s into white
ashes. Shame, shame, old Hector: as for the captain's pup, it is to be
expected that he would show his want of years, and I may say, I hope
without offence, his want of education too; but for a hound, like you,
who have lived so long in the forest afore you came into these plains,
it is very disgraceful, Hector, to be showing your teeth, and growling
at the carcass of a roasted horse, the same as if you were telling your
master that you had found the trail of a grizzly bear."

"I tell you, old trapper, this is no horse; neither in hoofs, head, nor
hide."

"Anan! Not a horse? Your eyes are good for the bees and for the hollow
trees, my lad, but--bless me, the boy is right! That I should mistake
the hide of a buffaloe, scorched and crimpled as it is, for the carcass
of a horse! Ah's me! The time has been, my men, when I would tell you
the name of a beast, as far as eye could reach, and that too with most
of the particulars of colour, age, and sex."

"An inestimable advantage have you then enjoyed, venerable venator!"
observed the attentive naturalist. "The man who can make these
distinctions in a desert, is saved the pain of many a weary walk, and
often of an enquiry that in its result proves useless. Pray tell me, did
your exceeding excellence of vision extend so far as to enable you to
decide on their order, or genus?"

"I know not what you mean by your orders of genius."

"No!" interrupted the bee-hunter, a little disdainfully for him, when
speaking to his aged friend; "now, old trapper, that is admitting your
ignorance of the English language, in a way I should not expect from a
man of your experience and understanding. By order, our comrade means
whether they go in promiscuous droves, like a swarm that is following
its queen-bee, or in single file, as you often see the buffaloes
trailing each other through a prairie. And as for genius, I'm sure
that is a word well understood, and in every body's mouth. There is the
congress-man in our district, and that tonguey little fellow, who
puts out the paper in our county, they are both so called, for their
smartness; which is what the Doctor means, as I take it, seeing that he
seldom speaks without some considerable meaning."

When Paul finished this very clever explanation he looked behind him
with an expression, which, rightly interpreted, would have said--"You
see, though I don't often trouble myself in these matters, I am no
fool."

Ellen admired Pau