THE PANTHER. 
421 
ferent ferns, there are large tufts of the same kind completely dry 
and withered, though it is not easy to see why there should be 
this difference. Can it be the younger fronds which are more 
tenacious of life ? Gathered a fine bunch of the scarlet berries, 
of the dragon-arum, as bright as in September. Tlie ground- 
laurel is in flower-bud, and the buds are quite full. Many trees 
and plants are budding. 
An old hemlock had fallen across the highway very near the 
same spot where another large tree fell also across the road, not 
long since. There are so many dead and decaying trees in our 
American woods, that, of a windy day, they often fall. Some 
persons are afraid to go in the forest when there is a high wind, 
but often as we walk there, we have never seen one fall. 
Wednesday, \Zth . — Lovely day; mild and cloudless. Walked 
on Mount . The lake very beautiful as we looked down upon 
it ; clear light blue, encircled by the brown hills. 
No birds. At this season one may often pass through the 
woods without seeing a feathered thing ; and yet woodpeckers, 
blue-jays, and crows are there by the score, besides snow-birds, 
chicadees, sparrows, and winter- wrens, perhaps ; but they do not 
seem to cross one’s path. The larger birds are never active at 
this season, but the snow-bird and chicadee are full of life. 
Thursday, \^th. — Mild, pleasant day. Again we hear news 
of the panther ; a very respectable man, a farmer, living a mile 
or two from the village, on the lake shore, tells that he 
was returning quite late at night from the village, when he was 
startled by hearing a wild sort of cry in the woods, above the 
road, sounding as though it came from Rock Hill ; he thought at 
first it was a woman crying in a wailing kind of way, and was on 
