The Prairie

a little

ll s

s Labo

rom the encampment, discussing the merits of a savoury bison's hump, that had been prepared for their palates with the utmost attention to the particular merits of that description of food. The choice morsel had been judiciously separated from the adjoining and less worthy parts of the beast, and, enveloped in the hairy coating provided by nature, it had duly undergone the heat of the customary subterraneous oven, and was now laid before its proprietors in all the culinary glory of the prairies. So far as richness, delicacy, and wild

ge is apt to temper the appetite. No such restraint, however, was imposed on the inclination of his companion. In the very flower of his days and in the vigour of manhood, the homage that he paid to the work of his more aged friend's hands wa

ad served the bee-hunter with the banquet in question; "cut more into the centre of the piece; there you will find the

m the necessary operation of breathing, "I should swear this was

s well as your master. Now, lad, there is a dog that has eaten and slept wiser and better, ay, and that of richer food, than any king of them all! and why? because he has used and not abused the gifts of his Maker. He was made a hound, and like a hound has he feasted. Then did He create men; but they have eaten like famished wolves! A good and prudent dog has Hector proved, and never have I

his associate saw fit to season their repast, "that, every day while we are in this pla

rt you will, and it was to be food for man that he was fashioned; but I canno

age to eat them clean myself, even to the hoofs;-how now, who comes here! some one with a long nose

le in his appearance, the bee-hunter, instead of suspending his operations, rather increased his efforts, in a manner which would seem to imply that he doubted whether the hump would suffice for the proper entertainment of all who were now likely to pa

guide, it has led you to a fitting place. Here is meat, and this youth can give you corn, parch'd till it be whiter than the upland snow; come on,

alist on one of his daily exploring expeditions, "I rejoice greatly at this

ake me believe that a name could change the natur' of a beast! Come, friend; you are welcome, though your notions are a little blinded with reading too

the sharpness of the wind, proved excellent stimulants; and Paul himself had hardly been in better plight to do credit to the trapper's cookery, than was the lover of nature, when the grateful invitation met his ears.

iarities of the singed and defaced skin, "I ought to be ashamed of my profession, were there beast, or bird, on the continent of America, that I could not tell by

t unlike a dog when engaged in the same agreeable pursuit, threw him hi

have many ways of telling the creat

the animals that are carnivorou

?" demanded

furnished them for defence, and i

convincing a man who had presumed to enter into competition with himself, in matters pert

ess; though he profited by the occasion to take

gs you need, before you can pronoun

he entire anim

steel-yards west of the Alleghanies. Still you may make out to keep soul and body together, with what is left," reluctantly eyeing a piece large enough to fee

to his inspection. "Ay, let me see the heart-it will at once determine the character of the animal-certes

t, from the trapper, which was considered so ill-timed by the offended natural

ruth than you are from the settlements, with all your bookish larning and hard words; which I have, once for all, said cannot be understood by any tribe or nation east of the Rocky Mountains. Beas

ystem is erroneous, from the premises to the conclusion; and your classification so faulty, as utterly to confound the distinctions of science. The buffaloe

pper," interrupted Paul Hover. "The man who denies th

essary to tell the rea

his book, and which i

th the bison; hence

the prairies and

herto been exceedingly cursory, stared at the new speak

, friend," he said, "are familiar; either you, or

e tarried together a week, as you may remember; you at your toads and lizards, and I at my high-holes and hollow trees: and a good job we made of it between us! I filled my tubs with the sweetest honey I ever sent to t

bee-hunter is not unc

gh it is a little embe

g the flowers, their

e then chooses a prop

sect invariably takes

ound to a greater or

bee-hunter then perm

ourses of the bees,

enabled to calculate

ines, which

and all the beasts that range the woods, and stuffing them with worthless rags, and placing eyes of glass into their heads, they

ek, as my herbal and catalogues shall one day prove. Ay, I remember you well, young man. You are of the class, mammalia; order, primates; genus, homo; species, Kentucky." Pausing

ess Paul. "By the Lord, trapper, this is th

ingle-minded Doctor, "for I am not of the phlebotomising school at all; greatl

, good stranger; the girl

with sufficient meekness. "But Ellen is a good, and a kind, and a spiri

ctance to abandon the hump, and casting a fierce and direct look into the very teeth

tempt me to harm a hair of her head! I love the child, with what may h

ejoined, stretching forth his hand to regain the rejected morsel. "You would be

he says," observed the trapper: "but, friend, you have s

in virtue of

fashion; but it is long since I have left off killing more than I need for food and garments. I was an eye-witness, myself, of the manner in which the Si

cussing his portion of the hump, in utter forgetfulness of all i

uncommon, seeing how long it is that I have been out of the settlements. But can you tell me, friend, what the traveller

her, dropping the morsel he was convey

loth, and had like to have been bitten for no gre

t. Nor would Nelly Wade be so familiar with any of the genus ferae. Venerable hunter! the solitary animal confined in that wagon by day, and in the tent at

it a rave

ped: your own danger prov

speaker with deep attention. But, suddenly moved by the manner of the Doctor, the latter

d, what may you

agreeably to the improvement in my new order of phalangacrura, which might be rendered into the vernacular as lever-legged, there would be a deli

all dealers in dictionaries. Vagary is as ha

an animal with f

that Ishmael Bush travels wit

e is no condition which says that the said journey shall be sempiternum, or eternal. Now, though this region may scarcely be said to be wedded to science, being to all intents a virgin territory as respects the enquirer into natural history, still it is greatly destitute of the treasures of the vegetable kingdom. I should, therefore, have

seen the

e watched the habits of the animal, young man; and can fearlessly pronounce, by evidence that would be thrown away on ordinary observers, that it is of vast di

om the Doctor's description was making a very sensible i

e tent, which Ishmael guarded so carefully, and which he had covenanted that I should swear, (jurare per deos) not to approach nigher than a defined number of cubits, for a definite period of time. Your jusjurandum, or oath, is a serious matter, and not to be dealt in lightly; but, as my expedition depended on complying, I consented to the act, reserving to myself at all times the power of distant observation. It is now some ten days since Ishmael, pitying the s

tor concluded his singular but characteristic explanation; then the i

han the sting of a drone. I, too, know something of that very wagon, and I may say that I have lined the squatter dow

th pleasure to the treasures that I am sometimes compelled to scatter in this desert.

nstructed bee-hunter; "Ellen is a girl of spirit, and one too that knows her own mind, or I'm much mistaken; but w

quaintance, th

all the books in Kentucky couldn't make Ellen W

and I have a proof more sure than what either of you can lay claim to, that the wagon does not carry the cage of a beast. Here is Hector, come of a breed with noses as tr

imed the Doctor in some heat. "In what manner, pray, can a hound distinguish the habits, sp

make a quicker wit than the Lord, you shall be made to see how much you're mistaken. Do you not hear somet

of his rencounter with the vespertilio horribilis. "You have rifles, friends; would it

ng as to take his piece from the place where it had lain during the repast,

himself could not tell whether the animal was a quad

r! Here: pup!-What is it, dog?-Shall we r

f a strange animal, lifted his head from his fore paws and slightly parted his lips, as if about to show the remnants of his teeth. But, sudd

r ravenous beast in the thicket; and that I call substantial knowledge to a man who is too ol

r by a growl, but still kept

am a judge of the creatur's ways. There is but little said atwi

ightning; and, throwing forward his

iend; if an enemy, sta

ned a voice from the thicket; which opened at the same i