200 SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 



at tlie fervor of my first ornitliological en- 

 thusiasm. He thought he was asking me 

 a poser ; but I answered gayly, " It makes 

 me happy ; " and taking things as they run, 

 happiness is a pretty substantial "good." 

 So was it now with the sight of this long- 

 desired warbler. It taught me nothing ; it 

 put nothing into my pocket; but it made 

 me happy, — happy enough to sing and 

 shout, though I am ashamed to say I did 

 neither. And even a sober son of the Puri- 

 tans may be glad to find himself, in some 

 unexpected hour, almost as ineffably de- 

 lighted as he used to be with a new plaything 

 in the time when he had not yet tasted of 

 the tree of knowledge, and knew not that 

 the relish for playthings could ever be out- 

 grown. I cannot affirm that I went quite 

 as wild over my first Cape May warbler as 

 I did over my first sled (how well the rapture 

 of that frosty midwinter morning is remem- 

 bered, — a hard crust on the snow, and the 

 sun not yet risen!), but I came as near to 

 that state of heavenly felicity — to reenter 

 which we must become as little children — 

 as a person of my years is ever likely to do, 

 perhaps. 



