he is replaced by his
brother, the Lazuli Bunting.

CHAPTER XVII

A MIDSUMMER EXCURSION

It was that wonderful week after the middle of June. The week that holds
the best of everything; the longest days of the whole fly-away year; the
biggest strawberries and the sweetest roses. Everything at its height;
birds in full song; bees in the flowers; children in hammocks under the
trees, and a Wise Man humming happily to himself as he breathed it all
in.

"I don't think that anything nicer than this can happen," said Nat,
swinging so hard in his hammock that he rolled out into the long grass.

"It doesn't seem as if it _could_" answered Dodo; "only here at Orchard
Farm there is so much niceness you never can tell what is the very
nicest."

The Wise Man laughed to himself, and then whistled an imitation of the
White-throated Sparrow's call--at which sound Dodo promptly rolled out
of her hammock and bumped into Nat, who was still lying in the grass;
then both the children sat up and listened.

"All day--whittling--whittling--whittling," whistled the notes.

"You ought to be further north building your nest," said Nat. "Don't you
know that, Mr. Peabody?"

"It's Uncle Roy!" cried Dodo, spying him back of the apple-tree perch.
"How would you like to go down to the seashore to-morrow, little
folks?"

"There!" exclaimed Dodo; "you see there is more niceness yet!"

"I suppose by that you mean 'yes,'" laughed the Doctor. "Olive and I
have planned to take the six-seated surrey, with a hamper of good things
to eat, and drive down to the sandy shore where the river broadens into
salt water. There is a house on the bay where we can have our dinner,
and the meadows and marshes are full of birds--don't quite smother me,
Dodo! Then in the cool of the afternoon we can return and have a picnic
supper at some pretty place on the way, for to-morrow night the moon is
full!"

"Can Rap go with us--for he hardly ever gets down to the shore?"

"Certainly!"

"How far is it?" asked Nat.

"About fifteen miles by the road, though not more than ten in a straight
line."

"Are the birds different down there?"

"Some of them are; there is a great colony of Blackbirds I want you to
see, for our next family is a very interesting one. It contains a
harlequin, a tramp, a soldier, a tent-maker, a hammock-maker, and a
basket-maker; and we shall probably see them all, sooner or later, but
certainly one or two of them to-morrow.

"