glided directly before the door. The night was beautifully clear
with the light of the full moon and millions of stars. Light also
came glinting from ice and snow-wreath and incrusted branches, as
the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the river, that
like a jeweled zone swept between the mighty forests that
bordered its banks.

And yet all was still. The cold seemed to have frozen tree, air,
water, and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates
echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness; and the
crackle of the ice, as I passed over it in my course, seemed to
follow the tide of the river with lightning speed.

I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to a
little stream which flows into the larger, I turned into it to
explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met
overhead, and formed an archway radiant with frost-work. All was
dark within; but I was young and fearless, and I laughed and
shouted with excitement and joy.

My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood
listening to the echoes until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound
arose,--it seemed to come from beneath the ice. It was low and
tremulous at first, but it ended in one long wild howl.

I was appalled. Never before had such a sound met my ears.
Presently I heard the brushwood on shore crash as though from the
tread of some animal. The blood rushed to my forehead; my
energies returned, and I looked around me for some means of
escape.