Year: 1861

now crimson, and looked up alerly.


She did not think at this instant to call


upon 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. II was not the shrek that dis


turbed the creature at his relish he was


not born in the woods to be scared of an


owl, you know; what then! 1t must have


been the echo, most musical, most resonant,


repeated and yet repeated, dying with long


sighs of sweet sound, vibrated from rock


tie river and back again from depth TO depth


of cave and cliff Her thought flew after
it.; she knew, that, even If her husband
heard it, he vet could not reach herin time /;


she saw that while the beast listened he
would not gnaw,--and this she felt directly,


when the rough, sharp, and multiplied


stings of his tongue retouched her arm.


Again her lips opened by instinct, bu, the


sound that issued thence came by reason.


She had heard that music charmed wild
beasts,---just this point between life and


death intensified every faculty,-and when


she opened her lips the third time, it was


not for shrieking, but for singing.


A little thread of melody stole out, a rill


of tremulous motion; it was the cradle


song with which she rocked her baby -


how could she sing that? And then she


remembered the baby sleeping rosily on


the long settee before the ire,--the father


cleaning his gun, with one foot on the green


wooden rundle,-the merry light from the


chimney dancing out and through tue room,


on the rafters of the ceiling with their tas-


sells of onions and herbs, on the log walls


painted with lichens and festooned with ap-


Piles, on the king's-arm slung across the


shelf with the old pirates-cutlass, on the


snow pile of the bed, and on the great brass
clock,-dancing, too, and lingering on the


baby, with his fringed gentian eyes, his


chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and his


fine breezy hair tanning with the motion of


his fathers foot. All this struck her in
one. and made sob of her breath, and she
ceased.


Immediately the long red tongue was
thrust forth again. Before it touched, a
song sprang to her lips, wild sea-song,
such as some sailor might be singing far


out on trackless blue water that night the


shrouds 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 raised his head and fared the fiery


eyeballs upon her, then fretted the impris-
y oned claws moment and was quiet; only
/. the breath like the vapor from some hell.


pit still swathed her. Her voice at first


faint and fearful, gradually lost its quaver


grew under her control and subject to hen


m odulation; it rose on long swells, it fel


in subtle eadences, now and then its tones
pealed out like bells from distant belfries
on fresh sonorous mornings. She sung the
I song through, and, wondering lest his name
$ of Indian Devil were not his true name, ant
if he would not detect her, she repeated it
Once or twice now, indeed the beast stirred
+ uueasily, turned, and made the bough sway
at his movement. As she ended, he snapped
u his jaws together, and tore away the fet
e tered member, curling il under him with {
II narl,-when she burst into the gayest rec
II that ever answered a fiddle-bow. How
G many time she had heard her husband
e play it on the homely fiddle made by him
+ self from birch and cherry how
u many time she had seen it danced on thu
e floor of their one room, to the patter o
n wooden clogs and the rustic of homespur
l petticoat how many a time had she danced
II it herself and did she not remember
e once, as they joined clasps for right-hands
J round, how it had lent its gay, bright meas
e ure to her life? And here she was sing
n ing it alone, in the forest, at midnight, to {
e wild beast As she sent her voice trillinl
: up and down its quick oscillations between
= Joy and pain, the creature who grasped he
II uncurled his paw and scratched the bari
4. from the bough; she must vary the spell
Is and her voice spun leaping along the pro
= jecting points of tune of hornpipe. Still
J singing, she felt herself twisted about will
q a low growl and lifting of the red lii
d from the glittering teeth; she broke thu
n hornpipe's thread. and commenced unravel
d ling lighter, livlier thing, an Irish jig
a Up and down and round about her voic,
IS flew, the beast threw back his head SO tina
d the diabolical face fronted hers, and the tor
1t rent of his breath prepared her for his feas
d as the anaconda shines his prey. Franticly
g she darted from tune to tune; his restless
e movements followed her. She tired her
K self with dancing and vivid national airs
, growing feverish and singing spasmodicail,
r, as she felt her horrid tomb yawning wider
1t Touching in this manner all the slogan ant
L keen clan cries, the beast moved agair, bu
'f only TO lay the disensaged paw across he
p with heavy satisfaction. She did not dar'
e m manga fhrouob fhe clear cold air th,