258 SEABCH FOB A PEEPEB. 



evening, as the sun went down among the old forests, away 

 off in the west. The greyness of twilight came stealing over 

 the water, and grew into darkness in the beautiful valley 

 where that lake lay sleeping. The stars stole out silently, 

 and set their watch in the sky, and calmness and repose 

 rested upon everything around us. 



" I remember," said Smith, " the first year that I was in 

 college, of hearing two learned professors disputing about 

 what sort of animal it w^s that made the piping noise 

 we hear in the marshy places, and stagnant pools,. in the 

 spring time, usually known as peepers. One insisted that it 

 was a newt, or small lizard; and I remember that he went 

 to his library, and brought a volume which proved his 

 theory to be correct. The other denied the authority of 

 the author, and insisted that the peeper was a frog. The 

 discussion excited my curiosity, and I made up my mind to 

 satisfy myself on the subject, if possible, by occular demon- 

 stration. There was a small marshy place, half a mile, or 

 so, from the college grounds, from which I had heard, in my 

 walks, the music of the peepers coming up every evening, hi 

 a loud and joyous chorus. I watched by it a number of 

 evenings, and though there were a plenty of peepers, piping 

 merrily enough, yet I could not get sight of one to save me. 

 I began to think it was a myth, the viewless spirit of the 

 bog, that made all the noises about which the learned pro- 

 fessors had been disputing. At last, however, I got sight 

 of a peeper, caught him in the act, and saw that it was, in 

 fact, a little frog, nothing more, nothing less. He was not 



