88 In Touch with Nature. 



brooks, and it has been held that such a habit 

 must have been given when the bird was created, 

 and not that either bird or habit could have 

 gradually come upon the scene. The little sand- 

 pipers are a step in that direction, and he who 

 objects to evolution now butts against a stone 

 wall. 



The while I have been wandering in mind, my 

 body has travelled half a mile up stream. The 

 tide, rising, lifted the boat and bore it away while 

 my thoughts lingered on the shore among the 

 sand-pipers, or flitted to other scenes and other 

 days. There are now no birds in view, but their 

 voices from the far-off shore still bear me company, 

 and, bending to the oar against wind and tide, as 

 the last glimmer of the setting sun gilds the 

 waves, I speed homeward to cut another notch in 

 the tally-stick of my memory of days out of 

 doors. 



