Part 11

With the Canadians was the first wave of the tide of blackpolls which sweeps over the mountains, also bound north, in late May. More restless were these, constantly flitting and seeking food among the leaves, now in deciduous growth, again in the evergreens, ever moving on and ever singing their high-pitched, hissing whistle which is not so very different from the song of the black and white creeper, though a little more deliberate in movement and having a more staccato quality. So far as coloration goes one might mistake the male blackpoll for the black and white creeper were not the movements of the birds so distinctly different and the song as wiry but as soothingly crepitant as that of the cicada.

Night falls early in the deep heart of Chocorua, and full and clear the wood thrushes were yodeling of peace, one to another in the shadows, as I turned to descend. In the worn fields of the ancient clearing about the farmhouse where Bolles lived and loved the woods and all that therein lived with him, the song sparrows were trilling evening songs and the swifts twittering and circling nearer and nearer the big chimney which is their summer home. The bird cherry trees were white angels of bloom, and from all the land far and near the incense of opening blossoms made the air sweet and rose toward the high, mysterious altar of Chocorua’s peak as if in adoration of the rose glow of its sunset tints. Chocorua Lake was a mirror in which the glory of the summit, the blue dusk of the lower ranges and its own shores were reflected in perfect beauty. It was a sounding-board as well, across whose level came to the ear innumerable bird songs, singing carols of praise to the passing of day. Out of the blue depths of the sky the cool of night dropped like a blessing from heaven and seemed to soften and liquefy all melodies into purer, more mellow music. Wood thrushes and hermits sang in the shadows hymns of praise to the most high peak of the mountain, a pantheistic worship that was old ages before any spires other than those of the spruces had pointed the way to heaven.

From the hillocks of the pasture to the topmost boughs of the forest all bird life joined in the worship, making the welkin ring with praise of the pure joy of life, a chorus that quivered into silence only with the passing of the rose of mystery from the very tip of the high horn of Chocorua. Nor did the silence last long. Before the last wood thrush had finished his “Good night; all’s well; God is good,” other songs of praise and the joy of life were echoing from swamp and wood and lake margin. Where the birds had ceased a myriad other voices took up new refrains. The dreamy trill of the tree frogs sounds from the perfumed dusk, a lullaby of the world primeval that sang the first man to sleep in some safe refuge in the deep woods. From the distant marsh the mingled voices of innumerable hylas ring a chorus of fairy sleighbells that rises and falls as the wind of evening drifts by. Nowhere in the world, I believe, can one hear such hyla choruses as he gets in May evenings from marshy pools among the New Hampshire hills. Coming from a distance the hypnotic insistence of the sound has a soothing, sleepy quality that lulls to rest. To seek its source and stand by the very border of the pool is to find it a frightful uproar that shrills in the ears and rings through the head till the deafened hearer is driven to the upland again.

On the lake margin in the failing light it came to me as a sleepy drone of tiny bells, as if goblin sleighing parties were coursing gayly in the night on the white May snow of petals beneath the bird cherry trees. It and the dreamy trilling of the tree frogs were but a background for the voices of night birds that sounded now that those of the day birds had passed. High in air floated the nasal “peent, peent,” of whirling nighthawks. Out of the velvet dusk across the glimmering water I heard a bittern working his old-fashioned pump, wheezily. “Cahugunkagunk, cahugunkagunk,” he burbled, the weirdest bird voice of any that comes from marsh or mountain, yet in the peacefulness of the place sounding neither lonely nor uncouth. I fancy him, too, with his long beak pointed to the heights, worshiping the mountain peak in his own tongue. Whip-poor-wills mourned gently one to another across the water as a token that the night had really come and the last glow faded from the lone summit now so immeasurably withdrawn into the sky among the stars.

A yellow-billed cuckoo called from the thicket, then, indignant at receiving no answer, sprung his rattle and waited. Roused out of his first slumber a white-throat gave a faint “tseep” of surprise, then trembled into music for a moment and went to sleep again. “Hap--pi--ness, hap-pi-ness, happiness,” he sang, the notes slipping away into infinite distance and blending with the perfect quiet of the night and the sky. It was the very spirit of the place speaking and reminding me again of the gentle writer who sang so clearly of the peace and beauty of the Chocorua woods and who now sleeps, after singing.

