, now saw fit to raise his
feeble voice in the way of remonstrance.

"I agree with thy partner in life, worthy and gentle Mrs. Bush," he
said, "in believing that some ignis fatuus of the imagination has
deceived Abiram, in the signs or symptoms of which he has spoken."

"Symptoms, yourself!" interrupted the termagant. "This is no time for
bookish words, nor is this a place to stop and swallow medicines. If
you are a-leg-weary, say so, as a plain-speaking man should; then seat
yourself on the prairie, like a hound that is foot-sore, and take your
natural rest."

"I accord in the opinion," the naturalist calmly replied, complying
literally with the opinion of the deriding Esther, by taking his seat,
very coolly, by the side of an indigenous shrub; the examination of
which he commenced, on the instant, in order that science might not
loose any of its just and important dues. "I honour your excellent
advice, Mistress Esther, as you may perceive. Go thou in quest of thy
offspring; while I tarry here, in pursuit of that which is better; viz.
an insight into the arcana of Nature's volume."

The woman answered with a hollow, unnatural, and scornful laugh, and
even her heavy sons, as they slowly passed the seat of the already
abstracted naturalist, did not disdain to manifest their contempt in
smiles. In a few minutes the train mounted the nearest eminence, and,
as it turned the rounded acclivity, the Doctor was left to pursue his
profitable investigations in entire solitude.

Another half-hour passed, during which Esther continued to advance,
on her seemingly fruitless search. Her pauses, however, were becoming
frequent, and her looks wandering and uncertain, when footsteps were
heard clattering through the bottom, and at the next instant a buck was
seen to bound up the ascent, and to dart from before their eyes, in the
direction of the naturalist. So sudden and unlooked for had been the
passage of the animal, and so much had he been favoured by the shape of
the ground, that before any one of the foresters had time to bring his
rifle to his shoulder, it was already beyond the range of a bullet.

"Look out for the wolf!" shouted Abner, shaking his head in vexation, at
being a single moment too late. "A wolf's skin will be no bad gift in a
winter's night; ay, yonder the hungry devil comes!"

"Hold!" cried Ishmael, knocking up the levelled weapon of his too eager
son. "'Tis not a wolf; but a hound of thorough blood and bott