RUSTIC SOUNDS 3 



all over with the haft of the knife, which was held 

 by the blade. Then when the inner layer of the 

 bark was well bruised, it could be removed in one 

 piece. To effect this I was taught to hold it in my 

 handkerchief, and after a twist or two, a delicious 

 yielding was experienced and the bark slipped off. 

 The shiny white stick which remained in the other 

 hand had to be cut in half, shaved in a particular 

 way and again fitted into its bark tube. Then 

 came the exciting moment, — would the thing 

 whistle ? The joy was short lived, and the whistles 

 soon dried and shrank and ceased to satisfy the 

 artist. But it was always possible to make a new 

 one. 



Since the above description was written, there 

 has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement 

 (February 22, 1917, p. 90) a notice of the poems 

 of a Canadian writer^ from which the reviewer 

 quotes the following beautiful lines : 



" So in the shadow by the nimble flood. 

 He made her whistles of the willow wood, 

 Flutes of one note with mellow slender tone ; 

 (A robin piping in the dark alone). 

 Lively the pleasure was the wand to bruise, 

 And notch the light rod for its l5n-ic use, 

 Until the stem gave up its slender sheath. 

 And showed the white and glistening wood 



beneath. 

 And when the ground was covered with light chips, 

 Grev leaves and green, and twigs and tender 



slips," . . . 



* Liindy's Land, and other Poems, by Ehincan Campbell Scott, 

 Toronto. 



