A Thousand-Mile Walk 



the only significant disturbance or fright that 

 I got. 



In the morning everything seemed divine. 

 Only squirrels, sunbeams, and birds came 

 about me. I was awakened every morning by 

 these little singers after they discovered my 

 nest. Instead of serenely singing their morning 

 songs they at first came within two or three 

 feet of the hut, and, looking in at me through 

 the leaves, chattered and scolded in half-angry, 

 half-wondering tones. The crowd constantly 

 increased, attracted by the disturbance. Thus 

 I began to get acquainted with my bird neigh- 

 bors in this blessed wilderness, and after they 

 learned that I meant them no ill they scolded 

 less and sang more. 



After five days of this graveyard life I saw 

 that even with living on three or four cents a 

 day my last twenty-five cents would soon be 

 spent, and after trying again and again unsuc- 

 cessfully to find some employment began to 

 think that I must strike farther out into the 

 country, but still within reach of town, until 

 [78] 



