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Even the smooth white hand in which he held his hat and riding-whip had about it a certain plump kindliness which would best become a careless gesture of concession. And, after all, he looked but what he was a bland and generous gentleman, whose heart was as open as his wine cellar. A catbird was singing in one of the silver poplars, and he waited, with upraised head, for the song to end.
In that spot "the quaintly discontinuous lays" of the catbird were in perfection; one song especially was the best I ever heard, being louder and more clear than catbirds usually sing. As I turned to leave the grounds, the relieved parent, who had not relished my interest in his little folk, mounted a branch, and,
"Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is instruction in sacred music!" "'Tis a strange calling!" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, "to go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may happen to come out of other men's throats.
I do not vouch for that dropping between the windrows, as in my part of the country the bobolinks flee before the hay-makers, but that sudden stopping on the brink of rapture, as if thoughts of his helpless young had extinguished his joy, is characteristic. Another carefully studied description of Lowell's is this: "The robin sings as of old from the limb! The catbird croons in the lilac-bush!
It is as much a boy's business to play off his energies into space as it is for a flower to blow, or a catbird to sing snatches of the tunes of all the other birds.
The Indian name "Pokamp" or catbird had come to her mind shortly after her quarrel with Miss McMurtry during the afternoon. "Minerva," she now proposed faintly, "she was the Goddess of Wisdom." "Gracious no, that is worse than Martha to live up to!"
In a shrub near them, a catbird cleared his throat in a few harsh notes as a prelude to a morning of tuneful parody, and on the slope below, a fat autumn-plumaged robin dug frantically in the sod for fugitive worms. "My! Isn't it just peachy?" breathed John ecstatically. "Yes," assented his companion, intent upon the lesser spectacle of the robin.
The martins that built in his gourds on the tall pole had opened his eyes. The red and bluebirds, the thrush, the wren, the robin, the catbird, and song sparrows were his daily companions. A mocking-bird came at last to build her nest in a bush beside the garden, and her mate began to make the sky ring with his song.
Jasper inquired, as he raised his crest and snapped his bill together, looking as fierce as he could. Such conduct was enough to frighten any lady. And it was no wonder that Jasper's actions as well as his words sent Miss Kitty Catbird into a flutter of alarm. Her companions, however, told her there was no danger.
"If she would only keep still," I thought, "and I could simply look at her as at a draped statue, I could endure another half-hour; but every word she speaks is like the note of that catbird which broke the spell of harmony this morning. I have not yet seen a trace of ideality in her mind. Not a lovable trait have I discovered beyond her remarkable beauty, which mocks one with its broken promise.
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