BERRY-TIME FELICITIES 169 



The sight, nevertheless, gave me a new 

 conception of the pitch of delicacy to which 

 the sense of taste might be cultivated. It 

 was evident that our human faculty, com- 

 fortably as we get on with it in the main, is 

 only a coarse and bungling tool, never more 

 than half made, perhaps, or quite as likely 

 blunted and spoiled by millenniums of abuse. 

 I could really have envied the chickaree, if 

 such a feeling had not seemed unworthy of a 

 man's dignity. Besides, a palate so supersus- 

 ceptible might prove an awkward possession, 

 it occurred to me on second thought, for one 

 who must live as one of the " civilized," and 

 take his chances with cooks. All things con- 

 sidered, I was better off, perhaps, with the 

 old equipment and the old method, — a duller 

 taste and larger mouthfuls. 



At the end of the forty-five minutes I came 

 to the burning, a tract of forest over which a 

 fire had run some two years before. Here, 

 in this dead place, there was more of life ; 

 more sunshine, and therefore more insects, 

 and therefore more birds. Even here, how- 

 ever, there was nothing to be called birdi- 

 ness : a few olive-sided flycatchers and wood 



