102 The Pond-Meadow. 



swamp-oak and a young cedar, by placing a rail, that I 

 found in the grass, from one to the other. It was flat and 

 solidly fixed in the trees, and withal made a confortable 

 seat, where I might go in the late afternoon, and look over 

 the meadow. Perched above the grass as I was, I received 

 only the partial attention of the mosquitoes, though now 

 and then one flew away heavily laden. 



From my perch the masts of the vessels on the Sound 

 were visible in the distance among the trees, and anon they 

 would appear across the open meadow, and move along as 

 if they glided through the grass itself. The large flowered 

 Sabbatia starred the grass in August at the base of the 

 tree, and meadow mice often rummaged about among 

 the pink blossoms. A catbird lit on the perch beside me, 

 one afternoon, a yard away, but it staid only a moment. 

 Once a white-eyed vireo came within arm's length, ex- 

 asperated that after all its scolding I had not become 

 afraid and gone away. The chickadees also visited the 

 oak tree, and in addition to the note from whence they get 

 their name, and the plaintive long-drawn / — d, gave expres- 

 sion to those more conversational utterances that they 

 bestow upon one another. Thus they said very plainly, 

 and as it were with a jerk, we-three, we-three, and such-as- 

 we, such-as-we. The chickadee is commonly a preoccupied 

 bird; is always busy about its own affairs, and gives you 

 but little heed. One chickadee is a cure for the blues ; the 

 only time that it becomes plaintive is when it utters its 

 / — d note, chiefly in the gladsome and sunny hours of 

 Spring. 



At times a night-hawk appeared against the sun-set sky, 



