58 BOULDER REVERIES. 



the trumpet creeper clambers o'er the shrubs, 

 their leaves and branches intermingling and 

 forming a dense green covert wherein the katy- 

 did lingers, sheltered from the noontide sun, 

 and into which the thrush or vireo dodges to 

 escape the clutch of the down-swooping hawk. 



Within the angles of the crooked way of that 

 old fence what generations of bumblebees, bald 

 hornets, yellow jackets, snakes, salamanders, 

 field mice, weasels and kindred creatures, have 

 lived, loved and died ! How many hundreds of 

 birds have there wooed, mated, nested and 

 reared their young, safely sheltered from the 

 ken of enemy, both winged and furred ! Wrens 

 and thrushes, bluebirds and vireos, chewinks 

 and chats, tree sparrows and snowbirds, catbirds 

 and bob-whites all will lessen in number will 

 the sooner succumb in the great struggle for ex- 

 istence, when their old time coverts and shelters 

 are destroyed by the passing forever of these old 

 worm fences. 



XIV. 



Aug. 25, '01. Once again, and for the last 

 time this season, a boulder reverie. How differ- 



