Chapter 9 - Page 2

of your biting mustard to give it a
foreign relish."

"If I had but a cup of metheglin," said Paul, stopping to perform the
necessary operation of breathing, "I should swear this was the
strongest meal that was ever placed before the mouth of man!"

"Ay, ay, well you may call it strong!" returned the other, laughing
after his peculiar manner, in pure satisfaction at witnessing the
infinite contentment of his companion; "strong it is, and strong it
makes him who eats it! Here, Hector," tossing the patient hound, who
was watching his eye with a wistful look, a portion of the meat, "you
have need of strength, my friend, in your old days as well as your
master. Now, lad, there is a dog that has eaten and slept wiser and
better, ay, and that of richer food, than any king of them all! and
why? because he has used and not abused the gifts of his Maker. He was
made a hound, and like a hound has he feasted. Then did He create men;
but they have eaten like famished wolves! A good and prudent dog has
Hector proved, and never have I found one of his breed false in nose
or friendship. Do you know the difference between the cookery of the
wilderness and that which is found in the settlements? No; I see
plainly you don't, by your appetite; then I will tell you. The one
follows man, the other natur'. One thinks he can add to the gifts of
the Creator, while the other is humble enough to enjoy them; therein
lies the secret."

"I tell you, trapper," said Paul, who was very little edified by the
morality with which his associate saw fit to season their repast,
"that, every day while we are in this place, and they are likely to be
many, I will shoot a buffaloe and you shall cook his hump!"

"I cannot say that, I cannot say that. The beast is good, take him in
what part you will, and it was to be food for man that he was
fashioned; but I cannot say that I will be a witness and a helper to
the waste of killing one daily."

"The devil a bit of waste shall there be, old man. If they all turn
out as good as this, I will engage to eat them clean myself, even to
the hoofs;--how now, who comes here! some one with a long nose, I will
answer; and one that has led him on a true scent, if he is following
the trail of a dinner."

The individual who interrupted the conversation, and who had elicited
the foregoing remark of Paul, was seen advancing along the margin of
the run with a deliberate pace, in a direct line for the two
revellers. As there was nothing formidable nor hostile in his
appearance, the bee-hunter, instead of suspending his operations,
rather increased his efforts, in a manner which would seem to imply