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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
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+The Pioneers
+Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna
+
+by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+August, 2000  [Etext #2275]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
+*******This file should be named tpnrs10.txt or tpnrs10.zip******
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+
+
+THE PIONEERS
+
+Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna
+
+
+A Descriptive Tale
+
+
+By J. FENIMORE COOPER
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+As this work professes, in its title-page, to be a descriptive tale,
+they who will take the trouble to read it may be glad to know how much
+of its contents is literal fact, and how much is intended to represent
+a general picture.  The author is very sensible that, had he confined
+himself to the latter, always the most effective, as it is the most
+valuable, mode of conveying knowledge of this nature, he would have
+made a far better book.  But in commencing to describe scenes, and
+perhaps he may add characters, that were so familiar to his own youth,
+there was a constant temptation to delineate that which he had known,
+rather than that which he might have imagined.  This rigid adhesion to
+truth, an indispensable requisite in history and travels, destroys the
+charm of fiction; for all that is necessary to be conveyed to the mind
+by the latter had better be done by delineations of principles, and of
+characters in their classes, than by a too fastidious attention to
+originals.
+
+New York having but one county of Otsego, and the Susquehanna but one
+proper source, there can be no mistake as to the site of the tale.
+The history of this district of country, so far as it is connected
+with civilized men, is soon told.
+
+Otsego, in common with most of the interior of the province of New
+York, was included in the county of Albany previously to the war of
+the separation.  It then became, in a subsequent division of
+territory, a part of Montgomery; and finally, having obtained a
+sufficient population of its own, it was set apart as a county by
+itself shortly after the peace of 1783.  It lies among those low spurs
+of the Alleghanies which cover the midland counties of New York, and
+it is a little east of a meridional line drawn through the centre of
+the State.  As the waters of New York flow either southerly into the
+Atlantic or northerly into Ontario and its outlet, Otsego Lake, being
+the source of the Susquehanna, is of necessity among its highest
+lands.  The face of the country, the climate as it was found by the
+whites, and the manners of the settlers, are described with a
+minuteness for which the author has no other apology than the force of
+his own recollections.
+
+Otsego is said to be a word compounded of Ot, a place of meeting, and
+Sego, or Sago, the ordinary term of salutation used by the Indians of
+this region.  There is a tradition which says that the neighboring
+tribes were accustomed to meet on the banks of the lake to make their
+treaties, and otherwise to strengthen their alliances, and which
+refers the name to this practice.  As the Indian agent of New York had
+a log dwelling at the foot of the lake, however, it is not impossible
+that the appellation grew out of the meetings that were held at his
+council fires; the war drove off the agent, in common with the other
+officers of the crown; and his rude dwelling was soon abandoned.  The
+author remembers it, a few years later, reduced to the humble office
+of a smoke-house.
+
+In 1779 an expedition was sent against the hostile Indians, who dwelt
+about a hundred miles west of Otsego, on the banks of the Cayuga.  The
+whole country was then a wilderness, and it was necessary to transport
+the bag gage of the troops by means of the rivers—a devious but
+practicable route.  One brigade ascended the Mohawk until it reached
+the point nearest to the sources of the Susquehanna, whence it cut a
+lane through the forest to the head of the Otsego.  The boats and
+baggage were carried over this “portage,” and the troops proceeded to
+the other extremity of the lake, where they disembarked and encamped.
+The Susquehanna, a narrow though rapid stream at its source, was much
+filled with “flood wood,” or fallen trees; and the troops adopted a
+novel expedient to facilitate their passage.  The Otsego is about nine
+miles in length, varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a
+half.  The water is of great depth, limpid, and supplied from a
+thousand springs.  At its foot the banks are rather less than thirty
+feet high the remainder of its margin being in mountains, intervals,
+and points.  The outlet, or the Susquehanna, flows through a gorge in
+the low banks just mentioned, which may have a width of two hundred
+feet.  This gorge was dammed and the waters of the lake collected: the
+Susquehanna was converted into a rill.
+
+When all was ready the troops embarked, the damn was knocked away, the
+Otsego poured out its torrent, and the boats went merrily down with
+the current.
+
+General James Clinton, the brother of George Clinton, then governor of
+New York, and the father of De Witt Clinton, who died governor of the
+same State in 1827, commanded the brigade employed on this duty.
+During the stay of the troops at the foot of the Otsego a soldier was
+shot for desertion.  The grave of this unfortunate man was the first
+place of human interment that the author ever beheld, as the smoke-
+house was the first ruin! The swivel alluded to in this work was
+buried and abandoned by the troops on this occasion, and it was
+subsequently found in digging the cellars of the authors paternal
+residence.
+
+Soon after the close of the war, Washington, accompanied by many
+distinguished men, visited the scene of this tale, it is said with a
+view to examine the facilities for opening a communication by water
+with other points of the country.  He stayed but a few hours.
+
+In 1785 the author’s father, who had an interest in extensive tracts
+of land in this wilderness, arrived with a party of surveyors.  The
+manner in which the scene met his eye is described by Judge Temple.
+At the commencement of the following year the settlement began; and
+from that time to this the country has continued to flourish.  It is a
+singular feature in American life that at the beginning of this
+century, when the proprietor of the estate had occasion for settlers
+on a new settlement and in a remote county, he was enabled to draw
+them from among the increase of the former colony.
+
+Although the settlement of this part of Otsego a little preceded the
+birth of the author, it was not sufficiently advanced to render it
+desirable that an event so important to himself should take place in
+the wilderness.  Perhaps his mother had a reasonable distrust of the
+practice of Dr Todd, who must then have been in the novitiate of his
+experimental acquirements.  Be that as it may, the author was brought
+an infant into this valley, and all his first impressions were here
+obtained.  He has inhabited it ever since, at intervals; and he thinks
+he can answer for the faithfulness of the picture he has drawn.
+Otsego has now become one of the most populous districts of New York.
+It sends forth its emigrants like any other old region, and it is
+pregnant with industry and enterprise.  Its manufacturers are
+prosperous, and it is worthy of remark that one of the most ingenious
+machines known in European art is derived from the keen ingenuity
+which is exercised in this remote region.
+
+In order to prevent mistake, it may be well to say that the incidents
+of this tale are purely a fiction.  The literal facts are chiefly
+connected with the natural and artificial objects and the customs of
+the inhabitants.  Thus the academy, and court-house, and jail, and
+inn, and most similar things, are tolerably exact.  They have all,
+long since, given place to other buildings of a more pretending
+character.  There is also some liberty taken with the truth in the
+description of the principal dwelling; the real building had no
+“firstly” and “lastly.” It was of bricks, and not of stone; and its
+roof exhibited none of the peculiar beauties of the “composite order.”
+It was erected in an age too primitive for that ambitious school of
+architecture.  But the author indulged his recollections freely when
+he had fairly entered the door.  Here all is literal, even to the
+severed arm of Wolfe, and the urn which held the ashes of Queen Dido.*
+
+  * Though forests still crown the mountains of Otsego, the bear, the
+    wolf, and the panther are nearly strangers to them.  Even the innocent
+    deer is rarely seen bounding beneath their arches; for the rifle and
+    the activity of the settlers hare driven them to other haunts.  To
+    this change (which in some particulars is melancholy to one who knew
+    the country in its infancy), it may be added that the Otsego is
+    beginning to be a niggard of its treasures.
+
+The author has elsewhere said that the character of Leather-Stocking
+is a creation, rendered probable by such auxiliaries as were necessary
+to produce that effect.  Had he drawn still more upon fancy, the
+lovers of fiction would not have so much cause for their objections to
+his work.  Still, the picture would not have been in the least true
+without some substitutes for most of the other personages.  The great
+proprietor resident on his lands, and giving his name to instead of
+receiving it from his estates as in Europe, is common over the whole
+of New York.  The physician with his theory, rather obtained from than
+corrected by experiments on the human constitution; the pious, self-
+denying, laborious, and ill-paid missionary; the half-educated,
+litigious, envious, and disreputable lawyer, with his counterpoise, a
+brother of the profession, of better origin and of better character;
+the shiftless, bargaining, discontented seller of his “betterments;”
+the plausible carpenter, and most of the others, are more familiar to
+all who have ever dwelt in a new country.
+
+It may be well to say here, a little more explicitly, that there was
+no real intention to describe with particular accuracy any real
+characters in this book.  It has been often said, and in published
+statements, that the heroine of this book was drawn after the sister
+of the writer, who was killed by a fall from a horse now near half a
+century since.  So ingenious is conjecture that a personal resemblance
+has been discovered between the fictitious character and the deceased
+relative! It is scarcely possible to describe two females of the same
+class in life who would be less alike, personally, than Elizabeth
+Temple and the sister of the author who met with the deplorable fate
+mentioned.  In a word, they were as unlike in this respect as in
+history, character, and fortunes.
+
+Circumstances rendered this sister singularly dear to the author.
+After a lapse of half a century, he is writing this paragraph with a
+pain that would induce him to cancel it, were it not still more
+painful to have it believed that one whom he regarded with a reverence
+that surpassed the love of a brother was converted by him into the
+heroine of a work of fiction.
+
+From circumstances which, after this Introduction, will be obvious to
+all, the author has had more pleasure in writing “The Pioneers” than
+the book will probably ever give any of its readers.  He is quite
+aware of its numerous faults, some of which he has endeavored to
+repair in this edition; but as he has—in intention, at least—done his
+full share in amusing the world, he trusts to its good-nature for
+overlooking this attempt to please himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+
+“See, Winter comes, to rule the varied years,
+Sullen and sad, with all his rising train;
+Vapors, and clouds, and storms.”—Thomson.
+
+Near the centre of the State of New York lies an extensive district of
+country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak
+with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and
+valleys.  It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise;
+and flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this region
+the numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the valleys
+until, uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest rivers of
+the United States.  The mountains are generally arable to the tops,
+although instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with
+rocks that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and
+picturesque character which it so eminently possesses.  The vales are
+narrow, rich, and cultivated, with a stream uniformly winding through
+each.  Beautiful and thriving villages are found interspersed along
+the margins of the small lakes, or situated at those points of the
+streams which are favorable for manufacturing; and neat and
+comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about them, are
+scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the mountain tops.
+Roads diverge in every direction from the even and graceful bottoms of
+the valleys to the most rugged and intricate passes of the hills.
+Academies and minor edifices of learning meet the eye of the stranger
+at every few miles as be winds his way through this uneven territory,
+and places for the worship of God abound with that frequency which
+characterize a moral and reflecting people, and with that variety of
+exterior and canonical government which flows from unfettered liberty
+of conscience.  In short, the whole district is hourly exhibiting how
+much can be done, in even a rugged country and with a severe climate,
+under the dominion of mild laws, and where every man feels a direct
+interest in the prosperity of a commonwealth of which he knows himself
+to form a part.  The expedients of the pioneers who first broke ground
+in the settlement of this country are succeeded by the permanent
+improvements of the yeoman who intends to leave his remains to moulder
+under the sod which he tills, or perhaps of the son, who, born in the
+land, piously wishes to linger around the grave of his father.  Only
+forty years * have passed since this territory was a wilderness.
+
+  * Our tale begins in 1793, about seven years after the commencement of
+    one of the earliest of those settlements which have conduced to effect
+    that magical change in the power and condition of the State to which
+    we have alluded.
+
+Very soon after the establishment of the independence of the States by
+the peace of 1783, the enterprise of their citizens was directed to a
+development of the natural ad vantages of their widely extended
+dominions.  Before the war of the Revolution, the inhabited parts of
+the colony of New York were limited to less than a tenth of its
+possessions, A narrow belt of country, extending for a short distance
+on either side of the Hudson, with a similar occupation of fifty miles
+on the banks of the Mohawk, together with the islands of Nassau and
+Staten, and a few insulated settlements on chosen land along the
+margins of streams, composed the country, which was then inhabited by
+less than two hundred thousand souls. Within the short period we have
+mentioned, the population has spread itself over five degrees of
+latitude and seven of longitude, and has swelled to a million and a
+half of inhabitants, who are maintained in abundance, and can look
+forward to ages before the evil day must arrive when their possessions
+shall become unequal to their wants.
+
+It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December,
+when a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the
+district we have described.  The day had been fine for the season, and
+but two or three large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the
+light reflected from the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated
+in a sky of the purest blue.  The road wound along the brow of a
+precipice, and on one side was upheld by a foundation of logs piled
+one upon the other, while a narrow excavation in the mountain in the
+opposite direction had made a passage of sufficient width for the
+ordinary travelling of that day.  But logs, excavation, and every
+thing that did not reach several feet above the earth lay alike buried
+beneath the snow.  A single track, barely wide enough to receive the
+sleigh, * denoted the route of the highway, and this was sunk nearly
+two feet below the surrounding surface.
+
+  * Sleigh is the word used in every part of the United States to denote
+    a traineau.  It is of local use in the west of England, whence it is
+    most probably derived by the Americans.  The latter draw a distinction
+    between a sled, or sledge, and a sleigh, the sleigh being shod with
+    metal. Sleighs are also subdivided into two - horse and one-horse
+    sleighs.  Of the latter, there are the cutter, with thills so arranged
+    as to permit the horse to travel in the side track; the “pung,” or
+    “tow-pung” which is driven with a pole; and the “gumper,” a rude
+    construction used for temporary purposes in the new countries.  Many
+    of the American sleighs are elegant though the use of this mode of
+    conveyance is much lessened with the melioration of the climate
+    consequent to the clearing of the forests.
+
+In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower,
+there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing,
+and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even
+extended up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran
+across the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but
+the summit itself remained in the forest.  There was glittering in the
+atmosphere, as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles;
+and the noble bay horses that drew the sleigh were covered, in many
+parts with a coat of hoar-frost.  The vapor from their nostrils was
+seen to issue like smoke; and every object in the view, as well as
+every arrangement of the travellers, denoted the depth of a winter in
+the mountains.  The harness, which was of a deep, dull black,
+differing from the glossy varnishing of the present day, was
+ornamented with enormous plates and buckles of brass, that shone like
+gold in those transient beams of the sun which found their way
+obliquely through the tops of the trees.  Huge saddles, studded with
+nails and fitted with cloth that served as blankets to the shoulders
+of the cattle, supported four high, square-topped turrets, through
+which the stout reins led from the mouths of the horses to the hands
+of the driver, who was a negro, of apparently twenty years of age.
+His face, which nature had colored with a glistening black, was now
+mottled with the cold, and his large shining eyes filled with tears; a
+tribute to its power that the keen frosts of those regions always
+extracted from one of his African origin.  Still, there was a smiling
+expression of good-humor in his happy countenance, that was created by
+the thoughts of home and a Christmas fireside, with its Christmas
+frolics.  The sleigh was one of those large, comfortable, old-
+fashioned conveyances, which would admit a whole family within its
+bosom, but which now contained only two passengers besides the driver.
+The color of its outside was a modest green, and that of its inside a
+fiery red, The latter was intended to convey the idea of heat in that
+cold climate.  Large buffalo-skins trimmed around the edges with red
+cloth cut into festoons, covered the back of the sleigh, and were
+spread over its bottom and drawn up around the feet of the travellers
+- one of whom was a man of middle age and the other a female just
+entering upon womanhood.  The former was of a large stature; but the
+precautions he had taken to guard against the cold left but little of
+his person exposed to view.  A great-coat, that was abundantly
+ornamented by a profusion of furs, enveloped the whole of his figure
+excepting the head, which was covered with a cap of mar ten-skins
+lined with morocco, the sides of which were made to fall, if
+necessary, and were now drawn close over the ears and fastened beneath
+his chin with a black rib bon.  The top of the cap was surmounted with
+the tail of the animal whose skin had furnished the rest of the
+materials, which fell back, not ungracefully, a few inches be hind the
+head.  From beneath this mask were to be seen part of a fine, manly
+face, and particularly a pair of expressive large blue eyes, that
+promised extraordinary intellect, covert humor, and great benevolence.
+The form of his companion was literally hid beneath the garments she
+wore.  There were furs and silks peeping from under a large camlet
+cloak with a thick flannel lining, that by its cut and size was
+evidently intended for a masculine wearer.  A huge hood of black silk,
+that was quilted with down, concealed the whole of her head, except at
+a small opening in front for breath, through which occasionally
+sparkled a pair of animated jet-black eyes.
+
+Both the father and daughter (for such was the connection between the
+two travellers) were too much occupied with their reflections to break
+a stillness that derived little or no interruption from the easy
+gliding of the sleigh by the sound of their voices.  The former was
+thinking of the wife that had held this their only child to her bosom,
+when, four years before, she had reluctantly consented to relinquish
+the society of her daughter in order that the latter might enjoy the
+advantages of an education which the city of New York could only offer
+at that period.  A few months afterward death had deprived him of the
+remaining companion of his solitude; but still he had enough real
+regard for his child not to bring her into the comparative wilderness
+in which he dwelt, until the full period had expired to which he had
+limited her juvenile labors.  The reflections of the daughter were
+less melancholy, and mingled with a pleased astonishment at the novel
+scenery she met at every turn in the road.
+
+The mountain on which they were journeying was covered with pines that
+rose without a branch some seventy or eighty feet, and which
+frequently doubled that height by the addition of the tops.  Through
+the innumerable vistas that opened beneath the lofty trees, the eye
+could penetrate until it was met by a distant inequality in the
+ground, or was stopped by a view of the summit of the mountain which
+lay on the opposite side of the valley to which they were hastening.
+The dark trunks of the trees rose from the pure white of the snow in
+regularly formed shafts, until, at a great height, their branches shot
+forth horizontal limbs, that were covered with the meagre foliage of
+an evergreen, affording a melancholy contrast to the torpor of nature
+below.  To the travellers there seemed to be no wind; but these pines
+waved majestically at their topmost boughs, sending forth a dull,
+plaintive sound that was quite in consonance with the rest of the
+melancholy scene.
+
+The sleigh had glided for some distance along the even surface, and
+the gaze of the female was bent in inquisitive and, perhaps, timid
+glances into the recesses of the forest, when a loud and continued
+howling was heard, pealing under the long arches of the woods like the
+cry of a numerous pack of hounds.  The instant the sounds reached the
+ear of the gentleman he cried aloud to the black:
+
+“Hol up, Aggy; there is old Hector; I should know his bay among ten
+thousand! The Leather-Stocking has put his hounds into the hills this
+clear day, and they have started their game.  There is a deer-track a
+few rods ahead; and now, Bess, if thou canst muster courage enough to
+stand fire, I will give thee a saddle for thy Christmas dinner.”
+
+The black drew up, with a cheerful grin upon his chilled features, and
+began thrashing his arms together in order to restore the circulation
+of his fingers, while the speaker stood erect and, throwing aside his
+outer covering, stepped from the sleigh upon a bank of snow which
+sustained his weight without yielding.
+
+In a few moments the speaker succeeded in extricating a double-
+barrelled fowling-piece from among a multitude of trunks and
+bandboxes.  After throwing aside the thick mittens which had encased
+his hands, there now appeared a pair of leather gloves tipped with
+fur; he examined his priming, and was about to move forward, when the
+light bounding noise of an animal plunging through the woods was
+heard, and a fine buck darted into the path a short distance ahead of
+him.  The appearance of the animal was sudden, and his flight
+inconceivably rapid; but the traveller appeared to be too keen a
+sportsman to be disconcerted by either.  As it came first into view he
+raised the fowling-piece to his shoulder and, with a practised eye and
+steady hand, drew a trigger.  The deer dashed forward undaunted, and
+apparently unhurt.  Without lowering his piece, the traveller turned
+its muzzle toward his victim, and fired again.  Neither discharge,
+however, seemed to have taken effect,
+
+The whole scene had passed with a rapidity that confused the female,
+who was unconsciously rejoicing in the escape of the buck, as he
+rather darted like a meteor than ran across the road, when a sharp,
+quick sound struck her ear, quite different from the full, round
+reports of her father’s gun, but still sufficiently distinct to be
+known as the concussion produced by firearms.  At the same instant
+that she heard this unexpected report, the buck sprang from the snow
+to a great height in the air, and directly a second discharge, similar
+in sound to the first, followed, when the animal came to the earth,
+failing head long and rolling over on the crust with its own velocity.
+A loud shout was given by the unseen marksman, and a couple of men
+instantly appeared from behind the trunks of two of the pines, where
+they had evidently placed them selves in expectation of the passage of
+the deer.
+
+“Ha! Natty, had I known you were in ambush, I should not have fired,”
+cried the traveller, moving toward the spot where the deer lay—near to
+which he was followed by the delighted black, with his sleigh; “but
+the sound of old Hector was too exhilarating to be quiet; though I
+hardly think I struck him, either.”
+
+“No—no——Judge,” returned the hunter, with an inward chuckle, and with
+that look of exultation that indicates a consciousness of superior
+skill, “you burnt your powder only to warm your nose this cold
+evening.  Did ye think to stop a full-grown buck, with Hector and the
+slut open upon him within sound, with that pop-gun in your hand!
+There’s plenty of pheasants among the swamps; and the snow-birds are
+flying round your own door, where you may feed them with crumbs, and
+shoot them at pleasure, any day; but if you’re for a buck, or a little
+bear's meat, Judge, you’ll have to take the long rifle, with a greased
+wadding, or you’ll waste more powder than you’ll fill stomachs, I’m
+thinking.”
+
+As the speaker concluded he drew his bare hand across the bottom of
+his nose, and again opened his enormous mouth with a kind of inward
+laugh.
+
+“The gun scatters well, Natty, And it has killed a deer before now,”
+said the traveller, smiling good-humoredly.  “One barrel was charged
+with buckshot, but the other was loaded for birds only.  Here are two
+hurts; one through the neck, and the other directly through the heart.
+It is by no means certain, Natty, but I gave him one of the two
+
+“Let who will kill him.” said the hunter, rather surily.
+
+“I suppose the creature is to be eaten.” So saying, he drew a large
+knife from a leathern sheath, which was stuck through his girdle, or
+sash, and cut the throat of the animal, “If there are two balls
+through the deer, I would ask if there weren’t two rifles fired—
+besides, who ever saw such a ragged hole from a smooth-bore as this
+through the neck? And you will own yourself, Judge, that the buck fell
+at the last shot, which was sent from a truer and a younger hand than
+your’n or mine either; but, for my part, although I am a poor man I
+can live without the venison, but I don’t love to give up my lawful
+dues in a free country.  Though, for the matter of that, might often
+makes right here, as well as in the old country, for what I can see.”
+
+An air of sullen dissatisfaction pervaded the manner of the hunter
+during the whole of his speech; yet he thought it prudent to utter the
+close of the sentence in such an undertone as to leave nothing audible
+but the grumbling sounds of his voice.
+
+“Nay, Natty,” rejoined the traveller, with undisturbed good-humor, “it
+is for the honor that I contend.  A few dollars will pay for the
+venison; but what will requite me for the lost honor of a buck’s tail
+in my cap? Think, Natty, how I should triumph over that quizzing dog,
+Dick Jones, who has failed seven times already this season, and has
+only brought in one woodchuck and a few gray squirrels.”
+
+“Ah! The game is becoming hard to find, indeed, Judge, with your
+clearings and betterments,” said the old hunter, with a kind of
+compelled resignation.  “The time has been when I have shot thirteen
+deer without counting the fa’ns standing in the door of my own hut;
+and for bear’s meat, if one wanted a ham or so, he had only to watch
+a-nights, and he could shoot one by moonlight, through the cracks of
+the logs, no fear of his oversleeping himself neither, for the howling
+of the wolves was sartin to keep his eyes open.  There’s old Hector”—
+patting with affection a tall hound of black and yellow spots, with
+white belly and legs, that just then came in on the scent, accompanied
+by the slut he had mentioned; “see where the wolves bit his throat,
+the night I druv them from the venison that was smoking on the chimney
+top—that dog is more to be trusted than many a Christian man; for he
+never forgets a friend, and loves the hand that gives him bread,”
+
+There was a peculiarity in the manner of the hunter that attracted the
+notice of the young female, who had been a close and interested
+observer of his appearance and equipments, from the moment he came
+into view.  He was tall, and so meagre as to make him seem above even
+the six feet that he actually stood in his stockings.  On his head,
+which was thinly covered with lank, sandy hair, he wore a cap made of
+fox-skin, resembling in shape the one we have already described,
+although much inferior in finish and ornaments.  His face was skinny
+and thin al most to emaciation; but yet it bore no signs of disease—
+on the contrary, it had every indication of the most robust and
+enduring health.  The cold and exposure had, together, given it a
+color of uniform red.  His gray eyes were glancing under a pair of
+shaggy brows, that over hung them in long hairs of gray mingled with
+their natural hue; his scraggy neck was bare, and burnt to the same
+tint with his face; though a small part of a shirt-collar, made of the
+country check, was to be seen above the overdress he wore.  A kind of
+coat, made of dressed deer-skin, with the hair on, was belted close to
+his lank body by a girdle of colored worsted.  On his feet were deer-
+skin moccasins, ornamented with porcupines’ quills, after the manner
+of the Indians, and his limbs were guarded with long leggings of the
+same material as the moccasins, which, gartering over the knees of his
+tarnished buckskin breeches, had obtained for him among the settlers
+the nickname of Leather-Stocking.  Over his left shoulder was slung a
+belt of deer-skin, from which depended an enormous ox-horn, so thinly
+scraped as to discover the powder it contained.  The larger end was
+fitted ingeniously and securely with a wooden bottom, and the other
+was stopped tight by a little plug.  A leathern pouch hung before him,
+from which, as he concluded his last speech, he took a small measure,
+and, filling it accurately with powder, he commenced reloading the
+rifle, which as its butt rested on the snow before him reached nearly
+to the top of his fox-skin cap.
+
+The traveller had been closely examining the wounds during these
+movements, and now, without heeding the ill-humor of the hunter’s
+manner, he exclaimed:
+
+“I would fain establish a right, Natty, to the honor of this death;
+and surely if the hit in the neck be mine it is enough; for the shot
+in the heart was unnecessary—what we call an act of supererogation,
+Leather-Stocking.”
+
+“You may call it by what larned name you please, Judge,” said the
+hunter, throwing his rifle across his left arm, and knocking up a
+brass lid in the breech, from which he took a small piece of greased
+leather and, wrapping a bail in it, forced them down by main strength
+on the powder, where he continued to pound them while speaking.  “It’s
+far easier to call names than to shoot a buck on the spring; but the
+creatur came by his end from a younger hand than either your’n or
+mine, as I said before.”
+
+“What say you, my friend,” cried the traveller, turning pleasantly to
+Natty’s companion; “shall we toss up this dollar for the honor, and
+you keep the silver if you lose; what say you, friend?”
+
+“That I killed the deer,” answered the young man, with a little
+haughtiness, as he leaned on another long rifle similar to that of
+Natty.
+
+“Here are two to one, indeed,” replied the Judge with a smile; “I am
+outvoted—overruled, as we say on the bench.  There is Aggy, he can’t
+vote, being a slave; and Bess is a minor—so I must even make the best
+of it.  But you’ll send me the venison; and the deuce is in it, but I
+make a good story about its death.”
+
+“The meat is none of mine to sell,” said Leather-Stocking, adopting a
+little of his companion’s hauteur; “for my part, I have known animals
+travel days with shots in the neck, and I’m none of them who’ll rob a
+man of his rightful dues.”
+
+“You are tenacious of your rights, this cold evening, Natty,” returned
+the Judge with unconquerable good-nature; “but what say you, young
+man; will three dollars pay you for the buck?”
+
+“First let us determine the question of right to the satisfaction of
+us both,” said the youth firmly but respect fully, and with a
+pronunciation and language vastly superior to his appearance: “with
+how many shot did you load your gun?”
+
+“With five, sir,” said the Judge, a little struck with the other’s
+manner; “are they not enough to slay a buck like this?”
+
+“One would do it; but,” moving to the tree from be hind which he had
+appeared, “you know, sir, you fired in this direction—here are four of
+the bullets in the tree.”
+
+The Judge examined the fresh marks in the bark of the pine, and,
+shaking his head, said with a laugh:
+
+“You are making out the case against yourself, my young advocate;
+where is the fifth?”
+
+“Here,” said the youth, throwing aside the rough over coat that he
+wore, and exhibiting a hole in his under-garment, through which large
+drops of blood were oozing.
+
+“Good God!” exclaimed the Judge, with horror; “have I been trifling
+here about an empty distinction, and a fellow-creature suffering from
+my hands without a murmur? But hasten—quick—get into my sleigh—it is
+but a mile to the village, where surgical aid can be obtained—all
+shall be done at my expense, and thou shalt live with me until thy
+wound is healed, ay, and forever afterward.”
+
+“I thank you for your good intention, but I must decline your offer.
+I have a friend who would be uneasy were he to hear that I am hurt and
+away from him.  The injury is but slight, and the bullet has missed
+the bones; but I believe, sir, you will now admit me title to the
+venison.”
+
+“Admit it!” repeated the agitated Judge; “I here give thee a right to
+shoot deer, or bears, or anything thou pleasest in my woods, forever.
+Leather-Stocking is the only other man that I have granted the same
+privilege to; and the time is coming when it will be of value.  But I
+buy your deer—here, this bill will pay thee, both for thy shot and my
+own.”
+
+The old hunter gathered his tall person up into an air of pride during
+this dialogue, but he waited until the other had done speaking.
+
+“There’s them living who say that Nathaniel Bumppo's right to shoot on
+these hills is of older date than Marmaduke Temple’s right to forbid
+him,” he said.  “But if there’s a law about it at all, though who ever
+heard of a law that a man shouldn’t kill deer where he pleased!—but if
+there is a law at all, it should be to keep people from the use of
+smooth-bores.  A body never knows where his lead will fly, when he
+pulls the trigger of one of them uncertain firearms.”
+
+Without attending to the soliloquy of Natty, the youth bowed his head
+silently to the offer of the bank-note, and replied:
+
+“Excuse me: I have need of the venison.”
+
+“But this will buy you many deer,” said the Judge; “take it, I entreat
+you;” and, lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, “It is for a
+hundred dollars.”
+
+For an instant only the youth seemed to hesitate, and then, blushing
+even through the high color that the cold had given to his cheeks, as
+if with inward shame at his own weakness, he again declined the offer.
+
+During this scene the female arose, and regardless of the cold air,
+she threw back the hood which concealed her features, and now spoke,
+with great earnestness.
+
+“Surely, surely—young man—sir—you would not pain my father so much as
+to have him think that he leaves a fellow-creature in this wilderness
+whom his own hand has injured.  I entreat you will go with us, and
+receive medical aid.”
+
+Whether his wound became more painful, or there was something
+irresistible in the voice and manner of the fair pleader for her
+father’s feelings, we know not; but the distance of the young mans
+manner was sensibly softened by this appeal, and he stood in apparent
+doubt, as if reluctant to comply with and yet unwilling to refuse her
+request.  The Judge, for such being his office must in future be his
+title, watched with no little interest the display of this singular
+contention in the feelings of the youth; and, advancing, kindly took
+his hand, and, as he pulled him gently toward the sleigh, urged him to
+enter it.
+
+“There is no human aid nearer than Templeton,” he said, “and the hut
+of Natty is full three miles from this— come, come, my young friend,
+go with us, and let the new doctor look to this shoulder of thine.
+Here is Natty will take the tidings of thy welfare to thy friend; and
+shouldst thou require it, thou shalt return home in the morning.”
+The young man succeeded in extricating his hand from the warm grasp of
+the Judge, but he continued to gaze on the face of the female, who,
+regardless of the cold, was still standing with her fine features
+exposed, which expressed feeling that eloquently seconded the request
+of her father.  Leather-Stocking stood, in the mean time, leaning upon
+his long rifle, with his head turned a little to one side, as if
+engaged in sagacious musing; when, having apparently satisfied his
+doubts, by revolving the subject in his mind, he broke silence.
+“It may be best to go, lad, after all; for, if the shot hangs under
+the skin, my hand is getting too old to be cutting into human flesh,
+as I once used to, Though some thirty years agone, in the old war,
+when I was out under Sir William, I travelled seventy miles alone in
+the howling wilderness, with a rifle bullet in my thigh, and then cut
+it out with my own jack-knife.  Old Indian John knows the time well.
+I met him with a party of the Delawares, on the trail of the Iroquois,
+who had been down and taken five scalps on the Schoharie.  But I made
+a mark on the red-skin that I’ll warrant he’ll carry to his grave! I
+took him on the posteerum, saving the lady's presence, as he got up
+from the ambushment, and rattled three buckshot into his naked hide,
+so close that you might have laid a broad joe upon them all”—here
+Natty stretched out his long neck, and straightened his body, as he
+opened his mouth, which exposed a single tusk of yellow bone, while
+his eyes, his face, even his whole frame seemed to laugh, although no
+sound was emitted except a kind of thick hissing, as he inhaled his
+breath in quavers.  “I had lost my bullet-mould in crossing the Oneida
+outlet, and had to make shift with the buckshot; but the rifle was
+true, and didn’t scatter like your two-legged thing there, Judge,
+which don’t do, I find, to hunt in company with.”
+
+Natty’s apology to the delicacy of the young lady was unnecessary,
+for, while he was speaking, she was too much employed in helping her
+father to remove certain articles of baggage to hear him.  Unable to
+resist the kind urgency of the travellers any longer, the youth,
+though still with an unaccountable reluctance, suffered himself to be
+persuaded to enter the sleigh.  The black, with the aid of his master,
+threw the buck across the baggage and entering the vehicle themselves,
+the Judge invited the hunter to do so likewise.
+
+“ No, no,” said the old roan, shaking his head; “I have work to do at
+home this Christmas eve—drive on with the boy, and let your doctor
+look to the shoulder; though if he will only cut out the shot, I have
+yarbs that will heal the wound quicker than all his foreign
+‘intments.” He turned, and was about to move off, when, suddenly
+recollecting himself, he again faced the party, and added: “If you see
+anything of Indian John, about the foot of the lake, you had better
+take him with you, and let him lend the doctor a hand; for, old as he
+is, he is curious at cuts and bruises, and it’s likelier than not
+he’ll be in with brooms to sweep your Christmas ha’arths.”
+
+“Stop, stop,” cried the youth, catching the arm of the black as he
+prepared to urge his horses forward; “Natty—you need say nothing of
+the shot, nor of where I am going—remember, Natty, as you love me.”
+“Trust old Leather-Stocking,” returned the hunter significantly; “he
+hasn’t lived fifty years in the wilderness, and not larnt from the
+savages how to hold his tongue— trust to me, lad; and remember old
+Indian John.”
+
+“And, Natty,” said the youth eagerly, still holding the black by the
+arm.  “I will just get the shot extracted, and bring you up to-night a
+quarter of the buck for the Christmas dinner.”
+
+He was interrupted by the hunter, who held up his finger with an
+expressive gesture for silence.  He then moved softly along the margin
+of the road, keeping his eyes steadfastly fixed on the branches of a
+pine.  When he had obtained such a position as he wished, he stopped,
+and, cocking his rifle, threw one leg far behind him, and stretching
+his left arm to its utmost extent along the barrel of his piece, he
+began slowly to raise its muzzle in a line with the straight trunk of
+the tree.  The eyes of the group in the sleigh naturally preceded the
+movement of the rifle, and they soon discovered the object of Natty’s
+aim.  On a small dead branch of the pine, which, at the distance of
+seventy feet from the ground, shot out horizontally, immediately
+beneath the living members of the tree, sat a bird, that in the vulgar
+language of the country was indiscriminately called a pheasant or a
+partridge.  In size, it was but little smaller than a common barn-yard
+fowl.  The baying of the dogs, and the conversation that had passed
+near the root of the tree on which it was perched, had alarmed the
+bird, which was now drawn up near the body of the pine, with a head
+and neck so erect as to form nearly a straight line with its legs.  As
+soon as the rifle bore on the victim, Natty drew his trigger, and the
+partridge fell from its height with a force that buried it in the
+snow.
+
+“Lie down, you old villain,” exclaimed Leather-Stocking, shaking his
+ramrod at Hector as he bounded toward the foot of the tree, “ lie
+down, I say.” The dog obeyed, and Natty proceeded with great rapidity,
+though with the nicest accuracy, to reload his piece.  When this was
+ended, he took up his game, and, showing it to the party without a
+head, he cried: “ Here is a tidbit for an old man’s Christmas—never
+mind the venison, boy, and remember Indian John; his yarbs are better
+than all the foreign ‘intments.  Here, Judge,” holding up the bird
+again, “do you think a smooth-bore would pick game off their roost,
+and not ruffle a feather?” The old man gave another of his remarkable
+laughs, which partook so largely of exultation, mirth, and irony, and,
+shaking his head, he turned, with his rifle at a trail, and moved into
+the forest with steps that were between a walk and a trot.  At each
+movement he made his body lowered several inches, his knees yielding
+with an inclination inward; but, as the sleigh turned at a bend in the
+road, the youth cast his eyes in quest of his old companion, and he
+saw that he was already nearly concealed by the trunks of the tree;
+while his dogs were following quietly in his footsteps, occasionally
+scenting the deer track, that they seemed to know instinctively was
+now of no further use to them.  Another jerk was given to the sleigh,
+and Leather-Stocking was hid from view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+All places that the eye of heaven visits
+Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:
+Think not the king did banish thee:
+But thou the king.—Richard II
+
+An ancestor of Marmaduke Temple had, about one hundred and twenty
+years before the commencement of our tale, come to the colony of
+Pennsylvania, a friend and co-religionist of its great patron.  Old
+Marmaduke, for this formidable prenomen was a kind of appellative to
+the race, brought with him, to that asylum of the persecuted an
+abundance of the good things of this life.  He became the master of
+many thousands of acres of uninhabited territory, and the supporter of
+many a score of dependents.  He lived greatly respected for his piety,
+and not a little distinguished as a sectary; was intrusted by his
+associates with many important political stations; and died just in
+time to escape the knowledge of his own poverty.  It was his lot to
+share the fortune of most of those who brought wealth with them into
+the new settlements of the middle colonies.
+
+The consequence of an emigrant into these provinces was generally to
+be ascertained by the number of his white servants or dependents, and
+the nature of the public situations that he held.  Taking this rule as
+a guide, the ancestor of our Judge must have been a man of no little
+note.
+
+It is, however, a subject of curious inquiry at the present day, to
+look into the brief records of that early period, and observe how
+regular, and with few exceptions how inevitable, were the gradations,
+on the one hand, of the masters to poverty, and on the other, of their
+servants to wealth.  Accustomed to ease, and unequal to the struggles
+incident to an infant society, the affluent emigrant was barely
+enabled to maintain his own rank by the weight of his personal
+superiority and acquirements; but, the moment that his head was laid
+in the grave, his indolent and comparatively uneducated offspring were
+compelled to yield precedency to the more active energies of a class
+whose exertions had been stimulated by necessity.  This is a very
+common course of things, even in the present state of the Union; but
+it was peculiarly the fortunes of the two extremes of society, in the
+peaceful and unenterprising colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
+
+The posterity of Marmaduke did not escape the common lot of those who
+depend rather on their hereditary possessions than on their own
+powers; and in the third generation they had descended to a point
+below which, in this happy country, it is barely possible for honesty,
+intellect and sobriety to fall.  The same pride of family that had, by
+its self-satisfied indolence, conduced to aid their fail, now became a
+principle to stimulate them to endeavor to rise again.  The feeling,
+from being morbid, was changed to a healthful and active desire to
+emulate the character, the condition, and, peradventure, the wealth of
+their ancestors also.  It was the father of our new acquaintance, the
+Judge, who first began to reascend in the scale of society; and in
+this undertaking he was not a little assisted by a marriage, which
+aided in furnishing the means of educating his only son in a rather
+better manner than the low state of the common schools of Pennsylvania
+could promise; or than had been the practice in the family for the two
+or three preceding generations.
+
+At the school where the reviving prosperity of his father was enabled
+to maintain him, young Marmaduke formed an intimacy with a youth whose
+years were about equal to his own.  This was a fortunate connection
+for our Judge, and paved the way to most of his future elevation in
+life.
+
+There was not only great wealth but high court interest among the
+connections of Edward Effingham.  They were one of the few families
+then resident in the colonies who thought it a degradation to its
+members to descend to the pursuits of commerce; and who never emerged
+from the privacy of domestic life unless to preside in the councils of
+the colony or to bear arms in her defense.  The latter had from youth
+been the only employment of Edward’s father.  Military rank under the
+crown of Great Britain was attained with much longer probation, and by
+much more toilsome services, sixty years ago than at the present time.
+Years were passed without murmuring, in the sub ordinate grades of the
+service; and those soldiers who were stationed in the colonies felt,
+when they obtained the command of a company, that they were entitled
+to receive the greatest deference from the peaceful occupants of the
+soil.  Any one of our readers who has occasion to cross the Niagara
+may easily observe not only the self importance, but the real
+estimation enjoyed by the hum blest representative of the crown, even
+in that polar region of royal sunshine.  Such, and at no very distant
+period, was the respect paid to the military in these States, where
+now, happily, no symbol of war is ever seen, unless at the free and
+tearless voice of their people.  When, therefore, the father of
+Marmaduke’s friend, after forty years’ service, retired with the rank
+of major, maintaining in his domestic establishment a comparative
+splendor, he be came a man of the first consideration in his native
+colony which was that of New York.  He had served with fidelity and
+courage, and having been, according to the custom of the provinces,
+intrusted with commands much superior to those to which he was
+entitled by rank, with reputation also.  When Major Effingham yielded
+to the claims of age, he retired with dignity, refusing his half-pay
+or any other compensation for services that he felt he could no longer
+perform.
+
+The ministry proffered various civil offices which yielded not only
+honor but profit; but he declined them all, with the chivalrous
+independence and loyalty that had marked his character through life.
+The veteran soon caused this set of patriotic disinterestedness to be
+followed by another of private munificence, that, however little it
+accorded with prudence, was in perfect conformity with the simple
+integrity of his own views.
+
+The friend of Marmaduke was his only child; and to this son, on his
+marriage with a lady to whom the father was particularly partial, the
+Major gave a complete conveyance of his whole estate, consisting of
+money in the funds, a town and country residence, sundry valuable
+farms in the old parts of the colony, and large tracts of wild land in
+the new—in this manner throwing himself upon the filial piety of his
+child for his own future maintenance.  Major Effingham, in declining
+the liberal offers of the British ministry, had subjected himself to
+the suspicion of having attained his dotage, by all those who throng
+the avenues to court patronage, even in the remotest corners of that
+vast empire; but, when he thus voluntarily stripped himself of his
+great personal wealth, the remainder of the community seemed
+instinctively to adopt the conclusion also that he had reached a
+second childhood.  This may explain the fact of his importance rapidly
+declining; and, if privacy was his object, the veteran had soon a free
+indulgence of his wishes.  Whatever views the world might entertain of
+this act of the Major, to himself and to his child it seemed no more
+than a natural gift by a father of those immunities which he could no
+longer enjoy or improve, to a son, who was formed, both by nature and
+education, to do both.  The younger Effingham did not object to the
+amount of the donation; for he felt that while his parent reserved a
+moral control over his actions, he was relieving himself of a
+fatiguing burden: such, indeed, was the confidence existing between
+them, that to neither did it seem anything more than removing money
+from one pocket to another.
+
+One of the first acts of the young man, on corning into possession of
+his wealth, was to seek his early friend, with a view to offer any
+assistance that it was now in his power to bestow.
+
+The death of Marmaduke’s father, and the consequent division of his
+small estate, rendered such an offer extremely acceptable to the young
+Pennsylvanian; he felt his own powers, and saw, not only the
+excellences, but the foibles in the character of his friend.
+Effingham was by nature indolent, confiding, and at times impetuous
+and indiscreet; but Marmaduke was uniformly equable, penetrating, and
+full of activity and enterprise.  To the latter therefore, the
+assistance, or rather connection that was proffered to him, seemed to
+produce a mutual advantage.  It was cheerfully accepted, and the
+arrangement of its conditions was easily completed.  A mercantile
+house was established in the metropolis of Pennsylvania, with the
+avails of Mr. Effingham's personal property; all, or nearly all, of
+which was put into the possession of Temple, who was the only
+ostensible proprietor in the concern, while, in secret, the other was
+entitled to an equal participation in the profits.  This connection
+was thus kept private for two reasons, one of which, in the freedom of
+their inter course, was frankly avowed to Marmaduke, while the other
+continued profoundly hid in the bosom of his friend, The last was
+nothing more than pride.  To the descend ant of a line of soldiers,
+commerce, even in that indirect manner, seemed a degrading pursuit;
+but an insuperable obstacle to the disclosure existed in the
+prejudices of his father
+
+We have already said that Major Effingham had served as a soldier with
+reputation.  On one occasion, while in command on the western frontier
+of Pennsylvania against a league of the French and Indians, not only
+his glory, but the safety of himself and his troops were jeoparded by
+the peaceful policy of that colony.  To the soldier, this was an
+unpardonable offence.  He was fighting in their defense—he knew that
+the mild principles of this little nation of practical Christians
+would be disregarded by their subtle and malignant enemies; and he
+felt the in jury the more deeply because he saw that the avowed object
+of the colonists, in withholding their succors, would only have a
+tendency to expose his command, without preserving the peace.  The
+soldier succeeded, after a desperate conflict, in extricating himself,
+with a handful of his men, from their murderous enemy; but he never
+for gave the people who had exposed him to a danger which they left
+him to combat alone.  It was in vain to tell him that they had no
+agency in his being placed on their frontier at all; it was evidently
+for their benefit that he had been so placed, and it was their
+“religious duty,” so the Major always expressed it, “it was their
+religions duty to have supported him.”
+
+At no time was the old soldier an admirer of the peaceful disciples of
+Fox.  Their disciplined habits, both of mind and body, had endowed
+them with great physical perfection; and the eye of the veteran was
+apt to scan the fair proportions and athletic frames of the colonists
+with a look that seemed to utter volumes of contempt for their moral
+imbecility, He was also a little addicted to the expression of a
+belief that, where there was so great an observance of the externals
+of religion, there could not be much of the substance.  It is not our
+task to explain what is or what ought to be the substance of
+Christianity, but merely to record in this place the opinions of Major
+Effingham.
+
+Knowing the sentiments of the father in relation to this people, it
+was no wonder that the son hesitated to avow his connection with, nay,
+even his dependence on the integrity of, a Quaker.
+
+It has been said that Marmaduke deduced his origin from the
+contemporaries and friends of Penn.  His father had married without
+the pale of the church to which he belonged, and had, in this manner,
+forfeited some of the privileges of his offspring.  Still, as young
+Marmaduke was educated in a colony and society where even the ordinary
+intercourse between friends was tinctured with the aspect of this mild
+religion, his habits and language were some what marked by its
+peculiarities.  His own marriage at a future day with a lady without
+not only the pale, but the influence, of this sect of religionists,
+had a tendency, it is true, to weaken his early impressions; still he
+retained them in some degree to the hour of his death, and was
+observed uniformly, when much interested or agitated, to speak in the
+language of his youth.  But this is anticipating our tale.
+
+When Marmaduke first became the partner of young Effingham, he was
+quite the Quaker in externals; and it was too dangerous an experiment
+for the son to think of encountering the prejudices of the father on
+this subject.  The connection, therefore, remained a profound secret
+to all but those who were interested in it,
+
+For a few years Marmaduke directed the commercial operations of his
+house with a prudence and sagacity that afforded rich returns.  He
+married the lady we have mentioned, who was the mother of Elizabeth,
+and the visits of his friend were becoming more frequent.  There was a
+speedy prospect of removing the veil from their intercourse, as its
+advantages became each hour more apparent to Mr. Effingham, when the
+troubles that preceded the war of the Revolution extended themselves
+to an alarming degree.
+
+Educated in the most dependent loyalty, Mr. Effingham had, from the
+commencement of the disputes between the colonists and the crown,
+warmly maintained what he believed to be the just prerogatives of his
+prince; while, on the other hand, the clear head and independent mind
+of Temple had induced him to espouse the cause of the people.  Both
+might have been influenced by early impressions; for, if the son of
+the loyal and gallant soldier bowed in implicit obedience to the will
+of his sovereign, the descendant of the persecuted followers of Penn
+looked back with a little bitterness to the unmerited wrongs that had
+been heaped upon his ancestors.
+
+This difference in opinion had long been a subject of amicable dispute
+between them: but, Latterly, the contest was getting to be too
+important to admit of trivial discussions on the part of Marmaduke,
+whose acute discernment was already catching faint glimmerings of the
+important events that were in embryo.  The sparks of dissension soon
+kindled into a blaze; and the colonies, or rather, as they quickly
+declared themselves, THE STATES, became a scene of strife and
+bloodshed for years.
+
+A short time before the battle of Lexington, Mr. Effingham, already a
+widower, transmitted to Marmaduke, for safe-keeping, all his valuable
+effects and papers; and left the colony without his father.  The war
+had, however, scarcely commenced in earnest, when he reappeared in New
+York, wearing the Livery of his king; and, in a short time, he took
+the field at the head of a provincial corps.  In the mean time
+Marmaduke had completely committed himself in the cause, as it was
+then called, of the rebel lion.  Of course, all intercourse between
+the friends ceased—on the part of Colonel Effingham it was unsought,
+and on that of Marmaduke there was a cautious reserve.  It soon became
+necessary for the latter to abandon the capital of Philadelphia; but
+he had taken the precaution to remove the whole of his effects beyond
+the reach of the royal forces, including the papers of his friend
+also.  There he continued serving his country during the struggle, in
+various civil capacities, and always with dignity and usefulness.
+While, however, he discharged his functions with credit and fidelity,
+Marmaduke never seemed to lose sight of his own interests; for, when
+the estates of the adherents of the crown fell under the hammer, by
+the acts of confiscation, he appeared in New York, and became the
+purchaser of extensive possessions at comparatively low prices.
+
+It is true that Marmaduke, by thus purchasing estates that had been
+wrested by violence from others, rendered himself obnoxious to the
+censures of that Sect which, at the same time that it discards its
+children from a full participation in the family union, seems ever
+unwilling to abandon them entirely to the world.  But either his
+success, or the frequency of the transgression in others, soon wiped
+off this slight stain from his character; and, although there were a
+few who, dissatisfied with their own fortunes, or conscious of their
+own demerits, would make dark hints concerning the sudden prosperity
+of the unportioned Quaker, yet his services, and possibly his wealth,
+soon drove the recollection of these vague conjectures from men’s
+minds.  When the war ended, and the independence of the States was
+acknowledged, Mr. Temple turned his attention from the pursuit of
+commerce, which was then fluctuating and uncertain, to the settlement
+of those tracts of land which he had purchased.  Aided by a good deal
+of money, and directed by the suggestions of a strong and practical
+reason, his enterprise throve to a degree that the climate and rugged
+face of the country which he selected would seem to forbid.  His
+property increased in a tenfold ratio, and he was already ranked among
+the most wealthy and important of his countrymen.  To inherit this
+wealth he had but one child—the daughter whom we have introduced to
+the reader, and whom he was now conveying from school to preside over
+a household that had too long wanted a mistress.
+
+When the district in which his estates lay had become sufficiently
+populous to be set off as a county, Mr. Temple had, according to the
+custom of the new settlements, been selected to fill its highest
+judicial station.  This might make a Templar smile; but in addition to
+the apology of necessity, there is ever a dignity in talents and
+experience that is commonly sufficient, in any station, for the
+protection of its possessor; and Marmaduke, more fortunate in his
+native clearness of mind than the judge of King Charles, not only
+decided right, but was generally able to give a very good reason for
+it.  At all events, such was the universal practice of the country and
+the times; and Judge Temple, so far from ranking among the lowest of
+his judicial contemporaries in the courts of the new counties, felt
+himself, and was unanimously acknowledged to be, among the first.
+
+We shall here close this brief explanation of the history and
+character of some of our personages leaving them in future to speak
+and act for themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+“All that thou see'st is Natures handiwork;
+Those rocks that upward throw their mossy brawl
+Like castled pinnacles of elder times;
+These venerable stems, that slowly rock
+Their towering branches in the wintry gale;
+That field of frost, which glitters in the sun,
+Mocking the whiteness of a marble breast!
+Yet man can mar such works with his rude taste,
+Like some sad spoiler of a virgin’s fame.” —Duo.
+
+Some little while elapsed ere Marmaduke Temple was sufficiently
+recovered from his agitation to scan the person of his new companion.
+He now observed that he was a youth of some two or three and twenty
+years of age, and rather above the middle height.  Further observation
+was prevented by the rough overcoat which was belted close to his form
+by a worsted sash, much like the one worn by the old hunter.  The eyes
+of the Judge, after resting a moment on the figure of the stranger,
+were raised to a scrutiny of his countenance.  There had been a look
+of care visible in the features of the youth, when he first entered
+the sleigh, that had not only attracted the notice of Elizabeth, but
+which she had been much puzzled to interpret.  His anxiety seemed the
+strongest when he was en joining his old companion to secrecy; and
+even when he had decided, and was rather passively suffering himself
+to be conveyed to the village, the expression of his eyes by no means
+indicated any great degree of self-satisfaction at the step.  But the
+lines of an uncommonly prepossessing countenance were gradually
+becoming composed; and he now sat silent, and apparently musing.  The
+Judge gazed at him for some time with earnestness, and then smiling,
+as if at his own forgetfulness, he said:
+
+“I believe, my young friend, that terror has driven you from my
+recollection; your face is very familiar, and yet, for the honor of a
+score of bucks’ tails in my cap, I could not tell your name.”
+
+“I came into the country but three weeks since,” returned the youth
+coldly, “and I understand you have been absent twice that time.”
+
+“It will be five to-morrow.  Yet your face is one that I have seen;
+though it would not be strange, such has been my affright, should I
+see thee in thy winding-sheet walking by my bedside to-night.  What
+say’st thou, Bess? Am I compos mentis or not? Fit to charge a grand
+jury, or, what is just now of more pressing necessity, able to do the
+honors of Christmas eve in the hall of Templeton?”
+
+“More able to do either, my dear father.” said a playful voice from
+under the ample inclosures of the hood, “ than to kill deer with a
+smooth-bore.” A short pause followed, and the same voice, but in a
+different accent, continued.  “We shall have good reasons for our
+thanksgiving to night, on more accounts than one,”
+
+The horses soon reached a point where they seemed to know by instinct
+that the journey was nearly ended, and, bearing on the bits as they
+tossed their heads, they rapidly drew the sleigh over the level land
+which lay on the top of the mountain, and soon came to the point where
+the road descended suddenly, but circuitously, into the valley.
+
+The Judge was roused from his reflections, when he saw the four
+columns of smoke which floated above his own chimneys.  As house,
+village, and valley burst on his sight, he exclaimed cheerfully to his
+daughter:
+
+“See, Bess, there is thy resting-place for life! And thine too, young
+man, if thou wilt consent to dwell with us.”
+
+The eyes of his auditors involuntarily met; and, if the color that
+gathered over the face of Elizabeth was contradicted by the cold
+expression of her eye, the ambiguous smile that again played about the
+lips of the stranger seemed equally to deny the probability of his
+consenting to form one of this family group.  The scene was one,
+however, which might easily warm a heart less given to philanthropy
+than that of Marmaduke Temple.
+
+The side of the mountain on which our travellers were journeying,
+though not absolutely perpendicular, was so steep as to render great
+care necessary in descending the rude and narrow path which, in that
+early day, wound along the precipices.  The negro reined in his
+impatient steeds, and time was given Elizabeth to dwell on a scene
+which was so rapidly altering under the hands of man, that it only
+resembled in its outlines the picture she had so often studied with
+delight in childhood.  Immediately beneath them lay a seeming plain,
+glittering without in equality, and buried in mountains.  The latter
+were precipitous, especially on the side of the plain, and chiefly in
+forest.  Here and there the hills fell away in long, low points, and
+broke the sameness of the outline, or setting to the long and wide
+field of snow, which, without house, tree, fence, or any other
+fixture, resembled so much spot less cloud settled to the earth.  A
+few dark and moving spots were, however, visible on the even surface,
+which the eye of Elizabeth knew to be so many sleighs going their
+several ways to or from the village.  On the western border of the
+plain, the mountains, though equally high, were less precipitous, and
+as they receded opened into irregular valleys and glens, or were
+formed into terraces and hollows that admitted of cultivation.
+Although the evergreens still held dominion over many of the hills
+that rose on this side of the valley, yet the undulating outlines of
+the distant mountains, covered with forests of beech and maple, gave a
+relief to the eye, and the promise of a kinder soil.  Occasionally
+spots of white were discoverable amidst the forests of the opposite
+hills, which announced, by the smoke that curled over the tops of the
+trees, the habitations of man and the commencement of agriculture.
+These spots were sometimes, by the aid of united labor, enlarged into
+what were called settlements, but more frequently were small and
+insulated; though so rapid were the changes, and so persevering the
+labors of those who had cast their fortunes on the success of the
+enterprise, that it was not difficult for the imagination of Elizabeth
+to conceive they were enlarging under her eye while she was gazing, in
+mute wonder, at the alterations that a few short years had made in the
+aspect of the country.  The points on the western side of this
+remarkable plain, on which no plant had taken root, were both larger
+and more numerous than those on its eastern, and one in particular
+thrust itself forward in such a manner as to form beautifully curved
+bays of snow on either side.  On its extreme end an oak stretched
+forward, as if to overshadow with its branches a spot which its roots
+were forbidden to enter.  It had released itself from the thraldom
+that a growth of centuries had imposed on the branches of the
+surrounding forest trees, and threw its gnarled and fantastic arms
+abroad, in the wildness of liberty.  A dark spot of a few acres in
+extent at the southern extremity of this beautiful flat, and
+immediately under the feet of our travellers, alone showed by its
+rippling surface, and the vapors which exhaled from it, that what at
+first might seem a plain was one of the mountain lakes, locked in the
+frosts of winter.  A narrow current rushed impetuously from its bosom
+at the open place we have mentioned, and was to be traced for miles,
+as it wound its way toward the south through the real valley, by its
+borders of hemlock and pine, and by the vapor which arose from its
+warmer surface into the chill atmosphere of the hills.  The banks of
+this lovely basin, at its outlet, or southern end, were steep, but not
+high; and in that direction the land continued, far as the eye could
+reach, a narrow but graceful valley, along which the settlers had
+scattered their humble habitations, with a profusion that bespoke the
+quality of the soil and the comparative facilities of intercourse,
+Immediately on the bank of the lake and at its foot, stood the village
+of Templeton.  It consisted of some fifty buildings, including those
+of every description, chiefly built of wood, and which, in their
+architecture, bore no great marks of taste, but which also, by the
+unfinished appearance of most of the dwellings, indicated the hasty
+manner of their construction, To the eye, they presented a variety of
+colors.  A few were white in both front and rear, but more bore that
+expensive color on their fronts only, while their economical but
+ambitious owners had covered the remaining sides of the edifices with
+a dingy red.  One or two were slowly assuming the russet of age; while
+the uncovered beams that were to be seen through the broken windows of
+their second stories showed that either the taste or the vanity of
+their proprietors had led them to undertake a task which they were
+unable to accomplish.  The whole were grouped in a manner that aped
+the streets of a city, and were evidently so arranged by the
+directions of one who looked to the wants of posterity rather than to
+the convenience of the present incumbents.  Some three or four of the
+better sort of buildings, in addition to the uniformity of their
+color, were fitted with green blinds, which, at that season at least,
+were rather strangely contrasted to the chill aspect of the lake, the
+mountains, the forests, and the wide fields of snow.  Before the doors
+of these pretending dwellings were placed a few saplings, either
+without branches or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two
+summers’ growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post near
+the threshold of princes.  In truth, the occupants of these favored
+habitations were the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king.
+They were the dwellings of two young men who were cunning in the law;
+an equal number of that class who chaffered to the wants of the
+community under the title of storekeepers; and a disciple of
+Aesculapius, who, for a novelty, brought more subjects into the world
+than he sent out of it.  In the midst of this incongruous group of
+dwellings rose the mansion of the Judge, towering above all its
+neighbors.  It stood in the centre of an inclosure of several acres,
+which was covered with fruit-trees.  Some of the latter had been left
+by the Indians, and began already to assume the moss and inclination
+of age, therein forming a very marked contrast to the infant
+plantations that peered over most of the picketed fences of the
+village.  In addition to this show of cultivation were two rows of
+young Lombardy poplars, a tree but lately introduced into America,
+formally lining either side of a pathway which led from a gate that
+opened on the principal street to the front door of the building.  The
+house itself had been built entirely under the superintendence of a
+certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have already mentioned, and who,
+from his cleverness in small matters, and an entire willingness to
+exert his talents, added to the circumstance of their being sisters’
+children, ordinarily superintended all the minor concerns of Marmaduke
+Temple.  Richard was fond of saying that this child of invention
+consisted of nothing more nor less than what should form the
+groundwork of every clergyman’s discourse, viz., a firstly and a
+lastly.  He had commenced his labors, in the first year of their
+residence, by erecting a tall, gaunt edifice of wood, with its gable
+toward the highway.  In this shelter for it was little more, the
+family resided three years.  By the end of that period, Richard had
+completed his design.  He had availed himself, in this heavy
+undertaking, of the experience of a certain wandering eastern
+mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few soiled plates of English
+architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes, entablatures, and
+particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue
+influence over Richard’s taste in everything that pertained to that
+branch of the fine arts.  Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to
+consider Hiram Doolittle a perfect empiric in his profession, being in
+the constant habit of listening to his treatises on architecture with
+a kind of indulgent smile; yet, either from an inability to oppose
+them by anything plausible from his own stores of learning or from
+secret admiration, Richard generally submitted to the arguments of his
+co-adjutor.  Together, they had not only erected a dwelling for
+Marmaduke, but they had given a fashion to the architecture of the
+whole county.  The composite order, Mr. Doolittle would contend, was
+an order composed of many others, and was intended to be the most
+useful of all, for it admitted into its construction such alterations
+as convenience or circumstances might require.  To this proposition
+Richard usually assented; and when rival geniuses who monopolize not
+only all the reputation but most of the money of a neighborhood, are
+of a mind, it is not uncommon to see them lead the fashion, even in
+graver matters.  In the present instance, as we have already hinted,
+the castle, as Judge Templeton’s dwelling was termed in common
+parlance, came to be the model, in some one or other of its numerous
+excellences, for every aspiring edifice within twenty miles of it.
+
+The house itself, or the “ lastly,” was of stone: large, square, and
+far from uncomfortable.  These were four requisites, on which
+Marmaduke had insisted with a little more than his ordinary
+pertinacity.  But everything else was peaceably assigned to Richard
+and his associate.  These worthies found the material a little too
+solid for the tools of their workmen, which, in General, were employed
+on a substance no harder than the white pine of the adjacent
+mountains, a wood so proverbially soft that it is commonly chosen by
+the hunters for pillows.  But for this awkward dilemma, it is probable
+that the ambitious tastes of our two architects would have left us
+much more to do in the way of description.  Driven from the faces of
+the house by the obduracy of the material, they took refuge in the
+porch and on the roof.  The former, it was decided, should be severely
+classical, and the latter a rare specimen of the merits of the
+Composite order.
+
+A roof, Richard contended, was a part of the edifice that the ancients
+always endeavored to conceal, it being an excrescence in architecture
+that was only to be tolerated on account of its usefulness.  Besides,
+as he wittily added, a chief merit in a dwelling was to present a
+front on whichever side it might happen to be seen; for, as it was
+exposed to all eyes in all weathers, there should be no weak flank for
+envy or unneighborly criticism to assail.  It was therefore decided
+that the roof should be flat, and with four faces.  To this
+arrangement, Marmaduke objected the heavy snows that lay for months,
+frequently covering the earth to a depth of three or four feet.
+Happily the facilities of the composite order presented themselves to
+effect a compromise, and the rafters were lengthened, so as to give a
+descent that should carry off the frozen element.  But, unluckily,
+some mistake was made in the admeasurement of these material parts of
+the fabric; and, as one of the greatest recommendations of Hiram was
+his ability to work by the “square rule,” no opportunity was found of
+discovering the effect until the massive timbers were raised on the
+four walls of the building.  Then, indeed, it was soon seen that, in
+defiance of all rule, the roof was by far the most conspicuous part of
+the whole edifice.  Richard and his associate consoled themselves with
+the relief that the covering would aid in concealing this unnatural
+elevation; but every shingle that was laid only multiplied objects to
+look at.  Richard essayed to remedy the evil with paint, and four
+different colors were laid on by his own hands.  The first was a sky-
+blue, in the vain expectation that the eye might be cheated into the
+belief it was the heavens themselves that hung so imposingly over
+Marmaduke’s dwelling; the second was what he called a “cloud-color,”
+being nothing more nor less than an imitation of smoke; the third was
+what Richard termed an invisible green, an experiment that did not
+succeed against a background of sky.  Abandoning the attempt to
+conceal, our architects drew upon their invention for means to
+ornament the offensive shingles.
+
+After much deliberation and two or three essays by moonlight, Richard
+ended the affair by boldly covering the whole beneath a color that he
+christened “sunshine,” a cheap way, as he assured his cousin the
+Judge, of always keeping fair weather over his head.  The platform, as
+well as the caves of the house, were surmounted by gaudily painted
+railings, and the genius of Hiram was exerted in the fabrication of
+divers urns and mouldings, that were scattered profusely around this
+part of their labors.  Richard had originally a cunning expedient, by
+which the chimneys were intended to be so low, and so situated, as to
+resemble ornaments on the balustrades; but comfort required that the
+chimneys should rise with the roof, in order that the smoke might bc
+carried off, and they thus became four extremely conspicuous objects
+in the view.
+
+As this roof was much the most important architectural undertaking in
+which Mr. Jones was ever engaged, his failure produced a correspondent
+degree of mortification At first, he whispered among his acquaintances
+that it proceeded from ignorance of the square rule on the part of
+Hiram; but, as his eye became gradually accustomed to the object, he
+grew better satisfied with his labors, and instead of apologizing for
+the defects, he commenced praising thc beauties of the mansion-house;
+he soon found hearers, and, as wealth and comfort are at all times
+attractive, it was, as has been said, made a model for imitation on a
+small scale.  In less than two years from its erection, he had the
+pleasure of standing on the elevated platform, and of looking down on
+three humble imitators of its beauty.  Thus it is ever with fashion,
+which even renders the faults of the great subjects of admiration.
+
+Marmaduke bore this deformity in his dwelling with great good-nature,
+and soon contrived, by his own improvements, to give an air of
+respectability and comfort to his place of residence.  Still, there
+was much of in congruity, even immediately about the mansion-house.
+Although poplars had been brought from Europe to ornament the grounds,
+and willows and other trees were gradually springing up nigh the
+dwelling, yet many a pile of snow betrayed the presence of the stump
+of a pine; and even, in one or two instances, unsightly remnants of
+trees that had been partly destroyed by fire were seen rearing their
+black, glistening columns twenty or thirty feet above the pure white
+of the snow, These, which in the language of the country are termed
+stubs, abounded in the open fields adjacent to the village, and were
+accompanied, occasionally, by the ruin of a pine or a hemlock that had
+been stripped of its bark, and which waved in melancholy grandeur its
+naked limbs to the blast, a skeleton of its former glory.  But these
+and many other unpleasant additions to the view were unseen by the
+delighted Elizabeth, who, as the horses moved down the side of the
+mountain, saw only in gross the cluster of houses that lay like a map
+at her feet; the fifty smokes that were curling from the valley to the
+clouds; the frozen lake as it lay imbedded in mountains of evergreen,
+with the long shadows of the pines on its white surface, lengthening
+in the setting sun; the dark ribbon of water that gushed from the
+outlet and was winding its way toward the distant Chesapeake—the
+altered, though still remembered, scenes of her child hood.
+
+Five years had wrought greater changes than a century would produce in
+countries where time and labor have given permanency to the works of
+man.  To our young hunter and the Judge the scene had less novelty;
+though none ever emerge from the dark forests of that mountain, and
+witness the glorious scenery of that beauteous valley, as it bursts
+unexpectedly upon them, without a feeling of delight.  The former cast
+one admiring glance from north to south, and sank his face again
+beneath the folds of his coat; while the latter contemplated, with
+philanthropic pleasure, the prospect of affluence and comfort that was
+expanding around him; the result of his own enterprise, and much of it
+the fruits of his own industry.
+
+The cheerful sound of sleigh-bells, however, attracted the attention
+of the whole party, as they came jingling up the sides of the
+mountain, at a rate that announced a powerful team and a hard driver.
+The bushes which lined the highway interrupted the view, and the two
+sleighs were close upon each other before either was seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+“How now? whose mare’s dead? what’s the matter?” - Falstaff
+
+A large lumber sleigh, drawn by four horses, was soon seen dashing
+through the leafless bushes which fringed the road.  The leaders were
+of gray, and the pole-horses of a jet-black.  Bells innumerable were
+suspended from every part of the harness where one of the tinkling
+balls could be placed, while the rapid movement of the equipage, in
+defiance of the steep ascent, announced the desire of the driver to
+ring them to the utmost.  The first glance at this singular
+arrangement acquainted the Judge with the character of those in the
+sleigh.  It contained four male figures.  On one of those stools that
+are used at writing desks, lashed firmly to the sides of the vehicle,
+was seated a little man, enveloped in a great-coat fringed with fur,
+in such a manner that no part of him was visible, except a face of an
+unvarying red color.  There was an habitual upward look about the head
+of this gentleman, as if dissatisfied with its natural proximity to
+the earth; and the expression of his countenance was that of busy
+care, He was the charioteer, and he guided the mettled animals along
+the precipice with a fearless eye and a steady hand, Immediately
+behind him, with his face toward the other two, was a tall figure, to
+whose appearance not even the duplicate overcoats which he wore, aided
+by the corner of a horse-blanket, could give the appearance of
+strength.  His face was protruding from beneath a woollen night cap;
+and, when he turned to the vehicle of Marmaduke as the sleighs
+approached each other, it seemed formed by nature to cut the
+atmosphere with the least possible resistance.  The eyes alone
+appeared to create any obstacle, for from either side of his forehead
+their light-blue, glassy balls projected.  The sallow of his
+countenance was too permanent to be affected even by the intense cold
+of the evening.  Opposite to this personage sat a solid, short, and
+square figure.  No part of his form was to be discovered through his
+overdress, but a face that was illuminated by a pair of black eyes
+that gave the lie to every demure feature in his countenance.  A fair,
+jolly wig furnished a neat and rounded outline to his visage, and he,
+well as the other two, wore marten-skin caps.  The fourth was a meek-
+looking, long-visaged man, without any other protection from the cold
+than that which was furnished by a black surcoat, made with some
+little formality, but which was rather threadbare and rusty.  He wore
+a hat of extremely decent proportions, though frequent brushing had
+quite destroyed its nap.  His face was pale, and withal a little
+melancholy, or what might be termed of a studious complexion.  The air
+had given it, just now, a light and somewhat feverish flush, The
+character of his whole appearance, especially contrasted to the air of
+humor in his next companion, was that of habitual mental care.  No
+sooner had the two sleighs approached within speaking distance, than
+the driver of this fantastic equipage shouted aloud
+
+“Draw up in the quarry—draw up, thou king of the Greeks; draw into the
+quarry, Agamemnon, or I shall never be able to pass you.  Welcome
+home, Cousin ‘Duke— welcome, welcome, black-eyed Bess.  Thou seest,
+Marina duke that I have taken the field with an assorted cargo, to do
+thee honor.  Monsieur Le Quoi has come out with only one cap; Old
+Fritz would not stay to finish the bottle; and Mr. Grant has got to
+put the ‘lastly’ to his sermon, yet.  Even all the horses would come—
+by the-bye, Judge, I must sell the blacks for you immediately; they
+interfere, and the nigh one is a bad goer in double harness.  I can
+get rid of them to—”
+
+“Sell what thou wilt, Dickon,” interrupted the cheerful voice of the
+Judge, “so that thou leavest me my daughter and my lands.  And Fritz,
+my old friend, this is a kind compliment, indeed, for seventy to pay
+to five-and-forty.  Monsieur Le Quoi, I am your servant.  Mr. Grant,”
+lifting his cap, “I feel indebted to your attention.  Gentlemen, I
+make you acquainted with my child.  Yours are names with which she is
+very familiar.”
+
+“Velcome, velcome Tchooge,” said the elder of the party, with a strong
+German accent.  “Miss Petsy vill owe me a kiss.”
+
+“And cheerfully will I pay It, my good sir,” cried the soft voice of
+Elizabeth; which sounded, in the clear air of the hills.  Like tones
+of silver, amid the loud cries of Richard.  “I have always a kiss for
+my old friend.  Major Hartmann.”
+
+By this time the gentleman in the front seat, who had been addressed
+as Monsieur Le Quoi, had arisen with some difficulty, owing to the
+impediment of his overcoats, and steadying himself by placing one hand
+on the stool of the charioteer, with the other he removed his cap, and
+bowing politely to the Judge and profoundly to Elizabeth, he paid his
+compliments.
+
+“Cover thy poll, Gaul, cover thy poll,” cried the driver, who was Mr.
+Richard Jones; “cover thy poll, or the frost will pluck out the
+remnant of thy locks.  Had the hairs on the head of Absalom been as
+scarce as thine, he might have been living to this day.” The jokes of
+Richard never failed of exciting risibility, for he uniformly did
+honor to his own wit; and he enjoyed a hearty laugh on the present
+occasion, while Mr. Le Quoi resumed his seat with a polite
+reciprocation in his mirth.  The clergyman, for such was the office of
+Mr. Grant, modestly, though quite affectionately, exchanged his
+greetings with the travellers also, when Richard prepared to turn the
+heads of his horses homeward.
+
+It was in the quarry alone that he could effect this object, without
+ascending to the summit of the mountain.  A very considerable
+excavation had been made in the side of the hill, at the point where
+Richard had succeeded in stopping the sleighs, from which the stones
+used for building in the village were ordinarily quarried, and in
+which he now attempted to turn his team.  Passing itself was a task of
+difficulty, and frequently of danger, in that narrow road; but Richard
+had to meet the additional risk of turning his four-in-hand.  The
+black civilly volunteered his services to take off the leaders, and
+the Judge very earnestly seconded the measure with his advice.
+Richard treated both proposals with great disdain.
+
+“Why, and wherefore.  Cousin ‘Duke?” he exclaimed, a little angrily;
+“the horses are gentle as lambs.  You know that I broke the leaders
+myself, and the pole-horses are too near my whip to be restive.  Here
+is Mr. Le Quoi, now, who must know something about driving, because he
+has rode out so often with me; I will leave it to Mr. Le Quoi whether
+there is any danger.”
+
+It was not in the nature of the Frenchman to disappoint expectations
+so confidently formed; although he cat looking down the precipice
+which fronted him, as Richard turned his leaders into the quarry, with
+a pair of eyes that stood out like those of lobsters.  The German’s
+muscles were unmoved, but his quick sight scanned each movement.  Mr.
+Grant placed his hands on the side of the sleigh, in preparation for a
+spring, but moral timidity deterred him from taking the leap that
+bodily apprehension strongly urged him to attempt.
+
+Richard, by a sudden application of the whip, succeeded in forcing the
+leaders into the snow-bank that covered the quarry; but the instant
+that the impatient animals suffered by the crust, through which they
+broke at each step, they positively refused to move an inch farther in
+that direction.  On the contrary, finding that the cries and blows of
+their driver were redoubled at this juncture, the leaders backed upon
+the pole-horses, who in their turn backed the sleigh.  Only a single
+log lay above the pile which upheld the road on the side toward the
+valley, and this was now buried in the snow.  The sleigh was easily
+breed across so slight an impediment, and before Richard became
+conscious of his danger one-half of the vehicle Was projected over a
+precipice, which fell perpendicularly more than a hundred feet.  The
+Frenchman, who by his position had a full view of their threatened
+flight, instinctively threw his body as far forward as possible, and
+cried
+
+“Oh! mon cher Monsieur Deeck! mon Dieu! que faites vous!”
+
+“Donner und blitzen, Richart!” exclaimed the veteran German, looking
+over the side of the sleigh with unusual emotion, “put you will preak
+ter sleigh and kilt ter horses!”
+
+“Good Mr. Jones,” said the clergyman, “be prudent, good sir—be
+careful,”
+
+“Get up, obstinate devils!” cried Richard, catching a bird’s-eye view
+of his situation, and in his eagerness to move forward kicking the
+stool on which he sat—” get up, I say—Cousin ‘Duke, I shall have to
+sell the grays too; they are the worst broken horses—Mr. Le Quoi”
+Richard was too much agitated to regard his pronunciation, of which he
+was commonly a little vain: “Monsieur La Quoi, pray get off my leg;
+you hold my leg so tight that it's no wonder the horses back.”
+
+“Merciful Providence!” exclaimed the Judge; “they will be all killed!”
+Elizabeth gave a piercing shriek, and the black of Agamemnon’s face
+changed to a muddy white.
+
+At this critical moment, the young hunter, who during the salutations
+of the parties had sat in rather sullen silence, sprang from the
+sleigh of Marmaduke to the heads of the refractory leaders.  The
+horses, which were yet suffering under the injudicious and somewhat
+random blows of Richard, were dancing up and down with that ominous
+movement that threatens a sudden and uncontrollable start, still
+pressing backward.  The youth gave the leaders a powerful jerk, and
+they plunged aside, and re-entered the road in the position in which
+they were first halted.  The sleigh was whirled from its dangerous
+position, and upset, with the runners outward.  The German and the
+divine were thrown, rather unceremoniously, into the highway, but
+without danger to their bones.  Richard appeared in the air,
+describing the segment of a circle, of which the reins were the radii,
+and landed, at the distance of some fifteen feet, in that snow-bank
+which the horses had dreaded, right end uppermost.  Here, as he
+instinctively grasped the reins, as drowning men seize at straws, he
+admirably served the purpose of an anchor.  The Frenchman, who was on
+his legs, in the act of springing from the sleigh, took an aerial
+flight also, much in the attitude which boys assume when they play
+leap-frog, and, flying off in a tangent to the curvature of his
+course, came into the snow-bank head foremost, w-here he remained,
+exhibiting two lathy legs on high, like scarecrows waving in a corn-
+field.  Major Hartmann, whose self-possession had been admirably
+preserved during the whole evolution, was the first of the party that
+gained his feet and his voice.
+
+“Ter deyvel, Richart!” he exclaimed in a voice half serious, half-
+comical, “put you unload your sleigh very hautily!”
+
+It may be doubtful whether the attitude in which Mr. Grant continued
+for an instant after his overthrow was the one into which he had been
+thrown, or was assumed, in humbling himself before the Power that he
+reverenced, in thanksgiving at his escape.  When he rose from his
+knees, he began to gaze about him, with anxious looks, after the
+welfare of his companions, while every joint in his body trembled with
+nervous agitation.  There was some confusion in the faculties of Mr.
+Jones also: but as the mist gradually cleared from before his eyes, he
+saw that all was safe, and, with an air of great self-satisfaction, he
+cried, “Well—that was neatly saved, anyhow!— it was a lucky thought in
+me to hold on to the reins, or the fiery devils would have been over
+the mountain by this time.  How well I recovered myself, ‘Duke!
+Another moment would have been too late; but I knew just the spot
+where to touch the off-leader; that blow under his right flank, and
+the sudden jerk I gave the rein, brought them round quite in rule, I
+must own myself.” *
+
+  * The spectators, from immemorial usage, have a right to laugh at the
+    casualties of a sleigh ride; and the Judge was no sooner certain that
+    no one was done than he made full use of the privilege.
+
+“Thou jerk! thou recover thyself, Dickon!” he said; ‘but for that
+brave lad yonder, thou and thy horses, or rather mine, would have been
+dashed to pieces—but where is Monsieur Le Quoi?”
+
+“Oh! mon cher Juge! mon ami!” cried a smothered voice,” praise be God,
+I live; vill you, Mister Agamemnon, be pleas come down ici, and help
+me on my leg?”
+
+The divine and the negro seized the incarcerated Gaul by his legs and
+extricated him from a snow-bank of three feet in depth, whence his
+voice had sounded as from the tombs.  The thoughts of Mr. Le Quoi,
+immediately on Ms liberation, were not extremely collected; and, when
+he reached the light, he threw his eyes upward, in order to examine
+the distance he had fallen.  His good-humor returned, however, with a
+knowledge of his safety, though it was some little time before he
+clearly comprehended the case.
+
+“What, monsieur,” said Richard, who was busily assisting the black in
+taking off the leaders; “are you there? I thought I saw you flying
+toward the top of the mountain just now.”
+
+“Praise be God, I no fly down into the lake,” returned the Frenchman,
+with a visage that was divided between pain, occasioned by a few large
+scratches that he had received in forcing his head through the crust,
+and the look of complaisance that seemed natural to his pliable
+features.
+
+“Ah! mon cher Mister Deeck, vat you do next? - dere be noting you no
+try.”
+
+“The next thing, I trust, will be to learn to drive,” said the Judge,
+who bad busied himself in throwing the buck, together with several
+other articles of baggage, from his own sleigh into the snow; “here
+are seats for you all, gentlemen; the evening grows piercingly cold,
+and the hour approaches for the service of Mr. Grant; we will leave
+friend Jones to repair the damages, with the assistance of Agamemnon,
+and hasten to a warm fire.  Here, Dickon, are a few articles of Bess’
+trumpery, that you can throw into your sleigh when ready; and there is
+also a deer of my taking, that I will thank you to bring.  Aggy!
+remember that there will be a visit from Santa Claus * to-night.”
+
+  * The periodical visits of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, as he is
+    termed, were never forgotten among the inhabitants of New York, until
+    the emigration from New England brought in the opinions and usages of
+    the Puritans, like the “bon homme de Noel.” he arrives at each
+    Christmas.
+
+The black grinned, conscious of the bribe that was offered him for
+silence on the subject of the deer, while Richard, without in the
+least waiting for the termination of his cousin’s speech, began his
+reply:
+
+“Learn to drive, sayest thou, Cousin ‘Duke? Is there a man in the
+county who knows more of horse-flesh than myself? Who broke in the
+filly, that no one else dare mount, though your coachman did pretend
+that he had tamed her before I took her in hand; but anybody could see
+that he lied—he was a great liar, that John—what’s that, a buck?”
+Richard abandoned the horses, and ran to the spot where Marmaduke had
+thrown the deer, “It is a buck! I am amazed! Yes, here are two holes
+in him, he has fired both barrels, and hit him each time, Egod! how
+Marmaduke will brag! he is a prodigious bragger about any small matter
+like this now; well, to think that ‘Duke has killed a buck before
+Christmas! There will be no such thing as living with him—they are
+both bad shots though, mere chance—mere chance—now, I never fired
+twice at a cloven foot in my life—it is hit or miss with me—dead or
+run away-had it been a bear, or a wild-cat, a man might have wanted
+both barrels.  Here! you Aggy! how far off was the Judge when this
+buck was shot?”
+
+“Oh! massa Richard, maybe a ten rod,” cried the black, bending under
+one of the horses, with the pretence of fastening a buckle, but in
+reality to conceal the grin that opened a mouth from ear to ear.
+
+“Ten rod!” echoed the other; “way, Aggy, the deer I Killed last winter
+‘was at twenty—yes! if anything it was nearer thirty than twenty.  I
+wouldn’t shoot at a deer at ten rod: besides, you may remember, Aggy,
+I only fired once.”
+
+“Yes, massa Richard, I ‘member ‘em! Natty Bumppo fire t’oder gun.  You
+know, sir, all ‘e folks say Natty kill him.”
+
+“The folks lie, you black devil!” exclaimed Richard in great heat.  “I
+have not shot even a gray squirrel these four years, to which that old
+rascal has not laid claim, or some one else [or him.  This is a damned
+envious world that we live in—people are always for dividing the
+credit at a thing, in order to bring down merit to their own level.
+Now they have a story about the Patent,* that Hiram Doolittle helped
+to plan the steeple to St. Paul’s; when Hiram knows that it is
+entirely mine; a little taken front a print of his namesake in London,
+I own; but essentially, as to all points of genius, my own.”
+
+  * The grants of land, made either by the crown or the state, were but
+    letters patent under the great seal, and the term “patent” is usually
+    applied to any district of extent thus conceded; though under the
+    crown’, manorial rights being often granted with the soil, in the
+    older counties the word “manor” is frequently used.  There are many
+    manors in New York though all political and judicial rights have
+    ceased.
+
+“I don't know where he come from,” said the black, losing every mark
+of humor in an expression of admiration, “but eb’rybody say, he
+wounerful handsome.”
+
+“And well they may say so, Aggy,” cried Richard, leaving the buck and
+walking up to the negro with the air of a man who has new interest
+awakened within him, “I think I may say, without bragging, that it is
+the handsomest and the most scientific country church in America.  I
+know that the Connecticut settlers talk about their West Herfield
+meeting-house; but I never believe more than half what they say, they
+are such unconscionable braggers.  Just as you have got a thing done,
+if they see it likely to be successful, they are always for
+interfering; and then it’s tea to one but they lay claim to half, or
+even all of the credit.  You may remember, Aggy, when I painted the
+sign of the bold dragoon for Captain Hollister there was that fellow,
+who was about town laying brick-dust on the houses, came one day and
+offered to mix what I call the streaky black, for the tail and mane;
+and then, because it looks like horse-hair, he tells everybody that
+the sign was painted by himself and Squire Jones.  If Marmaduke don’t
+send that fellow off the Patent, he may ornament his village with his
+own hands for me,” Here Richard paused a moment, and cleared his
+throat by a loud hem, while the negro, who was all this time busily
+engaged in preparing the sleigh, proceeded with his work in respectful
+silence.  Owing to the religious scruples of the Judge, Aggy was the
+servant of Richard, who had his services for a time,* and who, of
+course, commanded a legal claim to the respect of the young negro.
+But when any dispute between his lawful and his real master occurred,
+the black felt too much deference for both to express any opinion.
+
+  * The manumission of the slaves in New York has been gradual.  When
+    public opinion became strong in their favor, then grew up a custom of
+    buying the services of a slave, for six or eight years, with a
+    condition to liberate him at the end of the period.  Then the law
+    provided that all born after a certain day should be free, the males
+    at twenty— eight and the females at twenty-five.  After this the owner
+    was obliged to cause his servants to be taught to read and write
+    before they reached the age of eighteen, and, finally, the few that
+    remained were all unconditionally liberated in 1826, or after the
+    publication of this tale.  It was quite usual for men more or less
+    connected with the Quakers, who never held slaves to adopt the first
+    expedient.
+
+In the mean while, Richard continued watching the negro as he fastened
+buckle after buckle, until, stealing a look of consciousness toward
+the other, he continued: “Now, if that young man who was in your
+sleigh is a real Connecticut settler, he will be telling everybody how
+he saved my horses, when, if he had let them alone for half a minute
+longer, I would have brought them in much better, without upsetting,
+with the whip amid rein—it spoils a horse to give him his heal, I
+should not wonder if I had to sell the whole team, just for that one
+jerk he gave them,” Richard paused and hemmed; for his conscience
+smote him a little for censuring a man who had just saved his life.
+“Who is the lad, Aggy—I don’t remember to have seen him before?”
+
+The black recollected the hint about Santa Claus; and, while he
+briefly explained how they had taken up the person in question on the
+top of the mountain, he forbore to add anything concerning the
+accident or the wound, only saying that he believed the youth was a
+stranger.  It was so usual for men of the first rank to take into
+their sleighs any one they found toiling through the snow, that
+Richard was perfectly satisfied with this explanation.  He heard Aggy
+with great attention, and then remarked: “Well, if the lad has not
+been spoiled by the people in Templeton he may be a modest young man,
+and, as he certainly meant well, I shall take some notice of him—
+perhaps he is land-hunting—I say, Aggy, maybe he is out hunting?”
+
+“Eh! yes, massa Richard,” said the black, a little confused; for, as
+Richard did all the flogging, he stood in great terror of his master,
+in the main—” Yes, sir, I b’lieve he be.”
+
+“Had he a pack and an axe?”
+
+“No, sir, only he rifle.”
+
+“Rifle!” exclaimed Richard, observing the confusion of The negro,
+which now amounted to terror.  “By Jove, he killed the deer! I knew
+that Marmaduke couldn’t kill a buck on the jump—how was it, Aggy? Tell
+me all about it, and I’ll roast ‘Duke quicker than he can roast his
+saddle—how was it, Aggy? the lad shot the buck, and the Judge bought
+it, ha! and he is taking the youth down to get the pay?”
+
+The pleasure of this discovery had put Richard in such a good humor,
+that the negro’s fears in some measure vanished, and he remembered the
+stocking of Santa Claus.  After a gulp or two, he made out to reply;
+
+“You forgit a two shot, sir?”
+
+“Don’t lie, you black rascal!” cried Richard, stepping on the snow-
+bank to measure the distance from his lash to the negro’s back; “speak
+truth, or I trounce you.” While speaking, the stock was slowly rising
+in Richard’s right hand, and the lash drawing through his left, in the
+scientific manner with which drummers apply the cat; and Agamemnon,
+after turning each side of himself toward his master, and finding both
+equally unwilling to remain there, fairly gave in.  In a very few
+words he made his master acquainted with the truth, at the same time
+earnestly conjuring Richard to protect him from the displeasure of thc
+lodge I’ll do it, boy, I’ll do it,” cried the other, rubbing his hands
+with delight; “say nothing, but leave me to manage ‘Duke.  I have a
+great mind to leave the deer on the hill, and to make the fellow send
+for his own carcass; but no, I will let Marmaduke tell a few bounces
+about it before I come out upon him.  Come, hurry in, Aggy, I must
+help to dress the lad’s wound; this Yankee* doctor knows nothing of
+surgery—I had to hold out Milligan’s leg for him, while he cut it off.
+
+  * In America the term Yankee is of local meaning.  It is thought to be
+    derived from the manner in which the Indians of New England pronounced
+    the word “English,” or “Yengeese.” New York being originally a Dutch
+    province, the term of course was not known there, and Farther south
+    different dialects among the natives themselves probably produced a
+    different pronunciation Marmaduke and his cousin, being Pennsylvanians
+    by birth, were not Yankees in the American sense of the word.
+
+Richard was now seated on the stool again, and, the black taking the
+hind seat, the steeds were put in motion toward home, As they dashed
+down the hill on a fast trot, the driver occasionally turned his face
+to Aggy, and continued speaking; for, notwithstanding their recent
+rupture, the most perfect cordiality was again existing between them,
+“This goes to prove that I turned the horses with the reins, for no
+man who is shot in the right shoulder can have strength enough to
+bring round such obstinate devils.  I knew I did it from the first;
+but I did not want to multiply words with Marmaduke about it.—Will you
+bite, you villain? —hip, boys, hip! Old Natty, too, that is the best
+of it!—Well, well—’Duke will say no more about my deer—and the Judge
+fired both barrels, and hit nothing but a poor lad who was behind a
+pine-tree.  I must help that quack to take out the buckshot for the
+poor fellow.” In this manner Richard descended the mountain; the bells
+ringing, and his tongue going, until they entered the village, when
+the whole attention of the driver was devoted to a display of his
+horsemanship, to the admiration of all the gaping women and children
+who thronged the windows to witness the arrival of their landlord and
+his daughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+“Nathaniel’s coat, sir, was not fully made,
+And Gabriel’s pumps were all unpink’d i’ th' heel;
+There was no link to color Peter’s hat,
+And Walter’s dagger was not come from sheathing;
+There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory.”—Shakespeare.
