at quarrels for the carcass the hunter has
left?"

"You've heard of it!" exclaimed the other, dropping the morsel he was
conveying to his mouth in manifest surprise.

"Nay, I have heard nothing; but I have seen the cloth, and had like
to have been bitten for no greater crime than wishing to know what it
covered."

"Bitten! then, after all, the animal must be carnivorous! It is too
tranquil for the ursus horridus; if it were the canis latrans, the voice
would betray it. 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 night, has occasioned me more
perplexity of mind than the whole catalogue of quadrupeds besides: and
for this plain reason; I did not know how to class it."

"You think it a ravenous beast?"

"I know it to be a quadruped: your own danger proves it to be
carnivorous."

During this broken explanation, Paul Hover had sat silent and
thoughtful, regarding each speaker with deep attention. But, suddenly
moved by the manner of the Doctor, the latter had scarcely time to utter
his positive assertion, before the young man bluntly demanded--

"And pray, friend, what may you call a quadruped?"

"A vagary of nature, wherein she has displayed less of her infinite
wisdom than is usual. Could rotary levers be substituted for two of the
limbs, agreeably to the improvement in my new order of phalangacrura,
which might be rendered into the vernacular as lever-legged, there would
be a delightful perfection and harmony in the construction. But, as the
quadruped is now formed, I call it a mere vagary of nature; no other
than a vagary."

"Harkee, stranger! in Kentucky we are but small dealers in dictionaries.
Vagary is as hard a word to turn into English as quadruped."

"A quadruped is an animal with four legs--a beast."

"A beast! Do you then reckon that Ishmael Bush travels with a beast
caged in that wagon?"

"I know it, and lend me your ear--not literally, friend," observing Paul
to start and look surprised, "but figuratively, through its functions,
and you shall hear. I have already made known that, in virtue of a
compactum, I journey with the aforesaid Ishmael Bush; but though I am
bound to perform certain duties while the journey lasts, there 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