246 MISCELLANEOUS. 



large tract of the old forest that still stands in all its virgin 

 grandeur. Here stand the great spreading oaks, the tall 

 graceful maples, the sweet-scented lindens. Here still grow 

 the dear old May-apples, whose thickly-spreading umbrellas 

 cover large tracts of the ground. Here bloom the fragrant 

 wild flowers just as of yore. All these have for these many 

 years escaped the destroying power of the woodman's axe and 

 the husbandman's plow. Here, in boyish glee, have I chased 

 the pretty butterfly ; here I have gathered these wild-flowers, 

 and here listened to the music of birds whose well-known 

 voices greet my ears as I write these lines. 



Hail, gentle robin, brown thrush, grosbeak, bullfinch, 

 oriole, taniger, bluebird all friends of my boyhood days ! I 

 greet you with all the warmth and fervor of a long unbroken 

 friendship. Though separated from you many long years, I 

 have never forgotten, never ceased to love you. Nay, gentle 

 songsters, start not at sound of my voice or sight of my face, 

 I would not for the world harm one of your beautiful feathers. 



Every bend and every straight reach in this old road I 

 remember as though I had passsed over it but yesterday. 

 Here is a level piece on top of the hill where in summer I 

 seldom passed without seeing a partridge, or pheasant, as we 

 called them, "wallowing" in the dust. Sometimes there 

 would be several of them, and if in the latter part of the 

 summer or fall the mother and her brood were often seen. 

 They would strut along the road in front of me, showing but 

 little alarm, for they were seldom hunted in those days. Now 

 they are not to be seen, and the neighbors tell me they have 

 all been killed off long ago ; that the/ are extinct so far as 

 this locality is concerned. 



Here at the foot of the hill is a neighboring farm that my 

 father rented one year. I remember that in the fall, when 

 we were pasturing some young horses and cattle in one of the 



