34 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



wheedle, too-wheedle, too-wheedle, " like a creaking 

 wheelbarrow, and then suddenly broke out into the 

 flat, harsh "Djay, djay, djay" which has given the 

 silver-and-blue jay its name. 



By the time I had reached home, I decided that it 

 was too cold a day to practise law safely. The state 

 legislature in their wisdom had already made the day 

 a half -holiday. Not to be outdone in generosity, I 

 decided to donate my half and make the holiday a 

 whole one. Anent this matter of holidays, the 

 trouble with most of us is that we are obsessed with 

 the importance of our daily work. There are many 

 pleasant byways which we plan to come back and 

 explore when we have reached the end of the straight, 

 steep, and intensely narrow road that leads to 

 achievement. The trouble is that there is no return- 

 ing. Men die rich, famous, or successful, who have 

 never taken the time to companion their children or 

 to find their way into the world of the wild-folk 

 which lies at their very doors. It was not always so. 

 Read in Evelyn's Diary how for sixty years a great 

 man played a great part under three kings and the 

 grim Protector, and yet never lost an opportunity 

 to refresh his life with bird-songs, hilltops, flower- 

 fields, and sky-air. We reach our goal to-day in a 

 few desperate years, stripped to the buff like a 

 Marathon runner. One can arrive later and not miss 

 a thousand little happinesses along the way. 



With similar arguments I convinced myself on that 

 day, that it was my duty as an amateur naturalist 

 to discover how many birds I could meet between 



