ject. So very conspicuous
was his zeal, indeed, as to have entirely gotten the better of all his
ordinary predilections. The worthy naturalist belonged to that species
of discoverers, who make the worst possible travelling companions to a
man who has reason to be in a hurry. No stone, no bush, no plant is ever
suffered to escape the examination of their vigilant eyes, and thunder
may mutter, and rain fall, without disturbing the abstraction of their
reveries. Not so, however, with the disciple of Linnaeus, during the
momentous period that it remained a mooted point at the tribunal of his
better judgment, whether the stout descendants of the squatter were
not likely to dispute his right to traverse the prairie in freedom. The
highest blooded and best trained hound, with his game in view, could not
have run with an eye more riveted than that with which the Doctor had
pursued his curvilinear course. It was perhaps lucky for his fortitude
that he was ignorant of the artifice of the trapper in leading them
around the citadel of Ishmael, and that he had imbibed the soothing
impression that every inch of prairie he traversed was just so much
added to the distance between his own person and the detested rock.
Notwithstanding the momentary shock he certainly experienced, when he
discovered this error, he now boldly volunteered to enter the thicket
in which there was some reason to believe the body of the murdered Asa
still lay. Perhaps the naturalist was urged to show his spirit, on this
occasion, by some secret consciousness that his excessive industry in
the retreat might be liable to misconstruction; and it is certain that,
whatever might be his peculiar notions of danger from the quick, his
habits and his knowledge had placed him far above the apprehension of
suffering harm from any communication with the dead.

"If there is any service to be performed, which requires the perfect
command of the nervous system," said the man of science, with a look
that was slightly blustering, "you have only to give a direction to his
intellectual faculties, and here stands one on whose physical powers you
may depend."

"The man is given to speak in parables," muttered the single-minded
trapper; "but I conclude there is always some meaning hidden in his
words, though it is as hard to find sense in his speeches, as to
discover three eagles on the same tree. It will be wise, friend, to make
a cover, lest the sons of the squatter should be out