight of the drummer. Again I waited, and finally the fellow +jumped suddenly upon a top stone, lifted his wings, and commenced the +familiar roll-call. I could see his wings beating against his sides with +quicker and quicker strokes; but an unlucky bush was between us, and +hoping to better my position, I moved a little to one side. Upon this, +the bird became aware of my presence, I think. At least I could see him +staring straight at me, and a moment later he dropped behind the wall; +and though I remained motionless till a cramp took me, I heard nothing +more. "If it had not been for that miserable bush!" I muttered. But I +need not have quarreled with an innocent bush, as if it, any more than +myself, had been given a choice where it should grow. A wiser man would +have called to mind the old saw, and made the most of "half a loaf." + +Another year passed, and another spring came round. Then, on the same +hillside, a bird (probably the same individual) was drumming one April +morning, and, as my note-book has it, "I came within one" of taking him +in the act. I miscalculated his position, however, which, as it turned +out, was not upon the wall, but on a boulder surrounded by a few small +pine-trees. The rock proved to be well littered, and clearly was the +bird's regular resort. "Very good," said I, "I will catch you yet." + +Five days later I returned to the charge, and was rewarded by seeing the +fellow drum once; but, as before, intervening brush obscured my view. I +crept forward, inch by inch, till the top of the boulder came into +sight, and waited, and waited, and waited. At last I pushed on, and lo, +the place was deserted. There is a familiar Scripture text that might +have been written on purpose for ornithologists: "Let patience have her +perfect work." + +This was April 14th. On the 19th I made the experiment again. The +drummer was at it as I drew near, and fortune favored me at last. I +witnessed the performance three times over. Even now, to be sure, the +prospect was not entirely clear, but it was better than ever before, and +by this time I had learned to be thankful for small mercies. The grouse +kept his place between the acts, moving his head a little one way and +another, but apparently doing nothing else. + +Of course I had in mind the disputed question as to the method by which +the drumming noise is produced. It had seemed to me that whoever would +settle this point must do it by attending carefully to the first slow +beats. This I now attempted, and after one trial was ready, off-hand, to +accept a theory which heretofore I had scouted; namely, that the bird +makes the sound by striking his wings together over his back. He +brought them up, even for the first two or three times, with a quick +convulsive movement, and I could almost have made oath that I heard the +beat before the wings fell. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I waited +till he drummed again; and now I was by no means so positive in my +conviction. If an observer wishes to be absolutely sure of a thing,--I +have learned this by long experience,--let him look at it once, and +forever after shut his eyes! On the whole, I return to my previous +opinion, that the sound is made by the downward stroke, though whether +against the body or against the air, I will not presume to say. + +A man who is a far better ornithologist than I, and who has witnessed +this performance under altogether more favorable conditions than I was +ever afforded, assures me that his performer _sat down_! My bird took no +such ridiculous position. So much, at least, I am sure of. + +When he had drummed three times, my partridge quit his boulder (I was +near enough to hear him strike the dry leaves), and after a little +walked suddenly into plain sight. We discovered each other at the same +instant. I kept motionless, my field-glass up. He made sundry nervous +movements, especially of his ruff, and then silently stalked away. + +I could not blame him for his lack of neighborliness. If I had been shot +at and hunted with dogs as many times as he probably had been, I too +might have become a little shy of strangers. To my thinking, indeed, the +grouse is one of our most estimable citizens. A liking for the buds of +fruit-trees is his only fault (not many of my townsmen have a smaller +number, I fancy), and that is one easily overlooked, especially by a man +who owns no orchard. Every sportsman tries to shoot him, and every +winter does its worst to freeze or starve him; but he continues to +flourish. Others may migrate to sunnier climes, or seek safety in the +backwoods, but not so the partridge. He was born here, and here he means +to stay. What else could be expected of a bird whose notion of a lover's +serenade is the beating of a drum? + + + + + OUT-DOOR BOOKS, + + Both Prose and Poetical. + + +=Agassiz, Alexander and Elizabeth C.= Seaside Studies in Natural History. +Illustrated. 8vo, $3.00. + +=Agassiz, Prof. Louis.= Methods of Study in Natural History. With +Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. First Series. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt +top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. Second Series. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +=Bailey, Prof. L. H., Jr.= Talks Afield, about Plants and the Science of +Plants. With 100 Illustrations. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Bamford, Mary E.= Up and Down the Brooks. In Riverside Library for Young +People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents. + +=Barrows, Samuel J. and Isabel C.= The Shaybacks in Camp. Ten Summers +under Canvas. With Map of Lake Memphremagog. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Burroughs, John.= Works. Each volume, 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. + + Wake Robin. New Edition, revised. Illustrated. + + The Same. _Riverside Aldine Edition._ 16mo, $1.00. + + Winter Sunshine. New Edition, revised. + + Birds and Poets, with other Papers. + + Locusts and Wild Honey. + + Pepacton, and other Sketches. + + Fresh Fields. + + Signs and Seasons. + +Birds and Bees. Essays by JOHN BURROUGHS. With introduction by MARY E. +BURT. In Riverside Literature Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. + +Sharp Eyes, and other Papers. By JOHN BURROUGHS. In Riverside Literature +Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. The above two pamphlets, 16mo, +boards, 40 cents, _net_. + +=Cary, Alice.= Pictures of Country Life. Short Stories. 12mo, $1.50. + +=Cooper, James Fenimore.= Cooper Stories. Narratives of Adventure selected +from COOPER'S Works. Stories of the Prairies. Stories of the Woods. +Stories of the Sea. 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margin-bottom: 1.5em;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; } + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; } + + .notebox {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; /* makes box around Transcriber's Notes */ + margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; border: solid black 1px;} + .bookbox {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; margin-top: 5%; /* makes box around book list */ + margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; border: solid black 3px;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rambler's lease, by Bradford Torrey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Rambler's lease + +Author: Bradford Torrey + +Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #36173] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAMBLER'S LEASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, +Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="notebox"> +<p>Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the +original. No typographical corrections have been made.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 277px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="277" height="375" alt="A Rambler's Lease cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<div class="centered"> +<div class="bookbox"> +<p class="p1"><em>Books by Mr. Torrey.</em></p> + + +<div class="booktitle"> +<p><b>BIRDS IN THE BUSH.</b> 16mo, $1.25.</p> +<p><b>A RAMBLER'S LEASE.</b> 16mo, $1.25.</p> +</div> + +<p class="center">HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.</p> + +<p class="center">BOSTON AND NEW YORK.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="gap"> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page i --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> +<p class="gap"> </p> + + +<h1>A RAMBLER'S LEASE</h1> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> + +<p class="p3">BY</p> + +<h2>BRADFORD TORREY</h2> + +<p class="gap"> </p> +<div class="titleblock"><p>I have known many laboring men that have got good estates in +this valley.—<span class="smcap">Bunyan</span></p> + +<p>Sunbeams, shadows, butterflies, and birds.—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth</span></p></div> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> +<h3>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br /> +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br /> +<em>The Riverside Press, Cambridge</em><br /> +1892</h3> + +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><!-- Page ii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> + + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1889,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> BRADFORD TORREY.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p> + +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<p class="center"><i>The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.</i><br /> +Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><!-- Page iii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2> + +<p>The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's +woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort +the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this +feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this +public way, to hold <i>a rambler's lease</i> of their property. Should it +please them to do so, they may accept the papers herein contained as a +kind of return, the best he knows how to offer, for the many favors, +alike unproffered and unasked, which he has received at their hands. His +private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it; and +taking this view of the <!-- Page iv --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span>matter, he cannot help thinking that some of +his more prosperous neighbors would do well, in legal phrase, to perfect +their titles. He would gladly be of service to them in this regard.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page v --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table summary="Table of Contents" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" border="0"> +<tr> + <td class="tdright" colspan="2"><span style="font-size: 70%">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">My Real Estate</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">A Woodland Intimate</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">An Old Road</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc" style="padding-right: 4em;">Confessions of a Bird's-Nest Hunter</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">A Green Mountain Corn-Field</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">Behind the Eye</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">A November Chronicle</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">New England Winter</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">A Mountain-Side Ramble</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">A Pitch-Pine Meditation</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">Esoteric Peripateticism</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">Butterfly Psychology</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdleftsc">Bashful Drummers</td> + <td class="tdright"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><!-- Page vi --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + + +<h1>A RAMBLER'S LEASE.</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>MY REAL ESTATE.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Yet some did think that he had little business +here.—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">Every autumn the town of W—— sends me a tax-bill, a kindly remembrance +for which I never fail of feeling grateful. It is pleasant to know that +after all these years there still remains one man in the old town who +cherishes my memory,—though it be only "this publican." Besides, to +speak frankly, there is a measure of satisfaction in being reminded now +and then of my dignity as a landed proprietor. One may be never so rich +in stocks and bonds, government consols and what not, but, acceptable as +such "securities" are, they are after all not quite the same as a +section of the solid globe itself. True, this species of what we may +call astronomic or planetary property will sometimes prove +comparatively <!-- Page 2 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>unremunerative. Here in New England (I know not what may +be true elsewhere) there is a class of people whom it is common to hear +gossiped about compassionately as "land poor." But, however scanty the +income to be derived from it, a landed investment is at least +substantial. It will never fail its possessor entirely. If it starve +him, it will offer him a grave. It has the prime quality of permanence. +At the very worst, it will last as long as it is needed. Railroads may +be "wrecked," banks be broken, governments become bankrupt, and we be +left to mourn; but when the earth departs we shall go with it. Yes, the +ancient form of speech is correct,—land is <i>real</i>; as the modern phrase +goes, translating Latin into Saxon, land is <i>the thing</i>; and though we +can scarcely reckon it among the necessaries of life, since so many do +without it, we may surely esteem it one of the least dispensable of +luxuries.</p> + +<p>But I was beginning to speak of my tax-bill, and must not omit to +mention a further advantage of real estate over other forms of property. +It is certain not to be overlooked by the town assessors. Its +<!-- Page 3 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>proprietor is never shut up to the necessity of either advertising his +own good fortune, or else submitting to pay less than his rightful share +of the public expenses,—a merciful deliverance, for in such a strait, +where either modesty or integrity must go to the wall, it is hard for +human nature to be sure of itself.</p> + +<p>To my thinking there is no call upon a man's purse which should be +responded to with greater alacrity than this of the tax-gatherer. In +what cause ought we to spend freely, if not in that of home and country? +I have heard, indeed, of some who do not agree with me in this feeling. +Possibly tax-rates are now and then exorbitant. Possibly, too, my own +view of the subject might be different were my quota of the public levy +more considerable. This year, for instance, I am called upon for +seventy-three cents; if the demand were for as many dollars, who knows +whether I might not welcome it with less enthusiasm? On such a point it +would be unbecoming for me to speak. Enough that even with my fraction +of a dollar I am able to rejoice that I have a share in all the town's +multifarious <!-- Page 4 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>outlay. If an additional fire-engine is bought, or a new +school-house built, or the public library replenished, it is done in +part out of my pocket.</p> + +<p>Here, however, let me make a single exception. I seldom go home (such +language still escapes me involuntarily) without finding that one or +another of the old roads has been newly repaired. I hope that no mill of +my annual seventy or eighty cents goes into work of that sort. The +roads—such as I have in mind—are out of the way and little traveled, +and, in my opinion, were better left to take care of themselves. There +is no artist but will testify that a crooked road is more picturesque +than a straight one; while a natural border of alder bushes, +grape-vines, Roxbury wax-work, Virginia creeper, wild cherry, and such +like is an inexpensive decoration of the very best sort, such as the +Village Improvement Society ought never to allow any highway surveyor to +lay his hands on, unless in some downright exigency. What a +short-sighted policy it is that provides for the comfort of the feet, +but makes no account of those more intellectual and <!-- Page 5 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>spiritual pleasures +which enter through the eye! It may be answered, I know, that in matters +of general concern it is necessary to consult the greatest good of the +greatest number; and that, while all the inhabitants of the town are +supplied with feet, comparatively few of them have eyes. There is force +in this, it must be admitted. Possibly the highway surveyor (the +highwayman, I was near to writing) is not so altogether wrong in his +"improvements." At all events, it is not worth while for me to make the +question one of conscience, and go to jail rather than pay my taxes, as +Thoreau did. Let it suffice to enter my protest. Whatever others may +desire, for myself, as often as I revisit W——, I wish to be able to +repeat with unction the words of W——'s only poet,<a name="FNanchor_5:1_1" id="FNanchor_5:1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_5:1_1" class="fnanchor">[5:1]</a>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And how am I to do that, if the "scenes" have been modernized past +recognition?</p> + +<p><!-- Page 6 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +My own landed possessions are happily remote from roads. Not till long +after my day will the "tide of progress" bring them "into the market," +as the real-estate brokers are fond of saying. I have never yet been +troubled with the importunities of would-be purchasers. Indeed, it is a +principal recommendation of woodland property that one's sense of +proprietorship is so little liable to be disturbed. I often reflect how +altered the case would be were my fraction of an acre in some peculiarly +desirable location near the centre of the village. Then I could hardly +avoid knowing that the neighbors were given to speculating among +themselves about my probable selling price; once in a while I should be +confronted with a downright offer; and what assurance could I feel that +somebody would not finally tempt me beyond my strength, and actually buy +me out? As it is, my land is mine; and, unless extreme poverty overtakes +me, mine it is reasonably certain to remain, till death shall separate +us.</p> + +<p>Whatever contributes to render life interesting and enjoyable goes so +far toward <!-- Page 7 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>making difficult its final inevitable surrender; and it must +be confessed that the thought of my wood-lot increases my otherwise +natural regret at being already so well along on my journey. In a sense +I feel my own existence to be bound up with that of my pine-trees; or, +to speak more exactly, that their existence is bound up with mine. For +it is a sort of unwritten but inexorable law in W——, as in fact it +appears to be throughout New England, that no pine must ever be allowed +to reach more than half its normal growth; so that my trees are certain +to fall under the axe as soon as their present owner is out of the way. +I am not much given to superstition. There are no longer any dryads, it +is to be presumed; and if there were, it is not clear that they would be +likely to take up with pines; but for all that, I cherish an almost +affectionate regard for any trees with which I have become familiar. I +have mourned the untimely fate of many; and now, seeing that I have been +entrusted with the guardianship of these few, I hold myself under a kind +of sacred obligation to live as long as possible, for their sakes.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 8 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>It is now a little less than a fortnight since I paid them a visit. The +path runs through the wood for perhaps half a mile; and, as I sauntered +along, I heard every few rods the thump of falling acorns, though there +was barely wind enough to sway the tree-tops. "Mother Earth has begun +her harvesting in good earnest," I thought. The present is what the +squirrels call a good year. They will laugh and grow fat. Their oak +orchards have seldom done better, the chestnut oaks in particular, the +handsome, rosy-tipped acorns of which are noticeably abundant.</p> + +<p>This interesting tree, so like the chestnut itself in both bark and +leaf, is unfortunately not to be found in my own lot; at any rate, I +have never discovered it there, although it grows freely only a short +distance away. But I have never explored the ground with anything like +thoroughness, and, to tell the truth, am not at all certain that I know +just where the boundaries run. In this respect my real estate is not +unlike my intellectual possessions; concerning which I often find it +impossible to determine what is actually mine and what <!-- Page 9 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>another's. I +have written an essay before now, and at the end been more or less in +doubt where to set the quotation marks. For that matter, indeed, I +incline to believe that the whole tract of woods in the midst of which +my little spot is situated belongs to me quite as really as to the +various persons who claim the legal ownership. Not many of these latter, +I am confident, get a better annual income from the property than I do; +and even in law, we are told, possession counts for nine points out of +the ten. They are never to be found at home when I call, and I feel no +scruple about carrying away whatever I please. My treasures, be it said, +however, are chiefly of an impalpable sort,—mostly thoughts and +feelings, though with a few flowers and ferns now and then; the one set +about as valuable as the other, the proprietors of the land would +probably think.</p> + +<p>In one aspect of the case, the lot which is more strictly my own is just +now in a very interesting condition, though one that, unhappily, is far +from being uncommon. Except the pines already mentioned (only six or +eight in number), the wood was <!-- Page 10 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>entirely cut off a few years before I +came into possession, and at present the place is covered with a thicket +of vines, bushes, and young trees, all engaged in an almost desperate +struggle for existence. When the ground was cleared, every seed in it +bestirred itself and came up; others made haste to enter from without; +and ever since then the battle has been going on. It is curious to +consider how changed the appearance of things will be at the end of +fifty years, should nature be left till then to take its course. By that +time the contest will for the most part be over. At least nineteen +twentieths of all the plants that enlisted in the fight will have been +killed, and where now is a dense mass of shrubbery will be a grove of +lordly trees, with the ground underneath broad-spaced and clear. A noble +result; but achieved at what a cost! If one were likely himself to live +so long, it would be worth while to catalogue the species now in the +field, for the sake of comparing the list with a similar one of half a +century later. The contrast would be an impressive sermon on the +mutability of mundane things. But we shall <!-- Page 11 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>be past the need of +preaching, most of us, before that day arrives, and not unlikely shall +have been ourselves preached about in enforcement of the same trite +theme.</p> + +<p>Thoughts of this kind came to me the other afternoon, as I stood in the +path (what is known as the town path cuts the lot in two) and looked +about. So much was going on in this bit of earth, itself the very centre +of the universe to multitudes of living things. The city out of which I +had come was not more densely populous. Here at my elbow stood a group +of sassafras saplings, remnants of a race that has held the ground for +nobody knows how long. One of my earliest recollections of the place is +of coming hither to dig for fragrant roots. At that time it had never +dawned upon me that the owner of the land would some day die, and leave +it to me, his heir. How hard and rocky the ground was! And how hard we +worked for a very little bark! Yet few of my pleasures have lasted +better. The spicy taste is in my mouth still. Even in those days I +remarked the glossy green twigs of this elegant species, as well as the +unique and beautiful variety of its leaves,—some<!-- Page 12 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> entire and oval, +others mitten-shaped, and others yet three-lobed; an extremely pretty +bit of originality, suiting admirably with the general comely habit of +this tree. There are some trees, as some men, that seem born to dress +well.</p> + +<p>Along with the sassafras I was delighted to find one or two small +specimens of the flowering dogwood (<i>Cornus florida</i>),—another original +genius, and one which I now for the first time became acquainted with as +a tenant of my own. Its deeply veined leaves are not in any way +remarkable (unless it be for their varied autumnal tints), and are all +fashioned after one pattern. Its blossoms, too, are small and +inconspicuous; but these it sets round with large white bracts +(universally mistaken for petals by the uninitiated), and in flowering +time it is beyond comparison the showiest tree in the woods, while its +fruit is the brightest of coral red. I hope these saplings of mine may +hold their own in the struggle for life, and be flourishing in all their +beauty when my successor goes to look at them fifty years hence.</p> + +<p>Having spoken of the originality of the <!-- Page 13 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>sassafras and the dogwood, I +must not fail to mention their more abundant neighbor, the witch-hazel, +or hamamelis. In comparison with its wild freak of singularity, the +modest idiosyncrasies of the other two seem almost conventional. Why, if +not for sheer oddity's sake, should any bush in this latitude hold back +its blossoms till near the edge of winter? As I looked at the half-grown +buds, clustered in the axils of the yellow leaves, they appeared to be +waiting for the latter to fall, that they might have the sunlight all to +themselves. They will need it, one would say, in our bleak November +weather.</p> + +<p>Overfull of life as my wild garden patch was, it would not have kept its +(human) possessor very long from starvation. One or two barberry bushes +made a brave show of fruitfulness; but the handsome clusters were not +yet ripe, and even at their best they are more ornamental than +nutritive,—though, after the frost has cooked them, one may go farther +and fare worse. A few stunted maple-leaved viburnums (<i>this</i> plant's +originality is imitative,—a not uncommon sort, by the bye) proffered +scanty <!-- Page 14 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>cymes of dark purplish drupes. Here and there was a spike of red +berries, belonging to the false Solomon's-seal or false spikenard (what +a pity this worthy herb should not have some less negative title!); but +these it would have been a shame to steal from the grouse. Not far off a +single black alder was reddening its fruit, which all the while it +hugged close to the stem, as if in dread lest some chance traveler +should be attracted by the bright color. It need not have trembled, for +this time at least. I had just dined, and was tempted by nothing save +two belated blackberries, the very last of the year's crop, and a single +sassafras leaf, mucilaginous and savory, admirable as a relish. A few +pigeon-berries might have been found, I dare say, had I searched for +them, and possibly a few sporadic checkerberries; while right before my +eyes was a vine loaded with large bunches of very small frost-grapes, +such as for hardness would have served well enough for school-boys' +marbles. Everything has its favorable side, however; and probably the +birds counted it a blessing that the grapes <i>were</i> small and hard and +sour; else <!-- Page 15 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>greedy men would have come with baskets and carried them all +away. Except some scattered rose-hips, I have enumerated everything that +looked edible, I believe, though a hungry man's eyes might have +lengthened the list materially. The cherry-trees, hickories, and oaks +were not yet in bearing, as the horticultural phrase is; but I was glad +to run upon a clump of bayberry bushes, which offer nothing good to eat, +to be sure, but are excellent to smell of. The leaves always seem to +invite crushing, and I never withhold my hand.</p> + +<p>Among the crowd of young trees—scrub oaks, red oaks, white oaks, +cedars, ashes, hickories, birches, maples, aspens, sumachs, and +hornbeams—was a single tupelo. The distinguished name honors my +catalogue, but I am half sorry to have it there. For, with all its +sturdiness, the tupelo does not bear competition, and I foresee plainly +that my unlucky adventurer will inevitably find itself overshadowed by +more rapid growers, and be dwarfed and deformed, if not killed outright. +Some of the very strongest natures (and the remark is of general +application) require to be planted <!-- Page 16 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>in the open, where they can be free +to develop in their own way and at leisure. But this representative of +<i>Nyssa multiflora</i> took the only chance that offered, I presume, as the +rest of us must do.</p> + +<p>Happy the humble! who aspire not to lofty things, demanding the lapse of +years for their fulfillment, but are content to set before themselves +some lesser task, such as the brevity of a single season may suffice to +accomplish. Here were the asters and golden-rods already finishing their +course in glory, while the tupelo was still barely getting under way in +a race which, however prolonged, was all but certain to terminate in +failure. Of the golden-rods I noted four species, including the +white—which might appropriately be called silvery-rod—and the +blue-stemmed. The latter (<i>Solidago cæsia</i>) is to my eye the prettiest +of all that grow with us, though it is nearly the least obtrusive. It is +rarely, if ever, found outside of woods, and ought to bear some name +(sylvan golden-rod, perhaps) indicative of the fact.</p> + +<p>As a rule, fall flowers have little delicacy and fragrance. They are +children of <!-- Page 17 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>the summer; and, loving the sun, have had almost an excess +of good fortune. With such pampering, it is no wonder they grow rank and +coarse. They would be more than human, I was going to say, if they did +not. It is left for stern winter's progeny, the blossoms of early +spring-time, who struggle upward through the snow and are blown upon by +chilly winds,—it is left for these gentle creatures, at once so hardy +and so frail, to illustrate the sweet uses of adversity.</p> + +<p>All in all, it was a motley company which I beheld thus huddled together +in my speck of forest clearing. Even the lands beyond the sea were +represented, for here stood mullein and yarrow, contesting the ground +with oaks and hickories. The smaller wood flowers were not wanting, of +course, though none of them were now in bloom. Pyrola and winter-green, +violets (the common blue sort and the leafy-stemmed yellow), strawberry +and five-finger, saxifrage and columbine, rock-rose and bed-straw, +self-heal and wood-sorrel,—these, and no doubt many more, were there, +filling the chinks otherwise unoccupied.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 18 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +My assortment of ferns is small, but I noted seven species: the brake, +the polypody, the hay-scented, and four species of +shield-ferns,—<i>Aspidium Noveboracense</i>, <i>Aspidium spinulosum</i>, variety +<i>intermedium</i>, <i>Aspidium marginale</i>, and the Christmas fern, <i>Aspidium +acrostichoides</i>. The last named is the one of which I am proudest. For +years I have been in the habit of coming hither at Christmas time to +gather the fronds, which are then as bright and fresh as in June. Two of +the others, the polypody and <i>Aspidium marginale</i>, are evergreen also, +but they are coarser in texture and of a less lively color. Writing of +these flowerless beauties, I am tempted to exclaim again, "Happy the +humble!" The brake is much the largest and stoutest of the seven, but it +is by a long time the first to be cut down before the frost.</p> + +<p>Should I ever meet with reverses, as the wealthiest and most prudent are +liable to do, and be compelled to part with my woodland inheritance, I +shall count it expedient to seek a purchaser in the spring. At that +season its charms are greatly enhanced by a lively brook. This comes +<!-- Page 19 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>tumbling down the hill-side, dashing against the bowlders (of which the +land has plenty), and altogether acting like a thing not born to die; +but alas, the early summer sees it make an end, to wait the melting of +next winter's snow. Many a happy hour did I, as a youngster, pass upon +its banks, watching with wonder the swarms of tiny insects which +darkened the foam and the snow, and even filmed the surface of the brook +itself. I marveled then, as I do now, why such creatures should be out +so early. Possibly our very prompt March friend, the phÅ“be, could +suggest an explanation.</p> + +<p>A break in the forest is of interest not only to such plants as I have +been remarking upon, but also to various species of birds. No doubt the +towhee, the brown thrush, and the cat-bird found out this spot years +ago, and have been using it ever since for summer quarters. Indeed, a +cat-bird snarled at me for an intruder this very September afternoon, +though he himself was most likely nothing more than a chance pilgrim +going South. This member of the noble wren family and near cousin of +the <!-- Page 20 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>mocking-bird would be better esteemed if he were to drop that +favorite feline call of his. But this is his bit of originality +(imitative, like the maple-leaved viburnum's), and perhaps, if justice +were done, it would be put down to his credit rather than made an +occasion of ill-will.</p> + +<p>Once during the afternoon a company of chickadees happened in upon me; +and, taking my cue from the newspaper folk, I immediately essayed an +interview. My imitation of their conversational notes was hardly begun +before one of the birds flew toward me, and, alighting near by, +proceeded to answer my calls with a mimicry so exact, as fairly to be +startling. To all appearance the quick-witted fellow had taken the game +into his own hands. Instead of my deceiving him, he would probably go +back and entertain his associates with amusing accounts of how cleverly +he had fooled a stranger, out yonder in the bushes.</p> + +<p>It would have seemed a graceful and appropriate acknowledgment of my +rightful ownership of the land on which the cat-bird and the titmice +were foraging, had <!-- Page 21 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>they greeted me with songs. But it would hardly have +been courteous for me to propose the matter, and evidently it did not +occur to them. At all events, I heard no music except the hoarse and +solemn asseverations of the katydids, the gentler message of the +crickets, and in the distance an occasional roll-call of the grouse. My +dog—who is a much better sportsman than myself, but whose +companionship, I am ashamed to see, has not till now been mentioned—was +all the while making forays hither and thither into the surrounding +woods; and once in a while I heard, what is the best of all music in his +ears, the whir of "partridge" wings. Likely as not he thought it a queer +freak on my part to spend the afternoon thus idly, when with a gun I +might have been so much more profitably employed. He could not know that +I was satiating myself with a miser's delights, feasting my eyes upon my +own. In truth, I fancy he takes it for granted that the whole forest +belongs to me—and to him. Perhaps it does. As I said just now, I +sometimes think so myself.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5:1_1" id="Footnote_5:1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5:1_1"><span class="label">[5:1]</span></a> Since this essay was originally published (in the +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>) I have been assured that the author of <i>The Old +Oaken Bucket</i> was not born in W——, but in the next town. Being +convinced against my will, however, and finding the biographical +dictionaries divided upon the point, I conclude to let the text stand +unaltered.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 22 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> +<h2>A WOODLAND INTIMATE.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5h">Surely there are times<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they consent to own me of their kin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And condescend to me, and call me cousin.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorscpoem">James Russell Lowell.</p> + + +<p class="section">It is one of the enjoyable features of bird study, as in truth it is of +life in general, that so many of its pleasantest experiences have not to +be sought after, but befall us by the way; like rare and beautiful +flowers, which are never more welcome than when they smile upon us +unexpectedly from the roadside.</p> + +<p>One May morning I had spent an hour in a small wood where I am +accustomed to saunter, and, coming out into the road on my way home +again, fell in with a friend. "Wouldn't you like to see an oven-bird's +nest?" I inquired. He assented, and turning back, I piloted him to the +spot. The little mother sat motionless, just within the door of her +comfortable, roofed house, watching us intently, but all <!-- Page 23 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>unconscious, +it is to be feared, of our admiring comments upon her ingenuity and +courage. Seeing her thus devoted to her charge, I wondered anew whether +she could be so innocent as not to know that one of the eggs on which +she brooded with such assiduity was not her own, but had been foisted +upon her by a faithless cow-bird. To me, I must confess, it is +inexplicable that any bird should be either so unobservant as not to +recognize a foreign egg at sight, or so easy-tempered as not to insist +on straightway being rid of it; though this is no more inscrutable, it +may be, than for another bird persistently, and as it were on principle, +to cast her own offspring upon the protection of strangers; while this, +in turn, is not more mysterious than ten thousand every-day occurrences +all about us. After all, it is a wise man that knows what to wonder at; +while the wiser he grows the stronger is likely to become his conviction +that, little as may be known, nothing is absolutely unknowable; that in +the world, as in its Author, there is probably "no darkness at all," +save as daylight is dark to owls and bats. I did not see the oven-bird's +eggs at <!-- Page 24 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>this time, however, my tender-hearted companion protesting that +their faithful custodian should not be disturbed for the gratification +of his curiosity. So we bade her adieu, and went in pursuit of a +solitary vireo, just then overheard singing not far off. A few paces +brought him into sight, and as we came nearer and nearer he stood quite +still on a dead bough, in full view, singing all the while. When my +friend had looked him over to his satisfaction,—never having met with +such a specimen before,—I set myself to examine the lower branches of +the adjacent trees, feeling no doubt, from the bird's significant +behavior, that his nest must be somewhere in the immediate neighborhood. +Sure enough, it was soon discovered, hanging from near the end of an oak +limb; a typical vireo cup, suspended within the angle of two horizontal +twigs, with bits of newspaper wrought into its structure, and trimmed +outwardly with some kind of white silky substance. The female was in it +(this, too, we might have foreseen with reasonable certainty); but when +she flew off, it appeared that as yet no eggs were laid. The couple +manifested <!-- Page 25 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>scarce any uneasiness at our investigations, and we soon +came away; stopping, as we left the wood, to spy out the nest of a +scarlet tanager, the feminine builder of which was just then busy with +giving it some finishing touches.</p> + +<p>It had been a pleasant stroll, I thought,—nothing more; but it proved +to be the beginning of an adventure which, to me at least, was in the +highest degree novel and interesting.</p> + +<p>I ought, perhaps, to premise that the solitary vireo (called also the +blue-headed vireo and the blue-headed greenlet) is strictly a bird of +the woods. It belongs to a distinctively American family, and is one of +five species which are more or less abundant as summer residents in +Eastern Massachusetts, being itself in most places the least numerous of +the five, and, with the possible exception of the white-eye, the most +retiring. My own hunting-grounds happen to be one of its favorite +resorts (there is none better in the State, I suspect), so that I am +pretty certain of having two or three pairs under my eye every season, +within a radius of half a mile. I have <!-- Page 26 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>found a number of nests, also, +but till this year had never observed any marked peculiarity of the +birds as to timidity or fearlessness. Nor do I now imagine that any such +strong race peculiarity exists. What I am to describe I suppose to be +nothing more than an accidental and unaccountable idiosyncrasy of the +particular bird in question. Such freaks of temperament are more or less +familiar to all field naturalists, and may be taken as extreme +developments of that individuality which seems to be the birthright of +every living creature, no matter how humble. At this very moment I +recall a white-throated sparrow, overtaken some years ago in an +unfrequented road, whose tameness was entirely unusual, and, indeed, +little short of ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Three or four days after the walk just now mentioned I was again in the +same wood, and went past the vireos' nest, paying no attention to it +beyond noting that one of the birds, presumed to be the female, was on +duty. But the next morning, as I saw her again, it occurred to me to +make an experiment. So, quitting the path <!-- Page 27 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>suddenly, I walked as rapidly +as possible straight up to the nest, a distance of perhaps three rods, +giving her no chance to slip off, with the hope of escaping unperceived. +The plan worked to a charm, or so I flattered myself. When I came to a +standstill my eyes were within a foot or two of hers; in fact, I could +get no nearer without running my head against the branch; yet she sat +quietly, apparently without a thought of being driven from her post, +turning her head this way and that, but making no sound, and showing not +the least sign of anything like distress. A mosquito buzzed about my +face, and I brushed it off. Still she sat undisturbed. Then I placed my +hand against the bottom of the nest. At this she half rose to her feet, +craning her neck to see what was going on, but the moment I let go she +settled back upon her charge. Surprised and delighted, I had no heart to +pursue the matter further, and turned away; declaring to myself that, +notwithstanding I had half promised a scientific friend the privilege of +"taking" the nest, such a thing should now never be done with my +consent. <!-- Page 28 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>Before I could betray a confidence like this, I must be a more +zealous ornithologist or a more unfeeling man,—or both at once. Science +ought to be encouraged, of course, but not to the outraging of honor and +common decency.</p> + +<p>On the following day, after repeating such amenities as I had previously +indulged in, I put forth my hand as if to stroke the bird's plumage; +seeing which, she raised her beak threateningly and emitted a very faint +deprecatory note, which would have been inaudible at the distance of a +few yards. At the same time she opened and shut her bill, not +snappishly, but slowly,—a nervous action, simply, it seemed to me.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four hours later I called again, and was so favorably received +that, besides taking hold of the nest, as before, I brushed her tail +feathers softly. Then I put my hand to her head, on which she pecked my +finger in an extremely pretty, gentle way,—more like kissing than +biting,—and made use of the low murmuring sounds just now spoken of. +Her curiosity was plainly wide awake. She stretched her neck to the +utmost to look under the nest, getting upon <!-- Page 29 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>her feet for the purpose, +till I expected every moment to see her slip away; but presently she +grew quiet again, and I withdrew, leaving her in possession.</p> + +<p>By this time a daily interview had come to be counted upon as a matter +of course, by me certainly, and, for aught I know, by the vireo as well. +On my next visit I stroked the back of her head, allowed her to nibble +the tip of my finger, and was greatly pleased with the matter-of-fact +manner in which she captured an insect from the side of the nest, while +leaning out to oversee my manÅ“uvres. Finally, on my offering to lay +my left hand upon her, she quit her seat, and perched upon a twig, +fronting me; and when I put my finger to her bill she flew off. Even now +she made no outcry, however, but fell immediately to singing in tones of +absolute good-humor, and before I had gone four rods from the tree was +back again upon the eggs. Of these, I should have said, there were +four,—the regular complement,—all her own. Expert as cow-birds are at +running a blockade, it would have puzzled the shrewdest of them to +smuggle anything into a nest so sedulously guarded.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 30 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>Walking homeward, I bethought myself how foolish I had been not to offer +my little <i>protégée</i> something to eat. Accordingly, in the morning, +before starting out, I filled a small box with leaves from the garden +rose-bush, which, as usual, had plenty of plant-lice upon it. Armed in +this manner, as perhaps no ornithologist ever went armed before,—I +approached the nest, and to my delight saw it still unharmed (I never +came in sight of it without dreading to find it pillaged); but just as I +was putting my hand into my pocket for the box, off started the bird. +Here was a disappointment indeed; but in the next breath I assured +myself that the recreant must be the male, who for once had been +spelling his companion. So I fell back a little, and in a minute or less +one of the pair went on to brood. This was the mother, without question, +and I again drew near. True enough, she welcomed me with all her +customary politeness. No matter what her husband might say, she knew +better than to distrust an inoffensive, kind-hearted gentleman like +myself. Had I not proved myself such time and again? So I imagined her +to be <!-- Page 31 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>reasoning. At all events, she sat quiet and unconcerned; +apparently more unconcerned than her visitor, for, to tell the truth, I +was so anxious for the success of this crowning experiment that I +actually found myself trembling. However, I opened my store of dainties, +wet the tip of my little finger, took up an insect, and held it to her +mandibles. For a moment she seemed not to know what it was, but soon she +picked it off and swallowed it. The second one she seized promptly, and +the third she reached out to anticipate, exactly as a tame canary might +have done. Before I could pass her the fourth she stepped out of the +nest, and took a position upon the branch beside it; but she accepted +the morsel, none the less. And an extremely pretty sight it was,—a wild +wood bird perched upon a twig and feeding from a man's finger!</p> + +<p>She would not stay for more, but flew to another bough; whereupon I +resumed my ramble, and, as usual, she covered the eggs again before I +could get out of sight. When I returned, in half an hour or thereabouts, +I proffered her a mosquito, which I had saved for that purpose. She took +it, but presently <!-- Page 32 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>let it drop. It was not to her taste, probably, for +shortly afterward she caught one herself, as it came fluttering near, +and discarded that also; but she ate the remainder of my rose-bush +parasites, though I was compelled to coax her a little. Seemingly, she +felt that our proceedings were more or less irregular, if not positively +out of character. Not that she betrayed any symptoms of nervousness or +apprehension, but she repeatedly turned away her head, as if determined +to refuse all further overtures. In the end, nevertheless, as I have +said, she ate the very last insect I had to give her.</p> + +<p>During the meal she did something which as a display of nonchalance was +really amazing. The eggs got misplaced, in the course of her twisting +about, and after vainly endeavoring to rearrange them with her feet, as +I had seen her do on several occasions, she ducked her head into the +nest, clean out of sight under her feathers, and set matters to rights +with her beak. I was as near to her as I could well be, without having +her actually in my hand, yet she deliberately put herself entirely off +guard, apparently without the slightest misgiving!</p> + +<p><!-- Page 33 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>Fresh from this adventure, and all aglow with pleasurable excitement, I +met a friend in the city, a naturalist of repute, and one of the +founders of the American Ornithologists' Union. Of course I regaled him +with an account of my wonderful vireo (he was the man to whom I had half +promised the nest); and on his expressing a wish to see her, I invited +him out for the purpose that very afternoon. I smile to remember how +full of fears I was, as he promptly accepted the invitation. The bird, I +declared to myself, would be like the ordinary baby, who, as everybody +knows, is never so stupid as when its fond mother would make a show of +it before company. Yesterday it was so bright and cunning! Never was +baby like it. Yesterday it did such and such unheard-of things; but +to-day, alas, it will do nothing at all. However, I put on a bold face, +filled my pen-box with rose-leaves, exchanged my light-colored hat for +the black one in which my pet had hitherto seen me, furnished my friend +with a field-glass, and started with him for the wood. The nest was +occupied (I believe I never found it otherwise), and, stationing my +associate in<!-- Page 34 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>a favorable position, I marched up to it, when, lo, the +bird at once took wing. This was nothing to be disconcerted about, the +very promptness of the action making it certain that the sitter must +have been the male. The pair were both in sight, and the female would +doubtless soon fill the place which her less courageous lord had +deserted. So it turned out, and within a minute everything was in +readiness for a second essay. This proved successful. The first insect +was instantly laid hold of, whereupon I heard a suppressed exclamation +from behind the field-glass. When I rejoined my friend, having exhausted +my supplies, nothing would do but he must try something of the kind +himself. Accordingly, seizing my hat, which dropped down well over his +ears, he made up to the tree. The bird pecked his finger familiarly, and +before long he came rushing back to the path, exclaiming that he must +find something with which to feed her. After overturning two or three +stones he uncovered an ant's nest, and moistening his forefinger, thrust +it into a mass of eggs. With these he hastened to the vireo. She helped +herself to them <!-- Page 35 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>eagerly, and I could hear him counting, "One, two, +three, four," and so on, as she ate mouthful after mouthful.</p> + +<p>Now, then, he wished to examine the contents of the nest, especially as +it was the first of its kind that he had ever seen out-of-doors. But the +owner was set upon not giving him the opportunity. He stroked her head, +brushed her wings, and, as my note-book puts it, "poked her generally;" +and still she kept her place. Finally, as he stood on one side of her +and I on the other, we pushed the branch down, down, till she was fairly +under our noses. Then she stepped off; but even now, it was only to +alight on the very next twig, and face us calmly! and we had barely +started away before we saw her again on duty. Brave bird! My friend was +exceedingly pleased, and I not less so; though the fact of her making no +difference between us was something of a shock to my self-conceit, +endeavor as I might to believe that she had welcomed him, if not in my +stead, yet at least as my friend. What an odd pair we must have looked +in her eyes! Possibly she had heard of the new movement for the +<!-- Page 36 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>protection of American song-birds, and took us for representatives of +the Audubon Society.</p> + +<p>Desiring to make some fresh experiment, I set out the next morning with +a little water and a teaspoon, in addition to my ordinary outfit of +rose-leaves. The mother bird was at home, and without hesitation dipped +her bill into the water,—the very first solitary vireo, I dare be +bound, that ever drank out of a silver spoon! Afterwards I gave her the +insects, of which she swallowed twenty-four as fast as I could pick them +up. Evidently she was hungry, and appreciated my attentions. There was +nothing whatever of the coquettishness which she had sometimes +displayed. On the contrary, she leaned forward to welcome the tidbits, +one by one, quite as if it were the most natural thing in the world for +birds to be waited upon in this fashion by their human admirers. Toward +the end, however, a squirrel across the way set up a loud bark, and she +grew nervous; so that when it came to the twenty-fifth louse, which was +the last I could find, she was too much preoccupied to care for it.</p> + +<p>At this point a mosquito stung my neck, <!-- Page 37 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>and, killing it, I held it +before her. She snapped at it in a twinkling, but retained it between +her mandibles. Whether she would finally have swallowed it I am not able +to say (and so must leave undecided a very interesting and important +question in economic ornithology), for just then I remembered a piece of +banana with which I had been meaning to tempt her. Of this she tasted at +once, and, as I thought, found it good; for she transfixed it with her +bill, and, quitting her seat, carried it away and deposited it on a +branch. But instead of eating it, as I expected to see her do, she fell +to fly-catching, while her mate promptly appeared, and as soon as +opportunity offered took his turn at brooding. My eyes, meanwhile, had +not kept the two distinct, and, supposing that the mother had returned, +I stepped up to offer her another drink, but had no sooner filled the +spoon than the fellow took flight. At this the female came to the rescue +again, and unhesitatingly entered the nest. It was a noble reproof, I +thought; well deserved, and very handsomely administered. "Oh, you +cowardly dear," I fancied her saying, <!-- Page 38 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>"he'll not hurt you. See me, now! +I'm not afraid. He's queer, I know; but he means well."</p> + +<p>I should have mentioned that while the squirrel was barking she uttered +some very pretty <i>sotto voce</i> notes of two kinds,—one like what I have +often heard, and one entirely novel.</p> + +<p>A man ought to have lived with such a creature, year in and out, and +seen it under every variety of mood and condition, before imagining +himself possessed of its entire vocabulary. For who doubts that birds, +also, have their more sacred and intimate feelings, their esoteric +doctrines and experiences, which are not proclaimed upon the tree-top, +but spoken under breath, in all but inaudible twitters? Certainly this +pet of mine on sundry occasions whispered into my ear things which I had +never heard before, and as to the purport of which, in my ignorance of +the vireonian tongue, I could only conjecture. For my own part, I am +through with thinking that I have mastered all the notes of any bird, +even the commonest.</p> + +<p>I wondered, by the bye, whether my <!-- Page 39 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>speech was as unintelligible to the +greenlet as hers was to me. I trust, at all events, that she divined a +meaning in the tones, however she may have missed the words; for I never +called without telling her how much I admired her spirit. She was all +that a bird ought to be, I assured her, good, brave, and handsome; and +should never suffer harm, if I could help it. Alas! although, as the +apostle says, I loved "not in word, but in deed and in truth," yet when +the pinch came I was somewhere else, and all my promises went for +nothing.</p> + +<p>Our intercourse was nearing its end. It was already the 10th of June, +and on the 12th I was booked for a journey. During my last visit but one +it gratified me not a little to perceive that the wife's example and +reproof had begun to tell upon her mate. He happened to be in the nest +as I came up, and sat so unconcernedly while I made ready to feed him +that I took it for granted I was dealing with the female, till at the +last moment he slipped away. I stepped aside for perhaps fifteen feet, +and waited briefly, both birds in sight. Then the lady took her turn at +sitting, and I <!-- Page 40 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>proceeded to try again. She behaved like herself, made +free with a number of insects, and then, all at once, for no reason that +I could guess at, she sprang out of the nest, and alighted on the ground +within two yards of my feet, and almost before I could realize what had +occurred was up in the tree. I had my eyes upon her, determined, if +possible, to keep the pair distinct, and succeeded, as I believed, in so +doing. Pretty soon the male (unless I was badly deceived) went to the +nest with a large insect in his bill, and stood for some time beside it, +eating and chattering. Finally he dropped upon the eggs, and, seeing him +grown thus unsuspicious, I thought best to test him once more. This time +he kept his seat, and with great condescension ate two of my plant-lice. +But there he made an end. Again and again I put the third one to his +mouth; but he settled back obstinately into the nest, and would have +none of it. For once, as it seemed, he could be brave; but he was not to +be coddled, or treated like a baby—or a female. There were good +reasons, of course, for his being less hungry than his mate, and +<!-- Page 41 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>consequently less appreciative of such favors as I had to bestow; but it +was very amusing to see how tightly he shut his bill, as if his mind +were made up, and no power on earth should shake it.</p> + +<p>If any inquisitive person raises the question whether I am absolutely +certain of this bird's being the male, I must answer in the negative. +The couple were dressed alike, as far as I could make out, save that the +female was much the more brightly washed with yellow on the sides of the +body; and my present discrimination of them was based upon close +attention to this point, as well as upon my careful and apparently +successful effort not to confuse the two, after the one which I knew to +be the female (the one, that is, which had done most of the sitting, and +had all along been so very familiar) had joined the other among the +branches. I had no downright proof, it must be acknowledged, nor could I +have had any without killing and dissecting the bird; but my own strong +conviction was and is that the male had grown fearless by observing my +treatment of his spouse, but from some difference of taste, <!-- Page 42 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>or, more +probably, for lack of appetite, found himself less taken than she had +commonly been with my rather meagre bill of fare.</p> + +<p>This persuasion, it cannot be denied, was considerably shaken the next +morning, when I paid my friends a parting call. The father bird, +forgetful of his own good example of the day before, and mindless of all +the proprieties of such a farewell occasion, slipped incontinently from +the eggs just as I was removing the cover from my pen-box. Well, he +missed the last opportunity he was likely ever to have of breakfasting +from a human finger. So ignorant are birds, no less than men, of the day +of their visitation! Before I could get away,—while I was yet within +two yards of the nest,—the other bird hastened to occupy the vacant +place. <i>She</i> knew what was due to so considerate and well-tried a +friend, if her partner did not. The little darling! As soon as she was +well in position I stepped to her side, opened my treasures, and gave +her, one by one, twenty-six insects (all I had), which she took with +avidity, reaching forward again and again to anticipate <!-- Page 43 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>my motions. +Then I stole a last look at the four pretty eggs, having almost to force +her from the nest for that purpose, bade her good-by, and came away, +sorry enough to leave her; forecasting, as I could not help doing, the +slight probability of finding her again on my return, and picturing to +myself all the sweet, motherly ways she would be certain to develop as +soon as the little ones were hatched.</p> + +<p>Within an hour I was speeding toward the Green Mountains. There, in +those ancient Vermont forests, I saw and heard other solitary vireos, +but none that treated me as my Melrose pair had done. Noble and gentle +spirits! though I were to live a hundred years, I should never see their +like again.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the story is, unhappily, soon told. I was absent a +fortnight, and on getting back went at once to the sacred oak. Alas! +there was nothing but a severed branch to show where the vireos' nest +had hung. The cut looked recent; I was thankful for that. Perhaps the +"collector," whoever he was, had been kind enough to wait till the +owners of the house were done <!-- Page 44 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>with it, before he carried it away. Let +us hope so, at all events, for the peace of his own soul, as well as for +the sake of the birds.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 45 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> +<h2>AN OLD ROAD.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Methinks here one may, without much molestation, be thinking +what he is, whence he came, what he has done, and to what the +King has called him.—<span class="smcap">Bunyan.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">I fall in with persons, now and then, who profess to care nothing for a +path when walking in the woods. They do not choose to travel in other +people's footsteps,—nay, nor even in their own,—but count it their +mission to lay out a new road every time they go afield. They are +welcome to their freak. My own genius for adventure is less highly +developed; and, to be frank, I have never learned to look upon +affectation and whim as synonymous with originality. In my eyes, it is +nothing against a hill that other men have climbed it before me; and if +their feet have worn a trail, so much the better. I not only reach the +summit more easily, but have company on the way,—company none the less +to my mind, perhaps, for being silent and invisible. It is <!-- Page 46 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>well enough +to strike into the trackless forest once in a while; to wander you know +not whither, and come out you know not where; to lie down in a strange +place, and for an hour imagine yourself the explorer of a new continent: +but if the mind be awake (as, alas, too often it is not), you may walk +where you will, in never so well known a corner, and you will see new +things, and think new thoughts, and return to your house a new man, +which, I venture to believe, is after all the main consideration. +Indeed, if your stirring abroad is to be more than mere muscular +exercise, you will find a positive advantage in making use of some +well-worn and familiar path. The feet will follow it mechanically, and +so the mind—that is, the walker himself—will be left undistracted. +That, to my thinking, is the real tour of discovery wherein one keeps to +the beaten road, looks at the customary sights, but brings home a new +idea.</p> + +<p>There are inward moods, as well as outward conditions, in which an old, +half-disused, bush-bordered road becomes the saunterer's paradise. I +have several such in my <!