A Thousand-Mile W alk 
the only significant disturbance or fright that 
I got. 
In the morning everything seemed divine. 
Only squirrels, sunbeams, and birds came 
about me. I was awakened every morning by 
these little singers after they discovered my 
nest. Instead of serenely singing their morning 
songs they at first came within two or three 
feet of the hut, and, looking in at me through 
the leaves, chattered and scolded in half-angry, 
half-wondering tones. The crowd constantly 
increased, attracted by the disturbance. Thus 
I began to get acquainted with my bird neigh- 
bors in this blessed wilderness, and after they 
learned that I meant them no ill they scolded 
less and sang more. 
After five days of this graveyard life I saw 
that even with living on three or four cents a 
day my last twenty-five cents would soon be 
spent, and after trying again and again unsuc- 
cessfully to find some employment began to 
think that I must strike farther out into the 
country, but still within reach of town, until 
[ 78 ] 
