iates; in warlike skill, being better
instructed, their superior. 'In short, he was a noble shoot from the
stock of human nature, which never could attain its proper elevation and
importance, for no other reason, than because it grew in the forest:'
such, old hunter, were the very words of my grandfather, when speaking
of the man you imagine so worthless!"

The eyes of the trapper had sunk to the earth, as the stranger delivered
this character in the ardent tones of generous youth. He played with the
ears of his hound; fingered his own rustic garment, and opened and shut
the pan of his rifle, with hands that trembled in a manner that would
have implied their total unfitness to wield the weapon. When the other
had concluded, he hoarsely added--

"Your grand'ther didn't then entirely forget the white man!"

"So far from that, there are already three among us, who have also names
derived from that scout."

"A name, did you say?" exclaimed the old man, starting; "what, the name
of the solitary, unl'arned hunter? Do the great, and the rich, and the
honoured, and, what is better still, the just, do they bear his very,
actual name?"

"It is borne by my brother, and by two of my cousins, whatever may be
their titles to be described by the terms you have mentioned."

"Do you mean the actual name itself; spelt with the very same letters,
beginning with an N and ending with an L?"

"Exactly the same," the youth smilingly replied. "No, no, we have
forgotten nothing that was his. I have at this moment a dog brushing a
deer, not far from this, who is come of a hound that very scout sent as
a present after his friends, and which was of the stock he always used
himself: a truer breed, in nose and foot, is not to be found in the wide
Union."

"Hector!" said the old man, struggling to conquer an emotion that nearly
suffocated him, and speaking to his hound in the sort of tones he would
have used to a child, "do ye hear that, pup! your kin and blood are in
the prairies! A name--it is wonderful--very wonderful!"

Nature could endure no more. Overcome by a flood of unusual and
extraordinary sensations, and stimulated by tender and long dormant
recollections, strangely and unexpectedly revived, the old man had just
self-command enough to add, in a voice that was hollow and unnatural,
through the efforts he made to command it--

"Boy, I am that scout; a warrior once, a miserable trapper now!" when
the tears broke over his wasted c