T II E T E R R A C E S 



training the vines. I must acknowledge I am not a rapid worker; if 

 a brown thrasher creeps out from under a sumac bush, down go 

 the scissors and up go the glasses. If a catbird calls " miaii " too 

 persistently, I know I must be working somewhere near his nest and 

 the temptation to investigate is irresistible. Life in the country is 

 extremely diverting, and concentration is difficult. 



\Ve planted two trees close to the terrace wall for the birds. I 

 wanted to have one a picturesque, old. gnarled, dead tree. I had 

 heard of this as being a conspicuous object on the edge of the lawn 

 in some English estates, but the idea was a little radical for the 

 Constant Improver. lie remarked that probablv the newlv set out 

 trees would be thin enough, for a year or two anyway, to enable 

 us to see the birds perfectly. One was placed toward the east end 

 of the terrace, and one by my own window at the west. I am glad 

 to say that the birds adopted them at once. The humming-bird 

 brought all her little family to the trumpet flower pasture near, and 

 I have counted two or three fledglings at a time preening themselves 

 and balancing their tiny bodies on a branch within ten feet of mv 

 window. The song sparrow wakened me with his delicious trill; 

 the yellow warbler and the pewee, the robins and the thrushes 

 made it their rendezvous; the cedar-birds and the oriole took it as 

 a resting place; the redstart chirped his brightest, and the bluejay 

 I regret to say that even the bluejay discovered it and descended 

 with a scream of delight. 



The north terrace presented quite a different planting problem. 



