272 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



less collegiate English, I have been vainly en- 

 deavoring to say. 



And to be a " peach " is a fine thing. A viva- 

 cious living essayist, it is true, who is probably 

 a handsome man himself, at least in the looking- 

 glass, declares that " male ugliness is an endear- 

 ing quality." The remark may be true — in a 

 sense ; by all means let us hope so, seeing how 

 lavish Nature has been with the commodity in 

 question ; but I am confident that the female 

 vermilion flycatcher would never admit it. As 

 for her glorious dandy of a husband, there can 

 be no doubt what opinion he would hold of such 

 an impudent reflection upon feminine perspica- 

 city and taste. " A plague upon paradoxes and 

 aphorisms," I hear him answer. " If fine feathers 

 don't make fine birds, what in Heaven's name 

 do they make ? " 



It was only two days after my discovery of the 

 vermilion flycatcher (if I remember correctly I 

 was at that moment on my way to enjoy a third 

 or fourth look at him) that I first saw a very 

 different but scarcely less interesting novelty. I 

 was on the sidewalk of Main Street, in the busy 

 part of the day, my thoughts running upon a 

 batch of delayed letters just received, when sud- 

 denly I looked up (probably I had heard a voice 

 without being conscious of it, for the confirmed 



