102 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
back to March, and the water froze on the porch 
that night. We pooled our blankets and curled up 
together for warmth. 
At one A.M. a whip-poor-will began his loud night- 
song. He always sings as if he were wound up, and 
in a great hurry to finish his song before the mechan- 
ism runs down. Later, in the darkness, we heard the 
drumming like distant thunder of the ruffed grouse. 
One of our party claims that on this mountain the 
grouse always drum at four-thirty in the morning; 
and his stock as an accurate ornithologist went above 
par when we examined our watches and found that 
it was just half-past four. As the darkness turned 
to the dusk of dawn, the first day-song was the 
beautiful minor strain of the white-throated sparrow. 
“O Canada, Canada, Canada,” he fluted. Then 
came a snatch of the wheezing strain of the song 
sparrow. Finally, sweetest of all, sounded two or 
three tantalizing notes of the hermit thrush, pure, 
single, prolonged notes of wonderful sweetness, fol- 
lowed by two arpeggio chords. 
We were up and out before sunrise; for he who 
would find rare nests must look for them while the 
birds are laying or brooding. Four hours distant, 
back in Philadelphia, summer had come. Here the 
trees showed the green tracery of early spring, and the 
apple trees were still in blossom, while everywhere 
the woods were white with the long pure snow-petals 
of the shadblow. Some day we four are going to fol- 
low Spring north, bird’s-nesting all the way, until 
within the Arctic Circle we find her in mid-July. 
