The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-01-18
THE PROFESSORS STORY.

THERE were six of us seated around
i the fire, each trying to do his share
to make the evening pass pleasantly.
1t was now the professors turn to tell
us story and after much pressing he
began:
Gentleman" said he, gravely, "no
man cares to gain for himself the repu-
tation of q liar or q maniac. Yet this Is
exactly what you are pressing both of us
to do. have no doubt that the expert
ence which am about to relate, and in
which my friend the doctor bore no
unimportant part, will appear absolute
ly incredible to persons of your advanced
views.
There was touch of sarcasm in the
worthy professors tone, but in our
eagerness to hear his story we found it
convenient to disregard this.
However," he continued, "I shall
risk it. If you choose to disbelieve it,
why shall endeavor to have charity
for your ignorance and conceit. Now,
doctor, if you will hand me the tobacco
and one of the pipes-the ranker and
blacker the better-I will proceed"
Having filled his pipe and settled him.
self comfortably in his chair, he began
thus:
SIT must be fully ten years ago that
the doctor and myself were engaged
upon geological survey of the northern
part of this State. We had labored dill
gently during the summer and fall,
when toward the close of cold Novem-
ber day we shouldered our knapsacks
and turned our faces homeward.
"Our way led through chain of
black and rugged hills towards frontier
town, twenty miles distant, where we
intended to take the railroad. A more
forbidding region it has never been my
misfortune to see. 1t was a perfect
chaos, blackened and warped by prime
val fires, and destitute of the smallest
trace of vegetation. Tall cliffs lowered
thousand feet above our heads, shut
ting out the light of the dull November
sky. Sluggish streams filtered between
the crevices of the rocks, and poured
noiselessly into deep and motionless
pits. 1t seemed that the blight of
death had fallen upon the whole coun-
try.
"Well knowing the peril of attempt
ing to proceed through such a region
after nightfall, we halted at sunset, and
building fire at the foot of crag, dis
posed ourselves to rest as well we might.
Exhausted with the tolls of the day, the
doctor was soon asleep, and was not
long in following his example.
"How long L had slumbered L knew
not, when found myself sitting up
right, peering nervously in the darkness
around me. 1t seemed to me that some
one had uttered wild appealing cry in
the very portals of my ears. For some
moments / sat so, wondering and
anxious. Then I reflected that as there
could be no human being in the
neighborhood except ourselves, the
sound which had alarmed me must
have been the shrek of some bird or
animal. Explaining the matter thus,
was on the point of lying down again,
when was arrested by repetition OF
the cry. This time there could be no
mistake. Wild, long, and, it appeared
to me, full of intolerable anguish, it
re.echoed among the crags with fearful
shrillness. With an uncomfortable
start, 1 turned and shook the doctor to
awake him.
"'Be quiet he muttered, 1 am
awake and heard it ALL
"' What can it be?' asked anxious
ly. Surely, nothing human; no one
lives in this region for miles around.
Perhaps it is wildcat
"'No,' he said, between his teeth