TESTING THOREAU. 101 



wait. I would test Thoreau's assertion that if 

 one will sit long enough in some attractive spot 

 in the woods, sooner or later every inhabitant 

 of it will pass before him. I had confidence 

 in Thoreau's woodcraft, for has not Emerson 

 said : — 



" What others did at distance hear, 



And guessed within the thicket's gloom, 

 Was shown to this philosopher, 



And at his bidding seemed to come ' ' ? 



and I resolved to sit there till I should see my 

 bird. I was confident I should know him: a 

 wild, fearless eye, I was sure, a noble bearing, 

 a dweller on the tree -tops. 



Alas! I forgot one phrase in Thoreau's state- 

 ment: "sooner or letter.''^ No doubt the Con- 

 cord hermit was a true prophet; but how many 

 of the inhabitants are "later " — too late, indeed, 

 for a mortal who, unlike our New England phi- 

 losopher, has such weak human needs as food 

 and rest, and whose back will be tired in s]^)ite 

 of her enthusiasm, if she sits a few hours on a 

 rock, with a tree for a back. 



Many of the sweet and shy residents of that 

 lovely bit of wildness showed themselves while I 

 waited. A flicker, whose open door was in 

 sight, and who was plainly engaged in setting 

 her house in order, entertained me for a long 

 time. Silently she stole in, I did not see how. 



