THE PANTHER. 
405 
kind has been heard of in our part of the country, until within 
these last few Aveeks. Probably, if this creature prove really to 
be a panther, it has strayed from the Catskills. 
Saturday, 2d. — Very mild. Unusually dark at eight o'clock. 
High Avind, with heavy, spring-like showers. About noon the 
sky cleared, and the afternoon was delightful, with a high south - 
w^est wind, and a bright sky. A high wind is very pleasant now 
and then, more especially where such are not common. This 
evening we enjoyed the breeze very much, as it flew rustling 
through the naked branches, tossing the evergreen limbs of old 
pines and hemlocks, and driving bright clouds rapidly across the 
heavens. Despite the colorless face of the country, everything 
looked cheerful, as though the earth were sailing on a prosperous 
voyage before a fresh, fair breeze. 
The sun has nearly reached his journey's end. There is a low 
ridge sloping away into the valley, about half a mile to the south 
of us, over which he passes completely in his annual voyage. 
Every clear winter's evening there is a glowing sky beyond it, 
against which the old pines, with their dark and giant forms, look 
grandly, adding, as they do, perhaps, a hundred feet to the 
height. The sun has nearly cleared this point now^, and as he 
turns northward immediately after passing over it, the height is 
called Sunset Hill in the village. 
Monday, 4th. — Charming day. Light sprinkling of snow in 
the night ; but it has already disappeared. The grass on the 
lawn is quite green again. A light fall of snow, w^ithout a hard 
frost, always brightens the grass, perhaps more even than a spring 
shower. It often snows here without freezing. 
Tuesday, bth. — Rainy day ; but not at all cold. 
