202 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



with special satisfaction. If they did, I 

 could not blame them ; to us it was by all 

 odds the most interesting part of their very 

 limited repertory. 



The most interesting part, I mean, of that 

 which appealed to the ear ; for, as will read- 

 ily be imagined, the ear's part was really 

 much the smaller half of the performance. 

 The wonder of it all was not the music by 

 itself (that was hardly better than an odd- 

 ity, a thing of which one might soon have 

 enough), but the music combined with the 

 manner of its delivery, while the singer was 

 climbing heavenward. For the bird is a true 

 skylark. Like his more famous cousin, he 

 does not disdain the humblest perch a 

 mere clod of earth answers his purpose ; but 

 his glory is to sing at heaven's gate. 



His method at such times was a surprise 

 to me. He starts from the ground silently, 

 with no appearance of lyrical excitement, and 

 his flight at first is low, precisely as if he were 

 going only to the next field. Soon, however, 

 he begins to mount, beating the air with 

 quick strokes and then shutting his wings 

 against his sides and forcing himself upward. 



