Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1879 — A PANTHER'S MORNING CALL. [ARTICLE]

A PANTHER'S MORNING CALL.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I keep that 'Ugly old chest,” said Mrs. R , “>aoa I must owh that it’s not very ornamental; but It saved my life oboe, for all that. I see you think I’m ninklrig fun Of you, but I'm not, indeed; and when you hear the story f think you'll agree with me that I have good reason to value it, ugly as it looks. “This was how it happened? When Wo first carne out to India, my husband ■ w&& eent -to aiake-the-aunvey Nerbudda Valley, one of the wildest bits ip all Central India; and we really were, just at first, the only white people'within forty or fifty* miles. And such a time as we bad of it! If my

husband hadn’t been as strong as he is, and a perfect miracle of patience as well, 1 don’t know how he oould have stood what he had to do. It was dreadful work for him, being up sometimes for a whole night together, or having to stand out in the burning sun, when the very ground itself was almost too hot to touch. And as for the native workmen, I never saw snoh a set-al-ways doing everything wrong, and never liking anybody to put thorn right. When the railway was being made they used to carry the earth on their heads in baskets; wad when Mr. R served out wheelbarrows to them, they actually carried them on their heads in the same wav! I couldn't help laughing at it, though it was terribly provoking, too. And that was just tne way they all were; if there was a wrong way of using anything they’d be sure to find it out. Even our butler, or khilmutgar. who was much better than most of them, came one day and begged a pair of old decanterlabels that my husband was going to throw away, and when the man came in next morning be had positively turned them into ear-rings, and went about auite gravely with ‘ Port’ in one ear and • Sherry’ in the other! “ However, if the native men worried me, the native beasts were fifty times worse. It was no joke, I can assure you, to be awakened in the middle of the night by the roar of a tiger close under the window, or by an elephant crashing and trumpeting through the jungle with a noise like a mail-coach going full gallop into a hot-house. Well, as soon as that was over, the jackals would set up a squealing and whimpering like so many frightened children; and then a dreadful native bird, whose name I’ve never found out (1 suppose because nobody could invent one bad enough for it), would break out in a succession of the most horrible cries—just like somebody being murdered—until the noise fairly drove me wild.

“And then the ants! but you’ve seen them for yourself, and I needn’t tell you about them. But all this while I’m neglecting my stoir. “One day (it will belong enough before I forget it) my husband was out as usual at bis work, and the nurse had gone down to the other native servants at the end of the ‘ compound,’ as we call this big inclosure; and I was left alone in the house with my little Minnie yonder, who was then just about a year old. By this time I had got over my first fears, and didn’t mind a bit being left by myself; indeed, all the lower windows having bars across them, Ithoughtthat I was safe enough; but 1 little dreamed of what was coming! “1 most have been sitting over my sewing nearly an hour, with the child playing about the floor beside me, when suddenly I heard a dull thump overhead, as if something ’had fallen upon the roof. I didn't think anything of it at the moment, for one soon gets used to all sorts of strange sounds in the Indian jungle; but, presently, I thought I could hear a heavy breathing in the next room but one, and then I began to feel frightened in earnest. I rose as softly as I coulif, and crept to the door-way between the rooms. This door-way was only closed by a curtain, and gently pulling aside the folds, I peeped through—and found myself within a few paces of the largest panther I had ever seen in my life! “For one moment it was just as if 1 had been frozen stiff, and then the thought came to me just as if somebody had spoken it: * The big chest!’ “ I knew that this chest would hold me and my child easily, and that 1 could leave a chink of tne lid open to let us breathe, for the overlapping edge would save my fingers from the panther. Im» second I had it all clear before me;~ but had the brute not stopped short at sight of the curtain, I should never have nad a chance of trying it. Luckily for me, the Indian panther, savage as he is, is a terrible coward, and suspicious as any detective. I’ve seen one go round and round a trap tor more than half an hour, beiore ho made up his mind to spring at the bait. So, while my friend was puzzling himself over the curtain, and wondering whether it was meant for a trap or not, I took up Minnie (who, poor little pet, seemed to know there was something wrong, and never uttered a sound) and into the chest I crept, making as little noise as I oould. “1 was hardly settled there when I heard the ‘ sniff-sniff’ of the panther coming right up to where I lay, and, through the chink that I had left open, the hot, foul breath oame steaming in upon my face, almost making me sick. It seemed to bring my heart into my mouth when I heard his great olaws soraping the edge of the lid, and trying to lift It up; but, happily, the chink was too narrow for his paw to enter. But if the paw oouldn’t, the tongue could; and soon he began to liok my fingers, rasping them so that I hardly knew hew to bear it. Still the touch of little arm around my neck seemed tc give tne courage. “ But there was far worse than this to come; for “the panther suddenly leaped right oh top of the chest, and bis weight pressed down the heavy lid upon my fingers, until the pain was so terrible that, unable to stand it any longer, I screamed jWith all my might. "The scream was answered by a shout, from just outside, in which I recognized my husband’s voice. The panther heard it, too, and it seemed to scare him, for be made a dash for the window, either forgetting or not notioing the iron bars; but jußt as he reached it, there came the oraok of a rifle, and 1 heard the heavy brute fall suddenly upon the floor. Then all the fright seemed ’ to come back upon me at once, and 1 fainted outright. “ I heard afterward that* Mr. R—— had happened to want some instrument which he had'left at the house; and, not wishing to trust it in the hands of any of the natives, he came back for it himself—luckily, just in time, for the bullet from his rifle killed the panther. But, as you see, ray hand is pretty stiff yet.”—Want'd Ker, in St. Nicholas for April.

The returns of French commerce for the year 1878 have just been published. The imports were: Alimentary products, 1,643,808,000 francs; raw materials, 2,251,776,000 francs; manufactures, 447,133,000 franof; sundries, 218,757,000 francs; total, 4,460,974,000 franos, as compared with 3,669,845,000 francs for 1877. Theexports were: Manufactures, 1,867,142,000 franos; raw materials; 1,320,865,000 franc5; sundries, 181,800,000 francs; total for 1878, 3,369,807,000 francs, as compared with 3,486,804,000 francs for 1877. It will be seen from the foregoing figures that the excess of merchandise exported ■over the quantity imported-aggregated 420,009,000 francs. The English revenue for 1878 was £1,808,4850ver that of 1877. Theonly decrease was in stamps. ■ \ ~ r »