Drifting 181 



go for nothing. " Sou-east" and " sou-west" 

 are forever rung in your ears, but never a word 

 of the north. Sometimes I have thought it 

 may be for this reason that about half the 

 time the farmer is all wrong, and the heaviest 

 rains come when he is most sure that the day 

 will be clear. 



Looking upward, for the sky was clear in 

 that direction now, I saw that there were birds 

 so far above me that they appeared as mere 

 specks. Very black when first seen, but oc- 

 casionally they flashed as stars seen by day 

 from the bottom of a well. They could not 

 be followed, except one that swept swiftly 

 earthward, and the spreading tail and curve 

 of wings told me it was a fish-hawk. What 

 a glorious outlook from its ever-changing 

 point of view ! From its height, it could 

 have seen the mountains and the ocean, and 

 the long reach of river valley as well. If the 

 mists obscure it all, why should a bird linger 

 in the upper air ? The prosy matter of food- 

 getting has nothing to do with it. While in 

 camp on Chesapeake Bay, I noticed that the 

 fish-hawks were not always fishing, and often 

 the air rang with their strange cries while 

 soaring so far overhead as to be plainly seen 

 16 



