Neither of the men toiled much, as the canoe floated down the stream.  Very slight impulses served to give their buoyant craft a reasonably swift motion, and the current itself was a material assistant.  These circumstances gave an opportunity for conversation, as the canoe glided onward.

“A’ter all,” suddenly exclaimed Waring, who had been examining the pile of kegs for some time in silence—­“a’ter all, Bourdon, your trade is an oncommon one!  A most extr’ornary and oncommon callin’!”

“More so, think you, Gershom, than swallowing whiskey, morning, noon, and night?” answered the bee-hunter, with a quiet smile.

“Aye, but that’s not a reg’lar callin’; only a likin’!  Now a man may have a likin’ to a hundred things in which he don’t deal.  I set nothin’ down as a business, which a man don’t live by.”

“Perhaps you’re right, Waring.  More die by whiskey than live by whiskey.”

Whiskey Centre seemed struck with this remark, which was introduced so aptly, and was uttered so quietly.  He gazed earnestly at his companion for near a minute, ere he attempted to resume the discourse.

“Blossom has often said as much as this,” he then slowly rejoined; “and even Dolly has prophesized the same.”

The bee-hunter observed that an impression had been made, and he thought it wisest to let the reproof already administered produce its effect, without endeavoring to add to its power.  Waring sat with his chin on his breast, in deep thought, while his companion, for the first time since they had met, examined the features and aspect of the man.  At first sight, Whiskey Centre certainly offered little that was inviting; but a closer study of his countenance showed that he had the remains of a singularly handsome man.  Vulgar as were his forms of speech, coarse and forbidding as his face had become, through the indulgence which was his bane, there were still traces of this truth.  His complexion had once been fair almost to effeminacy, his cheeks ruddy with health, and his blue eye bright and full of hope.  His hair was light; and all these peculiarities strongly denoted his Saxon origin.  It was not so much Anglo-Saxon as Americo-Saxon, that was to be seen in the physical outlines and hues of this nearly self-destroyed being.  The heaviness of feature, the ponderousness of limb and movement, had all long disappeared from his race, most probably under the influence of climate, and his nose was prominent and graceful in outline, while his mouth and chin might have passed for having been under the chisel of some distinguished sculptor.  It was, in truth, painful to examine that face, steeped as it was in liquor, and fast losing the impress left by nature.  As yet, the body retained most of its power, the enemy having insidiously entered the citadel, rather than having actually subdued it.  The bee-hunter sighed as he gazed at his moody companion, and wondered whether Blossom had aught of this marvellous comeliness of countenance, without its revolting accompaniments.