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Updated: August 16, 2024
The plaintive rain cry of a whippoorwill from the branches of a dead tree across the river, and the whispering "peep, peep, peep," of the sleepy robins in the foliage near the house, helped to deepen her feeling of disappointment, and she was thoroughly miserable. She tried to peer through the gloaming, and feared her father and mother would mark her troubled eagerness and guess its cause.
The true cause of these irregular visits is probably the accidental abundance of a particular kind of insects, which the bird has followed from his retirement. I believe the Whippoorwill, in this part of the country, is first heard in May, and continues vocal until the middle of July.
Presently out of the soft shadowed stillness, broken by the note of a vagrant whippoorwill, crept out from Maximilian Cour's old violin the music of 'The Baffled Quest of Love'. The baker was not a great musician, but he had a talent, a rare gift of pathos, and an imagination untrammelled by rigorous rules of harmony and construction.
So I sat for a time last evening on my porch. The cool, still night had fallen sweetly after the burning heat of the day. I heard all the familiar sounds of the night. A whippoorwill began to whistle in the distant thicket. Harriet came out quietly I could see the white of her gown and sat near me. I heard the occasional sleepy tinkle of a cowbell, and the crickets were calling.
Not a sound smote the stillness of the night. Presently, however, from some tree not far away a whippoorwill suddenly sent out his vociferous notes, complaining again and again of the severe punishment "poor Will" might expect. The cabin was now close at hand. Frank could see that the door was ajar, as though inviting the passerby to enter without the formality of knocking. "Huh!"
All nature seemed to have gone to rest; not a whippoorwill chanted nor an owl hooted about the old buildings. Before long Catherine fell peacefully asleep. Theodora, however, who was rather ill at ease in these wild surroundings, had determined to stay awake, and lay listening to the crickets in the grass under the "saloon." But crickets make drowsy music, and at last she, too, dropped asleep.
Close behind him came a pair of tanagers. The female Tory did not recognize until Memory Frean explained that she was a dull green olive in color, unlike her brilliant, scarlet-coated husband. In fact, Tory and Miss Frean did not go indoors until, from somewhere deep in the woods, a whippoorwill began his evening call.
In a moment he had come up, and promptly halted me. "Ah! that's you, Surry!" he exclaimed with a laugh, "wandering about here in the Wilderness! What news?" I reported the state of things in front, and Stuart exclaimed: "All right; we are ready for them! Coon Hollow is evacuated head-quarters are in the saddle! Hear that whippoorwill! It is a good omen. Whip 'em well!
The true nocturnal birds, of which the Owl and the Whippoorwill are conspicuous examples, are distinguished by a peculiar sensibility of the eye, that enables them to see clearly by twilight and in cloudy weather, while they are dazzled by the broad light of day. Their organs of hearing are proportionally delicate and acute.
Here the partridge drummed his loudest, while the whippoorwill sang with spirit, and the hooting owl reigned in the night. To me, as a boy, this wilderness was a paradise. It was a land of plenty. To be sure, we did not have any of the luxuries of civilization, but we had every convenience and opportunity and luxury of Nature.
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