174 RIVERBY 



along shore after a steamer had passed. The bears 

 were probably safely in the Catskills by the time the 

 hunters got dogs and guns ready and set forth. 

 Country people are as eager to accept any rumor of 

 a strange and dangerous creature in the woods as 

 they are to believe in a ghost story. They want it 

 to be true; it gives them something to think about 

 and talk about. It is to their minds like strong 

 drink to their palates. It gives a new interest to 

 the woods, as the ghost story gives a new interest 

 to the old house. 



A few years ago the belief became current in our 

 neighborhood that a dangerous wild animal lurked 

 in the woods about, now here, now there. It had 

 been seen in the dusk. Some big dogs had encoun- 

 tered it in the night, and one of them was nearly 

 killed. Then a calf and a sheep were reported killed 

 and partly devoured. Women and children became 

 afraid to go through the woods, and men avoided 

 them after sundown. One day, as I passed an Irish- 

 man's shanty that stood in an opening in the woods, 

 his wife came out with a pail, and begged leave to 

 accompany me as far as the spring, which lay beside 

 the road some distance into the woods. She was 

 afraid to go alone for water on account of the "wild 

 baste." Then, to cap the climax of wild rumors, 

 a horse was killed. One of my neighbors, an in- 

 telligent man and a good observer, went up to see 

 the horse. He reported that a great gash had been 

 eaten in the top of the horse's neck; that its back 

 was bitten and scratched; and that he was convinced 



