AUTUMN 43 



should be, if he can, a lover of nature, — a 

 sympathizer, that is to say, with the Hfe of 

 the world about him. The less artificial our 

 joys, the more likelihood of their staying by 

 us. 



Not to blink at the truth, nevertheless, 

 I must add a circumstance which, till this 

 moment, I had clean forgotten. I was still 

 watching the birds, with perhaps a dozen 

 species in sight close at hand, when suddenly 

 I observed a something come over them, and 

 on the instant a large hawk skimmed the 

 tops of the trees. In one second every bird 

 was gone, — vanished, as if at the touch of 

 a necromancer's wand. I did not see them 

 fly ; there was no rush of wings ; but the 

 place was empty ; and though I waited for 

 them, they did not reappear. Two or three, 

 indeed, I may have seen afterward, but the 

 flock was gone. My holiday, at all events, 

 or that part of it, was done, — shadowed by 

 a hawk's wing. Undoubtedly a few minutes 

 of safety put the birds all in comfortable 

 spirits again, however ; and anyhow, it bears 

 out my theory of remembered happiness, that 

 this less cheerful part of the story had so 



