110 A GREEN MOUNTAIN CORN-FIELD. 



his house was further off than I suspected, 

 however, or else he was too cunning to fall 

 into my snare. At any rate, he permitted 

 me to trample all about the spot, without 

 manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness. 

 What a traveler the humming-bird is ! I 

 myself had come perhaps three hundred 

 miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome 

 journey, notwithstanding I had been brought 

 nearly all the way in a carriage elaborately 

 contrived for comfort, and moving over iron 

 rails. But this tiny insect -like creature 

 spent last winter in Central America, or it 

 may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, per- 

 fectly at home again in this Green Moun- 

 tain nook; and next autumn he will be off 

 again betimes, as the merest matter of 

 course, for another thousand -mile flight. 

 Verily, a marvelous spirit and energy may 

 be contained within a few ounces of flesh ! 

 But if Trochilus be indeed Prosperous ser- 

 vant in disguise, as one of our poets makes 

 out, why, then, to be sure, his Sittings back 

 and forth are little to wonder at. How 

 slow, overgrown, and clumsy human beings 

 must look in his eyes ! I wonder if he is 

 never tempted to laugh at us. Who knows 



