y short of his own was competent to repress the fierce
disposition of his headlong son, if fairly awakened. When these
arrangements were completed, the hunters sallied forth, separating at
no great distance from the rock, in order to form a circle about the
distant herd of buffaloes.

CHAPTER IX

Priscian a little scratch'd;
'Twill serve.
--Love's Labour Lost.

Having made the reader acquainted with the manner in which Ishmael Bush
had disposed of his family, under circumstances that might have proved
so embarrassing to most other men, we shall again shift the scene a few
short miles from the place last described, preserving, however, the due
and natural succession of time. At the very moment that the squatter and
his sons departed in the manner mentioned in the preceding chapter, two
men were intently occupied in a swale that lay along the borders of a
little run, just out of cannon-shot from 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 wildness of flavour, and substantial nourishment
were concerned, the viand might well have claimed a decided superiority
over the meretricious cookery and laboured compounds of the most
renowned artist; though the service of the dainty was certainly achieved
in a manner far from artificial. It would appear that the two fortunate
mortals, to whose happy lot it fell to enjoy a meal in which health and
appetite lent so keen a relish to the exquisite food of the American
deserts, were far from being insensible of the advantage they possessed.

The one, to whose knowledge in the culinary art the other was indebted
for his banquet, seemed the least disposed of the two to profit by his
own skill. He ate, it is true, and with a relish; but it was always with
the moderation with which age 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