210 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUiNTER. 



Starving stomach destroys jokes. Courtesies suitable 

 were exchanged, and the i^reliminaries for a hearty 

 meal agreed upon, the basis of which was to be, buffalo 

 steaks. 



A real buffalo steak ! eaten in the very grounds 

 which the animal inhabits ! What romance ! what a 

 diploma of a sportsman's enterprise ! 



Whatever might have been my disappointment iu 

 the hunters, I knew that meat was meat, and that the 

 immutable laws of nature would not fail, though my 

 ideas of the romantic in men were entirely disappointed. 

 A promise that our wants should soon be supplied, 

 brought us to that unpleasant time, in every-day life, 

 which prefaces an expected and wished-for meal. 



Seated, like barbarians, upon the floor, myself and 

 companions enjoyed the pleasing mental operation of 

 calculating how little the frontier family we were visit- 

 ing were worth, for any moral quality; and the physical 

 exercise of keeping off, as much as possible, thousands 

 of fleas, and other noxious insects, that infested the dust 

 in which we sat. 



While thus disposed of, the " hunters " were busy 

 in various ways about the premises, and received from 

 us the elegant names of " Bags " and " Breeches," from 

 some fancied or real difference in their inexpressibles. 

 " Breeches," who was evidently the business man, came 

 near where we were sitting, and threw down upon the 

 ground, what appeared, at a superficial glance, to be an 



