36 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



and cheerful body. Just beyond him a scar- 

 let tanager is posed on a low, leafless twig. 

 Like the pine leaves, he looks out of condi- 

 tion. I am sure I have seen brighter ones. 

 He is silent, but his mate, somewhere in the 

 oak branches over my head, keeps up an 

 emphatic chip-cherr, chip-cherr. Yes, I see 

 her now, and the red one has gone up to 

 perch at her side. She cocks her head, 

 looking at me first out of one eye and then 

 out of the other, and repeats the operation 

 two or three times, like a puzzled microsco- 

 pist squinting at a doubtful specimen ; and 

 all the while she continues to call, though I 

 know nothing of what she means. Once 

 her mate approaches too near, and she opens 

 her bill at him in silence. He understands 

 the sign and keeps his distance. I admire 

 his spirit. It is better than taking a city. 



The earliest of the yellow gerardias is in 

 bloom, and a pretty desmodium, also (Z>. 

 nudiflorum), with a loose raceme of small 

 pink flowers, like miniature sweet-pea blos- 

 soms, on a slender leafless stalk. These are 

 in the wood, amidst the underbrush. As I 

 come out into a dry, grassy field I find the 