-- Page 47 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>eye at this moment, but especially one, in +which my feet, years ago, grew to feel at home. It is an almost ideal +loitering place, or would be, if only it were somewhat longer. How many +hundreds of times have I traveled it, spring and summer, autumn and +winter! As I go over it now, the days of my youth come back to me, +clothed all of them in that soft, benignant light which nothing but +distance can bestow, whether upon hills or days. This gracious effect is +heightened, no doubt, by the fact that for a good while past my visits +to the place have been only occasional. Memory and imagination are true +yoke-fellows, and between them are always preparing some new pleasure +for us, as often as we allow them opportunity. The other day, for +instance, as I came to the top of the hill just beyond the river, I +turned suddenly to the right, looking for an old pear-tree. I had not +thought of it for years, and the more I have since tried to recall its +appearance and exact whereabouts, the less confident have I grown that +it ever had any material existence; but somehow, just at that moment my +mouth seemed to recollect <!-- Page 48 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>it; and in general I have come to put faith +in such involuntary and, if I may say so, sensible joggings of the +memory. I wonder whether the tree ever was there—or anywhere. At all +events, the thought of it gave me for the moment a pleasure more real +than any taste in the mouth, were it never so sweet. Thank fortune, +imaginative delights are as far as possible from being imaginary.</p> + +<p>The river just mentioned runs under the road, and, as will readily be +inferred, is one of its foremost attractions. I speak of it as a "river" +with some misgivings. It is a rather large brook, or a very small river; +but a man who has never been able to leap across it has perhaps no right +to deny it the more honorable appellation. Its source is a spacious and +beautiful sheet of water, which heretofore has been known as a "pond," +but which I should be glad to believe would hereafter be put upon the +maps as Lake Wessagusset. This brook or river, call it whichever you +please, goes meandering through the township in a northeasterly +direction, turning the wheels of half a dozen mills, more or less, on +its <!-- Page 49 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>way; a sluggish stream, too lazy to work, you would think; passing +much of its time in flat, grassy meadows, where it idles along as if it +realized that the end of its course was near, and felt in no haste to +lose itself in the salt sea. Out of this stream I pulled goodly numbers +of perch, pickerel, shiners, flatfish, and hornpouts, while I was still +careless-hearted enough ("Heaven lies about us in our infancy") to enjoy +this very amiable and semi-religious form of "sport;" and as the river +intersects at least seven roads that came within my boyish beat, I must +have crossed it thousands of times; in addition to which I have spent +days in paddling and bathing in it. Altogether, it is one of my most +familiar friends; and—what one cannot say of all familiar friends—I do +not remember that it ever served me the slightest ill-turn. It passes +under the road of which I am now discoursing, in a double channel (the +bridge being supported midway by a stone wall), and then broadens out +into an artificial shallow, through which travelers may drive if they +will, to let their horses drink out of the stream. First and last, I +have improved <!-- Page 50 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>many a shining hour on this bridge, leaning industriously +over the railing. I can see the rocky bed at this moment,—yes, and the +very shape and position of some of the stones, as I saw them thirty +years ago; especially of one, on which we used to balance ourselves to +dip up the water or to peer under the bridge. In those days, if we +essayed to be uncommonly adventurous, we waded through this low and +somewhat dark passage; a gruesome proceeding, as we were compelled to +stoop a little, short as we were, to save our heads, while the road, to +our imagination, seemed in momentary danger of caving in upon us. +Courage, like all other human virtues, is but a relative attribute. +Possibly the heroic deeds upon which in our grown-up estate we plume +ourselves are not greatly more meritorious or wonderful than were some +of the childish ventures at the recollection of which we now condescend +to feel amused.</p> + +<p>On the surface of the brook flourished two kinds of insects, whose +manner of life we never tired of watching. One sort had long, +wide-spreading legs, and by us were <!-- Page 51 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>known as "skaters," from their +movements (to this day, I blush to confess, I have no other name for +them); the others were flat, shining, orbicular or oblong, lead-colored +bugs,—"lucky bugs" I have heard them called,—and lay flat upon the +water, as if quite without limbs; but they darted over the brook, and +even against the current, with noticeable activity, and doubtless were +well supplied with paddles. Once in a while we saw a fish here, but only +on rare occasions. The great unfailing attraction of the place, then as +now, was the flowing water, forever spending and never spent. The +insects lived upon it; apparently they had no power to leave it for an +instant; but they were not carried away by it. Happy creatures! We, +alas, sporting upon the river of time, can neither dive below the +surface nor mount into the ether, and, unlike the insects ("lucky bugs," +indeed!), we have no option but to move with the tide. We have less +liberty than the green flags, even, which grow in scattered tufts in the +bed of the brook; whose leaves point forever down stream, like so many +index fingers, as if they said, "Yes, <!-- Page 52 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>yes, that is the way to the sea; +that way we all must go;" while for themselves, nevertheless, they +manage to hold on by their roots, victorious even while professing to +yield.</p> + +<p>To my mind the river is alive. Reason about it as I will, I never can +make it otherwise. I could sooner believe in water nymphs than in many +existences which are commonly treated as much more certain matters of +fact. I <i>could</i> believe in them, I say; but in reality I do not. My +communings are not with any haunter of the river, but with the living +soul of the river itself. It lags under the vine-covered alders, hastens +through the bridge, then slips carelessly down a little descent, where +it breaks into singing, then into a mill-pond and out again, and so on +and on, through one experience after another; and all the time it is not +dead water, but a river, a thing of life and motion. After all, it is +not for me to say what is alive and what dead. As yet, indeed, I do not +so much as know what life is. In certain moods, in what I fondly call my +better moments, I feel measurably sure of being alive myself; but even +on that <!-- Page 53 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>point, for aught I can tell, the brook may entertain some +private doubts.</p> + +<p>Just beyond the bridge is an ancient apple orchard. This was already +falling into decay when I was a boy, and the many years that have +elapsed since then have nearly completed its demolition; although I dare +say the present generation of school-boys still find it worth while to +clamber over the wall, as they journey back and forth. Probably it will +be no surprise to the owner of the place if I tell him that before I was +twelve years old I knew the taste of all his apples. In fact, the +orchard was so sequestered, so remote from any house,—especially from +its proprietor's,—that it hardly seemed a sin to rob it. It was not so +much an orchard as a bit of woodland; and besides, we never shook the +trees, but only helped ourselves to windfalls; and it must be a severe +moralist who calls <i>that</i> stealing. Why should the fruit drop off, if +not to be picked up? In my time, at all events, such appropriations were +never accounted robbery, though the providential absence of the owner +was unquestionably a thing to be thankful for. He would never <!-- Page 54 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>begrudge +us the apples, of course, for he was rich and presumably generous; but +it was quite as well for him to be somewhere else while we were +gathering up these favors which the winds of heaven had shaken down for +our benefit. There is something of the special pleader in most of us, it +is to be feared, whether young or old. If we are put to it, we can draw +a very fine distinction (in our own favor), no matter how obtuse we may +seem on ordinary occasions.</p> + +<p>Remembering how voracious and undiscriminating my juvenile appetite was, +I cannot help wondering that I am still alive,—a feeling which I doubt +not is shared by many a man who, like myself, had a country bringing-up. +We must have been born with something more than a spark of life, else it +would certainly have been smothered long ago by the fuel so recklessly +heaped upon it. But we lived out-of-doors, took abundant exercise, were +not studious overmuch (as all boys and girls are charged with being +nowadays), and had little to worry about, which may go far to explain +the mystery.</p> + +<p>It provokes a smile to reckon up the <!-- Page 55 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>many places along this old road +that are indissolubly connected in my mind with the question of +something to eat. At the foot of the orchard just now spoken of, for +example, is a dilapidated stone wall, between it and the river. Over +this, as well as over the bushes beside it, straggled a small wild +grape-vine, bearing every year a scanty crop of white grapes. These, to +our unsophisticated palates, were delicious, if only they got ripe. That +was the rub; and as a rule we gathered our share of them (which was all +there were) while they were yet several stages short of that desirable +consummation, not deeming it prudent to leave them longer, lest some +hungrier soul should get the start of us. Graping, as we called it, was +one of our regular autumn industries, and there were few vines within +the circle of our perambulations which did not feel our fingers tugging +at them at least once a year. Some of them hung well over the river; +others took refuge in the tops of trees; but by hook or by crook, we +usually got the better of such perversities. No doubt the fruit was all +bad enough; but some of it was <!-- Page 56 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>sweeter (or less sour) than other. +Perhaps the best vine was one that covered a certain superannuated +apple-tree, half a mile west of our river-side orchard, before +mentioned. Here I might have been seen by the hour, eagerly yet +cautiously venturing out upon the decayed and doubtful limbs, in quest +of this or that peculiarly tempting bunch. These grapes were purple (how +well some things are remembered!), and were sweeter then than Isabellas +or Catawbas are now. Such is the degeneracy of vines in these modern +days!</p> + +<p>Altogether more important than the grapes were the huckleberries, for +which, also, we four times out of five took this same famous by-road. +Speaking roughly, I may say that we depended upon seven pastures for our +supplies, and were accustomed to visit them in something like regular +order. It is kindly provided that huckleberry bushes have an +exceptionally strong tendency to vary. We possessed no theories upon the +subject, and knew nothing of disputed questions about species and +varieties; but we were not without a good degree of practical +information. Here was <!-- Page 57 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>a bunch of bushes, for instance, covered with +black, shiny, pear-shaped berries, very numerous, but very small. They +would do moderately well in default of better. Another patch, perhaps +but a few rods removed, bore large globular berries, less glossy than +the others, but still black. These, as we expressed it, "filled up" much +faster than the others, though not nearly so "thick." Blue berries (not +blueberries, but blue huckleberries) were common enough, and we knew one +small cluster of plants, the fruit of which was white, a variety that I +have since found noted by Doctor Gray as very rare. Unhappily, this +freak made so little impression upon me as a boy that while I am clear +as to the fact, and feel sure of the pasture, I have no distinct +recollection of the exact spot where the eccentric bushes grew. I should +like to know whether they still persist. Gray's Manual, by the way, +makes no mention of the blue varieties, but lays it down succinctly that +the fruit of <i>Gaylussacia resinosa</i> is black.</p> + +<p>The difference we cared most about, however, related not to color, +shape, or size, <!-- Page 58 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>but to the time of ripening. Diversity of habit in this +regard was indeed a great piece of good fortune, not to be rightly +appreciated without horrible imaginings of how short the season of berry +pies and puddings would be if all the berries matured at once. You may +be sure we never forgot where the early sorts were to be found, and +where the late. What hours upon hours we spent in the broiling sun, +picking into some half-pint vessel, and emptying that into a larger +receptacle, safely stowed away under some cedar-tree or barberry bush. +How proud we were of our heaped-up pails! How carefully we discarded +from the top every half-ripe or otherwise imperfect specimen! (So early +do well-taught Yankee children develop one qualification for the +diaconate.) The sun had certain minor errands to look after, we might +have admitted, even in those midsummer days, but his principal business +was to ripen huckleberries. So it seemed then. And now—well, men are +but children still, and for them, too, their own little round is the +centre of the world.</p> + +<p>All these pastures had names, of course, well understood by us children, +though I <!-- Page 59 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>am not sure how generally they would have been recognized by +the townspeople. The first in order was River Pasture, the owner of +which turned his cattle into it, and every few years mowed the bushes, +with the result that the berries, whenever there were any, were +uncommonly large and handsome. Not far beyond this (the entrance was +through a "pair of bars," beside a spreading white oak) was Millstone +Pasture. This was a large, straggling place, half pasture, half wood, +full of nooks and corners, with by-paths running hither and thither, and +named after two large bowlders, which lay one on top of the other. We +used to clamber upon these to eat our luncheon, thinking within +ourselves, meanwhile, that the Indians must have been men of prodigious +strength. At that time, though I scarcely know how to own it, glacial +action was a thing by us unheard of. We are wiser now,—on that point, +at any rate. Two of the other pastures were called respectively after +the railroad and a big pine-tree (there <i>was</i> a big pine-tree in W—— +once, for I myself have seen the stump), while the remainder took <!-- Page 60 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>their +names from their owners, real or reputed; and as some of these +appellations were rather disrespectfully abbreviated, it may be as well +to omit setting them down in print.</p> + +<p>To all these places we resorted a little later in the season for +blackberries, and later still for barberries. In one or two of them we +set snares, also, but without materially lessening the quantity of game. +The rabbits, especially, always helped themselves to the bait, and left +us the noose. At this distance of time I do not begrudge them their good +fortune. I hope they are all alive yet, including the youngster that we +once caught in our hands and brought home, and then, in a fit of +contrition, carried back again to its native heath.</p> + +<p>All in all, the berries that we prized most, perhaps, were those that +came first, and were at the same time least abundant. Yankee children +will understand at once that I mean the checkerberries, or, as we were +more accustomed to call them, the boxberries. The very first mild days +in March, if the snow happened to be mostly <!-- Page 61 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>gone, saw us on this same +old road bound for one of the places where we thought ourselves most +likely to find a few (possibly a pint or two, but more probably a +handful or two) of these humble but spicy fruits. Not that the plants +were not plentiful enough in all directions, but it was only in certain +spots (or rather in very uncertain spots, since these were continually +shifting) that they were ever in good bearing condition. We came after a +while to understand that the best crops were produced for two or three +years after the cutting off of the wood in suitable localities. Letting +in the sunlight seems to have the effect of starting into sudden +fruitfulness this hardy, persistent little plant, although I never could +discover that it thrived better for growing permanently in an open, +sunny field. Perhaps it requires an unexpected change of condition, a +providential nudge, as it were, to jog it into activity, like some +poets. Whatever the explanation, we used now and then in recent +clearings (and nowhere else) to find the ground fairly red with berries. +Those were red-letter days in our calendar. How handsome such a <!-- Page 62 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>patch +of rose-color was (though we made haste to despoil it), circling an old +stump or a bowlder! The berries were pleasant to the eye and good for +food; but after all, their principal attractiveness lay in the fact that +they came right upon the heels of winter. They were the first-fruits of +the new year (ripened the year before, to be sure), and to our thinking +were fit to be offered upon any altar, no matter how sacred.</p> + +<p>I have called the subject of my loving meditations a by-road. Formerly +it was the main thoroughfare between two villages, but shortly after my +acquaintance with it began a new and more direct one was laid out. Yet +the old road, half deserted as it is, has not altogether escaped the +ruthless hand of the improver. Within my time it has been widened +throughout, and in one place a new section has been built to cut off a +curve. Fortunately, however, the discarded portion still remains, well +grown up to grass, and closely encroached upon by willows, alders, +sumachs, barberries, dogwoods, smilax, clethra, azalea, button-bush, +birches, and what not, yet still passable even for carriages, <!-- Page 63 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>and more +inviting than ever to lazy pedestrians like myself. On this cast-off +section is a cosy, grassy nook, shaded by a cluster of red cedars. This +was one of our favorite way-stations on summer noons. It gives me a +comfortable, restful feeling to look into it even now, as if my weary +limbs had reminiscences of their own connected with the place.</p> + +<p>Right at this point stands an ancient russet-apple tree, which seems no +older and brings forth no smaller apples now than it did when I first +knew it. How natural it looks in every knot and branch! Strange, too, +that it should be so, since I do not recall its ever contributing the +first mouthful to my pleasures as a schoolboy gastronomer. In those +times I judged a tree solely by the New Testament standard, very +literally interpreted,—"By their fruits ye shall know them." Now I have +other tests, and can value an old acquaintance of this kind for its +picturesqueness, though its apples be bitter as wormwood.</p> + +<p>I am making too much of the food question, and will therefore say +nothing of strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, cranberries <!-- Page 64 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +(which last were delicious, as we took them out of their icy ovens in +the spring), pig-nuts, hazel-nuts, acorns, and the rest. Yet I will not +pass by a small clump of dangleberry bushes (a September luxury not +common in our neighborhood) and a lofty pear-tree. The latter, in truth, +hardly belongs under this head; for though it bore superabundant crops +of pears, not even a child was ever known to eat one. We called them +iron pears, perhaps because nothing but the hottest fire could be +expected to reduce them to a condition of softness. My mouth is all in a +pucker at the mere thought of the rusty-green bullets. It did seem a +pity they should be so outrageously hard, so absolutely untoothsome; for +the tree, as I say, was a big one and provokingly prolific, and, +moreover, stood squarely upon the roadside. What a godsend we should +have found it, had its fruit been a few degrees less stony! Such +incongruities and disappointments go far to convince me that the +creation is indeed, as some theologians have taught, under a curse.</p> + +<p>My appetite for wild fruits has grown dull with age, but meanwhile my +affection <!-- Page 65 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>for the old road has not lessened, but rather increased. In +itself the place is nowise remarkable, a common country back road (its +very name is Back Street); but all the same I "take pleasure in its +stones, and favor the dust thereof." There are none of us so +matter-of-fact and unsentimental, I hope, as never to have experienced +the force of old associations in gilding the most ordinary objects. For +my own part, I protest, I would give more for a single stunted cluster +of orange-red berries from a certain small vine of Roxbury wax-work, +near the entrance to Millstone Pasture aforesaid, than for a bushel of +larger and handsomer specimens from some alien source. This old vine +still holds on, I am happy to see, though it appears to have made no +growth in twenty years. Long may it be spared! It was within a few rods +of it, beside the path that runs into the pasture, that I shot my first +bird. Newly armed with a shotgun, and on murder bent, I turned in here; +and as luck would have it, there sat the innocent creature in a birch. +The temptation was too great. There followed a moment of excitement, a +nervous aim, a bang, and <!-- Page 66 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>a catbird's song was hushed forever. A mean +and cruel act, which I confess with shame, and have done my best to +atone for by speaking here and there a good word for this poorly +appreciated member of our native choir. I should be glad to believe that +the schoolboys of the present day are more tender-hearted than those +with whom I mixed; but I am not without my doubts. As Darwin showed, all +animals in the embryonic stage tend to reproduce ancestral +characteristics; and our Anglo-Saxon ancestors (how easy it seems to +believe it!) were barbarians.</p> + +<p>This same Millstone Pasture, by the bye, was a place of special resort +at Christmas time. Here grew plenty of the trailing plant which we knew +simply as "evergreen," but which now, in my superior wisdom, I call +<i>Lycopodium complanatum</i>. This, indeed, was common in various +directions, but the holly was much less easily found, and grew here more +freely than anywhere else. The unhappy trees had a hard shift to live, +so broken down were they with each recurring December; and the more +berries they produced, the worse for them. <!-- Page 67 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>Their anticipations of +Christmas must have been strangely different from those of us +toy-loving, candy-eating children. But who thinks of sympathizing with a +tree?</p> + +<p>As for the wayside flowers, they are, as becomes the place, of the very +commonest and most old-fashioned sorts, more welcome to my eye than the +choicest of rarities: golden-rods and asters in great variety and +profusion, hardhack and meadow-sweet, St. John's wort and loosestrife, +violets and anemones, self-heal and cranes-bill, and especially the +lovely but little-known purple gerardia. These, with their natural +companions and allies, make to me a garden of delights, whereunto my +feet, as far as they find opportunity, do continually resort. What +flowers ought a New Englander to love, if not such as are characteristic +of New England?</p> + +<p>And yet, proudly and affectionately as I talk of it, Back Street is not +what it once was. I have already mentioned the straightening, as also +the widening, both of them sorry improvements. Furthermore, there was +formerly a huge (as I remember it) and beautifully proportioned +hemlock-tree, <!-- Page 68 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>at which I used to gaze admiringly in the first years of +my wandering hither. What millions of tiny cones hung from its pendulous +branches! The magnificent creation should have been protected by +legislative enactment, if necessary; but no, almost as long ago as I can +remember, long before I attained to grammar-school dignities, the owner +of the land (so he thought himself, no doubt) turned the tree into +firewood. And worse yet, the stately pine grove that flourished across +the way, with mossy bowlders underneath and a most delightsome density +of shade,—this, too, like the patriarchal hemlock, has been cut off in +the midst of its usefulness.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Their very memory is fair and bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And my sad thoughts doth cheer!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now there is nothing on the whole hillside but a thicket of young +hard-wood trees (I would say deciduous, but in New England, alas, all +trees are deciduous), through which my dog loves to prowl, but which +warns me to keep the road. Such devastations are not to be prevented, I +suppose, but at least there is no law against my bewailing them.</p> + +<p>Even in its present decadence, however, <!-- Page 69 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>my road, as I said to begin +with, is a kind of saunterer's paradise. When we come to particulars, +indeed, it is nothing to boast of; but waiving particulars, and taking +it for all in all, there is no highway upon the planet where I better +enjoy an idle hour. There is a boy of perhaps ten years whose +companionship is out of all reason dear to me; and nowhere am I surer to +find him at my side, hand in hand, than in this same lonely road, +although I know very well that those who meet or pass me here see only +one person, and that a man of several times ten years. But thank Heaven, +we are not always alone when we seem to be.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 70 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am bold to show myself a forward guest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorscpoem">Shakespeare.</p> + + +<p class="section">Let it be said at the outset that the seeker after bird's-nests is never +without plenty of company, of one sort and another. For instance, I was +out early one cloudy morning last spring, when I caught sight of a +handsome black and white animal nosing his way through the bushes on one +side of the path. He had come forth on the same errand as myself; and I +thought at once of the veery's nest, for which I had been looking in +vain, but which could not be far from the very spot where my black and +white rival was just at this moment standing. I wondered whether he had +already found it; but I did not stay to ask him. In spite of his beauty, +and in spite of our evident community of interest, I felt no drawings +toward a more intimate <!-- Page 71 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>acquaintance. I knew him by name and +reputation,—<i>Mephitis mephitica</i> the scientific folk call him, with +felicitous reverberative emphasis,—and that sufficed. At another time, +a few weeks later than this, I overheard an unusual commotion among the +birds in our apple orchard. "Some rascally cat!" I thought; and, picking +up a stone, I hastened to put a stop to his depredations. But there was +no cat in sight; and it was not till I stood immediately under the tree +that I discovered the marauder to be a snake, just then slowly making +toward the ground, with a young bird in his jaws. Watching my +opportunity, while he was engaged in the delicate operation of lowering +himself from one branch to another, I shook the trunk vigorously, and +down he tumbled at my feet. Once and again I set my heel upon him; but +the tall grass was in his favor, and he succeeded in getting off, +leaving his dead victim behind him.<a name="FNanchor_71:1_2" id="FNanchor_71:1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_71:1_2" class="fnanchor">[71:1]</a></p> + +<p><!-- Page 72 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>It is noble society in which we find ourselves, is it not? In the front +rank are what we may call the <i>professional</i> oölogists,—such as follow +the business for a livelihood: snakes, skunks, weasels, squirrels, cats, +crows, jays, cuckoos, and the like. Then come the not inconsiderable +number of persons who, for a more or less strictly scientific purpose, +take here and there a nest with its contents; while these are followed +by hordes of school-boys, whom the prevalent mania for "collecting" +drives to scrape together miscellaneous lots of eggs,—half-named, +misnamed, and nameless,—to put with previous accumulations of +postage-stamps, autographs, business cards, and other like precious +rubbish.</p> + +<p>Alas, the poor birds! These "perils of robbers" and "perils among false +brethren" are bad enough, but they have many others to encounter; +"journeyings often" and "perils of waters" being among the worst. Gentle +and innocent as they seem, it speaks <!-- Page 73 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>well for their cunning and +endurance that they escape utter extermination.</p> + +<p>This phase of the subject is especially forced upon the attention of +observers like myself, who search for nests, not mischievously, nor even +with the laudable design of the scientific investigator, but solely as a +means of promoting friendly acquaintance. We may not often witness the +catastrophe itself; but as we go our daily rounds, now peeping under the +bank or into the bush, and now climbing the tree, to see how some timid +friend of ours is faring, we are only too certain to come upon first one +home and then another which has been rifled and deserted since our last +visit; till we begin to wonder why the defenseless and persecuted +creatures do not turn pessimists outright, and relinquish forever their +attempt to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."</p> + +<p>Thinking of these things anew, now that I am reviewing my last spring's +experiences, it is doubly gratifying to recall that I robbed only one +nest during the entire season, and that not of malice, but by accident. +It happened on this wise. A couple <!-- Page 74 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>of solitary vireos had taken up +their abode on a wooded hillside, where they, or others like them, had +passed the previous summer, and one day I proposed to a friend that we +make it our business to search out the nest. It proved to be not very +difficult of discovery, though, when we put our eyes upon it, it +appeared that we had walked directly by it several times, all in sight +as it was, suspended from near the end of an oak-tree branch, perhaps +nine feet from the ground. It contained five eggs, including one of the +cow-bird; but just as my companion was about to let go the branch, which +he had been holding down for my convenience, the end snapped, up went +the nest, and out jumped four of the eggs. We were sorry, of course, but +consoled ourselves with the destruction of the parasite, which otherwise +would very likely have been the death of the vireos' own offspring. +Meanwhile, the birds themselves took matters coolly. One of them fell to +singing as soon as we withdrew, while the other flew to the nest, looked +in, and without a word resumed her seat. After all, the accident might +turn out to be nothing worse <!-- Page 75 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>than a blessing in disguise, we said to +each other. But before many days it became evident that the pair had +given up the nest, and I carried it to a friend whom I knew to be in +want of such a specimen for his cabinet.</p> + +<p>It is worth noticing how widely birds of the same species differ among +themselves in their behavior under trial. Their minds are no more run in +one mould than human minds are. In their case, as in ours, innumerable +causes have worked together to produce the unique individual result. +Much is due to inheritance, no doubt, but much likewise to accident. One +mother has never had her nest invaded, and is therefore careless of our +presence. Another has so frequently been robbed of her all that she has +grown hardened to disaster, and she also makes no very great ado when we +intrude upon her. A third is still in a middle state,—alive to the +danger, but not yet able to face it philosophically,—and she will +become hysterical at the first symptom of trouble.</p> + +<p>At the very time of the mishap just described I was keeping watch over +the <!-- Page 76 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>household arrangements of another and much less stoical pair of +solitary vireos. These, as soon as I discovered their secret (which was +not till after several attempts), became extremely jealous of my +proximity, no matter how indirect and innocent my approaches. Even when +I seated myself at what I deemed a very respectful distance the sitting +bird would at once quit her place, and begin to complain in her own +delightfully characteristic manner,—chattering, scolding, and warbling +by turns,—refusing to be pacified in the least until I took myself off. +Once I remained for some time close under the nest, on purpose to see +how many of the neighbors would be attracted to the spot. With the +exception of the wood wagtails, I should say that nearly all the small +birds in the immediate vicinity must have turned out: black-and-white +creepers, redstarts, chestnut-sided warblers, black-throated greens, a +blue golden-wing, red-eyed vireos, and a third solitary vireo. If they +were moved with pity for the pair whose lamentations had drawn them +together, they did not manifest it, as far as I could see. Perhaps they +<!-- Page 77 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>found small occasion for so loud a disturbance. Possibly, moreover, as +spectators who had honored me with their presence (and that in the very +midst of their busy season), they felt themselves cheated, and, so to +speak, outraged, by my failure to finish the tragedy artistically, by +shooting the parent birds and pulling down the nest. Creatures who can +neither read novels nor attend upon dramatic performances may be +presumed to suffer at times for lack of a pleasurable excitement of the +sensibilities. At all events, these visitors contented themselves with +staring at me for a few minutes, and then one by one turned away, as if +it were not much of a show after all. To the interested couple, however, +it was a matter of life and death. The female especially (or the sitter, +for the sexes are indistinguishable) hopped close about my head, +sometimes uttering a strangely sweet, pleading note, which might have +melted a heart much harder than mine. Her associate kept at a more +cautious remove, but made amends by continuing to scold after the danger +was all over. By the bye, I noticed that in the midst of the commotion, +as soon <!-- Page 78 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>as the first agony was past, the one who had been sitting was +not so entirely overcome as not to be able to relish an occasional +insect, which she snatched here and there between her vituperative +exclamations. Faithful and hungry little mother! her heart was not +broken, let us hope, when within a week or so some miscreant, to me +unknown, ravaged her house and left it desolate.</p> + +<p>Not many rods from the vireos' cedar-tree was a brown thrasher's nest in +a barberry bush. It had an exceedingly dilapidated, year-old appearance, +and I went by it several times without thinking it worth looking at, +till I accidentally observed the bird upon it. She did not budge till I +was within a few feet of her, when she tumbled to the ground, and limped +away with loud cries. Perceiving that this worn-out ruse did not avail, +she turned upon me, and actually seemed about to make an attack. How she +did rave! I thought that I had never seen a bird so beside herself with +anger.</p> + +<p>Shortly after my encounter with this irate thrush I nearly stepped upon +one of her <!-- Page 79 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>sisters, brooding upon a ground nest; and it illustrates +what has been said about variety of temperament that the second bird +received me in a very quiet, self-contained manner; giving me to +understand, to be sure, that my visit was ill-timed and unwelcome, but +not acting at all as if I were some ogre, the very sight of which must +perforce drive a body crazy.</p> + +<p>In the course of the season I found three nests of the rose-breasted +grosbeak. The first, to my surprise, was in the topmost branches of a +tall sweet-birch, perhaps forty feet above the ground. I noticed the +female flying into the grove with a load of building materials, and a +little later (as soon as my engagement with an interesting company of +gray-cheeked thrushes would permit) I followed, and almost at once saw +the pair at their work. And a very pretty exhibition it was,—so pretty +that I returned the next morning to see more of it. It must be admitted +that the labor seemed rather unequally divided: the female not only +fetched all the sticks, but took upon herself the entire business of +construction, her partner's contribution to the enterprise being +limited <!-- Page 80 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>strictly to the performance of escort duty. When she had fitted +the new twigs into their place to her satisfaction (which often took +considerable time) she uttered a signal, and the pair flew out of the +wood together, talking sweetly as they went. The male was aware of my +presence from the beginning, I think, but he appeared to regard it as of +no consequence. Probably he believed the nest well out of my reach, as +in fact it was. He usually sang a few snatches while waiting for his +wife, and, as he sat within a few feet of her and made no attempt at +concealment, it could hardly be supposed that he refrained from offering +to assist her for fear his brighter colors should betray their secret. +Some different motive from this must be assigned for his seeming want of +gallantry. To all appearance, however, the parties themselves took the +whole proceeding as a simple matter of course. They were but minding the +most approved grosbeak precedents; and after all, who is so likely to be +in the right as he who follows the fashion? Shall one bird presume to be +wiser than all the millions of his race? Nay; as the Preacher long <!-- Page 81 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>ago +said, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be." Nothing +could have been more complacent and affectionate than the lady's voice +and demeanor as often as she gave the finishing touches to a twig, and +called to her companion, "Come, now, let's go for another." Naturally, +the female is the one most concerned about the stability and comfortable +shape of the nest, and possibly she does not count it prudent to entrust +her spouse with any share in so delicate and important an undertaking; +but, if so, she must know him for an arrant bungler, since the structure +which she herself puts together is a most shabby-looking affair, +scarcely better than the cuckoo's.</p> + +<p>Such happiness as that of these married lovers was perhaps too perfect +to last. At any rate, it was only a week before their idyl all at once +turned to tragedy. A sharp <i>click, click!</i> attracted my attention, as I +passed under their birch (on my way to call upon a pair of chickadees, +who were keeping house in a low stump close by), and, glancing up, I saw +the bushy tail of a red squirrel hanging over the edge of the nest. The +male grosbeak was dashing wildly <!-- Page 82 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>about the invader, while a wood +thrush, a towhee bunting (who looked strange at such a height), a +red-eyed vireo, and a blue golden-winged warbler were surveying the +scene from the adjacent branches,—though the thrush withdrew in the +midst of the tumult, and fell to singing (as one may see happy young +couples going merrily homeward after witnessing the murder of Duncan or +Desdemona). Meanwhile, the squirrel, having finished his work, descended +leisurely toward the ground, snickering and chuckling, as if he felt +immensely pleased with his achievement. Probably his emotions did not +differ essentially from those of a human sportsman, but it was lucky for +him, nevertheless, that I had no means of putting an end to his mirth. I +could have blown his head off without compunction. When he had gone, and +the visiting birds with him, the grosbeak returned to his nest, and in +the most piteous manner hovered about the spot,—getting into the nest +and out again,—as if completely dazed by the sudden disaster. +Throughout the excitement the female did not show herself, and I +wondered whether she could have <!-- Page 83 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>submitted to be killed rather than +desert her charge. To the honor of her kind be it said that the +supposition is far from incredible.</p> + +<p>My second nest of this species was within twenty rods of the first, and +was in use at the same time; but it met with no better fate, though I +was not present to see it robbed. The third was more prosperous, and, +unless something befell the young at the last moment, they were safely +launched upon the wing. This nest was situated in a clump of witch-hazel +bushes, at a height of eight or nine feet. I remarked a grosbeak singing +near the spot, and, seeing him very unwilling to move away, concluded +that his home could not be far off. It was soon found,—a slight, +shapeless, frail-looking bundle of sticks, with the female upon it. I +took hold of the main stem, just below her, and drew her towards me; but +she would not rise, although I could see her moving uneasily. I had no +heart to annoy her; so I called her a good, brave bird, and left her in +peace. Her mate, all this while, kept on singing; and to judge from his +behavior, I might have been some honored guest, to be welcomed with +music. The <!-- Page 84 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>simple-hearted—not to say simple-minded—fearlessness of +this bird is really astonishing; especially in view of the fact that his +showy plumage makes him a favorite mark for every amateur taxidermist. +He will even warble while brooding upon the eggs, a delicious piece of +absurdity, which I hope sooner or later to witness for myself.</p> + +<p>While watching my first couple of grosbeaks I suddenly became aware of a +wood thrush passing back and forth between the edge of a brook and a +certain oak, against the hole of which she was making ready her summer +residence. She seemed to be quite unattended; but just as I was +beginning to contrast her case with that of the feminine grosbeak +overhead, her mate broke into song from a low branch directly behind me. +<i>She</i> had all the while known where he was, I dare say, and would have +been greatly amused at my commiseration of her loneliness. The next +morning she was compelled to make longer flights for such stuff as she +needed; and now it was pleasant to observe that her lord did not fail to +accompany her to and fro, and to sing to her while she worked.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 85 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>The wood thrush has the name of a recluse, and, as compared with the +omnipresent robin, he may deserve the title; but he is seldom very +difficult of approach, if one only knows how to go about it, while his +nest is peculiarly easy of detection. I remember one which was close by +an unfenced road, just outside the city of Washington; and two or three +years ago I found another in a barberry bush, not more than fifteen feet +from a horse-car track, and so near the fence as to be almost within +arm's-length of passers-by. This latter was in full view from the +street, and withal was so feebly supported that some kind-hearted +neighbor had taken pains to tie up the bush (which stood by itself) with +a piece of dangerously new-looking rope. And even as I write I recall +still a third, which also was close by the roadside, though at the very +exceptional elevation of twenty-five or thirty feet.</p> + +<p>It is one of the capital advantages of the ornithologist's condition +that he is rarely called upon to spend his time and strength for naught. +If he fails of the particular object of his search, he is all but sure +to <!-- Page 86 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>be rewarded with something else. For example, while I was +unsuccessfully playing the spy upon a pair of my solitary vireos, a +female tanager suddenly dropped into her half-built nest in a low +pine-branch, at the same time calling softly to her mate, who at once +came to sit beside her. Unfortunately, one of the pair very soon caught +sight of me, and they made off in haste. I lingered about, till finally +the lady appeared again, with her beak full of sticks, standing out at +all points of the compass. She was so jealous of my espionage, however, +that it looked as if she would never be rid of her load. No sooner did +she alight in the tree than she began to crane her neck, staring this +way and that, and <i>chipping</i> nervously; then she shifted her perch; then +out of the tree she went altogether; then back again; then off once +more; then back within a yard of the nest; then away again, till at last +my patience gave out, and I left her mistress of the field. All this +while the male was in sight, flitting restlessly from tree to tree at a +safe distance. I have never witnessed a prettier display of connubial +felicity than this pair afforded me during <!-- Page 87 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>the minute or two which +elapsed between my discovery of them and their discovery of me. I felt +almost guilty for intruding upon such a scene; but, if they could only +have believed it, I intended no harm, nor have I now any thought of +profaning their innocent mysteries by attempting to describe what I saw.</p> + +<p>The male tanager, with his glory of jet black and flaming scarlet, is in +curious contrast with his mate, with whose personal appearance, +nevertheless, he seems to be abundantly satisfied. Possibly he looks +upon a dirty greenish-yellow as the loveliest of tints, and regards his +own dress as nothing better than commonplace, in comparison. Like the +rose-breasted grosbeak and the wood thrush, however, he is brought up +with the notion that it belongs to the female to be the carpenter of the +family; a belief in which, happily for his domestic peace, the female +herself fully concurs.</p> + +<p>As a general thing, handsomely dressed people live in handsome houses +(emphasis should perhaps be laid on the word <i>dressed</i>), and it would +seem natural that a like congruity should hold in the case of birds. +<!-- Page 88 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>But, if such be the rule, there are at least some glaring exceptions. I +have alluded to the rude structure of the rose-breast, and might have +used nearly the same language concerning the tanager's, which latter is +often fabricated so loosely that one can see the sky through it. Yet +these two are among the most gorgeously attired of all our birds. On the +other hand, while the wood pewee is one of the very plainest, there are +few, if any, that excel her as an architect. During the season under +review I had the good fortune to light upon my first nest of this +fly-catcher; and, as is apt to be true, having found one, I immediately +and without effort found two others. The first two were in oaks, the +third in a hornbeam; and all were set upon the upper side of a +horizontal bough ("saddled" upon it, as the manuals say), at the +junction of an offshoot with the main branch. Two of them were but +partially done when discovered, and I was glad to see one pair of the +birds in something very like a frolic, such a state as would hardly be +predicted of these peculiarly sober-seeming creatures. The builder of +the second nest was remarkably confiding, <!-- Page 89 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>and proceeded with her +labors, quite undisturbed by my proximity and undisguised interest. It +was to be remarked that she had trimmed the outside of her nest with +lichens before finishing the interior; and I especially admired the very +clever manner in which she hovered against the dead pine-trunk, from +which she was gathering strips of bark. Concerning her unsuspiciousness, +however, it should be said that the word applies only to her treatment +of myself. When a thrasher had the impertinence to alight in her oak she +ordered him off in high dudgeon, dashing back and forth above him, and +snapping spitefully as she passed. She knew her rights, and, knowing, +dared maintain. When a bird builds her nest in any part of a tree she +claims every twig of it as her own. I have even seen the gentle-hearted +chickadee resent the intrusion of a chipping sparrow, though it appeared +impossible that the latter could be suspected of any predatory or +sinister design.</p> + +<p>The shallowness of the wood pewee's saucer-shaped nest, its position +upon the branch, and especially its external dress of lichens, <!-- Page 90 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>all +conspire to render it inconspicuous. It is an interesting question +whether the owner herself appreciates this, or has merely inherited the +fashion, without thought of the reasons for it. The latter supposition, +I reluctantly confess, looks to me the more probable. It must often be +true of other animals, as it is of men, that they build better than they +know. Their wisdom is not their own, but belongs to a power back of +them,—a power which works, if you will, in accordance with what we +designate as the law of natural selection, and which, so to speak, +enlightens the race rather than the individual.</p> + +<p>After all, it is the ground birds that puzzle the human oölogist. +Crossing a brook, I saw what I regarded as almost infallible signs that +a pair of Maryland yellow-throats had begun to build beside it. Unless I +was entirely at fault, the nest must be within a certain two or three +square yards, and I devoted half an hour, more or less, to ransacking +the grass and bushes, till I thought every inch of the ground had been +gone over; but all to no purpose. Continuing my walk, I noticed after a +while that the <!-- Page 91 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>male warbler was accompanying me up the hillside, +apparently determined to see me safely out of the way. Coming to the +same brook again the next morning, I halted for another search; and lo! +all in a moment my eye fell upon the coveted nest, not on the ground, +but perhaps eight inches from it, in a little clump of young +golden-rods, which would soon overgrow it completely. The female +proprietor was present, and manifested so much concern that I would not +tarry, but made rather as if I had seen nothing, and passed on. It was +some time before I observed that she was keeping along beside me, +precisely as her mate had done the day before. The innocent creatures, +sorely pestered as they were, could hardly be blamed for such +precautions; yet it is not pleasant to be "shadowed" as a suspicious +character, even by Maryland yellow-throats.</p> + +<p>This was my first nest of a very common warbler, and I felt particularly +solicitous for its safety; but alas! no sooner was the first egg laid +than something or somebody carried it off, and the afflicted couple +deserted the house on which they had expended so much labor and +anxiety.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 92 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>Not far beyond the yellow-throats' brook, and almost directly under one +of the pewees' oaks, was a nest which pretty certainly had belonged to a +pair of chewinks, but which was already forsaken when I found it, though +I had then no inkling of the fact. It contained four eggs, and +everything was in perfect order. The mother had gone away, and had never +come back; having fallen a victim, probably, to some collector, human or +inhuman. The tragedy was peculiar; and the tragical effect of it was +heightened as day after day, for nearly a fortnight at least (I cannot +say for how much longer), the beautiful eggs lay there entirely +uncovered, and yet no skunk, squirrel, or other devourer of such +dainties happened to spy them. It seemed doubly sad that so many +precious nests should be robbed, while this set of worthless eggs was +left to spoil.</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned the housekeeping of a couple of chickadees in a +low birch stump. Theirs was one of three titmouse nests just then +claiming my attention. I visited it frequently, from the time when the +pair were hard at work making the <!-- Page 93 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>cavity up to the time when the brood +were nearly ready to shift for themselves. Both birds took their share +of the digging, and on several occasions I saw one feeding the other. +After the eggs were deposited, the mother (or the sitter) displayed +admirable courage, refusing again and again to quit her post when I +peered in upon her, and even when with my cane I rapped smartly upon the +stump. If I put my fingers into the hole, however, she followed them out +in hot haste. Even when most seriously disturbed by my attentions the +pair made use of no other notes than the common <i>chickadee, dee</i>, but +these they sometimes delivered in an unnaturally sharp, fault-finding +tone.</p> + +<p>My two other titmouse nests were both in apple-trees, and one of them +was in my own door-yard, though beyond convenient reach without the help +of a ladder. The owners of this last were interesting for a very decided +change in their behavior after the young were hatched, and especially as +the time for the little ones' exodus drew near. At first, +notwithstanding their door opened right upon the street, as it were, +<!-- Page 94 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>within a rod or two of passing horse-cars, the father and mother went in +and out without the least apparent concern as to who might be watching +them; but when they came to be feeding their hungry offspring, it was +almost laughable to witness the little craftinesses to which they +resorted. They would perch on one of the outer branches, call +<i>chickadee, dee</i>, fly a little nearer, then likely enough go further +off, till finally, after a variety of such "false motions," into the +hole they would duck, as if nobody for the world must be allowed to know +where they had gone. It was really wonderful how expert they grew at +entering quickly. I pondered a good deal over their continual calling on +such occasions. It seemed foolish and inconsistent; half the time I +should have failed to notice their approach, had they only kept still. +Toward the end, however, when the chicks inside the trunk could be heard +articulating <i>chickadee, dee</i> with perfect distinctness, it occurred to +me that possibly all this persistent repetition of the phrase by the old +birds had been only or mainly in the way of tuition. At all events, the +youngsters had <!-- Page 95 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>this part of the chickadese vocabulary right at their +tongues' end, as we say, before making their <i>début</i> in the great world.</p> + +<p>But it was reserved for my third pair of tits to give me a genuine +surprise. I had been so constant a visitor at their house that I had +come to feel myself quite on terms of intimacy with them. So, after +their brood was hatched, I one day climbed into the tree (as I had done +more than once before), the better to overlook their parental labors. I +had hardly placed myself in a comfortable seat before the couple +returned from one of their foraging expeditions. The male—or the one +that I took for such—had a black morsel of some kind in his bill, +which, on reaching the tree, he passed over to his mate, who forthwith +carried it into the hollow stub, in the depths of which the hungry +little ones were. Then the male flew off again, and presently came back +with another beakful, which his helpmeet took from him at the door, +where she had been awaiting his arrival. After this performance had been +repeated two or three times, curiosity led me to stand up against the +stub, with my hand resting upon it; at <!-- Page 96 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>which the female (who was just +inside the mouth of the cavity) slipped out, and set up an anxious +<i>chickadee, dee, dee</i>. When her mate appeared,—which he did almost +immediately,—he flew into what looked like a downright paroxysm of +rage, not against me, but against the mother bird, shaking his wings and +scolding violently. I came to the unhappy lady's relief as best I could +by dropping to the ground, and within a few minutes the pair again +approached the stub in company; but when the female made a motion to +take the food from her husband's bill, as before, he pounced upon her +spitefully, drove her away, and dived into the hole himself. Apparently +he had not yet forgiven what he accounted her pusillanimous desertion of +her charge. All in all, the scene was a revelation to me, a chickadee +family quarrel being something the like of which I had never dreamed of. +Perhaps no titmouse ever before had so timorous a wife. But however that +might be, I sincerely hoped that they would not be long in making up +their difference. I had enjoyed the sight of their loving intercourse +for so many weeks that I should have <!-- Page 97 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>been sorry indeed to believe that +it could end in strife. Nor could I regard it as so unpardonable a +weakness for a bird to move off, even from her young, when a man put his +fingers within a few inches of her. Possibly she ought to have known +that I meant no mischief. Possibly, too, her doughty lord would have +behaved more commendably in the same circumstances; but of that I am by +no means certain. To borrow a theological term, my conception of bird +nature is decidedly anthropomorphic, and I incline to believe that +chickadees as well as men find it easier to blame others than to do +better themselves.</p> + +<p>Here these reminiscences must come to an end, though the greater part of +my season's experiences are still untouched. First, however, let me +relieve my conscience by putting on record the bravery of a black-billed +cuckoo, whom I was obliged fairly to drive from her post of duty. Her +nest was a sorry enough spectacle,—a flat, unwalled platform, carpeted +with willow catkins and littered with egg-shells, in the midst of which +latter lay a single callow nestling, nearly as black as a crow. But as I +looked <!-- Page 98 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>at the parent bird, while she sat within ten feet of me, eying +my every movement intently, and uttering her wrath in various cries +(some catlike mewings among them), my heart reproached me that I had +ever written of the cuckoo as a coward and a sneak. Truth will not allow +me to take the words back entirely, even now; but I felt at that moment, +and do still, that I might have been better employed mending my own +faults than in holding up to scorn the foibles of a creature who, when +worst came to worst, could set me such a shining example of courageous +fidelity. It is always in order to be charitable; and I ought to have +remembered that, for those who are themselves subject to imperfection, +generosity is the best kind of justice.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71:1_2" id="Footnote_71:1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71:1_2"><span class="label">[71:1]</span></a> The birds at once became quiet, and I went back +complacently to my book under the linden-tree. Who knows, however, +whether there may not have been another side to the story? Who shall say +what were the emotions of the snake, as he wriggled painfully homeward +after such an assault? Myself no vegetarian, by what right had I +belabored him for liking the taste of chicken? It were well, perhaps, +not to pry too curiously into questions of this kind. Most likely it +would not flatter our human self-esteem to know what some of our "poor +relations" think of us.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 99 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> +<h2>A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Thus, without theft, I reap another's field.—<span class="smcap">Sidney Lanier.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">I was passing some days of idleness in a shallow Vermont valley, +situated at an elevation of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, circled by +wooded hills, and intersected by an old turnpike, which connects the +towns near Lake Champlain with the region beyond the mountains. Small +farmhouses stood here and there along the highway, while others were +scattered at wide intervals over the lower slopes of the outlying hills.</p> + +<p>With all the brightness and freshness of early summer upon it, it was +indeed an enchanting picture; but even so, one could not altogether put +aside a feeling of something like commiseration for the people who, year +in and year out, from babyhood to old age, found in this narrow vale, +with its severity of weather, and its <!-- Page 100 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>scarcity of social comforts and +opportunities, their only experience of what we fondly call this wide, +wide world.</p> + +<p>From my inn I had walked eastward for perhaps a mile; then at the little +school-house had taken a cross-road, which presently began to climb. +Here I passed two or three cottages (one of them boasting the +singularity of paint), and after a while came to another, which appeared +to be the last, as the road not far beyond struck into the ancient +forest. First, however, it ran up to a small plateau, where, out of +sight from the house, lay a scanty quarter of an acre, in which the old +parable, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," +was in the primary stage of its fresh annual fulfillment. The ground was +but newly cleared, and the brambles still felt themselves its true and +rightful possessors. Who was this puny-looking, good-for-nothing +foreigner, that they should be turned out of house and home for his +accommodation? So they seemed to be asking among themselves, as they +lifted up their heads here and there in the midst of the pale-green +shoots. The crows, on the other hand, bade the <!-- Page 101 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>newcomer welcome,—as +the wolf welcomes the lamb. Against these hungry lovers of his crop (who +loved not unwisely, but too well), the farmer had fenced his field with +a single string, stretched from corner to corner. He must put +extraordinary faith in the considerateness of the birds, a looker-on +might think; such a barrier as this could be, at the most, nothing more +than a polite hint of ownership, a delicate reminder against thoughtless +trespassing, a courteously indirect suggestion to such as needed not a +physical, but only a moral, restraint. Or one might take it as an appeal +to some known or fancied superstitiousness on the crows' part; as if the +white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to +meddle. But the rustic would have laughed at all such far-fetched +cockneyish inferences. This strange-seeming device of his was simply an +attempt to take the suspicious in their own suspiciousness; to set +before Corvus a hindrance so unmistakably insufficient that he would +mistrust it as a cover for some deep-laid and deadly plot. Probably the +scheme had not been crowned with complete success in the present +<!-- Page 102 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>instance, for from a pole in the middle of the inclosure a dead crow was +dangling in the breeze. This was a more business-like signal than the +other; even a cockney could hardly be in doubt as to its meaning; and +the farmer, when I afterwards met him, assured me that it had answered +its purpose to perfection. The crow is nobody's fool. "Live and learn" +is his motto; and he does both, but especially the former, in a way to +excite the admiration of all disinterested observers. In the long +struggle between human ingenuity and corvine sagacity, it is doubtful +which has thus far obtained the upper hand. Nor have I ever quite +convinced myself which of the contestants has the better case. "The crow +is a thief," the planter declares; "he should confine himself to a wild +diet, or else sow his own garden." "Yes, yes," Corvus makes reply; "but +if I steal your corn, you first stole my land." Unlike his cousin the +raven,—who, along with the Indian, has retreated before the +pale-face,—the crow is no ultra-conservative. Civilization and modern +ideas are not in the least distasteful to him. He has an unfeigned +<!