WOODCOCK VESPERS 243 



daylight and dark. Still we had our labor 

 for our pains. And so the season passed, 

 with nothing done. 



Then, a year or two afterward, walking 

 one afternoon in a quiet back road, I startled 

 a woodcock from directly beside the track. 

 " Well, well," said I, " here is the very place ; " 

 for I noticed not far off a bit of alder swamp, 

 with a wood behind it and an open field near 

 by. All the conditions were right, and on 

 the first available evening, with something 

 like assurance, I made my way thither. Yes, 

 the bird was there, in the full ecstasy of his 

 wonderful performance for wonderful it 

 surely is. 



My friend was not with me, however, and 

 for one reason or another, now past recall, 

 another year went by without our being able 

 to visit the spot together at the necessary 

 minute. Then a day came. He heard the 

 bird (well I remember the hour), was de- 

 lighted beyond measure, and that very even- 

 ing, still under the spell of the "miracle," 

 put his impressions of it on paper. The 

 next day they were printed, and I remember 

 still my pleasure when the most competent 



