FOREST LIFE. 47 



of dense woodlands, where this ghostly watchman of the night 

 makes the wild wood reverherate with the echo of his whoo-ho- 

 ho-whah-whoo ! which is enough, as one has observed, to fright- 

 en a garrison of soldiers. Few sounds, I am certain, so really 

 harmless in themselves, awaken such a thrill of terror, as it 

 breaks suddenly upon the ear during the stillness and loneliness 

 of the midnight hour. 



As I lay one night encamped upon the banks of a small stream 

 which contributed its mite to the accumulating waters of the 

 Penobscot River, an opportunity presented itself of testing the 

 strength of my nerves. It was during the midnight hour, when 

 even the trees seemed to sleep profoundly. Not a zephyr moved 

 a tvvig, and the silence which reigned was painful. Rendered 

 somewhat restless fi-om the combined circumstances of the previous 

 day's labor and a hard bed, I lay musing upon an account which 

 I had formerly read of a midnight attack upon a company of 

 militia, during the sanguinary struggles of the Revolution, by a 

 party of savages. In the midst of my revery, I fancied that I 

 could almost hear the stealthy footsteps of the wily Indian, when 

 a sudden scream from a tree-top, nearly over the spot where I lay, 

 brought me upon my feet at a bound. Seizing my gun, I looked 

 aloft to see if I could discover the author of my sudden fright. 

 By the light of the fire which still burned in the front of the 

 tent, I discovered a pair of large eyes, resembling those of a cat. 

 In an instant the woods echoed with the sharp report of my gun, 

 when down came his owlship with a summerset to the ground. I 

 have often listened to the quaint old figure, " I was not brought 

 up in the woods to be scared by an owl," yet I thinlc few can listen 

 to the whooping of this solitary bird in the solemnity and still- 

 ness of midnight without being conscious of their susceptibility 

 to emotions of fear, even though the judgment is assured of the 

 absence of all that could harm. 



Sometimes the tramping of timid deer, attracted by the wan- 



