184 A COTTON PLANTATION. 
thing more unusual or interesting than sum- 
mer tanagers and yellow-throated warblers, 
which were in song there, as they were in 
every such place, and aftera while came out 
into a pleasant glade, from which different 
parts of the plantation could be seen, and 
through which ran a plantation road. Here 
was a wooden fence, — a most unusual thing, 
—-and I lost no time in mounting it, to rest 
and look about me. It is one of the marks 
of a true Yankee, I suspect, to like such a 
perch. My own weakness in that direction 
is a frequent subject of mirth with chance 
fellow travelers. The attitude is comforta- 
ble and conducive to meditation; and now 
that I was seated and at my ease, I felt that 
this was one of the New England luxuries 
which, almost without knowing it, I had 
missed ever since I left home. 
Of my meditations on this particular oc- 
casion I remember nothing; but that is no 
sion they were valueless; as it is no sign 
that yesterday’s dinner did me no good be- 
cause I have forgotten what it was. In the 
latter case, indeed, and perhaps in the for- 
mer as well, it would seem more reasonable 
to draw an exactly opposite inference. But, 
