66 NORTH CAROLINA 



own time, making the trip as natural-histor- 

 ical as I pleased. "It fares better with 

 sentiments not to be in a hurry with them," 

 says Sterne, and the same is true of sciences 

 and other pleasures. Again and again I 

 ordered the horses stopped as we came to 

 some likely piece of cover, but little or no- 

 thing resulted. There were singers in plenty, 

 but no new voices. After all, I said to my- 

 self, one does not study ornithology to any 

 great advantage from a wagon-seat. Yet I 

 remember one lesson an old one rehearsed 

 that the morning brought me. 



Soon after getting out of the village we 

 passed Stewart's Pond. This had been one 

 of my most frequent resorts. A considera- 

 ble part of several half-days had been idled 

 away beside it, and more than once I had 

 commented upon the singular fact that its 

 shores, birdy as they were, harbored no 

 water thrushes, while in several similar places 

 I had heard them singing for more than a 

 fortnight. There was something really mys- 

 terious about it, I was inclined to think. 

 The place seemed made for them, unless, 

 perhaps, the damming of the stream had 

 rendered the current too sluggish to suit 



