IN THE CATSKILLS 



" ' But no token of communion 

 Gave he by word or look, 

 And the fear-chill fell upon me 

 At the crossing of the brook. 



" ' For I saw by the sickly moonlight, 



As I followed, bending low, 

 That the walking of the stranger 

 Left no foot-marks on the snow. 



" ' Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me, 



Lake a shroud around me cast, 

 As I sank upon the snow-drift 

 Where the shadow hunter passed. 



" ' And the otter-trappers found me, 



Before the break of day, 

 With my dark hair blanched and whitened 

 As the snow in which I lay. 



" ' But they spoke not as they raised me ; 



For they knew that in the night 

 I had seen the shadow hunter 

 And had withered in his sight. 



" ' Sancta Maria speed us! 



The sun is fallen low : 



Before us lies the valley 



Of the Walker of the Snow! ' " 



"Ah!" exclaimed my companion. "Let us pile 

 on more of those dry birch-logs; I feel both the 



