e results is surely worth the hazard of
the experiment."

"I know not, I know not," returned the deliberate old man; "the vermin
and reptiles, which you bear about you, were intended by the Lord for
the prairies, and I see no good in sending them into regions that
may not suit their natur's. And, moreover, you may be of great and
particular use as you now sit on the ass, though it creates no wonder in
my mind to perceive that you are ignorant of it, seeing that usefulness
is altogether a new calling to so bookish a man."

"Of what service can I be in this painful thraldom, in which the animal
functions are in a manner suspended, and the spiritual, or intellectual,
blinded by the secret sympathy that unites mind to matter? There is
likely to be blood spilt between yonder adverse hosts of heathens; and,
though but little desiring the office, it would be better that I should
employ myself in surgical experiments, than in thus wasting the precious
moments, mortifying both soul and body."

"It is little that a Red-skin would care to have a physician at his
hurts, while the whoop is ringing in his ears. Patience is a virtue in
an Indian, and can be no shame to a Christian white man. Look at these
hags of squaws, friend Doctor; I have no judgment in savage tempers, if
they are not bloody minded, and ready to work their accursed pleasures
on us all. Now, so long as you keep upon the ass, and maintain the
fierce look which is far from being your natural gift, fear of so great
a medicine may serve to keep down their courage. I am placed here, like
a general at the opening of the battle, and it has become my duty to
make such use of all my force as, in my judgment, each is best fitted to
perform. If I know these niceties, you will be more serviceable for your
countenance just now than in any more stirring exploits."

"Harkee, old trapper," shouted Paul, whose patience could no longer
maintain itself under the calculating and prolix explanations of the
other, "suppose you cut two things I can name, short off. That is to
say, your conversation, which is agreeable enough over a well baked
buffaloe's hump, and these damnable thongs of hide, which, according to
my experience, can be pleasant nowhere. A single stroke of your knife
would be of more service, just now, than the longest speech that was
ever made in a Kentucky court-house."

"Ay, court-houses are the 'happy hunting-grounds,' as a Red-skin would
say, for them that are bo