234 EARLY MORNING STUDIES 



this feeling continues and grows till, from 

 simple irritation, he becomes fairly exasper- 

 ated with the endless flatness : the whole state 

 pressed down and rolled out like a pie-crust. 

 Through acres and acres of wheat, and miles 

 and miles of corn, as if it had rained seed- 

 corn, he goes, and before his train reaches 

 the boundary he wonders that every soul in it 

 does n't go raving mad from pure monotony. 

 When he reaches the Mountain State 

 Colorado he wants to open wide the win- 

 dows to get Nebraska out of his lungs, and 

 to take in the mountains pure air, blue 

 sky, deserts, prairie-dogs, owls, and all ; to 

 get Nebraska cinders out of his eyes and her 

 sameness out of his soul. 



Around my camp in Colorado were West- 

 ern meadow-larks, chewinks, and Western 

 wood-pewees, but the songs of the morning 

 were almost exclusively the dismal wails of 

 the latter bird. Our own pewee has a sweet 

 and plaintive little song, but his Western 

 brother exaggerates it into a dirge, pessi- 

 mistic in the last degree, and depressing to 

 the spirits, while it is so loud one cannot 

 ignore it. 