INDEX

A

Achilles, 156, 157

Adam, 117

Alcott, 99, 100, 102

-- Louisa, 101

Alder, white, 68

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 30

Allen, Ethan, 171

Amesbury, 129

Anemone nemorosa, 143

Angle-wing, 56

Antietam, 193

Apple, Baldwin, 6

-- russet, 115

-- wild, 127

Appledore, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 56, 59

Arbutus, trailing, 94, 138, 140, 141, 142, 146, 199

Arcady, 37

Argynnis, 67

-- cybele, 39

Asclepias cornuti, 37

-- tuberosa, 38

Assabet, 101

Asters, 37, 49, 86, 107, 113

Astræa, 150

Atlantis, 45

Azalea, 9

B

Babylonian kings, 187

Bayberry, 9, 25, 46, 52, 81, 88

Bee, bumble, 25, 41

-- honey, 57

Beech, 21, 177, 200

“Bemis Place, the,” 35

Bilbao, 119

Billington, 139

-- sea, 139

Birch, 27, 69, 128, 200

-- black, 2

-- white, 21

-- yellow, 27, 171

Birds Bittern, 210 Blackbird, 32, 36, 140 Blackpoll, 207 Bluebird, 169 “Bob white,” 13 Cedar wax-wing, 127 Chewink, 23 Creeper, black and white, 207 Crow, 126 Cuckoo, yellow-billed, 198, 211 Duck, 63 Finch, purple, 194 Flycatcher, great-crested, 14 -- olive-sided, 55 Grosbeak, 194 Gull, 56 -- herring, 129, 130 Hawk, fish, 131 -- night, 210 Heron, great blue, 57 -- little green, 71 Jay, 126, 200 -- blue, 205 Kingbird, 56 Kingfisher, 70, 71 Maryland yellow-throat, 52, 201, 202, 204 Mourning Dove, 13 Nuthatch, white-breasted, 171 Oven-bird, 203, 204, 205 Owl, 200 “Peabody bird,” 199 Quail, 13 Robin, 2, 3, 55, 127, 139, 193, 194 Sandpipers, 56, 70 Skylark, 2 Snipe, Wilson’s, 131 Sparrow, song, 52, 55, 140, 169, 203, 206 -- white-throated, 199, 211 Swallow, 7 -- barn, 5, 6, 53 -- tree, 53, 54 Tanager, 194 Thrush, 193, 194 -- hermit, 208 -- water, 203 -- wood, 195, 196, 208 Vireo, 21 -- red-eyed, 205, 206 -- warbling, 194 Warblers, 194, 199 -- Canadian, 206, 207 -- parula, 200, 202 -- wood, 86 Whip-poor-will, 197, 210

Black Mount, 2, 3, 4, 13

Blackberries, 47, 81

“Blobs,” 142

Blueberries, 4, 81

-- low-bush blacks, 4

-- pale blue, 4

Blue flag, 22, 47

Blue Hill, 32, 33

Bluets, 152

Bolles, Frank, 197, 200, 207, 208

Boston Light, 76

Bouncing-Bet, 89

Bradford, William, 75, 76, 105, 137, 138, 139, 146, 147

Bulkeley, Rev. Peter, 77

Burial Hill, 105, 137, 138, 139, 147

Buttercup, 146, 186

-- bulbous, 153

Butterflies, Angle-wing, 56 Argynnis, 67 -- cybele, 39 Baltimore, 41 Cabbage, 56 Colias, 27 Colias philodice, 40 Fritillary, great spangled, 39 Grapta interrogationis, 144 Hesperiidæ, 144 Hunters, 56, 144 Lycæna pseudargiolus, 144 Monarch, 39, 56 Mourning cloak, 143, 146 Papilio turnus, 38 Pyrameis huntera, 144 Sulphur, 40 Vanessa antiopa, 143

