"
"An inestimable advantage have you then enjoyed, venerable venator!"
observed the attentive naturalist. "The man who can make these
distinctions in a desert, is saved the pain of many a weary walk, and
often of an enquiry that in its result proves useless. Pray tell me,
did your exceeding excellence of vision extend so far as to enable you
to decide on their order, or genus?"
"I know not what you mean by your orders of genius."
"No!" interrupted the bee-hunter, a little disdainfully for him, when
speaking to his aged friend; "now, old trapper, that is admitting your
ignorance of the English language, in a way I should not expect from a
man of your experience and understanding. By order, our comrade means
whether they go in promiscuous droves, like a swarm that is following
its queen-bee, or in single file, as you often see the buffaloes
trailing each other through a prairie. And as for genius, I'm sure
that is a word well understood, and in every body's mouth. There is
the congress-man in our district, and that tonguey little fellow, who
puts out the paper in our county, they are both so called, for their
smartness; which is what the Doctor means, as I take it, seeing that
he seldom speaks without some considerable meaning.
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