thrush, her mate, I presume. He called, too, the usual "quee-o," but he
kept himself well out of sight; no reckless mother-love made him lose
his reason. Still, steadily though slowly, and with many pauses to
study out the next step, I progressed. The cry, often suppressed for
minutes at a time, was perceptibly nearer. The bank was rougher than
ever, but with one scramble I was sure I could reach my prize. I started
carefully, when a cry rang out sudden and sharp and close at hand. At
that instant the stone I had put faith in failed me basely and rolled:
one foot _went in_, a dead twig caught my hair, part of my dress
remained with the sharp end of a broken branch, I came to one knee (but
not in a devotional spirit); I struck the ground with one hand and a
brier-bush with the other, but I did not drop my glass, and I reached my
goal in a fashion.

I paused to recover my breath and give that youngster, who I was
persuaded was laughing at me all the time, a chance to lift up his voice
again. But he had subsided, while the mother was earnest as ever.
Perhaps I was too near, or had scared him out of his wits by my
sensational entry. While I was patiently studying every twig on the tree
from which the last cry had come, the slight flutter of a leaf caught my
eye, and there stood the long-sought infant himself.

He was a few feet below me. I could have laid my hands upon him, but he
did not appear to see me, and stood like a statue while I studied his
points. Mamma, too, was suddenly quiet; either she saw at last that my
intentions were friendly, or she thought the supreme moment had come,
and was paralyzed. I had no leisure to look after her; I wanted to make
acquaintance with her bairn, and I did. He was the exact image of his
parents; I should have known him anywhere, the same soft, tawny back,
and light under-parts, but no tail to be seen, and only a dumpy pair of
wings, which would not bear him very far. The feathers of his side
looked rough, and not fully out, but his head was lovely and his eye was
the wild free eye of a veery. I saw the youngster utter his cry. I saw
him fly four or five feet, and then I climbed the bank, hopeless of
returning the way I had come, pushed my way between detaining spruces,
and emerged once more on dry ground. I had been two hours on the trail.

I slipped into the house the back way, and hastened to my room, where I
counted the cost: slippers ruined, dress torn, hand scratched, toilet a