+
+After winding along the side of the mountain, the road, on reaching
+the gentle declivity which lay at the base of the hill, turned at a
+right angle to its former course, and shot down an inclined plane,
+directly into the village of Templeton.  The rapid little stream that
+we have already mentioned was crossed by a bridge of hewn timber,
+which manifested, by its rude construction and the unnecessary size of
+its framework, both the value of Labor and the abundance of materials.
+This little torrent, whose dark waters gushed over the limestones that
+lined its bottom, was nothing less than one of the many sources of the
+Susquehanna; a river to which the Atlantic herself has extended an arm
+in welcome.  It was at this point that the powerful team of Mr. Jones
+brought him up to the more sober steeds of our travellers.  A small
+hill was risen, and Elizabeth found herself at once amidst the
+incongruous dwellings of the village.  The street was of the ordinary
+width, notwithstanding the eye might embrace, in one view, thousands
+and tens of thousands of acres, that were yet tenanted only by the
+beasts of the forest.  But such had been the will of her father, and
+such had also met the wishes of his followers.  To them the road that
+made the most rapid approaches to the condition of the old, or, as
+they expressed it, the down countries, was the most pleasant; and
+surely nothing could look more like civilization than a city, even if
+it lay in a wilderness! The width of the street, for so it was called,
+might have been one hundred feet; but the track for the sleighs was
+much more limited.  On either side of the highway were piled huge
+heaps of logs, that were daily increasing rather than diminishing in
+size, notwithstanding the enormous fires that might be seen through
+every window.
+
+The last object at which Elizabeth gazed when they renewed their
+journey, after their encountre with Richard, was the sun, as it
+expanded in the refraction of the horizon, and over whose disk the
+dark umbrage of a pine was stealing, while it slowly sank behind the
+western hills.  But his setting rays darted along the openings of the
+mountain he was on, and lighted the shining covering of the birches,
+until their smooth and glossy coats nearly rivalled the mountain sides
+in color.  The outline of each dark pine was delineated far in the
+depths of the forest, and the rocks, too smooth and too perpendicular
+to retain the snow that had fallen, brightened, as if smiling at the
+leave-taking of the luminary.  But at each step as they descended,
+Elizabeth observed that they were leaving the day behind them.  Even
+the heartless but bright rays of a December sun were missed as they
+glided into the cold gloom of the valley.  Along the summits of the
+mountains in the eastern range, it is true, the light still lingered,
+receding step by step from the earth into the clouds that were
+gathering with the evening mist, about the limited horizon, but the
+frozen lake lay without a shadow on its bosom; the dwellings were
+becoming already gloomy and indistinct, and the wood-cutters were
+shouldering their axes and preparing to enjoy, throughout the long
+evening before them, the comforts of those exhilarating fires that
+their labor had been supplying with fuel.  They paused only to gaze at
+the passing sleighs, to lift their caps to Marmaduke, to exchange
+familiar nods with Richard, and each disappeared in his dwelling.  The
+paper curtains dropped behind our travellers in every window, shutting
+from the air even the firelight of the cheerful apartments, and when
+the horses of her father turned with a rapid whirl into the open gate
+of the mansion-house, and nothing stood before her but the cold dreary
+stone walls of the building, as she approached them through an avenue
+of young and leafless poplars, Elizabeth felt as if all the loveliness
+of the mountain-view had vanished like the fancies of a dream.
+Marmaduke retained so much of his early habits as to reject the use of
+bells, but the equipage of Mr. Jones came dashing through the gate
+after them, sending its jingling sounds through every cranny of the
+building, and in a moment the dwelling was in an uproar.
+
+On a stone platform, of rather small proportions, considering the size
+of the building, Richard and Hiram had, conjointly, reared four little
+columns of wood, which in their turn supported the shingled roofs of
+the portico— this was the name that Mr. Jones had thought proper to
+give to a very plain, covered entrance.  The ascent to the platform
+was by five or six stone steps, somewhat hastily laid together, and
+which the frost had already begun to move from their symmetrical
+positions, But the evils of a cold climate and a superficial
+construction did not end here.  As the steps lowered the platform
+necessarily fell also, and the foundations actually left the super
+structure suspended in the air, leaving an open space of a foot
+between the base of the pillars and the stones on which they had
+originally been placed.  It was lucky for the whole fabric that the
+carpenter, who did the manual part of the labor, had fastened the
+canopy of this classic entrance so firmly to the side of the house
+that, when the base deserted the superstructure in the manner we have
+described, and the pillars, for the want of a foundation, were no
+longer of service to support the roof, the roof was able to uphold the
+pillars.  Here was, indeed, an unfortunate gap left in the ornamental
+part of Richard’s column; but, like the window in Aladdin’s palace, it
+seemed only left in order to prove the fertility of its master’s
+resources.  The composite order again offered its advantages, and a
+second edition of the base was given, as the booksellers say, with
+additions and improvements.  It was necessarily larger, and it was
+properly ornamented with mouldings; still the steps continued to
+yield, and, at the moment when Elizabeth returned to her father’s
+door, a few rough wedges were driven under the pillars to keep them
+steady, and to prevent their weight from separating them from the
+pediment which they ought to have supported.
+
+From the great door which opened into the porch emerged two or three
+female domestics, and one male.  The latter was bareheaded, but
+evidently more dressed than usual, and on the whole was of so singular
+a formation and attire as to deserve a more minute description.  He
+was about five feet in height, of a square and athletic frame, with a
+pair of shoulders that would have fitted a grenadier.  His low stature
+was rendered the more striking by a bend forward that he was in the
+habit of assuming, for no apparent reason, unless it might be to give
+greater freedom to his arms, in a particularly sweeping swing, that
+they constantly practised when their master was in motion.  His face
+was long, of a fair complexion, burnt to a fiery red; with a snub
+nose, cocked into an inveterate pug; a mouth of enormous dimensions,
+filled with fine teeth; and a pair of blue eyes, that seemed to look
+about them on surrounding objects with habitual contempt.  His head
+composed full one-fourth of his whole length, and the cue that
+depended from its rear occupied another.  He wore a coat of very light
+drab cloth, with buttons as large as dollars, bearing the impression
+of a “foul anchor.” The skirts were extremely long, reaching quite to
+the calf, and were broad in proportion.  Beneath, there were a vest
+and breeches of red plush, somewhat worn and soiled.  He had shoes
+with large buckles, and stockings of blue and white stripes.
+
+This odd-looking figure reported himself to be a native of the county
+of Cornwall, in the island of Great Britain.  His boyhood had passed
+in the neighborhood of the tin mines, and his youth as the cabin-boy
+of a smuggler, between Falmouth and Guernsey.  From this trade he had
+been impressed into the service of his king, and, for the want of a
+better, had been taken into the cabin, first as a servant, and finally
+as steward to the captain.  Here he acquired the art of making
+chowder, lobster, and one or two other sea-dishes, and, as he was fond
+of saying, had an opportunity of seeing the world.  With the exception
+of one or two outports in France, and an occasional visit to
+Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Deal, he had in reality seen no more of
+mankind, however, than if he had been riding a donkey in one of his
+native mines.  But, being discharged from the navy at the peace of
+‘83, he declared that, as he had seen all the civilized parts of the
+earth, he was inclined to make a trip to the wilds of America We will
+not trace him in his brief wanderings, under the influence of that
+spirit of emigration that some times induces a dapper Cockney to quit
+his home, and lands him, before the sound of Bow-bells is out of his
+ears, within the roar of the cataract of Niagara; but shall only add
+that at a very early day, even before Elizabeth had been sent to
+school, he had found his way into the family of Marmaduke Temple,
+where, owing to a combination of qualities that will be developed in
+the course of the tale, he held, under Mr. Jones, the office of major-
+domo.  The name of this worthy was Benjamin Penguillan, according to
+his own pronunciation; but, owing to a marvellous tale that he was in
+the habit of relating, concerning the length of time he had to labor
+to keep his ship from sinking after Rodney’s victory, he had
+universally acquired the nick name of Ben Pump.
+
+By the side of Benjamin, and pressing forward as if a little jealous
+of her station, stood a middle-aged woman, dressed in calico, rather
+violently contrasted in color with a tall, meagre, shapeless figure,
+sharp features, and a somewhat acute expression of her physiognomy.
+Her teeth were mostly gone, and what did remain were of a tight
+yellow.  The skin of her nose was drawn tightly over the member, to
+hang in large wrinkles in her cheeks and about her mouth.  She took
+snuff in such quantities as to create the impression that she owed the
+saffron of her lips and the adjacent parts to this circumstance; but
+it was the unvarying color of her whole face.  She presided over the
+female part of the domestic arrangements, in the capacity of
+housekeeper; was a spinster, and bore the name of Remarkable
+Pettibone.  To Elizabeth she was an entire stranger, having been
+introduced into the family since the death of her mother.
+
+In addition to these, were three or four subordinate menials, mostly
+black, some appearing at the principal door, and some running from the
+end of the building, where stood the entrance to the cellar-kitchen.
+
+Besides these, there was a general rush from Richard’s kennel,
+accompanied with every canine tone from the howl of the wolf-dog to
+the petulant bark of the terrier.  The master received their
+boisterous salutations with a variety of imitations from his own
+throat, when the dogs, probably from shame of being outdone, ceased
+their out- cry.  One stately, powerful mastiff, who wore round his
+neck a brass collar, with “M. T.” engraved in large letters on the
+rim, alone was silent.  He walked majestically, amid the confusion, to
+the side of the Judge, where, receiving a kind pat or two, he turned
+to Elizabeth, who even stooped to kiss him, as she called him kindly
+by the name of “Old Brave.” The animal seemed to know her, as she
+ascended the steps, supported by Monsieur Le Quoi and her father, in
+order to protect her from falling on the ice with which they were
+covered.  He looked wistfully after her figure, and when the door
+closed on the whole party, he laid himself in a kennel that was placed
+nigh by, as if conscious that the house contained some thing of
+additional value to guard.
+
+Elizabeth followed her father, who paused a moment to whisper a
+message to one of his domestics, into a large hall, that was dimly
+lighted by two candies, placed in high, old-fashioned, brass
+candlesticks.  The door closed, and the party were at once removed
+from an atmosphere that was nearly at zero, to one of sixty degrees
+above.  In the centre of the hall stood an enormous stove, the sides
+of which appeared to be quivering with heat; from which a large,
+straight pipe, leading through the ceiling above, carried off the
+smoke.  An iron basin, containing water, was placed on this furnace,
+for such only it could be called, in order to preserve a proper
+humidity in the apartment.  The room was carpeted, and furnished with
+convenient, substantial furniture, some of which was brought from the
+city, the remainder having been manufactured by the mechanics of
+Templeton.  There was a sideboard of mahogany, inlaid with ivory, and
+bearing enormous handles of glittering brass, and groaning under the
+piles of silver plate.  Near it stood a set of prodigious tables, made
+of the wild cherry, to imitate the imported wood of the sideboard, but
+plain and without ornament of any kind.  Opposite to these stood a
+smaller table, formed from a lighter-colored wood, through the grains
+of which the wavy lines of the curled maple of the mountains were
+beautifully undulating.  Near to this, in a corner, stood a heavy,
+old-fashioned, brass-faced clock, incased in a high box, of the dark
+hue of the black walnut from the seashore.  An enormous settee, or
+sofa, covered with light chintz, stretched along the walls for nearly
+twenty feet on one side of the hail; and chairs of wood, painted a
+light yellow, with black lines that were drawn by no very steady hand,
+were ranged opposite, and in the intervals between the other pieces of
+furniture.  A Fahrenheit's thermometer in a mahogany case, and with a
+barometer annexed, was hung against the wall, at some little distance
+from the stove, which Benjamin consulted, every half hour, with
+prodigious exactitude.  Two small glass chandeliers were suspended at
+equal distances between the stove and outer doors, one of which opened
+at each end of the hall, and gilt lustres were affixed to the frame
+work of the numerous side-doors that led from the apartment.  Some
+little display in architecture had been made in constructing these
+frames and casings, which were surmounted with pediments, that bore
+each a little pedestal in its centre; on these pedestals were small
+busts in blacked plaster-of-Paris.  The style of the pedestals as well
+as the selection of the busts were all due to the taste of Mr. Jones.
+On one stood Homer, a most striking likeness, Richard affirmed, “as
+any one might see, for it was blind,” Another bore the image of a
+smooth-visaged gentleman with a pointed beard, whom he called
+Shakespeare.  A third ornament was an urn, which; from its shape,
+Richard was accustomed to say, intended to represent itself as holding
+the ashes of Dido.  A fourth was certainly old Franklin, in his cap
+and spectacles.  A fifth as surely bore the dignified composure of the
+face of Washington.  A sixth was a nondescript, representing “a man
+with a shirt-collar open,” to use the language of Richard, “with a
+laurel on his head-it was Julius Caesar or Dr. Faustus; there were
+good reasons for believing either,”
+
+The walls were hung with a dark lead-colored English paper that
+represented Britannia weeping over the tomb of Wolfe, The hero himself
+stood at a little distance from the mourning goddess, and at the edge
+of the paper.  Each width contained the figure, with the slight
+exception of one arm of the general, which ran over on the next piece,
+so that when Richard essayed, with his own hands, to put together this
+delicate outline, some difficulties occurred that prevented a nice
+conjunction; and Britannia had reason to lament, in addition to the
+loss of her favorite’s life, numberless cruel amputations of his right
+arm.
+
+The luckless cause of these unnatural divisions now announced his
+presence in the halt by a loud crack of his whip.
+
+“Why, Benjamin! you Ben Pump! is this the manner in which you receive
+the heiress?” he cried.  “Excuse him, Cousin Elizabeth.  The
+arrangements were too intricate to be trusted to every one; but now I
+am here, things will go on better.  —Come, light up, Mr. Penguillan,
+light up, light up, and let us see One another’s faces.  Well, ‘Duke,
+I have brought home your deer; what is to be done with it, ha?”
+
+“By the Lord, squire,” commenced Benjamin, in reply, first giving his
+mouth a wipe with the back of his hand, “if this here thing had been
+ordered sum’at earlier in the day, it might have been got up, d’ye
+see, to your liking.  I had mustered all hands and was exercising
+candles, when you hove in sight; but when the women heard your bells
+they started an end, as if they were riding the boat swain’s colt; and
+if-so-be there is that man in the house who can bring up a parcel of
+women when they have got headway on them, until they’ve run out the
+end of their rope, his name is not Benjamin Pump.  But Miss Betsey
+here must have altered more than a privateer in disguise, since she
+has got on her woman’s duds, if she will take offence with an old
+fellow for the small matter of lighting a few candles.”
+
+Elizabeth and her father continued silent, for both experienced the
+same sensation on entering the hall.  The former had resided one year
+in the building before she left home for school, and the figure of its
+lamented mistress was missed by both husband and child.
+
+But candles had been placed in the chandeliers and lustres, and the
+attendants were so far recovered from surprise as to recollect their
+use; the oversight was immediately remedied, and in a minute the
+apartment was in a blaze of light.
+
+The slight melancholy of our heroine and her father was banished by
+this brilliant interruption; and the whole party began to lay aside
+the numberless garments they had worn in the air.
+
+During this operation Richard kept up a desultory dialogue with the
+different domestics, occasionally throwing out a remark to the Judge
+concerning the deer; but as his conversation at such moments was much
+like an accompaniment on a piano, a thing that is heard without being
+attended to, we will not undertake the task of recording his diffuse
+discourse,
+
+The instant that Remarkable Pettibone had executed her portion of the
+labor in illuminating, she returned to a position near Elizabeth, with
+the apparent motive of receiving the clothes that the other threw
+aside, but in reality to examine, with an air of curiosity—not unmixed
+with jealousy—the appearance of the lady who was to supplant her in
+the administration of their domestic economy.  The housekeeper felt a
+little appalled, when, after cloaks, coats, shawls, and socks had been
+taken off in succession, the large black hood was removed, and the
+dark ringlets, shining like the raven’s wing, fell from her head, and
+left the sweet but commanding features of the young lady exposed to
+view.  Nothing could be fairer and more spotless than the forehead of
+Elizabeth, and preserve the appearance of life and health.  Her nose
+would have been called Grecian, but for a softly rounded swell, that
+gave in character to the feature what it lost in beauty.  Her mouth,
+at first sight, seemed only made for love; but, the instant that its
+muscles moved, every expression that womanly dignity could utter
+played around it with the flexibility of female grace.  It spoke not
+only to the ear, but to the eye.  So much, added to a form of
+exquisite proportions, rather full and rounded for her years, and of
+the tallest medium height, she inherited from her mother.  Even the
+color of her eye, the arched brows, and the long silken lashes, came
+from the same source; but its expression was her father’s.  Inert and
+composed, it was soft, benevolent, and attractive; but it could be
+roused, and that without much difficulty.  At such moments it was
+still beautiful, though it was a little severe.  As the last shawl
+fell aside, and she stood dressed in a rich blue riding-habit, that
+fitted her form with the nicest exactness; her cheeks burning with
+roses, that bloomed the richer for the heat of the hall, and her eyes
+lightly suffused with moisture that rendered their ordinary beauty
+more dazzling, and with every feature of her speaking countenance
+illuminated by the lights that flared around her, Remarkable felt that
+her own power had ended
+
+The business of unrobing had been simultaneous.  Marmaduke appeared in
+a suit of plain, neat black; Monsieur Le Quoi in a coat of snuff-
+color, covering a vest of embroidery, with breeches, and silk
+stockings, and buckles—that were commonly thought to be of paste.
+Major Hartmann wore a coat of sky-blue, with large brass buttons, a
+club wig, and boots; and Mr. Richard Jones had set off his dapper
+little form in a frock of bottle-green, with bullet-buttons, by one of
+which the sides were united over his well-rounded waist, opening
+above, so as to show a jacket of red cloth, with an undervest of
+flannel, faced with green velvet, and below, so as to exhibit a pair
+of buckskin breeches, with long, soiled, white top-boots, and spurs;
+one of the latter a little bent, from its recent attacks on the stool.
+
+When the young lady had extricated herself from her garments, she was
+at liberty to gaze about her, and to examine not only the household
+over which she was to preside, but also the air and manner in which
+the domestic arrangements were conducted.  Although there was much
+incongruity in the furniture and appearance of the hall, there was
+nothing mean.  The floor was carpeted, even in its remotest corners.
+The brass candlesticks, the gilt lustres, and the glass chandeliers,
+whatever might be their keeping as to propriety and taste, were
+admirably kept as to all the purposes of use and comfort.  They were
+clean and glittering in the strong light of the apartment.
+
+Compared with the chill aspect of the December night without, the
+warmth and brilliancy of the apartment produced an effect that was not
+unlike enchantment.  Her eye had not time to detect, in detail, the
+little errors which in truth existed, but was glancing around her in
+de light, when an object arrested her view that was in strong contrast
+to the smiling faces and neatly attired person ages who had thus
+assembled to do honor to the heiress of Templeton.
+
+In a corner of the hall near the grand entrance stood the young
+hunter, unnoticed, and for the moment apparently forgotten.  But even
+the forgetfulness of the Judge, which, under the influence of strong
+emotion, had banished the recollection of the wound of this stranger,
+seemed surpassed by the absence of mind in the youth himself.  On
+entering the apartment, be had mechanically lifted his cap, and
+exposed a head covered with hair that rivalled, in color and gloss,
+the locks of Elizabeth.  Nothing could have wrought a greater
+transformation than the single act of removing the rough fox-skin cap.
+If there was much that was prepossessing in the countenance of the
+young hunter, there was something even noble in the rounded outlines
+of his head and brow.  The very air and manner with which the member
+haughtily maintained itself over the coarse and even wild attire in
+which the rest of his frame was clad, bespoke not only familiarity
+with a splendor that in those new settlements was thought to be
+unequalled, but something very like contempt also.
+
+The hand that held the cap rested lightly on the little ivory-mounted
+piano of Elizabeth, with neither rustic restraint nor obtrusive
+vulgarity.  A single finger touched the instrument, as if accustomed
+to dwell on such places.  His other arm was extended to its utmost
+length, and the hand grasped the barrel of his long rifle with
+something like convulsive energy.  The act and the attitude were both
+involuntary, and evidently proceeded from a feeling much deeper than
+that of vulgar surprise.  His appearance, connected as it was with the
+rough exterior of his dress, rendered him entirely distinct from the
+busy group that were moving across the other end of the long hall,
+occupied in receiving the travellers and exchanging their welcomes;
+and Elizabeth continued to gaze at him in wonder.  The contraction of
+the stranger’s brows in creased as his eyes moved slowly from one
+object to another.  For moments the expression of his countenance was
+fierce, and then again it seemed to pass away in some painful emotion.
+The arm that was extended bent and brought the hand nigh to his face,
+when his head dropped upon it, and concealed the wonderfully speaking
+lineaments.
+
+“We forget, dear sir, the strange gentleman” (for her life Elizabeth
+could not call him otherwise) “whom we have brought here for
+assistance, and to whom we owe every attention.”
+
+All eyes were instantly turned in the direction of those of the
+speaker, and the youth rather proudly elevated his head again, while
+he answered:
+
+“My wound is trifling, and I believe that Judge Temple sent for a
+physician the moment we arrived.”
+
+“Certainly,” said Marmaduke: “I have not forgotten the object of thy
+visit, young man, nor the nature of my debt.
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Richard, with something of a waggish leer, “thou owest
+the lad for the venison, I suppose that thou killed, Cousin ‘Duke!
+Marmaduke! Marmaduke! That was a marvellous tale of thine about the
+buck! Here, young man, are two dollars for the deer, and Judge Temple
+can do no less than pay the doctor.  I shall charge you nothing for my
+services, but you shall not fare the worst for that.  Come, come,
+‘Duke, don’t he down hearted about it; if you missed the buck, you
+contrived to shoot this poor fellow through a pine-tree.  Now I own
+that you have beat me; I never did such a thing in all my life.”
+
+“And I hope never will,” returned the Judge, “if you are to experience
+the uneasiness that I have suffered; but be of good cheer, my young
+friend, the injury must be small, as thou movest thy arm with apparent
+freedom.
+
+“Don’t make the matter worse, ‘Duke, by pretending to talk about
+surgery,” interrupted Mr. Jones, with a contemptuous wave of the hand:
+“it is a science that can only be learned by practice.  You know that
+my grandfather was a doctor, but you haven’t got a drop of medical
+blood in your veins.  These kind of things run in families.  All my
+family by my father’s side had a knack at physic.  ‘There was my uncle
+that was killed at Brandywine—he died as easy again as any other man
+the regiment, just from knowing how to hold his breath naturally.  Few
+men know how to breathe naturally.”
+
+“I doubt not, Dickon,” returned the Judge, meeting the bright smile
+which, in spite of himself, stole over the stranger’s features, “that
+thy family thoroughly under stand the art of letting life slip through
+their lingers.”
+
+Richard heard him quite coolly, and putting a hand in either pocket of
+his surcoat, so as to press forward the skirts, began to whistle a
+tune; but the desire to reply overcame his philosophy, and with great
+heat he exclaimed:
+
+“You may affect to smile, Judge Temple, at hereditary virtues, if you
+please; but there is not a man on your Patent who don’t know better.
+Here, even this young man, who has never seen anything but bears, and
+deer, and woodchucks, knows better than to believe virtues are not
+transmitted in families.  Don’t you, friend?”
+
+“I believe that vice is not,” said the stranger abruptly; his eye
+glancing from the father to the daughter.
+
+“The squire is right, Judge,” observed Benjamin, with a knowing nod of
+his head toward Richard, that bespoke the cordiality between them,
+“Now, in the old country, the king’s majesty touches for the evil, and
+that is a disorder that the greatest doctor in the fleet, or for the
+matter of that admiral either: can’t cure; only the king’s majesty or
+a man that’s been hanged.  Yes, the squire is right; for if-so-be that
+he wasn’t, how is it that the seventh son always is a doctor, whether
+he ships for the cockpit or not? Now when we fell in with the
+mounsheers, under De Grasse, d’ye see, we hid aboard of us a doctor—”
+
+“Very well, Benjamin,” interrupted Elizabeth, glancing her eyes from
+the hunter to Monsieur Le Quoi, who was most politely attending to
+what fell from each individual in succession, “you shall tell me of
+that, and all your entertaining adventures together; just now, a room
+must be prepared, in which the arm of this gentleman can be dressed.”
+
+“I will attend to that myself, Cousin Elizabeth,” observed Richard,
+somewhat haughtily.  “The young man will not suffer because Marmaduke
+chooses to be a little obstinate.  Follow me, my friend, and I will
+examine the hurt myself.”
+
+“It will be well to wait for the physician,” said the hunter coldly;
+“he cannot be distant,”
+
+Richard paused and looked at the speaker, a little astonished at the
+language, and a good deal appalled at the refusal.  He construed the
+latter into an act of hostility, and, placing his hands in the pockets
+again, he walked up to Mr. Grant, and, putting his face close to the
+countenance of the divine, said in an undertone:
+
+“Now, mark my words—there will be a story among the settlers, that all
+our necks would have been broken but for that fellow—as if I did not
+know how to drive.  Why, you might have turned the horses yourself,
+sir; nothing was easier; it was only pulling hard on the nigh rein,
+and touching the off flank of the leader.  I hope, my dear sir, you
+are not at all hurt by the upset the lad gave us?”
+
+The reply was interrupted by the entrance of the village physician.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+“And about his shelves,
+A beggarly account of empty boxes,
+Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds.
+Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
+Were thinly scattered to make up a show.”-Shakespeare.
+
+Doctor Elnathan Todd, for such was the name of the man of physic, was
+commonly thought to be, among the settlers, a gentleman of great
+mental endowments, and he was assuredly of rare personal proportions.
+In height he measured, without his shoes, exactly six feet and four
+inches.  His hands, feet, and knees corresponded in every respect with
+this formidable stature; but every other part of his frame appeared to
+have been intended for a man several sizes smaller, if we except the
+length of the limbs.  His shoulders were square, in one sense at
+least, being in a right line from one side to the other; but they were
+so narrow, that the long dangling arms they supported seemed to issue
+out of his back.  His neck possessed, in an eminent degree, the
+property of length to which we have alluded, and it was topped by a
+small bullet-head that exhibited on one side a bush of bristling brown
+hair and on the other a short, twinkling visage, that appeared to
+maintain a constant struggle with itself in order to look wise.  He
+was the youngest son of a farmer in the western part of Massachusetts,
+who, being in some what easy circumstances, had allowed this boy to
+shoot up to the height we have mentioned, without the ordinary
+interruptions of field labor, wood-chopping, and such other toils as
+were imposed on his brothers.  Elnathan was indebted for this
+exemption from labor in some measure to his extraordinary growth,
+which, leaving him pale, inanimate, and listless, induced his tender
+mother to pronounce him “a sickly boy, and one that was not equal to
+work, but who might earn a living comfortably enough by taking to
+pleading law, or turning minister, or doctoring, or some such like
+easy calling.’ Still, there was great uncertainty which of these
+vocations the youth was best endowed to fill; but, having no other
+employment, the stripling was constantly lounging about the homestead,”
+munching green apples and hunting for sorrel; when the same sagacious eye
+that had brought to light his latent talents seized upon this circumstance
+as a clew to his future path through the turmoils of the world.
+“Elnathan was cut out for a doctor, she knew, for he was forever digging
+for herbs, and tasting all kinds of things that grow’d about the lots.
+Then again he had a natural love for doctor-stuff, for when she had left
+the bilious pills out for her man, all nicely covered with maple sugar
+just ready to take, Nathan had come in and swallowed them for all the
+world as if they were nothing, while Ichabod (her husband) could never get
+one down without making such desperate faces that it was awful to look on.”
+
+This discovery decided the matter.  Elnathan, then about fifteen, was,
+much like a wild colt, caught and trimmed by clipping his bushy locks;
+dressed in a suit of homespun, dyed in the butternut bark; furnished
+with a “New Testament” and a “Webster’s Spelling Book,” and sent to
+school.  As the boy was by nature quite shrewd enough, and had
+previously, at odd times, laid the foundations of reading, writing,
+and arithmetic, he was soon conspicuous in the school for his
+learning.  The delighted mother had the gratification of hearing, from
+the lips of the master, that her son was a “prodigious boy, and far
+above all his class.” He also thought that “the youth had a natural
+love for doctoring, as he had known him frequently advise the smaller
+children against eating to much; and, once or twice, when the ignorant
+little things had persevered in opposition to Elnathan’s advice, he
+had known her son empty the school-baskets with his own mouth, to
+prevent the consequences.”
+
+Soon after this comfortable declaration from his school master, the
+lad was removed to the house of the village doctor, a gentleman whose
+early career had not been unlike that of our hero where he was to be
+seen sometimes watering a horse, at others watering medicines, blue,
+yellow, and red: then again he might be noticed lolling under an
+apple-tree, with Ruddiman’s Latin Grammar in his hand, and a corner of
+Denman’s Midwifery sticking out of a pocket; for his instructor held
+it absurd to teach his pupil how to dispatch a patient regularly from
+this world, before he knew how to bring him into it.
+
+This kind of life continued for a twelvemonth, when he suddenly
+appeared at a meeting in a long coat (and well did it deserve the
+name!) of black homespun, with little bootees, bound with an uncolored
+calf-skin for the want of red morocco.
+
+Soon after he was seen shaving with a dull razor.  Three or four
+months had scarce elapsed before several elderly ladies were observed
+hastening toward the house of a poor woman in the village, while
+others were running to and fro in great apparent distress.  One or two
+boys were mounted, bareback, on horses, and sent off at speed in
+various directions.  Several indirect questions were put concerning
+the place where the physician was last seen; but all would not do; and
+at length Elnathan was seen issuing from his door with a very grave
+air, preceded by a little white-headed boy, out of breath, trotting
+before him.  The following day the youth appeared in the street, as
+the highway was called, and the neighborhood was much edified by the
+additional gravity of his air.  The same week he bought a new razor;
+and the succeeding Sunday he entered the meeting-house with a red silk
+handkerchief in his hand, and with an extremely demure countenance.
+In the evening he called upon a young woman of his own class in life,
+for there were no others to be found, and, when he was left alone with
+the fair, he was called, for the first time in his life, Dr. Todd, by
+her prudent mother.  The ice once broken in this manner, Elnathan was
+greeted from every mouth with his official appellation.
+
+Another year passed under the superintendence of the same master,
+during which the young physician had the credit of “ riding with the
+old doctor,” although they were generally observed to travel different
+roads.  At the end of that period, Dr. Todd attained his legal
+majority.  He then took a jaunt to Boston to purchase medicines, and,
+as some intimated, to walk the hospital; we know not how the latter
+might have been, but, if true, he soon walked through it, for he
+returned within a fortnight, bringing with him a suspicious-looking
+box, that smelled powerfully of brimstone.
+
+The next Sunday he was married, and the following morning he entered a
+one-horse sleigh with his bride, having before him the box we have
+mentioned, with another filled with home-made household linen, a
+paper-covered trunk with a red umbrella lashed to it, a pair of quite
+new saddle-bags, and a handbox.  The next intelligence that his
+friends received of the bride and bridegroom was, that the latter was
+“settled in the new countries, and well to do as a doctor in
+Templeton, in York State!”
+
+If a Templar would smile at the qualifications of Marmaduke to fill
+the judicial seat he occupied, we are certain that a graduate of
+Leyden or Edinburgh would be extremely amused with this true narration
+of the servitude of Elnathan in the temple of Aesculapius.  But the
+same consolation was afforded to both the jurist and the leech, for
+Dr. Todd was quite as much on a level with his own peers of the
+profession in that country, as was Marmaduke with his brethren on the
+bench.
+
+Time and practice did wonders for the physician.  He was naturally
+humane, but possessed of no small share of moral courage; or, in other
+words, he was chary of the lives of his patients, and never tried
+uncertain experiments on such members of society as were considered
+useful; but, once or twice, when a luckless vagrant had come under his
+care, he was a little addicted to trying the effects of every phial in
+his saddle-bags on the strangers constitution.  Happily their number
+was small, and in most cases their natures innocent.  By these means
+Elnathan had acquired a certain degree of knowledge in fevers and
+agues, and could talk with judgment concerning intermittents,
+remittents, tertians, quotidians, etc.  In certain cutaneous disorders
+very prevalent in new settlements, he was considered to be infallible;
+and there was no woman on the Patent but would as soon think of
+becoming a mother without a husband as without the assistance of Dr.
+Todd.  In short, he was rearing, on this foundation of sand a
+superstructure cemented by practice, though composed of somewhat
+brittle materials.  He however, occasionally renewed his elementary
+studies, and, with the observation of a shrewd mind, was comfort ably
+applying his practice to his theory.
+
+In surgery, having the least experience, and it being a business that
+spoke directly to the senses, he was most apt to distrust his own
+powers; but he had applied oils to several burns, cut round the roots
+of sundry defective teeth, and sewed up the wounds of numberless wood
+choppers, with considerable éclat, when an unfortunate jobber suffered
+a fracture of his leg by the tree that he had been felling.  It was on
+this occasion that our hero encountered the greatest trial his nerves
+and moral feeling had ever sustained.  In the hour of need, however,
+he was not found wanting.  Most of the amputations in the new
+settlements, and they were quite frequent, were per formed by some one
+practitioner who, possessing originally a reputation, was enabled by
+this circumstance to acquire an experience that rendered him deserving
+of it; and Elnathan had been present at one or two of these
+operations.  But on the present occasion the man of practice was not
+to be obtained, and the duty fell, as a matter of course, to the share
+of Mr. Todd.  He went to work with a kind of blind desperation,
+observing, at the same time, all the externals of decent gravity and
+great skill, The sufferer’s name was Milligan, and it was to this
+event that Richard alluded, when he spoke of assisting the doctor at
+an amputation by holding the leg! The limb was certainly cut off, and
+the patient survived the operation.  It was, however, two years before
+poor Milligan ceased to complain that they had buried the leg in so
+narrow a box that it was straitened for room; he could feel the pain
+shooting up from the inhumed fragment into the living members.
+Marmaduke suggested that the fault might lie in the arteries and
+nerves; but Richard, considering the amputation as part of his own
+handiwork, strongly repelled the insinuation, at the same time
+declaring that he had often heard of men who could tell when it was
+about to rain, by the toes of amputated limbs, After two or three
+years, notwithstanding, Milligan's complaints gradually diminished,
+the leg was dug up, and a larger box furnished, and from that hour no
+one had heard the sufferer utter another complaint on the subject.
+This gave the public great confidence in Dr. Todd, whose reputation
+was hourly increasing, and, luckily for his patients, his information
+also.
+
+Notwithstanding Dr. Todd’s practice, and his success with the leg, he
+was not a little appalled on entering the hall of the mansion-house.
+It was glaring with the light of day; it looked so imposing, compared
+with the hastily built and scantily furnished apartments which he
+frequented in his ordinary practice, and contained so many well-
+dressed persons and anxious faces, that his usually firm nerves were a
+good deal discomposed.  He had heard from the messenger who summoned
+him, that it was a gun-shot wound, and had come from his own home,
+wading through the snow, with his saddle-bags thrown over his arm,
+while separated arteries, penetrated lungs, and injured vitals were
+whirling through his brain, as if he were stalking over a field of
+battle, instead of Judge Temple’s peaceable in closure.
+
+The first object that met his eye, as he moved into the room, was
+Elizabeth in her riding-habit, richly laced with gold cord, her fine
+form bending toward him, and her face expressing deep anxiety in every
+one of its beautiful features.  The enormous knees of the physician
+struck each other with a noise that was audible; for, in the absent
+state of his mind, he mistook her for a general officer, perforated
+with bullets, hastening from the field of battle to implore
+assistance.  The delusion, however, was but momentary, and his eye
+glanced rapidly from the daughter to the earnest dignity of the
+father’s countenance; thence to the busy strut of Richard, who was
+cooling his impatience at the hunter’s indifference to his assistance,
+by pacing the hall and cracking his whip; from him to the Frenchman,
+who had stood for several minutes unheeded with a chair for the lady;
+thence to Major Hartmann, who was very coolly lighting a pipe three
+feet long by a candle in one of the chandeliers; thence to Mr. Grant,
+who was turning over a manuscript with much earnestness at one of the
+lustres; thence to Remarkable, who stood, with her arms demurely
+folded before her, surveying, with a look of admiration and envy, the
+dress and beauty of the young lady; and from her to Benjamin, who,
+with his feet standing wide apart, and his arms akimbo, was balancing
+his square little body with the indifference of one who is accustomed
+to wounds and bloodshed.  All of these seemed to be unhurt, and the
+operator began to breathe more freely; but, before he had time to take
+a second look, the Judge, advancing, shook him kindly by the hand, and
+spoke.
+
+“Thou art welcome, my good sir, quite welcome, indeed; here is a youth
+whom I have unfortunately wounded in shooting a deer this evening, and
+who requires some of thy assistance.”
+
+“Shooting at a deer, ‘Duke,” interrupted Richard— “shooting at a deer.
+Who do you think can prescribe, unless he knows the truth of the case?
+It is always so with some people; they think a doctor can be deceived
+with the same impunity as another man.”
+
+“Shooting at a deer, truly,” returned the Judge, smiling, “although it
+is by no means certain that I did not aid in destroying the buck; but
+the youth is injured by my hand, be that as it may; and it is thy
+skill that must cure him, and my pocket shall amply reward thee for
+it.”
+
+“Two ver good tings to depend on,” observed Monsieur Le Quoi, bowing
+politely, with a sweep of his head to the Judge and to the
+practitioner.
+
+“I thank you, monsieur,” returned the Judge; “but we keep the young
+man in pain.  Remarkable, thou wilt please to provide linen for lint
+and bandages.”
+
+This remark caused a cessation of the compliments, and induced the
+physician to turn an inquiring eye in the direction of his patient.
+During the dialogue the young hunter had thrown aside his overcoat,
+and now stood clad in a plain suit of the common, light-colored
+homespun of the country, that was evidently but recently made.  His
+hand was on the lapels of his coat, in the attitude of removing the
+garment, when he suddenly suspended the movement, and looked toward
+the commiserating Elizabeth, who was standing in an unchanged posture,
+too much absorbed with her anxious feelings to heed his actions.  A
+slight color appeared on the brow of the youth.
+
+“Possibly the sight of blood may alarm the lady; I will retire to
+another room while the wound is dressing.”
+
+“By no means.” said Dr. Todd, who, having discovered that his patient
+was far from being a man of importance, felt much emboldened to
+perform the duty.  “The strong light of these candles is favorable to
+the operation, and it is seldom that we hard students enjoy good
+eyesight.”
+
+While speaking, Elnathan placed a pair of large iron-rimmed spectacles
+on his face, where they dropped, as it were by long practice, to the
+extremity of his slim pug nose; and, if they were of no service as
+assistants to his eyes, neither were they any impediment to his
+vision; for his little gray organs were twinkling above them like two
+stars emerging from the envious cover of a cloud.  The action was
+unheeded by all but Remarkable, who observed to Benjamin:
+
+“Dr. Todd is a comely man to look on, and despu’t pretty.  How well he
+seems in spectacles! I declare, they give a grand look to a body’s
+face.  I have quite a great mind to try them myself.”
+
+The speech of the stranger recalled the recollection of Miss Temple,
+who started as if from deep abstraction, and, coloring excessively,
+she motioned to a young woman who served in the capacity of maid, and
+retired with an air of womanly reserve.
+
+The field was now left to the physician and his patient, while the
+different personages who remained gathered around the latter, with
+faces expressing the various degrees of interest that each one felt in
+his condition.  Major Hartmann alone retained his seat, where he
+continued to throw out vast quantities of smoke, now rolling his eyes
+up to the ceiling, as if musing on the uncertainty of life, and now
+bending them on the wounded man, with an expression that bespoke some
+consciousness of his situation.
+
+In the mean time Elnathan, to whom the sight of a gun shot wound was a
+perfect novelty, commenced his preparations with a solemnity and care
+that were worthy of the occasion.  An old shirt was procured by
+Benjamin, and placed in the hand of the other, who tore divers
+bandages from it, with an exactitude that marked both his own skill
+and the importance of the operation.
+
+When this preparatory measure was taken, Dr. Todd selected a piece of
+the shirt with great care, and handing to Mr. Jones, without moving a
+muscle, said: “Here, Squire Jones, you are well acquainted with these
+things; will you please to scrape the lint? It should be fine and
+soft, you know, my dear sir; and be cautious that no cotton gets in,
+or it may p’izen the wound.  The shirt has been made with cotton
+thread, but you can easily pick it out.”
+
+Richard assumed the office, with a nod at his cousin, that said quite
+plainly, “You see this fellow can’t get along without me;” and began
+to scrape the linen on his knee with great diligence.
+
+A table was now spread with phials, boxes of salve, and divers
+surgical instruments.  As the latter appeared in succession, from a
+case of red morocco, their owner held up each implement to the strong
+light of the chandelier, near to which he stood, and examined it with
+the nicest care.  A red silk handkerchief was frequently applied to
+the glittering steel, as if to remove from the polished surfaces the
+least impediment which might exist to the most delicate operation.
+After the rather scantily furnished pocket-case which contained these
+instruments was exhausted, the physician turned to his saddle-bags,
+and produced various phials, filled with liquids of the most radiant
+colors.  These were arranged in due order by the side of the murderous
+saws, knives, and scissors, when Elnathan stretched his long body to
+its utmost elevation, placing his hand on the small of his back as if
+for sup port, and looked about him to discover what effect this
+display of professional skill was likely to produce on the spectators.
+
+“Upon my wort, toctor,” observed Major Hartmann, with a roguish roll
+of his little black eyes, but with every other feature of his face in
+a state of perfect rest, “put you have a very pretty pocket-book of
+tools tere, and your toctor-stuff glitters as if it was petter for ter
+eyes as for ter pelly.”
+
+Elnathan gave a hem—one that might have been equally taken for that
+kind of noise which cowards are said to make in order to awaken their
+dormant courage, or for a natural effort to clear the throat; if for
+the latter it was successful; for, turning his face to the veteran
+German, he said:
+
+“Very true, Major Hartmann, very true, sir; a prudent man will always
+strive to make his remedies agreeable to the eyes, though they may not
+altogether suit the stomach.  It is no small part of our art, sir,”
+and he now spoke with the confidence of a man who understood his
+subject, “to reconcile the patient to what is for his own good, though
+at the same time it may be unpalatable.”
+
+“Sartain! Dr. Todd is right,” said Remarkable, “and has Scripter for
+what he says.  The Bible tells us how things may be sweet to the
+mouth, and bitter to the inwards.”
+
+“True, true,” interrupted the Judge, a little impatiently; “but here
+is a youth who needs no deception to lure him to his own benefit.  I
+see, by his eye, that he fears nothing more than delay.”
+
+The stranger had, without assistance, bared his own shoulder, when the
+slight perforation produced by the pas sage of the buckshot was
+plainly visible.  The intense cold of the evening had stopped the
+bleeding, and Dr. Todd, casting a furtive glance at the wound, thought
+it by no means so formidable an affair as he had anticipated.  Thus
+encouraged, he approached his patient, and made some indication of an
+intention to trace the route that had been taken by the lead.
+
+Remarkable often found occasions, in after days, to recount the
+minutiae of that celebrated operation; and when she arrived at this
+point she commonly proceeded as follows:” And then the doctor tuck out
+of the pocket book a long thing, like a knitting-needle, with a button
+fastened to the end on't; and then he pushed it into the wound and
+then the young man looked awful; and then I thought I should have
+swaned away—I felt in sitch a dispu’t taking; and then the doctor had
+run it right through his shoulder, and shoved the bullet out on tother
+side; and so Dr. Todd cured the young man—Of a ball that the Judge had
+shot into him—for all the world as easy as I could pick out a splinter
+with my darning-needle.”
+
+Such were the impressions of Remarkable on the subject; and such
+doubtless were the opinions of most of those who felt it necessary to
+entertain a species of religious veneration for the skill of Elnathan;
+but such was far from the truth.
+
+When the physician attempted to introduce the instrument described by
+Remarkable, he was repulsed by the stranger, with a good deal of
+decision, and some little contempt, in his manner.
+
+“I believe, sir,” he said, “that a probe is not necessary; the shot
+has missed the bone, and has passed directly through the arm to the
+opposite side, where it remains but skin deep, and whence, I should
+think, it might he easily extracted.”
+
+“The gentleman knows best,” said Dr. Todd, laying down the probe with
+the air of a man who had assumed it merely in compliance with forms;
+and, turning to Richard, he fingered the lint with the appearance of
+great care and foresight.  “Admirably well scraped, Squire Jones: it
+is about the best lint I have ever seen.  I want your assistance, my
+good sir, to hold the patient’s arm while I make an incision for the
+ball.  Now, I rather guess there is not another gentleman present who
+could scrape the lint so well as Squire Jones!”
+
+“Such things run in families,” observed Richard, rising with alacrity
+to render the desired assistance.  “My father, and my grandfather
+before him, were both celebrated for their knowledge of surgery; they
+were not, like Marmaduke here, puffed up with an accidental thing,
+such as the time when he drew in the hip-joint of the man who was
+thrown from his horse; that was the fall before you came into the
+settlement, doctor; but they were men who were taught the thing
+regularly, spending half their lives in learning those little
+niceties; though, for the matter of that, my grandfather was a
+college-bred physician, and the best in the colony, too—that is, in
+his neighborhood.”
+
+“So it goes with the world, squire,” cried Benjamin; “if so be that a
+man wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, d’ye see, and with
+regular built swabs on his shoulders, he mustn’t think to do it by
+getting in at the cabin windows.  There are two ways to get into a
+top, besides the lubber-holes.  The true way to walk aft is to begin
+forrard; tho’f it he only in a humble way, like myself, d’ye see,
+which was from being only a hander of topgallant sails, and a stower
+of the flying-jib, to keeping the key of the captain’s locker.”
+
+Benjamin speaks quite to the purpose,’ continued Richard, “I dare say
+that he has often seen shot extracted in the different ships in which
+he has served; suppose we get him to hold the basin; he must be used
+to the sight of blood.”
+
+“That he is, squire, that he is,” interrupted the cidevant steward;
+“many’s the good shot, round, double-headed, and grape, that I’ve seen
+the doctors at work on.  For the matter of that, I was in a boat,
+alongside the ship, when they cut out the twelve-pound shot from the
+thigh of the captain of the Foodyrong, one of Mounsheer Ler Quaw’s
+countrymen!” *
+
+  * It is possible that the reader may start at this declaration of
+    Benjamin, but those who have lived in the new settlements of America
+    are too much accustomed to hear of these European exploits to doubt
+    it.
+
+“A twelve-pound ball from the thigh of a human being:” exclaimed Mr.
+Grant, with great simplicity, dropping the sermon he was again
+reading, and raising his spectacles to the top of his forehead.
+
+“A twelve-pounder!” echoed Benjamin, staring around him with much
+confidence; “a twelve-pounder! ay! a twenty-four-pound shot can easily
+be taken from a man’s body, if so be a doctor only knows how, There’s
+Squire Jones, now, ask him, sir; he reads all the books; ask him if he
+never fell in with a page that keeps the reckoning of such things.”
+
+“Certainly, more important operations than that have been performed,”
+observed Richard; “the encyclopaedia mentions much more incredible
+circumstances than that, as, I dare say, you know, Dr. Todd.”
+
+“Certainly, there are incredible tales told in the encyclopaedias,”
+returned Elnathan, “though I cannot say that I have ever seen, myself,
+anything larger than a musket ball extracted.”
+
+During this discourse an incision had been made through the skin of
+the young hunter’s shoulder, and the lead was laid bare.  Elnathan
+took a pair of glittering forceps, and was in the act of applying them
+to the wound, when a sudden motion of the patient caused the shot to
+fall out of itself, The long arm and broad hand of the operator were
+now of singular service; for the latter expanded itself, and caught
+the lead, while at the same time an extremely ambiguous motion was
+made by its brother, so as to leave it doubtful to the spectators how
+great was its agency in releasing the shot, Richard, however, put the
+matter at rest by exclaiming:
+
+“Very neatly done, doctor! I have never seen a shot more neatly
+extracted; and I dare say Benjamin will say the same.”
+
+“Why, considering,” returned Benjamin, “I must say that it was ship-
+shape and Brister-fashion.  Now all that the doctor has to do, is to
+clap a couple of plugs in the holes, and the lad will float in any
+gale that blows in these here hills,”
+
+“I thank you, sir, for what you have done,” said the youth, with a
+little distance; “but here is a man who will take me under his care,
+and spare you all, gentlemen, any further trouble on my account”
+
+The whole group turned their heads in surprise, and beheld, standing
+at one of the distant doors of the hall, the person of Indian John.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+
+“From Sesquehanna’s utmost springs,
+Where savage tribes pursue their game,
+His blanket tied with yellow strings,
+The shepherd of the forest came.  ‘—Freneau.
+
+Before the Europeans, or, to use a more significant term, the
+Christians, dispossessed the original owners of the soil, all that
+section of country which contains the New England States, and those of
+the Middle which lie east of the mountains, was occupied by two great
+nations of Indians, from whom had descended numberless tribes.  But,
+as the original distinctions between these nations were marked by a
+difference in language, as well as by repeated and bloody wars, they
+were never known to amalgamate, until after the power and inroads of
+the whites had reduced some of the tribes to a state of dependence
+that rendered not only their political, but, considering the wants and
+habits of a savage, their animal existence also, extremely precarious.
+
+These two great divisions consisted, on the one side, of the Five, or,
+as they were afterward called, the Six Nations, and their allies; and,
+on the other, of the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, with the numerous and
+powerful tribes that owned that nation as their grandfather The former
+was generally called, by the Anglo-Americans Iroquois, or the Six
+Nations, and sometimes Mingoes.  Their appellation among their rivals,
+seems generally to have been the Mengwe, or Maqua.  They consisted of
+the tribes or, as their allies were fond of asserting, in order to
+raise their consequence, of the several nations of the Mohawks, the
+Oneidas, the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; who ranked, in the
+confederation in the order in which they are named.  The Tuscaroras
+were admitted to this union near a century after its foundation, and
+thus completed the number of six.
+
+Of the Lenni Lenape, or as they were called by the whites, from the
+circumstances of their holding their great council-fire on the banks
+of that river, the Delaware nation, the principal tribes, besides that
+which bore the generic name, were the Mahicanni, Mohicans, or
+Mohegans, and the Nanticokes, or Nentigoes.  Of these the latter held
+the country along the waters of the Chesapeake and the seashore; while
+the Mohegans occupied the district between the Hudson and the ocean,
+including much of New England.  Of course these two tribes were the
+first who were dispossessed of their lands by the Europeans.
+
+The wars of a portion of the latter are celebrated among us as the
+wars of King Philip; but the peaceful policy of William Penn, or
+Miquon, as he was termed by the natives, effected its object with less
+difficulty, though not with less certainty.  As the natives gradually
+disappeared from the country of the Mohegans, some scattering families
+sought a refuge around the council-fire of the mother tribe, or the
+Delawares.
+
+This people had been induced to suffer themselves to be called women
+by their old enemies, the Mingoes, or Iroquois.  After the latter,
+having in vain tried the effects of hostility, had recourse in
+artifice in order to prevail over their rivals.  According to this
+declaration, the Delawares were to cultivate the arts of peace, and to
+intrust their defence entirely to the men, or warlike tribes of the
+Six Nations.
+
+This state of things continued until the war of the Revolution.  When
+the Lenni Lenape formally asserted their independence, and fearlessly
+declared that they were again men.  But, in a government so peculiarly
+republican as the Indian polity, it was not at all times an easy task
+to restrain its members within the rules of the nation.  Several
+fierce and renowned warriors of the Mohegans, finding the conflict
+with the whites to be in vain, sought a refuge with their grandfather,
+and brought with them the feelings and principles that had so long
+distinguished them in their own tribe.  These chieftains kept alive,
+in some measure, the martial spirit of the Delawares; and would, at
+times, lead small parties against their ancient enemies, or such other
+foes as incurred their resentment.
+
+Among these warriors was one race particularly famous for their
+prowess, and for those qualities that render an Indian hero
+celebrated.  But war, time, disease, and want had conspired to thin
+their number; and the sole representative of this once renowned family
+now stood in the hall of Marmaduke Temple.  He had for a long time
+been an associate of the white men, particularly in their wars, and
+having been, at the season when his services were of importance, much
+noticed and flattered, he had turned Christian and was baptized by the
+name of John.  He had suffered severely in his family during the
+recent war, having had every soul to whom he was allied cut off by an
+inroad of the enemy; and when the last lingering remnant of his nation
+extinguished their fires, among the hills of the Delaware, he alone
+had remained, with a determination of laying his hones in that country
+where his fathers had so long lived and governed.
+
+It was only, however, within a few months, that he had appeared among
+the mountains that surrounded Templeton.  To the hut of the old hunter
+he seemed peculiarly welcome; and, as the habits of the Leather-
+Stocking were so nearly assimilated to those of the savages, the
+conjunction of their interests excited no surprise.  They resided in
+the same cabin, ate of the same food, and were chiefly occupied in the
+same pursuits.
+
+We have already mentioned the baptismal name of this ancient chief;
+but in his conversation with Natty, held in the language of the
+Delawares, he was heard uniformly to call himself Chingachgook, which,
+interpreted, means the “Great Snake.” This name he had acquired in his
+youth, by his skill and prowess in war; but when his brows began to
+wrinkle with time, and he stood alone, the last of his family, and his
+particular tribe, the few Delawares, who yet continued about the head-
+waters of their river, gave him the mournful appellation of Mohegan.
+Perhaps there was something of deep feeling excited in the bosom of
+this inhabitant of the forest by the sound of a name that recalled the
+idea of his nation in ruins, for he seldom used it himself—never,
+indeed, excepting on the most solemn occasions; but the settlers had
+united, according to the Christian custom, his baptismal with his
+national name, and to them he was generally known as John Mohegan, or,
+more familiarly, as Indian John.
+
+From his long association with the white men, the habits of Mohegan
+were a mixture of the civilized and savage states, though there was
+certainly a strong preponderance in favor of the latter.  In common
+with all his people, who dwelt within the influence of the Anglo-
+Americans, he had acquired new wants, and his dress was a mixture of
+his native and European fashions.  Notwithstanding the in tense cold
+without, his head was uncovered; but a profusion of long, black,
+coarse hair concealed his forehead, his crown, and even hung about his
+cheeks, so as to convey the idea, to one who knew his present amid
+former conditions, that he encouraged its abundance, as a willing veil
+to hide the shame of a noble soul, mourning for glory once known.  His
+forehead, when it could be seen, appeared lofty, broad, and noble.
+His nose was high, and of the kind called Roman, with nostrils that
+expanded, in his seventieth year, with the freedom that had
+distinguished them in youth.  His mouth was large, but compressed, and
+possessing a great share of expression and character, and, when
+opened, it discovered a perfect set of short, strong, and regular
+teeth.  His chin was full, though not prominent; and his face bore the
+infallible mark of his people, in its square, high cheek-bones.  The
+eyes were not large, but their black orbs glittered in the rays of the
+candles, as he gazed intently down the hall, like two balls of fire.
+
+The instant that Mohegan observed himself to be noticed by the group
+around the young stranger, he dropped the blanket which covered the
+upper part of his frame, from his shoulders, suffering it to fall over
+his leggins of untanned deer-skin, where it was retained by a belt of
+bark that confined it to his waist.
+
+As he walked slowly down the long hail, the dignified and deliberate
+tread of the Indian surprised the spectators.
+
+His shoulders, and body to his waist, were entirely bare, with the
+exception of a silver medallion of Washington, that was suspended from
+his neck by a thong of buckskin, and rested on his high chest, amid
+many scars.  His shoulders were rather broad and full; but the arms,
+though straight and graceful, wanted the muscular appearance that
+labor gives to a race of men.  The medallion was the only ornament he
+wore, although enormous slits in the rim of either ear, which suffered
+the cartilages to fall two inches below the members, had evidently
+been used for the purposes of decoration in other days.  in his hand
+he held a small basket of the ash-wood slips, colored in divers
+fantastical conceits, with red and black paints mingled with the white
+of the wood.
+
+As this child of the forest approached them, the whole party stood
+aside, and allowed him to confront the object of his visit.  He did
+not speak, however, but stood fixing his glowing eyes on the shoulder
+of the young hunter, and then turning them intently on the countenance
+of the Judge.  The latter was a good deal astonished at this unusual
+departure from the ordinarily subdued and quiet manner of the Indian;
+but he extended his hand, and said:
+
+“Thou art welcome, John.  This youth entertains a high opinion of thy
+skill, it seems, for he prefers thee to dress his wound even to our
+good friend, Dr. Todd.”
+
+Mohegan now spoke in tolerable English, but in a low, monotonous,
+guttural tone;
+
+“The children of Miquon do not love the sight of blood; and yet the
+Young Eagle has been struck by the hand that should do no evil!”
+
+“Mohegan! old John!” exclaimed the Judge, “thinkest thou that my hand
+has ever drawn human blood willingly? For shame! for shame, old John!
+thy religion should have taught thee better.”
+
+“The evil spirit sometimes lives in the best heart,” returned John,
+“but my brother speaks the truth; his hand has never taken life, when
+awake; no! not even when the children of the great English Father were
+making the waters red with the blood of his people.”
+
+“Surely John,” said Mr. Grant, with much earnestness, “you remember
+the divine command of our Saviour, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’
+What motive could Judge Temple have for injuring a youth like this;
+one to whom he is unknown, and from whom he can receive neither in
+jury nor favor?”
+
+John listened respectfully to the divine, and, when he had concluded,
+he stretched out his arm, and said with energy:
+
+“He is innocent.  My brother has not done this.”
+
+Marmaduke received the offered hand of the other with a smile, that
+showed, however he might be astonished at his suspicion, he had ceased
+to resent it; while the wounded youth stood, gazing from his red
+friend to his host, with interest powerfully delineated in his
+countenance.
+
+No sooner was this act of pacification exchanged, than John proceeded
+to discharge the duty on which he had come.  Dr. Todd was far from
+manifesting any displeasure at this invasion of his rights, but made
+way for the new leech with an air that expressed a willingness to
+gratify the humors of his patient, now that the all-important part of
+the business was so successfully performed, and nothing remained to be
+done but what any child might effect, indeed, he whispered as much to
+Monsieur Le Quoi, when he said:
+
+“It was fortunate that the ball was extracted before this Indian came
+in; but any old woman can dress the wound.  The young man, I hear,
+lives with John and Natty Bumppo, and it’s always best to humor a
+patient, when it can be done discreetly—I say, discreetly, monsieur.”
+
+“Certainement,” returned the Frenchman; “you seem ver happy, Mister
+Todd, in your pratice.  I tink the elder lady might ver well finish
+vat you so skeelfully begin.”
+
+But Richard had, at the bottom, a great deal of veneration for the
+knowledge of Mohegan, especially in external wounds; and, retaining
+all his desire for a participation in glory, he advanced nigh the
+Indian, and said: “Sago, sago, Mohegan! sago my good fellow I am glad
+you have come; give me a regular physician, like Dr. Todd to cut into
+flesh, and a native to heal the wound.  Do you remember, John, the
+time when I and you set the bone of Natty Bumppo’s little finger,
+after he broke it by falling from the rock, when he was trying to get
+the partridge that fell on the cliffs? I never could tell yet whether
+it was I or Natty who killed that bird: he fired first, and the bird
+stooped, and then it was rising again as I pulled trigger.  I should
+have claimed it for a certainty, but Natty said the hole was too big
+for shot, and he fired a single ball from his rifle; but the piece I
+carried then didn’t scatter, and I have known it to bore a hole
+through a board, when I’ve been shooting at a mark, very much like
+rifle bullets.  Shall I help you, John? You know I have a knack at
+these things.”
+
+Mohegan heard this disquisition quite patiently, and, when Richard
+concluded, he held out the basket which contained his specifics,
+indicating, by a gesture, that he might hold it.  Mr. Jones was quite
+satisfied with this commission; and ever after, in speaking of the
+event, was used to say that “Dr. Todd and I cut out the bullet, and I
+and Indian John dressed the wound.”
+
+The patient was much more deserving of that epithet while under the
+hands of Mohegan, than while suffering under the practice of the
+physician.  Indeed, the Indian gave him but little opportunity for the
+exercise of a forbearing temper, as he had come prepared for the
+occasion.  His dressings were soon applied, and consisted only of some
+pounded bark, moistened with a fluid that he had expressed from some
+of the simples of the woods.
+
+Among the native tribes of the forest there were always two kinds of
+leeches to be met with.  The one placed its whole dependence on the
+exercise of a supernatural power, and was held in greater veneration
+than their practice could at all justify ; but the other was really
+endowed with great skill in the ordinary complaints of the human body,
+and was more particularly, as Natty had intimated, “curous” in cuts
+and bruises.”
+
+While John and Richard were placing the dressings on the wound,
+Elnathan was acutely eyeing the contents of Mohegan’s basket, which
+Mr. Jones, in his physical ardor had transferred to the doctor, in
+order to hold himself one end of the bandages.  Here he was soon
+enabled to detect sundry fragments of wood and bark, of which he quite
+coolly took possession, very possibly without any intention of
+speaking at all upon the subject; but, when he beheld the full blue
+eye of Marmaduke watching his movements, he whispered to the Judge:
+
+“It is not to be denied, Judge Temple, but what the savages are
+knowing in small matters of physic.  They hand these things down in
+their traditions.  Now in cancers and hydrophoby they are quite
+ingenious.  I will just take this bark home and analyze it; for,
+though it can’t be worth sixpence to the young man’s shoulder, it may
+be good for the toothache, or rheumatism, or some of them complaints.
+A man should never be above learning, even if it be from an Indian,”
+
+It was fortunate for Dr. Todd that his principles were so liberal, as,
+coupled with his practice, they were the means by which he acquired
+all his knowledge, and by which he was gradually qualifying himself
+for the duties of his profession.  The process to which he subjected
+the specific differed, however, greatly from the ordinary rules of
+chemistry; for instead of separating he afterward united the component
+parts of Mohegan’s remedy, and was thus able to discover the tree
+whence the Indian had taken it.
+
+Some ten years after this event, when civilization and its refinements
+had crept, or rather rushed, into the settlements among these wild
+hills, an affair of honor occurred, and Elnathan was seen to apply a
+salve to the wound received by one of the parties, which had the
+flavor that was peculiar to the tree, or root, that Mohegan had used.
+Ten years later still, when England and the United States were again
+engaged in war, and the hordes of the western parts of the State of
+New York were rushing to the field, Elnathan, presuming on the
+reputation obtained by these two operations, followed in the rear of a
+brigade of militia as its surgeon!
+
+When Mohegan had applied the bark, he freely relinquished to Richard
+the needle and thread that were used in sewing the bandages, for these
+were implements of which the native but little understood the use:
+and, step ping back with decent gravity, awaited the completion of the
+business by the other.
+
+“Reach me the scissors,” said Mr. Jones, when he had finished, and
+finished for the second time, after tying the linen in every shape and
+form that it could be placed; “reach me the scissors, for here is a
+thread that must be cut off, or it might get under the dressings, and
+inflame the wound.  See, John, I have put the lint I scraped between
+two layers of the linen; for though the bark is certainly best for the
+flesh, yet the lint will serve to keep the cold air from the wound.
+If any lint will do it good, it is this lint; I scraped it myself, and
+I will not turn my back at scraping lint to any man on the Patent.  I
+ought to know how, if anybody ought, for my grandfather was a doctor,
+and my father had a natural turn that way.”
+
+“Here, squire, is the scissors,” said Remarkable, producing from
+beneath her petticoat of green moreen a pair of dull-looking shears;
+“well, upon my say-so, you have sewed on the rags as well as a woman.”
+
+“As well as a woman!” echoed Richard with indignation; “what do women
+know of such matters? and you are proof of the truth of what I say.
+Who ever saw such a pair of shears used about a wound? Dr. Todd, I
+will thank you for the scissors from the case, Now, young man, I think
+you’ll do.  The shot has been neatly taken out, although, perhaps,
+seeing I had a hand in it, I ought not to say so; and the wound is
+admirably dressed.  You will soon be well again; though the jerk you
+gave my leaders must have a tendency to inflame the shoulder, yet you
+will do, you will do, You were rather flurried, I sup pose, and not
+used to horses; but I forgive the accident for the motive; no doubt
+you had the best of motives; yes, now you will do.”
+
+“Then, gentlemen,” said the wounded stranger, rising, and resuming his
+clothes, “it will be unnecessary for me to trespass longer on your
+time and patience.  There remains but one thing more to be settled,
+and that is, our respective rights to the deer, Judge Temple.”
+
+“I acknowledge it to be thine,” said.  Marmaduke; “and much more
+deeply am I indebted to thee than for this piece of venison.  But in
+the morning thou wilt call here, and we can adjust this, as well as
+more important matters Elizabeth”—for the young lady, being apprised
+that the wound was dressed, had re-entered the hall—” thou wilt order
+a repast for this youth before we proceed to the church; and Aggy will
+have a sleigh prepared to convey him to his friend.”
+
+“But, sir, I cannot go without a part of the deer,” returned the
+youth, seemingly struggling with his own feelings; “I have already
+told you that I needed the venison for myself.”
+
+“Oh, we will not he particular,” exclaimed Richard; “the Judge will
+pay you in the morning for the whole deer; and, Remarkable, give the
+lad all the animal excepting the saddle; so, on the whole, I think you
+may consider yourself as a very lucky young man—you have been shot
+without being disabled; have had the wound dressed in the best
+possible manner here in the woods, as well as it would have been done
+in the Philadelphia hospital, if not better; have sold your deer at a
+high price, and yet can keep most of the carcass, with the skin in the
+bargain.  ‘Marky, tell Tom to give him the skin too, and in the
+morning bring the skin to me and I will give you half a dollar for it,
+or at least three-and-sixpence.  I want just such a skin to cover the
+pillion that I am making for Cousin Bess.”
+
+“I thank you, sir, for your liberality, and, I trust, am also thankful
+for my escape,” returned the stranger; “but you reserve the very part
+of the animal that I wished for my own use.  I must have the saddle
+myself.”
+
+“Must!” echoed Richard; “must is harder to be swallowed than the horns
+of the buck.”
+
+“Yes, must,” repeated the youth; when, turning his head proudly around
+him, as if to see who would dare to controvert his rights, he met the
+astonished gaze of Elizabeth, and proceeded more mildly: “That is, if
+a man is allowed the possession of that which his hand hath killed.
+and the law will protect him in the enjoyment of his own.”
+
+“The law will do so,” said Judge Temple, with an air of mortification
+mingled with surprise.  “Benjamin, see that the whole deer is placed
+in the sleigh; and have this youth conveyed to the hut of Leather
+Stocking.  But, young man thou hast a name, and I shall see you again,
+in order to compensate thee for the wrong I have done thee?”
+
+“I am called Edwards,” returned the hunter; “Oliver Edwards, I am
+easily to be seen, sir, for I live nigh by, and am not afraid to show
+my face, having never injured any man.”
+
+“It is we who have injured you, sir,” said Elizabeth; “and the
+knowledge that you decline our assistance would give my father great
+pain.  He would gladly see you in the morning.”
+
+The young hunter gazed at the fair speaker until his earnest look
+brought the blood to her temples; when, recollecting himself, he bent
+his head, dropping his eyes to the carpet, and replied:
+
+“In the morning, then, will I return, and see Judge Temple; and I will
+accept his offer of the sleigh in token of amity.”
+
+“Amity!” repeated Marmaduke; “there was no malice in the act that
+injured thee, young man; there should be none in the feelings which it
+may engender.”
+
+“Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,”
+observed Mr. Grant, “is the language used by our Divine Master
+himself, and it should be the golden rule with us, his humble
+followers.”
+
+The stranger stood a moment lost in thought, and then, glancing his
+dark eyes rather wildly around the hall, he bowed low to the divine,
+and moved from the apartment with an air that would not admit of
+detention.
+
+“‘Tis strange that one so young should harbor such feelings of
+resentment,” said Marmaduke, when the door closed behind the stranger;
+“but while the pain is recent, and the sense of the injury so fresh,
+he must feel more strongly than in cooler moments.  I doubt not we
+shall see him in the morning more tractable.”
+
+Elizabeth, to whom this speech was addressed, did not reply, but moved
+slowly up the hall by herself, fixing her eyes on the little figure of
+the English ingrain carpet that covered the floor; while, on the other
+hand, Richard gave a loud crack with his whip, as the stranger
+disappeared, and cried:
+
+“Well, ‘Duke, you are your own master, but I would have tried law for
+the saddle before I would have given it to the fellow.  Do you not own
+the mountains as well as the valleys? are not the woods your own? what
+right has this chap, or the Leather-Stocking, to shoot in your woods
+without your permission? Now, I have known a farmer in Pennsylvania
+order a sportsman off his farm with as little ceremony as I would
+order Benjamin to put a log in the stove—By-the-bye, Benjamin, see how
+the thermometer stands.—Now, if a man has a right to do this on a farm
+of a hundred acres, what power must a landlord have who owns sixty
+thousand—ay, for the matter of that, including the late purchases, a
+hundred thousand? There is Mohegan, to be sure, he may have some
+right, being a native; but it’s little the poor fellow can do now with
+his rifle.  How is this managed in France, Monsieur Le Quoi? Do you
+let everybody run over your land in that country helter-skelter, as
+they do here, shooting the game, so that a gentleman has but little or
+no chance with his gun?”
+
+“Bah! diable, no, Meester Deeck,” replied the Frenchman; “we give, in
+France, no liberty except to the ladi.”
+
+“Yes, yes, to the women, I know,” said Richard, “that is your Salic
+law.  I read, sir, all kinds of books; of France, as well as England;
+of Greece, as well as Rome.  But if I were in ‘Duke’s place, I would
+stick up advertisements to-morrow morning, forbidding all persons to
+shoot, or trespass in any manner, on my woods.  I could write such an
+advertisement myself, in an hour, as would put a stop to the thing at
+once.”
+
+“Richart,” said Major Hartmann, very coolly knocking the ashes from
+his pipe into the spitting-box by his side, “now listen; I have livet
+seventy-five years on ter Mohawk, and in ter woots.  You had better
+mettle as mit ter deyvel, as mit ter hunters, Tey live mit ter gun,
+and a rifle is better as ter law.”
+
+“Ain’t Marmaduke a judge?” said Richard indignantly.  “Where is the
+use of being a judge, or having a judge, if there is no law? Damn the
+fellow! I have a great mind to sue him in the morning myself, before
+Squire Doolittle, for meddling with my leaders.  I am not afraid of
+his rifle.  I can shoot, too.  I have hit a dollar many a time at
+fifty rods
+
+“Thou hast missed more dollars than ever thou hast hit, Dickon,”
+exclaimed the cheerful voice of the Judge.  “But we will now take our
+evening’s repast, which I perseive, by Remarkable's physiognomy, is
+ready.  Monsieur Le Quoi, Miss Temple has a hand at your service.
+Will you lead the way, my child?”
+
+“Ah! ma chere mam’selle, comme je suis enchante!” said the Frenchman.
+“Il ne manque que les dames de faire un paradis de Templeton.”
+
+Mr. Grant and Mohegan continued in the hall, while the remainder of
+the party withdrew to an eating parlor, if we except Benjamin, who
+civilly remained to close the rear after the clergyman and to open the
+front door for the exit of the Indian.
+
+“John,” said the divine, when the figure of Judge Temple disappeared,
+the last of the group, “to-morrow is the festival of the nativity of
+our blessed Redeemer, when the church has appointed prayers and
+thanksgivings to be offered up by her children, and when all are
+invited to partake of the mystical elements.  As you have taken up the
+cross, and become a follower of good and an eschewer of evil, I trust
+I shall see you before the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek
+spirit.”
+
+“John will come,” said the Indian, betraying no surprise; though he
+did not understand all the terms used by the other.
+
+“Yes,” continued Mr. Grant, laying his hand gently on the tawny
+shoulder of the aged chief, “but it is not enough to be there in the
+body; you must come in the spirit and in truth.  The Redeemer died for
+all, for the poor Indian as well as for the white man.  Heaven knows
+no difference in color; nor must earth witness a separation of the
+church.  It is good and profitable, John, to freshen the
+understanding, and support the wavering, by the observance of our holy
+festivals; but all form is but stench in the nostrils of the Holy One,
+unless it be accompanied by a devout and humble spirit.”
+
+The Indian stepped back a little, and, raising his body to its utmost
+powers of erection, he stretched his right arm on high, and dropped
+his forefinger downward, as if pointing from the heavens; then,
+striking his other band on his naked breast, he said, with energy:
+
+“The eye of the Great Spirit can see from the clouds— the bosom of
+Mohegan is bare!”
+
+“It is well, John, and I hope you will receive profit and consolation
+from the performance of this duty.  The Great Spirit overlooks none of
+his children; and the man of the woods is as much an object of his
+care as he who dwells in a palace.  I wish you a good-night, and pray
+God to bless you.
+
+The Indian bent his head, and they separated—the one to seek his hut,
+and the other to join his party at the supper-table.  While Benjamin
+was opening the door for the passage of the chief, he cried, in a tone
+that was meant to be encouraging:
+
+The parson says the word that is true, John.  If so be that they took
+count of the color of the skin in heaven, why, they might refuse to
+muster on their books a Christian-born, like myself, just for the
+matter of a little tan, from cruising in warm latitudes; though, for
+the matter of that, this damned norwester is enough to whiten the skin
+of a blackamore.  Let the reef out of your blanket, man, or your red
+hide will hardly weather the night with out a touch from the frost.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+
+“For here the exile met from every clime,
+And spoke, in friendship, every distant tongue.”—Campbell.
+
+We have made our readers acquainted with some variety in character and
+nations, in introducing the most important personages of this legend
+to their notice; but, in order to establish the fidelity of our
+narrative, we shall briefly attempt to explain the reason why we have
+been obliged to present so motley a dramatis personae.
+
+Europe, at the period of our tale, was in the commencement of that
+commotion which afterward shook her political institutions to the
+centre.  Louis the Sixteenth had been beheaded, and a nation once
+esteemed the most refined among the civilized people of the world was
+changing its character, and substituting cruelty for mercy, and
+subtlety and ferocity for magnanimity and courage.  Thou sands of
+Frenchmen were compelled to seek protection in distant lands.  Among
+the crowds who fled from France and her islands, to the United States
+of America, was the gentleman whom we have already mentioned as
+Monsieur Le Quoi.  He had been recommended to the favor of Judge
+Temple by the head of an eminent mercantile house in New York, with
+whom Marmaduke was in habits of intimacy, and accustomed to exchange
+good offices.  At his first interview with the Frenchman, our Judge
+had discovered him to be a man of breeding, and one who had seen much
+more prosperous days in his own country.  From certain hints that had
+escaped him, Monsieur Le Quoi was suspected of having been a West-
+India planter, great numbers of whom had fled from St. Domingo and the
+other islands, and were now living in the Union, in a state of
+comparative poverty, and some in absolute want The latter was not,
+however, the lot of Monsieur Le Quoi.  He had but little, he
+acknowledged; but that little was enough to furnish, in the language
+of the country, an assortment for a store.
+
+The knowledge of Marmaduke was eminently practical, and there was no
+part of a settler's life with which he was not familiar.  Under his
+direction, Monsieur Le Quoi made some purchases, consisting of a few
+cloths; some groceries, with a good deal of gunpowder and tobacco; a
+quantity of iron-ware, among which was a large proportion of Barlow’s
+jack-knives, potash-kettles, and spiders; a very formidable collection
+of crockery of the coarsest quality and most uncouth forms; together
+with every other common article that the art of man has devised for
+his wants, not forgetting the luxuries of looking-glasses and Jew’s-
+harps.  With this collection of valuables, Monsieur Le Quoi had
+stepped behind a counter, and, with a wonderful pliability of
+temperament, had dropped into his assumed character as gracefully as
+he had ever moved in any other.  The gentleness and suavity of his
+manners rendered him extremely popular; besides this, the women soon
+discovered that he had taste.  His calicoes were the finest, or, in
+other words, the most showy, of any that were brought into the
+country, and it was impossible to look at the prices asked for his
+goods by” so pretty a spoken man,” Through these conjoint means, the
+affairs of Monsieur Le Quoi were again in a prosperous condition, and
+he was looked up to by the settlers as the second best man on the
+“Patent.”*
+
+  * The term “Patent” which we have already used, and for which we may
+    have further occasion, meant the district of country that had been
+    originally granted to old Major Effingham by the “king’s letters
+    patent,” and which had now become, by purchase under the act of
+    confiscation, the property of Marmaduke Temple.  It was a term in
+    common use throughout the new parts of the State; and was usually
+    annexed to the landlord’s name, as “Temple’s or Effingham’s Patent,”
+
+Major Hartmann was a descendant of a man who, in company with a number
+of his countrymen, had emigrated with their families from the banks of
+the Rhine to those of the Mohawk.  This migration had occurred as far
+back as the reign of Queen Anne; and their descendants were now
+living, in great peace and plenty, on the fertile borders of that
+beautiful stream.
+
+The Germans, or “High Dutchers,” as they were called, to distinguish
+them from the original or Low Dutch colonists, were a very peculiar
+people.  They possessed all the gravity of the latter, without any of
+their phlegm; and like them, the “High Dutchers” were industrious,
+honest, and economical, Fritz, or Frederick Hartmann, was an epitome
+of all the vices and virtues, foibles and excellences, of his race.
+He was passionate though silent, obstinate, and a good deal suspicious
+of strangers; of immovable courage, in flexible honesty, and
+undeviating in his friendships.  In deed there was no change about
+him, unless it were from grave to gay.  He was serious by months, and
+jolly by weeks.  He had, early in their acquaintance, formed an
+attachment for Marmaduke Temple, who was the only man that could not
+speak High Dutch that ever gained his en tire confidence Four times in
+each year, at periods equidistant, he left his low stone dwelling on
+the banks of the Mohawk, and travelled thirty miles, through the
+hills, to the door of the mansion-house in Templeton.  Here he
+generally stayed a week; and was reputed to spend much of that time in
+riotous living, greatly countenanced by Mr. Richard Jones.  But every
+one loved him, even to Remarkable Pettibone, to whom he occasioned
+some additional trouble, he was so frank, so sincere, and, at times,
+so mirthful.  He was now on his regular Christmas visit, and had not
+been in the village an hour when Richard summoned him to fill a seat
+in the sleigh to meet the landlord and his daughter.
+
+Before explaining the character and situation of Mr. Grant, it will be
+necessary to recur to times far back in the brief history of the
+settlement.
+
+There seems to be a tendency in human nature to endeavor to provide
+for the wants of this world, before our attention is turned to the
+business of the other.  Religion was a quality but little cultivated
+amid the stumps of Temple’s Patent for the first few years of its
+settlement; but, as most of its inhabitants were from the moral States
+of Connecticut and Massachusetts, when the wants of nature were
+satisfied they began seriously to turn their attention to the
+introduction of those customs and observances which had been the
+principal care of their fore fathers.  There was certainly a great
+variety of opinions on the subject of grace and free-will among the
+tenantry of Marmaduke; and, when we take into consideration the
+variety of the religious instruction which they received, it can
+easily be seen that it could not well be otherwise.
+
+Soon after the village had been formally laid out into the streets and
+blocks that resembled a city, a meeting of its inhabitants had been
+convened, to take into consideration the propriety of establishing an
+academy.  This measure originated with Richard, who, in truth, was
+much disposed to have the institution designated a university, or at
+least a college.  Meeting after meeting was held, for this purpose,
+year after year.  The resolutions of these as sembiages appeared in
+the most conspicuous columns of a little blue-looking newspaper, that
+was already issued weekly from the garret of a dwelling-house in the
+village, and which the traveller might as often see stuck into the
+fissure of a stake, erected at the point where the footpath from the
+log-cabin of some settler entered the highway, as a post-office for an
+individual.  Sometimes the stake supported a small box, and a whole
+neighborhood received a weekly supply for their literary wants at this
+point, where the man who “rides post’ regularly deposited a bundle of
+the precious commodity.  To these flourishing resolutions, which
+briefly recounted the general utility of education, the political and
+geographical rights of the village of Templeton to a participation in
+the favors of the regents of the university, the salubrity of the air,
+and wholesomeness of the water, together with the cheapness of food
+and the superior state of morals in the neighbor hood, were uniformly
+annexed, in large Roman capitals, the names of Marmaduke Temple as
+chairman and Richard Jones as secretary.
+
+Happily for the success of this undertaking, the regents were not
+accustomed to resist these appeals to their generosity, whenever there
+was the smallest prospect of a donation to second the request.
+Eventually Judge Temple concluded to bestow the necessary land, and to
+erect the required edifice at his own expense.  The skill of Mr., or,
+as he was now called, from the circumstance of having received the
+commission of a justice of the peace, Squire Doolittle, was again put
+in requisition; and the science of Mr. Jones was once more resorted
+to.
+
+We shall not recount the different devices of the architects on the
+occasion; nor would it be decorous so to do, seeing that there was a
+convocation of the society of the ancient and honorable fraternity “
+of the Free and Accepted Masons,’ at the head of whom was Richard, in
+the capacity of master, doubtless to approve or reject such of the
+plans as, in their wisdom, they deemed to he for the best.  The knotty
+point was, however, soon decided; and, on the appointed day, the
+brotherhood marched in great state, displaying sundry banners and
+mysterious symbols, each man with a little mimic apron before him,
+from a most cunningly contrived apartment in the garret of the “Bold
+Dragoon,” an inn kept by one Captain Hollister, to the site of the
+intended edifice.  Here Richard laid the corner stone, with suitable
+gravity, amidst an assemblage of more than half the men, and all the
+women, within ten miles of Templeton.
+
+In the course of the succeeding week there was another meeting of the
+people, not omitting swarms of the gentler sex, when the abilities of
+Hiram at the “square rule” were put to the test of experiment.  The
+frame fitted well; and the skeleton of the fabric was reared without a
+single accident, if we except a few falls from horses while the
+laborers were returning home in the evening.  From this time the work
+advanced with great rapidity, and in the course of the season the
+Labor was completed; the edifice Manding, in all its heatity and
+proportions, the boast of the village, the study of young aspirants
+for architectural fame, and the admiration of every settler on the
+Patent.
+
+It was a long, narrow house of wood, painted white, and more than half
+windows; and, when the observer stood at the western side of the
+building, the edifice offered but a small obstacle to a full view of
+the rising sun.  It was, in truth, but a very comfortless open place,
+through which the daylight shone with natural facility.  On its front
+were divers ornaments in wood, designed by Richard and executed by
+Hiram; but a window in the centre of the second story, immediately
+over the door or grand entrance, and the “steeple” were the pride of
+the building.  The former was, we believe, of the composite order; for
+it included in its composition a multitude of ornaments and a great
+variety of proportions.  It consisted of an arched compartment in the
+centres with a square and small division on either side, the whole
+incased in heavy frames, deeply and laboriously moulded in pine-wood,
+and lighted with a vast number of blurred and green-looking glass of
+those dimensions which are commonly called ”eight by ten.” Blinds,
+that were intended to be painted green, kept the window in a state of
+preservation, and probably might have contributed to the effect of the
+whole, had not the failure in the public funds, which seems always to
+be incidental to any undertaking of this kind, left them in the sombre
+coat of lead-color with which they had been originally clothed.  The
+“steeple” was a little cupola, reared on the very centre of the roof,
+on four tall pillars of pine that were fluted with a gouge, and loaded
+with mouldings.  On the tops of the columns was reared a dome or
+cupola, resembling in shape an inverted tea-cup without its bottom,
+from the centre of which projected a spire, or shaft of wood,
+transfixed with two iron rods, that bore on their ends the letters N.
+S.  E.  and W, in the same metal.  The whole was surmounted by an
+imitation of one of the finny tribe, carved in wood by the hands of
+Richard, and painted what he called a “scale-color.” This animal Mr.
+Jones affirmed to be an admirable resemblance of a great favorite of
+the epicures in that country, which bore the title of “lake-fish,” and
+doubtless the assertion was true; for, although intended to answer the
+purposes of a weathercock, the fish was observed invariably to look
+with a longing eye in the direction of the beautiful sheet of water
+that lay imbedded in the mountains of Templeton.
+
+For a short time after the charter of the regents was received, the
+trustees of this institution employed a graduate of one of the Eastern
+colleges to instruct such youth as aspired to knowledge within the
+walls of the edifice which we have described.  The upper part of the
+building was in one apartment, and was intended for gala-days and
+exhibitions; and the lower contained two rooms that were intended for
+the great divisions of education, viz., the Latin and the English
+scholars.  The former were never very numerous; though the sounds of
+“nominative, pennaa—genitive, penny,” were soon heard to issue from
+the windows of the room, to the great delight and manifest edification
+of the passenger.
+
+Only one laborer in this temple of Minerva, however, was known to get
+so far as to attempt a translation of Virgil.  He, indeed, appeared at
+the annual exhibition, to the prodigious exultation of all his
+relatives, a farmer’s family in the vicinity, and repeated the whole
+of the first eclogue from memory, observing the intonations of the
+dialogue with much judgment and effect.  The sounds, as they proceeded
+from his mouth, of
+
+“Titty-ree too patty-lee ree-coo-bans sub teg-mi-nee faa-gy
+
+Syl-ves-trem ten-oo-i moo-sam, med-i-taa-ris, aa-ve-ny.”
+
+were the last that had been heard in that building, as probably they
+were the first that had ever been heard, in the same language, there
+or anywhere else.  By this time the trustees discovered that they had
+anticipated the age and the instructor, or principal, was superseded
+by a master, who went on to teach the more humble lesson of “the more
+haste the worst speed,” in good plain English.
+
+From this time until the date of our incidents, the academy was a
+common country school, and the great room of the building was
+sometimes used as a court-room, on extraordinary trials; sometimes for
+conferences of the religious and the morally disposed, in the evening;
+at others for a ball in the afternoon, given under the auspices of
+Richard; and on Sundays, invariably, as a place of public worship.
+
+When an itinerant priest of the persuasion of the Methodists,
+Baptists, Universalists, or of the more numerous sect of the
+Presbyterians, was accidentally in the neighborhood, he was ordinarily
+invited to officiate, and was commonly rewarded for his services by a
+collection in a hat, before the congregation separated.  When no such
+regular minister offered, a kind of colloquial prayer or two was made
+by some of the more gifted members, and a sermon was usually read,
+from Sterne, by Mr. Richard Jones.
+
+The consequence of this desultory kind of priesthood was, as we have
+already intimated, a great diversity of opinion on the more abstruse
+points of faith.  Each sect had its adherents, though neither was
+regularly organized and disciplined.  Of the religious education of
+Marmaduke we have already written, nor was the doubtful character of
+his faith completely removed by his marriage.  The mother of Elizabeth
+was an Episcopalian, as indeed, was the mother of the Judge himself;
+and the good taste of Marmaduke revolted at the familiar colloquies
+which the leaders of the conferences held with the Deity, in their
+nightly meetings.  In form, he was certainly an Episcopalian, though
+not a sectary of that denomination.  On the other hand, Richard was as
+rigid in the observance of the canons of his church as he was
+inflexible in his opinions.  Indeed, he had once or twice essayed to
+introduce the Episcopal form of service, on the Sundays that the
+pulpit was vacant; but Richard was a good deal addicted to carrying
+things to an excess, and then there was some thing so papal in his air
+that the greater part of his hearers deserted him on the second
+Sabbath—on the third his only auditor was Ben Pump, who had all the
+obstinate and enlightened orthodoxy of a high churchman.
+
+Before the war of the Revolution, the English Church was supported in
+the colonies, with much interest, by some of its adherents in the
+mother country, and a few of the congregations were very amply
+endowed.  But, for the season, after the independence of the States
+was established, this sect of Christians languished for the want of
+the highest order of its priesthood.  Pious and suitable divines were
+at length selected, and sent to the mother country, to receive that
+authority which, it is understood, can only be transmitted directly
+from one to the other, and thus obtain, in order to reserve, that
+unity in their churches which properly belonged to a people of the
+same nation.  But unexpected difficulties presented themselves, in the
+oaths with which the policy of England had fettered their
+establishment; and much time was spent before a conscientious sense of
+duty would permit the prelates of Britain to delegate the authority so
+earnestly sought.  Time, patience, and zeal, however, removed every
+impediment, and the venerable men who had been set apart by the
+American churches at length returned to their expecting dioceses,
+endowed with the most elevated functions of their earthly church.
+Priests and deacons were ordained, and missionaries provided, to keep
+alive the expiring flame of devotion in such members as were deprived
+of the ordinary administrations by dwelling in new and unorganized
+districts.
+
+Of this number was Mr. Grant.  He had been sent into the county of
+which Templeton was the capital, and had been kindly invited by
+Marmaduke, and officiously pressed by Richard, to take up his abode in
+the village.  A small and humble dwelling was prepared for his family,
+and the divine had made his appearance in the place but a few days
+previously to the time of his introduction to the reader, As his forms
+were entirely new to most of the inhabitants, and a clergyman of
+another denomination had previously occupied the field, by engaging
+the academy, the first Sunday after his arrival was allowed to pass in
+silence; but now that his rival had passed on, like a meteor filling
+the air with the light of his wisdom, Richard was empowered to give
+notice that “Public worship, after the forms of the Protestant
+Episcopal Church, would be held on the night before Christmas, in the
+long room of the academy in Templeton, by the Rev.  Mr. Grant.”
+
+This annunciation excited great commotion among the different
+sectaries.  Some wondered as to the nature of the exhibition; others
+sneered; but a far greater part, recollecting the essays of Richard in
+that way, and mindful of the liberality, or rather laxity, of
+Marmaduke’s notions on the subject of sectarianism, thought it most
+prudent to be silent.
+
+The expected evening was, however, the wonder of the hour; nor was the
+curiosity at all diminished when Richard and Benjamin, on the morning
+of the eventful day, were seen to issue from the woods in the
+neighborhood of the village, each bearing on his shoulders a large
+bunch of evergreens.  This worthy pair was observed to enter the
+academy, and carefully to fasten the door, after which their
+proceedings remained a profound secret to the rest of the village; Mr.
+Jones, before he commenced this mysterious business, having informed
+the school-master, to the great delight of the white-headed flock he
+governed, that there could be no school that day.  Marmaduke was
+apprised of all these preparations by letter, and it was especially
+arranged that he and Elizabeth should arrive in season to participate
+in the solemnities of the evening.
+
+After this digression, we shall return to our narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+
+Now all admire, in each high-flavored dish
+The capabilities of flesh—fowl—fish;
+In order due each guest assumes his station,
+Throbs high his breast with fond anticipation,
+And prelibates the joys of mastication.  “—Heliogabaliad.
