"Now, Ellen, has fortune given me an opportunity to correct the errors made by star-light,--hold,--ashy-plumbeous,--no ears,--horns, excessive." His voice and hand were both arrested by a roar, or rather a shriek from the beast, that was sufficiently terrific to appal even a stouter heart than that of the naturalist.

The cries of the animal passed over the prairie in strange cadences, and then succeeded a deep and solemn silence, that was only broken by an uncontrolled fit of merriment from the more musical voice of Ellen Wade.

In the mean time the naturalist stood like a statue of amazement, permitting a well-grown ass, against whose approach he no longer offered his boasted shield of light, to smell about his person, without comment or hinderance.
"It is your own ass," cried Ellen, the instant she found breath for words; "your own patient, hard working, hack!" The Doctor rolled his eyes from the beast to the speaker, and from the speaker to the beast; but gave no audible expression of his wonder.
"Do you refuse to know an animal that has laboured so long in your service ?" continued the laughing girl.

"A beast, that I have heard you say a thousand times, has served you well, and whom you loved like a brother!" "Asinus Domesticus!" ejaculated the Doctor, drawing his breath like one who had been near suffocation.

"There is no doubt of the genus; and I will always maintain that the animal is not of the species, equus.
This is undeniably Asinus himself, Ellen Wade; but this is not the Vespertilio Horribilis of the prairies! Very different animals, I can assure you, young woman, and differently characterized in every important particular.