From God.”

Dante Alighieri.

FOREWORD

The great artist is one whose whole body becomes a living soul; whose eye gets glimpses into the heart of Nature, with visions of the Supernatural; whose ear hears their inner music, and whose hand produces ecstatic expression of their central force in some revelation of Beauty. And to make his art more real, more nearly perfect, Beauty more beautiful, such artist by contrast often depicts or suggests the deadly but doomed discords of life.

Any inspiring touch I have with Nature makes me less than half content with the best I can say of her. Beyond my increasing love for the rich, old Mother—yet eternally young and myriad formed—I am deeply indebted to F. Schuyler Mathews and his charming “Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music,” especially in suggestions and some illustrations for the “Birds’ Orchestra.” Other acknowledgements are made elsewhere in this little volume of verse, which chances to be my first, and therefore subject to the severer criticism.

C. J.

CONTENTS.

Page
The Birds’ Orchestra[ 7]
My Prayer To Truth[14]
A Scene in Washington, N. C.[16]
Little Naples by the Sea[17]
The Family of My Friend Jones[17]
The King’s Marriage[19]
The Hermit Thrush[19]
My Retreat[23]
The Mocking-Bird[24]
The Jay and I—A Dialogue[26]
Nature’s Heart[27]
A Nigger and a Mule[28]
Virginia’s Natural Bridge[30]
The Might of Matutinal Music[30]
A Perpetual King[31]
The Cotton Gin[32]
The Cotton Mill[32]
My Own Little Girl[32]
My Butterfly[33]
Was That Somebody I?[34]
My Sabbath Sermon[35]
Pilot Mountain[36]
Her Prison Life[37]
Aurelius Augustinus[38]
O, That Income Tax![40]
In Florida[41]
Two Little Orphans[42]
Trouble and Play[43]
Some Small Surprises[43]
The Rhythm Universal[44]
The Stone Crosses and the Fairies[45]
The Sun Flower[46]
Colonel Diamond and Grand-daughter[47]
The Wild Wood[48]
The Beginning of Things[49]
The End of Things[49]
When the Junco Comes[50]
James Bradley Jackson[51]
A Story of Colonial Times[53]
“Come on wid yer Money fur Me”[55]
Good Out of Evil[56]
Christmas[57]
Mrs. Josephine F. Hamill[58]
A Chick’s Cry[59]
The Kid and the Cop[59]
The Over Favored and The Chanceless Child[61]
The Slanderer[61]
The World’s Greatest Egotist[62]
Little River Royal[63]
Give Me Both[64]
Manifold Beauty and the Man[64]
Chimney Rock[66]
The Elephant Dance[67]
Least Yet Greatest[67]
Old Ship Church[67]
A Little Toast to the Men of the Press[68]
Mother Indeed[68]
Nathan O’Berry[68]
The Bishop’s Garden[69]
My Triolet[70]
Ye Bonny Boys[71]
A Ballade to the Girls[71]
A Mountain Top View[72]
One Aged John Smith and His Youthful Confessions [73]
Ode on Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations[74]
Another Birthday[77]
Oh, Baby Mine[77]
The Snake That’s King[78]
The Heart of France[79]
The Red Maple[81]
A Sonnet to Mrs. O. C. Bullock[81]
The Strikers[81]
November Gloom[82]
James Mitchell Rogers[83]
Erwin Holt[83]
Just an Introduction[83]
Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt[84]
A Little Index of the Coming Day[85]
Winged Tourists[86]
How My Easter Dawned[86]
Helen Keller[88]
The Dancing Tassel[89]
Walter Malone[91]
The Dutiful Flower[92]
My Holiday[92]
The Aeolian Harp[92]
The God-Man and Myself[93]
Death’s Doom[94]
The Dying Year[96]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page
The Author in his Retreat[Frontispiece]
Bob-White in Colors[ 6]
Cat Bird[ 7]
Young Screech Owl[ 8]
Humming Bird[ 8]
White Throated Sparrows[ 9]
Blue-Bird and Family[10]
Young Male Cardinal[11]
Thrasher’s Admiration[12]
Cardinal in Colors[12]
A Scene in Washington, N. C.[16]
Baby Ambitious to Rise[18]
Veery Celebrating the King’s Marriage[19]
Hermit Thrush in Colors[21]
Dove and Bluebirds, Swan, Zebra and Colt,
Macaw, Chipmunk, Young Pet Thrasher[22]
The Author’s Retreat in the Wild Wood[23]
Young Green Heron[23]
The Mocking-Bird in Colors[25]
The Jay Bird and I[26]
A Nigger and a Mule[29]
Virginia’s Natural Bridge[30]
A Perpetual King, Cotton Gin, A Cotton Mill[31]
My Own Little Girl[33]
My Butterfly[33]
A Babe, Later an Imprisoned Boy[34]
Feeding Young Mocking-Bird[35]
Big Pinnacle on Pilot Mountain[36]
Aurelius Augustinus[38]
Two Little Orphans[42]
Trouble and Play[43]
Nature’s Fairy Crosses[46]
Col. Diamond and Grand-daughter[47]
The Wild Wood[48]
A Pre-Revolutionary Stone Mansion,
7 Years Being Built[53]
“Rock Ribbed Pen” in which Miss Martin was placed
by the Tories[54]
Blind Negro[56]
Mistletoe[57]
The Kid and the Cop[59-60]
New River, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.[63]
Water Fall Near Tories’ Den, and Beach Scene[64]
Chimney Rock in North Carolina[66]
The Elephant Dance and Old Ship Church[67]
The Bishop’s Garden[69]
My Triolet[70]
Lookout Mountain[72]
Woodrow Wilson[75]
O Baby Mine[77]
The Snake That’s King[78]
Notre Dame[79]
Miss Cameron and Billy[83]
Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt[84]
Ann Gray and Pet Macaw[85]
The Tots That Turned the Tide[87]
Walter Malone[90]