-- Page 103 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>respect for agriculture, and in fact may be said himself to have set up +as gentleman-farmer, letting out his land on shares, and seldom failing +to get his full half of the crop; and, like the shrewd manager that he +is, he insures himself against drought and other mischances by taking +his moiety early in the season. As I plant no acres myself, I perhaps +find it easier than some of my fellow-citizens to bear with the faults +and appreciate the virtues of this sable aboriginal. Long may he live, I +say, this true lover of his native land, to try the patience and sharpen +the wits of his would-be exterminators.</p> + +<p>The crow's is only the common lot. The whole earth is one field of war. +Every creature's place upon it is coveted by some other creature. Plants +and animals alike subsist by elbowing their rivals out of the way. Man, +if he plants a corn-field, puts in no more grains than will probably +have room to grow and thrive. But Nature, in her abhorrence of a vacuum, +stands at no waste. She believes in competition, and feels no qualms at +seeing the weak go to the wall.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<!-- Page 104 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +<span class="i6">"The good old rule<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sufficeth her, the simple plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they should take who have the power,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">And they should keep who can."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns without number. Her +recklessness equals that of some ambitious military despot, to whom ten +thousand or a hundred thousand dead soldiers count as nothing, if only +the campaign be fought through to victory.</p> + +<p>Man's economy and Nature's prodigality,—here they were in typical +operation, side by side. The corn was in "hills" uniformly spaced, and +evidently the proprietor had already been at work with plough and hoe, +lest the weeds should spring up and choke it; but just beyond stood a +perfect thicket of wild-cherry shrubs, so huddled together that not one +in twenty could possibly find room in which to develop. If they were not +all of them stunted beyond recovery, it would be only because a few of +the sturdiest should succeed in crowding down and killing off their +weaker competitors.</p> + +<p>The import of this apparent wastefulness and cruelty of Nature, her +seeming indifference to the welfare of the individual, is a <!-- Page 105 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>question on +which it is not pleasant, and, as I think, not profitable, to dwell. We +see but parts of her ways, and it must be unsafe to criticise the +working of a single wheel here or there, when we have absolutely no +means of knowing how each fits into the grand design, and, for that +matter, can only guess at the grand design itself. Rather let us content +ourselves with the prudent saying of that ancient agnostic, Bildad the +Shuhite: "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." The wisest of us +are more or less foolish, by nature and of necessity; but it seems a +gratuitous superfluity of folly to ignore our own ignorance. For one, +then, I am in no mood to propose, much less to undertake, any grand +revolution in the order of natural events. Indeed, as far as I am +personally concerned, I fear it would be found but a dubious improvement +if the wildness were quite taken out of the world,—if its wilderness, +according to the word of the prophet, were to become all like Eden. +Tameness is not the only good quality, whether of land or of human +nature.</p> + +<p>As I sat on my comfortable log (the noble <!-- Page 106 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>old tree had not been cut +down for nothing), birds of many kinds came and went about me. +Wordsworth's couplet would have suited my case:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The birds around me hopped and played,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Their thoughts I cannot measure;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but I could hardly have rounded out the quotation; for, joyful as I +believed the creatures to be, many of their motions were plainly not +"thrills of pleasure," but tokens of fear. It was now the very heyday of +life with them, when they are at once happiest and most wary. There were +secrets to be kept close; eggs and little ones, whose whereabouts must +on no account be divulged. For the birds, too, not less than the corn, +the bramble, and the cherry, not less even than the saint, find this +earthly life a daily warfare.</p> + +<p>The artless ditty of the mourning warbler came to my ears at intervals +out of a tangle of shrubbery, and once or twice he allowed me glimpses +of his quaint attire. I would gladly have seen and heard much more of +him, but he evaded all my attempts at familiarity. Nor could I blame him +for his furtive behavior. How was he to be <!-- Page 107 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>certain that I was no +collector, but only an innocent admirer of birds in the bush? Sought +after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist, the mourning +warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion in fighting shy of every +animal that walks upright.</p> + +<p>It is evident, however, that for birds, as for ourselves, the same thing +often has both a bright and a dark side. If men are sometimes heartless, +and never to be altogether confided in, yet at the same time their +doings are in various respects conducive to the happiness and increase +of feathered life; and this not only in the case of some of the more +familiar species, but even in that of many which still retain all their +natural shyness of human society. A clearing like that in which I was +now resting offers an excellent illustration of this; for it is a rule +without exceptions that in such a place one may see and hear more birds +in half an hour than are likely to be met with in the course of a long +day's tramp through the unbroken forest. The mourning warbler himself +likes a roadside copse better than a deep wood, jealous as he may be of +<!-- Page 108 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>man's approach. Up to a certain point, civilization is a blessing, even +to birds. Beyond a certain point, for aught I know, it may be nothing +but a curse, even to men.</p> + +<p>Here, then, I sat, now taken up with the beautiful landscape, and anon +turning my head to behold some fowl of the air. I might have mused with +Emerson,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Knows he who tills this lonely field,<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">To reap its scanty corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">What mystic fruit his acres yield<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">At midnight and at morn,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—only "mystic fruit" would have been rather too high-sounding a phrase +for my commonplace cogitations. Hermit thrushes, olive-backed thrushes, +and veeries, with sundry warblers and a scarlet tanager, sang in chorus +from the woods behind me, while in front bluebirds, robins, song +sparrows, vesper sparrows, and chippers were doing their best to +transform this fresh Vermont clearing into a time-worn Massachusetts +pasture; assisted meanwhile by a goldfinch who flew over my head with an +ecstatic burst of melody, and a linnet who fell to warbling with +characteristic fluency from a <!-- Page 109 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>neighboring tree-top. At least two pairs +of rose-breasted grosbeaks had summer quarters here; and busy enough +they looked, flitting from one side of the garden to another, yet not +too busy for a tune between whiles. One of the males was in really +gorgeous plumage. The rose-color had run over, as it were (like Aaron's +"precious ointment"), and spilled all down his breast. It is hard for me +ever to think of this brilliant, tropically dressed grosbeak as a true +Northerner; and here once more I was for the moment surprised to hear +him and the olive-backed thrush singing together in the same wood. Could +such neighborliness have any patriotic significance? I was almost ready +to ask. Across the corn-field a Traill's flycatcher was tossing up his +head pertly, and vociferating <i>kwee-kwee</i>. I took it for a challenge: +"Find my nest if you can, brother!" But I found nothing. Nor was I more +successful with a humming-bird, who had chosen the tip of a charred +stub, only a few rods from my seat, for his favorite perch. Again and +again I saw him there preening his feathers, and once or twice I tried +to inveigle him into betraying his secret. Either <!-- Page 110 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>his house was further +off than I suspected, however, or else he was too cunning to fall into +my snare. At any rate, he permitted me to trample all about the spot, +without manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness.</p> + +<p>What a traveler the humming-bird is! I myself had come perhaps three +hundred miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome journey, +notwithstanding I had been brought nearly all the way in a carriage +elaborately contrived for comfort, and moving over iron rails. But this +tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it +may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly at home again in this +Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as +the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a +marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of +flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one +of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and +forth are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human +beings must look in his eyes! I wonder if he is never tempted to laugh +at us. Who knows <!-- Page 111 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>but humming-birds have it for a by-word, "As awkward +as a man"?</p> + +<p>My ruminations were suddenly broken in upon by the approach of a +carriage, driven by a boy of perhaps ten years, a son of the farmer from +whose land I was, as it were, gathering the first fruits. We had made +each other's acquaintance the day before, and now, as he surmounted the +hill, he stopped to inquire politely whether I would ride with him. Yes, +I answered, I would gladly be carried into the forest a little way. It +proved a very little way indeed; for the road was heavy from recent +rains, and the poor old hack was so short of breath that he could barely +drag us along, and at every slump of the wheels came to a dead +standstill. "Pity for a horse o'er-driven" soon compelled me to take to +the woods, in spite of the protestations of my charioteer, who assured +me that his steed <i>could</i> trot "like everything," if he only would. It +is an extremely unpatriotic Vermonter, I suspect (I have never yet +discovered him), who will not brag a little over his horse; and I was +rather pleased than otherwise to hear my flaxen-haired friend <!-- Page 112 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>set forth +the good points of his beast, even while he confessed that the "heaves" +were pretty bad. I was glad, too, to find the youngster in a general way +something of an optimist. When I asked him how long the land had been +cleared, he pointed to one corner of it, and responded, using the +pronoun with perfect <i>naïveté</i>, "We cleared up that piece last fall;" +and on my inquiring whether it was not hard work, he replied, in a tone +of absolute satisfaction, "Oh, yes, but you get your pay for it." +Evidently he believed in Green Mountain land, which I thought a very +fortunate circumstance. "Be content with such things as ye have," said +the Apostle; and it is certainly easier to obey the precept if one looks +upon his own things as the best in the world. My youthful philosopher +seemed to consider it altogether natural and reasonable that prosperity, +instead of coming of itself, should have to be earned by the sweat of +the brow. Perhaps the crow and the cherry-tree are equally +unsophisticated. Perhaps, too, men's fates are less uneven than is +sometimes supposed. For I could not help thinking that if this boy +should retain his present view of things, he <!-- Page 113 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>would pass his days more +happily than many a so-called favorite of fortune.</p> + +<p>On my way back to the inn I met an old man from the lowlands, driving +over the mountains for the first time since boyhood. "You have a pretty +good farming country here," he called out cheerily,—"a little rolling." +He took me for a native, and I hope to be forgiven for not disclaiming +the compliment.</p> + +<p>As I write, I find myself wondering how my nameless farmer's crop is +prospered. In my corner of the world we have lately been afflicted with +drought. I hope it has been otherwise on his hillside plateau. In my +thought, at all events, his corn is now fully tasseled, and waves in a +pleasant mountain wind, all green and shining.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 114 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> +<h2>BEHIND THE EYE.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>As what he sees is, so have his thoughts been.—<span class="smcap">Matthew +Arnold.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">Nothing is seen until it is separated from its surroundings. A man looks +at the landscape, but the tree standing in the middle of the landscape +he does not see until, for the instant at least, he singles it out as +the object of vision. Two men walk the same road; as far as the +bystander can perceive, they have before them the same sights; but let +them be questioned at the end of the journey, and it will appear that +one man saw one set of objects, and his companion another; and the more +diverse the intellectual training and habits of the two travelers, the +greater will be the discrepancy between the two reports.</p> + +<p>And what is true of any two men is equally true of any one man at two +different times. To-day he is in a dreamy, reflective mood,—he has been +reading Wordsworth, <!-- Page 115 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>perhaps,—and when he takes his afternoon saunter +he looks at the bushy hillside, or at the wayside cottage, or down into +the loitering brook, and he sees in them all such pictures as they never +showed him before. Or he is in a matter-of-fact mood, a kind of +stock-market frame of mind; and he looks at everything through +economical spectacles,—as if he had been set to appraise the acres of +meadow or woodland through which he passes. At another time he may have +been reading some book or magazine article written by Mr. John +Burroughs; and although he knows nothing of birds, and can scarcely tell +a crow from a robin (perhaps for this very reason), he is certain to +have tantalizing glimpses of some very strange and wonderful feathered +specimens. They must be rarities, at least, if not absolute novelties; +and likely enough, on getting home, he sits down and writes to Mr. +Burroughs a letter full of gratitude and inquiry,—the gratitude very +pleasant to receive, we may presume, and the inquiries quite impossible +to answer.</p> + +<p>Some men (not many, it is to be hoped) are specialists, and nothing +else. They are <!-- Page 116 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>absorbed in farming, or in shoemaking, in chemistry, or +in Latin grammar, and have no thought for anything beyond or beside. +Others of us, while there may be two or three subjects toward which we +feel some special drawing, have nevertheless a general interest in +whatever concerns humanity. We are different men on different days. +There is a certain part of the year, say from April to July, when I am +an ornithologist; for the time being, as often as I go out-of-doors, I +have an eye for birds, and, comparatively speaking, for nothing else. +Then comes a season during which my walks all take on a botanical +complexion. I have had my turn at butterflies, also; for one or two +summers I may be said to have seen little else but these winged blossoms +of the air. I know, too, what it means to visit the seashore, and +scarcely to notice the breaking waves because of the shells scattered +along the beach. In short, if I see one thing, I am of necessity blind, +or half-blind, to all beside. There are several men in me, and not more +than one or two of them are ever at the window at once. Formerly, my +enjoyment of nature was altogether reflective, <!-- Page 117 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>imaginative; in a +passive, unproductive sense, poetical. I delighted in the woods and +fields, the seashore and the lonely road, not for the birds or flowers +to be found there, but for the "serene and blessed mood" into which I +was put by such friendship. Later in life, it transpired, as much to my +surprise as to anybody's else, that I had a bent toward natural history, +as well as toward nature; an inclination to study, as well as to dream +over, the beautiful world about me. I must know the birds apart, and the +trees, and the flowers. A bit of country was no longer a mere landscape, +a picture, but a museum as well. For a time the poet seemed to be dead +within me; and happy as I found myself in my new pursuits, I had fits of +bewailing my former condition. Science and fancy, it appeared, would not +travel hand in hand; if a man must be a botanist, let him bid good-by to +the Muse. Then I fled again to Emerson and Wordsworth, trying to read +the naturalist asleep and reawaken the poet. Happy thought! The two men, +the student and the lover, were still there; and there they remain to +this day. Sometimes one is at the window, sometimes the other.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 118 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>So it is, undoubtedly, with other people. My fellow-travelers, who hear +me discoursing enthusiastically of vireos and warblers, thrushes and +wrens, whilst they see never a bird, unless it be now and then an +English sparrow or a robin, talk sometimes as if the difference between +us were one of eyesight. They might as well lay it to the window-glass +of our respective houses. It is not the eye that sees, but the man +behind the eye.</p> + +<p>As to the comparative advantages and disadvantages of such a division of +interests as I have been describing, there may be room for two opinions. +If distinction be all that the student hungers for, perhaps he cannot +limit himself too strictly; but for myself, I think I should soon tire +of my own society if I were only one man,—a botanist or a chemist, an +artist, or even a poet. I should soon tire of myself, I say; but I might +have said, with equal truth, that I should soon tire of nature; for if I +were only one man, I should see only one aspect of the natural world. +This may explain why it is that some persons must be forever moving from +place to place. If they travel <!-- Page 119 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>the same road twice or thrice, or even +to the hundredth time, they see only one set of objects. The same man is +always at the window. No wonder they are restless and famished. For my +own part, though I should delight to see new lands and new people, new +birds and new plants, I am nevertheless pretty well contented where I +am. If I take the same walks, I do not see the same things. The botanist +spells the dreamer; and now and then the lover of beauty keeps the +ornithologist in the background till he is thankful to come once more to +the window, though it be only to look at a bluebird or a song sparrow.</p> + +<p>How much influence has the will in determining which of these several +tenants of a man's body shall have his turn at sightseeing? It would be +hard to answer definitely. As much, it may be, as a teacher has over his +pupils, or a father over his children; something depends upon the +strength of the governing will, and something upon the tractability of +the pupil. In general, I assume to command. As I start on my ramble I +give out word, as it were, which of the men shall have the front seat. +But <!-- Page 120 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>there are days when some one of them proves too much both for me +and for his fellows. It is not the botanist's turn, perhaps; but he +takes his seat at the window, notwithstanding, and the ornithologist and +the dreamer must be content to peep at the landscape over his shoulders.</p> + +<p>On such occasions, it may as well be confessed, I make but a feeble +remonstrance; and for the sufficient reason that I feel small confidence +in my own wisdom. If the flower-lover or the poet must have the hour, +then in all likelihood he ought to have it. So much I concede to the +nature of things. A strong tendency is a strong argument, and of itself +goes far to justify itself. I borrow no trouble on the score of such +compulsions. On the contrary, my lamentations begin when nobody sues for +the place of vision. Such days I have; blank days, days to be dropped +from the calendar; when "those that look out of the windows be +darkened." The fault is not with the world, nor with the eye. The old +preacher had the right of it; it is not the windows that are darkened, +but "those that look out of the windows."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 121 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> +<h2>A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I've gathered young spring-leaves, and flowers gay.—<span class="smcap">Keats.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="section">I looked forward to the month with peculiar interest, as it was many +years since I had passed a November in the country, and now that it is +over I am moved to publish its praises: partly, as I hope, out of +feelings of gratitude, and partly because it is an agreeable kind of +originality to commend what everybody else has been in the habit of +decrying.</p> + +<p>In the first place, then, it was a month of pleasant weather; something +too much of wind and dust (the dust for only the first ten days) being +almost the only drawback. To me, with my prepossessions, it was little +short of marvelous how many of the days were nearly or quite cloudless. +The only snow fell on the 11th. I saw a few flakes in the afternoon, +just enough to be counted, and there must have been another slight +<!-- Page 122 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>flurry after dark, as the grass showed white in favorable spots early +the next morning. Making allowance for the shortness of the days, I +doubt whether there has been a month during the past year in which a man +could comfortably spend more of his time in out-of-door exercise.</p> + +<p>The trees were mostly bare before the end of October, but the apple and +cherry trees still kept their branches green (they are foreigners, and +perhaps have been used to a longer season), and the younger growth of +gray birches lighted up the woodlands with pale yellow. Of course the +oak-leaves were still hanging, also; and for that matter they are +hanging yet, and will be for months to come, let the north wind blow as +it may. I wonder whether their winter rustling sounds as cold in other +ears as in mine. My own feeling is most likely the result of boyish +associations. How often I waded painfully through the forest paths, my +feet and hands half frozen, while these ghosts of summer shivered +sympathetically on every side as they saw me pass! I wonder, too, what +can be the explanation of this unnatural oak-tree habit. The leaves are +<!-- Page 123 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>dead; why should they not obey the general law,—"ashes to ashes, dust +to dust"? Is our summer too short to ripen them, and so to perfect the +articulation? Whatever its cause, their singular behavior does much to +beautify the landscape; particularly in such a district as mine, where +the rocky hills are, so many of them, covered with young oak forests, +which, especially for the first half of November, before the foliage is +altogether faded, are dressed in subdued shades of maroon, beautiful at +all hours, but touched into positive glory by the level rays of the +afternoon sun.</p> + +<p>I began on the very first day of the month to make a list of the plants +found in bloom, and happening, a week afterward, to be in the company of +two experienced botanical collectors, I asked them how many species I +was likely to find. One said thirty. The other, after a little +hesitation, replied, "I don't know, but I shouldn't think you could find +a dozen." Well, it is true that November is not distinctively a floral +month in Massachusetts, but before its thirty days were over I had +catalogued seventy-three species, though for six of these, to be sure, +<!-- Page 124 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>I have to thank one of the collectors just now mentioned. Indeed, I +found thirty-nine sorts on my first afternoon ramble; and even as late +as the 27th and 28th I counted twelve. All in all, there is little doubt +that at least a hundred kinds of plants were in bloom about me during +the month.</p> + +<p>Having called my record a chronicle, I should be guilty of an almost +wanton disregard of scriptural models if I did not fill it largely with +names, and accordingly I do not hesitate to subjoin a full list of these +my November flowers; omitting Latin titles,—somewhat unwillingly, I +confess,—except where the vernacular is wanting altogether, or else is +more than commonly ambiguous:—creeping buttercup, tall buttercup, field +larkspur, celandine, pale corydalis, hedge mustard, shepherd's-purse, +wild peppergrass, sea-rocket, wild radish, common blue violet, bird-foot +violet, pansy, Deptford pink, common chickweed, larger mouse-ear +chickweed, sand spurrey, knawel, common mallow, herb-robert, storksbill, +red clover, alsyke, white clover, white sweet clover, black medick, +white avens, common cinque-foil, silvery cinque-foil, witch-hazel, +<!-- Page 125 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>common evening-primrose, smaller evening-primrose, carrot, blue-stemmed +golden-rod, white golden-rod (or silvery-rod), seaside golden-rod, +<i>Solidago juncea</i>, <i>Solidago rugosa</i>, dusty golden-rod, early +golden-rod, corymbed aster, wavy-leaved aster, heart-leaved aster, +many-flowered aster, <i>Aster vimineus</i>, <i>Aster diffusus</i>, New York aster, +<i>Aster puniceus</i>, narrow-leaved aster, flea-bane, horse-weed, +everlasting, cudweed, cone-flower, mayweed, yarrow, tansy, groundsel, +burdock, Canada thistle, fall dandelion, common dandelion, sow thistle, +Indian tobacco, bell-flower (<i>Campanula rapunculoides</i>), fringed +gentian, wild toad-flax, butter and eggs, self-heal, motherwort, +jointweed, doorweed, and ladies' tresses (<i>Spiranthes cernua</i>).</p> + +<p>Here, then, we have seventy-three species, all but one of which +(<i>Spiranthes cernua</i>) are of the class of exogens. Twenty-two orders are +represented, the great autumnal family of the <i>Compositæ</i> naturally +taking the lead, with thirty species (sixteen of them asters and +golden-rods), while the mustard, pink, and pulse families come next, +with five species each. The large and <!-- Page 126 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>hardy heath family is wanting +altogether. Out of the whole number about forty-three are indigenous. +Witch-hazel is the only shrub, and, as might have been expected, there +is no climbing plant.</p> + +<p>In setting down such a list one feels it a pity that so few of the +golden-rods and asters have any specific designation in English. Under +this feeling, I have presumed myself to name two of the golden-rods, +<i>Solidago Canadensis</i> and <i>Solidago nemoralis</i>. With us, at all events, +the former is the first of its genus to blossom, and may appropriately +enough wear the title of early golden-rod, while the latter must have +been noticed by everybody for its peculiar grayish, "dusty-miller" +foliage. It has, moreover, an exceptional right to a vernacular name, +being both one of the commonest and one of the showiest of our roadside +weeds. Till something better is proposed, therefore, let us call it the +dusty golden-rod.</p> + +<p>It must in fairness be acknowledged that I did not stand upon the +quality of my specimens. Many of them were nothing but accidental and +not very reputable-looking laggards; but in November, especially <!-- Page 127 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>if one +is making a list, a blossom is a blossom. The greater part of the asters +and golden-rods, I think, were plants that had been broken down by one +means or another, and now, at this late day, had put forth a few stunted +sprays. The narrow-leaved aster (<i>Aster linariifolius</i>) seemed +peculiarly out of season, and was represented by only two heads, but +these sufficed to bring the mouth-filling name into my catalogue. Of the +two species of native violets I saw but a single blossom each. My pansy +(common enough in gardens, and blooming well into December) was, of +course, found by the roadside, and the larkspur likewise, as I made +nothing of any but wild plants.</p> + +<p>At this time of the year one must not expect to pick flowers anywhere +and everywhere, and a majority of all my seventy-three species (perhaps +as many as two thirds) were found only in one or more of three +particular places. The first of these was along a newly laid-out road +through a tract of woodland; the second was a sheltered wayside nook +between high banks; and the third was at the seashore. At this last +place, on the 8th of the month, I came <!-- Page 128 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>unexpectedly upon a field fairly +yellow with fall dandelions and silvery cinque-foils, and affording also +my only specimens of burdock, Canada thistle, cone-flower, and the +smaller evening-primrose; in addition to which were the many-flowered +aster, yarrow, red clover, and sow thistle. In truth, the grassy +hillside was quite like a garden, although there was no apparent reason +why it should be so favored. The larger evening-primrose, of which I saw +two stalks, one of them bearing six or eight blossoms, was growing among +the rocks just below the edge of the cliff, in company with abundance of +sow thistle, all perfectly fresh; while along the gravelly edge of the +bank, just above them, was the groundsel (<i>Senecio vulgaris</i>), looking +as bright and thrifty as if it had been the first of August instead of +near the middle of November.</p> + +<p>Perhaps my most surprising bit of good luck was the finding of the +Deptford pink. Of this, for some inscrutable reason, one plant still +remained green and showed several rosy blossoms, while all its fellows, +far and near, were long since bleached and dead. Fortune has her +favorites, even <!-- Page 129 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>among pinks. The frail-looking, early-blooming +corydalis (we have few plants that appear less able to bear exposure) +was in excellent condition up to the very end of the month, though the +one patch then explored was destitute of flowers. These were as pretty +as could be—prettier even than in May, I thought—on the 16th, and no +doubt might have been found on the 30th, with careful search. The little +geranium known as herb-robert is a neighbor of the corydalis, and, like +it, stands the cold remarkably well. Its reddening, finely cut leaves +were fresh and flourishing, but though I often looked for its flowers, I +found only one during the entire month. The storksbill, its less known +cousin, does not grow within my limits, but came to me from Essex +County, through the kindness of a friend, being one of the six species +contributed by her, as I have before mentioned.</p> + +<p>The hardiness of some of these late bloomers is surprising. It is now +the 2d of December, and yesterday the temperature fell about thirty +degrees below the freezing-point, yet I notice shepherd's-purse, +peppergrass, chickweed, and knawel still <!-- Page 130 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>bearing fresh-looking flowers. +Nor are they the only plants that seem thus impervious to cold. The +prostrate young St. John's-wort shoots, for instance, all uncovered and +delicate as they are, appear not to know that winter with all its rigors +is upon them.</p> + +<p>It was impossible not to sympathize admiringly with some of my belated +asters and golden-rods. Their perseverance was truly pathetic. They had +been hindered, but they meant to finish their appointed task, +nevertheless, in spite of short days and cold weather. I have especially +in mind a plant of <i>Solidago juncea</i>. The species is normally one of the +earliest, following hard upon <i>Solidago Canadensis</i>, but for some reason +this particular specimen did not begin to flower till after the first +heavy frosts. Indeed, when I first noticed it, the stem leaves were +already frost-bitten; yet it kept on putting forth blossoms for at least +a fortnight. Whatever may be true of the lilies of the field, this +golden-rod was certainly a toiler, and of the most persistent sort.</p> + +<p>Early in the month the large and hardy Antiopa butterflies were still +not uncommon in the woods, and on the 3d—a delightful, <!-- Page 131 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>summer-like +day, in which I made a pilgrimage to Walden—I observed a single +clouded-sulphur (Philodice), looking none the worse for the low +temperature of the night before, when the smaller ponds had frozen over +for the first time.</p> + +<p>Of course I kept account of the birds as well as of the flowers, but the +number, both of individuals and of species, proved to be surprisingly +small, the total list being as follows:—great black-backed gull, +American herring gull, ruffed grouse, downy woodpecker, flicker, blue +jay, crow, horned lark, purple finch, red crossbill, goldfinch, snow +bunting, Ipswich sparrow, white-throated sparrow, tree sparrow, +snowbird, song sparrow, fox sparrow, Northern shrike, myrtle warbler, +brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, golden-crowned +kinglet, and robin. Here are only twenty-five species; a meagre +catalogue, which might have been longer, it is true, but for the +patriotism or prejudice (who will presume always to decide between these +two feelings, one of them so given to counterfeiting the other?) which +would not allow me to piece it out with the name of that all too +numerous parasite, the so-called English sparrow.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 132 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>My best ornithological day was the 17th, which, with a friend +like-minded, I passed at Ipswich Beach. The special object of our search +was the Ipswich sparrow, a bird unknown to science until 1868, when it +was discovered at this very place by Mr. Maynard. Since then it has been +found to be a regular fall and winter visitant along the Atlantic coast, +passing at least as far south as New Jersey. It is a mystery how the +creature could so long have escaped detection. One cannot help querying +whether there can be another case like it. Who knows? Science, even in +its flourishing modern estate, falls a trifle short of omniscience.</p> + +<p>My comrade and I separated for a little, losing sight of each other +among the sand-hills, and when we came together again he reported that +he had seen the sparrow. He had happened upon it unobserved, and had +been favored with excellent opportunities for scrutinizing it carefully +through a glass at short range; and being familiar with its appearance +through a study of cabinet specimens, he had no doubt whatever of its +identity. This was within five minutes of <!-- Page 133 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>our arrival, and naturally we +anticipated no difficulty in finding others; but for two or three hours +we followed the chase in vain. Twice, to be sure, a sparrow of some sort +flew up in front of us, but in both cases it got away without our +obtaining so much as a peep at it. Up and down the beach we went, +exploring the basins and sliding down the smooth, steep hills. Every +step was interesting, but it began to look as if I must go home without +seeing <i>Ammodramus princeps</i>. But patience was destined to have its +reward, and just as we were traversing the upper part of the beach for +the last time, I caught a glimpse of a bird skulking in the grass before +us. He had seen us first, and was already on the move, ducking behind +the scattered tufts of beach-grass, crouching and running by turns; but +we got satisfactory observations, nevertheless, and he proved to be, +like the other, an Ipswich sparrow. He did not rise, but finally made +off through the grass without uttering a sound. Then we examined his +footprints, and found them to be, so far as could be made out, the same +as we had been noticing all about among the hills.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 134 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>Meanwhile, our perambulations had not been in vain. Flocks of snow +buntings were seen here and there, and we spent a long time in watching +a trio of horned larks. These were feeding amid some stranded rubbish, +and apparently felt not the slightest suspicion of the two men who stood +fifteen or twenty feet off, eying their motions. It was too bad they +could not hear our complimentary remarks about their costumes, so +tastefully trimmed with black and yellow. Our loudest exclamations, +however, were called forth by a dense flock of sea-gulls at the distant +end of the beach. How many hundreds there were I should not dare to +guess, but when they rose in a body their white wings really filled the +air, and with the bright sunlight upon them they made, for a landsman, a +spectacle to be remembered.</p> + +<p>Altogether it was a high day for two enthusiasts, though no doubt it +would have looked foolish enough to ordinary mortals, our spending +several dollars of money and a whole day of time,—in November, at +that,—all for the sake of ogling a few birds, not one of which we even +attempted to shoot. <!-- Page 135 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>But what then? Tastes will differ; and as for +enthusiasm, it is worth more than money and learning put together (so I +believe, at least, without having experimented with the other two) as a +producer of happiness. For my own part, I mean to be enthusiastic as +long as possible, foreseeing only too well that high spirits cannot last +forever.</p> + +<p>The sand-hills themselves would have repaid all our trouble. Years ago +this land just back of the beach was covered with forest, while at one +end of it was a flourishing farm. Then when man, with his customary +foolishness, cut off the forest, Nature revenged herself by burying his +farm. We did not verify the fact, but according to the published +accounts of the matter it used to be possible to walk over the grave of +an old orchard, and pick here and there an apple from some topmost +branch still jutting out through the sand.</p> + +<p>Among the dunes we found abundance of a little red, heath-like plant, +still in full blossom. Neither of us recognized it, but it turned out to +be jointweed (<i>Polygonum articulatum</i>), and made a famous addition to my +November flower catalogue.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 136 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>In connection with all this I ought, perhaps, to say a word about our +Ipswich driver, especially as naturalists are sometimes reprehended for +taking so much interest in all other creatures, and so little in their +fellow-men. As we drew near the beach, which is some five miles from the +town, we began to find the roads quite under water, with the sea still +rising. We remarked the fact, the more as we were to return on foot, +whereupon the man said that the tide was uncommonly high on account of +the heavy rain of the day before! A little afterward, when we came in +sight of a flock of gulls, he gravely informed us that they were "some +kind of ducks"! He had lived by the seashore all his life, I suppose, +and of course felt entirely competent to instruct two innocent cockneys +such as he had in his wagon.</p> + +<p>Four days after this I made a trip to Nahant. If <i>Ammodramus princeps</i> +was at Ipswich, why should it not be at other similar places? True +enough, I found the birds feeding beside the road that runs along the +beach. I chased them about for an hour or two in a cold high wind, and +stared at them <!-- Page 137 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>till I was satisfied. They fed much of the time upon the +golden-rods, alighted freely upon the fence-posts (which is what some +writers would lead us never to expect), and often made use of the +regular family <i>tseep</i>. Two of them kept persistently together, as if +they were mated. One staggered me by showing a blotch in the middle of +the breast, a mark that none of the published descriptions mention, but +which I have since found exemplified in one of the skins at the Museum +of Comparative Zoölogy, in Cambridge.</p> + +<p>"A day is happily spent that shows me any bird I never saw alive +before." So says Dr. Coues, and he would be a poor ornithologist who +could not echo the sentiment. The Ipswich sparrow was the third such +bird that I had seen during the year without going out of New England, +the other two being the Tennessee warbler and the Philadelphia vireo.</p> + +<p>Of the remainder of my November list there is not much to be said. +Robins were very scarce after the first week. My last glimpse of them +was on the 20th, when I saw two. Tree sparrows, snowbirds, <!-- Page 138 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>chickadees, +kinglets, crows, and jays were oftenest met with, while the shrike, +myrtle warbler, purple finch, and song sparrow were represented by one +individual each. My song sparrow was not seen till the 28th, after I had +given him up. He did not sing (of course he scolded; the song sparrow +can always do that), but the mere sight of him was enough to suggest +thoughts of springtime, especially as he happened to be in the +neighborhood of some Pickering hylas, which were then in full cry for +the only time during the month. Near the end of the month many wild +geese flew over the town, but, thanks to a rebellious tooth (how happy +are the birds in this respect!), I was shut indoors, and knew the fact +only by hearsay. I did, however, see a small flock on the 30th of +October, an exceptionally early date. As it chanced, I was walking at +the time with one of my neighbors, a man more than forty years old, and +he assured me that he had never seen such a thing before.</p> + +<p>For music, I one day heard a goldfinch warbling a few strains, and on +the 21st a chickadee repeated his clear phÅ“be whistle <!-- Page 139 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>two or three +times. The chickadees are always musical,—there is no need to say that; +but I heard them <i>sing</i> only on this one morning.</p> + +<p>Altogether, with the cloudless, mild days, the birds, the tree-frogs, +the butterflies, and the flowers, November did not seem the bleak and +cheerless season it has commonly been painted. Still it was not exactly +like summer. On the last day I saw some very small boys skating on the +Cambridge marshes, and the next morning December showed its hand +promptly, sending the mercury down to within two or three degrees of +zero.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 140 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p> +<h2>NEW ENGLAND WINTER.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons, I trust that +nothing can make life a burden to me.—<span class="smcap">Thoreau.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">Those who will have us all to be studying the Sacred Books of the East, +and other such literature, are given to laying it down as an axiom that +whoever knows only one religion knows none at all,—an assertion, I am +bound to acknowledge, that commends itself to my reason, notwithstanding +the somewhat serious inferences fairly deducible from it touching the +nature and worth of certain convictions of my own, which I have been +wont to look upon as religious. I cannot profess ever to have pried into +the mysteries of any faith except Christianity. So, of course, I do not +understand even that. And the people about me, so far as I can discover, +are all in the same predicament. Yet I would fain believe that we are +not exactly heathen. Some of my neighbors (none too many of them, I +confess) are <!-- Page 141 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>charitable and devout. They must be pleasing to their +Creator, I say to myself, unless He is hard to please. Sometimes I go so +far as to think that possibly a man may be religious without <i>knowing</i> +even his own religion. Let us hope so. Otherwise, we of the laity are +assuredly undone.</p> + +<p>And what is true of creeds and churches is true likewise of countries +and climates. We grow wise by comparison of one thing with another, not +by direct and exclusive contemplation of one thing by itself. Human +knowledge is relative, not absolute, and the inveterate stayer at home +is but a poor judge of his own birthplace.</p> + +<p>All this I have in lively remembrance as I sit down to record some +impressions of our New England winter. With what propriety do I +discourse upon winter in Massachusetts, having never passed one anywhere +else? Had I spent a portion of my life where roses bloom the year round, +then, to be sure, I might assume to say something to the purpose about +snow and ice.</p> + +<p>But if the "tillers of paper" wrote only of such topics as they +possessed full and accurate acquaintance with, how would the <!-- Page 142 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>Scripture +be fulfilled? "Of making many books" there surely would be an end, and +that speedily. I venture to think, moreover, that a man may never have +set foot beyond the boundaries of his native city, and yet prove a +reasonably competent guide to its streets and by-ways. His information +is circumscribed, but such as it is, it is precise and to the point. +Though he assure you soberly that the principal thoroughfare of his +tenth-rate town is more magnificent than any in New York or London, you +may none the less depend upon him to pilot you safely out of its most +intricate and bewildering corner. Indeed, he might fairly claim +membership in what is, at present, one of the most flourishing of +intellectual guilds: I mean the sect of the specialists; whose creed is +that one may know something without knowing everything, and who choose +for their motto: Remain ignorant in order that you may learn.</p> + +<p>In this half-developed world there is nothing so perfect as to be past a +liability to drawbacks and exceptions. The best of beef is poisonous to +some eaters, and strawberries are an abomination to others; and <!-- Page 143 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>in like +manner there is no climate, nor any single feature of any climate, but +by some constitutions it will be found unendurable. The earth is to be +populated throughout, so it would appear; and to that end sundry +necessary precautions have been taken against human inertia. A certain +proportion of boys must be born with a propensity for wandering and +adventure; and the most favored spot must not contain within itself all +conceivable advantages. If everybody could stand the rigors of New +England weather, what would become of the rest of the continent?</p> + +<p>Unless I misjudge myself, I should soon tire of perpetual summer. Like +the ungrateful Israelites with the manna, my soul would loathe such +light bread. To my provincial mind, as I believe, nothing else could +ever quite take the place of a rotation of the seasons. There should be +rain and shine, cold and heat. A change from good weather to bad, and +back again, is on the whole better than unbroken good weather. Dullness +to set off brightness, night to give relief to the day, such is the wise +order of nature; and I do not account it altogether a token <!-- Page 144 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>of +depravity that honest people, who love a paradox without knowing it, +find perfection, of no matter how innocent a sort, just a little +wearisome. Therefore, I say, let me have a year made up of well-defined +contrasts; in short, a New England year, of four clearly marked seasons.</p> + +<p>It is often alleged, I know, that we really have only three seasons; +that winter leaps into the lap of summer, and spring is nothing but a +myth of the almanac makers. I shall credit this story when I am +convinced of the truth of another statement, equally current and equally +well vouched, that every successive summer is the hottest (or the +coldest) for the last twenty-five years. As there is no subject so much +talked about as the weather, so, almost of course, there is none so much +lied about. Winter claims most of March, as the astronomers give it +leave to do, I believe; but April and May, despite a snow-storm or two +in the former, and a torrid week in the latter, are neither summer nor +winter, but spring; somewhat fickle, it is true, more or less uncertain +of itself, but still retaining its personal identity.</p> + +<p>As for our actual winter, it may enhance <!-- Page 145 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>its value in our eyes if we +take into account that the three other seasons all depend upon it for +their peculiar charms. In the case of spring this dependence is palpable +to every one. Berate as we may its backwardness and deceit, muffle +ourselves never so pettishly against its harsh breath, yea, even deny it +all claim to its own proper title, yet anon it gets the better of our +discontent, and we thank our stars that we have lived to see again the +greening of the grass, and to hear once more the song of a bird. A mild +day in March is like a foretaste of heaven; the first robin seems an +angel; while saxifrage, anemones, and dandelions win kindly notice from +many a matter-of-fact countryman who lets all the June roses go by him +unregarded. It is pleasures of this kind, natural, wholesome, and +universal, that largely make up the total of human happiness. Our +instinct for them only strengthens with age. They are like the "divine +ideas" of Olympian bards,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Which always find us young,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And always keep us so."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>All this glory of the revival would be wanting but for the previous +months of <!-- Page 146 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>desolation. The hepatica is not more beautiful than many +another flower, but it takes us when we are hungry for the sight of a +blossom. What can we do? When it peeps out of its bed of withered +leaves, puts off its furs, and opens to the sunlight its little purple +cup, we have no choice but to love it as we cannot love the handsomer +and more fragrant hosts that follow in its train.</p> + +<p>And as winter over and gone sets in brighter relief the warmth and +resurrection of springtime, so does the shadow of its approach lend a +real if somewhat indefinable attractiveness to the fall months. The +blooming of the late flowers, the ripening of leaf and fruit, the frosty +air, the flocking of birds, all the thousand signs of the autumnal +season take on a kind of pathetic and solemn interest, as being but +prelusive to the whiteness and deadness so soon to cover the earth. +Indeed, if there were no winter, there could be neither spring nor +autumn; nay, nor any summer. Leave out the snow and ice, and the whole +round year would be metamorphosed; or, rather, the year itself would +pass away, and nothing be left but time.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 147 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>I am not yet a convert to the pessimistic doctrine that "all pleasure is +merely relief from pain;" but I gladly believe that pain has its use in +heightening subsequent happiness, and that one man's evil qualities +(mine, for example) may partly atone for themselves by setting off the +amiable characteristics of worthier men around him. It consoles me to +feel that my neighbors seem better to themselves and to each other +because of the abrupt antithesis between their dispositions and mine. It +is better than nothing, if my failure can serve as a background for +their virtuous success. With reverent thankfulness do I acknowledge the +gracious and far-reaching frugality which, by one means and another, +saves even my foolishness and imperfection from running altogether to +waste.</p> + +<p>Viewed in this light, as an offset or foil for the remainder of the +year, we may say that the worse the winter is, the better it is. Within +reasonable limits, it can hardly be too long or too rigorous. And just +here, as it appears to me, our New England climate shows most admirably. +Without being unendurably hot or insufferably cold, it does <!-- Page 148 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>offer us an +abundant contrast. An opposition of one hundred and twenty-five degrees +between January and July ought to be enough, one would say, to impress +even the dullest imagination.</p> + +<p>But winter has its positively favorable side, and is not to be passed +off with merely negative compliments; as if it were like a toothache or +a tiresome sermon,—something of which the only good word to be said is, +that it cannot last forever. It is not to be charged as a defect upon +cold weather that some people find it to disagree with them. We might as +well chide the hill for putting a sick man out of breath. It is with +persons as with plants: some are hardy, others not. The date-palm cannot +be made to grow in Massachusetts; but is Massachusetts to blame for the +palm-tree's incapacity? All things of which the specific office is to +promote strength (exercise, food, climate) presuppose a degree of +strength sufficient for their use. So it is with cold weather. Its +proper effect is to brace and invigorate the system; but there must be +vigor to start with. The law is universal: "To him that hath shall be +given."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 149 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>Enough, then, of apologies and negative considerations. There was never +a good Yankee, of moderately robust health, and under fifty years of +age, that did not welcome cold weather as a friend. Ask the school-boys, +especially such as live in country places, whether summer or winter +brings the greater pleasure. Two to one they will vote for winter. Or +look back over your own childhood, and see whether the sports of +winter-time do not seem, in the retrospect, to have been the very crown +of the year. How vivid my own recollections are! Other seasons had their +own distinctive felicities; the year was full of delights; but we +watched for the first snow-fall and the first ice as eagerly as I now +see elderly and sickly people watching for the first symptoms of summer. +As well as I can remember, winter was never too long nor too cold, +whatever may have been true of a single day now and then, when the old +school-house, with its one small stove, and its eight or ten large +windows, ought, in all reason, to have been condemned as uninhabitable. +But the frolics out-of-doors! It makes the blood tingle even now to +think <!-- Page 150 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>of them. How brief the days were! How cruel the authority that +kept us in the house after dark, while so many of our mates were still +"sliding down hill" (we knew nothing of "coasting" where I was born), or +skating in the meadow! Childhood in the sunny South must be a very tame +affair, New England youngsters being judges.</p> + +<p>Trifles of this kind, if any be moved to call them such, are not to be +sneered out of court. Fifteen years form no small part of a human life, +and whatever helps us to grow up happy contributes in no slight degree +to keep us happy to the end. "When I became a man I put away childish +things"? Yes, it may be; but the very things that I boast of outgrowing +have made me what I am. In truth, when it comes to such a question as +this, I confess to putting more faith in the verdict of healthy children +than in the unanimous theories and groans of whole congresses of +valetudinarians. I am not yet so old nor so feeble but I gaze with +something of my youthful enthusiasm upon the first snow. It quickens my +pulse to see the ponds <!-- Page 151 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>frozen over, although my skates long since went +out of commission; and I still find comfort in a tramp of five or six +miles, with the path none too good, and the mercury half-way between the +freezing point and zero. I like the buffeting of the north wind, and am +not indisposed once in a while to wrestle with the frost for the +possession of my own ears. Well as I love to loiter, I rejoice also in +weather which makes loitering impossible; which puts new springs into a +man's legs, and sets him spinning over the course whether he will or no. +It will be otherwise with me by and by, I suppose, seeing how my +venerable fellow-citizens are affected, but for the present nothing +renews my physical youth more surely than a low temperature; a fact +which I welcome as evidence that I am not yet going down-hill, however +closely I may be nearing the summit.</p> + +<p>Winter does us the honor to assume that we are not weaklings. Summer may +coddle and flatter, but cold weather is no sentimentalist. Its kindest +and tenderest mood has something of a stoical severity about it. It lays +its finger without mercy on our most <!-- Page 152 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>vulnerable and sensitive spots. +But withal, as I have said, if we really possess any reserved strength, +it knows how to bring it out and make the most of it. What a fullness of +vitality do we suddenly develop as we come into close quarters with this +well-intentioned but rough and ready antagonist! In fine, winter is one +of those rare and invaluable friends of whom Emerson speaks, who enable +us to do what we can. To its good offices it is largely attributable, no +doubt, that in the long run the inhabitants of temperate regions have +always been too powerful for their rivals within the tropics. Frigidity +is like poverty, a blessing to those who can bear it.</p> + +<p>Winter in New England is not a time for gathering flowers out-of-doors, +though, taking the years together, there is no month of the twelve +wherein one may not pick a few blossoms even in Massachusetts; but if it +effaces one set of pictures, it paints for us another; and a wise and +liberal taste will reckon itself a debtor to both. To say nothing of the +half-dozen mornings on which every tree and bush is arrayed in all the +splendor of diamonds, or the other <!-- Page 153 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>half-dozen when they bow themselves +under masses of new-fallen snow,—making no account of such exceptional +pageants, which, indeed, are often so destructive as to lose much of +their glory in the eyes of provident spectators,—I, for my own part, +find a beauty in the very commonest of winter landscapes. Let the ground +be altogether white, or altogether brown, or let it be covered so thinly +that the grass-blades show dark above the snow; in any case, white or +brown, or white <i>and</i> brown, to me it is all beautiful; beautiful in +itself, and also by contrast with the greenness before and after; while, +as for the trees, I like them so well in their state of undress that I +question sometimes whether their leafy garments do not conceal more +loveliness than they confer. We are grateful, of course, to pines and +spruces; but what if all trees were evergreen? A questionable +improvement, surely. No; suggestive and solemn as the falling of the +leaves must ever be to us who read our own destiny in the annual +parable, it would be sadder still if there were no such alternation, no +diversity, but only one monotonous year on year of changeless verdure.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 154 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>Winter beauty, such as I have been hinting at, is not far to seek, +whether by townsman or rustic. Bostonians have only to cross the +Mill-Dam,—a rather too fashionable promenade, it is true, but even here +one may be tolerably certain of elbow-room on a January morning. Often +have I taken this road to health and happiness, waxing enthusiastic as I +have proceeded, admiring the snow-bound scene with a fervor which the +most opulent of summer landscapes seldom excites; and, pushing on with +increasing exhilaration, have brought up at last on Corey Hill, where +the inquisitive north-wind has very likely abbreviated my stay, but has +never yet spoiled my rapture at the wonderful white world underneath.</p> + +<p>Economy has its pleasures, it is said, for all healthily constituted +minds. We like, all of us, to make much out of little; to do a notable +piece of work with ordinary tools; to treat a meagre and commonplace +theme in such a manner that whoever begins to read has no alternative +but to finish; to tempt an epicure with the daintiest of repasts out of +the simplest and fewest of every-day materials; to paint a picture +<!-- Page 155 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>which has nothing in it, but compels the eye; in a word, to demonstrate +to others, and not less to ourselves, that the secret of success lies in +the man and not in the stuff. It is good, once in a while, to take +advantage of a disadvantage to show what we can do.</p> + +<p>On the same principle we are glad to find ourselves, if only not too +often, in unpropitious circumstances. Otherwise how should we ever make +proof of our philosophy? It heightens my confidence in the goodness at +the heart of things to see how, as if by instinct, men of sound natures +inevitably right the scale in seasons of loss and scarcity. If half the +fortune disappears, the other half straightway doubles in value. Faith +easily puts aside calculation, and proves, off-hand, that a part is +equal to the whole.</p> + +<p>Thus it is with me as a lover of out-door life, and especially as a +field student of ornithology. At no time of the year does the fellowship +of the birds afford me keener enjoyment than in the dead of winter. In +June one may see them everywhere, and hear them at all hours; a few more +or a <!-- Page 156 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>few less are nothing to make account of; but in January the sight +of a single brown creeper is sufficient to brighten the day, and the +twittering of half a dozen goldfinches is like the music of angels.</p> + +<p>As a certain outspoken philosopher would not visit some of his relatives +because he disliked to be alone, so do I in my jaunts avoid the highway +whenever it is possible, even in midwinter. What so lonesome as the +presence of people with whom we must not speak, or, worse yet, with whom +we must speak, but only about the weather and like exciting topics! As I +have intimated, however, it is usually the public street or nothing with +me during the cold season. All the more grateful am I, therefore, to +those familiar winter birds, some of whom are sure to bid me good +morning out of the hedges and shade-trees as I go past. Not unlikely a +shrike sits motionless and dumb upon a telegraph wire, or in contrary +mood whistles and chirrups industriously from some tree-top. <i>He</i> is no +angel, that is plain enough; but none the less I am glad to meet him. If +he fails of being lovable, he is at least a study. It is wonderful how +<!-- Page 157 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>abruptly his whim changes; how disconnected his behavior seems; how +quickly and unexpectedly he can pass from the most perfect quiescence +into a fit of most intense activity. I came upon such a fellow the other +day in crossing the Common, who, just as I espied him, swooped upon a +bunch of sparrows in an elm. He missed his aim, and in half a minute +made a second attempt upon a similar group in another tree. This time he +singled out one of the flock, and took chase after it; but the terrified +creature ducked and turned, and finally got away, whereupon the shrike +betook himself to a perch, and fell to making all manner of +noises,—squeaks, whistles, twitters, and what not,—hopping about +nervously meanwhile. The passers-by all stopped to look at the show +(perhaps because they saw me staring upward), till finally a laborer +yielded to the school-boy instinct and let fly a stone. The scamp was +not greatly frightened by this demonstration, and merely flew to the tip +of one of the tall cotton-woods, where he immediately resumed his vocal +practice.</p> + +<p>It ought to be helpful to a man's <!