got authority for his statement that the Ohio is the most beautiful
river in the world--unless, indeed, the President formed that notion
of the Ohio upon lifting his eyes to it from the contemplation of
Green River. Henderson! Green River region! To this town and to
the blue-grass country as Boeotia to Attica in the days of Pericles.
Hereafter I shall call these people my Green River Boeotians.

A few days later their agent again, a little frigid, very urgent--this
time to buy me out on my own terms, _any_ terms. But what was back
of all this I inquired. I did not know these people, had never done
them a favor. Why, then, such determination to have me removed?
Why such bitterness, vindictiveness, ungovernable passion?

That was the point, he replied. This family had never wronged _me_.
I had never even seen _them_. Yet they had heard of nothing but
my intense dislike of them and opposition to their becoming my
neighbors. They could not forego their plans, but they were quite
willing to give me the chance of leaving their vicinity, on whatever
I might regard the most advantageous terms.

Oh, my mocking-bird, my mocking-bird! When you have been sitting
on _other_ front porches, have you, by the divine law of your being,
been reproducing _your_ notes as though they were _mine_, and even
pouring forth the little twitter that was meant for your private
ear?

As March goes out, two things more and more I hear--the cardinal
has begun to mount to the bare tops of the locust-trees and scatter
his notes downward, and over the way the workmen whistle and sing.
The bird is too shy to sit in any tree on that side of the yard.