Middleton himself was not sorry to
repose, nor did the vigorous and high-spirited Paul hesitate to
confess that he should be all the better for a little rest. The old
man alone seemed indifferent to the usual claims of nature. Although
but little accustomed to the unusual description of exercise he had
just been taking, he appeared to bid defiance to all the usual attacks
of human infirmities. Though evidently so near its dissolution, his
attenuated frame still stood like the shaft of seasoned oak, dry,
naked, and tempest-driven, but unbending and apparently indurated to
the consistency of stone. On the present occasion he conducted the
search for a resting-place, which was immediately commenced, with all
the energy of youth, tempered by the discretion and experience of his
great age.
The bed of grass, in which the Doctor had been met, and in which his
ass had just been left, was followed a little distance until it was
found that the rolling swells of the prairie were melting away into
one vast level plain, that was covered, for miles on miles, with the
same species of herbage.
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