-- Page 158 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>independence of spirit to fall in +once in a while with such a self-reliant and nonchalant brother. For +one, I wish I were better able to profit by his example. He seems made +for hard times and short rations. Doubtless it is a delusion of the +fancy, but he and winter are so connected in my thought that I can +hardly conceive of him as knowing what summer means, or as caring to +know.</p> + +<p>To a person of my tastes it is one of winter's capital recommendations +that it brings its own birds with it, thus affording sundry +ornithological pleasures which otherwise one would be compelled to go +without. The tree-sparrows, for instance, are very good cold-weather +acquaintances of mine. There is nothing peculiarly taking about their +dress or demeanor; but they are steady-going, good-humored, diligent +people, whose presence you may always depend upon. I lately witnessed a +very pretty trick of theirs. It was in the marsh just over the fence +from Beacon Street, where a company of the birds, a dozen perhaps, were +breakfasting off the seeds of evening primrose. Less skillful acrobats +than their neighbors and frequent traveling companions, <!-- Page 159 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>the red-poll +linnets, it is not easy for them to feed while hanging upon the pods. +So, taking the weeds one by one, they alighted at the very tip, and then +with various twitchings and stampings shook the stalk as violently as +possible, after which they dropped quickly upon the snow to gather up +the results of their labors. As I say, it was an extremely pretty +performance, and by itself would have rewarded me for my morning tramp, +putting me in mind, as it did, of happy hours long since past, when I +climbed into the tops of nut-trees on business of the same sort. One of +the principal uses of friendship, human or other, is this of keeping the +heart young.</p> + +<p>I hope I am not lacking in a wholesome disrespect for sentimentality and +affectation; for artificial ecstasies over sunsets and landscapes, birds +and flowers; the fashionable cant of nature-worship, which is enough +almost to seal a true worshiper's lips under a vow of everlasting +silence. But such repugnances belong to the library and the parlor, and +are left behind when a man goes abroad, either by himself or in any +other really good company. For my own part <!-- Page 160 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>the first lisp of a +chickadee out of a wayside thicket disperses with a breath all such +unhappy and unhallowed recollections. Here is a voice sincere, and the +response is instantaneous and irresistible.</p> + +<p>It would be a breach of good manners, an inexcusable ingratitude, to +write never so briefly of the New England winter without noting this, +the most engaging and characteristic enlivener of our winter woods; who +revels in snow and ice, and is never lacking in abundant measures of +faith and cheerfulness, enough not only for himself, but for any chance +wayfarer of our own kind. He is every whit as independent as the shrike, +but in how opposite a manner!—with a self-reliance that is never +self-sufficiency, and bravery that offers no suspicion of bravado. Happy +in himself, he is at the same time of a most companionable spirit. +Perfect little philosopher! What a paradise New England would be if all +her inhabitants were like him!</p> + +<p>In such a winter climate as ours it is emphatically true that we "know +not what shall be on the morrow." The season is not straitened in its +resources, and caters <!-- Page 161 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>to all tastes in a way which some may look upon +as fickleness, but which I prefer to regard as catholicity. Its days are +of many types, and it spreads them out before us like a patient +shopkeeper,—as if it recognized in the Yankee a customer hard to suit. +I do not mean to affirm that the weather and I are never at odds; but +all in all, in the long run and theoretically, I approve its methods. +What a humdrum round life would be if nothing ever happened but the +expected! I wonder if there are beings anywhere who have forgotten how +it feels to be surprised. The children of this world, at all events, +were not intended for any such condition of fixity. When there is no +longer anything new <i>under</i> the sun, it will be time to get above it.</p> + +<p>Even in so simple and regular a proceeding as a morning walk, one wishes +always to see something new, or failing of that, something old in a new +light; an easy enough task, if one has eyes. For as we cannot drink +twice of the same river, so we cannot twice take the same ramble. I went +over the same course yesterday and to-day; but yesterday's landscape and +sky were <!-- Page 162 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>different from to-day's. I saw different birds, and had +different thoughts; and after all, the principal part of a walk is what +goes on in the mind. Still, the activities of the intellect are greatly +under the influence of external surroundings, a fact which makes largely +in favor of a varied year like that we have been praising. The +experience of it tends to widen and diversify the thinking of men. In a +smaller degree it answers the same end as travel. For aught I know, it +may possibly have its little share in the onerous task of liberalizing +systems of theology. Who shall say that our New England climate, with +its frequent and extreme contrasts,—what I have called its habit of +catholicity,—may not have had more or less to do with that diffusion of +free thought which has made the home of the Pilgrims the birthplace of +heresies without number? The suggestion is fanciful, perhaps. Let it +pass. Such profundities do not come within my province. Only I must +believe that, even in the matter of weather, it is good for us to be +educated out of bigotry into a large-minded toleration. Hence it is, in +part, that I give my suffrage for our <!-- Page 163 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>Massachusetts winter, which not +only widens the scope of the year, but contains within itself a variety +wellnigh endless.</p> + +<p>I have kept my subject out-of-doors. It is well always to have at least +one point of originality. Let it be mine, in the present instance, that +I have said nothing about the pleasures of the fireside, about long +evenings and drawn curtains. If I were in winter's place, I should not +greatly care to hear people tell how comfortable they could make +themselves by jealously shutting me out. Their speech might be eloquent, +and their language eulogistic; but somehow I should not feel that they +were praising <i>me</i>.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 164 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> +<h2>A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I will go lose myself.—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">There are two sayings of Scripture which to my mind seem peculiarly +appropriate for pleasant Sundays,—"Behold the fowls of the air," and +"Consider the lilies." The first is a morning text, as anybody may see, +while the second is more conveniently practiced upon later in the day, +when the dew is off the grass. With certain of the more esoteric +doctrines of the Bible (the duty of turning the other cheek, for +example, or of selling all that one has and giving to the poor) we may +sometimes be troubled what to do,—unless, like the world in general, we +turn them over to Count Tolstoï and his followers; but such precepts as +I have quoted nobody is likely ever to quarrel with, least of all any +"natural man." For myself, I find them always a comfort, no matter what +my mood or condition, while their observance becomes doubly agreeable +when I am away from home; the <!-- Page 165 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>thought of beholding a strange species of +fowl, or of considering a new sort of lily, proving even more attractive +than the prospect of listening to a new minister, or, what is somewhat +less probable, of hearing a new sermon.</p> + +<p>Thus it was with me, not long ago, when I found myself suddenly left +alone at a small hotel in the Franconia Valley. The day was lowery, as +days in the mountains are apt to be; but when duty goes along with +inclination, a possible sprinkling is no very serious hindrance. +Besides, a fortnight of "catching weather" had brought me into a state +of something like philosophical indifference. I must be reckoned either +with the just or with the unjust,—so I had come to reason,—and of +course must expect now and then to be rained on. Accordingly, after +dinner I tucked my faithful umbrella under my arm, and started up the +Notch road.</p> + +<p>I had in view a quiet, meditative ramble, in harmony with the spirit of +the day, and could think of nothing more to the purpose than a visit to +a pair of deserted farms, out in the woods on the mountain-side. The +<!-- Page 166 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>lonesome fields and the crumbling houses would touch my imagination, and +perhaps chasten my spirit. Thither would I go, and "consider the +lilies." I am never much of a literalist,—except when a strict +construction favors the argument,—and in the present instance it did +not strike me as at all essential that I should find any specimens of +the genus <i>Lilium</i>. One of the humbler representatives of the great and +noble family of the <i>Liliaceæ</i>—the pretty clintonia, now a little out +of season, or even the Indian cucumber-root—would come fairly within +the spirit of the text; while, if worst came to worst, there would +certainly be no scarcity of grass, itself nothing but a kind of +degenerate lily, if some recent theories may be trusted.</p> + +<p>I followed the highway for a mile or two, and then took a wood-road (a +"cart-path" I should call it, if I dared to speak in my own tongue +wherein I was born) running into the forest on the left. This brought me +before long to a "pair of bars," over which I clambered into a grassy +field, the first of the two ancient clearings I had come out to see. The +scanty acres must have been <!-- Page 167 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>wrested from the encompassing forest at no +small cost of patience and hard labor; and after all, they had proved +not to pay for their tillage. A waste of energy, as things now looked; +but who is to judge of such matters? It is not given to every man to see +the work of his hands established. A good many of us, I suspect, might +be thankful to know that anything we have ever done would be found +worthy of mention fifty years hence, though the mention were only by way +of pointing a moral.</p> + +<p>The old barn was long ago blown down, and as I mounted the fence a +woodchuck went scampering out of sight among the timbers. The place was +not entirely uninhabited, as it seemed, in spite of appearances: and as +I turned toward the house, the door of which stood uninvitingly open, +there sat a second woodchuck in the doorway, facing me, intent and +motionless, full of wonderment, no doubt, at the unspeakable +impertinence of such an intrusion. I was glad to see <i>him</i>, at any rate, +and made haste to tell him so; greeting him in the rather unceremonious +language wherewith the now famous titmouse is said to have <!-- Page 168 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>addressed +our foremost American gentleman and philosopher:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5h">"Good day, good sir!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fine afternoon, old passenger!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happy to meet you in these places."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But the churlish fellow had no notion of doing the honors, and by the +time I had advanced two or three paces he whisked about and vanished +inside the door. "Well done!" I thought. "Great is evolution. Woodchucks +used to be cave-dwellers, but they are getting to live above ground, +like the rest of us. So does history repeat itself. Who knows how soon +they may be putting up cottages on their own account?" Perhaps I gave +the creature more credit than really belonged to him. I followed him +into the house, but he was nowhere to be seen, and it is not unlikely +that he lived in a cave, after all. Nearly half the flooring had rotted +away, and there was nothing to hinder his getting into the cellar. He +may have taken the old farmhouse as a convenient portico for his burrow, +a sort of storm-porch, as it were. In his eyes this may be the final end +and aim, the teleological purpose, of all such board-and-shingle +<!-- Page 169 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>edifices. Mr. Ruskin seems to hold that a house falls short of its +highest usefulness until it has become a ruin; and who knows but +woodchucks may be of the same opinion?</p> + +<p>This particular house was in two parts, one of them considerably more +ancient than the other. This older portion it was, of which the floor +had so badly (or so well) fallen into decay; while the ceiling, as if in +a spirit of emulation, had settled till it described almost a semicircle +of convexity. To look at it, one felt as if the law of gravity were +actually being imposed upon.</p> + +<p>It must have marked an epoch in the history of the household, this +doubling of its quarters. Things were looking well with the man. His +crops were good, his family increasing; his wife had begun to find the +house uncomfortably small; they could afford to enlarge it. Hence this +addition, this "new part," as no doubt they were in the habit of calling +it, with pardonable satisfaction. It was more substantially built than +the original dwelling, and possessed, what I dare say its mistress had +set her heart upon, one plastered room. The "new part"! <!-- Page 170 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>How ironical +the words sounded, as I repeated them to myself! If things would only +stay new, or if it were men's houses only that grew old!</p> + +<p>The people who lived here had little occasion to hang their walls with +pictures. When they wanted something to look at, they had but to go to +the window and gaze upon the upper slopes of Mount Lafayette and Mount +Cannon, rising in beauty beyond the intervening forest. But every New +England woman must have a bit of flower garden, no matter what her +surroundings; and even here I was glad to notice, just in front of the +door, a clump of cinnamon rose-bushes, all uncared for, of course, but +flourishing as in a kind of immortal youth (this old-fashioned rose must +be one of Time's favorites), and just now bright with blossoms. For +sentiment's sake I plucked one, thinking of the hands that did the same +years ago, and ere this, in all likelihood, were under the sod; +thinking, too, of other hands, long, long vanished, and of a white +rose-bush that used to stand beside another door.</p> + +<p>On both sides of the house were apple-trees, <!-- Page 171 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>a few of them still in +good trim, but the greater number decrepit after years of buffeting by +mountain storms. A phÅ“be sat quietly on the ridge-pole, and a chipper +was singing from the orchard. What knew they of time, or of time's +mutations? The house might grow old,—the house and the trees; but if +the same misfortune ever befalls phÅ“bes and sparrows, we are, +fortunately, none the wiser. To human eyes they are always young and +fresh, like the buttercups that bespangled the grass before me, or like +the sun that shone brightly upon the tranquil scene.</p> + +<p>Turning away from the house and the grassy field about it, I got over a +stone wall into a pasture fast growing up to wood: spruces, white pines, +red pines, paper birches, and larches, with a profusion of meadow-sweet +sprinkled everywhere among them. A nervous flicker started at my +approach, stopped for an instant to reconnoitre, and then made off in +haste. A hermit thrush was singing, and the bird that is called the +"preacher"—who takes no summer vacation, but holds forth in "God's +first temple" for the seven days of every week—was <!-- Page 172 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>delivering his +homily with all earnestness. He <i>must</i> preach, it seemed, whether men +would hear or forbear. He had already announced his text, but I could +not certainly make out what it was. "Here we have no continuing city," +perhaps; or it might have been, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, +all is vanity." It should have been one of these, or so I thought; but, +as all church-goers must have observed, the connection between text and +sermon is sometimes more or less recondite, and once in a while, like +the doctrine of the sermon itself, requires to be taken on faith. In the +present instance, indeed, as no doubt in many others, the pew was quite +as likely to be at fault as the pulpit. The red-eye's eloquence was +never very persuasive to my ear. Its short sentences, its tiresome +upward inflections, its everlasting repetitiousness, and its sharp, +querulous tone long since became to me an old story; and I have always +thought that whoever dubbed this vireo the "preacher" could have had no +very exalted opinion of the clergy.</p> + +<p>I stayed not to listen, therefore, but kept on through the wood, while a +purple finch <!-- Page 173 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>pitched a tune on one side of the path (he appeared to +feel no compunctions about interrupting the red-eye's exhortation), and +a squirrel sprung his rattle on the other; and presently I came to the +second farm: a large clearing, bounded by the forest on all hands, but +after these many years still yielding a very respectable hay-crop (so +does the good that men do live after them), and with a house and barn +still standing at the lower end. I reached the house just in time to +escape a shower, making an enforced obeisance as I entered. It was but +the ghost of a dwelling,—the door off its hinges, and no glass in the +four small windows; but it had a substantial quality about it, +notwithstanding, as a not very tall man was liable at any moment to be +reminded should he carry himself a trifle too proudly under the big +unhewn timbers. It is better to stoop than to bump your head, they +seemed to be saying. Hither came no tourists but the rabbits; and they, +it was plain, were not so much tourists as permanent residents. As I +looked at the blank walls and door-posts, after a fortnight's experience +among the mountains, I felt grateful <!-- Page 174 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>at the sight of boards on which +Brown of Boston and Smith of Smithfield had not yet inscribed their +illustrious names. I had left the city in search of rest and seclusion. +For the time, in the presence of Nature herself, I would gladly have +forgotten the very existence of my all-too-famous countrymen; and I +rejoiced accordingly to have found one lonely spot to which their +restless feet had not yet penetrated. Tall grass grew untrodden quite up +to the door-sill; raspberry vines thrust their arms in at the pane-less +windows; there was neither paint nor plastering; and the tiny cupboard +was so bare that it set my irreverent fancy to quoting Mother Goose in +the midst of my most serious moralizings.</p> + +<p>The owner of this farm, like his neighbor, had planted an apple orchard, +and his wife a patch of cinnamon roses; and, not to treat one better +than another, I picked a rose here also. There is no lover of flowers +but likes to have his garden noticed, and the good housewife would have +been pleased, I knew, could she have seen me looking carefully for her +handsomest and sweetest bud.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 175 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>By this time the shower was over, and a song-sparrow was giving thanks. +I might never have another opportunity to follow up an old forest path, +of which I had heard vague reports as leading from this point to the +railway. "It starts from the upper corner of the farm," my informant had +said. To the upper corner I went, therefore, through the rank, wet +grass. But I found no sign of what I was looking for, and with some +heartfelt but unreportable soliloquizings, to the effect that a +countryman's directions, like dreams, are always to be read backwards, I +started straight down toward the lower corner, saying to myself that I +ought to have had the wit to take that course in the beginning. Sure +enough, the path was there, badly overgrown with bushes and young trees, +but still traceable. A few rods, and I came to the brook. The bridge was +mostly gone, as I had been forewarned it probably would be, but a single +big log answered a foot passenger's requirements. Once across the +bridge, however, I could discover no sign of a trail. But what of that? +The sun was shining; I had only to keep it at my back, and I was sure +to <!-- Page 176 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>bring up at the railroad. So I set out, and for a while traveled on +bravely. Then I began to bethink myself that I was not going up-hill +quite so fast as it seemed I ought to be doing. Was I really approaching +the railway, after all? Or had I started in a wrong direction (being in +the woods at the time), and was I heading along the mountain-side in +such a course that I might walk all night, and all the while be only +plunging deeper and deeper into the forest? The suggestion was not +pleasurable. If I could only see the mountain! But the thick foliage put +that out of the question.</p> + +<p>After a short debate with myself I concluded to be prudent, and make my +way back to the brook while I still had the sun to guide me; for I now +called to mind the showeriness of the day, and the strong likelihood +that the sky might at any moment be overcast. Even as things were, there +was no assurance that I might not strike the brook at some distance from +the bridge, and so at some distance from the trail, with no means of +determining whether it was above or below me. I began my retreat, and +pretty soon, luckily or unluckily,—I <!-- Page 177 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>am not yet certain which,—in +some unaccountable manner my feet found themselves again in the path.</p> + +<p>Now, then, I would carry out my original intention, and I turned +straight about. For a while the path held clear. Then it was blocked by +a big tree that had toppled into it lengthwise. I must go round the +obstruction, and pick up the trail at the other end. But the trail would +not be picked up. It had faded out or run into the ground. Finally, when +I was just on the point of owning myself beaten, my eyes all at once +fell upon it, running along before me. A second experience of the same +kind set me thinking how long it would take to go a mile or two at this +rate (it was already half past four o'clock), even if I did not in the +end lose my way altogether. But I kept on till I was stopped, not by a +single windfall, but by a tangle of half a dozen. This time I hunted for +a continuation of the path on the further side till I was out of +patience, and then determined to be done with the foolish business, and +go back by the way I had come. A very sensible resolve, but when I came +to put it into execution it <!-- Page 178 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>turned out to be too late. The path was +lost entirely. I must fall back upon the sun; and if the truth is to be +told, I commenced feeling slightly uncomfortable. The bushes were wet; +my clothing was drenched; I had neither compass nor matches; it +certainly would be anything but agreeable to spend the night in the +forest.</p> + +<p>Happily there was, for the present, no great danger of matters coming to +such a pass. If the sun would only shine for half an hour longer I could +reach the brook (I could probably reach it without the sun), and even if +I missed the bridge I could follow the stream out of the woods before +dark. I was not frightened, but I was beginning to tremble lest I should +be. The loss of the path was in itself little to worry about. But what +if I should lose my wits also, as many a man had done in circumstances +no worse, and with consequences most disastrous? Unpleasant stories came +into my head, and I remember repeating to myself more than once (candor +is better than felicity of phrase), "Be careful, now; don't get +rattled!" Then, having thus <!-- Page 179 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>pulled myself together, as an Englishman +would say, I faced the sun and began "stepping westward," though with no +thought of Wordsworth's poem. A spectator might have suspected that if I +was not "rattled," I was at least not far from it. "Now who is this," he +might have queried,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"whose sore task<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does not divide the Sunday from the week?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Meanwhile I was, of course, on the lookout for any signs of the missing +path, and after a time I descried in the distance, on one side, what +looked like a patch of bushes growing in the midst of the forest. I made +for it, and, as I expected, found myself once more on the trail. This +time I held it, reached the bridge, crossed it, and, still keeping up my +pace, was presently out in the sunshine of the old farm, startling a +brood of young partridges on the way. Happy birds! <i>They</i> were never +afraid of passing a night in the woods. A most absurd notion! But man, +as he is the strongest of all animals, so is he also the weakest and +most defenseless.</p> + +<p>This last reflection is an afterthought, I freely acknowledge. At the +moment I was <!-- Page 180 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>taken up with the peacefulness of the pastoral scene into +which I had so happily emerged, and was in no mood to envy anybody. How +bright and cheerful the ragworts and buttercups looked, and what sweet +and homelike music the robin made, singing from one of the apple-trees! +The cool north wind wafted the spicy odor of the cinnamon roses to my +nostrils; but—alas for the prosaic fact!—the same cool wind struck +through my saturated garments, bidding me move on. The pessimistic +preacher was right when he said, "Truly the light is sweet, and a +pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." I wonder whether +he was ever bewildered in a dark wood. From boyhood I have loved the +forest, with its silence, its shadows, and its deep isolation, but for +the present I had had my fill of such mercies.</p> + +<p>As I came out upon the highway, it occurred to me what Emerson says of +Thoreau,—that "he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, +and therefore never willingly walked in the road." My own taste, I was +obliged to admit, was somewhat less fastidious. Indeed, my <!-- Page 181 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>boots, +soaked through and through as they were, made very grateful music +striking along the gravel. And after supper, while walking back and +forth upon the piazza, in all the luxury of slippers and a winter +overcoat, I turned more than once from the glories of the sunset to gaze +upon the black slope of Lafayette, thinking within myself how much less +comfortable I should be up yonder in the depths of the forest, so dark +and wet, without company, without fire, without overcoat, and without +supper. After all, mere animal comfort is not to be despised. Let us be +thankful, I said, for the good things of life, of no matter what grade; +yes, though they be only a change of clothing and a summer hotel.</p> + +<p>It was laughable how my quiet ramble had turned out. My friend, the +red-eyed vireo, may or may not have stuck to his text; but if he had +seen me in the midst of my retreat, dashing through the bushes and +clambering over the fallen trees, he certainly never would have guessed +mine. "Consider the lilies," indeed! He was more likely to think of a +familiar Old Testament scripture: "The wicked flee when no man +pursueth."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 182 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> +<h2>A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So waved the pine-tree through my thought.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorscpoem">Emerson.</p> + + +<p class="section">In outward, every-day affairs, in what we foolishly call real life, man +is a stickler for regularity, a devout believer in the maxim, "Order is +heaven's first law." He sets his house at right angles with the street; +lays out his grounds in the straightest of straight lines, or in the +most undeviating of curves; selects his shade-trees for their trim, +geometrical habit; and, all in all, carries himself as if precision and +conformity were the height of virtue. Yet this same man, when he comes +to deal with pictorial representations, makes up his judgment according +to quite another standard; finding nothing picturesque in tidy gardens +and shaven lawns, discarding without hesitation every well-rounded, +symmetrical tree, delighting in disorder and disproportion, loving a +ruin better than the best appointed <!-- Page 183 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>palace, and a tumble-down wall +better than the costliest and stanchest of new-laid masonry. It is hard +to know what to think of an inconsistency like this. Why should taste +and principle be thus opposed to each other, as if the same man were +half Philistine, half Bohemian? Can this strong æsthetic preference for +imperfection be based upon some permanent, universal law, or is it only +a passing whim, the fashion of an hour?</p> + +<p>Whatever we may say of such a problem,—and where one knows nothing, it +is perhaps wisest to say nothing,—we may surely count it an occasion +for thankfulness that a thing so common as imperfection should have at +least its favorable side. Music would soon become tame, if not +intolerable, without here and there a discord; and who knows how stupid +life itself might prove without some slight admixture of evil? From my +study-windows I can see sundry of the newest and most commodious +mansions in town; but I more often look, not at them, but at a certain +dilapidated old house, blackening for want of paint, and fast falling +into decay, but with one <!-- Page 184 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>big elm before the door. I have no hankerings +to live in it; as a dwelling-place, I should no doubt prefer one of the +more modern establishments; but for an object to look at, give me the +shanty.</p> + +<p>Human nature is nothing if not paradoxical. In its eyes everything is +both good and bad; and for my own part, I sometimes wonder whether this +may not be the sum of all wisdom,—to find everything good in its place, +and everything bad out of its place.</p> + +<p>Thoughts like these suggest themselves as I look at the pitch-pine, +which, to speak only of such trees as grow within the range of my own +observation, is the one irregular member of the family of cone-bearers. +The white or Weymouth pine, the hemlock, the cedars, the spruces, the +fir, and the larch, these are all, in different ways, of a decidedly +symmetrical turn. Each of them has its own definite plan, and builds +itself up in fastidious conformity therewith, except as untoward outward +conditions may now and then force an individual into some abnormal +peculiarity. And all of them, it need not be said, have the defect of +this <!-- Page 185 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>quality. They are not without charm, not even the black spruce, +while the Weymouth pine and the hemlock are often of surpassing +magnificence and beauty; but a punctilious adherence to rule must of +necessity be attended with a corresponding absence of freedom and +variety. The pitch-pine, on the other hand, if it works upon any set +scheme, as no doubt it does, has the grace to keep it out of sight. Its +gift is genius rather than talent. It has an air, as genius always has, +of achieving its results without effort or premeditation. Its method is +that of spontaneity; its style, that of the picturesque-homely, so dear +to the artistic temperament. Its whole make-up is consistent with this +germinal or controlling idea. Angular in outline, rough and ragged in +its bole, with its needles stiff and its cones hard and sharp, it makes +no attempt at gracefulness, yet by virtue of its very waywardness it +becomes, as if in spite of itself, more attractive than any of its +relatives.</p> + +<p>The Puritans of New England are mostly dead; the last of their spiritual +descendants, we may fear, will soon be dead likewise; but as long as +<i>Pinus rigida</i> covers <!-- Page 186 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>the sandy knolls of Massachusetts, the sturdy, +uncompromising, independent, economical, indefatigable, all-enduring +spirit of Puritanism will be worthily represented in this its sometime +thriving-place.</p> + +<p>For the pitch-pine's noblest qualities are, after all, not artistic, but +moral. Such unalterable contentment, such hardiness and persistency, are +enough to put the stoutest of us to shame. Once give it root, and no +sterility of soil can discourage it. Everything else may succumb, but +it—it and the gray birch—will make shift to live. Like the resin that +exudes from it, having once taken hold, it has no thought of letting go. +It is never "planted by the rivers of water," but all the same its leaf +does not wither. No summer so hot and dry, no winter so cold and wet, +but it keeps its perennial green. What cannot be done in one year may, +perchance, be accomplished in three or four. It spends several seasons +in ripening its fruit. Think of an apple-tree thus patient!</p> + +<p>The pitch-pine is beautiful to look at, and "profitable for doctrine, +for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," <!-- Page 187 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>but it +would be a shame not to add that it is also most excellent to smell of. +If I am to judge, scarcely any odor wears better than this of growing +turpentine. There is something unmistakably clean and wholesome about +it. The very first whiff savors of salubrity. "The belief in the good +effects of pine forests in cases of phthisis is quite unanimous" (so I +read the other day in a scientific journal), "and the clinical evidence +in favor of their beneficial influence is unquestioned." Who can tell +whether our New England climate, with all its consumptive provocations, +might not be found absolutely unendurable but for the amelioration +furnished by this generously diffused terebinthine prophylactic?</p> + +<p>When all is said, however, nothing else about the pitch-pine ever +affects me so deeply as its behavior after man has done his worst upon +it. It would appear to have some vague sense of immortality, some +gropings after a resurrection. The tree was felled in the autumn, and +the trunk cut up ignominiously into cord-wood; but in the spring the +prostrate logs begin to put forth scattered tufts of bright green +leaves,—life <!-- Page 188 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>still working under the ribs of death,—while the stump, +whether "through the scent of water" I cannot say, is perhaps sending up +fresh shoots,—a piece of <i>post-mortem</i> hopefulness the like of which no +white pine, for all its seemingly greater vitality, was ever known to +exhibit. But leaves and shoots alike come to nothing. If a pitch-pine +die, it shall not live again. The wood's blind impulses, if not false in +themselves, were at least falsely interpreted. Alas! alas! who has not +found it so? What seemed like the prophetic stirrings of a new life were +only the last flickerings of a lamp that was going out.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 189 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> +<h2>ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I walk about; not to and from.—<span class="smcap">Charles Lamb.</span></p></div> + + +<p class="section">Taking a walk is something different from traveling afoot. The latter I +may do when on my way to the cars or the shop; but my neighbor, seeing +me at such times, never says to himself, "Mr. —— is taking a walk." He +knows I cannot be doing that, so long as I am walking for the sake of +getting somewhere. Even the common people understand that utilitarianism +has nothing to do with the true peripatetic philosophy.</p> + +<p>The disciples of this philosophy, the noble fraternity of saunterers, +among whom I modestly enroll myself, are not greatly concerned with any +kind of merely physical activity. They believe that everything has both +a lower and a higher use; and that in the order of evolution the lower +precedes the higher. Time was when walking—going erect on one's hind +limbs—was a rare accomplishment, sufficient of itself to <!-- Page 190 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>confer +distinction. Little by little this accomplishment became general, and +for this long time now it has been universal; yet even to the present +day it is not quite natural; else why does every human infant still +creep on all-fours till it is taught otherwise? But of all who practise +the art, only here and there a single individual has divined its loftier +use and significance. The rest are still in the materialistic +stage—pedestrians simply. In their view walking is only a convenience, +or perhaps I should say an inconvenience; a cheap device for getting +from one place to another. They resort to it for business, or, it may +be, for health. Of strolling as a means of happiness they have scarcely +so much as heard. They belong to the great and fashionable sect of the +wise and prudent; and from all such the true peripatetic philosophy is +forever hidden. We who are in the secret would gladly publish it if we +could; but by its very nature the doctrine is esoteric.</p> + +<p>Whoso would be initiated into its mysteries must first of all learn how +not to be in a hurry. Life is short, it is true, and time is precious; +but a day is worth nothing <!-- Page 191 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>of itself. It is like money,—good only for +what it will buy. One must not play the miser, even with time. "There is +that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Who does +not know men so penurious of minutes, so everlastingly preoccupied, that +they seldom spend an hour to any good purpose,—confirming the paradox +of Jesus, "He that loveth his life shall lose it"? And between a certain +two sisters, was not the verdict given in favor of the one who (if we +take the other's word for it) was little better than an idler? The +saunterer has laid to heart this lesson. On principle, he devotes a part +of his time to what his virtuous townsmen call doing nothing. "What +profit hath a man of all his labor?" A pertinent inquiry; but I am not +aware that the author of it ever suggested any similar doubt as to the +net results of well-directed idleness. A laborious, painstaking spirit +is commendable in its place; it would go hard with the world to get on +without it; but the fact remains that some of the very best things of +this life—things unseen and (therefore) eternal—are never to be come +at industriously. <!-- Page 192 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>It is useless to chase them. We can only put +ourselves in their way, and be still. The secret is as old as mysticism +itself: if the vision tarry, wait for it.</p> + +<p>Walking, then, as adepts use the word, is not so much a physical as a +spiritual exercise. And if any be disposed to look askance at this form +of expression, as if there were possibly a suggestion of profanity about +it, they will please bethink themselves of an ancient sacred book (to +which, according to some friendly critics, I am strangely fond of +referring), wherein is narrated the history of a man who went out into +the fields at eventide to meditate. <i>He</i> could never have misunderstood +our speech, nor dreamed of its needing justification. And your true +saunterers of the present day, no matter what their creed, are of +Isaac's kin,—devout and imaginative souls, who may now and then be +forced to cry with the Psalmist, "O that I had wings!" but who, in all +ordinary circumstances, are able to <i>walk</i> away and be at rest. Like the +patriarch, they have accustomed their feet to serve them as ministers of +grace.</p> + +<p>It must be a bad day indeed when, on <!-- Page 193 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>retreating to the woods or the +fields, we find it impossible to leave the wearisome world—yes, and our +more wearisome selves, also—behind us. As a rule, this result is not +the better attained by quickening the gait. We may allow for exceptions, +of course, cases in which a counter-excitement may peradventure be of +use; but most often it is better to seek quietness of heart at a quiet +pace; to steal away from our persecutors, rather than to invite pursuit +by too evident a purpose of escape. The lazy motion is of itself a kind +of spiritual sedative. As we proceed, gazing idly at the sky, or with +our attention caught by some wayside flower or passing bird, the mind +grows placid, and, like smooth water, receives into itself the image of +heaven. What a benediction of repose falls upon us sometimes from an old +tree, as we pass under it! So self-poised it seems; so alive, and yet so +still! It was planted here before we were born. It will be green and +flourishing long after we are dead. In it we may behold a perfect +illustration of the dignity and peace of a life undeviatingly obedient +to law,—the law of its own being; never in haste, never at a <!-- Page 194 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>loss, but +in every fibre doing, day by day, its appropriate work. Sunshine and +rain, heat and cold, calm and storm,—all minister to its necessities. +It has only to stand in its place and grow; happy in spring-time, with +its buds and leaves; happy in autumn, with its fruit; happy, too, in +winter,—repining not when forced to wait through months of bareness and +dearth for the touch of returning warmth. Enviable tree! As we +contemplate it, we feel ourselves rebuked, and, at the same time, +comforted. We, also, will be still, and let the life that is in us work +itself out to the appointed end.</p> + +<p>The seeing eye is a gift so unusual that whoever accustoms himself to +watch what passes around him in the natural world is sure to be often +entertained by the remarks, complimentary and otherwise, which such an +idiosyncrasy calls forth. Some of his neighbors pity him as a +ne'er-do-well, while others devoutly attribute to him a sort of +superhuman faculty. If only <i>they</i> had such eyes! But, alas! they go +into the woods, and they see nothing. Meanwhile the object of their envy +knows well enough that <!-- Page 195 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>his own vision is but rudimentary. He catches a +glimpse now and then,—nothing more. Like his neighbors, he, too, prays +for sight. Sooner or later, however, he discovers that it is a blessing +to be able on occasion to leave one's scientific senses at home. For +here, again, surprising as it may seem, it is necessary to be on our +guard against a superserviceable activity. There are times when we go +out-of-doors, not after information, but in quest of a mood. Then we +must not be over-observant. Nature is coy; she appreciates the +difference between an inquisitor and a lover. The curious have their +reward, no doubt, but her best gifts are reserved for suitors of a more +sympathetic turn. And unless it be here and there some creature +altogether devoid of poetic sensibility, some "fingering slave,"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"One who would peep and botanize<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Upon his mother's grave,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>unless it be such a person as this, too poor to be conscious of his own +poverty, there can be no enthusiastic student of natural history but has +found out for himself the truth and importance of the paradoxical +<!-- Page 196 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>caution now suggested. One may become so zealous a botanist as almost to +cease to be a man. The shifting panorama of the heavens and the earth no +longer appeals to him. He is now a specialist, and go where he will, he +sees nothing but specimens. Or he may give himself up to ornithology, +till eye and ear grow so abnormally sensitive that not a bird can move +or twitter but he is instantly aware of it. He <i>must</i> attend, whether he +will or no. So long as this servitude lasts, it is idle to go afield in +pursuit of joys "high and aloof," such as formerly awaited him in +lonesome places. Better betake himself to city streets or a darkened +room. For myself, I thankfully bear testimony that when I have been thus +under the tyranny of my own senses I have found no more certain means of +temporary deliverance than to walk in the early evening. Indeed, I have +been ready, many a time, to exclaim with Wordsworth,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hail, Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then the eye has no temptation to busy itself with petty details; "day's +mutable distinctions" are removed from sight, and the mind is left +undistracted to rise, if it <!-- Page 197 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>can, into communion with the spirit of the +scene.</p> + +<p>After all, it is next to nothing we are able to tell of the pleasures of +such fellowship. We cannot define them to ourselves,—though they are +"felt in the blood and felt along the heart,"—much less to another. +Least of all need we attempt to explain them to any Philistine; the +walls of whose house are likely enough hung with "chromos," but who +stares at you for a fool or a sentimentalist (which comes, perhaps, to +nearly the same thing), when he catches you standing still before one of +Nature's pictures. How shall one blest with a feeling for the woods put +into language the delight he experiences in sauntering along their shady +aisles? He enjoys the stillness, the sense of seclusion, the flicker of +sunlight and shadow, the rustle of leaves, the insect's hum, the passing +of the chance butterfly, the chirp of the bird, or its full-voiced song, +the tracery of lichens on rock and tree, the tuft of ferns, the carpet +of moss, the brightness of blossom and fruit,—all the numberless sights +and sounds of the forest; but it is not any of these, nor <!-- Page 198 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>all of them +together, that make the glory of the place. It is the wood—and this is +something more than the sum of all its parts—which lays hold upon him, +taking him, as it were, out of the world and out of himself. Let +practical people sneer, and the industrious frown; we who retain our +relish for these natural and innocent felicities may well enough be +indifferent to neighborly comments. Whatever worldlings may think, the +hour is not wasted that brings with it tranquillity of mind and an +uplifting of the heart. We seem to be going nowhere and looking for +nothing? Yes; but one may be glad to visit the Land of Beulah, though he +have no special errand thither. Who ever saw a child but was fond of an +idle hour in the woods? And for my part, while, I have with me the +children (and the dogs and the poets) I count myself in excellent +company; for the time, at least, I can do without what is vulgarly +esteemed good society. A man to whom a holiday affords no pleasure is +already as good as dead; nothing will save him but to be born again. We +have heard of convicts so wonted to prison cells that <!-- Page 199 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>they could feel +at home nowhere else; and we have known men of business whose feet, when +they stopped going the regular humdrum round, knew no other course to +take but to steer straight for the grave. It behooves us to heed the +warning of such examples, and now and then to be idle betimes, lest the +capacity for idleness be extirpated by disuse.</p> + +<p>The practice of sauntering may especially be recommended as a corrective +of the modern vice of continual reading. For too many of us it has come +to be well-nigh impossible to sit down by ourselves without turning +round instinctively in search of a book or a newspaper. The habit +indicates a vacancy of mind, a morbid intellectual restlessness, and may +not inaptly be compared with that incessant delirious activity which +those who are familiar with death-bed scenes know so well as a symptom +of approaching dissolution. Possibly the two cases are not in all +respects analogous. Books are an inestimable boon; let me never be +without the best of them, both old and new. Still, one would fain have +an occasional thought of one's own, even <!-- Page 200 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>though, as the common saying +is, it be nothing to speak of. Meditation is an old-fashioned exercise; +the very word is coming to have an almost archaic sound; but neither the +word nor the thing will altogether pass into forgetfulness so long as +the race of saunterers—the spiritual descendants of Isaac—continue to +inherit the earth.</p> + +<p>There is little danger that the lives of any of us will be too solitary +or lived at too leisurely a rate. The world grows busier and busier. +Those whose passion for Nature is strongest and most deep-seated are +driven to withhold from her all but the odds and ends of the day. We +rebel sometimes; the yoke grows unendurable; come what may, we will be +quit of it; but the existing order of things proves too strong for us, +and anon we settle back into the old bondage. And perhaps it is better +so. Even the most simple and natural delights are best appreciated when +rarely and briefly enjoyed. So I persuade myself that, all in all, it is +good for me to have only one or two hours a day for the woods. Human +nature is weak; who knows but I might <!-- Page 201 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>grow lazy, were I my own master? +At least, "the fine point of seldom pleasure" would be blunted.</p> + +<p>The ideal plan would include two walks: one in the morning for +observation, with every sense alert; the other toward night, for a mood +of "wise passiveness," wherein Nature should be left free to have her +own way with the heart and the imagination. Then the laureate's prayer +might be fulfilled:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let knowledge grow from more to more,<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">But more of reverence in us dwell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">That mind and soul, according well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">May make one music, as before."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But this strict division of time is too often out of the question, and +we must contrive, as best we can, to unite the two errands,—study and +reverie: using our eyes and ears, but not abusing them; and, on the +other hand, giving free play to fancy and imagination, without +permitting ourselves to degenerate into impotent dreamers. Every walker +ought to be a faithful student of at least one branch of natural +history, not omitting Latin names and the very latest discoveries and +theories. But, withal, let <!-- Page 202 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>him make sure that his acquaintance with +out-of-door life is sympathetic, and not merely curious or scientific. +All honor to the new science and its votaries; we run small risk of too +much learning; but it should be kept in mind that the itch for finding +out secrets is to be accounted noble or ignoble, according as the spirit +that prompts the research is liberal or petty. Curiosity and love of the +truth are not yet identical, however it may flatter our self-esteem to +ignore the distinction. One may spend one's days and nights in nothing +else but in hearing or telling some new thing, and after all be no +better than a gossip. It would prove a sorry exchange for such of us as +have entered, in any degree, into the feeling of Wordsworth's lines,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To me, the meanest flower that blows can give<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and I believe the capacity for such moods to be less uncommon than many +suppose,—it would be a sorry bargain, I say, for us to lose this +sensitiveness to the charm of living beauty, though meanwhile we were to +grow wiser than all the moderns touching the morphology and histology of +every blossom under the sun.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<!-- Page 203 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +<span class="i0">"Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail against her beauty?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Not we, certainly; but we will be bold to add, with Tennyson himself,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2h">"Let her know her place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is the second, not the first."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In treating a theme of this kind, it is hard not to violate Nature's own +method, and fall into a strain of exhortation. Our intercourse with her +is so good and wholesome, such an inexhaustible and ever-ready resource +against the world's trouble and unrest, that we would gladly have +everybody to share it. We say, over and over, with Emerson,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If I could put my woods in song,<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">And tell what's there enjoyed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">All men would to my gardens throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i1i">And leave the cities void."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But this may not be. At best, words can only hint at sensations; and the +hint can be taken only by as many as are predestined to hear it. As I +have said, the doctrine is esoteric. How are those who have never felt +the like to understand the satisfaction with which I recall a certain +five or ten minutes of a cool morning in May, a year <!-- Page 204 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>or more ago? I was +drawing towards home, after a jaunt of an hour or two, when I came +suddenly into a sheltered and sunny nook, where a bed of the early +saxifrage was already in full bloom, while a most exquisite little +bee-fly of a beautiful shade of warm brown was hovering over it, +draining the tiny, gold-lined chalices, one by one, with its long +proboscis, which looked precisely like the bill of a humming-bird. An +ordinary picture enough, as far as words go,—only a little sunshine, a +patch of inconspicuous and common flowers, and a small Bombylian without +even the distinction of bright colors. True; but my spirit drank a +nectar sweeter than any the insect was sipping. And though, as a rule, +an experience of this sort were perhaps better left unspoken,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A thought of private recollection, sweet and still,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>yet the mention of it can do no harm, while it illustrates what I take +to be one of the principal advantages of the saunterer's condition. His +treasures are never far to seek. His delight is in Nature herself, +rather than in any of her more unusual manifestations. He is not of that +large and increasingly <!-- Page 205 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>fashionable class who fancy themselves lovers of +Nature, while in fact they are merely admirers, more or less sincere, of +fine scenery. Not that anything is too beautiful for our rambler's +appreciation: he has an eye for the best that earth and heaven can +offer; he knows the exhilaration of far-reaching prospects; but he is +not dependent upon such extraordinary favors of Providence. He has no +occasion to run hither and thither in search of new and strange sights. +The old familiar pastures; the bushy lane, in which his feet have +loitered year after year, ever since they began to go alone; an +unfrequented road; a wooded slope, or a mossy glen; the brook of his +boyish memories; if need be, nothing but a clump of trees or a grassy +meadow,—these are enough for his pleasure. Fortunate man! Who should be +happy, if not he? Out of his own doorway he steps at will into the +Elysian fields.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 206 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> +<h2>BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">Gay creatures of the element,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in the colors of the rainbow live.—<span class="smcap">Milton.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Speak to me as to thy thinkings.—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="section">It happened to me once to spend a long summer afternoon under a +linden-tree, reading "Middlemarch." The branches were loaded with +blossoms, and the heavy perfume attracted the bees from far and near, +insomuch that my ears were all the time full of their humming. +Butterflies also came, though in smaller numbers, and silently. Whenever +I looked up from my book I was sure to find at least one or two +fluttering overhead. They were mostly of three of our larger sorts,—the +Turnus, the Troilus, and the Archippus (what noble names!), beautifully +contrasted in color. The Turnus specimens were evidently the remnant of +a brood which had nearly passed away; their tattered wings showed that +they had been exposed to the wear and tear of a long life, as +butterflies reckon. <!-- Page 207 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>Some of them were painful to look at, and I +remember one in particular, so maimed and helpless that, with a sudden +impulse of compassion, I rose and stepped upon it. It seemed an act of +mercy to send the wretched cripple after its kindred. As I looked at +these loiterers, with their frayed and faded wings,—some of them half +gone,—I found myself, almost before I knew it, thinking of Dorothea +Brooke, of whose lofty ideals, bitter disappointments, and partial joys +I was reviewing the story. After all, was there really any wide +difference between the two lives? One was longer, the other shorter; but +only as one dewdrop outlasts another on the grass.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A moment's halt, a momentary taste<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Of Being from the well amid the waste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And lo! the phantom caravan has reach'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">The Nothing it set out from."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then I fell to musing, as I had often done before, upon the mystery of +an insect's life and mind.</p> + +<p>This tiger swallow-tail, that I had just trodden into the ground,—what +could have been its impressions of this curious world whereinto it had +been ushered so <!-- Page 208 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>unceremoniously, and in which its day had been so +transient? A month ago, a little more or a little less, it had emerged +from its silken shroud, dried its splendid party-colored wings in the +sun, and forthwith had gone sailing away, over the pasture and through +the wood, in quest of something, it could hardly have known what. Nobody +had welcomed it. When it came, the last of its ancestors were already +among the ancients. Without father or mother, without infancy or +childhood, it was born full-grown, and set out, once for all, upon an +independent adult existence. What such a state of uninitiated, +uninstructed being may be like let those imagine who can.</p> + +<p>It was born adult, I say; but at the same time, it was freer from care +than the most favored of human children. No one ever gave it a lesson or +set it a task. It was never restrained nor reproved; neither its own +conscience nor any outward authority ever imposed the lightest check +upon its desires. It had nobody's pleasure to think of but its own; for +as it was born too late to know father or mother, so also it died too +soon to see its own offspring. It made <!-- Page 209 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>no plans, needed no estate, was +subject to no ambition. Summer was here when it came forth, and summer +was still here when it passed away. It was born, it lived upon honey, it +loved, and it died. Happy and brief biography!</p> + +<p>Happy and brief; but what a multitude of questions are suggested by it! +Did the creature know anything of its preëxistence, either in the +chrysalis or earlier? If so, did it look back upon that far-away time as +upon a golden age? Or was it really as careless as it seemed, neither +brooding over the past nor dreaming of the future? Was it aware of its +own beauty, seeing itself some day reflected in the pool as it came to +the edge to drink? Did it recognize smaller butterflies—the white and +the yellow, and even the diminutive "copper"—as poor relations; +felicitating itself, meanwhile, upon its own superior size, its +brilliant orange-red eye-spots, and its gorgeous tails? Did it mourn +over its faded broken wings as age came on, or when an unexpected gust +drove it sharply against a thorn? Or was it enabled to take every +mischance and change in a philosophical spirit, perceiving all such +<!-- Page 210 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>evils to have their due and necessary place in the order of Nature? Was +it frightened when the first night settled down upon it,—the horrible +black darkness, that seemed to be making a sudden end of all things? As +it saw a caterpillar here and there, did it ever suspect any +relationship between the hairy crawling thing and itself; or would it +have been mortally offended with any profane lepidopteran Darwin who +should have hinted at such a possibility?</p> + +<p>The Antiopa butterfly, according to some authorities a near relative of +the tiger swallow-tail, has long been especially attractive to me +because of its habit of passing the winter in a state of hibernation, +and then reappearing upon the wing before the very earliest of the +spring flowers. A year ago, Easter fell upon the first day of April. I +spent the morning out-of-doors, hoping to discover some first faint +tokens of a resurrection. Nor was I disappointed. In a sunny stretch of +the lonely road, I came suddenly upon five of these large +"mourning-cloaks," all of them spread flat upon the wet gravel, sucking +up the moisture while the sun warmed their wings. What sight <!-- Page 211 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>more +appropriate for Easter! I thought. These were some who had been dead, +and behold, they were alive again.</p> + +<p>Then, as before under the linden-tree, I fell to wondering. What were +they thinking about, these creatures so lately born a second time? Did +they remember their last year's existence? And what could they possibly +make of this brown and desolate world, so unlike the lingering autumnal +glories in the midst of which, five or six months before, they had +"fallen asleep"? Perhaps they had been dreaming. In any event, they +could have no idea of the ice and snow, the storms and the frightful +cold, through which they had passed. It was marvelous how such frail +atoms had withstood such exposure; yet here they were, as good as new, +and so happily endowed that they had no need to wait for blossoms, but +could draw fresh life from the very mire of the street.</p> + +<p>This last trait, so curiously out of character, as it seems to us, +suggests one further inquiry: Have butterflies an æsthetic faculty? They +appreciate each other's adornments, of course. Otherwise, what becomes +<!-- Page 212 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>of the accepted doctrine of sexual selection? And if they appreciate +each other's beauty, what is to hinder our believing that they enjoy +also the bright colors and dainty shapes of the flowers on which they +feed? As I came out upon the veranda of a summer hotel, two or three +friends exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. ——, you should have been here a few minutes +ago; you would have seen something quite in your line. A butterfly was +fluttering over the lawn, and noticing what it took for a dandelion, it +was just settling down upon it, when lo, the dandelion moved, and proved +to be a goldfinch!" Evidently the insect had an eye for color, and was +altogether like one of us in its capacity for being deceived.</p> + +<p>To butterflies, as to angels, all things are pure. They extract honey +from the vilest of materials. But their tastes and propensities are in +some respects the very opposite of angelic; being, in fact, thoroughly +human. All observers must have been struck with their quite Hibernian +fondness for a shindy. Two of the same kind seldom come within hail of +each other without a little set-to, just for sociability's sake, as it +<!-- Page 213 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>were; and I have seen a dozen or more gathered thickly about a precious +bit of moist earth, all crowding and pushing for place in a manner not +to be outdone by the most patriotic of office-seekers.