The Doctor regained his tablets, a little the worse from
having fallen among the grass which had been subject to the action of
the flames, and was consoling himself for this slight misfortune by
recording uninterruptedly such different vacillations in light and
shadow as he chose to consider phenomena.
In the mean time the veteran, on whose experience they all so
implicitly relied for protection, employed himself in reconnoitring
objects in the distance, through the openings which the air
occasionally made in the immense bodies of smoke, that by this time
lay in enormous piles on every part of the plain.
"Look you here, lads," the trapper said, after a long and anxious
examination, "your eyes are young and may prove better than my
worthless sight--though the time has been, when a wise and brave
people saw reason to think me quick on a look-out; but those times are
gone, and many a true and tried friend has passed away with them. Ah's
me! if I could choose a change in the orderings of Providence--which I
cannot, and which it would be blasphemy to attempt, seeing that all
things are governed by a wiser mind than belongs to mortal weakness--
but if I were to choose a change, it would be to say, that such as
they who have lived long together in friendship and kindness, and who
have proved their fitness to go in company, by many acts of suffering
and daring in each other's behalf, should be permitted to give up life
at such times, as when the death of one leaves the other but little
reason to wish to live.
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