BIRCH BROWSINGS 167 
found us out, and after the fire had gone down 
annoyed us much. My hands and wrists suddenly 
began to smart and itch in a most unaccountable 
manner. My first thought was that they had been 
poisoned in some way. Then the smarting ex- 
tended to my neck and face, even to my scalp, 
when I began to suspect what was the matter. So, 
wrapping myself up more thoroughly, and stowing 
my hands away as best I could, I tried to sleep, 
being some time behind my companions, who ap- 
peared not to mind the “no-see-ems.” I was fur- 
ther annoyed by some little irregularity on my side 
of the couch. The chambermaid had not beaten it 
up well. One huge lump refused to be mollified, 
and each attempt to adapt it to some natural hol- 
low in my own body brought only a moment’s re- 
‘lief. But at last I got the better of this also and 
slept. Late in the night I woke up, just in time 
to hear a golden-crowned thrush sing in a tree near 
by. It sang as loud and cheerily as at midday, and - 
I thought myself after all, quite in Iuck. Birds 
occasionally sing at night, just as the cock crows. | 
I have heard the hairbird, and the note of the\ 
kingbird; and the ruffed grouse frequently drums ; 
at night, . 
At the first faint signs of day a wood-thrush sang, 
a few rods below us. Then after a little delay, as 
the gray light began to grow around, thrushes broke 
out in full song in all parts of the woods. I thought 
I had never before heard them sing so sweetly. 
Such a leisurely, golden chant! — it consoled us for 
