THE APRIL MOON. 



109 



long that the chilly damp provoked an aguish 

 pain, and admonished by it I turned toward the 

 leafless trees upon the bluff, where I hoped to 

 find a drier atmosphere. The moon was well 

 upon her westward course when I reached 

 higher ground, and what a change from the open 

 meadows to gloomy woodland ! The dark shad- 

 ows of noonday are not repeated during a moon- 

 lit night. They are not only less distinct, but 

 quivering, as though they, too, shivered as the 

 air grew cold. It is not strange that one peoples 

 the distance then with uncouth shapes, and sees a 

 monster wherever moves a mite. However one 

 may argue to himself that this is the same wood- 

 path down which he daily passes without a 

 thought, and that since sunset no strange creat- 

 ures can have come upon the scene, he sees a 

 dozen such, it may be, in spite of every effort to 

 laugh them out of existence. Let a spider crawl 

 over your face at noon, and you brush the creature 

 from you almost unconsciously. Let a filmy cob- 

 web rest upon your damp forehead at midnight, 

 and you struggle to be rid of it, as though bound 

 with a rope. The mingled sounds of myriad 

 frogs, the hooting of owls, the rustling leaves be- 

 neath the shrew's light tread, even the chirping 

 of a dreaming bird, can not assure you. Every 

 tree is the ambush of a lurking elf ; ghosts and 

 hobgoblins follow in your steps. I have abun- 



