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him the idea of making the young panther answer to the name of Mignonne, now that he began to admire with less terror her swiftness, suppleness, and softness. Toward the end of the day he had familiarized himself with his perilous position; and his companion would look up at him 5 whenever he cried "Mignonne."

Counting on his ability to run away from her as soon as she was asleep, the soldier waited with impatience the hour of his flight. When it arrived he walked vigorously in the direction of the Nile; but hardly had he gone a 10 quarter of a league in the sand, when he heard the panther bounding after him, crying with that saw-like cry, more dreadful even than the sound of her leaping.

"Ah!" he said, "then she's taken a fancy to me; is really quite flattering."

it.

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At that very instant the man fell into one of those quicksands which are so terrible to travelers and from which it is impossible to save one's self. Feeling himself caught, he gave a shriek of alarm; the panther seized him by the collar with her teeth, and, springing vigorously 20 backward, drew him, as if by magic, out of the engulfing sand.

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"Ah, Mignonne!" cried the soldier, caressing her fondly, now we're bound together for life and death; but no jokes, mind!" and he retraced his steps.

No longer did the desert seem uninhabited. It contained a being to whom the man could talk, and whose ferocity

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had been subdued by him, though he could not explain to himself the reason for their strange friendship.

Great as was the soldier's desire to stay up on guard that night, he slept. On awakening he could not find 5 Mignonne. Mounting the hill, he saw her springing toward him after the habit of those animals who cannot run on account of the extreme flexibility of the vertebral column. She came up to him, her jaws covered with blood; she received the wonted caress of her companion, 10 showing with much purring how happy it made her. Her eyes, full of languor, turned gently toward him and he talked to her as one would to a tame animal. She played like a puppy with her master, letting herself be rolled. about, pommeled, and fondled by turns.

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Several days passed in this manner, but he was obliged to watch like a spider in his web lest the moment of his deliverance by some possible traveler should escape him. He had torn up his shirt to make a flag, and this he hung at the top of a palm tree whose foliage he had pulled off. 20 Taught by necessity, he found the means of keeping the flag spread out, by fastening it with little sticks, for the wind might not be blowing at the moment when the passing traveler was looking across the desert.

It was during the long hours when he had abandoned 25 hope that he amused himself with the panther. He had come to learn the different inflections of her voice, the expressions of her eyes; he had studied the patterns of all

the rosettes which marked the gold of her robe. It gave him pleasure to watch the supple, fine outlines of her form and the graceful pose of her head. But it was when she was playing that he felt most pleasure in looking at her; the agility and lightness of her movements were a con- 5 tinual surprise; he wondered at the supple way in which she jumped and climbed, washed herself and arranged her fur, crouched down and prepared to spring. However rapid her leap might be, however slippery the stone she was on, she would always stop short at the word 10 "Mignonne!"

And how did it all end?

Alas! in a misunderstanding. Suddenly one day, when they were playing together, the panther turned and with her sharp teeth caught hold of the man's leg, gently, I 15 dare say, and not meaning to do him harm; but he, thinking she was about to devour him, plunged his dagger into her throat. She rolled over, giving a cry that he never forgot, but looking at him without anger. He would have given all the world to have brought her to life again. 20 And the soldiers who had seen his flag and hastened to his assistance, found him in tears.

forced march: a long march made with all possible speed and allowing none of the usual pauses for rest. scimitar (sĭm'I ter): a short, curved sword. Bonaparte: Napoleon Bonaparte was a famous French officer who attempted to conquer Egypt as a means of attacking English commerce in the East. He was made Emperor of the French in 1804, but after years spent in warfare with most of the countries of Europe he died in exile in 1821.

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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) was one of the most gifted of British authors.

At the top of the woods I struck leftward by a path among the pines until I hit on a dell of green turf, where a 5 streamlet made a little spout over some stones to serve me for a water tap. The trees were not old, but they grew thickly round the glade; there was no outlook, except northeastward upon distant hilltops, or straight upward to the sky; and the encampment felt secure and private like 10 a room. By the time I had made my arrangements and fed the donkey, the day was already beginning to decline. I buckled myself to the knees into my sack and made a hearty meal, and as soon as the sun went down I pulled my cap over my eyes and fell asleep.

Night is a dead, monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains is only a 5 light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and freely ; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping 10 hemisphere. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of night. Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hillsides and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who 15 have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night.

When that hour came to me among the pines, I wakened thirsty. My tin was standing by me half full of water. I emptied it at a draught and, feeling broad awake, sat 20 upright. The stars were clear, colored, and jewel-like but not frosty. A faint, silvery vapor stood for the Milky Way. All round me the black fir-points stood upright and stock-still. By the whiteness of the packsaddle I could see the donkey walking round and round at the length of her 25 tether; I could hear her steadily munching at the sward; but there was not another sound, save the indescribable

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