SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 153 



the quaintest of head-dresses. I must mention 

 also a scarlet tanager, who, all afire as he was, 

 one day alighted in a bush of flowering dog- 

 wood, which was completely covered with its 

 large white blossoms. Probably he had no idea 

 how well his perch became him. 



Perhaps I ought to be ashamed to confess it, 

 but, though I went several times into the gal- 

 leries of our honorable Senate and House of 

 Representatives, and heard speeches by some 

 celebrated men, including at least half a dozen 

 candidates for the presidency, yet, after all, 

 the congressmen in feathers interested me 

 most. I thought, indeed, that the chat might 

 well enough have been elected to the lower 

 house. His volubility and waggish manners 

 would have made him quite at home in that 

 assembly, while his orange - colored waistcoat 

 would have given him an agreeable conspicuity. 

 But, to be sure, he would have needed to learn 

 the use of tobacco. 



Well, all this was only a few years ago ; but 

 the men whose eloquence then drew the crowd 

 to the capitol are, many of them, heard there 

 no longer. Some are dead ; some have retired 

 to private life. But the birds never die. Every 

 spring they come trooping back for their all- 

 summer session. The turkey-buzzard still floats 

 majestically over the city ; the chat still prac- 



