village: it is said that several respectable persons have had glimpses of a panther in our hills during the last two months! Probably they have been deceived, for it seems all but incredible that one of these wild creatures should really have appeared in our woods. It is between forty and fifty years since any panther has been heard of in this neighborhood.
Thursday, 16th.—Lovely day; bright air and soft sky. Perhaps the farmers will prove right about the Indian summer, after all. The walking is very bad; the late snow and last night's rain making a sad muss. Still, those who delight in the open air, may verify the old proverb: “Where there is a will there is a way;” one may pick out spots for walking, here and there.
The new-fashioned plank-walks have not yet become general here; they are convenient in muddy weather, though very ugly at other times. The neatest side-walk for a village or rural town seems to be a strip of brick, or stone pavement, three or four feet wide, with a broad border of grass on each side, where trees are planted, such as they have them in some of the Western villages. The plank roads and walks will probably be introduced here before long; they will use up an immense amount of timber, and one would think that this must eventually put a stop to them. It is said that the hemlock timber, which is used for the purpose, never attains to any great size in its second growth; such is the opinion here; whether it be correct or not, I do not know. There seems no good reason why it should not grow out of the old forests, as well as the pine.
The roads are at their worst just now; the stage-coach was ten hours yesterday coming the twenty-two miles from the railroad. That particular route, however, crossing the hills to the
