V — ' 



V 





O, 



WOODMYTH ftc FABLE 



Long may he roam and spurn the hill- 

 tops with his flying feet and dash the dew- 

 drops from the highest pine-tops as he 

 clears the valley at a bound ; long may 

 he live and tempt a hail of harmless lead. 

 But the rattle of repeaters is heard in 

 every valley now ; the wise are more and 

 more often propounding that unfathom- 

 able riddle, " Where have all the Deer 

 gone?" and when at length the last re- 

 mainder of the common race is slain, I 

 know too well that this, the immortal, 

 too will die ; that though he never can be 

 touched by death, he yet will perish — 

 perish like the last surviving Cambrian 

 bard, not by the hand of man, but by a 

 strange engulfment so complete that not 

 a trace of him will e'er be seen again and 

 but a fading memory of his ever having 

 been. 



