264 VIRGINIA 



however, and within half an hour was again 

 in eager chase, this time over a crazy zigzag 

 fence into a dense thicket, all for a black- 

 and-white creeper (niy fiftieth specimen, 

 perhaps, in the last fortnight), whose notes, 

 as they came to me from a distance, sounded 

 like a creeper's, to be sure, but with such a 

 measure of difference as kept me on nettles 

 till the author of them was in sight. I felt 

 like a fool, as the common expression is, but 

 was having " a good time," notwithstanding. 

 Here were the first trailing blackberry 

 blossoms. The season was making haste. 

 " Come, children, it is the 7th of May," I 

 seemed to hear the "bud-crowned spring" 

 saying. The woods had burst into almost 

 full leaf within a week. This morning, 

 also, I found the first flowers of the Dode- 

 catheon ; three plants, each with only one 

 bloom as yet; white, odd-looking, pointed, 

 like a stylographic pen, my profane cleri- 

 cal fancy suggested. American cowslip and 

 shooting star the flower is called in the 

 Manual. American cyclamen would hit it 

 pretty well, I thought, its most striking pe- 

 culiarity being the reflexed, cyclamenic car- 

 riage of the petals. I had been wondering 



