unwound his blanket, and laid it, with great gentleness, on a young

girl who sat hard by propped against a rock. The girl did not seem

to be conscious of the act; and the old man, after having looked

upon her with the most engaging pity, returned to his former bed

and lay down again uncovered on the turf. But the scene had not

passed without observation even in that starving camp. From the

very outskirts of the party, a man with a white beard and seemingly

of venerable years, rose upon his knees, and came crawling

stealthily among the sleepers towards the girl; and judge of my

father's indignation, when he beheld this cowardly miscreant strip

from her both the coverings and return with them to his original

position. Here he lay down for a while below his spoils, and, as

my father imagined, feigned to be asleep; but presently he had

raised himself again upon one elbow, looked with sharp scrutiny at

his companions, and then swiftly carried his hand into his bosom

and thence to his mouth. By the movement of his jaws he must be

eating; in that camp of famine he had reserved a store of

nourishment; and while his companions lay in the stupor of

approaching death, secretly restored his powers.

My father was so incensed at what he saw that he raised his rifle;

and but for an accident, he has often declared, he would have shot

the fellow dead upon the spot. How different would then have been

my history! But it was not to be: even as he raised the barrel,

his eye lighted on the bear, as it crawled along a ledge some way

below him; and ceding to the hunters instinct, it was at the brute,

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