xii INTRODUCTION 
ness. Such in a great measure has been my own 
ease. My first book, “ Wake-Robin,” was written 
while I was a government clerk in Washington. It 
enabled me to live over again the days I had passed 
with the birds and in the scenes of my youth. I 
wrote the book sitting at a desk in front of an iron 
wall. I was the keeper of a vault in which many 
millions of bank-notes were stored. During my 
long periods of leisure I took refuge in my pen. 
How my mind reacted from the iron wall in front 
of me, and sought solace in memories of the birds 
and of summer fields and woods! Most of the 
chapters of “Winter Sunshine” were written at 
the same desk. The sunshine there referred to is 
of a richer quality than is found in New York or 
New England. 
Since I left Washington in 1873, instead of an 
iron wall in front of my desk, I have had a large 
window that overlooks the Hudson and the wooded 
heights beyond, and I have exchanged the vault for 
a vineyard. Probably my mind reacted more vigor- 
ously from the former than it does from the latter. 
The vineyard winds its tendrils around me and 
detains me, and its loaded trellises arg more pleas- 
ing to me than the closets of greenbacks. 
The only time there is a suggestion of an iron 
wall in front of me is in winter, when ice and snow 
have blotted out the landscape, and I find that it is 
in this season that my mind dwells most fondly 
