above the distrusts, doubts, wonder, and other weaknesses of our present condition.  To these simple savages, the manner in which the bees flew, seemingly at le Bourdon’s bidding, to this or that thicket, was quite as much a matter of astonishment, as any of our most elaborate deceptions are wonders to our own ignorant and vulgar.  Ignorant!  And where is the line to be drawn that is to place men beyond the pale of ignorance?  Each of us fails in some one, if not in very many of the important branches of the knowledge that is even reduced to rules Among us.  Here is seen the man of books, so ignorant of the application of his own beloved theories, as to be a mere child in practice; and there, again, can be seen the expert in practice, who is totally unacquainted with a single principle of the many that lie at the root of his very handicraft.  Let us not, then, deride these poor children of the forest, because that which was so entirely new to them, should also appear inexplicable and supernatural.

As for Peter, he was more confounded than convinced.  His mind was so much superior to those of the other chiefs, as to render him far more difficult to mislead; though even he was not exempt from the great weaknesses of ignorance, superstition, and its concomitants—­ credulity, and a love of the marvellous.  His mind was troubled, as was quite apparent to Ben, who watched him quite as narrowly as he was observed himself, in all he did.  Willing to deepen the impression, our artist now determined to exhibit some of the higher fruits of his skill.  The production of a considerable quantity of honey would of itself be a sort of peace-offering, and he now prepared to turn the certainty of there being a hive in the little wood to account—­certainty, because three bees had taken wing for it, and a very distinct angle had been made with two of them.

“Does my brother wish any honey?” asked le Bourdon carelessly; “or shall I send a bee across Lake Michigan, to tell the Injins further west that Detroit is taken?”

“Can Bourdon find honey, now?” demanded Peter.

“Easily.  Several hives are within a mile of us.  The bees like this prairie, which is so well garnished with flowers, and I am never at a loss for work, in this neighborhood.  This is my favorite bee-ground; and I have got all the little creatures so that they know me, and are ready to do everything that I tell them.  As I see that the chiefs love honey, and wish to eat some, we will now go to one of my hives.”

Thus saying, le Bourdon prepared for another march.  He moved with all his appliances, Margery keeping close at his side, carrying the honey-comb and honey.  As the girl walked lightly, in advance of the Indians, some fifteen or twenty bees, attracted by the flavor of what she carried, kept circling around her head, and consequently around that of Boden; and Peter did not fail to observe the circumstance.  To him it appeared as if these bees were so many accompanying