Indian foes, Bounce
seated himself on the trunk of a fallen tree and began to think upon
"Number One."

A little red squirrel had been seated on the trunk of that tree just two
minutes before his arrival. It was now seated on the topmost branch of
a neighbouring pine, looking with a pair of brilliant black eyes
indignantly at the unceremonious intruder.

Possibly the reader may think that it was selfish of Bounce, at such a
time, to devote much attention to Number One. He had just escaped; he
was in comparative safety; he was free; while there could be little or
no doubt that his late companions were prisoners, if not killed, and
that, in the ordinary course of things, they would eventually suffer
death by torture. At such a time and in such circumstances it would be
more natural, even in a selfish man, to think of any or of all the other
numerals than number one.

But, reader, I need scarcely tell you that things are not always what
they seem. Men are frequently not so bad as, at a first glance, they
would appear to be.

Bounce always reasoned philosophically, and he often thought aloud. He
did so on this occasion, to the immense edification of the little red
squirrel, no doubt. At least, if we may judge from the way in which it
glared and stared at the trapper--peeped at him round the trunk of the
tree, and over the branches and under the twigs and through the leaves,
jerking its body and quirking its head and whisking its tail--we have
every reason to conclude that it experienced very deep interest and
intense excitement. Pleasure and excitement being, with many people,
convertible terms, we have no reason for supposing that it is otherwise
with squirrels, and therefore every reason for concluding that the
squirrel in question enjoyed Bounce's visit greatly.

"Now this is wot it comes to," said Bounce, calmly filling his pipe,
from the mere force of habit, for he had not at that time the most
distant idea of enjoying a smoke. "This is wot it comes to. Savages is
savages all the wurld over, and they always wos savages, an' they always
will be savages, an' they can't be nothin' else."

At this point Bounce recollected having seen an Indian missionary, who
had been taken when a boy from his father's wigwam and educated, and who
had turned out as good and respectable a Christian gentleman as most
white men, and better than many, so he checked himself and said--

"Leastwise they can't be nothin' but sava