"Nay, I have heard nothing; but I have seen the cloth, and had like to
have been bitten for no greater crime than wishing to know what it
covered."
"Bitten! then, after all, the animal must be carnivorous! It is too
tranquil for the ursus horridus; if it were the canis latrans, the
voice would betray it. Nor would Nelly Wade be so familiar with any of
the genus ferae. Venerable hunter! the solitary animal confined in
that wagon by day, and in the tent at night, has occasioned me more
perplexity of mind than the whole catalogue of quadrupeds besides: and
for this plain reason; I did not know how to class it."
"You think it a ravenous beast?"
"I know it to be a quadruped: your own danger proves it to be
carnivorous."
During this broken explanation, Paul Hover had sat silent and
thoughtful, regarding each speaker with deep attention. But, suddenly
moved by the manner of the Doctor, the latter had scarcely time to
utter his positive assertion, before the young man bluntly demanded--
"And pray, friend, what may you call a quadruped?"
"A vagary of nature, wherein she has displayed less of her infinite
wisdom than is usual.
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