of the shadow hunter
Who walks the midnight snow.'"

And so on. The intent seems to be to personify the fearful cold
that overtakes and benumbs the traveler in the great Canadian
forests in winter. This stanza brings out the silence or desolation
of the scene very effectively,--a scene without sound or motion:--

"'Save the wailing of the moose-bird
With a plaintive note and low;
And the skating of the red leaf
Upon the frozen snow.'

"The rest of the poem runs thus:--

"'And said I, Though dark is falling,
And far the camp must be,
Yet my heart it would be lightsome
If I had but company.

"'And then I sang and shouted,
Keeping measure as I sped,
To the harp-twang of the snow-shoe
As it sprang beneath my tread.

"'Nor far into the valley
Had I dipped upon my way,
When a dusky figure joined me
In a capuchin of gray,

"'Bending upon the snow-shoes
With a long and limber stride;
And I hailed the dusky stranger,
As we traveled side by side.

"'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,
Like 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 'fear-chill' and the 'cold-chill'
creeping over me. How far is it to the valle