+
+The apartment to which Monsieur Le Quoi handed Elizabeth communicated
+with the hall, through the door that led under the urn which was
+supposed to contain the ashes of Dido.  The room was spacious, and of
+very just proportions; but in its ornaments and furniture the same
+diversity of taste and imperfection of execution were to be observed
+as existed in the hall.  Of furniture, there were a dozen green,
+wooden arm-chairs, with cushions of moreen, taken from the same piece
+as the petticoat of Remarkable.  The tables were spread, and their
+materials and workmanship could not be seen; but they were heavy and
+of great size, An enormous mirror, in a gilt frame, hung against the
+wall, and a cheerful fire, of the hard or sugar maple, was burning on
+the hearth.  The latter was the first object that struck the attention
+of the Judge, who on beholding it exclaimed, rather angrily, to
+Richard:
+
+“How often have I forbidden the use of the sugar maple in my dwelling!
+The sight of that sap, as it exudes with the heat, is painful to me,
+Richard, Really, it behooves the owner of woods so extensive as mine,
+to be cautious what example he sets his people, who are already
+felling the forests as if no end could be found to their treasures,
+nor any limits to their extent.  If we go on in this way, twenty years
+hence we shall want fuel.”
+
+“Fuel in these hills, Cousin ‘Duke!” exclaimed Richard, in derision—”
+fuel! why, you might as well predict that the fish will die for the
+want of water in the lake, because I intend, when the frost gets out
+of the ground, to lead one or two of the spring; through logs, into
+the village.  But you are always a little wild on such subject;
+Marmaduke.”
+
+“Is it wildness,” returned the Judge earnestly, “to condemn a practice
+which devotes these jewels of the forest, these precious gifts of
+nature, these mines of corn- I fort and wealth, to the common uses of
+a fireplace? But I must, and will, the instant the snow is off the
+earth, send out a party into the mountains to explore for coal.”
+
+“Coal!” echoed Richard.  “Who the devil do you think will dig for coal
+when, in hunting for a bushel.  he would have to rip up more of trees
+than would keep him in fuel for a twelvemonth? Poh! poh! Marmaduke:
+you should leave the management of these things to me, who have a
+natural turn that way.  It was I that ordered this fire, and a noble
+one it is, to warm the blood of my pretty Cousin Bess.”
+
+The motive, then, must be your apology, Dick on,” said the Judge.—”
+But, gentlemen, we are waiting.— Elizabeth, my child, take the head of
+the table; Richard, I see, means to spare me the trouble of carving,
+by sitting opposite to you.”
+
+“To be sure I do,” cried Richard.  “Here is a turkey to carve; and I
+flatter myself that I understand carving a turkey, or, for that
+matter, a goose, as well as any man alive.—Mr. Grant! Where’s Mr.
+Grant? Will you please to say grace, sir? Everything in getting cold.
+Take a thing from the fire this cold weather, and it will freeze in
+five minutes.  Mr. Grant, we want you to say grace.  ‘For what we are
+about to receive, the Lord make, us thankful Come, sit down, sit down.
+Do you eat wing or breast, Cousin Bess?”
+
+But Elizabeth had not taken her seat, nor Was she in readiness to
+receive either the wing or breast.  Her Laughing eyes were glancing at
+the arrangements of the table, and the quality and selection of the
+food.  The eyes of the father soon met the wondering looks of his
+daughter, and he said, with a smile:
+
+“You perceive, my child, how much we are indebted to Remarkable for
+her skill in housewifery.  She has indeed provided a noble repast—such
+as well might stop the cravings of hunger.”
+
+“Law!” said Remarkable, “I’m glad if the Judge is pleased; but I’m
+notional that you’ll find the sa’ce over done.  I thought, as
+Elizabeth was coming home, that a body could do no less than make
+things agreeable.”
+
+“My daughter has now grown to woman’s estate, and is from this moment
+mistress of my house,” said the Judge; “it is proper that all who live
+with me address her as Miss Temple.
+
+“Do tell!” exclaimed Remarkable, a little aghast; “well, who ever
+heerd of a young woman’s being called Miss? If the Judge had a wife
+now, I shouldn’t think of calling her anything but Miss Temple; but—”
+
+“Having nothing but a daughter you will observe that style to her, if
+you please, in future,” interrupted Marmaduke.
+
+As the Judge looked seriously displeased, and, at such moments,
+carried a particularly commanding air with him, the wary housekeeper
+made no reply; and, Mr. Grant entering the room, the whole party were
+seated at the table.  As the arrangements of this repast were much in
+the prevailing taste of that period and country, we shall endeavor to
+give a short description of the appearance of the banquet.
+
+The table-linen was of the most beautiful damask, and the plates and
+dishes of real china, an article of great luxury at this early period
+of American commerce.  The knives and forks were of exquisitely
+polished steel, and were set in unclouded ivory.  So much, being
+furnished by the wealth of Marmaduke, was not only comfortable but
+even elegant.  The contents of the several dishes, and their
+positions, however, were the result of the sole judgment of
+Remarkable.  Before Elizabeth was placed an enormous roasted turkey,
+and before Richard one boiled, in the centre of the table stood a pair
+of heavy silver casters, surrounded by four dishes: one a fricassee
+that consisted of gray squirrels; another of fish fried; a third of
+fish boiled; the last was a venison steak.  Between these dishes and
+the turkeys stood, on the one side, a prodigious chine of roasted
+bear’s meat, and on the other a boiled leg of delicious mutton.
+Interspersed among this load of meats was every species of vegetables
+that the season and country afforded.  The four corners were garnished
+with plates of cake.  On one was piled certain curiously twisted and
+complicated figures, called “nut-cakes,” On another were heaps of a
+black-looking sub stance, which, receiving its hue from molasses, was
+properly termed “sweet-cake ;” a wonderful favorite in the coterie of
+Remarkable, A third was filled, to use the language of the
+housekeeper, with “cards of gingerbread ;” and the last held a “ plum-
+cake,” so called from the number of large raisins that were showing
+their black heads in a substance of suspiciously similar color.  At
+each corner of the table stood saucers, filled with a thick fluid of
+some what equivocal color and consistence, variegated with small dark
+lumps of a substance that resembled nothing but itself, which
+Remarkable termed her “sweetmeats.” At the side of each plate, which
+was placed bottom upward, with its knife and fork most accurately
+crossed above it, stood another, of smaller size, containing a motley-
+looking pie, composed of triangular slices of apple, mince, pump kin,
+cranberry, and custard so arranged as to form an entire whole,
+Decanters of brandy, rum, gin, and wine, with sundry pitchers of
+cider, beer, and one hissing vessel of “flip,” were put wherever an
+opening would admit of their introduction.  Notwithstanding the size
+of the tables, there was scarcely a spot where the rich damask could
+be seen, so crowded were the dishes, with their associated bottles,
+plates, and saucers.  The object seemed to be profusion, and it was
+obtained entirely at the expense of order and elegance.
+
+All the guests, as well as the Judge himself, seemed perfectly
+familiar with this description of fare, for each one commenced eating,
+with an appetite that promised to do great honor to Remarkable’s taste
+and skill.  What rendered this attention to the repast a little
+surprising, was the fact that both the German and Richard had been
+summoned from another table to meet the Judge; but Major Hartmann both
+ate and drank without any rule, when on his excursions; and Mr. Jones
+invariably made it a point to participate in the business in hand, let
+it be what it would.  The host seemed to think some apology necessary
+for the warmth he had betrayed on the subject of the firewood, and
+when the party were comfortably seated, and engaged with their knives
+and forks, he observed:
+
+“The wastefulness of the settlers with the noble trees of this country
+is shocking, Monsieur Le Quoi, as doubt less you have noticed.  I have
+seen a man fell a pine, when he has been in want of fencing stuff, and
+roll his first cuts into the gap, where he left it to rot, though its
+top would have made rails enough to answer his purpose, and its butt
+would have sold in the Philadelphia market for twenty dollars.”
+
+“And how the devil—I beg your pardon, Mr. Grant,” interrupted Richard:
+“but how is the poor devil to get his logs to the Philadelphia market,
+pray? put them in his pocket, ha! as you would a handful of chestnuts,
+or a bunch of chicker-berries? I should like to see you walking up
+High Street, with a pine log in each pocket!— Poh! poh! Cousin ‘Duke,
+there are trees enough for us all, and some to spare.  Why, I can
+hardly tell which way the wind blows, when I’m out in the clearings,
+they are so thick and so tall; I couldn’t at all, if it wasn’t for the
+clouds, and I happen to know all the points of the compass, as it
+were, by heart.”
+
+“Ay! ay! squire,” cried Benjamin, who had now entered and taken his
+place behind the Judge’s chair, a little aside withal, in order to be
+ready for any observation like the present; “look aloft, sir, look
+aloft.  The old seamen say, ‘that the devil wouldn’t make a sailor,
+unless he looked aloft’ As for the compass, why, there is no such
+thing as steering without one.  I’m sure I never lose sight of the
+main-top, as I call the squire’s lookout on the roof, but I set my
+compass, d’ye see, and take the bearings and distance of things, in
+order to work out my course, if so be that it should cloud up, or the
+tops of the trees should shut out the light of heaven.  The steeple of
+St. Paul’s, now that we nave got it on end, is a great help to the
+navigation of the woods, for, by the Lord Harry! as was—”
+
+“It is well, Benjamin,” interrupted Marmaduke, observing that his
+daughter manifested displeasure at the major-domo’s familiarity; “but
+you forget there is a lady in company, and the women love to do most
+of the talking themselves.”
+
+“The Judge says the true word,” cried Benjamin, with one of his
+discordant laughs.  “Now here is Mistress Remarkable Pettibones; just
+take the stopper off her tongue, and you’ll hear a gabbling worse like
+than if you should happen to fall to leeward in crossing a French
+privateer, or some such thing, mayhap, as a dozen monkeys stowed in
+one bag.”
+
+It were impossible to say how perfect an illustration of the truth of
+Benjamin’s assertion the housekeeper would have furnished, if she had
+dared; but the Judge looked sternly at her, and unwilling to incur his
+resentment, yet unable to contain her anger, she threw herself out of
+the room with a toss of the body that nearly separated her frail form
+in the centre.
+
+“Richard,” said Marmaduke, observing that his displeasure had produced
+the desired effect, “can you inform me of anything concerning the
+youth whom I so unfortunately wounded? I found him on the mountain
+hunting in company with the Leather-Stocking, as if they were of the
+same family; but there is a manifest difference in their manners.  The
+youth delivers himself in chosen language, such as is seldom heard in
+these hills, and such as occasions great surprise to me, how one so
+meanly clad, and following so lowly a pursuit, could attain.  Mohegan
+also knew him.  Doubtless he is a tenant of Natty’s hut.  Did you
+remark the language of the lad.  Monsieur Le Quoi?”
+
+“Certainement, Monsieur Temple,” returned the French man, “he deed
+convairse in de excellent Anglaise.”
+
+“The boy is no miracle,” exclaimed Richard; “I’ve known children that
+were sent to school early, talk much better before they were twelve
+years old.  There was Zared Coe, old Nehemiah’s son, who first settled
+on the beaver-dam meadow, he could write almost as good .  hand as
+myself, when he was fourteen; though it’s true, I helped to teach him
+a little in the evenings.  But this shooting gentleman ought to be put
+in the stocks, if he ever takes a rein in his hand again.  He is the
+most awkward fellow about a horse I ever met with.  I dare say he
+never drove anything but oxen in his life.”
+
+“There, I think, Dickon, you do the lad injustice,” said the Judge;
+“he uses much discretion in critical moments.  Dost thou not think so,
+Bess?”
+
+There was nothing in this question particularly to excite blushes, but
+Elizabeth started from the revery into which she had fallen, and
+colored to her forehead as she answered:
+
+“To me, dear sir, he appeared extremely skilful, and prompt, and
+courageous; but perhaps Cousin Richard will say I am as ignorant as
+the gentleman himself.”
+
+“Gentleman!” echoed Richard; “do you call such chaps gentlemen, at
+school, Elizabeth?”
+
+“Every man is a gentleman that knows how to treat a woman with respect
+and consideration,” returned the young lady promptly, and a little
+smartly.
+
+“So much for hesitating to appear before the heiress in his shirt-
+sleeves,” cried Richard, winking at Monsieur Le Quoi, who returned the
+wink with one eye, while he rolled the other, with an expression of
+sympathy, toward the young lady.  “Well, well, to me he seemed
+anything but a gentleman.  I must say, however, for the lad, that he
+draws a good trigger, and has a true aim.  He’s good at shooting a
+buck, ha! Marmaduke?”
+
+“Richart,” said Major Hartmann, turning his grave countenance toward
+the gentleman he addressed, with much earnestness, “ter poy is goot.
+He savet your life, and my life, and ter life of i’ominie Grant, and
+ter life of ter Frenchman; and, Richard, he shall never vant a pet to
+sleep in vile olt Fritz Hartmann has a shingle to cover his het mit.”
+“Well, well, as you please, old gentleman,” returned Mr. Jones,
+endeavoring to look indifferent; “put him into your own stone house,
+if you will, Major.  I dare say the lad never slept in anything better
+than a bark shanty in his life, unless it was some such hut as the
+cabin of Leather-Stocking.  I prophesy you will soon spoil him; any
+one could see how proud he grew, in a short time, just because he
+stood by my horses’ heads.  while I turned them into the highway.”
+
+“No, no.  my old friend,” cried Marmaduke, “it shall be my task to
+provide in some manner for the youth; I owe him a debt of my own,
+besides the service he has done me through my friends.  And yet I
+anticipate some little trouble in inducing him to accept of my
+services.  He showed a marked dislike, I thought, Bess, to my offer of
+a residence within these walls for life.”
+
+“Really, dear sir,” said Elizabeth, projecting her beautiful under-
+lip, “I have not studied the gentleman so closely as to read his
+feelings in his countenance.  I thought he might very naturally feel
+pain from his wound, and therefore pitied him; but”—and as she spoke
+she glanced her eye, with suppressed curiosity, toward the major-domo—
+” I dare say, sir, that Benjamin can tell you something about him, He
+cannot have been in the village, and Benjamin not have seen him
+often.”
+
+“Ay! I have seen the boy before,” said Benjamin, who wanted little
+encouragement to speak; “he has been backing and filling in the wake
+of Natty Bumppo, through the mountains, after deer, like a Dutch long-
+boat in tow of an Albany sloop.  He carries a good rifle, too, ‘the
+Leather-Stocking said, in my hearing, before Betty Hollister’s bar-
+room fire, no later than the Tuesday night, that the younger was
+certain death to the wild beasts.  If so be he can kill the wild-cat
+that has been heard moaning on the lake-side since the hard frosts and
+deep snows have driven the deer to herd, he will be doing the thing
+that is good.  Your wild-cat is a bad shipmate, and should be made to
+cruise out of the track of Christian men,”
+
+“Lives he in the hut of Bumppo?” asked Marmaduke, with some interest.
+
+“Cheek by jowl; the Wednesday will be three weeks since he first hove
+in sight, in company with Leather-Stocking.  They had captured a wolf
+between them, and had brought in his scalp for the bounty.  That
+Mister Bump-ho has a handy turn with him in taking off a scalp; and
+there’s them, in this here village, who say he l’arnt the trade by
+working on Christian men.  If so be that there is truth in the saying,
+and I commanded along shore here, as your honor does, why, d'ye see,
+I’d bring him to the gangway for it, yet.  There’s a very pretty post
+rigged alongside of the stocks; and for the matter of a cat, I can fit
+one with my own hands; ay! and use it too, for the want of a better.”
+
+“You are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty; he has a kind
+of natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains; and if the
+idlers in the village take it into their heads to annoy him, as they
+sometimes do reputed rogues, they shall find him protected by the
+strong arm of the law,”
+
+“Ter rifle is petter as ter law,” said the Major sententiously.
+
+“That for his rifle!” exclaimed Richard, snapping his fingers; “Ben is
+right, and I—” He was stopped by the sound of a common ship-bell, that
+had been elevated to the belfry of the academy, which now announced,
+by its incessant ringing, that the hour for the appointed service had
+arrived.  “‘For this and every other instance of his goodness—’ I beg
+pardon, Mr. Grant, will you please to return thanks, sir? It is time
+we should be moving, as we are the only Episcopalians in the
+neighborhood; that is, I and Benjamin, and Elizabeth; for I count
+half— breeds, like Marmaduke as bad as heretics.”
+
+The divine arose and performed the office meekly and fervently, and
+the whole party instantly prepared them selves for the church—or
+rather academy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+
+“And calling sinful man to pray,
+Loud, long, and deep the bell had tolled.”—Scotts Burgher
+
+While Richard and Monsieur Le Quoi, attended by Benjamin, proceeded to
+the academy by a foot-path through the snow, the judge, his daughter,
+the divine, and the Major took a more circuitous route to the same
+place by the streets of the village.
+
+The moon had risen, and its orb was shedding a flood of light over the
+dark outline of pines which crowned the eastern mountain.  In many
+climates the sky would have been thought clear and lucid for a
+noontide.  The stars twinkled in the heavens, like the last
+glimmerings of distant fire, so much were they obscured by the
+overwhelming radiance of the atmosphere; the rays from the moon
+striking upon the smooth, white surfaces of the lake and fields,
+reflecting upward a light that was brightened by the spotless color of
+the immense bodies of snow which covered the earth.
+
+Elizabeth employed herself with reading the signs, one of which
+appeared over almost every door; while the sleigh moved steadily, and
+at an easy gait, along the principal street.  Not only new
+occupations, but names that were strangers to her ears, met her gaze
+at every step they proceeded.  The very houses seemed changed.  This
+had been altered by an addition; that had been painted; another had
+been erected on the site of an old acquaintance, which had been
+banished from the earth almost as soon as it made its appearance on
+it.  All were, however, pouring forth their inmates, who uniformly
+held their way toward the point where the expected exhibition of the
+conjoint taste of Richard and Benjamin was to be made.
+
+After viewing the buildings, which really appeared to some advantage
+under the bright but mellow light of the moon, our heroine turned her
+eyes to a scrutiny of the different figures they passed, in search of
+any form that she knew.  But all seemed alike, as muffled in cloaks,
+hoods, coats, or tippets, they glided along the narrow passages in the
+snow which led under the houses, half hid by the bank that had been
+thrown up in excavating the deep path in which they trod.  Once or
+twice she thought there was a stature or a gait that she recollected;
+but thc person who owned it instantly disappeared behind one of those
+enormous piles of wood that lay before most of the doors, It was only
+as they turned from the main street into another that intersected it
+at right angles, and which led directly to the place of meeting, that
+she recognized a face and building that she knew.
+
+The house stood at one of the principal corners in the village; and by
+its well-trodden doorway, as well as the sign that was swinging with a
+kind of doleful sound in the blasts that occasionally swept down the
+lake, was clearly one of the most frequented inns in the place.  The
+building was only of one story; but the dormer-windows in the roof,
+the paint, the window-shutters, and the cheerful fire that shone
+through the open door, gave it an air of comfort that was not
+possessed by many of its neighbors.  The sign was suspended from a
+common ale-house post, and represented the figure of a horseman, armed
+with sabre and pistols, and surmounted by a bear-skin cap, with a
+fiery animal that he bestrode “rampant.” All these particulars were
+easily to be seen by the aid of the moon, together with a row of
+somewhat illegible writing in black paint, but in which Elizabeth, to
+whom the whole was familiar, read with facility, “The Bold Dragoon.”
+
+A man and a woman were issuing from the door of this habitation as the
+sleigh was passing, The former moved with a stiff, military step, that
+was a good deal heightened by a limp in one leg; but the woman
+advanced with a measure and an air that seemed not particularly
+regardful of what she might encounter.  The light of the moon fell
+directly upon her full, broad, and red visage, exhibiting her
+masculine countenance, under the mockery of a ruffled cap that was
+intended to soften the lineamints of features that were by no means
+squeamish.  A small bonnet of black silk, and of a slightly formal
+cut, was placed on the back of her head, but so as not to shade her
+visage in the least.  The face, as it encountered the rays of the moon
+from the east, seemed not unlike sun rising in the west.  She advanced
+with masculine strides to intercept the sleigh; and the Judge,
+directing the namesake of the Grecian king, who held the lines, to
+check his horse, the par ties were soon near to each other.
+
+“Good luck to ye, and a welcome home, Jooge,” cried the female, with a
+strong Irish accent; “and I’m sure it’s to me that ye’re always
+welcome.  Sure! and there’s Miss Lizzy, and a fine young woman she is
+grown.  What a heart-ache would she be giving the young men now, if
+there was sich a thing as a rigiment in the town! Och! but it’s idle
+to talk of sich vanities, while the bell is calling us to mateing jist
+as we shall he called away unexpictedly some day, when we are the
+laist calkilating.  Good-even, Major; will I make the bowl of gin
+toddy the night, or it’s likely ye’ll stay at the big house the
+Christmas eve, and the very night of yer getting there?”
+
+“I am glad to see you, Mrs. Hollister,” returned Elizabeth.  “I have
+been trying to find a face that I knew since we left the door of the
+mansion-house; but none have I seen except your own.  Your house, too,
+is unaltered, while all the others are so changed that, but for the
+places where they stand, they would be utter strangers.  I observe you
+also keep the dear sign that I saw Cousin Richard paint; and even the
+name at the bottom, about which, you may remember, you had the
+disagreement.”
+
+“It is the bould dragoon, ye mane? And what name would he have, who
+niver was known by any other, as my husband here, the captain, can
+testify? He was a pleasure to wait upon, and was ever the foremost in
+need.  Och! but he had a sudden end! but it’s to be hoped that he was
+justified by the cause, And it’s not Parson Grant there who’ll gainsay
+that same.  Yes, yes; the squire would paint, and so I thought that we
+might have his face up there, who had so often shared good and evil
+wid us.  The eyes is no so large nor so fiery as the captain’s Own;
+but the whiskers and the cap is as two paes.  Well, well, I'll not
+keep ye in the cowld, talking, but will drop in the morrow after
+sarvice, and ask ye how ye do.  It’s our bounden duty to make the most
+of this present, and to go to the house which is open to all; so God
+bless ye, and keep ye from evil! Will I make the gin-twist the night,
+or no, Major?”
+
+To this question the German replied, very sententiously, in the
+affirmative; and, after a few words had passed between the husband of
+the fiery-faced hostess and the Judge, the sleigh moved on.  It soon
+reached the door of the academy, where the party alighted and entered
+the building.
+
+In the mean time, Mr. Jones and his two companions, having a much
+shorter distance to journey, had arrived before the appointed place
+some minutes sooner than the party in the sleigh.  Instead of
+hastening into the room in order to enjoy the astonishment of the
+settlers, Richard placed a hand in either pocket of his surcoat, and
+affected to walk about, in front of the academy, like one to whom the
+ceremonies were familiar.
+
+The villagers proceeded uniformly into the building, with a decorum
+and gravity that nothing could move, on such occasions; but with a
+haste that was probably a little heightened by curiosity.  Those who
+came in from the adjacent country spent some little time in placing
+certain blue and white blankets over their horses before they
+proceeded to indulge their desire to view the interior of the house.
+Most of these men Richard approached, and inquired after the health
+and condition of their families.  The readiness with which he
+mentioned the names of even the children, showed how very familiarly
+acquainted he was with their circumstances; and the nature of the
+answers he received proved that he was a general favorite.
+
+At length one of the pedestrians from the village stopped also, and
+fixed an earnest gaze at a new brick edifice that was throwing a long
+shadow across the fields of snow, as it rose, with a beautiful
+gradation of light and shade, under the rays of a full moon.  In front
+of the academy was a vacant piece of ground, that was intended for a
+public square.  On the side opposite to Mr. Jones, the new and as yet
+unfinished church of St. Paul’s was erected, This edifice had been
+reared during the preceding summer, by the aid of what was called a
+subscription; though all, or nearly all, of the money came from the
+pockets of the landlord.  It had been built under a strong conviction
+of the necessity of a more seemly place of worship than “the long room
+of the academy,” and under an implied agreement that, after its
+completion, the question should be fairly put to the people, that they
+might decide to what denomination it should belong.  Of course, this
+expectation kept alive a strong excitement in some few of the
+sectaries who were interested in its decision; though but little was
+said openly on the subject.  Had Judge Temple espoused the cause of
+any particular sect, the question would have been immediately put at
+rest, for his influence was too powerful to be opposed; but he
+declined interference in the matter, positively refusing to lend even
+the weight of his name on the side of Richard, who had secretly given
+an assurance to his diocesan that both the building and the
+congregation would cheerfully come within the pale of the Protestant
+Episcopal Church.  But, when the neutrality of the Judge was clearly
+ascertained, Mr. Jones discovered that he had to contend with a stiff
+necked people.  His first measure was to go among them and commence a
+course of reasoning, in order to bring them round to his own way of
+thinking.  They all heard him patiently, and not a man uttered a word
+in reply in the way of argument, and Richard thought, by the time that
+he had gone through the settlement, the point was conclusively decided
+in his favor.  Willing to strike while the iron was hot, he called a
+meeting, through the news paper, with a view to decide the question by
+a vote at once.  Not a soul attended; and one of the most anxious
+afternoons that he had ever known was spent by Richard in a vain
+discussion with Mrs. Hollister, who strongly contended that the
+Methodist (her own) church was the best entitled to and most deserving
+of, the possession of the new tabernacle.  Richard now perceived that
+he had been too sanguine, and had fallen into the error of all those
+who ignorantly deal with that wary and sagacious people.  He assumed a
+disguise himself—that is, as well as he knew how, and proceeded step
+by step to advance his purpose.
+
+The task of erecting the building had been unanimously transferred to
+Mr. Jones and Hiram Doolittle.  Together they had built the mansion-
+house, the academy, and the jail, and they alone knew how to plan and
+rear such a structure as was now required.  Early in the day, these
+architects had made an equitable division of their duties.  To the
+former was assigned the duty of making all the plans, and to the
+latter the labor of superintending the execution.
+
+Availing himself of this advantage, Richard silently determined that
+the windows should have the Roman arch; the first positive step in
+effecting his wishes.  As the building was made of bricks, he was
+enabled to conceal his design until the moment arrived for placing the
+frames; then, indeed, it became necessary to act.  He communicated his
+wishes to Hiram with great caution; and, without in the least
+adverting to the spiritual part of his project, he pressed the point a
+little warmly on the score of architectural beauty.  Hiram heard him
+patiently, and without contradiction, but still Richard was unable to
+discover the views of his coadjutor on this interesting subject.  As
+the right to plan was duly delegated to Mr. Jones, no direct objection
+was made in words.  but numberless unexpected difficulties arose in
+the execution.  At first there was a scarcity in the right kind of
+material necessary to form the frames; but this objection was
+instantly silenced by Richard running his pencil through two feet of
+their length at one stroke.  Then the expense was mentioned; but
+Richard reminded Hiram that his cousin paid, and that he was
+treasurer.  This last intimation had great weight, and after a silent
+and protracted, but fruitless opposition, the work was suffered to
+proceed on the original plan.
+
+The next difficulty occurred in the steeple, which Richard had
+modelled after one of the smaller of those spires that adorn the great
+London cathedral.  The imitation was somewhat lame, it was true, the
+proportions being but in differently observed; but, after much
+difficulty, Mr. Jones had the satisfaction of seeing an object reared
+that bore in its outlines, a striking resemblance to a vinegar-cruet.
+There was less opposition to this model than to the windows; for the
+settlers were fond of novelty, and their steeple was without a
+precedent.
+
+Here the labor ceased for the season, and the difficult question of
+the interior remained for further deliberation.  Richard well knew
+that, when he came to propose a reading-desk and a chancel, he must
+unmask; for these were arrangements known to no church in the country
+but his own.  Presuming, however, on the advantages he had already
+obtained, he boldly styled the building St. Paul’s, and Hiram
+prudently acquiesced in this appellation, making, however, the slight
+addition of calling it “New St. Paul’s,” feeling less aversion to a
+name taken from the English cathedral than from the saint.
+
+The pedestrian whom we have already mentioned, as pausing to
+contemplate this edifice, was no other than the gentleman so
+frequently named as Mr. or Squire Doolittle.  He was of a tall, gaunt
+formation, with rather sharp features, and a face that expressed
+formal propriety mingled with low cunning.  Richard approached him,
+followed by Monsieur Le Quoi and the major-domo.
+
+“Good-evening, squire,” said Richard, bobbing his head, but without
+moving his hands from his pockets.
+
+“Good-evening, squire,” echoed Hiram, turning his body in order to
+turn his head also.
+
+“A cold night, Mr. Doolittle, a cold night, sir.”
+
+“Coolish; a tedious spell on’t.”
+
+“What, looking at our church, ha! It looks well, by moonlight; how the
+tin of the cupola glistens! I warrant you the dome of the other St.
+Paul’s never shines so in the smoke of London.”
+
+“It is a pretty meeting -house to look on,” returned Hiram, “and I
+believe that Monshure Ler Quow and Mr. Penguilliam will allow it.”
+
+“Sairtainlee!” exclaimed the complaisant Frenchman, “it ees ver fine,”
+
+“I thought the monshure would say so.  The last molasses that we had
+was excellent good.  It isn’t likely that you have any more of it on
+hand?”
+
+“Ah! oui; ees, sair,” returned Monsieur Le Quoi, with a slight shrug
+of his shoulder, and a trifling grimace, “dere is more.  I feel ver
+happi dat you love eet.  I hope dat Madame Doleet’ is in good ‘ealth.”
+
+“Why, so as to be stirring,” said Hiram.  “The squire hasn’t finished
+the plans for the inside of the meeting house yet?”
+
+“No—no—no,” returned Richard, speaking quickly, but making a
+significant pause between each negative—..  “it requires reflection.
+There is a great deal of room to fill up, and I am afraid we shall not
+know how to dispose of it to advantage.  There will be a large vacant
+spot around the pulpit, which I do not mean to place against the wall,
+like a sentry-box stuck up on the side of a fort.”
+
+“It is rulable to put the deacons’ box under the pulpit,” said Hiram;
+and then, as if he had ventured too much, he added, “but there’s
+different fashions in different Countries.”
+
+“That there is,” cried Benjamin; “now, in running down the coast of
+Spain and Portingall, you may see a nunnery stuck out on every
+headland, with more steeples and outriggers.  such as dog-vanes and
+weathercocks, than you’ll find aboard of a three-masted schooner.  If
+so be that a well-built church is wanting, old England, after all, is
+the country to go to after your models and fashion pieces.  As to
+Paul’s, thof I’ve never seen it, being that it’s a long way up town
+from Radcliffe Highway and the docks, yet everybody knows that it’s
+the grandest place in the world Now, I’ve no opinion but this here
+church over there is as like one end of it as a grampus is to a whale;
+and that’s only a small difference in bulk.  Mounsheer Ler Quaw, here,
+has been in foreign parts; and thof that is not the same as having
+been at home, yet he must have seen churches in France too, and can
+form a small idee of what a church should be; now I ask the mounsheer
+to his face if it is not a clever little thing, taking it by and
+large.”
+
+“It ees ver apropos of saircumstance,” said the French-.  man—” ver
+judgment—but it is in the catholique country dat dey build dc—vat you
+call—ah a ah-ha—la grande cathédrale—de big church.  St. Paul, Londre,
+is ver fine; ver belle; ver grand—vat you call beeg; but, Monsieur
+Ben, pardonnez-moi, it is no vort so much as Notre Dame.”
+
+“Ha! mounsheer, what is that you say?” cried Benjamin; “St. Paul’s
+church is not worth so much as a damn! Mayhap you may be thinking too
+that the Royal Billy isn’t so good a ship as the Billy de Paris; but
+she would have licked two of her any day, and in all weathers.”
+
+As Benjamin had assumed a very threatening kind of attitude,
+flourishing an arm with a bunch at the end of it that was half as big
+as Monsieur Le Quoi’s head, Richard thought it time to interpose his
+authority.
+
+“Hush, Benjamin, hush,” he said; “you both misunderstand Monsieur Le
+Quoi and forget yourself.  But here comes Mr. Grant, and the service
+will commence.  Let us go in.”
+
+The Frenchman, who received Benjamin’s reply with a well-bred good-
+humor that would not admit of any feeling but pity for the other’s
+ignorance, bowed in acquiescence and followed his companion.
+
+Hiram and the major -domo brought up the rear, the latter grumbling as
+he entered the building:
+
+“If so be that the king of France had so much as a house to live in
+that would lay alongside of Paul’s, one might put up with their jaw.
+It’s more than flesh and blood can bear to hear a Frenchman run down
+an English church in this manner.  Why, Squire Doolittle, I’ve been at
+the whipping of two of them in one day—clean built, snug frigates with
+standing royals and them new-fashioned cannonades on their quarters—
+such as, if they had only Englishmen aboard of them, would have fout
+the devil.”
+
+With this ominous word in his mouth Benjamin entered the church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+
+“And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.”—Goldsmith.
+
+Notwithstanding the united labors of Richard and Benjamin, the “long
+room” was but an extremely inartificial temple.  Benches; made in the
+coarsest manner, and entirely with a view to usefulness, were arranged
+in rows for the reception of the Congregation; while a rough,
+unpainted box was placed against the wall, in the centre of the length
+of the apartment, as an apology for a pulpit.  Something like a
+reading-desk was in front of this rostrum; and a small mahogany table
+from the mansion-house, covered with a spotless damask cloth, stood a
+little on one side, by the way of an altar.  Branches of pines and
+hemlocks were stuck in each of the fissures that offered in the
+unseasoned and hastily completed woodwork of both the building and its
+furniture; while festoons and hieroglyphics met the eye in vast
+profusion along the brown sides of the scratch-coated walls.  As the
+room was only lighted by some ten or fifteen miserable candles, and
+the windows were without shutters, it would have been but a dreary,
+cheerless place for the solemnities of a Christmas eve, had not the
+large fire that was crackling at each end of the apartment given an
+air of cheerfulness to the scene, by throwing an occasional glare of
+light through the vistas of bushes and faces.
+
+The two sexes were separated by an area in the centre of the room
+immediately before the pulpit; amid a few benches lined this space,
+that were occupied by the principal personages of the village and its
+vicinity.  This distinction was rather a gratuitous concession made by
+the poorer and less polished part of the population than a right
+claimed by the favored few.  One bench was occupied by the party of
+Judge Temple, including his daughter, and, with the exception of Dr.
+Todd, no one else appeared willing to incur the imputation of pride,
+by taking a seat in what was, literally, the high place of the
+tabernacle.
+
+Richard filled the chair that was placed behind another table, in the
+capacity of clerk; while Benjamin, after heaping sundry logs on the
+fire, posted himself nigh by, in reserve for any movement that might
+require co-operation.
+
+It would greatly exceed our limits to attempt a description of the
+congregation, for the dresses were as various as the individuals.
+Some one article of more than usual finery, and perhaps the relic of
+other days, was to be seen about most of the females, in connection
+with the coarse attire of the woods.  This wore a faded silk, that had
+gone through at least three generations, over coarse, woollen black
+stockings; that, a shawl, whose dyes were as numerous as those of the
+rainbow, over an awkwardly fitting gown of rough brown “woman’s wear.”
+In short, each one exhibited some favorite article, and all appeared
+in their best, both men and women; while the ground-works in dress, in
+either sex, were the coarse fabrics manufactured within their own
+dwellings.  One man appeared in the dress of a volunteer company of
+artillery, of which he had been a member in the “down countries,”
+precisely for no other reason than because it was the best suit he
+had.  Several, particularly of the younger men, displayed pantaloons
+of blue, edged with red cloth down the seams part of the equipments of
+the “Templeton Light Infantry,” from a little vanity to be seen in
+“boughten clothes.” There was also one man in a “rifle frock,” with
+its fringes and folds of spotless white, striking a chill to the heart
+with the idea of its coolness, although the thick coat of brown” home-
+made” that was concealed beneath preserved a proper degree of warmth.
+
+There was a marked uniformity of expression in Countenance, especially
+in that half of the congregation who did not enjoy the advantages of
+the polish of the village.  A sallow skin, that indicated nothing but
+exposure, was common to all, as was an air of great decency and
+attention, mingled, generally, with an expression of shrewdness, and
+in the present instance of active curiosity.  Now and then a face and
+dress were to be seen among the congregation, that differed entirely
+from this description.  If pock-marked and florid, with gartered legs,
+and a coat that snugly fitted the person of the wearer, it was surely
+an English emigrant, who had bent his steps to this retired quarter of
+the globe.  If hard-featured and without color, with high cheek-bones,
+it was a native of Scotland, in similar circumstances.
+
+The short, black-eyed man, with a cast of the swarthy Spaniard in his
+face, who rose repeatedly to make room for the belles of the village
+as they entered, was a son of Erin, who had lately left off his pack,
+and become a stationary trader in Templeton.  In short, half the
+nations in the north of Europe had their representatives in this
+assembly, though all had closely assimilated themselves to the
+Americans in dress and appearance, except the English man.  He,
+indeed, not only adhered to his native customs in attire and living,
+but usually drove his plough among the stumps in the same manner as he
+had before done on the plains of Norfolk, until dear-bought experience
+taught him the useful lesson that a sagacious people knew what was
+suited to their circumstances better than a casual observer, or a
+sojourner who was, perhaps, too much prejudiced to compare and,
+peradventure, too conceited to learn.
+
+Elizabeth soon discovered that she divided the attention of the
+congregation with Mr. Grant.  Timidity, therefore, confined her
+observation of the appearances which we have described to stoles
+glances; but, as the stamping of feet was now becoming less frequent,
+and even the coughing, and other little preliminaries of a
+congregation settling themselves down into reverential attention, were
+ceasing, she felt emboldened to look around her.  Gradually all noises
+diminished, until the suppressed cough denoted that it was necessary
+to avoid singularity, and the most pro found stillness pervaded the
+apartment.  The snapping of the fires, as they threw a powerful heat
+into the room, was alone heard, and each face and every eye were
+turned on the divine.
+
+At this moment, a heavy stamping of feet was heard in the passage
+below, as if a new-corner was releasing his limbs from the snow that
+was necessarily clinging to the legs of a pedestrian.  It was
+succeeded by no audible tread; but directly Mohegan, followed by the
+Leather-Stocking and the young hunter, made his appearance.
+
+Their footsteps would not have been heard, as they trod the apartment
+in their moccasins, but for the silence which prevailed.
+
+The Indian moved with great gravity across the floor, and, observing a
+vacant seat next to the Judge, he took it, in a manner that manifested
+his sense of his own dignity.  Here, drawing his blanket closely
+around him so as partly to conceal his countenance, he remained during
+the service immovable, but deeply attentive.  Natty passed the place
+that was so freely taken by his red companion, and seated himself on
+one end of a log that was lying near the fire, where he continued,
+with his rifle standing between his legs, absorbed in reflections
+seemingly of no very pleasing nature.  The youth found a seat among
+the congregation, and another silence prevailed.
+
+Mr. Grant now arose and commenced his service with the sublime
+declaration of the Hebrew prophet: “The Lord is in His holy temple;
+let all the earth keep silence before Him.” The example of Mr. Jones
+was unnecessary to teach the congregation to rise; the solemnity of
+the divine effected this as by magic.  After a short pause, Mr. Grant
+proceeded with the solemn and winning exhortation of his service.
+Nothing was heard but the deep though affectionate tones of the
+reader, as he went slowly through this exordium; until, something
+unfortunately striking the mind of Richard as incomplete, he left his
+place and walked on tiptoe from the room.
+
+When the clergyman bent his knees in prayer and confession, the
+congregation so far imitated his example as to resume their seats;
+whence no succeeding effort of the divine, during the evening, was
+able to remove them in a body.  Some rose at times; but by far the
+larger part continued unbending; observant, it is true, but it was the
+kind of observation that regarded the ceremony as a spectacle rather
+than a worship in which they were to participate.  Thus deserted by
+his clerk Mr. Grant continued to read; but no response was audible.
+The short and solemn pause that succeeded each petition was made;
+still no voice repeated the eloquent language of the prayer.
+
+The lips of Elizabeth moved, but they moved in vain and accustomed as
+she was to the service of the churches of the metropolis, she was
+beginning to feel the awkwardness of the circumstance most painfully
+when a soft, low female voice repeated after the priest,” We have left
+undone those things which we ought to have done.” Startled at finding
+one of her own sex in that place who could rise superior to natural
+timidity, Miss Temple turned her eyes in the direction of the
+penitent.  She observed a young female on her knees, but a short
+distance from her, with her meek face humbly bent over her book.
+
+The appearance of this stranger, for such she was, entirely, to
+Elizabeth, was light and fragile.  Her dress was neat and becoming;
+and her countenance, though pale and slightly agitated, excited deep
+interest by its sweet and melancholy expression.  A second and third
+response was made by this juvenile assistant, when the manly sounds of
+a male voice proceeded from the opposite part of the room, Miss Temple
+knew the tones of the young hunter instantly, and struggling to
+overcome her own diffidence she added her low voice to the number.
+
+All this time Benjamin stood thumbing the leaves of a prayer-book with
+great industry; but some unexpected difficulties prevented his finding
+the place.  Before the divine reached the close of the confession,
+however, Richard reappeared at the door, and, as he moved lightly
+across the room, he took up the response, in a voice that betrayed no
+other concern than that of not being heard.  In his hand he carried a
+small open box, with the figures “8 by 10” written in black paint on
+one of its sides; which, having placed in the pulpit, apparently as a
+footstool for the divine, he returned to his station in time to say,
+sonorously, “Amen.” The eyes of the congregation, very naturally, were
+turned to the windows, as Mr. Jones entered with his singular load;
+and then, as if accustomed to his “general agency,” were again bent on
+the priest, in close and curious attention.
+
+The long experience of Mr. Grant admirably qualified him to perform
+his present duty.  He well understood the character of his listeners,
+who were mostly a primitive people in their habits; and who, being a
+good deal addicted to subtleties and nice distinctions in their
+religious opinions, viewed the introduction of any such temporal
+assistance as form into their spiritual worship not only with
+jealousy, but frequently with disgust.  He had acquired much of his
+knowledge from studying the great book of human nature as it lay open
+in the world; and, knowing how dangerous it was to contend with
+ignorance, uniformly endeavored to avoid dictating where his better
+reason taught him it was the most prudent to attempt to lead, His
+orthodoxy had no dependence on his cassock; he could pray with fervor
+and with faith, if circumstances required it, without the assistance
+of his clerk; and he had even been known to preach a most evangelical
+sermon, in the winning manner of native eloquence, without the aid of
+a cambric handkerchief.
+
+In the present instance he yielded, in many places, to the prejudices
+of his congregation; and when he had ended, there was not one of his
+new hearers who did not think the ceremonies less papal and offensive,
+and more conformant to his or her own notions of devout worship, than
+they had been led to expect from a service of forms, Richard found in
+the divine, during the evening, a most powerful co-operator in his
+religious schemes.  In preaching, Mr. Grant endeavored to steer a
+middle course between the mystical doctrines of those sublimated
+creeds which daily involve their professors in the most absurd
+contradictions, and those fluent roles of moral government which would
+reduce the Saviour to a level with the teacher of a school of ethics.
+Doctrine it was necessary to preach, for nothing less would have
+satisfied the disputatious people who were his listeners, and who
+would have interpreted silence on his part into a tacit acknowledgment
+of the superficial nature of his creed.  We have already said that,
+among the endless variety of religious instructors, the settlers were
+accustomed to hear every denomination urge its own distinctive
+precepts, and to have found one indifferent to this Interesting
+subject would have been destructive to his influence.  But Mr. Grant
+so happily blended the universally received opinions of the Christian
+faith with the dogmas of his own church that, although none were
+entirely exempt from the influence of his reasons, very few took any
+alarm at the innovation.
+
+“When we consider the great diversity of the human character,
+influenced as it is by education, by opportunity, and by the physical
+and moral conditions of the creature, my dear hearers,” he earnestly
+concluded “it can excite no surprise that creeds so very different in
+their tendencies should grow out of a religion revealed, it is true,
+but whose revelations are obscured by the lapse of ages, and whose
+doctrines were, after the fashion of the countries in which they were
+first promulgated, frequently delivered in parables, and in a language
+abounding in metaphors and loaded with figures.  On points where the
+learned have, in purity of heart, been compelled to differ, the
+unlettered will necessarily be at variance.  But, happily for us, my
+brethren, the fountain of divine love flows from a source too pure to
+admit of pollution in its course; it extends, to those who drink of
+its vivifying waters, the peace of the righteous, and life
+everlasting; it endures through all time, and it pervades creation.
+If there be mystery in its workings, it is the mystery of a Divinity.
+With a clear knowledge of the nature, the might, and the majesty of
+God, there might be conviction, but there could be no faith.  If we
+are required to believe in doctrines that seem not in conformity with
+the deductions of human wisdom, let us never forget that such is the
+mandate of a wisdom that is infinite.  It is sufficient for us that
+enough is developed to point our path aright, and to direct our
+wandering steps to that portal which shall open on the light of an
+eternal day.  Then, indeed, it may be humbly hoped that the film which
+has been spread by the subtleties of earthly arguments will be
+dissipated by the spiritual light of Heaven; and that our hour of
+probation, by the aid of divine grace, being once passed in triumph,
+will be followed by an eternity of intelligence and endless ages of
+fruition.  All that is now obscure shall become plain to our expanded
+faculties; and what to our present senses may seem irreconcilable to
+our limited notions of mercy, of justice, and of love, shall stand
+irradiated by the light of truth, confessedly the suggestions of
+Omniscience, and the acts of an All-powerful Benevolence.”
+
+“What a lesson of humility, my brethren, might not each of us obtain
+from a review of his infant hours, and the recollection of his
+juvenile passions! How differently do the same acts of parental rigor
+appear in the eyes of the suffering child and of the chastened man!
+When the sophist would supplant, with the wild theories of his worldly
+wisdom, the positive mandates of inspiration, let him remember the
+expansion of his own feeble intellects, and pause—let him feel the
+wisdom of God in what is partially concealed.  as well as that which
+is revealed; in short, let him substitute humility for pride of
+reason—let him have faith, and live!”
+
+“The consideration of this subject is full of consolation, my hearers,
+and does not fail to bring with it lessons of humility and of profit,
+that, duly improved, would both chasten the heart and strengthen the
+feeble-minded man in his course.  It is a blessed consolation to be
+able to lay the misdoubtings of our arrogant nature at the thresh old
+of the dwelling-place of the Deity, from whence they shall be swept
+away, at the great opening of the portal, like the mists of the
+morning before the rising sun.  It teaches us a lesson of humility, by
+impressing us with the imperfection of human powers, and by warning us
+of the many weak points where we are open to the attack of the great
+enemy of our race; it proves to us that we are in danger of being
+weak, when our vanity would fain soothe us into the belief that we arc
+most strong; it forcibly points out to us the vainglory of intellect,
+and shows us the vast difference between a saving faith and the
+corollaries of a philosophical theology; and it teaches us to reduce
+our self-examination to the test of good works.  By good works must be
+understood the fruits of repentance, the chiefest of which is charity.
+Not that charity only which causes us to help the needy and comfort
+the suffering, but that feeling of universal philanthropy which, by
+teaching us to love, causes us to judge with lenity all men; striking
+at the root of self-righteousness, and warning us to be sparing of our
+condemnation of others, while our own salvation is not yet secure.”
+
+“The lesson of expediency, my brethren, which I would gather from the
+consideration of this subject, is most strongly inculcated by
+humility.  On the heading and essential points of our faith, there is
+but little difference among those classes of Christians who
+acknowledge the attributes of the Saviour, and depend on his
+mediation.  But heresies have polluted every church, and schisms are
+the fruit of disputation.  In order to arrest these dangers, and to
+insure the union of his followers, it would seem that Christ had
+established his visible church.  and delegated the ministry.  Wise and
+holy men, the fathers of our religion, have expended their labors in
+clearing what was revealed from the obscurities of language, and the
+results of their experience and researches have been em bodied in the
+form of evangelical discipline That this discipline must be salutary,
+is evident from the view of the weakness of human nature that we have
+already taken; and that it may be profitable to us, and all who listen
+to its precepts and its liturgy, may God, in his infinite wisdom,
+grant!—And now to,” etc.
+
+With this ingenious reference to his own forms and ministry, Mr. Grant
+concluded his discourse.  The most profound attention had been paid to
+the sermon during the whole of its delivery, although the prayers had
+not been received with so perfect demonstration of respect.  This was
+by no means an intended slight of that liturgy to which the divine
+alluded, but was the habit of a people who owed their very existence,
+as a distinct nation, to the doctrinal character of their ancestors.
+Sundry looks of private dissatisfaction were exchanged between Hiram
+and one or two of the leading members of the conference, but the
+feeling went no further at that time; and the congregation, after
+receiving the blessing of Mr. Grant., dispersed in Silence, and with
+great decorum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+
+“Your creeds and dogmas of a learned church
+May build a fabric, fair with moral beauty;
+But it would seem that the strong hand of God
+Can, only, 'rase the devil from the heart.”—Duo.
+
+While the congregation was separating, Mr. Grant approached the place
+where Elizabeth and her father were seated, leading the youthful
+female whom we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, and presented
+her as his daughter.  Her reception was as cordial and frank as the
+manners of the country and the value of good society could render it;
+the two young women feeling, instantly, that they were necessary to
+the comfort of each other, The Judge, to whom the clergyman’s daughter
+was also a stranger, was pleased to find one who, from habits, sex,
+and years, could probably contribute largely to the pleasures of his
+own child, during her first privations on her removal from the
+associations of a city to the solitude of Templeton; while Elizabeth,
+who had been forcibly struck with the sweetness and devotion of the
+youthful suppliant, removed the slight embarrassment of the timid
+stranger by the ease of her own manners.  They were at once
+acquainted; and, during the ten minutes that the “academy” was
+clearing, engagements were made between the young people, not only for
+the succeeding day, but they would probably have embraced in their
+arrangements half of the winter, had not the divine interrupted them
+by saying:
+
+“Gently, gently, my dear Miss Temple, or you will make my girl too
+dissipated.  You forget that she is my housekeeper, and that my
+domestic affairs must remain unattended to, should Louisa accept of
+half the kind offers you are so good as to make her.”
+
+“And why should they not be neglected entirely, sir?” interrupted
+Elizabeth.  “There are but two of you; and certain I am that my
+father’s house will not only contain you both, but will open its doors
+spontaneously to receive such guests.  Society is a good not to he
+rejected on account of cold forms, in this wilderness, sir; and I have
+often heard my father say, that hospitality is not a virtue in a new
+country, the favor being conferred by the guest.”
+
+“The manner in which Judge Temple exercises its rites would confirm
+this opinion; but we must not trespass too freely.  Doubt not that you
+will see us often, my child, particularly during the frequent visits
+that I shall be compelled to make to the distant parts of the country.
+But to obtain an influence with such a people,” he continued, glancing
+his eyes toward the few who were still lingering, curious observers of
+the interview, “a clergyman most not awaken envy or distrust by
+dwelling under so splendid a roof as that of Judge Temple.”
+
+“You like the roof, then, Mr. Grant,” cried Richard, who had been
+directing the extinguishment of the fires and other little necessary
+duties, and who approached in time to hear the close of the divine’s
+speech.  “I am glad to find one man of taste at last.  Here’s ‘Duke.
+now, pretends to call it by every abusive name he can invent; but
+though ‘Duke is a tolerable judge, he is a very poor carpenter, let me
+tell him.  Well, sir, well, I think we may say, without boasting, that
+the service was as well per formed this evening as you often see; I
+think, quite as well as I ever knew it to be done in old Trinity—that
+is, if we except the organ.  But there is the school-master leads the
+psalm with a very good air.  I used to lead myself, but latterly I
+have sung nothing but bass.  There is a good deal of science to be
+shown in the bass, and it affords a fine opportunity to show off a
+full, deep voice.  Benjamin, too, sings a good bass, though he is
+often out in the words.  Did you ever hear Benjamin sing the ‘Bay of
+Biscay, 0?”
+
+“I believe he gave us part of it this evening,” said Marmaduke,
+laughing.  “There was, now and then, a fearful quaver in his voice,
+and it seems that Mr. Penguillian is like most others who do one thing
+particularly well; he knows nothing else.  He has, certainly, a
+wonderful partiality to one tune, and he has a prodigious self-
+confidence in that one, for he delivers himself like a northwester
+sweeping across the lake.  But come, gentlemen, our way is clear, and
+the sleigh waits.  Good-evening, Mr. Grant.  Good-night, young lady—
+remember you dine beneath the Corinthian roof, to-morrow, with
+Elizabeth.”
+
+The parties separated, Richard holding a close dissertation with Mr.
+Le Quoi, as they descended the stairs, on the subject of psalmody,
+which he closed by a violent eulogium on the air of the “Bay of
+Biscay, 0,” as particularly connected with his friend Benjamin’s
+execution.
+
+During the preceding dialogue, Mohegan retained his seat, with his
+head shrouded in his blanket, as seemingly inattentive to surrounding
+objects as the departing congregation was itself to the presence of
+the aged chief, Natty, also, continued on the log where he had first
+placed himself, with his head resting on one of his hands, while the
+other held the rifle, which was thrown carelessly across his lap.  His
+countenance expressed uneasiness, and the occasional unquiet glances
+that he had thrown around him during the service plainly indicated
+some unusual causes for unhappiness.  His continuing seated was, how
+ever, out of respect to the Indian chief.  to whom he paid the utmost
+deference on all occasions, although it was mingled with the rough
+manner of a hunter.
+
+The young companion of these two ancient inhabitants of the forest
+remained also standing before the extinguished brands, probably from
+an unwillingness to depart without his comrades.  The room was now
+deserted by all but this group, the divine, and his daughter.  As the
+party from the mansion-house disappeared, John arose, and, dropping
+the blanket from his head, he shook back the mass of black hair from
+his face, and, approaching Mr. Grant, he extended his hand, and said
+solemnly:
+
+“Father, I thank you.  The words that have been said, since the rising
+moon, have gone upward, and the Great Spirit is glad.  What you have
+told your children, they will remember, and be good.” He paused a
+moment, and then, elevating himself with the grandeur of an Indian
+chief, he added: “If Chingachgook lives to travel toward the setting
+sun, after his tribe, and the Great Spirit carries him over the lakes
+and mountains with the breath of his body, he will tell his people the
+good talk he has heard; and they will believe him; for who can say
+that Mohegan has ever lied?”
+
+“Let him place his dependence on the goodness of Divine mercy,” said
+Mr. Grant, to whom the proud consciousness of the Indian sounded a
+little heterodox, “and it never will desert him.  When the heart is
+filled with love to God, there is no room for sin.  But, young man, to
+you I owe not only an obligation, in common with those you saved this
+evening on the mountain, but my thanks for your respectable and pious
+manner in assisting in the service at a most embarrassing moment.  I
+should be happy to see you sometimes at my dwelling, when, perhaps, my
+conversation may strengthen you in the path which you appear to have
+chosen.  It is so unusual to find one of your age and appearance, in
+these woods, at all acquainted with our holy liturgy, that it lessens
+at once the distance between us, and I feel that we are no longer
+strangers.  You seem quite at home in the service; I did not perceive
+that you had even a book, although good Mr. Jones.  had laid several
+in different parts of the room.”
+
+“It would be strange if I were ignorant of the service of our church,
+sir,” returned the youth modestly; “for I was baptized in its
+communion and I have never yet attended public worship elsewhere.  For
+me to use the forms of any other denomination would be as singular as
+our own have proved to the people here this evening.”
+
+“You give me great pleasure, my dear sir,” cried the divine, seizing
+the other by the hand, and shaking it cordially.  “You will go home
+with me now—indeed you must—my child has yet to thank you for saving
+my life.  I will-listen to no apologies.  This worthy Indian, and your
+friend, there, will accompany us.  Bless me! to think that’ he has
+arrived at manhood in this country, without entering a dissenting *
+meeting-house!”
+
+  * The divines of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States
+    commonly call other denominations Dissenters, though there never was
+    an established church in their own country!
+
+“No, no,” interrupted the Leather-Stocking, “I must away to the
+wigwam; there’s work there that mustn’t be forgotten for all your
+churchings and merry-makings.  Let the lad go with you in welcome; he
+is used to keeping company with ministers, and talking of such
+matters; so is old John, who was christianized by the Moravians abouts
+the time of the old war.  But I am a plain unlarned man, that has
+sarved both the king and his country, in his day, agin’ the French and
+savages, but never so much as looked into a book, or larnt a letter of
+scholarship, in my born days.  I’ve never seen the use of much in-door
+work, though I have lived to be partly bald, and in my time have
+killed two hundred beaver in a season, and that without counting thc
+other game.  If you mistrust what I am telling you, you can ask
+Chingachgook there, for I did it in the heart of the Delaware country,
+and the old man is knowing to the truth of every word I say.”
+
+“I doubt not, my friend, that you have been both a valiant soldier and
+skilful hunter in your day,” said the divine; “but more is wanting to
+prepare you for that end which approaches.  You may have heard the
+maxim, that ‘young men may die, but that old men must’”
+
+“I’m sure I never was so great a fool as to expect to live forever,”
+said Natty, giving one of his silent laughs; “no man need do that who
+trails the savages through the woods, as I have done, and lives, for
+the hot months, on the lake streams.  I’ve a strong constitution, I
+must say that for myself, as is plain to be seen; for I’ve drunk the
+Onondaga water a hundred times, while I’ve been watching the deer-
+licks, when the fever-an’-agy seeds was to be seen in it as plain and
+as plenty as you can see the rattle snakes on old Crumhorn.  But then
+I never expected to hold out forever; though there’s them living who
+have seen the German flats a wilderness; ay! and them that’s larned,
+and acquainted with religion, too; though you might look a week, now,
+and not find even the stump of a pine on them; and that’s a wood that
+lasts in the ground the better part of a hundred years after the tree
+is dead.”
+
+“This is but time, my good friend,” returned Mr. Grant, who began to
+take an interest in the welfare of his new acquaintance, “but I would
+have you prepare for eternity.  It is incumbent on you to attend
+places of public worship, as I am pleased to see that you have done
+this evening.  Would it not he heedless in you to start on a day’s
+toil of hard hunting, and leave your ramrod and flint behind?”
+
+“It must be a young hand in the woods,” interrupted Natty, with
+another laugh, “that didn’t know how to dress a rod out of an ash
+sapling or find a fire-stone in the mountains.  No, no, I never
+expected to live forever; but I see, times be altering in these
+mountains from what they was thirty years ago, or, for that matter,
+ten years.  But might makes right, and the law is stronger than an old
+man, whether he is one that has much laming, or only like me, that is
+better now at standing at the passes than in following the hounds, as
+I once used to could.  Heigh-ho! I never know’d preaching come into a
+settlement but it made game scarce, and raised the price of gunpowder;
+and that’s a thing that’s not as easily made as a ramrod or an Indian
+flint.”
+
+The divine, perceiving that he had given his opponent an argument by
+his own unfortunate selection of a comparison, very prudently
+relinquished the controversy; although he was fully determined to
+resume it at a more happy moment, Repeating his request to the young
+hunter with great earnestness, the youth and Indian consented to ac
+company him and his daughter to the dwelling that the care of Mr.
+Jones had provided for their temporary residence.  Leather-Stocking
+persevered in his intention of returning to the hut, and at the door
+of the building they separated.
+
+After following the course of one of the streets of the village a
+short distance.  Mr. Grant, who led the way, turned into a field,
+through a pair of open bars, and entered a footpath, of but sufficient
+width to admit one person to walk in at a time.  The moon had gained a
+height that enabled her to throw her rays perpendicularly on the
+valley; and the distinct shadows of the party flitted along on the
+banks of the silver snow, like the presence of aerial figures, gliding
+to their appointed place of meeting.  The night still continued
+intensely cold, although not a breath of wind was felt.  The path was
+beaten so hard that the gentle female, who made one of the party,
+moved with ease along its windings; though the frost emitted a low
+creaking at the impression of even her light footsteps.
+
+The clergyman in his dark dress of broadcloth, with his mild,
+benevolent countenance occasionally turned toward his companions,
+expressing that look of subdued care which was its characteristic,
+presented the first object in this singular group.  Next to him moved
+the Indian, his hair falling about his face, his head uncovered, and
+the rest of his form concealed beneath his blanket.  As his swarthy
+visage, with its muscles fixed in rigid composure, was seen under the
+light of the moon, which struck his face obliquely, he seemed a
+picture of resigned old age, on whom the storms of winter had beaten
+in vain for the greater part of a century; but when, in turning his
+head, the rays fell directly on his dark, fiery eyes, they told a tale
+of passions unrestrained, and of thoughts free as air.  The slight
+person of Miss Grant, which followed next, and which was but too
+thinly clad for the severity of the season, formed a marked contrast
+to thc wild attire and uneasy glances of the Delaware chief; and more
+than once during their walk, the young hunter, himself no
+insignificant figure in the group, was led to consider the difference
+in the human form, as the face of Mohegan and the gentle countenance
+of Miss Grant, with eyes that rivalled the soft hue of the sky, met
+his view at the instant that each turned to throw a glance at the
+splendid orb which lighted their path.  Their way, which led through
+fields that lay at some distance in the rear of the houses, was
+cheered by a conversation that flagged or became animated with the
+subject.  The first to speak was the divine.
+
+“Really,” he said, “it is so singular a circumstance to meet with one
+of your age, that has not been induced by idle curiosity to visit any
+other church than the one in which he has been educated, that I feel a
+strong curiosity to know the history of a life so fortunately
+regulated.  Your education must have been excellent; as indeed is
+evident from your manners and language.  Of which of the States are
+you a native, Mr. Edwards? for such, I believe, was the name that you
+gave Judge Temple.”
+
+“Of this.”
+
+“Of this! I was at a loss to conjecture, from your dialect, which does
+not partake, particularly, of the peculiarities of any country with
+which I am acquainted.  You have, then, resided much in the cities,
+for no other part of this country is so fortunate as to possess the
+constant enjoyment of our excellent liturgy.”
+
+The young hunter smiled, as he listened to the divine while he so
+clearly betrayed from what part of the country he had come himself;
+but, for reasons probably connected with his present situation, he
+made no answer.
+
+“I am delighted to meet with you, my young friend, for I think an
+ingenuous mind, such as I doubt not yours must be, will exhibit all
+the advantages of a settled doctrine and devout liturgy.  You perceive
+how I was compelled to bend to the humors of my hearers this evening.
+Good Mr. Jones wished me to read the communion, and, in fact, all the
+morning service; but, happily, the canons do not require this of an
+evening.  It would have wearied a new congregation; but to-morrow I
+purpose administering the sacrament, Do you commune, my young friend?”
+
+“I believe not, sir,” returned the youth, with a little embarrassment,
+that was not at all diminished by Miss Grant’s pausing involuntarily,
+and turning her eyes on him in surprise; “I fear that I am not
+qualified; I have never yet approached the altar; neither would I wish
+to do it while I find so much of the world clinging to my heart.”
+
+“Each must judge for himself,” said Mr. Grant; “though I should think
+that a youth who had never been blown about by the wind of false
+doctrines, and who has enjoyed the advantages of our liturgy for so
+many years in its purity, might safely come.  Yet, sir, it is a solemn
+festival, which none should celebrate until there is reason to hope it
+is not mockery.  I observed this evening, in your manner to Judge
+Temple, a resentment that bordered on one of the worst of human
+passions, We will cross this brook on the ice; it must bear us all, I
+think, in safety.  Be careful not to slip, my child.” While speaking,
+he descended a little bank by the path, and crossed one of the small
+streams that poured their waters into the lake; and, turning to see
+his daughter pass, observed that the youth had advanced, and was
+kindly directing her footsteps.  When all were safely over, he moved
+up the opposite bank, and continued his discourse.  “It was wrong, my
+dear sir, very wrong, to suffer such feelings to rise, under any
+circumstances, and especially in the present, where the evil was not
+intended.”
+
+“There is good in the talk of my father,” said Mohegan, stopping
+short, and causing those who Were behind him to pause also; “it is the
+talk of Miquon.  The white man may do as his fathers have told him;
+but the ‘Young Eagle’ has the blood of a Delaware chief in his veins;
+it is red, and the stain it makes can only be washed out with the
+blood of a Mingo.”
+
+Mr. Grant was surprised by the interruption of the Indian, and,
+stopping, faced the speaker.  His mild features were confronted to the
+fierce and determined looks of the chief, and expressed the horror he
+felt at hearing such sentiments from one who professed the religion of
+his Saviour.  Raising his hands to a level with his head, he
+exclaimed:
+
+“John, John! is this the religion that you have learned from the
+Moravians? But no—I will not be so uncharitable as to suppose it.
+They are a pious, a gentle, and a mild people, and could never
+tolerate these passions.  Listen to the language of the Redeemer: ‘But
+I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good
+to them that hate you; pray for them that despitefully use you and
+persecute you.’ This is the command of God, John, and, without
+striving to cultivate such feelings, no man can see Him.”
+
+The Indian heard the divine with attention; the unusual fire of his
+eye gradually softened, and his muscles relaxed into their ordinary
+composure; but, slightly shaking his head, he motioned with dignity
+for Mr. Grant to resume his walk, and followed himself in silence, The
+agitation of the divine caused him to move with unusual rapidity along
+the deep path, and the Indian, without any apparent exertion, kept an
+equal pace; but the young hunter observed the female to linger in her
+steps, until a trifling distance intervened between the two former and
+the latter.  Struck by the circumstance, and not perceiving any new
+impediment to retard her footstep, the youth made a tender of his
+assistance.
+
+“You are fatigued, Miss Grant,” he said; “the snow yields to the foot,
+and you are unequal to the strides of us men.  Step on the crust, I
+entreat you, and take the help of my arm, Yonder light is, I believe,
+the house of your father; but it seems yet at some distance.”
+
+“I am quite equal to the walk,” returned a low, tremulous voice; “but
+I am startled by the manner of that Indian, Oh! his eye was horrid, as
+he turned to the moon, in speaking to my father.  But I forgot, sir;
+he is your friend, and by his language may be your relative; and yet
+of you I do not feel afraid.”
+
+The young man stepped on the bank of snow, which firmly sustained his
+weight, and by a gentle effort induced his companion to follow.
+Drawing her arm through his own, he lifted his cap from his head,
+allowing the dark locks to flow in rich curls over his open brow, and
+walked by her side with an air of conscious pride, as if inviting an
+examination of his utmost thoughts.  Louisa took but a furtive glance
+at his person, and moved quietly along, at a rate that was greatly
+quickened by the aid of his arm.
+
+“You are but little acquainted with this peculiar people, Miss Grant,”
+he said, “or you would know that revenge is a virtue with an Indian.
+They are taught, from infancy upward, to believe it a duty never to
+allow an injury to pass unrevenged; and nothing but the stronger
+claims of hospitality can guard one against their resentments where
+they have power.”
+
+“Surely, sir,” said Miss Grant, involuntarily withdrawing her arm from
+his, “you have not been educated with such unholy sentiments?”
+
+“It might be a sufficient answer to your excellent father to say that
+I was educated in the church,” he returned; “but to you I will add
+that I have been taught deep and practical lessons of forgiveness.  I
+believe that, on this subject, I have but little cause to reproach
+myself; it shall he my endeavor that there yet be less.”
+
+While speaking, he stopped, and stood with his arm again proffered to
+her assistance.  As he ended, she quietly accepted his offer, and they
+resumed their walk.
+
+Mr. Grant and Mohegan had reached the door of the former's residence,
+and stood waiting near its threshold for the arrival of their young
+companions.  The former was earnestly occupied in endeavoring to
+correct, by his precepts, the evil propensities that he had discovered
+in the Indian during their conversation; to which the latter listened
+in Profound but respectful attention.  On the arrival of the young
+hunter and the lady, they entered the building.  The house stood at
+some distance from the village, in the centre of a field, surrounded
+by stumps that were peering above the snow, bearing caps of pure
+white, nearly two feet in thickness.  Not a tree nor a shrub was nigh
+it; but the house, externally, exhibited that cheer less, unfurnished
+aspect which is so common to the hastily erected dwellings of a new
+country.  The uninviting character of its outside was, however,
+happily relieved by the exquisite neatness and comfortable warmth
+within.
+
+They entered an apartment that was fitted as a parlor, though the
+large fireplace, with its culinary arrangements, betrayed the domestic
+uses to which it was occasionally applied.  The bright blaze from the
+hearth rendered the light that proceeded from the candle Louisa
+produced unnecessary; for the scanty furniture of the room was easily
+seen and examined by the former.  The floor was covered in the centre
+by a carpet made of rags, a species of manufacture that was then, and
+yet continues to be, much in use in the interior; while its edges,
+that were exposed to view, were of unspotted cleanliness.  There was a
+trifling air of better life in a tea-table and work-stand, as well as
+in an old-fashioned mahogany bookcase; but the chairs, the dining-
+table, and the rest of the furniture were of the plainest and cheapest
+construction, Against the walls were hung a few specimens of needle-
+work and drawing, the former executed with great neatness, though of
+somewhat equivocal merit in their designs, while the latter were
+strikingly deficient in both,
+
+One of the former represented a tomb, with a youthful female weeping
+over it, exhibiting a church with arched windows in the background.
+On the tomb were the names, with the dates of the births and deaths,
+of several individuals, all of whom bore the name of Grant.  An
+extremely cursory glance at this record was sufficient to discover to
+the young hunter the domestic state of the divine.  He there read that
+he was a widower; and that the innocent and timid maiden, who had been
+his companion, was the only survivor of six children.  The knowledge
+of the dependence which each of these meek Christians had on the other
+for happiness threw an additional charm around the gentle but kind
+attentions which the daughter paid to the father.
+
+These observations occurred while the party were seating themselves
+before the cheerful fire, during which time there was a suspension of
+discourse.  But, when each was comfortably arranged, and Louisa, after
+laying aside a thin coat of faded silk, and a gypsy hat, that was more
+becoming to her modest, ingenuous countenance than appropriate to the
+season, had taken a chair between her father and the youth, the former
+resumed the conversation.
+
+“I trust, my young friend,” he said, “that the education you have
+received has eradicated most of those revengeful principles which you
+may have inherited by descent, for I understand from the expressions
+of John that you have some of the blood of the Delaware tribe.  Do not
+mistake me, I beg, for it is not color nor lineage that constitutes
+merit; and I know not that he who claims affinity to the proper owners
+of this soil has not the best right to tread these hills with the
+lightest conscience.”
+
+Mohegan turned solemnly to the speaker, and, with the peculiarly
+significant gestures of an Indian, he spoke:
+
+“Father, you are not yet past the summer of life; your limbs are
+young.  Go to the highest hill, and look around you.  All that you
+see, from the rising to the setting sun, from the head-waters of the
+great spring, to where the ‘crooked river’* is hid by the hills, is
+his.  He has Delaware blood, and his right is strong.
+
+  * The Susquehannah means crooked river; “hannah,” or “hannock,” meant
+    river in many of the native dialects.  Thus we find Rappahannock as
+    far south as Virginia.
+
+But the brother of Miquon is just; he will cut the country in two
+parts, as the river cuts the lowlands, and will say to the ‘Young
+Eagle,’ ‘Child of the Delawares! take it—keep it; and be a chief in
+the land of your fathers.’”
+
+“Never!” exclaimed the young hunter, with a vehemence that destroyed
+the rapt attention with which the divine and his daughter were
+listening to the Indian.  “The wolf of the forest is not more
+rapacious for his prey than that man is greedy of gold; and yet his
+glidings into wealth are subtle as the movements of a serpent.”
+
+“Forbear, forbear, my son, forbear,” interrupted Mr. Grant.  “These
+angry passions most be subdued.  The accidental injury you have
+received from Judge Temple has heightened the sense of your hereditary
+wrongs.  But remember that the one was unintentional, and that the
+other is the effect of political changes, which have, in their course,
+greatly lowered the pride of kings, and swept mighty nations from the
+face of the earth.  Where now are the Philistines, who so often held
+the children of Israel in bondage? or that city of Babylon, which
+rioted in luxury and vice, and who styled herself the Queen of Nations
+in the drunkenness of her pride? Remember the prayer of our holy
+litany, where we implore the Divine Power—’that it may please thee to
+forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their
+hearts.  The sin of the wrongs which have been done to the natives is
+shared by Judge Temple only in common with a whole people, and your
+arm will speedily be restored to its strength.”
+
+“This arm!” repeated the youth, pacing the floor in violent agitation.
+“Think you, sir, that I believe the man a murderer? Oh, no! he is too
+wily, too cowardly, for such a crime.  But let him and his daughter
+riot in their wealth—a day of retribution will come.  No, no, no,” he
+continued, as he trod the floor more calmly—” it is for Mohegan to
+suspect him of an intent to injure me; but the trifle is not worth a
+second thought.” He seated himself, and hid his face between his
+hands, as they rested on his knees.
+
+“It is the hereditary violence of a native’s passion, my child,” said
+Mr. Grant in a low tone to his affrighted daughter, who was clinging
+in terror to his arm.  “He is mixed with the blood of the Indians, you
+have heard; and neither the refinements of education nor the
+advantages of our excellent liturgy have been able entirely to
+eradicate the evil.  But care and time will do much for him yet.”
+
+Although the divine spoke in a low tone, yet what he uttered was heard
+by the youth, who raised his head, with a smile of indefinite
+expression, and spoke more calmly:
+
+“Be not alarmed, Miss Grant, at either the wildness of my manner or
+that of my dress.  I have been carried away by passions that I should
+struggle to repress.  I must attribute it, with your father, to the
+blood in my veins, although I would not impeach my lineage willingly;
+for it is all that is left me to boast of.  Yes! I am proud of my
+descent from a Delaware chief, who was a warrior that ennobled human
+nature.  Old Mohegan was his friend, and will vouch for his virtues.”
+
+Mr. Grant here took up the discourse, and, finding the young man more
+calm, and the aged chief attentive, he entered into a full and
+theological discussion of the duty of forgiveness.  The conversation
+lasted for more than an hour, when the visitors arose, and, after
+exchanging good wishes with their entertainers, they departed.  At the
+door they separated, Mohegan taking the direct route to the village,
+while the youth moved toward the lake.  The divine stood at the
+entrance of his dwelling, regarding the figure of the aged chief as it
+glided, at an astonishing gait for his years, along the deep path; his
+black, straight hair just visible over the bundle formed by his
+blanket, which was sometimes blended with the snow, under the silvery
+light of the moon.  From the rear of the house was a window that
+overlooked the lake; and here Louisa was found by her father, when he
+entered, gazing intently on some object in the direction of the
+eastern mountain.  He approached the spot, and saw the figure of the
+young hunter, at the distance of half a mile, walking with prodigious
+steps across the wide fields of frozen snow that covered the ice,
+toward the point where he knew the hut inhabited by the Leather-
+Stocking was situated on the margin of the lake, under a rock that was
+crowned by pines and hemlocks.  At the next instant, the wild looking
+form entered the shadow cast from the over-hanging trees, and was lost
+to view.
+
+“It is marvellous how long the propensities of the savage continue in
+that remarkable race,” said the good divine; “but if he perseveres as
+he has commenced, his triumph shall yet be complete.  Put me in mind,
+Louisa, to lend him the homily ‘against peril of idolatry,’ at his
+next visit.”
+
+“Surety, father, you do not think him in danger of relapsing into the
+worship of his ancestors?”
+
+“No, my child,” returned the clergyman, laying his hand affectionately
+on her flaxen locks, and smiling; “his white blood would prevent it;
+but there is such a thing as the idolatry of our passions.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+
+“And I’ll drink out of the quart pot— Here’s a health to the barley
+mow.  “—Drinking Song.
+
+On one of the corners, where the two principal streets of Templeton
+intersected each other, stood, as we have already mentioned, the inn
+called the “Bold Dragoon”. In the original plan it was ordained that
+the village should stretch along the little stream that rushed down
+the valley; and the street which led from the lake to the academy was
+intended to be its western boundary.  But convenience frequently
+frustrates the best-regulated plans.  The house of Mr., or as, in
+consequence of commanding the militia of that vicinity, he was called,
+Captain Hollister, had, at an early day, been erected directly facing
+the main street, and ostensibly interposed a barrier to its further
+progress.  Horsemen, and subsequently teamsters, however, availed
+themselves of an opening, at the end of the building, to shorten their
+passage westward, until in time the regular highway was laid out along
+this course, and houses were gradually built on either side, so as
+effectually to prevent any subsequent correction of the evil.
+
+Two material consequences followed this change in the regular plans of
+Marmaduke.  The main street, after running about half its length, was
+suddenly reduced for precisely that difference in its width; and “Bold
+Dragoon” became, next to the mansion-house, by far the most
+conspicuous edifice in the place.
+
+This conspicuousness, aided by the characters of the host and hostess,
+gave the tavern an advantage over all its future competitors that no
+circumstances could conquer.  An effort was, however, made to do so;
+and at the corner diagonally opposite, stood a new building that was
+in tended, by its occupants, to look down all opposition.  It was a
+house of wood, ornamented in the prevailing style of architecture, and
+about the roof and balustrades was one of the three imitators of the
+mansion-house.  The upper windows were filled with rough boards
+secured by nails, to keep out the cold air—for the edifice was far
+from finished, although glass was to be seen in the lower apartments,
+and the light of the powerful fires within de noted that it was
+already inhabited.  The exterior was painted white on the front and on
+the end which was exposed to the street; but in the rear, and on the
+side which was intended to join the neighboring house, it was coarsely
+smeared with Spanish brown.  Before the door stood two lofty posts,
+connected at the top by a beam, from which was suspended an enormous
+sign, ornamented around its edges with certain curious carvings in
+pine boards, and on its faces loaded with Masonic emblems.  Over these
+mysterious figures was written, in large letters, “The Templeton
+Coffee-house, and Traveller’s Hotel,” and beneath them, “By Habakkuk
+Foote and Joshua Knapp.” This was a fearful rival to the” Bold
+Dragoon,” as our readers will the more readily perceive when we add
+that the same sonorous names were to be seen over a newly erected
+store in the village, a hatter’s shop, and the gates of a tan-yard.
+But, either because too much was attempted to be executed well, or
+that the “Bold Dragoon” had established a reputation which could not
+be easily shaken, not only Judge Temple and his friends, but most of
+the villagers also, who were not in debt to the powerful firm we have
+named, frequented the inn of Captain Hollister on all occasions where
+such a house was necessary
+
+On the present evening the limping veteran and his consort were hardly
+housed after their return from the academy, when the sounds of
+stamping feet at their threshold announced the approach of visitors,
+who were probably assembling with a view to compare opinions on the
+subject of the ceremonies they had witnessed.
+
+The public, or as it was called, the “bar-room,” of the Bold Dragoon,”
+was a spacious apartment, lined on three sides with benches and on the
+fourth by fireplaces.  Of the latter there were two of such size as to
+occupy, with their enormous jambs, the whole of that side of the
+apartment where they were placed, excepting room enough for a door or
+two, and a little apartment in one corner, which was protected by
+miniature palisades, and profusely garnished with bottles and glasses.
+In the entrance to this sanctuary Mrs. Hollister was seated, with
+great gravity in her air, while her husband occupied himself with
+stirring the fires, moving the logs with a large stake burnt to a
+point at one end.
+
+“There, sargeant, dear,” said the landlady, after she thought the
+veteran had got the logs arranged in the most judicious manner, “give
+over poking, for it’s no good ye’ll be doing, now that they burn so
+convaniently.  There’s the glasses on the table there, and the mug
+that the doctor was taking his cider and ginger in, before the fire
+here— just put them in the bar, will ye? for we’ll be having the
+jooge, and the Major, and Mr. Jones down the night, without reckoning
+Benjamin Poomp, and the lawyers; so yell be fixing the room tidy; and
+put both flip irons in the coals; and tell Jude, the lazy black baste,
+that if she’s no be cleaning up the kitchen I’ll turn her out of the
+house, and she may live wid the jontlemen that kape the ‘Coffee
+house,’ good luck to ‘em.  Och! sargeant, sure it’s a great privilege
+to go to a mateing where a body can sit asy, without joomping up and
+down so often, as this Mr. Grant is doing that same.”
+
+“It’s a privilege at all times, Mrs. Hollister, whether we stand or be
+seated; or, as good Mr. Whitefleld used to do after he had made a
+wearisome day’s march, get on our knees and pray, like Moses of old,
+with a flanker to the right and left to lift his hands to heaven,”
+returned her husband, who composedly performed what she had directed
+to be done.  “It was a very pretty fight, Betty, that the Israelites
+had on that day with the Amalekites, It seams that they fout on a
+plain, for Moses is mentioned as having gone on the heights to
+overlook the battle, and wrestle in prayer; and if I should judge,
+with my little larning, the Israelites depended mainly on their horse,
+for it was written ‘that Joshua cut up the enemy with the edge of the
+sword; from which I infer, not only that they were horse, but well
+diseiplyned troops.  Indeed, it says as much as that they were chosen
+men; quite likely volunteers; for raw dragoons seldom strike with the
+edge of their swords, particularly if the weapon be any way crooked.”
+“Pshaw! why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small a
+matter?” interrupted the landlady; “sure, it was the Lord who was with
+‘em; for he always sided with the Jews, before they fell away; and
+it’s but little matter what kind of men Joshua commanded, so that he
+was doing the right bidding.  Aven them cursed millaishy, the Lord
+forgive me for swearing, that was the death of him, wid their
+cowardice, would have carried the day in old times.  There’s no rason
+to be thinking that the soldiers were used to the drill.”
+
+“I must say, Mrs. Hollister, that I have not often seen raw troops
+fight better than the left flank of the militia, at the time you
+mention.  They rallied handsomely, and that without beat of drum,
+which is no easy thing to do under fire, and were very steady till he
+fell.  But the Scriptures contain no unnecessary words; and I will
+maintain that horse, who know how to strike with the edge of the
+sword, must be well disoiplyned.  Many a good sarmon has been preached
+about smaller matters than that one word! If the text was not meant to
+be particular, why wasn’t it written with the sword, and not with the
+edge? Now, a back-handed stroke, on the edge, takes long practice.
+Goodness! what an argument would Mr. Whitefield make of that word
+edge! As to the captain, if he had only called up the guard of
+dragoons when he rallied the foot, they would have shown the inimy
+what the edge of a sword was; for, although there was no commissioned
+officer with them, yet I think I must say,” the veteran continued,
+stiffening his cravat about his throat, and raising himself up with
+tile air of a drill-sergeant, “they were led by a man who knowed how
+to bring them on.  in spite of the ravine.”
+
+“Is it lade on ye would,” cried the landlady, “when ye know yourself,
+Mr. Hollister, that the baste he rode was but little able to joomp
+from one rock to another, and the animal was as spry as a squirrel?
+Och! but it’s useless to talk, for he’s gone this many a year.  I
+would that he had lived to see the true light; but there’s mercy for a
+brave sowl, that died in the saddle, fighting for the liberty.  It is
+a poor tombstone they have given him, anyway, and many a good one that
+died like himself; but the sign is very like, and I will be kapeing it
+up, while the blacksmith can make a hook for it to swing on, for all
+the ‘coffee-houses’ betwane this and Albany.”
+
+There is no saying where this desultory conversation would have led
+the worthy couple, had not the men, who were stamping the snow off
+their feet on the little plat form before the door, suddenly ceased
+their occupation, and entered the bar-room.
+
+For ten or fifteen minutes the different individuals, who intended
+either to bestow or receive edification before the fires of the “Bold
+Dragoon” on that evening, were collecting, until the benches were
+nearly filled with men of different occupations.  Dr. Todd and a
+slovenly-looking, shabby-genteel young man, who took tobacco
+profusely, wore a coat of imported cloth cut with something like a
+fashionable air, frequently exhibited a large French silver watch,
+with a chain of woven hair and a silver key, and who, altogether,
+seemed as much above the artisans around him as he was himself
+inferior to the real gentle man, occupied a high-back wooden settee,
+in the most comfortable corner in the apartment.
+
+Sundry brown mugs, containing cider or beer, were placed between the
+heavy andirons, and little groups were found among the guests as
+subjects arose or the liquor was passed from one to the other.  No man
+was seen to drink by himself, nor in any instance was more than one
+vessel considered necessary for the same beverage; but the glass or
+the mug was passed from hand to hand until a chasm in the line or a
+regard to the rights of ownership would regularly restore the dregs of
+the potation to him who de frayed the cost.
+
+Toasts were uniformly drunk; and occasionally some one who conceived
+himself peculiarly endowed by Nature to shine in the way of wit would
+attempt some such sentiment as “ hoping that he” who treated “might
+make a better man than his father;” or “live till all his friends
+wished him dead;” while the more humble pot-companion contented
+himself by saying, with a most composing gravity in his air, “Come,
+here’s luck,” or by expressing some other equally comprehensive
+desire.  In every instance the veteran landlord was requested to
+imitate the custom of the cupbearers to kings, and taste the liquor he
+presented, by the invitation of “After you is manners,” with which
+request he ordinarily complied by wetting his lips, first expressing
+the wish of “Here’s hoping,” leaving it to the imagination of the
+hearers to fill the vacuum by whatever good each thought most
+desirable.  During these movements the landlady was busily occupied
+with mixing the various compounds required by her customers, with her
+own hands, and occasionally exchanging greetings and inquiries
+concerning the conditions of their respective families, with such of
+the villagers as approached the bar.
+
+At length the common thirst being in some measure assuaged,
+conversation of a more general nature became the order of the hour.
+The physician and his companion, who was one of the two lawyers of the
+village, being considered the best qualified to maintain a public
+discourse with credit, were the principal speakers, though a remark
+was hazarded, now and then, by Mr. Doolittle, who was thought to be
+their inferior only in the enviable point of education.  A general
+silence was produced on all but the two speakers, by the following
+observation from the practitioner of the law:
+
+“So, Dr. Todd, I understand that you have been per forming an
+important operation this evening by cutting a charge of buckshot from
+the shoulder of the son of Leather-Stocking?”
+
+“Yes, sir,” returned other, elevating his little head with an air of
+importance.  “I had a small job up at the Judge’s in that way; it was,
+however, but a trifle to what it might have been, had it gone through
+the body.  The shoulder is not a very vital part; and I think the
+young man will soon be well.  But I did not know that the patient was
+a son of Leather-Stocking; it is news to me to hear that Natty had a
+wife.”
+
+“It is by no means a necessary consequence, returned the other,
+winking, with a shrewd look around the bar room; “there is such a
+thing, I suppose you know, in law as a filius nullius.”
+
+“Spake it out, man,” exclaimed the landlady; “spake it out in king’s
+English; what for should ye be talking Indian in a room full of
+Christian folks, though it is about a poor hunter, who is but little
+better in his ways than the wild savages themselves? Och! it’s to be
+hoped that the missionaries will, in his own time, make a conversion
+of the poor devils; and then it will matter little of what color is
+the skin, or wedder there be wool or hair on the head.”
+
+“Oh! it is Latin, not Indian, Miss Hollister!” returned the lawyer,
+repeating his winks and shrewd looks; “and Dr. Todd understands Latin,
+or how would he read the labels on his gailipots and drawers? No, no,
+Miss Hollis ter, the doctor understands me; don’t you, doctor?”
+
+“Hem—why, I guess I am not far out of the way,” returned Elnathan,
+endeavoring to imitate the expression of the other’s countenance, by
+looking jocular.  “Latin is a queer language, gentlemen; now I rather
+guess there is no one in the room, except Squire Lippet, who can
+believe that ‘Far.  Av.’ means oatmeal, in English.”
+
+The lawyer in his turn was a good deal embarrassed by this display of
+learning; for, although he actually had taken his first degree at one
+of the eastern universities, he was somewhat puzzled with the terms
+used by his companion.  It was dangerous, however, to appear to he out
+done in learning in a public bar-room, and before so many of his
+clients; he therefore put the best face on the matter, and laughed
+knowingly as if there were a good joke concealed under it, that was
+understood only by the physician and himself. All this was attentively
+observed by the listeners, who exchanged looks of approbation; and the
+expressions of “ tonguey mati,” and “I guess Squire Lippet knows if
+anybody does,” were heard in different parts of the room, as vouchers
+for the admiration of his auditors.  Thus encouraged, the lawyer rose
+from his chair, and turning his back to the fire, and facing the
+company, he continued:
+
+“The son of Natty, or the son of nobody, I hope the young man is not
+going to let the matter drop.  This is a country of law; and I should
+like to see it fairly tried, whether a man who owns, or says he owns,
+a hundred thousand acres of land, has any more right to shoot a body
+than another.  What do you think of it, Dr. Todd?”
+
+Oh, sir, I am of opinion that the gentleman will soon be well, as I
+said before; the wound isn’t in a vital part; and as the ball was
+extracted so soon, and the shoulder was what I call well attended to,
+I do not think there is as much danger as there might have been.”
+“I say, Squire Doolittle,” continued the attorney, raising his voice,
+“you are a magistrate, and know what is law and what is not law.  I
+ask you, sir, if shooting a man is a thing that is to be settled so
+very easily? Suppose, sir, that the young man had a wife and family;
+and suppose that he was a mechanic like yourself, sir; and sup pose
+that his family depended on him for bread; and suppose that the ball,
+instead of merely going through the flesh, had broken the shoulder-
+blade, and crippled him forever; I ask you all, gentlemen, supposing
+this to be the case, whether a jury wouldn’t give what I call handsome
+damages?”
+
+As the close of this supposititious case was addressed to the company
+generally, Hiram did not at first consider himself called on for a
+reply; but finding the eyes of the listeners bent on him in
+expectation, he remembered his character for judicial discrimination,
+and spoke, observing a due degree of deliberation and dignity.
+
+“Why, if a man should shoot another,” he said, “ and if he should do
+it on purpose and if the law took notice on’t, and if a jury should
+find him guilty, it would be likely to turn out a state-prison
+matter.”
+
+“It would so, sir,” returned the attorney.  “The law, gentlemen, is no
+respecter of persons in a free country.  It is one of the great
+blessings that has been handed down to us from our ancestors, that all
+men are equal in the eye of the laws, as they are by nater.  Though
+some may get property, no one knows how, yet they are not privileged
+to transgress the laws any more than the poorest citizen in the State.
+This is my notion, gentlemen: and I think that it a man had a mind to
+bring this matter up, something might be made out of it that would
+help pay for the salve—ha! doctor!”
+
+“Why, sir,” returned the physician, who appeared a little uneasy at
+the turn the conversation was taking, “I have the promise of Judge
+Temple before men—not but what I would take his word as soon as his
+note of hand— but it was before men.  Let me see—there was Mounshier
+Ler Quow, and Squire Jones, and Major Hartmann, and Miss Pettibone,
+and one or two of the blacks by, when he said that his pocket would
+amply reward me for what I did.”
+
+“Was the promise made before or after the service was performed?”
+asked the attorney.
+
+“It might have been both,” returned the discreet physician; “though
+I’m certain he said so before I undertook the dressing.”
+
+“But it seems that he said his pocket should reward you, doctor,”
+observed Hiram.  “Now I don’t know that the law will hold a man to
+such a promise; he might give you his pocket with sixpence in’t, and
+tell you to take your pay out on’t,”
+
+“That would not be a reward in the eye of the law, interrupted the
+attorney—” not what is called a ‘quid pro quo;’ nor is the pocket to
+be considered as an agent, but as part of a man’s own person, that is,
+in this particular.  I am of opinion that an action would lie on that
+promise, and I will undertake to bear him out, free of costs, if he
+don’t recover.”
