224 VIRGINIA 



for a burst of his afternoon medley ; and at 

 the bridge a phoebe sat calling. These, with 

 a pair of cardinal grosbeaks, were all the 

 birds I saw in the glen during my first day's 

 visit. 



In fact, I had the place pretty nearly to 

 myself, not only on this first day, but for the 

 entire week. Once in a great while a human 

 visitor was encountered, but for the most 

 part I went up and down the path with no 

 disturbance to my meditations. HapjDily for 

 me, the Bridge was now in its dull season. 

 Many tourists had been here. The trunks 

 of the older trees, the beeches especially, 

 were scarred thickly with inglorious initials, 

 some of them so far from the ground that the 

 authors of them must have stood on one 

 another's shoulders in their determination to 

 get above the crowd. (In work of this kind 

 an inch or two makes all the difference be- 

 tween renown and obscurity.) The fact 

 was emblematic, I thought. So do men hoist 

 and boost themselves into fame, not only 

 in Cedar Creek ravine, but in the " great 

 world," as we call it, outside. Who so lowly- 

 minded as not to believe that he could make 

 a name for himself if only he had a step- 



