of all his ordinary predilections.
The worthy naturalist belong'd to that species of discoverers who make the worst
possible travelling- to a man who has reason to be in a hurry. No stone, no
bush, no plant is ever suffered to escape the examination of their vigilant
eyes, and thunder may mutter and rain fall, without disturbing the abstraction
of their reveries. Not so, however, with the disciple of Linnæus, during the
momentous period, that it remained a mooted point at the tribunal of his better
judgement, whether the stout descendants of the squatter were not likely to
dispute his right to traverse the Prairie, in freedom. The highest blooded and
best trained hound with his game in view, could not have run with an eye more
rivetted than that with which the Doctor had pursued his curvilinear course. It
was perhaps lucky for his fortitude that he was ignorant of the artifice of the
trapper in leading them around the citadel of Ishmael, and that he had imbibed,
the soothing impression, that every inch of Prairie he traversed was just so
much added to the distance between his own person and the detested rock.
Notwithstanding the momentary shock he certainly experienced when he discovered
this error, he now boldly volunteered to enter the thicket in which there was
some reason to believe the body of the murdered Asa still lay. Perhaps the
naturalist was urged to show his spirit on this occasion, by some secret
consciousness that his excessive industry in the retreat, might be liable to
misconstruction, and it is certain, that whatever might be his peculiar notions
of danger from the quick, his habits and his knowledge had plac'd him far above
the apprehension of suffering harm from any communication with the dead.
    »If there is any service to be performed, which requires the perfect command
of the nervous system,« said the man of science, with a look that was slightly
blustering, »you have only to give a direction to his intellectual faculties,
and here stands one, on whose physical powers you may depend.«
    »The man is given to speak in parables,« muttered the single minded trapper,
»but I conclude there is always some meaning hidden in his words, though it is
as hard to find sense in his speeches, as to discover three eagles on the same
tree. It will be wise, friend, to make a cover, lest the sons of the squatter
should be out skirting on our trail, and as you well know, there is some reason
to fear yonder thicket contains a sight that may horrify a woman's mind. Are you
man enough