206 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
them were “David and Dora” who seemed to see lit- 
tle but each other’s eyes. He, guarding her from the 
perils of the road with an arm about her waist, while 
she rested a hand lovingly on his knee. Some bare- 
footed children were traveling towards the city with 
little baskets of wild strawberries to sell. Nothing on 
the way showed more plainly its “ear marks” than a 
country school-house with its well-trodden grounds and 
little stone play-houses about it. By the road were 
holes in the dirt where the smaller children had made 
mud pies. The sides of the house had been whittled 
and marked by jack-knives, and a panel was broken 
out of the front door. Through this open door rows of 
children could be seen sitting on hard seats—harder 
than common these long summer days, with everything 
tempting them to come outside. The little schoolmam, 
with book and ruler in hand, stood before a class. Ev- 
idently she had a morning caller, as a woman wearing 
a bonnet sat in a chair near the door. Was she there 
to note the progress of her young hopefuls, or did she 
come to remonstrate against some chastisement for a- 
school offense? It is high time, Mr. Commissioners, 
for both teachers and scholars to be out of school en- 
joying the summer vacation. 
All along the way we heard robins singing, and as we 
passed meadows, bobolinks would start up out of the 
grass, flutter across the meadows or alight on telegraph 
poles, all the time singing us a welcome to the country. 
_ The most conspicuous bird at this season is the vesper 
sparrow, or grass finch. Although a field bird, he has 
