The Weston Democrat

A Young Heroine.

The Houston (Texas) Telegraph says: One morning recently a man and wife who live about nine miles east of Willis, left home on business, leaving the house in charge of their eldest child, about twelve years of age.

Toward noon the girl heard the infant, aged fourteen months, who had been laid while asleep on a bed in an adjoining room, utter a horrid screech, upon which she immediately ran to its relief, and imagine her feeling, upon opening the door, to see a huge panther with the babe in its mouth leaping from an open window immediately over the bed But she, like a true heroine, sprang upon the bed and then out of the window, screaming at the height of her voice, and, upon being joined by the other child about the house, pursued the panther at her utmost speed. They followed about forty rods to a pair of bars which separated the clearing from the forest, at which place the girl states that she approached to within fifteen or twenty feet of the panther, when it relinquished its hold of the child, leaped the bars and made its way to the woods. The infant was picked up, much strangled from its rapid movement through the grass and sand, which filled its mouth and eyes, but soon recovered and is now well, save a few scratches about its body, which have the appearance of having been made by the panther's teeth. These marks are very plain, and there are several blood blisters where the teeth in slipping came in contact. The girl states that the panther dropped the child once before arriving at the fence, and it is supposed the giving way of the clothing was the cause, as it was much torn.

We obtained the foregoing particulars from a gentleman living in Willis. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the brave girl who saved the child's life.