_Page_ _Travels in a Tree-top_ 9 _A Hunt for the Pyxie_ 61 _The Coming of the Birds_ 71 _The Building of the Nest_ 83 _Corn-stalk Fiddles_ 97 _The Old Kitchen Door_ 103 _Up the Creek_ 109 _A Winter-Night’s Outing_ 119 _Wild Life in Water_ 125 _An Old-fashioned Garden_ 133 _An Indian Trail_ 147 _A Pre-Columbian Dinner_ 155 _A Day’s Digging_ 167 _Drifting_ 173 _Footprints_ 187 _Bees and Buckwheat_ 195 _Dead Leaves_ 203 ILLUSTRATIONS _Page_ _An Old-fashioned Garden_ Frontispiece By Alice Barber Stephens _The Chesapeake Oak_ 22 _The Old Drawbridge, Crosswick’s 116 Creek_ _The Camp-Fire_ 187 [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER FIRST _TRAVELS IN A TREE-TOP_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A pearly mist shut out the river, the meadows, and every field for miles. I could not detect the ripple of the outgoing tide, and the heartiest songster sent no cheerful cry above the wide-spreading and low-lying cloud; but above all this silent, desolate, and seemingly deserted outlook there was a wealth of sunshine and a canopy of deep-blue sky. Here and there, as islands in a boundless sea, were the leafy tops of a few tall trees, and these, I fancied, were tempting regions to explore. Travels in a tree-top—surely, here we have a bit of novelty in this worn-out world.