12 AN IDLER ON MISSIONARY RIDGE. 



good friends, only once in a while lie wants 

 to kill her." 



She said nothing more, and her manner 

 did not encourage further attempts at neigh- 

 borly intercourse ; but as I passed the cabin 

 now and then during the forenoon, the birds 

 leading me about, I heard her muttering 

 often and at considerable length to her hens 

 and ducks. Evidently she enjoyed conver- 

 sation as well as most people, only she liked 

 to pick her own company. She was " Aunt 

 Tilly," I learned afterwards, and had lived 

 there by herself for many years ; one of the 

 characters of the city, a fortune-teller, whose 

 professional services were in frequent re- 

 quest. 



In this favored nook, especially along the 

 watercourse, were many birds, some of them 

 at home for the summer, but the greater 

 part, no doubt, lying over for a day or two 

 on their long northward journey. Not one 

 of them but was interesting to me here 

 in a new country, however familiar it might 

 have become in New England. Here were 

 at least eleven kinds of warblers : black-polls 

 of both sexes, black-throated blues, chestnut- 

 sides, myrtle-birds, golden warblers, black- 



