«
    »You might just as well ask me, did you ever eat? There is no fashion, old
stranger, that a deer has not been touched by my hand, unless it was when
asleep.«
    »Ay, ay; you have a long, and a happy - ay, and an honest life afore you! I
am old, and I suppose I might also say, worn out and useless; but, if it was
given me to choose my time and place, again, - as such things are not and ought
not ever to be given to the will of man - though, if such a gift was to be given
me, I would say, twenty and the wilderness! But, tell me; how do you part with
the peltry?«
    »With my pelts! I never took a skin from a buck, nor a quill from a goose,
in my life! I knock them over, now and then, for a meal, and sometimes to keep
my finger true to the touch; but when hunger is satisfied, the Prairie wolves
get the remainder. No - no - I keep to my calling; which pays me better, than
all the fur I could sell on the other side of the big river.«
    The old man appeared to ponder a little; but shaking his head, he soon
continued -
    »I know of but one business that can be followed here with profit -«
    He was interrupted by the youth, who raised a small cup of tin, which
dangled at his neck, before the other's eyes, and springing its lid, the
delicious odour of the finest flavoured honey diffused itself over the organs of
the trapper.
    »A bee-hunter!« observed the latter, with a readiness that proved he
understood the nature of the occupation, though not without some little surprise
at discovering one of the other's spirited mien engaged in so humble a pursuit.
»It pays well in the skirts of the settlements, but I should call it a doubtful
trade in the more open districts.«
    »You think a tree is wanting for a swarm to settle in! But I know
differently; and so I have stretched out a few hundred miles farther west, than
common, to taste your honey. And now I have bated your curiosity, stranger, you
will just move aside, while I tell the remainder of my story to this young
woman.«
    »It is not necessary, I'm sure it is not necessary, that he should leave
us,« said Ellen, with a haste