AUTUMN 27 



so that one can dally along, fearful only of 

 arriving at the end of the way too soon. 

 Such was now my favored condition, and I 

 made the most of it. If I crossed a brook, 

 I stayed awhile to listen to it and moralize 

 its song. If a flock of bluebirds and spar- 

 rows were twittering about a farmer's barn, 

 I lingered a little to watch their doings. 

 When a white-crowned sparrow or a par- 

 tridge showed itself in the road in advance 

 of me, that was reason enough for another 

 halt. It is a pretty picture : a partridge 

 caught unexpectedly in the open, its ruff 

 erect, and its tail, fully spread, snapping 

 nervously with every quick, furtive step. 

 And the fine old trees in the Littleton hill 

 woods were of themselves sufficient, on a 

 warm day like this, to detain any one who 

 was neither a worldling nor a man sent for 

 the doctor. They detained me, at all events ; 

 and very glad I was to sit down more than 

 once for a good season with them. 



And so the hours passed. At the top of 

 the road, in the clearing by the farms, I 

 met a pale, straight-backed young fellow 

 under a military hat. " You look like a man 



