BIRCH BROWSINGS 



partaken sparingly of the bread and whiskey, 

 which in such an emergency is a great im- 

 provement on bread and water, I agreed to 

 their proposition that we should make an- 

 other attempt. As if to reassure us, a robin 

 sounded his cheery call near by, and the 

 winter wren, the first I had heard in these 

 woods, set his music-box going, which fairly 

 ran over with fine, gushing, lyrical sounds. 

 There can be no doubt but this bird is one 

 of our finest songsters. If it would only 

 thrive and sing well when caged, like the 

 canary, how far it would surpass that bird ! 

 It has all the vivacity and versatility of the 

 canary, without any of its shrillness. Its 

 song is indeed a little cascade of melody. 



We again retraced our steps, rolling the 

 stone, as it were, back up the mountain, 

 determined to commit ourselves to the line 

 of marked trees. These we finally reached, 

 and, after exploring the country to the 

 right, saw that bearing to the left was still 

 the order. The trail led up over a gentle 

 rise of ground, and in less than twenty 

 minutes we were in the woods I had passed 

 through when I found the lake. The error 

 I had made was then plain ; we had come 

 off the mountain a few paces too far to the 

 III 



