That day was the beginning. Others did not dawn fast enough to suit
Malcolm, while the ease with which he mastered the songs of the orchard
and reproduced them, in a few days set him begging to be taken to the
swamp to hear the bird that sang "from the book." Leslie Winton was added
to the party that day. Malcolm came from the land of the tamarack
obsessed. James, William, and the tutor did not care for that location,
but Malcolm and Mr. Dovesky wanted to erect a tent and take provisions and
their instruments and live among the dim coolness, where miracles of song
burst on the air at any moment. They heard and identified the veery. They
went on their knees at their first experience with the clear, bell-toned
notes of the wood thrush. With a little practice Malcolm could reproduce
the "song from the book." He talked of it incessantly, sang and whistled
it, making patent to every member of the family that what was in his heart
was fully as much a desire to do the notes so literally that he would win
the commendation of his mother, as to obtain an answer from an
unsuspecting bird; for that was the sport.
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