m and Eve, and our
honeymoon is not yet on the wane. Just here, I should be tempted to go
off at a tangent into wide digression, had long observation not taught
me that there is nothing so galling to a hunter's patience as a
hang-fire gun. As with a gun, so with a speaker. Then, in fine, I will
say, 'trust me, and to the latest day of your life you never shall rue
it, though you should live until the Indian, the Jeer and the Manitou
cease to exist.'"

Then, as if he had, indeed, made an end of his say, the Manitou king
picked up his crown of plumes and placed it upon his head, when straight
he was no more to be seen than the transparent air around him. The next
instant, with a magnificent somerset curve, full ten feet aloft in the
air, a pair of red moccasins plumped themselves, as if firm little feet
were in them, square in front of the hunter, where he stood--with his
chin still propped on the muzzle of his gun and his legs still crossed?
I rather think not! "Leave, and lose! Take, and gain! But leave or take,
it is all one to Nick of the Woods!" And hardly were the words spoken,
just there in the empty moonlight, when a whirr in the leaves and
flutter in the air announced that the elf was gone.

For many moments Jervis Whitney stood there gazing down on the
moccasins, debating within himself, with a look of great perplexity,
whether to take them or to leave them. He went over, in his mind, all
that had been said by the elf, and so well said, too, it needs must be
as well meant, odd and fantastic though it might seem. He recalled the
Manitou's aspect--so clear and bright, so free from disguise; and,
withal, as beautiful, while so Indian-like--as well could be the eyes
of a white man, who, for some years past, had had a hard scuffle to keep
his scalp.

Then, too, there was Pow-wow's behavior on the occasion to be taken into
consideration. There was not a dog west or east of the Alleghany
Mountains who had a sharper nose than Pow-wow for detecting an ill wind;
yet, all this while, he had set there on his haunches, without betraying
the least sign of uneasiness or distrust, nor even of curiosity, as if a
Manitou to him were a sight as familiar as a jay-bird, and no more to be
barked at. Now, the real state of the case was this: Foreseeing that the
dog, dog-like, would be for putting in his jaw to help his master out,
the prudent elf had thrown a spell or charm upon him, hoodwinking not
his eyes only, but also his ears