of grace and vigor; he is said to make 

 leaps of eighteen feet or more. His 

 sight is keenest in the dusk and by 

 night; his sense of smell is deficient but 

 his hearing is extremely acute. 



The lair in which the female brings 

 forth her young is usually in a shallow 

 cavern on the face of some inaccessible 

 cliff or ledge of rocks. 



In the southern states, Audubon says, 

 where there are no caves or rocks, the 

 lair of the puma is generally in a very 

 dense thicket or in a canebrake. It is 

 a rude sort of bed of sticks, weeds, 

 leaves and grasses. The number of 

 cubs is from two to five. In captivity 

 two usually are born, but sometimes 

 onlv one. 



THE HOLLY TREE. 



reader! hast thou ever stood to see 



The Holly tree? 

 The eye that contemplates it, well perceives 



Its glossy leaves. 

 Ordered by an intelligence so wise 

 As might confound the atheist's sophistries. 



Below a circling fence its leaves are seen 



Wrinkled and keen; 

 No grazing cattle through their prickly round 



Can reach to wound; 

 But as they grow where nothing is to fear, 

 .Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear, 



1 love to view these things with curious eyes, 



x^nd moralize; 

 And in this wisdom of the Holly tree 



Can emblem see 

 Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, 

 One which may profit in the after-time. 



Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear 



Harsh and austere, 

 To those who on my leisure would intrndi' 



Reserved and rude, 

 Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be 

 Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree. 



And should my youth, as youth is apt, 1 know. 



.Some harshness show. 

 All \ain asperities I day by day 



Would wear away. 

 Till the smooth temper of my age should be 

 Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree. 



.\nd as when all the summer trees are seen 



.So bright and green. 

 The Holly leaves a sober hue display 



Less bright than they. 

 But when the bare and wintry woods we see. 

 What then so cheerful as the Hollv tree? 



— Robert Southey. 



