4 JN THE FLAT-WOODS. 



I thought." And why not " sooner " as 

 well as " earlier " ? But when, on the same 

 road, two white girls in an ox-cart hailed me 

 with the question, " What time 't is ? " I 

 thought the interrogative idiom a little queer ; 

 almost as queer, shall we say, as " How do 

 you do ? " may have sounded to the first 

 man who heard it, if the reader is able 

 to imagine such a person. 



Meanwhile, let the morning be " fine " or 

 " pretty," it was all one to the birds. The 

 woods were vocal with the cackling of robins, 

 the warble of bluebirds, and the trills of 

 pine warblers. Flickers were shouting or 

 laughing, if one pleased to hear it so with 

 true flickerish prolixity, and a single downy 

 woodpecker called sharply again and again. 

 A mocking-bird near me (there is always a 

 mocking-bird near you, in Florida) added 

 his voice for a time, but soon relapsed into 

 silence. The fact was characteristic ; for, 

 wherever I went, I found it true that the 

 mocker grew less musical as the place grew 

 wilder. By instinct he is a public performer , 

 he demands an audience ; and it is only in 

 cities, like St. Augustine and Tallahassee, 

 that he is heard at his freest and best. A 



