is
pity and discretion in all things, even though a man be riding for his
life."

"You indicated the star," returned the Doctor, "and I deemed it
expedient to use great diligence in pursuing the direction."

"Did you expect to reach it, by such haste? Go, go; you talk boldly of
the creatur's of the Lord, though I plainly see you are but a child in
matters that concern their gifts and instincts. What a plight would
you now be in, if there was need for a long and a quick push with our
heels?"

"The fault exists in the formation of the quadruped," said Obed, whose
placid temper began to revolt under so many scandalous imputations. "Had
there been rotary levers for two of the members, a moiety of the fatigue
would have been saved, for one item--"

"That, for your moiety's and rotaries, and items, man; a jaded ass is
a jaded ass, and he who denies it is but a brother of the beast itself.
Now, captain, are we driven to choose one of two evils. We must either
abandon this man, who has been too much with us through good and bad to
be easily cast away, or we must seek a cover to let the animal rest."

"Venerable venator!" exclaimed the alarmed Obed; "I conjure you by all
the secret sympathies of our common nature, by all the hidden--"

"Ah, fear has brought him to talk a little rational sense! It is not
natur', truly, to abandon a brother in distress; and the Lord He knows
that I have never yet done the shameful deed. You are right, friend, you
are right; we must all be hidden, and that speedily. But what to do with
the ass! Friend Doctor, do you truly value the life of the creatur'?"

"He is an ancient and faithful servant," returned the disconsolate
Obed, "and with pain should I see him come to any harm. Fetter his lower
limbs, and leave him to repose in this bed of herbage. I will engage he
shall be found where he is left, in the morning."

"And the Siouxes? What would become of the beast should any of the
red imps catch a peep at his ears, growing up out of the grass like to
mullein-tops?" cried the bee-hunter. "They would stick him as full of
arrows, as a woman's cushion is full of pins, and then believe they
had done the job for the father of all rabbits! My word for it out they
would find out their blunder at the first mouthful!"

Middleton, who began to grow impatient under the protracted discussion,
interposed, and, as a good deal of deference was paid to his rank, he
quickly prevailed in his efforts to effec