C

Cabbage butterfly, 56

Cadiz, 119

Caltha palustris, 142

Camaguay, 111

Cape Cod, 75, 145

Cape of Good Hope, 148

Caraway, 43

Cardamine pratensis, 142

Carrageen, 54

Cedar, 11, 127, 128

Cedar berries, 127

Cedar, red, 9, 25, 37

Cedar wax-wing, 127

Ceylon, 63, 148

Charter Street, 148

Checkerberries, 140, 141

Chelone glabra, 41

Cherry-bird, 208, 210

Cherry, wild, 46, 50, 81, 83

Chestnut, 68

“Cheviot Hills, The,” 33

Chewink, 23

Chicory, 1

China Sea, 148

Chipmunks, 107

Chocorua, 3, 201, 206, 207, 208, 209

Chocorua, Lake, 197, 203, 208

-- mountain, 197, 208

-- woods, 198, 211

Chokeberry, 50

Cicada, 207

Cineraria maritima, 84

Cinquefoil, 51

Civil war, 185, 186, 189

Clark’s Island, 135

Clematis, 47, 48, 107, 113

Clethra, 62, 66

Clover, white, 58

Colias, 27

-- philodice, 40

Concord, 63, 65, 71, 90, 91, 92, 96, 97, 98, 99

-- Bridge, 91

Confederate, 191

Convolvulus, 111

Coreopsis, 44

Corydon, 37

Country brook, 26, 27, 28

Cowslip, 142

Crabs, 55

Cranberry, 51

Cranberry bog, 12, 140

Cranes-bill, 47

Creeper, black and white, 207

Cress, bitter, 142

Crow, 126

Cruciferæ, 56

Cuckoo, yellow-billed, 198, 211

Custom House, 150

D

Daisy, 186

-- ox-eye, 23

Dandelions, 51, 152

Dandelions, fall, 109

Deerfield River, 164, 181

Derby, Elias, 150, 158, 159

Derby Street, 148

Dexter, “Lord” Timothy, 124

Dickens, 123

Dreadnaught, 120

Duck, 63

Dummerston, 177

Dunkirk, 119

Dusty-miller, 84

E

Elder, 46, 50

Emerson, 90, 97, 99, 100, 102

Eos, 61

Epigæa, 140, 141

Eric the Red, 143

Essex Institute, 150, 161

Eve, 52

Everlasting, 192

F

Ferns Cinnamon, 22, 109 Hay-scented, 22 Interrupted, 22 Lady, 22 Maidenhair, 95 Royal, 22, 109

Finch, purple, 194

Firefly, 31

Florida Keys, 145

Flycatcher, great-crested, 14

-- olive-sided, 55

“Flying Dutchman, The,” 120, 148

Forget-me-not, 22

Fox, 107

Fragaria, 153

Free Press, 123

Fritillary, great-spangled, 39

Frog, tree, 209

G

Gallows Hill, 149, 151, 153

Garrison, William Lloyd, 123

Gaultheria, 141

Genista, 154

Geraniums, red, 44, 58, 59

Gerardia, 68

-- flava, 41

-- golden, 40, 41

-- tenuifolia, 67

Gettysburg, 193

Ghettos, 150

Goldenrod, 27, 49, 86, 107

-- seaside, 128, 130

Gosnold, 76

Grand Army, 186

Grand Turk, The, 150, 158, 159

Granite, 49

Grant, 195

Grape, fox, 111

Grapta, interrogationis, 144

Gratiola aurea, 70

Greenbrier, 8, 81, 111

Greenbush, 106

Green Harbor, 2, 3, 7, 10, 12

Grimes, C. S., 165, 173, 178

Grosbeak, 194

Guadeloupe, 119

Gulf Stream, 64

Gulistan, 188

Gull, 56

-- herring, 129, 130

Gurnet, 136, 145, 147

H

Habenaria fimbriata, 36

-- psycodes, 35, 38

Hard-hack, 153

Harold, 94

Harraden, Jonathan, 156, 157

Hastings, 94

Hathorn, Judge, 150

Hawk, fish, 131

Hawk, night, 210

Hawthorn, 142

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 98, 102, 149, 150, 151, 160, 162