</p> + +<p>It is my private heresy, perhaps, this strong anthropomorphic turn of +mind, which impels me to assume the presence of a soul in all animals, +even in these airy nothings; and, having assumed its existence, to +speculate as to what goes on within it. I know perfectly well that such +questions as I have been raising are not to be answered. They are not +meant to be answered. But I please myself with asking them, +nevertheless, having little sympathy with those precise intellectual +economists who count it a waste to let the fancy play with insoluble +mysteries. Why is fancy winged, I should like to know, if it is never to +disport itself in fields out of which the clumsy, heavy-footed +understanding is debarred?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 214 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> +<h2>BASHFUL DRUMMERS.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He goes but to see a noise that he heard.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorscpoem">Shakespeare.</p> + + +<p class="section">At the back of my father's house were woods, to my childish imagination +a boundless wilderness. Little by little I ventured into them, and among +my earliest recollections of their sombre and lonesome depths was a +long, thunderous, far-away drumming noise, beginning slowly and +increasing in speed till the blows became almost continuous. This, +somebody told me, was the drumming of the partridge. Now and then, in +open spaces in the path, I came upon shallow circular depressions where +the bird had been dusting, an operation in which I had often seen our +barnyard fowls complacently engaged. At other times I was startled by +the sudden whir of the bird's wings as he sprang up at my feet, and went +dashing away through the underbrush. I heard with open-mouthed wonder of +men who had been known to shoot a bird thus <!-- Page 215 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>flying! All in all, the +partridge made a great impression upon my boyish mind.</p> + +<p>By and by some older companion initiated me into the mystery of setting +snares. My attempts were primitive enough, no doubt; but they answered +their purpose, taking me into the woods morning and night, in all kinds +of weather, and affording me no end of pleasurable excitement. Once in a +great while the noose would be displaced (the "slip-noose," we called +it, with unsuspected pleonasm), and the barberries gone. At last, after +numberless disappointments, I actually found a bird in the snare. The +poor captive was still alive, and, as I came up, was making frantic +efforts to escape; but I managed to secure him, in spite of my trembling +fingers, and then, though the deed looked horribly like murder, I killed +him (I would rather not mention how), and carried him home in triumph.</p> + +<p>Many years passed, and I became in my own way an ornithologist. One by +one I scraped acquaintance with all the common birds of our woods and +fields; but the drumming of the partridge (or of the ruffled <!-- Page 216 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>grouse, as +I now learned to call him) remained a mystery. I read Emerson's +description of the "forest-seer:"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He saw the partridge drum in the woods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He heard the woodcock's evening hymn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He found the tawny thrushes' broods;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the shy hawk did wait for him;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and I thought: "Well, now, I have seen and heard the woodcock at his +vespers; I have found the nest of the tawny thrush; the shy hawk has sat +still on the branch just over my head; but I have <i>not</i> seen the +partridge drum in the woods. Why shouldn't I do that, also?" I made +numerous attempts. A bird often drummed in a small wood where I was in +the habit of rambling before breakfast. The sound came always from a +particular quarter, and probably from a certain stone wall, running over +a slight rise of ground near a swamp. The crafty fellow evidently did +not mean to be surprised; but I made a careful reconnoissance, and +finally hit upon what seemed a feasible point of approach. A rather +large boulder offered a little cover, and, after several failures, I one +day spied the bird on the wall. He had drummed only a few <!-- Page 217 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>minutes +before; but his lookout was most likely sharper than mine. At all +events, he dropped off the wall on the further side, and for that time I +saw nothing more of him. Nor was I more successful the next time, nor +the next. Be as noiseless as I could, the wary creature inevitably took +the alarm. To make matters worse, mornings were short and birds were +many. One day there were rare visiting warblers to be looked after; +another day the gray-cheeked thrushes had dropped in upon us on their +way northward, and, if possible, I must hear them sing. Then the pretty +blue golden-winged warbler was building her nest, and by some means or +other I must find it.</p> + +<p>Thus season after season slipped by. Then, in another place, I +accidentally passed quite round a drummer. I heard him on the right, and +after traveling only a few rods, I heard him on the left. He must be +very near me, and not far from the crest of a low hill, over which, as +in the former instance, a stone wall ran. He drummed at long intervals, +and meanwhile I was straining my eyes and advancing at <!-- Page 218 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>a snail's pace +up the slope. Happily, the ground was carpeted with pine needles, and +comparatively free from brush and dead twigs, those snapping nuisances +that so often bring all our patience and ingenuity to nought. A section +of the wall came into sight, but I got no glimpse of the bird. Presently +I went down upon all fours; then lower yet, crawling instead of +creeping, till I could look over the brow of the hill. Here I waited, +and had begun to fear that I was once more to have my labor for my +pains, when all at once I saw the grouse step from one stone to another. +"Now for it!" I said to myself. But the drumming did not follow, and +anon I lost sight of the drummer. Again I waited, and finally the fellow +jumped suddenly upon a top stone, lifted his wings, and commenced the +familiar roll-call. I could see his wings beating against his sides with +quicker and quicker strokes; but an unlucky bush was between us, and +hoping to better my position, I moved a little to one side. Upon this, +the bird became aware of my presence, I think. At least I could see him +staring straight at me, and a moment later he <!-- Page 219 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>dropped behind the wall; +and though I remained motionless till a cramp took me, I heard nothing +more. "If it had not been for that miserable bush!" I muttered. But I +need not have quarreled with an innocent bush, as if it, any more than +myself, had been given a choice where it should grow. A wiser man would +have called to mind the old saw, and made the most of "half a loaf."</p> + +<p>Another year passed, and another spring came round. Then, on the same +hillside, a bird (probably the same individual) was drumming one April +morning, and, as my note-book has it, "I came within one" of taking him +in the act. I miscalculated his position, however, which, as it turned +out, was not upon the wall, but on a boulder surrounded by a few small +pine-trees. The rock proved to be well littered, and clearly was the +bird's regular resort. "Very good," said I, "I will catch you yet."</p> + +<p>Five days later I returned to the charge, and was rewarded by seeing the +fellow drum once; but, as before, intervening brush obscured my view. I +crept forward, inch by inch, till the top of the boulder <!-- Page 220 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>came into +sight, and waited, and waited, and waited. At last I pushed on, and lo, +the place was deserted. There is a familiar Scripture text that might +have been written on purpose for ornithologists: "Let patience have her +perfect work."</p> + +<p>This was April 14th. On the 19th I made the experiment again. The +drummer was at it as I drew near, and fortune favored me at last. I +witnessed the performance three times over. Even now, to be sure, the +prospect was not entirely clear, but it was better than ever before, and +by this time I had learned to be thankful for small mercies. The grouse +kept his place between the acts, moving his head a little one way and +another, but apparently doing nothing else.</p> + +<p>Of course I had in mind the disputed question as to the method by which +the drumming noise is produced. It had seemed to me that whoever would +settle this point must do it by attending carefully to the first slow +beats. This I now attempted, and after one trial was ready, off-hand, to +accept a theory which heretofore I had scouted; namely, that the bird +makes <!-- Page 221 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>the sound by striking his wings together over his back. He +brought them up, even for the first two or three times, with a quick +convulsive movement, and I could almost have made oath that I heard the +beat before the wings fell. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I waited +till he drummed again; and now I was by no means so positive in my +conviction. If an observer wishes to be absolutely sure of a thing,—I +have learned this by long experience,—let him look at it once, and +forever after shut his eyes! On the whole, I return to my previous +opinion, that the sound is made by the downward stroke, though whether +against the body or against the air, I will not presume to say.</p> + +<p>A man who is a far better ornithologist than I, and who has witnessed +this performance under altogether more favorable conditions than I was +ever afforded, assures me that his performer <i>sat down</i>! My bird took no +such ridiculous position. So much, at least, I am sure of.</p> + +<p>When he had drummed three times, my partridge quit his boulder (I was +near enough to hear him strike the dry leaves), <!-- Page 222 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>and after a little +walked suddenly into plain sight. We discovered each other at the same +instant. I kept motionless, my field-glass up. He made sundry nervous +movements, especially of his ruff, and then silently stalked away.</p> + +<p>I could not blame him for his lack of neighborliness. If I had been shot +at and hunted with dogs as many times as he probably had been, I too +might have become a little shy of strangers. To my thinking, indeed, the +grouse is one of our most estimable citizens. A liking for the buds of +fruit-trees is his only fault (not many of my townsmen have a smaller +number, I fancy), and that is one easily overlooked, especially by a man +who owns no orchard. Every sportsman tries to shoot him, and every +winter does its worst to freeze or starve him; but he continues to +flourish. Others may migrate to sunnier climes, or seek safety in the +backwoods, but not so the partridge. He was born here, and here he means +to stay. What else could be expected of a bird whose notion of a lover's +serenade is the beating of a drum?</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>OUT-DOOR BOOKS,</h2> + +<h3><em>Both Prose and Poetical.</em></h3> + + +<p class="hang"><b>Agassiz, Alexander and Elizabeth C.</b> Seaside Studies in Natural History. +Illustrated. 8vo, $3.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Agassiz, Prof. Louis.</b> Methods of Study in Natural History. With +Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50.</p> + +<p class="hang">Geological Sketches. First Series. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt +top, $1.50.</p> + +<p class="hang">Geological Sketches. Second Series. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Bailey, Prof. L. H., Jr.</b> Talks Afield, about Plants and the Science of +Plants. With 100 Illustrations. 16mo, $1.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Bamford, Mary E.</b> Up and Down the Brooks. In Riverside Library for Young +People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Barrows, Samuel J. and Isabel C.</b> The Shaybacks in Camp. Ten Summers +under Canvas. With Map of Lake Memphremagog. 16mo, $1.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Burroughs, John.</b> Works. Each volume, 16mo, gilt top, $1.25.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Wake Robin. New Edition, revised. Illustrated.</p> + +<p class="hang">The Same. <i>Riverside Aldine Edition.</i> 16mo, $1.00.</p> + +<p class="hang">Winter Sunshine. New Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">Birds and Poets, with other Papers.</p> + +<p class="hang">Locusts and Wild Honey.</p> + +<p class="hang">Pepacton, and other Sketches.</p> + +<p class="hang">Fresh Fields.</p> + +<p class="hang">Signs and Seasons.</p></div> + +<p class="hang">Birds and Bees. Essays by <span class="smcap">John Burroughs</span>. With introduction by <span class="smcap">Mary E. +Burt</span>. In Riverside Literature Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang">Sharp Eyes, and other Papers. By <span class="smcap">John Burroughs</span>. In Riverside Literature +Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, <i>net</i>. The above two pamphlets, 16mo, +boards, 40 cents, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Cary, Alice.</b> Pictures of Country Life. Short Stories. 12mo, $1.50.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Cooper, James Fenimore.</b> Cooper Stories. Narratives of Adventure selected +from <span class="smcap">Cooper's</span> Works. Stories of the Prairies. Stories of the Woods. +Stories of the Sea. Illustrated. 3 vols. 16mo, $1.00 each; the set, +$3.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Cooper, Susan Fenimore.</b> Rural Hours. New Revised Edition, abridged. +16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Dodge, Col. Theodore A.</b> Patroclus and Penelope. A Chat in the Saddle. +With 14 Phototypes of the Horse in motion. 8vo, half roan, gilt top, +$3.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Popular Edition.</i> With Illustrations in outline. Crown 8vo, half roan, +$1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Edwards, W. H.</b> The Butterflies of North America. Containing life-size +figures carefully colored by hand from nature, with descriptive +letter-press.</p> + +<p class="hang">First Series. Containing fifty colored Plates. 4to, half morocco, full +gilt, $35.00, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang">The Same. With uncolored Plates. 4to, $15.00, <i>net</i>; half morocco, full +gilt, $20.00, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang">Second Series. 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New Edition, enlarged. 12mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Riverside Natural History.</b> A Treasury of Authoritative Information, +presenting the most Recent Discoveries. With special reference to +American Fauna, including a carefully prepared Bibliography. Edited by +<span class="smcap">John Stirling Kingsley</span>, with the coöperation of a corps of forty-three +Writers, including the most eminent American Naturalists. An imperial +work, richly illustrated throughout by over 2200 Wood-cuts in the Text, +168 full-page Engravings, and 12 colored Plates. 6 vols. royal 8vo, +each, $5.00, <i>net</i>; sheep, $6.00, <i>net</i>; half morocco, $7.00, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. The Lower Invertebrates.</p> + +<p>2. Crustacea and Insects.</p> + +<p>3. Fishes and Reptiles.</p> + +<p>4. The Birds.</p> + +<p>5. The Mammals.</p> + +<p>6. 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With Biographical Sketch by +<span class="smcap">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span>.</p> + +<p class="hang">The Maine Woods.</p> + +<p class="hang">Cape Cod.</p> + +<p class="hang">A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.</p> + +<p class="hang">Early Spring in Massachusetts: From the Journal of Thoreau. +Edited, with an Introduction, by <span class="smcap">H. G. O. Blake</span>.</p> + +<p class="hang">Summer: From the Journal of Thoreau. Edited by <span class="smcap">H. G. O. Blake</span>, +with Map of Concord.</p> + +<p class="hang">Winter: From the Journal of Thoreau. Edited by <span class="smcap">H. G. O. Blake</span>.</p> + +<p class="hang">Walden. <i>Riverside Aldine Edition</i>, 2 vols. 16mo, $2.00.</p> + +<p class="hang">The Succession of Forest Trees and Wild Apples. With +Biographical Sketch by <span class="smcap">R. W. Emerson</span>. In Riverside Literature +Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, <i>net</i>.</p></div> + +<p class="hang"><b>Torrey, Bradford.</b> Birds in the Bush. 16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang">A Rambler's Lease. 16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Warner, Charles Dudley.</b> My Summer in a Garden. Illustrated by <span class="smcap">Darley</span>. +Square 16mo, $1.50. <i>Riverside Aldine Edition</i>. 16mo, $1.00.</p> + +<p class="hang">In the Wilderness. Adirondack Essays. New Edition, enlarged. 18mo, +$1.00.</p> + +<p class="hang">On Horseback. A Tour in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. With +Notes of Travel in Mexico and California. 16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang">A-Hunting of the Deer, and other Essays. In Riverside Literature Series. +16mo, paper, 15 cents, <i>net</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Whiting, C. G.</b> The Saunterer. Essays on Nature. 16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Whittier, John Greenleaf.</b> Snow-Bound. A Winter Idyl. 16mo, $1.00. +Illustrated Edition. 8vo, $2.00.</p> + +<p class="hang"><b>Wiggin, Kate Douglas.</b> A Summer in a Cañon. New Edition. Illustrated. +16mo, $1.25.</p> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> +<p class="center">HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &. COMPANY,</p> +<p class="centersc">Boston and New York.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rambler's lease, by Bradford Torrey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAMBLER'S LEASE *** + +***** This file should be named 36173-h.htm or 36173-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/7/36173/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, +Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Rambler's lease + +Author: Bradford Torrey + +Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #36173] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RAMBLER'S LEASE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, +Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been +left as in the original. No typographical corrections have been made. +Words in italics in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words +in bold in the original are surrounded by =equal signs=. The words +"manoeuvres," "phoebe", and "phoebes" use an oe ligature in the +original. + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Books by Mr. Torrey. | + | | + | | + | BIRDS IN THE BUSH. 16mo, $1.25. | + | A RAMBLER'S LEASE. 16mo, $1.25. | + | | + | | + | HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + A RAMBLER'S LEASE + + + BY + + BRADFORD TORREY + + + I have known many laboring men that have got good estates in + this valley.--BUNYAN + + Sunbeams, shadows, butterflies, and birds.--WORDSWORTH + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1892 + + + + + Copyright, 1889, + BY BRADFORD TORREY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's +woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort +the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this +feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this +public way, to hold _a rambler's lease_ of their property. Should it +please them to do so, they may accept the papers herein contained as a +kind of return, the best he knows how to offer, for the many favors, +alike unproffered and unasked, which he has received at their hands. His +private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it; and +taking this view of the matter, he cannot help thinking that some of +his more prosperous neighbors would do well, in legal phrase, to perfect +their titles. He would gladly be of service to them in this regard. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + MY REAL ESTATE 1 + + A WOODLAND INTIMATE 22 + + AN OLD ROAD 45 + + CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER 70 + + A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD 99 + + BEHIND THE EYE 114 + + A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE 121 + + NEW ENGLAND WINTER 140 + + A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE 164 + + A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION 182 + + ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM 189 + + BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY 206 + + BASHFUL DRUMMERS 214 + + + + +A RAMBLER'S LEASE. + + + + +MY REAL ESTATE. + + Yet some did think that he had little business here.--WORDSWORTH. + + +Every autumn the town of W---- sends me a tax-bill, a kindly remembrance +for which I never fail of feeling grateful. It is pleasant to know that +after all these years there still remains one man in the old town who +cherishes my memory,--though it be only "this publican." Besides, to +speak frankly, there is a measure of satisfaction in being reminded now +and then of my dignity as a landed proprietor. One may be never so rich +in stocks and bonds, government consols and what not, but, acceptable as +such "securities" are, they are after all not quite the same as a +section of the solid globe itself. True, this species of what we may +call astronomic or planetary property will sometimes prove +comparatively unremunerative. Here in New England (I know not what may +be true elsewhere) there is a class of people whom it is common to hear +gossiped about compassionately as "land poor." But, however scanty the +income to be derived from it, a landed investment is at least +substantial. It will never fail its possessor entirely. If it starve +him, it will offer him a grave. It has the prime quality of permanence. +At the very worst, it will last as long as it is needed. Railroads may +be "wrecked," banks be broken, governments become bankrupt, and we be +left to mourn; but when the earth departs we shall go with it. Yes, the +ancient form of speech is correct,--land is _real_; as the modern phrase +goes, translating Latin into Saxon, land is _the thing_; and though we +can scarcely reckon it among the necessaries of life, since so many do +without it, we may surely esteem it one of the least dispensable of +luxuries. + +But I was beginning to speak of my tax-bill, and must not omit to +mention a further advantage of real estate over other forms of property. +It is certain not to be overlooked by the town assessors. Its +proprietor is never shut up to the necessity of either advertising his +own good fortune, or else submitting to pay less than his rightful share +of the public expenses,--a merciful deliverance, for in such a strait, +where either modesty or integrity must go to the wall, it is hard for +human nature to be sure of itself. + +To my thinking there is no call upon a man's purse which should be +responded to with greater alacrity than this of the tax-gatherer. In +what cause ought we to spend freely, if not in that of home and country? +I have heard, indeed, of some who do not agree with me in this feeling. +Possibly tax-rates are now and then exorbitant. Possibly, too, my own +view of the subject might be different were my quota of the public levy +more considerable. This year, for instance, I am called upon for +seventy-three cents; if the demand were for as many dollars, who knows +whether I might not welcome it with less enthusiasm? On such a point it +would be unbecoming for me to speak. Enough that even with my fraction +of a dollar I am able to rejoice that I have a share in all the town's +multifarious outlay. If an additional fire-engine is bought, or a new +school-house built, or the public library replenished, it is done in +part out of my pocket. + +Here, however, let me make a single exception. I seldom go home (such +language still escapes me involuntarily) without finding that one or +another of the old roads has been newly repaired. I hope that no mill of +my annual seventy or eighty cents goes into work of that sort. The +roads--such as I have in mind--are out of the way and little traveled, +and, in my opinion, were better left to take care of themselves. There +is no artist but will testify that a crooked road is more picturesque +than a straight one; while a natural border of alder bushes, +grape-vines, Roxbury wax-work, Virginia creeper, wild cherry, and such +like is an inexpensive decoration of the very best sort, such as the +Village Improvement Society ought never to allow any highway surveyor to +lay his hands on, unless in some downright exigency. What a +short-sighted policy it is that provides for the comfort of the feet, +but makes no account of those more intellectual and spiritual pleasures +which enter through the eye! It may be answered, I know, that in matters +of general concern it is necessary to consult the greatest good of the +greatest number; and that, while all the inhabitants of the town are +supplied with feet, comparatively few of them have eyes. There is force +in this, it must be admitted. Possibly the highway surveyor (the +highwayman, I was near to writing) is not so altogether wrong in his +"improvements." At all events, it is not worth while for me to make the +question one of conscience, and go to jail rather than pay my taxes, as +Thoreau did. Let it suffice to enter my protest. Whatever others may +desire, for myself, as often as I revisit W----, I wish to be able to +repeat with unction the words of W----'s only poet,[5:1]-- + + "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood!" + +And how am I to do that, if the "scenes" have been modernized past +recognition? + +My own landed possessions are happily remote from roads. Not till long +after my day will the "tide of progress" bring them "into the market," +as the real-estate brokers are fond of saying. I have never yet been +troubled with the importunities of would-be purchasers. Indeed, it is a +principal recommendation of woodland property that one's sense of +proprietorship is so little liable to be disturbed. I often reflect how +altered the case would be were my fraction of an acre in some peculiarly +desirable location near the centre of the village. Then I could hardly +avoid knowing that the neighbors were given to speculating among +themselves about my probable selling price; once in a while I should be +confronted with a downright offer; and what assurance could I feel that +somebody would not finally tempt me beyond my strength, and actually buy +me out? As it is, my land is mine; and, unless extreme poverty overtakes +me, mine it is reasonably certain to remain, till death shall separate +us. + +Whatever contributes to render life interesting and enjoyable goes so +far toward making difficult its final inevitable surrender; and it must +be confessed that the thought of my wood-lot increases my otherwise +natural regret at being already so well along on my journey. In a sense +I feel my own existence to be bound up with that of my pine-trees; or, +to speak more exactly, that their existence is bound up with mine. For +it is a sort of unwritten but inexorable law in W----, as in fact it +appears to be throughout New England, that no pine must ever be allowed +to reach more than half its normal growth; so that my trees are certain +to fall under the axe as soon as their present owner is out of the way. +I am not much given to superstition. There are no longer any dryads, it +is to be presumed; and if there were, it is not clear that they would be +likely to take up with pines; but for all that, I cherish an almost +affectionate regard for any trees with which I have become familiar. I +have mourned the untimely fate of many; and now, seeing that I have been +entrusted with the guardianship of these few, I hold myself under a kind +of sacred obligation to live as long as possible, for their sakes. + +It is now a little less than a fortnight since I paid them a visit. The +path runs through the wood for perhaps half a mile; and, as I sauntered +along, I heard every few rods the thump of falling acorns, though there +was barely wind enough to sway the tree-tops. "Mother Earth has begun +her harvesting in good earnest," I thought. The present is what the +squirrels call a good year. They will laugh and grow fat. Their oak +orchards have seldom done better, the chestnut oaks in particular, the +handsome, rosy-tipped acorns of which are noticeably abundant. + +This interesting tree, so like the chestnut itself in both bark and +leaf, is unfortunately not to be found in my own lot; at any rate, I +have never discovered it there, although it grows freely only a short +distance away. But I have never explored the ground with anything like +thoroughness, and, to tell the truth, am not at all certain that I know +just where the boundaries run. In this respect my real estate is not +unlike my intellectual possessions; concerning which I often find it +impossible to determine what is actually mine and what another's. I +have written an essay before now, and at the end been more or less in +doubt where to set the quotation marks. For that matter, indeed, I +incline to believe that the whole tract of woods in the midst of which +my little spot is situated belongs to me quite as really as to the +various persons who claim the legal ownership. Not many of these latter, +I am confident, get a better annual income from the property than I do; +and even in law, we are told, possession counts for nine points out of +the ten. They are never to be found at home when I call, and I feel no +scruple about carrying away whatever I please. My treasures, be it said, +however, are chiefly of an impalpable sort,--mostly thoughts and +feelings, though with a few flowers and ferns now and then; the one set +about as valuable as the other, the proprietors of the land would +probably think. + +In one aspect of the case, the lot which is more strictly my own is just +now in a very interesting condition, though one that, unhappily, is far +from being uncommon. Except the pines already mentioned (only six or +eight in number), the wood was entirely cut off a few years before I +came into possession, and at present the place is covered with a thicket +of vines, bushes, and young trees, all engaged in an almost desperate +struggle for existence. When the ground was cleared, every seed in it +bestirred itself and came up; others made haste to enter from without; +and ever since then the battle has been going on. It is curious to +consider how changed the appearance of things will be at the end of +fifty years, should nature be left till then to take its course. By that +time the contest will for the most part be over. At least nineteen +twentieths of all the plants that enlisted in the fight will have been +killed, and where now is a dense mass of shrubbery will be a grove of +lordly trees, with the ground underneath broad-spaced and clear. A noble +result; but achieved at what a cost! If one were likely himself to live +so long, it would be worth while to catalogue the species now in the +field, for the sake of comparing the list with a similar one of half a +century later. The contrast would be an impressive sermon on the +mutability of mundane things. But we shall be past the need of +preaching, most of us, before that day arrives, and not unlikely shall +have been ourselves preached about in enforcement of the same trite +theme. + +Thoughts of this kind came to me the other afternoon, as I stood in the +path (what is known as the town path cuts the lot in two) and looked +about. So much was going on in this bit of earth, itself the very centre +of the universe to multitudes of living things. The city out of which I +had come was not more densely populous. Here at my elbow stood a group +of sassafras saplings, remnants of a race that has held the ground for +nobody knows how long. One of my earliest recollections of the place is +of coming hither to dig for fragrant roots. At that time it had never +dawned upon me that the owner of the land would some day die, and leave +it to me, his heir. How hard and rocky the ground was! And how hard we +worked for a very little bark! Yet few of my pleasures have lasted +better. The spicy taste is in my mouth still. Even in those days I +remarked the glossy green twigs of this elegant species, as well as the +unique and beautiful variety of its leaves,--some entire and oval, +others mitten-shaped, and others yet three-lobed; an extremely pretty +bit of originality, suiting admirably with the general comely habit of +this tree. There are some trees, as some men, that seem born to dress +well. + +Along with the sassafras I was delighted to find one or two small +specimens of the flowering dogwood (_Cornus florida_),--another original +genius, and one which I now for the first time became acquainted with as +a tenant of my own. Its deeply veined leaves are not in any way +remarkable (unless it be for their varied autumnal tints), and are all +fashioned after one pattern. Its blossoms, too, are small and +inconspicuous; but these it sets round with large white bracts +(universally mistaken for petals by the uninitiated), and in flowering +time it is beyond comparison the showiest tree in the woods, while its +fruit is the brightest of coral red. I hope these saplings of mine may +hold their own in the struggle for life, and be flourishing in all their +beauty when my successor goes to look at them fifty years hence. + +Having spoken of the originality of the sassafras and the dogwood, I +must not fail to mention their more abundant neighbor, the witch-hazel, +or hamamelis. In comparison with its wild freak of singularity, the +modest idiosyncrasies of the other two seem almost conventional. Why, if +not for sheer oddity's sake, should any bush in this latitude hold back +its blossoms till near the edge of winter? As I looked at the half-grown +buds, clustered in the axils of the yellow leaves, they appeared to be +waiting for the latter to fall, that they might have the sunlight all to +themselves. They will need it, one would say, in our bleak November +weather. + +Overfull of life as my wild garden patch was, it would not have kept its +(human) possessor very long from starvation. One or two barberry bushes +made a brave show of fruitfulness; but the handsome clusters were not +yet ripe, and even at their best they are more ornamental than +nutritive,--though, after the frost has cooked them, one may go farther +and fare worse. A few stunted maple-leaved viburnums (_this_ plant's +originality is imitative,--a not uncommon sort, by the bye) proffered +scanty cymes of dark purplish drupes. Here and there was a spike of red +berries, belonging to the false Solomon's-seal or false spikenard (what +a pity this worthy herb should not have some less negative title!); but +these it would have been a shame to steal from the grouse. Not far off a +single black alder was reddening its fruit, which all the while it +hugged close to the stem, as if in dread lest some chance traveler +should be attracted by the bright color. It need not have trembled, for +this time at least. I had just dined, and was tempted by nothing save +two belated blackberries, the very last of the year's crop, and a single +sassafras leaf, mucilaginous and savory, admirable as a relish. A few +pigeon-berries might have been found, I dare say, had I searched for +them, and possibly a few sporadic checkerberries; while right before my +eyes was a vine loaded with large bunches of very small frost-grapes, +such as for hardness would have served well enough for school-boys' +marbles. Everything has its favorable side, however; and probably the +birds counted it a blessing that the grapes _were_ small and hard and +sour; else greedy men would have come with baskets and carried them all +away. Except some scattered rose-hips, I have enumerated everything that +looked edible, I believe, though a hungry man's eyes might have +lengthened the list materially. The cherry-trees, hickories, and oaks +were not yet in bearing, as the horticultural phrase is; but I was glad +to run upon a clump of bayberry bushes, which offer nothing good to eat, +to be sure, but are excellent to smell of. The leaves always seem to +invite crushing, and I never withhold my hand. + +Among the crowd of young trees--scrub oaks, red oaks, white oaks, +cedars, ashes, hickories, birches, maples, aspens, sumachs, and +hornbeams--was a single tupelo. The distinguished name honors my +catalogue, but I am half sorry to have it there. For, with all its +sturdiness, the tupelo does not bear competition, and I foresee plainly +that my unlucky adventurer will inevitably find itself overshadowed by +more rapid growers, and be dwarfed and deformed, if not killed outright. +Some of the very strongest natures (and the remark is of general +application) require to be planted in the open, where they can be free +to develop in their own way and at leisure. But this representative of +_Nyssa multiflora_ took the only chance that offered, I presume, as the +rest of us must do. + +Happy the humble! who aspire not to lofty things, demanding the lapse of +years for their fulfillment, but are content to set before themselves +some lesser task, such as the brevity of a single season may suffice to +accomplish. Here were the asters and golden-rods already finishing their +course in glory, while the tupelo was still barely getting under way in +a race which, however prolonged, was all but certain to terminate in +failure. Of the golden-rods I noted four species, including the +white--which might appropriately be called silvery-rod--and the +blue-stemmed. The latter (_Solidago cæsia_) is to my eye the prettiest +of all that grow with us, though it is nearly the least obtrusive. It is +rarely, if ever, found outside of woods, and ought to bear some name +(sylvan golden-rod, perhaps) indicative of the fact. + +As a rule, fall flowers have little delicacy and fragrance. They are +children of the summer; and, loving the sun, have had almost an excess +of good fortune. With such pampering, it is no wonder they grow rank and +coarse. They would be more than human, I was going to say, if they did +not. It is left for stern winter's progeny, the blossoms of early +spring-time, who struggle upward through the snow and are blown upon by +chilly winds,--it is left for these gentle creatures, at once so hardy +and so frail, to illustrate the sweet uses of adversity. + +All in all, it was a motley company which I beheld thus huddled together +in my speck of forest clearing. Even the lands beyond the sea were +represented, for here stood mullein and yarrow, contesting the ground +with oaks and hickories. The smaller wood flowers were not wanting, of +course, though none of them were now in bloom. Pyrola and winter-green, +violets (the common blue sort and the leafy-stemmed yellow), strawberry +and five-finger, saxifrage and columbine, rock-rose and bed-straw, +self-heal and wood-sorrel,--these, and no doubt many more, were there, +filling the chinks otherwise unoccupied. + +My assortment of ferns is small, but I noted seven species: the +brake, the polypody, the hay-scented, and four species of +shield-ferns,--_Aspidium Noveboracense_, _Aspidium spinulosum_, variety +_intermedium_, _Aspidium marginale_, and the Christmas fern, _Aspidium +acrostichoides_. The last named is the one of which I am proudest. For +years I have been in the habit of coming hither at Christmas time to +gather the fronds, which are then as bright and fresh as in June. Two of +the others, the polypody and _Aspidium marginale_, are evergreen also, +but they are coarser in texture and of a less lively color. Writing of +these flowerless beauties, I am tempted to exclaim again, "Happy the +humble!" The brake is much the largest and stoutest of the seven, but it +is by a long time the first to be cut down before the frost. + +Should I ever meet with reverses, as the wealthiest and most prudent are +liable to do, and be compelled to part with my woodland inheritance, I +shall count it expedient to seek a purchaser in the spring. At that +season its charms are greatly enhanced by a lively brook. This comes +tumbling down the hill-side, dashing against the bowlders (of which the +land has plenty), and altogether acting like a thing not born to die; +but alas, the early summer sees it make an end, to wait the melting of +next winter's snow. Many a happy hour did I, as a youngster, pass upon +its banks, watching with wonder the swarms of tiny insects which +darkened the foam and the snow, and even filmed the surface of the brook +itself. I marveled then, as I do now, why such creatures should be out +so early. Possibly our very prompt March friend, the phoebe, could +suggest an explanation. + +A break in the forest is of interest not only to such plants as I have +been remarking upon, but also to various species of birds. No doubt the +towhee, the brown thrush, and the cat-bird found out this spot years +ago, and have been using it ever since for summer quarters. Indeed, a +cat-bird snarled at me for an intruder this very September afternoon, +though he himself was most likely nothing more than a chance pilgrim +going South. This member of the noble wren family and near cousin of +the mocking-bird would be better esteemed if he were to drop that +favorite feline call of his. But this is his bit of originality +(imitative, like the maple-leaved viburnum's), and perhaps, if justice +were done, it would be put down to his credit rather than made an +occasion of ill-will. + +Once during the afternoon a company of chickadees happened in upon me; +and, taking my cue from the newspaper folk, I immediately essayed an +interview. My imitation of their conversational notes was hardly begun +before one of the birds flew toward me, and, alighting near by, +proceeded to answer my calls with a mimicry so exact, as fairly to be +startling. To all appearance the quick-witted fellow had taken the game +into his own hands. Instead of my deceiving him, he would probably go +back and entertain his associates with amusing accounts of how cleverly +he had fooled a stranger, out yonder in the bushes. + +It would have seemed a graceful and appropriate acknowledgment of my +rightful ownership of the land on which the cat-bird and the titmice +were foraging, had they greeted me with songs. But it would hardly have +been courteous for me to propose the matter, and evidently it did not +occur to them. At all events, I heard no music except the hoarse and +solemn asseverations of the katydids, the gentler message of the +crickets, and in the distance an occasional roll-call of the grouse. My +dog--who is a much better sportsman than myself, but whose +companionship, I am ashamed to see, has not till now been mentioned--was +all the while making forays hither and thither into the surrounding +woods; and once in a while I heard, what is the best of all music in his +ears, the whir of "partridge" wings. Likely as not he thought it a queer +freak on my part to spend the afternoon thus idly, when with a gun I +might have been so much more profitably employed. He could not know that +I was satiating myself with a miser's delights, feasting my eyes upon my +own. In truth, I fancy he takes it for granted that the whole forest +belongs to me--and to him. Perhaps it does. As I said just now, I +sometimes think so myself. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5:1] Since this essay was originally published (in the _Atlantic +Monthly_) I have been assured that the author of _The Old Oaken Bucket_ +was not born in W----, but in the next town. Being convinced against my +will, however, and finding the biographical dictionaries divided upon +the point, I conclude to let the text stand unaltered. + + + + +A WOODLAND INTIMATE. + + Surely there are times + When they consent to own me of their kin, + And condescend to me, and call me cousin. + JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. + + +It is one of the enjoyable features of bird study, as in truth it is of +life in general, that so many of its pleasantest experiences have not to +be sought after, but befall us by the way; like rare and beautiful +flowers, which are never more welcome than when they smile upon us +unexpectedly from the roadside. + +One May morning I had spent an hour in a small wood where I am +accustomed to saunter, and, coming out into the road on my way home +again, fell in with a friend. "Wouldn't you like to see an oven-bird's +nest?" I inquired. He assented, and turning back, I piloted him to the +spot. The little mother sat motionless, just within the door of her +comfortable, roofed house, watching us intently, but all unconscious, +it is to be feared, of our admiring comments upon her ingenuity and +courage. Seeing her thus devoted to her charge, I wondered anew whether +she could be so innocent as not to know that one of the eggs on which +she brooded with such assiduity was not her own, but had been foisted +upon her by a faithless cow-bird. To me, I must confess, it is +inexplicable that any bird should be either so unobservant as not to +recognize a foreign egg at sight, or so easy-tempered as not to insist +on straightway being rid of it; though this is no more inscrutable, it +may be, than for another bird persistently, and as it were on principle, +to cast her own offspring upon the protection of strangers; while this, +in turn, is not more mysterious than ten thousand every-day occurrences +all about us. After all, it is a wise man that knows what to wonder at; +while the wiser he grows the stronger is likely to become his conviction +that, little as may be known, nothing is absolutely unknowable; that in +the world, as in its Author, there is probably "no darkness at all," +save as daylight is dark to owls and bats. I did not see the oven-bird's +eggs at this time, however, my tender-hearted companion protesting that +their faithful custodian should not be disturbed for the gratification +of his curiosity. So we bade her adieu, and went in pursuit of a +solitary vireo, just then overheard singing not far off. A few paces +brought him into sight, and as we came nearer and nearer he stood quite +still on a dead bough, in full view, singing all the while. When my +friend had looked him over to his satisfaction,--never having met with +such a specimen before,--I set myself to examine the lower branches of +the adjacent trees, feeling no doubt, from the bird's significant +behavior, that his nest must be somewhere in the immediate neighborhood. +Sure enough, it was soon discovered, hanging from near the end of an oak +limb; a typical vireo cup, suspended within the angle of two horizontal +twigs, with bits of newspaper wrought into its structure, and trimmed +outwardly with some kind of white silky substance. The female was in it +(this, too, we might have foreseen with reasonable certainty); but when +she flew off, it appeared that as yet no eggs were laid. The couple +manifested scarce any uneasiness at our investigations, and we soon +came away; stopping, as we left the wood, to spy out the nest of a +scarlet tanager, the feminine builder of which was just then busy with +giving it some finishing touches. + +It had been a pleasant stroll, I thought,--nothing more; but it proved +to be the beginning of an adventure which, to me at least, was in the +highest degree novel and interesting. + +I ought, perhaps, to premise that the solitary vireo (called also the +blue-headed vireo and the blue-headed greenlet) is strictly a bird of +the woods. It belongs to a distinctively American family, and is one of +five species which are more or less abundant as summer residents in +Eastern Massachusetts, being itself in most places the least numerous of +the five, and, with the possible exception of the white-eye, the most +retiring. My own hunting-grounds happen to be one of its favorite +resorts (there is none better in the State, I suspect), so that I am +pretty certain of having two or three pairs under my eye every season, +within a radius of half a mile. I have found a number of nests, also, +but till this year had never observed any marked peculiarity of the +birds as to timidity or fearlessness. Nor do I now imagine that any such +strong race peculiarity exists. What I am to describe I suppose to be +nothing more than an accidental and unaccountable idiosyncrasy of the +particular bird in question. Such freaks of temperament are more or less +familiar to all field naturalists, and may be taken as extreme +developments of that individuality which seems to be the birthright of +every living creature, no matter how humble. At this very moment I +recall a white-throated sparrow, overtaken some years ago in an +unfrequented road, whose tameness was entirely unusual, and, indeed, +little short of ridiculous. + +Three or four days after the walk just now mentioned I was again in the +same wood, and went past the vireos' nest, paying no attention to it +beyond noting that one of the birds, presumed to be the female, was on +duty. But the next morning, as I saw her again, it occurred to me to +make an experiment. So, quitting the path suddenly, I walked as rapidly +as possible straight up to the nest, a distance of perhaps three rods, +giving her no chance to slip off, with the hope of escaping unperceived. +The plan worked to a charm, or so I flattered myself. When I came to a +standstill my eyes were within a foot or two of hers; in fact, I could +get no nearer without running my head against the branch; yet she sat +quietly, apparently without a thought of being driven from her post, +turning her head this way and that, but making no sound, and showing not +the least sign of anything like distress. A mosquito buzzed about my +face, and I brushed it off. Still she sat undisturbed. Then I placed my +hand against the bottom of the nest. At this she half rose to her feet, +craning her neck to see what was going on, but the moment I let go she +settled back upon her charge. Surprised and delighted, I had no heart to +pursue the matter further, and turned away; declaring to myself that, +notwithstanding I had half promised a scientific friend the privilege of +"taking" the nest, such a thing should now never be done with my +consent. Before I could betray a confidence like this, I must be a more +zealous ornithologist or a more unfeeling man,--or both at once. Science +ought to be encouraged, of course, but not to the outraging of honor and +common decency. + +On the following day, after repeating such amenities as I had previously +indulged in, I put forth my hand as if to stroke the bird's plumage; +seeing which, she raised her beak threateningly and emitted a very faint +deprecatory note, which would have been inaudible at the distance of a +few yards. At the same time she opened and shut her bill, not +snappishly, but slowly,--a nervous action, simply, it seemed to me. + +Twenty-four hours later I called again, and was so favorably received +that, besides taking hold of the nest, as before, I brushed her tail +feathers softly. Then I put my hand to her head, on which she pecked my +finger in an extremely pretty, gentle way,--more like kissing than +biting,--and made use of the low murmuring sounds just now spoken of. +Her curiosity was plainly wide awake. She stretched her neck to the +utmost to look under the nest, getting upon her feet for the purpose, +till I expected every moment to see her slip away; but presently she +grew quiet again, and I withdrew, leaving her in possession. + +By this time a daily interview had come to be counted upon as a matter +of course, by me certainly, and, for aught I know, by the vireo as well. +On my next visit I stroked the back of her head, allowed her to nibble +the tip of my finger, and was greatly pleased with the matter-of-fact +manner in which she captured an insect from the side of the nest, while +leaning out to oversee my manoeuvres. Finally, on my offering to lay +my left hand upon her, she quit her seat, and perched upon a twig, +fronting me; and when I put my finger to her bill she flew off. Even now +she made no outcry, however, but fell immediately to singing in tones of +absolute good-humor, and before I had gone four rods from the tree was +back again upon the eggs. Of these, I should have said, there were +four,--the regular complement,--all her own. Expert as cow-birds are at +running a blockade, it would have puzzled the shrewdest of them to +smuggle anything into a nest so sedulously guarded. + +Walking homeward, I bethought myself how foolish I had been not to offer +my little _protégée_ something to eat. Accordingly, in the morning, +before starting out, I filled a small box with leaves from the garden +rose-bush, which, as usual, had plenty of plant-lice upon it. Armed in +this manner, as perhaps no ornithologist ever went armed before,--I +approached the nest, and to my delight saw it still unharmed (I never +came in sight of it without dreading to find it pillaged); but just as I +was putting my hand into my pocket for the box, off started the bird. +Here was a disappointment indeed; but in the next breath I assured +myself that the recreant must be the male, who for once had been +spelling his companion. So I fell back a little, and in a minute or less +one of the pair went on to brood. This was the mother, without question, +and I again drew near. True enough, she welcomed me with all her +customary politeness. No matter what her husband might say, she knew +better than to distrust an inoffensive, kind-hearted gentleman like +myself. Had I not proved myself such time and again? So I imagined her +to be reasoning. At all events, she sat quiet and unconcerned; +apparently more unconcerned than her visitor, for, to tell the truth, I +was so anxious for the success of this crowning experiment that I +actually found myself trembling. However, I opened my store of dainties, +wet the tip of my little finger, took up an insect, and held it to her +mandibles. For a moment she seemed not to know what it was, but soon she +picked it off and swallowed it. The second one she seized promptly, and +the third she reached out to anticipate, exactly as a tame canary might +have done. Before I could pass her the fourth she stepped out of the +nest, and took a position upon the branch beside it; but she accepted +the morsel, none the less. And an extremely pretty sight it was,--a wild +wood bird perched upon a twig and feeding from a man's finger! + +She would not stay for more, but flew to another bough; whereupon I +resumed my ramble, and, as usual, she covered the eggs again before I +could get out of sight. When I returned, in half an hour or thereabouts, +I proffered her a mosquito, which I had saved for that purpose. She took +it, but presently let it drop. It was not to her taste, probably, for +shortly afterward she caught one herself, as it came fluttering near, +and discarded that also; but she ate the remainder of my rose-bush +parasites, though I was compelled to coax her a little. Seemingly, she +felt that our proceedings were more or less irregular, if not positively +out of character. Not that she betrayed any symptoms of nervousness or +apprehension, but she repeatedly turned away her head, as if determined +to refuse all further overtures. In the end, nevertheless, as I have +said, she ate the very last insect I had to give her. + +During the meal she did something which as a display of nonchalance was +really amazing. The eggs got misplaced, in the course of her twisting +about, and after vainly endeavoring to rearrange them with her feet, as +I had seen her do on several occasions, she ducked her head into the +nest, clean out of sight under her feathers, and set matters to rights +with her beak. I was as near to her as I could well be, without having +her actually in my hand, yet she deliberately put herself entirely off +guard, apparently without the slightest misgiving! + +Fresh from this adventure, and all aglow with pleasurable excitement, I +met a friend in the city, a naturalist of repute, and one of the +founders of the American Ornithologists' Union. Of course I regaled him +with an account of my wonderful vireo (he was the man to whom I had half +promised the nest); and on his expressing a wish to see her, I invited +him out for the purpose that very afternoon. I smile to remember how +full of fears I was, as he promptly accepted the invitation. The bird, I +declared to myself, would be like the ordinary baby, who, as everybody +knows, is never so stupid as when its fond mother would make a show of +it before company. Yesterday it was so bright and cunning! Never was +baby like it. Yesterday it did such and such unheard-of things; but +to-day, alas, it will do nothing at all. However, I put on a bold face, +filled my pen-box with rose-leaves, exchanged my light-colored hat for +the black one in which my pet had hitherto seen me, furnished my friend +with a field-glass, and started with him for the wood. The nest was +occupied (I believe I never found it otherwise), and, stationing my +associate in a favorable position, I marched up to it, when, lo, the +bird at once took wing. This was nothing to be disconcerted about, the +very promptness of the action making it certain that the sitter must +have been the male. The pair were both in sight, and the female would +doubtless soon fill the place which her less courageous lord had +deserted. So it turned out, and within a minute everything was in +readiness for a second essay. This proved successful. The first insect +was instantly laid hold of, whereupon I heard a suppressed exclamation +from behind the field-glass. When I rejoined my friend, having exhausted +my supplies, nothing would do but he must try something of the kind +himself. Accordingly, seizing my hat, which dropped down well over his +ears, he made up to the tree. The bird pecked his finger familiarly, and +before long he came rushing back to the path, exclaiming that he must +find something with which to feed her. After overturning two or three +stones he uncovered an ant's nest, and moistening his forefinger, thrust +it into a mass of eggs. With these he hastened to the vireo. She helped +herself to them eagerly, and I could hear him counting, "One, two, +three, four," and so on, as she ate mouthful after mouthful. + +Now, then, he wished to examine the contents of the nest, especially as +it was the first of its kind that he had ever seen out-of-doors. But the +owner was set upon not giving him the opportunity. He stroked her head, +brushed her wings, and, as my note-book puts it, "poked her generally;" +and still she kept her place. Finally, as he stood on one side of her +and I on the other, we pushed the branch down, down, till she was fairly +under our noses. Then she stepped off; but even now, it was only to +alight on the very next twig, and face us calmly! and we had barely +started away before we saw her again on duty. Brave bird! My friend was +exceedingly pleased, and I not less so; though the fact of her making no +difference between us was something of a shock to my self-conceit, +endeavor as I might to believe that she had welcomed him, if not in my +stead, yet at least as my friend. What an odd pair we must have looked +in her eyes! Possibly she had heard of the new movement for the +protection of American song-birds, and took us for representatives of +the Audubon Society. + +Desiring to make some fresh experiment, I set out the next morning with +a little water and a teaspoon, in addition to my ordinary outfit of +rose-leaves. The mother bird was at home, and without hesitation dipped +her bill into the water,--the very first solitary vireo, I dare be +bound, that ever drank out of a silver spoon! Afterwards I gave her the +insects, of which she swallowed twenty-four as fast as I could pick them +up. Evidently she was hungry, and appreciated my attentions. There was +nothing whatever of the coquettishness which she had sometimes +displayed. On the contrary, she leaned forward to welcome the tidbits, +one by one, quite as if it were the most natural thing in the world for +birds to be waited upon in this fashion by their human admirers. Toward +the end, however, a squirrel across the way set up a loud bark, and she +grew nervous; so that when it came to the twenty-fifth louse, which was +the last I could find, she was too much preoccupied to care for it. + +At this point a mosquito stung my neck, and, killing it, I held it +before her. She snapped at it in a twinkling, but retained it between +her mandibles. Whether she would finally have swallowed it I am not able +to say (and so must leave undecided a very interesting and important +question in economic ornithology), for just then I remembered a piece of +banana with which I had been meaning to tempt her. Of this she tasted at +once, and, as I thought, found it good; for she transfixed it with her +bill, and, quitting her seat, carried it away and deposited it on a +branch. But instead of eating it, as I expected to see her do, she fell +to fly-catching, while her mate promptly appeared, and as soon as +opportunity offered took his turn at brooding. My eyes, meanwhile, had +not kept the two distinct, and, supposing that the mother had returned, +I stepped up to offer her another drink, but had no sooner filled the +spoon than the fellow took flight. At this the female came to the rescue +again, and unhesitatingly entered the nest. It was a noble reproof, I +thought; well deserved, and very handsomely administered. "Oh, you +cowardly dear," I fancied her saying, "he'll not hurt you. See me, now! +I'm not afraid. He's queer, I know; but he means well." + +I should have mentioned that while the squirrel was barking she uttered +some very pretty _sotto voce_ notes of two kinds,--one like what I have +often heard, and one entirely novel. + +A man ought to have lived with such a creature, year in and out, and +seen it under every variety of mood and condition, before imagining +himself possessed of its entire vocabulary. For who doubts that birds, +also, have their more sacred and intimate feelings, their esoteric +doctrines and experiences, which are not proclaimed upon the tree-top, +but spoken under breath, in all but inaudible twitters? Certainly this +pet of mine on sundry occasions whispered into my ear things which I had +never heard before, and as to the purport of which, in my ignorance of +the vireonian tongue, I could only conjecture. For my own part, I am +through with thinking that I have mastered all the notes of any bird, +even the commonest. + +I wondered, by the bye, whether my speech was as unintelligible to the +greenlet as hers was to me. I trust, at all events, that she divined a +meaning in the tones, however she may have missed the words; for I never +called without telling her how much I admired her spirit. She was all +that a bird ought to be, I assured her, good, brave, and handsome; and +should never suffer harm, if I could help it. Alas! although, as the +apostle says, I loved "not in word, but in deed and in truth," yet when +the pinch came I was somewhere else, and all my promises went for +nothing. + +Our intercourse was nearing its end. It was already the 10th of June, +and on the 12th I was booked for a journey. During my last visit but one +it gratified me not a little to perceive that the wife's example and +reproof had begun to tell upon her mate. He happened to be in the nest +as I came up, and sat so unconcernedly while I made ready to feed him +that I took it for granted I was dealing with the female, till at the +last moment he slipped away. I stepped aside for perhaps fifteen feet, +and waited briefly, both birds in sight. Then the lady took her turn at +sitting, and I proceeded to try again. She behaved like herself, made +free with a number of insects, and then, all at once, for no reason that +I could guess at, she sprang out of the nest, and alighted on the ground +within two yards of my feet, and almost before I could realize what had +occurred was up in the tree. I had my eyes upon her, determined, if +possible, to keep the pair distinct, and succeeded, as I believed, in so +doing. Pretty soon the male (unless I was badly deceived) went to the +nest with a large insect in his bill, and stood for some time beside it, +eating and chattering. Finally he dropped upon the eggs, and, seeing him +grown thus unsuspicious, I thought best to test him once more. This time +he kept his seat, and with great condescension ate two of my plant-lice. +But there he made an end. Again and again I put the third one to his +mouth; but he settled back obstinately into the nest, and would have +none of it. For once, as it seemed, he could be brave; but he was not to +be coddled, or treated like a baby--or a female. There were good +reasons, of course, for his being less hungry than his mate, and +consequently less appreciative of such favors as I had to bestow; but it +was very amusing to see how tightly he shut his bill, as if his mind +were made up, and no power on earth should shake it. + +If any inquisitive person raises the question whether I am absolutely +certain of this bird's being the male, I must answer in the negative. +The couple were dressed alike, as far as I could make out, save that the +female was much the more brightly washed with yellow on the sides of the +body; and my present discrimination of them was based upon close +attention to this point, as well as upon my careful and apparently +successful effort not to confuse the two, after the one which I knew to +be the female (the one, that is, which had done most of the sitting, and +had all along been so very familiar) had joined the other among the +branches. I had no downright proof, it must be acknowledged, nor could I +have had any without killing and dissecting the bird; but my own strong +conviction was and is that the male had grown fearless by observing my +treatment of his spouse, but from some difference of taste, or, more +probably, for lack of appetite, found himself less taken than she had +commonly been with my rather meagre bill of fare. + +This persuasion, it cannot be denied, was considerably shaken the next +morning, when I paid my friends a parting call. The father bird, +forgetful of his own good example of the day before, and mindless of all +the proprieties of such a farewell occasion, slipped incontinently from +the eggs just as I was removing the cover from my pen-box. Well, he +missed the last opportunity he was likely ever to have of breakfasting +from a human finger. So ignorant are birds, no less than men, of the day +of their visitation! Before I could get away,--while I was yet within +two yards of the nest,--the other bird hastened to occupy the vacant +place. _She_ knew what was due to so considerate and well-tried a +friend, if her partner did not. The little darling! As soon as she was +well in position I stepped to her side, opened my treasures, and gave +her, one by one, twenty-six insects (all I had), which she took with +avidity, reaching forward again and again to anticipate my motions. +Then I stole a last look at the four pretty eggs, having almost to force +her from the nest for that purpose, bade her good-by, and came away, +sorry enough to leave her; forecasting, as I could not help doing, the +slight probability of finding her again on my return, and picturing to +myself all the sweet, motherly ways she would be certain to develop as +soon as the little ones were hatched. + +Within an hour I was speeding toward the Green Mountains. There, in +those ancient Vermont forests, I saw and heard other solitary vireos, +but none that treated me as my Melrose pair had done. Noble and gentle +spirits! though I were to live a hundred years, I should never see their +like again. + +The remainder of the story is, unhappily, soon told. I was absent a +fortnight, and on getting back went at once to the sacred oak. Alas! +there was nothing but a severed branch to show where the vireos' nest +had hung. The cut looked recent; I was thankful for that. Perhaps the +"collector," whoever he was, had been kind enough to wait till the +owners of the house were done with it, before he carried it away. Let +us hope so, at all events, for the peace of his own soul, as well as for +the sake of the birds. + + + + +AN OLD ROAD. + + Methinks here one may, without much molestation, be thinking + what he is, whence he came, what he has done, and to what the + King has called him.