rival her most vociferous vernal execution. But the poor creature
was so truly distressed that I followed her to the front gate, and
we twittered kindly at each other over the fence, and ruffled our
plumage with common disapproval. It is marvellous how a member of
her sex will conceive dislike of people that she has never seen;
but birds are sensible of heat or cold long before either arrives,
and it may be that this mocking-bird feels something wrong at the
quill end of her feathers.



II


Mrs. Walters this morning with more news touching our incoming
neighbors. Whenever I have faced towards this aggregation of unwelcome
individuals, I have beheld it moving towards me as a thick gray
mist, shutting out nature beyond. Perhaps they are approaching
this part of the earth like comet that carries its tail before it,
and I am already enveloped in a disturbing, befogging nebulosity.

There is still no getting the truth, but it appears that they are
a family of consequence in their way--which, of course, may be
a very poor way. Mrs. Margaret Cobb, mother, lately bereaved of
her husband, Joseph Cobb, who fell among the Kentucky boys at the
battle of Buena Vista. A son, Joseph Cobb, now cadet at West Point,
with a desire to die like his father, but destined to die--who
knows?--in a war that may break out in this country about the
negroes.