UNDER THE MAPLES 



lottesyille, Virginia, and drove about ten miles to 

 ,t^4e JCnol; fc the house is a big barnlike structure on 

 the edge of the woods, a mile from the nearest 

 farmhouse. 



Before we reached there we got out of the wagon 

 and walked, as there were a good many warblers in 

 the trees the spring migration was on. It was 

 pretty warm; I took off my overcoat and the 

 President insisted on carrying it. We identified 

 several warblers there, among them the black-poll, 

 the black-throated blue, and Wilson's black-cap. 

 He knew them in the trees overhead as quickly as 

 I did. 



We reached Pine Knot late in the afternoon, but 

 as he was eager for a walk we started off, he leading, 

 as if walking for a wager. We went through fields 

 and woods and briers and marshy places for a mile or 

 more, when we stopped and mopped our brows and 

 turned homeward without having seen many birds. 



Mrs. Roosevelt took him to task, I think, when 

 she saw the heated condition in which we returned, 

 for not long afterwards he came to me and said: 

 "Oom John, that was no way to go after birds; we 

 were in too much of a hurry." I replied, "No, Mr. 

 President, that isn't the way I usually go a-bird- 

 ing." His thirst for the wild and the woods, and 

 his joy at returning to these after his winter in the 

 White House, had evidently urged him on. He 

 added, "We will try a different plan to-morrow." 



102 



