father was a politician and had a frieze of the 
portraits of all of the presidents and many 'f 
the statesmen. We grew to know them and 
their place in our history very well. Soon the 
fans would fall from tired hands and interest 
in all things vanished until someone gently 
smoothed one’s hair and whispered that we must 
get freshened up for supper. 
Was there ever sweeter bread and butter, such 
luscious strawberries and such rich sweet cream? 
Never! Then the family would gather on the 
veranda to watch the sunset and its reflections 
in the water, or the moon casting its reflection 
like molten gold into the river. We could listen 
then to Nature’s nocturne, for on the opposite 
shore, somewhere in the hills, a whip-poor-will 
would plaintively call to his mate. On 
the island the bull-frogs would sing out 
in their deep bass tones. The cricket and 
the tree-frog would come in on their part of 
the score. Often times two or three row boats 
might be seen gliding over the shimmering 
water, and the strumming of a guitar and soft 
singing would float up to us from the river. 
Everything was atune to Nature. 
When we went to our rooms for the night, 
we could hear the flutter of chimney-swallows. 
Sometimes the night was made wierd with the 
ominous hoot of the owl and the voice of the 
screech owl. Occasionally the bark of a fox 
could be faintly heard; he had slunk out of the 
woods under cover of night. One felt that 
they could never go ten feet from the house 
again, but that fear vanished with the morning, 
and fresh interests were awakened. It was then 
that the song birds opened their throats and 
poured out such a ravishing melody of sound; 
with fragrance of roses and honey-suckle in 
the air and the early dawn tinging the hills and 
bringing in Tie life and beauty of the new day. 
Then Nature filled the heart with joy. The 
red-bird and the blue-bird made dashes of bright 
color in the green foliage. There too, were the 
greenfinch, the bullfinch and the goldfinch, the 
linnets, blackbirds, willow warbler, meadow lark, 
turtle-dove and oriole. The humming bird flitted 
lightly through the vines. 
On the river’s edge and out on the sand-bars, 
a favorite search was for clam-shells of various 
shapes and beautiful tints. One could trace them 
by a tiny groove they made in the sand in go¬ 
ing into deeper water. Turtles came out on the 
sand and rocks to sun themselves. Sometimes 
we would poke them on the back to see them 
stretch out their long necks and snap fiercely. 
Some of them were enormous in size and must 
have been very old. There was a pool on the 
island surrounded by reeds and literally filled 
with pollywogs, which resemble fidgety people, 
as the bullfrog resembled the pompous type. 
There was a hilly field, named for an old 
Indian chief, where there were many Indian 
mounds. We used to plead with one of the 
men to open one of the mounds, and tell him 
if he would, he would probably find a mummy 
which he could sell to a museum for a fortune, 
and not have to work any more. We coaxed 
in vain, told him that he was afraid of Indian 
spirits and their tomahawks and informed him 
that he need not be, for spirits were just air 
and could not harm him. In reality he was 
afraid of Grandfather, who would not allow the 
mound* to We disturbed.. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
There were many kinds of nuts—black wal¬ 
nuts, butter, hickory, hazel, and on the island, 
cultivated peanuts. There was an inclosed wood¬ 
ed field where beech-nuts lay thick on the ground, 
and pigs ran wild and at large- I should call 
that real beech-nut bacon. 
On the meadows were groups of great trees 
and the meadow grass was so soft and green 
and the odors of summer were so sweet one 
felt like lying down under the trees. One can 
sympathize with Robert Louis Stevenson in an 
experience of which he tells, how night overtook 
him on his way and he slipped into his sleeping- 
bag and lay down under the stars at the edge 
of a wood. He wakened in the morning, his 
face bathed with dew, and felt so refreshed that, 
as he started again on his journey, he scattered 
coin on his way to the amount of the price of 
a room in a fine hotel, praying that some worthy 
person in need would pick it up. It is the near¬ 
ness to rich warm Nature that makes one love it. 
Among the insects there were strange ants 
that lived in the disintegrated sand at the base 
of a sand-stone cliff. They were not co-operative 
or communistic, for each had his own little hill 
with a hole in the top about the size of a darn¬ 
ing needle. If one would stoop over and in 
a whisper call “doodle up,’’ three or four times, 
a little black head would come up and finally 
the ant would sit on top of his house. Then if 
one would say “doodle down” a few times, back 
he would go and disappear in the tiny hill. It 
never failed, and is an interesting mystery still. 
