He turned his head on every side of him, as if seeking some engine sufficiently terrible to annihilate the offending trapper at a blow; and then, possibly recollecting the further occasion he might have for his counsel, he forced himself to say, with an appearance of moderation that nearly choked him-- "Stranger, I did believe this prying into the concerns of others was the business of women in the towns and settlements, and not the manner in which men, who are used to live where each has room for himself, deal with the secrets of their neighbours.

To what lawyer or sheriff do you calculate to sell your news ?" "I hold but little discourse except with one and then chiefly of my own affairs," returned the old man, without the least observable apprehension, and pointing imposingly upward; "a Judge; and Judge of all.

Little does he need knowledge from my hands, and but little will your wish to keep any thing secret from him profit you, even in this desert." The mounting tempers of his unnurtured listeners were rebuked by the simple, solemn manner of the trapper.

Ishmael stood sullen and thoughtful; while his companion stole a furtive and involuntary glance at the placid sky, which spread so wide and blue above his head, as if he expected to see the Almighty eye itself beaming from the heavenly vault.

But impressions of a serious character are seldom lasting on minds long indulged in forgetfulness.