RABBIT-STEW.^-" THE PLY." — FOREST SOUNDS. 57 



"Aye! Aye!" said Horace, " I can make a rabbit stew 

 fit for any man in the party." 



"Let's have 'em! " hoarsly whispered that insatiate fiend, 

 Benson. 



"Yea, it is not meet that men should live on fish, 

 alone," gravely declared the Professor — he of the well 

 lined abdomen — " and 1 opine that " — 



"Well, well!" said Thompson, as he half rose from his 

 seat in apparent disgust, "if this scholastic gentleman 

 means to make a pun on fiesh and fish in this high-handed 

 manner, 1 suggest that somebody shoot hiin, — he'd make a 

 stew for half a tribe of cannibals." 



"Such wrath in celestial minds ? '" retorted the Profes- 

 sor; "ma}" not one signif}^ his occasional desire for meat, 

 without danger of being made that which he desires ? " 



But at this instant the Neophyte, who had ciuietly taken 

 a gun from the hut, [)ullcd the trigger and ended the 

 wordy controvers}" and the career of a fat rabbit at the 

 critical juncture. The rest of the rabbit family hopped and 

 skittered otf into the woods instantly, and Horace speedily 

 prepared the game for stewing in the morning. When 

 once we had tasted fiesh again, all scruples against killing 

 the pretty creatures vanished, and we went to our butcher's 

 as regularly as the familj^ man at home, — always, however, 

 as a matter of safety, ordering a rabbit stew. 

 "^ In the afternoon, on the following day, Thompson, — who 

 evidently still loved the woods and waters for something 

 besides what he could catch with a hook, — graciously taking 

 me as his companion again, went down the lake to the 



