e to give her up to-night, Zeke,' said I; 'but I will go
with you in the morning. She's lost or hedged up somewhere among
windfalls.' We heard 'lucivees' snarling, and as we went back along, saw
a bear digging ground-nuts beside a great rock. These were common enough
sounds and sights in those days; still, we did not care to go off into
the forest after dark.

"Several inches of snow came during the night and the next morning was
cloudy and lowering. Zeke came over early. Brindle had not come in. He
brought his gun and had taken Skip, their dog; and we now started off
for a thorough search in the woods. Everything looked very odd that
morning, on account of the freshly fallen snow. The snow had lodged upon
all the trees, especially the evergreens, bending down the branches; and
every stump and bush was wreathed in white.

"As the cows used frequently to follow up the valley--where the road now
is--to the northward, we entered it and kept on to where it opens out
upon Clear Pond, at the foot of the crags which you probably noticed as
you passed. There is just a footpath between the crags and the pond,
which is very deep on that side. About the pond and the crag the trees
were mostly spruce. This morning they looked like multitudes of white
tents, lined with black. And this appearance, with the ground all white,
and the not yet frozen water looking black as ink, made everything
appear so strange, that although we had several times been there before,
we now scarcely knew the place.

"As yet we had seen no traces of Brindle. But just as we came out on the
pond, at the foot of the crag, we heard a fox bark, quite near at first,
then at a distance. Skip sprang ahead among the snowy spruces, but came
back in a few moments, and, looking up in our faces, whined, then ran on
again.

"'He's found something!' exclaimed Zeke.

"We hurried forward on his track, and a few rods further, saw him
standing still, whining; and there, under a thin covering of snow, near
the water, lay old Brindle, torn and mangled, and partially eaten.

"A feeling of awe crept over us at the sight.

"'Dead!' whispered Zeke.

"'Something's killed her!' I whispered back.

"There were fresh fox tracks all around, and the carcass had been
recently gnawed in several places. Some transient little fox had been
improving the chance to steal a breakfast. But what savage beast had
throttled resolute old Brindle?

"With strange sensations we gazed around.