Haystack mountain, 164, 165, 172, 182

Hedge-hyssop, 68, 70

Hemlock, 16, 21, 172, 201

Hepatica, 95

Heron, great blue, 57

-- little green, 71

Herring, 128, 130

Hesperiidæ, 144

Hildreth, Richard, 124

Holly berries, 127

Hollyhock, 19

“Home Sweet Home,” 117

Homer, 138

Hoosac Tunnel, 181

Huckleberry, 4, 50, 88, 128

-- low-bush, black, 46

Hunter’s butterfly, 56, 144

Hyla, 52, 209

I

Immortelles, 192

Indians, 32, 85

Indian pipe, 42

Ireland, 119

Isles of Shoals, 44, 49

Ivy, 107

-- poison, 110

J

Jamshid, 188

Jay, 126, 200

-- blue, 205

Jewel Weed, 22

Job’s Hill, 23, 24

Jones, Paul, 155

Joppa, 125

-- flats, 122

Juniper, 25, 69

K

Kathan farm, 177

Kelp, 55, 57

Kenoza lake, 24

Khan, Genghis, 188

Kingbird, 56

Kingfisher, 69, 70, 71

L

Ladies’ Tresses, 86

Launcelot, 144

“Legend of Ara-Cœli,” 34

Lichen, 9, 108, 184, 185

-- reindeer, 10

Lilac, 17, 29, 186, 187, 188, 189

Liliputian, 85

Lily, pond, 32, 42

-- water, 82

Lincoln, 63

Liverpool packet, 120

London pride, 19

Long Point, 75, 76, 77

Lotos, 101

Love-in-a-mist, 44

Lycæna pseudargiolus, 144

M

Madeira, 119

Magnolia, 162

Maidenhair fern, 95

Manomet, 136, 143, 145, 147

-- head, 135

-- heights, 146

Maple, 21, 68, 128, 140, 164, 165, 171

-- sap, 179

-- sugar, 164, 171, 180, 182

Marigold, 44

-- marsh, 142

Marjoram, 19

Marshfield, 1, 3, 6, 14

Maryland yellow-throat, 52, 201, 202, 204

Massachusetts bay, 105

Mayflower, the, 10, 76, 94, 95, 105, 135, 136, 142, 147

Mayflower, 139, 141, 142, 143, 146, 147

Meadow Sweet, 67

Memorial Day, 184, 185, 186, 187, 190, 191, 192, 195

Merrimac, 15, 20, 27

Miantowonah, 32, 42

Mica, 49

Milkweed, 37, 39, 40, 41

Mint, wild, 20

Minute Man, 91, 92, 93, 99

Mirror, New York, 105

Mogg Megone, 16

Monarch butterfly, 39, 56

Monotropa uniflora, 42

Morning glory, 49

Mourning cloak butterfly, 143, 146

Mourning dove, 13

Mussels, 54

N

Naples, 145

Naples, bay of, 145

Newbury, 118

Newburyport, 118, 119, 121, 123, 125, 129

Nuthatch, white-breasted, 171

O

Oak, 68, 140

Oak, red, 21, 99

-- white, 21

Octavia, Miss, 132

Odysseus, 160

Odyssey, 160

Old Curiosity Shop, 123

“Old Oaken Bucket, The,” 104, 114, 117

Omar, 188

Orchid, 38

-- larger, fringed, 36

-- small purple-fringed, 36

Oriole, 162

Oven-bird, 203, 204, 205

Owl, 200

P

Papilio turnus, 38

Parsnip, wild, 49

Parula, 200, 202

Paugus, 203

Peabody, 150

Peabody Academy of Science, 161

“Peabody Bird,” 199

Peabody, Joseph, 158

Peaked Hill Bar, 87

Peregrine, 3

Persepolis, 187

Persia, 187, 188

“Pickles for the Knowing Ones,” 123

Pierpont, John, 123, 124, 132

Pilgrim, 37, 75, 77, 82, 87, 89, 105, 137, 142, 144, 146, 147

-- cemetery, 3, 6, 12

-- children, 1, 141

-- descendants, 3

-- mothers, 78

-- scouts, 80

-- shrines, 78

-- warriors, 81

Pine, 16, 21, 68, 129, 191

-- pitch, 85

Pink, 44

-- clove, 34

Pipsissewa, 42

Plantain, 51

Plum, beach, 81, 88, 128

Plum Island, 132, 133

Plymouth, 2, 94, 135, 138, 142, 143

-- bay, 10, 145

-- colony, 105, 137

Plymouth rock, 105

Ponkapoag, 31, 33, 34, 35

-- brook, 35

-- pond, 31, 32, 42

Poplar, silver-leafed, 88

Poppies, 19, 44, 58

-- shirley, 49

Port au Prince, 119

Port Hudson, 193

Potentilla, 152, 153

Provincetown, 76, 77, 80, 87, 136

“Prynne, Hester,” 160

Puritan, 89, 154

Pyrameis huntera, 144

Pyrola, 42, 140

Q

Quail, 13

Quartz, 49

Queenstown, 120

R

Race Point, 75, 76, 78, 80

Rajah (ship), 150

Raspberry, 46

Revolution, the, 186, 189

Robin, 2, 3, 55, 127, 139, 193, 194

Rock weed, 53, 54, 57

Rose, damask, 34

-- wild, 9, 11, 24, 25, 26, 50, 58, 81, 113, 187

Royal Society, philosophical transactions of, 166

Rubaiyat, 188

Rudbeckias, 23

Rush, bog, 51

S

Sadi, 188

Sagittaria, 36

Sahara, 82

Salem, 148, 149, 150, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 162, 166

