BLUE JAYS. 255 



commenced. How different now was their every 

 movement from the time that they counseled 

 together and took refuge in the cedar ! Now, 

 again, they are the blue jays that every country 

 lad well knows ; when I saw them but a short 

 time ago, they were almost as strangers to me. 

 It is something to have an outing during an Oc- 

 tober snow-storm ; when the next comes, let me 

 have blue jays again for company. 



It was two weeks later when I next saw the 

 same birds, and under widely different circum- 

 stances. November had accomplished much in 

 the way of marring the fair face of Nature. 

 Scarcely a leaf was left upon any tree except the 

 oaks, and the damp mist that veils the meadows 

 during November was never denser, gloomier, 

 and more forbidding than on the 8th of the 

 month. Long before sunrise I was out of doors, 

 and not a bird greeted me until I came to the 

 creek-bank, when out from gloomy depths came 

 the shrill scream that of itself is hideous, but at 

 such a time almost musical. I tried in vain to 

 locate the sound, but could not while the fog 

 lasted ; but this mattered little. All other birds 

 seemed depressed and moody. Not a sparrow 

 chirped until the sun made the world a little more 

 distinct ; not even a robin, if there were any about, 

 cared to salute such a sunrise. It was something 

 then to have one brave heart making merry, and 



