gated, diverging, and
formidable; colour, plumbeous-ashy, with fiery spots; voice, sonorous,
martial, and appalling; habits, gregarious, carnivorous, fierce, and
fearless. There," exclaimed Obed, when he had ended this sententious but
comprehensive description, "there is an animal, which will be likely to
dispute with the lion his title to be called the king of the beasts!"

"I know not the meaning of all you have said, Doctor Battius," returned
the quick-witted girl, who understood the weakness of the philosopher,
and often indulged him with a title he loved so well to hear; "but I
shall think it dangerous to venture far from the camp, if such monsters
are prowling over the prairies."

"You may well call it prowling," returned the naturalist, nestling still
closer to her side, and dropping his voice to such low and undignified
tones of confidence, as conveyed a meaning still more pointed than
he had intended. "I have never before experienced such a trial of the
nervous system; there was a moment, I acknowledge, when the fortiter in
re faltered before so terrible an enemy; but the love of natural science
bore me up, and brought me off in triumph!"

"You speak a language so different from that we use in Tennessee," said
Ellen, struggling to conceal her laughter, "that I hardly know whether
I understand your meaning. If I am right, you wish to say you were
chicken-hearted."

"An absurd simile drawn from an ignorance of the formation of the biped.
The heart of a chicken has a just proportion to its other organs, and
the domestic fowl is, in a state of nature, a gallant bird. Ellen," he
added, with a countenance so solemn as to produce an impression on the
attentive girl, "I was pursued, hunted, and in a danger that I scorn to
dwell on--what's that?"

Ellen started; for the earnestness and simple sincerity of her
companion's manner had produced a certain degree of credulity, even on
her buoyant mind. Looking in the direction indicated by the Doctor,
she beheld, in fact, a beast coursing over the prairie, and making a
straight and rapid approach to the very spot they occupied. The day was
not yet sufficiently advanced to enable her to distinguish its form and
character, though enough was discernible to induce her to imagine it a
fierce and savage animal.

"It comes! it comes!" exclaimed the Doctor, fumbling, by a sort of
instinct, for his tablets, while he fairly tottered on his feet under
the powerful efforts he made