"Some of you this summer during your vacation may go out to some
nearby strip of woods--what little is left of the old forest--in quest
of the warbler. Seek the wildest spots you can find. The Kentucky
bluegrass landscape is thin and tame now, but there are places of thick
undergrowth where the bird still spends his Kentucky summer. Shall I
give you my own experience as to where I found him when a boy half a
century ago? On my father's farm there was a woodland pasture. The
land dipped there into a marshy hollow. In this hollow was a stock
pond. Around the edges of the pond grew young cane. It was always low
because the cattle browsed it. The highest stalks were scarcely five
feet. On the edge of the canebrake a thicket of papaw and blackberry
vines added rankness and forest secrecy. It was here I discovered him.
The pale green and yellow of his plumage blent with the pale green and
yellow of the leaves and stalks. But it was many years before I knew
that the bird I had found was the Kentucky warbler. If I had only known
it when I was a boy!"
* * * * *
When Webster reached the turnpike and looked up and down, no one was in
sight. He sat on the fence and waited. By and bye, coming in from the
country, a spring wagon appeared. Curious projections stuck out from
the top and sides of boxes in the wagon. When it drew nearer Webster
saw poultry being taken to market. He looked at the driver but let him
pass unaccosted: there would be little use in applying for information
about warblers at headquarters for broilers.
Next from the direction of the city he saw coming a splendid open
carriage drawn by a splendid horse and driven by a very pompous
coloured coachman in livery. An aristocratic old lady sat in the
carriage, shielding her face from the dazzling sunlight with a rich
parasol. She leaned out and looked curiously at Webster.
"Suydam," she called out to her coachman with a voice that had the
faded sweetness of faded rose leaves, "did you notice that remarkable
boy? He looked as though he would have liked to drive with me out into
the country. I wish I had invited him to do so."
A milk cart followed with a great noise of tin cans. With milk carts
Webster felt somewhat at home: it was often his business to receive
the family milk. As the cart was passing, he motioned for the milkman
to stop. Perhaps all milkmen stop at any sign: there may be an order:
Webster called out with a good deal of hesitation:
"Do you know of a woods further out full of bushes and thickets?"
The milkman gave a little flap of the rein to his horse:
"What's the matter with _you_?" he said with patient forbearance:
Finally Webster saw creeping down the turnpike toward him an empty
wagon-bed drawn by a yoke of oxen. A good-natured young negro man sat
sideways on the wagon-tongue, smoking. Webster halted him by a gesture
and a voice of command:
"Do you know of a bushy woods further out?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account