+
+To this proposition the physician made no reply; but he was observed
+to cast his eyes around him, as if to enumerate the witnesses, in
+order to substantiate this promise also, at a future day, should it
+prove necessary.  A subject so momentous as that of suing Judge Temple
+was not very palatable to the present company in so public a place;
+and a short silence ensued, that was only interrupted by the opening
+of the door, and the entrance of Natty himself.
+
+The old hunter carried in his hand his never-failing companion, the
+rifle; and although all of the company were uncovered excepting the
+lawyer, who wore his hat on one side, with a certain dam’me air, Natty
+moved to the front of one of the fires without in the least altering
+any part of his dress or appearance.  Several questions were addressed
+to him, on the subject of the game he had killed, which he answered
+readily, and with some little interest; and the landlord, between whom
+and Natty there existed much cordiality, on account of their both
+having been soldiers in youth, offered him a glass of a liquid which,
+if we might judge from its reception, was no unwelcome guest.  When
+the forester had got his potation also, he quietly took his seat on
+the end of one of the logs that lay nigh the fires, and the slight
+interruption produced by his entrance seemed to he forgotten.
+
+“The testimony of the blacks could not be taken, sir,” continued the
+lawyer, “for they are all the property of Mr. Jones, who owns their
+time.  But there is a way by which Judge Temple, or any other man,
+might be made to pay for shooting another, and for the cure in the
+bargain.  There is a way, I say, and that without going into the
+‘court of errors,’ too,”
+
+“And a mighty big error ye would make of it, Mister Todd,” cried the
+landlady, “should ye be putting the mat ter into the law at all, with
+Joodge Temple, who has a purse as long as one of them pines on the
+hill, and who is an asy man to dale wid, if yees but mind the humor of
+him.  He’s a good man is Joodge Temple, and a kind one, and one who
+will be no the likelier to do the pratty thing, becase ye would wish
+to tarrify him wid the law.  I know of but one objaction to the same,
+which is an over-careless ness about his sowl.  It’s neither a
+Methodie, nor a Papish, nor Parsbetyrian, that he is, but just nothing
+at all; and it’s hard to think that he, ‘who will not fight the good
+fight, under the banners of a rig’lar church, in this world, will be
+mustered among the chosen in heaven,’ as my husband, the captain
+there, as ye call him, says—though there is but one captain that I
+know, who desarves the name.  I hopes, Lather-Stocking, ye’ll no be
+foolish, and putting the boy up to try the law in the matter; for
+‘twill be an evil day to ye both, when ye first turn the skin of so
+paceable an animal as a sheep into a bone of contention, The lad is
+wilcome to his drink for nothing, until his shoulther will bear the
+rifle agin.”
+
+“Well, that’s gin’rous,” was heard from several mouths at once, for
+this was a company in which a liberal offer was not thrown away; while
+the hunter, instead ‘of expressing any of that indignation which he
+might be sup posed to feel, at hearing the hurt of his young companion
+alluded to, opened his mouth, with the silent laugh for which he was
+so remarkable; and after he had indulged his humor, made this reply:
+
+“I knowed the Judge would do nothing with his smooth bore when he got
+out of his sleigh.  I never saw but one smooth-bore that would carry
+at all, and that was a French ducking-piece, upon the big lakes; it
+had a barrel half as long agin as my rifle, and would throw fine shot
+into a goose at one hundred yards; but it made dreadful work with the
+game, and you wanted a boat to carry it about in.  When I went with
+Sir William agin’ the French, at Fort Niagara, all the rangers used
+the rifle; and a dreadful weapon it is, in the hands of one who knows
+how to charge it, and keep a steady aim.  The captain knows, for he
+says he was a soldier in Shirley’s; and, though they were nothing but
+baggonet-men, he must know how we cut up the French and Iroquois in
+the skrimmages in that war.  Chingachgook, which means ‘Big Sarpent’
+in English, old John Mohegan, who lives up at the hut with me, was a
+great warrior then, and was out with us; he can tell all about it,
+too; though he was overhand for the tomahawk, never firing more than
+once or twice, before he was running in for the scalps.  Ah! times is
+dreadfully altered since then.  Why, doctor, there was nothing but a
+foot path, or at the most a track for pack-horses, along the Mohawk,
+from the Jarman Flats up to the forts.  Now, they say, they talk of
+running one of them wide roads with gates on it along the river; first
+making a road, and then fencing it up! I hunted one season back of the
+Kaatskills, nigh-hand to the settlements, and the dogs often lost the
+scent, when they came to them highways, there was so much travel on
+them; though I can’t say that the brutes was of a very good breed.
+Old Hector will wind a deer, in the fall of the year, across the
+broadest place in the Otsego, and that is a mile and a half, for I
+paced it my self on the ice, when the tract was first surveyed, under
+the Indian grant.”
+
+“It sames to me, Natty, but a sorry compliment to call your comrad
+after the evil one,” said the landlady; “and it’s no much like a snake
+that old John is looking now, Nimrod would be a more becomeing name
+for the lad, and a more Christian, too, seeing that it conies from the
+Bible.  The sargeant read me the chapter about him, the night before
+my christening, and a mighty asement it was to listen to anything from
+the book.”
+
+“Old John and Chingachgook were very different men to look on,”
+returned the hunter, shaking his head at his melancholy recollections.
+“In the ‘fifty-eighth war’ he was in the middle of manhood, and taller
+than now by three inches.  If you had seen him, as I did, the morning
+we beat Dieskau, from behind our log walls, you would have called him
+as comely a redskin as ye ever set eyes on.  He was naked all to his
+breech-cloth and leggins; and you never seed a creatur’ so handsomely
+painted.  One side of his face was red and the other black.  His head
+was shaved clean, all to a few hairs on the crown, where he wore a
+tuft of eagle’s feathers, as bright as if they had come from a
+peacock’s tail.  He had colored his sides so that they looked like
+anatomy, ribs and all, for Chingachgook had a great taste in such
+things, so that, what with his bold, fiery countenance, his knife, and
+his tomahawk, I have never seen a fiercer warrior on the ground.  He
+played his part, too, like a man, for I saw him next day with thirteen
+scalps on his pole.  And I will say this for the ‘Big Snake,’ that he
+always dealt fair, and never scalped any that he didn’t kill with his
+own hands.”
+
+“Well, well!” cried the landlady, “fighting is fighting
+anyway, and there is different fashions in the thing; though
+I can’t say that I relish mangling a body after the breath
+is out of it; neither do I think it can be uphild by doctrine.
+I hope, sargeant, ye niver was helping in sich evil worrek.”
+“It was my duty to keep my ranks, and to stand or fall by the baggonet
+or lead,” returned the veteran.  “I was then in the fort, and seldom
+leaving my place, saw but little of the savages, who kept on the
+flanks or in front, skrimmaging.  I remember, howsomever, to have
+heard mention made of the ‘Great Snake,’ as he was called, for he was
+a chief of renown; but little did I ever expect to see him enlisted in
+the cause of Christianity, and civilized like old John.”
+
+“Oh! he was Christianized by the Moravians, who were always over-
+intimate with the Delawares,” said Leather-Stocking.  “It’s my opinion
+that, had they been left to themselves, there would he no such doings
+now about the head-waters of the two rivers, and that these hills
+mought have been kept as good hunting-ground by their right owner, who
+is not too old to carry a rifle, and whose sight is as true as a fish-
+hawk hovering—”
+
+He was interrupted by more stamping at the door, and presently the
+party from the mansion-house entered, followed by the Indian himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+
+“There’s quart-pot, pint-pot.  Mit-pint,
+Gill-pot, half-gill.  nipperkin.
+And the brown bowl— Here’s a health to the barley mow,
+My brave boys, Here’s a health to the barley mow.”—Drinking Song.
+
+Some little commotion was produced by the appearance of the new
+guests, during which the lawyer slunk from the room.  Most of the men
+approached Marmaduke, and shook his offered hand, hoping “that the
+Judge was well;” while Major Hartmann having laid aside his hat and
+wig, and substituted for the latter a warm, peaked woollen nightcap,
+took his seat very quietly on one end of the settee, which was
+relinquished by its former occupant.  His tobacco-box was next
+produced, and a clean pipe was handed him by the landlord.  When he
+had succeeded in raising a smoke, the Major gave a long whiff, and,
+turning his head toward the bar, he said:
+
+“Petty, pring in ter toddy.”
+
+In the mean time the Judge had exchanged his salutations with most of
+the company, and taken a place by the side of the Major, and Richard
+had bustled himself into the most comfortable seat in the room.  Mr.
+Le Quoi was the last seated, nor did he venture to place his chair
+finally, until by frequent removals he had ascertained that he could
+not possibly intercept a ray of heat front any individual present.
+Mohegan found a place on an end of one of the benches, and somewhat
+approximated to the bar.
+
+When these movements had subsided, the Judge remarked pleasantly:
+Well, Betty, I find you retain your popularity through all weathers,
+against all rivals, and among all religions.  How liked you the
+sermon?”
+
+“Is it the sarmon?” exclaimed the landlady.  “I can’t say but it was
+rasonable; but the prayers is mighty unasy.  It’s no small a matter
+for a body in their fifty-nint’ year to be moving so much in church.
+Mr. Grant sames a godly man, any way, and his garrel a hommble on; and
+a devout.  Here, John, is a mug of cider, laced with whiskey.  An
+Indian will drink cider, though he niver be athirst.
+“I must say,” observed Hiram, with due deliberation, “that it was a
+tongney thing; and I rather guess that it gave considerable
+satisfaction, There was one part, though, which might have been left
+out, or something else put in; but then I s’pose that, as it was a
+written discourse, it is not so easily altered as where a minister
+preaches without notes.”
+
+“Ày! there’s the rub, Joodge,” cried the landlady.  “How can a man
+stand up and be preaching his word, when all that he is saying is
+written down, and he is as much tied to it as iver a thaving dragoon
+was to the pickets?”
+
+“Well, well,” cried Marmaduke, waving his hand for silence, “there is
+enough said; as Mr. Grant told us, there are different sentiments on
+such subjects, and in my opinion he spoke most sensibly.  So, Jotham,
+I am told you have sold your betterments to a new settler, and have
+moved into the village and opened a school.  Was it cash or dicker?”
+
+The man who was thus addressed occupied a seat immediately behind
+Marmaduke, and one who was ignorant of the extent of the Judge’s
+observation might have thought he would have escaped notice.  He was
+of a thin, shapeless figure, with a discontented expression of
+countenance, and with something extremely shiftless in his whole air,
+Thus spoken to, after turning and twisting a little, by way of
+preparation, he made a reply:
+
+“Why part cash and part dicker.  I sold out to a Pumfietman who was
+so’thin’ forehanded.  He was to give me ten dollar an acre for the
+clearin’, and one dollar an acre over the first cost on the woodland,
+and we agreed to leave the buildin’s to men.  So I tuck Asa Montagu,
+and he tuck Absalom Bement, and they two tuck old Squire Napthali
+Green.  And so they had a meetin’, and made out a vardict of eighty
+dollars for the buildin’s.  There was twelve acres of clearin’ at ten
+dollars, and eighty-eight at one, and the whole came to two hundred
+and eighty-six dollars and a half, after paying the men.”
+
+“Hum,” said Marmaduke, “what did you give for the place?”
+
+“Why, besides what’s comin’ to the Judge, I gi’n my brother Tim a
+hundred dollars for his bargain; but then there’s a new house on’t,
+that cost me sixty more, and I paid Moses a hundred dollars for
+choppin’, and loggin’, and sowin’, so that the whole stood to me in
+about two hundred and sixty dollars.  But then I had a great crop oft
+on’t, and as I got twenty-six dollars and a half more than it cost, I
+conclude I made a pretty good trade on’t.”
+
+“Yes, but you forgot that the crop was yours without the trade, and
+you have turned yourself out of doors for twenty-six dollars.”
+
+“Oh! the Judge is clean out,” said the man with a look of sagacious
+calculation; “he turned out a span of horses, that is wuth a hundred
+and fifty dollars of any man’s money, with a bran-new wagon; fifty
+dollars in cash, and a good note for eighty more; and a side-saddle
+that was valued at seven and a half—so there was jist twelve shillings
+betwixt us.  I wanted him to turn out a set of harness, and take the
+cow and the sap troughs.  He wouldn’t—but I saw through it; he thought
+I should have to buy the tacklin’ afore I could use the wagon and
+horses; but I knowed a thing or two myself; I should like to know of
+what use is the tacklin’ to him! I offered him to trade back agin for
+one hundred and fifty-five.  But my woman said she wanted to churn, so
+I tuck a churn for the change.”
+
+“And what do you mean to do with your time this winter? You must
+remember that time is money.”
+
+“Why, as master has gone down country to see his mother, who, they
+say, is going to make a die on’t, I agreed to take the school in hand
+till he comes back, It times doesn’t get worse in the spring, I’ve
+some notion of going into trade, or maybe I may move off to the
+Genesee; they say they are carryin’ on a great stroke of business
+that-a-way.  If the wust comes to the wust, I can but work at my
+trade, for I was brought up in a shoe manufactory.”
+
+It would seem that Marmaduke did not think his society of sufficient
+value to attempt inducing him to remain where he was, for he addressed
+no further discourse to the man, but turned his attention to other
+subjects.  After a short pause, Hiram ventured a question:
+
+“What news does the Judge bring us from the Legislature? It’s not
+likely that Congress has done much this session; or maybe the French
+haven’t fit any more battles lately?”
+
+“The French, since they have beheaded their king, have done nothing
+but fight,” returned the Judge.  “The character of the nation seems
+changed.  I knew many French gentlemen during our war, and they all
+appeared to me to be men of great humanity and goodness of heart; but
+these Jacobins are as blood thirsty as bull-dogs.”
+
+“There was one Roshambow wid us down at Yorrektown,” cried the
+landlady “a mighty pratty man he was too; and their horse was the very
+same.  It was there that the sargeant got the hurt in the leg from the
+English batteries, bad luck to ‘em.”
+
+“Oh! mon pauvre roil” muttered Monsieur Le Quoi.
+
+“The Legislature have been passing laws,” continued Marmaduke, “that
+the country much required.  Among others, there is an act prohibiting
+the drawing of seines, at any other than proper seasons, in certain of
+our streams and small lakes; and another, to prohibit the killing of
+deer in the teeming months.  These are laws that were loudly called
+for by judicious men; nor do I despair of getting an act to make the
+unlawful felling of timber a criminal offence.”
+
+The hunter listened to this detail with breathless attention, and,
+when the Judge had ended, he laughed in open derision.
+
+“You may make your laws, Judge,” be cried, “but who will you find to
+watch the mountains through the long summer days, or the lakes at
+night? Game is game, and be who finds may kill; that has been the law
+in these mountains for forty years to my sartain knowledge; and I
+think one old law is worth two new ones.  None but a green one would
+wish to kill a doe with a fa’n by its side, unless his moccasins were
+getting old, or his leggins ragged, for the flesh is lean and coarse.
+But a rifle rings among the rocks along the lake shore, sometimes, as
+if fifty pieces were fired at once—it would be hard to tell where the
+man stood who pulled the trigger.”
+
+“Armed with the dignity of the law, Mr. Bumppo,” returned the Judge,
+gravely, “a vigilant magistrate can prevent much of the evil that has
+hitherto prevailed, and which is already rendering the game scarce.  I
+hope to live to see the day when a man’s rights in his game shall be
+as much respected as his title to his farm,”
+
+“Your titles and your farms are all new together,” cried Natty; “but
+laws should be equal, and not more for one than another.  I shot a
+deer, last Wednesday was a fort night, and it floundered through the
+snow-banks till it got over a brush fence; I catched the lock of my
+rifle in the twigs in following, and was kept back, until finally the
+creature got off.  Now I want to know who is to pay me for that deer;
+and a fine buck it was.  If there hadn’t been a fence I should have
+gotten another shot into it; and I never drawed upon anything that
+hadn’t wings three times running, in my born days.  No, no, Judge,
+it’s the farmers that makes the game scarce, and not the hunters.”
+
+“Ter teer is not so plenty as in tee old war, Pumppo,” said the Major,
+who had been an attentive listener, amid clouds of smoke; “put ter
+lant is not mate as for ter teer to live on, put for Christians.”
+
+“Why, Major, I believe you’re a friend to justice and the right,
+though you go so often to the grand house; but it’s a hard case to a
+man to have his honest calling for a livelihood stopped by laws, and
+that, too, when, if right was done, he mought hunt or fish on any day
+in the week, or on the best flat in the Patent, if he was so minded.”
+
+“I unterstant you, Letter-Stockint,” returned the Major, fixing his
+black eyes, with a look of peculiar meaning, on the hunter: “put you
+didn’t use to be so prutent as to look ahet mit so much care.”
+
+“Maybe there wasn’t so much occasion,” said the hunter, a little
+sulkily; when he sank into a silence from which be was not roused for
+some time.
+
+“The Judge was saying so’thin’ about the French,” Hiram observed when
+the pause in the conversation had continued a decent time.
+
+“Yes, sir,” returned Marmaduke, “the Jacobins of France seem rushing
+from one act of licentiousness to an other, They continue those
+murders which are dignified by the name of executions.  You have heard
+that they have added the death of their queen to the long list of
+their crimes.”
+
+“Les monstres!” again murmured Monsieur Le Quoi, turning himself
+suddenly in his chair, with a convulsive start.
+
+“The province of La Vendée is laid waste by the troops of the
+republic, and hundreds of its inhabitants, who are royalists in their
+sentiments, are shot at a time.  La Vendée is a district in the
+southwest of France, that continues yet much attached to the family of
+the Bourbons; doubtless Monsieur Le Quoi is acquainted with it, and
+can describe it more faithfully.”
+
+“Non, non, non, mon cher ami,” returned the Frenchman in a suppressed
+voice, but speaking rapidly, and gesticulating with his right hand, as
+if for mercy, while with his left he concealed his eyes.
+
+“There have been many battles fought lately,” continued Marmaduke,
+“and the infuriated republicans are too often victorious.  I cannot
+say, however, that I am sorry that they have captured Toulon from the
+English, for it is a place to which they have a just right.”
+
+“Ah—ha!” exclaimed Monsieur Le Quoi, springing on his feet and
+flourishing both arms with great animation; “ces Anglais!”
+
+The Frenchman continued to move about the room with great alacrity for
+a few minutes, repeating his exclamations to himself; when overcome by
+the contrary nature of his emotions, he suddenly burst out of the
+house, and was seen wading through the snow toward his little shop,
+waving his arms on high, as if to pluck down honor from the moon.  His
+departure excited but little surprise, for the villagers were used to
+his manner; but Major Hartmann laughed outright, for the first during
+his visit, as he lifted the mug, and observed:
+
+“Ter Frenchman is mat—put he is goot as for noting to trink: he is
+trunk mit joy.”
+
+“The French are good soldiers,” said Captain Hollis ter; “they stood
+us in hand a good turn at Yorktown; nor do I think, although I am an
+ignorant man about the great movements of the army, that his
+excellency would have been able to march against Cornwallis without
+their reinforcements.”
+
+“Ye spake the trot’, sargeant,” interrupted his wife, “and I would
+iver have ye be doing the same.  It’s varry pratty men is the French;
+and jist when I stopt the cart, the time when ye was pushing on in
+front it was, to kape the riglers in, a rigiment of the jontlemen
+marched by, and so I dealt them out to their liking.  Was it pay I
+got? Sure did I, and in good solid crowns; the divil a bit of
+continental could they muster among them all, for love nor money.
+Och! the Lord forgive me for swearing and spakeing of such vanities;
+but this I will say for the French, that they paid in good silver; and
+one glass would go a great way wid ‘em, for they gin’rally handed it
+back wid a drop in the cup; and that’s a brisk trade, Joodge, where
+the pay is good, and the men not over-partic’lar.”
+
+“A thriving trade, Mrs. Hollister,” said Marmaduke.  “But what has
+become of Richard? he jumped up as soon as seated, and has been absent
+so long that I am really fearful he has frozen.”
+
+“No fear of that, Cousin ‘Duke,” cried the gentleman himself;
+“business will sometimes keep a man warm the coldest night that ever
+snapt in the mountains.  Betty, your husband told me, as we came out
+of church, that your hogs were getting mangy, and so I have been out
+to take a look at them, and found it true.  I stepped across, doctor,
+and got your boy to weigh me out a pound of salts, and have been
+mixing it with their swill.  I’ll bet a saddle of venison against a
+gray squirrel that they are better in a week.  And now, Mrs.
+Hollister, I’m ready for a hissing mug of flip.”
+
+“Sure I know’d ye’d be wanting that same,” said the landlady; “it’s
+fixt and ready to the boiling.  Sargeant, dear, be handing up the
+iron, will ye?—no, the one on the far fire, it’s black, ye will see.
+Ah! you’ve the thing now; look if it’s not as red as a cherry.”
+The beverage was heated, and Richard took that kind of draught which
+men are apt to indulge in who think that they have just executed a
+clever thing, especially when they like the liquor.
+
+“Oh! you have a hand.  Betty, that was formed to mix flip,” cried
+Richard, when he paused for breath.  “The very iron has a flavor in
+it.  Here, John, drink, man, drink! I and you and Dr. Todd have done a
+good thing with the shoulder of that lad this very night.  ‘Duke, I
+made a song while you were gone—one day when I had nothing to do; so
+I'll sing you a verse or two, though I haven’t really determined on
+the tune yet.
+
+“What is life but a scene of care,
+Where each one must toil in his way?
+Then let us be jolly, and prove that we are
+A set of good fellows, who seem very rare,
+And can laugh and sing all the day.
+Then let us be jolly
+And cast away folly,
+For grief turns a black head to gray.”
+
+“There, ‘Duke, what do you think of that? There is another verse of
+it, all but the last line.  I haven’t got a rhyme for the last line
+yet.  Well, old John, what do you think of the music? as good as one
+of your war-songs, ha?”
+
+“Good!” said Mohegan, who had been sharing deeply in the potations of
+the landlady, besides paying a proper respect to the passing mugs of
+the Major and Marmaduke.
+
+“Bravo! pravo! Richart,” cried the Major, whose black eyes were
+beginning to swim in moisture; “pravisimo his a goot song; put Natty
+Pumppo has a petter.  Letter-Stockint, vilt sing? say, olt poy, vilt
+sing ter song as apout ter wools?”
+
+“No, no, Major,” returned the hunter, with a melancholy shake of the
+head, “I have lived to see what I thought eyes could never behold in
+these hills, and I have no heart left for singing.  If he that has a
+right to be master and ruler here is forced to squinch his thirst,
+when a-dry, with snow-Water, it ill becomes them that have lived by
+his bounty to be making merry, as if there was nothing in the world
+but sunshine and summer.”
+
+When he had spoken, Leather-Stocking again dropped his head on his
+knees, and concealed his hard and wrinkled features with his hands.
+The change from the excessive cold without to the heat of the bar-
+room, coupled with the depth and frequency of Richard’s draughts, had
+already levelled whatever inequality there might have existed between
+him and the other guests, on the score of spirits; and he now held out
+a pair of swimming mugs of foaming flip toward the hunter, as he
+cried:
+
+“Merry! ay! merry Christmas to you, old boy! Sun shine and summer! no!
+you are blind, Leather-Stocking, ‘tis moonshine and winter—take these
+spectacles.  and open your eyes— So let us be jolly,
+
+And cast away folly,
+
+For grief turns a black head to gray.’
+
+—Hear how old John turns his quavers.  What damned dull music an
+Indian song is, after all, Major! I wonder if they ever sing by note.”
+
+While Richard was singing and talking, Mohegan was uttering dull,
+monotonous tones, keeping time by a gentle motion of his head and
+body.  He made use of but few words, and such as he did utter were in
+his native language, and consequently only understood by himself and
+Natty.  Without heeding Richard, he continued to sing a kind of wild,
+melancholy air, that rose, at times, in sudden and quite elevated
+notes, and then fell again into the low, quavering sounds that seemed
+to compose the character of his music.
+
+The attention of the company was now much divided, the men in the rear
+having formed themselves into little groups, where they were
+discussing various matters; among the principal of which were the
+treatment of mangy hogs and Parson Grant’s preaching; while Dr. Todd
+was endeavoring to explain to Marmaduke the nature of the hurt
+received by the young hunter.  Mohegan continued to sing, while his
+countenance was becoming vacant, though, coupled with his thick, bushy
+hair, it was assuming an expression very much like brutal ferocity.
+His notes were gradually growing louder, and soon rose to a height
+that caused a general cessation in the discourse.  The hunter now
+raised his head again, and addressed the old warrior warmly in the
+Delaware language, which, for the benefit of our readers, we shall
+render freely into English.
+
+“Why do you sing of your battles, Chingachgook, and of the warriors
+you have slain, when the worst enemy of all is near you, and keeps the
+Young Eagle from his rights? I have fought in as many battles as any
+warrior in your tribe, but cannot boast of my deeds at such a time as
+this.”
+
+“Hawk-eye,” said the Indian, tottering with a doubtful step from his
+place, “I am the Great Snake of the Delawares; I can track the Mingoes
+like an adder that is stealing on the whip-poor-will’s eggs, and
+strike them like the rattlesnake dead at a blow.  The white man made
+the tomahawk of Chingachgook bright as the waters of Otsego, when the
+last sun is shining; but it is red with the blood of the Maquas.”
+
+“And why have you slain the Mingo warriors? Was it not to keep these
+hunting-grounds and lakes to your father’s children? and were they not
+given in solemn council to the Fire-eater? and does not the blood of a
+warrior run in the veins of a young chief, who should speak aloud
+where his voice is now too low to be heard?”
+
+The appeal of the hunter seemed in some measure to recall the confused
+faculties of the Indian, who turned his face toward the listeners and
+gazed intently on the Judge.  He shook his head, throwing his hair
+back from his countenance, and exposed eyes that were glaring with an
+expression of wild resentment.  But the man was not himself.  His hand
+seemed to make a fruitless effort to release his tomahawk, which was
+confined by its handle to his belt, while his eyes gradually became
+vacant.  Richard at that instant thrusting a mug before him, his
+features changed to the grin of idiocy, and seizing the vessel with
+both hands, he sank backward on the bench and drank until satiated,
+when he made an effort to lay aside the mug with the helplessness of
+total inebriety.
+
+“Shed not blood!” exclaimed the hunter, as he watched the countenance
+of the Indian in its moment of ferocity; “but he is drunk and can do
+no harm.  This is the way with all the savages; give them liquor, and
+they make dogs of themselves.  Well, well—the- day will come when
+right will be done; and we must have patience.”
+
+Natty still spoke in the Delaware language, and of course was not
+understood.  He had hardly concluded before Richard cried:
+
+“Well, old John is soon sewed up.  Give him a berth, captain, in the
+barn, and I will pay for it.  I am rich to night, ten times richer
+than ‘Duke, with all his lands, amid military lots, and funded debts,
+and bonds, and mortgages
+
+' Come, let us be jolly,
+And cast awsy folly,
+For grief—-’
+
+Drink, King Hiram—drink, Mr. Doo-nothing—-drink, sir, I say.  This is
+a Christmas eve, which comes, you know, but once a year.”
+
+“He! he! he! the squire is quite moosical to-night,” said Hiram, whose
+visage began to give marvellous signs of relaxation.  “I rather guess
+we shall make a church on’t yet, squire?”
+
+“A church, Mr. Doolittle! we will make a cathedral of it! bishops,
+priests, deacons, wardens, vestry, and choir; organ, organist, amid
+bellows! By the Lord Harry, as Benjamin says, we will clap a steeple
+on the other end of it, and make two churches of it.  What say you,
+‘Duke, will you pay? ha! my cousin Judge, wilt pay?”
+
+“Thou makest such a noise, Dickon,” returned Marmaduke, “it is
+impossible that I can hear what Dr. Todd is saying.  I think thou
+observedst, it is probable the wound will fester, so as to occasion
+danger to the limb in this cold weather?”
+
+“Out of nater, sir, quite out of nater,” said Elnathan, attempting to
+expectorate, but succeeding only in throwing a light, frothy
+substance, like a flake of snow, into the fire—” quite out of nater
+that a wound so well dressed, and with the ball in my pocket, should
+fester.  I s’pose, as the Judge talks of taking the young man into his
+house, it will be most convenient if I make but one charge on’t.”
+
+“I should think one would do,” returned Marmaduke, with that arch
+smile that so often beamed on his face; leaving the beholder in doubt
+whether he most enjoyed the character of his companion or his own
+covert humor.  The landlord had succeeded in placing the.  Indian on
+some straw in one of his outbuildings, where, covered with his own
+blanket, John continued for the remainder of the night.
+
+In the mean time, Major Hartmann began to grow noisy and jocular;
+glass succeeded glass, and mug after mug was introduced, until the
+carousal had run deep into the night, or rather morning; when the
+veteran German ex- I pressed an inclination to return to the mansion-
+house. Most of the party had already retired, but Marmaduke knew the
+habits of his friend too well to suggest an earlier adjournment.  So
+soon, however, as the proposal was made, the Judge eagerly availed
+himself of it, and the trio prepared to depart.  Mrs. Hollister
+attended them to the door in person, cautioning her guests as to the
+safest manner of leaving her premises
+
+“Lane on Mister Jones, Major,” said she “he’s young and will be a
+support to ye.  Well, it’s a charming sight to see ye, anyway, at the
+Bould Dragoon; and sure it’s no harm to be kaping a Christmas eve wid
+a light heart, for it’s no telling when we may have sorrow come upon
+us.  So good-night, Joodge, and a merry Christmas to ye all tomorrow
+morning.”
+
+The gentlemen made their adieus as well as they could, and taking the
+middle of the road, which was a fine, wide, and well-beaten path, they
+did tolerably well until they reached the gate of the mansion-house:
+but on entering the Judge’s domains they encountered some slight
+difficulties.  We shall not stop to relate them, but will just mention
+that in the morning sundry diverging paths were to be seen in the
+snow; and that once during their progress to the door, Marmaduke,
+missing his companions, was enabled to trace them by one of these
+paths to a spot where he discovered them with nothing visible but
+their heads, Richard singing in a most vivacious strain:
+
+“Come, let us be jolly,
+And cast away folly,
+For grief turns a black head to gray.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+
+“As she lay, on that day, in the Bay of Biscay, 0!”
+
+Previously to the occurrence of the scene at the “Bold Dragoon,”
+Elizabeth had been safely reconducted to the mansion-house, where she
+was left as its mistress, either to amuse or employ herself during the
+evening as best suited her own inclinations.  Most of the lights were
+extinguished; but as Benjamin adjusted with great care and regularity
+four large candles, in as many massive candlesticks of brass, in a row
+on the sideboard, the hall possessed a peculiar air of comfort and
+warmth, contrasted with the cheerless aspect of the room she had left
+in the academy.
+
+Remarkable had been one of the listeners to Mr. Grant, and returned
+with her resentment, which had been not a little excited by the
+language of the Judge, somewhat softened by reflection and the
+worship.  She recollected the youth of Elizabeth, and thought it no
+difficult task, under present appearances, to exercise that power
+indirectly which hitherto she had enjoyed undisputed.  The idea of
+being governed, or of being compelled to pay the deference of
+servitude, was absolutely intolerable; and she had already determined
+within herself, some half dozen times, to make an effort that should
+at once bring to an issue the delicate point of her domestic
+condition.  But as often as she met the dark, proud eye of Elizabeth,
+who was walking up and down the apartment, musing on the scenes of her
+youth and the change in her condition, and perhaps the events of the
+day, the housekeeper experienced an awe that she would not own to
+herself could be excited by anything mortal.  It, however, checked her
+advances, and for some time held her tongue-tied.  At length she
+determined to commence the discourse by entering on a subject that was
+apt to level all human distinctions, and in which she might display
+her own abilities.
+
+“It was quite a wordy sarmon that Parson Grant gave us to-night,” said
+Remarkable.  “The church ministers be commonly smart sarmonizers, but
+they write down their idees, which is a great privilege.  I don’t
+think that, by nater, they are as tonguey speakers, for an off-hand
+discourse, as the standing-order ministers.”
+
+“And what denomination do you distinguish as the standing-order?”
+inquired Miss Temple, with some surprise.
+
+“Why, the Presbyter’ans and Congregationals, and Baptists, too, for-
+til’ now; and all sitch as don’t go on their knees to prayer,”
+
+“By that rule, then, you would call those who belong’ to the
+persuasion of my father, the sitting-order,” observed Elizabeth.
+“I’m sure I’ve never heard ‘em spoken of by any other’ name than
+Quakers, so called,” returned Remarkable, betraying a slight
+uneasiness; “I should be the last to call them otherwise, for I never
+in my life used a disparaging’ tarm of the Judge, or any of his
+family.  I’ve always set store by the Quakers, they are so pretty-
+spoken, clever people, and it’s a wonderment to me how your father
+come to marry into a church family; for they are as contrary in
+religion as can be.  One sits still, and, for the most part; says
+nothing, while the church folks practyse all kinds of ways, so that I
+sometimes think it quite moosical to see them; for I went to a church-
+meeting once before, down country.”
+
+“You have found an excellence in the church liturgy that has hitherto
+escaped me.  I will thank you to inquire whether the fire in my room
+burns; I feel fatigued with my journey, and will retire.”
+
+Remarkable felt a wonderful inclination to tell the young mistress of
+the mansion that by opening a door she might see for herself; but
+prudence got the better of resentment, and after pausing some little
+time, as a salve to her dignity, she did as desired.  The report was
+favorable, and the young lady, wishing Benjamin, who was filling the
+stove with wood, and the housekeeper, each a good-night, withdrew.
+
+The instant the door closed on Miss Temple, Remark able commenced a
+sort of mysterious, ambiguous discourse, that was neither abusive nor
+commendatory of the qualities of the absent personage, but which
+seemed to be drawing nigh, by regular degrees, to a most dissatisfied
+description.  The major-domo made no reply.  but continued his
+occupation with great industry, which being happily completed, he took
+a look at the thermometer, and then opening a drawer of the sideboard,
+he produced a supply of stimulants that would have served to keep the
+warmth in his system without the aid of the enormous fire he had been
+building.  A small stand was drawn up near the stove, and the bottles
+and the glasses necessary for convenience were quietly arranged.  Two
+chairs were placed by the side of this comfortable situation, when
+Benjamin, for the first time, appeared to observe his companion.
+
+“Come,” he cried, “come, Mistress Remarkable, bring yourself to an
+anchor on this chair.  It’s a peeler without, I can tell you, good
+woman; but what cares I? blow high or blow low, d’ye see, it’s all the
+same thing to Ben.  The niggers are snug stowed below before a fire
+that would roast an ox whole.  The thermometer stands now at fifty-
+five, but if there’s any vartue in good maple wood, I’ll weather upon
+it, before one glass, as much as ten points more, so that the squire,
+when he comes home from Betty Hollister’s warm room, will feel as hot
+as a hand that has given the rigging a lick with bad tar.  Come,
+mistress, bring up in this here chair, and tell me how you like our
+new heiress.”
+
+“Why, to my notion, Mr. Penguillum——”
+
+“Pump, Pump,” interrupted Benjamin; “it’s Christmas eve, Mistress
+Remarkable, and so, dye see, you had better call me Pump.  It’s a
+shorter name, and as I mean to pump this here decanter till it sucks,
+why, you may as well call me Pump.”
+
+“Did you ever!” cried Remarkable, with a laugh that seemed to unhinge
+every joint in her body.  “You’re a moosical creature, Benjamin, when
+the notion takes you.  But, as I was saying, I rather guess that times
+will be altered now in this house.”
+
+“Altered!” exclaimed the major-domo, eyeing the bottle, that was
+assuming the clear aspect of cut glass with astonishing rapidity; “it
+don’t matter much, Mistress Remarkable, so long as I keep the keys of
+the lockers in my pocket.”
+
+“I can’t say,” continued the housekeeper, “but there’s good eatables
+and drinkables enough in the house for a body’s content—a little more
+sugar, Benjamin, in the glass —for Squire Jones is an excellent
+provider.  But new lords, new laws; and I shouldn’t wonder if you and
+I had an unsartain time on’t in footer.”
+
+“Life is as unsartain as the wind that blows,” said Benjamin, with a
+moralizing air; “and nothing is more varible than the wind, Mistress
+Remarkable, unless you hap pen to fall in with the trades, d’ye see,
+and then you may run for the matter of a month at a time, with
+studding-sails on both sides, alow and aloft, and with the cabin-boy
+at the wheel.”
+
+“I know that life is disp’ut unsartain,” said Remark able, compressing
+her features to the humor of her companion; “but I expect there will
+be great changes made in the house to rights; and that you will find a
+young man put over your head, as there is one that wants to be over
+mine; and after having been settled as long as you have, Benjamin, I
+should judge that to be hard.”
+
+“Promotion should go according to length of sarvice,” said the major-
+domo; “and if-so-be that they ship a hand for my berth, or place a new
+steward aft, I shall throw up my commission in less time than you can
+put a pilot-boat in stays.  Thof Squire Dickon “—this was a common
+misnomer with Benjamin—” is a nice gentleman, and as good a man to
+sail with as heart could wish, yet I shall tel the squire, d’ye see,
+in plain English, and that’s my native tongue, that if-so-be he is
+thinking of putting any Johnny Raw over my head, why, I shall resign.
+I began forrard, Mistress Prettybones, and worked my way aft, like a
+man.  I was six months aboard a Garnsey lugger, hauling in the slack
+of the lee-sheet and coiling up rigging.  From that I went a few trips
+in a fore-and-after, in the same trade, which, after all, was but a
+blind kind of sailing in the dark, where a man larns but little,
+excepting how to steer by the stars.  Well, then, d’ye see, I larnt
+how a topmast should be slushed, and how a topgallant-sail was to be
+becketted; and then I did small jobs in the cabin, such as mixing the
+skipper’s grog.  ‘Twas there I got my taste, which, you must have
+often seen, is excel lent.  Well, here’s better acquaintance to us.”
+Remarkable nodded a return to the compliment, and took a sip of the
+beverage before her; for, provided it was well sweetened, she had no
+objection to a small potation now and then, After this observance of
+courtesy between the worthy couple, the dialogue proceeded.
+
+“You have had great experiences in life, Benjamin; for, as the
+Scripter says, ‘They that go down to the sea in ships see the works of
+the Lord.’”
+
+“Ay! for that matter, they in brigs and schooners, too; and it mought
+say, the works of the devil.  The sea, Mistress Remarkable, is a great
+advantage to a man, in the way of knowledge, for he sees the fashions
+of nations and the shape of a country.  Now, I suppose, for myself
+here, who is but an unlarned man to some that follows the seas, I
+suppose that, taking the coast from Cape Ler Hogue as low down as Cape
+Finish-there, there isn’t so much as a headland, or an island, that I
+don’t know either the name of it or something more or less about it.
+Take enough, woman, to color the water.  Here’s sugar.  It’s a sweet
+tooth, that fellow that you hold on upon yet, Mistress Prettybones.
+But, as I was saying, take the whole coast along, I know it as well as
+the way from here to the Bold Dragoon; and a devil of acquaintance is
+that Bay of Biscay.  Whew! I wish you could but hear the wind blow
+there.  It sometimes takes two to hold one man’s hair on his head.
+Scudding through the bay is pretty much the same thing as travelling
+the roads in this country, up one side of a mountain and down the
+other,”
+
+“Do tell!” exclaimed Remarkable; “and does the sea run as high as
+mountains, Benjamin?”
+
+“Well, I will tell; but first let’s taste the grog.  Hem! it’s the
+right kind of stuff, I must say, that you keep in this country; but
+then you’re so close aboard the West Indies, you make but a small run
+of it.  By the Lord Harry, woman, if Garnsey only lay somewhere
+between Cape Hatteras and the bite of Logann, but you’d see rum cheap!
+As to the seas, they runs more in uppers in the Bay of Biscay, unless
+it may be in a sow-wester, when they tumble about quite handsomely;
+thof it’s not in the narrow sea that you are to look for a swell; just
+go off the Western Islands, in a westerly blow, keeping the land on
+your larboard hand, with the ship’s head to the south’ard, and bring
+to, under a close-reefed topsail; or, mayhap, a reefed foresail, with
+a fore-topmast-staysail and mizzen staysail to keep her up to the sea,
+if she will bear it; and ay there for the matter of two watches, if
+you want to see mountains.  Why, good woman, I’ve been off there in
+the Boadishey frigate, when you could see nothing but some such matter
+as a piece of sky, mayhap, as big as the main sail; and then again,
+there was a hole under your lee-quarter big enough to hold the whole
+British navy.”
+
+“Oh! for massy’s sake! and wa’n’t you afeard, Benjamin? and how did
+you get off?”
+
+“Afeard! who the devil do you think was to be frightened at a little
+salt water tumbling about his head? As for getting off, when we had
+enough of it, and had washed our decks down pretty well, we called all
+hands, for, d’ye see, the watch below was in their hammocks, all the
+same as if they were in one of your best bedrooms; and so we watched
+for a smooth time, clapt her helm hard a weather, let fall the
+foresail, and got the tack aboard; and so, when we got her afore it, I
+ask you, Mistress Prettybones, if she didn’t walk? didn’t she? I’m no
+liar, good woman, when I say that I saw that ship jump from the top of
+one sea to another, just like one of these squirrels that can fly
+jumps from tree to tree.”
+
+“What! clean out of the water?” exclaimed Remark able, lifting her two
+lank arms, with their bony hands spread in astonishment.
+
+“It was no such easy matte: to get out of the water, good woman; for
+the spray flew so that you couldn’t tell which was sea or which was
+cloud.  So there we kept her afore it for the matter of two glasses.
+The first lieutenant he cun’d the ship himself, and there was four
+quarter masters at the wheel, besides the master with six forecastle
+men in the gun-room at the relieving tackles.  But then she behaved
+herself so well! Oh! she was a sweet ship, mistress! That one frigate
+was well worth more, to live in, than the best house in the island.
+If I was king of England I’d have her hauled up above Lon’on bridge,
+and fit her up for a palace; because why? if anybody can afford to
+live comfortably, his majesty can.”
+
+“Well! but, Benjamin,” cried the listener, who was in an ecstasy of
+astonishment at this relation of the steward’s dangers, “what did you
+do?”
+
+“Do! why, we did our duty like hearty fellows.  Now if the countrymen
+of Monnsheer Ler Quaw had been aboard of her, they would have just
+struck her ashore on some of them small islands; but we run along the
+land until we found her dead to leeward off the mountains of Pico, and
+dam’me if I know to this day how we got there—whether we jumped over
+the island or hauled round it; but there we was, and there we lay,
+under easy sail, fore-reaching first upon one tack and then upon
+t’other, so as to poke her nose out now and then and take a look to
+wind’ard till the gale blowed its pipe out.”
+
+“I wonder, now!” exclaimed Remarkable, to whom most of the terms used
+by Benjamin were perfectly unintelligible, but who had got a confused
+idea of a raging tempest.  “It must be an awful life, that going to
+sea! and I don’t feel astonishment that you are so affronted with the
+thoughts, of being forced to quit a comfortable home like this.  Not
+that a body cares much for’t, as there’s more houses than one to live
+in.  Why, when the Judge agreed with me to come and live with him, I’d
+no more notion of stopping any time than anything.  I happened in just
+to see how the family did, about a week after Mrs. Temple died,
+thinking to be back home agin’ night; but the family was in such a
+distressed way that I couldn’t but stop awhile and help em on.  I
+thought the situation a good one, seeing that I was an unmarried body,
+and they were so much in want of help; so I tarried.”
+
+“And a long time you’ve left your anchors down in the same place,
+mistress.  I think yo’ must find that the ship rides easy.”
+
+“How you talk, Benjamin! there’s no believing a word you say.  I must
+say that the Judge and Squire Jones have both acted quite clever, so
+long; but I see that now we shall have a specimen to the contrary.  I
+heern say thats the Judge was gone a great ‘broad, and that he meant
+to bring his darter hum, but I didn’t calculate on sich carrins
+on.  To my notion, Benjamin, she’s likely to turn out a desp’ut ugly
+gal.”
+
+“Ugly!” echoed the major-domo, opening eyes that were beginning to
+close in a very suspicious sleepiness, in wide amazement.  “By the
+Lord Harry, woman, I should as soon think of calling the Boadishey a
+clumsy frigate.  What the devil would you have? Arn’t her eyes as
+bright as the morning and evening stars? and isn’t her hair as black
+and glistening as rigging that has just had a lick of tar? doesn’t she
+move as stately as a first-rate in smooth water, on a bowline? Why,
+woman, the figure-head of the Boadishey was a fool to her, and that,
+as I’ve often heard the captain say, was an image of a great queen;
+and arn’t queens always comely, woman? for who do you think would be a
+king, and not choose a handsome bedfellow?”
+
+“Talk decent, Benjamin,” said the housekeeper, “Or I won’t keep your
+company.  I don’t gainsay her being comely to look on, but I will
+maintain that she’s likely to show poor conduct.  She seems to think
+herself too good to talk to a body.  From what Squire Jones had telled
+me, I some expected to be quite captivated by her company.  Now, to my
+reckoning, Lowizy Grant is much more pritty behaved than Betsey
+Temple.  She wouldn’t so much as hold discourse with me when I wanted
+to ask her how she felt on coming home and missing her mammy.”
+
+“Perhaps she didn’t understand you, woman; you are none of the best
+linguister; and then Miss Lizzy has been exercising the king’s English
+under a great Lon’on lady, and, for that matter, can talk the language
+almost as well as myself, or any native-born British subject.  You’ve
+forgot your schooling, and the young mistress is a great scollard.”
+
+“Mistress!” cried Remarkable; “don’t make one out to be a nigger,
+Benjamin.  She’s no mistress of mine, and never will be.  And as to
+speech, I hold myself as second to nobody out of New England.  I was
+born and raised in Essex County; and I’ve always heern say that the
+Bay State was provarbal for pronounsation!”
+
+“I’ve often heard of that Bay of State,” said Benjamin, “but can’t say
+that I’ve ever been in it, nor do I know exactly whereaway it is that
+it lays; but I suppose there is good anchorage in it, and that it’s no
+bad place for the taking of ling; but for size it can’t be so much as
+a yawl to a sloop of war compared with the Bay of Biscay, or, mayhap,
+Torbay.  And as for language, if you want to hear the dictionary
+overhauled like a log-line in a blow, you must go to Wapping and
+listen to the Lon’oners as they deal out their lingo.  Howsomever, I
+see no such mighty matter that Miss Lizzy has been doing to you, good
+woman; so take another drop of your brews and forgive and forget, like
+an honest soul,”
+
+“No, indeed! and I shan’t do sitch a thing, Benjamin.  This treatment
+is a newity to me, and what I won’t put up with.  I have a hundred and
+fifty dollars at use, besides a bed and twenty sheep, to good; and I
+don’t crave to live in a house where a body mustn’t call a young woman
+by her given name to her face.  I will call her Betsey as much as I
+please; it’s a free country, and no one can stop me.  I did intend to
+stop while summer, but I shall quit to-morrow morning; and I will talk
+just as I please.”
+
+“For that matter, Mistress Remarkable,” said Benjamin, “there’s none
+here who will contradict you; for I’m of opinion that it would be as
+easy to stop a hurricane with a Barcelony handkerchy as to bring up
+your tongue when the stopper is off.  I say, good woman, do they grow
+many monkeys along the shores of that Bay of State?”
+
+“You’re a monkey yourself, Mr. Penguillum,” cried the enraged
+housekeeper, “or a bear—a black, beastly bear! and ain’t fit for a
+decent woman to stay with.  I’ll never, keep your company agin, sir,
+if I should live thirty years with the Judge.  Sitch talk is more
+befitting the kitchen than the keeping-room of a house of one who is
+well-to-do in the world.”
+
+“Look you, Mistress Pitty—Patty------Prettybones, mayhap I’m some such
+matter as a bear, as they will find who come to grapple with me; but
+dam’me if I’m a monkey— a thing that chatters without knowing a word
+of what it says—a parrot; that will hold a dialogue, for what an
+honest man knows, in a dozen languages; mayhap in the Bay of State
+lingo; mayhap in Greek or High Dutch.  But dost it know what it means
+itself? canst answer me that, good woman? Your midshipman can sing
+out, and pass the word, when the captain gives the order, but just
+send him adrift by himself, and let him work the ship of his own head,
+and stop my grog if you don’t find all the Johnny Raws laughing at
+him.”
+
+“Stop your grog, indeed!” said Remarkable, rising with great
+indignation, and seizing a candle; “you’re groggy now, Benjamin and
+I’ll quit the room before I hear any misbecoming words from you.”
+The housekeeper retired, with a manner but little less dignified, as
+she thought, than the air of the heiress, muttering as she drew the
+door after her, with a noise like the report of a musket, the
+opprobrious terms of “drunkard,” “sot,” and “ beast.”
+
+“Who’s that you say is drunk?” cried Benjamin fiercely, rising and
+making a movement toward Remarkable.  “You talk of mustering yourself
+with a lady you’re just fit to grumble and find fault.  Where the
+devil should you larn behavior and dictionary? in your damned Bay of
+State, ha?”
+
+Benjamin here fell back in his chair, and soon gave vent to certain
+ominous sounds, which resembled not a little the growling of his
+favorite animal the bear itself.  Be fore, however, he was quite
+locked—to use the language that would suit the Della-cruscan humor of
+certain refined minds of the present day—” in the arms of Morpheus,”
+he spoke aloud, observing due pauses between his epithets, the
+impressive terms of “monkey,” “parrot,” “picnic,” “tar pot,” and
+“linguisters”
+
+We shall not attempt to explain his meaning nor connect his sentences;
+and our readers must be satisfied with our informing them that they
+were expressed with all that coolness of contempt that a man might
+well be supposed to feel for a monkey.
+
+Nearly two hours passed in this sleep before the major domo was
+awakened by the noisy entrance of Richard, Major Hartmann, and the
+master of the mansion.  Benjamin so far rallied his confused faculties
+as to shape the course of the two former to their respective
+apartments, when he disappeared himself, leaving the task of securing
+the house to him who was most interested in its safety.  Locks and
+bars were but little attended to in the early days of that settlement,
+and so soon as Marmaduke had given an eye to the enormous fires of his
+dwelling he retired.  With this act of prudence closes the first night
+of our tale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+
+“Watch (aside).  Some treason, masters—
+Yet stand close.”—Much Ado About Nothing.
+
+It was fortunate for more than one of the bacchanalians who left the
+“Bold Dragoon” late in the evening that the severe cold of the season
+was becoming rapidly less dangerous as they threaded the different
+mazes through the snow-banks that led to their respective dwellings.
+Then driving clouds began toward morning to flit across the heavens,
+and the moon set behind a volume of vapor that was impelled furiously
+toward the north, carrying with it the softer atmosphere from the
+distant ocean.  The rising sun was obscured by denser and increasing
+columns of clouds, while the southerly wind that rushed up the valley
+brought the never-failing symptoms of a thaw.
+
+It was quite late in the morning before Elizabeth, observing the faint
+glow which appeared on the eastern mountain long after the light of
+the sun had struck the opposite hills, ventured from the house, with a
+view to gratify her curiosity with a glance by daylight at the
+surrounding objects before the tardy revellers of the Christmas eve
+should make their appearance at the breakfast- table.  While she was
+drawing the folds of her pelisse more closely around her form, to
+guard against a cold that was yet great though rapidly yielding, in
+the small inclosure that opened in the rear of the house on a little
+thicket of low pines that were springing up where trees of a mightier
+growth had lately stood, she was surprised at the voice of Mr. Jones.
+
+“Merry Christmas, merry Christmas to you, Cousin Bess,” he shouted.
+“Ah, ha! an early riser, I see; but I knew I should steal a march on
+you.  I never was in a house yet where I didn’t get the first
+Christmas greeting on every soul in it, man, woman, and child—great
+and small—black, white, and yellow.  But stop a minute till I can just
+slip on my coat.  You are about to look at the improvements, I see,
+which no one can explain so well as I, who planned them all.  It will
+be an hour before ‘Duke and the Major can sleep off Mrs. Hollister’s
+confounded distillations, and so I’ll come down and go with you.
+
+Elizabeth turned and observed her cousin in his night cap, with his
+head out of his bedroom window, where his zeal for pre-eminence, in
+defiance of the weather, had impelled him to thrust it.  She laughed,
+and promising to wait for his company re-entered the house, making her
+appearance again, holding in her hand a packet that was secured by
+several large and important seals, just in time to meet the gentleman.
+
+“Come, Bessy, come,” he cried, drawing one of her arms through his
+own; “ the snow begins to give, but it will bear us yet.  Don’t you
+snuff old Pennsylvania in the very air? This is a vile climate, girl;
+now at sunset, last evening, it was cold enough to freeze a man’s
+zeal, and that, I can tell you, takes a thermometer near zero for me;
+then about nine or ten it began to moderate; at twelve it was quite
+mild, and here all the rest of the night I have been so hot as not to
+bear a blanket on the bed.  —Holla! Aggy—merry Christmas, Aggy—I say,
+do you hear me, you black dog! there’s a dollar for you; and if the
+gentle men get up before I come back, do you come out and let me know.
+I wouldn’t have 'Duke get the start of me for the worth of your head.”
+
+The black caught the money from the snow, and promising a due degree
+of watchfulness, he gave the dollar a whirl of twenty feet in the air,
+and catching it as it fell in the palm of his hand, he withdrew to the
+kitchen, to exhibit his present, with a heart as light as his face was
+happy in its expression.
+
+“Oh, rest easy, my dear coz,” said the young lady; “I took a look in
+at my father, who is likely to sleep an hour; and by using due
+vigilance you will secure all the honors of the season.”
+
+“Why, Duke is your father, Elizabeth ; but ‘Duke is a man who likes to
+be foremost, even in trifles.  Now, as for myself, I care for no such
+things, except in the way of competition; for a thing which is of no
+moment in itself may be made of importance in the way of competition.
+So it is with your father—he loves to he first; but I only; struggle
+with him as a competitor.”
+
+“It’s all very clear, sir,” said Elizabeth; “you would not care a fig
+for distinction if there were no one in the world but yourself; but as
+there happens to be a great many others, why, you must struggle with
+them all—in the way of competition.”
+
+“Exactly so; I see you are a clever girl, Bess, and one who does
+credit to her masters.  It was my plan to send you to that school; for
+when your father first mentioned the thing, I wrote a private letter
+for advice to a judicious friend in the city, who recommended the very
+school you went to.  ‘Duke was a little obstinate at first, as usual,
+but when he heard the truth he was obliged to send you.”
+
+“Well, a truce to ‘Duke’s foibles, sir; he is my father, and if you
+knew what he has been doing for you while we were in Albany, you would
+deal more tenderly with his character.”
+
+“For me!” cried Richard, pausing a moment in his walk to reflect.
+“Oh! he got the plans of the new Dutch meeting-house for me, I
+suppose; but I care very little about it, for a man of a certain kind
+of talent is seldom aided by any foreign suggestions; his own brain is
+the best architect.”
+
+“No such thing,” said Elizabeth, looking provokingly knowing.
+
+“No! let me see—perhaps he had my name put in the bill for the new
+turnpike, as a director.”
+
+“He might possibly; but it is not to such an appointment that I
+allude.”
+
+“Such an appointment!” repeated Mr. Jones, who began to fidget with
+curiosity; “then it is an appointment.  If it is in the militia, I
+won’t take it.
+
+“No, no, it is not in the militia,” cried Elizabeth, showing the
+packet in her hand, and then drawing it back with a coquettish air;
+“it is an office of both honor and emolument.”
+
+“Honor and emolument!” echoed Richard, in painful suspense; “show me
+the paper, girl.  Say, is it an office where there is anything to do?”
+
+“You have hit it, Cousin Dickon; it is the executive office of the
+county; at least so said my father when he gave me this packet to
+offer you as a Christmas-box.  Surely, if anything will please
+Dickon,’ he said, ‘it will be to fill the executive chair of the
+county.’”
+
+“Executive chair! what nonsense!” cried the impatient gentleman,
+snatching the packet from her hand; “there is no such office in the
+county.  Eh! what! it is, I declare, a commission, appointing Richard
+Jones, Esquire, sheriff of the county.  Well, this is kind in ‘Duke,
+positively.  I must say ‘Duke has a warm heart, and never forgets his
+friends.  Sheriff! High Sheriff of —! it sounds well, Bess, but it
+shall execute better.  ‘Duke is a judicious man after all, and knows
+human nature thoroughly, I’m much obliged to him,” continued Richard,
+using the skirt of his coat unconsciously to wipe his eyes; “though I
+would do as much for him any day, as he shall see, if I have an
+opportunity to perform any of the duties of my office on him.  It
+shall be done, Cousin Bess----it shall be done, I say.  How this
+cursed south wind makes one’s eyes water!”
+
+“Now, Richard,” said the laughing maiden, “now I think you will find
+something to do.  I have often heard you complain of old that there
+was nothing to do in this new country, while to my eyes it seemed as
+if everything remained to be done.”
+
+“Do!” echoed Richard, who blew his nose, raised his little form to its
+greatest elevation, and looked serious.  “Everything depends on
+system, girl.  I shall sit down this afternoon and systematize the
+county.  I must have deputies, you know.  I will divide the county
+into districts, over which I will place my deputies; and I will have
+one for the village, which I will call my home department.  Let me
+see—ho! Benjamin! yes, Benjamin will make a good deputy; he has been
+naturalized, and would answer admirably if he could only ride on
+horseback.”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Sheriff,” said his companion; “and as he understands ropes
+so well, he would be very expert, should occasion happen for his
+services in another way.”
+
+“No,” interrupted the other; “I flatter myself that no man could hang
+a man better than—that is—ha!—oh! yes, Benjamin would do extremely
+well in such an unfortunate dilemma, if he could be persuaded to
+attempt it.  But I should despair of the thing.  I never could induce
+him to hang, or teach him to ride on horseback.  I must seek another
+deputy.”
+“Well, sir, as you have abundant leisure for all these important
+affairs, I beg that you will forget that you are high sheriff, and
+devote some little of your time to gallantry.  Where are the beauties
+and improvements which you were to show me?”
+
+“Where? why, everywhere! Here I have laid out some new streets; and
+when they are opened, and the trees felled, and they are all built up,
+will they not make a fine town? Well, ‘Duke is a liberal-hearted
+fellow, with all his stubbornness.  Yes, yes; I must have at least
+four deputies, besides a jailer.”
+
+“I see no streets in the direction of our walk,” said Elizabeth,
+“unless you call the short avenues through these pine bushes by that
+name.  Surely you do not contemplate building houses, very soon, in
+that forest before us, and in those swamps.”
+
+We must run our streets by the compass, coz, and disregard trees,
+hills, ponds, stumps, or, in fact, anything but posterity.  Such is
+the will of your father, and your father, you know——”
+
+“Had you made sheriff, Mr. Jones,” interrupted the lady, with a tone
+that said very plainly to the gentleman that he was touching a
+forbidden subject.
+
+“I know it, I know it,” cried Richard; “and if it were in my power,
+I’d make ‘Duke a king.  He is a noble hearted fellow, and would make
+an excellent king; that is, if he had a good prime minister.  But who
+have we here? voices in the bushes—a combination about mischief, I’ll
+wager my commission.  Let us draw near and examine a little into the
+matter.”
+
+During this dialogue, as the parties had kept in motion, Richard and
+his cousin advanced some distance from the house into the open space
+in the rear of the village, where, as may be gathered from the
+conversation, streets were planned and future dwellings contemplated;
+but where, in truth, the only mark of improvement that was to be seen
+was a neglected clearing along the skirt of a dark forest of mighty
+pines, over which the bushes or sprouts of the same tree had sprung up
+to a height that interspersed the fields of snow with little thickets
+of evergreen.  The rushing of the wind, as it whistled through the
+tops of these mimic trees, prevented the footsteps of the pair from
+being heard, while the branches concealed their persons.  Thus aided,
+the listeners drew nigh to a spot where the young hunter, Leather-
+Stocking, and the Indian chief were collected in an earnest
+consultation.  The former was urgent in his manner, and seemed to
+think the subject of deep importance, while Natty appeared to listen
+with more than his usual attention to what the other was saying.
+Mohegan stood a little on one side, with his head sunken on his chest,
+his hair falling forward so as to conceal most of his features, and
+his whole attitude expressive of deep dejection, if not of shame.
+Let us withdraw,” whispered Elizabeth; “ we are intruders, and can
+have no right to listen to the secrets of these men.”
+
+“No right!” returned Richard a little impatiently, in the same tone,
+and drawing her arm so forcibly through his own as to prevent her
+retreat; “you forget, cousin, that it is my duty to preserve the peace
+of the county and see the laws executed, these wanderers frequently
+commit depredations, though I do not think John would do anything
+secretly.  Poor fellow! he was quite boozy last night, and hardly
+seems to be over it yet.  Let us draw nigher and hear what they say.”
+
+Notwithstanding the lady’s reluctance, Richard, stimulated doubtless
+by his sense of duty, prevailed; and they were soon so near as
+distinctly to hear sounds.
+
+“The bird must he had,” said Natty, “by fair means or foul.  Heigho!
+I’ve known the time, lad, when the wild turkeys wasn’t over-scarce in
+the country; though you must go into the Virginia gaps if you want
+them now.  ‘to be sure, there is a different taste to a partridge and
+a well-fatted turkey; though, to my eating, beaver’s tail and bear’s
+ham make the best of food.  But then every one has his own appetite.
+I gave the last farthing, all to that shilling, to the French trader,
+this very morning, as I came through the town, for powder; so, as you
+have nothing, we can have but one shot for it.  I know that Billy
+Kirby is out, and means to have a pull of the trigger at that very
+turkey.  John has a true eye for a single fire, and, some how, my hand
+shakes so whenever I have to do anything extrawnary, that I often lose
+my aim.  Now, when I killed the she-bear this fall, with her cubs,
+though they were so mighty ravenous, I knocked them over one at a
+shot, and loaded while I dodged the trees in the bargain; but this is
+a very different thing, Mr. Oliver.”
+
+“This,” cried the young man, with an accent that sounded as if he took
+a bitter pleasure in his poverty, while he held a shilling up before
+his eyes, “this is all the treasure that I possess—this and my rifle!
+Now, indeed, I have become a man of the woods, and must place my sole
+dependence on the chase.  Come, Natty, let us stake the last penny for
+the bird; with your aim, it cannot fail to be successful.”
+
+“I would rather it should be John, lad; my heart jumps into my mouth,
+because you set your mind so much out; and I’m sartain that I shall
+miss the bird.  Them Indians can shoot one time as well as another;
+nothing ever troubles them.  I say, John, here’s a shilling; take my
+rifle, and get a shot at the big turkey they’ve put up at the stump.
+Mr. Oliver is over-anxious for the creatur’, and I’m sure to do
+nothing when I have over-anxiety about it.”
+
+The Indian turned his head gloomily, and after looking keenly for a
+moment, in profound silence, at his companions, he replied:
+
+“When John was young, eyesight was not straighter than his bullet.
+The Mingo squaws cried out at the sound of his rifle.  The Mingo
+warriors were made squaws.  When did he ever shoot twice? The eagle
+went above the clouds when he passed the wigwam of Chingachgook; his
+feathers were plenty with the women.  But see,” he said, raising his
+voice from the low, mournful tones in which he had spoken to a pitch
+of keen excitement, and stretching forth both hands, “they shake like
+a deer at the wolf’s howl.  Is John old? When was a Mohican a squaw
+with seventy winters? No! the white man brings old age with him—rum is
+his tomahawk!”
+
+“Why, then, do you use it, old man?” exclaimed the young hunter; “why
+will one, so noble by nature, aid the devices of the devil by making
+himself a beast?”
+
+“Beast! is John a beast?” replied the Indian slowly; “yes; you say no
+lie, child of the Fire-eater! John is a beast.  The smokes were once
+few in these hills, The deer would lick the hand of a white man and
+the birds rest on his head.  They were strangers to him.  My fathers
+came from the shores of the salt lake. They fled before rum.  They
+came to their grandfather, and they lived in peace; or, when they did
+raise the hatchet, it was to strike it into the brain of a Mingo.
+They gathered around the council fire, and what they said was done.
+Then John was a man.  But warriors and traders with light eyes
+followed them.  One brought the long knife and one brought rum.  They
+were more than the pines on the mountains; and they broke up the
+councils and took the lands, The evil spirit was in their jugs, and
+they let him loose.  Yes yes—you say no lie, Young Eagle; John is a
+Christian beast.”
+
+“Forgive me, old warrior,” cried the youth, grasping his hand; “I
+should be the last to reproach you.  The curses of Heaven light on the
+cupidity that has destroyed such a race.  Remember, John, that I am of
+your family, and it is now my greatest pride.”
+
+The muscles of Mohegan relaxed a little, and he said, more mildly:
+
+“You are a Delaware, my son; your words are not heard—John cannot
+shoot.”
+
+“I thought that lad had Indian blood in him,” whispered Richard, “by
+the awkward way he handled my horses last night.  You see, coz, they
+never use harness.  But the poor fellow shall have two shots at the
+turkey, if he wants it, for I’ll give him another shilling myself;
+though, per haps, I had better offer to shoot for him.  They have got
+up their Christmas sports, I find, in the bushes yonder, where you
+hear the laughter—though it is a queer taste this chap has for turkey;
+not but what it is good eating, too,”
+
+“Hold, Cousin Richard,” exclaimed Elizabeth, clinging to his arm;
+“would it be delicate to offer a shilling to that gentleman?”
+
+“Gentleman, again! Do you think a half-breed, like him, will refuse
+money? No, no, girl, he will take the shilling; ay! and even rum too,
+notwithstanding he moralizes so much about it, But I’ll give the lad a
+chance for his turkey; for that Billy Kirby is one of the best
+marksmen in the country; that is, if we except the—the gentleman.”
+
+“Then,” said Elizabeth, who found her strength unequal to her will, “
+then, sir, I will speak.” She advanced, with an air of determination,
+in front of her cousin, and entered the little circle of bushes that
+surrounded the trio of hunters.  Her appearance startled the youth,
+who at first made an unequivocal motion toward retiring, but,
+recollecting himself, bowed, by lifting his cap, and resumed his
+attitude of leaning on his rifle.  Neither Natty nor Mohegan betrayed
+any emotion, though the appearance of Elizabeth was so entirely
+unexpected.
+
+“I find,” she said, “that the old Christmas sport of shooting the
+turkey is yet in use among you.  I feel inclined to try my chance for
+a bird.  Which of you will take this money, and, after paying my fee,
+give me the aid of his rifle?”
+
+“Is this a sport for a lady?” exclaimed the young hunter, with an
+emphasis that could not well be mistaken, and with a rapidity that
+showed he spoke without consulting anything but feeling.
+“Why not, sir? If it be inhuman the sin is not confined to one sex
+only.  But I have my humor as well as others.  I ask not your
+assistance, but”—turning to Natty, and dropping a dollar in his hand—”
+this old veteran of the forest will not be so ungallant as to refuse
+one fire for a lady.”
+
+Leather-Stocking dropped the money into his pouch, and throwing up the
+end of his rifle he freshened his priming; and first laughing in his
+usual manner, he threw the piece over his shoulder, and said:
+
+“If Billy Kirby don’t get the bird before me, and the Frenchman’s
+powder don’t hang fire this damp morning, you’ll see as fine a turkey
+dead, in a few minutes, as ever was eaten in the Judge’s shanty.  I
+have knowed the Dutch women, on the Mohawk and Schoharie, count
+greatly on coming to the merry-makings; and so, lad, you shouldn’t be
+short with the lady.  Come, let us go forward, for if we wait the
+finest bird will be gone.”
+
+“But I have a right before you, Natty, and shall try on my own luck
+first.  You will excuse me, Miss Temple; I have much reason to wish
+that bird, and may seem ungallant, but I must claim my privileges.”
+
+“Claim anything that is justly your own, sir,” returned the lady; “we
+are both adventurers; and this is my knight.  I trust my fortune to
+his hand and eye.  Lead on, Sir Leather-Stocking, and we will follow.”
+
+Natty, who seemed pleased with the frank address of the young and
+beauteous Elizabeth, who had so singularly intrusted him with such a
+commission, returned the bright smile with which she had addressed
+him, by his own peculiar mark of mirth, and moved across the snow
+toward the spot whence the sounds of boisterous mirth proceeded, with
+the long strides of a hunter.  His companions followed in silence, the
+youth casting frequent and uneasy glances toward Elizabeth, who was
+detained by a motion from Richard.
+
+“I should think, Miss Temple,” he said, so soon as the others were out
+of hearing, “that if you really wished a turkey, you would not have
+taken a stranger for the office, and such a one as Leather-Stocking.
+But I can hardly believe that you are serious, for I have fifty, at
+this moment, shut up in the coops, in every stage of fat, so that you
+might choose any quality you pleased.  There are six that I am trying
+an experiment on, by giving them brick-bats with—”
+
+“Enough, Cousin Dickon,” interrupted the lady; “I do wish the bird,
+and it is because I so wish that I commissioned this Mr. Leather-
+Stocking.”
+
+“Did you ever hear of the great shot that I made at the wolf, Cousin
+Elizabeth, who was carrying off your father's sheep?” said Richard,
+drawing himself up with an air of displeasure.  “He had the sheep on
+his hack; and, had the head of the wolf been on the other side, I
+should have killed him dead; as it was—”
+
+“You killed the sheep—I know it all, dear coz.  Hut would it have been
+decorous for the High Sheriff of —to mingle in such sports as these?”
+“Surely you did not think that I intended actually to fire with my own
+hands?” said Mr. Jones.  “But let us follow, and see the shooting.
+There is no fear of anything unpleasant occurring to a female in this
+new country, especially to your father’s daughter, and in my
+presence.”
+
+“My father’s daughter fears nothing, sir, more especially when
+escorted by the highest executive officer in the county.”
+
+She took his arm, and he led her through the mazes of the bushes to
+the spot where most of the young men of the village were collected for
+the sports of shooting a Christmas match, and whither Natty and his
+Companions had already preceded them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+
+I guess, by all this quaint array,
+The burghers hold their sports to-day.”—Scott.
+
+The ancient amusement of shooting the Christmas turkey is one of the
+few sports that the settlers of a new country seldom or never neglect
+to observe.  It was connected with the daily practices of a people who
+often laid aside the axe or the scythe to seize the rifle, as the deer
+glided through the forests they were felling, or the bear entered
+their rough meadows to scent the air of a clearing, and to scan, with
+a look of sagacity, the progress of the invader.
+
+On the present occasion, the usual amusement of the day had been a
+little hastned, in order to allow a fair opportunity to Mr. Grant,
+whose exhibition was not less a treat to the young sportsmen than the
+one which engaged their present attention.  The owner of the birds was
+a free black, who had prepared for the occasion a collection of game
+that was admirably qualified to inflame the appetite of an epicure,
+and was well adapted to the means and skill of the different
+competitors, who were of all ages.  He had offered to the younger and
+more humble marks men divers birds of an inferior quality, and some
+shooting had already taken place, much to the pecuniary advantage of
+the sable owner of the game.  The order of the sports was extremely
+simple, and well understood.  The bird was fastened by a string to the
+stump of a large pine, the side of which, toward the point where the
+marksmen were placed, had been flattened with an axe, in order that it
+might serve the purpose of a target, by which the merit of each
+individual might be ascertained.  The distance between the stump and
+shooting-stand was one hundred measured yards; a foot more or a foot
+less being thought an invasion of the right of one of the parties.
+The negro affixed his own price to every bird, and the terms of the
+chance; but, when these were once established, he was obliged, by the
+strict principles of public justice that prevailed in the country, to
+admit any adventurer who might offer.
+
+The throng consisted of some twenty or thirty young men, most of whom
+had rifles, and a collection of all the boys in the village.  The
+little urchins, clad in coarse but warm garments, stood gathered
+around the more distinguished marksmen, with their hands stuck under
+their waistbands, listening eagerly to the boastful stories of skill
+that had been exhibited on former occasions, and were already
+emulating in their hearts these wonderful deeds in gunnery.
+
+The chief speaker was the man who had been mentioned by Natty as Billy
+Kirby.  This fellow, whose occupation, when he did labor, was that of
+clearing lands, or chopping jobs, was of great stature, and carried in
+his very air the index of his character.  He was a noisy, boisterous,
+reckless lad, whose good-natured eye contradicted the bluntness and
+bullying tenor of his speech.  For weeks he would lounge around the
+taverns of the county, in a state of perfect idleness, or doing small
+jobs for his liquor and his meals, and cavilling with applicants about
+the prices of his labor; frequently preferring idleness to an
+abatement of a little of his independence, or a cent in his wages.
+But, when these embarrassing points were satisfactorily arranged, he
+would shoulder his axe and his rifle, slip his arms through the straps
+of his pack, and enter the woods with the tread of a Hercules.  His
+first object was to learn his limits, round which he would pace,
+occasionally freshening, with a blow of his axe, the marks on the
+boundary trees; and then he would proceed, with an air of great
+deliberation, to the centre of his premises, and, throwing aside his
+superfluous garments, measure, with a knowing eye, one or two of the
+nearest trees that were towering apparently into the very clouds as he
+gazed upward.  Commonly selecting one of the most noble for the first
+trial of his power, he would approach it with a listless air,
+whistling a low tune; and wielding his axe with a certain flourish,
+not unlike the salutes of a fencing-master, he would strike a light
+blow into the bark, and measure his distance.  The pause that followed
+was ominous of the fall of the forest which had flourished there for
+centuries.  The heavy and brisk blows that he struck were soon
+succeeded by the thundering report of the tree, as it came, first
+cracking and threatening with the separation of its own last
+ligaments, then threshing and tearing with its branches the tops of
+its surrounding brethren, and finally meeting the ground with a shock
+but little inferior to an earthquake.  From that moment the sounds of
+the axe were ceaseless, while the failing of the trees was like a
+distant cannonading; and the daylight broke into the depths of the
+woods with the suddenness of a winter morning.
+
+For days, weeks, nay months, Billy Kirby would toil with an ardor that
+evinced his native spirit, and with an effect that seemed magical,
+until, his chopping being ended, his stentorian lungs could be heard
+emitting sounds, as he called to his patient oxen, which rang through
+the hills like the cries of an alarm.  He had been often heard, on a
+mild summer’ evening, a long mile across the vale of Templeton; when
+the echoes from the mountains would take up his cries, until they died
+away in the feeble sounds from the distant rocks that overhung the
+lake.  His piles, or, to use the language of the country, his logging
+ended, with a dispatch that could only accompany his dexterity and
+herculean strength, the jobber would collect together his implements
+of labor, light the heaps of timber, and march away under the blaze of
+the prostrate forest, like the conqueror of some city who, having
+first prevailed over his adversary, applies the torch as the finishing
+blow to his conquest.  For a long time Billy Kirby would then be seen
+sauntering around the taverns, the rider of scrub races, the bully of
+cock-fights, and not infrequently the hero of such sports as the one
+in hand.
+
+Between him and the Leather-Stocking there had long existed a jealous
+rivalry on the point of skill with the rifle.  Notwithstanding the
+long practice of Natty, it was commonly supposed that the steady
+nerves and the quick eye of the wood-chopper rendered him his equal.
+The competition had, however, been confined hitherto to boasting, and
+comparisons made from their success in various hunting excursions; but
+this was the first time they had ever come in open collision.  A good
+deal of higgling about the price of the choicest bird had taken place
+between Billy Kirby and its owner before Natty and his companions
+rejoined the sportsmen It had, however, been settled at one shilling *
+a shot, which was the highest sum ever exacted, the black taking care
+to protect himself from losses, as much as possible, by the conditions
+of the sport.
+
+  * Before the Revolution, each province had its own money of account
+    though neither coined any but copper pieces.  In New York the Spanish
+    dollar was divided into eight shillings, each of the value of a
+    fraction more than sixpence sterling.  At present the Union has
+    provided a decimal system, with coins to represent it.
+
+The turkey was already fastened at the “mark,” hut its body was
+entirely hid by the surrounding snow, nothing being visible but its
+red swelling head and its long neck.  If the bird was injured by any
+bullet that struck below the snow, it was to continue the property of
+its present owner; but if a feather was touched in a visible part, the
+animal became the prize of the successful adventurer.
+
+These terms were loudly proclaimed by the negro, who was seated in the
+snow, in a somewhat hazardous vicinity to his favorite bird, when
+Elizabeth and her cousin approached the noisy sportsmen.  The sounds
+of mirth and contention sensibly lowered at this unexpected visit;
+but, after a moment’s pause, the curious interest exhibited in the
+face of the young lady, together with her smiling air, restored the
+freedom of the morning; though it was somewhat chastened, both in
+language and vehemence, by the presence of such a spectator.
+
+“Stand out of the way there, boys!” cried the wood-chopper, who was
+placing himself at the shooting-point— stand out of the way, you
+little rascals, or I will shoot through you.  Now, Brom, take leave of
+your turkey.”
+Stop!” cried the young hunter; “I am a candidate for a chance.  Here
+is my shilling, Brom; I wish a shot too.”
+You may wish it in welcome,” cried Kirby, “but if I ruffle the
+gobbler’s feathers, how are you to get it? Is money so plenty in your
+deer-skin pocket, that you pay for a chance that you may never have?”
+
+“How know you, sir, how plenty money is in my pocket?” said the youth
+fiercely.  “Here is my shilling, Brom, and I claim a right to shoot.”
+
+“Don't be crabbed, my boy,” said the other, who was very coolly fixing
+his flint.  “They say you have a hole in your left shoulder yourself,
+so I think Brom may give you a fire for half-price.  It will take a
+keen one to hit that bird, I can tell you, my lad, even if I give you
+a chance, which is what I have no mind to do.”
+
+“Don’t be boasting, Billy Kirby,” said Natty, throwing the breech of
+his rifle into the snow, and leaning on its barrel; “you’ll get but
+one shot at the creatur’, for if the lad misses his aim, which
+wouldn’t be a wonder if he did, with his arm so stiff and sore, you’ll
+find a good piece and an old eye coming a’ter you.  Maybe it’s true
+that I can’t shoot as I used to could, but a hundred yards is a short
+distance for a long rifle.”
+
+“What, old Leather-Stocking, are you out this morning?” cried his
+reckless opponent.  “Well, fair play’s a jewel.  I’ve the lead of you,
+old fellow; so here goes for a dry throat or a good dinner.”
+
+The countenance of the negro evinced not only all the interest which
+his pecuniary adventure might occasion, but also the keen excitement
+that the sport produced in the others, though with a very different
+wish as to the result.  While the wood-chopper was slowly and steadily
+raising his rifle, he bawled;
+
+“Fair play, Billy Kirby—stand back—make ‘em stand back, boys—gib a
+nigger fair play—poss-up, - gobbler; shake a head, fool; don’t you see
+‘em taking aim?”
+
+These cries, which were intended as much to distract the attention of
+the marksman as for anything else, were fruitless.
+
+The nerves of the wood-chopper were not so easily shaken, and he took
+his aim with the utmost deliberation.  Stillness prevailed for a
+moment, and he fired.  The head of the turkey was seen to dash on one
+side, and its wings were spread in momentary fluttering; but it
+settled itself down calmly into its bed of snow, and glanced its eyes
+uneasily around.  For a time long enough to draw a deep breath, not a
+sound was heard.  The silence was then broken by the noise of the
+negro, who laughed, and shook his body with all kinds of antics,
+rolling over in the snow in the excess of delight.
+
+“Well done, a gobbler,” be cried, jumping up and affecting to embrace
+his bird; “I tell ‘em to poss-up, and you see ‘em dodge.  Gib anoder
+shillin’, Billy, and halb anoder shot.”
+
+“No—the shot is mine,” said the young hunter; “you have my money
+already.  Leave the mark, and let me try my luck.”
+
+“Ah! it’s but money thrown away, lad,” said Leather-Stocking.  “A
+turkey’s head and neck is but a small mark for a new hand and a lame
+shoulder.  You’d best let me take the fire, and maybe we can make some
+settlement with the lady about the bird.”
+The chance is mine,” said the young hunter.  “Clear the ground, that I
+may take it.”
+
+The discussions and disputes concerning the last shot were now
+abating, it having been determined that if the turkey’s head had been
+anywhere but just where it was at that moment, the bird must certainly
+have been killed.  There was not much excitement produced by the
+preparations of the youth, who proceeded in a hurried manner to take
+his aim, and was in the act of pulling the trigger, when he was
+stopped by Natty.
+
+“Your hand shakes, lad,” he said, “and you seem over eager.  Bullet-
+wounds are apt to weaken flesh, and to my judgment you’ll not shoot so
+well as in common.  If you will fire, you should shoot quick, before
+there is time to shake off the aim.”
+
+“Fair play,” again shouted the negro; “fair play—gib a nigger fair
+play.  What right a Nat Bumppo advise a young man? Let ‘em shoot—clear
+a ground.”
+
+The youth fired with great rapidity, but no motion was made by the
+turkey; and, when the examiners for the ball returned from the “mark,”
+they declared that he had missed the stump.
+
+Elizabeth observed the change in his countenance, and could not help
+feeling surprise that one so evidently superior to his companions
+should feel a trifling loss so sensibly.  But her own champion was now
+preparing to enter the lists.
+
+The mirth of Brom, which had been again excited, though in a much
+smaller degree than before, by the failure of the second adventurer,
+vanished the instant Natty took his stand.  His skin became mottled
+with large brown spots, that fearfully sullied the lustre of his
+native ebony, while his enormous lips gradually compressed around two
+rows of ivory that had hitherto been shining in his visage like pearls
+set in jet.  His nostrils, at all times the most conspicuous feature
+of his face, dilated until they covered the greater part of the
+diameter of his countenance; while his brown and bony hands
+unconsciously grasped the snow-crust near him, the excitement of the
+moment completely overcoming his native dread of cold.
+
+While these indications of apprehension were exhibited in the sable
+owner of the turkey, the man who gave rise to this extraordinary
+emotion was as calm and collected as if there was not to be a single
+spectator of his skill.
+
+“I was down in the Dutch settlements on the Schoharie,” said Natty,
+carefully removing the leather guard from the lock of his rifle, “just
+before the breaking out of the last war, and there was a shooting-
+match among the boys; so I took a hand.  I think I opened a good many
+Dutch eyes that day; for I won the powder-horn, three bars of lead,
+and a pound of as good powder as ever flashed in pan.  Lord! how they
+did swear in Jarman! They did tell me of one drunken Dutchman who said
+he’d have the life of me before I got back to the lake agin.  But if
+he had put his rifle to his shoulder with evil intent God would have
+punished him for it; and even if the Lord didn’t, and he had missed
+his aim, I know one that would have given him as good as he sent, and
+better too, if good shooting could come into the ‘count.”
+By this time the old hunter was ready for his business, and throwing
+his right leg far behind him, and stretching his left arm along the
+barrel of his piece, he raised it toward the bird, Every eye glanced
+rapidly from the marks man to the mark; but at the moment when each
+ear was expecting the report of the rifle, they were disappointed by
+the ticking sound of the flint.
+
+“A snap, a snap!” shouted the negro, springing from his crouching
+posture like a madman, before his bird.  A snap good as fire—Natty
+Bumppo gun he snap—Natty Bumppo miss a turkey!”
+
+Natty Bumppo hit a nigger,” said the indignant old hunter, “if you
+don’t get out of the way, Brom.  It’s contrary to the reason of the
+thing, boy, that a snap should count for a fire, when one is nothing
+more than a fire-stone striking a steel pan, and the other is sudden
+death; so get out of my way, boy, and let me show Billy Kirby how to
+shoot a Christmas turkey.”
+
+“Gib a nigger fair play!” cried the black, who continued resolutely to
+maintain his post, and making that appeal to the justice of his
+auditors which the degraded condition of his caste so naturally
+suggested.  “Eberybody know dat snap as good as fire.  Leab it to
+Massa Jone—leab it to lady.”
+
+“Sartain,” said the wood-chopper; “it’s the law of the game in this
+part of the country, Leather-Stocking.  If you fire agin you must pay
+up the other shilling.  I b’lieve I’ll try luck once more myself; so,
+Brom, here’s my money, and I take the next fire.”
+
+“It’s likely you know the laws of the woods better than I do, Billy
+Kirby,” returned Natty.  “You come in with the settlers, with an ox-
+goad in your hand, and I come in with moccasins on my feet, and with a
+good rifle on my shoulders, so long back as afore the old war.  Which
+is likely to know the best? I say no man need tell me that snapping is
+as good as firing when I pull the trigger.”
+
+“Leab it to Massa Jone,” said the alarmed negro; “he know eberyting.”
+This appeal to the knowledge of Richard was too flattering to be
+unheeded.  He therefore advanced a little from the spot whither the
+delicacy of Elizabeth had induced her to withdraw, and gave the
+following opinion, with the gravity that the subject and his own rank
+demanded:
+
+“There seems to be a difference in opinion,” he said, “on the subject
+of Nathaniel Bumppo’s right to shoot at Abraham Freeborn’s turkey
+without the said Nathaniel paying one shilling for the privilege.” The
+fact was too evident to be denied, and after pausing a moment, that
+the audience might digest his premises, Richard proceeded: “It seems
+proper that I should decide this question, as I am bound to preserve
+the peace of the county; and men with deadly weapons in their hands
+should not be heedlessly left to contention and their own malignant
+passions.  It appears that there was no agreement, either in writing
+or in words, on the disputed point; therefore we must reason from
+analogy, which is, as it were, comparing one thing with another.  Now,
+in duels, where both parties shoot, it is generally the rule that a
+snap is a fire; and if such is the rule where the party has a right to
+fire back again, it seems to me unreasonable to say that a man may
+stand snapping at a defenceless turkey all day.  I therefore am of the
+opinion that Nathaniel Bumppo has lost his chance, and must pay
+another shilling before he renews his right.”
+
+As this opinion came from so high a quarter, and was delivered with
+effect, it silenced all murmurs—for the whole of the spectators had
+begun to take sides with great warmth—except from the Leather-
+Stocking himself.
+
+“I think Miss Elizabeth’s thoughts should be taken,” said Natty.
+“I’ve known the squaws give very good counsel when the Indians had
+been dumfounded.  If she says that I ought to lose, I agree to give it
+up.”
+
+“Then I adjudge you to be a loser for this time,” said Miss Temple;
+“but pay your money and renew your chance; unless Brom will sell me
+the bird for a dollar.  I will give him the money, and save the life
+of the poor victim.”
+
+This proposition was evidently but little relished by any of the
+listeners, even the negro feeling the evil excitement of the chances.
+In the mean while, as Billy Kirby was preparing himself for another
+shot, Natty left the stand, with an extremely dissatisfied manner,
+muttering:
+
+“There hasn’t been such a thing as a good flint sold at the foot of
+the lake since the Indian traders used to come into the country; and,
+if a body should go into the flats along the streams in the hills to
+hunt for such a thing, it’s ten to one but they will be all covered up
+with the plough.  Heigho! it seems to me that just as the game grows
+scarce, and a body wants the best ammunition to get a livelihood,
+everything that’s bad falls on him like a judgment.  But I’ll change
+the stone, for Billy Kirby hasn’t the eye for such a mark, I know.”
+
+The wood-chopper seemed now entirely sensible that his reputation
+depended on his care; nor did he neglect any means to insure success.
+He drew up his rifle, and renewed his aim again and again, still
+appearing reluctant to fire, No sound was heard from even Brom, during
+these portentous movements, until Kirby discharged his piece, with the
+same want of success as before.  Then, indeed, the shouts of the negro
+rang through the bushes and sounded among the trees of the neighboring
+forest like the outcries of a tribe of Indians.  He laughed, rolling
+his head first on one side, then on the other, until nature seemed
+exhausted with mirth.  He danced until his legs were wearied with
+motion in the snow; and, in short, he exhibited all that violence of
+joy that characterizes the mirth of a thoughtless negro.
+
+The wood-chopper had exerted all his art, and felt a proportionate
+degree of disappointment at the failure.  He first examined the bird
+with the utmost attention, and more than once suggested that he had
+touched its feathers; but the voice of the multitude was against him,
+for it felt disposed to listen to the often-repeated cries of the
+black to “gib a nigger fair play.”
+
+Finding it impossible to make out a title to the bird, Kirby turned
+fiercely to the black and said:
+
+“Shut your oven, you crow! Where is the man that can hit a turkey’s
+head at a hundred yards? I was a fool for trying.  You needn’t make an
+uproar like a falling pine-tree about it.  Show me the man who can do
+it.”
+
+“Look this a-way, Billy Kirby,” said Leather-Stocking, and let them
+clear the mark, and I’ll show you a man who’s made better shots afore
+now, and that when he’s been hard pressed by the savages and wild
+beasts,”
+
+“Perhaps there is one whose rights come before ours, Leather-
+Stocking,” said Miss Temple.  “If so, we will waive our privilege.”
+
+“If it be me that you have reference to,” said the young hunter, “I
+shall decline another chance.  My shoulder is yet weak, I find.”
+
+Elizabeth regarded his manner, and thought that she could discern a
+tinge on his cheek that spoke the shame of conscious poverty.  She
+said no more, but suffered her own champion to make a trial.  Although
+Natty Bumppo had certainly made hundreds of more momentous shots at
+his enemies or his game, yet he never exerted himself more to excel.
+He raised his piece three several times: once to get his range; once
+to calculate his distance; and once because the bird, alarmed by the
+death-like stillness, turned its head quickly to examine its foes.
+But the fourth time he fired.  The smoke, the report, and the
+momentary shock prevented most of the spectators from instantly
+knowing the result; but Elizabeth, when she saw her champion drop the
+end of his rifle in the snow and open his mouth in one of its silent
+laughs, and then proceed very coolly to recharge his piece, knew that
+he had been successful.  The boys rushed to the mark, and lifted the
+turkey on high, lifeless, and with nothing but the remnant of a head.
+“Bring in the creatur’,” said Leather-Stocking, “and put it at the
+feet of the lady.  I was her deputy in the matter, and the bird is her
+property.”
+
+“And a good deputy you have proved yourself,” returned Elizabeth—” so
+good, Cousin Richard, that I would advise you to remember his
+qualities.” She paused, and the gayety that beamed on her face gave
+place to a more serious earnestness.  She even blushed a little as she
+turned to the young hunter, and with the charm of a woman’s manner
+added: “But it was only to see an exhibition of the far-famed skill of
+Leather-Stocking, that I tried my fortunes.  Will you, sir, accept the
+bird as a small peace offering for the hurt that prevented your own
+success?”
+
+The expression with which the youth received this present was
+indescribable, He appeared to yield to the blandishment of her air, in
+opposition to a strong inward impulse to the contrary.  He bowed, and
+raised the victim silently from her feet, but continued silent.
+
+Elizabeth handed the black a piece of silver as a remuneration for his
+loss, which had some effect in again unbending his muscles, and then
+expressed to her companion her readiness to return homeward.
