102 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



back to March, and the water froze on the porch 

 that night. We pooled our blankets and curled up 

 together for warmth. 



At one a.m. a whip-poor-will began his loud night- 

 song. He always sings as if he were wound up, and 

 in a great hurry to finish his song before the mechan- 

 ism runs down. Later, in the darkness, we heard the 

 drumming like distant thunder of the ruffed grouse. 

 One of our party claims that on this mountain the 

 grouse always drum at four- thirty in the morning; 

 and his stock as an accurate ornithologist went above 

 par when we examined our watches and found that 

 it was just half-past four. As the darkness turned 

 to the dusk of dawn, the first day-song was the 

 beautiful minor strain of the white-throated sparrow. 

 "O Canada, Canada, Canada," he fluted. Then 

 came a snatch of the wheezing strain of the song 

 sparrow. Finally, sweetest of all, sounded two or 

 three tantalizing notes of the hermit thrush, pure, 

 single, prolonged notes of wonderful sweetness, fol- 

 lowed by two arpeggio chords. 



We were up and out before sunrise; for he who 

 would find rare nests must look for them while the 

 birds are laying or brooding. Four hours distant, 

 back in Philadelphia, summer had come. Here the 

 trees showed the green tracery of early spring, and the 

 apple trees were still in blossom, while everywhere 

 the woods were white with the long pure snow-petals 

 of the shadblow. Some day we four are going to fol- 

 low Spring north, bird's-nesting all the way, until 

 within the Arctic Circle we find her in mid-July. 



