Not a breath of air was stirring.
In a leafy covert, a little removed from the right bank of the Scioto, a form lay stretched at full length upon the earth.
One would have needed almost a second glance to have told whether the object was human or brute.
Even then he might have said it was a cross between the two.
At first sight, a Barnum or a Darwin might have gone wild with delight.
The former would have thought that he had stumbled upon a veritable “What-Is-It?”; while the latter would have declared that he had at last found the long-looked-for connecting link between the human and brute creation.
There was the human form, though ungainly in its shape; but covered with hair from the crown of its head to the sole of its feet.
It was indeed a second Esau.
A great mass of bushy hair covered his head, which, from its appearance, had not known the presence of a comb for months.
A beard of the same reddish color as his hair, and with a like unkempt appearance, covered the lower part of his face, and reached up over his cheeks almost to his eyes.