you
were telling your master that you found the trail of a grizzly bear.«
    »I tell you, old trapper, this is no horse, neither in hoofs, head, nor
hide.«
    »Anan. Not a horse! your eyes are good for the bees, and for the hollow
trees, my lad, but - bless me, the boy is right! That I should mistake the hide
of a buffaloe, scorched and crimpled as it is, for the carcass of a horse! Ah's,
me! The time has been, my men, when I would tell you the name of a beast as far
as eye could reach, and that too with most of the particulars of colour, age,
and sex.«
    »An inestimable advantage have you, then, enjoyed in your day, venerable
venator,« observed the attentive naturalist. »The man who can make these
distinctions in a desert is saved the pain of many a weary walk, and, often, of
an inquiry that in its result proves useless. Pray tell now did your exceeding
excellence of vision extend so far as to enable you to decide on their Order, or
Genus?«
    »I know not what you mean by your orders of genius.«
    »No!« interrupted the bee-hunter a little disdainfully for him when speaking
to his aged friend. »Now, old trapper, that is admitting your ignorance of the
English language, in a way I should not expect from a man of your experience and
understanding. By order, our comrade, means, whether they go in promiscuous
droves like a swarm that is following its Queen-bee, or, in single file, as you
often see the Buffaloe trailing each other through a Prairie. And as for genius,
I'm sure that is a word well understood, and in every body's mouth. There is the
congress-man, in our district, and that tonguey little fellow who puts out the
paper in our County, they are both so called, for their smartness, which is what
the Doctor means, as I take it, seeing that he seldom speaks without a
particular meaning.«
    When Paul finished this very clever explanation, he look'd behind him with
an expression which rightly interpreted would have said, »You see, though I
don't often trouble myself in these matters; I am no fool.«
    Ellen admired Paul for any thing but his learning. There was enough in his
frank, fearless, and manly character, backed as it was by great personal
attraction,