42 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



pervades the atmosphere of these dead days that tells upon 

 mice as well as men. I may fairly claim a liking for the 

 outdoor world, yet I thought constantly to-day of the 

 comforts of a shelter, and regretted that I had wandered 

 so far from home. Nor would I have remained until the 

 day closed had not a hollow sycamore offered me a safe if 

 not very commodious quarter, from which I could see the 

 river and a fair sample of the deserted shores. But, as so 

 often happens, I reckoned rashly. It were a different mat- 

 ter whether one walked or sat, and now that I had a house 

 I felt the need of a fire. This, to be sure, was quickly 

 provided, and only to find that with its warmth I must 

 take the smoke, and through the latter the dismal river 

 was a still more doleful sight. Thus, the misfortune 

 of being so dependent drove me from my new-found 

 shelter, and, filled with disgust, I turned my steps home- 

 ward. 



I had not gone ten paces, however, before a solitary 

 blue heron, fearless of the smoldering fire, settled by the 

 river's edge, and solemnly stalked along the narrow beach, 

 passing by with so much dignity that I could scarcely keep 

 from laughing. It was indulging in vain regrets, I fan- 

 cied, that it had chosen to winter so far north. But perhaps 

 the poor fellow was rheumatic and dared not venture on 

 a migratorial flight. It is well to fortify this statement 

 with a convenient " perhaps," for the measured flapping 

 of the heron's wings, as it came down the river, and no 

 less measured tread as it paced the lonely shore, hardly 

 warranted such a suggestion. 



"When I left the heron, it was perched upon an uplifted 

 branch of a ghost-like, stranded tree that for years had 

 been bleaching in the storms and sunshine of the up-river 

 region ; and as I hurried toward my boat at the ford, time 

 after time I looked back to see it still standing with its 

 head resting upon its breast, its wings drooping, the very 





