"What, Willis?"
"Why, the tigers and what's-a-names; it is necessary to find the brute before you can get its skin."
"Granted; there would be a difficulty in the case had we not here quite handy a magnificent covering of wild animals, all ready to kill or to be killed. Just steer a point to the east, Willis; there, that will do. Just beyond that bluff you see yonder, there is a low flat plain covered with brushwood and tufted with trees; on the left, this prairie is bounded by a chain of low hills, and on the right a broad river, which last we have named the St. John, because it bears some resemblance to a stream of that name in Florida; beyond this plain there is a swamp."
"And," added Jack, "behind this swamp there is a magnificent forest of cedars, peopled with the finest furs imaginable, but garnished, however, with formidable claws and rows of teeth."
"I was not aware," said Willis, "that we were within reach of such amiable neighbors."
"Oh, they cannot reach us; thanks to the conformation of that chain of hills you see yonder, there is only one pass that opens into our settlement, and that we have taken care to shut up and fortify."
"It appears then," said Willis, "that there will be no difficulty in finding the animals, but—"
"Come, Willis, no more buts; you hunt in your own way from morning till night, let us for once hunt in ours."
"I go a-hunting?"
"Yes, there you are, charging your piece just now."