to rise and push
forward at the peep of day on Sabbath. But when, in the course of a
couple of hours, they reached the dry country, they at once proceeded to
encamp.

During their journeying the trappers had mutually agreed to rest from
all labour on the Sabbath day. Some of them did so from no higher
motive than the feeling that it was good for themselves and for their
beasts to rest one day in seven from bodily labour. Although not
absolutely regardless of religion, they nevertheless failed to connect
this necessity of theirs with the appointment of a day of rest by that
kind and gracious Father, who has told us that "the Sabbath was made for
man." Made for him not only, and chiefly, for the benefit of his soul,
but also, and secondarily, for the good of his body.

Others of the party there were, however, who regarded the Sabbath rest
in a somewhat higher light than did their comrades; though none of them
were fully alive to the blessings and privileges attaching to the
faithful keeping of the Lord's day. Independently altogether of the
delight connected with the contemplation of the wonderful works of God
in the wilderness--especially of that beautiful portion of the
wilderness--the trappers experienced a sensation of intense pleasure in
the simple act of physical repose after their long, restless, and
somewhat exciting journey. They wandered about from spot to spot, from
hill to hill, in a species of charming indolence of body, that seemed to
increase, rather than to diminish, the activity of their minds.
Sometimes they rambled or rested on the sunny slopes in groups,
sometimes in couples, and sometimes singly. March Marston and the
artist sauntered about together, and conversed with animated fluency and
wandering volubility--as young minds are wont to do--on things past,
present, and to come; things terrestrial and celestial. In short, there
was no subject, almost, that did not get a share of their attention, as
they sauntered by the rippling brook or over the flowering plain, or
stood upon the mountain side. They tried "everything by turns, and
nothing long," and, among other mental occupations, they read portions
of the Bible together; for Bertram found that March carried his mother's
Testament in an inner breast-pocket of his hunting-shirt, and March
discovered that his friend had a small copy of the Bible--also a
mother's gift--which shared the pouch of his leather coat with the
well-known sketch-boo