"Our secret! Ellen, have you forgot--"

"Nothing. I have not forgotten any thing I should remember. But still
I say we are safe with this honest trapper."

"Trapper! is he then a trapper? Give me your hand, father; our trades
should bring us acquainted."

"There is little call for handicrafts in this region," returned the
other, examining the athletic and active form of the youth, as he
leaned carelessly and not ungracefully, on his rifle; "the art of
taking the creatur's of God, in traps and nets, is one that needs more
cunning than manhood; and yet am I brought to practise it, in my age!
But it would be quite as seemly, in one like you, to follow a pursuit
better becoming your years and courage."

"I! I never took even a slinking mink or a paddling musk-rat in a
cage; though I admit having peppered a few of the dark-skin'd devils,
when I had much better have kept my powder in the horn and the lead in
its pouch. Not I, old man; nothing that crawls the earth is for my
sport."

"What then may you do for a living, friend? for little profit is to be
made in these districts, if a man denies himself his lawful right in
the beasts of the fields."

"I deny myself nothing. If a bear crosses my path, he is soon the mere
ghost of Bruin. The deer begin to nose me; and as for the buffaloe, I
have kill'd more beef, old stranger, than the largest butcher in all