Travels in a Tree- top 43 



ting its legs drop, it descended with lead-like 

 rapidity. I leaned backward to avoid it, and 

 could have touched the bird when it reached 

 the ground, it was so near. I shall never 

 know which was the more astonished. Cer- 

 tainly, had it chosen, it could have stabbed 

 me through and through. 



I was glad to be again on drier land and in 

 open country. There had been adventure 

 enough ; and yet, as seen from a distance, 

 this bit of marsh was but weeds and water. 



Southward there stands the remnant of a 

 forest : second- and third-growth woodland 

 usually ; for trees of really great age are now 

 generally alone. I can see from where I sit 

 three primeval beeches that are known to 

 be over two centuries old, and not far away 

 towered one giant tulip-tree that since the 

 country's earliest settlement had stood like a 

 faithful sentinel, guarding the south bank of 

 a nameless spring brook. Ever a thing of 

 beauty, it shone with added splendor at night, 

 when the rising full moon rested in its arms, 

 as if weary at the very outset of her journey. 

 My grandfather told me that in his boyhood 

 it was known as the " Indian tree," because 

 a basket-maker and his squaw had a wigwam 



