get
tired of it, Reuben," I answered.

"As to that, I fancy that when I got accustomed to the hardships I
should like it more and more; but I would be a trapper on my own hook--
have my own animals and traps, hunt where I chose, and sell my peltries
to whom I pleased. Our old friend had a horse and two mules. He rode
the horse, and the mules served to carry his packs. He had six traps,
which he carried in a leathern bag called his trap-sack. I was
particularly struck by his appearance as he rode up to our cottage. His
costume was a hunting-shirt of dressed buckskin, ornamented with long
fringes; pantaloons of the same material, decorated with
porcupine-quills hanging down the outside of the leg. He wore moccasins
on his feet, and a flexible felt hat upon his head. Under his right
arm, and suspended from his left shoulder, hung his powder-horn and
bullet-pouch, in which he carried balls, flint, and steel His long
knife, in a sheath of buffalo, hung from a belt round his waist--made
fast to it by a steel chain. Also, he carried a tomahawk; and slung
over his shoulder was his long heavy rifle; while from his neck hung his
pipe-holder, garnished with beads and porcupine-quills.

"He had come many hundreds of miles from the west, having trapped as far
off as the Rocky Mountains, and had met with all sorts of adventures
among the Indians, from whom he had often narrowly escaped with his
life. He said that he would take me with him, as he much wanted a
companion, and would answer for my life with his own; though I should
run no more risk than he did, if I only followed his directions. But my
father would not hear of it, and was quite angry with the old man for
putting the idea into my head; so, of course, I had to give it up.

"`Well, Reuben, my boy,' he said as he rode away, `should your father
change his mind, and you hold fast to yours, when I come back I will
take you with me.'

"But he never has come back since."

I laughed at Reuben's notion; for, knowing him as I did, I saw that he
was utterly unfit for the sort of life he proposed to lead, and would be
heartily sick of it before long. He had a fertile imagination, and had
pictured a trapper's life as something very delightful, although I was
sure he would in reality hate it. And I believe that is the case with
many other boys,--especially with those who take it into their head to
go to sea, and who have never been on board a ship, and know nothing
wh