om. Ha! we
have hunters nigh: there ar' two of them!"

He was still speaking, when the animals in question came leaping on the
track of the deer, striving with noble ardour to outdo each other.
One was an aged dog, whose strength seemed to be sustained purely by
generous emulation, and the other a pup, that gambolled even while he
pressed most warmly on the chase. They both ran, however, with clean and
powerful leaps, carrying their noses high, like animals of the most keen
and subtle scent. They had passed; and in another minute they would have
been running open-mouthed with the deer in view, had not the younger
dog suddenly bounded from the course, and uttered a cry of surprise. His
aged companion stopped also, and returned panting and exhausted to the
place, where the other was whirling around in swift, and apparently in
mad evolutions, circling the spot in his own footsteps, and continuing
his outcry, in a short, snappish barking. But, when the elder hound had
reached the spot, he seated himself, and lifting his nose high into the
air, he raised a long, loud, and wailing howl.

"It must be a strong scent," said Abner, who had been, with the rest of
the family, an admiring observer of the movements of the dogs, "that can
break off two such creatur's so suddenly from their trail."

"Murder them!" cried Abiram; "I'll swear to the old hound; 'tis the dog
of the trapper, whom we now know to be our mortal enemy."

Though the brother of Esther gave so hostile advice, he appeared in no
way ready to put it in execution himself. The surprise, which had
taken possession of the whole party, exhibited itself in his own vacant
wondering stare, as strongly as in any of the admiring visages by whom
he was surrounded. His denunciation, therefore, notwithstanding its dire
import, was disregarded; and the dogs were left to obey the impulses of
their mysterious instinct, without let or hinderance.

It was long before any of the spectators broke the silence; but the
squatter, at length, so far recollected his authority, as to take on
himself the right to control the movements of his children.

"Come away, boys; come away, and leave the hounds to sing their tunes
for their own amusement," Ishmael said, in his coldest manner. "I scorn
to take the life of a beast, because its master has pitched himself too
nigh my clearing; come away, boys, come away; we have enough of our
own work before us, without turning aside to do that of the wh