84 DYER'’S HOLLOW. 
Near the spring was a vegetable garden, and 
here, on the 22d of August, I suddenly es- 
pied a water thrush teetering upon the tip 
of a bean-pole, his rich olive-brown back 
glistening in the sunlight. He soon dropped 
to the ground among the vines, and before 
long walked out into sight. His action when 
he saw me was amusing. Instead of darting 
back, as a sparrow, for instance, would have 
done, he flew up to the nearest perch; that 
is, to the top of the nearest bean-pole, which 
happened to be a lath. Wood is one of the 
precious metals on Cape Cod, and if oars are 
used for fence-rails, and fish-nets for hen- 
coops, why not laths for bean-poles? The 
perch was narrow, but wide enough for the 
bird’s small feet. Four times he came up 
in this way to look about him, and every 
time alighted thus on the top of a pole. At 
the same moment three prairie warblers were 
chasing each other about the garden, now 
clinging to the side of the poles, now alight- 
ing on their tips. It was a strange spot for 
prairie warblers, as it seemed to me, though 
they looked still more out of place a minute 
later, when they left the bean-patch and sat 
upon a rail fence in an open grassy field. 
