perhaps jealous eyes, arranging a fold here, and driving a peg more
firmly there, the men once more applied their strength to the wagon,
pulling it, by its projecting tongue, from the centre of the canopy,
until it appeared in the open air, deprived of its covering, and
destitute of any other freight, than a few light articles of
furniture. The latter were immediately removed, by the traveller, into
the tent with his own hands, as though to enter it, were a privilege,
to which even his bosom companion was not entitled.

Curiosity is a passion that is rather quickened than destroyed by
seclusion, and the old inhabitant of the prairies did not view these
precautionary and mysterious movements, without experiencing some of
its impulses. He approached the tent, and was about to sever two of
its folds, with the very obvious intention of examining, more closely,
into the nature of its contents, when the man who had once already
placed his life in jeopardy, seized him by the arm, and with a rude
exercise of his strength threw him from the spot he had selected as
the one most convenient for his object.

"It's an honest regulation, friend," the fellow, drily observed,
though with an eye that threatened volumes, "and sometimes it is a
safe one, which says, mind your own business."

"Men seldom bring any thing to be concealed into these deserts,"
returned the old man, as if willing, and yet a little ignorant how to
apologize for the liberty he had been about to take, "and I had hoped
no offence, in examining your comforts."

"They seldom bring themselves, I reckon; though this has the look of
an old country, to my eye it seems not to be overly peopled."