298 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



This was spoken with a sort of petulance, mingled with 

 solemnity ; and, as if declining further conversation, she urged 

 on my horse and strode more rapidly, not forgetting her ten- 

 der care of my leg, though she had dropped her head moodily 

 upon her breast. I was compelled into silence, of course, 

 but this abrupt sort of manner roused my pride somewhat. 



I recalled the frequency with which she had spoken to me 

 as a "boy," "child," &c., with some spleen, as I rode on in 

 sulky silence, too. Why, I was a young man of twenty-one, 

 and thought myself somebody ! What was there entitling any- 

 body to call me by diminutive names, in the stupid fact of my 

 having got lost in a country of which I knew so little ? "I 

 dislike this sort of patronage, even if she has got some streaks 

 of gray in her hair ; she is not so oldish-looking after all, as 

 to entitle her to speak like the mother of Methusaleh, even 

 if she did drag me from under my horse when I was uncon- 

 scious !" so I muttered to myself in a really childish spleen, 

 the secret of which was mingled of mortified vanity and baf- 

 fled curiosity. As she remained silent, I was foolish enough to 

 give way to this feeling at last. 



"Why do you persist in calling me 'child,' 'boy,' and the 

 like names ?" 



"Because you are a child!" and she looked up into my 

 face with a quick glance that had an expression of sternness 

 in it, above that compressed mouth, that I shall never forget. 



" Mere boy as you are, you think you are a man ! — ^you 

 might pass well enough in the tinselled dens and reeking 

 sinks of civilization ! Perhaps you are a boy-man !" This 

 was said with a slight sneer that cut me to the very core. 



" But, remember ! — ^it requires something more than mere 

 years — the vital breath of which has been poisoned — to make a 

 man out here, in the presence of the Almighty, worthy to look 

 up into his solemn Infinite, where Nature is the only delegated 

 Presence ! You must have wiser and riper experience, than 

 those which caused a brave young man — no doubt ! — to start 



