OWLS IN A VILLAGE 173 



the thorns that scratched and tore him ; then, 

 catching sight of me at a distance of two or 

 three yards, he started back and stood still, very 

 much astonished at seeing a motionless human 

 figure at that spot. I greeted him, and, to 

 explain my presence, remarked that I had been 

 listening to the owls. 



" Owls ! — hstening to the owls !" he exclaimed, 

 staring at me. After a while he added, "We 

 have been having too much of the owls over 

 at Saintbury." Had I heard, he asked, about 

 the young woman who had dropped doAvn dead 

 a week or two ago, after hearing an owl hooting 

 near her cottage in the daytime ? Well, the 

 owl had been hooting again in the same tree, 

 and no one knew who it was for and what to 

 expect next. The village was in an excited 

 state about it, and all the children had gathered 

 near the tree and thrown stones into it, but the 

 owl had stubbornly refused to come out. 



That about the young woman he had spoken 

 of is a queer little story to read in this enhghtened 

 land. She was apparently in very good health, 

 a wife, and the mother of a small child ; but a 

 few weeks before her sudden death a strange 



