H Swamp Beauty 



closely that their roots kinked in knots 

 along the surface. Both cypress and sweet- 

 gum trees grew in the shallowing of the 

 stream, the cypresses throwing up tall 

 knees and loops from their wandering 

 roots. A faint yet distant touch of 

 liquid-amber on the air, and a soft rustle 

 of magnolia-leaves, made the place sweet 

 despite the coflfee-colored water, the rank 

 air-plants, and the ill-smelling muck. 



A cat-bird entertained me with pretty 

 antics while it scolded hoarsely. Some 

 other small birds appeared and disap- 

 peared in the thicket, and presently a 

 small sandpiper came twinkling along just 

 above the water, to stop on a little sand- 

 bar, where it stood for a while, half lifting 

 its wings and flirting its short tail, its 

 body meantime wagging up and down. I 

 slipped out my binocular glass to take a 

 leisurely view of the field, which was thus 

 beginning to stir with life, and just then 

 something cut the water surface gently; 

 a thin head, tapering and long-billed, pro- 

 jected above a rippling line with a flaring 

 wake behind it, while, dimly observable, 

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