The humbleTmg seen in the highways is a 
strange study. Two of them will take a piece 
of soil and mold it into a compact ball as round 
as a large marble. They seem always to be 
rolling it along, one on either side. 
Of the flowers and trees, birds and bees, and 
Once upon a time a stranger meeting a man 
with a dog asked him what kind of a 
dog it was. The man replied, “It is half setter, 
sir.” 
“Well,” said the first man, “what’s the other 
half.” 
The second man looked puzzled awhile and 
then said, “Just plain dog, sah.” 
So I used to think that all dogs were “just 
plain dog, sah”; I have since learned that there 
were as many varieties in the character disposi¬ 
tions and intelligence of setters and pointers as 
there are in humanity. Of course, breeding and 
experience have as much to do with instilling 
what is known as “bird sense” into a dog as 
cultivation and inheritance have to do with hu¬ 
man beings. But certain dogs, like certain peo¬ 
ple, will show extraordinary aptitude for the 
work which they are asked to do. Thus some 
dogs will apparently require no training at all 
and will take to hunting instinctively. One dog 
for instance, will locate a covey of birds and 
then round them up until they are huddled to¬ 
gether and this he will do without any teaching 
at all, whereas, other dogs will require teaching 
each separate thing and will show but little bird 
sense, until he has been carefully drilled. Some 
trainers only teach their dogs to “down charge,” 
that is, to lie down when spoken to, in order 
567 
the life of the river I can give only an impression, 
for their variety and number is legion. 
There was a bank of fine clay on the place. 
One night, after several years, have seen rem¬ 
nants of a children’s pottery. The shapes were 
not very artistic, but the spirit of the potter and 
the sculptor was enthusiastic. There used to 
be set up, to dry and bake in the sun, all sorts 
of dishes, pots and kettles, and statues of every 
one we knew—they all looked alike. If we 
molded one of someone we did not like we put 
on a big nose, big ears, big hands and feet, and 
stood it on its head to bake so that it would 
have a flat head. 
There was lovely white sand on the river 
shore, but nothing I can remember was such a 
delight as the bank of clay. We did not develop 
that talent; but afterward, when I read how 
Michael Angelo loved to work in clay, one un¬ 
derstood why he said that his day model was 
life, the plaster cast death, and the finished 
marble statue resurrection. 
While the hills along the valleys were covered 
with forests, the floods were not destructive and 
left a deposit of silt on the low lands that fer¬ 
tilized the land and made it wonderfully pro¬ 
ductive. Gradually the forests were cut away 
and the silt was mixed with white sand. A few 
years ago a disastrous flood rushed through the 
valley, leaving in some places ten inches of white 
sand that ruined the soil. Last March a terrible 
flood swept through that country, hundreds of 
homes were destroyed and all of the fine bridges 
were swept away. 
Perhaps men will in time grow wise and give 
Nature a chance to grow more forests, and a 
hundred years hence the history of the beautiful 
valley will be repeated. 
to prevent them from “breaking fire,” that is, 
rushing after the scattered birds and flushing 
them before the gunner arrives. Good retrievers, 
especially natural retrievers will not only fetch 
birds but will stand on their hind legs and hand 
the bird to their masters when the gunner shoots 
from horseback and they will never leave a 
wounded bird until it is found and safely de¬ 
livered. 
I once took a very young setter out and he 
pointed a bird ahead of an older dog. I killed 
the bird and he dropped just beyond a small 
creek. The puppy swam over the creek and 
brought the bird to the edge. He attempted 
three times to swim over with the bird in his 
mouth but finally gave it up as much as to 
say: “I won’t drown for you or your bird.” 
Far the most delightful feature of hunting in 
the opinion of the writer is to watch the extreme 
intelligence shown by certain dogs. A story is 
told of two hunters meeting in the road and 
stopping for a chat. After some little time, one 
of them called the other’s attention to the fact 
that his dog had found a covey of birds and 
was pointing. The owner of the dog paid not 
the slightest attention to him but went on talk¬ 
ing. After waiting some time his attention was 
again called but he still took no notice of it. 
(Continued on page 578.) 
Bird Dogs and Their Habits 
By P. Porchers. 
