"When we get lower into the hunting-grounds of the Pawnees," said the
trapper, laying a morsel of delicate venison before Inez, on a little
trencher neatly made of horn, and expressly for his own use, "we shall
find the buffaloes fatter and sweeter, the deer in more abundance, and
all the gifts of the Lord abounding to satisfy our wants. Perhaps we
may even strike a beaver, and get a morsel from his tail[*] by way of
a rare mouthful."
[*] The American hunters consider the tail of the beaver the most
nourishing of all food.
"What course do you mean to pursue, when you have once thrown these
bloodhounds from the chase?" demanded Middleton.
"If I might advise," said Paul, "it would be to strike a water-course,
and get upon its downward current, as soon as may be. Give me a
cotton-wood, and I will turn you out a canoe that shall carry us all,
the jackass excepted, in perhaps the work of a day and a night. Ellen,
here, is a lively girl enough, but then she is no great race-rider;
and it would be far more comfortable to boat six or eight hundred
miles, than to go loping along like so many elks measuring the
prairies; besides, water leaves no trail.
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