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pense; but conscious of the danger of her
son, if he irritated the beast, she rushed
some distance up the rock. Yet, with
the fearless mind of childhood, and a
temper little used to control, he fearless
ly threw the fragment with all his might
at the ferocious animal. It struck one of
his feet. lie gave a sudden growl, lashed
his tail with fury, and seeming about to
spring.
“Get your rifle, Joshua ?”
The poor man stirred not. His glazed
eye was fixed with a look of death upon
the panther, as he appeared paralyzed
with fear. llis wife leaped from the
stand, and placing her hands upon her
husband’s shoulder, looked into his face
and said —
“Are you a man, Joshua Eaton? Do
you love your child ?”
He started as if from sleep, and ran
with furious haste from the ravine.
Again the mother looked towards her
son. He had fallen upon his knees, and
was whispering the little prayers, which
she had taught him, not in cowardly fear,
but a thought came across his mind that
he must die. The distracted mother
could keep still no longer. She rushed
up the steep ascent with the energy of
despair, reckless of danger, thinking only
of her son. The rocks crumbled and
slipped beneath her feet, yet she fell not.
On, on she struggled in her agony.
The ferocious creature paused a mo
ment when he heard the wretched mo
ther approach. True to his nature he
sprung at the boy, and fell backward, as
Hannah ascended the opposite side.
“Ah,” said she, laughing deliriously,
“the panther must try it again before he
parts us, my boy, but we won’t part.”
And sinking on her knees before him, she
fondly folded him to her breast, bathing
his young forehead with tears.
Unaltered in his ferocity, and his man
mer of gratifying it, the panther again
sprang from his situation. This time he
was more successful. 11 is fore foot
struck the edge of the crag. “He will
kill us, mother, he will kill us !” and the
boy nestled close to his mother’s bosom.
The animal struggled to bring his body
to the crag —his savage features but a
step from his mother’s face.
“Go away, go aw T ay,” shrieked the mo
ther, hoarse with horror, “you shan’t have
my child !”
Closer —closer still he came —his red
eyes flashed fury, and the thick pantings
of his breath came in her very face. At
this awful moment she hears the faint re
port of firearms coming from the gulf
below'—the panther’s foothold fails, his
sharp claws loosen from the rocks and
the balllcd beast rolls down the preci
pice at the foot of Joshua Eaton.
The sun’s last rays gleamed on the
little group at the mouth of the gorge.
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
They were on their knees—the mother’s
hands raised over the head of her son,
and the voice of prayer going to their
Guardian for llis mercy in thwarting
the panther’s leap.
CURIOUS HABITS OF THE SPIDER.
The spider has many enemies, and
hence its web is always in danger of be
ing deranged and damaged. To meet
this inconvenience, nature has furnished
the insect with a magazine of materials
for occasional repairs, and which, al
though frequently exhausted, still con
tinues to be replenished. This reservoir
is drained in time. When spiders grow
old, their gum is dried up ; but when this
calamity happens, the cunning creature
is not destitute of resources which avail
it for some time longer. A crafty old
spider, having no longer the means of
securing a subsistance, seeks out a young
one, to which it communicates its wants
and necessities; on which the other, ei
ther out of respect to old age, or from a
fear of old pincers, resigns its place and
spins anew web in another situation.
Hut if the old spider can find none of its
species which will either from love or
fear resign its net, it must perish for want
of subsistance. The water spider spins
no web to catch its prey ; nevertheless
offers one of the most singular objects of
contemplation. If we possessed no other
evidence that the world had been planned
and created by an Intelligent Being, the
habits, proceedings and instincts of this
little creature would be alone sufficient to
prove the fact. As soon as it has caught
its prey on the shore, it dives to the bot
tom of the w aters and there devours its
booty. It is, therefore, an amphibious
animal; although it appears more fitted
to live in contact with the atmosphere
than with the water. The diving bell is
a modern invention, and few facts excite
our wonder more than the possibility of
a man’s being able to live at the bottom
of the ocean. Triumph of reason over
the unfriendly element, however, was
anticipated by an insect —the spider in
question. This creature spins some loose
threads, which attach to the leaves of
aquatic plants; it then varnishes them
with a glutinous secretion, which resem
bles liquid glass, and is so elastic as to
admit of considerable distention and con
traction. It next lays a coating of the
same substance over its own body, and
underneath this coating introduces a bub
ble of air. Naturalists conjecture that
it has the power of drawing in air at the
anus from the atmosphere at the surface
of the pool, but the precise mode in
which it is separated from the boily of
the atmosphere and introduced under the
pellicle, covering the insect’s body, has
not been clearly ascertained.
Thus clothed, and shining like a ball
of quicksilver, it darts through the wa-
ters to the spot in which it had fixed its
habitation, and, disengaging the bubble
from under the pellicle, it dexterously
introduces it into a web formed at the
bottom. After repeatedly moving from
the top to the bottom of the water, and
at each journey filling its habitation with
a fresh bubble of air, at length the lighter
completely expels the heavier fluid, and
the insect takes possession of an aerial
habitation, commodious and dry, finished
in the very midst of the waters. It is
about the size and shape of half a pi
geon’s egg. From this curious chamber
the spider hunts, searching sometimes
the land for its prey, which, when ob
tained, is transported to this sub-aquatic
mansion, and devoured at leisure. The
male as well as the female exhibits the
same instinct. Early in the spring the
former seeks the mansion of the latter,
and having enlarged it by the introduc
tion of a little more air, takes up its
abode with its mate. About the middle
of April the eggs are laid, and packed
up in a silken cocoon in a corner of their
house, and watched with incessant care
by the female.
LETTERS FROM A LADY ABROAD.
NO. IX.
Munich, (Bavaria,) Sept. 18, 1852.
Hotel Do Bavi^re.
Dear Mr. Richards : —From this beau
tiful city l address you. I will endeavour
to give you some account of my impres
sions of it, but must first speak of our
tour hither. We left Halle on the 15th,
in the evening train for Leipsic, and
passed without the city gates, where Tet
zel, in other days, sold indulgences. The
next day we left Leipsic at early noon,
and commenced our long rail-road day’s
journey to Nuremberg. Passing over the
battle field of 1813—the grave of Na
poleon’s pride and prowess —we entered
the Dukedom of Saxe Altonburg.
The scenery is fine. Rich valleys,
sown with thatched cottages, are adorned
with foliage of various shades of green,
with here and there a tree embrowned
with an autumnal tint, or a willow with
silvery hues. As we advanced toward
the hilly country, we found the moun
tains covered with fir trees, where the
storks make their nests. Hos, one ot the
raii-road stations which we passed, is not
distant from the birth place of Jean Paul
Richter; and to his early home, our spi
rits prompted us to make a pilgrimage,
but we were whirled away.
Passing into Bavaria, w T e found the
scenery enchanting. This region ot coun-
[ December 11,