following his companions, he pointed after the dark
train, saying, with his deep and nearly inaudible laugh--

"Red-natur' is red-natur', let it show itself on a prairie, or in a
forest! A knock on the head would be the smallest reward to him who
should take such a liberty with a Christian sentinel; but there goes the
Teton after his horses as if he thought two legs as good as four in such
a race! And yet the imps will have every hoof of them afore the day sets
in, because it's reason ag'in instinct. Poor reason, I allow; but still
there is a great deal of the man in an Indian. Ah's me! your Delawares
were the redskins of which America might boast; but few and scattered
is that mighty people, now! Well! the traveller may just make his pitch
where he is; he has plenty of water, though natur' has cheated him of
the pleasure of stripping the 'arth of its lawful trees. He has seen the
last of his four-footed creatures, or I am but little skilled in Sioux
cunning."

"Had we not better join the party of Ishmael?" said the bee-hunter.
"There will be a regular fight about this matter, or the old fellow has
suddenly grown chicken-hearted."

"No--no--no," hastily exclaimed Ellen.

She was stopped by the trapper, who laid his hand gently on her mouth,
as he answered--

"Hist--hist!--the sound of voices might bring us into danger. Is your
friend," he added, turning to Paul, "a man of spirit enough?"

"Don't call the squatter a friend of mine!" interrupted the youth. "I
never yet harboured with one who could not show hand and zeal for the
land which fed him."

"Well--well. Let it then be acquaintance. Is he a man to maintain his
own, stoutly by dint of powder and lead?"

"His own! ay, and that which is not his own, too! Can you tell me, old
trapper, who held the rifle that did the deed for the sheriff's deputy,
that thought to rout the unlawful settlers who had gathered nigh the
Buffaloe lick in old Kentucky? I had lined a beautiful swarm that very
day into the hollow of a dead beech, and there lay the people's officer
at its roots, with a hole directly through the 'grace of God;' which he
carried in his jacket pocket covering his heart, as if he thought a bit
of sheepskin was a breastplate against a squatter's bullet! Now, Ellen,
you needn't be troubled for it never strictly was brought home to him;
and there were fifty others who had pitched in that neighbourhood with
just the same authority from the law."

The poor gi