110 PEPACTON 



tie-heads by the roadside; the little indigo- bird, 

 facing the torrid sun of August and singing through 

 all the livelong summer day ; the contented musical 

 soliloquy of the vireo, like the whistle of a boy at 

 his work, heard through all our woods from May to 



* Pretty green worm, where are you ? 

 Dusky-winged moth, how fare you, 

 When wind and rain are in the tree ? 

 Cheeryo, cheerebly, chee, 

 Shadow and sun one are to me. 

 Mosquito and gnat, beware you, 

 Saucy chipmunk, how dare you 

 Climb to my nest in the maple-tree, 

 And dig up the corn * 



At noon and at morn ? 

 Cheeryo, cheerebly, chee." 



Or the phoebe-bird, with her sweet April call and 

 mossy nest under the bridge or woodshed, or under 

 the shelving rocks ; or the brown thrasher mock- 

 ing thrush calling half furtively, half archly from 

 the treetop back in the bushy pastures: "Croquet, 

 croquet, hit it, hit it, come to me, come to me, 

 tight it, tight it, you're out, you're out," with 

 many musical interludes; or the chewink, rustling 

 the leaves and peering under the bushes at you; 

 or the pretty little oven-bird, walking round and 

 round you in the woods, or suddenly soaring above 

 the treetops, and uttering its wild lyrical strain; 

 or, farther south, the whistling redbird, with his 

 crest and military bearing, these and many others 

 should be full of suggestion and inspiration to OUT 

 poets. It is only lately that the robin's song has 



