looking vehicle. Two of her carriage wheels were
gone, and between the remaining two the lady was perched. At sight of
it I was immediately reminded of the queer thing that Johnny Morris
rode which the admiral had described to us and called a "wheel." I
felt sure that this was the same kind of a machine. The lady looked
neither to the right nor to the left, but her glance was fixed intently
on the road before her.

Farther along another lady leaned against the fence awaiting her
approach. As she bowled along the friend asked enthusiastically: "Is
it not splendid?"

The rider called back to her: "It is grand! It is almost as if I were
flying. I know now how a bird feels."

Think of comparing the sensation produced by moving that heavy iron
machine, with the rider but three feet from the ground, to the
exhilaration felt by a bird spurning the earth and soaring on delicate
wing through the fields of heaven! It was truly laughable!

Our amusement was cut short, however, when we noticed that the lady's
hat was decorated with a dead dove.

"Can we never get away from this millinery exhibition of death?" I
exclaimed in horror.

"No," said my mother sorrowfully. "The god, Fashion, I told you of has
his slaves all over the land. We will find them wherever we go, north,
south, east, and west. No town is too small, no neighborhood too
remote, but there will be found women ready to carry out his cruel
laws."

Had we not been haunted by this vision of death which we were
constantly meeting wherever women were congregated, we might have been
happy in the fair land of rose blossoms and magnolias where we now
sojourned. The air was soft and balmy, and the atmosphere filled us
with a serene, restful languor quite new to those who had been
accustomed to the brisker habits of a colder clime. Besides the birds
there were many human visitors from the North spending the winter
months here. Some sought this warmer climate for their health, others
for pleasure, and these also soon fell into the easy-going,
happy-go-lucky ways induced by the sluggish climate.

Among the birds the waxwings most readily acquired this delightful
Southern habit of taking life easy. In fact the waxwings are inclined
to be lazy, except when they are nesting; they are the most deliberate
creatures one can find, but very foppish and neat in their dress.
Never will you find a particle of dust on their silky plumage, and the
pretty red dots on t