"
"There are panthers down from the mountains; I saw one make a leap at
a sick deer, as the sun was setting. Go; go you back to the dog, and
tell him the truth, father; in a minute, I--"
He was interrupted by a long, loud, and piteous howl from the hound,
which rose on the air of the evening, like the wailing of some spirit
of the place, and passed off into the prairie, in cadences that rose
and fell, like its own undulating surface. The trapper was
impressively silent, listening intently. Even the reckless bee-hunter,
was struck with the wailing wildness of the sounds. After a short
pause the former whistled the dog to his side, and turning to his
companions he said with the seriousness, which, in his opinion, the
occasion demanded--
"They who think man enjoys all the knowledge of the creatur's of God,
will live to be disappointed, if they reach, as I have done, the age
of fourscore years. I will not take upon myself to say what mischief
is brewing, nor will I vouch that, even, the hound himself knows so
much; but that evil is nigh, and that wisdom invites us to avoid it, I
have heard from the mouth of one who never lies.
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