--BUNYAN. + + +I fall in with persons, now and then, who profess to care nothing for a +path when walking in the woods. They do not choose to travel in other +people's footsteps,--nay, nor even in their own,--but count it their +mission to lay out a new road every time they go afield. They are +welcome to their freak. My own genius for adventure is less highly +developed; and, to be frank, I have never learned to look upon +affectation and whim as synonymous with originality. In my eyes, it is +nothing against a hill that other men have climbed it before me; and if +their feet have worn a trail, so much the better. I not only reach the +summit more easily, but have company on the way,--company none the less +to my mind, perhaps, for being silent and invisible. It is well enough +to strike into the trackless forest once in a while; to wander you know +not whither, and come out you know not where; to lie down in a strange +place, and for an hour imagine yourself the explorer of a new continent: +but if the mind be awake (as, alas, too often it is not), you may walk +where you will, in never so well known a corner, and you will see new +things, and think new thoughts, and return to your house a new man, +which, I venture to believe, is after all the main consideration. +Indeed, if your stirring abroad is to be more than mere muscular +exercise, you will find a positive advantage in making use of some +well-worn and familiar path. The feet will follow it mechanically, and +so the mind--that is, the walker himself--will be left undistracted. +That, to my thinking, is the real tour of discovery wherein one keeps to +the beaten road, looks at the customary sights, but brings home a new +idea. + +There are inward moods, as well as outward conditions, in which an old, +half-disused, bush-bordered road becomes the saunterer's paradise. I +have several such in my eye at this moment, but especially one, in +which my feet, years ago, grew to feel at home. It is an almost ideal +loitering place, or would be, if only it were somewhat longer. How many +hundreds of times have I traveled it, spring and summer, autumn and +winter! As I go over it now, the days of my youth come back to me, +clothed all of them in that soft, benignant light which nothing but +distance can bestow, whether upon hills or days. This gracious effect is +heightened, no doubt, by the fact that for a good while past my visits +to the place have been only occasional. Memory and imagination are true +yoke-fellows, and between them are always preparing some new pleasure +for us, as often as we allow them opportunity. The other day, for +instance, as I came to the top of the hill just beyond the river, I +turned suddenly to the right, looking for an old pear-tree. I had not +thought of it for years, and the more I have since tried to recall its +appearance and exact whereabouts, the less confident have I grown that +it ever had any material existence; but somehow, just at that moment my +mouth seemed to recollect it; and in general I have come to put faith +in such involuntary and, if I may say so, sensible joggings of the +memory. I wonder whether the tree ever was there--or anywhere. At all +events, the thought of it gave me for the moment a pleasure more real +than any taste in the mouth, were it never so sweet. Thank fortune, +imaginative delights are as far as possible from being imaginary. + +The river just mentioned runs under the road, and, as will readily be +inferred, is one of its foremost attractions. I speak of it as a "river" +with some misgivings. It is a rather large brook, or a very small river; +but a man who has never been able to leap across it has perhaps no right +to deny it the more honorable appellation. Its source is a spacious and +beautiful sheet of water, which heretofore has been known as a "pond," +but which I should be glad to believe would hereafter be put upon the +maps as Lake Wessagusset. This brook or river, call it whichever you +please, goes meandering through the township in a northeasterly +direction, turning the wheels of half a dozen mills, more or less, on +its way; a sluggish stream, too lazy to work, you would think; passing +much of its time in flat, grassy meadows, where it idles along as if it +realized that the end of its course was near, and felt in no haste to +lose itself in the salt sea. Out of this stream I pulled goodly numbers +of perch, pickerel, shiners, flatfish, and hornpouts, while I was still +careless-hearted enough ("Heaven lies about us in our infancy") to enjoy +this very amiable and semi-religious form of "sport;" and as the river +intersects at least seven roads that came within my boyish beat, I must +have crossed it thousands of times; in addition to which I have spent +days in paddling and bathing in it. Altogether, it is one of my most +familiar friends; and--what one cannot say of all familiar friends--I do +not remember that it ever served me the slightest ill-turn. It passes +under the road of which I am now discoursing, in a double channel (the +bridge being supported midway by a stone wall), and then broadens out +into an artificial shallow, through which travelers may drive if they +will, to let their horses drink out of the stream. First and last, I +have improved many a shining hour on this bridge, leaning industriously +over the railing. I can see the rocky bed at this moment,--yes, and the +very shape and position of some of the stones, as I saw them thirty +years ago; especially of one, on which we used to balance ourselves to +dip up the water or to peer under the bridge. In those days, if we +essayed to be uncommonly adventurous, we waded through this low and +somewhat dark passage; a gruesome proceeding, as we were compelled to +stoop a little, short as we were, to save our heads, while the road, to +our imagination, seemed in momentary danger of caving in upon us. +Courage, like all other human virtues, is but a relative attribute. +Possibly the heroic deeds upon which in our grown-up estate we plume +ourselves are not greatly more meritorious or wonderful than were some +of the childish ventures at the recollection of which we now condescend +to feel amused. + +On the surface of the brook flourished two kinds of insects, whose +manner of life we never tired of watching. One sort had long, +wide-spreading legs, and by us were known as "skaters," from their +movements (to this day, I blush to confess, I have no other name for +them); the others were flat, shining, orbicular or oblong, lead-colored +bugs,--"lucky bugs" I have heard them called,--and lay flat upon the +water, as if quite without limbs; but they darted over the brook, and +even against the current, with noticeable activity, and doubtless were +well supplied with paddles. Once in a while we saw a fish here, but only +on rare occasions. The great unfailing attraction of the place, then as +now, was the flowing water, forever spending and never spent. The +insects lived upon it; apparently they had no power to leave it for an +instant; but they were not carried away by it. Happy creatures! We, +alas, sporting upon the river of time, can neither dive below the +surface nor mount into the ether, and, unlike the insects ("lucky bugs," +indeed!), we have no option but to move with the tide. We have less +liberty than the green flags, even, which grow in scattered tufts in the +bed of the brook; whose leaves point forever down stream, like so many +index fingers, as if they said, "Yes, yes, that is the way to the sea; +that way we all must go;" while for themselves, nevertheless, they +manage to hold on by their roots, victorious even while professing to +yield. + +To my mind the river is alive. Reason about it as I will, I never can +make it otherwise. I could sooner believe in water nymphs than in many +existences which are commonly treated as much more certain matters of +fact. I _could_ believe in them, I say; but in reality I do not. My +communings are not with any haunter of the river, but with the living +soul of the river itself. It lags under the vine-covered alders, hastens +through the bridge, then slips carelessly down a little descent, where +it breaks into singing, then into a mill-pond and out again, and so on +and on, through one experience after another; and all the time it is not +dead water, but a river, a thing of life and motion. After all, it is +not for me to say what is alive and what dead. As yet, indeed, I do not +so much as know what life is. In certain moods, in what I fondly call my +better moments, I feel measurably sure of being alive myself; but even +on that point, for aught I can tell, the brook may entertain some +private doubts. + +Just beyond the bridge is an ancient apple orchard. This was already +falling into decay when I was a boy, and the many years that have +elapsed since then have nearly completed its demolition; although I dare +say the present generation of school-boys still find it worth while to +clamber over the wall, as they journey back and forth. Probably it will +be no surprise to the owner of the place if I tell him that before I was +twelve years old I knew the taste of all his apples. In fact, the +orchard was so sequestered, so remote from any house,--especially from +its proprietor's,--that it hardly seemed a sin to rob it. It was not so +much an orchard as a bit of woodland; and besides, we never shook the +trees, but only helped ourselves to windfalls; and it must be a severe +moralist who calls _that_ stealing. Why should the fruit drop off, if +not to be picked up? In my time, at all events, such appropriations were +never accounted robbery, though the providential absence of the owner +was unquestionably a thing to be thankful for. He would never begrudge +us the apples, of course, for he was rich and presumably generous; but +it was quite as well for him to be somewhere else while we were +gathering up these favors which the winds of heaven had shaken down for +our benefit. There is something of the special pleader in most of us, it +is to be feared, whether young or old. If we are put to it, we can draw +a very fine distinction (in our own favor), no matter how obtuse we may +seem on ordinary occasions. + +Remembering how voracious and undiscriminating my juvenile appetite was, +I cannot help wondering that I am still alive,--a feeling which I doubt +not is shared by many a man who, like myself, had a country bringing-up. +We must have been born with something more than a spark of life, else it +would certainly have been smothered long ago by the fuel so recklessly +heaped upon it. But we lived out-of-doors, took abundant exercise, were +not studious overmuch (as all boys and girls are charged with being +nowadays), and had little to worry about, which may go far to explain +the mystery. + +It provokes a smile to reckon up the many places along this old road +that are indissolubly connected in my mind with the question of +something to eat. At the foot of the orchard just now spoken of, for +example, is a dilapidated stone wall, between it and the river. Over +this, as well as over the bushes beside it, straggled a small wild +grape-vine, bearing every year a scanty crop of white grapes. These, to +our unsophisticated palates, were delicious, if only they got ripe. That +was the rub; and as a rule we gathered our share of them (which was all +there were) while they were yet several stages short of that desirable +consummation, not deeming it prudent to leave them longer, lest some +hungrier soul should get the start of us. Graping, as we called it, was +one of our regular autumn industries, and there were few vines within +the circle of our perambulations which did not feel our fingers tugging +at them at least once a year. Some of them hung well over the river; +others took refuge in the tops of trees; but by hook or by crook, we +usually got the better of such perversities. No doubt the fruit was all +bad enough; but some of it was sweeter (or less sour) than other. +Perhaps the best vine was one that covered a certain superannuated +apple-tree, half a mile west of our river-side orchard, before +mentioned. Here I might have been seen by the hour, eagerly yet +cautiously venturing out upon the decayed and doubtful limbs, in quest +of this or that peculiarly tempting bunch. These grapes were purple (how +well some things are remembered!), and were sweeter then than Isabellas +or Catawbas are now. Such is the degeneracy of vines in these modern +days! + +Altogether more important than the grapes were the huckleberries, for +which, also, we four times out of five took this same famous by-road. +Speaking roughly, I may say that we depended upon seven pastures for our +supplies, and were accustomed to visit them in something like regular +order. It is kindly provided that huckleberry bushes have an +exceptionally strong tendency to vary. We possessed no theories upon the +subject, and knew nothing of disputed questions about species and +varieties; but we were not without a good degree of practical +information. Here was a bunch of bushes, for instance, covered with +black, shiny, pear-shaped berries, very numerous, but very small. They +would do moderately well in default of better. Another patch, perhaps +but a few rods removed, bore large globular berries, less glossy than +the others, but still black. These, as we expressed it, "filled up" much +faster than the others, though not nearly so "thick." Blue berries (not +blueberries, but blue huckleberries) were common enough, and we knew one +small cluster of plants, the fruit of which was white, a variety that I +have since found noted by Doctor Gray as very rare. Unhappily, this +freak made so little impression upon me as a boy that while I am clear +as to the fact, and feel sure of the pasture, I have no distinct +recollection of the exact spot where the eccentric bushes grew. I should +like to know whether they still persist. Gray's Manual, by the way, +makes no mention of the blue varieties, but lays it down succinctly that +the fruit of _Gaylussacia resinosa_ is black. + +The difference we cared most about, however, related not to color, +shape, or size, but to the time of ripening. Diversity of habit in this +regard was indeed a great piece of good fortune, not to be rightly +appreciated without horrible imaginings of how short the season of berry +pies and puddings would be if all the berries matured at once. You may +be sure we never forgot where the early sorts were to be found, and +where the late. What hours upon hours we spent in the broiling sun, +picking into some half-pint vessel, and emptying that into a larger +receptacle, safely stowed away under some cedar-tree or barberry bush. +How proud we were of our heaped-up pails! How carefully we discarded +from the top every half-ripe or otherwise imperfect specimen! (So early +do well-taught Yankee children develop one qualification for the +diaconate.) The sun had certain minor errands to look after, we might +have admitted, even in those midsummer days, but his principal business +was to ripen huckleberries. So it seemed then. And now--well, men are +but children still, and for them, too, their own little round is the +centre of the world. + +All these pastures had names, of course, well understood by us children, +though I am not sure how generally they would have been recognized by +the townspeople. The first in order was River Pasture, the owner of +which turned his cattle into it, and every few years mowed the bushes, +with the result that the berries, whenever there were any, were +uncommonly large and handsome. Not far beyond this (the entrance was +through a "pair of bars," beside a spreading white oak) was Millstone +Pasture. This was a large, straggling place, half pasture, half wood, +full of nooks and corners, with by-paths running hither and thither, and +named after two large bowlders, which lay one on top of the other. We +used to clamber upon these to eat our luncheon, thinking within +ourselves, meanwhile, that the Indians must have been men of prodigious +strength. At that time, though I scarcely know how to own it, glacial +action was a thing by us unheard of. We are wiser now,--on that point, +at any rate. Two of the other pastures were called respectively after +the railroad and a big pine-tree (there _was_ a big pine-tree in W---- +once, for I myself have seen the stump), while the remainder took their +names from their owners, real or reputed; and as some of these +appellations were rather disrespectfully abbreviated, it may be as well +to omit setting them down in print. + +To all these places we resorted a little later in the season for +blackberries, and later still for barberries. In one or two of them we +set snares, also, but without materially lessening the quantity of game. +The rabbits, especially, always helped themselves to the bait, and left +us the noose. At this distance of time I do not begrudge them their good +fortune. I hope they are all alive yet, including the youngster that we +once caught in our hands and brought home, and then, in a fit of +contrition, carried back again to its native heath. + +All in all, the berries that we prized most, perhaps, were those that +came first, and were at the same time least abundant. Yankee children +will understand at once that I mean the checkerberries, or, as we were +more accustomed to call them, the boxberries. The very first mild days +in March, if the snow happened to be mostly gone, saw us on this same +old road bound for one of the places where we thought ourselves most +likely to find a few (possibly a pint or two, but more probably a +handful or two) of these humble but spicy fruits. Not that the plants +were not plentiful enough in all directions, but it was only in certain +spots (or rather in very uncertain spots, since these were continually +shifting) that they were ever in good bearing condition. We came after a +while to understand that the best crops were produced for two or three +years after the cutting off of the wood in suitable localities. Letting +in the sunlight seems to have the effect of starting into sudden +fruitfulness this hardy, persistent little plant, although I never could +discover that it thrived better for growing permanently in an open, +sunny field. Perhaps it requires an unexpected change of condition, a +providential nudge, as it were, to jog it into activity, like some +poets. Whatever the explanation, we used now and then in recent +clearings (and nowhere else) to find the ground fairly red with berries. +Those were red-letter days in our calendar. How handsome such a patch +of rose-color was (though we made haste to despoil it), circling an old +stump or a bowlder! The berries were pleasant to the eye and good for +food; but after all, their principal attractiveness lay in the fact that +they came right upon the heels of winter. They were the first-fruits of +the new year (ripened the year before, to be sure), and to our thinking +were fit to be offered upon any altar, no matter how sacred. + +I have called the subject of my loving meditations a by-road. Formerly +it was the main thoroughfare between two villages, but shortly after my +acquaintance with it began a new and more direct one was laid out. Yet +the old road, half deserted as it is, has not altogether escaped the +ruthless hand of the improver. Within my time it has been widened +throughout, and in one place a new section has been built to cut off a +curve. Fortunately, however, the discarded portion still remains, well +grown up to grass, and closely encroached upon by willows, alders, +sumachs, barberries, dogwoods, smilax, clethra, azalea, button-bush, +birches, and what not, yet still passable even for carriages, and more +inviting than ever to lazy pedestrians like myself. On this cast-off +section is a cosy, grassy nook, shaded by a cluster of red cedars. This +was one of our favorite way-stations on summer noons. It gives me a +comfortable, restful feeling to look into it even now, as if my weary +limbs had reminiscences of their own connected with the place. + +Right at this point stands an ancient russet-apple tree, which seems no +older and brings forth no smaller apples now than it did when I first +knew it. How natural it looks in every knot and branch! Strange, too, +that it should be so, since I do not recall its ever contributing the +first mouthful to my pleasures as a schoolboy gastronomer. In those +times I judged a tree solely by the New Testament standard, very +literally interpreted,--"By their fruits ye shall know them." Now I have +other tests, and can value an old acquaintance of this kind for its +picturesqueness, though its apples be bitter as wormwood. + +I am making too much of the food question, and will therefore say +nothing of strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, cranberries +(which last were delicious, as we took them out of their icy ovens in +the spring), pig-nuts, hazel-nuts, acorns, and the rest. Yet I will not +pass by a small clump of dangleberry bushes (a September luxury not +common in our neighborhood) and a lofty pear-tree. The latter, in truth, +hardly belongs under this head; for though it bore superabundant crops +of pears, not even a child was ever known to eat one. We called them +iron pears, perhaps because nothing but the hottest fire could be +expected to reduce them to a condition of softness. My mouth is all in a +pucker at the mere thought of the rusty-green bullets. It did seem a +pity they should be so outrageously hard, so absolutely untoothsome; for +the tree, as I say, was a big one and provokingly prolific, and, +moreover, stood squarely upon the roadside. What a godsend we should +have found it, had its fruit been a few degrees less stony! Such +incongruities and disappointments go far to convince me that the +creation is indeed, as some theologians have taught, under a curse. + +My appetite for wild fruits has grown dull with age, but meanwhile my +affection for the old road has not lessened, but rather increased. In +itself the place is nowise remarkable, a common country back road (its +very name is Back Street); but all the same I "take pleasure in its +stones, and favor the dust thereof." There are none of us so +matter-of-fact and unsentimental, I hope, as never to have experienced +the force of old associations in gilding the most ordinary objects. For +my own part, I protest, I would give more for a single stunted cluster +of orange-red berries from a certain small vine of Roxbury wax-work, +near the entrance to Millstone Pasture aforesaid, than for a bushel of +larger and handsomer specimens from some alien source. This old vine +still holds on, I am happy to see, though it appears to have made no +growth in twenty years. Long may it be spared! It was within a few rods +of it, beside the path that runs into the pasture, that I shot my first +bird. Newly armed with a shotgun, and on murder bent, I turned in here; +and as luck would have it, there sat the innocent creature in a birch. +The temptation was too great. There followed a moment of excitement, a +nervous aim, a bang, and a catbird's song was hushed forever. A mean +and cruel act, which I confess with shame, and have done my best to +atone for by speaking here and there a good word for this poorly +appreciated member of our native choir. I should be glad to believe that +the schoolboys of the present day are more tender-hearted than those +with whom I mixed; but I am not without my doubts. As Darwin showed, all +animals in the embryonic stage tend to reproduce ancestral +characteristics; and our Anglo-Saxon ancestors (how easy it seems to +believe it!) were barbarians. + +This same Millstone Pasture, by the bye, was a place of special resort +at Christmas time. Here grew plenty of the trailing plant which we knew +simply as "evergreen," but which now, in my superior wisdom, I call +_Lycopodium complanatum_. This, indeed, was common in various +directions, but the holly was much less easily found, and grew here more +freely than anywhere else. The unhappy trees had a hard shift to live, +so broken down were they with each recurring December; and the more +berries they produced, the worse for them. Their anticipations of +Christmas must have been strangely different from those of us +toy-loving, candy-eating children. But who thinks of sympathizing with a +tree? + +As for the wayside flowers, they are, as becomes the place, of the very +commonest and most old-fashioned sorts, more welcome to my eye than the +choicest of rarities: golden-rods and asters in great variety and +profusion, hardhack and meadow-sweet, St. John's wort and loosestrife, +violets and anemones, self-heal and cranes-bill, and especially the +lovely but little-known purple gerardia. These, with their natural +companions and allies, make to me a garden of delights, whereunto my +feet, as far as they find opportunity, do continually resort. What +flowers ought a New Englander to love, if not such as are characteristic +of New England? + +And yet, proudly and affectionately as I talk of it, Back Street is not +what it once was. I have already mentioned the straightening, as also +the widening, both of them sorry improvements. Furthermore, there was +formerly a huge (as I remember it) and beautifully proportioned +hemlock-tree, at which I used to gaze admiringly in the first years of +my wandering hither. What millions of tiny cones hung from its pendulous +branches! The magnificent creation should have been protected by +legislative enactment, if necessary; but no, almost as long ago as I can +remember, long before I attained to grammar-school dignities, the owner +of the land (so he thought himself, no doubt) turned the tree into +firewood. And worse yet, the stately pine grove that flourished across +the way, with mossy bowlders underneath and a most delightsome density +of shade,--this, too, like the patriarchal hemlock, has been cut off in +the midst of its usefulness. + + "Their very memory is fair and bright, + And my sad thoughts doth cheer!" + +Now there is nothing on the whole hillside but a thicket of young +hard-wood trees (I would say deciduous, but in New England, alas, all +trees are deciduous), through which my dog loves to prowl, but which +warns me to keep the road. Such devastations are not to be prevented, I +suppose, but at least there is no law against my bewailing them. + +Even in its present decadence, however, my road, as I said to begin +with, is a kind of saunterer's paradise. When we come to particulars, +indeed, it is nothing to boast of; but waiving particulars, and taking +it for all in all, there is no highway upon the planet where I better +enjoy an idle hour. There is a boy of perhaps ten years whose +companionship is out of all reason dear to me; and nowhere am I surer to +find him at my side, hand in hand, than in this same lonely road, +although I know very well that those who meet or pass me here see only +one person, and that a man of several times ten years. But thank Heaven, +we are not always alone when we seem to be. + + + + +CONFESSIONS OF A BIRD'S-NEST HUNTER. + + I am bold to show myself a forward guest. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +Let it be said at the outset that the seeker after bird's-nests is never +without plenty of company, of one sort and another. For instance, I was +out early one cloudy morning last spring, when I caught sight of a +handsome black and white animal nosing his way through the bushes on one +side of the path. He had come forth on the same errand as myself; and I +thought at once of the veery's nest, for which I had been looking in +vain, but which could not be far from the very spot where my black and +white rival was just at this moment standing. I wondered whether he had +already found it; but I did not stay to ask him. In spite of his beauty, +and in spite of our evident community of interest, I felt no drawings +toward a more intimate acquaintance. I knew him by name and +reputation,--_Mephitis mephitica_ the scientific folk call him, with +felicitous reverberative emphasis,--and that sufficed. At another time, +a few weeks later than this, I overheard an unusual commotion among the +birds in our apple orchard. "Some rascally cat!" I thought; and, picking +up a stone, I hastened to put a stop to his depredations. But there was +no cat in sight; and it was not till I stood immediately under the tree +that I discovered the marauder to be a snake, just then slowly making +toward the ground, with a young bird in his jaws. Watching my +opportunity, while he was engaged in the delicate operation of lowering +himself from one branch to another, I shook the trunk vigorously, and +down he tumbled at my feet. Once and again I set my heel upon him; but +the tall grass was in his favor, and he succeeded in getting off, +leaving his dead victim behind him.[71:1] + +It is noble society in which we find ourselves, is it not? In the front +rank are what we may call the _professional_ oölogists,--such as follow +the business for a livelihood: snakes, skunks, weasels, squirrels, cats, +crows, jays, cuckoos, and the like. Then come the not inconsiderable +number of persons who, for a more or less strictly scientific purpose, +take here and there a nest with its contents; while these are followed +by hordes of school-boys, whom the prevalent mania for "collecting" +drives to scrape together miscellaneous lots of eggs,--half-named, +misnamed, and nameless,--to put with previous accumulations of +postage-stamps, autographs, business cards, and other like precious +rubbish. + +Alas, the poor birds! These "perils of robbers" and "perils among false +brethren" are bad enough, but they have many others to encounter; +"journeyings often" and "perils of waters" being among the worst. Gentle +and innocent as they seem, it speaks well for their cunning and +endurance that they escape utter extermination. + +This phase of the subject is especially forced upon the attention of +observers like myself, who search for nests, not mischievously, nor even +with the laudable design of the scientific investigator, but solely as a +means of promoting friendly acquaintance. We may not often witness the +catastrophe itself; but as we go our daily rounds, now peeping under the +bank or into the bush, and now climbing the tree, to see how some timid +friend of ours is faring, we are only too certain to come upon first one +home and then another which has been rifled and deserted since our last +visit; till we begin to wonder why the defenseless and persecuted +creatures do not turn pessimists outright, and relinquish forever their +attempt to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." + +Thinking of these things anew, now that I am reviewing my last spring's +experiences, it is doubly gratifying to recall that I robbed only one +nest during the entire season, and that not of malice, but by accident. +It happened on this wise. A couple of solitary vireos had taken up +their abode on a wooded hillside, where they, or others like them, had +passed the previous summer, and one day I proposed to a friend that we +make it our business to search out the nest. It proved to be not very +difficult of discovery, though, when we put our eyes upon it, it +appeared that we had walked directly by it several times, all in sight +as it was, suspended from near the end of an oak-tree branch, perhaps +nine feet from the ground. It contained five eggs, including one of the +cow-bird; but just as my companion was about to let go the branch, which +he had been holding down for my convenience, the end snapped, up went +the nest, and out jumped four of the eggs. We were sorry, of course, but +consoled ourselves with the destruction of the parasite, which otherwise +would very likely have been the death of the vireos' own offspring. +Meanwhile, the birds themselves took matters coolly. One of them fell to +singing as soon as we withdrew, while the other flew to the nest, looked +in, and without a word resumed her seat. After all, the accident might +turn out to be nothing worse than a blessing in disguise, we said to +each other. But before many days it became evident that the pair had +given up the nest, and I carried it to a friend whom I knew to be in +want of such a specimen for his cabinet. + +It is worth noticing how widely birds of the same species differ among +themselves in their behavior under trial. Their minds are no more run in +one mould than human minds are. In their case, as in ours, innumerable +causes have worked together to produce the unique individual result. +Much is due to inheritance, no doubt, but much likewise to accident. One +mother has never had her nest invaded, and is therefore careless of our +presence. Another has so frequently been robbed of her all that she has +grown hardened to disaster, and she also makes no very great ado when we +intrude upon her. A third is still in a middle state,--alive to the +danger, but not yet able to face it philosophically,--and she will +become hysterical at the first symptom of trouble. + +At the very time of the mishap just described I was keeping watch over +the household arrangements of another and much less stoical pair of +solitary vireos. These, as soon as I discovered their secret (which was +not till after several attempts), became extremely jealous of my +proximity, no matter how indirect and innocent my approaches. Even when +I seated myself at what I deemed a very respectful distance the sitting +bird would at once quit her place, and begin to complain in her own +delightfully characteristic manner,--chattering, scolding, and warbling +by turns,--refusing to be pacified in the least until I took myself off. +Once I remained for some time close under the nest, on purpose to see +how many of the neighbors would be attracted to the spot. With the +exception of the wood wagtails, I should say that nearly all the small +birds in the immediate vicinity must have turned out: black-and-white +creepers, redstarts, chestnut-sided warblers, black-throated greens, a +blue golden-wing, red-eyed vireos, and a third solitary vireo. If they +were moved with pity for the pair whose lamentations had drawn them +together, they did not manifest it, as far as I could see. Perhaps they +found small occasion for so loud a disturbance. Possibly, moreover, as +spectators who had honored me with their presence (and that in the very +midst of their busy season), they felt themselves cheated, and, so to +speak, outraged, by my failure to finish the tragedy artistically, by +shooting the parent birds and pulling down the nest. Creatures who can +neither read novels nor attend upon dramatic performances may be +presumed to suffer at times for lack of a pleasurable excitement of the +sensibilities. At all events, these visitors contented themselves with +staring at me for a few minutes, and then one by one turned away, as if +it were not much of a show after all. To the interested couple, however, +it was a matter of life and death. The female especially (or the sitter, +for the sexes are indistinguishable) hopped close about my head, +sometimes uttering a strangely sweet, pleading note, which might have +melted a heart much harder than mine. Her associate kept at a more +cautious remove, but made amends by continuing to scold after the danger +was all over. By the bye, I noticed that in the midst of the commotion, +as soon as the first agony was past, the one who had been sitting was +not so entirely overcome as not to be able to relish an occasional +insect, which she snatched here and there between her vituperative +exclamations. Faithful and hungry little mother! her heart was not +broken, let us hope, when within a week or so some miscreant, to me +unknown, ravaged her house and left it desolate. + +Not many rods from the vireos' cedar-tree was a brown thrasher's nest in +a barberry bush. It had an exceedingly dilapidated, year-old appearance, +and I went by it several times without thinking it worth looking at, +till I accidentally observed the bird upon it. She did not budge till I +was within a few feet of her, when she tumbled to the ground, and limped +away with loud cries. Perceiving that this worn-out ruse did not avail, +she turned upon me, and actually seemed about to make an attack. How she +did rave! I thought that I had never seen a bird so beside herself with +anger. + +Shortly after my encounter with this irate thrush I nearly stepped upon +one of her sisters, brooding upon a ground nest; and it illustrates +what has been said about variety of temperament that the second bird +received me in a very quiet, self-contained manner; giving me to +understand, to be sure, that my visit was ill-timed and unwelcome, but +not acting at all as if I were some ogre, the very sight of which must +perforce drive a body crazy. + +In the course of the season I found three nests of the rose-breasted +grosbeak. The first, to my surprise, was in the topmost branches of a +tall sweet-birch, perhaps forty feet above the ground. I noticed the +female flying into the grove with a load of building materials, and a +little later (as soon as my engagement with an interesting company of +gray-cheeked thrushes would permit) I followed, and almost at once saw +the pair at their work. And a very pretty exhibition it was,--so pretty +that I returned the next morning to see more of it. It must be admitted +that the labor seemed rather unequally divided: the female not only +fetched all the sticks, but took upon herself the entire business of +construction, her partner's contribution to the enterprise being +limited strictly to the performance of escort duty. When she had fitted +the new twigs into their place to her satisfaction (which often took +considerable time) she uttered a signal, and the pair flew out of the +wood together, talking sweetly as they went. The male was aware of my +presence from the beginning, I think, but he appeared to regard it as of +no consequence. Probably he believed the nest well out of my reach, as +in fact it was. He usually sang a few snatches while waiting for his +wife, and, as he sat within a few feet of her and made no attempt at +concealment, it could hardly be supposed that he refrained from offering +to assist her for fear his brighter colors should betray their secret. +Some different motive from this must be assigned for his seeming want of +gallantry. To all appearance, however, the parties themselves took the +whole proceeding as a simple matter of course. They were but minding the +most approved grosbeak precedents; and after all, who is so likely to be +in the right as he who follows the fashion? Shall one bird presume to be +wiser than all the millions of his race? Nay; as the Preacher long ago +said, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be." Nothing +could have been more complacent and affectionate than the lady's voice +and demeanor as often as she gave the finishing touches to a twig, and +called to her companion, "Come, now, let's go for another." Naturally, +the female is the one most concerned about the stability and comfortable +shape of the nest, and possibly she does not count it prudent to entrust +her spouse with any share in so delicate and important an undertaking; +but, if so, she must know him for an arrant bungler, since the structure +which she herself puts together is a most shabby-looking affair, +scarcely better than the cuckoo's. + +Such happiness as that of these married lovers was perhaps too perfect +to last. At any rate, it was only a week before their idyl all at once +turned to tragedy. A sharp _click, click!_ attracted my attention, as I +passed under their birch (on my way to call upon a pair of chickadees, +who were keeping house in a low stump close by), and, glancing up, I saw +the bushy tail of a red squirrel hanging over the edge of the nest. The +male grosbeak was dashing wildly about the invader, while a wood +thrush, a towhee bunting (who looked strange at such a height), a +red-eyed vireo, and a blue golden-winged warbler were surveying the +scene from the adjacent branches,--though the thrush withdrew in the +midst of the tumult, and fell to singing (as one may see happy young +couples going merrily homeward after witnessing the murder of Duncan or +Desdemona). Meanwhile, the squirrel, having finished his work, descended +leisurely toward the ground, snickering and chuckling, as if he felt +immensely pleased with his achievement. Probably his emotions did not +differ essentially from those of a human sportsman, but it was lucky for +him, nevertheless, that I had no means of putting an end to his mirth. I +could have blown his head off without compunction. When he had gone, and +the visiting birds with him, the grosbeak returned to his nest, and in +the most piteous manner hovered about the spot,--getting into the nest +and out again,--as if completely dazed by the sudden disaster. +Throughout the excitement the female did not show herself, and I +wondered whether she could have submitted to be killed rather than +desert her charge. To the honor of her kind be it said that the +supposition is far from incredible. + +My second nest of this species was within twenty rods of the first, and +was in use at the same time; but it met with no better fate, though I +was not present to see it robbed. The third was more prosperous, and, +unless something befell the young at the last moment, they were safely +launched upon the wing. This nest was situated in a clump of witch-hazel +bushes, at a height of eight or nine feet. I remarked a grosbeak singing +near the spot, and, seeing him very unwilling to move away, concluded +that his home could not be far off. It was soon found,--a slight, +shapeless, frail-looking bundle of sticks, with the female upon it. I +took hold of the main stem, just below her, and drew her towards me; but +she would not rise, although I could see her moving uneasily. I had no +heart to annoy her; so I called her a good, brave bird, and left her in +peace. Her mate, all this while, kept on singing; and to judge from his +behavior, I might have been some honored guest, to be welcomed with +music. The simple-hearted--not to say simple-minded--fearlessness of +this bird is really astonishing; especially in view of the fact that his +showy plumage makes him a favorite mark for every amateur taxidermist. +He will even warble while brooding upon the eggs, a delicious piece of +absurdity, which I hope sooner or later to witness for myself. + +While watching my first couple of grosbeaks I suddenly became aware of a +wood thrush passing back and forth between the edge of a brook and a +certain oak, against the hole of which she was making ready her summer +residence. She seemed to be quite unattended; but just as I was +beginning to contrast her case with that of the feminine grosbeak +overhead, her mate broke into song from a low branch directly behind me. +_She_ had all the while known where he was, I dare say, and would have +been greatly amused at my commiseration of her loneliness. The next +morning she was compelled to make longer flights for such stuff as she +needed; and now it was pleasant to observe that her lord did not fail to +accompany her to and fro, and to sing to her while she worked. + +The wood thrush has the name of a recluse, and, as compared with the +omnipresent robin, he may deserve the title; but he is seldom very +difficult of approach, if one only knows how to go about it, while his +nest is peculiarly easy of detection. I remember one which was close by +an unfenced road, just outside the city of Washington; and two or three +years ago I found another in a barberry bush, not more than fifteen feet +from a horse-car track, and so near the fence as to be almost within +arm's-length of passers-by. This latter was in full view from the +street, and withal was so feebly supported that some kind-hearted +neighbor had taken pains to tie up the bush (which stood by itself) with +a piece of dangerously new-looking rope. And even as I write I recall +still a third, which also was close by the roadside, though at the very +exceptional elevation of twenty-five or thirty feet. + +It is one of the capital advantages of the ornithologist's condition +that he is rarely called upon to spend his time and strength for naught. +If he fails of the particular object of his search, he is all but sure +to be rewarded with something else. For example, while I was +unsuccessfully playing the spy upon a pair of my solitary vireos, a +female tanager suddenly dropped into her half-built nest in a low +pine-branch, at the same time calling softly to her mate, who at once +came to sit beside her. Unfortunately, one of the pair very soon caught +sight of me, and they made off in haste. I lingered about, till finally +the lady appeared again, with her beak full of sticks, standing out at +all points of the compass. She was so jealous of my espionage, however, +that it looked as if she would never be rid of her load. No sooner did +she alight in the tree than she began to crane her neck, staring this +way and that, and _chipping_ nervously; then she shifted her perch; then +out of the tree she went altogether; then back again; then off once +more; then back within a yard of the nest; then away again, till at last +my patience gave out, and I left her mistress of the field. All this +while the male was in sight, flitting restlessly from tree to tree at a +safe distance. I have never witnessed a prettier display of connubial +felicity than this pair afforded me during the minute or two which +elapsed between my discovery of them and their discovery of me. I felt +almost guilty for intruding upon such a scene; but, if they could only +have believed it, I intended no harm, nor have I now any thought of +profaning their innocent mysteries by attempting to describe what I saw. + +The male tanager, with his glory of jet black and flaming scarlet, is in +curious contrast with his mate, with whose personal appearance, +nevertheless, he seems to be abundantly satisfied. Possibly he looks +upon a dirty greenish-yellow as the loveliest of tints, and regards his +own dress as nothing better than commonplace, in comparison. Like the +rose-breasted grosbeak and the wood thrush, however, he is brought up +with the notion that it belongs to the female to be the carpenter of the +family; a belief in which, happily for his domestic peace, the female +herself fully concurs. + +As a general thing, handsomely dressed people live in handsome houses +(emphasis should perhaps be laid on the word _dressed_), and it would +seem natural that a like congruity should hold in the case of birds. + +But, if such be the rule, there are at least some glaring exceptions. I +have alluded to the rude structure of the rose-breast, and might have +used nearly the same language concerning the tanager's, which latter is +often fabricated so loosely that one can see the sky through it. Yet +these two are among the most gorgeously attired of all our birds. On the +other hand, while the wood pewee is one of the very plainest, there are +few, if any, that excel her as an architect. During the season under +review I had the good fortune to light upon my first nest of this +fly-catcher; and, as is apt to be true, having found one, I immediately +and without effort found two others. The first two were in oaks, the +third in a hornbeam; and all were set upon the upper side of a +horizontal bough ("saddled" upon it, as the manuals say), at the +junction of an offshoot with the main branch. Two of them were but +partially done when discovered, and I was glad to see one pair of the +birds in something very like a frolic, such a state as would hardly be +predicted of these peculiarly sober-seeming creatures. The builder of +the second nest was remarkably confiding, and proceeded with her +labors, quite undisturbed by my proximity and undisguised interest. It +was to be remarked that she had trimmed the outside of her nest with +lichens before finishing the interior; and I especially admired the very +clever manner in which she hovered against the dead pine-trunk, from +which she was gathering strips of bark. Concerning her unsuspiciousness, +however, it should be said that the word applies only to her treatment +of myself. When a thrasher had the impertinence to alight in her oak she +ordered him off in high dudgeon, dashing back and forth above him, and +snapping spitefully as she passed. She knew her rights, and, knowing, +dared maintain. When a bird builds her nest in any part of a tree she +claims every twig of it as her own. I have even seen the gentle-hearted +chickadee resent the intrusion of a chipping sparrow, though it appeared +impossible that the latter could be suspected of any predatory or +sinister design. + +The shallowness of the wood pewee's saucer-shaped nest, its position +upon the branch, and especially its external dress of lichens, all +conspire to render it inconspicuous. It is an interesting question +whether the owner herself appreciates this, or has merely inherited the +fashion, without thought of the reasons for it. The latter supposition, +I reluctantly confess, looks to me the more probable. It must often be +true of other animals, as it is of men, that they build better than they +know. Their wisdom is not their own, but belongs to a power back of +them,--a power which works, if you will, in accordance with what we +designate as the law of natural selection, and which, so to speak, +enlightens the race rather than the individual. + +After all, it is the ground birds that puzzle the human oölogist. +Crossing a brook, I saw what I regarded as almost infallible signs that +a pair of Maryland yellow-throats had begun to build beside it. Unless I +was entirely at fault, the nest must be within a certain two or three +square yards, and I devoted half an hour, more or less, to ransacking +the grass and bushes, till I thought every inch of the ground had been +gone over; but all to no purpose. Continuing my walk, I noticed after a +while that the male warbler was accompanying me up the hillside, +apparently determined to see me safely out of the way. Coming to the +same brook again the next morning, I halted for another search; and lo! +all in a moment my eye fell upon the coveted nest, not on the ground, +but perhaps eight inches from it, in a little clump of young +golden-rods, which would soon overgrow it completely. The female +proprietor was present, and manifested so much concern that I would not +tarry, but made rather as if I had seen nothing, and passed on. It was +some time before I observed that she was keeping along beside me, +precisely as her mate had done the day before. The innocent creatures, +sorely pestered as they were, could hardly be blamed for such +precautions; yet it is not pleasant to be "shadowed" as a suspicious +character, even by Maryland yellow-throats. + +This was my first nest of a very common warbler, and I felt particularly +solicitous for its safety; but alas! no sooner was the first egg laid +than something or somebody carried it off, and the afflicted couple +deserted the house on which they had expended so much labor and +anxiety. + +Not far beyond the yellow-throats' brook, and almost directly under one +of the pewees' oaks, was a nest which pretty certainly had belonged to a +pair of chewinks, but which was already forsaken when I found it, though +I had then no inkling of the fact. It contained four eggs, and +everything was in perfect order. The mother had gone away, and had never +come back; having fallen a victim, probably, to some collector, human or +inhuman. The tragedy was peculiar; and the tragical effect of it was +heightened as day after day, for nearly a fortnight at least (I cannot +say for how much longer), the beautiful eggs lay there entirely +uncovered, and yet no skunk, squirrel, or other devourer of such +dainties happened to spy them. It seemed doubly sad that so many +precious nests should be robbed, while this set of worthless eggs was +left to spoil. + +I have already mentioned the housekeeping of a couple of chickadees in a +low birch stump. Theirs was one of three titmouse nests just then +claiming my attention. I visited it frequently, from the time when the +pair were hard at work making the cavity up to the time when the brood +were nearly ready to shift for themselves. Both birds took their share +of the digging, and on several occasions I saw one feeding the other. +After the eggs were deposited, the mother (or the sitter) displayed +admirable courage, refusing again and again to quit her post when I +peered in upon her, and even when with my cane I rapped smartly upon the +stump. If I put my fingers into the hole, however, she followed them out +in hot haste. Even when most seriously disturbed by my attentions the +pair made use of no other notes than the common _chickadee, dee_, but +these they sometimes delivered in an unnaturally sharp, fault-finding +tone. + +My two other titmouse nests were both in apple-trees, and one of them +was in my own door-yard, though beyond convenient reach without the help +of a ladder. The owners of this last were interesting for a very decided +change in their behavior after the young were hatched, and especially as +the time for the little ones' exodus drew near. At first, +notwithstanding their door opened right upon the street, as it were, +within a rod or two of passing horse-cars, the father and mother went in +and out without the least apparent concern as to who might be watching +them; but when they came to be feeding their hungry offspring, it was +almost laughable to witness the little craftinesses to which they +resorted. They would perch on one of the outer branches, call +_chickadee, dee_, fly a little nearer, then likely enough go further +off, till finally, after a variety of such "false motions," into the +hole they would duck, as if nobody for the world must be allowed to know +where they had gone. It was really wonderful how expert they grew at +entering quickly. I pondered a good deal over their continual calling on +such occasions. It seemed foolish and inconsistent; half the time I +should have failed to notice their approach, had they only kept still. +Toward the end, however, when the chicks inside the trunk could be heard +articulating _chickadee, dee_ with perfect distinctness, it occurred to +me that possibly all this persistent repetition of the phrase by the old +birds had been only or mainly in the way of tuition. At all events, the +youngsters had this part of the chickadese vocabulary right at their +tongues' end, as we say, before making their _début_ in the great world. + +But it was reserved for my third pair of tits to give me a genuine +surprise. I had been so constant a visitor at their house that I had +come to feel myself quite on terms of intimacy with them. So, after +their brood was hatched, I one day climbed into the tree (as I had done +more than once before), the better to overlook their parental labors. I +had hardly placed myself in a comfortable seat before the couple +returned from one of their foraging expeditions. The male--or the one +that I took for such--had a black morsel of some kind in his bill, +which, on reaching the tree, he passed over to his mate, who forthwith +carried it into the hollow stub, in the depths of which the hungry +little ones were. Then the male flew off again, and presently came back +with another beakful, which his helpmeet took from him at the door, +where she had been awaiting his arrival. After this performance had been +repeated two or three times, curiosity led me to stand up against the +stub, with my hand resting upon it; at which the female (who was just +inside the mouth of the cavity) slipped out, and set up an anxious +_chickadee, dee, dee_. When her mate appeared,--which he did almost +immediately,--he flew into what looked like a downright paroxysm of +rage, not against me, but against the mother bird, shaking his wings and +scolding violently. I came to the unhappy lady's relief as best I could +by dropping to the ground, and within a few minutes the pair again +approached the stub in company; but when the female made a motion to +take the food from her husband's bill, as before, he pounced upon her +spitefully, drove her away, and dived into the hole himself. Apparently +he had not yet forgiven what he accounted her pusillanimous desertion of +her charge. All in all, the scene was a revelation to me, a chickadee +family quarrel being something the like of which I had never dreamed of. +Perhaps no titmouse ever before had so timorous a wife. But however that +might be, I sincerely hoped that they would not be long in making up +their difference. I had enjoyed the sight of their loving intercourse +for so many weeks that I should have been sorry indeed to believe that +it could end in strife. Nor could I regard it as so unpardonable a +weakness for a bird to move off, even from her young, when a man put his +fingers within a few inches of her. Possibly she ought to have known +that I meant no mischief. Possibly, too, her doughty lord would have +behaved more commendably in the same circumstances; but of that I am by +no means certain. To borrow a theological term, my conception of bird +nature is decidedly anthropomorphic, and I incline to believe that +chickadees as well as men find it easier to blame others than to do +better themselves. + +Here these reminiscences must come to an end, though the greater part of +my season's experiences are still untouched. First, however, let me +relieve my conscience by putting on record the bravery of a black-billed +cuckoo, whom I was obliged fairly to drive from her post of duty. Her +nest was a sorry enough spectacle,--a flat, unwalled platform, carpeted +with willow catkins and littered with egg-shells, in the midst of which +latter lay a single callow nestling, nearly as black as a crow. But as I +looked at the parent bird, while she sat within ten feet of me, eying +my every movement intently, and uttering her wrath in various cries +(some catlike mewings among them), my heart reproached me that I had +ever written of the cuckoo as a coward and a sneak. Truth will not allow +me to take the words back entirely, even now; but I felt at that moment, +and do still, that I might have been better employed mending my own +faults than in holding up to scorn the foibles of a creature who, when +worst came to worst, could set me such a shining example of courageous +fidelity. It is always in order to be charitable; and I ought to have +remembered that, for those who are themselves subject to imperfection, +generosity is the best kind of justice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71:1] The birds at once became quiet, and I went back complacently to +my book under the linden-tree. Who knows, however, whether there may not +have been another side to the story? Who shall say what were the +emotions of the snake, as he wriggled painfully homeward after such an +assault? Myself no vegetarian, by what right had I belabored him for +liking the taste of chicken? It were well, perhaps, not to pry too +curiously into questions of this kind. Most likely it would not flatter +our human self-esteem to know what some of our "poor relations" think of +us. + + + + +A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD. + + Thus, without theft, I reap another's field.