CHAPTER XII.
A hunting expedition, in which are seen stones that can run, and cows that require no food—Besides a desperate encounter with a jaguar, and other strange things.
For many weeks Martin Rattler and his friend Barney O'Flannagan continued to dwell with the hermit in his forest home, enjoying his entertain- ing and instructive discourse, and joining with him in the hunting expeditions which he undertook for the purpose of procuring fresh food for his table. In these rambles they made constant discoveries of something new and surprising, in reference to both the vegetables and animals of that extraordinary region of the earth. They also had many adventures some amusing and some terrible which we cannot enlarge on here, for they would fill ten volumes such as this were they to be all recorded in detail.
One day the hermit roused them earlier than usual and told them to get ready, as he intended to go a considerable distance that day, and he wished to reach a particular spot before the heat of noon. So Martin
