FOR CHILDREN. 135

Her footsteps knew no idle stops,
But followed faster still ;

And echoed to the darksome copse
That whispered on the hill,

Where clamorous rooks, yet scarcely hushed,
Bespoke a peopled shade ;

And many a wing the foliage brushed,
And hovering circuits made.

The dappled’ herd of grazing deer,
That sought the shades by day,

Now started from their paths with fear,
And gave the stranger way.

Darker it grew, and darker fears
Came o’er her troubled mind ;

When now, a short, quick step she hears,
Come patting close behind.

She turned, it stopped ; nought could she see
Upon the gloomy plain ;

But as she strove the sprite to flee,
She heard the same again.

Now terror seized her quaking frame,
For, where the path was bare,

The trotting ghost kept on the same—
She muttered many a prayer.

Yet once again, amidst her fright,
She tried what sight could do ;

When, through the cheating glooms of night,
A MonsTER! stood in view.

* Dappled—variegated—streaked,