"This was as much as I had time to observe in the first hasty glance. Astonished at his actions, though not at all alarmed--or the first thought that occurred to me as that he was trying to catch a young rabbit--I called out in a half-jocular tone, well, bubby boy, what is it?' He made no reply, but continued that strange murmur of '--Oh-h-h, Pa-a-a, loo-oo-ook,' and took a couple of paces forward, not as though he wished to advance, but more in the style of a person who has leaned too far forward and moves his feet to recover the perpendicular. I arose, rather slowly, for it was a mere prompting of curiosity, and walking towards him, called out in a tone of some authority, 'John, come here!' Now I can say, without boasting, that my domestic government is thorough, and my children will promptly obey my commands in every thing, from the taking of a dose of quinine to the springing out of bed at daylight of a frosty morning. My surprise, therefore, was great to observe that the lad only answered my order, twice repeated, by the same melancholy cry, and another stumble forward. "I was now thoroughly aroused. I hastened my own steps, for a horror came over me as though I was in the presence of a demon. I advanced directly behind the child, and looking over him, observed a thick bush of the Early Honeysuckle, (_Azalea nudiflora_.) Into and through this I glanced, but I observed no object to excite my notice. I had got within a pace of him, and was in the act of putting my hand with some force upon his shoulder, when following more precisely the direction of his eyes, I looked at the foot of the bush, then about six feet from me, and how shall I describe the sequel! "Like an electric shock, a sensation pervaded my whole frame, which, although I can never forget, I must most imperfectly describe. I was in a trance--the blood overcharged my brain--a murmuring sound, as of an Aeolian, filled my ears-drops, like rain, oozed from my face--my hat, first elevated to the very tips of the hairs, worked backwards and fell to the ground--in brief, I was regularly, and for the first and last time in my life, in a state of fascination. "No sensation of languor troubled me, for although I felt no inclination to go forward, yet I seemed to myself perfectly able and willing to stay where I was, so long as the world lasted. I was perfectly happy in spite of my bodily excitement. A bright halo of changeable colors, for all the world like the changeable lights I have seen displayed in front of the American Museum, New York, filled all my vision, in the very focus of which gleamed two keen points, like sparks from the blacksmith's anvil, and they were so vivid that they seemed to pierce me through and through. "How long this continued I cannot say, but I suppose only for a minute. So far as my own perception of time's flight is concerned, however, it might have been an age.