Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1860-06-07

| them SagaclOusy O little, theu finding
that Intellectual to free them, be commen-
ced licking; her bare white arm with his
rasping tongue and pouring over her the wide
streams of his hot, fetid breath So quick
had this flashing action been that the woman
had had no time for alarm moreover, she was
not of the screaming kind but now, as she
felt him endeavoring to disentangle his claws,
and the horrid sense of her fate smote her.
and she saw instinctively the fierce plunge of
those weapons, the long strips of living flesh
torn from her boueS, the agony, the quivering
| disgust, itself worse agony,-while by her
side, and holding her in his great 1.-THE embrace,
the monster crouched, his white tusks whetting
and gnashng, his eyes glaring through all the
! darkness like balls of red fre,-a shrek, that
rang in every forest hollow, that startled every
winter-hOused thing, that stirred aud awoke
the least needle of the taSselled pines, tore
| through her lips. A moment afterward, the
! beast left the arm, once white, now crimson,
and looked up alertly.
She did not think at this instant to call up
on God. She called upon her husband 1t
seemed to her that she had but one friend in
| the world that was he and again the cry,
loud, clear, prolonged echoed through the
woods. 1t was not the shrek that disturbed
the creature at his relish he was not born in
the woods to be scared by an owl, you know :;
what then ? 1t must have been the echo, most
musical, most resonant, repeated and yet re-,
peated dying with long sighs of sweet sound,
vibrated from rock to river and back again,
from depth to depth of cave and cliff Her
thought flew after it she knew, that, even if
her husbapd heard it, he yet could not reach
bpr IN ti,,,D. .plo l,,t H.
listened he would not gnaw,-and this she GIt
directly, when the roagh, sharp, and multipIi-
ed Stings of his tongue retouched her arm
Again her lips opened by instinct, but the
sound that Issued thence came by. reason -
She had heard that music charmed wild beasts,
just this point between life and death inten-
Sifed every facuIty,-aud when she opened
her lips the third time it vas not for Shrek
ing, but for singing
4 little thread of melody stole out, ril Of
| tremuIous motion it was the cradle-song
9ith which she rocked her baby how coaId
she sing that? And then she remembered
! the baby sleeping rosily on the long Settee be-
/ fore the fre,--the father cleaning his gun,
, with one foot on the green wooden runde,-
/ the merry light from the chimney dancing out
/ and through the room, on the rafterS of the
ceiling with their taSSels Of onions and herbs
on the log walls painted with lichens and fes-
/ tooned with apples on the kings arm sung
across the shelf with the Old prate'scutlaSS
on the Snow-pile of the bed, and on the great
I brass clock, dancing, too, and lingering on
! the baby, with his frnged gentan eyes, his
! chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and bis
/ fine breezy hair tanning with the motion Of
/ his fathers foot All this struck her in one,
I l.. 4. r I. II
Immediately the long red tongue was thrust
forth again. Before it touched, song Sprang
to her lips, wild sea-song, such as some sailor
might be singing far out on the blue water
that night, the shrouGS whiStling with frost
and the sheets glued in ice,--a song with the
! wind in its burden and the spray in its chorus
| The monster raisCd his head and aarod the
! fiery eyebalIs upon her, then fretted the i'm
/ priSoued claws a moment and was quiet only
| the breath Ike the yapor from some hell pit
still Swathcd her. Her voice, at first faint
and fearful, gradually lost its quaYer, grew
under her control and subject to her modula-
| ton it rose on long swells, it fell in subtle
| cadenceS, now and then in tones pealed out
| like bells from distant belrrieS on fresh Sono-
rOus mornings. She sung the song through,
and, wondering lest his name Of Indian Devil
were not his true name, and if he would not
detect her, she repeated it, Once or twice
| now indeed the beast stirred uneasly, turned
and made the bough sway at his movement
As she ended, he snapped his jaws together,
and tore away the fettered member, curling it
under him with a snarl, rl,-when she burst into
the gayest reel that ever answered a fiddle
bow How many time she had heard her
! husband play it on the homeIy fiddle made by
himself from birch and cherry wood how
many time she had seen it danced on the
floor of their one room, to the patter of wood
en- clogs and the rustic of homespun pettcoat
how many time she had danced it herself
and did she not remember once, as they join
ed clasps for Northumberland, how it had
lent its gay, bright measure to her life ? And
here she was singing it alone, in the forest, at
midnight to a wild beast As she sent her
voice trliRg up and down its quick oscillations
between Joy and pain, the creature who grasp
ed her uncurled his paw aud scratched the
bark from the bough she must vary the
spell and her voice spun leaping along the
projecting points of tune of hornpipe. Still
singing she felt herself twisted about with
low growl and lifting of the red lip from the
glittering teeth she broke the hornpipe's
thread and commenced unraveling a lighter,
livelier thing, an Irish jig. Up and down and
round about her voice flew. the beast threw
back his head so that the dabocal face front
ed hers, and the torrent of bis breath prepar-
ed her for his feast as the anaconda shines his
prey. Frantically she darted from tune to
tune his restless movements followed her
She tired herself with dancing and vivid ma
tional airs, growing feverish and singing spas
medically as she felt her horrid tomb yawning
wider. Touching in this manner all the slo-
gan and keen clan cries, the beast moved