I 8 EYE SPY 
he chances upon a specimen of some size, is apt 
to be a memorable incident. 
My own first encounter dates back to the age 
of about eight years. While walking through a 
wood at night I chanced upon what I supposed to 
be a large glowworm in my path. I picked it up, 
only to find in my hand a hard piece of dead twig. 
A later experience, which, while quite startling 
for a moment, was robbed of its full terrors by the 
reminiscence of the first. As in the former case, 
I was returning home at night through a dark, 
damp wood. I was skirting the border of a small 
runnel, when I was suddenly brought to a breath- 
less standstill, apparently confronted by the glar- 
ing eyes of a panther, or perhaps a tiger; certainly 
no cat or fox or owl was possessed of eyes of such 
dimensions or wide interspace as those which 
glared at me from the dark shadow of yonder 
copse. But in a moment my quickened pulse had 
subsided, and I calmly returned the greenish phos- 
phorescent gaze, observing that a singular acci- 
dent had re-enforced the first illusion by a won- 
derful semblance to ears and outline of body, in 
keeping with the formidable eyes. 
In a moment I was attacking the foe, my hands 
stroking his rough barky forehead, and my fingers 
penetrating his eyes, which proved to be two holes 
in the bark of a fallen log, the farther side of 
which disclosed a brilliant, luminous patch which, 
