THE ROMANCE _of the_ WOODS _by_ F. J. WHISHAW. Author of "_Out of Doors in Tsarland_." _London, Longmans Green & Co. and New York._ 1895 _All rights reserved_ CONTENTS PAGE I. ON A RUSSIAN MOOR 1 II. IN AMBUSH AT THE LAKE-SIDE 33 III. A DAY AFTER CRAWFISH 55 IV. A FINLAND PARADISE 75 V. AFTER DUCKS ON LADOGA 105 VI. ABOUT BEARS: BY ONE OF THEM 115 VII. THE FOLK-LORE OF THE MOUJIK 185 VIII. THE BEAR THAT DIED OF CURSES 212 IX. AMONG THE WOOD-GOBLINS 232 X. AN UNBAPTIZED SPIRIT 253 XI. A WITCH! A WITCH! 273 THE ROMANCE OF THE WOODS CHAPTER I ON A RUSSIAN MOOR I once had a strange dream. I dreamed that I was dead, and that dying I suddenly discovered all my preconceived ideas as to the future state to have been entirely erroneous, at any rate in so far as concerned such persons as myself--the respectable middle class, so to call it, of mundane sinners. Had I belonged to the aristocracy of piety and goodness, which, alas! I did not, or had I occupied a position at the lower end of the list, other things might have befallen me, better or worse, as the case deserved; but being, as I say, one of the decently respectable middle-class sinners, I was shown, in this foolish dream of mine, into a committee-room marked No. 2, and there informed that since I was neither very good nor very bad, my present destiny was to continue to inhabit this planet for a number of years--I forget how many--not, indeed, in my present corporeal form, but as a spiritual essence; and that I might select any place this side of the dark river, the Styx, as my temporary abode, there to live in Nature's bosom and to assimilate and be assimilated until the simplicity and beauty of Nature, uncontaminated by man, should have purified me of all the harmful taints which I had acquired during my terrestrial existence among fellow-mortals. And I remember that, in my dream-foolishness, I clasped my hands and fell on my knees, and with streaming eyes assured the committee of Mahatmas (for such, in the dream, they appeared to be) that I wished for no more beautiful heaven than this that they had offered me; and that I implored them to allow me to stay on for ever in the paradise they had prepared for me, and never to pass me onward and upward to attain further joys, however blessed! And then, in my dream, those Mahatmas flashed their shining eyes at me (there was very little _but_ eye and flowing cloak about them, I remember), and said "Silence!" and frightened me thereby out of my dream-dead wits.