The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-05-03
bright pebbles out of the shadowy

bright pebbles out of the shadowy
ABYSS of the wilderness, bearing the |.
light, laughing voice of its mother
fountain amid the hills. When the /
weather was calm it mixed its music
with the stiffness of the lake, but when
the hoarse tumult of the latter arose its
sylvan voice was laid, and its ripples
ran hushed from the sounding deep OF
the wilderness to the answering deep |
of the wave Where the waters joined
was safe haven for my boat, with a
neighboring ledge ON which, when not
in use, the canoe lay bottom upward,
its rounding yellow keel marked with
pitch, showing where the leaks, which |
it had got in many a buffeting rapid,
and from many hidden rock, had been
mended. A wild duck had brought |
forth its brood in some hiding place
near by, and Ioften saw them ahoat in
their secure and sheltered haven, the
mother bird anxious and watchful, and
the little ducklings clustered about her
in a golden group. They had learned
early the various significance of the
maternal language. Ii it announced /
food, they came quick to its call; if It'll
shrilled forth note of alarm, they
dropped under water like plummets,
reappearing timidly after a little, one
after another, at a distance from
the place where they had sunk.
| often watched them from the shore,
and they at length SCENE to learn that
| intended them no harm, and rode their
bright water ways without needing me.
A sloping ledge of loose stones not
far away was the fastness and city OF a
colony of ground squirrels. At first
they were very wild and disappeared
within the crevices and labyrinths of
their fertilization whenever they saw
me, with many a ch-r-r and many
squeaking note of alarm. But they
soon grew tame. They had little rat
like heads, with protruding eyes of ex-
ceeding brightness, like polished beads
of jet. Along their backs ran narrow
bits of black, which ended in q some
what meao er and denuded tail. Though
only useful to sit down upon, it was
sometimes hourished with an ostenta-
ton quite out of harmony with its pre-
tensions as an ornament. Except the
hawks by day and the owls by night
there were no visible enemies to mo-
lest them, and they bore the signs of
thrifty and forehanded commonwealth.
Within the granaries of their Petr8a |
doubt not they had beech nuts and
acorns stored and other prevent gath
cred from the abundant woods, and
secure behind their entertainments
cou d defy the winter as they defied the
beaks and talons of their enemies of TIE
air. Amid the indolent and IMPROVE
dent populations which lived from hand
to mouth on the bounty of the wilder
ness, they alone, with the emulous bee,
droning at. the porches of blackberry
blossoms, or lolling lazily in the fra
grant vestibules of the honeysuckles'
chambers, illustrated the principle of
thrift and forecast, and challenged my
respect as an economist, as well as my
admiration as neighbor and an amateur
naturalist.
The hedges of the whortleberries,
which grew here and there in the inter-
spaces of the rock, drew the passing
attention of wild pigeons. They came
in fiocks, descending with whirr, but
rose again and wheeled away as soon as
they caught sight of the tent and its oc-
cupants. A wood dove, never seen,
but heard, like an Embodied complain
ing int the air, uplifted its plaintivc voice
amid the tree tops. Now and then
kingfisher, blue as the waves beneath
Or the sky above him, flew past, chat
tering as he went. Far off in the
woods pounded the drum of the par
fridge. Above me, head downward,
hung the woodpecker, with beak of
iron and foppish crest of crimson-su-
perhuous ornament of SO practical
bird. Like the music of the blacksmith,
its notes was the stern litany of labor
"a sturdy rhythm, demanding rather
than supplicating daily bread, or white
borders and woodworms, which in its
case came to the same thing. In the
night season came the owls long cry
answering the laughter of the looms, a
dismal clamor which | could never
hear without dread. Laughter so va
cant of mirth is only to be heard in
maniac's chambers.
What were those small feathered Wis
itors which balanced themselves on
slender sprays and twigs, sc near to my
hammock, and poured forth their mel
low monotone of song? They were yell
low, with black wings, and beaks and
tail feathers of q brownish hue, ged
with sable. A humble bird, earth-col-
ored, and very tame, built its nest upon
the ground, and perched upon a bush
above it guarding three speckled eggs.
1t had but a solitary note, nor did it ut
ter that frequently, but sat upon its
twig, tutt of brown silence yearning
above the cradle of its unborn chicks.
On the little rock islands, which were
the cyclades of the peninsula, dotting
the water for space beyond the limits