EYE-BEAMS 129 



or quail, or a farmer's hen-roost, he had tlie 

 supper he was in quest of. 



VI. A LEGLESS CLIMBER 



The eye always sees what it wants to see, 

 and the ear hears what it wants to hear. If I 

 am intent upon birds' nests in my walk, I find 

 birds' nests everywhere. Some people see 

 four-leaved clovers wherever they look in the 

 grass. A friend of mine picks up Indian relics 

 all about the fields; he has Indian relics in his 

 eye. I have seen him turn out of the path at 

 right angles, as a dog will when he scents some- 

 thing, and walk straight away several rods, and 

 pick up an Indian pounding-stone. He saw it 

 out of the corner of his eye. I find that with- 

 out conscious effort I see and hear birds with 

 like ease. Eye and ear are always on the 

 alert. 



One day in early June I was walking with 

 some friends along a secluded wood-road. 

 Above the hum of the conversation I caught 

 the distressed cry of a pair of blue- jays. My 

 companions heard it also, but did not heed it. 



But to my ear the cry was peculiar. It was 

 uttered in a tone of anguish and alarm. I 

 said, "Let us see what is the trouble with 

 these jays." I presently saw a nest twenty- 

 five or thirty feet from the ground in a small 

 hemlock which I at once concluded belonged 

 to the jays. The birds M'ere but a few yards 

 away hopping about amid the neighboring 



