912 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 
and tall trees. The tender and varied tints 
of the new leaves, the lively green of the 
young grain, the dark ploughed fields, the 
red earth of the wayside — I can see them 
yet, with all that Florida sunshine on them. 
In the bushes by the fence-row were a pair 
of cardinal grosbeaks, the male whistling 
divinely, quite unabashed by the volubility 
of a mocking-bird who balanced himself on 
the treetop overhead, 
“ Superb and sole, upon a pluméd spray,”’ 
and seemed determined to show a Yankee 
stranger what mocking-birds could really do 
when they set out. He did his work well ; the 
love notes of the flicker could not have been 
improved by the flicker himself ; but, right or 
wrong, I could not help feeling that the car- 
dinal struck a truer and deeper note ; while 
both together did not hinder me from hear- 
ing the faint songs of grasshopper sparrows 
rising from the ground on either side of the 
lane. It was a fine contrast: the mocker 
flooding the air from the topmost bough, 
and the sparrows whispering their few al- 
most inaudible notes out of the grass. Yes, 
and at the self-same moment the eye also 
