Where Town and Country Meet 



might easily be persuaded that you were in 

 one of the wildest corners of the Maine 

 woods. Tangles without end, swamps, 

 beetling rocks, groves of stately pines, rare 

 birds, unpicked berries, solemn silence, not 

 a roof anywhere to be seen these are the 

 abundant evidences of how nature can hold 

 her own in the vicinity of not less than a 

 million human beings. 



But, best of all, take some still, hot sum 

 mer night, and listen for the voices that 

 prove the unconquerableness of nature, even 

 on the outskirts of a great city. How 

 many mysterious sounds float up to your 

 open window sounds made by wild crea 

 tures whose names you do not know, and 

 whose presence you never suspected! 



Have you never been startled, on a hot, 

 breathless July or August night, by a scream 

 so loud and harsh and angry in tone that 

 your fancy flew at once to the panther 

 stories that delighted your youth, and you 

 were ready to believe that there was actu 

 ally a prowling cougar in the swamp be 

 yond the road? I have heard this wilder 

 ness-cry in the same moment with a Boston 

 fire-alarm, and strangely mingling with it. 



