Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-06-16
the change Is TO come. is that it shall
come quickly.
Primitive Patch Near Washington.

Inere is little StOut-rOOfed,
stout-sided, one-roomed cabin on the
top of rocky hill overlooking the
Potomac river for many miles from
| Washington. 1t is fine place to
20 when the senate is discussing
the tariff. because the change gives
one full opportunity to learn that
there is something interesting and
beautiful left in this world of ours.
The soil Of the island hill on which
the cabin stands seemingly is poor but
from 1t the wild flowers spring readily
and the trees rise sturdily, finding
foothold and sustenance where both
seem impossible. The birds and sew.
eral species of mammals have claimed
the place for their own. but they have
shown no resentment of the intrusion
of the few persons who on occasion
seek out the spot, for the human visi'
Gors are kindly disposed toward all
forms of the wild life.
You tramp along smooth highway
to reach the base of the hill on which
the cabin stands. 1t is fine walk,
bordered with the things which nature
gives to man in the hope that he will
show appreciation; and she gives them
year after year, nothing discounte-
nanced by the fact that only one man
in fifty gives a nod of recognition for
her bounty.
The locusts and the tulip trees,
heavy with flowers and almost too
heavy with perfume, line part of the
way. Then there are cedars and dog
wood and sycamores and plane trees
and naples. The redbirds and the
Knockers and the catbirds and the
brown thrashers and the Carolina
wrens and the occasional meadow
larks, to say nothing of the humber
singers in homespun, find things to
their liking by the roadside.
Birds All Along the Way.
One traveller along the way who had
thought that the bird life Of the dis
trict- was not so abundant as the bird
life of other places. found himself in
gross pathological error Perhaps
there was congregation of the song
sters especially assembled to drive
home knowledge of the mistake, but,
be this as 1t may, the birds were there
in hundreds and every bird had a tune
In its throat.
Almost at the outset of the walk
along the road a robins note was
heard in a plane tree. Only the casual
eye was turned to the robin, for robins
and their notes are as plentiful in the
District of Columbia as they are in
northern Illinois, but it was not a
robin, it was hooking bird, which
somewhere had caught the "cheer-up"
note of our red-breasted friend, and
was trying it for himself
: He tried it three times and then
stopped to begin again, with the I'M
mistakable querulous, half-snarling
note that the catbird occasionally
throws into the midst of its music.
The mocker was dissatisfied, perhaps,
with his catbird performance, for he
stopped that as he had his robin song.
and then refused fatty to sing any
more.
The trail from the meadow to the
cabin on the hilltop mounts up and up
rocky climbing way, but it is over
cast with shade, and there Is no law
to forbid resting on every inviting
stone that marks the path. The last
of the wild flowers just now are bloom
ing. The blue spiderworts are every
where. The name is not attractive. but
the flower is.
Thick Moss and Ancient Trees.
The moss grows thick in places,
protective mat for much that seeming
ly needs no protection, for how can
weather hurt rock or tree trunk
that has stood the shocks of centuries?
Some of these trees were Here when
John Smith sailed up the Potomac in
the year Of grace 1908. The big trees
stand at distance one from another,
and there are little trees and rather
open underbrush in between.
Where the trail starts its mounting,
the ground is damp. There were the
Canadian warblers with their gold
fronts and their necklaces of black
beads. With them were the masked
Maryland yellowthroats. calling weird
~ 1lOuA TIC lAAthCtS. w ltCHtlNs
witchety, witchety." The Maryland
yellowthroat is one of the gems Of
birdland. 1t is exquisite In its color
ing and as exquisite in its manner, and
yet this bird for some reason lodged
well within its own breast, frequently
builds its summer home in the heart
of the despised skunk cabbage
From the cabin on the hill one looks
off across the country upon a primitive
forest. There are trees in 1t worth
while. 1t is one patch Of woodland
that has escaped the saw and the
ak, and If the temper of its present
owner holds, and if the temper of his
descendants are as his, 1t will escape
the saw and the ak for long years to
come.