--SIDNEY LANIER. + + +I was passing some days of idleness in a shallow Vermont valley, +situated at an elevation of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, circled by +wooded hills, and intersected by an old turnpike, which connects the +towns near Lake Champlain with the region beyond the mountains. Small +farmhouses stood here and there along the highway, while others were +scattered at wide intervals over the lower slopes of the outlying hills. + +With all the brightness and freshness of early summer upon it, it was +indeed an enchanting picture; but even so, one could not altogether put +aside a feeling of something like commiseration for the people who, year +in and year out, from babyhood to old age, found in this narrow vale, +with its severity of weather, and its scarcity of social comforts and +opportunities, their only experience of what we fondly call this wide, +wide world. + +From my inn I had walked eastward for perhaps a mile; then at the little +school-house had taken a cross-road, which presently began to climb. +Here I passed two or three cottages (one of them boasting the +singularity of paint), and after a while came to another, which appeared +to be the last, as the road not far beyond struck into the ancient +forest. First, however, it ran up to a small plateau, where, out of +sight from the house, lay a scanty quarter of an acre, in which the old +parable, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," +was in the primary stage of its fresh annual fulfillment. The ground was +but newly cleared, and the brambles still felt themselves its true and +rightful possessors. Who was this puny-looking, good-for-nothing +foreigner, that they should be turned out of house and home for his +accommodation? So they seemed to be asking among themselves, as they +lifted up their heads here and there in the midst of the pale-green +shoots. The crows, on the other hand, bade the newcomer welcome,--as +the wolf welcomes the lamb. Against these hungry lovers of his crop (who +loved not unwisely, but too well), the farmer had fenced his field with +a single string, stretched from corner to corner. He must put +extraordinary faith in the considerateness of the birds, a looker-on +might think; such a barrier as this could be, at the most, nothing more +than a polite hint of ownership, a delicate reminder against thoughtless +trespassing, a courteously indirect suggestion to such as needed not a +physical, but only a moral, restraint. Or one might take it as an appeal +to some known or fancied superstitiousness on the crows' part; as if the +white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to +meddle. But the rustic would have laughed at all such far-fetched +cockneyish inferences. This strange-seeming device of his was simply an +attempt to take the suspicious in their own suspiciousness; to set +before Corvus a hindrance so unmistakably insufficient that he would +mistrust it as a cover for some deep-laid and deadly plot. Probably the +scheme had not been crowned with complete success in the present +instance, for from a pole in the middle of the inclosure a dead crow was +dangling in the breeze. This was a more business-like signal than the +other; even a cockney could hardly be in doubt as to its meaning; and +the farmer, when I afterwards met him, assured me that it had answered +its purpose to perfection. The crow is nobody's fool. "Live and learn" +is his motto; and he does both, but especially the former, in a way to +excite the admiration of all disinterested observers. In the long +struggle between human ingenuity and corvine sagacity, it is doubtful +which has thus far obtained the upper hand. Nor have I ever quite +convinced myself which of the contestants has the better case. "The crow +is a thief," the planter declares; "he should confine himself to a wild +diet, or else sow his own garden." "Yes, yes," Corvus makes reply; "but +if I steal your corn, you first stole my land." Unlike his cousin the +raven,--who, along with the Indian, has retreated before the +pale-face,--the crow is no ultra-conservative. Civilization and modern +ideas are not in the least distasteful to him. He has an unfeigned +respect for agriculture, and in fact may be said himself to have set up +as gentleman-farmer, letting out his land on shares, and seldom failing +to get his full half of the crop; and, like the shrewd manager that he +is, he insures himself against drought and other mischances by taking +his moiety early in the season. As I plant no acres myself, I perhaps +find it easier than some of my fellow-citizens to bear with the faults +and appreciate the virtues of this sable aboriginal. Long may he live, I +say, this true lover of his native land, to try the patience and sharpen +the wits of his would-be exterminators. + +The crow's is only the common lot. The whole earth is one field of war. +Every creature's place upon it is coveted by some other creature. Plants +and animals alike subsist by elbowing their rivals out of the way. Man, +if he plants a corn-field, puts in no more grains than will probably +have room to grow and thrive. But Nature, in her abhorrence of a vacuum, +stands at no waste. She believes in competition, and feels no qualms at +seeing the weak go to the wall. + + "The good old rule + Sufficeth her, the simple plan, + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can." + +If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns without number. Her +recklessness equals that of some ambitious military despot, to whom ten +thousand or a hundred thousand dead soldiers count as nothing, if only +the campaign be fought through to victory. + +Man's economy and Nature's prodigality,--here they were in typical +operation, side by side. The corn was in "hills" uniformly spaced, and +evidently the proprietor had already been at work with plough and hoe, +lest the weeds should spring up and choke it; but just beyond stood a +perfect thicket of wild-cherry shrubs, so huddled together that not one +in twenty could possibly find room in which to develop. If they were not +all of them stunted beyond recovery, it would be only because a few of +the sturdiest should succeed in crowding down and killing off their +weaker competitors. + +The import of this apparent wastefulness and cruelty of Nature, her +seeming indifference to the welfare of the individual, is a question on +which it is not pleasant, and, as I think, not profitable, to dwell. We +see but parts of her ways, and it must be unsafe to criticise the +working of a single wheel here or there, when we have absolutely no +means of knowing how each fits into the grand design, and, for that +matter, can only guess at the grand design itself. Rather let us content +ourselves with the prudent saying of that ancient agnostic, Bildad the +Shuhite: "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." The wisest of us +are more or less foolish, by nature and of necessity; but it seems a +gratuitous superfluity of folly to ignore our own ignorance. For one, +then, I am in no mood to propose, much less to undertake, any grand +revolution in the order of natural events. Indeed, as far as I am +personally concerned, I fear it would be found but a dubious improvement +if the wildness were quite taken out of the world,--if its wilderness, +according to the word of the prophet, were to become all like Eden. +Tameness is not the only good quality, whether of land or of human +nature. + +As I sat on my comfortable log (the noble old tree had not been cut +down for nothing), birds of many kinds came and went about me. +Wordsworth's couplet would have suited my case:-- + + "The birds around me hopped and played, + Their thoughts I cannot measure;" + +but I could hardly have rounded out the quotation; for, joyful as I +believed the creatures to be, many of their motions were plainly not +"thrills of pleasure," but tokens of fear. It was now the very heyday of +life with them, when they are at once happiest and most wary. There were +secrets to be kept close; eggs and little ones, whose whereabouts must +on no account be divulged. For the birds, too, not less than the corn, +the bramble, and the cherry, not less even than the saint, find this +earthly life a daily warfare. + +The artless ditty of the mourning warbler came to my ears at intervals +out of a tangle of shrubbery, and once or twice he allowed me glimpses +of his quaint attire. I would gladly have seen and heard much more of +him, but he evaded all my attempts at familiarity. Nor could I blame him +for his furtive behavior. How was he to be certain that I was no +collector, but only an innocent admirer of birds in the bush? Sought +after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist, the mourning +warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion in fighting shy of every +animal that walks upright. + +It is evident, however, that for birds, as for ourselves, the same thing +often has both a bright and a dark side. If men are sometimes heartless, +and never to be altogether confided in, yet at the same time their +doings are in various respects conducive to the happiness and increase +of feathered life; and this not only in the case of some of the more +familiar species, but even in that of many which still retain all their +natural shyness of human society. A clearing like that in which I was +now resting offers an excellent illustration of this; for it is a rule +without exceptions that in such a place one may see and hear more birds +in half an hour than are likely to be met with in the course of a long +day's tramp through the unbroken forest. The mourning warbler himself +likes a roadside copse better than a deep wood, jealous as he may be of +man's approach. Up to a certain point, civilization is a blessing, even +to birds. Beyond a certain point, for aught I know, it may be nothing +but a curse, even to men. + +Here, then, I sat, now taken up with the beautiful landscape, and anon +turning my head to behold some fowl of the air. I might have mused with +Emerson,-- + + "Knows he who tills this lonely field, + To reap its scanty corn, + What mystic fruit his acres yield + At midnight and at morn," + +--only "mystic fruit" would have been rather too high-sounding a phrase +for my commonplace cogitations. Hermit thrushes, olive-backed thrushes, +and veeries, with sundry warblers and a scarlet tanager, sang in chorus +from the woods behind me, while in front bluebirds, robins, song +sparrows, vesper sparrows, and chippers were doing their best to +transform this fresh Vermont clearing into a time-worn Massachusetts +pasture; assisted meanwhile by a goldfinch who flew over my head with an +ecstatic burst of melody, and a linnet who fell to warbling with +characteristic fluency from a neighboring tree-top. At least two pairs +of rose-breasted grosbeaks had summer quarters here; and busy enough +they looked, flitting from one side of the garden to another, yet not +too busy for a tune between whiles. One of the males was in really +gorgeous plumage. The rose-color had run over, as it were (like Aaron's +"precious ointment"), and spilled all down his breast. It is hard for me +ever to think of this brilliant, tropically dressed grosbeak as a true +Northerner; and here once more I was for the moment surprised to hear +him and the olive-backed thrush singing together in the same wood. Could +such neighborliness have any patriotic significance? I was almost ready +to ask. Across the corn-field a Traill's flycatcher was tossing up his +head pertly, and vociferating _kwee-kwee_. I took it for a challenge: +"Find my nest if you can, brother!" But I found nothing. Nor was I more +successful with a humming-bird, who had chosen the tip of a charred +stub, only a few rods from my seat, for his favorite perch. Again and +again I saw him there preening his feathers, and once or twice I tried +to inveigle him into betraying his secret. Either his house was further +off than I suspected, however, or else he was too cunning to fall into +my snare. At any rate, he permitted me to trample all about the spot, +without manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness. + +What a traveler the humming-bird is! I myself had come perhaps three +hundred miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome journey, +notwithstanding I had been brought nearly all the way in a carriage +elaborately contrived for comfort, and moving over iron rails. But this +tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it +may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly at home again in this +Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as +the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a +marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of +flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one +of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and +forth are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human +beings must look in his eyes! I wonder if he is never tempted to laugh +at us. Who knows but humming-birds have it for a by-word, "As awkward +as a man"? + +My ruminations were suddenly broken in upon by the approach of a +carriage, driven by a boy of perhaps ten years, a son of the farmer from +whose land I was, as it were, gathering the first fruits. We had made +each other's acquaintance the day before, and now, as he surmounted the +hill, he stopped to inquire politely whether I would ride with him. Yes, +I answered, I would gladly be carried into the forest a little way. It +proved a very little way indeed; for the road was heavy from recent +rains, and the poor old hack was so short of breath that he could barely +drag us along, and at every slump of the wheels came to a dead +standstill. "Pity for a horse o'er-driven" soon compelled me to take to +the woods, in spite of the protestations of my charioteer, who assured +me that his steed _could_ trot "like everything," if he only would. It +is an extremely unpatriotic Vermonter, I suspect (I have never yet +discovered him), who will not brag a little over his horse; and I was +rather pleased than otherwise to hear my flaxen-haired friend set forth +the good points of his beast, even while he confessed that the "heaves" +were pretty bad. I was glad, too, to find the youngster in a general way +something of an optimist. When I asked him how long the land had been +cleared, he pointed to one corner of it, and responded, using the +pronoun with perfect _naïveté_, "We cleared up that piece last fall;" +and on my inquiring whether it was not hard work, he replied, in a tone +of absolute satisfaction, "Oh, yes, but you get your pay for it." +Evidently he believed in Green Mountain land, which I thought a very +fortunate circumstance. "Be content with such things as ye have," said +the Apostle; and it is certainly easier to obey the precept if one looks +upon his own things as the best in the world. My youthful philosopher +seemed to consider it altogether natural and reasonable that prosperity, +instead of coming of itself, should have to be earned by the sweat of +the brow. Perhaps the crow and the cherry-tree are equally +unsophisticated. Perhaps, too, men's fates are less uneven than is +sometimes supposed. For I could not help thinking that if this boy +should retain his present view of things, he would pass his days more +happily than many a so-called favorite of fortune. + +On my way back to the inn I met an old man from the lowlands, driving +over the mountains for the first time since boyhood. "You have a pretty +good farming country here," he called out cheerily,--"a little rolling." +He took me for a native, and I hope to be forgiven for not disclaiming +the compliment. + +As I write, I find myself wondering how my nameless farmer's crop is +prospered. In my corner of the world we have lately been afflicted with +drought. I hope it has been otherwise on his hillside plateau. In my +thought, at all events, his corn is now fully tasseled, and waves in a +pleasant mountain wind, all green and shining. + + + + +BEHIND THE EYE. + + As what he sees is, so have his thoughts been.--MATTHEW + ARNOLD. + + +Nothing is seen until it is separated from its surroundings. A man looks +at the landscape, but the tree standing in the middle of the landscape +he does not see until, for the instant at least, he singles it out as +the object of vision. Two men walk the same road; as far as the +bystander can perceive, they have before them the same sights; but let +them be questioned at the end of the journey, and it will appear that +one man saw one set of objects, and his companion another; and the more +diverse the intellectual training and habits of the two travelers, the +greater will be the discrepancy between the two reports. + +And what is true of any two men is equally true of any one man at two +different times. To-day he is in a dreamy, reflective mood,--he has been +reading Wordsworth, perhaps,--and when he takes his afternoon saunter +he looks at the bushy hillside, or at the wayside cottage, or down into +the loitering brook, and he sees in them all such pictures as they never +showed him before. Or he is in a matter-of-fact mood, a kind of +stock-market frame of mind; and he looks at everything through +economical spectacles,--as if he had been set to appraise the acres of +meadow or woodland through which he passes. At another time he may have +been reading some book or magazine article written by Mr. John +Burroughs; and although he knows nothing of birds, and can scarcely tell +a crow from a robin (perhaps for this very reason), he is certain to +have tantalizing glimpses of some very strange and wonderful feathered +specimens. They must be rarities, at least, if not absolute novelties; +and likely enough, on getting home, he sits down and writes to Mr. +Burroughs a letter full of gratitude and inquiry,--the gratitude very +pleasant to receive, we may presume, and the inquiries quite impossible +to answer. + +Some men (not many, it is to be hoped) are specialists, and nothing +else. They are absorbed in farming, or in shoemaking, in chemistry, or +in Latin grammar, and have no thought for anything beyond or beside. +Others of us, while there may be two or three subjects toward which we +feel some special drawing, have nevertheless a general interest in +whatever concerns humanity. We are different men on different days. +There is a certain part of the year, say from April to July, when I am +an ornithologist; for the time being, as often as I go out-of-doors, I +have an eye for birds, and, comparatively speaking, for nothing else. +Then comes a season during which my walks all take on a botanical +complexion. I have had my turn at butterflies, also; for one or two +summers I may be said to have seen little else but these winged blossoms +of the air. I know, too, what it means to visit the seashore, and +scarcely to notice the breaking waves because of the shells scattered +along the beach. In short, if I see one thing, I am of necessity blind, +or half-blind, to all beside. There are several men in me, and not more +than one or two of them are ever at the window at once. Formerly, my +enjoyment of nature was altogether reflective, imaginative; in a +passive, unproductive sense, poetical. I delighted in the woods and +fields, the seashore and the lonely road, not for the birds or flowers +to be found there, but for the "serene and blessed mood" into which I +was put by such friendship. Later in life, it transpired, as much to my +surprise as to anybody's else, that I had a bent toward natural history, +as well as toward nature; an inclination to study, as well as to dream +over, the beautiful world about me. I must know the birds apart, and the +trees, and the flowers. A bit of country was no longer a mere landscape, +a picture, but a museum as well. For a time the poet seemed to be dead +within me; and happy as I found myself in my new pursuits, I had fits of +bewailing my former condition. Science and fancy, it appeared, would not +travel hand in hand; if a man must be a botanist, let him bid good-by to +the Muse. Then I fled again to Emerson and Wordsworth, trying to read +the naturalist asleep and reawaken the poet. Happy thought! The two men, +the student and the lover, were still there; and there they remain to +this day. Sometimes one is at the window, sometimes the other. + +So it is, undoubtedly, with other people. My fellow-travelers, who hear +me discoursing enthusiastically of vireos and warblers, thrushes and +wrens, whilst they see never a bird, unless it be now and then an +English sparrow or a robin, talk sometimes as if the difference between +us were one of eyesight. They might as well lay it to the window-glass +of our respective houses. It is not the eye that sees, but the man +behind the eye. + +As to the comparative advantages and disadvantages of such a division of +interests as I have been describing, there may be room for two opinions. +If distinction be all that the student hungers for, perhaps he cannot +limit himself too strictly; but for myself, I think I should soon tire +of my own society if I were only one man,--a botanist or a chemist, an +artist, or even a poet. I should soon tire of myself, I say; but I might +have said, with equal truth, that I should soon tire of nature; for if I +were only one man, I should see only one aspect of the natural world. +This may explain why it is that some persons must be forever moving from +place to place. If they travel the same road twice or thrice, or even +to the hundredth time, they see only one set of objects. The same man is +always at the window. No wonder they are restless and famished. For my +own part, though I should delight to see new lands and new people, new +birds and new plants, I am nevertheless pretty well contented where I +am. If I take the same walks, I do not see the same things. The botanist +spells the dreamer; and now and then the lover of beauty keeps the +ornithologist in the background till he is thankful to come once more to +the window, though it be only to look at a bluebird or a song sparrow. + +How much influence has the will in determining which of these several +tenants of a man's body shall have his turn at sightseeing? It would be +hard to answer definitely. As much, it may be, as a teacher has over his +pupils, or a father over his children; something depends upon the +strength of the governing will, and something upon the tractability of +the pupil. In general, I assume to command. As I start on my ramble I +give out word, as it were, which of the men shall have the front seat. +But there are days when some one of them proves too much both for me +and for his fellows. It is not the botanist's turn, perhaps; but he +takes his seat at the window, notwithstanding, and the ornithologist and +the dreamer must be content to peep at the landscape over his shoulders. + +On such occasions, it may as well be confessed, I make but a feeble +remonstrance; and for the sufficient reason that I feel small confidence +in my own wisdom. If the flower-lover or the poet must have the hour, +then in all likelihood he ought to have it. So much I concede to the +nature of things. A strong tendency is a strong argument, and of itself +goes far to justify itself. I borrow no trouble on the score of such +compulsions. On the contrary, my lamentations begin when nobody sues for +the place of vision. Such days I have; blank days, days to be dropped +from the calendar; when "those that look out of the windows be +darkened." The fault is not with the world, nor with the eye. The old +preacher had the right of it; it is not the windows that are darkened, +but "those that look out of the windows." + + + + +A NOVEMBER CHRONICLE. + + I've gathered young spring-leaves, and flowers gay.--KEATS. + + +I looked forward to the month with peculiar interest, as it was many +years since I had passed a November in the country, and now that it is +over I am moved to publish its praises: partly, as I hope, out of +feelings of gratitude, and partly because it is an agreeable kind of +originality to commend what everybody else has been in the habit of +decrying. + +In the first place, then, it was a month of pleasant weather; something +too much of wind and dust (the dust for only the first ten days) being +almost the only drawback. To me, with my prepossessions, it was little +short of marvelous how many of the days were nearly or quite cloudless. +The only snow fell on the 11th. I saw a few flakes in the afternoon, +just enough to be counted, and there must have been another slight +flurry after dark, as the grass showed white in favorable spots early +the next morning. Making allowance for the shortness of the days, I +doubt whether there has been a month during the past year in which a man +could comfortably spend more of his time in out-of-door exercise. + +The trees were mostly bare before the end of October, but the apple and +cherry trees still kept their branches green (they are foreigners, and +perhaps have been used to a longer season), and the younger growth of +gray birches lighted up the woodlands with pale yellow. Of course the +oak-leaves were still hanging, also; and for that matter they are +hanging yet, and will be for months to come, let the north wind blow as +it may. I wonder whether their winter rustling sounds as cold in other +ears as in mine. My own feeling is most likely the result of boyish +associations. How often I waded painfully through the forest paths, my +feet and hands half frozen, while these ghosts of summer shivered +sympathetically on every side as they saw me pass! I wonder, too, what +can be the explanation of this unnatural oak-tree habit. The leaves are +dead; why should they not obey the general law,--"ashes to ashes, dust +to dust"? Is our summer too short to ripen them, and so to perfect the +articulation? Whatever its cause, their singular behavior does much to +beautify the landscape; particularly in such a district as mine, where +the rocky hills are, so many of them, covered with young oak forests, +which, especially for the first half of November, before the foliage is +altogether faded, are dressed in subdued shades of maroon, beautiful at +all hours, but touched into positive glory by the level rays of the +afternoon sun. + +I began on the very first day of the month to make a list of the plants +found in bloom, and happening, a week afterward, to be in the company of +two experienced botanical collectors, I asked them how many species I +was likely to find. One said thirty. The other, after a little +hesitation, replied, "I don't know, but I shouldn't think you could find +a dozen." Well, it is true that November is not distinctively a floral +month in Massachusetts, but before its thirty days were over I had +catalogued seventy-three species, though for six of these, to be sure, +I have to thank one of the collectors just now mentioned. Indeed, I +found thirty-nine sorts on my first afternoon ramble; and even as late +as the 27th and 28th I counted twelve. All in all, there is little doubt +that at least a hundred kinds of plants were in bloom about me during +the month. + +Having called my record a chronicle, I should be guilty of an almost +wanton disregard of scriptural models if I did not fill it largely with +names, and accordingly I do not hesitate to subjoin a full list of these +my November flowers; omitting Latin titles,--somewhat unwillingly, I +confess,--except where the vernacular is wanting altogether, or else is +more than commonly ambiguous:--creeping buttercup, tall buttercup, field +larkspur, celandine, pale corydalis, hedge mustard, shepherd's-purse, +wild peppergrass, sea-rocket, wild radish, common blue violet, bird-foot +violet, pansy, Deptford pink, common chickweed, larger mouse-ear +chickweed, sand spurrey, knawel, common mallow, herb-robert, storksbill, +red clover, alsyke, white clover, white sweet clover, black medick, +white avens, common cinque-foil, silvery cinque-foil, witch-hazel, +common evening-primrose, smaller evening-primrose, carrot, blue-stemmed +golden-rod, white golden-rod (or silvery-rod), seaside golden-rod, +_Solidago juncea_, _Solidago rugosa_, dusty golden-rod, early +golden-rod, corymbed aster, wavy-leaved aster, heart-leaved aster, +many-flowered aster, _Aster vimineus_, _Aster diffusus_, New York aster, +_Aster puniceus_, narrow-leaved aster, flea-bane, horse-weed, +everlasting, cudweed, cone-flower, mayweed, yarrow, tansy, groundsel, +burdock, Canada thistle, fall dandelion, common dandelion, sow thistle, +Indian tobacco, bell-flower (_Campanula rapunculoides_), fringed +gentian, wild toad-flax, butter and eggs, self-heal, motherwort, +jointweed, doorweed, and ladies' tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_). + +Here, then, we have seventy-three species, all but one of which +(_Spiranthes cernua_) are of the class of exogens. Twenty-two orders are +represented, the great autumnal family of the _Compositæ_ naturally +taking the lead, with thirty species (sixteen of them asters and +golden-rods), while the mustard, pink, and pulse families come next, +with five species each. The large and hardy heath family is wanting +altogether. Out of the whole number about forty-three are indigenous. +Witch-hazel is the only shrub, and, as might have been expected, there +is no climbing plant. + +In setting down such a list one feels it a pity that so few of the +golden-rods and asters have any specific designation in English. Under +this feeling, I have presumed myself to name two of the golden-rods, +_Solidago Canadensis_ and _Solidago nemoralis_. With us, at all events, +the former is the first of its genus to blossom, and may appropriately +enough wear the title of early golden-rod, while the latter must have +been noticed by everybody for its peculiar grayish, "dusty-miller" +foliage. It has, moreover, an exceptional right to a vernacular name, +being both one of the commonest and one of the showiest of our roadside +weeds. Till something better is proposed, therefore, let us call it the +dusty golden-rod. + +It must in fairness be acknowledged that I did not stand upon the +quality of my specimens. Many of them were nothing but accidental and +not very reputable-looking laggards; but in November, especially if one +is making a list, a blossom is a blossom. The greater part of the asters +and golden-rods, I think, were plants that had been broken down by one +means or another, and now, at this late day, had put forth a few stunted +sprays. The narrow-leaved aster (_Aster linariifolius_) seemed +peculiarly out of season, and was represented by only two heads, but +these sufficed to bring the mouth-filling name into my catalogue. Of the +two species of native violets I saw but a single blossom each. My pansy +(common enough in gardens, and blooming well into December) was, of +course, found by the roadside, and the larkspur likewise, as I made +nothing of any but wild plants. + +At this time of the year one must not expect to pick flowers anywhere +and everywhere, and a majority of all my seventy-three species (perhaps +as many as two thirds) were found only in one or more of three +particular places. The first of these was along a newly laid-out road +through a tract of woodland; the second was a sheltered wayside nook +between high banks; and the third was at the seashore. At this last +place, on the 8th of the month, I came unexpectedly upon a field fairly +yellow with fall dandelions and silvery cinque-foils, and affording also +my only specimens of burdock, Canada thistle, cone-flower, and the +smaller evening-primrose; in addition to which were the many-flowered +aster, yarrow, red clover, and sow thistle. In truth, the grassy +hillside was quite like a garden, although there was no apparent reason +why it should be so favored. The larger evening-primrose, of which I saw +two stalks, one of them bearing six or eight blossoms, was growing among +the rocks just below the edge of the cliff, in company with abundance of +sow thistle, all perfectly fresh; while along the gravelly edge of the +bank, just above them, was the groundsel (_Senecio vulgaris_), looking +as bright and thrifty as if it had been the first of August instead of +near the middle of November. + +Perhaps my most surprising bit of good luck was the finding of the +Deptford pink. Of this, for some inscrutable reason, one plant still +remained green and showed several rosy blossoms, while all its fellows, +far and near, were long since bleached and dead. Fortune has her +favorites, even among pinks. The frail-looking, early-blooming +corydalis (we have few plants that appear less able to bear exposure) +was in excellent condition up to the very end of the month, though the +one patch then explored was destitute of flowers. These were as pretty +as could be--prettier even than in May, I thought--on the 16th, and no +doubt might have been found on the 30th, with careful search. The little +geranium known as herb-robert is a neighbor of the corydalis, and, like +it, stands the cold remarkably well. Its reddening, finely cut leaves +were fresh and flourishing, but though I often looked for its flowers, I +found only one during the entire month. The storksbill, its less known +cousin, does not grow within my limits, but came to me from Essex +County, through the kindness of a friend, being one of the six species +contributed by her, as I have before mentioned. + +The hardiness of some of these late bloomers is surprising. It is now +the 2d of December, and yesterday the temperature fell about thirty +degrees below the freezing-point, yet I notice shepherd's-purse, +peppergrass, chickweed, and knawel still bearing fresh-looking flowers. +Nor are they the only plants that seem thus impervious to cold. The +prostrate young St. John's-wort shoots, for instance, all uncovered and +delicate as they are, appear not to know that winter with all its rigors +is upon them. + +It was impossible not to sympathize admiringly with some of my belated +asters and golden-rods. Their perseverance was truly pathetic. They had +been hindered, but they meant to finish their appointed task, +nevertheless, in spite of short days and cold weather. I have especially +in mind a plant of _Solidago juncea_. The species is normally one of the +earliest, following hard upon _Solidago Canadensis_, but for some reason +this particular specimen did not begin to flower till after the first +heavy frosts. Indeed, when I first noticed it, the stem leaves were +already frost-bitten; yet it kept on putting forth blossoms for at least +a fortnight. Whatever may be true of the lilies of the field, this +golden-rod was certainly a toiler, and of the most persistent sort. + +Early in the month the large and hardy Antiopa butterflies were still +not uncommon in the woods, and on the 3d--a delightful, summer-like +day, in which I made a pilgrimage to Walden--I observed a single +clouded-sulphur (Philodice), looking none the worse for the low +temperature of the night before, when the smaller ponds had frozen over +for the first time. + +Of course I kept account of the birds as well as of the flowers, but the +number, both of individuals and of species, proved to be surprisingly +small, the total list being as follows:--great black-backed gull, +American herring gull, ruffed grouse, downy woodpecker, flicker, blue +jay, crow, horned lark, purple finch, red crossbill, goldfinch, snow +bunting, Ipswich sparrow, white-throated sparrow, tree sparrow, +snowbird, song sparrow, fox sparrow, Northern shrike, myrtle warbler, +brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, golden-crowned +kinglet, and robin. Here are only twenty-five species; a meagre +catalogue, which might have been longer, it is true, but for the +patriotism or prejudice (who will presume always to decide between these +two feelings, one of them so given to counterfeiting the other?) which +would not allow me to piece it out with the name of that all too +numerous parasite, the so-called English sparrow. + +My best ornithological day was the 17th, which, with a friend +like-minded, I passed at Ipswich Beach. The special object of our search +was the Ipswich sparrow, a bird unknown to science until 1868, when it +was discovered at this very place by Mr. Maynard. Since then it has been +found to be a regular fall and winter visitant along the Atlantic coast, +passing at least as far south as New Jersey. It is a mystery how the +creature could so long have escaped detection. One cannot help querying +whether there can be another case like it. Who knows? Science, even in +its flourishing modern estate, falls a trifle short of omniscience. + +My comrade and I separated for a little, losing sight of each other +among the sand-hills, and when we came together again he reported that +he had seen the sparrow. He had happened upon it unobserved, and had +been favored with excellent opportunities for scrutinizing it carefully +through a glass at short range; and being familiar with its appearance +through a study of cabinet specimens, he had no doubt whatever of its +identity. This was within five minutes of our arrival, and naturally we +anticipated no difficulty in finding others; but for two or three hours +we followed the chase in vain. Twice, to be sure, a sparrow of some sort +flew up in front of us, but in both cases it got away without our +obtaining so much as a peep at it. Up and down the beach we went, +exploring the basins and sliding down the smooth, steep hills. Every +step was interesting, but it began to look as if I must go home without +seeing _Ammodramus princeps_. But patience was destined to have its +reward, and just as we were traversing the upper part of the beach for +the last time, I caught a glimpse of a bird skulking in the grass before +us. He had seen us first, and was already on the move, ducking behind +the scattered tufts of beach-grass, crouching and running by turns; but +we got satisfactory observations, nevertheless, and he proved to be, +like the other, an Ipswich sparrow. He did not rise, but finally made +off through the grass without uttering a sound. Then we examined his +footprints, and found them to be, so far as could be made out, the same +as we had been noticing all about among the hills. + +Meanwhile, our perambulations had not been in vain. Flocks of snow +buntings were seen here and there, and we spent a long time in watching +a trio of horned larks. These were feeding amid some stranded rubbish, +and apparently felt not the slightest suspicion of the two men who stood +fifteen or twenty feet off, eying their motions. It was too bad they +could not hear our complimentary remarks about their costumes, so +tastefully trimmed with black and yellow. Our loudest exclamations, +however, were called forth by a dense flock of sea-gulls at the distant +end of the beach. How many hundreds there were I should not dare to +guess, but when they rose in a body their white wings really filled the +air, and with the bright sunlight upon them they made, for a landsman, a +spectacle to be remembered. + +Altogether it was a high day for two enthusiasts, though no doubt it +would have looked foolish enough to ordinary mortals, our spending +several dollars of money and a whole day of time,--in November, at +that,--all for the sake of ogling a few birds, not one of which we even +attempted to shoot. But what then? Tastes will differ; and as for +enthusiasm, it is worth more than money and learning put together (so I +believe, at least, without having experimented with the other two) as a +producer of happiness. For my own part, I mean to be enthusiastic as +long as possible, foreseeing only too well that high spirits cannot last +forever. + +The sand-hills themselves would have repaid all our trouble. Years ago +this land just back of the beach was covered with forest, while at one +end of it was a flourishing farm. Then when man, with his customary +foolishness, cut off the forest, Nature revenged herself by burying his +farm. We did not verify the fact, but according to the published +accounts of the matter it used to be possible to walk over the grave of +an old orchard, and pick here and there an apple from some topmost +branch still jutting out through the sand. + +Among the dunes we found abundance of a little red, heath-like plant, +still in full blossom. Neither of us recognized it, but it turned out to +be jointweed (_Polygonum articulatum_), and made a famous addition to my +November flower catalogue. + +In connection with all this I ought, perhaps, to say a word about our +Ipswich driver, especially as naturalists are sometimes reprehended for +taking so much interest in all other creatures, and so little in their +fellow-men. As we drew near the beach, which is some five miles from the +town, we began to find the roads quite under water, with the sea still +rising. We remarked the fact, the more as we were to return on foot, +whereupon the man said that the tide was uncommonly high on account of +the heavy rain of the day before! A little afterward, when we came in +sight of a flock of gulls, he gravely informed us that they were "some +kind of ducks"! He had lived by the seashore all his life, I suppose, +and of course felt entirely competent to instruct two innocent cockneys +such as he had in his wagon. + +Four days after this I made a trip to Nahant. If _Ammodramus princeps_ +was at Ipswich, why should it not be at other similar places? True +enough, I found the birds feeding beside the road that runs along the +beach. I chased them about for an hour or two in a cold high wind, and +stared at them till I was satisfied. They fed much of the time upon the +golden-rods, alighted freely upon the fence-posts (which is what some +writers would lead us never to expect), and often made use of the +regular family _tseep_. Two of them kept persistently together, as if +they were mated. One staggered me by showing a blotch in the middle of +the breast, a mark that none of the published descriptions mention, but +which I have since found exemplified in one of the skins at the Museum +of Comparative Zoölogy, in Cambridge. + +"A day is happily spent that shows me any bird I never saw alive +before." So says Dr. Coues, and he would be a poor ornithologist who +could not echo the sentiment. The Ipswich sparrow was the third such +bird that I had seen during the year without going out of New England, +the other two being the Tennessee warbler and the Philadelphia vireo. + +Of the remainder of my November list there is not much to be said. +Robins were very scarce after the first week. My last glimpse of them +was on the 20th, when I saw two. Tree sparrows, snowbirds, chickadees, +kinglets, crows, and jays were oftenest met with, while the shrike, +myrtle warbler, purple finch, and song sparrow were represented by one +individual each. My song sparrow was not seen till the 28th, after I had +given him up. He did not sing (of course he scolded; the song sparrow +can always do that), but the mere sight of him was enough to suggest +thoughts of springtime, especially as he happened to be in the +neighborhood of some Pickering hylas, which were then in full cry for +the only time during the month. Near the end of the month many wild +geese flew over the town, but, thanks to a rebellious tooth (how happy +are the birds in this respect!), I was shut indoors, and knew the fact +only by hearsay. I did, however, see a small flock on the 30th of +October, an exceptionally early date. As it chanced, I was walking at +the time with one of my neighbors, a man more than forty years old, and +he assured me that he had never seen such a thing before. + +For music, I one day heard a goldfinch warbling a few strains, and on +the 21st a chickadee repeated his clear phoebe whistle two or three +times. The chickadees are always musical,--there is no need to say that; +but I heard them _sing_ only on this one morning. + +Altogether, with the cloudless, mild days, the birds, the tree-frogs, +the butterflies, and the flowers, November did not seem the bleak and +cheerless season it has commonly been painted. Still it was not exactly +like summer. On the last day I saw some very small boys skating on the +Cambridge marshes, and the next morning December showed its hand +promptly, sending the mercury down to within two or three degrees of +zero. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND WINTER. + + While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons, I trust that + nothing can make life a burden to me.--THOREAU. + + +Those who will have us all to be studying the Sacred Books of the East, +and other such literature, are given to laying it down as an axiom that +whoever knows only one religion knows none at all,--an assertion, I am +bound to acknowledge, that commends itself to my reason, notwithstanding +the somewhat serious inferences fairly deducible from it touching the +nature and worth of certain convictions of my own, which I have been +wont to look upon as religious. I cannot profess ever to have pried into +the mysteries of any faith except Christianity. So, of course, I do not +understand even that. And the people about me, so far as I can discover, +are all in the same predicament. Yet I would fain believe that we are +not exactly heathen. Some of my neighbors (none too many of them, I +confess) are charitable and devout. They must be pleasing to their +Creator, I say to myself, unless He is hard to please. Sometimes I go so +far as to think that possibly a man may be religious without _knowing_ +even his own religion. Let us hope so. Otherwise, we of the laity are +assuredly undone. + +And what is true of creeds and churches is true likewise of countries +and climates. We grow wise by comparison of one thing with another, not +by direct and exclusive contemplation of one thing by itself. Human +knowledge is relative, not absolute, and the inveterate stayer at home +is but a poor judge of his own birthplace. + +All this I have in lively remembrance as I sit down to record some +impressions of our New England winter. With what propriety do I +discourse upon winter in Massachusetts, having never passed one anywhere +else? Had I spent a portion of my life where roses bloom the year round, +then, to be sure, I might assume to say something to the purpose about +snow and ice. + +But if the "tillers of paper" wrote only of such topics as they +possessed full and accurate acquaintance with, how would the Scripture +be fulfilled? "Of making many books" there surely would be an end, and +that speedily. I venture to think, moreover, that a man may never have +set foot beyond the boundaries of his native city, and yet prove a +reasonably competent guide to its streets and by-ways. His information +is circumscribed, but such as it is, it is precise and to the point. +Though he assure you soberly that the principal thoroughfare of his +tenth-rate town is more magnificent than any in New York or London, you +may none the less depend upon him to pilot you safely out of its most +intricate and bewildering corner. Indeed, he might fairly claim +membership in what is, at present, one of the most flourishing of +intellectual guilds: I mean the sect of the specialists; whose creed is +that one may know something without knowing everything, and who choose +for their motto: Remain ignorant in order that you may learn. + +In this half-developed world there is nothing so perfect as to be past a +liability to drawbacks and exceptions. The best of beef is poisonous to +some eaters, and strawberries are an abomination to others; and in like +manner there is no climate, nor any single feature of any climate, but +by some constitutions it will be found unendurable. The earth is to be +populated throughout, so it would appear; and to that end sundry +necessary precautions have been taken against human inertia. A certain +proportion of boys must be born with a propensity for wandering and +adventure; and the most favored spot must not contain within itself all +conceivable advantages. If everybody could stand the rigors of New +England weather, what would become of the rest of the continent? + +Unless I misjudge myself, I should soon tire of perpetual summer. Like +the ungrateful Israelites with the manna, my soul would loathe such +light bread. To my provincial mind, as I believe, nothing else could +ever quite take the place of a rotation of the seasons. There should be +rain and shine, cold and heat. A change from good weather to bad, and +back again, is on the whole better than unbroken good weather. Dullness +to set off brightness, night to give relief to the day, such is the wise +order of nature; and I do not account it altogether a token of +depravity that honest people, who love a paradox without knowing it, +find perfection, of no matter how innocent a sort, just a little +wearisome. Therefore, I say, let me have a year made up of well-defined +contrasts; in short, a New England year, of four clearly marked seasons. + +It is often alleged, I know, that we really have only three seasons; +that winter leaps into the lap of summer, and spring is nothing but a +myth of the almanac makers. I shall credit this story when I am +convinced of the truth of another statement, equally current and equally +well vouched, that every successive summer is the hottest (or the +coldest) for the last twenty-five years. As there is no subject so much +talked about as the weather, so, almost of course, there is none so much +lied about. Winter claims most of March, as the astronomers give it +leave to do, I believe; but April and May, despite a snow-storm or two +in the former, and a torrid week in the latter, are neither summer nor +winter, but spring; somewhat fickle, it is true, more or less uncertain +of itself, but still retaining its personal identity. + +As for our actual winter, it may enhance its value in our eyes if we +take into account that the three other seasons all depend upon it for +their peculiar charms. In the case of spring this dependence is palpable +to every one. Berate as we may its backwardness and deceit, muffle +ourselves never so pettishly against its harsh breath, yea, even deny it +all claim to its own proper title, yet anon it gets the better of our +discontent, and we thank our stars that we have lived to see again the +greening of the grass, and to hear once more the song of a bird. A mild +day in March is like a foretaste of heaven; the first robin seems an +angel; while saxifrage, anemones, and dandelions win kindly notice from +many a matter-of-fact countryman who lets all the June roses go by him +unregarded. It is pleasures of this kind, natural, wholesome, and +universal, that largely make up the total of human happiness. Our +instinct for them only strengthens with age. They are like the "divine +ideas" of Olympian bards,-- + + "Which always find us young, + And always keep us so." + +All this glory of the revival would be wanting but for the previous +months of desolation. The hepatica is not more beautiful than many +another flower, but it takes us when we are hungry for the sight of a +blossom. What can we do? When it peeps out of its bed of withered +leaves, puts off its furs, and opens to the sunlight its little purple +cup, we have no choice but to love it as we cannot love the handsomer +and more fragrant hosts that follow in its train. + +And as winter over and gone sets in brighter relief the warmth and +resurrection of springtime, so does the shadow of its approach lend a +real if somewhat indefinable attractiveness to the fall months. The +blooming of the late flowers, the ripening of leaf and fruit, the frosty +air, the flocking of birds, all the thousand signs of the autumnal +season take on a kind of pathetic and solemn interest, as being but +prelusive to the whiteness and deadness so soon to cover the earth. +Indeed, if there were no winter, there could be neither spring nor +autumn; nay, nor any summer. Leave out the snow and ice, and the whole +round year would be metamorphosed; or, rather, the year itself would +pass away, and nothing be left but time. + +I am not yet a convert to the pessimistic doctrine that "all pleasure is +merely relief from pain;" but I gladly believe that pain has its use in +heightening subsequent happiness, and that one man's evil qualities +(mine, for example) may partly atone for themselves by setting off the +amiable characteristics of worthier men around him. It consoles me to +feel that my neighbors seem better to themselves and to each other +because of the abrupt antithesis between their dispositions and mine. It +is better than nothing, if my failure can serve as a background for +their virtuous success. With reverent thankfulness do I acknowledge the +gracious and far-reaching frugality which, by one means and another, +saves even my foolishness and imperfection from running altogether to +waste. + +Viewed in this light, as an offset or foil for the remainder of the +year, we may say that the worse the winter is, the better it is. Within +reasonable limits, it can hardly be too long or too rigorous. And just +here, as it appears to me, our New England climate shows most admirably. +Without being unendurably hot or insufferably cold, it does offer us an +abundant contrast. An opposition of one hundred and twenty-five degrees +between January and July ought to be enough, one would say, to impress +even the dullest imagination. + +But winter has its positively favorable side, and is not to be passed +off with merely negative compliments; as if it were like a toothache or +a tiresome sermon,--something of which the only good word to be said is, +that it cannot last forever. It is not to be charged as a defect upon +cold weather that some people find it to disagree with them. We might as +well chide the hill for putting a sick man out of breath. It is with +persons as with plants: some are hardy, others not. The date-palm cannot +be made to grow in Massachusetts; but is Massachusetts to blame for the +palm-tree's incapacity? All things of which the specific office is to +promote strength (exercise, food, climate) presuppose a degree of +strength sufficient for their use. So it is with cold weather. Its +proper effect is to brace and invigorate the system; but there must be +vigor to start with. The law is universal: "To him that hath shall be +given." + +Enough, then, of apologies and negative considerations. There was never +a good Yankee, of moderately robust health, and under fifty years of +age, that did not welcome cold weather as a friend. Ask the school-boys, +especially such as live in country places, whether summer or winter +brings the greater pleasure. Two to one they will vote for winter. Or +look back over your own childhood, and see whether the sports of +winter-time do not seem, in the retrospect, to have been the very crown +of the year. How vivid my own recollections are! Other seasons had their +own distinctive felicities; the year was full of delights; but we +watched for the first snow-fall and the first ice as eagerly as I now +see elderly and sickly people watching for the first symptoms of summer. +As well as I can remember, winter was never too long nor too cold, +whatever may have been true of a single day now and then, when the old +school-house, with its one small stove, and its eight or ten large +windows, ought, in all reason, to have been condemned as uninhabitable. +But the frolics out-of-doors! It makes the blood tingle even now to +think of them. How brief the days were! How cruel the authority that +kept us in the house after dark, while so many of our mates were still +"sliding down hill" (we knew nothing of "coasting" where I was born), or +skating in the meadow! Childhood in the sunny South must be a very tame +affair, New England youngsters being judges. + +Trifles of this kind, if any be moved to call them such, are not to be +sneered out of court. Fifteen years form no small part of a human life, +and whatever helps us to grow up happy contributes in no slight degree +to keep us happy to the end. "When I became a man I put away childish +things"? Yes, it may be; but the very things that I boast of outgrowing +have made me what I am. In truth, when it comes to such a question as +this, I confess to putting more faith in the verdict of healthy children +than in the unanimous theories and groans of whole congresses of +valetudinarians. I am not yet so old nor so feeble but I gaze with +something of my youthful enthusiasm upon the first snow. It quickens my +pulse to see the ponds frozen over, although my skates long since went +out of commission; and I still find comfort in a tramp of five or six +miles, with the path none too good, and the mercury half-way between the +freezing point and zero. I like the buffeting of the north wind, and am +not indisposed once in a while to wrestle with the frost for the +possession of my own ears. Well as I love to loiter, I rejoice also in +weather which makes loitering impossible; which puts new springs into a +man's legs, and sets him spinning over the course whether he will or no. +It will be otherwise with me by and by, I suppose, seeing how my +venerable fellow-citizens are affected, but for the present nothing +renews my physical youth more surely than a low temperature; a fact +which I welcome as evidence that I am not yet going down-hill, however +closely I may be nearing the summit. + +Winter does us the honor to assume that we are not weaklings. Summer may +coddle and flatter, but cold weather is no sentimentalist. Its kindest +and tenderest mood has something of a stoical severity about it. It lays +its finger without mercy on our most vulnerable and sensitive spots. +But withal, as I have said, if we really possess any reserved strength, +it knows how to bring it out and make the most of it. What a fullness of +vitality do we suddenly develop as we come into close quarters with this +well-intentioned but rough and ready antagonist! In fine, winter is one +of those rare and invaluable friends of whom Emerson speaks, who enable +us to do what we can. To its good offices it is largely attributable, no +doubt, that in the long run the inhabitants of temperate regions have +always been too powerful for their rivals within the tropics. Frigidity +is like poverty, a blessing to those who can bear it. + +Winter in New England is not a time for gathering flowers out-of-doors, +though, taking the years together, there is no month of the twelve +wherein one may not pick a few blossoms even in Massachusetts; but if it +effaces one set of pictures, it paints for us another; and a wise and +liberal taste will reckon itself a debtor to both. To say nothing of the +half-dozen mornings on which every tree and bush is arrayed in all the +splendor of diamonds, or the other half-dozen when they bow themselves +under masses of new-fallen snow,--making no account of such exceptional +pageants, which, indeed, are often so destructive as to lose much of +their glory in the eyes of provident spectators,--I, for my own part, +find a beauty in the very commonest of winter landscapes. Let the ground +be altogether white, or altogether brown, or let it be covered so thinly +that the grass-blades show dark above the snow; in any case, white or +brown, or white _and_ brown, to me it is all beautiful; beautiful in +itself, and also by contrast with the greenness before and after; while, +as for the trees, I like them so well in their state of undress that I +question sometimes whether their leafy garments do not conceal more +loveliness than they confer. We are grateful, of course, to pines and +spruces; but what if all trees were evergreen? A questionable +improvement, surely. No; suggestive and solemn as the falling of the +leaves must ever be to us who read our own destiny in the annual +parable, it would be sadder still if there were no such alternation, no +diversity, but only one monotonous year on year of changeless verdure. + +Winter beauty, such as I have been hinting at, is not far to seek, +whether by townsman or rustic. Bostonians have only to cross the +Mill-Dam,--a rather too fashionable promenade, it is true, but even here +one may be tolerably certain of elbow-room on a January morning. Often +have I taken this road to health and happiness, waxing enthusiastic as I +have proceeded, admiring the snow-bound scene with a fervor which the +most opulent of summer landscapes seldom excites; and, pushing on with +increasing exhilaration, have brought up at last on Corey Hill, where +the inquisitive north-wind has very likely abbreviated my stay, but has +never yet spoiled my rapture at the wonderful white world underneath. + +Economy has its pleasures, it is said, for all healthily constituted +minds. We like, all of us, to make much out of little; to do a notable +piece of work with ordinary tools; to treat a meagre and commonplace +theme in such a manner that whoever begins to read has no alternative +but to finish; to tempt an epicure with the daintiest of repasts out of +the simplest and fewest of every-day materials; to paint a picture +which has nothing in it, but compels the eye; in a word, to demonstrate +to others, and not less to ourselves, that the secret of success lies in +the man and not in the stuff. It is good, once in a while, to take +advantage of a disadvantage to show what we can do. + +On the same principle we are glad to find ourselves, if only not too +often, in unpropitious circumstances. Otherwise how should we ever make +proof of our philosophy? It heightens my confidence in the goodness at +the heart of things to see how, as if by instinct, men of sound natures +inevitably right the scale in seasons of loss and scarcity. If half the +fortune disappears, the other half straightway doubles in value. Faith +easily puts aside calculation, and proves, off-hand, that a part is +equal to the whole. + +Thus it is with me as a lover of out-door life, and especially as a +field student of ornithology. At no time of the year does the fellowship +of the birds afford me keener enjoyment than in the dead of winter. In +June one may see them everywhere, and hear them at all hours; a few more +or a few less are nothing to make account of; but in January the sight +of a single brown creeper is sufficient to brighten the day, and the +twittering of half a dozen goldfinches is like the music of angels. + +As a certain outspoken philosopher would not visit some of his relatives +because he disliked to be alone, so do I in my jaunts avoid the highway +whenever it is possible, even in midwinter. What so lonesome as the +presence of people with whom we must not speak, or, worse yet, with whom +we must speak, but only about the weather and like exciting topics! As I +have intimated, however, it is usually the public street or nothing with +me during the cold season. All the more grateful am I, therefore, to +those familiar winter birds, some of whom are sure to bid me good +morning out of the hedges and shade-trees as I go past. Not unlikely a +shrike sits motionless and dumb upon a telegraph wire, or in contrary +mood whistles and chirrups industriously from some tree-top. _He_ is no +angel, that is plain enough; but none the less I am glad to meet him. If +he fails of being lovable, he is at least a study. It is wonderful how +abruptly his whim changes; how disconnected his behavior seems; how +quickly and unexpectedly he can pass from the most perfect quiescence +into a fit of most intense activity. I came upon such a fellow the other +day in crossing the Common, who, just as I espied him, swooped upon a +bunch of sparrows in an elm. He missed his aim, and in half a minute +made a second attempt upon a similar group in another tree. This time he +singled out one of the flock, and took chase after it; but the terrified +creature ducked and turned, and finally got away, whereupon the shrike +betook himself to a perch, and fell to making all manner of +noises,--squeaks, whistles, twitters, and what not,--hopping about +nervously meanwhile. The passers-by all stopped to look at the show +(perhaps because they saw me staring upward), till finally a laborer +yielded to the school-boy instinct and let fly a stone. The scamp was +not greatly frightened by this demonstration, and merely flew to the tip +of one of the tall cotton-woods, where he immediately resumed his vocal +practice. + +It ought to be helpful to a man's independence of spirit to fall in +once in a while with such a self-reliant and nonchalant brother. For +one, I wish I were better able to profit by his example. He seems made +for hard times and short rations. Doubtless it is a delusion of the +fancy, but he and winter are so connected in my thought that I can +hardly conceive of him as knowing what summer means, or as caring to +know. + +To a person of my tastes it is one of winter's capital recommendations +that it brings its own birds with it, thus affording sundry +ornithological pleasures which otherwise one would be compelled to go +without. The tree-sparrows, for instance, are very good cold-weather +acquaintances of mine. There is nothing peculiarly taking about their +dress or demeanor; but they are steady-going, good-humored, diligent +people, whose presence you may always depend upon. I lately witnessed a +very pretty trick of theirs. It was in the marsh just over the fence +from Beacon Street, where a company of the birds, a dozen perhaps, were +breakfasting off the seeds of evening primrose. Less skillful acrobats +than their neighbors and frequent traveling companions, the red-poll +linnets, it is not easy for them to feed while hanging upon the pods. +So, taking the weeds one by one, they alighted at the very tip, and then +with various twitchings and stampings shook the stalk as violently as +possible, after which they dropped quickly upon the snow to gather up +the results of their labors. As I say, it was an extremely pretty +performance, and by itself would have rewarded me for my morning tramp, +putting me in mind, as it did, of happy hours long since past, when I +climbed into the tops of nut-trees on business of the same sort. One of +the principal uses of friendship, human or other, is this of keeping the +heart young. + +I hope I am not lacking in a wholesome disrespect for sentimentality and +affectation; for artificial ecstasies over sunsets and landscapes, birds +and flowers; the fashionable cant of nature-worship, which is enough +almost to seal a true worshiper's lips under a vow of everlasting +silence. But such repugnances belong to the library and the parlor, and +are left behind when a man goes abroad, either by himself or in any +other really good company. For my own part the first lisp of a +chickadee out of a wayside thicket disperses with a breath all such +unhappy and unhallowed recollections. Here is a voice sincere, and the +response is instantaneous and irresistible. + +It would be a breach of good manners, an inexcusable ingratitude, to +write never so briefly of the New England winter without noting this, +the most engaging and characteristic enlivener of our winter woods; who +revels in snow and ice, and is never lacking in abundant measures of +faith and cheerfulness, enough not only for himself, but for any chance +wayfarer of our own kind. He is every whit as independent as the shrike, +but in how opposite a manner!--with a self-reliance that is never +self-sufficiency, and bravery that offers no suspicion of bravado. Happy +in himself, he is at the same time of a most companionable spirit. +Perfect little philosopher! What a paradise New England would be if all +her inhabitants were like him! + +In such a winter climate as ours it is emphatically true that we "know +not what shall be on the morrow." The season is not straitened in its +resources, and caters to all tastes in a way which some may look upon +as fickleness, but which I prefer to regard as catholicity. Its days are +of many types, and it spreads them out before us like a patient +shopkeeper,--as if it recognized in the Yankee a customer hard to suit. +I do not mean to affirm that the weather and I are never at odds; but +all in all, in the long run and theoretically, I approve its methods. +What a humdrum round life would be if nothing ever happened but the +expected! I wonder if there are beings anywhere who have forgotten how +it feels to be surprised. The children of this world, at all events, +were not intended for any such condition of fixity. When there is no +longer anything new _under_ the sun, it will be time to get above it. + +Even in so simple and regular a proceeding as a morning walk, one wishes +always to see something new, or failing of that, something old in a new +light; an easy enough task, if one has eyes. For as we cannot drink +twice of the same river, so we cannot twice take the same ramble. I went +over the same course yesterday and to-day; but yesterday's landscape and +sky were different from to-day's. I saw different birds, and had +different thoughts; and after all, the principal part of a walk is what +goes on in the mind. Still, the activities of the intellect are greatly +under the influence of external surroundings, a fact which makes largely +in favor of a varied year like that we have been praising. The +experience of it tends to widen and diversify the thinking of men. In a +smaller degree it answers the same end as travel. For aught I know, it +may possibly have its little share in the onerous task of liberalizing +systems of theology. Who shall say that our New England climate, with +its frequent and extreme contrasts,--what I have called its habit of +catholicity,--may not have had more or less to do with that diffusion of +free thought which has made the home of the Pilgrims the birthplace of +heresies without number? The suggestion is fanciful, perhaps. Let it +pass. Such profundities do not come within my province. Only I must +believe that, even in the matter of weather, it is good for us to be +educated out of bigotry into a large-minded toleration. Hence it is, in +part, that I give my suffrage for our Massachusetts winter, which not +only widens the scope of the year, but contains within itself a variety +wellnigh endless. + +I have kept my subject out-of-doors. It is well always to have at least +one point of originality. Let it be mine, in the present instance, that +I have said nothing about the pleasures of the fireside, about long +evenings and drawn curtains. If I were in winter's place, I should not +greatly care to hear people tell how comfortable they could make +themselves by jealously shutting me out. Their speech might be eloquent, +and their language eulogistic; but somehow I should not feel that they +were praising _me_. + + + + +A MOUNTAIN-SIDE RAMBLE. + + I will go lose myself.