DARBY AND JOAN 263 



emotional apogee, and then stops, because anything 

 would be tame after that. Thus, when a pair of 

 dabchicks play about in each other's company — 

 which they will do in December as well as in spring 

 — their note, at first, may be a quiet " Chu, chu, 

 chu," " Queek, queek, queek," or some other 

 ineffective sound. Then, side by side, and with their 

 heads close together, they burst suddenly forth with 

 *' Cheelee, leelee, leelee, leelee, leelee, leelee " — one 

 thought, and both of one mind — 



"A timely utterance gives that thought relief." 



It is as though they said, " Shall we ^ Well then — 

 Now then'' — and started. Who that sees a pair 

 do this in the winter — in the very depth of it, only 

 a few days before Christmas — can doubt that the 

 birds are mated, and will be constant through life ? 

 They are like an old couple by the fireside, now. As 

 the spring comes round their youth will be renewed, 

 and the same duet will express the warmer emotions. 

 Now it is the bird's contentment note. You know 

 what it means, directly. It expresses satisfaction 

 with what has been, already, accomplished, present 

 complacency, and a robust determination to continue, 

 for the future, to walk — or swim — in the combined 

 path of duty and pleasure. What a pretty little scene 

 it is ! — and one may watch these little cool-dipping, 

 reed-haunting things, so dapper and circumspect, as 

 near as one's vis-a-vis in a quadrille — nearer even — 

 and tear out the heart of their mystery, with not a 

 dabchick the wiser. No doubt about what they say 

 for the future, for when a most authoritative work 

 says " the note is a 'whit, whit,' " and so passes on, 



