 had made his
aged companion weep. A flash of recollection crossing his brain, at the same
instant, he released his hold, and stretching forth an arm in the very
wantonness of gratification, he seized the Doctor by the hair, which instantly
revealed its artificial formation, by cleaving to his hand, leaving the white
and shining poll of the Naturalist with a covering no warmer than the skin.
    »What think you of that, Mr. Bug-gatherer!« he rather shouted, than cried,
»is not this a strange bee to line into his hole!«
    »Tis remarkable! wonderful! edifying!« returned the lover of nature, good
humouredly recovering his wig, with twinkling eyes and a husky voice. »Tis rare
and commendable! Though I doubt not in the exact order of causes and effects.«
    With this sudden outbreaking, however, the commotion instantly subsided, the
three spectators clustering around the trapper with a species of awe, at
beholding the tears of one so aged.
    »It must be so, or how could he be so familiar with a history that is little
known beyond my own family,« at length the youth observed, not ashamed to
acknowledge how much he had been affected by unequivocally drying his own eyes.
    »True!« echoed Paul: »If you want any more evidence I will swear to it! I
know every word of it, myself, to be true as the gospel!«
    »And yet we had long supposed him dead!« continued the soldier. »My
grandfather had filled his days, with honor, and we had believed him the junior
of the two.«
    »It is not often that youth, has an opportunity of thus looking down on the
weakness of age!« the trapper observed, raising his head, and looking around him
with composure and dignity. »That I am still here, young man, is the pleasure of
the Lord, who has spared me, until I have seen fourscore long and laborious
years, for his own secret ends. That I am the man I say, you need not doubt, for
why should I go to my grave with so cheap a lie in my mouth?«
    »I do not hesitate to believe, I only marvel that it should be so. But why
do I find you, venerable and excellent friend of my parents, in these wastes so
far from the comforts and safety of the lower country?«
    »I have come into these plains to escape the sound of the axe, for, here,
surely the choppers can never follow.
