112 THE PINE-TREE, OR 



as I peered into the unbroken forest, that reared itself to the bor- 

 ders of the stream, I laughed in very joyousness. My wild hur- 

 ra rang through the woods, and I stood listening to the echo 

 that reverberated again and again, until all was hushed. Occa- 

 sionally a night-bird would flap its wings from some tall oak. 



" The mighty lords of the forest stood as if naught but time 

 could bow them. I thought how oft the Indian hunter concealed 

 himself behind these very trees — how oft the arrow had pierced 

 the deer by this very stream, and how oft his wild halloo had 

 rung for his victory. I watched the owls as they fluttered by, 

 until I almost fancied myself one of them, and held my breath 

 to listen to their distant hooting. 



" All of a sudden a sound arose, it seemed from the very ice be- 

 neath my feet. It was loud and tremendous at first, until it end- 

 ed in one long yell. I was appalled. Never before had such a 

 noise met my ears. I thought it more than mortal — so fierce, 

 and amid such an unbroken solitude, that it seemed a fiend from 

 hell had blown a blast from an infernal trumpet. Presently I 

 heard the twigs on the shore snap as if from the tread of some 

 animal, and the blood rushed back to my forehead with a bound 

 that made my skin burn, and I felt relieved that I had to con- 

 tend with things of earthly and not spiritual mold, as I first fan- 

 cied. My energies returned, and I looked around me for some 

 means of defense. The moon shone through the opening by 

 which I had entered the forest, and considering this the best 

 means of escape, I darted toward it like an arrow. It was 

 hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could scarcely 

 excel my desperate flight ; yet, as I turned my eyes to the shore, 

 I could see two dark objects dashing through the underbrush at 

 a pace nearly double that of my own. By their great speed, 

 and the short yells which they occasionally gave, I knew at once 

 that they were the much-dreaded gray wolf. 



" I had never met with these animals, but, from the descrip- 



