MINOR SONGSTERS. 175 
As one of his titles indicates, the bay-wing 
is famous for singing in the evening, when, of 
course, his efforts are doubly acceptable; and I 
can readily believe that Mr. Minot is correct in 
his “impression” that he has once or twice 
heard the song in the night. For while spend- 
ing a few days at a New Hampshire hotel, 
which was surrounded with fine lawns such as 
the grass finch delights in, I happened to be 
awake in the morning, long before sunrise, — 
when, in fact, it seemed like the dead of night, 
—and one or two of these sparrows were pip- 
ing freely. The sweet and gentle strain had 
the whole mountain valley to itself. How 
beautiful it was, set in such a broad ‘ margin 
of silence,” I must leave to be imaginea. I 
noticed, moreover, that the birds sang almost 
incessantly the whole day through. Much of 
the time there were two singing antiphonally. 
Manifestly, the lines had fallen to them in 
pleasant places: at home for the summer in 
those luxuriant Sugar-Hill fields, in continual 
sight of yonder magnificent mountain pano- 
rama, with Lafayette himself looming grandly 
in the foreground ; while they, innocent souls, 
had never so much as heard of hotel-keepers 
and their bills. ‘“ Happy commoners,” indeed ! 
Their “ songs in the night ” seemed nowise sur- 
prising. I fancied that I could be happy my- 
self in such a case. 
