246 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



ally audible. An old man that enjoys him- 

 self is pretty near to my ideal of respectable 

 senility. " Thank you," I repeat ; " that 's 

 praise, and faith, I 'U print it." And so I 

 will, pleasing myself, let the ungentle reader 

 — if I have one — think what he may. A 

 good name is more to brag of than a million 

 of money. 



Yes, I am enjojring myself (why not ?), 

 and I loiter down the road with a light 

 heart (an old man should be used to going 

 downhiU), pausing by the way to notice a 

 little group — a family party, it is reason- 

 able to guess — of golden-crowned kinglets. 

 One of them, the only one I see fully, has a 

 plain crown, showing neither black stripes 

 nor central orange patch. But for his un- 

 mistakable zee-zee-zee^ which he is consider- 

 ate enough to utter while I am looking at 

 him, he might be taken for a ruby-crown. 

 So the lover of beauty and the hobbyist 

 descend the hill together, keeping step 

 like inseparable friends. And so may it be 

 to the end of the chapter. 



