76 What Birds Have Done With Me 



upon the black cow in a thicket and in the dark- 

 ness mistaken her for a bear, of which I had heard 

 much and seen little. It was fore-ordained from 

 all eternity that my way that morning should take 

 me in the neighborhood of the bewitched log and 

 the approach of bare feet over wet leaves and 

 grass must have been as near being shod with 

 silence as it is ever possible to human kind, and in 

 addition to this I was approaching from the north- 

 east, an entirely new direction, and the very first 

 glimpse of the log revealed the presence of some- 

 thing new a big bird standing upon it in the atti- 

 tude of a soldier on guard. We were both wait- 

 ing for something, and unless something outside 

 of us intervened, we would have to remain motion- 

 less, in statu quo, for twice ten thousand years 

 and all the time silence like a mighty, invisible 

 flood was rising higher and higher and threaten- 

 ing to drown us. Help! Rescue from the un- 

 speakable thing into which we are sinking! We 

 had not noticed it before, but all the time sugges- 

 tion had been saying in a soothing voice, "sleep, 

 sleep, go to sleep." What broke the spell was 

 the sun in the east; the military bird broke into a 

 wild gyration and emitted a torrent of sound, 

 from now on no more mysterious than the break- 

 fast bell at home. I showed my approval like 

 Tarn O'Shanter, but my witch fled, a brown streak, 

 I in pursuit to get an identifying look in the 



