"Oh! ignorance!" the savant murmured, and then added aloud with that tone of doctorial condescension peculiar to the disciples of Æsculapius: "my friend, I am gathering simples, which I collect, in order to classify them in my herbal; the _flora_ of these prairies is magnificent; I am convinced that I have discovered at least three new species of the _Chirostemon pentadactylon,_ of which the genus belongs to the _Flora Mexicana_." "Ah!" said the hunter, staring with all his eyes, and making strong efforts to refrain from laughing in the doctor's face. "You think you have really found three new species of--" "Chirostemon pentadactylon, my friend," said the doctor, patronizingly. "Ah! bah!" "At least; perhaps there may be a fourth!" "Oh! oh! there is some use in it, then?" "Some use in it, indeed!" the doctor cried, much scandalized. "Well, don't be angry, I know nothing about it." "That is true!" said the savant, softened by the tone of Black Elk; "You cannot comprehend the importance of these labours, which advance science at an immense speed." "Well, only to think! And it was only for the purpose of pulling up herbs in this manner that you came into the prairie?" "For nothing else." Black Elk looked at him with the admiration created by the sight of an inexplicable phenomenon; the hunter could not succeed in comprehending how a sensible man should resolve willingly to endure a life of privation and perils for the, to him, unintelligible object of pulling up useless plants; therefore he soon came to a conviction that he must be mad. He cast upon him a look of commiseration; shaking his head, and shouldering his rifle, he prepared to go on his way. "Well! well!" he said, in the tone usually employed towards children, and idiots; "you are right, my good sir; pull away! pull away! you do nobody any harm, and there will always be plenty left. I wish you good sport; such as it is. I shall see you again." And, whistling his dogs, he proceeded a few steps, but almost immediately returned. "One word more," he said, addressing the doctor, who had already forgotten him, and was again busied in the employment which the arrival of the hunter had forced him to interrupt. "Speak!" he replied, raising his head. "I hope that the young lady who came to visit my hatto yesterday, in company with her uncle, is well? Poor dear child, you cannot imagine how much I am interested in her, my good sir!" The doctor rose up suddenly, striking his forehead. "Fool that I am!" he cried, "I had completely forgotten it." "Forgotten what?" the astonished hunter asked. "This is always my way!" the savant muttered; "fortunately the mischief is not great; as you are here, it can easily be repaired." "What mischief are you talking about?" said the trapper, beginning to feel uneasy.