LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 139 



intervals a faint spark of what was once a fiercely- 

 burning fire. Neither time, that corroder of all things, 

 nor change, that ready abettor of oblivion, nor scenes of 

 peril and excitement, which act as dampers to more 

 quiet memories, could smother this little smouldering 

 spark, which now and again when rarely-coming calm 

 succeeded some stirring passage in the hunter's life, 

 and left him, for a brief time, devoid of care, and victim 

 to his thoughts would nicker suddenly, and light up 

 all the nooks and corners of his rugged breast, and 

 discover to his mind's eye that one deep-rooted 

 memory clung there still, though long neglected ; 

 proving that, spite of time and change, of life and 

 fortune, 



" On revient toujours & ses premiers amours." 



Often and often, as La Bont6 sat cross-legged before his 

 solitary camp-fire, and, pipe hi mouth, watched the blue 

 smoke curling upwards in the clear cold sky, a well- 

 remembered form appeared to gaze upon him from the 

 vapoury wreaths. Then would old recollections crowd 

 before him, and old emotions, long a stranger to his 

 breast, shape themselves, as it were, into long-forgotten 

 but now familiar pulsations. Again he felt the soft 

 subduing influence which once, in days gone by, a 

 certain passion exercised over his mind and body ; and 

 often a trembling seized him, the same he used to 

 experience at the sudden sight of one Mary Brand, 

 whose dim and dreamy apparition so often watched his 

 lonely bed, or, unconsciously conjured up, cheered him 