+
+“Wait a minute, Cousin Bess,” cried Richard; “there is an uncertainty
+about the rules of this sport that it is proper I should remove.  If
+you will appoint a committee, gentlemen, to wait on me this morning, I
+will draw up in writing a set of regulations—’ He stopped, with some
+indignation, for at that instant a hand was laid familiarly on the
+shoulder of the High Sheriff of —.
+
+“A merry Christmas to you, Cousin Dickon,” said Judge Temple, who had
+approached the party unperceived: “I must have a vigilant eye to my
+daughter, sir, if you are to be seized daily with these gallant fits.
+I admire the taste which would introduce a lady to such scenes!”
+
+“It is her own perversity, ‘Duke,” cried the disappointed sheriff, who
+felt the loss of the first salutation as grievously as many a man
+would a much greater misfortune; “and I must say that she comes
+honestly by it.  I led her out to show her the improvements, but away
+she scampered, through the snow, at the first sound of fire-arms, the
+same as if she had been brought up in a camp, instead of a first-rate
+boarding-school.  I do think, Judge Temple, that such dangerous
+amusements should be suppressed, by statute; nay, I doubt whether they
+are not already indict able at common law.”
+
+“Well, sir, as you are sheriff of the county, it becomes your duty to
+examine into the matter,” returned the smiling Marmaduke, “I perceive
+that Bess has executed her commission, and I hope it met with a
+favorable reception.” Richard glanced his eye at the packet which he
+held in his hand, and the slight anger produced by disappointment
+vanished instantly.
+
+“Ah! ‘Duke, my dear cousin,” he said, “step a little on one side; I
+have something I would say to you.”
+
+Marmaduke complied, and the sheriff led him to a little distance in
+the bushes, and continued: “First, ‘Duke, let me thank you for your
+friendly interest with the Council and the Governor, without which I
+am confident that the greatest merit would avail but little.  But we
+are sisters’ children—we are sisters’ children, and you may use me
+like one of your horses; ride me or drive me, ‘Duke, I am wholly
+yours.  But in my humble opinion, this young companion of Leather-
+Stocking requires looking after.  He has a very dangerous propensity
+for turkey.”
+
+“Leave him to my management, Dickon,” said the Judge, “and I will cure
+his appetite by indulgence.  It is with him that I would speak.  Let
+us rejoin the sportsmen.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+
+“Poor wretch! the mother that him bare,
+If she had been in presence there,
+In his wan face, and sunburnt hair,
+She had not known her child, ‘—Scott.
+
+It diminished, in no degree, the effect produced by the conversation
+which passed between Judge Temple and the I young hunter, that the
+former took the arm of his daughter and drew it through his own, when
+he advanced from the spot whither Richard had led him to that where
+the youth was standing, leaning on his rifle, and contemplating the
+dead bird at his feet.  The presence of Marmaduke did not interrupt
+the sports, which were resumed by loud and clamorous disputes
+concerning the conditions of a chance that involved the life of a bird
+of much inferior quality to the last.  Leather-Stocking and Mohegan
+had alone drawn aside to their youthful companion; and, although in
+the immediate vicinity of such a throng, the following conversation
+was heard only by those who were interested in it.
+
+“I have greatly injured you, Mr. Edwards,” said the Judge; but the
+sudden and inexplicable start with which the person spoken to received
+this unexpected address, caused him to pause a moment.  As no answer
+was given, and the strong emotion exhibited in the countenance of the
+youth gradually passed away, he continued: “But fortunately it is in
+some measure in my power to compensate you for what I have done.  My
+kinsman, Richard Jones, has received an appointment that will, in
+future, deprive me of his assistance, and leave me, just now,
+destitute of one who might greatly aid me with his pen.  Your manner,
+notwithstanding appearances, is a sufficient proof of your education,
+nor will thy shoulder suffer thee to labor, for some time to come.”
+(Marmaduke insensibly relapsed into the language of the Friends as he
+grew warm.) “My doors are open to thee, my young friend, for in this
+infant country we harbor no suspicions; little offering to tempt the
+cupidity of the evil-disposed.  Be come my assistant, for at least a
+season, and receive such compensation as thy services will deserve.”
+
+There was nothing in the manner of the offer of the Judge to justify
+the reluctance, amounting nearly to loathing, with which the youth
+listened to his speech; but, after a powerful effort for self-command,
+he replied:
+
+“I would serve you, sir, or any other man, for an honest support, for
+I do not affect to conceal that my necessities are very great, even
+beyond what appearances would indicate; but I am fearful that such new
+duties would interfere too much with more important business; so that
+I must decline your offer, and depend on my rifle, as before, for
+subsistence.”
+
+Richard here took occasion to whisper to the young lady, who had
+shrunk a little from the foreground of the picture:
+
+“This, you see, Cousin Bess, is the natural reluctance of a half-breed
+to leave the savage state.  Their attachment to a wandering life is, I
+verily believe, unconquerable.”
+
+“It is a precarious life,” observed Marmaduke, without hearing the
+sheriff’s observation, “and one that brings more evils with it than
+present suffering.  Trust me, young friend, my experience is greater
+than thine, when I tell thee that the unsettled life of these hunters
+is of vast disadvantage for temporal purposes, and it totally removes
+one from the influence of more sacred things.”
+
+“No, no, Judge,” interrupted the Leather-Stocking, who was hitherto
+unseen, or disregarded; “take him into your shanty in welcome, but
+tell him truth.  I have lived in the woods for forty long years, and
+have spent five at a time without seeing the light of a clearing
+bigger than a window in the trees; and I should like to know where
+you’ll find a man, in his sixty-eighth year, who can get an easier
+living, for all your betterments and your deer laws; and, as for
+honesty, or doing what’s right between man and man, I’ll not turn my
+back to the longest-winded deacon on your Patent.”
+
+“Thou art an exception, Leather-Stocking,” returned the Judge, nodding
+good-naturedly at the hunter; “for thou hast a temperance unusual in
+thy class, and a hardihood exceeding thy years.  But this youth is
+made of I materials too precious to be wasted in the forest—I entreat
+thee to join my family, if it be but till thy arm is healed.  My
+daughter here, who is mistress of my dwelling, wilt tell thee that
+thou art welcome.”
+
+“Certainly,” said Elizabeth, whose earnestness was a little checked by
+female reserve.  “The unfortunate would be welcome at any time, but
+doubly so when we feel that we have occasioned the evil ourselves,”
+“Yes,” said Richard, “and if you relish turkey, young man, there are
+plenty in the coops, and of the best kind, I can assure you.”
+
+Finding himself thus ably seconded, Marmaduke pushed his advantage to
+the utmost.  He entered into a detail of the duties that would attend
+the situation, and circumstantially mentioned the reward, and all
+those points which are deemed of importance among men of business.
+The youth listened in extreme agitation.  There was an evident contest
+in his feelings; at times he appeared to wish eagerly for the change,
+and then again the incomprehensible expression of disgust would cross
+his features, like a dark cloud obscuring a noonday sun.
+
+The Indian, in whose manner the depression of self-abasement was most
+powerfully exhibited, listened to the offers of the Judge with an
+interest that increased with each syllable.  Gradually he drew nigher
+to the group and when, with his keen glance, he detected the most
+marked evidence of yielding in the countenance of his young companion,
+he changed at once from his attitude and look of shame to the front of
+an Indian warrior, and moving, with great dignity, closer to the
+parties, he spoke.
+
+“Listen to your father,” he said; “his words are old.  Let the Young
+Eagle and the Great Land Chief eat together; let them sleep, without
+fear, near each other.  The children of Miquon love not blood: they
+are just, and will do right.  The sun must rise and set often, be fore
+men can make one family; it is not the work of a day, but of many
+winters.  The Mingoes and the Delawares are born enemies; their blood
+can never mix in the wigwam; it never will run in the same stream in
+the battle.  What makes the brother of Miquon and the Young Eagle
+foes? They are of the same tribe; their fathers and mothers are one.
+Learn to wait, my son, you are a Delaware, and an Indian warrior knows
+how to be patient.”
+
+This figurative address seemed to have great weight with the young
+man, who gradually yielded to the representations of Marmaduke, and
+eventually consented to his proposal.  It was, however, to be an
+experiment only; and, if either of the parties thought fit to rescind
+the engagement, it was left at his option so to do.  The remarkable
+and ill-concealed reluctance of the youth to accept of an offer, which
+most men in his situation would consider as an unhoped-for elevation,
+occasioned no little surprise in those to whom he was a stranger; and
+it left a slight impression to his disadvantage.  When the parties
+separated, they very naturally made the subject the topic of a
+conversation, which we shall relate; first commencing with the Judge,
+his daughter, and Richard, who were slowly pursuing the way back to
+the mansion-house.
+
+“I have surely endeavored to remember the holy man dates of our
+Redeemer, when he bids us ‘love them who despitefully use you,’ in my
+intercourse with this incomprehensible boy,” said Marmaduke.  “I know
+not what there is in my dwelling to frighten a lad of his years,
+unless it may he thy presence and visage, Bess,”
+
+“No, no,” said Richard, with great simplicity, “it is not Cousin Bess.
+But when did you ever know a half-breed, ‘Duke, who could bear
+civilization? For that mat ter, they are worse than the savages
+themselves! Did you notice how knock-kneed he stood, Elizabeth, and
+what a wild look he had in his eyes?”
+
+“I heeded not his eyes, nor his knees, which would be all the better
+for a little humbling.  Really, my dear sir, I think you did exercise
+the Christian virtue of patience to the utmost.  I was disgusted with
+his airs, long before he consented to make one of our family.  Truly
+we are much honored by the association! In what apartment is he to be
+placed, sir; and at what table is he to receive his nectar and
+ambrosia?”
+
+“With Benjamin and Remarkable,” interrupted Mr. Jones; “you sorely
+would not make the youth eat with the blacks! He is part Indian, it is
+true; but the natives hold the negroes in great contempt.  No, no; he
+would starve before he would break a crust with the negroes.”
+
+“I am but too happy, Dickon, to tempt him to eat with ourselves,” said
+Marmaduke, “to think of offering even the indignity you propose.”
+
+“Then, sir,” said Elizabeth, with an air that was slightly affected,
+as if submitting to her father’s orders in opposition to her own will,
+“it is your pleasure that he be a gentleman.”
+
+“Certainly; he is to fill the station of one.  Let him receive the
+treatment that is due to his place, until we find him unworthy of it.”
+
+“Well, well, ‘Duke,” cried the sheriff, “ you will find it no easy
+matter to make a gentleman of him.  The old proverb says that ‘it
+takes three generations to make a gentleman.’ There was my father whom
+everybody knew my grandfather was an M.D., and his father a D.D.; and
+his father came from England, I never could come at the truth of his
+origin; but he was either a great mer chant in London, or a great
+country lawyer, or the youngest son of a bishop.”
+
+“Here is a true American genealogy for you,” said Marmaduke, laughing.
+“It does very well till you get across the water, where, as everything
+is obscure, it is certain to deal in the superlative.  You are sure
+that your English progenitor was great, Dickon, whatever his
+profession might have been?”
+
+“To be sure I am,” returned the other.  “I have heard my old aunt talk
+of him by the month.  We are of a good family, Judge Temple, and have
+never filled any but honorable stations in life.”
+
+“I marvel that you should be satisfied with so scanty a provision of
+gentility in the olden time, Dickon.  Most of the American
+genealogists commence their traditions like the stories for children,
+with three brothers, taking especial care that one of the triumvirate
+shall be the pro genitor of any of the same name who may happen to be
+better furnished with worldly gear than themselves.  But, here, all
+are equal who know how to conduct themselves with propriety; and
+Oliver Edwards comes into my family on a footing with both the high
+sheriff and the judge.”
+
+“Well, ‘Duke, I call this democracy, not republicanism; but I say
+nothing; only let him keep within the law, or I shall show him that
+the freedom of even this country is under wholesome restraint.”
+
+“Surely, Dickon, you will not execute till I condemn! But what says
+Bess to the new inmate? We must pay a deference to the ladies in this
+matter, after all.”
+
+“Oh, sir!” returned Elizabeth, “I believe I am much like a certain
+Judge Temple in this particular—not easily to be turned from my
+opinion.  But, to be serious, although I must think the introduction
+of a demi-savage into the family a somewhat startling event,
+whomsoever you think proper to countenance may be sure of my respect.”
+
+The Judge drew her arm more closely in his own and smiled, while
+Richard led the way through the gate of the little court-yard in the
+rear of the dwelling, dealing out his ambiguous warnings with his
+accustomed loquacity.
+
+On the other hand, the foresters—for the three hunters,
+notwithstanding their difference in character, well deserved this
+common name—pursued their course along the skirts of the village in
+silence.  It was not until they had reached the lake, and were moving
+over its frozen surface toward the foot of the mountain, where the hut
+stood, that the youth exclaimed:
+
+“Who could have foreseen this a month since! I have consented to serve
+Marmaduke Temple—to be an inmate in the dwelling of the greatest enemy
+of my race; yet what better could I do? The servitude cannot be long;
+and, when the motive for submitting to it ceases to exist, I will
+shake it off like the dust from my feet.”
+
+“Is he a Mingo, that you will call him enemy?” said Mohegan.  “The
+Delaware warrior sits still, and waits the time of the Great Spirit.
+He is no woman, to cry out like a child.”
+
+“Well, I’m mistrustful, John,” said Leather-Stocking, in whose air
+there had been, during the whole business, a strong expression of
+doubt and uncertainty.  “They say that there’s new laws in the land,
+and I’m sartin that there’s new ways in the mountains.  One hardly
+knows the lakes and streams, they’ve altered the country so much.  I
+must say I’m mistrustful of such smooth speakers; for I've known the
+whites talk fair when they wanted the Indian lands most.  This I will
+say, though I’m a white myself, and was born nigh York, and of honest
+parents, too.”
+
+“I will submit,” said the youth; “I will forget who I am.  Cease to
+remember, old Mohegan, that I am the descendant of a Delaware chief,
+who once was master of these noble hills, these beautiful vales, and
+of this water, over which we tread.  Yes, yes; I will become his bonds
+man—his slave, Is it not an honorable servitude, old man?”
+
+“Old man!” repeated the Indian solemnly, and pausing in his walk, as
+usual, when much excited; “yes, John is old.  Son of my brother! if
+Mohegan was young, when would his rifle be still? Where would the deer
+hide, and he not find him? But John is old; his hand is the hand of a
+squaw; his tomahawk is a hatchet; brooms and baskets are his enemies—
+he strikes no other.  Hunger and old age come together.  See Hawk-eye!
+when young, he  would go days and eat nothing; but should he not put
+the brush on the fire now, the blaze would go out.  Take the son of
+Miquon by the hand, and he will help you.”
+
+“I’m not the man I was, I’ll own, Chingachgook,” returned the Leather-
+Stocking; “but I can go without a meal now, on occasion.  When we
+tracked the Iroquois through the ‘Beech-woods,’ they drove the game
+afore them, for I hadn’t a morsel to eat from Monday morning come
+Wednesday sundown, and then I shot as fat a buck, on the Pennsylvany
+line, as ever mortal laid eyes on.  It would have done your heart good
+to have seen the Delaware eat; for I was out scouting and skrimmaging
+with their tribe at the time.  Lord! The Indians, lad, lay still, and
+just waited till Providence should send them their game, but I foraged
+about, and put a deer up, and put him down too, afore he had made a
+dozen jumps.  I was too weak and too ravenous to stop for his flesh,
+so I took a good drink of his blood, and the Indians ate of his meat
+raw.  John was there, and John knows.  But then starvation would be
+apt to be too much for me now, I will own, though I’m no great eater
+at any time.”
+
+“Enough is said, my friend,” cried the youth.  “I feel that everywhere
+the sacrifice is required at my hands, and it shall be made; but say
+no more, I entreat you; I can not bear this subject now.”
+
+His companions were silent; and they soon reached the hut, which they
+entered, after removing certain complicated and ingenious fastenings,
+that were put there apparently to guard a property of but very little
+value.  Immense piles of snow lay against the log walls of this
+secluded habitation on one side; while fragments of small trees, and
+branches of oak and chestnut, that had been torn from their parent
+stems by the winds, were thrown into a pile on the other.  A small
+column of smoke rose through a chimney of sticks, cemented with clay,
+along the side of the rock, and had marked the snow above with its
+dark tinges, in a wavy line, from the point of emission to an other,
+where the hill receded from the brow of a precipice, and held a soil
+that nourished trees of a gigantic growth, that overhung the little
+bottom beneath.
+
+The remainder of the day passed off as such days are commonly spent in
+a new country.  The settlers thronged to the academy again, to witness
+the second effort of Mr. Grant; and Mohegan was one of his hearers.
+But, not withstanding the divine fixed his eyes intently on the Indian
+when he invited his congregation to advance to the table, the shame of
+last night’s abasement was yet too keen in the old chief to suffer him
+to move.
+
+When the people were dispersing, the clouds that had been gathering
+all the morning were dense and dirty, and before half of the curious
+congregation had reached their different cabins, that were placed in
+every glen and hollow of the mountains, or perched on the summits of
+the hills themselves, the rain was falling in torrents.  The dark
+edges of the stumps began to exhibit themselves, as the snow settled
+rapidly; the fences of logs and brush, which before had been only
+traced by long lines of white mounds, that ran across the valley and
+up the mountains, peeped out from their covering, and the black stubs
+were momentarily becoming more distinct, as large masses of snow and
+ice fell from their sides, under the influence of the thaw.
+
+Sheltered in the warm hall of her father’s comfortable mansion,
+Elizabeth, accompanied by Louisa Grant, looked abroad with admiration
+at the ever-varying face of things without.  Even the village, which
+had just before been glittering with the color of the frozen element,
+reluctantly dropped its mask, and the houses exposed their dark roofs
+and smoked chimneys.  The pines shook off the covering of snow, and
+everything seemed to he assuming its proper hues with a transition
+that bordered on the supernatural.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+
+“And yet, poor Edwin was no vulgar boy.”—Beattie.
+
+The close of Christmas Day, A.D. 1793, was tempestuous, but
+comparatively warm.  When darkness had again hid the objects in the
+village from the gaze of Elizabeth, she turned from the window, where
+she had remained while the least vestige of light lingered over the
+tops of the dark pines, with a curiosity that was rather excited than
+appeased by the passing glimpses of woodland scenery that she had
+caught during the day.
+
+With her arm locked in that of Miss Grant, the young mistress of the
+mansion walked slowly up and down the hall, musing on scenes that were
+rapidly recurring to her memory, and possibly dwelling, at times, in
+the sanctuary of her thoughts, on the strange occurrences that had led
+to the introduction to her father’s family of one whose Manners so
+singularly contradicted the inferences to be drawn from his situation.
+The expiring heat of the apartment—for its great size required a day
+to reduce its temperature—had given to her cheeks a bloom that
+exceeded their natural color, while the mild and melancholy features
+of Louisa were brightened with a faint tinge, that, like the hectic of
+disease, gave a painful interest to her beauty.
+
+The eyes of the gentlemen, who were yet seated around the rich wines
+of Judge Temple, frequently wandered from the table, that was placed
+at one end of the hall, to the forms that were silently moving over
+its length.  Much mirth, and that, at times, of a boisterous kind,
+proceeded from the mouth of Richard; but Major Hartmann was not yet
+excited to his pitch of merriment, and Marmaduke respected the
+presence of his clerical guest too much to indulge in even the
+innocent humor that formed no small ingredient in his character.
+
+Such were, and such continued to be, the pursuits of the party, for
+half an hour after the shutters were closed, and candles were placed
+in various parts of the hall, as substitutes for departing daylight.
+The appearance of Benjamin, staggering under the burden of an armful
+of wood, was the first interruption to the scene.
+
+“How now, Master Pump!” roared the newly appointed sheriff; “is there
+not warmth enough in ‘Duke’s best Madeira to keep up the animal heat
+through this thaw? Remember, old boy, that the Judge is particular
+with his beech and maple, beginning to dread already a scarcity of the
+precious articles.  Ha! ha! ha! ‘Duke, you are a good, warm-hearted
+relation, I will own, as in duty bound, but you have some queer
+notions about you, after all.  ‘Come, let us be jolly, and cast away
+folly.”
+
+The notes gradually sank into a hum, while the major-domo threw down
+his load, and, turning to his interrogator with an air of earnestness,
+replied:
+
+“Why, look you, Squire Dickon, mayhap there’s a warm latitude round
+about the table there, thof it’s not the stuff to raise the heat in my
+body, neither; the raal Jamaiky being the only thing to do that,
+besides good wood, or some such matter as Newcastle coal.  But, if I
+know anything of the weather, d’ye see, it’s time to be getting all
+snog, and for putting the ports in and stirring the fires a bit.
+Mayhap I’ve not followed the seas twenty-seven years, and lived
+another seven in these here woods, for nothing, gemmen.”
+
+“Why, does it bid fair for a change in the weather, Benjamin?”
+inquired the master of the house.
+
+“There’s a shift of wind, your honor,” returned the steward; “and when
+there’s a shift of wind, you may look for a change in this here
+climate.  I was aboard of one of Rodney’s fleet, dye see, about the
+time we licked De Grasse, Mounsheer Lor Quaw’s countryman, there; and
+the wind was here at the south’ard and east'ard; and I was below,
+mixing a toothful of hot stuff for the captain of marines, who dined,
+dye see, in the cabin, that there very same day; and I suppose he
+wanted to put out the captain’s fire with a gun-room ingyne; and so,
+just as I got it to my own liking, after tasting pretty often, for the
+soldier was difficult to please, slap came the foresail agin’ the
+mast, whiz went the ship round on her heel, like a whirligig.  And a
+lucky thing was it that our helm was down; for as she gathered
+starnway she paid off, which was more than every ship in the fleet
+did, or could do.  But she strained herself in the trough of the sea,
+and she shipped a deal of water over her quarter.  I never swallowed
+so much clear water at a time in my life as I did then, for I was
+looking up the after-hatch at the instant.”
+
+“I wonder, Benjamin, that you did not die with a dropsy!” said
+Marmaduke.
+
+“I mought, Judge,” said the old tar, with a broad grin; “but there was
+no need of the medicine chest for a cure; for, as I thought the brew
+was spoilt for the marine’s taste, and there was no telling when
+another sea might come and spoil it for mine.  I finished the mug on
+the spot. So then all hands was called to the pumps, and there we
+began to ply the pumps—”
+
+“Well, but the weather?” interrupted Marmaduke;
+
+“what of the weather without doors?”
+
+“Why here the wind has been all day at the south, and now there’s a
+lull, as if the last blast was out of the bellows; and there’s a
+streak along the mountains, to the northard, that, just now, wasn’t
+wider than the bigness of your hand; and then the clouds drive afore
+it as you’d brail a mainsail, and the stars are heaving in sight, like
+so many lights and beacons, put there to warn us to pile on the wood;
+and, if so be that I’m a judge of weather, it’s getting to be time to
+build on a fire, or you'll have half of them there porter bottles, and
+them dimmyjohns of wine, in the locker here, breaking with the frost,
+afore the morning watch is called.”
+
+“Thou art a prudent sentinel,” said the Judge.  “Act thy pleasure with
+the forests, for this night at feast.”
+
+Benjamin did as he was ordered; nor had two hours elapsed, before the
+prudence of his precautions became very visible.  The south wind had,
+indeed, blown itself cut, and it was succeeded by the calmness that
+usually gave warning of a serious change in the weather.  Long before
+the family retired to rest, the cold had become cuttingly severe; and
+when Monsieur Le Quoi sallied c forth under a bright moon, to seek his
+own abode, he was compelled to beg a blanket, in which he might
+envelop c his form, in addition to the numerous garments that his
+sagacity had provided for the occasion. The divine and s his daughter
+remained as inmates of the mansion-house during the night, and the
+excess of last night’s merriment c induced the gentlemen to make an
+early retreat to their several apartments, Long before midnight, the
+whole s family were invisible.
+
+Elizabeth and her friend had not yet lost their senses in sleep, and
+the howlings of the northwest wind were heard around the buildings,
+and brought with them that exquisite sense of comfort that is ever
+excited under such circumstances, in an apartment where the fire has
+not yet ceased to glimmer, and curtains, and shutters, and feathers
+unite to preserve the desired temperature.  Once, just as her eyes had
+opened, apparently in the last stage of drowsiness, the roaring winds
+brought with them a long and plaintive howl, that seemed too wild for
+a dog, and yet resembled the cries of that faithful animal, when night
+awakens his vigilance, and gives sweetness and solemnity to its
+charms.  The form of Louis Grant instinctively pressed nearer to that
+of the young heiress, who, finding her companion was yet awake, said
+in a low tone, as if afraid to break a charm with her voice:
+
+“Those distant cries are plaintive, and even beautiful.  Can they be
+the hounds from the hut of Leather-Stocking?”
+
+“They are wolves, who have ventured from the mountain, on the lake,”
+whispered Louisa, “and who are only kept from the village by the
+lights.  One night, since we have been here, hunger drove them to our
+very door.  Oh, what a dreadful night it was! But the riches of Judge
+Temple have given him too many safeguards, to leave room for fear in
+this house.”
+
+“The enterprise of Judge Temple is taming the very forests!” exclaimed
+Elizabeth, throwing off the covering, and partly rising in the bed.
+“How rapidly is civilization treading on the foot of Nature!” she
+continued, as her eye glanced over not only the comforts, hut the
+luxuries of her apartment, and her ear again listened to the distant.
+but often repeated howls from the lake.  Finding, how-ever, that the
+timidity of her companion rendered the sounds painful to her,
+Elizabeth resumed her place, and soon forgot the changes in the
+country, with those in her own condition, in a deep sleep.
+
+The following morning, the noise of the female servant, who entered
+the apartment to light the fire, awoke the females.  They arose, and
+finished the slight preparations I of their toilets in a clear, cold
+atmosphere, that penetrated through all the defences of even Miss
+Temple’s warm room.  When Elizabeth was attired, she approached a
+window and drew its curtain, and throwing open its shutters she
+endeavored to look abroad on the village and the lake.  But a thick
+covering of frost on the glass, while it admitted the light, shut out
+the view.  She raised the sash, and then, indeed, a glorious scene met
+her delighted eye.
+
+The lake had exchanged its covering of unspotted snow for a face of
+dark ice, that reflected the rays of the rising sun like a polished
+mirror.  The houses clothed in a dress of the same description, but
+which, owing to its position, shone like bright steel; while the
+enormous icicles that were pendent from every roof caught the
+brilliant light, apparently throwing it from one to the other, as each
+glittered, on the side next the luminary, with a golden lustre that
+melted away, on its opposite, into the dusky shades of a background.
+But it was the appearance of the boundless forests that covered the
+hills as they rose in the distance, one over the other, that most
+attracted the gaze of Miss Temple.  The huge branches of the pines and
+hemlocks bent with the weight of the ice they supported, while their
+summits rose above the swelling tops of the oaks, beeches, and maples,
+like spires of burnished silver issuing from domes of the same
+material.  The limits of the view, in the west, were marked by an
+undulating outline of bright light, as if, reversing the order of
+nature, numberless suns might momentarily he expected to heave above
+the horizon.  In the foreground of the picture, along the shores of
+the lake, and near to the village, each tree seemed studded with
+diamonds.  Even the sides of the mountains where the rays of the sun
+could not yet fall, were decorated with a glassy coat, that presented
+every gradation of brilliancy, from the first touch of the luminary to
+the dark foliage of the hemlock, glistening through its coat of
+crystal.  In short, the whole view was one scene of quivering
+radiancy, as lake, mountains, village, and woods, each emitted a
+portion of light, tinged with its peculiar hue, and varied by its
+position and its magnitude.
+
+“See!” cried Elizabeth; “see, Louisa; hasten to the window, and
+observe the miraculous change!”
+
+Miss Grant complied; and, after bending for a moment in silence from
+the opening, she observed, in a low tone, as if afraid to trust the
+sound of her voice:
+
+“The change is indeed wonderful! I am surprised that he should be able
+to effect it so soon.”
+
+Elizabeth turned in amazement, to hear so skeptical a sentiment from
+one educated like her companion; but was surprised to find that,
+instead of looking at the view, the mild blue eyes of Miss Grant were
+dwelling on the form of a well-dressed young man, who was standing –
+before the door of the building, in earnest conversation with her
+father.  A second look was necessary before she was able to recognize
+the person of the young hunter in a plain, but assuredly the ordinary,
+garb of a gentleman.
+
+“Everything in this magical country seems to border on the
+marvellous,” said Elizabeth; “and, among all the changes, this is
+certainly not the least wonderful, The actors are as unique as the
+scenery.”
+
+Miss Grant colored and drew in her head.
+
+“I am a simple country girl, Miss Temple, and I am afraid you will
+find me but a poor companion,” she said.  “I—I am not sure that I
+understand all you say.  But I really thought that you wished me to
+notice the alteration in Mr. Edwards, Is it not more wonderful when we
+recollect his origin? They say he is part Indian.”
+
+“He is a genteel savage; but let us go down, and give the sachem his
+tea; for I suppose he is a descendant of King Philip, if not a
+grandson of Pocahontas.”
+
+The ladies were met in the hall by Judge Temple, who took his daughter
+aside to apprise her of that alteration in the appearance of their new
+inmate, with which she was already acquainted.
+
+“He appears reluctant to converse on his former situation,” continued
+Marmaduke “but I gathered from his discourse, as is apparent from his
+manner, that he has seen better days; and I am really inclining to the
+opinion of Richard, as to his origin; for it was no unusual thing for
+the Indian agents to rear their children in a laudable manner, and—”
+
+“Very well, my dear sir,” interrupted his daughter, laughing and
+averting her eyes; “it is all well enough, I dare say; but, as I do
+not understand a word of the Mohawk language he must be content to
+speak English; and as for his behavior, I trust to your discernment to
+control it.”
+
+“Ay! but, Bess,” cried the judge, detaining her gently by the hand,
+“nothing must be said to him of his past life.  This he has begged
+particularly of me, as a favor, He is, perhaps, a little soured, just
+now, with his wounded arm; the injury seems very light, and another
+time he may be more communicative,”
+
+“Oh! I am not much troubled, sir, with that laudable thirst after
+knowledge that is called curiosity.  I shall believe him to he the
+child of Corn-stalk, or Corn-planter, or some other renowned
+chieftain; possibly of the Big Snake himself; and shall treat him as
+such until he sees fit to shave his good-looking head, borrow some
+half-dozen pair of my best earrings, shoulder his rifle again, and
+disappear as suddenly as he made his entrance.  So come, my dear sir,
+and let us not forget the rites of hospitality, for the short time he
+is to remain with us.”
+
+Judge Temple smiled at the playfulness of his child, and taking her
+arm they entered the breakfast parlor, where the young hunter was
+seated with an air that showed his determination to domesticate
+himself in the family with as little parade as possible.
+
+Such were the incidents that led to this extraordinary increase in the
+family of Judge Temple, where, having once established the youth, the
+subject of our tale requires us to leave him for a time, to pursue
+with diligence and intelligence the employments that were assigned him
+by Marmaduke.
+
+Major Hartmann made his customary visit, and took his leave of the
+party for the next three months.  Mr. Grant was compelled to be absent
+most of his time, in remote parts of the country, and his daughter
+became almost a constant visitor at the mansion-house.  Richard
+entered, with his constitutional eagerness, on the duties of his new
+office; and, as Marmaduke was much employed with the constant
+applications of adventures for farms, the winter passed swiftly away.
+The lake was the principal scene f or the amusements of the young
+people; where the ladies, in their one-horse cutter, driven by
+Richard, and attended, when the snow would admit of it, by young Ed
+wards on his skates, spent many hours taking the benefit of exercise
+in the clear air of the hills.  The reserve of the youth gradually
+gave way to time and his situation, though it was still evident, to a
+close observer, that he had frequent moments of bitter and intense
+feeling.
+
+Elizabeth saw many large openings appear in the sides of the mountains
+during the three succeeding months, where different settlers had, in
+the language of the country “made their pitch,” while the numberless
+sleighs that passed through the village, loaded with wheat and barrels
+of potashes, afforded a clear demonstration that all these labors were
+not undertaken in vain.  In short, the whole country was exhibiting
+the bustle of a thriving settlement, where the highways were thronged
+with sleighs, bearing piles of rough household furniture, studded,
+here and there, with the smiling faces of women and children, happy in
+the excitement of novelty; or with loads of produce, hastening to the
+common market at Albany, that served as so many snares to induce the
+emigrants to enter into those wild mountains in search of competence
+and happiness.
+
+The village was alive with business, the artisans in creasing in
+wealth with the prosperity of the country, and each day witnessing
+some nearer approach to the manners and usages of an old-settled town.
+The man who carried the mail or “the post,” as he was called, talked
+much of running a stage, and, once or twice during the winter, he was
+seen taking a single passenger, in his cutter, through the snow-banks,
+toward the Mohawk, along which a regular vehicle glided, semi-weekly,
+with the velocity of lightning, and under the direction of a knowing
+whip from the “down countries,” Toward spring, divers families, who
+had been into the “old States” to see their relatives, returned in
+time to save the snow, frequently bringing with them whole
+neighborhoods, who were tempted by their representations to leave the
+farms of Connecticut and Massachusetts, to make a trial of fortune in
+the woods.
+
+During all this time, Oliver Edwards, whose sudden elevation excited
+no surprise in that changeful country, was earnestly engaged in the
+service of Marmaduke, during the days; but his nights were often spent
+in the hut of Leather-Stocking.  The intercourse between the three
+hunters was maintained with a certain air of mystery, it is true, but
+with much zeal and apparent interest to all the parties.  Even Mohegan
+seldom came to the mansion-house, and Natty never; but Edwards sought
+every leisure moment to visit his former abode, from which he would
+often return in the gloomy hours of night.  through the snow, or, if
+detained beyond the time at which the family retired to rest, with the
+morning sun.  These visits certainly excited much speculation in those
+to whom they were known, but no comments were made, excepting
+occasionally in whispers from Richard, who would say:
+
+“It is not at all remarkable; a half-breed can never be weaned from
+the savage ways—and, for one of his lineage, the boy is much nearer
+civilization than could, in reason, be expected.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+
+“Away! nor let me loiter in my song,
+For we have many a mountain-path to tread.”—Byron.
+
+As the spring gradually approached, the immense piles of snow that, by
+alternate thaws and frosts, and repeated storms, had obtained a
+firmness which threatened a tiresome durability, began to yield to the
+influence of milder breezes and a warmer sun.  The gates of heaven at
+times seemed to open, and a bland air diffused itself over the earth,
+when animate and inanimate nature would awaken, and, for a few hours,
+the gayety of spring shone in every eye and smiled on every field.
+But the shivering blasts from the north would carry their chill
+influence over the scene again, and the dark and gloomy clouds that
+intercepted the rays of the sun were not more cold and dreary than the
+reaction.  These struggles between the seasons became daily more
+frequent, while the earth, like a victim to contention, slowly lost
+the animated brilliancy of winter, without obtaining the aspect of
+spring.
+
+Several weeks were consumed in this cheerless manner, during which the
+inhabitants of the country gradually changed their pursuits from the
+social and bustling movements of the time of snow to the laborious and
+domestic engagements of the coming season, The village was no longer
+thronged with visitors; the trade that had enlivened the shops for
+several months, began to disappear; the highways lost their shining
+coats of beaten snow in impassable sloughs, and were deserted by the
+gay and noisy travellers who, in sleighs, had, during the winter,
+glided along their windings; and, in short, everything seemed
+indicative of a mighty change, not only in the earth, but in those who
+derived their sources of comfort and happiness from its bosom.
+
+The younger members of the family in the mansion house, of which
+Louisa Grant was now habitually one, were by no means indifferent
+observers of these fluctuating and tardy changes.  While the snow
+rendered the roads passable, they had partaken largely in the
+amusements of the winter, which included not only daily rides over the
+mountains, and through every valley within twenty miles of them, but
+divers ingenious and varied sources of pleasure on the bosom of their
+frozen lake.  There had been excursions in the equipage of Richard,
+when with his four horses he had outstripped the winds, as it flew
+over the glassy ice which invariably succeeded a thaw.  Then the
+exciting and dangerous “whirligig” would be suffered to possess its
+moment of notice.  Cutters, drawn by a single horse, and handsleds,
+impelled by the gentlemen on skates, would each in turn be used; and,
+in short, every source of relief against the tediousness of a winter
+in the mountains was resorted to by the family, Elizabeth was
+compelled to acknowledge to her father, that the season, with the aid
+of his library, was much less irksome than she had anticipated.
+
+As exercise in the open air was in some degree necessary to the habits
+of the family, when the constant recurrence of frosts and thaws
+rendered the roads, which were dangerous at the most favorable times,
+utterly impassable for wheels, saddle-horses were used as substitutes
+for other conveyances.  Mounted on small and sure-footed beasts, the
+ladies would again attempt the passages of the mountains and penetrate
+into every retired glen where the enterprise of a settler had induced
+him to establish himself.  In these excursions they were attended by
+some one or all of the gentlemen of the family, as their different
+pursuits admitted.  Young Edwards was hourly becoming more
+familiarized to his situation, and not infrequently mingled in the
+parties with an unconcern and gayety that for a short time would expel
+all unpleasant recollections from his mind.  Habit, and the buoyancy
+of youth, seemed to be getting the ascendency over the secret causes
+of his uneasiness; though there were moments when the same remarkable
+expression of disgust would cross his intercourse with Marmaduke, that
+had distinguished their conversations in the first days of their
+acquaintance.
+
+It was at the close of the month of March, that the sheriff succeeded
+in persuading his cousin and her young friend to accompany him in a
+ride to a hill that was said to overhang the lake in a manner peculiar
+to itself.
+
+“Besides, Cousin Bess,” continued the indefatigable Richard, “we will
+stop and see the ‘sugar bush’ of Billy Kirby; he is on the east end of
+the Ransom lot, making sugar for Jared Ransom.  There is not a better
+hand over a kettle in the county than that same Kirby.  You remember,
+‘Duke, that I had him his first season in our camp; and it is not a
+wonder that he knows something of his trade.”
+
+“He’s a good chopper, is Billy,” observed Benjamin, who held the
+bridle of the horse while the sheriff mounted; “and he handles an axe
+much the same as a forecastleman does his marling-spike, or a tailor
+his goose.  They say he’ll lift a potash-kettle off the arch alone,
+though I can’t say that I’ve ever seen him do it with my own eyes; but
+that is the say.  And I’ve seen sugar of his making, which, maybe,
+wasn’t as white as an old topgallant sail, but which my friend,
+Mistress Pettibones, within there, said had the true molasses smack to
+it; and you are not the one, Squire Dickens, to be told that Mistress
+Remarkable has a remarkable tooth for sweet things in her nut-
+grinder.”
+
+The loud laugh that succeeded the wit of Benjamin, and in which he
+participated with no very harmonious sounds himself, very fully
+illustrated the congenial temper which existed between the pair.  Most
+of its point was, however, lost on the rest of the party, who were
+either mounting their horses or assisting the ladies at the moment.
+When all were safely in their saddles, they moved through the village
+in great order.  They paused for a moment before the door of Monsieur
+Le Quoi, until he could bestride his steed, and then, issuing from the
+little cluster of houses, they took one of the principal of those
+highways that centred in the village.
+
+As each night brought with it a severe frost, which the heat of the
+succeeding day served to dissipate, the equestrians were compelled to
+proceed singly along the margin of the road, where the turf, and
+firmness of the ground, gave the horses a secure footing.  Very
+trifling indications of vegetation were to he seen, the surface of the
+earth presenting a cold, wet, and cheerless aspect that chilled the
+blood.  The snow yet lay scattered over most of those distant
+clearings that were visible in different parts of the mountains;
+though here and there an opening might be seen where, as the white
+covering yielded to the season, the bright and lively green of the
+wheat served to enkindle the hopes of the husbandman.  Nothing could
+be more marked than the contrast between the earth and the heavens;
+for, while the former presented the dreary view that we have
+described, a warm and invigorating sun was dispensing his heats from a
+sky that contained but a solitary cloud, and through an atmosphere
+that softened the colors of the sensible horizon until it shone like a
+sea of blue.
+
+Richard led the way on this, as on all other occasions that did not
+require the exercise of unusual abilities; and as he moved along, he
+essayed to enliven the party with the sounds of his experienced voice.
+
+“This is your true sugar weather, ‘Duke,” he cried; “a frosty night
+and a sunshiny day.  I warrant me that the sap runs like a mill-tail
+up the maples this warm morning.  It is a pity, Judge, that you do not
+introduce a little more science into the manufactory of sugar among
+your tenants.  It might be done, sir, without knowing as much as Dr.
+Franklin—it might be done, Judge Temple.”
+
+“The first object of my solicitude, friend Jones,” returned Marmaduke,
+“is to protect the sources of this great mine of comfort and wealth
+from the extravagance of the people themselves.  When this important
+point shall be achieved, it will be in season to turn our attention to
+an improvement in the manufacture of the article, But thou knowest,
+Richard, that I have already subjected our sugar to the process of the
+refiner, and that the result has produced loaves as white as the snow
+on yon fields, and possessing the saccharine quality in its utmost
+purity.”
+
+“Saccharine, or turpentine, or any other 'ine, Judge Temple, you have
+never made a loaf larger than a good-sized sugar-plum,” returned the
+sheriff.  “Now, sir, I assert that no experiment is fairly tried,
+until it be reduced to practical purposes.  If, sir, I owned a
+hundred, or, for that matter, two hundred thousand acres of land, as
+you do.  I would build a sugar house in the village; I would invite
+learned men to an investigation of the subject—and such are easily to
+be found, sir; yes, sir, they are not difficult to find—men who unite
+theory with practice; and I would select a wood of young and thrifty
+trees; and, instead of making loaves of the size of a lump of candy,
+dam’me, ‘Duke, but I’d have them as big as a haycock.”
+
+“And purchase the cargo of one of those ships that they say are going
+to China,” cried Elizabeth; “turn your pot ash-kettles into teacups,
+the scows on the lake into saucers, bake your cake in yonder lime-
+kiln, and invite the county to a tea-party.  How wonderful are the
+projects of genius! Really, sir, the world is of opinion that Judge
+Temple has tried the experiment fairly, though he did not cause his
+loaves to be cast in moulds of the magnitude that would suit your
+magnificent conceptions.”
+
+“You may laugh, Cousin Elizabeth—you may laugh, madam,” retorted
+Richard, turning himself so much in his saddle as to face the party,
+and making dignified gestures with his whip; “but I appeal to common
+sense, good sense, or, what is of more importance than either, to the
+sense of taste, which is one of the five natural senses, whether a big
+loaf of sugar is not likely to contain a better illustration of a
+proposition than such a lump as one of your Dutch women puts under her
+tongue when she drinks her tea.  There are two ways of doing
+everything, the right way and the wrong way.  You make sugar now, I
+will admit, and you may, possibly, make loaf-sugar; but I take the
+question to be, whether you make the best possible sugar, and in the
+best possible loaves.”
+
+“Thou art very right, Richard,” observed Marmaduke, with a gravity in
+his air that proved how much he was interested in the subject.  “It is
+very true that we manufacture sugar, and the inquiry is quite useful,
+how much? and in what manner? I hope to live to see the day when farms
+and plantations shall be devoted to this branch of business.  Little
+is known concerning the properties of the tree itself, the source of
+all this wealth; how much it may be improved by cultivation, by the
+use of the hoe and plough.”
+
+“Hoe and plough!” roared the sheriff; “would you set a man hoeing
+round the root of a maple like this?” pointing to one of the noble
+trees that occur so frequently in that part of the country.  “Hoeing
+trees! are you mad, ‘Duke? This is next to hunting for coal! Poh! poh!
+my dear cousin, hear reason, and leave the management of the sugar-
+bush to me.  Here is Mr. Le Quoi—he has been in the West Indies, and
+has seen sugar made.  Let him give an account of how it is made there,
+and you will hear the philosophy of the thing.  Well, monsieur, how is
+it that you make sugar in the West Indies; anything in Judge Temples
+fashion?”
+
+The gentleman to whom this query was put was mounted on a small horse,
+of no very fiery temperament, and was riding with his stirrups so
+short as to bring his knees, while the animal rose a small ascent in
+the wood-path they were now travelling, into a somewhat hazardous
+vicinity to his chin.  There was no room for gesticulation or grace in
+the delivery of his reply, for the mountain was steep and slippery;
+and, although the Frenchman had an eye of uncommon magnitude on either
+side of his face, they did not seem to be half competent to forewarn
+him of the impediments of bushes, twigs, and fallen trees, that were
+momentarily crossing his path.  With one hand employed in averting
+these dangers, and the other grasping his bridle to check an untoward
+speed that his horse was assuming, the native of France responded as
+follows:
+
+“Sucre! dey do make sucre in Martinique; mais—mais ce n’est pas one
+tree—ah—ah—vat you call—je voudrois que ces chemins fussent au diable
+- vat you call—steeck pour la promenade?”
+“Cane,” said Elizabeth, smiling at the imprecation which the wary
+Frenchman supposed was understood only by himself.
+“Oui, mam’selle, cane.”
+“Yes, yes,” cried Richard, “cane is the vulgar name for it, but the
+real term is saccharum officinarum; and what we call the sugar, or
+hard maple, is acer saccharinum.  These are the learned names,
+monsieur, and are such as, doubtless, you well understand.”
+
+“Is this Greek or Latin, Mr. Edwards?” whispered Elizabeth to the
+youth, who was opening a passage for herself and her companions
+through the bushes, “or per haps it is a still more learned language,
+for an interpretation of which we must look to you.”
+
+The dark eye of the young man glanced toward the speaker, but its
+resentful expression changed in a moment.
+
+“I shall remember your doubts, Miss Temple, when next I visit my old
+friend Mohegan, and either his skill, or that of Leather-Stocking,
+shall solve them.”
+
+“And are you, then, really ignorant of their language?”
+
+“Not absolutely; but the deep learning of Mr. Jones is more familiar
+to me, or even the polite masquerade of Monsieur Le Quoi.”
+
+“Do you speak French?” said the lady, with quickness.
+
+“It is a common language with the Iroquois, and through the Canadas,”
+he answered, smiling.
+
+“Ah! but they are Mingoes, and your enemies.”
+
+“It will be well for me if I have no worse,” said the youth, dashing
+ahead with his horse, and putting an end to the evasive dialogue.
+
+The discourse, however, was maintained with great vigor by Richard,
+until they reached an open wood on the summit of the mountain, where
+the hemlocks and pines totally disappeared, and a grove of the very
+trees that formed the subject of debate covered the earth with their
+tall, straight trunks and spreading branches, in stately pride.  The
+underwood had been entirely removed from this grove, or bush, as, in
+conjunction with the simple arrangements for boiling, it was called,
+and a wide space of many acres was cleared, which might be likened to
+the dome of a mighty temple, to which the maples formed the columns,
+their tops composing the capitals and the heavens the arch.  A deep
+and careless incision had been made into each tree, near its root,
+into which little spouts, formed of the I bark of the alder, or of the
+sumach, were fastened; and a trough, roughly dug out of the linden, or
+basswood, was I lying at the root of each tree, to catch the sap that
+flowed from this extremely wasteful and inartificial arrangement.
+
+The party paused a moment, on gaining the flat, to breathe their
+horses, and, as the scene was entirely new to several of their
+number, to view the manner of collecting the fluid.  A fine, powerful
+voice aroused them from their momentary silence, as it rang under the
+branches of the trees, singing the following words of that inimitable
+doggerel, whose verses, if extended, would reach from the Caters of
+the Connecticut to the shores of Ontario.  The tune was, of course, a
+familiar air which, although it is said to have been first applied to
+this nation in derision, circumstances have since rendered so glorious
+that no American ever hears its jingling cadence without feeling
+a thrill at his heart:
+
+“The Eastern States be full of men,
+The Western Full of woods, sir,
+The hill be like a cattle-pen,
+The roads be full of goods, sir!
+Then flow away, my sweety sap,
+And I will make you boily;
+Nor catch a wood man’s hasty nap,
+For fear you should get roily.
+The maple-tree's a precious one,
+‘Tis fuel, food, and timber;
+And when your stiff day’s work is done,
+Its juice will make you limber,
+Then flow away, etc.
+
+“And what’s a man without his glass.
+His wife without her tea, sir?
+But neither cup nor mug will pass,
+Without his honey-bee, sir!
+Then flow away,” etc.
+
+During the execution of this sonorous doggerel, Richard kept time with
+his whip on the mane of his charger, accompanying the gestures with a
+corresponding movement of his head and body.  Toward the close of the
+song, he was overheard humming the chorus, and, at its last
+repetition, to strike in at “sweety sap,’ and carry a second through,
+with a prodigious addition to the “effect” of the noise, if not to
+that of the harmony.
+
+“Well done us!” roared the sheriff, on the same key with the tune; “a
+very good song, Billy Kirby, and very well sung.  Where got you the
+words, lad? Is there more of it, and can you furnish me with a copy?”
+The sugar-boiler, who was busy in his “camp,” at a short distance from
+the equestrians, turned his head with great indifference, and surveyed
+the party, as they approached, with admirable coolness.  To each
+individual, as he or she rode close by him, he gave a nod that was
+extremely good-natured and affable, but which partook largely of the
+virtue of equality, for not even to the ladies
+did he in the least vary his mode of salutation, by touching the
+apology for a hat that he wore, or by any other motion than the one we
+have mentioned.
+
+“How goes it, how goes it, sheriff?” said the wood-chopper; “what’s
+the good word in the village?”
+
+“Why, much as usual, Billy,” returned Richard.  “But how is this?
+where are your four kettles, and your troughs, and your iron coolers?
+Do you make sugar in this slovenly way? I thought you were one of the
+best sugar-boilers in the county.”
+
+“I’m all that, Squire Jones,” said Kirby, who continued his
+occupation; “I’ll turn my back to no man in the Otsego hills for
+chopping and logging, for boiling down the maple sap, for tending
+brick-kiln, splitting out rails, making potash, and parling too, or
+hoeing corn; though I keep myself pretty much to the first business,
+seeing that the axe comes most natural to me.”
+
+“You be von Jack All-trade, Mister Beel,” said Monsieur Le Quoi.
+
+“How?” said Kirby, looking up with a simplicity which, coupled with
+his gigantic frame and manly face, was a little ridiculous, “if you be
+for trade, mounsher, here is some as good sugar as you’ll find the
+season through.  It’s as clear from dirt as the Jarman Flats is free
+from stumps, and it has the raal maple flavor.  Such stuff would sell
+in York for candy.”
+
+The Frenchman approached the place where Kirby had deposited his cake
+of sugar, under the cover of a bark roof, and commenced the
+examination of the article with the eye of one who well understood its
+value.  Marmaduke had dismounted, and was viewing the works and the
+trees very closely, and not without frequent expressions of
+dissatisfaction at the careless manner in which the manufacture was
+conducted.
+
+“You have much experience in these things, Kirby,” he said; “what
+course do you pursue in making your sugar? I see you have but two
+kettles.”
+
+“Two is as good as two thousand, Judge.  I’m none of your polite
+sugar-makers, that boils for the great folks; but if the raal sweet
+maple is wanted, I can answer your turn.  First, I choose, and then I
+tap my trees; say along about the last of February, or in these
+mountains maybe not afore the middle of March; but anyway, just as the
+sap begins to cleverly run—”
+
+“Well, in this choice,” interrupted Marmaduke, “are you governed by
+any outward signs that prove the quality of the tree?”
+
+“Why, there’s judgment in all things,” said Kirby, stirring the liquor
+in his kettles briskly.  “There’s some thing in knowing when and how
+to stir the pot.  It’s a thing that must be larnt.  Rome wasn’t built
+in a day, nor for that matter Templeton either, though it may be said
+to be a quick-growing place.  I never put my axe into a stunty tree,
+or one that hasn’t a good, fresh-looking bark: for trees have
+disorders, like creatur’s; and where’s the policy of taking a tree
+that’s sickly, any more than you’d choose a foundered horse to ride
+post, or an over heated ox to do your logging?”
+
+“All that is true.  But what are the signs of illness? how do you
+distinguish a tree that is well from one that is diseased?”
+
+“How does the doctor tell who has fever and who colds?” interrupted
+Richard.  “By examining the skin, and feeling the pulse, to be sure.”
+
+“Sartain,” continued Billy; “the squire ain’t far out of the way.
+It’s by the look of the thing, sure enough.  Well, when the sap begins
+to get a free run, I hang over the kettles, and set up the bush.  My
+first boiling I push pretty smartly, till I get the virtue of the sap;
+but when it begins to grow of a molasses nater, like this in the
+kettle, one mustn’t drive the fires too hard, or you’ll burn the
+sugar; and burny sugar is bad to the taste, let it be never so sweet.
+So you ladle out from one kettle into the other till it gets so, when
+you put the stirring-stick into it, that it will draw into a thread—
+when it takes a kerful hand to manage it.  There is a way to drain it
+off, after it has grained, by putting clay into the pans; bitt it
+isn’t always practised; some doos and some doosn’t.  Well, mounsher,
+be we likely to make a trade?”
+
+“I will give you, Mister Etel, for von pound, dix sous.”
+
+“No, I expect cash for it; I never dicker my sugar, But, seeing that
+it’s you, mounsher,” said Billy, with a Coaxing smile, “I'll agree to
+receive a gallon of rum, and cloth enough for two shirts if you’ll
+take the molasses in the bargain.  It’s raal good.  I wouldn’t deceive
+you or any man and to my drinking it’s about the best molasses that
+come out of a sugar-bush.”
+
+“Mr. Le Quoi has offered you ten pence,” said young Edwards.
+
+The manufacturer stared at the speaker with an air of great freedom,
+but made no reply.
+
+“Oui,” said the Frenchman, “ten penny.  Jevausraner cie, monsieur: ah!
+mon Anglois! je l'oublie toujours.”
+
+The wood-chopper looked from one to the other with some displeasure;
+and evidently imbibed the opinion that they were amusing themselves at
+his expense.  He seized the enormous ladle, which was lying on one of
+his kettles, and began to stir the boiling liquid with great
+diligence.  After a moment passed in dipping the ladle full, and then
+raising it on high, as the thick rich fluid fell back into the kettle,
+he suddenly gave it a whirl, as if to cool what yet remained, and
+offered the bowl to Mr. Le Quoi, saying:
+
+‘Taste that, mounsher, and you will say it is worth more than you
+offer.  The molasses itself would fetch the money,”
+
+The complaisant Frenchman, after several timid efforts to trust his
+lips in contact with the howl of the ladle, got a good swallow of the
+scalding liquid.  He clapped his hands on his breast, and looked most
+piteously at the ladies, for a single instant; and then, to use the
+language oft Billy, when he afterward recounted the tale, “no
+drumsticks ever went faster on the skin of a sheep than the
+Frenchman’s legs, for a round or two; and then such swearing and
+spitting in French you never saw.  But it’s a knowing one, from the
+old countries, that thinks to get his jokes smoothly over a wood-
+chopper.”
+
+The air of innocence with which Kirby resumed the occupation of
+stirring the contents of his kettles would have completely deceived
+the spectators as to his agency in the temporary sufferings of Mr. Le
+Quoi, had not the reckless fellow thrust his tongue into his cheek,
+and cast his eyes over the party, with a simplicity of expression that
+was too exquisite to be natural.  Mr. Le Quoi soon recovered his
+presence of mind and his decorum; and he briefly apologized to the
+ladies for one or two very intemperate expressions that had escaped
+him in a moment of extraordinary excitement, and, remounting his
+horse, he continued in the background during the remainder of the
+visit, the wit of Kirby putting a violent termination, at once, to all
+negotiations on the subject of trade.  During all this time, Marmaduke
+had been wandering about the grove, making observations on his
+favorite trees, and the wasteful manner in which the wood-chopper
+conducted his manufacture.
+
+“It grieves me to witness the extravagance that pervades this
+country,” said the Judge, “where the settlers trifle with the
+blessings they might enjoy, with the prodigality of successful
+adventurers.  You are not exempt from the censure yourself, Kirby, for
+you make dreadful wounds in these trees where a small incision would
+effect the same object.  I earnestly beg you will remember that they
+are the growth of centuries, and when once gone none living will see
+their loss remedied.”
+
+“Why, I don’t know, Judge,” returned the man he ad dressed; “it seems
+to me, if there’s plenty of anything in this mountaynious country,
+it’s the trees.  If there’s any sin in chopping them, I’ve a pretty
+heavy account to settle; for I’ve chopped over the best half of a
+thousand acres, with my own hands, counting both Varmount and York
+States; and I hope to live to finish the whull, before I lay up my
+axe.  Chopping comes quite natural to me, and I wish no other
+employment; but Jared Ransom said that he thought the sugar was likely
+to be source this season, seeing that so many folks was coming into
+the settlement, and so I concluded to take the ‘bush’ on sheares for
+this one spring.  What’s the best news, Judge, consarning ashes? do
+pots hold so that a man can live by them still? I s’pose they will, if
+they keep on fighting across the water.”
+
+“Thou reasonest with judgment, William,” returned Marmaduke.  “So long
+as the Old Worm is to be convulsed with wars, so long will the harvest
+of America continue.”
+
+“Well, it’s an ill wind, Judge, that blows nobody any good.  I’m sure
+the country is in a thriving way; and though I know you calkilate
+greatly on the trees, setting as much store by them as some men would
+by their children, yet to my eyes they are a sore sight any time,
+unless I'm privileged to work my will on them: in which case I can’t
+say but they are more to my liking.  I have heard the settlers from
+the old countries say that their rich men keep great oaks and elms,
+that would make a barrel of pots to the tree, standing round their
+doors and humsteds and scattered over their farms, just to look at.
+Now, I call no country much improved that is pretty well covered with
+trees.  Stumps are a different thing, for they don’t shade the land;
+and, besides, you dig them—they make a fence that will turn anything
+bigger than a hog, being grand for breachy cattle.”
+
+“Opinions on such subjects vary much in different countries,” said
+Marmaduke; “but it is not as ornaments that I value the noble trees of
+this country; it is for their usefulness We are stripping the forests,
+as if a single year would replace what we destroy.  But the hour
+approaches when the laws will take notice of not only the woods, but
+the game they contain also.”
+
+With this consoling reflection, Marmaduke remounted, and the
+equestrians passed the sugar-camp, on their way to the promised
+landscape of Richard.  The wood-chop-per was left alone, in the bosom
+of the forest, to pursue his labors.  Elizabeth turned her head, when
+they reached the point where they were to descend the mountain, and
+thought that the slow fires that were glimmering under his enormous
+kettles, his little brush shelter, covered with pieces of hemlock
+bark, his gigantic size, as he wielded his ladle with a steady and
+knowing air, aided by the back-ground of stately trees, with their
+spouts and troughs, formed, altogether, no unreal picture of human
+life in its first stages of civilization.  Perhaps whatever the scene
+possessed of a romantic character was not injured by the powerful
+tones of Kirby’s voice ringing through the woods as he again awoke his
+strains to another tune, which was but little more scientific than the
+former.  All that she understood of the words were:
+
+“And when the proud forest is falling, To my oxen cheerfully calling,
+From morn until night I am bawling, Whoa, back there, and haw and gee;
+Till our labor is mutually ended, By my strength and cattle
+befriended, And against the mosquitoes defended By the bark of the
+walnut-trees. Away! then, you lads who would buy land; Choose the oak
+that grows on the high land, or the silvery pine on the dry land, it
+matters but little to me.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+
+“Speed! Malise, speed! such cause of haste
+Thine active sinews never braced.  “—Scott.
+
+The roads of Otsego, if we except the principal high ways, were, at
+the early day of our tale, but little better than wood-paths.  The
+high trees that were growing on the very verge of the wheel-tracks
+excluded the sun’s rays, unless at meridian; and the slowness of the
+evaporation, united with the rich mould of vegetable decomposition
+that covered the whole country to the depth of several inches,
+occasioned but an indifferent foundation for the footing of
+travellers.  Added to these were the inequalities of a natural
+surface, and the constant recurrence of enormous and slippery roots
+that were laid bare by the removal of the light soil, together with
+stumps of trees, to make a passage not only difficult but dangerous.
+Yet the riders among these numerous obstructions, which were such as
+would terrify an unpracticed eye, gave no demonstrations of uneasiness
+as their horses toiled through the sloughs or trotted with uncertain
+paces along the dark route.  In many places the marks on the trees
+were the only indications of a road, with perhaps an occasional
+remnant of a pine that, by being cut close to the earth, so as to
+leave nothing visible but its base of roots, spreading for twenty feet
+in every direction, was apparently placed there as a beacon to warn
+the traveller that it was the centre of a highway.
+
+Into one of these roads the active sheriff led the way, first striking
+out of the foot-path, by which they had descended from the sugar-bush,
+across a little bridge, formed of round logs laid loosely on sleepers
+of pine, in which large openings of a formidable width were frequent.
+The nag of Richard, when it reached one of these gaps, laid its nose
+along the logs and stepped across the difficult passage with the
+sagacity of a man; but the blooded filly which Miss Temple rode
+disdained so humble a movement.  She made a step or two with an
+unusual caution, and then, on reaching the broadest opening, obedient
+to the curt and whip of her fearless mistress, she bounded across the
+dangerous pass with the activity of a squirrel.
+
+“Gently, gently, my child,” said Marmaduke, who was following in the
+manner of Richard; “this is not a country for equestrian feats.  Much
+prudence is requisite to journey through our rough paths with safety.
+Thou mayst practise thy skill in horsemanship on the plains of New
+Jersey with safety; but in the hills of Otsego they may be suspended
+for a time.”
+
+“I may as well then relinquish my saddle at once, dear sir,” returned
+his daughter; “for if it is to be laid aside until this wild country
+be improved, old age will overtake me, and put an end to what you term
+my equestrian feats.”
+“Say not so, my child,” returned her father; “but if thou venturest
+again as in crossing this bridge, old age will never overtake thee,
+but I shall be left to mourn thee, cut off in thy pride, my Elizabeth.
+If thou hadst seen this district of country, as I did, when it lay in
+the sleep of nature, and bad witnessed its rapid changes as it awoke
+to supply the wants of man, thou wouldst curb thy impatience for a
+little time, though thou shouldst not check thy steed.”
+
+“I recollect hearing you speak of your first visit to these woods, but
+the impression is faint, and blended with the confused images of
+childhood.  Wild and unsettled as it may yet seem, it must have been a
+thousand times more dreary then.  Will you repeat, dear sir, what you
+then thought of your enterprise, and what you felt?”
+
+During this speech of Elizabeth, which was uttered with the fervor of
+affection, young Edwards rode more closely to the side of the Judge,
+and bent his dark eyes on his countenance with an expression that
+seemed to read his thoughts.
+
+“Thou wast then young, my child, but must remember when I left thee
+and thy mother, to take my first survey of these uninhabited
+mountains,” said Marmaduke.  “But thou dost not feel all the secret
+motives that can urge a man to endure privations in order to
+accumulate wealth.  In my case they have not been trifling, and God
+has been pleased to smile on my efforts.  If I have encountered pain,
+famine, and disease in accomplishing the settlement of this rough
+territory, I have not the misery of failure to add to the grievances.”
+
+“Famine!” echoed Elizabeth; “I thought this was the land of abundance!
+Had you famine to contend with?”
+
+“Even so, my child,” said her father.  “Those who look around them
+now, and see the loads of produce that issue out of every wild path in
+these mountains during the season of travelling, will hardly credit
+that no more than five years have elapsed since the tenants of these
+woods were compelled to eat the scanty fruits of the forest to sustain
+life, and, with their unpracticed skill, to hunt the beasts as food
+for their starving families.”
+
+“Ay!” cried Richard, who happened to overhear the last of this speech
+between the notes of the wood-chopper’s song, which he was endeavoring
+to breathe aloud; “that was the starving-time,* Cousin Bess.  I grew
+as lank as a weasel that fall, and my face was as pale as one of your
+fever-and-ague visages.  Monsieur Le Quoi, there, fell away like a
+pumpkin in drying; nor do I think you have got fairly over it yet,
+monsieur.  Benjamin, I thought, bore it with a worse grace than any of
+the family; for he swore it was harder to endure than a short
+allowance in the calm latitudes.  Benjamin is a sad fellow to swear if
+you starve him ever so little.  I had half a mind to quit you then,
+‘Duke, and to go into Pennsylvania to fatten; but, damn it, thinks I,
+we are sisters’ children, and I will live or die with him, after all.”
+
+  * The author has no better apology for interrupting the interest of a
+    work of fiction by these desultory dialogues than that they have ref-
+    erence to facts.  In reviewing his work, after so many years, he is
+    compelled to confess it is injured by too many allusions to incidents
+    that are not at all suited to satisfy the just expectations of the
+    general reader.  One of these events is slightly touched on in the
+    commencement of this chapter.
+
+More than thirty years since a very near and dear relative of the
+writer, an elder sister and a second mother, was killed by a fall from
+a horse in a ride among the very mountains mentioned in this tale.
+Few of her sex and years were more extensively known or more
+universally beloved than the admirable woman who thus fell a victim to
+the chances of the wilderness.
+“I do not forget thy kindness,” said Marmaduke, “nor that we are of
+one blood.”
+
+“But, my dear father,” cried the wondering Elizabeth, “was there
+actual suffering? Where were the beautiful and fertile vales of the
+Mohawk? Could they not furnish food for your wants?”
+
+“It was a season of scarcity; the necessities of life commanded a high
+price in Europe, and were greedily sought after by the speculators.
+The emigrants from the East to the West invariably passed along the
+valley of the Mohawk, and swept away the means of subsistence like a
+swarm of locusts, Nor were the people on the Flats in a much better
+condition.  They were in want themselves, but they spared the little
+excess of provisions that nature did not absolutely require, with the
+justice of the German character.  There was no grinding of the poor.
+The word speculator was then unknown to them.  I have seen many a
+stout man, bending under the load of the bag of meal which he was
+carrying from the mills of the Mohawk, through the rugged passes of
+these mountains, to feed his half-famished children, with a heart so
+light, as he approached his hut, that the thirty miles he had passed
+seemed nothing.  Remember, my child, it was in our very infancy; we
+had neither mills, nor grain, nor roads, nor often clearings; we had
+nothing of increase but the mouths that were to be fed: for even at
+that inauspicious moment the restless spirit of emigration was not
+idle; nay, the general scarcity which extended to the East tended to
+increase the number of adventurers.”
+
+“And how, dearest father, didst thou encounter this dreadful evil?”
+said Elizabeth, unconsciously adopting the dialect of her parent in
+the warmth of her sympathy.  “Upon thee must have fallen the
+responsibility, if not the suffering.”
+
+“It did, Elizabeth,” returned the Judge, pausing for a single moment,
+as if musing on his former feelings.  “ I had hundreds at that
+dreadful time daily looking up to me for bread.  The sufferings of
+their families and the gloomy prospect before them had paralyzed the
+enterprise and efforts of my settlers; hunger drove them to the woods
+for food, but despair sent them at night, enfeebled and wan, to a
+sleepless pillow.  It was not a moment for in action.  I purchased
+cargoes of wheat from the granaries of Pennsylvania; they were landed
+at Albany and brought up the Mohawk in boats; from thence it was
+transported on pack-horses into the wilderness and distributed among
+my people.  Seines were made, and the lakes and rivers were dragged
+for fish.  Something like a miracle was wrought in our favor, for
+enormous shoals of herrings were discovered to have wandered five
+hundred miles through the windings of the impetuous Susquehanna, and
+the lake was alive with their numbers.  These were at length caught
+and dealt out to the people, with proper portions of salt, and from
+that moment we again began to prosper.” *
+
+  * All this was literally true.
+
+“Yes,” cried Richard, “and I was the man who served out the fish and
+salt.  When the poor devils came to receive their rations, Benjamin,
+who was my deputy, was obliged to keep them off by stretching ropes
+around me, for they smelt so of garlic, from eating nothing but the
+wild onion, that the fumes put me out often in my measurement.  You
+were a child then, Bess, and knew nothing of the matter, for great
+care was observed to keep both you and your mother from suffering.
+That year put me back dreadfully, both in the breed of my hogs and of
+my turkeys.”
+
+“No, Bess,” cried the Judge, in a more cheerful tone, disregarding the
+interruption of his cousin, “he who hears of the settlement of a
+country knows but little of the toil and suffering by which it is
+accomplished.  Unimproved and wild as this district now seems to your
+eyes, what was it when I first entered the hills? I left my party, the
+morning of my arrival, near the farms of the Cherry Valley, and,
+following a deer-path, rode to the summit of the mountain that I have
+since called Mount Vision; for the sight that there met my eyes seemed
+to me as the deceptions of a dream.  The fire had run over the
+pinnacle, and in a great measure laid open the view.  The leaves were
+fallen, and I mounted a tree and sat for an hour looking on the silent
+wilderness.  Not an opening was to be seen in the boundless forest
+except where the lake lay, like a mirror of glass.  The water was
+covered by myriads of the wild-fowl that migrate with the changes in
+the season; and while in my situation on the branch of the beech, I
+saw a bear, with her cubs, descend to the shore to drink.  I had met
+many deer, gliding through the woods, in my journey ; but not the
+vestige of a man could I trace during my progress, nor from my
+elevated observatory.  No clearing, no hut, none of the winding roads
+that are now to be seen, were there; nothing but mountains rising
+behind mountains ; and the valley, with its surface of branches
+enlivened here and there with the faded foliage of some tree that
+parted from its leaves with more than ordinary reluctance.  Even the
+Susquehanna was then hid by the height and density of the forest.”
+
+“And were you alone?” asked Elizabeth: “passed you the night in that
+solitary state?”
+
+“Not so, my child,” returned the father.  “After musing on the scene
+for an hour, with a mingled feeling of pleasure and desolation, I left
+my perch and descended the mountain.  My horse was left to browse on
+the twigs that grew within his reach, while I explored the shores of
+the lake and the spot where Templeton stands.  A pine of more than
+ordinary growth stood where my dwelling is now placed! A wind—row had
+been opened through the trees from thence to the lake, and my view was
+but little impeded.  Under the branches of that tree I made my
+solitary dinner.  I had just finished my repast as I saw smoke curling
+from under the mountain, near the eastern bank of the lake.  It was
+the only indication of the vicinity of man that I had then seen.
+After much toil I made my way to the spot, and found a rough cabin of
+logs, built against the foot of a rock, and bearing the marks of a
+tenant, though I found no one within it—”
+
+“It was the hut of Leather-Stocking,” said Edwards quickly.
+
+“It was; though I at first supposed it to be a habitation of the
+Indians.  But while I was lingering around the spot Natty made his
+appearance, staggering under the carcass of a buck that he bad slain.
+Our acquaintance commenced at that time; before, I had never heard
+that such a being tenanted the woods.  He launched his bark canoe and
+set me across the foot of the lake to the place where I had fastened
+my horse, and pointed out a spot where he might get a scanty browsing
+until the morning; when I returned and passed the night in the cabin
+of the hunter.”
+
+Miss Temple was so much struck by the deep attention of young Edwards
+during this speech that she forgot to resume her interrogations; but
+the youth himself continued the discourse by asking:
+
+“And how did the Leather-Stocking discharge the duties of a host sir?”
+
+“Why, simply but kindly, until late in the evening, when he discovered
+my name and object, and the cordiality of his manner very sensibly
+diminished, or, I might better say, disappeared.  He considered the
+introduction of the settlers as an innovation on his rights, I believe
+for he expressed much dissatisfaction at the measure, though it was in
+his confused and ambiguous manner.  I hardly understood his objections
+myself, but supposed they referred chiefly to an interruption of the
+hunting.”
+
+“Had you then purchased the estate, or were you examining it with an
+intent to buy?” asked Edwards, a little abruptly.
+
+“It had been mine for several years.  It was with a view to People the
+land that I visited the lake.  Natty treated me hospitably, but
+coldly, I thought, after he learned the nature of my journey.  I slept
+on his own bear—skin, however, and in the morning joined my surveyors
+again.”
+
+“Said he nothing of the Indian rights, sir? The Leather-Stocking is
+much given to impeach the justice of the tenure by which the whites
+hold the country.”
+
+“I remember that he spoke of them, but I did not nearly comprehend
+him, and may have forgotten what he said; for the Indian title was
+extinguished so far back as the close of the old war, and if it had
+not been at all, I hold under the patents of the Royal Governors,
+confirmed by an act of our own State Legislature, and no court in the
+country can affect my title.”
+“Doubtless, sir, your title is both legal and equitable,” returned the
+youth coldly, reining his horse back and remaining silent till the
+subject was changed.
+
+It was seldom Mr. Jones suffered any conversation to continue for a
+great length of time without his participation.  It seems that he was
+of the party that Judge Temple had designated as his surveyors; and he
+embraced the opportunity of the pause that succeeded the retreat of
+young Edwards to take up the discourse, and with a narration of their
+further proceedings, after his own manner.  As it wanted, however, the
+interest that had accompanied the description of the Judge, we must
+decline the task of committing his sentences to paper.
+
+They soon reached the point where the promised view was to be seen.
+It was one of those picturesque and peculiar scenes that belong to the
+Otsego, but which required the absence of the ice and the softness of
+a summer’s landscape to be enjoyed in all its beauty.  Marmaduke had
+early forewarned his daughter of the season, and of its effect on the
+prospect; and after casting a cursory glance at its capabilities, the
+party returned homeward, perfectly satisfied that its beauties would
+repay them for the toil of a second ride at a more propitious season.
+
+“The spring is the gloomy time of the American year,” said the Judge,
+“and it is more peculiarly the case in these mountains.  The winter
+seems to retreat to the fast nesses of the hills, as to the citadel of
+its dominion, and is only expelled after a tedious siege, in which
+either party, at times, would seem to be gaining the victory.”
+
+“A very just and apposite figure, Judge Temple,” observed the sheriff;
+“and the garrison under the command of Jack Frost make formidable
+sorties—you understand what I mean by sorties, monsieur; sallies, in
+English— and sometimes drive General Spring and his troops back again
+into the low countries.”
+
+“Yes sair,” returned the Frenchman, whose prominent eyes were watching
+the precarious footsteps of the beast he rode, as it picked its
+dangerous way among the roots of trees, holes, log bridges, and
+sloughs that formed the aggregate of the highway.  “Je vous entends;
+de low countrie is freeze up for half de year.”
+
+The error of Mr. Le Quoi was not noticed by the sheriff; and the rest
+of the party were yielding to the influence of the changeful season,
+which was already teaching the equestrians that a continuance of its
+mildness was not to be expected for any length of time.  Silence and
+thoughtfulness succeeded the gayety and conversation that had
+prevailed during the commencement of the ride, as clouds began to
+gather about the heavens, apparently collecting from every quarter, in
+quick motion, without the agency of a breath of air,
+
+While riding over one of the cleared eminencies that occurred in their
+route, the watchful eye of Judge Temple pointed out to his daughter
+the approach of a tempest.  Flurries of snow already obscured the
+mountain that formed the northern boundary of the lake, and the genial
+sensation which had quickened the blood through their veins was
+already succeeded by the deadening influence of an approaching
+northwester.
+
+All of the party were now busily engaged in making the best of their
+way to the village, though the badness of the roads frequently
+compelled them to check the impatience of their animals, which often
+carried them over places that would not admit of any gait faster than
+a walk.
+
+Richard continued in advance, followed by Mr. Le Quoi; next to whom
+rode Elizabeth, who seemed to have imbibed the distance which pervaded
+the manner of young Edwards since the termination of the discourse
+between the latter and her father.  Marmaduke followed his daughter,
+giving her frequent and tender warnings as to the management of her
+horse.  It was, possibly, the evident dependence that Louisa Grant
+placed on his assistance which induced the youth to continue by her
+side, as they pursued their way through a dreary and dark wood, where
+the rays of the sun could but rarely penetrate, and where even the
+daylight was obscured and rendered gloomy by the deep forests that
+surrounded them.  No wind had yet reached the spot where the
+equestrians were in motion, but that dead silence that often precedes
+a storm contributed to render their situation more irksome than if
+they were already subject to the fury of the tempest.  Suddenly the
+voice of young Edwards was heard shouting in those appalling tones
+that carry alarm to the very soul, and which curdle the blood of those
+that hear them.
+
+“A tree! a tree! Whip—spur for your lives! a tree! a tree.  “
+
+“A tree! a tree!” echoed Richard, giving his horse a blow that caused
+the alarmed beast to jump nearly a rod, throwing the mud and water
+into the air like a hurricane.
+
+“Von tree! von tree!” shouted the Frenchman, bending his body on the
+neck of his charger, shutting his eyes, and playing on the ribs of his
+beast with his heels at a rate
+that caused him to be conveyed on the crupper of the sheriff with a
+marvellous speed.
+
+Elizabeth checked her filly and looked up, with an unconscious but
+alarmed air, at the very cause of their danger, while she listened to
+the crackling sounds that awoke the stillness of the forest; but the
+next instant her bridlet was seized by her father, who cried, “God
+protect my child!” and she felt herself hurried onward, impelled by
+the vigor of his nervous arm.
+
+Each one of the party bowed to his saddle-bows as the tearing of
+branches was succeeded by a sound like the rushing of the winds, which
+was followed by a thundering report, and a shock that caused the very
+earth to tremble as one of the noblest ruins of the forest fell
+directly across their path.
+
+One glance was enough to assure Judge Temple that his daughter and
+those in front of him were safe, and he turned his eyes, in dreadful
+anxiety, to learn the fate of the others.  Young Edwards was on the
+opposite side of the tree, his form thrown back in his saddle to its
+utmost distance, his left hand drawing up his bridle with
+its greatest force, while the right grasped that of Miss Grant so as
+to draw the head of her horse under its body.  Both the animals stood
+shaking in every joint with terror, and snorting fearfully.  Louisa
+herself had relinquished her reins, and, with her hands pressed on her
+face, sat bending forward in her saddle, in an attitude of despair,
+mingled strangely with resignation.
+
+“Are you safe?” cried the Judge, first breaking the awful silence of
+the moment.
+
+“By God’s blessing,” returned the youth; but if there had been
+branches to the tree we must have been lost—”
+
+He was interrupted by the figure of Louisa slowly yielding in her
+saddle, and but for his arm she would have sunk to the earth.  Terror,
+however, was the only injury that the clergyman’s daughter had
+sustained, and, with the aid of Elizabeth, she was soon restored to
+her senses.  After some little time was lost in recovering her
+strength, the young lady was replaced in her saddle, and supported on
+either side by Judge Temple and Mr. Edwards she was enabled to follow
+the party in their slow progress.
+
+“The sudden fallings of the trees,” said Marmaduke, “are the most
+dangerous accidents in the forest, for they are not to be foreseen,
+being impelled by no winds, nor any extraneous or visible cause
+against which we can guard.”
+
+“The reason of their falling, Judge Temple, is very obvious,” said the
+sheriff.  “The tree is old and decayed, and it is gradually weakened
+by the frosts, until a line drawn from the centre of gravity falls
+without its base, and then the tree comes of a certainty; and I should
+like to know what greater compulsion there can be for any thing than a
+mathematical certainty.  I studied math—”
+
+“Very true, Richard,” interrupted Marmaduke; “thy reasoning is true,
+and, if my memory be not over-treacherous, was furnished by myself on
+a former occasion, But how is one to guard against the danger? Canst
+thou go through the forests measuring the bases and calculating the
+centres of the oaks? Answer me that, friend Jones, and I will say thou
+wilt do the country a service.”
+
+“Answer thee that, friend Temple!” returned Richard; “a well-educated
+man can answer thee anything, sir.  Do any trees fall in this manner
+but such as are decayed? Take care not to approach the roots of a
+rotten tree, and you will be safe enough.”
+
+“That would be excluding us entirely from the forests,’ said
+Marmaduke.  “But, happily, the winds usually force down most of these
+dangerous ruins, as their currents are admitted into the woods by the
+surrounding clearings, and such a fall as this has been is very rare.”
+
+Louisa by this time had recovered so much strength as to allow the
+party to proceed at a quicker pace, but long before they were safely
+housed they were overtaken by the storm; and when they dismounted at
+the door of the mansion-house, the black plumes of Miss Temple’s hat
+were drooping with the weight of a load of damp snow, and the coats of
+the gentlemen were powdered with the same material.
+
+While Edwards was assisting Louisa from her horse, the warm-hearted
+girl caught his hand with fervor and whispered:
+
+“Now, Mr. Edwards, both father and daughter owe their lives to you.”
+
+A driving northwesterly storm succeeded, and before the sun was set
+every vestige of spring had vanished; the lake, the mountains, the
+village, and the fields being again hidden under one dazzling coat of
+snow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+
+“Men, boys, and girls
+Desert the unpeopled village; and wild crowds
+Spread o’er the plain, by the sweet phrensy driven.”-Somerville.
+
+From this time to the close of April the weather continued to be a
+succession of neat and rapid changes.  One day the soft airs of spring
+seemed to be stealing along the valley, and, in unison with an
+invigorating sun, attempting covertly to rouse the dormant powers of
+the vegetable world, while, on the next, the surly blasts from the
+north would sweep across the lake and erase every impression left by
+their gentle adversaries.  The snow, however, finally disappeared, and
+the green wheat fields were seen in every direction, spotted with the
+dark and charred stumps that had, the preceding season, supported some
+of the proudest trees of the forest.  Ploughs were in motion, wherever
+those useful implements could be used, and the smokes of the sugar-
+camps were no longer seen issuing from the woods of maple.  The lake
+had lost the beauty of a field of ice, but still a dark and gloomy
+covering concealed its waters, for the absence of currents left them
+yet hidden under a porous crust, which, saturated with the fluid,
+barely retained enough strength to preserve the continuity of its
+parts.  Large flocks of wild geese were seen passing over the country,
+which hovered, for a time, around the hidden sheet of water,
+apparently searching for a resting-place; and then, on finding them
+selves excluded by the chill covering, would soar away to the north,
+filling the air with discordant screams, as if venting their
+complaints at the tardy operations of Nature.
+
+For a week, the dark covering of the Otsego was left to the
+undisturbed possession of two eagles, who alighted on the centre of
+its field, and sat eyeing their undisputed territory.  During the
+presence of these monarchs of the air, the flocks of migrating birds
+avoided crossing the plain of ice by turning into the hills,
+apparently seeking the protection of the forests, while the white and
+bald heads of the tenants of the lake were turned upward, with a look
+of contempt.  But the time had come when even these kings of birds
+were to be dispossessed.  An opening had been gradually increasing at
+the lower extremity of the lake, and around the dark spot where the
+current of the river prevented the formation of ice during even the
+coldest weather; and the fresh southerly winds, that now breathed
+freely upon the valley, made an impression on the waters.  Mimic waves
+began to curl over the margin of the frozen field, which exhibited an
+outline of crystallizations that slowly receded toward the north.  At
+each step the power of the winds and the waves increased, until, after
+a struggle of a few hours, the turbulent little billows succeeded in
+setting the whole field in motion, when it was driven beyond the reach
+of the eye, with a rapidity that was as magical as the change produced
+in the scene by this expulsion of the lingering remnant of winter.
+Just as the last sheet of agitated ice was disappearing in the
+distance, the eagles rose, and soared with a wide sweep above the
+clouds, while the waves tossed their little caps of snow in the air,
+as if rioting in their release from a thraldom of five minutes’
+duration.
+
+The following morning Elizabeth was awakened by the exhilarating
+sounds of the martens, who were quarrelling and chattering around the
+little boxes suspended above her windows, and the cries of Richard,
+who was calling in tones animating as signs of the season itself:
+
+“Awake! awake! my fair lady! the gulls are hovering over the lake
+already, and the heavens are alive with pigeons.  You may look an hour
+before you can find a hole through which to get a peep at the sun.
+Awake! awake! lazy ones’ Benjamin is overhauling the ammunition, and
+we only wait for our breakfasts, and away for the mountains and
+pigeon-shooting.”
+
+There was no resisting this animated appeal, and in a few minutes Miss
+Temple and her friend descended to the parlor.  The doors of the hall
+were thrown open, and the mild, balmy air of a clear spring morning
+was ventilating the apartment, where the vigilance of the ex-steward
+had been so long maintaining an artificial heat with such unremitted
+diligence.  The gentlemen were impatiently waiting for their morning’s
+repast, each equipped in the garb of a sportsman.  Mr. Jones made many
+visits to the southern door, and would cry:
+
+“See, Cousin Bess! see, ‘Duke, the pigeon-roosts of the south have
+broken up! They are growing more thick every instant, Here is a flock
+that the eye cannot see the end of.  There is food enough in it to
+keep the army of Xerxes for a month, and feathers enough to make beds
+for the whole country.  Xerxes, Mr. Edwards, was a Grecian king, who—
+no, he was a Turk, or a Persian, who wanted to conquer Greece, just
+the same as these rascals will overrun our wheat fields, when they
+come back in the fall.  Away! away! Bess; I long to pepper them.”
+
+In this wish both Marmaduke and young Edwards seemed equally to
+participate, for the sight was exhilarating to a sportsman; and the
+ladies soon dismissed the party after a hasty breakfast.
+
+If the heavens were alive with pigeons, the whole village seemed
+equally in motion with men, women, and children.  Every species of
+firearm, from the French ducking gun, with a barrel near six feet in
+length, to the common horseman's pistol, was to be seen in the hands
+of the men and boys; while bows and arrows, some made of the simple
+stick of walnut sapling and others in a rude imitation of the ancient
+cross-bows, were carried by many of the latter.
+
+The houses and the signs of life apparent in the village drove the
+alarmed birds from the direct line of their flight, toward the
+mountains, along the sides and near the bases of which they were
+glancing in dense masses, equally wonderful by the rapidity of their
+motion and their incredible numbers.
+
+We have already said that, across the inclined plane which fell from
+the steep ascent of the mountain to the banks of the Susquehanna, ran
+the highway on either side of which a clearing of many acres had been
+made at a very early day.  Over those clearings, and up the eastern
+mountain, and along the dangerous path that was cut into its side, the
+different individuals posted themselves, and in a few moments the
+attack commenced.
+
+Among the sportsmen was the tall, gaunt form of Leather-Stocking,
+walking over the field, with his rifle hanging on his arm, his dogs at
+his heels; the latter now scenting the dead or wounded birds that were
+beginning to tumble from the flocks, and then crouching under the legs
+of their master, as if they participated in his feelings at this
+wasteful and unsportsmanlike execution.
+
+The reports of the firearms became rapid, whole volleys rising from
+the plain, as flocks of more than ordinary numbers darted over the
+opening, shadowing the field like a cloud; and then the light smoke of
+a single piece would issue from among the leafless bushes on the
+mountain, as death was hurled on the retreat of the affrighted birds,
+who were rising from a volley, in a vain effort to escape.  Arrows and
+missiles of every kind were in the midst of the flocks; and so
+numerous were the birds, and so low did they take their flight, that
+even long poles in the hands of those on the sides of the mountain
+were used to strike them to the earth.
+
+During all this time Mr. Jones, who disdained the humble and ordinary
+means of destruction used by his companions, was busily occupied,
+aided by Benjamin, in making arrangements for an assault of more than
+ordinarily fatal character.  Among the relics of the old military
+excursions, that occasionally are discovered throughout the different
+districts of the western part of New York, there had been found in
+Templeton, at its settlement, a small swivel, which would carry a ball
+of a pound weight.  It was thought to have been deserted by a war-
+party of the whites in one of their inroads into the Indian
+settlements, when, perhaps, convenience or their necessity induced
+them to leave such an incumberance behind them in the woods.  This
+miniature cannon had been released from the rust, and being mounted on
+little wheels was now in a state for actual service.  For several
+years it was the sole organ for extraordinary rejoicings used in those
+mountains.  On the mornings of the Fourth of July it would be heard
+ringing among the hills; and even Captain Hollister, who was the
+highest authority in that part of the country on all such occasions,
+affirmed that, considering its dimensions, it was no despicable gun
+for a salute.  It was somewhat the worse for the service it had
+performed, it is true, there being but a trifling difference in size
+between the touch-hole and the muzzle Still, the grand conceptions of
+Richard had suggested the importance of such an instrument in hurling
+death at his nimble enemies.  The swivel was dragged by a horse into a
+part of the open space that the sheriff thought most eligible for
+planning a battery of the kind, and Mr. Pump proceeded to load it.
+Several handfuls of duck-shot were placed on top of the powder, and
+the major-domo announced that his piece was ready for service.
+
+The sight of such an implement collected all the idle spectators to
+the spot, who, being mostly boys, filled the air with cries of
+exultation and delight The gun was pointed high, and Richard, holding
+a coal of fire in a pair of tongs, patiently took his seat on a stump,
+awaiting the appearance of a flock worthy of his notice.
+
+So prodigious was the number of the birds that the scattering fire of
+the guns, with the hurling of missiles and the cries of the boys, had
+no other effect than to break off small flocks from the immense masses
+that continued to dart along the valley, as if the whole of the
+feathered tribe were pouring through that one pass.  None pretended to
+collect the game, which lay scattered over the fields in such
+profusion as to cover the very ground with fluttering victims.
+
+Leather-Stocking was a silent but uneasy spectator of all these
+proceedings, but was able to keep his sentiments to himself until he
+saw the introduction of the swivel into the sports.
+
+“This comes of settling a country!” he said.  “Here have I known the
+pigeon to fly for forty long years, and, till you made your clearings,
+there was nobody to skeart or to hurt them, I loved to see them come
+into the woods, for they were company to a body, hurting nothing
+—being, as it was, as harmless as a garter-snake.  But now it gives me
+sore thoughts when I hear the frighty things whizzing through the air,
+for I know it’s only a motion to bring out all the brats of the
+village.  Well, the Lord won’t see the waste of his creatures for
+nothing, and right will be done to the pigeons, as well as others, by
+and by.  There’s Mr. Oliver as bad as the rest of them, firing into
+the flocks as if he was shooting down nothing but Mingo warriors.”
+Among the sportsmen was Billy Kirby, who, armed with an old musket,
+was loading, and, without even looking into the air, was firing and
+shouting as his victims fell even on his own person.  He heard the
+speech of Natty, and took upon himself to reply:
+
+“What! old Leather-Stocking,” he cried, “grumbling at the loss of a
+few pigeons! If you had to sow your wheat twice, and three times, as I
+have done, you wouldn’t be so massyfully feeling toward the divils.
+Hurrah, boys! scatter the feathers! This is better than shooting at a
+turkey’s head and neck, old fellow.”
+
+“It’s better for you, maybe, Billy Kirby,” replied the indignant old
+hunter, “and all them that don’t know how to put a ball down a rifle-
+barrel, or how to bring it up again with a true aim; but it’s wicked
+to be shooting into flocks in this wasty manner, and none to do it who
+know how to knock over a single bird.  If a body has a craving for
+pigeon’s flesh, why, it’s made the same as all other creatures, for
+man’s eating; but not to kill twenty and eat one.  When I want such a
+thing I go into the woods till I find one to my liking, and then I
+shoot him off the branches, without touching the feather of another,
+though there might be a hundred on the same tree.  You couldn’t do
+such a thing, Billy Kirby—you couldn’t do it if you tried.”
