"
"A gull would have to fan a thousand miles of air to find the eastern
sea. And yet it is no mighty reach to hunt across, when shade and game
are plenty! The time has been when I followed the deer in the
mountains of the Delaware and Hudson, and took the beaver on the
streams of the upper lakes in the same season, but my eye was quick
and certain at that day, and my limbs were like the legs of a moose!
The dam of Hector," dropping his look kindly to the aged hound that
crouched at his feet, "was then a pup, and apt to open on the game the
moment she struck the scent. She gave me a deal of trouble, that slut,
she did!"
"Your hound is old, stranger, and a rap on the head would prove a
mercy to the beast."
"The dog is like his master," returned the trapper, without appearing
to heed the brutal advice the other gave, "and will number his days,
when his work amongst the game is over, and not before. To my eye
things seem ordered to meet each other in this creation. 'Tis not the
swiftest running deer that always throws off the hounds, nor the
biggest arm that holds the truest rifle.
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