the open page of his tablets; »this, granivorous; habits,
fierce, dangerous; habits, patient, abstemious; ears, inconspicuous; ears,
elongated; horns, diverging, etc. horns, none!«
    He was interrupted by another burst of merriment from Ellen, which served,
in some measure, to recall him to his recollection.
    »The image of the Vespertilio was on the retina,« the astounded enquirer
into the secrets of nature observed, in a manner that seemed a little
apologetic, »and I was silly enough to mistake my own faithful beast for the
monster? Though even now I greatly marvel to see this animal running at large!«
    Ellen then proceeded to explain, the history of the attack and its results.
She described, with an accuracy that might have raised suspicions of her own
movements in the mind of one less simple than her auditor, the manner in which
the beasts burst out of the encampment and the headlong speed with which they
had dispersed themselves over the open plain. Although she forbore to say as
much in terms, she so managed as to present before the eyes of her listener the
strong probability of his having mistaken the frightened drove for savage
beasts, and then terminated her account by a lamentation for their loss, and
some very natural remarks on the helpless condition in which it had left the
family. The naturalist listened in silent wonder, neither interrupting her
narrative nor suffering a single exclamation of surprise to escape him. The
keen-eyed girl, however, saw that as she proceeded the important leaf was torn
from the tablets, in a manner which shewed that their owner had got rid of his
delusion at the same instant. From that moment the world has heard no more of
the Vespertilio Horribilis Americanus, and the natural sciences have
irretrieveably lost an important link in that great animated chain which is said
to connect earth and heaven, and in which man is thought to be so familiarly
complicated with the monkey.
    When Dr. Batt was put in full possession of all the circumstances of the
inroad, his concern immediately took a different direction. He had left sundry
folios, and certain boxes well stored with botanical specimens and defunct
animals, under the good keeping of Ishmael, and it immediately struck his acute
mind, that marauders as subtle as the Siouxes would never neglect the
opportunity to despoil him of these treasures. Nothing that Ellen could say to
the contrary served to appease his apprehensions, and, consequently, they
separated; he to relieve his doubts and fears together, and she to glide, as
swiftly and silently as she had just before