A FAST DAY PILGRIMAGE. 
209 
ment a bird appears. But the particular combination on 
this occasion was an ideal one, two against two and each 
pair dead set on their own loves. There is magic in the 
number four. As for pairs, you may make six of them, 
A and B, A and C, A and D, B and C, B and D, C andD ; 
and you may make three sets of double pairs, A B against 
C D, A C against B D, and A D against B C. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, all these combinations were effected at times. 
When real work was to be done the original pairs came 
together at once, the bird-loving pair to chase over fence 
and pasture with field-glass, the plant-loving pair to ply 
jacknife and pocket lens. 
Why is it that botanists are usually so lonesome ? Why 
are birds so much more attractive to most people than 
plants ? I suppose the reason must be that birds seem to 
have so much more life. This little brown creeper, pok¬ 
ing his way up the great elm tree, and when he has got 
to the top dropping to the base again and resuming his 
endless journeyings, he is certainly an object of intense in¬ 
terest. We love to watch him, earning his living by pa¬ 
tience and industry, and we admire the result of natural 
selection in his protective coloration. We can scarcely 
distinguish his little form from the elm bark, except when 
it happens to be projected against the green background 
of a lichen. In the field close by are yellow palm war¬ 
blers, incessantly flirting their tails. High up in air, float¬ 
ing rather than flying, is a red-shouldered hawk. If he is 
hungry and wants to catch his dinner, why does he scream 
so and scare the little birds away ? 
Yes, the creeper and the warbler and the hawk are full 
of life. But so are the plants, the trees and the grasses 
and all the tribe of rooted things, feeding on earth and also 
clothing its nakedness with robes of beauty. Did you ever 
think what this world of ours would be without plants ? 
It would be either a boundless desert or a boundless sea. 
