A Winter Cat-Bird. 



birches ; and a hint of May-days brightened the 

 outlook as pine-finches twittered in the tops of 

 the tal^ riverside oaks. And then it was a single 

 bird wrought almost a miracle. A cat-bird threaded 

 the tangled maze of underbrush, perched upon a 



pebble at the water's edge, intently eyed the frost- 

 bound ripple that it could not reach, flirted its tail 

 impatiently, and uttered its old-time summer plaint, 

 suggestive of many a long-gone August noontide. 

 A moment more and the bird was gone ; but how 



