28 Wilderness Ways. 



contentedly under the fly where it was dry and 

 comfortable. 



It was good to live there among them, with the 

 mountain at our backs and the lake at our feet, and 

 peace breathing in every breeze or brooding silently 

 over the place at twilight. Rain or shine, day or 

 night, these white-throated sparrows are the sunniest, 

 cheeriest folk to be found anywhere in the woods. I 

 grew to understand and love the Milicete name, Kil- 

 looleet, Little Sweet-Voice, for its expressiveness. 

 " Hour-Bird " the Micmacs call him ; for they say he 

 sings every hour, and so tells the time, " all same 's 

 one white man's watch." And indeed there is rarely 

 an hour, day or night, in the northern woods when 

 you cannot hear Killooleet singing. Other birds 

 grow silent after they have won their mates, or they 

 grow fat and lazy as summer advances, or absorbed 

 in the care of their young, and have no time nor 

 thought for singing. But not so Killooleet. He is 

 kinder to his mate after he has won her, and never lets 

 selfishness or the summer steal away his music ; for 

 he knows that the woods are brighter for his singing. 



Sometimes, at night, I would take a brand from the 

 fire, and follow a deer path that wound about the 

 mountain, or steal away into a dark thicket and strike 

 a parlor match. As the flame shot up, lighting its 



