NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 107 



within a rod of the cranes, and then lay and watched 

 them. 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 repeated. 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 mo- 

 ther 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 sensible 

 person, outside of the literary circles, upon my fa- 

 vorite authors, especially when the views are spon- 

 taneous. "Speaking of Thoreau," says my corre- 

 spondent, "I am willing to allow most that is said 

 in his praise, but I do not like him, all the same. 

 Do you know I feel that he was not altogether hu- 

 man. There is something uncanny about him. I 

 guess that, instead of having a human soul, his body 

 was inhabited by some sylvan deity that flourished 



