Page:Rural Hours.djvu/467

Rh ferns, there are large tufts of the same kind completely dry and withered, though it is not easy to see why there should be this difference. Can it be the younger fronds which are more tenacious of life? Gathered a fine bunch of the scarlet berries, of the dragon-arum, as bright as in September. The ground-laurel is in flower-bud, and the buds are quite full. Many trees and plants are budding.

An old hemlock had fallen across the highway very near the same spot where another large tree fell also across the road, not long since. There are so many dead and decaying trees in our American woods, that, of a windy day, they often fall. Some persons are afraid to go in the forest when there is a high wind, but often as we walk there, we have never seen one fall.

Wednesday, 13th.—Lovely day; mild and cloudless. Walked on Mount ——. The lake very beautiful as we looked down upon it; clear light blue, encircled by the brown hills.

No birds. At this season one may often pass through the woods without seeing a feathered thing; and yet woodpeckers, blue-jays, and crows are there by the score, besides snow-birds, chicadees, sparrows, and winter-wrens, perhaps; but they do not seem to cross one's path. The larger birds are never active at this season, but the snow-bird and chicadee are full of life.

Thursday, 14th.—Mild, pleasant day. Again we hear news of the panther: a very respectable man, a farmer, living a mile or two from the village, on the lake shore, tells ——— that he was returning quite late at night from the village, when he was startled by hearing a wild sort of cry in the woods, above the road, sounding as though it came from Rock Hill; he thought at first it was a woman crying in a wailing kind of way, and was on