r' then lay in its glory along the
whole coast, giving a narrow stripe, between the woods and the ocean, to
the greediness of the settlers. And where am I now? Had I the wings
of an eagle, they would tire before a tenth of the distance, which
separates me from that sea, could be passed; and towns, and villages,
farms, and highways, churches, and schools, in short, all the inventions
and deviltries of man, are spread across the region. I have known the
time when a few Red-skins, shouting along the borders, could set the
provinces in a fever; and men were to be armed; and troops were to be
called to aid from a distant land; and prayers were said, and the women
frighted, and few slept in quiet, because the Iroquois were on the
war-path, or the accursed Mingo had the tomahawk in hand. How is it now?
The country sends out her ships to foreign lands, to wage their battles;
cannon are plentier than the rifle used to be, and trained soldiers are
never wanting, in tens of thousands, when need calls for their services.
Such is the difference atween a province and a state, my men; and I,
miserable and worn out as I seem, have lived to see it all!"

"That you must have seen many a chopper skimming the cream from the face
of the earth, and many a settler getting the very honey of nature, old
trapper," said Paul, "no reasonable man can, or, for that matter, shall
doubt. But here is Ellen getting uneasy about the Siouxes, and now you
have opened your mind, so freely, concerning these matters, if you
will just put us on the line of our flight, the swarm will make another
move."

"Anan!"

"I say that Ellen is getting uneasy, and as the smoke is lifting from
the plain, it may be prudent to take another flight."

"The boy is reasonable. I had forgotten we were in the midst of a raging
fire, and that Siouxes were round about us, like hungry wolves watching
a drove of buffaloes. But when memory is at work in my old brain, on
times long past, it is apt to overlook the matters of the day. You say
right, my children; it is time to be moving, and now comes the real
nicety of our case. It is easy to outwit a furnace, for it is nothing
but a raging element; and it is not always difficult to throw a grizzly
bear from his scent, for the creatur' is both enlightened and blinded
by his instinct; but to shut the eyes of a waking Teton is a matter of
greater judgment, inasmuch as his deviltry is backed by reason."

Notwithstanding the old man appe