IN THE HEMLOCKS. 85 



her eyes growing large with an inexpressibly 

 wild, beautiful look. She keeps her place 

 till I ain within two paces of her, when she 

 flutters away as at first. In the brief in- 

 terval the remaining egg has hatched, and 

 the two little nestlings lift their heads with- 

 out being jostled or overreached by any 

 strange bedfellow. A week afterward and 

 they were flown away, so brief is the in- 

 fancy of birds. And the wonder is that they 

 escape, even for this short time, the skunks 

 and minks and muskrats that abound here, 

 and that have a decided partiality for such 

 tidbits. 



I pass on through the old Bark-peeling, 

 now threading an obscure cow-path or an 

 overgrown wood-road ; now clambering over 

 soft and decayed logs, or forcing my way 

 through a network of briers and hazels; 

 now entering a perfect bower of wild-cherry, 

 beech, and soft-maple ; now emerging into a 

 little grassy lane, golden with buttercups or 

 white with daisies, or wading waist-deep in 

 the red raspberry-bushes. 



Whir ! whir ! whir ! and a brood of half- 

 grown grouse start up like an explosion, a 

 few paces from me, and, scattering, disappear 

 in the bushes on all sides. Let me sit down 



