86 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



ing within an eighth of a mile of me on the 

 curved beach. Noticing that some of the birds 

 had risen from among the grasses above the line 

 of wave -washed sand, I lay down upon the 

 ground, with the hope that some of them might 

 return, and perhaps come near me. Scarcely 

 had my outlines blended with the contour of the 

 shore when the clear " peep, peep, peep " of the 

 little teeterers was heard on both sides, as they 

 came in from distant points along the shore. 

 Sometimes twenty birds were in sight at once, 

 flying low over the water, apparently guided by 

 a common impulse to gain the part of the beach 

 near which I was concealed. I lay motionless, 

 my head resting upon my arm, only a few inches 

 above the sand. As I lay thus, the grasses rose 

 like slender trees against the pale tinting of the 

 August sky, and lake, distant hill, and sky all 

 took on .more emphatic tones, and appeared to 

 have firmer and more significant outlines. 



Slowly the light faded, and the line of clear- 

 est color shrank to narrower and narrower lim- 

 its along the distant hills. I had almost forgot- 

 ten the birds, although small squads of them 

 kept passing, or wheeling in upon the shining 

 edge of wet sand nearest me. Suddenly a white 

 object glided among the grass stems, only a few 

 feet from my face. It paused and teetered, then 

 slid along out of sight into a thicket of grasses. 