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +There are two sayings of Scripture which to my mind seem peculiarly +appropriate for pleasant Sundays,--"Behold the fowls of the air," and +"Consider the lilies." The first is a morning text, as anybody may see, +while the second is more conveniently practiced upon later in the day, +when the dew is off the grass. With certain of the more esoteric +doctrines of the Bible (the duty of turning the other cheek, for +example, or of selling all that one has and giving to the poor) we may +sometimes be troubled what to do,--unless, like the world in general, we +turn them over to Count Tolstoï and his followers; but such precepts as +I have quoted nobody is likely ever to quarrel with, least of all any +"natural man." For myself, I find them always a comfort, no matter what +my mood or condition, while their observance becomes doubly agreeable +when I am away from home; the thought of beholding a strange species of +fowl, or of considering a new sort of lily, proving even more attractive +than the prospect of listening to a new minister, or, what is somewhat +less probable, of hearing a new sermon. + +Thus it was with me, not long ago, when I found myself suddenly left +alone at a small hotel in the Franconia Valley. The day was lowery, as +days in the mountains are apt to be; but when duty goes along with +inclination, a possible sprinkling is no very serious hindrance. +Besides, a fortnight of "catching weather" had brought me into a state +of something like philosophical indifference. I must be reckoned either +with the just or with the unjust,--so I had come to reason,--and of +course must expect now and then to be rained on. Accordingly, after +dinner I tucked my faithful umbrella under my arm, and started up the +Notch road. + +I had in view a quiet, meditative ramble, in harmony with the spirit of +the day, and could think of nothing more to the purpose than a visit to +a pair of deserted farms, out in the woods on the mountain-side. The +lonesome fields and the crumbling houses would touch my imagination, and +perhaps chasten my spirit. Thither would I go, and "consider the +lilies." I am never much of a literalist,--except when a strict +construction favors the argument,--and in the present instance it did +not strike me as at all essential that I should find any specimens of +the genus _Lilium_. One of the humbler representatives of the great and +noble family of the _Liliaceæ_--the pretty clintonia, now a little out +of season, or even the Indian cucumber-root--would come fairly within +the spirit of the text; while, if worst came to worst, there would +certainly be no scarcity of grass, itself nothing but a kind of +degenerate lily, if some recent theories may be trusted. + +I followed the highway for a mile or two, and then took a wood-road (a +"cart-path" I should call it, if I dared to speak in my own tongue +wherein I was born) running into the forest on the left. This brought me +before long to a "pair of bars," over which I clambered into a grassy +field, the first of the two ancient clearings I had come out to see. The +scanty acres must have been wrested from the encompassing forest at no +small cost of patience and hard labor; and after all, they had proved +not to pay for their tillage. A waste of energy, as things now looked; +but who is to judge of such matters? It is not given to every man to see +the work of his hands established. A good many of us, I suspect, might +be thankful to know that anything we have ever done would be found +worthy of mention fifty years hence, though the mention were only by way +of pointing a moral. + +The old barn was long ago blown down, and as I mounted the fence a +woodchuck went scampering out of sight among the timbers. The place was +not entirely uninhabited, as it seemed, in spite of appearances: and as +I turned toward the house, the door of which stood uninvitingly open, +there sat a second woodchuck in the doorway, facing me, intent and +motionless, full of wonderment, no doubt, at the unspeakable +impertinence of such an intrusion. I was glad to see _him_, at any rate, +and made haste to tell him so; greeting him in the rather unceremonious +language wherewith the now famous titmouse is said to have addressed +our foremost American gentleman and philosopher:-- + + "Good day, good sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places." + +But the churlish fellow had no notion of doing the honors, and by the +time I had advanced two or three paces he whisked about and vanished +inside the door. "Well done!" I thought. "Great is evolution. Woodchucks +used to be cave-dwellers, but they are getting to live above ground, +like the rest of us. So does history repeat itself. Who knows how soon +they may be putting up cottages on their own account?" Perhaps I gave +the creature more credit than really belonged to him. I followed him +into the house, but he was nowhere to be seen, and it is not unlikely +that he lived in a cave, after all. Nearly half the flooring had rotted +away, and there was nothing to hinder his getting into the cellar. He +may have taken the old farmhouse as a convenient portico for his burrow, +a sort of storm-porch, as it were. In his eyes this may be the final end +and aim, the teleological purpose, of all such board-and-shingle +edifices. Mr. Ruskin seems to hold that a house falls short of its +highest usefulness until it has become a ruin; and who knows but +woodchucks may be of the same opinion? + +This particular house was in two parts, one of them considerably more +ancient than the other. This older portion it was, of which the floor +had so badly (or so well) fallen into decay; while the ceiling, as if in +a spirit of emulation, had settled till it described almost a semicircle +of convexity. To look at it, one felt as if the law of gravity were +actually being imposed upon. + +It must have marked an epoch in the history of the household, this +doubling of its quarters. Things were looking well with the man. His +crops were good, his family increasing; his wife had begun to find the +house uncomfortably small; they could afford to enlarge it. Hence this +addition, this "new part," as no doubt they were in the habit of calling +it, with pardonable satisfaction. It was more substantially built than +the original dwelling, and possessed, what I dare say its mistress had +set her heart upon, one plastered room. The "new part"! How ironical +the words sounded, as I repeated them to myself! If things would only +stay new, or if it were men's houses only that grew old! + +The people who lived here had little occasion to hang their walls with +pictures. When they wanted something to look at, they had but to go to +the window and gaze upon the upper slopes of Mount Lafayette and Mount +Cannon, rising in beauty beyond the intervening forest. But every New +England woman must have a bit of flower garden, no matter what her +surroundings; and even here I was glad to notice, just in front of the +door, a clump of cinnamon rose-bushes, all uncared for, of course, but +flourishing as in a kind of immortal youth (this old-fashioned rose must +be one of Time's favorites), and just now bright with blossoms. For +sentiment's sake I plucked one, thinking of the hands that did the same +years ago, and ere this, in all likelihood, were under the sod; +thinking, too, of other hands, long, long vanished, and of a white +rose-bush that used to stand beside another door. + +On both sides of the house were apple-trees, a few of them still in +good trim, but the greater number decrepit after years of buffeting by +mountain storms. A phoebe sat quietly on the ridge-pole, and a chipper +was singing from the orchard. What knew they of time, or of time's +mutations? The house might grow old,--the house and the trees; but if +the same misfortune ever befalls phoebes and sparrows, we are, +fortunately, none the wiser. To human eyes they are always young and +fresh, like the buttercups that bespangled the grass before me, or like +the sun that shone brightly upon the tranquil scene. + +Turning away from the house and the grassy field about it, I got over a +stone wall into a pasture fast growing up to wood: spruces, white pines, +red pines, paper birches, and larches, with a profusion of meadow-sweet +sprinkled everywhere among them. A nervous flicker started at my +approach, stopped for an instant to reconnoitre, and then made off in +haste. A hermit thrush was singing, and the bird that is called the +"preacher"--who takes no summer vacation, but holds forth in "God's +first temple" for the seven days of every week--was delivering his +homily with all earnestness. He _must_ preach, it seemed, whether men +would hear or forbear. He had already announced his text, but I could +not certainly make out what it was. "Here we have no continuing city," +perhaps; or it might have been, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, +all is vanity." It should have been one of these, or so I thought; but, +as all church-goers must have observed, the connection between text and +sermon is sometimes more or less recondite, and once in a while, like +the doctrine of the sermon itself, requires to be taken on faith. In the +present instance, indeed, as no doubt in many others, the pew was quite +as likely to be at fault as the pulpit. The red-eye's eloquence was +never very persuasive to my ear. Its short sentences, its tiresome +upward inflections, its everlasting repetitiousness, and its sharp, +querulous tone long since became to me an old story; and I have always +thought that whoever dubbed this vireo the "preacher" could have had no +very exalted opinion of the clergy. + +I stayed not to listen, therefore, but kept on through the wood, while a +purple finch pitched a tune on one side of the path (he appeared to +feel no compunctions about interrupting the red-eye's exhortation), and +a squirrel sprung his rattle on the other; and presently I came to the +second farm: a large clearing, bounded by the forest on all hands, but +after these many years still yielding a very respectable hay-crop (so +does the good that men do live after them), and with a house and barn +still standing at the lower end. I reached the house just in time to +escape a shower, making an enforced obeisance as I entered. It was but +the ghost of a dwelling,--the door off its hinges, and no glass in the +four small windows; but it had a substantial quality about it, +notwithstanding, as a not very tall man was liable at any moment to be +reminded should he carry himself a trifle too proudly under the big +unhewn timbers. It is better to stoop than to bump your head, they +seemed to be saying. Hither came no tourists but the rabbits; and they, +it was plain, were not so much tourists as permanent residents. As I +looked at the blank walls and door-posts, after a fortnight's experience +among the mountains, I felt grateful at the sight of boards on which +Brown of Boston and Smith of Smithfield had not yet inscribed their +illustrious names. I had left the city in search of rest and seclusion. +For the time, in the presence of Nature herself, I would gladly have +forgotten the very existence of my all-too-famous countrymen; and I +rejoiced accordingly to have found one lonely spot to which their +restless feet had not yet penetrated. Tall grass grew untrodden quite up +to the door-sill; raspberry vines thrust their arms in at the pane-less +windows; there was neither paint nor plastering; and the tiny cupboard +was so bare that it set my irreverent fancy to quoting Mother Goose in +the midst of my most serious moralizings. + +The owner of this farm, like his neighbor, had planted an apple orchard, +and his wife a patch of cinnamon roses; and, not to treat one better +than another, I picked a rose here also. There is no lover of flowers +but likes to have his garden noticed, and the good housewife would have +been pleased, I knew, could she have seen me looking carefully for her +handsomest and sweetest bud. + +By this time the shower was over, and a song-sparrow was giving thanks. +I might never have another opportunity to follow up an old forest path, +of which I had heard vague reports as leading from this point to the +railway. "It starts from the upper corner of the farm," my informant had +said. To the upper corner I went, therefore, through the rank, wet +grass. But I found no sign of what I was looking for, and with some +heartfelt but unreportable soliloquizings, to the effect that a +countryman's directions, like dreams, are always to be read backwards, I +started straight down toward the lower corner, saying to myself that I +ought to have had the wit to take that course in the beginning. Sure +enough, the path was there, badly overgrown with bushes and young trees, +but still traceable. A few rods, and I came to the brook. The bridge was +mostly gone, as I had been forewarned it probably would be, but a single +big log answered a foot passenger's requirements. Once across the +bridge, however, I could discover no sign of a trail. But what of that? +The sun was shining; I had only to keep it at my back, and I was sure +to bring up at the railroad. So I set out, and for a while traveled on +bravely. Then I began to bethink myself that I was not going up-hill +quite so fast as it seemed I ought to be doing. Was I really approaching +the railway, after all? Or had I started in a wrong direction (being in +the woods at the time), and was I heading along the mountain-side in +such a course that I might walk all night, and all the while be only +plunging deeper and deeper into the forest? The suggestion was not +pleasurable. If I could only see the mountain! But the thick foliage put +that out of the question. + +After a short debate with myself I concluded to be prudent, and make my +way back to the brook while I still had the sun to guide me; for I now +called to mind the showeriness of the day, and the strong likelihood +that the sky might at any moment be overcast. Even as things were, there +was no assurance that I might not strike the brook at some distance from +the bridge, and so at some distance from the trail, with no means of +determining whether it was above or below me. I began my retreat, and +pretty soon, luckily or unluckily,--I am not yet certain which,--in +some unaccountable manner my feet found themselves again in the path. + +Now, then, I would carry out my original intention, and I turned +straight about. For a while the path held clear. Then it was blocked by +a big tree that had toppled into it lengthwise. I must go round the +obstruction, and pick up the trail at the other end. But the trail would +not be picked up. It had faded out or run into the ground. Finally, when +I was just on the point of owning myself beaten, my eyes all at once +fell upon it, running along before me. A second experience of the same +kind set me thinking how long it would take to go a mile or two at this +rate (it was already half past four o'clock), even if I did not in the +end lose my way altogether. But I kept on till I was stopped, not by a +single windfall, but by a tangle of half a dozen. This time I hunted for +a continuation of the path on the further side till I was out of +patience, and then determined to be done with the foolish business, and +go back by the way I had come. A very sensible resolve, but when I came +to put it into execution it turned out to be too late. The path was +lost entirely. I must fall back upon the sun; and if the truth is to be +told, I commenced feeling slightly uncomfortable. The bushes were wet; +my clothing was drenched; I had neither compass nor matches; it +certainly would be anything but agreeable to spend the night in the +forest. + +Happily there was, for the present, no great danger of matters coming to +such a pass. If the sun would only shine for half an hour longer I could +reach the brook (I could probably reach it without the sun), and even if +I missed the bridge I could follow the stream out of the woods before +dark. I was not frightened, but I was beginning to tremble lest I should +be. The loss of the path was in itself little to worry about. But what +if I should lose my wits also, as many a man had done in circumstances +no worse, and with consequences most disastrous? Unpleasant stories came +into my head, and I remember repeating to myself more than once (candor +is better than felicity of phrase), "Be careful, now; don't get +rattled!" Then, having thus pulled myself together, as an Englishman +would say, I faced the sun and began "stepping westward," though with no +thought of Wordsworth's poem. A spectator might have suspected that if I +was not "rattled," I was at least not far from it. "Now who is this," he +might have queried, + + "whose sore task + Does not divide the Sunday from the week?" + +Meanwhile I was, of course, on the lookout for any signs of the missing +path, and after a time I descried in the distance, on one side, what +looked like a patch of bushes growing in the midst of the forest. I made +for it, and, as I expected, found myself once more on the trail. This +time I held it, reached the bridge, crossed it, and, still keeping up my +pace, was presently out in the sunshine of the old farm, startling a +brood of young partridges on the way. Happy birds! _They_ were never +afraid of passing a night in the woods. A most absurd notion! But man, +as he is the strongest of all animals, so is he also the weakest and +most defenseless. + +This last reflection is an afterthought, I freely acknowledge. At the +moment I was taken up with the peacefulness of the pastoral scene into +which I had so happily emerged, and was in no mood to envy anybody. How +bright and cheerful the ragworts and buttercups looked, and what sweet +and homelike music the robin made, singing from one of the apple-trees! +The cool north wind wafted the spicy odor of the cinnamon roses to my +nostrils; but--alas for the prosaic fact!--the same cool wind struck +through my saturated garments, bidding me move on. The pessimistic +preacher was right when he said, "Truly the light is sweet, and a +pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." I wonder whether +he was ever bewildered in a dark wood. From boyhood I have loved the +forest, with its silence, its shadows, and its deep isolation, but for +the present I had had my fill of such mercies. + +As I came out upon the highway, it occurred to me what Emerson says of +Thoreau,--that "he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, +and therefore never willingly walked in the road." My own taste, I was +obliged to admit, was somewhat less fastidious. Indeed, my boots, +soaked through and through as they were, made very grateful music +striking along the gravel. And after supper, while walking back and +forth upon the piazza, in all the luxury of slippers and a winter +overcoat, I turned more than once from the glories of the sunset to gaze +upon the black slope of Lafayette, thinking within myself how much less +comfortable I should be up yonder in the depths of the forest, so dark +and wet, without company, without fire, without overcoat, and without +supper. After all, mere animal comfort is not to be despised. Let us be +thankful, I said, for the good things of life, of no matter what grade; +yes, though they be only a change of clothing and a summer hotel. + +It was laughable how my quiet ramble had turned out. My friend, the +red-eyed vireo, may or may not have stuck to his text; but if he had +seen me in the midst of my retreat, dashing through the bushes and +clambering over the fallen trees, he certainly never would have guessed +mine. "Consider the lilies," indeed! He was more likely to think of a +familiar Old Testament scripture: "The wicked flee when no man +pursueth." + + + + +A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION. + + So waved the pine-tree through my thought. + EMERSON. + + +In outward, every-day affairs, in what we foolishly call real life, man +is a stickler for regularity, a devout believer in the maxim, "Order is +heaven's first law." He sets his house at right angles with the street; +lays out his grounds in the straightest of straight lines, or in the +most undeviating of curves; selects his shade-trees for their trim, +geometrical habit; and, all in all, carries himself as if precision and +conformity were the height of virtue. Yet this same man, when he comes +to deal with pictorial representations, makes up his judgment according +to quite another standard; finding nothing picturesque in tidy gardens +and shaven lawns, discarding without hesitation every well-rounded, +symmetrical tree, delighting in disorder and disproportion, loving a +ruin better than the best appointed palace, and a tumble-down wall +better than the costliest and stanchest of new-laid masonry. It is hard +to know what to think of an inconsistency like this. Why should taste +and principle be thus opposed to each other, as if the same man were +half Philistine, half Bohemian? Can this strong æsthetic preference for +imperfection be based upon some permanent, universal law, or is it only +a passing whim, the fashion of an hour? + +Whatever we may say of such a problem,--and where one knows nothing, it +is perhaps wisest to say nothing,--we may surely count it an occasion +for thankfulness that a thing so common as imperfection should have at +least its favorable side. Music would soon become tame, if not +intolerable, without here and there a discord; and who knows how stupid +life itself might prove without some slight admixture of evil? From my +study-windows I can see sundry of the newest and most commodious +mansions in town; but I more often look, not at them, but at a certain +dilapidated old house, blackening for want of paint, and fast falling +into decay, but with one big elm before the door. I have no hankerings +to live in it; as a dwelling-place, I should no doubt prefer one of the +more modern establishments; but for an object to look at, give me the +shanty. + +Human nature is nothing if not paradoxical. In its eyes everything is +both good and bad; and for my own part, I sometimes wonder whether this +may not be the sum of all wisdom,--to find everything good in its place, +and everything bad out of its place. + +Thoughts like these suggest themselves as I look at the pitch-pine, +which, to speak only of such trees as grow within the range of my own +observation, is the one irregular member of the family of cone-bearers. +The white or Weymouth pine, the hemlock, the cedars, the spruces, the +fir, and the larch, these are all, in different ways, of a decidedly +symmetrical turn. Each of them has its own definite plan, and builds +itself up in fastidious conformity therewith, except as untoward outward +conditions may now and then force an individual into some abnormal +peculiarity. And all of them, it need not be said, have the defect of +this quality. They are not without charm, not even the black spruce, +while the Weymouth pine and the hemlock are often of surpassing +magnificence and beauty; but a punctilious adherence to rule must of +necessity be attended with a corresponding absence of freedom and +variety. The pitch-pine, on the other hand, if it works upon any set +scheme, as no doubt it does, has the grace to keep it out of sight. Its +gift is genius rather than talent. It has an air, as genius always has, +of achieving its results without effort or premeditation. Its method is +that of spontaneity; its style, that of the picturesque-homely, so dear +to the artistic temperament. Its whole make-up is consistent with this +germinal or controlling idea. Angular in outline, rough and ragged in +its bole, with its needles stiff and its cones hard and sharp, it makes +no attempt at gracefulness, yet by virtue of its very waywardness it +becomes, as if in spite of itself, more attractive than any of its +relatives. + +The Puritans of New England are mostly dead; the last of their spiritual +descendants, we may fear, will soon be dead likewise; but as long as +_Pinus rigida_ covers the sandy knolls of Massachusetts, the sturdy, +uncompromising, independent, economical, indefatigable, all-enduring +spirit of Puritanism will be worthily represented in this its sometime +thriving-place. + +For the pitch-pine's noblest qualities are, after all, not artistic, but +moral. Such unalterable contentment, such hardiness and persistency, are +enough to put the stoutest of us to shame. Once give it root, and no +sterility of soil can discourage it. Everything else may succumb, but +it--it and the gray birch--will make shift to live. Like the resin that +exudes from it, having once taken hold, it has no thought of letting go. +It is never "planted by the rivers of water," but all the same its leaf +does not wither. No summer so hot and dry, no winter so cold and wet, +but it keeps its perennial green. What cannot be done in one year may, +perchance, be accomplished in three or four. It spends several seasons +in ripening its fruit. Think of an apple-tree thus patient! + +The pitch-pine is beautiful to look at, and "profitable for doctrine, +for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," but it +would be a shame not to add that it is also most excellent to smell of. +If I am to judge, scarcely any odor wears better than this of growing +turpentine. There is something unmistakably clean and wholesome about +it. The very first whiff savors of salubrity. "The belief in the good +effects of pine forests in cases of phthisis is quite unanimous" (so I +read the other day in a scientific journal), "and the clinical evidence +in favor of their beneficial influence is unquestioned." Who can tell +whether our New England climate, with all its consumptive provocations, +might not be found absolutely unendurable but for the amelioration +furnished by this generously diffused terebinthine prophylactic? + +When all is said, however, nothing else about the pitch-pine ever +affects me so deeply as its behavior after man has done his worst upon +it. It would appear to have some vague sense of immortality, some +gropings after a resurrection. The tree was felled in the autumn, and +the trunk cut up ignominiously into cord-wood; but in the spring the +prostrate logs begin to put forth scattered tufts of bright green +leaves,--life still working under the ribs of death,--while the stump, +whether "through the scent of water" I cannot say, is perhaps sending up +fresh shoots,--a piece of _post-mortem_ hopefulness the like of which no +white pine, for all its seemingly greater vitality, was ever known to +exhibit. But leaves and shoots alike come to nothing. If a pitch-pine +die, it shall not live again. The wood's blind impulses, if not false in +themselves, were at least falsely interpreted. Alas! alas! who has not +found it so? What seemed like the prophetic stirrings of a new life were +only the last flickerings of a lamp that was going out. + + + + +ESOTERIC PERIPATETICISM. + + I walk about; not to and from.--CHARLES LAMB. + + +Taking a walk is something different from traveling afoot. The latter I +may do when on my way to the cars or the shop; but my neighbor, seeing +me at such times, never says to himself, "Mr. ---- is taking a walk." He +knows I cannot be doing that, so long as I am walking for the sake of +getting somewhere. Even the common people understand that utilitarianism +has nothing to do with the true peripatetic philosophy. + +The disciples of this philosophy, the noble fraternity of saunterers, +among whom I modestly enroll myself, are not greatly concerned with any +kind of merely physical activity. They believe that everything has both +a lower and a higher use; and that in the order of evolution the lower +precedes the higher. Time was when walking--going erect on one's hind +limbs--was a rare accomplishment, sufficient of itself to confer +distinction. Little by little this accomplishment became general, and +for this long time now it has been universal; yet even to the present +day it is not quite natural; else why does every human infant still +creep on all-fours till it is taught otherwise? But of all who practise +the art, only here and there a single individual has divined its loftier +use and significance. The rest are still in the materialistic +stage--pedestrians simply. In their view walking is only a convenience, +or perhaps I should say an inconvenience; a cheap device for getting +from one place to another. They resort to it for business, or, it may +be, for health. Of strolling as a means of happiness they have scarcely +so much as heard. They belong to the great and fashionable sect of the +wise and prudent; and from all such the true peripatetic philosophy is +forever hidden. We who are in the secret would gladly publish it if we +could; but by its very nature the doctrine is esoteric. + +Whoso would be initiated into its mysteries must first of all learn how +not to be in a hurry. Life is short, it is true, and time is precious; +but a day is worth nothing of itself. It is like money,--good only for +what it will buy. One must not play the miser, even with time. "There is +that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Who does +not know men so penurious of minutes, so everlastingly preoccupied, that +they seldom spend an hour to any good purpose,--confirming the paradox +of Jesus, "He that loveth his life shall lose it"? And between a certain +two sisters, was not the verdict given in favor of the one who (if we +take the other's word for it) was little better than an idler? The +saunterer has laid to heart this lesson. On principle, he devotes a part +of his time to what his virtuous townsmen call doing nothing. "What +profit hath a man of all his labor?" A pertinent inquiry; but I am not +aware that the author of it ever suggested any similar doubt as to the +net results of well-directed idleness. A laborious, painstaking spirit +is commendable in its place; it would go hard with the world to get on +without it; but the fact remains that some of the very best things of +this life--things unseen and (therefore) eternal--are never to be come +at industriously. It is useless to chase them. We can only put +ourselves in their way, and be still. The secret is as old as mysticism +itself: if the vision tarry, wait for it. + +Walking, then, as adepts use the word, is not so much a physical as a +spiritual exercise. And if any be disposed to look askance at this form +of expression, as if there were possibly a suggestion of profanity about +it, they will please bethink themselves of an ancient sacred book (to +which, according to some friendly critics, I am strangely fond of +referring), wherein is narrated the history of a man who went out into +the fields at eventide to meditate. _He_ could never have misunderstood +our speech, nor dreamed of its needing justification. And your true +saunterers of the present day, no matter what their creed, are of +Isaac's kin,--devout and imaginative souls, who may now and then be +forced to cry with the Psalmist, "O that I had wings!" but who, in all +ordinary circumstances, are able to _walk_ away and be at rest. Like the +patriarch, they have accustomed their feet to serve them as ministers of +grace. + +It must be a bad day indeed when, on retreating to the woods or the +fields, we find it impossible to leave the wearisome world--yes, and our +more wearisome selves, also--behind us. As a rule, this result is not +the better attained by quickening the gait. We may allow for exceptions, +of course, cases in which a counter-excitement may peradventure be of +use; but most often it is better to seek quietness of heart at a quiet +pace; to steal away from our persecutors, rather than to invite pursuit +by too evident a purpose of escape. The lazy motion is of itself a kind +of spiritual sedative. As we proceed, gazing idly at the sky, or with +our attention caught by some wayside flower or passing bird, the mind +grows placid, and, like smooth water, receives into itself the image of +heaven. What a benediction of repose falls upon us sometimes from an old +tree, as we pass under it! So self-poised it seems; so alive, and yet so +still! It was planted here before we were born. It will be green and +flourishing long after we are dead. In it we may behold a perfect +illustration of the dignity and peace of a life undeviatingly obedient +to law,--the law of its own being; never in haste, never at a loss, but +in every fibre doing, day by day, its appropriate work. Sunshine and +rain, heat and cold, calm and storm,--all minister to its necessities. +It has only to stand in its place and grow; happy in spring-time, with +its buds and leaves; happy in autumn, with its fruit; happy, too, in +winter,--repining not when forced to wait through months of bareness and +dearth for the touch of returning warmth. Enviable tree! As we +contemplate it, we feel ourselves rebuked, and, at the same time, +comforted. We, also, will be still, and let the life that is in us work +itself out to the appointed end. + +The seeing eye is a gift so unusual that whoever accustoms himself to +watch what passes around him in the natural world is sure to be often +entertained by the remarks, complimentary and otherwise, which such an +idiosyncrasy calls forth. Some of his neighbors pity him as a +ne'er-do-well, while others devoutly attribute to him a sort of +superhuman faculty. If only _they_ had such eyes! But, alas! they go +into the woods, and they see nothing. Meanwhile the object of their envy +knows well enough that his own vision is but rudimentary. He catches a +glimpse now and then,--nothing more. Like his neighbors, he, too, prays +for sight. Sooner or later, however, he discovers that it is a blessing +to be able on occasion to leave one's scientific senses at home. For +here, again, surprising as it may seem, it is necessary to be on our +guard against a superserviceable activity. There are times when we go +out-of-doors, not after information, but in quest of a mood. Then we +must not be over-observant. Nature is coy; she appreciates the +difference between an inquisitor and a lover. The curious have their +reward, no doubt, but her best gifts are reserved for suitors of a more +sympathetic turn. And unless it be here and there some creature +altogether devoid of poetic sensibility, some "fingering slave,"-- + + "One who would peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,"-- + +unless it be such a person as this, too poor to be conscious of his own +poverty, there can be no enthusiastic student of natural history but has +found out for himself the truth and importance of the paradoxical +caution now suggested. One may become so zealous a botanist as almost to +cease to be a man. The shifting panorama of the heavens and the earth no +longer appeals to him. He is now a specialist, and go where he will, he +sees nothing but specimens. Or he may give himself up to ornithology, +till eye and ear grow so abnormally sensitive that not a bird can move +or twitter but he is instantly aware of it. He _must_ attend, whether he +will or no. So long as this servitude lasts, it is idle to go afield in +pursuit of joys "high and aloof," such as formerly awaited him in +lonesome places. Better betake himself to city streets or a darkened +room. For myself, I thankfully bear testimony that when I have been thus +under the tyranny of my own senses I have found no more certain means of +temporary deliverance than to walk in the early evening. Indeed, I have +been ready, many a time, to exclaim with Wordsworth,-- + + "Hail, Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour!" + +Then the eye has no temptation to busy itself with petty details; "day's +mutable distinctions" are removed from sight, and the mind is left +undistracted to rise, if it can, into communion with the spirit of the +scene. + +After all, it is next to nothing we are able to tell of the pleasures of +such fellowship. We cannot define them to ourselves,--though they are +"felt in the blood and felt along the heart,"--much less to another. +Least of all need we attempt to explain them to any Philistine; the +walls of whose house are likely enough hung with "chromos," but who +stares at you for a fool or a sentimentalist (which comes, perhaps, to +nearly the same thing), when he catches you standing still before one of +Nature's pictures. How shall one blest with a feeling for the woods put +into language the delight he experiences in sauntering along their shady +aisles? He enjoys the stillness, the sense of seclusion, the flicker of +sunlight and shadow, the rustle of leaves, the insect's hum, the passing +of the chance butterfly, the chirp of the bird, or its full-voiced song, +the tracery of lichens on rock and tree, the tuft of ferns, the carpet +of moss, the brightness of blossom and fruit,--all the numberless sights +and sounds of the forest; but it is not any of these, nor all of them +together, that make the glory of the place. It is the wood--and this is +something more than the sum of all its parts--which lays hold upon him, +taking him, as it were, out of the world and out of himself. Let +practical people sneer, and the industrious frown; we who retain our +relish for these natural and innocent felicities may well enough be +indifferent to neighborly comments. Whatever worldlings may think, the +hour is not wasted that brings with it tranquillity of mind and an +uplifting of the heart. We seem to be going nowhere and looking for +nothing? Yes; but one may be glad to visit the Land of Beulah, though he +have no special errand thither. Who ever saw a child but was fond of an +idle hour in the woods? And for my part, while, I have with me the +children (and the dogs and the poets) I count myself in excellent +company; for the time, at least, I can do without what is vulgarly +esteemed good society. A man to whom a holiday affords no pleasure is +already as good as dead; nothing will save him but to be born again. We +have heard of convicts so wonted to prison cells that they could feel +at home nowhere else; and we have known men of business whose feet, when +they stopped going the regular humdrum round, knew no other course to +take but to steer straight for the grave. It behooves us to heed the +warning of such examples, and now and then to be idle betimes, lest the +capacity for idleness be extirpated by disuse. + +The practice of sauntering may especially be recommended as a corrective +of the modern vice of continual reading. For too many of us it has come +to be well-nigh impossible to sit down by ourselves without turning +round instinctively in search of a book or a newspaper. The habit +indicates a vacancy of mind, a morbid intellectual restlessness, and may +not inaptly be compared with that incessant delirious activity which +those who are familiar with death-bed scenes know so well as a symptom +of approaching dissolution. Possibly the two cases are not in all +respects analogous. Books are an inestimable boon; let me never be +without the best of them, both old and new. Still, one would fain have +an occasional thought of one's own, even though, as the common saying +is, it be nothing to speak of. Meditation is an old-fashioned exercise; +the very word is coming to have an almost archaic sound; but neither the +word nor the thing will altogether pass into forgetfulness so long as +the race of saunterers--the spiritual descendants of Isaac--continue to +inherit the earth. + +There is little danger that the lives of any of us will be too solitary +or lived at too leisurely a rate. The world grows busier and busier. +Those whose passion for Nature is strongest and most deep-seated are +driven to withhold from her all but the odds and ends of the day. We +rebel sometimes; the yoke grows unendurable; come what may, we will be +quit of it; but the existing order of things proves too strong for us, +and anon we settle back into the old bondage. And perhaps it is better +so. Even the most simple and natural delights are best appreciated when +rarely and briefly enjoyed. So I persuade myself that, all in all, it is +good for me to have only one or two hours a day for the woods. Human +nature is weak; who knows but I might grow lazy, were I my own master? +At least, "the fine point of seldom pleasure" would be blunted. + +The ideal plan would include two walks: one in the morning for +observation, with every sense alert; the other toward night, for a mood +of "wise passiveness," wherein Nature should be left free to have her +own way with the heart and the imagination. Then the laureate's prayer +might be fulfilled:-- + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more, + But more of reverence in us dwell; + That mind and soul, according well, + May make one music, as before." + +But this strict division of time is too often out of the question, and +we must contrive, as best we can, to unite the two errands,--study and +reverie: using our eyes and ears, but not abusing them; and, on the +other hand, giving free play to fancy and imagination, without +permitting ourselves to degenerate into impotent dreamers. Every walker +ought to be a faithful student of at least one branch of natural +history, not omitting Latin names and the very latest discoveries and +theories. But, withal, let him make sure that his acquaintance with +out-of-door life is sympathetic, and not merely curious or scientific. +All honor to the new science and its votaries; we run small risk of too +much learning; but it should be kept in mind that the itch for finding +out secrets is to be accounted noble or ignoble, according as the spirit +that prompts the research is liberal or petty. Curiosity and love of the +truth are not yet identical, however it may flatter our self-esteem to +ignore the distinction. One may spend one's days and nights in nothing +else but in hearing or telling some new thing, and after all be no +better than a gossip. It would prove a sorry exchange for such of us as +have entered, in any degree, into the feeling of Wordsworth's lines,-- + + "To me, the meanest flower that blows can give + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"-- + +and I believe the capacity for such moods to be less uncommon than many +suppose,--it would be a sorry bargain, I say, for us to lose this +sensitiveness to the charm of living beauty, though meanwhile we were to +grow wiser than all the moderns touching the morphology and histology of +every blossom under the sun. + + "Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail against her beauty?" + +Not we, certainly; but we will be bold to add, with Tennyson himself,-- + + "Let her know her place; + She is the second, not the first." + +In treating a theme of this kind, it is hard not to violate Nature's own +method, and fall into a strain of exhortation. Our intercourse with her +is so good and wholesome, such an inexhaustible and ever-ready resource +against the world's trouble and unrest, that we would gladly have +everybody to share it. We say, over and over, with Emerson,-- + + "If I could put my woods in song, + And tell what's there enjoyed, + All men would to my gardens throng, + And leave the cities void." + +But this may not be. At best, words can only hint at sensations; and the +hint can be taken only by as many as are predestined to hear it. As I +have said, the doctrine is esoteric. How are those who have never felt +the like to understand the satisfaction with which I recall a certain +five or ten minutes of a cool morning in May, a year or more ago? I was +drawing towards home, after a jaunt of an hour or two, when I came +suddenly into a sheltered and sunny nook, where a bed of the early +saxifrage was already in full bloom, while a most exquisite little +bee-fly of a beautiful shade of warm brown was hovering over it, +draining the tiny, gold-lined chalices, one by one, with its long +proboscis, which looked precisely like the bill of a humming-bird. An +ordinary picture enough, as far as words go,--only a little sunshine, a +patch of inconspicuous and common flowers, and a small Bombylian without +even the distinction of bright colors. True; but my spirit drank a +nectar sweeter than any the insect was sipping. And though, as a rule, +an experience of this sort were perhaps better left unspoken,-- + + "A thought of private recollection, sweet and still," + +yet the mention of it can do no harm, while it illustrates what I take +to be one of the principal advantages of the saunterer's condition. His +treasures are never far to seek. His delight is in Nature herself, +rather than in any of her more unusual manifestations. He is not of that +large and increasingly fashionable class who fancy themselves lovers of +Nature, while in fact they are merely admirers, more or less sincere, of +fine scenery. Not that anything is too beautiful for our rambler's +appreciation: he has an eye for the best that earth and heaven can +offer; he knows the exhilaration of far-reaching prospects; but he is +not dependent upon such extraordinary favors of Providence. He has no +occasion to run hither and thither in search of new and strange sights. +The old familiar pastures; the bushy lane, in which his feet have +loitered year after year, ever since they began to go alone; an +unfrequented road; a wooded slope, or a mossy glen; the brook of his +boyish memories; if need be, nothing but a clump of trees or a grassy +meadow,--these are enough for his pleasure. Fortunate man! Who should be +happy, if not he? Out of his own doorway he steps at will into the +Elysian fields. + + + + +BUTTERFLY PSYCHOLOGY. + + Gay creatures of the element, + That in the colors of the rainbow live.--MILTON. + + Speak to me as to thy thinkings.--SHAKESPEARE. + + +It happened to me once to spend a long summer afternoon under a +linden-tree, reading "Middlemarch." The branches were loaded with +blossoms, and the heavy perfume attracted the bees from far and near, +insomuch that my ears were all the time full of their humming. +Butterflies also came, though in smaller numbers, and silently. Whenever +I looked up from my book I was sure to find at least one or two +fluttering overhead. They were mostly of three of our larger sorts,--the +Turnus, the Troilus, and the Archippus (what noble names!), beautifully +contrasted in color. The Turnus specimens were evidently the remnant of +a brood which had nearly passed away; their tattered wings showed that +they had been exposed to the wear and tear of a long life, as +butterflies reckon. Some of them were painful to look at, and I +remember one in particular, so maimed and helpless that, with a sudden +impulse of compassion, I rose and stepped upon it. It seemed an act of +mercy to send the wretched cripple after its kindred. As I looked at +these loiterers, with their frayed and faded wings,--some of them half +gone,--I found myself, almost before I knew it, thinking of Dorothea +Brooke, of whose lofty ideals, bitter disappointments, and partial joys +I was reviewing the story. After all, was there really any wide +difference between the two lives? One was longer, the other shorter; but +only as one dewdrop outlasts another on the grass. + + "A moment's halt, a momentary taste + Of Being from the well amid the waste, + And lo! the phantom caravan has reach'd + The Nothing it set out from." + +Then I fell to musing, as I had often done before, upon the mystery of +an insect's life and mind. + +This tiger swallow-tail, that I had just trodden into the ground,--what +could have been its impressions of this curious world whereinto it had +been ushered so unceremoniously, and in which its day had been so +transient? A month ago, a little more or a little less, it had emerged +from its silken shroud, dried its splendid party-colored wings in the +sun, and forthwith had gone sailing away, over the pasture and through +the wood, in quest of something, it could hardly have known what. Nobody +had welcomed it. When it came, the last of its ancestors were already +among the ancients. Without father or mother, without infancy or +childhood, it was born full-grown, and set out, once for all, upon an +independent adult existence. What such a state of uninitiated, +uninstructed being may be like let those imagine who can. + +It was born adult, I say; but at the same time, it was freer from care +than the most favored of human children. No one ever gave it a lesson or +set it a task. It was never restrained nor reproved; neither its own +conscience nor any outward authority ever imposed the lightest check +upon its desires. It had nobody's pleasure to think of but its own; for +as it was born too late to know father or mother, so also it died too +soon to see its own offspring. It made no plans, needed no estate, was +subject to no ambition. Summer was here when it came forth, and summer +was still here when it passed away. It was born, it lived upon honey, it +loved, and it died. Happy and brief biography! + +Happy and brief; but what a multitude of questions are suggested by it! +Did the creature know anything of its preëxistence, either in the +chrysalis or earlier? If so, did it look back upon that far-away time as +upon a golden age? Or was it really as careless as it seemed, neither +brooding over the past nor dreaming of the future? Was it aware of its +own beauty, seeing itself some day reflected in the pool as it came to +the edge to drink? Did it recognize smaller butterflies--the white and +the yellow, and even the diminutive "copper"--as poor relations; +felicitating itself, meanwhile, upon its own superior size, its +brilliant orange-red eye-spots, and its gorgeous tails? Did it mourn +over its faded broken wings as age came on, or when an unexpected gust +drove it sharply against a thorn? Or was it enabled to take every +mischance and change in a philosophical spirit, perceiving all such +evils to have their due and necessary place in the order of Nature? Was +it frightened when the first night settled down upon it,--the horrible +black darkness, that seemed to be making a sudden end of all things? As +it saw a caterpillar here and there, did it ever suspect any +relationship between the hairy crawling thing and itself; or would it +have been mortally offended with any profane lepidopteran Darwin who +should have hinted at such a possibility? + +The Antiopa butterfly, according to some authorities a near relative of +the tiger swallow-tail, has long been especially attractive to me +because of its habit of passing the winter in a state of hibernation, +and then reappearing upon the wing before the very earliest of the +spring flowers. A year ago, Easter fell upon the first day of April. I +spent the morning out-of-doors, hoping to discover some first faint +tokens of a resurrection. Nor was I disappointed. In a sunny stretch of +the lonely road, I came suddenly upon five of these large +"mourning-cloaks," all of them spread flat upon the wet gravel, sucking +up the moisture while the sun warmed their wings. What sight more +appropriate for Easter! I thought. These were some who had been dead, +and behold, they were alive again. + +Then, as before under the linden-tree, I fell to wondering. What were +they thinking about, these creatures so lately born a second time? Did +they remember their last year's existence? And what could they possibly +make of this brown and desolate world, so unlike the lingering autumnal +glories in the midst of which, five or six months before, they had +"fallen asleep"? Perhaps they had been dreaming. In any event, they +could have no idea of the ice and snow, the storms and the frightful +cold, through which they had passed. It was marvelous how such frail +atoms had withstood such exposure; yet here they were, as good as new, +and so happily endowed that they had no need to wait for blossoms, but +could draw fresh life from the very mire of the street. + +This last trait, so curiously out of character, as it seems to us, +suggests one further inquiry: Have butterflies an æsthetic faculty? They +appreciate each other's adornments, of course. Otherwise, what becomes +of the accepted doctrine of sexual selection? And if they appreciate +each other's beauty, what is to hinder our believing that they enjoy +also the bright colors and dainty shapes of the flowers on which they +feed? As I came out upon the veranda of a summer hotel, two or three +friends exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. ----, you should have been here a few +minutes ago; you would have seen something quite in your line. A +butterfly was fluttering over the lawn, and noticing what it took for a +dandelion, it was just settling down upon it, when lo, the dandelion +moved, and proved to be a goldfinch!" Evidently the insect had an eye +for color, and was altogether like one of us in its capacity for being +deceived. + +To butterflies, as to angels, all things are pure. They extract honey +from the vilest of materials. But their tastes and propensities are in +some respects the very opposite of angelic; being, in fact, thoroughly +human. All observers must have been struck with their quite Hibernian +fondness for a shindy. Two of the same kind seldom come within hail of +each other without a little set-to, just for sociability's sake, as it +were; and I have seen a dozen or more gathered thickly about a precious +bit of moist earth, all crowding and pushing for place in a manner not +to be outdone by the most patriotic of office-seekers. + +It is my private heresy, perhaps, this strong anthropomorphic turn of +mind, which impels me to assume the presence of a soul in all animals, +even in these airy nothings; and, having assumed its existence, to +speculate as to what goes on within it. I know perfectly well that such +questions as I have been raising are not to be answered. They are not +meant to be answered. But I please myself with asking them, +nevertheless, having little sympathy with those precise intellectual +economists who count it a waste to let the fancy play with insoluble +mysteries. Why is fancy winged, I should like to know, if it is never to +disport itself in fields out of which the clumsy, heavy-footed +understanding is debarred? + + + + +BASHFUL DRUMMERS. + + He goes but to see a noise that he heard. + SHAKESPEARE. + + +At the back of my father's house were woods, to my childish imagination +a boundless wilderness. Little by little I ventured into them, and among +my earliest recollections of their sombre and lonesome depths was a +long, thunderous, far-away drumming noise, beginning slowly and +increasing in speed till the blows became almost continuous. This, +somebody told me, was the drumming of the partridge. Now and then, in +open spaces in the path, I came upon shallow circular depressions where +the bird had been dusting, an operation in which I had often seen our +barnyard fowls complacently engaged. At other times I was startled by +the sudden whir of the bird's wings as he sprang up at my feet, and went +dashing away through the underbrush. I heard with open-mouthed wonder of +men who had been known to shoot a bird thus flying! All in all, the +partridge made a great impression upon my boyish mind. + +By and by some older companion initiated me into the mystery of setting +snares. My attempts were primitive enough, no doubt; but they answered +their purpose, taking me into the woods morning and night, in all kinds +of weather, and affording me no end of pleasurable excitement. Once in a +great while the noose would be displaced (the "slip-noose," we called +it, with unsuspected pleonasm), and the barberries gone. At last, after +numberless disappointments, I actually found a bird in the snare. The +poor captive was still alive, and, as I came up, was making frantic +efforts to escape; but I managed to secure him, in spite of my trembling +fingers, and then, though the deed looked horribly like murder, I killed +him (I would rather not mention how), and carried him home in triumph. + +Many years passed, and I became in my own way an ornithologist. One by +one I scraped acquaintance with all the common birds of our woods and +fields; but the drumming of the partridge (or of the ruffled grouse, as +I now learned to call him) remained a mystery. I read Emerson's +description of the "forest-seer:"-- + + "He saw the partridge drum in the woods; + He heard the woodcock's evening hymn; + He found the tawny thrushes' broods; + And the shy hawk did wait for him;" + +and I thought: "Well, now, I have seen and heard the woodcock at his +vespers; I have found the nest of the tawny thrush; the shy hawk has sat +still on the branch just over my head; but I have _not_ seen the +partridge drum in the woods. Why shouldn't I do that, also?" I made +numerous attempts. A bird often drummed in a small wood where I was in +the habit of rambling before breakfast. The sound came always from a +particular quarter, and probably from a certain stone wall, running over +a slight rise of ground near a swamp. The crafty fellow evidently did +not mean to be surprised; but I made a careful reconnoissance, and +finally hit upon what seemed a feasible point of approach. A rather +large boulder offered a little cover, and, after several failures, I one +day spied the bird on the wall. He had drummed only a few minutes +before; but his lookout was most likely sharper than mine. At all +events, he dropped off the wall on the further side, and for that time I +saw nothing more of him. Nor was I more successful the next time, nor +the next. Be as noiseless as I could, the wary creature inevitably took +the alarm. To make matters worse, mornings were short and birds were +many. One day there were rare visiting warblers to be looked after; +another day the gray-cheeked thrushes had dropped in upon us on their +way northward, and, if possible, I must hear them sing. Then the pretty +blue golden-winged warbler was building her nest, and by some means or +other I must find it. + +Thus season after season slipped by. Then, in another place, I +accidentally passed quite round a drummer. I heard him on the right, and +after traveling only a few rods, I heard him on the left. He must be +very near me, and not far from the crest of a low hill, over which, as +in the former instance, a stone wall ran. He drummed at long intervals, +and meanwhile I was straining my eyes and advancing at a snail's pace +up the slope. Happily, the ground was carpeted with pine needles, and +comparatively free from brush and dead twigs, those snapping nuisances +that so often bring all our patience and ingenuity to nought. A section +of the wall came into sight, but I got no glimpse of the bird. Presently +I went down upon all fours; then lower yet, crawling instead of +creeping, till I could look over the brow of the hill. Here I waited, +and had begun to fear that I was once more to have my labor for my +pains, when all at once I saw the grouse step from one stone to another. +"Now for it!" I said to myself. But the drumming did not follow, and +anon I lost sight of the drummer. Again I waited, and finally the fellow +jumped suddenly upon a top stone, lifted his wings, and commenced the +familiar roll-call. I could see his wings beating against his sides with +quicker and quicker strokes; but an unlucky bush was between us, and +hoping to better my position, I moved a little to one side. Upon this, +the bird became aware of my presence, I think. At least I could see him +staring straight at me, and a moment later he dropped behind the wall; +and though I remained motionless till a cramp took me, I heard nothing +more. "If it had not been for that miserable bush!" I muttered. But I +need not have quarreled with an innocent bush, as if it, any more than +myself, had been given a choice where it should grow. A wiser man would +have called to mind the old saw, and made the most of "half a loaf." + +Another year passed, and another spring came round. Then, on the same +hillside, a bird (probably the same individual) was drumming one April +morning, and, as my note-book has it, "I came within one" of taking him +in the act. I miscalculated his position, however, which, as it turned +out, was not upon the wall, but on a boulder surrounded by a few small +pine-trees. The rock proved to be well littered, and clearly was the +bird's regular resort. "Very good," said I, "I will catch you yet." + +Five days later I returned to the charge, and was rewarded by seeing the +fellow drum once; but, as before, intervening brush obscured my view. I +crept forward, inch by inch, till the top of the boulder came into +sight, and waited, and waited, and waited. At last I pushed on, and lo, +the place was deserted. There is a familiar Scripture text that might +have been written on purpose for ornithologists: "Let patience have her +perfect work." + +This was April 14th. On the 19th I made the experiment again. The +drummer was at it as I drew near, and fortune favored me at last. I +witnessed the performance three times over. Even now, to be sure, the +prospect was not entirely clear, but it was better than ever before, and +by this time I had learned to be thankful for small mercies. The grouse +kept his place between the acts, moving his head a little one way and +another, but apparently doing nothing else. + +Of course I had in mind the disputed question as to the method by which +the drumming noise is produced. It had seemed to me that whoever would +settle this point must do it by attending carefully to the first slow +beats. This I now attempted, and after one trial was ready, off-hand, to +accept a theory which heretofore I had scouted; namely, that the bird +makes the sound by striking his wings together over his back. He +brought them up, even for the first two or three times, with a quick +convulsive movement, and I could almost have made oath that I heard the +beat before the wings fell. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I waited +till he drummed again; and now I was by no means so positive in my +conviction. If an observer wishes to be absolutely sure of a thing,--I +have learned this by long experience,--let him look at it once, and +forever after shut his eyes! On the whole, I return to my previous +opinion, that the sound is made by the downward stroke, though whether +against the body or against the air, I will not presume to say. + +A man who is a far better ornithologist than I, and who has witnessed +this performance under altogether more favorable conditions than I was +ever afforded, assures me that his performer _sat down_! My bird took no +such ridiculous position. So much, at least, I am sure of. + +When he had drummed three times, my partridge quit his boulder (I was +near enough to hear him strike the dry leaves), and after a little +walked suddenly into plain sight. We discovered each other at the same +instant. I kept motionless, my field-glass up. He made sundry nervous +movements, especially of his ruff, and then silently stalked away. + +I could not blame him for his lack of neighborliness. If I had been shot +at and hunted with dogs as many times as he probably had been, I too +might have become a little shy of strangers. To my thinking, indeed, the +grouse is one of our most estimable citizens. A liking for the buds of +fruit-trees is his only fault (not many of my townsmen have a smaller +number, I fancy), and that is one easily overlooked, especially by a man +who owns no orchard. Every sportsman tries to shoot him, and every +winter does its worst to freeze or starve him; but he continues to +flourish. Others may migrate to sunnier climes, or seek safety in the +backwoods, but not so the partridge. He was born here, and here he means +to stay. What else could be expected of a bird whose notion of a lover's +serenade is the beating of a drum? + + + + + OUT-DOOR BOOKS, + + Both Prose and Poetical. + + +=Agassiz, Alexander and Elizabeth C.= Seaside Studies in Natural History. +Illustrated. 8vo, $3.00. + +=Agassiz, Prof. Louis.= Methods of Study in Natural History. With +Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. First Series. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gilt +top, $1.50. + +Geological Sketches. Second Series. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50. + +=Bailey, Prof. L. H., Jr.= Talks Afield, about Plants and the Science of +Plants. With 100 Illustrations. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Bamford, Mary E.= Up and Down the Brooks. In Riverside Library for Young +People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents. + +=Barrows, Samuel J. and Isabel C.= The Shaybacks in Camp. Ten Summers +under Canvas. With Map of Lake Memphremagog. 16mo, $1.00. + +=Burroughs, John.= Works. Each volume, 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. + + Wake Robin. New Edition, revised. Illustrated. + + The Same. _Riverside Aldine Edition._ 16mo, $1.00. + + Winter Sunshine. New Edition, revised. + + Birds and Poets, with other Papers. + + Locusts and Wild Honey. + + Pepacton, and other Sketches. + + Fresh Fields. + + Signs and Seasons. + +Birds and Bees. Essays by JOHN BURROUGHS. With introduction by MARY E. +BURT. In Riverside Literature Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. + +Sharp Eyes, and other Papers. By JOHN BURROUGHS. In Riverside Literature +Series. 16mo, paper, 15 cents, _net_. The above two pamphlets, 16mo, +boards, 40 cents, _net_. + +=Cary, Alice.= Pictures of Country Life. Short Stories. 12mo, $1.50. + +=Cooper, James Fenimore.= Cooper Stories. Narratives of Adventure selected +from COOPER'S Works. Stories of the Prairies. Stories of the Woods. +Stories of the Sea. 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