wos well-nigh starved for want o' game, an' the
Natter-list got so thin that ye could a-most see through him, so I
offered to kill my horse, an' cut it up for meat; but you niver saw sich
a face he made. `I'd rather die first,' says he, `than eat it;' so we
didn't kill it. But that very day Martin got a shot at a wild horse and
killed it. The Natter-list was down in the bed o' a creek at the time
gropin' for creepers, an' he didn't see it.

"`He'll niver eat it,' says Martin.

"`That's true,' says I.

"`Let's tell him it's a buffalo,' says he.

"`That would be tellin' a lie,' says I.

"So we stood lookin' at each other, not knowin' what to do.

"`I'll tell ye what,' cries Martin, `we'll cut it up, and take the meat
into camp and cook it without _sayin' a word_.'

"`Done,' says I, `that's it;' for ye must know the poor creature wos no
judge o' meat. He couldn't tell one kind from another, an' he niver
axed questions. In fact he niver a-most spoke to us all the trip.
Well, we cut up the horse and carried the flesh and marrow-bones into
camp, takin' care to leave the hoofs and skin behind, and sot to work
and roasted steaks and marrow-bones.

"When the Natter-list came back ye should ha' seen the joyful face he
put on when he smelt the grub, for he was all but starved out, poor
critter.

"`What have we got here?' cried he, rubbin' his hands and sittin' down.

"`Steaks an' marrow-bones,' says Martin.

"`Capital!' says he. `I'm _so_ hungry.'

"So he fell to work like a wolf. I niver seed a man pitch into anything
like as that Natter-list did into that horseflesh.

"`These are first-rate marrow-bones,' says he, squintin' with one eye
down the shin bone o' the hind-leg to see if it was quite empty.

"`Yes, sir, they is,' answered Martin, as grave as a judge.

"`Take another, sir,' says I.

"`No, thankee,' says he with a sigh, for he didn't like to leave off.

"Well, we lived for a week on horseflesh, an' first-rate livin' it wos;
then we fell in with buffalo, an' niver ran short again till we got to
the settlements, when he paid us our money an' shook hands, sayin' we'd
had a nice trip an' he wished us well. Jist as we wos partin' I said,
says I, `D'ye know what it wos we lived on for a week arter we wos
well-nigh starved in the prairies?'

"`What,' says he, `when we got yon capital marrow-bones?'

"`The same,' says I; `yon was _horseflesh_,' says I, `an' I think ye'll
sur'ly niver say again that