66 AN OLD ROAD. 



a catbird's song was hushed forever. A 

 mean and cruel act, which I confess with 

 shame, and have done my best to atone for 

 by speaking here and there a good word for 

 this poorly appreciated member of our na- 

 tive choir. I should be glad to believe that 

 the schoolboys of the present day are more 

 tender-hearted than those with whom I 

 mixed ; but I am not without my doubts. 

 As Darwin showed, all animals in the em- 

 bryonic stage tend to reproduce ancestral 

 characteristics ; and our Anglo-Saxon ances- 

 tors (how easy it seems to believe it !) were 

 barbarians. 



This same Millstone Pasture, by the bye, 

 was a place of special resort at Christmas 

 time. Here grew plenty of the trailing 

 plant which we knew simply as " ever- 

 green," but which now, in my superior 

 wisdom, I call Lycopodium complanatum. 

 This, indeed, was common in various direc- 

 tions, but the holly was much less easily 

 found, and grew here more freely than any- 

 where else. The unhappy trees had a hard 

 shift to live, so broken down were they with 

 each recurring December ; and the more 

 berries they produced, the worse for them. 



