The Legend of the Chestnuts.
the village were out gathering - chestnuts. The leader of the
crowd, a little fellow not yet in his teens, had climbed the
tree and was shaking - down the chestnuts. The tree was so
full of nuts, and the burrs were so loose, that the chestnuts
rained upon the ground and upon the boy who was in the
tree, so that he, too, soon had his pockets full of nuts.
“But while he was shaking - he did notice a dark object
that was coming - nearer and nearer to him, and the first
notice of danger that he had was when he felt himself siezed
from above and carried up into the air. At first he was too
much frightened to speak, but he soon realized that he was
being - carried away by an eagle, and he struggled with all
his might to get free. The eagle kept a tight hold on the
boy until it flew quife a distance, but it became weaker and
weaker, and finally dropped its victim to the ground.
“The other boys were so busily gathering the chestnuts,
that for several minutes they did not notice that the nuts
had quit falling - from the tree, until one of them looked
up and saw that their leader was g - one. They supposed
that he was hiding and began hunting for him, but soon
gave it up and went home. The missing boy did not return
that night, or the next day, or the next. The days became
weeks, and the weeks months, and still no traces were found
of him.
“The other boys became separated, some going with
their parents further into the country, some moving - into
larger towns, forgetting about their play mate who had
disappeared.
“Many years passed and a reunion was held in the vil
lage. Of the boys who had gathered chestnuts but two re
mained, and they were old grayhaired men. They were
walking together and talking over old days, and in their
walk they came across the old chestnut tree, now dead and
decayed. And while standing there and discussing the cur
ious disappearance of their old playmate, they noticed, for