+
+“What’s that, old corn-stalk! you sapless stub!” cried the wood-
+chopper.  “You have grown wordy, since the affair of the turkey; but
+if you are for a single shot, here goes at that bird which comes on by
+himself.”
+
+The fire from the distant part of the field had driven a single pigeon
+below the flock to which it belonged, and, frightened with the
+constant reports of the muskets, it was approaching the spot where the
+disputants stood, darting first from One side and then to the other,
+cutting the air with the swiftness of lightning, and making a noise
+with its wings not unlike the rushing of a bullet.  Unfortunately for
+the wood-chopper, notwithstanding his vaunt, he did not see this bird
+until it was too late to fire as it approached, and he pulled the
+trigger at the unlucky moment when it was darting immediately over his
+head.  The bird continued its course with the usual velocity.
+
+Natty lowered his rifle from his arm when the challenge was made, and
+waiting a moment, until the terrified victim had got in a line with
+his eye, and had dropped near the bank of the lake, he raised it again
+with uncommon rapidity, and fired.  It might have been chance, or it
+might have been skill, that produced the result; it was probably a
+union of both; but the pigeon whirled over in the air, and fell into
+the lake with a broken wing At the sound of his rifle, both his dogs
+started from his feet, and in a few minutes the “slut” brought out the
+bird, still alive.
+
+The wonderful exploit of Leather-Stocking was noised through the field
+with great rapidity, and the sportsmen gathered in, to learn the truth
+of the report.
+
+“What” said young Edwards,” have you really killed a pigeon on the
+wing, Natty, with a single ball?”
+
+“Haven’t I killed loons before now, lad, that dive at the flash?”
+returned the hunter.  “It’s much better to kill only such as you want,
+without wasting your powder and lead, than to be firing into God’s
+creatures in this wicked manner.  But I came out for a bird, and you
+know the reason why I like small game, Mr. Oliver, and now I have got
+one Twill go home, for I don’t relish to see these wasty ways that you
+are all practysing, as if the least thing wasn’t made for use, and not
+to destroy.”
+
+“Thou sayest well, Leather-Stocking,” cried Marmaduke, “and I begin to
+think it time to put an end to this work of destruction.”
+
+“Put an ind, Judge, to your clearings.  Ain’t the woods His work as
+well as the pigeons? Use, but don’t waste.  Wasn’t the woods made for
+the beasts and birds to harbor in? and when man wanted their flesh,
+their skins, or their feathers, there’s the place to seek them.  But
+I’ll go to the hut with my own game, for I wouldn’t touch one of the
+harmless things that cover the ground here, looking up with their eyes
+on me, as if they only wanted tongues to say their thoughts.”
+With this sentiment in his month, Leather-Stocking threw his rifle
+over his arm, and, followed by his dogs, stepped across the clearing
+with great caution, taking care not to tread on one of the wounded
+birds in his path.  He soon entered the bushes on the margin of the
+lake and was hid from view.
+
+Whatever impression the morality of Natty made on the Judge, it was
+utterly lost on Richard.  He availed himself of the gathering of the
+sportsmen, to lay a plan for one “fell swoop” of destruction.  The
+musket-men were drawn up in battle array, in a line extending on each
+side of his artillery, with orders to await the signal of firing from
+himself.
+
+“Stand by, my lads,” said Benjamin, who acted as an aid de-camp on
+this occasion, “stand by, my hearties, and when Squire Dickens heaves
+out the signal to begin firing, d’ye see, you may open upon them in a
+broadside.  Take care and fire low, boys, and you’ll be sure to hull
+the flock.”
+
+“Fire low!” shouted Kirby; “hear the old fool! If we fire low, we may
+hit the stumps, but not ruffle a pigeon.”
+
+“How should you know, you lubber?” cried Benjamin, with a very
+unbecoming heat for an officer on the eve of battle—” how should you
+know, you grampus? Haven’t I sailed aboard of the Boadishy for five
+years? and wasn’t it a standing order to fire low, and to hull your
+enemy! Keep silence at your guns, boys and mind the order that is
+passed.”
+
+The loud laughs of the musket-men were silenced by the more
+authoritative voice of Richard, who called for attention and obedience
+to his signals.
+
+Some millions of pigeons were supposed to have already passed, that
+morning, over the valley of Templeton; but nothing like the flock that
+was now approaching had been seen before.  It extended from mountain
+to mountain in one solid blue mass, and the eye looked in vain, over
+the southern hills, to find its termination.  The front of this living
+column was distinctly marked by a line but very slightly indented, so
+regular and even was the flight.  Even Marmaduke forgot the morality
+of Leather-Stocking as it approached, and, in common with the rest,
+brought his musket to a poise.
+
+“Fire!” cried the sheriff, clapping a coal to the priming of the
+cannon.  As half of Benjamin’s charge escaped through the touch-hole,
+the whole volley of the musketry preceded the report of the swivel.
+On receiving this united discharge of small-arms, the front of the
+flock darted upward, while, at the same instant, myriads of those in
+the rear rushed with amazing rapidity into their places, so that, when
+the column of white smoke gushed from the mouth of the little cannon,
+an accumulated mass of objects was gliding over its point of
+direction.  The roar of the gun echoed along the mountains, and died
+away to the north, like distant thunder, while the whole flock of
+alarmed birds seemed, for a moment, thrown into one disorderly and
+agitated mass.  The air was filled with their irregular flight, layer
+rising above layer, far above the tops of the highest pines, none
+daring to advance beyond the dangerous pass; when, suddenly, some of
+the headers of the feathered tribes shot across the valley, taking
+their flight directly over the village, and hundreds of thousands in
+their rear followed the example, deserting the eastern side of the
+plain to their persecutors and the slain.
+
+“Victory!” shouted Richard, “victory! we have driven the enemy from
+the field.”
+
+“Not so, Dickon,” said Marmaduke; “the field is covered with them;
+and, like the Leather-Stocking, I see nothing but eyes, in every
+direction, as the innocent sufferers turn their heads in terror.  Full
+one-half of those that have fallen are yet alive; and I think it is
+time to end the sport, if sport it be.”
+
+“Sport!” cried the sheriff; “it is princely sport! There are some
+thousands of the blue-coated boys on the ground, so that every old
+woman in the village may have a pot-pie for the asking.”
+
+“Well, we have happily frightened the birds from this side of the
+valley,” said Marmaduke, “and the carnage must of necessity end for
+the present.  Boys, I will give you sixpence a hundred for the
+pigeons’ heads only; so go to work, and bring them into the village.”
+
+This expedient produced the desired effect, for every urchin on the
+ground went industriously to work to wring the necks of the wounded
+birds.  Judge Temple retired toward his dwelling with that kind of
+feeling that many a man has experienced before him, who discovers,
+after the excitement of the moment has passed, that he has purchased
+pleasure at the price of misery to others.  Horses were loaded with
+the dead; and, after this first burst of sporting, the shooting of
+pigeons became a business, with a few idlers, for the remainder of the
+season, Richard, however, boasted for many a year of his shot with the
+“cricket;” and Benjamin gravely asserted that he thought they had
+killed nearly as many pigeons on that day as there were Frenchmen
+destroyed on the memorable occasion of Rodney’s victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+
+“Help, masters, help; here’s a fish hangs in the net, like a poor
+Man’s right in the law.’—Pericles of Tyre.
+
+The advance of the season now became as rapid as its first approach
+had been tedious and lingering.  The days were uniformly mild, while
+the nights, though cool, were no longer chilled by frosts.  The whip-
+poor-will was heard whistling his melancholy notes along the margin of
+the lake, and the ponds and meadows were sending forth the music of
+their thousand tenants.  The leaf of the native poplar was seen
+quivering in the woods; the sides of the mountains began to lose their
+hue of brown, as the lively green of the different members of the
+forest blended their shades with the permanent colors of the pine and
+hemlock; and even the buds of the tardy oak were swelling with the
+promise of the coming summer.  The gay and fluttering blue-bird, the
+social robin, and the industrious little wren were all to be seen
+enlivening the fields with their presence and their songs; while the
+soaring fish-hawk was already hovering over the waters of the Otsego,
+watching with native voracity for the appearance of his prey.
+
+The tenants of the lake were far-famed for both their quantities and
+their quality, and the ice had hardly disappeared before numberless
+little boats were launched from the shores, and the lines of the
+fishermen were dropped into the inmost recesses of its deepest
+caverns, tempting the unwary animals with every variety of bait that
+the ingenuity or the art of man had invented.  But the slow though
+certain adventures with hook and line were ill suited to the profusion
+and impatience of the settlers.  More destructive means were resorted
+to; and, as the season had now arrived when the bass fisheries were
+allowed by the provisions of the law that Judge Temple had procured,
+the sheriff declared his intention, by availing himself of the first
+dark night, to enjoy the sport in person.
+
+“And you shall be present, Cousin Bess,” he added, when he announced
+this design, “and Miss Grant, and Mr. Edwards; and I will show you
+what I call fishing not nibble, nibble, nibble, as ‘Duke does when he
+goes after the salmon-trout.  There he will sit for hours, in a
+broiling sun or, perhaps, over a hole in the lee, in the coldest days
+in winter, under the lee of a few bushes, and not a fish will he
+catch, after all this mortification of the flesh.  No, no—give me a
+good seine that’s fifty or sixty fathoms in length, with a jolly
+parcel of boatmen to crack their jokes the while, with Benjamin to
+steer, and let us haul them in by thousands; I call that fishing.”
+
+“Ah! Dickon,” cried Marmaduke, “thou knowest but little of the
+pleasure there is in playing with the hook and line, or thou wouldst
+be more saving of the game.  I have known thee to leave fragments
+enough behind thee, when thou hast headed a night party on the lake,
+to feed a dozen famishing families.”
+
+“I shall not dispute the matter, Judge Temple; this night will I go;
+and I invite the company to attend, and then let them decide between
+us.”
+
+Richard was busy during most of the afternoon, making his preparations
+for the important occasion.  Just as the light of the settling sun had
+disappeared, and a new moon had begun to throw its shadows on the
+earth, the fisher-men took their departure, in a boat, for a point
+that was situated on the western shore of the lake, at the distance of
+rather more than half a mile from the village.  The ground had become
+settled, and the walking was good and dry.  Marmaduke, with his
+daughter, her friend, and young Edwards, continued on the high grassy
+banks at the outlet of the placid sheet of water, watching the dark
+object that was moving across the lake, until it entered the shade of
+the western hills, and was lost to the eye.  The distance round by
+land to the point of destination was a mile, and he observed:
+
+“It is time for us to be moving; the moon will be down ere we reach
+the point, and then the miraculous hauls of Dickon will commence.”
+
+The evening was warm, and, after the long and dreary winter from which
+they had just escaped, delightfully invigorating.  Inspirited by the
+scene and their anticipated amusement, the youthful companions of the
+Judge followed his steps, as he led them along the shores of the
+Otsego, and through the skirts of the village.
+
+“See!” said young Edwards, “they are building their fire already; it
+glimmers for a moment, and dies again like the light of a firefly.”
+
+“Now it blazes,” cried Elizabeth; “you can perceive figures moving
+around the light.  Oh! I would bet my jewels against the gold beads of
+Remarkable, that my impatient Cousin Dickon had an agency in raising
+that bright flame; and see! it fades again, like most of his brilliant
+schemes.”
+
+Thou hast guessed the truth, Bess,” said her father; “he has thrown an
+armful of brush on the pile, which has burnt out as soon as lighted.
+But it has enabled them to find a better fuel, for their fire begins
+to blaze with a more steady flame.  It is the true fisherman’s beacon
+now; observe how beautifully it throw s its little circle of light on
+the water!”
+
+The appearance of the fire urged the pedestrians on, for even the
+ladies had become eager to witness the miraculous draught.  By the
+time they reached the bank, which rose above the low point where the
+fishermen had landed, the moon had sunk behind the top of the western
+pines, and, as most of the stars were obscured by clouds, there was
+but little other light than that which proceeded from the fire.  At
+the suggestion of Marmaduke, his companions paused to listen to the
+conversation of those below them, and examine the party for a moment
+before they descended to the shore.
+
+The whole group were seated around the fire, with the exception of
+Richard and Benjamin; the former of whom occupied the root of a
+decayed stump, that had been drawn to the spot as part of their fuel,
+and the latter was standing.  with his arms akimbo, so near to the
+flame that the smoke occasionally obscured his solemn visage, as it
+waved around the pile in obedience to the night airs that swept gently
+over the water.
+
+“Why, look you, squire, said the major-domo.  You may call a lake-fish
+that will weigh twenty or thirty pounds a serious matter, but to a man
+who has hauled in a shovel-nosed shirk, d’ye see, it’s but a poor kind
+of fishing after all.”
+
+“I don’t know, Benjamin,” returned the sheriff; “a haul of one
+thousand Otsego bass, without counting pike, pickerel, perch, bull-
+pouts, salmon-trouts, and suckers, is no bad fishing, let me tell you.
+There may he sport in sticking a shark, but what is he good for after
+you have got him? Now, any one of the fish that I have named is fit to
+set before a king.”
+
+“Well, squire,” returned Benjamin, “just listen to the philosophy of
+the thing.  Would it stand to reason, that such a fish should live and
+be catched in this here little pond of water, where it’s hardly deep
+enough to drown a man, as you’ll find in the wide ocean, where, as
+every body knows that is, everybody that has followed the seas, whales
+and grampuses are to be seen, that are as long as one of the pine-
+trees on yonder mountain?”
+
+“Softly, softly, Benjamin,” said the sheriff, as if he wished to save
+the credit of his favorite; “why, some of the pines will measure two
+hundred feet, and even more.”
+
+“Two hundred or two thousand, it’s all the same thing,” cried
+Benjamin, with an air which manifested that he was not easily to be
+bullied out of his opinion, on a subject like the present.  “ Haven’t
+I been there, and haven’t I seen? I have said that you fall in with
+whales as long as one of them there pines: and what I have once said
+I’ll stand to!”
+
+During this dialogue, which was evidently but the close of much longer
+discussion, the huge frame of Billy Kirby was seen extended on one
+side of the fire, where he was picking his teeth with splinters of the
+chips near him, and occasionally shaking his head with distrust of
+Benjamin’s assertions.
+
+“I’ve a notion,” said the wood-chopper, “ that there’s water in this
+lake to swim the biggest whale that ever was invented; and, as to the
+pines, I think I ought to know so’thing consarning them; I have
+chopped many a one that was sixty times the length of my helve,
+without counting the eye; and I believe, Benny, that if the old pine
+that stands in the hollow of the Vision Mountain just over the
+village—you may see the tree itself by looking up, for the moon is on
+its top yet—well, now I believe, if that same tree was planted out in
+the deepest part of the lake, there would be water enough for the
+biggest ship that ever was built to float over it, without touching
+its upper branches, I do.”
+
+“Did’ee ever see a ship, Master Kirby?” roared the steward, “did’ee
+ever see a ship, man? or any craft bigger than a lime-scow, or a wood-
+boat, on this here small bit of fresh water?”
+
+“Yes, I have,” said the wood-chopper stoutly; “I can say that I have,
+and tell no lie.”
+
+“Did’ee ever see a British ship, Master Kirby? an English line-of-
+battle ship, boy? Where did’ee ever fall in with a regular built
+vessel, with starn-post and cutwater, gar board-streak and plank-
+shear, gangways, and hatchways, and waterways, quarter-deck, and
+forecastle, ay, and flush-deck?—tell me that, man, if you can; where
+away did’ee ever fall in with a full-rigged, regular-built, necked
+vessel?”
+
+The whole company were a good deal astounded with this overwhelming
+question, and even Richard afterward remarked that it “was a thousand
+pities that Benjamin could not read, or he must have made a valuable
+officer to the British marine.  It is no wonder that they overcame the
+French so easily on the water, when even the lowest sailor so well
+understood the different parts of a vessel.” But Billy Kirby was a
+fearless wight, and had great jealousy of foreign dictation; he had
+risen on his feet, and turned his back to the fire, during the voluble
+delivery of this interrogatory; and when the steward ended, contrary
+to all expectation, he gave the following spirited reply:
+
+“Where! why, on the North River, and maybe on Champlain.  There’s
+sloops on the river, boy, that would give a hard time on’t to the
+stoutest vessel King George owns.  They carry masts of ninety feet in
+the clear of good solid pine, for I’ve been at the chopping of many a
+one in Varmount State.  I wish I was captain in one of them, and you
+was in that Board-dish that you talk so much about, and we’d soon see
+what good Yankee stuff is made on, and whether a Varmounter’s hide
+ain’t as thick as an Englishman’s.”
+The echoes from the opposite hills, which were more than half a mile
+from the fishing point, sent back the discordant laugh that Benjamin
+gave forth at this challenge; and the woods that covered their sides
+seemed, by the noise that issued from their shades, to be full of
+mocking demons.
+
+“Let us descend to the shore,” whispered Marmaduke, “or there will
+soon be ill-blood between them.  Benjamin is a fearless boaster; and
+Kirby, though good-natured, is a careless son of the forest, who
+thinks one American more than a match for six Englishmen.  I marvel
+that Dickon is silent, where there is such a trial of skill in the
+superlative!”
+
+The appearance of Judge Temple and the ladies produced, if not a
+pacification, at least a cessation of hostilities.  Obedient to the
+directions of Mr. Jones the fishermen prepared to launch their boat,
+which had been seen in the background of the view, with the net
+carefully disposed on a little platform in its stern, ready for
+service.  Richard gave vent to his reproaches at the tardiness of the
+pedestrians, when all the turbulent passions of the party were
+succeeded by a calm, as mild and as placid as that which prevailed
+over the beautiful sheet of water that they were about to rifle of its
+best treasures.
+
+The night had now become so dark as to render objects, without the
+reach of the light of the fire, not only indistinct, but in most cases
+invisible.  For a little distance the water was discernible,
+glistening, as the glare from the fire danced over its surface,
+touching it here and there with red quivering streaks; but, at a
+hundred feet from the shore, there lay a boundary of impenetrable
+gloom.  One or two stars were shining through the openings of the
+clouds, and the lights were seen in the village, glimmering faintly,
+as if at an immeasurable distance.  At times, as the fire lowered, or
+as the horizon cleared, the outline of the mountain, on the other side
+of the lake, might be traced by its undulations; but its shadow was
+cast, wide and dense, on the bosom of the water, rendering the
+darkness in that direction trebly deep.
+
+Benjamin Pump was invariably the coxswain and net caster of Richard’s
+boat, unless the sheriff saw fit to preside in person: and, on the
+present occasion, Billy Kirby, and a youth of about half his strength,
+were assigned to the oars. The remainder of the assistants were
+stationed at the drag-ropes.  The arrangements were speedily made, and
+Richard gave the signal to “shove off.”
+
+Elizabeth watched the motion of the batteau as it pulled from the
+shore, letting loose its rope as it went, but it soon disappeared in
+the darkness, when the ear was her only guide to its evolutions.
+There was great affectation of stillness during all these manoeuvers,
+in order, as Richard assured them, “not to frighten the bass, who were
+running into the shoal waters, and who would approach the light if not
+disturbed by the sounds from the fishermen.”
+
+The hoarse voice of Benjamin was alone heard issuing out of the gloom,
+as he uttered, in authoritative tones, “Pull larboard oar,” “Pull
+starboard,” “ Give way together, boys,” and such other indicative
+mandates as were necessary for the right disposition of his seine.  A
+long time was passed in this necessary part of the process, for
+Benjamin prided himself greatly on his skill in throwing the net, and,
+in fact, most of the success of the sport depended on its being done
+with judgment.  At length a loud splash in the water, as he threw away
+the “staff,” or “stretcher,” with a hoarse call from the steward of
+“Clear,” announced that the boat was returning; when Richard seized a
+brand from the fire, and ran to a point as far above the centre of the
+fishing-ground, as the one from which the batteau had started was
+below it.
+
+“Stick her in dead for the squire, boys,” said the steward, “and we’ll
+have a look at what grows in this here pond.”
+
+In place of the falling net were now to be heard the quick strokes of
+the oars, and the noise of the rope running out of the boat.
+Presently the batteau shot into the circle of light, and in an instant
+she was pulled to the shore.  Several eager hands were extended to
+receive the line, and, both ropes being equally well manned, the
+fishermen commenced hauling in with slow, and steady drags, Richard
+standing to the centre, giving orders, first to one party, and then to
+the other, to increase or slacken their efforts, as occasion required.
+The visitors were posted near him, and enjoyed a fair view of the
+whole operation.  which was slowly advancing to an end.
+
+Opinions as to the result of their adventure were now freely hazarded
+by all the men, some declaring that the net came in as light as a
+feather, and others affirming that it seemed to be full of logs.  As
+the ropes were many hundred feet in length, these opposing sentiments
+were thought to be of little moment by the sheriff, who would go first
+to one line, and then to the other, giving each small pull, in order
+to enable him to form an opinion for himself.
+
+“Why, Benjamin,” he cried, as he made his first effort in this way,
+“you did not throw the net clear.  I can move it with my little
+finger.  The rope slackens in my hand.”
+
+“Did you ever see a whale, squire?” responded the steward: “ I say
+that, if that there net is foul, the devil is in the lake in the shape
+of a fish, for I cast it as far as ever rigging was rove over the
+quarter-deck of a flag-ship.”
+
+But Richard discovered his mistake, when he saw Billy Kirby before
+him, standing with his feet in the water, at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, inclining southward, and expending his gigantic strength in
+sustaining himself in that posture.  He ceased his remonstrances, and
+proceeded to the party at the other line.
+
+“I see the ‘staffs,’” shouted Mr. Jones—” gather in,, boys, and away
+with it; to shore with her!—to shore with her!”
+
+At this cheerful sound, Elizabeth strained her eyes and saw the ends
+of the two sticks on the seine emerging from the darkness, while the
+men closed near to each other, and formed a deep bag of their net.
+The exertions of the fishermen sensibly increased, and the voice of
+Richard was heard encouraging them to make their greatest efforts at
+the present moment.
+
+“Now’s the time, my lads,” he cried; “let us get the ends to land, and
+all we have will be our own—away with her!”
+
+“Away with her, it is,” echoed Benjamin!—” hurrah! ho-a-hay, ho-a-hoy,
+ho-a!”
+
+“In with her,” shouted Kirby, exerting himself in a manner that left
+nothing for those in his rear to do, but to gather up the slack of the
+rope which passed through his hands.
+
+“Staff.  ho!” shouted the steward.
+
+“Staff, ho!” echoed Kirby, from the other rope.
+The men rushed to the water’s edge, some seizing the upper rope, and
+some the lower or lead rope, and began to haul with great activity and
+zeal, A deep semicircular sweep of the little balls that supported the
+seine in its perpendicular position was plainly visible to the
+spectators, and, as it rapidly lessened in size, the bag of the net
+appeared, while an occasional flutter on the water announced the
+uneasiness of the prisoners it contained.
+
+“Haul in, my lads,” shouted Richard—” I can see the dogs kicking to
+get free.  Haul in, and here’s a cast that will pay for the labor.”
+Fishes of various sorts were now to be seen, entangled in the meshes
+of the net, as it was passed through the hands of the laborers; and
+the water, at a little distance from the shore, was alive with the
+movements of the alarmed victims.  Hundreds of white sides were
+glancing up to the surface of the water, and glistening in the fire
+light, when, frightened at the uproar and the change, the fish would
+again dart to the bottom, in fruitless efforts for freedom.
+Hurrah!” shouted Richard: “one or two more heavy drags, boys, and we
+are safe.”
+
+“Cheerily, boys, cheerily!” cried Benjamin; “I see a salmon-trout that
+is big enough for a chowder.”
+
+“Away with you, you varmint!” said Billy Kirby, plucking a bullpout
+from the meshes, and casting the animal back into the lake with
+contempt.  “Pull, boys, pull; here’s all kinds, and the Lord condemn
+me for a liar, if there ain’t a thousand bass!”
+
+Inflamed beyond the bounds of discretion at the sight, and forgetful
+of the season, the wood-chopper rushed to his middle into the water,
+and began to drive the reluctant animals before him from their native
+element.
+
+“Pull heartily, boys,” cried Marmaduke, yielding to the excitement of
+the moment, and laying his hands to the net, with no trifling addition
+to the force.  Edwards had preceded him; for the sight of the immense
+piles of fish, that were slowly rolling over on the gravelly beach,
+had impelled him also to leave the ladies and join the fishermen.
+
+Great care was observed in bringing the net to land, and, after much
+toil, the whole shoal of victims was safely deposited in a hollow of
+the bank, where they were left to flutter away their brief existence
+in the new and fatal element.
+
+Even Elizabeth and Louisa were greatly excited and highly gratified by
+seeing two thousand captives thus drawn from the bosom of the lake,
+and laid prisoners at their feet.  But when the feelings of the moment
+were passing away, Marmaduke took in his hands a bass, that might have
+weighed two pounds, and after viewing it a moment, in melancholy
+musing, he turned to his daughter, and observed:
+
+“This is a fearful expenditure of the choicest gifts of Providence.
+These fish, Bess, which thou seest lying in such piles before thee,
+and which by to-morrow evening will be rejected food on the meanest
+table in Templeton, are of a quality and flavor that, in other
+countries, would make them esteemed a luxury on the tables of princes
+or epicures.  The world has no better fish than the bass of Otsego; it
+unites the richness of the shad * to the firmness of the salmon.”
+
+  * Of all the fish the writer has ever tasted, be thinks the one in
+    question the best.
+
+“But surely, dear sir,” cried Elizabeth, “they must prove a great
+blessing to the country, and a powerful friend to the poor.”
+
+“The poor are always prodigal, my child, where there is plenty, and
+seldom think of a provision against the morrow.  But, if there can be
+any excuse for destroying animals in this manner, it is in taking the
+bass.  During the winter, you know, they are entirely protected from
+our assaults by the ice, for they refuse the hook; and during the hot
+months they are not seen.  It is supposed they retreat to the deep and
+cool waters of the lake, at that season; and it is only in the spring
+and autumn that, for a few days, they are to be found around the
+points where they are within the reach of a seine.  But, like all the
+other treasures of the wilderness, they already begin to disappear
+before the wasteful extravagance of man.”
+
+“Disappear, Duke! disappear!” exclaimed the sheriff “if you don’t call
+this appearing, I know not what you will.  Here are a good thousand of
+the shiners, some hundreds of suckers, and a powerful quantity of
+other fry.  But this is always the way with you, Marmaduke: first it’s
+the trees, then it’s the deer; after that it’s the maple sugar, and so
+on to the end of the chapter.  One day you talk of canals through a
+country where there's a river or a lake every half-mile, just because
+the water won’t run the way you wish it to go; and, the next, you say
+some thing about mines of coal, though any man who has good eyes like
+myself—I say, with good eyes—can see more wood than would keep the
+city of London in fuel for fifty years; wouldn’t it, Benjamin?”
+
+“Why, for that, squire,” said the steward, “Lon’on is no small place.
+If it was stretched an end, all the same as a town on one side of the
+river, it would cover some such matter as this here lake.  Thof I
+dar’st to say, that the wood in sight might sarve them a good turn,
+seeing that the Lon’oners mainly burn coal.”
+
+“Now we are on the subject of coal, Judge Temple,” interrupted the
+sheriff, “I have a thing of much importance to communicate to you; but
+I will defer it -until tomorrow.  I know that you intend riding into
+the eastern part of the Patent, and I will accompany you, and conduct
+you to a spot where some of your projects may be realized.  We will
+say no more now, for there are listeners; but a secret has this
+evening been revealed to me, ‘Duke, that is of more consequence to
+your welfare than all your estate united,”
+
+Marmaduke laughed at the important intelligence, to which in a variety
+of shapes he was accustomed, and the sheriff, with an air of great
+dignity, as if pitying his want of faith, proceeded in the business
+more immediately be fore them.  As the labor of drawing the net had
+been very great, he directed one party of his men to commence throwing
+the fish into piles, preparatory to the usual division, while another,
+under the superintendence of Benjamin, prepared the seine for a second
+haul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+
+“While from its margin, terrible to tell,
+Three sailors with their gallant boatswain fell.” —Falconer.
+
+While the fishermen were employed in making the preparations for an
+equitable division of the spoil, Elizabeth and her friend strolled a
+short distance from the group, along the shore of the lake.  After
+reaching a point to which even the brightest of the occasional gleams
+of the fire did not extend, they turned, and paused a moment, in
+contemplation of the busy and lively party they had left, and of the
+obscurity which, like the gloom of oblivion, seemed to envelop the
+rest of the creation.
+
+“This is indeed a subject for the pencil!” exclaimed Elizabeth.
+“Observe the countenance of that woodchopper, while he exults in
+presenting a larger fish than common to my cousin sheriff; and see,
+Louisa, how hand some and considerate my dear father looks, by the
+light of that fire, where he stands viewing the havoc of the game.  He
+seems melancholy, as if he actually thought that a day of retribution
+was to follow this hour of abundance and prodigality! Would they not
+make a picture, Louisa?”
+
+“You know that I am ignorant of all such accomplishments, Miss
+Temple.”
+
+“Call me by my Christian name,” interrupted Elizabeth; “this is not a
+place, neither is this a scene, for forms.”
+
+“Well, then, if I may venture an opinion,’ said Louisa timidly, “I
+should think it might indeed make a picture.  The selfish earnestness
+of that Kirby over his fish would contrast finely with the—the—
+expression of Mr. Edwards’ face.  I hardly know what to call it; but
+it is—a—is— you know what I would say, dear Elizabeth.”
+
+“You do me too much credit, Miss Grant,” said the heiress; “I am no
+diviner of thoughts, or interpreter of expressions.”
+
+There was certainly nothing harsh or even cold in the manner of the
+speaker, but still it repressed the conversation, and they continued
+to stroll still farther from the party, retaining each other’s arm,
+but observing a pro found silence.  Elizabeth, perhaps conscious of
+the improper phraseology of her last speech, or perhaps excited by the
+new object that met her gaze, was the first to break the awkward
+cessation in the discourse, by exclaiming:
+
+“Look, Louisa! we are not alone; there are fishermen lighting a fire
+on the other side of the lake, immediately opposite to us; it must be
+in front of the cabin of Leather-Stocking!”
+
+Through the obscurity, which prevailed most immediately under the
+eastern mountain, a small and uncertain light was plainly to be seen,
+though, as it was occasionally lost to the eye, it seemed struggling
+for existence.  They observed it to move, and sensibly to lower, as it
+carried down the descent of the bank to the shore.  Here, in a very
+short time, its flame gradually expanded, and grew brighter, until it
+became of the size of a man’s head, when it continued to shine a
+steady ball of fire.  Such an object, lighted as it were by magic,
+under the brow of the mountain, and in that retired and unfrequented
+place, gave double interest to the beauty and singularity of its
+appearance.  It did not at all resemble the large and unsteady light
+of their own fire, being much more clear and bright, and retaining its
+size and shape with perfect uniformity.
+
+There are moments when the best-regulated minds are more or less
+subjected to the injurious impressions which few have escaped in
+infancy; and Elizabeth smiled at her own weakness, while she
+remembered the idle tales which were circulated through the village,
+at the expense of the Leather-Stocking.  The same ideas seized her
+companion, and at the same instant, for Louisa pressed nearer to her
+friend, as she said in a low voice, stealing a timid glance toward the
+bushes and trees that overhung the bank near them:
+
+“Did you ever hear the singular ways of this Natty spoken of, Miss
+Temple? They say that, in his youth, he was an Indian warrior; or,
+what is the same thing, a white man leagued with the savages; and it
+is thought he has been concerned in many of their inroads, in the old
+wars.”
+
+“The thing is not at all improbable,” returned Elizabeth; “he is not
+alone in that particular.”
+
+“No, surely; but is it not strange that he is so cautious with his
+hut? He never leaves it, without fastening it in a remarkable manner;
+and in several instances, when the children, or even the men of the
+village, have wished to seek a shelter there from the storms, he has
+been known to drive them from his door with rudeness and threats.
+That surely is singular to this country!”
+
+“It is certainly not very hospitable; but we must remember his
+aversion to the customs of civilized life.  You heard my father say, a
+few days since, how kindly he was treated by him on his first visit to
+his place.” Elizabeth paused, and smiled, with an expression of
+peculiar arch ness, though the darkness hid its meaning from her
+companion, as she continued: “Besides, he certainly admits the visits
+of Mr. Edwards, whom we both know to be far from a savage.”
+
+To this speech Louisa made no reply, but continued gazing on the
+object which had elicited her remarks.  In addition to the bright and
+circular flame, was now to be seen a fainter, though a vivid light, of
+an equal diameter to the other at the upper end, but which, after
+extending downward for many feet, gradually tapered to a point at its
+lower extremity.  A dark space was plainly visible between the two,
+and the new illumination was placed beneath the other, the whole
+forming an appearance not unlike an inverted note of admiration.  It
+was soon evident that the latter was nothing but the reflection, from
+the water, of the former, and that the object, whatever it might be,
+was advancing across, or rather over the lake, for it seemed to be
+several feet above its surface, in a direct line with themselves.  Its
+motion was amazingly rapid, the ladies having hardly discovered that
+it was moving at all, before the waving light of a flame was
+discerned, losing its regular shape, while it increased in size, as it
+approached.
+
+“It appears to be supernatural!” whispered Louisa, beginning to
+retrace her steps toward the party.
+
+“It is beautiful!” exclaimed Elizabeth,
+
+A brilliant though waving flame was now plainly visible, gracefully
+gliding over the lake, and throwing its light on the water in such a
+manner as to tinge it slightly though in the air, so strong was the
+contrast, the darkness seemed to have the distinctness of material
+substances, as if the fire were imbedded in a setting of ebony.  This
+appearance, however, gradually wore off, and the rays from the torch
+struck out, and enlightened the atmosphere in front of it, leaving the
+background in a darkness that was more impenetrable than ever.
+
+“Ho! Natty, is that you?” shouted the sheriff.  “Paddle in, old boy,
+and I’ll give you a mess of fish that is fit to place before the
+governor,”
+
+The light suddenly changed its direction, and a long and slightly
+built boat hove up out of the gloom, while the red glare fell on the
+weather-beaten features of the Leather-Stocking, whose tall person was
+seen erect in the frail vessel, wielding, with the grace of an
+experienced boatman, a long fishing-spear, which he held by its
+centre, first dropping one end and then the other into the water, to
+aid in propelling the little canoe of bark, we will not say through,
+but over, the water.  At the farther end of the vessel a form was
+faintly seen, guiding its motions, and using a paddle with the ease of
+one who felt there was no necessity for exertion.  The Leather-
+Stocking struck his spear lightly against the short staff which up
+held, on a rude grating framed of old hoops of iron, the knots of pine
+that composed the fuel, and the light, which glared high, for an
+instant fell on the swarthy features and dark, glancing eyes of
+Mohegan.
+
+The boat glided along the shore until it arrived opposite the fishing-
+ground, when it again changed its direction and moved on to the land,
+with a motion so graceful, and yet so rapid, that it seemed to possess
+the power of regulating its own progress.  The water in front of the
+canoe was hardly ruffled by its passage and no sound betrayed the
+collision, when the light fabric shot on the gravelly beach for nearly
+half its length, Natty receding a step or two from its bow, in order
+to facilitate the landing.
+
+“Approach, Mohegan,” said Marmaduke; “approach, Leather-Stocking, and
+load your canoe with bass.  It would be a shame to assail the animals
+with the spear, when such multitudes of victims lie here, that will be
+lost as food for the want of mouths to consume them.”
+
+No, no, Judge,” returned Natty, his tall figure stalking over the
+narrow beach, and ascending to the little grassy bottom where the fish
+were laid in piles; “I eat of no man’s wasty ways.  I strike my spear
+into the eels or the trout, when I crave the creatur’; but I wouldn’t
+be helping to such a sinful kind of fishing for the best rifle that
+was ever brought out from the old countries.  If they had fur, like
+the beaver, or you could tan their hides, like a buck, something might
+be said in favor of taking them by the thousand with your nets; but as
+God made them for man’s food, and for no other disarnable reason, I
+call it sinful and wasty to catch more than can be eat.”
+
+“Your reasoning is mine; for once, old hunter, we agree in opinion;
+and I heartily wish we could make a convert of the sheriff.  A net of
+half the size of this would supply the whole village with fish for a
+week at one haul.”
+
+The Leather-Stocking did not relish this alliance in sentiment; and he
+shook his head doubtingly as he answered;
+
+“No, no; we are not much of one mind, Judge, or you’d never turn good
+hunting-grounds into stumpy pastures.  And you fish and hunt out of
+rule; but, to me, the flesh is sweeter where the creatur’ has some
+chance for its life; for that reason, I always use a single ball, even
+if it be at a bird or a squirrel.  Besides, it saves lead; for, when a
+body knows how to shoot, one piece of lead is enough for all, except
+hard-lived animals.”
+
+The sheriff heard these opinions with great indignation; and when he
+completed the last arrangement for the division, by carrying with his
+own hands a trout of a large size, and placing it on four different
+piles in succession, as his vacillating ideas of justice required,
+gave vent to his spleen.
+
+“A very pretty confederacy, indeed! Judge Temple, the landlord and
+owner of a township, with Nathaniel Bumppo a lawless squatter, and
+professed deer-killer, in order to preserve the game of the county!
+But, ‘Duke, when I fish I fish; so, away, boys, for another haul, and
+we’ll send out wagons and carts in the morning to bring in our
+prizes.”
+
+Marmaduke appeared to understand that all opposition to the will of
+the sheriff would he useless, and he strolled from the fire to the
+place where the canoe of the hunters lay, whither the ladies and
+Oliver Edwards had already preceded him.
+
+Curiosity induced the females to approach this spot; but it was a
+different motive that led the youth thither.  Elizabeth examined the
+light ashen timbers and thin bark covering of the canoe, in admiration
+of its neat but simple execution, and with wonder that any human being
+could he so daring as to trust his life in so frail a vessel.  But the
+youth explained to her the buoyant properties of the boat, and its
+perfect safety when under proper management; adding, in such glowing
+terms, a description of the manner in which the fish were struck with
+the spear, that she changed suddenly, from an apprehension of the
+danger of the excursion, to a desire to participate in its pleasures.
+She even ventured a proposition to that effect to her father, laughing
+at the same time at her own wish, and accusing herself of acting under
+a woman’s caprice.
+
+“Say not so, Bess,” returned the Judge; “I would have you above the
+idle fears of a silly girl.  These canoes are the safest kind of boats
+to those who have skill and steady nerves.  I have crossed the
+broadest part of the Oneida in one much smaller than this.”
+
+“And I the Ontary,” interrupted the Leather-Stocking; “ and that with
+squaws in the canoe, too.  But the Delaware women are used to the
+paddle, and are good hands in a boat of this natur’, If the young lady
+would like to see an old man strike a trout for his breakfast, she is
+welcome to a seat.  John will say the same, seeing that he built the
+canoe, which was only launched yesterday; for I’m not over-curious at
+such small work as brooms, and basket-making, and other like Indian
+trades.”
+
+Natty gave Elizabeth one of his significant laughs, with a kind nod of
+the head, when he concluded his invitation but Mohegan, with the
+native grace of an Indian, approached, and taking her soft white hand
+into his own swarthy and wrinkled palm, said:
+
+“Come, granddaughter of Miquon, and John will be glad.  Trust the
+Indian; his head is old, though his hand is not steady.  The Young
+Eagle will go, and see that no harm hurts his sister.”
+
+“Mr. Edwards,” said Elizabeth, blushing slightly, “your friend Mohegan
+has given a promise for you.  Do you redeem the pledge?”
+
+“With my life, if necessary, Miss Temple,” cried the youth, with
+fervor.  “ The sight is worth some little apprehension; for of real
+danger there is none, I will go with you and Miss Grand, however, to
+save appearances.”
+
+“With me!” exclaimed Louisa.  “No, not with me, Mr. Edwards; nor,
+surely, do you mean to trust yourself in that slight canoe.”
+
+“But I shall; for I have no apprehensions any longer,” said Elizabeth,
+stepping into the boat, and taking a seat where the Indian directed.
+“Mr. Edwards, you may remain, as three do seem to be enough for such
+an egg shell.” “
+
+“It shall hold a fourth,” cried the young man, springing to her side,
+with a violence that nearly shook the weak fabric of the vessel
+asunder.  “Pardon me, Miss Temple, that I do not permit these
+venerable Charons to take you to the shades unattended by your
+genius.”
+
+“Is it a good or evil spirit?” asked Elizabeth.
+“Good to you.”
+
+“And mine,” added the maiden, with an air that strangely blended pique
+with satisfaction.  But the motion of the canoe gave rise to new
+ideas, and fortunately afforded a good excuse to the young man to
+change the discourse.
+
+It appeared to Elizabeth that they glided over the water by magic, so
+easy and graceful was the manner in which Mohegan guided his little
+bark.  A slight gesture with his spear indicated the way in which
+Leather-Stocking wished to go, and a profound silence was preserved by
+the whole party, as the precaution necessary to the success of their
+fishery.  At that point of the lake the water shoaled regularly.
+differing in this particular altogether from those parts where the
+mountains rose nearly in perpendicular precipices from the beach.
+There the largest vessels could have lain, with their yards
+interlocked with the pines; while here a scanty growth of rushes
+lifted their tops above the lake, gently curling the waters, as their
+bending heads waved with the passing breath of the night air.  It was
+at the shallow points only that the bass could he found, or the net
+cast with success.
+
+Elizabeth saw thousands of these fish swimming in shoals along the
+shallow and warm waters of the shore; for the flaring light of their
+torch laid bare the mysteries of the lake, as plainly as if the limpid
+sheet of the Otsego was but another atmosphere.  Every instant she
+expected to see the impending spear of Leather-Stocking darting into
+the thronging hosts that were rushing beneath her, where it would seem
+that a blow could not go amiss; and where, as her father had already
+said, the prize that would be obtained was worthy any epicure.  But
+Natty had his peculiar habits, and, it would seem, his peculiar tastes
+also.
+
+His tall stature, and his erect posture, enabled him to see much
+farther than those who were seated in the bottom of the canoe; and he
+turned his head warily in every direction, frequently bending his body
+forward, and straining his vision, as if desirous of penetrating the
+water that surrounded their boundary of light.  At length his anxious
+scrutiny was rewarded with success, and, waving his spear from the
+shore, he said in a cautious tone:
+
+“Send her outside the bass, John; I see a laker there, that has run
+out of the school.  It’s seldom one finds such a creatur’ in shallow
+water, where a spear can touch it.”
+
+Mohegan gave a wave of assent with his hand, and in the next instant
+the canoe was without the “ run of the bass,” and in water nearly
+twenty feet in depth.  A few additional knots were laid on the
+grating, and the light penetrated to the bottom, Elizabeth then saw a
+fish of unusual size floating above small pieces of logs and sticks.
+The animal was only distinguishable, at that distance, by a slight but
+almost imperceptible motion of its fins and tail.  The curiosity
+excited by this unusual exposure of the secrets of the lake seemed to
+be mutual between the heiress of the land and the lord of these
+waters, for the “ “salmon-trout” soon announced his interest by
+raising his head and body for a few degrees above a horizontal line,
+and then dropping them again into a horizontal position.
+
+“Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound
+made by Elizabeth in bending over the side of the canoe in curiosity;
+“‘tis a skeary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear.  My handle
+is hut fourteen foot, and the creator’ lies a good eighteen from the
+top of the water: but I’ll try him, for he's a ten—pounder.”
+
+While speaking, the Leather-Stocking was poising and directing his
+weapon.  Elizabeth saw the bright, polished tines, as they slowly and
+silently entered the water, where the refraction pointed them many
+degrees from the true direction of the fish; and she thought that the
+intended victim saw them also, as he seemed to increase the play of
+his tail and fins, though without moving his station.  At the next
+instant the tall body of Natty bent to the water’s edge, and the
+handle of his spear disappeared in the lake.  The long, dark streak of
+the gliding weapon, and the little bubbling vortex which followed its
+rapid flight, were easily to be seen: but it was not until the handle
+snot again into the air by its own reaction, and its master catching
+it in his hand, threw its tines uppermost, that Elizabeth was
+acquainted with the success of the blow.  A fish of great size was
+transfixed by the barbed steel, and was very soon shaken from its
+impaled situation into the bottom of the canoe.
+
+That will do, John,” said Natty, raising his prize by one of his
+fingers, and exhibiting it before the torch; “ I shall not strike
+another blow to-night.”
+
+The Indian again waved his hand, and replied with the simple and
+energetic monosyllable of:
+
+“Good.”
+
+Elizabeth was awakened from the trance created by this scene, and by
+gazing in that unusual manner at the bot tom of the lake, be the
+hoarse sounds of Benjamin’s voice, and the dashing of oars, as the
+heavier boat of the seine-drawers approached the spot where the canoe
+lay, dragging after it the folds of the net.
+
+“Haul off, haul off, Master Bumppo,” cried Benjamin, “your top-light
+frightens the fish, who see the net and sheer off soundings.  A fish
+knows as much as a horse, or, for that matter, more, seeing that it’s
+brought up on the water.  Haul oil, Master Bumppo, haul off, I say,
+and give a wide berth to the seine.”
+
+Mohegan guided their little canoe to a point where the movements of
+the fishermen could be observed, without interruption to the business,
+and then suffered it to lie quietly on the water, looking like an
+imaginary vessel floating in air.  There appeared to be much ill-humor
+among the party in the batteau, for the directions of Benjamin were
+not only frequent, but issued in a voice that partook largely of
+dissatisfaction.
+
+“Pull larboard oar, will ye, Master Kirby?” cried the old seaman;
+“pull larboard best.  It would puzzle the oldest admiral in their
+British fleet to cast this here net fair, with a wake like a
+corkscrew.  Full starboard, boy, pull starboard oar, with a will.”
+
+“Harkee, Mister Pump,” said Kirby, ceasing to row, and speaking with
+sonic spirit; “I'm a man that likes civil language and decent
+treatment, such as is right ‘twixt man and man.  If you want us to go
+hoy, say so, and hoy I'll go, for the benefit of the company; but I m
+not used to being ordered about like dumb cattle.”
+
+“Who’s dumb cattle?”” echoed Benjamin, fiercely, turning his
+forbidding face to the glare of light from the canoe, and exhibiting
+every feature teeming with the expression of disgust.  “If you want to
+come aft and cun the boat round, come and be damned, and pretty
+steerage you’ll make of it.  There’s but another heave of the net in
+the stern-sheets, and we’re clear of the thing.  Give way, will ye?
+and shoot her ahead for a fathom or two, and if you catch me afloat
+again with such a horse-marine as your self, why, rate me a ship's
+jackass, that’s all.”
+
+Probably encouraged by the prospect of a speedy termination to his
+labor, the wood-chopper resumed his oar, and, under strong excitement,
+gave a stroke that not only cleared the boat of the net but of the
+steward at the same instant.  Benjamin had stood on the little
+platform that held the seine, in the stern of the boat, and the
+violent whirl occasioned by the vigor of the wood-chopper’s arm
+completely destroyed his balance.  The position of the lights rendered
+objects in the batteau distinguishable, both from the canoe and the
+shore; and the heavy fall on the water drew all eyes to the steward,
+as he lay struggling, for a moment, in sight.
+
+A loud burst of merriment, to which the lungs of Kirby contributed no
+small part, broke out like a chorus of laughter, and ran along the
+eastern mountain, in echoes, until it died away in distant, mocking
+mirth, among the rocks and woods.  The body of the steward was seen
+slowly to disappear, as was expected; but when the light waves, which
+had been raised by his fall, began to sink in calmness, and the water
+finally closed over his head, unbroken and still, a very different
+feeling pervaded the spectators.
+
+“How fare you, Benjamin?” shouted Richard from the shore.
+
+“The dumb devil can’t swim a stroke!” exclaimed Kirby, rising, and
+beginning to throw aside his clothes.
+
+“Paddle up, Mohegan,” cried young Edwards, “the light will show us
+where he lies, and I will dive for the body.”
+
+“Oh! save him! for God’s sake, save him!” exclaimed Elizabeth, bowing
+her head on the side of the canoe in horror.
+
+A powerful and dexterous sweep of Mohegan's paddle sent the canoe
+directly over the spot where the steward had fallen, and a loud shout
+from the Leather-Stocking announced that he saw the body.
+
+“Steady the boat while I dive,” again cried Edwards.
+
+“Gently, lad, gently,” said Natty; “ I’ll spear the creatur’ up in
+half the time, and no risk to anybody.”
+
+The form of Benjamin was lying about half-way to the bottom, grasping
+with both hands some broken rushes.  The blood of Elizabeth curdled to
+her heart, as she saw the figure of a fellow-creature thus extended
+under an immense sheet of water, apparently in motion by the
+undulations of the dying waves, with its face and hands, viewed by
+that light, and through the medium of the fluid, already colored with
+hues like death.
+
+At the same instant, she saw the shining tines of Natty’s spear
+approaching the head of the sufferer, and entwinning themselves,
+rapidly and dexterously, in the hairs of his cue and the cape of his
+coat.  The body was now raised slowly, looking ghastly and grim as its
+features turned upward to the light and approached the surface.  The
+arrival of the nostrils of Benjamin into their own atmosphere was
+announced by a breathing that would have done credit to a porpoise.
+For a moment, Natty held the steward suspended, with his head just
+above the water, while his eyes slowly opened and stared about him, as
+if he thought that he had reached a new and unexplored country.
+
+As all the parties acted and spoke together, much less time was
+consumed in the occurrence of these events than in their narration.
+To bring the batteau to the end of the spear, and to raise the form of
+Benjamin into the boat, and for the whole party to regain the shore,
+required but a minute.  Kirby, aided by Richard, whose anxiety induced
+him to run into the water to meet his favorite assistant, carried the
+motionless steward up the bank, and seated him before the fire, while
+the sheriff proceeded to order the most approved measures then in use
+for the resuscitation of the drowned.
+
+“Run, Billy,” he cried, “to the village, and bring up the rum-hogshead
+that lies before the door, in which I am making vinegar, and be quick,
+boy, don’t stay to empty the vinegar, and stop at Mr. Le Quoi’s, and
+buy a paper of tobacco and half a dozen pipes; and ask Remarkable for
+some salt, and one of her flannel petticoats; and ask Dr. Todd to send
+his lancet, and to come himself; and— ha! ‘Duke, what are you about?
+would you strangle a man who is full of water, by giving him rum? Help
+me to open his hand, that I may pat it.”
+
+All this time Benjamin sat, with his muscles fixed, his mouth shut,
+and his hands clinching the rushes which he had seized in the
+confusion of the moment and which, as he held fast, like a true
+seaman, had been the means of preventing his body from rising again to
+the surface.  His eyes, however, were open, and stared wildly on the
+group about the fire, while his lungs were playing like a blacksmith’s
+bellows, as if to compensate themselves for the minute of inaction to
+which they had been subjected.  As he kept his lips compressed, with a
+most inveterate determination, the air was compelled to pass through
+his nostrils, and he rather snorted than breathed, and in such a
+manner that nothing but the excessive agitation of the sheriff could
+at all justify his precipitous orders.
+
+The bottle, applied to the steward’s lips by Marmaduke, acted like a
+charm.  His mouth opened instinctively; his hands dropped the rushes,
+and seized the glass; his eyes raised from their horizontal stare to
+the heavens; and the whole man was lost, for a moment, in a new
+sensation.  Unhappily for the propensity of the steward, breath was as
+necessary after one of these draughts as after his submersion, and the
+time at length arrived when he was compelled to let go the bottle.
+
+“Why, Benjamin!” roared the sheriff; “you amaze me! for a man of your
+experience in drownings to act so foolishly! Just now, you were half
+full of water, and now you are—”
+
+“Full of grog,” interrupted the steward, his features settling down,
+with amazing flexibility, into their natural economy.  “But, d’yesee,
+squire, I kept my hatches chose, and it’s but little water that ever
+gets into my scuttle-butt.  Harkee, Master Kirby! I’ve followed the
+salt-water for the better part of a man’s life, and have seen some
+navigation on the fresh; but this here matter I will say in your
+favor, and that is, that you’re the awk’ardest green 'un that ever
+straddled a boat’s thwart.  Them that likes you for a shipmate, may
+sail with you and no thanks; but dam'me if I even walk on the lake
+shore in your company.  For why? you’d as lief drown a man as one of
+them there fish; not to throw a Christian creature so much as a rope’s
+end when he was adrift, and no life-buoy in sight! Natty Bumppo, give
+us your fist.  There’s them that says you’re an Indian, and a scalper,
+but you’ve served me a good turn, and you may set me down for a
+friend; thof it would have been more ship shape like to lower the
+bight of a rope or running bowline below me, than to seize an old
+seaman by his head-lanyard; but I suppose you are used to taking men
+by the hair, and seeing you did me good instead of harm thereby, why,
+it’s the same thing, d'ye see?”
+
+Marmaduke prevented any reply, and assuming the action of matters with
+a dignity and discretion that at once silenced all opposition from his
+cousin, Benjamin was dispatched to the village by land, and the net
+was hauled to shore in such a manner that the fish for once escaped
+its meshes with impunity.
+
+The division of the spoils was made in the ordinary manner, by placing
+one of the party with his hack to the game, who named the owner of
+each pile.  Bill Kirby stretched his large frame on the grass by the
+side of the fire, as sentinel until morning, over net and fish ; and
+the remainder of the party embarked in the batteau, to return to the
+village.
+
+The wood-chopper was seen broiling his supper on the coals as they
+lost sight of the fire, and when the boat approached the shore, the
+torch of Mohegan’s canoe was shining again under the gloom of the
+eastern mountain.  Its motion ceased suddenly; a scattering of brands
+was in the air, and then all remained dark as the conjunction of
+night, forest, and mountain could render the scene.
+
+The thoughts of Elizabeth wandered from the youth, who was holding a
+canopy of shawls over herself and Louisa, to the hunter and the Indian
+warrior; and she felt an awakening curiosity to visit a hut where men
+of such different habits and temperament were drawn together as by
+common impulse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+
+“Cease all this parlance about hills and dales.
+None listen to thy scenes of boyish frolic.
+Fond dotard! with such tickled ears as thou dost
+Come to thy tale.”—Duo.
+
+Mr. Jones arose on the following morning with the sun, and, ordering
+his own and Marmaduke’s steeds to be saddled, he proceeded, with a
+countenance big with some business of unusual moment to the apartment
+of the Judge.  The door was unfastened, and Richard entered, with the
+freedom that characterized not only the intercourse between the
+cousins, but the ordinary manners of the sheriff.
+
+“Well, ‘Duke, to horse,” he cried, “and I will explain to you my
+meaning in the allusions I made last night.  David says, in the
+Psalms—no, it was Solomon, but it was all in the family—Solomon said
+there was a time for all things; and, in my humble opinion, a fishing-
+party is not the moment for discussing important subjects.  Ha! why,
+what the devil ails you, Marmaduke? Ain't you well? Let me feel your
+pulse; my grandfather, you know—”
+
+“Quite well in the body, Richard,” interrupted the Judge, repulsing
+his cousin, who was about to assume the functions that rightly
+belonged to Dr. Todd; “ but ill at heart.  I received letters by the
+post last night, after we returned from the point, and this among the
+number.”
+
+The sheriff took the letter, but without turning his eyes on the
+writing, for he was examining the appearance of the other with
+astonishment.  From the face of his cousin the gaze of Richard
+wandered to the table, which was covered with letters, packets, and
+newspapers; then to the apartment and all it contained.  On the bed
+there was the impression that had been made by a human form, but the
+coverings were unmoved, and everything indicated that the occupant of
+the room had passed a sleepless night.  The candles had burned to the
+sockets, and had evidently extinguished themselves in their own
+fragments Marmaduke had drawn his curtains, and opened both the
+shutters and the sashes, to admit the balmy air “ of a spring
+morning; but his pale cheek, his quivering lip, and his sunken eye
+presented altogether so very different an appearance from the usual
+calm, manly, and cheerful aspect of the Judge, that the sheriff grew
+each moment more and more bewildered with astonishment.  At length
+Richard found time to cast his eyes on the direction of the letter,
+which he still held unopened, crumpling it in his hand.
+
+“What! a ship-letter!” he exclaimed; “and from England, ha! ‘Duke,
+there must be news of importance! indeed!”
+
+“Read it,” said Marmaduke, pacing the floor in excessive agitation.
+
+Richard, who commonly thought aloud, was unable to read a letter
+without suffering part of its contents to escape him in audible
+sounds.  So much of the epistle as was divulged in that manner, we
+shall lay before the reader, accompanied by the passing remarks of the
+sheriff:
+
+“‘London, February 12, 1793.’ What a devil of a pas sage she had! but
+the wind has been northwest for six weeks, until within the last
+fortnight. Sir, your favors of August 10th, September 23d, and of
+December 1st, were received in due season, and the first answered by
+return of packet.  Since the receipt of the last, I’ “—here a long
+passage was rendered indistinct by a kind of humming noise by the
+sheriff—” ‘I grieve to say that ‘—hum, hum, bad enough to be sure—’
+but trusts that a merciful Providence has seen fit’—hum, hum, hum
+seems to be a good, pious sort of a man, ‘Duke; belongs to the
+Established Church, I dare say; hum, hum—’ vessel sailed from Falmouth
+on or about the 1st September of last year, and’—hum, hum, hum, ‘If
+anything should transpire on this afflicting subject shall not fail’—
+hum, hum; really a good-hearted man, for a lawyer—’but Can communicate
+nothing further at present’—hum, hum.  “ The national convention ‘—
+hum, hum—’ unfortunate Louis’—hum, hum—’example of your Washington’—a
+very sensible man, I declare, and none of your crazy democrats.  Hum,
+hum—’our gallant navy’—hum, hum—’under our most excellent monarch’—ay,
+a good man enough, that King George, but bad advisers: hum, hum—’I beg
+to conclude with assurances of my perfect respect.’—hum, hum—’Andrew
+Holt.  ‘—Andrew Holt, a very sensible, feeling man, this Mr. Andrew
+Holt—but the writer of evil tidings.  What will you do next, Cousin
+Marmaduke?”
+
+“What can I do, Richard, but trust to time, and the will of Heaven?
+Here is another letter from Connecticut, but it only repeats the
+substance of the last.  There is but one consoling reflection to be
+gathered from the English news, which is, that my last letter was
+received by him before the ship sailed,”
+
+“This is bad enough, indeed! ‘Duke, bad enough, indeed! and away go
+all my plans, of putting wings to the house, to the devil.  I had made
+arrangements for a ride to introduce you to something of a very
+important nature.  You know how much you think of mines—”
+
+“Talk not of mines,” interrupted the Judge: “there is a sacred duty to
+be performed, and that without delay, I must devote this day to
+writing; and thou must be my assistant, Richard; it will not do to
+employ Oliver in a matter of such secrecy and interest,”
+
+“No, no, ‘Duke,” cried the sheriff, squeezing his hand, “ I am your
+man, just now; we are sister’s children, and blood, after all, is the
+best cement to make friendship stick together.  Well, well, there is
+no hurry about the silver mine, just now; another time will do as
+well.  We shall want Dirky Van, I suppose?”
+
+Marmaduke assented to this indirect question, and the sheriff
+relinquished all his intentions on the subject of the ride, and,
+repairing to the breakfast parlor, he dispatched a messenger to
+require the immediate presence of Dirck Van der School.
+
+The village of Templeton at that time supported but two lawyers, one
+of whom was introduced to our readers in the bar-room of the “Bold
+Dragoon.” and the other was the gentleman of whom Richard spoke by the
+friendly yet familiar appellation of Dirck, or Dirky Van.  Great good-
+nature, a very tolerable share of skill in his profession, and,
+considering the circumstances, no contemptible degree of honesty, were
+the principal ingredients in the character of this man, who was known
+to the settlers as Squire Van der School, and sometimes by the
+flattering though anomalous title of the “Dutch” or “honest lawyer.”
+
+We would not wish to mislead our readers in their conceptions of any
+of our characters, and we therefore feel it necessary to add that the
+adjective, in the preceding agnomen of Mr. Van der School, was used in
+direct reference to its substantive.  Our orthodox friends need not be
+told that all the merit in this world is comparative; and, once for
+all, we desire to say that, where anything which involves qualities or
+characters is asserted, we must be understood to mean, “under the
+circumstances.”
+
+During the remainder of the day, the Judge was closeted with his
+cousin and his lawyer; and no one else was admitted to his apartment,
+excepting his daughter.  The deep distress that so evidently affected
+Marmaduke was in some measure communicated to Elizabeth also; for a
+look of dejection shaded her intelligent features, and the buoyancy of
+her animated spirits was sensibly softened.  Once on that day, young
+Edwards, who was a wondering and observant spectator of the sudden
+alteration produced in the heads of the family, detected a tear
+stealing over the cheek of Elizabeth, and suffusing her bright eyes
+with a softness that did not always belong to their expression.
+
+“Have any evil tidings been received, Miss Temple?” he inquired, with
+an interest and voice that caused Louisa Grant to raise her head from
+her needlework, with a quick ness at which she instantly blushed
+herself.  “I would offer my services to your father, if, as I suspect,
+he needs an agent in some distant place, and I thought it would give
+you relief.”
+
+“We have certainly heard bad news,” returned Elizabeth, “ and it may
+be necessary that my father should leave home for a short period;
+unless I can persuade him to trust my cousin Richard with the
+business, whose absence from the country, just at this time, too,
+might be inexpedient.”
+
+The youth paused a moment, and the blood gathered slowly to his
+temples as he continued:
+
+“If it be of a nature that I could execute-”
+
+“It is such as can only be confided to one we know— one of ourselves,”
+
+“Surely, you know me, Miss Temple!” he added, with a warmth that he
+seldom exhibited, but which did some times escape him in the moments
+of their frank communications.  “Have I lived five months under your
+roof to be a stranger?”
+
+Elizabeth was engaged with her needle also, and she bent her head to
+one side, affecting to arrange her muslin; but her hand shook, her
+color heightened, and her eyes lost their moisture in an expression of
+ungovernable interest, as she said:
+
+“How much do we know of you, Mr. Edwards?”
+
+“How much!” echoed the youth, gazing from the speaker to the mild
+countenance of Louisa, that was also illuminated with curiosity; “ how
+much Have I been so long an inmate with you and not known?”
+
+The head of Elizabeth turned slowly from its affected position, and
+the look of confusion that had blended so strongly with an expression
+of interest changed to a smile.
+
+“We know you, sir, indeed; you are called Mr. Oliver Edwards.  I
+understand that you have informed my friend Miss Grant that you are a
+native—”
+
+“Elizabeth!” exclaimed Louisa, blushing to thc eyes, and trembling
+like an aspen ; “ you misunderstood me, dear Miss Temple; I—I—it was
+only a conjecture.  Besides, if Mr. Edwards is related to the natives
+why should we reproach him? In what are we better? at least I, who am
+the child of a poor and unsettled clergyman?”
+
+Elizabeth shook her head doubtingly, and even laughed, but made no
+reply, until, observing the melancholy which pervaded the countenance
+of her companion, who was thinking of the poverty and labors of her
+father, she continued:
+
+“Nay, Louisa, humility carries you too far.  The daughter of a
+minister of the church can have no superiors.  Neither I nor Mr.
+Edwards is quite your equal, unless,” she added, again smiling, “he is
+in secret a king “
+
+“A faithful servant of the King of kings, Miss Temple, is inferior to
+none on earth,” said Louisa; “but his honors are his own; I am only
+the child of a poor and friendless man, and can claim no other
+distinction.  Why, then, should I feel myself elevated above Mr.
+Edwards, because—because—perhaps he is only very, very distantly
+related to John Mohegan?”
+
+Glances of a very comprehensive meaning were exchanged between the
+heiress and the young man, as Louisa betrayed, while vindicating his
+lineage, the reluctance with which she admitted his alliance with the
+old warrior; but not even a smile at the simplicity of their companion
+was indulged in by either.
+
+“On reflection, I must acknowledge that my situation here is somewhat
+equivocal,” said Edwards, “though I may be said to have purchased it
+with my blood.”
+
+“The blood, too, of one of the native lords of the soil!” cried
+Elizabeth, who evidently put little faith in his aboriginal descent.
+
+“Do I bear the marks of my lineage so very plainly impressed on my
+appearance? I am dark, but not very red—not more so than common?”
+
+“Rather more so, just now.”
+
+“I am sure, Miss Temple,” cried Louisa, “you cannot have taken much
+notice of Mr. Edwards.  His eyes are not so black as Mohegan’s or even
+your own, nor is his hair.”
+
+“Very possibly, then, I can lay claim to the same de scent It would be
+a great relief to my mind to think so, for I own that I grieve when I
+see old Mohegan walking about these lands like the ghost of one of
+their ancient possessors, and feel how small is my own right to
+possess them.”
+
+“Do you?” cried the youth, with a vehemence that startled the ladies
+
+“I do, indeed,” returned Elizabeth, after suffering a moment to pass
+in surprise; “but what can I do—what can my father do? Should we offer
+the old man a home’ and a maintenance, his habits would compel him to
+refuse us.  Neither were we so silly as to wish such a thing, could we
+convert these clearings and farms again into hunting grounds, as the
+Leather-Stocking would wish to see them.”
+
+“You speak the truth, Miss Temple,” said Edwards.  “What can you do
+indeed? But there is one thing that I am certain you can and will do,
+when you become the mistress of these beautiful valleys—use your
+wealth with indulgence to the poor, and charity to the needy; indeed,
+you can do no more.”
+
+“And That will be doing a good deal,” said Louisa, smiling in her
+turn.  “But there will, doubtless, be one to take the direction of
+such things from her hands.”
+
+am not about to disclaim matrimony, like a silly girl, who dreams of
+nothing else from morn till night; but I am a nun here, without the
+vow of celibacy.  Where shall I find a husband in these forests?”
+
+“There is none, Miss Temple,” said Edwards quickly; “there is none who
+has a right to aspire to you, and I know that you will wait to be
+sought by your equal; or die, as you live, loved, respected, and
+admired by all who know you.”
+
+The young man seemed to think that he had said all that was required
+by gallantry, for he arose, and, taking his hat, hurried from the
+apartment.  Perhaps Louisa thought that he had said more than was
+necessary, for she sighed, with an aspiration so low that it was
+scarcely audible to herself, and bent her head over her work again.
+And it is possible that Miss Temple wished to hear more, for her eyes
+continued fixed for a minute on the door through which the young man
+had passed, then glanced quickly toward her companion, when the long
+silence that succeeded manifested how much zest may be given to the
+conversation of two maidens under eighteen, by the presence of a youth
+of three-and-twenty.
+
+The first person encountered by Mr. Edwards, as he rather rushed than
+walked from the house, was the little square-built lawyer, with a
+large bundle of papers under his arm, a pair of green spectacles on
+his nose, with glasses at the sides, as if to multiply his power of
+detecting frauds by additional organs of vision.
+
+Mr. Van der School was a well-educated man, but of slow comprehension,
+who had imbibed a wariness in his speeches and actions, from having
+suffered by his collisions with his more mercurial and apt brethren
+who had laid the foundations of their practice in the Eastern courts,
+and who had sucked in shrewdness with their mother’s milk.  The
+caution of this gentleman was exhibited in his actions, by the utmost
+method and punctuality, tinctured with a good deal of timidity; and in
+his speeches, by a parenthetical style, that frequently left to his
+auditors a long search after his meaning.
+
+“A good-morning to you, Mr. Van der School,” said Edwards; “it seems
+to be a busy day with us at the mansion-house.”
+
+“Good-morning, Mr. Edwards (if that is your name [for, being a
+stranger, we have no other evidence of the fact than your own
+testimony], as I understand you have given it to Judge Temple), good-
+morning, sir.  It is, apparently a busy day (but a man of your
+discretion need not be told [having, doubtless, discovered it of your
+own accord], that appearances are often deceitful) up at the mansion-
+house”
+
+“Have you papers of consequence that will require copying? Can I be of
+assistance in any way?”
+
+“There are papers (as doubtless you see [for your eyes are young] by
+the outsides) that require copying.”
+
+“Well, then, I will accompany you to your office, and receive such as
+are most needed, and by night I shall have them done if there be much
+haste.”
+
+“I shall always be glad to see you, sir, at my office (as in duty
+bound [not that it is obligatory to receive any man within your
+dwelling (unless so inclined), which is a castle], according to the
+forms of politeness), or at any other place; but the papers are most
+strictly confidential (and, as such, cannot be read by any one),
+unless so directed (by Judge Temple’s solemn injunctions), and are
+invisible to all eyes; excepting those whose duties (I mean assumed
+duties) require it of them.”
+
+“Well, sir, as I perceive that I can be of no service, I wish you
+another good-morning; but beg you will remember that I am quite idle
+just now, and I wish you would intimate as much to Judge Temple, and
+make him a ten der of my services in any part of the world, unless—
+unless—it be far from Templeton.”
+
+“I will make the communication, sir, in your name (with your own
+qualifications), as your agent.  Good morning, sir.  But stay
+proceedings, Mr. Edwards (so called), for a moment.  Do you wish me to
+state the offer of travelling as a final contract (for which
+consideration has been received at former dates [by sums advanced],
+which would be binding), or as a tender of services for which
+compensation is to be paid (according to future agreement between the
+parties), on performance of the conditions?”
+
+“Any way, any way,” said Edwards; “he seems in distress, and I would
+assist him.”
+
+“The motive is good, sir (according to appearances which are often
+deceitful] on first impressions), and does you honor.  I will mention
+your wish, young gentleman (as you now seem), and will not fail to
+communicate the answer by five o’clock P.M.  of this present day (God
+willing), if you give me an opportunity so to do.”
+
+The ambiguous nature of the situation and character of Mr. Edwards had
+rendered him an object of peculiar suspicion to the lawyer, and the
+youth was consequently too much accustomed to similar equivocal and
+guarded speeches to feel any unusual disgust at the present dialogue.
+He saw at once that it was the intention of the practitioner to
+conceal the nature of his business, even from the private secretary of
+Judge Temple; and he knew too well the difficulty of comprehending the
+meaning of Mr. Van der School, when the gentleman most wished to be
+luminous in his discourse, not to abandon all thoughts of a discovery,
+when he perceived that the attorney was endeavoring to avoid anything
+like an approach to a cross-examination.  They parted at the gate, the
+lawyer walking with an important and hurried air toward his office,
+keeping his right hand firmly clinched on the bundle of papers.
+
+It must have been obvious to all our readers, that the youth
+entertained an unusual and deeply seated prejudice against the
+character of the Judge; but owing to some counteracting cause, his
+sensations were now those of powerful interest in the state of his
+patron’s present feelings, and in the cause of his secret uneasiness.
+He remained gazing after the lawyer until the door closed on both the
+bearer and the mysterious packet, when he returned slowly to the
+dwelling, and endeavored to forget his curiosity in the usual
+avocations of his office.
+
+When the Judge made his reappearance in the circles of his family, his
+cheerfulness was tempered by a shade of melancholy that lingered for
+many days around his manly brow; but the magical progression of the
+season aroused him from his temporary apathy, and his smiles returned
+with the summer.
+
+The heats of the days, and the frequent occurrence of balmy showers,
+had completed in an incredibly short period the growth of plants which
+the lingering spring had so long retarded in the germ; and the woods
+presented every shade of green that the American forests know.  The
+stumps in the cleared fields were already hidden beneath the wheat
+that was waving with every breath of the sum mer air, shining and
+changing its hues like velvet.
+
+During the continuance of his cousin’s dejection, Mr. Jones forebore,
+with much consideration, to press on his attention a business that
+each hour was drawing nearer to the heart of the sheriff, and which,
+if any opinion could he formed by his frequent private conferences
+with the man who was introduced in these pages by the name of Jotham,
+at the bar-room of the Bold Dragoon, was becoming also of great
+importance.
+
+At length the sheriff ventured to allude again to the subject; and one
+evening, in the beginning of July, Marmaduke made him a promise of
+devoting the following day to the desired excursion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+
+“Speak on, my dearest father!
+Thy words are like the breezes of the west.”—Milman.
+
+It was a mild and soft morning, when Marmaduke and Richard mounted
+their horses and proceeded on the expedition that had so long been
+uppermost in the thoughts of the latter; and Elizabeth and Louisa
+appeared at the same instant in the hall, attired for an excursion on
+foot.
+
+The head of Miss Grant was covered by a neat little hat of green silk,
+and her modest eyes peered from under its shade, with the soft languor
+that characterized her whole appearance; but Miss Temple trod her
+father’s wide apartments with the step of their mistress, holding in
+her hands, dangling by one of its ribbons, the gypsy that was to
+conceal the glossy locks that curled around her polished fore head in
+rich profusion.
+
+“What? are you for a walk, Bess?” cried the Judge, suspending his
+movements for a moment to smile, with a father’s fondness, at the
+display of womanly grace and beauty that his child presented.
+“Remember the heats of July, my daughter; nor venture further than
+thou canst retrace before the meridian.  Where is thy parasol, girl?
+thou wilt lose tine polish of that brow, under this sun and southern
+breeze, unless thou guard it with unusual care.”
+
+“I shall then do more honor to my connections,” returned the smiling
+daughter.  “Cousin Richard has a bloom that any lady might envy.  At
+present the resemblance between us is so trifling that no stranger
+would know us to be ‘sisters’ children.  ‘ “
+
+“Grandchildren, you mean, Cousin Bess,” said the sheriff.  “But on,
+Judge Temple; time and tide wait for no man; and if you take my
+counsel, sir, in twelve months from this day you may make an umbrella
+for your daughter of her camel’s-hair shawl, and have its frame of
+solid silver.  I ask nothing for myself, ‘Duke; you have been a good
+friend to me already; besides, all that I have will go to Bess there,
+one of these melancholy days, so it’s as long as it’s short, whether I
+or you leave it.  But we have a day’s ride before us, sir; so move
+forward, or dismount, and say you won’t go at once.”
+
+“Patience, patience, Dickon, “returned the Judge, checking his horse
+and turning again to his daughter.  “If thou art for the mountains,
+love, stray not too deep into the forest.  I entreat thee; for, though
+it is done often with impunity, there is sometimes danger.”
+
+“Not at this season, I believe, sir,” said Elizabeth; “for, I will
+confess, it is the intention of Louisa and myself to stroll among the
+hills.”
+
+“Less at this season than in the winter, dear; but still there may be
+danger in venturing too far.  But though thou art resolute, Elizabeth,
+thou art too much like thy mother not to be prudent.”
+
+The eyes of the parent turned reluctantly from his child, and the
+Judge and sheriff rode slowly through the gateway, and disappeared
+among the buildings of the village.
+
+During this short dialogue, young Edwards stood, an attentive
+listener, holding in his hand a fishing-rod, the day and the season
+having tempted him also to desert the house for the pleasure of
+exercise in the air.  As the equestrians turned through the gate, he
+approached the young females, who were already moving toward the
+street, and was about to address them, as Louisa paused, and said.
+quickly:
+
+“Mr. Edwards would speak to us, Elizabeth.”
+
+The other stopped also, and turned to the youth, politely but with a
+slight coldness in her air, that sensibly checked the freedom with
+which he had approached them,
+
+“Your father is not pleased that you should walk unattended in the
+hills, Miss Temple.  If I might offer my self as a protector—”
+“Does my father select Mr. Oliver Edwards as the organ of his
+displeasure?” interrupted the lady.
+
+“Good Heaven! you misunderstood my meaning; I should have said uneasy
+or not pleased.  I am his servant, madam, and in consequence yours.  I
+repeat that, with your consent, I will change my rod for a fowling-
+piece, and keep nigh you on the mountain,”
+
+“I thank you, Mr. Edwards; but where there is no danger, no protection
+is required.  We are not yet reduced to wandering among these free
+hills accompanied by a body guard.  If such a one is necessary there
+he is, however.— Here, Brave—Brave——my noble Brave!”
+The huge mastif that has been already mentioned, appeared from his
+kennel, gaping and stretching himself with pampered laziness; but as
+his mistress again called:
+
+“Come, dear Brave; once you have served your master well; let us see
+how you can do your duty by his daughter”—the dog wagged his tail, as
+if he understood her language, walked with a stately gait to her side,
+where he seated himself, and looked up at her face, with an
+intelligence but little inferior to that which beamed in her own
+lovely countenance.
+
+She resumed her walk, but again paused, after a few steps, and added,
+in tones of conciliation:
+
+“You can be serving us equally, and, I presume, more agreeably to
+yourself, Mr. Edwards, by bringing us a string of your favorite perch
+for the dinner-table,”
+
+When they again began to walk Miss Temple did not look back to see how
+the youth bore this repulse; but the head of Louisa was turned several
+times before they reached the gate on that considerate errand.
+
+“I am afraid, Elizabeth,” she said, “ that we have mortified Oliver.
+He is still standing where we left him, leaning on his rod.  Perhaps
+he thinks us proud.”
+
+“He thinks justly,” exclaimed Miss Temple, as if awaking from a deep
+musing; “he thinks justly, then.  We are too proud to admit of such
+particular attentions from a young man in an equivocal situation.
+What! make him the companion of our most private walks! It is pride,
+Louisa, but it is the pride of a woman.”
+
+It was several minutes before Oliver aroused himself from the
+abstracted position in which he was standing when Louisa last saw him;
+but when he did, he muttered something rapidly and incoherently, and,
+throwing his rod over his shoulder, he strode down the walk through
+the gate and along one of the streets of the village, until he reached
+the lake-shore, with the air of an emperor.  At this spot boats were
+kept for the use of Judge Temple and his family.  The young man threw
+himself into a light skiff, and, seizing the oars, he sent it across
+the lake toward the hut of Leather-Stocking, with a pair of vigorous
+arms.  By the time he had rowed a quarter of a mile, his reflections
+were less bitter; and when he saw the bushes that lined the shore in
+front of Natty’s habitation gliding by him, as if they possessed the
+motion which proceeded from his own efforts, he was quite cooled in
+mind, though somewhat heated in body.  It is quite possible that the
+very same reason which guided the conduct of Miss Temple suggested
+itself to a man of the breeding and education of the youth; and it is
+very certain that, if such were the case, Elizabeth rose instead of
+falling in the estimation of Mr. Edwards.
+
+The oars were now raised from the water, and the boat shot close in to
+the land, where it lay gently agitated by waves of its own creating,
+while the young man, first casting a cautious and searching glance
+around him in every direction, put a small whistle to his mouth, and
+blew a long, shrill note that rang among the echoing rocks behind the
+hut.  At this alarm, the hounds of Natty rushed out of their bark
+kennel, and commenced their long, piteous howls, leaping about as if
+half frantic, though restrained by the leashes of buckskin by which
+they were fastened.
+
+“Quiet, Hector, quiet,” said Oliver, again applying his whistle to his
+mouth, and drawing out notes still more shrill than before.  No reply
+was made, the dogs having returned to their kennel at the sound of his
+voice.
+
+Edwards pulled the bows of the boat on the shore, and landing,
+ascended the beach and approached the door of the cabin.  The
+fastenings were soon undone, and he entered, closing the door after
+him, when all was as silent, in that retired spot, as if the foot of
+man had never trod the wilderness.  The sounds of the hammers, that
+were in incessant motion in the village, were faintly heard across the
+water; but the dogs had crouched into their lairs, satisfied that none
+but the privileged had approached the forbidden ground.
+
+A quarter of an hour elapsed before the youth reappeared, when he
+fastened the door again, and spoke kindly to the hounds.  The dogs
+came out at the well-known tones, and the slut jumped upon his person,
+whining and barking as if entreating Oliver to release her from
+prison.  But old Hector raised his nose to the light current of air,
+and opened a long howl, that might have been heard for a mile.
+“Ha! what do you scent, old veteran of the woods?” cried Edwards.  “If
+a beast, it is a bold one; and if a man, an impudent.”
+
+He sprang through the top of a pine that had fallen near the side of
+the hut, and ascended a small hillock that sheltered the cabin to the
+south, where he caught a glimpse of the formal figure of Hiram
+Doolittle, as it vanished, with unusual rapidity for the architect,
+amid the bushes.
+
+“What can that fellow be wanting here?” muttered Oliver.  “He has no
+business in this quarter, unless it be curiosity, which is an endemic
+in these woods.  But against that I will effectually guard, though the
+dogs should take a liking to his ugly visage, and let him pass.” The
+youth returned to the door, while giving vent to this soliloquy, and
+completed the fastenings by placing a small chain through a staple,
+and securing it there by a padlock.  “He is a pettifogger, and surely
+must know that there is such a thing as feloniously breaking into a
+man’s house.”
+
+Apparently well satisfied with this arrangement, the youth again spoke
+to the hounds; and, descending to the shore, he launched his boat, and
+taking up his oars, pulled off into the lake.
+
+There were several places in the Otsego that were celebrated fishing-
+ground for perch.  One was nearly opposite to the cabin, and another,
+still more famous, was near a point, at the distance of a mile and a
+half above it, under the brow of the mountain, and on the same side of
+the lake with the hut.  Oliver Edwards pulled his little skiff to the
+first, and sat, for a minute, undecided whether to continue there,
+with his eyes on the door of the cabin, or to change his ground, with
+a view to get superior game.  While gazing about him, he saw the
+light-colored bark canoe of his old companions riding on the water, at
+the point we have mentioned, and containing two figures, that he at
+once knew to be Mohegan and the Leather-Stocking.  This decided the
+matter, and the youth pulled, in a very few minutes, to the place
+where his friends were fishing, and fastened his boat to the light
+vessel of the Indian.
+
+The old men received Oliver with welcoming nods, but neither drew his
+line from the water nor in the least varied his occupation.  When
+Edwards had secured his own boat, he baited his hook and threw it into
+the lake, with out speaking.
+
+“Did you stop at the wigwam, lad, as you rowed past?” asked Natty.
+
+“Yes, and I found all safe; but that carpenter and justice of the
+peace, Mr., or as they call him, Squire, Doolittle, was prowling
+through the woods.  I made sure of the door before I left the hut, and
+I think he is too great a coward to approach the hounds.”
+
+“There's little to be said in favor of that man,” said Natty, while he
+drew in a perch and baited his hook.  “He craves dreadfully to come
+into the cabin, and has as good as asked me as much to my face; but I
+put him off with unsartain answers, so that he is no wiser than Solo
+mon.  This comes of having so many laws that such a man may be called
+on to intarpret them.”
+
+“I fear he is more knave than fool,” cried Edwards; “he makes a tool
+of, that simple man, the sheriff; and I dread that his impertinent
+curiosity may yet give us much trouble.”
+
+“If he harbors too much about the cabin, lad, I’ll shoot the
+creatur’,” said the Leather-Stocking, quite simply.
+
+“No, no, Natty, you must remember the law,” said Edwards, “or we shall
+have you in trouble; and that, old man, would be an evil day and sore
+tidings to us all.”
+
+“Would it, boy?’ exclaimed the hunter, raising his eyes, with a look
+of friendly interest, toward the youth.  “You have the true blood in
+your veins, Mr. Oliver; and I’ll support it to the face of Judge
+Temple or in any court in the country.  How is it, John? Do I speak
+the true word? Is the lad stanch, and of the right blood?”
+
+“He is a Delaware,” said Mohegan, “and my brother.  The Young Eagle is
+brave, and he will be a chief.  No harm can come.”
+
+“Well, well,” cried the youth impatiently, “say no more about it, my
+good friends; if I am not all that your partiality would make me, I am
+yours through life, in prosperity as in poverty.  We will talk of
+other matters.”
+
+The old hunters yielded to his wish, which seemed to be their law.
+For a short time a profound silence prevailed, during which each man
+was very busy with his hook and line, but Edwards, probably feeling
+that it remained with him to renew the discourse, soon observed, with
+the air of one who knew not what he said:
+
+“How beautifully tranquil and glassy the lake is! Saw you it ever more
+calm and even than at this moment, Natty?”
+
+“I have known the Otsego water for five-and-forty years,” said
+Leather—Stocking, “ and I will say that for it, which is, that a
+cleaner spring or better fishing is not to be found in the land.  Yes,
+yes; I had the place to myself once, and a cheerful time I had of it.
+The game was plenty as heart could wish; and there was none to meddle
+with the ground unless there might have been a hunting party of the
+Delawares crossing the hills, or, maybe, a rifling scout of them
+thieves, the Iroquois.  There was one or two Frenchmen that squatted
+in the flats further west, and married squaws; and some of the Scotch-
+Irishers, from the Cherry Valley, would come on to the lake, and
+borrow my canoe to take a mess of parch, or drop a line for salmon-
+trout; but, in the main, it was a cheerful place, and I had but little
+to disturb me in it.  John would come, and John knows.”
+Mohegan turned his dark face at this appeal; and, moving his hand
+forward with graceful motion of assent, he spoke, using the Delaware
+language:
+
+“The land was owned by my people; we gave it to my brother in council—
+to the Fire-eater; and what the Delawares give lasts as long as the
+waters run.  Hawk-eye smoked at that council, for we loved him.”
+
+“No, no, John,” said Natty I was no chief, seeing that I knowed
+nothing of scholarship, and had a white skin.  But it was a
+comfortable hunting-ground then, lad, and would have been so this day,
+but for the money of Marmaduke Temple, and the twisty ways of the
+law.”
+
+“It must have been a sight of melancholy pleasure in deed,” said
+Edwards, while his eye roved along the shores and over the hills,
+where the clearings, groaning with the golden corn, were cheering the
+forest with the signs of life, “to have roamed over these mountains
+and along this sheet of beautiful water, without a living soul to
+speak to, or to thwart your humor.”
+
+“Haven’t I said it was cheerful?” said Leather-Stocking.  “Yes, yes,
+when the trees begain to be covered with leaves, and the ice was out
+of the hake, it was a second paradise.  I have travelled the woods for
+fifty-three years, and have made them my home for more than forty, and
+I can say that I have met but one place that was more to my liking;
+and that was only to eyesight, and not for hunting or fishing.”
+
+“And where was that?” asked Edwards.
+
+“Where! why, up on the Catskills.  I used often to go up into the
+mountains after wolves’ skins and bears; once they paid me to get them
+a stuffed painter, and so I often went.  ‘there’s a place in them
+hills that I used to climb to when I wanted to see the carryings on of
+the world, that would well pay any man for a barked shin or a torn
+moccasin.  You know the Catskills, lad; for you must have seen them on
+your left, as you followed the river up from York, looking as blue as
+a piece of clear sky, and holding the clouds on their tops, as the
+smoke curls over the head of an Indian chief at the council fire.
+Well, there’s the High-peak and the Round-top, which lay back like a
+father and mother among their children, seeing they are far above all
+the other hills.  But the place I mean is next to the river, where one
+of the ridges juts out a little from the rest, and where the rocks
+fall, for the best part of a thousand feet, so much up and down, that
+a man standing on their edges is fool enough to think he can jump from
+top to bottom.”
+
+“What see you when you get there?” asked Edwards,
+
+“Creation,” said Natty, dropping the end of his rod into the water,
+and sweeping one hand around him in a circle, “all creation, lad.  I
+was on that hill when Vaughan burned ‘Sopus in the last war; and I saw
+the vessels come out of the Highlands as plain as I can see that lime-
+scow rowing into the Susquehanna, though one was twenty times farther
+from me than the other.  The river was in sight for seventy miles,
+looking like a curled shaving under my feet, though it was eight long
+miles to its banks.  I saw the hills in the Hampshire grants, the
+highlands of the river, and all that God had done, or man could do,
+far as eye could reach—you know that the Indians named me for my
+sight, lad ; and from the flat on the top of that mountain, I have
+often found the place where Albany stands.  And as for ‘Sopus, the day
+the royal troops burnt the town, the smoke seemed so nigh, that I
+thought I could hear the screeches of the women.”
+
+“It must have been worth the toil to meet with such a glorious view.”
+
+If being the best part of a mile in the air and having men’s farms and
+houses your feet, with rivers looking like ribbons, and mountains
+bigger than the ‘Vision seeming to be hay-stacks of green grass under
+you, gives any satisfaction to a man, I can recommend the spot.  When
+I first came into the woods to live, I used to have weak spells when I
+felt lonesome: and then I would go into the Catskills, and spend a few
+days on that hill to look at the ways of man; but it’s now many a year
+since I felt any such longings, and I am getting too old for rugged
+rocks.  But there’s a place, a short two miles back of that very hill,
+that in late times I relished better than the mountains: for it was
+more covered with the trees, and nateral.”
+
+“And where was that?” inquired Edwards, whose curiosity was strongly
+excited by the simple description of the hunter.
+
+“Why, there’s a fall in the hills where the water of two little ponds.
+that lie near each other, breaks out of their bounds and runs over the
+rocks into the valley.  The stream is, maybe, such a one as would turn
+a mill, if so useless thing was wanted in the wilderness.  But the
+hand that made that ‘Leap’ never made a mill.  There the water comes
+crooking and winding among the rocks, first so slow that a trout could
+swim in it, and then starting and running like a creatur’ that wanted
+to make a far spring, till it gets to where the mountain divides, like
+the cleft hoof of a deer, leaving a deep hollow for the brook to
+tumble into.  The first pitch is nigh two hundred feet, and the water
+looks like flakes of driven snow afore it touches the bottom; and
+there the stream gathers itself together again for a new start, and
+maybe flutters over fifty feet of flat rock before it falls for
+another hundred, when it jumps about from shelf to shelf, first
+turning this-away and then turning that-away, striving to get out of
+the hollow, till it finally comes to the plain.”
+
+“I have never heard of this spot before; it is not mentioned in the
+books.”
+
+“I never read a book in my life,” said Leather-Stocking; “and how
+should a man who has lived in towns and schools know anything about
+the wonders of the woods? No, no, lad; there has that little stream of
+water been playing among the hills since He made the world, and not a
+dozen white men have ever laid eyes on it.  The rock sweeps like
+mason-work, in a half-round, on both sides of the fall, and shelves
+over the bottom for fifty feet; so that when I’ve been sitting at the
+foot of the first pitch, and my hounds have run into the caverns
+behind the sheet of water, they’ve looked no bigger than so many
+rabbits.  To my judgment, lad, it’s the best piece of work that I’ve
+met with in the woods; and none know how often the hand of God is seen
+in the wilderness, but them that rove it for a man’s life,”
+
+“What becomes of the water? In which direction does it run? Is it a
+tributary of the Delaware?”
+
+“Anan!” said Natty.
+
+“Does the water run into the Delaware?”
+
+“No, no; it’s a drop for the old Hudson, and a merry time it has till
+it gets down off the mountain.  I’ve sat on the shelving rock many a
+long hour, boy, and watched the bubbles as they shot by me, and
+thought how long it would be before that very water, which seemed made
+for the wilderness, would be under the bottom of a vessel, and tossing
+in the salt sea.  It is a spot to make a man solemnize.  You go right
+down into the valley that lies to the east of the High Peak, where, in
+the fall of the year, thousands of acres of woods are before your
+eyes, in the deep hollow, and along the side of the mountain, painted
+like ten thousand rainbows, by no hand of man, though without the
+ordering of God’s providence.”
+
+“You are eloquent, Leather-Stocking,” exclaimed the youth.
