152 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



outran a wing-tipped snipe, jumped two broad 

 ditches, and held on to his gun while so doing ; 

 but then he was a Dutchman who was more at 

 home in a marsh than on a board floor. Now 

 that I have given up running, I do not think 

 anything is to be gained by rapid locomotion. 

 Sour grapes ? I think not. This is the same 

 meadow, this the same bluebird, and myself, 

 almost, the same mortal of forty years ago. 

 What of northeast storms at such a time ! My 

 little play was more than worth the candle. 

 And all this may continue unless fashion de- 

 mands blue feathers. Let us hope the Audubon 

 Societies will save us from the sorrow of the 

 bluebird's extinction. 



I could not stand still all the morning, and my 

 progress drove the birds beyond my hearing, 

 but my pleasure remained, so vivid was the re- 

 cent meeting. It would have been well, per- 

 haps, to have gone directly home and spent the 

 day in retrospection ; for, however near to the 

 ideal is an outing, it is sure to have a shadow 

 lurking near its sunshine, and the brighter this 

 the darker the other. I soon began to notice 

 among the leafless trees and shrubbery numbers 



