GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 175 



it was the work of some wild animal like a panther 

 which had landed upon the horse's back, and fairly 

 devoured it alive. The horse had run up and down 

 the field trying to escape, and finally, in its des- 

 peration, had plunged headlong off a high stone wall 

 by the barn and been killed. I was compelled to 

 accept his story, but I pooh-poohed the conclusions. 

 It was impossible that we should have a panther in 

 the midst of us, or, if we had, that it would attack 

 and kill a horse. But how eagerly the people be- 

 lieved it ! It tasted good. It tasted good to me, 

 too, but I could not believe it. It soon turned out 

 that the horse was killed by another horse, a vi- 

 cious beast that had fits of murderous hatred toward 

 its kind. The sheep and calf were probably not 

 killed at all, and the big dogs had had a fight among 

 themselves. So the panther legend faded out, and 

 our woods became as tame and humdrum as before. 

 We cannot get up anything exciting that will hold, 

 and have to make the most of such small deer as 

 coons, foxes, and woodchucks. Glimpses of these 

 and of the birds are all I have to report. 



II 



The day on which I have any adventure with a 

 wild creature, no matter how trivial, has a little 

 different flavor from the rest; as when, one morn-: 

 ing in early summer, I put my head out of the back 

 window and returned the challenge of a quail that 

 sent forth his clear call from a fence-rail one hun- 

 dred yards away. Instantly he came sa^ing over 



