[Transcriber's Note: In this text, the spelling _racoon_ is used consistently instead of _raccoon_. I have kept this and any other unusual spellings, retaining the character of the original.] Roof and Meadow By Dallas Lore Sharp Author of "A Watcher in the Woods" With Illustrations By Bruce Horsfall SCHOOL EDITION [Illustration] NEW YORK The Century Co. 1911 Copyright, 1903, 1904, by THE CENTURY CO. Copyright, 1902, 1903, by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. Copyright, 1903, by THE CHAPPLE PUBLISHING CO. (Ltd.). Copyright, 1902, 1903, by W.W. POTTER CO. (Ltd.). Copyright, 1902, 1903, by PERRY MASON COMPANY _Published April, 1904._ TO MY MOTHER CONTENTS PAGE BIRDS FROM A CITY ROOF 1 THE HUNTING OF THE WOODCHUCK 19 THREE SERMONS 31 THE MARSH 45 CALICO AND THE KITTENS 77 THE SPARROW ROOST 91 "MUX" 107 RACOON CREEK 121 THE DRAGON OF THE SWALE 147 BIRDS FROM A CITY ROOF [Illustration] ROOF AND MEADOW BIRDS FROM A CITY ROOF I laid down my book and listened. It was only the choking gurgle of a broken rain-pipe outside: then it was the ripple and swish of a meadow stream. To make out the voices of redwings and marsh-wrens in the rasping notes of the city sparrows behind the shutter required much more imagination. But I did it. I wanted to hear, and the splash of the water helped me. The sounds of wind and water are the same everywhere. Here at the heart of the city I can forget the tarry pebbles and painted tin whenever my rain-pipes are flooded. I can never be wholly shut away from the open country and the trees so long as the winds draw hard down the alley past my window. But I have more than a window and a broken rain-pipe. Along with my five flights goes a piece of roof, flat, with a wooden floor, a fence, and a million acres of sky. I couldn't possibly use another acre of sky, except along the eastern horizon, where the top floors of some twelve-story buildings intercept the dawn. With such a roof and such a sky, when I must, I can, with effort, get well out of the city. I have never fished nor botanized here, but I have been a-birding many times. Stone walls do not a prison make, nor city streets a cage--if one have a roof. A roof is not an ideal spot for bird study. I would hardly, out of preference, have chosen this with its soot and its battlement of gaseous chimney-pots, even though it is a university roof with the great gilded dome of a state house shining down upon it. One whose feet have always been in the soil does not take kindly to tar and tin. But anything open to the sky is open to some of the birds, for the paths of many of the migrants lie close along the clouds.