their wives, young men and their pros¬ 
pective wives, young mothers pushing 
baby carriages before them, and groups 
of little boys, washed and brushed and 
stiffly conscious of their best clothes. The 
whole cavalcade had a rural look; in the 
dress, and the manner of the people there 
was absolutely no suggestion of the 
rowdyism which in the neighborhood of 
cities too often robs our patriotic festi¬ 
vals of any suggestion of seemly rever¬ 
ence. The band played the old camp 
songs, and the old men and the little 
children sang together. For half an 
hour we could see the bright dresses pass 
in and out of the trees, as the procession 
climbed slowly to the hillside cemetery. 
We heard the band play “Nearer, My God 
to Thee,” and at last a bugle sounded 
“taps.” We could see in imagination 
the bared, bowed heads of the veterans, 
as they stood at t'he graves of old com¬ 
rades. My companion and I paddled on, 
better men for the sight which we had 
seen, and I for one was prepared to pass 
any number of soldiers’ monuments, with 
no other feeling than respect for the 
spirit of the communities which had 
erected them. 
The first of June marks the close of an 
ornithologist’s spring. The last migrants 
have passed; the first white daisy on some 
railroad embankment warns him that an¬ 
other^ summer has begun. From the first 
■bluebird in early March to the last black- 
poll in June, what a varied company have 
dropped from the darkness into our groves 
and dooryards, and after a little stay 
passed on. Those of us who know and wel¬ 
come them have been living a richer life for 
■the past ten weeks than our less fortunate 
friends. And yet, if there were no migrant 
birds, no rarities over which to grow ex¬ 
cited, the return of our own native birds, the 
■bursting and blooming of bird and flower, 
the greening of the fields, and our own in¬ 
definable quickening of life has made the 
season just past the essential part of a 
new year. To have shared my own pleas¬ 
ure in this happy season with known and 
unknown friends has bee.n in itself an 
added pleasure. 
