An Old Log that Was Bewitched 75 



greater mystery fed by a million flames and 

 fanned by ten million strange processes. Back 

 in the primitive aeons of life, love was fanned by 

 battle, and the female was charmed to give her- 

 self to the victor ; but the day dawned when love 

 would be fanned by elements quite remote from 

 physical force fancy being captured by means 

 too occult to be formulated, or expressed if for- 

 mulated; fancy giving way to interest, and inter- 

 est giving birth to a god, a goddess, a myth, 

 the one great reality in a world of shadows. 



We do not always find when we seek and we 

 often stumble upon the thing for which we had 

 long sought in vain. A half-domesticated, half- 

 wild heifer, recently purchased by my father, 

 escaped from the home pasture and was thought 

 to be hiding a new-born calf somewhere in the 

 north woods, and on a misty gray Saturday morn- 

 ing, I was the new member of a searching party, 

 now quite worn out by two unsuccessful days of 

 pursuit; trained intellect struggling with blind in- 

 stinct. A fool cow and calf's brains making 

 monkeys of lords of creation. No wonder every- 

 one was out of humor and my proffered assist- 

 ance was lightly esteemed. Long before day- 

 light, with sundry pieces of venerable toast for- 

 gotten by every one, and never-to-be-forgotten 

 by me, in my pocket, I took to the woods and 

 probably would have taken to my heels had I run 



