ered hastily, for I knew well what "just go on a
little" meant,--I had tried it before: it meant pass out of sight in two
minutes, and out of hearing in one more, so absorbed in following an
elusive bird note that everything else would be forgotten. "No, indeed!"
I repeated. "I shall not be left in these woods; where you go I follow."

"But I won't go out of sight," she urged, her conscience contending with
her eager desire to proceed, for well she knew that I did not take my
woods by storm in this way.

[Sidenote: _AN ECCENTRIC FOX._]

I said nothing in reply, but I had no intention of being left, for I did
not know what dwellers the forest might contain, and I had a vivid
remembrance of being greatly startled, only a day or two before, by
unearthly cries in these very woods; of seeing a herd of young cattle
rushing frantically away, turning apprehensive glances toward the
sounds, and huddling in a frightened heap down by the bars, while the
strange cries came nearer and nearer, till I should not have been
surprised to see any sort of a horror emerge; of calling out to the
farmer whom I met at the door, "Oh, there's something dreadful up in the
woods!" and his crushing reply, "Yes, I heard it. It's a fox barking; we
hear one now and then."

I cast no doubts on the veracity of that farmer, though I could not but
remember the license men sometimes allow themselves when trying to quiet
fears they consider foolish; nor did his solution seem to account
satisfactorily for the evident terror of the cattle, which had lived in
those woods all their lives, and had no reason to fear the "bark" of a
fox. I preferred, therefore, not to encounter any such eccentric "fox"
alone; hence I refused to listen to my friend's entreaties, but simply
followed on, over fallen tree-trunks, under drooping branches, and
through unyielding brush; now sinking ankle-deep in a pile of dead
leaves, now catching my hair in a broken branch, and now nearly falling
over a concealed root; wading through swamps, sliding down banks,
cutting and tearing our shoes, and leaving bits of our garments
everywhere. On we went recklessly, intent upon one thing only,--seeing
the bird who, enthroned on his tree-top, calmly and serenely uttered his
musical "see-e he-e-re!" while we struggled and scrambled and fought our
way down below.

We reached a steep bank, and paused a moment, breathless, disheveled,
_my_ interest in the beguiler long ago cooled.

"There's a