see it all!«
    »That you must have seen many a chopper skimming the cream from the face of
the earth, and many a settler gathering the very honey of nature, old trapper,«
said Paul, »no reasonable man can, or for that matter, shall doubt. But here is
Ellen growing uneasy about the Siouxes, and now you have opened your mind, so
freely, concerning these matters, if you will just put us on the line of our
flight, the swarm will make another move.«
    »Anan!«
    »I say that Ellen is getting uneasy, and as the smoke is lifting from the
plain, it may be prudent to take another flight.«
    »The boy is reasonable. I had forgotten we were in the midst of a raging
fire and that Siouxes were round about us, like hungry wolves watching a drove
of buffaloes. But when memory is at work in my old brain, on times long past, it
is apt to overlook the matters of the day. You say right, my children; it is
time to be moving, and now comes the real nicety of our case. It is easy to
outwit a furnace for it is nothing but a raging element, and it is not always
difficult to throw a grizzly bear from his scent, for the creatur' is both
enlightened and blinded by his instinct, but to shut the eyes of a waking Teton
is a matter of greater judgement, inasmuch, as his deviltry is backed by
reason.«
    Notwithstanding the old man appeared so conscious of the difficulty of the
undertaking, he set about its achievement with great steadiness and alacrity.
After completing the examination which had been interrupted by the melancholy
wanderings of his mind, he gave the signal to his companions to mount. The
horses, which had continued passive and trembling amid the raging of the fire,
received their burthens with a satisfaction so very evident as to furnish a
favorable augury of their future industry. The trapper invited the Doctor to
take his own steed, declaring his intention to proceed on foot.
    »I am but little used to journeying with the feet of others,« he added as a
reason for the measure, »and my legs are weary of doing nothing. Besides, should
we light, suddenly, on an ambushment, which is a thing far from impossible, the
horse will be in a better condition for a hard run, with one man on his back,
than with two. As for me, what matters it whether my time is to be a day
shorter, or longer! Let the Tetons take