Sandpipers, 56, 70

Sandwich Range, 204

Sandy Hook, 120

Sassafras, 9, 69

Saxifraga virginiensis, 143

Saxifrage, 43, 191, 192

Scarlet Letter, 122, 149, 161

Senegambia, 148

Shadbush, 46, 50

Sinbad the Sailor, 136

Skylark, 2

Sleepy Hollow, 99

Smelt, 128, 130

Smilacina, 186, 189, 190, 192

Smilax, 111, 190

-- rotundifolia, 81

-- wild, 81

Smith, Capt. John, 33, 76

Snake, green, 52

Snipe, Wilson’s, 141

Sparrow, song, 52, 55, 140, 169, 203, 206

-- white-throated, 199, 211

Spiranthes, gracilis, 86

Spofford, Harriet Prescott, 124, 129

Spruce, 172

Standish, Myles, 78, 85, 89

Steeplebush, 24, 25

Stevenson, 161

St. John’s-wort, 47, 58

St. Martins, 119

Strawberry, 4

-- wild, 152

Sudbury, 101

Sumac, 9, 27, 50, 58

-- staghorn, 8, 26, 46

Surinam, 119, 148

Swallow, 7

-- barn, 5, 6, 53

-- tree, 53, 54

Sweet-fern, 25, 81

Sweet william, 19

T

Tambourine bird, 23

Tamerlane, 188

Tanager, 194

Thaxter, Celia, 49

-- --, garden of, 44, 58

-- --, grave of, 58

Third Cliff, 112

Thistle, 25

Thoreau, 60, 65, 66, 67, 69, 73, 74, 98, 99, 100

Thoroughwort, 67, 68

Thrush, 193, 194

-- water, 203

-- wood, 195, 196, 208

Toad-flax, 47

“Tocsin, the,” 133

Town Brook, 138

Trillium, painted, 201

-- purple, 201

Troy, 97, 138

Truro, 86

-- North, 77, 78, 79, 85

Turtle-head, 41

U

Ulysses, 160

Usnea moss, 200

V

Vanessa antiopa, 143

Violet, 153, 186, 190, 192

-- wood, 201

Vireo, 21

-- red-eyed, 205, 206

-- warbling, 191

Virginia creeper, 47

Vishnu, 96

W

Walden, 60, 62, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71

Wapping Old Stairs, 122

Warbler, 194

-- Canadian, 206

-- wood, 86

Warsaw, 150

Water plantain, 37

Water striders, 21

Webster, Daniel, 2, 3, 6, 12

-- farm, 3

-- path, 10

-- place, 4

-- well house, 7

West, Ebenezer, 158

Whin, 154

Whip-poor-will, 197, 210

White Mountains, 45

White, Peregrine, 1, 3, 6, 12

-- --, mother of, 10

Whitefield, 123

Whittier, 17, 20, 23, 24, 28, 123

Whittier birthplace, 18

-- fireplace, 15

Whittier’s mother, 16

“Wild boat of the Atlantic, the,” 120

Willow, 88, 140

Wilmington, 164, 175

Wind flower, 143

Winslow, 12

Witch Hazel, 113

Woad-waxen, 154

Woodbine, 107, 110, 111

Woodchuck, 12, 107

Woodworth, Samuel, 104, 106, 110, 114, 115

Y

Yarrow, 25, 47, 48, 49

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg ix: ‘The Birds of Chocorua’ replaced by ‘Birds of Chocorua’. Pg 118: ‘In the heydey’ replaced by ‘In the heyday’. Pg 213: ‘Azalia,’ replaced by ‘Azalea,’. Pg 213: ‘Beech, 21, 177, 280’ replaced by ‘Beech, 21, 177, 200’. Pg 213: ‘Bilboa,’ replaced by ‘Bilbao,’. Pg 214: ‘Cardamine praetensis,’ replaced by ‘Cardamine pratensis,’. Pg 216: ‘Gualaloupe,’ replaced by ‘Guadeloupe,’. Pg 217: ‘Odyssy,’ replaced by ‘Odyssey,’.