; and so I have stretched out a few hundred miles farther
west than common, to taste your honey. And, now, I have bated your
curiosity, stranger, you will just move aside, while I tell the
remainder of my story to this young woman."

"It is not necessary, I'm sure it is not necessary, that he should leave
us," said Ellen, with a haste that implied some little consciousness of
the singularity if not of the impropriety of the request. "You can have
nothing to say that the whole world might not hear."

"No! well, may I be stung to death by drones, if I understand the
buzzings of a woman's mind! For my part, Ellen, I care for nothing nor
any body; and am just as ready to go down to the place where your uncle,
if uncle you can call one, who I'll swear is no relation, has hoppled
his teams, and tell the old man my mind now, as I shall be a year hence.
You have only to say a single word, and the thing is done; let him like
it or not."

"You are ever so hasty and so rash, Paul Hover, that I seldom know when
I am safe with you. How can you, who know the danger of our being seen
together, speak of going before my uncle and his sons?"

"Has he done that of which he has reason to be ashamed?" demanded the
trapper, who had not moved an inch from the place he first occupied.

"Heaven forbid! But there are reasons, why he should not be seen, just
now, that could do him no harm if known; but which may not yet be told.
And, so, if you will wait, father, near yonder willow bush, until I have
heard what Paul can possibly have to say, I shall be sure to come and
wish you a good night, before I return to the camp."

The trapper drew slowly aside, as if satisfied with the somewhat
incoherent reason Ellen had given why he should retire. When completely
out of ear shot of the earnest and hurried dialogue, that instantly
commenced between the two he had left, the old man again paused, and
patiently awaited the moment when he might renew his conversation with
beings in whom he felt a growing interest, no less from the mysterious
character of their intercourse, than from a natural sympathy in the
welfare of a pair so young, and who, as in the simplicity of his heart
he was also fain to believe, were also so deserving. He was accompanied
by his indolent, but attached dog, who once more made his bed at the
feet of his master, and soon lay slumbering as usual, with his head
nearly buried in the dense fog of the prairie grass.

It was a specta