68 BY-WA YS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



new. You will understand how it was recalled 

 by the trifling incident above recorded. 



My way lay due east for nearly a mile, with 

 the meadow-larks whistling in the fields on my 

 right, and the woodpeckers chattering on the 

 fence-posts to the left. The woodpeckers 

 (those fellows half white and half black and 

 hooded in scarlet) had just arrived from the 

 South, and appeared overjoyed with their sur 

 roundings. They looked very clean in their 

 shining jet coats and snow under-garments. 

 A toll-gate stood at the end of the lane. I 

 whirled noiselessly through it before the wo 

 man who kept it could decide whether my 

 vehicle was down on her list, and ran over a 

 little hill just as the sun cleared the tree-tops 

 in the east. A small boy was riding a big- 

 wheeled plough, to which three fine sleek 

 horses were working abreast. The musty 

 odor of the fresh-turned soil was very pleasant. 

 Blue-birds were dropping into the new furrow 

 behind the plough to get the larvae of various 

 insects exposed there. Two sparrow-hawks 

 were wheeling in small circles, some fifty feet 

 high, watching for field-mice, or possibly intent 

 on taking one of the blue-birds unaware. 

 There was a worm-fence on one side of the 

 road and the corners were literally carpeted 

 with wild blue-violets. What a pity it is that 

 these beautiful flowers have no perfume ! The 

 lack seems to take a great deal from their 

 value when one discovers it. It is almost like 

 finding that a very musical song has no mean 

 ing in its sonorous phrases. I now had some 

 stiff work going up a hill on a curve, and then 

 came a smooth bit of coasting, followed by a 

 short stretch through level heavy sand ; then 



