A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 159 



there I sat alone, under the blue sky, — 

 alone, yet with no lack of unobtrusive soci- 

 ety. 



At brief intervals a field sparrow some- 

 where down the hillside gave out a sweet 

 and artless strain, clear as running water 

 and soft as the breath of springtime. How 

 gently it caressed the ear ! The place and 

 the day had found a voice. Once a grouse 

 drummed, — one of the most restful of all 

 natural sounds, to me at least, " drum- 

 ming " though it be, speaking always of fair 

 weather and woodsy quietness and peace ; 

 and once, to my surprise, I heard a clatter 

 of crossbill notes, though I saw nothing of 

 the birds, — restless souls, wanderers up and 

 down the earth, and, after the habit of rest- 

 less souls in general, gregarious to the last. 

 A buzzard drifted across the sky. Like the 

 swan on still St. Mary's Lake, he floated 

 double, bird and shadow. A flicker shouted, 

 and a chewink, under the sweet-fern and 

 laurel bushes, stopped his scratching once in 

 a while to address by name a mate or fel- 

 low traveler. A Canadian nuthatch, calling 

 softly, hung back downward from a pine 

 cone ; and, nearer by, a solitary vireo sat 



