them, while they pursued their way in silence along the track on the side of the mountain; nor how deep were their mental thanks to that Power which had given them their existence, and which had not deserted them in their extremity; neither how often they pressed each other's arms, as the assurance of their present safety came like a healing balm athwart their troubled spirits, when their thoughts were recurring to the recent moments of horror.

Leatherstocking remained on the hill, gazing after their retiring figures, until they were hidden by a bend in the road, when he whistled in his dogs, and shouldering his rifle, he returned into the forest.

16

"Well, it was a skeary thing to the young creaturs," said Natty, while he retrod the path towards the plain. “It might frighten an older woman, to see a she-painter so near her, with a dead cub by its side. I wonder if I had aimed at the varmint's eye, if I shouldn't have touched the life sooner than in the forehead; but they are hardlived animals, and it was a good shot, consid'ring that I could see nothing but the head and the peak of its tail.”

1. The

NOTES TO COOPER.

Escape from a Panther" is an episode taken from chapter xxviii. of "The Pioneers." For a notice of this work, see the sketch of Cooper. This selection well illustrates our author's power of vivid description and narrative. As already pointed out, it is in work of this kind that he appears at his best.

2. Miss Elizabeth Temple, the heroine of "The Pioneers," and her friend, Miss Louise Grant, daughter of the local rector. They are out on a pleasure walk, a short distance from Leatherstocking's hut, and not far from the village of Templeton, the name for Cooperstown adopted in the story.

3. They had been talking about a young man, the hero of the tale, in whom both were more interested than they would have cared to acknowledge, and about whose life there was a mystery-explained, of course, near the end of the story.

4. Otsego Lake, about seven and a half miles long and one and a half miles wide. It is surrounded by high hills, and the scenery is picturesque.

5. The cry of the panther, so old hunters have said, often bears a striking resemblance to the human voice, for which, as in the present case, it has sometimes been mistaken.

6. It was customary in Cooper's time to call a woman by the very indefinite title of "female -a usage that has fortunately given way to better

taste.

7. Do you discover any incongruity in this sentence? Remodel and improve it.

8. To this sentence Cooper appended the following note: "Not long since there appeared in the papers an account of a hunter, upon whose head a panther had leaped, as he was sitting in the woods. A severe struggle ensued. The man was seriously wounded, but saved himself by plunging into a piece of water close at hand, and diving beneath the surface. There can be no doubt that these animals have occasionally inflicted fatal wounds. Governor De Witt Clinton mentioned a panther, killed early in this century near Oneida Lake, by a Frenchman. The animal was shot in the attitude of leaping on the man. Its length was nine feet, eleven inches. The head was taken to Schenectady, where it may possibly still be found."

9. This sentence may be taken as illustrating Cooper's rapid and careless style.

10. What is the antecedent of "which"? Note also the careless use of "its" and "her" in the same sentence.

II. Is this a correct use of the word "talons"?

12. Is it correct to call a panther a "wild cat "?

13. Could this be strictly true? Note the unsteadiness in the use of the pronouns in this and the preceding sentence.

14. What is the difference between conjure and conjure up? Which is the correct word here ?

15. The Susquehanna, one branch of which takes its rise in Otsego Lake. 16. A term for panther frequently used by uneducated persons.

IX.

SELECTIONS FROM BRYANT,

THANATOPSIS.

To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language: for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty; and she glides Into his darker musings,3 with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals 5 away Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts Of the last bitter" hour come like a blight

6

Over thy spirit, and sad images

8

$5

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;
Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings, while from all around —
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air-
Comes a still voice: Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist

10

Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again;
And, lost each human trace," surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go

To mix for ever with the elements;

To be a brother to the insensible 1 rock,

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain 13 Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.

Yet not to thine eternal resting-place Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs 14 of the infant world, with kings,

The powerful of the earth, — the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,

All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; 15 the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness 16 between;
The venerable '7 woods; rivers that move

In majesty, and the complaining brooks

18

That make the meadows green; and poured round all,
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,
Are but the solemn decorations all

-

Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,19
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes 20
That slumber in its bosom. Take the wings
Of morning," pierce the Barcan wilderness,22
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon,23 and hears no sound
Save his own dashings, — yet the dead are there!
And millions in those solitudes,24 since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep, - the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw
In silence 25 from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood 26 of care
Plod on, and each one, as before, will chase
His favorite phantom; 27 yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glide 28 away, the sons of men
The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man

29