A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 203 



Six of the seventy-five names were added in 

 a bunch at the very last moment, making 

 me think with lively regret how much more 

 respectable my list would be if I could re- 

 main a week or two longer. With my trunk 

 packed and everything ready for my de- 

 parture, I ran out once more to the border 

 of the woods, at the point where I had first 

 entered them a week before ; and there, in 

 the trees and shrubbery along the brookside 

 path, I found myself all at once surrounded 

 by a most interesting bevy of fresh arrivals, 

 among which a hurried investigation dis- 

 closed a scarlet tanager, a humming-bird, a 

 house wren, a chat, a wood pewee, and a Lou- 

 isiana water thrush. The pewee was calling 

 and the house wren singing (an unspeakable 

 convenience when a man has but ten min- 

 utes in which to take the census of a thicket 

 full of birds), and the water thrush, as he 

 flew up the stream, keeping just ahead of me 

 among the rhododendrons, stopped every 

 few minutes to sing his prettiest, as if he 

 were overjoyed to be once more at home 

 after a winter's absence. I did not wonder 

 at his happiness. The spot had been made 

 for him. I was as sorry to leave it, per- 

 haps, as he was glad to get back to it. 



