Page:Rural Hours.djvu/468

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422
RURAL HOURS.

the point of turning back and following the sound, but the cry was repeated several times, and he thought, after all, it was not a woman's voice. A few days later, as his little boys were crossing a piece of woods on the top of Cliff Hill, they heard a strange cry at no great distance, sounding something like a woman's voice; they answered the voice, when the sound was repeated several times in a strange way, which disturbed the little fellows so effectually, that they turned back and ran nearly a mile, until they reached the farm-house, very much frightened. Both the farmer and the boys, in this case, are a very quiet, steady set, not at all likely to invent a tale of the kind. It really looks as if the creature were in the neighborhood, strange as it may seem. It so happened, that only a day or two before the boys heard the cry in the Cliff woods, we were crossing that very ground with one of them, never dreaming of a panther being near us; if it were really there at the time, one would have liked to have caught a glimpse of it—just near enough to decide the point, and to boast for the rest of one's days of having met a real live panther in our own woods! Bad as their reputation is, they seldom, I believe, attack human beings unless exasperated; and of course we should have been satisfied with a distant and brief interview; for no doubt we should have been very heartily frightened.

Friday, 15th.—We return to the birds of more than common interest.

The Bald Eagle can scarcely be called a rare bird with us, for in some parts of the country it is very common; at other points, however, it is not often seen. We Americans all have a national interest in this powerful bird as the emblem of our country, and