He let them hold leverets in their arms, milk
his goats, as the kids milk them for their need; and showed them so much
of the ways of birds that they forgot, while they were under the spell of
him, to take any of their eggs. Crowning wonder of all--when a peewit,
waiting on the down, dipped and circled about his head for a while and
finally perched on his shoulder while he stood looking down upon her eggs
in the bents! Such deeds as these fly broadcast over the villages, and on
Saturdays he would be attended by a score of urchins, boys and girls. To a
gamekeeper who came out after his lad, sapling ash in hand, he had that to
say which convinced the man of his authority.
"'A says to me, 'There's a covey of ten in thicky holler,' where you could
see neither land nor bird. 'I allow 'tis ten,' he says, 'but we won't be
particular to a chick.' There was nine, if you credit me, that rose out of
a kind of a dimple in the down, that you couldn't see, and no man could
see. 'Lord love you,' I said, 'Mr. John, how ever did you see 'em?' He
looks at me, and he says, very quiet, 'I never saw the birds, nor knew
they was there. I saw the air. There's waves in this air,' he says,
'wrinkled waves; and they birds stirred 'em, like stones flung into a
pond.
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