+
+“Anan!” repeated Natty.
+
+“The recollection of the sight has warmed your blood, old man.  How
+many years is it since you saw the place?”
+
+The hunter made no reply; but, bending his ear near the water, he sat
+holding his breath, and listening attentively as if to some distant
+sound.  At length he raised his head, and said:
+
+“If I hadn’t fastened the hounds with my own hands, with a fresh leash
+of green buckskin, I’d take a Bible oath that I heard old Hector
+ringing his cry on the mountain.”
+
+“It is impossible,” said Edwards; “it is not an hour since I saw him
+in his kennel.”
+
+By this time the attention of Mohegan was attracted to the sounds;
+but, notwithstanding the youth was both silent and attentive, he could
+hear nothing but the lowing of some cattle from the western hills.  He
+looked at the old men, Natty sitting with his hand to his ear, like a
+trumpet, and Mohegan bending forward, with an arm raised to a level
+with his face, holding the forefinger elevated as a signal for
+attention, and laughed aloud at what he deemed to be imaginary sounds.
+
+“Laugh if you will, boy,” said Leather-Stocking, “ the hounds be out,
+and are hunting a deer, No man can deceive me in such a matter.  I
+wouldn’t have had the thing happen for a beaver’s skin.  Not that I
+care for the law; but the venison is lean now, and the dumb things run
+the flesh off their own bones for no good.  Now do you hear the
+hounds?”
+
+Edwards started, as a full cry broke on his ear, changing from the
+distant sounds that were caused by some intervening hill, to confused
+echoes that rang among the rocks that the dogs were passing, and then
+directly to a deep and hollow baying that pealed under the forest
+under the Lake shore.  These variations in the tones of the hounds
+passed with amazing rapidity; and, while his eyes were glancing along
+the margin of the water, a tearing of the branches of the alder and
+dogwood caught his attention, at a spot near them and at the next
+moment a noble buck sprang on the shore, and buried himself in the
+lake.  A full-mouthed cry followed, when Hector and the slut shot
+through the opening in the bushes, and darted into the lake also,
+bearing their breasts gallantly against the water
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+
+“Oft in the full descending flood he tries
+To lose the scent, and lave his burning sides.”—Thomson.
+
+“I knowed it—I knowed it!” cried Natty, when both deer and hounds were
+in full view; “ the buck has gone by them with the wind, and it has
+been too much for the poor rogues; but I must break them of these
+tricks, or they’ll give me a deal of trouble.  He-ere, he-ere—shore.
+with you, rascals—shore with you—will ye? Oh! off with you, old
+Hector, or I'll hackle your hide with my ramrod when I get ye.”
+
+The dogs knew their master’s voice, and after swimming in a circle, as
+if reluctant to give over the chase, and yet afraid to persevere, they
+finally obeyed, and returned to the land, where they filled the air
+with their cries.
+
+In the mean time the deer, urged by his fears, had swum over half the
+distance between the shore and the boats, before his terror permitted
+him to see the new danger.  But at the sounds of Natty’s voice, he
+turned short in his course and for a few moments seemed about to rush
+back again, and brave the dogs.  His retreat in this direction was,
+however, effectually cut off, and, turning a second time, he urged his
+course obliquely for the centre of the lake, with an intention of
+landing on the western shore.  As the buck swam by the fishermen,
+raising his nose high into the air, curling the water before his slim
+neck like the beak of a galley, the Leather-Stocking began to sit very
+uneasy in his canoe.
+
+“‘Tis a noble creatur’!” he exclaimed; “what a pair of horns! a man
+might hang up all his garments on the branches.  Let me see—July is
+the last month, and the flesh must be getting good.” While he was
+talking, Natty had instinctively employed himself in fastening the
+inner end of the bark rope, that served him for a cable, to a paddle,
+and, rising suddenly on his legs, he cast this buoy away.  and cried;
+“Strike out, John! let her go.  The creatur’s a fool to tempt a man in
+this way.
+
+Mohegan threw the fastening of the youth’s boat from the canoe, and
+with one stroke of his paddle sent the light bark over the water like
+a meteor.
+
+“Hold!” exclaimed Edwards.  “ Remember the law, my old friends.  You
+are in plain sight of the village, and I know that Judge Temple is
+determined to prosecute all, indiscriminately, who kill deer out of
+season.”
+
+The remonstrance came too late; the canoe was already far from the
+skiff, and the two hunters were too much engaged in the pursuit to
+listen to his voice.
+
+The buck was now within fifty yards of his pursuers, cutting the water
+gallantly, and snorting at each breath with terror and his exertions,
+while the canoe seemed to dance over the waves as it rose and fell
+with the undulations made by its own motion.  Leather-Stocking raised
+his rifle and freshened the priming, but stood in suspense whether to
+slay his victim or not.
+
+“Shall I, John or no?” he said.  “It seems but a poor advantage to
+take of the dumb thing, too.  I won’t; it has taken to the water on
+its own natur’, which is the reason that God has given to a deer, and
+I’ll give it the lake play; so, John, lay out your arm, and mind the
+turn of the buck; it’s easy to catch them, but they’ll turn like a
+snake.”
+
+The Indian laughed at the conceit of his friend, but continued to send
+the canoe forward with a velocity’ that proceeded much more from skill
+than his strength.  Both of the old men now used the language of the
+Delawares when they spoke.
+
+“Hugh!” exclaimed Mohegan; “the deer turns his head.  Hawk-eye, lift
+your spear.”
+
+Natty never moved abroad without taking with him every implement that
+might, by possibility, be of service in his pursuits.  From his rifle
+he never parted; and although intending to fish with the line, the
+canoe was invariably furnished with all of its utensils, even to its
+grate This precaution grew out of the habits of the hunter, who was
+often led, by his necessities or his sports, far beyond the limits of
+his original destination.  A few years earlier than the date of our
+tale, the Leather-Stocking had left his hut on the shores of the
+Otsego, with his rifle and his hounds, for a few days’ hunting in the
+hills; but before he returned he had seen the waters of Ontario.  One,
+two, or even three hundred miles had once been nothing to his sinews,
+which were now a little stiffened by age.  The hunter did as Mohegan
+advised, and prepared to strike a blow with the barbed weapon into the
+neck of the buck.
+
+“Lay her more to the left, John,” he cried, “lay her more to the left;
+another stroke of the paddle and I have him.”
+
+While speaking he raised the spear, and darted it front him like an
+arrow.  At that instant the buck turned, the long pole glanced by him,
+the iron striking against his horn, and buried itself harmlessly in
+the lake.
+
+“Back water,” cried Natty, as the canoe glided over the place where
+the spear had fallen; “hold water, John.”
+
+The pole soon reappeared, shooting up from the lake, and, as the
+hunter seized it in his hand, the Indian whirled the light canoe
+round, and renewed the chase.  But this evolution gave the buck a
+great advantage; and it also allowed time for Edwards to approach the
+scene of action.
+
+“Hold your hand, Natty!” cried the youth, “hold your hand; remember it
+is out of season.”
+
+This remonstrance was made as the batteau arrived close to the place
+where the deer was struggling with the water, his back now rising to
+the surface, now sinking beneath it, as the waves curled from his
+neck, the animal still sustaining itself nobly against the odds,
+
+“Hurrah!” shouted Edwards, inflamed beyond prudence at the sight;
+“mind him as he doubles—mind him as he doubles; sheer more to the
+right, Mohegan, more to the right, and I’ll have him by the horns;
+I'll throw the rope over his antlers.”
+
+The dark eye of the old warrior was dancing in his head with a wild
+animation, and the sluggish repose in which his aged frame had been
+resting in the canoe was now changed to all the rapid inflections of
+practiced agility.  The canoe whirled with each cunning evolution of
+the chase, like a bubble floating in a whirlpool; and when the
+direction of the pursuit admitted of a straight course the little bark
+skimmed the lake with a velocity that urged the deer to seek its
+safety in some new turn.
+
+It was the frequency of these circuitous movements that, by confining
+the action to so small a compass, enabled the youth to keep near his
+companions.  More than twenty times both the pursued and the pursuer
+glided by him, just without the reach of his oars, until he thought
+the best way to view the sport was to remain stationary, and, by
+watching a favorable opportunity, assist as much as he could in taking
+the victim.
+
+He was not required to wait long, for no sooner had he adopted this
+resolution, and risen in the boat, than he saw the deer coming bravely
+toward him, with an apparent intention of pushing for a point of land
+at some distance from the hounds, who were still barking and howling
+on the shore.  Edwards caught the painter of his skiff, and, making a
+noose, cast it from him with all his force, and luckily succeeded in
+drawing its knot close around one of the antlers of the buck.
+
+For one instant the skiff was drawn through the water, but in the next
+the canoe glided before it, and Natty, bending low, passed his knife
+across the throat of the animal, whose blood followed the wound,
+dyeing the waters.  The short time that was passed in the last
+struggles of the animal was spent by the hunters in bringing their
+boats together and securing them in that position, when Leather-
+Stocking drew the deer from the water and laid its lifeless form in
+the bottom of the canoe.  He placed his hands on the ribs, and on
+different parts of the body of his prize, and then, raising his head,
+he laughed in his peculiar manner.
+
+“So much for Marmaduke Temple's law!” he said, “This warms a body’s
+blood, old John: I haven’t killed a buck in the lake afore this, sin’
+many a year.  I call that good venison, lad: and I know them that will
+relish the creatur’s steaks for all the betterments in the land.”
+
+The Indian had long been drooping with his years, and perhaps under
+the calamities of his race, but this invigorating and exciting sport
+caused a gleam of sunshine to cross his swarthy face that had long
+been absent from his features.  it was evident the old man enjoyed the
+chase more as a memorial of his youthful sports and deeds than with
+any expectation of profiting by the success.  He felt the deer,
+however, lightly, his hand already trembling with the reaction of his
+unusual exertions, and smiled with a nod of approbation, as he said,
+in the emphatic and sententious manner of his people:
+
+“Good.”
+
+“I am afraid, Natty,” said Edwards, when the heat of the moment had
+passed, and his blood began to cool, “that we have all been equally
+transgressors of the law.  But keep your own counsel, and there are
+none here to betray us.  Yet how came those dogs at large? I left them
+securely fastened, I know, for I felt the thongs and examined the
+knots when I was at the hunt.”
+
+“It has been too much for the poor things,” said Natty, “to have such
+a buck take the wind of them.  See, lad, the pieces of the buckskin
+are hanging from their necks yet.  Let us paddle up, John, and I will
+call them in and look a little into the matter.”
+
+When the old hunter landed and examined the thongs that were yet fast
+to the hounds, his countenance sensibly changed, and he shook his head
+doubtingly.
+
+“Here has been a knife at work,” he said; “this skin was never torn,
+nor is this the mark of a hound’s tooth.  No, no—Hector is not in
+fault, as I feared.”
+
+“Has the leather been cut?” cried Edwards.
+
+“No, no—I didn’t say it had been cut, lad; but this is a mark that was
+never made by a jump or a bite.”
+
+“Could that rascally carpenter have dared!”
+
+“Ay! he durst do anything when there is no danger,” said Natty; “he is
+a curious body, and loves to be helping other people on with their
+consarns.  But he had best not harbor so much near the wigwam!”
+
+In the mean time, Mohegan had been examining, with an Indian’s
+sagacity, the place where the leather thong had been separated.  After
+scrutinizing it closely, he said, in Delaware:
+
+“It was cut with a knife—a sharp blade and a long handle—the man was
+afraid of the dogs.”
+
+“How is this, Mohegan?” exclaimed Edwards; “you saw it not! how can
+you know these facts?”
+
+“Listen, son,” said the warrior.  “The knife was sharp, for the cut
+was smooth; the handle was long, for a man’s arm would not reach from
+this gash to the cut that did not go through the skin; he was a
+coward, or he would have cut the thongs around the necks of the
+hounds.”
+On my life,” cried Natty, “John is on the scent! It was the carpenter;
+and he has got on the rock back of the kennel and let the dogs loose
+by fastening his knife to a stick.  It would be an easy matter to do
+it where a man is so minded.”
+
+“And why should he do so?” asked Edwards; “who has done him wrong,
+that he should trouble two old men like you?”
+
+“It’s a hard matter, lad, to know men’s ways, I find, since the
+settlers have brought in their new fashions, But is there nothing to
+be found out in the place? and maybe he is troubled with his longings
+after other people’s business, as he often is”
+
+“Your suspicions are just.  Give me the canoe; I am young and strong.
+and will get down there yet, perhaps, in time to interrupt his plans.
+Heaven forbid that we should be at the mercy of such a man!”
+
+His proposal was accepted, the deer being placed in the skiff in order
+to lighten the canoe, and in less than five minutes the little vessel
+of bark was gilding over the glassy lake, and was soon hid by the
+points of land as it shot close along the shore.
+
+Mohegan followed slowly with the skiff, while Natty called his hounds
+to him, bade them keep close, and, shouldering his rifle, he ascended
+the mountain, with an intention of going to the hut by land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+
+“Ask me not what the maiden feels, Left in that dreadful hour alone:
+Perchance, her reason stoops, or reel!;
+Perchance, a courage not her own
+Braces her mind to desperate tone.”—Scott.
+
+While the chase was occurring on the lake, Miss Temple and her
+companion pursued their walk on the mountain.  Male attendants on such
+excursions were thought to be altogether unnecessary, for none were
+even known to offer insult to a female who respected herself.  After
+the embarrassment created by the parting discourse with Edwards had
+dissipated, the girls maintained a conversation that was as innocent
+and cheerful as themselves.
+
+The path they took led them but a short distance above the hut of
+Leather-Stocking, and there was a point in the road which commanded a
+bird’s-eye view of the sequestered spot.
+
+From a feeling that might have been, natural, and must have been
+powerful, neither of the friends, in their frequent and confidential
+dialogues, had ever trusted herself to utter one syllable concerning
+the equivocal situation in which the young man who was now so
+intimately associated with them had been found.  If judge Temple had
+deemed it prudent to make any inquiries on the subject, he had also
+thought it proper to keep the answers to him self; though it was so
+common an occurrence to find the well-educated youth of the Eastern
+States in every stage of their career to wealth, that the simple
+circumstance of his intelligence, connected with his poverty, would
+not, at that day and in that country, have excited any very powerful
+curiosity.  With his breeding, it might have been different; but the
+youth himself had so effectually guarded against surprise on this
+subject, by his cold and even, in some cases, rude deportment, that
+when his manners seemed to soften by time, the Judge, if he thought
+about it at all, would have been most likely to imagine that the
+improvement was the result of his late association.  But women are
+always more alive to such subjects than men; and what the abstraction
+of the father had overlooked, the observation of the daughter had
+easily detected.  In the thousand little courtesies of polished life
+she had early discovered that Edwards was not wanting, though his
+gentleness was so often crossed by marks of what she conceived to be
+fierce and uncontrollable passions.  It may, perhaps, be unnecessary
+to tell the reader that Louisa Grant never reasoned so much after the
+fashions of the world.  The gentle girl, however, had her own thoughts
+on the subject, and, like others, she drew her own conclusions.
+
+“I would give all my other secrets, Louisa,” exclaimed Miss Temple,
+laughing, and shaking back her dark locks, with a look of childish
+simplicity that her intelligent face seldom expressed, “to be mistress
+of all that those rude logs have heard and witnessed.”
+
+They were both looking at the secluded hut at the instant, and Miss
+Grant raised her mild eyes as she answered:
+
+“I am sure they would tell nothing to the disadvantage of Mr.
+Edwards.”
+
+“Perhaps not; but they might, at least, tell who he is.”
+
+“Why, dear Miss Temple, we know all that already.  I have heard it all
+very rationally explained by your cousin—”
+
+“The executive chief! he can explain anything.  His ingenuity will one
+day discover the philosopher’s stone.  But what did he say?”
+
+“Say!” echoed Louisa, with a look of surprise; “why, everything that
+seemed to me to be satisfactory, and I now believed it to be true.  He
+said that Natty Bumppo had lived most of his life in the woods and
+among the Indians, by which means he had formed an acquaintance with
+old John, the Delaware chief.”
+
+“Indeed! that was quite a matter-of-fact tale for Cousin Dickon.  What
+came next?”
+
+“I believe he accounted for their close intimacy by some story about
+the Leather-Stocking saving the life of John in a battle.”
+
+“Nothing more likely,” said Elizabeth, a little impatiently; “but what
+is all this to the purpose?”
+
+“Nay, Elizabeth, you must bear with my ignorance, and I will repeat
+all that I remember to have overheard for the dialogue was between my
+father and the sheriff, so lately as the last time they met, He then
+added that the kings of England used to keep gentlemen as agents among
+the different tribes of Indians, and sometimes officers in the army,
+who frequently passed half their lives on the edge of the wilderness.”
+
+“Told with wonderful historical accuracy! And did he end there?”
+
+“Oh! no—then he said that these agents seldom married; and—and—they
+must have been wicked men, Elizabeth! but I assure you he said so.”
+
+“Never mind,” said Miss Temple, blushing and smiling, though so
+slightly that both were unheeded by her companion; “skip all that.”
+
+“Well, then, he said that they often took great pride in the education
+of their children, whom they frequently sent to England, and even to
+the colleges; and this is the way that he accounts for the liberal
+manner in which Mr. Edwards has been taught; for he acknowledges that
+he knows almost as much as your father—or mine—or even himself.”
+
+“Quite a climax in learning’.  And so he made Mohegan the granduncle
+or grandfather of Oliver Edwards.”
+
+“You have heard him yourself, then?” said Louisa.
+
+“Often; but not on this subject.  Mr. Richard Jones, you know, dear,
+has a theory for everything; but has he one which will explain the
+reason why that hut is the only habitation within fifty miles of us
+whose door is not open to every person who may choose to lift its
+latch?”
+
+“I have never heard him say anything on this subject,” returned the
+clergyman’s daughter; “but I suppose that, as they are poor, they very
+naturally are anxious to keep the little that they honestly own.  It
+is sometimes dangerous to be rich, Miss Temple; but you cannot know
+how hard it is to be very, very poor.”
+
+“Nor you, I trust, Louisa; at least I should hope that, in this land
+of abundance, no minister of the church could be left in absolute
+suffering.”
+
+“There cannot be actual misery,” returned the other, in a low and
+humble tone, “where there is a dependence on our Maker; but there may
+be such suffering as will cause the heart to ache.”
+
+“But not you—not you,” said the impetuous Elizabeth— “not you, dear
+girl, you have never known the misery that is connected with poverty.”
+
+“Ah! Miss Temple, you little understand the troubles of this life, I
+believe.  My father has spent many years as a missionary in the new
+countries, where his people were poor, and frequently we have been
+without bread; unable to buy, and ashamed to beg, because we would not
+disgrace his sacred calling.  But how often have I seen him leave his
+home, where the sick and the hungry felt, when he left them, that they
+had lost their only earthly friend, to ride on a duty which could not
+be neglected for domes tic evils! Oh! how hard it must be to preach
+consolation to others when your own heart is bursting with anguish!”
+
+“But it is all over now! your father’s income must now be equal to his
+wants—it must be—it shall be—”
+
+“It is,” replied Louisa, dropping her head on her bosom to conceal the
+tears which flowed in spite of her gentle Christianity—” for there are
+none left to be supplied but me.”
+
+The turn the conversation had taken drove from the minds of the young
+maidens all other thoughts but those of holy charity; and Elizabeth
+folded her friend in her arms, when the latter gave vent to her
+momentary grief in audible sobs.  When this burst of emotion had
+subsided, Louisa raised her mild countenance, and they continued their
+walk in silence.
+
+By this time they had gained the summit of the mountain, where they
+left the highway, and pursued their course under the shade of the
+stately trees that crowned the eminence.  The day was becoming warm,
+and the girls plunged more deeply into the forest, as they found its
+invigorating coolness agreeably contrasted to the excessive heat they
+had experienced in the ascent.  The conversation, as if by mutual
+consent, was entirely changed to the little incidents and scenes of
+their walk, and every tall pine, and every shrub or flower, called
+forth some simple expression of admiration.
+
+In this manner they proceeded along the margin of the precipice,
+catching occasional glimpses of the placid Otsego, or pausing to
+listen to the rattling of wheels and the sounds of hammers that rose
+from the valley, to mingle the signs of men with the scenes of nature,
+when Elizabeth suddenly started, and exclaimed:
+
+“Listen! there are the cries of a child on this mountain! Is there a
+clearing near us, or can some little one have strayed from its
+parents?”
+
+“Such things frequently happen,” returned Louisa.  Let us follow the
+sounds; it may be a wanderer starving on the hill.”
+
+Urged by this consideration, the females pursued the low, mournful
+sounds, that proceeded from the forest, with quick and impatient
+steps.  More than once, the ardent Elizabeth was on the point of
+announcing that she saw the sufferer, when Louisa caught her by the
+arm, and pointing behind them, cried:
+
+“Look at the dog!”
+
+Brave had been their companion, from the time the voice of his young
+mistress lured him from his kennel, to the present moment.  His
+advanced age had long before deprived him of his activity; and when
+his companions stopped to view the scenery, or to add to their
+bouquets, the mastiff would lay his huge frame on the ground and await
+their movements, with his eyes closed, and a listlessness in his air
+that ill accorded with the character of a protector.  But when,
+aroused by this cry from Louisa, Miss Temple turned, she saw the dog
+with his eyes keenly set on some distant object, his head bent near
+the ground, and his hair actually rising on his body, through fright
+or anger.  It was most probably the latter, for he was growling in a
+low key, and occasionally showing his teeth, in a manner that would
+have terrified his mistress, had she not so well known his good
+qualities.
+
+“Brave!” she said, “be quiet, Brave! What do you see, fellow?”
+
+At the sounds of her voice, the rage of the mastiff, instead of being
+at all diminished, was very sensibly increased.  He stalked in front
+of the ladies, and seated himself at the feet of his mistress,
+growling louder than before, and occasionally giving vent to his ire
+by a short, surly barking.
+
+“What does he see?” said Elizabeth; “there must be some animal in
+sight.”
+
+Hearing no answer from her companion, Miss Temple turned her head and
+beheld Louisa, standing with her face whitened to the color of death,
+and her finger pointing upward with a sort of flickering, convulsed
+motion.  The quick eye of Elizabeth glanced in the direction indicated
+by her friend, where she saw the fierce front and glaring eyes of a
+female panther, fixed on them in horrid malignity, and threatening to
+leap.
+
+“Let us fly,” exclaimed Elizabeth, grasping the arm of Louisa, whose
+form yielded like melting snow.
+
+There was not a single feeling in the temperament of Elizabeth Temple
+that could prompt her to desert a companion in such an extremity.  She
+fell on her knees by the side of the inanimate Louisa, tearing from
+the person of her friend, with instinctive readiness, such parts of
+her dress as might obstruct her respiration, and encouraging their
+only safeguard, the dog, at the same time, by the sounds of her voice.
+
+“Courage, Brave!” she cried, her own tones beginning to tremble,
+“courage, courage, good Brave!”
+
+A quarter-grown cub, that had hitherto been unseen, now appeared,
+dropping from the branches of a sapling that grew under the shade of
+the beech which held its dam.  This ignorant but vicious creature
+approached the dog, imitating the actions and sounds of its parent,
+but exhibiting a strange mixture of the playfulness of a kitten with
+the ferocity of its race.  Standing on its hind-legs, it would rend
+the bark of a tree with its fore-paws, and play the antics of a cat;
+and then, by lashing itself with its tail, growling, and scratching
+the earth, it would at tempt the manifestations of anger that rendered
+its parent so terrific.
+
+All this time Brave stood firm and undaunted, his short tail erect,
+his body drawn backward on its haunches, and his eyes following the
+movements of both dam and cub.  At every gambol played by the latter,
+it approached nigher to the dog, the growling of the three becoming
+more horrid at each moment, until the younger beast, over-leaping its
+intended bound, fell directly before the mastiff.  There was a moment
+of fearful cries and struggles, but they ended almost as soon as
+commenced, by the cub appearing in the air, hurled from the jaws of
+Brave, with a violence that sent it against a tree so forcibly as to
+render it completely senseless.  Elizabeth witnessed the short
+struggle, and her blood was warming with the triumph of the dog, when
+she saw the form of the old panther in the air, springing twenty feet
+from the branch of the beech to the back of the mastiff.  No words of
+ours can describe the fury of the conflict that followed.  It was a
+confused struggle on the dry leaves, accompanied by loud and terrific
+cries.  Miss Temple continued on her knees, bending over the form of
+Louisa, her eyes fixed on the animals with an interest so horrid, and
+yet so intense, that she almost forgot her own stake in the result.
+So rapid and vigorous were the bounds of the inhabitant of the forest,
+that its active frame seemed constantly in the air, while the dog
+nobly faced his foe at each successive leap.  When the panther lighted
+on the shoulders of the mastiff, which was its constant aim, old
+Brave, though torn with her talons, and stained with his own blood,
+that already flowed from a dozen wounds, would shake off his furious
+foe like a feather, and, rearing on his hind-legs, rush to the fray
+again, with jaws distended, and a dauntless eye.  But age, and his
+pampered life, greatly disqualified the noble mastiff for such a
+struggle.  In everything but courage.  he was only the vestige of what
+he had once been.  A higher bound than ever raised the wary and
+furious beast far beyond the reach of the dog, who was making a
+desperate but fruitless dash at her, from which she alighted in a
+favorable position, on the back of her aged foe.  For a single moment
+only could the panther remain there, the great strength of the dog
+returning with a convulsive effort.  But Elizabeth saw, as Brave
+fastened his teeth in the side of his enemy, that the collar of brass
+around his neck, which had been glittering throughout the fray, was of
+the color of blood, and directly that his frame was sinking to the
+earth, where it soon lay prostrate and helpless.  Several mighty
+efforts of the wild-cat to extricate herself from the jaws of the dog
+followed, but they were fruitless, until the mastiff turned on his
+back, his lips collapsed, and his teeth loosened, when the short
+convulsions and stillness that succeeded announced the death of poor
+Brave.
+
+Elizabeth now lay wholly at the mercy of the beast.  There is said to
+be something in the front of the image of the Maker that daunts the
+hearts of the inferior beings of his creation; and it would seem that
+some such power, in the present instance, suspended the threatened
+blow.  The eyes of the monster and the kneeling maiden met for an
+instant, when the former stooped to examine her fallen foe; next, to
+scent her luckless cub.  From the latter examination it turned,
+however, with its eyes apparently emitting flashes of fire, its tail
+lashing its sides furiously, and its claws projecting inches from her
+broad feet.
+
+Miss Temple did not or could not move.  Her hands were clasped in the
+attitude of prayer, but her eyes were still drawn to her terrible
+enemy—her cheeks were blanched to the whiteness of marble, and her
+lips were slightly separated with horror.
+
+The moment seemed now to have arrived for the fatal termination, and
+the beautiful figure of Elizabeth was bowing meekly to the stroke,
+when a rustling of leaves behind seemed rather to mock the organs than
+to meet her ears.
+
+“Hist! hist!” said a low voice, “stoop lower, gal; your bonnet hides
+the creatur’s head.”
+
+It was rather the yielding of nature than a compliance with this
+unexpected order, that caused the head of our heroine to sink on her
+bosom; when she heard the report of the rifle, the whizzing of the
+bullet, and the enraged cries of the beast, who was rolling over on
+the earth, biting its own flesh, and tearing the twigs and branches
+within its reach.  At the next instant the form of the Leather-
+Stocking rushed by her, and he called aloud:
+
+“Come in, Hector! come in, old fool; ‘tis a hard-lived animal, and may
+jump agin.”
+
+Natty fearlessly maintained his position in front of the females,
+notwithstanding the violent bounds and threatening aspect of the
+wounded panther, which gave several indications of returning strength
+and ferocity, until his rifle was again loaded, when he stepped up to
+the enraged animal, and, placing the muzzle close to its head, every
+spark of life was extinguished by the discharge.
+
+The death of her terrible enemy appeared to Elizabeth like a
+resurrection from her own grave.  There was an elasticity in the mind
+of our heroine that rose to meet the pressure of instant danger, and
+the more direct it had been, the more her nature had struggled to
+overcome them.  But still she was a woman.  Had she been left to
+herself in her late extremity, she would probably have used her
+faculties to the utmost, and with discretion, in protecting her
+person; but, encumbered with her inanimate friend, retreat was a thing
+not to be attempted.  Notwithstanding the fearful aspect of her foe,
+the eye of Elizabeth had never shrunk from its gaze, and long after
+the event her thoughts would recur to her passing sensations, and the
+sweetness of her midnight sleep would be disturbed, as her active
+fancy conjured, in dreams, the most trifling movements of savage fury
+that the beast had exhibited in its moment of power.
+
+We shall leave the reader to imagine the restoration of Louisa’s
+senses, and the expressions of gratitude which fell from the young
+women.  The former was effected by a little water, that was brought
+from one of the thousand springs of those mountains, in the cap of the
+Leather-Stocking; and the latter were uttered with the warmth that
+might be expected from the character of Elizabeth.  Natty received her
+vehement protestations of gratitude with a simple expression of good-
+will, and with indulgence for her present excitement, but with a
+carelessness that showed how little he thought of the service he had
+rendered.
+
+“Well, well,” he said, “be it so, gal; let it be so, if you wish it—
+we'll talk the thing over another time.  Come, come—let us get into
+the road, for you’ve had terror enough to make you wish yourself in
+your father’s house agin.”
+
+This was uttered as they were proceeding, at a pace that was adapted
+to the weakness of Louisa, toward the highway; on reaching which the
+ladies separated from their guide, declaring themselves equal to the
+remainder of the walk without his assistance, and feeling encouraged
+by the sight of the village which lay beneath their feet like a
+picture, with its limpid lake in front, the winding stream along its
+margin, and its hundred chimneys of whitened bricks.
+
+The reader need not be told the nature of the emotions which two
+youthful, ingenuous, and well-educated girls would experience at their
+escape from a death so horrid as the one which had impended over them,
+while they pursued their way in silence along the track on the side of
+the mountain; nor how deep were their mental thanks to that Power
+which had given them their existence, and which had not deserted them
+in their extremity; neither how often they pressed each other’s arms
+as the assurance of their present safety came, like a healing balm,
+athwart their troubled spirits, when their thoughts were recurring to
+the recent moments of horror.
+
+Leather-Stocking remained on the hill, gazing after their retiring
+figures, until they were hidden by a bend in the road, when he
+whistled in his dogs, and shouldering his rifle, he returned into the
+forest.
+
+“Well, it was a skeary thing to the young creatur’s,” said Natty,
+while he retrod the path toward the plain.  “It might frighten an
+older woman, to see a she-painter so near her, with a dead cub by its
+side.  I wonder if I had aimed at the varmint’s eye, if I shouldn’t
+have touched the life sooner than in the forehead; but they are hard-
+lived animals, and it was a good shot, consid’ring that I could see
+nothing but the head and the peak of its tail.  Hah! who goes there?”
+
+“How goes it, Natty?” said Mr. Doolittle, stepping out of the bushes,
+with a motion that was a good deal accelerated by the sight of the
+rifle, that was already lowered in his direction.  “What! shooting
+this warm day! Mind, old man, the law don’t get hold on you.”
+
+“The law, squire! I have shook hands with the law these forty year,”
+returned Natty; “for what has a man who lives in the wilderness to do
+with the ways of the law?”
+
+“Not much, maybe,” said Hiram; “but you sometimes trade in venison.  I
+s’pose you know, Leather-Stocking, that there is an act passed to lay
+a fine of five pounds currency, or twelve dollars and fifty cents, by
+decimals, on every man who kills a deer betwixt January and August.
+The Judge had a great hand in getting the law through.”
+
+“I can believe it,” returned the old hunter; “ I can believe that or
+anything of a man who carries on as he does in the country.”
+
+“Yes, the law is quite positive, and the Judge is bent on putting it
+in force—five pounds penalty.  I thought I heard your hounds out on
+the scent of so’thing this morning; I didn’t know but they might get
+you in difficulty.”
+
+“They know their manners too well,” said Natty carelessly.  “And how
+much goes to the State’s evidence, squire?”
+
+“How much?” repeated Hiram, quailing under the honest but sharp look
+of the hunter; “the informer gets half, I—I believe—yes, I guess it’s
+half.  But there’s blood on your sleeve, man—you haven’t been shooting
+anything this morning?”
+
+“I have, though,” said the hunter, nodding his head significantly to
+the other, “and a good shot I made of it.”
+
+“H-e-m!” ejacuated the magistrate; “and where is the game? I s’pose
+it’s of a good natur’, for your dogs won’t hunt anything that isn’t
+choice.”
+
+“They’ll hunt anything I tell them to, squire,” cried Natty, favoring
+the other with his laugh.  “They’ll hunt you, if I say so.  He-e-e-re,
+he-e-e-re, Hector—he-e-e-re, slut—come this a-way, pups—come this a-
+way-—come hither.”
+
+“Oh! I have always heard a good character of the dogs,” returned Mr.
+Doolittle, quickening his pace by raising each leg in rapid
+succession, as the hounds scented around his person.  “And where is
+the game, Leather-Stocking?”
+
+During this dialogue, the speakers had been walking at a very fast
+gait, and Natty swung the end of his rifle round, pointing through the
+bushes, and replied: “There lies one.  How do you like such meat?”
+
+“This!” exclaimed Hiram; “why, this is Judge Temple’s dog Brave.  Take
+care, Leather-Stocking, and don’t make an enemy of the Judge.  I hope
+you haven’t harmed the animal?”
+
+“Look for yourself, Mr. Doolittle,” said Natty, drawing his knife from
+his girdle, and wiping it in a knowing manner, once or twice across
+his garment of buckskin; “does his throat look as if I had cut it with
+this knife?”
+
+“It is dreadfully torn! it’s an awful wound—no knife ever did this
+deed.  Who could have done it?”
+
+“The painters behind you, squire.”
+
+“Painters!” echoed Hiram, whirling on his heel with an agility that
+would have done credit to a dancing’ master.
+
+“Be easy, man,” said Natty; “there’s two of the venomous things; but
+the dog finished one, and I have fastened the other’s jaws for her; so
+don’t be frightened, squire; they won’t hurt you.”
+
+“And where’s the deer?” cried Hiram, staring about him with a
+bewildered air.
+
+“Anan? deer!” repeated Natty.
+“Sartain; an’t there venison here, or didn’t you kill a buck?”
+
+“What! when the law forbids the thing, squire!” said the old hunter,
+“I hope there’s no law agin’ killing the painters.”
+
+“No! there’s a bounty on the scalps—but—will your dogs hunt painters,
+Natty?”
+
+“Anything; didn’t I tell you they would hunt a man? He-e-re, he-e-re,
+pups—”
+
+“Yes, yes, I remember.  Well, they are strange dogs, I must say—I am
+quite in a wonderment.”
+
+Natty had seated himself on the ground, and having laid the grim head
+of his late ferocious enemy in his lap, was drawing his knife with a
+practiced hand around the ears, which he tore from the head of the
+beast in such a manner as to preserve their connection, when he
+answered;
+
+“What at, squire? did you never see a painter’s scalp afore? Come, you
+are a magistrate, I wish you’d make me out an order for the bounty.”
+
+“The bounty!” repeated Hiram, holding the ears on the end of his
+finger for a moment, as if uncertain how to proceed.  “Well, let us go
+down to your hut, where you can take the oath, and I will write out
+the order, I sup pose you have a Bible? All the law wants is the four
+evangelists and the Lord’s prayer.”
+
+“I keep no books,” said Natty, a little coldly; “not such a Bible as
+the law needs.”
+
+“Oh! there’s but one sort of Bible that’s good in law,” returned the
+magistrate, “and your’n will do as well as another’s.  Come, the
+carcasses are worth nothing, man; let us go down and take the oath.”
+
+“Softly, softly, squire,” said the hunter, lifting his trophies very
+deliberately from the ground, and shouldering his rifle; “why do you
+want an oath at all, for a thing that your own eyes has seen? Won’t
+you believe yourself, that another man must swear to a fact that you
+know to be true? You have seen me scalp the creatur’s, and if I must
+swear to it, it shall be before Judge Temple, who needs an oath.”
+
+“But we have no pen or paper here, Leather-Stocking; we must go to the
+hut for them, or how can I write the order?”
+
+Natty turned his simple features on the cunning magistrate with
+another of his laughs, as he said:
+
+“And what should I be doing with scholars’ tools? I want no pens or
+paper, not knowing the use of either; and I keep none.  No, no, I’ll
+bring the scalps into the village, squire, and you can make out the
+order on one of your law-books, and it will he all the better for it.
+The deuce take this leather on the neck of the dog, it will strangle
+the old fool.  Can you lend me a knife, squire?”
+
+Hiram, who seemed particularly anxious to be on good terms with his
+companion, unhesitatingly complied.  Natty cut the thong from the neck
+of the hound, and, as he returned the knife to its owner, carelessly
+remarked:
+
+“Tis a good bit of steel, and has cut such leather as this very same,
+before now, I dare say.”
+
+“Do you mean to charge me with letting your hounds loose?” exclaimed
+Hiram, with a consciousness that disarmed his caution.
+
+“Loose!” repeated the hunter—” I let them loose my self.  I always let
+them loose before I leave the hut.”
+
+The ungovernable amazement with which Mr. Doolittle listened to this
+falsehood would have betrayed his agency in the liberation of the
+dogs, had Natty wanted any further confirmation; and the coolness and
+management of the old man now disappeared in open indignation.
+
+“Look you here, Mr. Doolittle,” he said, striking the breech of his
+rifle violently on the ground; “ what there is in the wigwam of a poor
+man like me, that one like you can crave, I don’t know; but this I
+tell you to your face, that you never shall put foot under the roof of
+my cabin with my consent, and that, if you harbor round the spot as
+you have done lately, you may meet with treatment that you will little
+relish.”
+
+“And let me tell you, Mr. Bumppo,” said Hiram, retreating, however,
+with a quick step, “that I know you’ve broke the law, and that I’m a
+magistrate, and will make you feel it too, before you are a day
+older.”
+
+“That for you and your law, too,” cried Natty, snap ping his fingers
+at the justice of the peace; “away with you, you varmint, before the
+devil tempts me to give you your desarts.  Take care, if I ever catch
+your prowling face in the woods agin, that I don’t shoot it for an
+owl.”
+
+There is something at all times commanding in honest indignation, and
+Hiram did not stay to provoke the wrath of the old hunter to
+extremities.  When the intruder was out of sight, Natty proceeded to
+the hut, where he found all quiet as the grave.  He fastened his dogs,
+and tapping at the door, which was opened by Edwards, asked;
+
+“Is all safe, lad?”
+
+“Everything,” returned the youth.  “Some one attempted the lock, but
+it was too strong for him.”
+
+“I know the creatur’,” said Natty, “but he’ll not trust himself within
+the reach of my rifle very soon——” What more was uttered by the
+Leather-Stocking, in his vexation, was rendered inaudible by the
+closing of the door of the cabin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+
+“It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure.”—Timon of Athens.
+
+When Marmaduke Temple and his cousin rode through the gate of the
+former, the heart of the father had been too recently touched with the
+best feelings of our nature, to leave inclination for immediate
+discourse.  There was an importance in the air of Richard, which would
+not have admitted of the ordinary informal conversation of the
+sheriff, without violating all the rules of consistency; and the
+equestrians pursued their way with great diligence, for more than a
+mile, in profound silence.  At length the soft expression of parental
+affection was slowly chased from the handsome features of the Judge,
+and was gradually supplanted by the cast of humor and benevolence that
+was usually seated on his brow.
+
+“Well, Dickon,” he said, since I have yielded myself so far implicitly
+to your guidance, I think the moment has arrived when I am entitled to
+further confidence.  Why and wherefore are we journeying together in
+this solemn gait?”
+
+The sheriff gave a loud hem, that rang far in the forest, and keeping
+his eyes fixed on objects before him like a man who is looking deep
+into futurity:
+
+“There has always been one point of difference between us, Judge
+Temple, I may say, since our nativity,” he replied; not that I would
+insinuate that you are at all answerable for the acts of Nature; for a
+man is no more to be condemned for the misfortunes of his birth, than
+he is to be commended for the natural advantages he may possess; but
+on one point we may be said to have differed from our births, and
+they, you know, occurred within two days of each other.”
+
+“I really marvel, Richard, what this one point can be, for, to my
+eyes, we seem to differ so materially, and so often—”
+
+“Mere consequences, sir,” interrupted the sheriff; “all our minor
+differences proceed from one cause, and that is, our opinions of the
+universal attainments of genius.”
+
+“In what, Dickon?”
+
+“I speak plain English, I believe, Judge Temple: at least I ought; for
+my father, who taught me, could speak——”
+
+“Greek and Latin,” interrupted Marmaduke.  “I well know the
+qualifications of your family in tongues, Dickon.  But proceed to the
+point; why are we travelling over this mountain to-day?”
+
+“To do justice to any subject, sir, the narrator must he suffered to
+proceed in his own way,” continued the sheriff.  “You are of opinion,
+Judge Temple, that a man is to be qualified by nature and education to
+do only one thing well, whereas I know that genius will supply the
+place of learning, and that a certain sort of man can do anything and
+everything.”
+
+“Like yourself, I suppose,” said Marmaduke, smiling.
+
+“I scorn personalities, sir, I say nothing of myself; but there are
+three men on your Patent, of the kind that I should term talented by
+nature for her general purposes though acting under the influence of
+different situations.”
+
+“We are better off, then, than I had supposed.  Who are these
+triumviri?”
+
+“Why, sir, one is Hiram Doolittle; a carpenter by trade, as you know—
+and I need only point to the village to exhibit his merits.  Then he
+is a magistrate, and might shame many a man, in his distribution of
+justice, who has had better opportunities.”
+
+“Well, he is one,” said Marmaduke, with the air of a man that was
+determined not to dispute the point.
+
+“Jotham Riddel is another.”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“Jotham Riddel.”
+
+“What, that dissatisfied, shiftless, lazy, speculating fellow! he who
+changes his county every three years, his farm every six months, and
+his occupation every season! an agriculturist yesterday, a shoemaker
+to-day, and a school master to-morrow! that epitome of all the
+unsteady and profitless propensities of the settlers without one of
+their good qualities to counterbalance the evil! Nay, Richard.  this
+is too bad for even—but the third.”
+
+“As the third is not used to hearing such comments on his character,
+Judge Temple, I shall not name him.”
+
+“The amount of all this, then, Dickon, is that the trio, of which you
+are one, and the principal, have made some important discovery.”
+
+“I have not said that I am one, Judge Temple.  As I told you before,
+say nothing egotistical.  But a discovery has been made, and you are
+deeply interested in it.”
+
+“Proceed—I am all ears.”
+
+“No, no, ‘Duke, you are bad enough, I own, but not so bad as that,
+either; your ears are not quite full grown.”
+
+The sheriff laughed heartily at his own wit, and put himself in good
+humor thereby, when he gratified his patient cousin with the following
+explanation:
+
+“You know, ‘Duke, there is a man living on your estate that goes by
+the name of Natty Bumppo.  Here has this man lived, by what I can
+learn, for more than forty years—by himself, until lately; and now
+with strange companions.”
+
+“Part very true, and all very probable,” said the Judge.
+
+“All true, sir; all true.  Well, within these last few months have
+appeared as his companions an old Indian chief, the last, or one of
+the last of his tribe that is to be found in this part of the country,
+and a young man, who is said to be the son of some Indian agent, by a
+squaw.”
+
+“Who says that?” cried Marmaduke, with an interest; that he had not
+manifested before.
+
+“Who? why, common sense—common report—the hue and cry.  But listen
+till you know all.  This youth has very pretty talents—yes, what I
+call very pretty talents— and has been well educated, has seen very
+tolerable company, and knows how to behave himself when he has a mind
+to.  Now, Judge Temple, can you tell me what has brought three such
+men as Indian John, Natty Bumppo, and Oliver Edwards together?”
+Marmaduke turned his countenance, in evident surprise, to his cousin,
+and replied quickly:
+
+“Thou hast unexpectedly hit on a subject, Richard, that has often
+occupied my mind.  But knowest thou anything of this mystery, or are
+they only the crude conjectures of—”
+
+“Crude nothing, ‘Duke, crude nothing : but facts, stub-born facts.
+You know there arc mines in these mountains; I have often heard you
+say that you believed in their existence.”
+
+“Reasoning from analogy, Richard, but not with any certainty of the
+fact.”
+
+“You have heard them mentioned, and have seen specimens of the ore,
+sir; you will not deny that! and, reasoning from analogy, as you say,
+if there be mines in South America, ought there not to be mines in
+North America too?”
+
+“Nay, nay, I deny nothing, my cousin.  I certainly have heard many
+rumors of the existence of mines in these hills: and I do believe that
+I have seen specimens of the precious metals that have been found
+here.  It would occasion me no surprise to learn that tin and silver,
+or what I consider of more consequence, good coal—”
+
+“Damn your coal,” cried the sheriff; “ who wants to find coal in these
+forests? No, no—silver, ‘Duke; silver is the one thing needful, and
+silver is to be found.  But listen: you are not to be told that the
+natives have long known the use of gold and silver; now who so likely
+to be acquainted where they are to be found as the ancient inhabitants
+of a country? I have the best reasons for believing that both Mohegan
+and the Leather-Stocking have been privy to the existence of a mine in
+this very mountain for many years.”
+
+The sheriff had now touched his cousin in a sensitive spot; and
+Marmaduke lent a more attentive ear to the speaker, who, after waiting
+a moment to see the effect of this extraordinary development,
+proceeded:
+
+“Yes, sir, I have my reasons, and at a proper time you shall know
+them,”
+
+“No time is so good as the present.”
+
+“Well, well, be attentive,” continued Richard, looking cautiously
+about him, to make certain that no eavesdropper was hid in the forest,
+though they were in constant motion.  “I have seen Mohegan and the
+Leather-Stocking, with my own eyes—and my eyes are as good as
+anybody’s eyes—I have seen them, I say, both going up the mountain and
+coming down it, with spades and picks; and others have seen them
+carrying things into their hut, in a secret and mysterious manner,
+after dark.  Do you call this a fact of importance?”
+
+The Judge did not reply, but his brow had contracted, with a
+thoughtfulness that he always wore when much interested, and his eyes
+rested on his cousin in expectation of hearing more.  Richard
+continued:
+
+“It was ore.  Now, sir, I ask if you can tell me who this Mr. Oliver
+Edwards is, that has made a part of your household since Christmas?”
+
+Marmaduke again raised his eyes, but continued silent, shaking his
+head in the negative.
+
+“That he is a half-breed we know, for Mohegan does not scruple to call
+him openly his kinsman; that he is well educated we know.  But as to
+his business here—do you remember that about a month before this young
+man made his appearance among us, Natty was absent from home several
+days? You do; for you inquired for him, as you wanted some venison to
+take to your friends, when you went for Bess.  Well, he was not to be
+found.  Old John was left in the hut alone, and when Natty did appear,
+although he came on in the night, he was seen drawing one of those
+jumpers that they carry their grain to mill in, and to take out
+something with great care, that he had covered up under his bear-
+skins.  Now let me ask you, Judge Temple, what motive could induce a
+man like the Leather-Stocking to make a sled, and toil with a load
+over these mountains, if he had nothing but his rifle or his
+ammunition to carry?”
+
+“They frequently make these jumpers to convey their game home, and you
+say he had been absent many days.”
+
+“How did he kill it? His rifle was in the village, to be mended.  No,
+no—that he was gone to some unusual place is certain; that he brought
+back some secret utensils is more certain; and that he has not allowed
+a soul to approach his hut since is most certain of all.”
+
+“He was never fond of intruders——--”
+
+“I know it,” interrupted Richard; “but did he drive them from his
+cabin morosely? Within a fortnight of his return, this Mr. Edwards
+appears.  They spend whole days in the mountains, pretending to be
+shooting, but in reality exploring; the frosts prevent their digging
+at that time, and he avails himself of a lucky accident to get into
+good quarters.  But even now, he is quite half of his time in that
+hut—many hours every night.  They are smelting, 'Duke they are
+smelting, and as they grow rich, you grow poor.”
+
+“How much of this is thine own, Richard, and how much comes from
+others? I would sift the wheat from the chaff.”
+
+“Part is my own, for I saw the jumper, though it was broken up and
+burnt in a day or two.  I have told you that I saw the old man with
+his spades and picks.  Hiram met Natty, as he was crossing the
+mountain, the night of his arrival with the sled, and very good-
+naturedly offered —Hiram is good-natured—to carry up part of his load,
+for the old man had a heavy pull up the back of the mountain, but he
+wouldn't listen to the thing, and repulsed the offer in such a manner
+that the squire said he had half a mind to swear the peace against
+him.  Since the snow has been off, more especially after the frosts
+got out of the ground, we have kept a watchful eye on the gentle
+man, in which we have found Jotham useful.”
+Marmaduke did not much like the associates of Richard in this
+business; still he knew them to be cunning and ready expedients; and
+as there was certainly something mysterious, not only in the
+connection between the old hunters and Edwards, but in what his cousin
+had just related, he began to revolve the subject in his own mind with
+more care.  On reflection, he remembered various circumstances that
+tended to corroborate these suspicions, and, as the whole business
+favored one of his infirmities, he yielded the more readily to their
+impression.  The mind of Judge Temple, at all times comprehensive, had
+received from his peculiar occupations a bias to look far into
+futurity, in his speculations on the improvements that posterity were
+to make in his lands.  To his eye, where others saw nothing but a
+wilderness, towns, manufactories, bridges, canals, mines, and all the
+other resources of an old country were constantly presenting
+themselves, though his good sense suppressed, in some degree, the
+exhibition of these expectations.
+
+As the sheriff allowed his cousin full time to reflect on what he had
+heard, the probability of some pecuniary adventure being the
+connecting link in the chain that brought Oliver Edwards into the
+cabin of Leather-Stocking appeared to him each moment to be stronger.
+But Marmaduke was too much in the habit of examining both sides of a
+subject not to perceive the objections, and he reasoned with himself
+aloud:
+
+“It cannot be so, or the youth would not be driven so near the verge
+of poverty.”
+
+“What so likely to make a man dig for money as being poor?” cried the
+sheriff.
+
+“Besides, there is an elevation of character about Oliver that
+proceeds from education, which would forbid so clan- destine a
+proceeding.”
+
+“Could an ignorant fellow smelt?” continued Richard.
+
+“Bess hints that he was reduced even to his last shilling when we took
+him into our dwelling.”
+
+“He had been buying tools.  And would he spend his last sixpence for a
+shot at a turkey had he not known where to get more?”
+
+“Can I have possibly been so long a dupe? His manner has been rude to
+me at times, but I attributed it to his conceiving himself injured,
+and to his mistaking the forms of the world.”
+
+“Haven’t you been a dupe all your life, ‘Duke, and an’t what you call
+ignorance of forms deep cunning, to conceal his real character?”
+
+“If he were bent on deception, he would have concealed his knowledge,
+and passed with us for an inferior man.”
+
+“He cannot.  I could no more pass for a fool, myself, than I could
+fly.  Knowledge is not to be concealed, like a candle under a bushel,”
+
+“Richard,” said the Judge, turning to his cousin, “there are many
+reasons against the truth of thy conjectures, but thou hast awakened
+suspicions which must be satisfied.  But why are we travelling here?”
+
+“Jotham, who has been much in the mountain latterly, being kept there
+by me and Hiram, has made a discovery, which he will not explain, he
+says, for he is bound by an oath; but the amount is, that he knows
+where the ore lies, and he has this day begun to dig.  I would not
+consent to the thing, ‘Duke, without your knowledge, for the land is
+yours; and now you know the reason of our ride.  I call this a
+countermine, ha!”
+
+“And where is the desirable spot?” asked the Judge with an air half
+comical, half serious.
+
+“At hand; and when we have visited that, I will show you one of the
+places that we have found within a week, where our hunters have been
+amusing themselves for six months past.”
+
+The gentlemen continued to discuss the matter, while their horses
+picked their way under the branches of the trees and over the uneven
+ground of the mountain.  They soon arrived at the end of their
+journey, where, in truth, they found Jotham already buried to his neck
+in a hole that he had been digging.
+
+Marmaduke questioned the miner very closely as to his reasons for
+believing in the existence of the precious metals near that particular
+spot; but the fellow maintained an obstinate mystery in his answers.
+He asserted that he had the best of reasons for what he did, and
+inquired of the judge what portion of the profits would fall to his
+own share, in the event of success, with an earnestness that proved
+his faith.  After spending an hour near the place, examining the
+stones, and searching for the usual indications of the proximity of
+ore, the Judge remounted and suffered his cousin to lead the way to
+the place where the mysterious trio had been making their excavation.
+
+The spot chosen by Jotham was on the back of the mountain that
+overhung the hut of Leather-Stocking, and the place selected by Natty
+and his companions was on the other side of the same hill, but above
+the road, and, of course, in an opposite direction to the route taken
+by the ladies in their walk.
+
+“We shall be safe in approaching the place now,” said Richard, while
+they dismounted and fastened their horses; “for I took a look with the
+glass, and saw John and Leather-Stocking in their canoe fishing before
+we left home, and Oliver is in the same pursuit; but these may be
+nothing but shams to blind our eye; so we will be expeditious, for it
+would not be pleasant to be caught here by them.”
+
+“Not on my own land?” said Marmaduke sternly.  “If it be as you
+suspect, I will know their reasons for making this excavation.”
+
+“Mum,” said Richard, laying a finger on his lip, and leading the way
+down a very difficult descent to a sort of natural cavern, which was
+found in the face of the rock, and was not unlike a fireplace in
+shape.  In front of this place lay a pile of earth, which had
+evidently been taken from the recess, and part of which was yet fresh.
+An examination of the exterior of the cavern left the Judge in doubt
+whether it was one of Nature’s frolics that had thrown it into that
+shape, or whether it had been wrought by the hands of man, at some
+earlier period.  But there could be no doubt that the whole of the
+interior was of recent formation, and the marks of the pick were still
+visible where the soft, lead-colored rock had opposed itself to the
+progress of the miners.  The whole formed an excavation of about
+twenty feet in width, and nearly twice that distance in depth.  The
+height was much greater than was required for the ordinary purposes of
+experiment, but this was evidently the effect of chance, as the roof
+of the cavern was a natural stratum of rock that projected many feet
+beyond the base of the pile.  Immediately in front of the recess, or
+cave, was a little terrace, partly formed by nature, and partly by the
+earth that had been carelessly thrown aside by the laborers.  The
+mountain fell off precipitously in front of the terrace, and the
+approach by its sides, under the ridge of the rocks, was difficult and
+a little dangerous.  The whole was wild, rude, and apparently
+incomplete; for, while looking among the bushes, the sheriff found the
+very implements that had been used in the work.
+
+When the sheriff thought that his cousin had examined the spot
+sufficiently, he asked solemnly:
+
+“Judge Temple, are you satisfied?”
+
+“Perfectly, that there is something mysterious and perplexing in this
+business.  It is a secret spot, and cunningly devised, Richard; yet I
+see no symptoms of ore.”
+
+“Do you expect, sir, to find gold and silver lying like pebbles on the
+surface of the earth?—dollars and dimes ready coined to your hands?
+No, no—the treasure must be sought after to be won.  But let them
+mine; I shall countermine.”
+
+The Judge took an accurate survey of the place, and noted in his
+memorandum-book such marks as were necessary to find it again in the
+event of Richard’s absence; when the cousins returned to their horses.
+
+On reaching the highway they separated, the sheriff to summon twenty-
+four “good men and true,” to attend as thc inquest of the county, on
+the succeeding Monday, when Marmaduke held his stated court of “common
+pleas and general sessions of the peace,” and the Judge to return,
+musing deeply on what he had seen and heard in the course of the
+morning.
+
+When the horse of the latter reached the spot where the highway fell
+toward the valley, the eye of Marmaduke rested, it is true, on the
+same scene that had, ten minutes before, been so soothing to the
+feelings of his daughter and her friend, as they emerged from the
+forest; but it rested in vacancy.  He threw the reins to his sure
+footed beast, and suffered the animal to travel at his own gait, while
+he soliloquized as follows:
+
+“There may be more in this than I at first supposed.  I have suffered
+my feelings to blind my reason, in admitting an unknown youth in this
+manner to my dwelling; yet this is not the land of suspicion.  I will
+have Leather-Stocking before me, and, by a few direct questions,
+extract the truth from the simple old man.”
+
+At that instant the Judge caught a glimpse of the figures of Elizabeth
+and Louisa, who were slowly descending the mountain, short distance
+before him.  He put spurs to his horse, and riding up to them,
+dismounted, and drove his steed along the narrow path.  While the
+agitated parent was listening to the vivid description that his
+daughter gave of her recent danger, and her unexpected escape, all
+thoughts of mines, vested rights, and examinations were absorbed in
+emotion; and when the image of Natty again crossed his recollection,
+it was not as a law Less and depredating squatter, but as the
+preserver of his child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+
+“The court awards it, and the law doth give it.”—Merchant of Venice.
+
+Remarkable Pettibone, who had forgotten the wound received by her
+pride, in contemplation of the ease and comforts of her situation, and
+who still retained her station in the family of judge Temple, was
+dispatched to the humble dwelling which Richard already styled “The
+Rectory,” in attendance on Louisa, who was soon consigned to the arms
+of her father.
+
+In the mean time, Marmaduke and his daughter were closeted for more
+than an hour, nor shall we invade the sanctuary of parental love, by
+relating the conversation.  When the curtain rises on the reader, the
+Judge is seen walking up and down the apartment, with a tender
+melancholy in his air, and his child reclining on a settee, with a
+flushed cheek, and her dark eyes seeming to float in crystals.
+
+“It was a timely rescue! it was, indeed, a timely rescue, my child!”
+cried the Judge.  “Then thou didst not desert thy friend, my noble
+Bess?”
+
+“I believe I may as well take the credit of fortitude,” said
+Elizabeth, “though I much doubt if flight would have availed me
+anything, had I even courage to execute such an intention.  But I
+thought not of the expedient.”
+
+“Of what didst thou think, love? where did thy thoughts dwell most, at
+that fearful moment?”
+
+“The beast! the beast!” cried Elizabeth, veiling her face with her
+hand.  “Oh! I saw nothing, I thought of nothing but the beast.  I
+tried to think of better things, but the horror was too glaring, the
+danger too much before my eyes.”
+
+“Well, well, thou art safe, and we will converse no more on the
+unpleasant subject.  I did not think such an animal yet remained in
+our forests; but they will stray far from their haunts when pressed by
+hunger, and—”
+
+A loud knocking at the door of the apartment interrupted what he was
+about to utter, and he bid the applicant enter.  The door was opened
+by Benjamin, who came in with a discontented air, as if he felt that
+he had a communication to make that would be out of season.
+
+“Here is Squire Doolittle below, sir,” commenced the major-domo.  “He
+has been standing off and on in the door-yard for the matter of a
+glass; and he has summat on his mind that he wants to heave up, d’ye
+see; but I tells him, says I, man, would you be coming aboard with
+your complaints, said I, when the judge has gotten his own child, as
+it were, out of the jaws of a lion? But damn the bit of manners has
+the fellow, any more than if he was one of them Guineas down in the
+kitchen there; and so as he was sheering nearer, every stretch he made
+toward the house, I could do no better than to let your honor know
+that the chap was in the offing.”
+
+“He must have business of importance,” said Marmaduke: “something in
+relation to his office, most probably, as the court sits so shortly.”
+
+“Ay, ay, you have it, sir,” cried Benjamin; “it’s summat about a
+complaint that he has to make of the old Leather-Stocking, who, to my
+judgment, is the better man of the two.  It’s a very good sort of a
+man is this Master Bumppo, and he has a way with a spear, all the same
+as if he was brought up at the bow-oar of the captain’s barge, or was
+born with a boat-hook in his hand.”
+
+“Against the Leather-Stocking!” cried Elizabeth, rising from her
+reclining posture.
+
+“Rest easy, my child; some trifle, I pledge you; I believe I am
+already acquainted with its import Trust me, Bess, your champion shall
+be safe in my care.  Show Mr. Doolittle in, Benjamin”
+
+Miss Temple appeared satisfied with this assurance, but fastened her
+dark eyes on the person of the architect, who profited by the
+permission, and instantly made his appearance.
+
+All the impatience of Hiram seemed to vanish the instant he entered
+the apartment.  After saluting the Judge and his daughter, he took the
+chair to which Marmaduke pointed, and sat for a minute, composing his
+straight black hair, with a gravity of demeanor that was in tended to
+do honor to his official station.  At length he said:
+
+“It’s likely, from what I hear, that Miss Temple had a narrow chance
+with the painters, on the mountain.”
+
+Marmaduke made a gentle inclination of his head, by way of assent, but
+continued silent.
+
+“I s’pose the law gives a bounty on the scalps,” continued Hiram, “in
+which case the Leather-Stocking will make a good job on’t.”
+
+“It shall be my care to see that he is rewarded,” returned the Judge.
+
+“Yes, yes, I rather guess that nobody hereabouts doubts the Judge’s
+generosity.  Does he know whether the sheriff has fairly made up his
+mind to have a reading desk or a deacon’s pew under the pulpit?”
+“I have not heard my cousin speak on that subject, lately,” replied
+Marmaduke.
+“I think it’s likely that we will have a pretty dull court on't, from
+what I can gather.  I hear that Jotham Riddel and the man who bought
+his betterments have agreed to leave their difference to men, and I
+don’t think there’ll be more than two civil cases in the calendar.”
+
+“I am glad of it,” said the judge; “nothing gives me more pain than to
+see my settlers wasting their time and substance in the unprofitable
+struggles of the law.  I hope it may prove true, sir.”
+
+“I rather guess ‘twill be left out to men,” added Hiram, with an air
+equally balanced between doubt and assurance, but which judge Temple
+understood to mean certainty; “I some think that I am appointed a
+referee in the case myself; Jotham as much as told me that he should
+take me.  The defendant, I guess, means to take Captain Hollister, and
+we two have partly agreed on Squire Jones for the third man.”
+
+“Are there any criminals to be tried?” asked Marmaduke.
+
+“There's the counterfeiters,” returned the magistrate, “as they were
+caught in the act, I think it likely that they’ll be indicted, in
+which case it’s probable they’ll be tried.”
+
+“Certainly, sir; I had forgotten those men.  There are no more, I
+hope.”
+“Why, there is a threaten to come forward with an assault that
+happened at the last independence day; but I’m not sartain that the
+law'll take hold on’t.  There was plaguey hard words passed, but
+whether they struck or not I haven’t heard.  There’s some folks talk
+of a deer or two being killed out of season, over on the west side of
+the Patent, by some of the squatters on the ‘Fractions.’”
+
+“Let a complaint be made, by all means,” said the Judge; “I am
+determined to see the law executed to the letter, on all such
+depredators.”
+
+“Why, yes, I thought the judge was of that mind; I came partly on such
+a business myself.”
+
+“You!” exclaimed Marmaduke, comprehending in an instant how completely
+he had been caught by the other’s cunning; “and what have you to say,
+sir?”
+
+“I some think that Natty Bumppo has the carcass of a deer in his hut
+at this moment, and a considerable part of my business was to get a
+search-warrant to examine.”
+
+“You think, sir! do you know that the law exacts an oath, before I can
+issue such a precept? The habitation of a citizen is not to be idly
+invaded on light suspicion.”
+
+“I rather think I can swear to it myself,” returned the immovable
+Hiram; “and Jotham is in the street, and as good as ready to come in
+and make oath to the same thing.”
+
+“Then issue the warrant thyself; thou art a magistrate, Mr. Doolittle;
+why trouble me with the matter?”
+
+“Why, seeing it’s the first complaint under the law, and knowing the
+judge set his heart on the thing, I thought it best that the authority
+to search should come from himself.  Besides, as I’m much in the
+woods, among the timber, I don’t altogether like making an enemy of
+the Leather Stocking.  Now, the Judge has a weight in the county that
+puts him above fear.”
+
+Miss Temple turned her face to the callous Architect as she said’ “And
+what has any honest person to dread from so kind a man as Bumppo?”
+
+“Why, it’s as easy, miss, to pull a rifle trigger on a magistrate as
+on a painter.  But if the Judge don’t conclude to issue the warrant, I
+must go home and make it out myself.”
+
+“I have not refused your application, sir,” said Marmaduke, perceiving
+at once that his reputation for impartiality was at stake; “go into my
+office, Mr. Doolittle, where I will join you, and sign the warrant.”
+Judge Temple stopped the remonstrances which Elizabeth was about to
+utter, after Hiram had withdrawn, by laying his hand on her mouth, and
+saying:
+
+“It is more terrible in sound than frightful in reality, my child.  I
+suppose that the Leather-Stocking has shot a deer, for the season is
+nearly over, and you say that he was hunting with his dogs when he
+came so timely to your assistance.  But it will be only to examine his
+cabin, and find the animal, when you can pay the penalty out of your
+own pocket, Bess.  Nothing short of the twelve dollars and a half will
+satisfy this harpy, I perceive; and surely my reputation as judge is
+worth that trifle.”
+
+Elizabeth was a good deal pacified with this assurance, and suffered
+her father to leave her, to fulfil his promise to Hiram.
+
+When Marmaduke left his office after executing his disagreeable duty,
+he met Oliver Edwards, walking up the gravelled walk in front of the
+mansion-house with great strides, and with a face agitated by feeling.
+On seeing judge Temple, the youth turned aside, and with a warmth in
+his manner that was not often exhibited to Marmaduke, he cried:
+
+“I congratulate you, sir; from the bottom of my soul, I congratulate
+you, Judge Temple.  Oh! it would have been too horrid to have
+recollected for a moment! I have just left the hut, where, after
+showing me his scalps, old Natty told me of the escape of the ladies,
+as the thing to be mentioned last.  Indeed, indeed, sir, no words of
+mine can express half of what I have felt “—the youth paused a moment,
+as if suddenly recollecting that he was overstepping prescribed
+limits, and concluded with a good deal of embarrassment—” what I have
+felt at this danger to Miss—Grant, and—and your daughter, sir,”
+
+But the heart of Marmaduke was too much softened to admit his
+cavilling at trifles, and, without regarding the confusion of the
+other, he replied:
+
+“I thank thee, thank thee, Oliver; as thou sayest, it is almost too
+horrid to be remembered.  But come, let us hasten to Bess, for Louisa
+has already gone to the rectory.”
+
+The young man sprang forward, and, throwing open a door, barely
+permitted the Judge to precede him, when he was in the presence of
+Elizabeth in a moment.
+
+The cold distance that often crossed the demeanor of the heiress, in
+her intercourse with Edwards, was now entirely banished, and two hours
+were passed by the party, in the free, unembarrassed, and confiding
+manner of old and esteemed friends.  Judge Temple had forgotten the
+suspicions engendered during his morning’s ride, and the youth and
+maiden conversed, laughed, and were sad by turns, as impulse directed.
+
+At length, Edwards, after repeating his intention to do so for the
+third time, left the mansion-house to go to the rectory on a similar
+errand of friendship.
+
+During this short period, a scene was passing at the hut that
+completely frustrated the benevolent intentions of Judge Temple in
+favor of the Leather-Stocking, and at once destroyed the short-lived
+harmony between the youth and Marmaduke.
+
+When Hiram Doolittle had obtained his search-warrant, his first
+business was to procure a proper officer to see it executed.  The
+sheriff was absent, summoning in person the grand inquest for the
+county; the deputy who resided in the village was riding on the same
+errand, in a different part of the settlement; and the regular
+constable of the township had been selected for his station from
+motives of charity, being lame of a leg.  Hiram intended to accompany
+the officer as a spectator, but he felt no very strong desire to bear
+the brunt of the battle.  It was, however, Saturday, and the sun was
+already turning the shadows of the pines toward the east; on the
+morrow the conscientious magistrate could not engage in such an
+expedition at the peril of his soul and long before Monday, the
+venison, and all vestiges of the death of the deer, might be secreted
+or destroyed.  Happily, the lounging form of Billy Kirby met his eye,
+and Hiram, at all time fruitful in similar expedients, saw his way
+clear at once.  Jotham, who was associated in the whole business, and
+who had left the mountain in consequence of a summons from his
+coadjutor, but who failed, equally with Hiram, in the unfortunate
+particular of nerve, was directed to summon the wood-chopper to the
+dwelling of the magistrate.
+
+When Billy appeared, he was very kindly invited to take the chair in
+which he had already seated himself, and was treated in all respects
+as if he were an equal.
+
+“Judge Temple has set his heart on putting the deer law in force,”
+said Hiram, after the preliminary civilities were over, “and a
+complaint has been laid before him that a deer has been killed.  He
+has issued a search-warrant, and sent for me to get somebody to
+execute it.”
+
+Kirby, who had no idea of being excluded from the deliberative part of
+any affair in which he was engaged, drew up his bushy head in a
+reflecting attitude, and after musing a moment, replied by asking a
+few questions,
+
+“The sheriff has gone out of the way?”
+
+“Not to be found.”
+
+“And his deputy too?”
+
+“Both gone on the skirts of the Patent.”
+
+“But I saw the constable hobbling about town an hour ago.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” said Hiram, with a coaxing smile and knowing nod, “but
+this business wants a man—not a cripple.”
+
+“Why,” said Billy, laughing, “ will the chap make fight?” “He’s a
+little quarrelsome at times, and thinks he’s the best man in the
+country at rough and tumble.”
+
+“I heard him brag once,” said Jotham, “that there wasn’t a man ‘twixt
+the Mohawk Flats and the Pennsylvany line that was his match at a
+close hug.”
+
+“Did you?” exclaimed Kirby, raising his huge frame in his seat, like a
+lion stretching in his lair; “I rather guess he never felt a
+Varmounter’s knuckles on his backbone-But who is the chap?”
+
+“Why,” said Jotham, “ it’s—”
+
+“It’s agin’ law to tell,” interrupted Hiram unless you’ll qualify to
+sarve.  You’d be the very man to take him, Bill, and I'll make out a
+special deputation in a minute, when you will get the fees.”
+
+“What’s the fees?” said Kirby, laying his large hand on the leaves of
+a statute-book that Hiram had opened in order to give dignity to his
+office, which he turned over in his rough manner, as if he were
+reflecting on a subject about which he had, in truth, already decided;
+“will they pay a man for a broken head?”
+
+“They’ll be something handsome,” said Hiram.
+
+“Damn the fees,” said Billy, again laughing—” does the fellow think
+he’s the best wrestler in the county, though? what’s his inches?”
+
+“He’s taller than you be,” said Jotham, “and one of the biggest—”
+
+Talkers, he was about to add, but the impatience of Kirby interrupted
+him.  The wood-chopper had nothing fierce or even brutal in his
+appearance; the character of his expression was that of good-natured
+vanity.  It was evident he prided himself on the powers of the
+physical man, like all who have nothing better to boast of; and,
+stretching out his broad hand, with the palm downward, he said,
+keeping his eyes fastened on his own bones and sinews:
+
+“Come, give us a touch of the book.  I’ll swear, and you’ll see that
+I’m a man to keep my oath.”
+
+Hiram did not give the wood-chopper time to change his mind, but the
+oath was administered without unnecessary delay.  So soon as this
+preliminary was completed, the three worthies left the house, and
+proceeded by the nearest road toward the hut.  They had reached the
+bank of the lake, and were diverging from the route of the highway,
+before Kirby recollected that he was now entitled to the privilege of
+the initiated, and repeated his question as to the name of the
+offender,
+
+“Which way, which way, squire?” exclaimed the hardy wood-chopper; “I
+thought it was to search a house that you wanted me, not the woods.
+There is nobody lives on this side of the lake, for six miles, unless
+you count the Leather-Stocking and old John for settlers.  Come, tell
+me the chap’s name, and I warrant me that I lead you to his clearing
+by a straighter path than this, for I know every sapling that grows
+within two miles of Templeton.”
+
+“This is the way,” said Hiram, pointing forward and quickening his
+step, as if apprehensive that Kirby would desert, “and Bumppo is the
+man.”
+
+Kirby stopped short, and looked from one of his companions to the
+other in astonishment.  He then burst into a loud laugh, and cried:
+
+“Who? Leather-Stocking! He may brag of his aim and his rifle, for he
+has the best of both, as I will own myself, for sin’ he shot the
+pigeon I knock under to him; but for a wrestle! why, I would take the
+creatur’ between my finger and thumb, and tie him in a bow-knot around
+my neck for a Barcelony.  The man is seventy, and was never anything
+particular for strength.”
+
+“He’s a deceiving man,” said Hiram, “like all the hunters; he is
+stronger than he seems; besides, he has his rifle.”
+
+“That for his rifle!” cried Billy; “he’d no more hurt me with his
+rifle than he’d fly.  He’s a harmless creatur’, and I must say that I
+think he has as good right to kill deer as any man on the Patent.
+It’s his main support, and this is a free country, where a man is
+privileged to follow any calling he likes.”
+
+“According to that doctrine,” said Jotham, “anybody may shoot a deer.”
+
+This is the man’s calling, I tell you,” returned Kirby, “and the law
+was never made for such as he.”
+
+“The law was made for all,” observed Hiram, who began to think that
+the danger was likely to fall to his own share, notwithstanding his
+management; “and the law is particular in noticing parjury.”
+
+“See here, Squire Doolittle,” said the reckless woodchopper; “I don’t
+care the valie of a beetlering for you and your parjury too.  But as I
+have come so far, I’ll go down and have a talk with the old man, and
+maybe we’ll fry a steak of the deer together.”
+
+“Well, if you can get in peaceably, so much the better,” said the
+magistrate.  “To my notion, strife is very unpopular; I prefar, at all
+times, clever conduct to an ugly temper.”
+
+As the whole party moved at a great pace, they soon reached the hut,
+where Hiram thought it prudent to halt on the outside of the top of
+the fallen pine, which formed a chevaux-de-frise, to defend the
+approach to the fortress, on the side next the village.  The delay was
+little relished by Kirby, who clapped his hands to his mouth, and gave
+a loud halloo that brought the dogs out of their kennel, and, almost
+at the same instant, the scantily-covered head of Natty from the door.
+
+“Lie down, old fool,” cried the hunter; “do you think there’s more
+painters about you?”
+
+“Ha! Leather-Stocking, I’ve an arrand with you,” cried Kirby; “here’s
+the good people of the State have been writing you a small letter, and
+they’ve hired me to ride
+post.”
+
+“What would you have with me, Billy Kirby?” said Natty, stepping
+across his threshold, and raising his hand over his eyes, to screen
+them from the rays of the setting sun, while he took a survey of his
+visitor.  ‘I’ve no land to clear, and Heaven knows I would set out six
+trees afore I would cut down one.—Down, Hector, I say; into your
+kennel with ye.”
+
+“Would you, old boy?” roared Billy; “then so much the better for me.
+But I must do my arrand.  Here’s a letter for you, Leather-Stocking.
+If you can read it, it’s all well, and if you can’t, here’s Squire
+Doolittle at hand, to let you know what it means.  It seems you
+mistook the twentieth of July for the first of August.  that’s all.”
+
+By this time Natty had discovered the lank person of Hiram, drawn up
+under the cover of a high stump; and all that was complacent in his
+manner instantly gave way to marked distrust and dissatisfaction.  He
+placed his head within the door of his hut, and said a few words in an
+undertone, when he again appeared, and continued:
+
+“I’ve nothing for ye; so away, afore the Evil One tempts me to do you
+harm.  I owe you no spite, Billy Kirby, and what for should you
+trouble an old man who has done you no harm?”
+
+Kirby advanced through the top of the pine, to within a few feet of
+the hunter, where he seated himself on the end of a log, with great
+composure, and began to examine the nose of Hector, with whom he was
+familiar, from their frequently meeting in the woods, where he
+sometimes fed the dog from his own basket of provisions.
+
+“You’ve outshot me, and I’m not ashamed to say it,” said the wood-
+chopper; “but I don’t owe you a grudge for that, Natty! though it
+seems that you’ve shot once too often, for the story goes that you’ve
+killed a buck.”
+
+“I’ve fired but twice to-day, and both times at the painters,”
+returned the Leather-Stocking; “see, here are the scalps! I was just
+going in with them to the Judge’s to ask the bounty.”
+
+While Natty was speaking, he tossed the ears to Kirby, who continued
+playing with them with a careless air, holding them to the dogs, and
+laughing at their movements when they scented the unusual game.
+
+But Hiram, emboldened by the advance of the deputed constable, now
+ventured to approach also, and took up the discourse with the air of
+authority that became his commission.  His first measure was to read
+the warrant aloud, taking care to give due emphasis to the most
+material parts, and concluding with the name of the Judge in very
+audible and distinct tones.
+
+“Did Marmaduke Temple put his name to that bit of paper?” said Natty,
+shaking his head; “well, well, that man loves the new ways, and his
+betterments, and his lands, afore his own flesh and blood.  But I
+won’t mistrust the gal; she has an eye like a full-grown buck! poor
+thing, she didn’t choose her father, and can’t help it.  I know but
+little of the law, Mr. Doolittle; what is to be done, now you’ve read
+your commission?”
+
+“Oh! it’s nothing but form, Natty,” said Hiram, endeavoring to assume
+a friendly aspect.  “Let’s go in, and talk the thing over in reason; I
+dare to say that the money can be easily found, and I partly conclude,
+from what passed, that Judge Temple will pay it himself.”
+
+The old hunter had kept a keen eye on the movements of his three
+visitors, from the beginning, and had maintained his position, just
+without the threshold of the cabin, with a determined manner, that
+showed he was not to be easily driven from his post.  When Hiram drew
+nigher, as if expecting his proposition would be accepted, Natty
+lifted his hand, and motioned for him to retreat.
+
+“Haven’t I told you more than once, not to tempt me?” he said.  “I
+trouble no man; why can’t the law leave me to myself? Go back—go back,
+and tell your Judge that he may keep his bounty; but I won’t have his
+wasty ways brought into my hut.”
+
+This offer, however, instead of appeasing the curiosity of Hiram,
+seemed to inflame it the more; while Kirby cried:
+
+“Well, that’s fair, squire; he forgives the county his demand, and the
+county should forgive him the fine; it’s what I call an even trade,
+and should be concluded on the spot.  I like quick dealings, and
+what’s fair ‘twixt man and man.”
+
+“I demand entrance into this house,” said Hiram, summoning all the
+dignity he could muster to his assistance, “in the name of the people;
+and by virtue of this war rant, and of my office, and with this peace
+officer.”
+
+“Stand back, stand back, squire, and don’t tempt me,” said the
+Leather-Stocking, motioning him to retire, with great earnestness.
+
+“Stop us at your peril,” continued Hiram.  “Billy! Jotham! close up—I
+want testimony.”
+
+Hiram had mistaken the mild but determined air of Natty for
+submission, and had already put his foot on the threshold to enter,
+when he was seized unexpectedly by his shoulders, and hurled over the
+little bank toward the lake, to the distance of twenty feet.  The
+suddenness of the movement, and the unexpected display of strength on
+the part of Natty, created a momentary astonishment in his invaders,
+that silenced all noises; but at the next instant Billy Kirby gave
+vent to his mirth in peals of laughter, that he seemed to heave up
+from his very soul.
+
+“Well done, old stub!” he shouted; “the squire knowed you better than
+I did.  Come, come, here’s a green spot; take it out like men, while
+Jotham and I see fair play.”
+
+“William Kirby, I order you to do your duty,” cried Hiram, from under
+the bank; “seize that man; I order you to seize him in the name of the
+people.”
+
+But the Leather-Stocking now assumed a more threatening attitude; his
+rifle was in his hand, and its muzzle was directed toward the wood-
+chopper.
+
+“Stand off, I bid ye,” said Natty; “you know my aim, Billy Kirby; I
+don’t crave your blood, but mine and your’n both shall turn this green
+grass red, afore you put foot into the hut.”
+
+While the affair appeared trifling, the wood-chopper seemed disposed
+to take sides with the weaker party; but, when the firearms were
+introduced, his manner very sensibly changed.  He raised his large
+frame from the log, and, facing the hunter with an open front, he
+replied:
+
+“I didn’t come here as your enemy, Leather-Stocking; but I don’t value
+the hollow piece of iron in your hand so much as a broken axe-helve;
+so, squire, say the word, and keep within the law, and we’ll soon see
+who’s the best main of the two.”
+
+But no magistrate was to be seen! The instant the rifle was produced
+Hiram and Jotham vanished; and when the wood-chopper bent his eyes
+about him in surprise at receiving no answer, he discovered their
+retreating figures moving toward the village at a rate that
+sufficiently indicated that they had not only calculated the velocity
+of a rifle-bullet, but also its probable range.
+
+“You’ve scared the creatur’s off,” said Kirby, with great contempt
+expressed on his broad features; “but you are not going to scare me;
+so, Mr. Bumppo, down with your gun, or there’ll be trouble ‘twixt us.”
+Natty dropped his rifle, and replied:
+
+“I wish you no harm, Billy Kirby; but I leave it to yourself, whether
+an old man’s hut is to be run down by such varmint.  I won’t deny the
+buck to you, Billy, and you may take the skin in, if you please, and
+show it as testimony.  The bounty will pay the fine, and that ought to
+satisfy any man,”
+
+“Twill, old boy, ‘twill,” cried Kirby, every- shade of displeasure
+vanishing from his open brow at the peace-offering; “throw out the
+hide, and that shall satisfy the law.”
+
+Natty entered the hut, and soon reappeared, bringing with him the
+desired testimonial; and the wood-chopper departed, as thoroughly
+reconciled to the hunter as if nothing had happened.  As he paced
+along the margin of the lake he would burst into frequent fits of
+laughter, while he recollected the summerset of Hiram: and, on the
+whole, he thought the affair a very capital joke.
+
+Long before Billy’ reached the village, however, the news of his
+danger, and of Natty’s disrespect of the law, and of Hiram’s
+discomfiture, were in circulation.  A good deal was said about sending
+for the sheriff; some hints were given about calling out the posse
+comitatus to avenge the insulted laws; and many of the citizens were
+collected, deliberating how to proceed.  The arrival of Billy with the
+skin, by removing all grounds for a search, changed the complexion of
+things materially.  Nothing now remained but to collect the fine and
+assert the dignity of the people; all of which, it was unanimously
+agreed, could be done as well on the succeeding Monday as on Saturday
+night—a time kept sacred by large portion of the settlers.
+Accordingly, all further proceedings were suspended for six-and-thirty
+hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+
+And dar’st thou then
+To beard the lion in his den,
+The Douglas in his hall “—Marmion.
+
+The commotion was just subsiding, and the inhabitants of the village
+had begun to disperse from the little groups that had formed, each
+retiring to his own home, and closing his door after him, with the
+grave air of a man who consulted public feeling in his exterior
+deportment, when Oliver Edwards, on his return from the dwelling of
+Mr. Grant, encountered the young lawyer, who is known to the reader as
+Mr. Lippet.  There was very little similarity in the manners or
+opinions of the two; but as they both belonged to the more intelligent
+class of a very small community, they were, of course, known to each
+other, and as their meeting was at a point where silence would have
+been rudeness, the following conversation was the result of their
+interview:
+
+“A fine evening, Mr. Edwards,” commenced the lawyer, whose
+disinclination to the dialogue was, to say the least, very doubtful;
+“we want rain sadly; that’s the worst of this climate of ours, it’s
+either a drought or a deluge.  It’s likely you’ve been used to a more
+equal temperature?”
+
+“I am a native of this State,” returned Edwards, coldly.
+
+“Well.  I’ve often heard that point disputed; but it’s so easy to get
+a man naturalized, that it’s of little consequence where he was born.
+I wonder what course the Judge means to take in this business of Natty
+Bumppo!”
+“Of Natty Bumppo!” echoed Edwards; “to what do you allude, sir?”
+“Haven’t you heard!” exclaimed the other, with a look of surprise, so
+naturally assumed as completely to deceive his auditor; “it may turn
+out an ugly business.  It seems that the old man has been out in the
+hills, and has shot a buck this morning, and that, you know, is a
+criminal matter in the eyes of Judge Temple.”
+
+“Oh! he has, has he?” said Edwards, averting his face to conceal the
+color that collected in his sunburnt cheek.  “Well, if that be all, he
+must even pay the fine.”
+
+“It’s five pound currency,” said the lawyer; “could Natty muster so
+much money at once?”
+
+“Could he!” cried the youth.  “I am not rich, Mr. Lippet; far from it—
+I am poor, and I have been hoarding my salary for a purpose that lies
+near my heart; but, be fore that old man should lie one hour in a
+jail, I would spend the last cent to prevent it.  Besides, he has
+killed two panthers, and the bounty will discharge the fine many times
+over.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” said the lawyer, rubbing his hands together, with an
+expression of pleasure that had no artifice about it; “we shall make
+it out; I see plainly we shall make it out.”
+
+“Make what out, sir? I must beg an explanation.”
+
+“Why, killing the buck is but a small matter compared to what took
+place this afternoon,” continued Mr. Lippet, with a confidential and
+friendly air that won upon the youth, little as he liked the man.  “It
+seems that a complaint was made of the fact, and a suspicion that
+there was venison in the hut was sworn to, all which is provided for
+in the statute, when Judge Temple granted the search warrant.”
+
+“A search-warrant!” echoed Edwards, in a voice of horror, and with a
+face that should have been again averted to conceal its paleness; “and
+how much did they discover? What did they see
+
+“They saw old Bumppo’s rifle; and that is a sight which will quiet
+most men’s curiosity in the woods.”
+
+“Did they! did they!” shouted Edwards, bursting into a convulsive
+laugh; “so the old hero beat them back beat them back! did he?”
+The lawyer fastened his eyes in astonishment on the youth, but, as his
+wonder gave way to the thoughts that were commonly uppermost in his
+mind, he replied:
+
+“It is no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir; the forty dollars of
+bounty and your six months of salary will be much reduced before you
+can get the matter fairly settled.  Assaulting a magistrate in the
+execution of his duty, and menacing a constable with firearms at the
+same time, is a pretty serious affair, and is punishable with both
+fine and imprisonment.”
+
+“Imprisonment!” repeated Oliver; “imprison the Leather-Stocking! no,
+no, sir; it would bring the old man to his grave.  They shall never
+imprison the Leather-Stocking.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Edwards,” said Lippet, dropping all reserve from his
+manner, “you are called a curious man; but if you can tell me how a
+jury is to be prevented from finding a verdict of guilty, if this case
+comes fairly before them, and the proof is clear, I shall acknowledge
+that you know more law than I do, who have had a license in my pocket
+for three years.”
+
+By this time the reason of Edwards was getting the ascendency of his
+feelings, and, as he began to see the real difficulties of the case,
+he listened more readily to the conversation of the lawyer.  The
+ungovernable emotion that escaped the youth, in the first moments of
+his surprise, entirely passed away; and, although it was still evident
+that he continued to be much agitated by what he had heard, he
+succeeded in yielding forced attention to the advice which the other
+uttered.
+
+Notwithstanding the confused state of his mind, Oliver soon discovered
+that most of the expedients of the lawyer were grounded in cunning,
+and plans that required a time to execute them that neither suited his
+disposition nor his necessities.  After, however, giving Mr. Lippet to
+under stand that he retained him in the event of a trial, an assurance
+that at once satisfied the lawyer, they parted, one taking his course
+with a deliberate tread in the direction of the little building that
+had a wooden sign over its door, with “Chester Lippet, Attorney-at-
+law,” painted on it; and the other pacing over the ground with
+enormous strides toward the mansion-house.  We shall take leave of the
+attorney for the present, and direct the attention of the reader to
+the client.
+
+When Edwards entered the hall, whose enormous doors were opened to the
+passage of the air of a mild evening, he found Benjamin engaged in
+some of his domestic avocations, and in a hurried voice inquired where
+Judge Temple was to be found.
+
+Why, the Judge has stepped into his office, with that master
+carpenter, Mister Doolittle; but Miss Lizzy is in that there parlor.
+I say, Master Oliver, we’d like to have had a bad job of that panther,
+or painter’s work— some calls it one, and some calls it t’other—but I
+know little of the beast, seeing that it is not of British growth.  I
+said as much as that it was in the hills the last winter for I heard
+it moaning on the lake shore one evening in the fall, when I was
+pulling down from the fishing-point in the skiff.  Had the animal come
+into open water, where a man could see where and how to work his
+vessel, I would have engaged the thing myself; but looking aloft among
+the trees is all the same to me as standing on the deck of one ship,
+and looking at another vessel’s tops.  I never can tell one rope from
+another—”
+
+“Well, well,” interrupted Edwards; “I must see Miss Temple.”
+
+“And you shall see her, sir,” said the steward; “she’s in this here
+room.  Lord, Master Edwards, what a loss she’d have been to the Judge!
+Dam’me if I know where he would have gotten such another daughter;
+that is, full grown, d’ye see.  I say, sir, this Master Bumppo is a
+worthy man, and seems to have a handy way with him, with firearms and
+boat-hooks.  I’m his friend, Master Oliver, and he and you may both
+set me down as the same.”
+
+“We may want your friendship, my worthy fellow,” cried Edwards,
+squeezing his hand convulsively; “we may want your friendship, in
+which case you shall know it.”
+
+Without waiting to hear the earnest reply that Benjamin meditated, the
+youth extricated himself from the vigorous grasp of the steward, and
+entered the parlor.
+
+Elizabeth was alone, and still reclining on the sofa, where we last
+left her.  A hand, which exceeded all that the ingenuity of art could
+model, in shape and color, veiled her eyes; and the maiden was sitting
+as if in deep communion with herself.  Struck by the attitude and
+loveliness of the form that met his eye, the young man checked his
+impatience, and approached her with respect and caution.
+
+“Miss Temple—Miss Temple,” he said, “I hope I do not intrude; but I am
+anxious for an interview, if it be only for a moment.”
+
+Elizabeth raised her face, and exhibited her dark eyes swimming in
+moisture.
+
+Is it you, Edwards?” she said, with a sweetness in her voice, and a
+softness in her air, that she often used to her father, but which,
+from its novelty to himself, thrilled on every nerve of the youth;
+“how left you our poor Louisa?”
+
+“She is with her father, happy and grateful,” said Oliver, “ I never
+witnessed more feeling than she manifested, when I ventured to express
+my pleasure at her escape.  Miss Temple, when I first heard of your
+horrid situation, my feelings were too powerful for utterance; and I
+did not properly find my tongue, until the walk to Mr. Grant’s had
+given me time to collect myself.  I believe—I do believe, I acquitted
+myself better there, for Miss Grant even wept at my silly speeches.”
+For a moment Elizabeth did not reply, but again veiled her eyes with
+her hand.  The feeling that caused the action, however, soon passed
+away, and, raising her face again to his gaze, she continued with a
+smile:
+
+“Your friend, the Leather-Stocking, has now become my friend, Edwards;
+I have been thinking how I can best serve him; perhaps you, who know
+his habits and his wants so well, can tell me——”
+
+“I can,” cried the youth, with an impetuosity that startled his
+companion.  “I can, and may Heaven reward you for the wish, Natty has
+been so imprudent as to for get the law, and has this day killed a
+deer.  Nay, I believe I must share in the crime and the penalty, for I
+was an accomplice throughout.  A complaint has been made to your
+father, and he has granted a search—”
+
+“I know it all,” interrupted Elizabeth; “I know it all.  The forms of
+the law must be complied with, however; the search must be made, the
+deer found, and the penalty paid.  But I must retort your own
+question.  Have you lived so long in our family not to know us? Look
+at me, Oliver Edwards.  Do I appear like one who would permit the man
+that has just saved her life to linger in a jail for so small a sum as
+this fine? No, no, sir; my father is a judge, but he is a man and a
+Christian.  It is all under stood, and no harm shall follow.”
