THE CURRENT OF MUSKETAQ.UW. 105 



surface. We pushed the boat forward into the 

 lagoon, and the moment he located the danger 

 he rose without a splash and was gone. 



Rowing back to the Carlisle side we found a 

 snug corner by a jolly little brook which danced 

 across a pasture down to a meadow, between the 

 rubble walls of an ancient sluice, through the 

 pine woods and into Great Meadows. Over the 

 brook stood an oak ; in the oak sat a bluebird ; 

 from the bluebird's inmost soul poured the 

 sweetest of bird music, and, wonderful to relate, 

 this music as it fell upon the air turned into 

 goldfinches which undulated over the pasture, 

 finally rested upon the oak and added their songs 

 to the general joy of the occasion. It may be 

 said by harsh commentators that goldfinches 

 never could have been made out of bluebirds' 

 music. Then the burden is on them to prove 

 where the goldfinches come from, for to our 

 eyes they came from the air, which had nothing 

 in it except the song of the bluebird. After 

 lunch and a wonderful concert in which the blue- 

 bird sang the solo and the goldfinches did every- 

 thing else to make it perfect, we examined the 

 ancient sluice. The stone work was rough and 

 without cement. The dam was of earth and 

 from it grew several oaks, one of which may 

 have taken root fifty years ago. As we mused 

 about the dam and its history, a broad-winged, 



