STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



As affording 

 some light on the 

 popular name of "thrash- 

 er," I might mention the 



remark of a certain matter-of-fact rustic who answered my query 

 for enlightenment on the subject. "Some fokes sez it's becuz 

 he's aliz a-thrashin' around so in the bushes, 'n' others sez it's 

 becuz he's ferever tellin' uv' em to 'thrash it, thrash it!' But 

 thet's all puppy-cut; he sez enny thing you like? What would this 

 unconverted heretic say to the " Peverly bird," that won this local 

 christening as a tribute from a perplexed husbandman hesitating 

 at his choice of crops: "Sow wheat, Peverly, Peverly" a refrain 

 which is vouched for by many discriminating listeners. Yet there 

 are other heretics who aver that this is all " puppy-cut," and that 

 the little white-throated sparrow in reality voiced a reproof to old 

 Peverly which he wouldn't own : "All day whittling, whittling, 

 whittling." 



