12 EVK SI'V 



tlic left, and in a moment more we were directly 

 abreast of it. On many })revioiis night-journeys 

 I had been on the lookout for some such surprise 

 as this, as yet only rewarded by the tiny sparkle 

 of the glowworm in the grass. But here, at last, 

 it came in a shape that I could not have antici- 

 pated — an upright column of phosphorescence, 

 brilliant at the upper extremity, and more broken 

 below for a space of several feet. The brilliancy 

 of the light may be inferred from the following 

 query and its answer: 



"What is that light yonder.?" I asked my com- 

 panion. 



" A lantern reflected in water," was his reply. 



The mass of light shone verily like a lantern, 

 and the present interpretation was somewhat rem- 

 iniscent of a previous flickering lantern which we 

 had seen, with its accompaniment of great mag- 

 nified moving shadows on barn and hay-stack, as 

 it assisted in the tardy chores of a whistling 

 farmer lad. 



But this light was of a greenish, ghostly hue, 

 and perfectly motionless, and had withal a certain 

 weird, uncanny glare, which belongs alone to fox- 

 fire. It was impossible to locate its distance from 

 us. It might as easily be one rod as five. I con- 

 cluded to investigate its source, and, groping my 

 way through the dewy bushes, soon confronted it. 

 It seemed to glow with added brilliancy as I ap- 



