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, 



