NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 1U9 



It was the most comical sight to see them waltz 

 around, sidle up to each other and back again, 

 their long necks and legs making the most 

 clumsy motions. With a little stretch of the 

 imagination one might see a smirk on their 

 faces, and suspect them of caricaturing human 

 beings. There seemed to be a regular method 

 in their movements, for the changes were re- 

 peated. How long they kept it up I do not 

 know, for I tired of it and went back to the 

 house, but they had danced until the grass was 

 trampled down hard and smooth. I always 

 had a mania for trying experiments, so I coaxed 

 my mother to cook one the men had shot, 

 though I had never heard of any one's eating 

 crane. It was not very good, tasted somewhat 

 peculiar, and the thought that maybe it was 

 poison struck me with horror. I was badly 

 scared, for I reflected that I had no proof that 

 it was not poison, and I had been told so many 

 times that I was bound to come to grief, sooner 

 or later, from trying to find out things. " 



I am always glad to have the views of a sen- 

 sible person, outside of the literary circles, 

 upon my favorite authors, especially when the 

 views are spontaneous. "Speaking of Tho- 

 reau," says my correspondent, "I am willing to 

 allow most that is said in his praise, but / do 

 not like him, all the same. Do you know I 

 feel that he was not altogether human. There 

 is something uncanny about him. I guess that 

 instead of having a human soul, his body M-as 

 inhabited by some sylvan deity that flourished 



