d for man that he was fashioned;
but I cannot say that I will be a witness and a helper to the waste of
killing one daily."

"The devil a bit of waste shall there be, old man. If they all turn out
as good as this, I will engage to eat them clean myself, even to the
hoofs;--how now, who comes here! some one with a long nose, I will
answer; and one that has led him on a true scent, if he is following the
trail of a dinner."

The individual who interrupted the conversation, and who had elicited
the foregoing remark of Paul, was seen advancing along the margin of the
run with a deliberate pace, in a direct line for the two revellers.
As there was nothing formidable nor hostile in his appearance, the
bee-hunter, instead of suspending his operations, rather increased his
efforts, in a manner which would seem to imply that he doubted whether
the hump would suffice for the proper entertainment of all who were now
likely to partake of the delicious morsel. With the trapper, however,
the case was different. His more tempered appetite was already
satisfied, and he faced the new comer with a look of cordiality, that
plainly evinced how very opportune he considered his arrival.

"Come on, friend," he said, waving his hand, as he observed the stranger
to pause a moment, apparently in doubt. "Come on, I say, if hunger be
your guide, it has led you to a fitting place. Here is meat, and this
youth can give you corn, parch'd till it be whiter than the upland snow;
come on, without fear. We are not ravenous beasts, eating of each other,
but Christian men, receiving thankfully that which the Lord hath seen
fit to give."

"Venerable hunter," returned the Doctor, for it was no other than the
naturalist on one of his daily exploring expeditions, "I rejoice greatly
at this happy meeting; we are lovers of the same pursuits, and should be
friends."

"Lord, Lord!" said the old man, laughing, without much deference to the
rules of decorum, in the philosopher's very face, "it is the man who
wanted to make me believe that a name could change the natur' of a
beast! Come, friend; you are welcome, though your notions are a little
blinded with reading too many books. Sit ye down, and, after eating
of this morsel, tell me, if you can, the name of the creatur' that has
bestowed on you its flesh for a meal?"

The eyes of Doctor Battius (for we deem it decorous to give the good man
the appellation he most preferred) sufficiently denoted the satisfact