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THE INVITATION 



"VT'EABS ago, when quite a youth, I was ram- 

 -*- bling in the woods one Sunday, with my 

 brothers, gathering black birch, wintergreens, etc., 

 when, as we reclined upon the ground, gazing 

 vaguely up into the trees, I caught sight of a bird, 

 that paused a moment on a branch above .me, the 

 like of which I had never before seen or heard of. 

 It was probably the blue yellow- backed warbler, as 

 I have since found this to be a common bird in 

 those woods; but to my young fancy it seemed like 

 some fairy bird, so curiously marked was it, and so 

 new and unexpected. I saw it a moment as the 

 flickering leaves parted, noted the white spot on its 

 wing, and it was gone. How the thought of it 

 clung to me afterward! It was a revelation. It 

 was the first intimation I had had that the woods 

 we knew so well held birds that we knew not at all. 

 Were our eyes and ears so dull, then ? There was 

 the robin, the blue jay, the bluebird, the yellow- 

 bird, the cherry-bird, the catbird, the chipping- 

 bird, the woodpecker, the high-hole, an occasional 

 redbird, and a few others, in the woods or along 

 their borders, but who ever dreamed that there were 



