329 



sprang to join his comrades and devise some new piece 

 of merriment. 



" A pretty row there was in the village last night I" I 

 said to one of them. " Ha, ha, ha \" burst forth from 

 them all; "did you hear it? Was it very loud?" 

 " Why of course/' I said ; " such a clatter as that would 

 awake anybody. Were you of the party V " Oh no," 

 they answered, " not we ;" though, as I afterwards dis- 

 covered, they all were present ; and then they described 

 the whole to me with a gusto they could not repress, and 

 told me how the party, " so they heard'' had gone all 

 through the place, and stopped and knocked at my door. 



" We're merry fellows, don't you think so?" they all 

 asked. " Don't you like being among us ? Now then 

 we'll sing you a song that'll please you," and they be- 

 gan one in which the joys of stalking were described, 

 every part being accompanied by pantomime. There 

 were the peering looks as if chamois were discovered, and 

 then there was the stealthy advance; the rifle was lifted, 

 and after the shot came the anxious search and the out- 

 stretched neck to see if the game had fallen. It was all 

 dramatic, — a succession of scenes, of simple, natural act- 

 ing. Every gesture was full of life ; and had the crack of 

 the rifle been really heard, the widely-opened straining 

 eye could not have indicated more eagerness or longing. 



All this to me was most delightful. The dance, the 

 songs of the uninvited guests, all was rude, it is true, but 

 it was the healthy wildness of some untamed creature, 

 gambling and tumbling about in its native strength. It 

 was a piece of fresh nature, a bit of unreclaimed land, 

 untouched as yet by " the progress of civilization ;" where 

 no furrow had been upturned, but where you still smelt 

 the wild thyme in the bracing air. 



The noise I had heard in the night was occasioned by 



