62 CHICKAMAUGA, 



England birds, it seemed to me, and differ- 

 ently phrased. Such peculiarities might in- 

 dicate a local race, I said to myself, with 

 that predisposition to surprise which is one 

 of the chief compensations of life away from 

 home. As I went on, a wood pewee and a 

 field sparrow began singing, — two birds 

 whose voices might have been tuned on pur- 

 pose for such a place. Of the petulant, 

 snappish cry of an Acadian flycatcher not 

 quite the same could be said. One of the 

 "unreconstructed," I was tempted to call 

 him. 



The Kelly house, on the way to which 

 through the woods my Yankee eyes were 

 delighted with the sight of loose patches of 

 rue anemones, was duly marked with a tab- 

 let, and proved to be a cabin of the most 

 primitive type, standing in the usual bit of 

 fenced land (the smallness of the houseyards, 

 as contrasted with the miles of open country 

 round about, is a noticeable feature of South- 

 ern landscapes), with a corn-house near by, 

 and a tumble-down barn across the way. 

 For some time I sat beside the road, under 

 an oak ; then, seeing two women, older and 

 younger, inside the house, I asked leave to 



