THE INSPIRING SPARROWS. 



29 



they are not unsuited to his disposition as a rambler, 

 and it is upon no fool's errand that you go if you 

 follow the swamp-sparrow wheresoever it may lead 

 you. I have in mind the long-weathered stump of 

 an old water-birch that once was a landmark in the 

 mucky meadow at home. The tall cat-tail and wild 

 rice and rose-mallow clustered about it in summer, 



Swamp-sparrow. 



and here, or as near as I could get, I would often 

 stop to hear the swamp-sparrow that made it his 

 favorite outlook and sang his few pretty notes which, 

 as all agree, are most appropriately watery notes : 

 drops of water that, falling, break into music. It 

 is useless to hunt or fight even for similes. It is 

 enough to know that the swamp-sparrow pleases all 

 who listen. Just how and in what measure one 



3* 



