2 24 '^ B"^'^ LAND. 



" No," he responded innocently, as if my humble 

 remembrance would confer an honor upon him ; 

 " whenever you see that bird hereafter, you will 

 think of me, won't you? " I told him I should ; and 

 that evening in the marsh, a year later, I kept my 

 tryst with memory, while tears, half sad, half glad, 

 dimmed my eyes. 



But hark ! A little farther on, from the sparse 

 bushes of a grassy bank, came the swinging treble 

 of a white-throated sparrow, like a votive offering. 

 What enchantment possessed the birds that evening ? 

 Had Orpheus with his miracle-working harp come 

 back to earth? I was half tempted to believe for 

 the nonce in the transmigration of souls, for the' 

 notes drifted so sadly sweet on the still air, as if 

 the fabled minstrel had indeed returned to mundane 

 realms. Among the thick clusters of weeds and 

 bushes that fringed a railway, which I pursued in my 

 homeward walk, many birds were going to roost, — 

 sparrows, warblers, red-winged blackbirds, and car- 

 dinal grossbeaks. My passing along alarmed them, 

 and sent them dashing from their leafy couches. 



Thus the afternoon passed. I had not, perhaps, 

 learned as many new things about my kinsmen in 

 plumes as on many other rambles, but I had dis- 

 covered the secret of appreciation ; that the mind 

 must be unharassed by carking care or depressing 

 sorrow to win the best from Nature. Give me a 

 lightsome heart, and I will trudge with any pedestrian. 

 Give me a heavy heart, and the weight clings to the 

 soles of my feet like barnacles to a ship's bottom. 



