174 VIRGINIA 



mer days coming, or out of mere comfort- 

 able vacancy of mind. Catbirds are not 

 among my dearest favorites ; a little too 

 fussy, somewhat too well aware of them- 

 selves, I generally think ; more than a little 

 too fragmentary in their effusions, begin- 

 ning and beginning, and never getting under 

 way, like an improviser who cannot find his 

 theme; but this bird in the Alleghanies 

 sang as bewitching a song as my ears ever 

 listened to. 



My spring campaign in Virginia was 

 planned in the spirit of the old war-time 

 bulletin, " All quiet on the Potomac ; " 

 happiness was to be its end, and idleness its 

 means ; and so far, at least, as my stay at 

 Pulaski was concerned, this peaceful design 

 was well carried out. There was nothing 

 there to induce excessive activity : no glori- 

 ous mountain summit whose daily beckoning 

 must sooner or later be heeded ; no long 

 forest roads of the kind that will not let 

 a man's imagination alone till he has seen 

 the end of them. The town itself is small 



