UNDER THE REDWOODS 



I grew more and more convinced ; but in that 

 darksome place, and on those huge, lofty trunks, 

 the difficulty was to put my eye on such an atom. 

 At last it was done, however ; and several times 

 afterward I detected the tiny creatures, in their 

 rustic pepper-and-salt coats, their legs straddled 

 to their ridiculous utmost, hitching up a redwood 

 bole till they got so high as to be nothing but a 

 speck. Amazingly busy they seemed, not stopping 

 a moment, even when they sang, but, like Words- 

 worth's reaper, singing at their work, and up the 

 redwoods creeping. 



Both wren and creeper were fairly numerous ; 

 but the wrens, though frequently seen, and 

 oftener heard, dodging about and scolding in the 

 underbrush, after the manner of their kind, were 

 rather chary of their music, which, if I am to be 

 judge, is somewhat inferior to that of the East- 

 ern bird, not only in voice, which is " squeakier " 

 (I am quoting my pencil — which is far from in- 

 fallible on a question so nice), but in the length 

 and spirit of the performance. 



A hairy woodpecker of some kind was heard 

 more than once, but was never seen ; now and 

 then a Sierra junco or two showed themselves, 

 though they probably lived just outside the grove; 

 and at the last minute of my farewell round on 

 the second day I was delighted out of measure 

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