280 VIRGINIA 



the happiest accident that I did not miss it 

 altogether. Then, when the fellow had fin- 

 ished his music, he began squeaking in that 

 peculiarly teasing manner of his, and kept 

 it up till I was weary. The gnatcatcher is a 

 creature by himself, a miniature bird, won- 

 derfully slender, with a strangely long tail, 

 which he carries jauntily and makes the 

 most of on all occasions. But if he only 

 knew it, his chief claim to distinction is his 

 singing voice. If the humming-bird's is 

 attenuated in the same proportion (and who 

 can assert the contrary?), he may be the 

 finest vocalist in the world, and we none the 

 wiser. 



I was to start northward by the next 

 noonday train, and had already laid out my 

 forenoon's work. Before breakfast I took 

 my last look at the famous bridge, and my 

 last stroll through Cedar Creek ravine. I 

 had been there every day, I think, and had 

 always found something new. This time it 

 was a slippery-elm-tree by the saltpetre cave. 

 I had brought away a twig, and was sitting 

 in my door putting a lens upon it and upon 

 a sedum specimen, when the veranda was 

 suddenly taken possession of by a dozen or 



