rds off, I took the doctor's fur
cap, and filling it with water, returned to the stag. What an
expressive glance! What beautiful eyes! I sprinkled at first some
drops upon his tongue, and then, putting the water under his nose, he
soon drained it up. My companions became so much interested with the
sufferings of the poor animals, that they took as many of the young
fawns as they could, carrying them to the edge of the water-hole, that
they might regain their strength and fly away before the wolves could
attack them.

Upon my presenting a second capful of water to the stag, the grateful
animal licked my hands, and, after having drunk, tried to rise to follow
me, but its strength failing, its glances followed me as I was walking
to and fro; they spoke volumes; I could understand their meaning. I
hate to hear of the superiority of man! Man is ungrateful as a viper,
while a horse, a dog, and many others of the "soulless brutes," will
never forget a kindness.

I wondered what had become of our three lawyers, who had wandered away
without their rifles, and had been more than two hours absent. I was
about to propose a search after them when they arrived, with their
knives and tomahawks, and their clothes all smeared with blood. They
had gone upon a cruise against the wolves, and had killed the brutes
until they were tired and had no more strength to use their arms.

The reader, comfortably seated in his elbow-chair, cannot comprehend the
hatred which a prairie traveller nourishes against the wolves. As soon
as we found out what these three champions of the wilderness had been
about, we resolved to encamp there for the night, that we might destroy
as many as we could of these prairie sharks. Broken-down as they were,
there was no danger attending the expedition, and, tightening on our
belts, and securing our pistols, in case of an attack from a recovering
panther, we started upon our butchering expedition. On our way we met
with some fierce-looking jaguars, which we did not think prudent to
attack, so we let them alone, and soon found occupation enough for our
knives and tomahawks among a close-packed herd of wolves.

How many of these detested brutes we killed I cannot say, but we did not
leave off until our hands had become powerless from exhaustion, and our
tomahawks were so blunted as to be rendered of no use. When we left the
scene of massacre, we had to pass over a pool of blood ankle-deep, and
such was th