ty, and in tones
that might easily have been excited to a menace, "he may have an end put
to his journey sooner than either he or his father is dreaming!"

"My life on it, they are all with the teams," hurriedly answered the
girl. "I saw the whole of them asleep, myself, except the two on watch;
and their natures have greatly changed, if they, too, are not both
dreaming of a turkey hunt, or a court-house fight, at this very moment."

"Some beast, with a strong scent, has passed between the wind and the
hound, father, and it makes him uneasy; or, perhaps, he too is dreaming.
I had a pup of my own, in Kentuck, that would start upon a long chase
from a deep sleep; and all upon the fancy of some dream. Go to him, and
pinch his ear, that the beast may feel the life within him."

"Not so--not so," returned the trapper, shaking his head as one who
better understood the qualities of his dog.--"Youth sleeps, ay, and
dreams too; but age is awake and watchful. The pup is never false with
his nose, and long experience tells me to heed his warnings."

"Did you ever run him upon the trail of carrion?"

"Why, I must say, that the ravenous beasts have sometimes tempted me to
let him loose, for they are as greedy as men, after the venison, in
its season; but then I knew the reason of the dog, would tell him the
object!--No--no, Hector is an animal known in the ways of man, and will
never strike a false trail when a true one is to be followed!"

"Ay, ay, the secret is out! you have run the hound on the track of
a wolf, and his nose has a better memory than his master!" said the
bee-hunter, laughing.

"I have seen the creatur' sleep for hours, with pack after pack, in open
view. A wolf might eat out of his tray without a snarl, unless there was
a scarcity; then, indeed, Hector would be apt to claim his own."

"There are panthers down from the mountains; I saw one make a leap at a
sick deer, as the sun was setting. Go; go you back to the dog, and tell
him the truth, father; in a minute, I--"

He was interrupted by a long, loud, and piteous howl from the hound,
which rose on the air of the evening, like the wailing of some spirit
of the place, and passed off into the prairie, in cadences that rose
and fell, like its own undulating surface. The trapper was impressively
silent, listening intently. Even the reckless bee-hunter, was struck
with the wailing wildness of the sounds. After a short pause the former
whistled the dog to his s