+
+“What a load of apprehension do your declarations remove!” exclaimed
+Edwards: “ He shall not be disturbed again! your father will protect
+him! I have assurance, Miss Temple, that he will, and I must believe
+it.”
+
+“You may have his own, Mr. Edwards,” returned Elizabeth, “for here he
+comes to make it.”
+
+But the appearance of Marmaduke, who entered the apartment,
+contradicted the flattering anticipations of his daughter.  His brow
+was contracted, and his manner disturbed.  Neither Elizabeth nor the
+youth spoke; but the Judge was allowed to pace once or twice across
+the room without interruption, when he cried:
+
+“Our plans are defeated, girl; the obstinacy of the Leather-Stocking
+has brought down the indignation of the law on his head, and it is now
+out of my power to avert it.”
+
+“How? in what manner?” cried Elizabeth; “the fine is nothing surely—”
+
+“I did not—I could not anticipate that an old, a friendless man like
+him, would dare to oppose the officers of justice,” interrupted the
+Judge, “I supposed that he would submit to the search, when the fine
+could have been paid, and the law would have been appeased; but now he
+will have to meet its rigor.”
+
+“And what must the punishment be, sir?” asked Ed wards, struggling to
+speak with firmness.
+
+Marmaduke turned quickly to the spot where the youth had withdrawn,
+and exclaimed:
+
+“You here! I did not observe you.  I know not what it will be, sir; it
+is not usual for a judge to decide until he has heard the testimony,
+and the jury have convicted.  Of one thing, however, you may be
+assured, Mr. Edwards; it shall be whatever the law demands,
+notwithstanding any momentary weakness I may have exhibited, because
+the luckless man has been of such eminent service to my daughter.”
+
+“No one, I believe, doubts the sense of justice which Judge Temple
+entertains!” returned Edwards bitterly.
+
+“But let us converse calmly, sir.  Will not the years, the habits,
+nay, the ignorance of my old friend, avail him any thing against this
+charge?”
+
+“Ought they? They may extenuate, but can they ac quit? Would any
+society be tolerable, young man, where the ministers of justice are to
+be opposed by men armed with rifles? Is it for this that I have tamed
+the wilder ness?”
+
+“Had you tamed the beasts that so lately threatened the life of Miss
+Temple, sir, your arguments would apply better.”
+
+“Edwards!” exclaimed Elizabeth.
+
+“Peace, my child,” interrupted the father; “ the youth is unjust; but
+I have not given him cause.  I overlook thy remark, Oliver, for I know
+thee to be the friend of Natty, and zeal in his behalf has overcome
+thy discretion,”
+
+“Yes, he is my friend,” cried Edwards, “and I glory in the title.  He
+is simple, unlettered, even ignorant; prejudiced, perhaps, though I
+feel that his opinion of the world is too true; but he has a heart,
+Judge Temple, that would atone for a thousand faults; he knows his
+friends, and never deserts them, even if it be his dog.”
+
+“This is a good character, Mr. Edwards,” returned Marmaduke, mildly;
+“but I have never been so fortunate as to secure his esteem, for to me
+he has been uniformly repulsive; yet I have endured it, as an old
+man’s whim, However, when he appears before me, as his judge, he shall
+find that his former conduct shall not aggravate, any more than his
+recent services shall extenuate, his crime.”
+
+“Crime!” echoed Edwards: “is it a crime to drive a prying miscreant
+from his door? Crime! Oh, no, sir; if there be a criminal involved in
+this affair, it is not he.”
+
+“And who may it be, sir?” asked Judge Temple, facing the agitated
+youth, his features settled to their usual composure.
+
+This appeal was more than the young man could bear.  Hitherto he had
+been deeply agitated by his emotions; but now the volcano burst its
+boundaries.
+
+“Who! and this to me!” he cried; “ask your own conscience, Judge
+Temple.  Walk to that door, sir, and look out upon the valley, that
+placid lake, and those dusky mountains, and say to your own heart, if
+heart you have, whence came these riches, this vale, those hills, and
+why am I their owner? I should think, sir, that the appearance of
+Mohegan and the Leather-Stocking, stalking through the country,
+impoverished and forlorn, would wither your sight.”
+
+Marmaduke heard this burst of passion, at first, with deep amazement;
+but when the youth had ended, he beckoned to his impatient daughter
+for silence, and replied:
+
+“Oliver Edwards, thou forgettest in whose presence thou standest.  I
+have heard, young man, that thou claimest descent from the native
+owners of the soil; but surely thy education has been given thee to no
+effect, if it has not taught thee the validity of the claims that have
+transferred the title to the whites.  These lands are mine by the very
+grants of thy ancestry, if thou art so descended; and I appeal to
+Heaven for a testimony of the uses I have put them to.  After this
+language, we must separate.  I have too long sheltered thee in my
+dwelling; but the time has arrived when thou must quit it.  Come to my
+office, and I will discharge the debt I owe thee.  Neither shall thy
+present intemperate language mar thy future fortunes, if thou wilt
+hearken to the advice of one who is by many years thy senior.”
+
+The ungovernable feeling that caused the violence of the youth had
+passed away, and he stood gazing after the retiring figure of
+Marmaduke, with a vacancy in his eye that denoted the absence of his
+mind.  At length he recollected himself, and, turning his head slowly
+around the apartment, he beheld Elizabeth, still seated on the sofa,
+but with her head dropped on her bosom, and her face again concealed
+by her hands.
+
+“Miss Temple,” he said—all violence had left his manner—” Miss Temple—
+I have forgotten myself—forgotten you.  You have heard what your
+father has decreed, and this night I leave here.  With you, at least,
+I would part in amity.”
+
+Elizabeth slowly raised her face, across which a momentary expression
+of sadness stole; but as she left her seat, her dark eyes lighted with
+their usual fire, her cheek flushed to burning, and her whole air
+seemed to belong to another nature.
+
+“I forgive you, Edwards, and my father will forgive you,” she said,
+when she reached the door.  “You do not know us, but the time may come
+when your opinions shall change—”
+
+“Of you! never!” interrupted the youth; “I—”
+
+“I would speak, sir, and not listen.  There is something in this
+affair that I do not comprehend; but tell the Leather-Stocking he has
+friends as well as judges in us.  Do not let the old man experience
+unnecessary uneasiness at this rupture.  It is impossible that you
+could increase his claims here; neither shall they be diminished by
+any thing you have said.  Mr. Edwards, I wish you happiness, and
+warmer friends,”
+
+The youth would have spoken, but she vanished from the door so
+rapidly, that when he reached the hall her form was nowhere to be
+seen.  He paused a moment, in stupor, and then, rushing from the
+house, instead of following Marmaduke in his “office,” he took his way
+directly for the cabin of the hunters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+
+“Who measured earth, described the starry spheres,
+And traced the long records of lunar years.  “—Pope.
+
+Richard did not return from the exercise of his official duties until
+late in the evening of the following day.  It had been one portion of
+his business to superintend the arrest of part of a gang of
+counterfeiters, that had, even at that early period, buried themselves
+in the woods, to manufacture their base coin, which they afterward
+circulated from one end of the Union to the other.  The expedition had
+been completely successful, and about midnight the sheriff entered the
+village, at the head of a posse of deputies and constables, in the
+centre of whom rode, pinioned, four of the malefactors.  At the gate
+of the mansion-house they separated, Mr. Jones directing his assist
+ants to proceed with their charge to the county jail, while he pursued
+his own way up the gravel walk, with the kind of self-satisfaction
+that a man of his organization would feel, who had really for once
+done a very clever thing.
+
+“Holla! Aggy!” shouted the sheriff, when he reached the door; “where
+are you, you black dog? will you keep me here in the dark all night?
+Holla! Aggy! Brave! Brave! hoy, hoy—where have you got to, Brave? Off
+his watch! Everybody is asleep but myself! Poor I must keep my eyes
+open, that others may sleep in safety.  Brave! Brave! Well, I will say
+this for the dog, lazy as he’s grown, that it is the first time I ever
+knew him to let any one come to the door after dark, without having a
+smell to know whether it was an honest man or not.  He could tell by
+his nose, almost as well as I could myself by looking at them.  Holla!
+you Agamemnon! where are you? Oh! here comes the dog at last.”
+
+By this time the sheriff had dismounted, and observed a form, which he
+supposed to be that of Brave, slowly creeping out of the kennel; when,
+to his astonishment, it reared itself on two legs instead of four, and
+he was able to distinguish, by the starlight, the curly head and dark
+visage of the negro.
+
+“Ha! what the devil are you doing there, you black rascal?” he cried.
+“Is it not hot enough for your Guinea blood in the house this warm
+night, but you must drive out the poor dog, and sleep in his straw?”
+
+By this time the boy was quite awake, and, with a blubbering whine, he
+attempted to reply to his master.
+
+“Oh! masser Richard! masser Richard! such a ting! such a ting! I
+nebber tink a could ‘appen! neber tink he die! Oh, Lor-a-gor! ain’t
+bury—keep ‘em till masser Richard get back—got a grabe dug—”
+Here the feelings of the negro completely got the mastery, and,
+instead of making any intelligible explanation of the causes of his
+grief, he blubbered aloud.
+
+“Eh! what! buried! grave! dead!” exclaimed Richard, with a tremor in
+his voice; “nothing serious? Nothing has happened to Benjamin, I hope?
+I know he has been bilious, but I gave him—”
+
+“Oh, worser ‘an dat! worser ‘an dat!” sobbed the negro.  “ Oh! de Lor!
+Miss 'Lizzy an’ Miss Grant—walk—mountain—poor Bravy ‘—kill a lady—
+painter-—Oh, Lor, Lor!—Natty Bumppo—tare he troat open—come a see,
+masser Richard—here he be—here he be.”
+
+As all this was perfectly inexplicable to the sheriff, he was very
+glad to wait patiently until the black brought a lantern from the
+kitchen, when he followed Aggy to the kennel, where he beheld poor
+Brave, indeed, lying in his blood, stiff and cold, but decently
+covered with the great coat of the negro.  He was on the point of
+demanding an explanation; but the grief of the black, who had fallen
+asleep on his voluntary watch, having burst out afresh on his waking,
+utterly disqualified the lad from giving one.  Luckily, at this moment
+the principal door of the house opened, and the coarse features of
+Benjamin were thrust over the threshold, with a candle elevated above
+them, shedding its dim rays around in such a manner as to exhibit the
+lights and shadows of his countenance.  Richard threw his bridle to
+the black, and, bidding him look to the horse, he entered the hall.
+What is the meaning of the dead dog?” he cried.
+
+“Where is Miss Temple?”
+
+Benjamin made one of his square gestures, with the thumb of his left
+hand pointing over his right shoulder, as he answered:
+
+“Turned in.”
+
+“Judge Temple—where is he?”
+
+“In his berth.”
+
+“But explain; why is Brave dead? and what is the cause of Aggy’s
+grief?”
+
+“Why, it’s all down, squire,” said Benjamin, pointing to a slate that
+lay on the table, by the side of a mug of toddy, a short pipe in which
+the tobacco was yet burning, and a prayer-book.
+
+Among the other pursuits of Richard, he had a passion to keep a
+register of all passing events; and his diary, which was written in
+the manner of a journal, or log.  book, embraced not only such
+circumstances as affected himself, but observations on the weather,
+and all the occurrences of the family, and frequently of the village.
+Since his appointment to the office of sheriff and his consequent
+absences from home, he had employed Benjamin to make memoranda on a
+slate, of whatever might be thought worth remembering, which, on his
+return, were regularly transferred to the journal with proper
+notations of the time, manner, and other little particulars.  There
+was, to be sure, one material objection to the clerkship of Benjamin,
+which the ingenuity of no one but Richard could have overcome.  The
+steward read nothing but his prayer-book, and that only in particular
+parts, and by the aid of a good deal of spelling, and some misnomers;
+but he could not form a single letter with a pen.  This would have
+been an insuperable bar to journalizing with most men; but Richard
+invented a kind of hieroglyphical character, which was intended to
+note all the ordinary occurrences of a day, such as how the wind blew,
+whether the sun shone, or whether it rained, the hours, etc.  ; and
+for the extraordinary, after giving certain elementary lectures on the
+subject, the sheriff was obliged to trust to the ingenuity of the
+major-domo.  The reader will at once perceive, that it was to this
+chronicle that Benjamin pointed, instead of directly answering the
+sheriff’s interrogatory.
+
+When Mr. Jones had drunk a glass of toddy, he brought forth from its
+secret place his proper journal, and, seating himself by the table, he
+prepared to transfer the contents of the slate to the paper, at the
+same time that he appeased his curiosity.  Benjamin laid one hand on
+the back of the sheriff's chair, in a familiar manner, while he kept
+the other at liberty to make use of a forefinger, that was bent like
+some of his own characters, as an index to point out his meaning.
+
+The first thing referred to by the sheriff was the diagram of a
+compass, cut in one corner of the slate for permanent use.  The
+cardinal points were plainly marked on it, and all the usual divisions
+were indicated in such a manner that no man who had ever steered a
+ship could mistake them.
+
+“Oh!” said the sheriff, seating himself down comfort ably in his
+chair, “you’d the wind southeast, I see, all last night I thought it
+would have blown up rain.”
+
+“Devil the drop, sir,” said Benjamin; “I believe that the scuttle-butt
+up aloft is emptied, for there hasn’t so much water fell in the
+country for the last three weeks as would float Indian John’s canoe,
+and that draws just one inch nothing, light.”
+
+“Well but didn’t the wind change here this morning? there was a change
+where I was.”
+
+“To be sure it did, squire; and haven’t I logged it as a shift of
+wind?”
+
+“I don’t see where, Benjamin—”
+
+“Don’t see!” interrupted the steward, a little crustily; “ain’t there
+a mark agin’ east-and-by-nothe-half-nothe, with summat like a rising
+sun at the end of it, to show ‘twas in the morning watch?”
+
+“Yes, yes, that is very legible; but where is the change noted?”
+
+“Where! why doesn’t it see this here tea-kettle, with a mark run from
+the spout straight, or mayhap a little crooked or so, into west-and-
+by-southe-half-southe? now I call this a shift of wind, squire.  Well,
+do you see this here boar’s head that you made for me, alongside of
+the compass—”
+
+“Ay, ay—Boreas—-—I see.  Why, you’ve drawn lines from its mouth,
+extending from one of your marks to the other.”
+
+“It’s no fault of mine, Squire Dickens; ‘tis your d—d climate.  The
+wind has been at all them there marks this very day, and that’s all
+round the compass, except a little matter of an Irishman’s hurricane
+at meridium, which you’ll find marked right up and down.  Now, I’ve
+known a sow-wester blow for three weeks, in the channel, with a clean
+drizzle, in which you might wash your face and hands without the
+trouble of hauling in water from alongside.”
+
+“Very well, Benjamin,” said the sheriff, writing in his journal; “I
+believe I have caught the idea.  Oh! here’s a cloud over the rising
+sun—so you had it hazy in the morning?”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir,” said Benjamin.
+
+“Ah it’s Sunday.  and here are the marks for the length of the sermon—
+one, two, three, four—what! did Mr. Grant preach forty minutes?”
+
+“Ay, summat like it; it was a good half-hour by my own glass, and then
+there was the time lost in turning it, and some little allowance for
+leeway in not being over-smart about it.”
+
+“Benjamin, this is as long as a Presbyterian; you never could have
+been ten minutes in turning the glass!”
+
+“Why, do you see, Squire, the parson was very solemn, and I just
+closed my eyes in order to think the better with myself, just the same
+as you’d put in the dead-lights to make all snug, and when I opened
+them agin I found the congregation were getting under way for home, so
+I calculated the ten minutes would cover the leeway after the glass
+was out.  It was only some such matter as a cat’s nap.”
+
+“Oh, ho! Master Benjamin, you were asleep, were you? but I’ll set down
+no such slander against an orthodox divine.” Richard wrote twenty-nine
+minutes in his journal, and continued: “Why, what’s this you’ve got
+opposite ten o’clock A.M.? A full moon! had you a moon visible by day?
+I have heard of such portents before now, but—eh! what’s this
+alongside of it? an hour-glass?”
+
+“That!” said Benjamin, looking coolly over the sheriff’s shoulder, and
+rolling the tobacco about in his mouth with a jocular air; “why,
+that’s a small matter of my own.  It’s no moon, squire, but only Betty
+Hollister’s face; for, dye see, sir, hearing all the same as if she
+had got up a new cargo of Jamaiky from the river, I called in as I was
+going to the church this morning—ten A.M.  was it?—just the time—and
+tried a glass; and so I logged it, to put me in mind of calling to pay
+her like an honest man.”
+
+“That was it, was it?” said the sheriff, with some displeasure at this
+innovation on his memoranda; “and could you not make a better glass
+than this? it looks like a death’s-head and an hour-glass.”
+
+“Why, as I liked the stuff, squire,” returned the steward, “I turned
+in, homeward bound, and took t’other glass, which I set down at the
+bottom of the first, and that gives the thing the shape it has.  But
+as I was there again to-night, and paid for the three at once, your
+honor may as well run the sponge over the whole business.”
+
+“I will buy you a slate for your own affairs, Benjamin,” said the
+sheriff; “I don’t like to have the journal marked over in this
+manner.”
+
+“You needn’t—you needn’t, squire; for, seeing that I was likely to
+trade often with the woman while this barrel lasted.  I’ve opened a
+fair account with Betty, and she keeps her marks on the back of her
+bar-door, and I keeps the tally on this here bit of a stick.”
+As Benjamin concluded he produced a piece of wood, on which five very
+large, honest notches were apparent.  The sheriff cast his eyes on
+this new ledger for a moment, and continued:
+
+“What have we here! Saturday, two P.M.—Why here’s a whole family
+piece! two wine-glasses upside-down!”
+
+“That’s two women; the one this a-way is Miss ‘Lizzy, and t’other is
+the parson’s young‘un.”
+
+“Cousin Bess and Miss Grant!” exclaimed the sheriff, in amazement;
+“what have they to do with my journal?”
+
+“They’d enough to do to get out of the jaws of that there painter or
+panther,” said the immovable steward.  “This here thingumy, squire,
+that maybe looks summat like a rat, is the beast, d’ye see; and this
+here t’other thing, keel uppermost, is poor old Brave, who died nobly,
+all the same as an admiral fighting for his king and country; and that
+there—”
+
+“Scarecrow,” interrupted Richard.
+
+“Ay, mayhap it do look a little wild or so,” continued the steward;
+“but to my judgment, squire, it’s the best image I’ve made, seeing
+it’s most like the man himself; well, that’s Natty Bumppo, who shot
+this here painter, that killed that there dog, who would have eaten or
+done worse to them here young ladies.”
+
+“And what the devil does all this mean?” cried Richard, impatiently.
+
+“Mean!” echoed Benjamin; “it is as true as the Boadishey’s log book—”
+He was interrupted by the sheriff, who put a few direct questions to
+him, that obtained more intelligible answers, by which means he became
+possessed of a tolerably correct idea of the truth, When the wonder,
+and we must do Richard the justice to say, the feelings also, that
+were created by this narrative, had in some degree subsided, the
+sheriff turned his eyes again on his journal, where more inexplicable
+hieroglyphics met his view.
+
+“What have we here?” he cried; “two men boxing! Has there been a
+breach of the peace? Ah, that’s the way, the moment my back is turned—
+-.”
+
+“That’s the Judge and young Master Edwards,” interrupted the steward,
+very cavalierly.
+
+“How! ‘Duke fighting with Oliver! what the devil has got into you all?
+More things have happened within the last thirty-six hours than in the
+preceding six months.”
+“Yes, it’s so indeed, squire,” returned the steward
+“I’ve known a smart chase, and a fight at the tail of it”, where less
+has been logged than I’ve got on that there slate.  Howsomnever, they
+didn’t come to facers, only passed a little jaw fore and aft.”
+
+“Explain! explain!” cried Richard; “it was about the mines, ha! Ay,
+ay, I see it, I see it; here is a man with a pick on his shoulder.  So
+you heard it all, Benjamin?”
+
+“Why, yes, it was about their minds, I believe, squire, returned the
+steward; “and, by what I can learn, they spoke them pretty plainly to
+one another.  Indeed, I may say that I overheard a small matter of it
+myself, seeing that the windows was open, and I hard by.  But this
+here is no pick.  but an anchor on a man’s shoulder; and here’s the
+other fluke down his back, maybe a little too close, which signifies
+that the lad has got under way and left his moorings.”
+
+“Has Edwards left the house?”
+
+“He has.”
+
+Richard pursued this advantage; and, after a long and close
+examination, he succeeded in getting out of Benjamin  all that he
+knew, not only concerning the misunderstanding, but of the attempt to
+search the hut, and Hiram’s discomfiture.  The sheriff was no sooner
+possessed of these facts, which Benjamin related with all possible
+tenderness to the Leather-Stocking, than, snatching up his hat, and
+bidding the astonished steward secure the doors and go to his bed, he
+left the house.
+
+For at least five minutes, after Richard disappeared, Benjamin stood
+with his arms akimbo, and his eyes fastened on the door; when, having
+collected his astonished faculties, he prepared to execute the orders
+he had received.
+
+It has been already said that the “court of common pleas and general
+sessions of the peace,” or, as it is commonly called, the “county
+court,” over which Judge Temple presided, held one of its stated
+sessions on the following morning.  The attendants of Richard were
+officers who had come to the village, as much to discharge their usual
+duties at this court, as to escort the prisoners and the sheriff knew
+their habits too well, not to feel confident that he should find most,
+if not all of them, in the public room of the jail, discussing the
+qualities of the keeper’s liquors.  Accordingly he held his way
+through the silent streets of the village, directly to the small and
+insecure building that contained all the unfortunate debt ors and some
+of the criminals of the county, and where justice was administered to
+such unwary applicants as were so silly as to throw away two dollars
+in order to obtain one from their neighbors.  The arrival of four
+malefactors in the custody of a dozen officers was an event, at that
+day, in Templeton; and, when the sheriff reached the jail, he found
+every indication that his subordinates in tended to make a night of
+it.
+
+The nod of the sheriff brought two of his deputies to the door, who in
+their turn drew off six or seven of the constables.  With this force
+Richard led the way through the village, toward the bank of the lake,
+undisturbed by any noise, except the barking of one or two curs, who
+were alarmed by the measured tread of the party, and by the low
+murmurs that ran through their own numbers, as a few cautious
+questions and answers were exchanged, relative to the object of their
+expedition.  When they had crossed the little bridge of hewn logs that
+was thrown over the Susquehanna, they left the highway, and struck
+into that field which had been the scene of the victory over the
+pigeons.  From this they followed their leader into the low bushes of
+pines and chestnuts which had sprung up along the shores of the lake,
+where the plough had not succeeded the fall of the trees, and soon
+entered the forest itself.  Here Richard paused and collected his
+troop around him.
+
+“I have required your assistance, my friends,” he cried, in a low
+voice, “in order to arrest Nathaniel Bumppo, commonly called the
+Leather-Stocking He has assaulted a magistrate, and resisted the
+execution of a search-war rant, by threatening the life of a constable
+with his rifle.  In short, my friends, he has set an example of
+rebellion to the laws, and has become a kind of outlaw.  He is
+suspected of other misdemeanors and offences against private rights;
+and I have this night taken on myself.  by the virtue of my office as
+sheriff, to arrest the said Bumppo, and bring him to the county jail,
+that he may be present and forthcoming to answer to these heavy
+charges before the court to-morrow morning.  In executing this duty,
+friends and fellow-citizens, you are to use courage and discretion;
+courage, that you may not be daunted by any lawless attempt that this
+man may make with his rifle and his dogs to oppose you; and
+discretion, which here means caution and prudence, that he may not
+escape from this sudden attack—and for other good reasons that I need
+not mention.  You will form yourselves in a complete circle around his
+hut, and at the word ‘advance,’ called aloud by me, you will rush
+forward and, without giving the criminal time for deliberation, enter
+his dwelling by force, and make him your prisoner.  Spread yourselves
+for this purpose, while I shall descend to the shore with a deputy, to
+take charge of that point; and all communications must be made
+directly to me, under the bank in front of the hut, where I shall
+station myself and remain, in order to receive them.”
+
+This speech, which Richard had been studying during his walk, had the
+effect that all similar performances produce, of bringing the dangers
+of the expedition immediately before the eyes of his forces.  The men
+divided, some plunging deeper into the forest, in order to gain their
+stations without giving an alarm, and others Continuing to advance, at
+a gait that would allow the whole party to go in order; but all
+devising the best plan to repulse the attack of a dog, or to escape a
+rifle-bullet.  It was a moment of dread expectation and interest.
+
+When the sheriff thought time enough had elapsed for the different
+divisions of his force to arrive at their stations, he raised his
+voice in the silence of the forest, and shouted the watchword.  The
+sounds played among the arched branches of the trees in hollow
+cadences; but when the last sinking tone was lost on the ear, in place
+of the expected howls of the dogs, no other noises were returned but
+the crackling of torn branches and dried sticks, as they yielded
+before the advancing steps of the officers.  Even this soon ceased, as
+if by a common consent, when the curiosity and impatience of the
+sheriff getting the complete ascendency over discretion, he rushed up
+the bank, and in a moment stood on the little piece of cleared
+ground in front of the spot where Natty had so long lived, To his
+amazement, in place of the hut he saw only its smouldering ruins.
+
+The party gradually drew together about the heap of ashes and the ends
+of smoking logs; while a dim flame in the centre of the ruin, which
+still found fuel to feed its lingering life, threw its pale light,
+flickering with the passing currents of the air, around the circle—now
+showing a face with eyes fixed in astonishment, and then glancing to
+another countenance, leaving the former shaded in the obscurity of
+night.  Not a voice was raised in inquiry, nor an exclamation made in
+astonishment.  The transition from excitement to disappointment was
+too powerful for Speech; and even Richard lost the use of an organ
+that was seldom known to fail him.
+
+The whole group were yet in the fullness of their surprise, when a
+tall form stalked from the gloom into the circle, treading down the
+hot ashes and dying embers with callous feet; and, standing over the
+light, lifted his cap, and exposed the bare head and weather-beaten
+features of the Leather-Stocking.  For a moment he gazed at the dusky
+figures who surrounded him, more in sorrow than in anger before he
+spoke.
+
+“What would ye with an old and helpless man?” he said, “You’ve driven
+God’s creatur’s from the wilder ness, where His providence had put
+them for His own pleasure; and you’ve brought in the troubles and
+diviltries of the law, where no man was ever known to disturb another.
+You have driven me, that have lived forty long years of my appointed
+time in this very spot, from my home and the shelter of my head, lest
+you should put your wicked feet and wasty ways in my cabin.  You’ve
+driven me to burn these logs, under which I’ve eaten and drunk—the
+first of Heaven’s gifts, and the other of the pure springs—for the
+half of a hundred years; and to mourn the ashes under my feet, as a
+man would weep and mourn for the children of his body.  You’ve rankled
+the heart of an old man, that has never harmed you or your’n, with
+bitter feelings toward his kind, at a time when his thoughts should be
+on a better world; and you’ve driven him to wish that the beasts of
+the forest, who never feast on the blood of their own families, was
+his kindred and race; and now, when he has come to see the last brand
+of his hut, before it is incited into ashes, you follow him up, at
+midnight, like hungry hounds on the track of a worn-out and dying
+deer.  What more would ye have? for I am here—one too many.  I come to
+mourn, not to fight; and, if it is God’s pleasure, work your will on
+me.”
+
+When the old man ended he stood, with the light glimmering around his
+thinly covered head, looking earnestly at the group, which receded
+from the pile with an involuntary movement, without the reach of the
+quivering rays, leaving a free passage for his retreat into the
+bushes, where pursuit in the dark would have been fruit less.  Natty
+seemed not to regard this advantage, but stood facing each individual
+in the circle in succession, as if to see who would he the first to
+arrest him.  After a pause of a few moments Richard began to rally his
+confused faculties, and, advancing, apologized for his duty, and made
+him his prisoner.  The party flow collected, and, preceded by the
+sheriff, with Natty in their centre, they took their way toward the
+village.
+
+During the walk, divers questions were put to the prisoner concerning
+his reasons for burning the hut, and whither Mohegan had retreated;
+but to all of them he observed a profound silence, until, fatigued
+with their previous duties, and the lateness of the hour, the sheriff
+and his followers reached the village, and dispersed to their several
+places of rest, after turning the key of a jail on the aged and
+apparently friendless Leather-Stocking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+
+“Fetch here the stocks, ho!
+You stubborn ancient knave,
+you reverend bragget, We’ll teach you.”—Lear.
+
+The long days and early sun of July allowed time for a gathering of
+the interested, before the little bell of the academy announced that
+the appointed hour had arrived for administering right to the wronged,
+and punishment to the guilty.  Ever since the dawn of day, the
+highways and woodpaths that, issuing from the forests, and winding
+among the sides of the mountains, centred in Templeton, had been
+thronged with equestrians and footmen, bound to the haven of justice.
+There was to be seen a well-clad yeoman, mounted on a sleek, switch-
+tailed steed, rambling along the highway, with his red face elevated
+in a manner that said, “I have paid for my land, and fear no man;”
+while his bosom was swelling with the pride of being one of the grand
+inquest for the county.  At his side rode a companion, his equal in
+independence of feeling, perhaps, but his inferior in thrift, as in
+property and consideration.  This was a professed dealer in lawsuits—a
+man whose name appeared in every calendar—whose substance, gained in
+the multifarious expedients of a settler’s change able habits, was
+wasted in feeding the harpies of the courts.  He was endeavoring to
+impress the mind of the grand juror with the merits of a cause now at
+issue, Along with these was a pedestrian, who, having thrown a rifle
+frock over his shirt, and placed his best wool hat above his sunburnt
+visage, had issued from his retreat in the woods by a footpath, and
+was striving to keep company with the others, on his way to hear and
+to decide the disputes of his neighbors, as a petit juror.  Fifty
+similar little knots of countrymen might have been seen, on that
+morning, journeying toward the shire-town on the same errand.
+
+By ten o’clock the streets of the village were filled with busy faces;
+some talking of their private concerns, some listening to a popular
+expounder of political creeds; and others gaping in at the open
+stores, admiring the finery, or examining scythes, axes, and such
+other manufactures as attracted their curiosity or excited their
+admiration.  A few women were in the crowd, most carrying infants, and
+followed, at a lounging, listless gait, by their rustic lords and
+masters.  There was one young couple, in whom connubial love was yet
+fresh, walking at a respectful distance from each other; while the
+swain directed the timid steps of his bride, by a gallant offering of
+a thumb.
+
+At the first stroke of the bell, Richard issued from the door of the
+“Bold Dragoon,” flourishing a sheathed sword, that he was fond of
+saying his ancestors had carried in one of Cromwell’s victories, and
+crying, in an authoritative tone, to “clear the way for the court.”
+The order was obeyed promptly, though not servilely, the members of
+the crowd nodding familiarly to the members of the procession as it
+passed.  A party of constables with their staves followed the sheriff,
+preceding Marmaduke and four plain, grave-looking yeomen, who were his
+associates on the bench.  There was nothing to distinguish these
+Subordinate judges from the better part of the spectators, except
+gravity, which they affected a little more than common, and that one
+of their number was attired in an old-fashioned military coat, with
+skirts that reached no lower than the middle of his thighs, and
+bearing two little silver epaulets, not half so big as a modern pair
+of shoulder-knots.  This gentleman was a colonel of the militia, in
+attendance on a court-martial, who found leisure to steal a moment
+from his military to attend to his civil jurisdiction; but this
+incongruity excited neither notice nor comment.  Three or four clean-
+shaved lawyers followed, as meek as if they were lambs going to the
+slaughter.  One or two of their number had contrived to obtain an air
+of scholastic gravity by wearing spectacles.  The rear was brought up
+by another posse of constables, and the mob followed the whole into
+the room where the court held its sitting.
+
+The edifice was composed of a basement of squared logs, perforated
+here and there with small grated windows, through which a few wistful
+faces were gazing at the crowd without.  Among the captives were the
+guilty, downcast countenances of the counterfeiters, and the simple
+but honest features of the Leather-Stocking.  The dungeons were to be
+distinguished, externally, from the debtors’ apartments only by the
+size of the apertures, the thickness of the grates, and by the heads
+of the spikes that were driven into the logs as a protection against
+the illegal use of edge-tools.  The upper story was of frame work,
+regularly covered with boards, and contained one room decently fitted
+up for the purpose of justice.  A bench, raised on a narrow platform
+to the height of a man above the floor, and protected in front by a
+light railing.  ran along one of its sides.  In the centre was a seat,
+furnished with rude arms, that was always filled by the presiding
+judge.  In front, on a level with the floor of the room, was a large
+table covered with green baize, and surrounded by benches; and at
+either of its ends were rows of seats, rising one over the other, for
+jury-boxes.  Each of these divisions was surrounded by a railing.  The
+remainder of the room was an open square, appropriated to the
+spectators.
+
+When the judges were seated, the lawyers had taken possession of the
+table, and the noise of moving feet had ceased in the area, the
+proclamations were made in the usual form, the jurors were sworn, the
+charge was given, and the court proceeded to hear the business before
+them.
+
+We shall not detain the reader with a description of the captious
+discussions that occupied the court for the first two hours, Judge
+Temple had impressed on the jury, in his charge, the necessity for
+dispatch on their part, recommending to their notice, from motives of
+humanity, the prisoners in the jail as the first objects of their
+attention.  Accordingly, after the period we have mentioned had
+elapsed, the cry of the officer to “clear the way for the grand jury,”
+announced the entrance of that body.  The usual forms were observed,
+when the foreman handed up to the bench two bills, on both of which
+the Judge observed, at the first glance of his eye, the name of
+Nathaniel Bumppo.  It was a leisure moment with the court; some low
+whispering passed between the bench and the sheriff, who gave a signal
+to his officers, and in a very few minutes the silence that prevailed
+was interrupted by a general movement in the outer crowd, when
+presently the Leather-Stocking made his appearance, ushered into the
+criminal’s bar under the custody of two constables, The hum ceased,
+the people closed into the open space again, and the silence soon
+became so deep that the hard breathing of the prisoner was audible.
+
+Natty was dressed in his buckskin garments, without his coat, in place
+of which he wore only a shirt of coarse linen-cheek, fastened at his
+throat by the sinew of a deer, leaving his red neck and weather-beaten
+face exposed and bare.  It was the first time that he had ever crossed
+the threshold of a court of justice, and curiosity seemed to be
+strongly blended with his personal feelings.  He raised his eyes to
+the bench, thence to the jury-boxes, the bar, and the crowd without,
+meeting everywhere looks fastened on himself.  After surveying his own
+person, as searching the cause of this unusual attraction, he once
+more turned his face around the assemblage, and opened his mouth in
+one of his silent and remarkable laughs.
+
+“Prisoner, remove your cap,” said Judge Temple.
+
+The order was either unheard or unheeded.
+
+“Nathaniel Bumppo, be uncovered,” repeated the Judge.
+
+Natty started at the sound of his name, and, raising his face
+earnestly toward the bench, he said:
+
+“Anan!”
+
+Mr. Lippet arose from his seat at the table, and whispered in the ear
+of the prisoner; when Natty gave him a nod of assent, and took the
+deer-skin covering from his head.
+
+“Mr. District Attorney,” said the Judge, “the prisoner is ready; we
+wait for the indictment.”
+
+The duties of public prosecutor were discharged by Dirck Van der
+School, who adjusted his spectacles, cast a cautious look around him
+at his brethren of the bar, which he ended by throwing his head aside
+so as to catch one glance over the glasses, when he proceeded to read
+the bill aloud.  It was the usual charge for an assault and battery on
+the person of Hiram Doolittle, and was couched in the ancient language
+of such instruments, especial care having been taken by the scribe not
+to omit the name of a single offensive weapon known to the law.  When
+he had done, Mr. Van der School removed his spectacles, which he
+closed and placed in his pocket, seemingly for the pleasure of again
+opening and replacing them on his nose, After this evolution was
+repeated once or twice, he handed the bill over to Mr. Lippet, with a
+cavalier air, that said as much as “Pick a hole in that if you can.”
+
+Natty listened to the charge with great attention, leaning forward
+toward the reader with an earnestness that denoted his interest; and,
+when it was ended, he raised his tall body to the utmost, and drew a
+long sigh.  All eyes were turned to the prisoner, whose voice was
+vainly expected to break the stillness of the room.
+
+“You have heard the presentment that the grand jury have made,
+Nathaniel Bumppo,” said the Judge; “what do you plead to the charge?”
+
+The old man drooped his head for a moment in a reflecting attitude,
+and then, raising it, he laughed before he answered:
+
+“That I handled the man a little rough or so, is not to be denied; but
+that there was occasion to make use of all the things that the
+gentleman has spoken of is downright untrue.  I am not much of a
+wrestler, seeing that I'm getting old; but I was out among the Scotch-
+Irishers—let me see—it must have been as long ago as the first year of
+the old war—”
+
+“Mr. Lippet, if you are retained for the prisoner,” interrupted Judge
+Temple, “instruct your client how to plead; if not, the court will
+assign him counsel.”
+
+Aroused from studying the indictment by this appeal, the attorney got
+up, and after a short dialogue with the hunter in a low voice, he
+informed the court that they were ready to proceed.
+
+“Do you plead guilty or not guilty?” said the Judge.
+
+“I may say not guilty, with a clean conscience,” returned Natty; “for
+there’s no guilt in doing what’s right; and I’d rather died on the
+spot, than had him put foot in the hut at that moment.”
+
+Richard started at this declaration and bent his eyes significantly on
+Hiram, who returned the look with a slight movement of his eyebrows.
+
+“Proceed to open the cause, Mr. District Attorney,' continued the
+Judge.  “Mr. Clerk, enter the plea of not guilty.”
+
+After a short opening address from Mr. Van der School, Hiram was
+summoned to the bar to give his testimony.  It was delivered to the
+letter, perhaps, but with all that moral coloring which can be
+conveyed under such expressions as, “thinking no harm,” “feeling it my
+bounden duty as a magistrate,” and “seeing that the constable was
+back’ard in the business.” When he had done, and the district attorney
+declined putting any further interrogatories, Mr. Lippet arose, with
+an air of keen investigation, and asked the following questions:
+
+“Are you a constable of this county, sir?”
+
+“No, sir,” said Hiram, “I’m only a justice-peace.”
+
+“I ask you, Mr. Doolittle, in the face of this court, put ting it to
+your conscience and your knowledge of the law, whether you had any
+right to enter that man’s dwelling?”
+
+“Hem!” said Hiram, undergoing a violent struggle between his desire
+for vengeance, and his love of legal fame: “I do suppose—that in—that
+is—strict law—that supposing—maybe I hadn’t a real—lawful right; but
+as the case was—and Billy was so back’ard—I thought I might come
+for’ard in the business.”
+
+“I ask you again, sir,” continued the lawyer, following up his
+success, “whether this old, this friendless old man, did or did not
+repeatedly forbid your entrance?”
+
+“Why, I must say,” said Hiram, “that he was considerable cross-
+grained; not what I call clever, seeing that it was only one neighbor
+wanting to go into the house of another.”
+
+“Oh! then you own it was only meant for a neighborly visit on your
+part, and without the sanction of law.  Remember, gentlemen, the words
+of the witness, ‘one neighbor wanting to enter the house of another.’
+Now, sir, I ask you if Nathaniel Bumppo did not again and again order
+you not to enter?”
+
+“There was some words passed between us,” said Hiram, “but I read the
+warrant to him aloud.”
+
+“I repeat my question; did he tell you not to enter his habitation?”
+
+“There was a good deal passed betwixt us—but I’ve the warrant in my
+pocket; maybe the court would wish to see it?”
+
+“Witness,” said Judge Temple, “answer the question directly; did or
+did not the prisoner forbid your entering his hut?”
+
+“Why, I some think—”
+
+“Answer without equivocation,” continued the Judge sternly.
+
+“He did.”
+
+“And did you attempt to enter after his order?”
+
+“I did; but the warrant was in my hand.”
+
+“Proceed, Mr. Lippet, with your examination.”
+
+But the attorney saw that the impression was in favor of his client,
+and waving his hand with a supercilious manner, as if unwilling to
+insult the understanding of the jury with any further defence, he
+replied:
+
+“No, sir; I leave it for your honor to charge; I rest my case here.”
+
+“Mr. District Attorney,” said the Judge, “have you anything to say?”
+Mr. Van der School removed his spectacles, folded them and, replacing
+them once more on his nose, eyed the other bill which he held in his
+hand, and then said, looking at the bar over the top of his glasses;
+I shall rest the prosecution here, if the court please.”
+
+Judge Temple arose and began the charge.
+
+“Gentlemen of the jury,” he said, “you have heard the testimony, and I
+shall detain you but a moment.  If an officer meet with resistance in
+the execution of a process, he has an undoubted right to call any
+citizen to his assistance; and the acts of such assistant come within
+the protection of the law.  I shall leave you to judge, gentlemen,
+from the testimony, how far the witness in this prosecution can be so
+considered, feeling less reluctance to submit the case thus informally
+to your decision, because there is yet another indictment to be tried,
+which involves heavier charges against the unfortunate prisoner.”
+
+The tone of Marmaduke was mild and insinuating, and, as his sentiments
+were given with such apparent impartiality, they did not fail of
+carrying due weight with the jury.  The grave-looking yeomen who
+composed this tribunal laid their heads together for a few minutes,
+without leaving the box, when the foreman arose, and, after the forms
+of the court were duly observed, he pronounced the prisoner to be “Not
+guilty.”
+
+“You are acquitted of this charge, Nathaniel Bumppo,” said the Judge.
+
+“Anan!” said Natty.
+
+“You are found not guilty of striking and assaulting Mr. Doolittle.”
+
+“No, no, I’ll not deny but that I took him a little roughly by the
+shoulders,” said Natty, looking about him with great simplicity, “and
+that I—”
+
+“You are acquitted,” interrupted the Judge, “and there is nothing
+further to be said or done in the matter.”
+
+A look of joy lighted up the features of the old man, who now
+comprehended the case, and, placing his cap eagerly on his head again,
+he threw up the bar of his little prison, and said, feelingly:
+
+“I must say this for you, Judge Temple, that the law has not been so
+hard on me as I dreaded.  I hope God will bless you for the kind
+things you’ve done to me this day.”
+
+But the staff of the constable was opposed to his egress, and Mr.
+Lippet whispered a few words in his ear, when the aged hunter sank
+back into his place, and, removing his cap, stroked down the remnants
+of his gray and sandy locks, with an air of mortification mingled with
+submission.
+
+“Mr. District Attorney,” said Judge Temple, affecting to busy himself
+with his minutes, “proceed with the second indictment.”
+
+Mr. Van der School took great care that no part of the presentment,
+which he now read, should be lost on his auditors.  It accused the
+prisoner of resisting the execution of a search-warrant, by force of
+arms, and particularized in the vague language of the law, among a
+variety of other weapons, the use of the rifle.  This was indeed a
+more serious charge than an ordinary assault and battery, and a
+corresponding degree of interest was manifested by the spectators in
+its result.  The prisoner was duly arraigned, and his plea again
+demanded.  Mr. Lippet had anticipated the answers of Natty, and in a
+whisper advised him how to plead.  But the feelings of the old hunter
+were awakened by some of the expressions in the indictment, and,
+forgetful of his caution, he exclaimed:
+
+“‘Tis a wicked untruth; I crave no man’s blood.  Them thieves, the
+Iroquois, won’t say it to any face that I ever thirsted after man’s
+blood, I have fou’t as soldier that feared his Maker and his officer,
+but I never pulled trigger on any but a warrior that was up and awake.
+No man can say that I ever struck even a Mingo in his blanket.  I
+believe there’s some who thinks there’s no God in a wilder ness!”
+
+“Attend to your plea, Bumppo,” said the Judge; “you hear that you are
+accused of using your rifle against an officer of justice? Are you
+guilty or not guilty?”
+
+By this time the irritated feelings of Natty had found vent: and he
+rested on the bar for a moment, in a musing posture, when he lifted
+his face, with his silent laugh, and, pointing to where the wood-
+chopper stood, he said:
+
+“Would Billy Kirby be standing there, d’ye think, if I had used the
+rifle?”
+
+“Then you deny it,” said Mr. Lippet; “you plead not guilty?”
+
+“Sartain,” said Natty; “Billy knows that I never fired at all.  Billy,
+do you remember the turkey last winter? Ah me! that was better than
+common firing; but I can’t shoot as I used to could.”
+
+“Enter the plea of not guilty,” said Judge Temple, strongly affected
+by the simplicity of the prisoner.
+
+Hiram was again sworn, and his testimony given on the second charge.
+He had discovered his former error, and proceeded more cautiously than
+before.  He related very distinctly and, for the man, with amazing
+terseness, the suspicion against the hunter, the complaint, the
+issuing of the warrant, and the swearing in of Kirby; all of which, he
+affirmed, were done in due form of law.  He then added the manner in
+which the constable had been received; and stated, distinctly, that
+Natty had pointed the rifle at Kirby, and threatened his life if he
+attempted to execute his duty.  All this was confirmed by Jotham, who
+was observed to adhere closely to the story of the magistrate.  Mr.
+Lippet conducted an artful cross-examination of these two witnesses,
+but, after consuming much time, was compelled to relinquish the
+attempt to obtain any advantage, in despair.
+
+At length the District Attorney called the wood-chopper to the bar,
+Billy gave an extremely confused account of the whole affair, although
+he evidently aimed at the truth, until Mr. Van der School aided him,
+by asking some direct questions:
+
+“It appears from examining the papers, that you demanded admission
+into the hut legally; so you were put in bodily fear by his rifle and
+threats?”
+
+“I didn’t mind them that, man,” said Billy, snapping his fingers; “I
+should be a poor stick to mind old Leather-Stocking.”
+
+“But I understood you to say (referring to your previous words [as
+delivered here in court] in the commencement of your testimony) that
+you thought he meant to shoot you?”
+
+“To be sure I did; and so would you, too, squire, if you had seen a
+chap dropping a muzzle that never misses, and cocking an eye that has
+a natural squint by long practice I thought there would be a dust
+on’t, and my back was up at once; but Leather-Stocking gi’n up the
+skin, and so the matter ended.”
+
+“Ah! Billy,” said Natty, shaking his head, “‘twas a lucky thought in
+me to throw out the hide, or there might have been blood spilt; and
+I’m sure, if it had been your’n, I should have mourned it sorely the
+little while I have to stay.”
+
+“Well, Leather-Stocking,” returned Billy, facing the prisoner with a
+freedom and familiarity that utterly disregarded the presence of the
+court, “as you are on the subject it may be that you’ve no—”
+
+“Go on with your examination, Mr. District Attorney.”
+
+That gentleman eyed the familiarity between his witness and the
+prisoner with manifest disgust, and indicated to the court that he was
+done.
+
+“Then you didn’t feel frightened, Mr. Kirby?” said the counsel for the
+prisoner.
+
+“Me! no,” said Billy, casting his eyes oven his own huge frame with
+evident self-satisfaction; “I’m not to be skeared so easy.”
+
+“You look like a hardy man; where were you born, sir?”
+
+“Varmount State; ‘tis a mountaynious place, but there’s a stiff soil,
+and it’s pretty much wooded with beech and maple.”
+
+“I have always heard so,” said Mr. Lippet soothingly.  “You have been
+used to the rifle yourself in that country.”
+
+“I pull the second best trigger in this county.  I knock under to
+Natty Bumppo, there, sin’ he shot the pigeon.”
+
+Leather-Stocking raised his head, and laughed again, when he abruptly
+thrust out a wrinkled hand, and said:
+
+“You’re young yet, Billy, and haven’t seen the matches that I have;
+but here’s my hand; I bear no malice to you, I don’t.”
+
+Mr. Lippet allowed this conciliatory offering to be accepted, and
+judiciously paused, while the spirit of peace was exercising its
+influence over the two; but the Judge interposed his authority.
+
+“This is an improper place for such dialogues,” he said; “proceed with
+your examination of this witness, Mr. Lippet, or I shall order the
+next.”
+
+The attorney started, as if unconscious of any impropriety, and
+continued:
+
+“So you settled the matter with Natty amicably on the spot, did you?”
+
+“He gi’n me the skin, and I didn’t want to quarrel with an old man;
+for my part, I see no such mighty matter in shooting a buck!”
+
+“And you parted friends? and you would never have thought of bringing
+the business up before a court, hadn’t you been subpoenaed?”
+
+“I don’t think I should; he gi’n the skin, and I didn’t feel a hard
+thought, though Squire Doolittle got some affronted.”
+
+“I have done, sir,” said Mr. Lippet, probably relying on the charge of
+the Judge, as he again seated himself, with the air of a main who felt
+that his success was certain.
+
+When Mr. Van der School arose to address the jury, he commenced by
+saying:
+
+“Gentlemen of the jury, I should have interrupted the leading
+questions put by the prisoner’s counsel (by leading questions I mean
+telling him what to say), did I not feel confident that the law of the
+land was superior to any ad vantages (I mean legal advantages) which
+he might obtain by his art.  The counsel for the prisoner, gentlemen,
+has endeavored to persuade you, in opposition to your own good sense,
+to believe that pointing a rifle at a constable (elected or deputed)
+is a very innocent affair; and that society (I mean the commonwealth,
+gentlemen) shall not be endangered thereby.  But let me claim your
+attention, while we look over the particulars of this heinous
+offence.” Here Mr. Vain der School favored the jury with an abridgment
+of the testimony, recounted in such a manner as utterly to confuse the
+faculties of his worthy listeners.  After this exhibition he closed as
+follows: “And now, gentlemen, having thus made plain to your senses
+the crime of which this unfortunate man has been guilty (unfortunate
+both on account of his ignorance and his guilt), I shall leave you to
+your own consciences; not in the least doubting that you will see the
+importance (notwithstanding the prisoner’s counsel [doubtless relying
+on your former verdict] wishes to appear so confident of success) of
+punishing the offender, and asserting the dignity of the laws.”
+
+It was now the duty of the Judge to deliver his charge.  It consisted
+of a short, comprehensive summary of the testimony, laying bare the
+artifice of the prisoner’s counsel, and placing the facts in so
+obvious a light that they could not well be misunderstood.  “Living as
+we do, gentlemen,” he concluded, “on the skirts of society, it becomes
+doubly necessary to protect the ministers of the law.  If you believe
+the witnesses, in their construction of the acts of the prisoner, it
+is your duty to convict him; but if you believe that the old man, who
+this day appears before you, meant not to harm the constable, but was
+acting more under the influence of habit than by the instigations of
+malice, it will be your duty to judge him, but to do it with lenity”
+
+As before, the jury did not leave their box; but, after a consultation
+of some little time, their foreman arose, and pronounced the prisoner
+Guilty.
+
+There was but little surprise manifested in the courtroom at this
+verdict, as the testimony, the greater part of which we have omitted,
+was too clear and direct to be passed over.  The judges seemed to have
+anticipated this sentiment, for a consultation was passing among them
+also, during the deliberation of the jury, and the preparatory
+movements of the “bench” announced the coming sentence.
+
+“Nathaniel Bumppo,” commenced the Judge, making the customary pause.
+
+The old hunter, who had been musing again, with his head on the bar,
+raised himself, and cried, with a prompt, military tone:
+
+“Here.”
+
+The Judge waved his hand for silence, and proceeded:
+
+“In forming their sentence, the court have been governed as much by
+the consideration of your ignorance of the laws as by a strict sense
+of the importance of punishing such outrages as this of which you have
+been found guilty.  They have therefore passed over the obvious
+punishment of whipping on the bare back, in mercy to your years; but,
+as the dignity of the law requires an open exhibition of the
+consequences of your crime, it is ordered that you be conveyed from
+this room to the public stocks, where you are to be confined for one
+hour; that you pay a fine to the State of one hundred dollars; and
+that you be imprisoned in the jail of this county for one calendar
+month, and, furthermore, that your imprisonment do not cease until the
+said fine shall be paid.  I feel it my duty, Nathaniel Bumppo—”
+
+“And where should I get the money?” interrupted the Leather-Stocking
+eagerly; “ where should I get the money? you’ll take away the bounty
+on the painters, because I cut the throat of a deer; and how is an old
+man to find so much gold or silver in the woods? No, no, Judge; think
+better of it, and don’t talk of shutting me up in a jail for the
+little time I have to stay.”
+
+“If you have anything to urge against the passing of the sentence, the
+court will yet hear you,” said the Judge, mildly.
+
+“I have enough to say agin’ it,” cried Natty, grasping the bar on
+which his fingers were working with a convulsed motion.  “Where am I
+to get the money? Let me out into the woods and hills, where I’ve been
+used to breathe the clear air, and though I’m threescore and ten, if
+you’ve left game enough in the country, I’ll travel night and day but
+I’ll make you up the sum afore the season is over.  Yes, yes—you see
+the reason of the thing, and the wicked ness of shutting up an old man
+that has spent his days, as one may say, where he could always look
+into the windows of heaven.”
+
+“I must be governed by the law—”
+
+“Talk not to me of law, Marmaduke Temple,” interrupted the hunter.
+“Did the beast of the forest mind your laws, when it was thirsty and
+hungering for the blood of your own child? She was kneeling to her God
+for a greater favor than I ask, and he heard her; and if you now say
+no to my prayers, do you think he will be deaf?”
+
+“My private feelings must not enter into—”
+
+“Hear me, Marmaduke Temple,” interrupted the old man, with melancholy
+earnestness, “and hear reason.  I’ve travelled these mountains when
+you was no judge, but an infant in your mother’s arms; and I feel as
+if I had a right and a privilege to travel them agin afore I die.
+Have you forgot the time that you come on to the lake shore, when
+there wasn’t even a jail to lodge in: and didn’t I give you my own
+bear-skin to sleep on, and the fat of a noble buck to satisfy the
+cravings of your hunger? Yes, yes—you thought it no sin then to kill a
+deer! And this I did, though I had no reason to love you, for you had
+never done anything but harm to them that loved and sheltered me.  And
+now, will you shut me up in your dungeons to pay me for my kindness? A
+hundred dollars! Where should I get the money? No, no—there’s them
+that says hard things of you, Marmaduke Temple, but you ain’t so bad
+as to wish to see an old man die in a prison, because he stood up for
+the right.  Come, friend, let me pass; it’s long sin’ I’ve been used
+to such crowds, and I crave to be in the woods agin.  Don’t fear me,
+Judge— I bid you not to fear me; for if there’s beaver enough left on
+the streams, or the buckskins will sell for a shilling apiece, you
+shall have the last penny of the fine.  Where are ye, pups? come away,
+dogs, come away! we have a grievous toil to do for our years, but it
+shall be done—yes, yes, I’ve promised it, and it shall be done!”
+
+It is unnecessary to say that the movement of the Leather-Stocking was
+again intercepted by the constable; but, before he had time to speak,
+a bustling in the crowd, and a loud hem, drew all eyes to another part
+of the room.
+
+Benjamin had succeeded in edging his way through the people, and was
+now seen balancing his short body, with one foot in a window and the
+other on a railing of the jury-box.  To the amazement of the whole
+court, the steward was evidently preparing to speak.  After a good
+deal of difficulty, he succeeded in drawing from his pocket a small
+bag, and then found utterance.
+
+“If-so-be,” he said, “that your honor is agreeable to trust the poor
+fellow out on another cruise among the beasts, here’s a small matter
+that will help to bring down the risk, seeing that there’s just
+thirty-five of your Spaniards in it; and I wish, from the bottom of my
+heart, that they was raal British guineas, for the sake of the old
+boy.  But ‘tis as it is; and if Squire Dickens will just be so good as
+to overhaul this small bit of an account, and take enough from the bag
+to settle the same, he’s welcome to hold on upon the rest, till such
+time as the Leather-Stocking can grapple with them said beaver, or,
+for that matter, forever, and no thanks asked,”
+
+As Benjamin concluded, he thrust out the wooden register of his
+arrears to the “ Bold Dragoon” with one hand, while he offered his bag
+of dollars with the other.  Astonishment at this singular interruption
+produced a profound stillness in the room, which was only interrupted
+by the sheriff, who struck his sword on the table, and cried:
+“Silence!”
+
+“There must be an end to this,” said the Judge, struggling to overcome
+his feelings.  “Constable, lead the prisoner to the stocks.  Mr.
+Clerk, what stands next on the calendar?”
+
+Natty seemed to yield to his destiny, for he sank his head on his
+chest, and followed the officer from the court room in silence.  The
+crowd moved back for the passage of the prisoner, and when his tall
+form was seen descending from the outer door, a rush of the people to
+the scene of his disgrace followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+
+“Ha! ha! look! he wears cruel garters!”-Lear.
+
+The punishments of the common law were still known, at the time of our
+tale, to the people of New York; and the whipping-post, and its
+companion, the stocks, were not yet supplanted by the more merciful
+expedients of the public prison.  Immediately in front of the jail
+those relics of the older times were situated, as a lesson of
+precautionary justice to the evil-doers of the settlement.
+
+Natty followed the constables to this spot, bowing his head in
+submission to a power that he was unable to op pose, and surrounded by
+the crowd that formed a circle about his person, exhibiting in their
+countenances strong curiosity.  A constable raised the upper part of
+the stocks, and pointed with his finger to the holes where the old man
+was to place his feet.  Without making the least objection to the
+punishment, the Leather-Stocking quietly seated himself on the ground,
+and suffered his limbs to be laid in the openings, without even a
+murmur; though he cast one glance about him, in quest of that sympathy
+that human nature always seems to require under suffering “ but he met
+no direct manifestations of pity, neither did he see any unfeeling
+exultation, or hear a single reproachful epithet.  The character of
+the mob, if it could be called by such a name, was that of attentive
+subordination.
+
+The constable was in the act of lowering the upper plank, when
+Benjamin, who had pressed close to the side of the prisoner, said, in
+his hoarse tone, as if seeking for some cause to create a quarrel:
+
+“Where away, master constable, is the use of clapping a man in them
+here bilboes? It neither stops his grog nor hurts his back; what for
+is it that you do the thing?”
+
+“‘Tis the sentence of the court, Mr. Penguillium, and there’s law for
+it, I s’pose.”
+
+“Ay, ay, I know that there’s law for the thing; but where away do you
+find the use, I say? it does no harm, and it only keeps a man by the
+heels for the small matter of two glasses”
+
+“Is it no harm, Benny Pump,” said Natty, raising his eyes with a
+piteous look in the face of the steward—” is it no harm to show off a
+man in his seventy-first year, like a tame bear, for the settlers to
+look on? Is it no harm to put an old soldier, that has served through
+the war of ‘fifty-six, and seen the enemy in the ‘seventy-six
+business, into a place like this, where the boys can point at him and
+say, I have known the time when he was a spectacle for the county? Is
+it no harm to bring down the pride of an honest man to be the equal of
+the beasts of the forest?”
+
+Benjamin stared about him fiercely, and could he have found a single
+face that expressed contumely, he would have been prompt to quarrel
+with its owner; but meeting everywhere with looks of sobriety, and
+occasionally of commiseration, he very deliberately seated himself by
+the side of the hunter, and, placing his legs in the two vacant holes
+of the stocks, he said:
+
+“Now lower away, master constable, lower away, I tell ye! If-so-be
+there’s such a thing hereabouts, as a man that wants to see a bear,
+let him look and be d—d, and he shall find two of them, and mayhap one
+of the same that can bite as well as growl.”
+
+“But I have no orders to put you in the stocks, Mr. Pump,” cried the
+constable; “you must get up and let me do my duty.”
+
+“You’ve my orders, and what do you need better to meddle with my own
+feet? so lower away, will ye, and let me see the man that chooses to
+open his mouth with a grin on it.”
+
+“There can’t be any harm in locking up a creatur’ that will enter the
+pound,” said the constable, laughing, and closing the stocks on them
+both.
+
+It was fortunate that this act was executed with decision, for the
+whole of the spectators, when they saw Benjamin assume the position he
+took, felt an inclination for merriment, which few thought it worth
+while to suppress.  The steward struggled violently for his liberty
+again, with an evident intention of making battle on those who stood
+nearest to him; but the key was already turned, and all his efforts
+were vain.
+
+“Hark ye, master constable,” he cried, “just clear away your bilboes
+for the small matter of a log-glass, will ye, and let me show some of
+them there chaps who it is they are so merry about”
+
+“No, no, you would go in, and you can’t come out,” returned the
+officer, “until the time has expired that the Judge directed for the
+keeping of the prisoner.”
+
+Benjamin, finding that his threats and his struggles were useless, had
+good sense enough to learn patience from the resigned manner of his
+companion, and soon settled himself down by the side of Natty, with a
+contemptuousness expressed in his hard features, that showed he had
+substituted disgust for rage.  When the violence of the steward’s
+feelings had in some measure subsided, he turned to his fellow-
+sufferer, and, with a motive that might have vindicated a worse
+effusion, he attempted the charitable office of consolation,
+
+“Taking it by and large, Master Bump-ho, it’s but a small matter after
+all,” he said.  “Now, I’ve known very good sort of men, aboard of the
+Boadishey, laid by the heels, for nothing, mayhap, but forgetting that
+they’d drunk their allowance already, when a glass of grog has come in
+their way.  This is nothing more than riding with two anchors ahead,
+waiting for a turn in the tide, or a shift of wind, d’ye see, with a
+soft bottom and plenty of room for the sweep of your hawse.  Now I’ve
+seen many a man, for over-shooting his reckoning, as I told ye moored
+head and starn, where he couldn’t so much as heave his broadside
+round, and mayhap a stopper clapped on his tongue too, in the shape of
+a pump-bolt lashed athwartship his jaws, all the same as an outrigger
+along side of a taffrel-rail.”
+
+The hunter appeared to appreciate the kind intentions of the other,
+though he could not understand his eloquence, and, raising his humbled
+countenance, he attempted a smile, as he said:
+
+“Anan!”
+
+“‘Tis nothing, I say, but a small matter of a squall that will soon
+blow over,” continued Benjamin.  “ To you that has such a length of
+keel, it must be all the same as nothing; thof, seeing that I am
+little short in my lower timbers, they’ve triced my heels up in such a
+way as to give me a bit of a cant.  But what cares I, Master Bump-ho,
+if the ship strains a little at her anchor? it’s only for a dog-watch,
+and dam’me but she’ll sail with you then on that cruise after them
+said beaver.  I'm not much used to small arms, seeing that I was
+stationed at the ammunition- boxes, being summat too low-rigged to see
+over the ham- mock-cloths; but I can carry the game, dye see, and
+mayhap make out to lend a hand with the traps; and if- so-be you’re
+any way so handy with them as ye be with your boat-hook, ‘twill be but
+a short cruise after all, I've squared the yards with Squire Dickens
+this morning, and I shall send him word that he needn’t bear my name
+on the books again till such time as the cruise is over.”
+
+“You’re used to dwell with men, Benny,” said Leather-Stocking,
+mournfully, “ and the ways of the woods would be hard on you, if——”
+
+“Not a bit—not a bit,” cried the steward; “I’m none of your fair-
+weather chaps, Master Bump-ho, as sails only in smooth water.  When I
+find a friend, I sticks by him, dye see.  Now, there’s no better man
+a-going than Squire Dickens, and I love him about the same as I loves
+Mistress Hollister’s new keg of Jamaiky.” The steward paused, and
+turning his uncouth visage on the hunter, he surveyed him with a
+roguish leer of his eye, and gradually suffered the muscles of his
+hard features to relax, until his face was illuminated by the display
+of his white teeth, when he “ dropped his voice, and added; “I say,
+Master Leather-
+
+Stocking, ‘tis fresher and livelier than any Hollands you’ll get in
+Garnsey.  But we’ll send a hand over and ask the woman for a taste,
+for I’m so jammed in these here bilboes that I begin to want summat to
+lighten my upper works.”
+
+Natty sighed, and gazed about him on the crowd, that already began to
+disperse, and which had now diminished greatly, as its members
+scattered in their various pursuits.  He looked wistfully at Benjamin,
+but did not reply; a deeply-seated anxiety seeming to absorb every
+other sensation, and to throw a melancholy gloom over his wrinkled
+features, which were working with the movements of his mind.
+
+The steward was about to act on the old principle, that silence gives
+consent, when Hiram Doolittle, attended by Jotham, stalked out of the
+crowd, across the open space, and approached the stocks.  The
+magistrate passed by the end where Benjamin was seated, and posted
+himself, at a safe distance from the steward, in front of the Leather-
+Stocking.  Hiram stood, for a moment, cowering before the keen looks
+that Natty fastened on him, and suffering under an embarrassment that
+was quite new; when having in some degree recovered himself, he looked
+at the heavens, and then at the smoky atmosphere, as if it were only
+an ordinary meeting with a friend, and said in his formal, hesitating
+way:
+
+“Quite a scurcity of rain, lately; I some think we shall have a long
+drought on’t.”
+
+Benjamin was occupied in untying his bag of dollars, and did not
+observe the approach of the magistrate, while Natty turned his face,
+in which every muscle was working, away from him in disgust, without
+answering.  Rather encouraged than daunted by this exhibition of
+dislike, Hiram, after a short pause, continued:
+
+“The clouds look as if they’d no water in them, and the earth is
+dreadfully parched.  To my judgment, there’ll be short crops this
+season, if the rain doesn’t fail quite speedily.”
+
+The air with which Mr. Doolittle delivered this prophetical opinion
+was peculiar to his species.  It was a jesuitical, cold, unfeeling,
+and selfish manner, that seemed to say, “I have kept within the law,”
+to the man he had so cruelly injured.  It quite overcame the restraint
+that the old hunter had been laboring to impose on himself, and he
+burst out in a warm glow of indignation.
+
+“Why should the rain fall from the clouds,” he cried, “when you force
+the tears from the eyes of the old, the sick, and the poor! Away with
+ye—away with ye! you may be formed in the image of the Maker, but
+Satan dwells in your heart.  Away with ye, I say! I am mournful, and
+the sight of ye brings bitter thoughts.”
+
+Benjamin ceased thumbing his money, and raised his head at the instant
+that Hiram, who was thrown off his guard by the invectives of the
+hunter, unluckily trusted his person within reach of the steward, who
+grasped one of his legs with a hand that had the grip of a vise, and
+whirled the magistrate from his feet, before he had either time to
+collect his senses or to exercise the strength he did really possess.
+Benjamin wanted neither proportions nor manhood in his head,
+shoulders, and arms, though all the rest of his frame appeared to be
+originally intended for a very different sort of a man.  He exerted
+his physical powers on the present occasion, with much discretion;
+and, as he had taken his antagonist at a great disadvantage, the
+struggle resulted very soon in Benjamin getting the magistrate fixed
+in a posture somewhat similar to his own, and manfully placed face to
+face.
+
+“You’re a ship’s cousin, I tell ye, Master Doo-but-little,” roared the
+steward; “some such matter as a ship’s cousin, sir.  I know you, I do,
+with your fair-weather speeches to Squire Dickens, to his face, and
+then you go and sarve out your grumbling to all the old women in the
+town, do ye? Ain’t it enough for any Christian, let him harbor never
+so much malice, to get an honest old fellow laid by the heels in this
+fashion, without carrying sail so hard on the poor dog, as if you
+would run him down as he lay at his anchors? But I’ve logged many a
+hard thing against your name, master, and now the time’s come to foot
+up the day’s work, d’ye see; so square yourself, you lubber, square
+yourself, and we’ll soon know who’s the better man.”
+
+“Jotham!” cried the frightened magistrate—” Jotham! call in the
+constables.  Mr. Penguillium, I command the peace—I order you to keep
+the peace.”
+
+“There's been more peace than love atwixt us, master,” cried the
+steward, making some very unequivocal demonstrations toward hostility;
+“so mind yourself! square your self, I say! do you smell this here bit
+of a sledge-hammer?”
+
+“Lay hands on me if you dare!” exclaimed Hiram, as well as he could,
+under the grasp which the steward held on his throttle—” lay hands on
+me if you dare!”
+
+“If you call this laying, master, you are welcome to the eggs,” roared
+the steward.
+
+It becomes our disagreeable duty to record here, that the acts of
+Benjamin now became violent; for he darted his sledge-hammer violently
+on the anvil of Mr. Doolittle’s countenance, and the place became in
+an instant a scene of tumult and confusion.  The crowd rushed in a
+dense circle around the spot, while some ran to the court room to give
+the alarm, and one or two of the more juvenile part of the multitude
+had a desperate trial of speed to see who should be the happy man to
+communicate the critical situation of the magistrate to his wife.
+
+Benjamin worked away, with great industry and a good deal of skill, at
+his occupation, using one hand to raise up his antagonist, while he
+knocked him over with the other; for he would have been disgraced in
+his own estimation, had he struck a blow on a fallen adversary.  By
+this considerate arrangement he had found means to hammer the visage
+of Hiram out of all shape, by the time Richard succeeded in forcing
+his way through the throng to the point of combat.  The sheriff
+afterward declared that, independently of his mortification as
+preserver of the peace of the county, at this interruption to its
+harmony, he was never so grieved in his life as when he saw this
+breach of unity between his favorites.  Hiram had in some degree
+become necessary to his vanity, and Benjamin, strange as it may
+appear, he really loved.  This attachment was exhibited in the first
+words that he uttered.
+
+“Squire Doolittle! Squire Doolittle! I am ashamed to see a man of your
+character and office forget himself so much as to disturb the peace,
+insult the court, and beat poor Benjamin in this manner!”
+
+At the sound of Mr. Jones’ voice, the steward ceased his employment,
+and Hiram had an opportunity of raising his discomfited visage toward
+the mediator.  Emboldened by the sight of the sheriff, Mr. Doolittle
+again had recourse to his lungs.
+
+“I’ll have law on you for this,” he cried desperately; “I’ll have the
+law on you for this.  I call on you, Mr. Sheriff, to seize this man,
+and I demand that you take his body into custody.”
+
+By this time Richard was master of the true state of the case, and,
+turning to the steward, he said reproach fully:
+
+“Benjamin, how came you in the stocks? I always thought you were mild
+and docile as a lamb.  It was for your docility that I most esteemed
+you.  Benjamin! Benjamin! you have not only disgraced yourself, but
+your friends, by this shameless conduct, Bless me! bless me! Mr.
+Doolittle, he seems to have knocked your face all of one side.”
+
+Hiram by this time had got on his feet again, and with out the reach
+of the steward, when he broke forth in violent appeals for vengeance.
+The offence was too apparent to be passed over, and the sheriff,
+mindful of the impartiality exhibited by his cousin in the recent
+trial of the Leather-Stocking, came to the painful conclusion that it
+was necessary to commit his major-domo to prison.  As the time of
+Natty’s punishment was expired, and Benjamin found that they were to
+be confined, for that night at least, in the same apartment, he made
+no very strong objection to the measure, nor spoke of bail, though, as
+the sheriff preceded the party of constables that conducted them to
+the jail, he uttered the following remonstrance:
+
+“As to being berthed with Master Bump-ho for a night or so, it’s but
+little I think of it, Squire Dickens, seeing that I calls him an
+honest man, and one as has a handy way with boat-hooks and rifles; but
+as for owning that a man desarves anything worse than a double
+allowance, for knocking that carpenters face a-one-side, as you call
+it, I’ll maintain it’s agin’ reason and Christianity.  If there’s a
+bloodsucker in this 'ere county, it’s that very chap.  Ay! I know him!
+and if he hasn’t got all the same as dead wood in his headworks, he
+knows summat of me.  Where’s the mighty harm, squire, that you take it
+so much to heart? It’s all the same as any other battle, d’ye see sir,
+being broadside to broadside, only that it was foot at anchor,
+which was what we did in Port Pray a roads, when Suff’ring came in
+among us; and a suff’ring time he had of it before he got out again.”
+
+Richard thought it unworthy of him to make any reply to this speech,
+but when his prisoners were safely lodged in an outer dungeon,
+ordering the bolts to be drawn and the key turned, he withdrew.
+
+Benjamin held frequent and friendly dialogues with different people,
+through the iron gratings, during the afternoon; but his companion
+paced their narrow’ limits, in his moccasins, with quick, impatient
+treads, his face hanging on his breast in dejection, or when lifted,
+at moments, to the idlers at the window, lighted, perhaps, for an
+instant, with the childish aspect of aged forgetfulness, which would
+vanish directly in an expression of deep and obvious anxiety.
+
+At the close of the day, Edwards was seen at the window, in earnest
+dialogue with his friend; and after he de parted it was thought that
+he had communicated words of comfort to the hunter, who threw himself
+on his pallet and was soon in a deep sleep.  The curious spectators
+had exhausted the conversation of the steward, who had drunk good
+fellowship with half of his acquaintance, and, as Natty was no longer
+in motion, by eight o’clock, Billy Kirby, who was the last lounger at
+the window, retired into the “Templeton Coffee-house,” when Natty rose
+and hung a blanket before the opening, and the prisoners apparently
+retired for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+
+“And to avoid the foe’s pursuit,
+With spurring put their cattle to’t;
+And till all four were out of wind,
+And danger too, neer looked behind.”—Hudibras.
+
+As the shades of evening approached, the jurors, wit nesses, and other
+attendants on the court began to disperse, and before nine o’clock the
+village was quiet, and its streets nearly deserted.  At that hour
+Judge Temple and his daughter, followed at a short distance by Louisa
+Grant, walked slowly down the avenue, under the slight shadows of the
+young poplars, holding the following discourse:
+
+“You can best soothe his wounded spirit, my child,” said Marmaduke;
+“but it will be dangerous to touch on the nature of his offence; the
+sanctity of the laws must be respected.”
+
+“Surely, sir,” cried the impatient Elizabeth, “those laws that condemn
+a man like the Leather-Stocking to so severe a punishment, for an
+offence that even I must think very venial, cannot be perfect in
+themselves.”
+
+“Thou talkest of what thou dost not understand, Elizabeth,” returned
+her father.  “Society cannot exist without wholesome restraints.
+Those restraints cannot be inflicted without security and respect to
+the persons of those who administer them; and it would sound ill
+indeed to report that a judge had extended favor to a convicted
+criminal, because he had saved the life of his child.”
+
+“I see—I see the difficulty of your situation, dear sir,” cried the
+daughter; “but, in appreciating the offence of poor Natty, I cannot
+separate the minister of the law from the man.”
+
+“There thou talkest as a woman, child; it is not for an assault on
+Hiram Doolittle, but for threatening the life of a constable, who was
+in the performance of—”
+
+“It is immaterial whether it be one or the other,” interrupted Miss
+Temple, with a logic that contained more feeling than reason; “I know
+Natty to be innocent, and thinking so I must think all wrong who
+oppress him.”
+
+“His judge among the number! thy father, Elizabeth?”
+
+“Nay, nay, nay; do not put such questions to me; give me my
+commission, father, and let me proceed to execute it.”
+
+The Judge paused a moment, smiling fondly on his child, and then
+dropped his hand affectionately on her shoulder, as he answered:
+
+“Thou hast reason, Bess, and much of it, too, but thy heart lies too
+near thy head, But listen; in this pocketbook are two hundred dollars.
+Go to the prison—there are none in this pace to harm thee—give this
+note to the jailer, and, when thou seest Bumppo, say what thou wilt to
+the poor old man; give scope to the feeling of thy warm heart; but try
+to remember, Elizabeth, that the laws alone remove us from the
+condition of the savages; that he has been criminal, and that his
+judge was thy father.”
+
+Miss Temple made no reply, but she pressed the hand that held the
+pocket-book to her bosom, and, taking her friend by the arm, they
+issued together from the inclosure into the principal street of the
+village.
+
+As they pursued their walk in silence, under the row of houses, where
+the deeper gloom of the evening effectually concealed their persons,
+no sound reached them, excepting the slow tread of a yoke of oxen,
+with the rattling of j a cart, that were moving along the street in
+the same direction with themselves, The figure of the teamster was
+just discernible by the dim light, lounging by the side of his cattle
+with a listless air, as if fatigued by the toil of the day.  At the
+corner, where the jail stood, the progress of the ladies was impeded,
+for a moment, by the oxen, who were turned up to the side of the
+building, and given a lock of hay, which they had carried on their
+necks, as a reward for their patient labor, The whole of this was so
+natural, and so common, that Elizabeth saw nothing to induce a second
+glance at the team, until she heard the teamster speaking to his
+cattle in a low voice:
+
+“Mind yourself, Brindle; will you, sir! will you!” The language itself
+was so unusual to oxen, with which all who dwell in a new country are
+familiar; but there was something in the voice, also, that startled
+Miss Temple On turning the corner, she necessarily approached the man,
+and her look was enabled to detect the person of Oliver Edwards,
+concealed under the coarse garb of a teamster.  Their eyes met at the
+same instant, and, not- t withstanding the gloom, and the enveloping
+cloak of Elizabeth, the recognition was mutual.
+
+“Miss Temple!” “Mr. Edwards!” were exclaimed simultaneously, though a
+feeling that seemed common to both rendered the words nearly
+inaudible.
+
+“Is it possible!” exclaimed Edwards, after the moment of doubt had
+passed; “do I see you so nigh the jail! but you are going to the
+rectory: I beg pardon, Miss Grant, I believe; I did not recognize you
+at first.”
+
+The sigh which Louisa tittered was so faint, that it was only heard by
+Elizabeth, who replied quickly, “We are going not only to the jail,
+Mr. Edwards' but into it.  We wish to show the Leather-Stocking that
+we do not forget his services, and that at the same time we must be
+just, we are also grateful.  I suppose you are on a similar errand;
+but let me beg that you will give us leave to precede you ten minutes.
+Good-night, sir; I— I—am quite sorry, Mr. Edwards, to see you reduced
+to such labor; I am sure my father would—”
+
+“I shall wait your pleasure, madam,” interrupted the youth coldly.
+“May I beg that you will not mention my being here?”
+
+“Certainly,” said Elizabeth, returning his bow by a slight inclination
+of her head, and urging the tardy Louisa forward.  As they entered the
+jailer’s house, however, Miss Grant found leisure to whisper:
+
+“Would it not be well to offer part of your money to Oliver? half of
+it will pay the fine of Bumppo; and he is so unused to hardships! I am
+sure my father will subscribe much of his little pittance, to place
+him in a station that is more worthy of him.”
+
+The involuntary smile that passed over the features of Elizabeth was
+blended with an expression of deep and heartfelt pity.  She did not
+reply, however, and the appearance of the jailer soon recalled the
+thoughts of both to the object of their visit.
+
+The rescue of the ladies, and their consequent interest in his
+prisoner, together with the informal manners that prevailed in the
+country, all united to prevent any surprise on the part of the jailer,
+at their request for admission to Bumppo.  The note of Judge Temple,
+however, would have silenced all objections, if he had felt them and
+he led the way without hesitation to the apartment that held the
+prisoners.  The instant the key was put into the lock, the hoarse
+voice of Benjamin was heard, demanding:
+
+“Yo hoy! who comes there?”
+
+“Some visitors that you’ll be glad to see,” returned the jailer.
+“What have you done to the lock, that it won’t turn”
+
+“Handsomely, handsomely, master,” cried the steward:
+“I have just drove a nail into a berth alongside of this here bolt, as
+a stopper, d’ye see, so that Master Doo-but little can’t be running in
+and breezing up another fight atwixt us: for, to my account, there’ll
+be but a han-yan with me soon, seeing that they’ll mulct me of my
+Spaniards, all the same as if I’d over-flogged the lubber.  Throw your
+ship into the wind, and lay by for a small matter, will ye? and I’ll
+soon clear a passage.”
+
+The sounds of hammering gave an assurance that the steward was in
+earnest, and in a short time the lock yielded, when the door was
+opened.
+
+Benjamin had evidently been anticipating the seizure of his money, for
+he had made frequent demands on the favorite cask at the “Bold
+Dragoon,” during the afternoon and evening, and was now in that state
+which by marine imagery is called “half-seas-over.” It was no easy
+thing to destroy the balance of the old tar by the effects of liquor,
+for, as he expressed it himself, “he was too low-rigged not to carry
+sail in all weathers;” but he was precisely in that condition which is
+so expressively termed “muddy.” When he perceived who the visitors
+were, he retreated to the side of the room where his pallet lay, and,
+regardless of the presence of his young mistress, seated himself on it
+with an air of great sobriety, placing his back firmly against the
+wall.
+
+“If you undertake to spoil my locks in this manner, Mr. Pump,” said
+the jailer, “I shall put a stopper, as you call it, on your legs, and
+tie you down to your bed.”
+
+“What for should ye, master?” grumbled Benjamin; “I’ve rode out one
+squall to-day anchored by the heels, and I wants no more of them.
+Where’s the harm o’ doing all the same as yourself? Leave that there
+door free out board, and you’ll find no locking inboard, I’ll promise
+ye.”
+
+“I must shut up for the night at nine,” said the jailer, “and it’s now
+forty-two minutes past eight.” He placed the little candle on a rough
+pine table, and withdrew.
+
+“Leather-Stocking!” said Elizabeth, when the key of the door was
+turned on them again, “my good friend, Leather-Stocking! I have come
+on a message of gratitude.  Had you submitted to the search, worthy
+old man, the death of the deer would have been a trifle, and all would
+have been well———”
+
+“Submit to the sarch!” interrupted Natty, raising his face from
+resting on his knees, without rising from the corner where he had
+seated himself; “d’ye think gal, I would let such a varmint into my
+hut? No, no—I wouldn’t have opened the door to your own sweet
+countenance then.  But they are welcome to search among the coals and
+ashes now; they’ll find only some such heap as is to be seen at every
+pot-ashery in the mountains.”
+
+The old man dropped his face again on one hand, and seemed to be lost
+in melancholy.
+
+“The hut can be rebuilt, and made better than before,” returned Miss
+Temple;” and it shall be my office to see it done, when your
+imprisonment is ended.”
+
+Can ye raise the dead, child?” said Natty, in a sorrowful voice: “can
+ye go into the place where you’ve laid your fathers, and mothers, and
+children, and gather together their ashes, and make the same men and
+women of them as afore? You do not know what ‘tis to lay your head for
+more than forty years under the cover of the same logs, and to look at
+the same things for the better part of I a man’s life.  You are young
+yet, child, but you are one of the most precious of God’s creatures.
+I had hoped for ye that it might come to pass, but it’s all over now;
+this, put to that, will drive the thing quite out of his mind for
+ever.”
+
+Miss Temple must have understood the meaning of the old man better
+than the other listeners; for while Louisa stood innocently by her
+side, commiserating the griefs of the hunter, she bent her head aside,
+so as to conceal her features.  The action and the feeling that caused
+it lasted but a moment.
+
+“Other logs, and better, though, can be had, and shall be found for
+you, my old defender,” she continued.  “Your confinement will soon
+be over, and, before that time arrives, I shall have a house prepared
+for you, where I you may spend the close of your long and harmless
+life in ease and plenty.”
+
+“Ease and plenty! house!” repeated Natty, slowly.  “You mean well, you
+mean well, and I quite mourn that it cannot be; but he has seen me a
+sight and a laughing-stock for—”
+
+“Damn your stocks,” said Benjamin, flourishing his bottle with one
+hand, from which he had been taking hasty and repeated draughts,
+while he made gestures of disdain with the other: “who cares for his
+bilboes? There’s a leg that been stuck up on end like a jibboom for an
+hour. d’ye see, and what’s it the worse for’t, ha? canst tell me,
+what’s it the worser, ha?”
+
+“I believe you forget, Mr. Pump, in whose presence you are,” said
+Elizabeth.
+
+“Forget you, Miss Lizzy?” returned the steward; “if I do, dam’me; you
+are not to be forgot, like Goody Pretty-bones, up at the big house
+there.  I say, old sharpshooter, she may have pretty bones, but I
+can’t say so much for her flesh, d’ye see, for she looks somewhat like
+anatomy with another man’s jacket on.  Now for the skin of her face,
+it’s all the same as a new topsail with a taut bolt-rope, being snug
+at the leeches, but all in a bight about the inner cloths,”
+
+“Peace—I command you to be silent, sir!” said Elizabeth.
+
+“Ay, ay, ma’am,” returned the steward.  “You didn’t say I shouldn’t
+drink, though.”
+
+“We will not speak of what is to become of others,” said Miss Temple,
+turning again to the hunter—” but of your own fortunes, Natty.  It
+shall be my care to see that you pass the rest of your days in ease
+and plenty.”
+
+“Ease and plenty!” again repeated the Leather-Stocking; “what ease can
+there be to an old man, who must walk a mile across the open fields,
+before he can find a shade to hide him from a scorching sun! or what
+plenty is there where you hunt a day, and not start a buck, or see
+anything bigger than a mink, or maybe a stray fox! Ah! I shall have a
+hard time after them very beavers, for this fine.  I must go low
+toward the Pennsylvania line in search of the creatures, maybe a
+hundred mile; for they are not to be got here-away.  No, no—your
+betterments and clearings have druv the knowing things out of the
+country, and instead of beaver-dams, which is the nater of the animal,
+and according to Providence, you turn back the waters over the low
+grounds with your mill-dams, as if ‘twas in man to stay the drops from
+going where He wills them to go—Benny, unless you stop your hand from
+going so often to your mouth, you won’t be ready to start when the
+time comes.
+
+“Hark’ee, Master Bump-ho,” said the steward; “don’t you fear for Ben,
+When the watch is called, set me of my legs and give me the bearings
+and the distance of where you want me to steer, and I’ll carry sail
+with the best of you, I will.”
+
+“The time has come now,” said the hunter, listening; “I hear the horns
+of the oxen rubbing agin’ the side of the jail.”
+
+“Well, say the word, and then heave ahead, shipmate,” said Benjamin.
+
+“You won’t betray us, gal?” said Natty, looking simply into the face
+of Elizabeth—” you won’t betray an old man, who craves to breathe the
+clear air of heaven? I mean no harm; and if the law says that I must
+pay the hundred dollars, I’ll take the season through, but it shall be
+forthcoming; and this good man will help me.”
+
+“You catch them,” said Benjamin, with a sweeping gesture of his arm,
+“and if they get away again, call me a slink, that’s all.”
+
+“But what mean you?” cried thc wondering Elizabeth.  “ Here you must
+stay for thirty days; but I have the money for your fine in this
+purse.  Take it; pay it in the morning, and summon patience for your
+mouth.  I will come often to see you, with my friend; we will make up
+your clothes with our own hands; indeed, indeed, you shall be
+comfortable.”
+
+“Would ye, children?” said Natty, advancing across the floor with an
+air of kindness, and taking the hand of Elizabeth, “would ye be so
+kearful of an old man, and just for shooting a beast which cost him
+nothing? Such things doesn’t run in the blood, I believe, for you seem
+not to forget a favor.  Your little fingers couldn’t do much on a
+buckskin, nor be you used to push such a thread as sinews.  But if he
+hasn’t got past hearing, he shalt hear it and know it, that he may
+see, like me, there is some who know how to remember a kindness,”
+
+“Tell him nothing,” cried Elizabeth, earnestly; “if you love me, if
+you regard my feelings, tell him nothing.  It is of yourself only I
+would talk, and for yourself only I act.  I grieve, Leather-Stocking,
+that the law requires that you should be detained here so long; but,
+after all, it will be only a short month, and——”
+
+“A month?” exclaimed Natty, opening his mouth with his usual laugh,
+“not a day, nor a night, nor an hour, gal.  Judge Temple may sintence,
+but he can’t keep without a better dungeon than this.  I was taken
+once by the French, and they put sixty-two of us in a block-house,
+nigh hand to old Frontinac; but ‘twas easy to cut through a pine log
+to them that was used to timber.” The hunter paused, and looked
+cautiously around the room, when, laughing again, he shoved the
+steward gently from his post, and removing the bedclothes, discovered
+a hole recently cut in the logs with a mallet and chisel.  “It’s only
+a kick, and the outside piece is off, and then—”
+
+“Off! ay, off!” cried Benjamin, rising from his stupor; “well, here’s
+off.  Ay! ay! you catch ‘em, and I'll hold on to them said beaver-
+hats,”
+
+“I fear this lad will trouble me much,” said Natty; “‘twill be a hard
+pull for the mountain, should they take the scent soon, and he is not
+in a state of mind to run.”
+
+“Run!” echoed the steward; “no, sheer alongside, and let’s have a
+fight of it.”
+
+“Peace!” ordered Elizabeth.
+
+“Ay, ay, ma’am.”
+
+“You will not leave us, surely, Leather-Stocking,” continued Miss
+Temple; “I beseech you, reflect that you will be driven to the woods
+entirely, and that you are fast getting old.  Be patient for a little
+time, when you can go abroad openly, and with honor.”
+
+“Is there beaver to be catched here, gal?”
+
+“If not, here is money to discharge the fine, and in a month you are
+free.  See, here it is in gold.”
+
+“Gold!” said Natty, with a kind of childish curiosity; “it’s long sin’
+I’ve seen a gold-piece.  We used to get the broad joes, in the old
+war, as plenty as the bears be now.  I remember there was a man in
+Dieskau’s army, that was killed, who had a dozen of the shining things
+sewed up in his shirt.  I didn’t handle them myself, but I seen them
+cut out with my own eyes; they was bigger and brighter than them be.”
+
+“These are English guineas, and are yours,” said Elizabeth; “an
+earnest of what shall be done for you.”
+
+“Me! why should you give me this treasure!” said Natty, looking
+earnestly at the maiden.
+
+“Why! have you not saved my life? Did you not rescue me from the jaws
+of the beast?” exclaimed Elizabeth, veiling her eyes, as if to hide
+some hideous object from her view.
+
+The hunter took the money, and continued turning it in his hand for
+some time, piece by piece, talking aloud during the operation.
+
+“There’s a rifle, they say, out on the Cherry Valley, that will carry
+a hundred rods and kill.  I’ve seen good guns in my day, but none
+quite equal to that.  A hundred rods with any sartainty is great
+shooting! Well, well— I’m old, and the gun I have will answer my time.
+Here, child, take back your gold.  But the hour has come; I hear him
+talking to the cattle, and I must be going.  You won’t tell of us,
+gal—you won’t tell of us, will ye?”
+
+“Tell of you!” echoed Elizabeth.  “But take the money, old man; take
+the money, even if you go into the mountains.”
+
+“No, no,” said Natty, shaking his head kindly; “I would not rob you so
+for twenty rifles.  But there’s one thing you can do for me, if ye
+will, that no other is at hand to do.
+
+“Name it—name it.”
+
+“Why, it’s only to buy a canister of powder—’twill cost two silver
+dollars.  Benny Pump has the money ready, but we daren’t come into the
+town to get it.  Nobody has it but the Frenchman.  'Tis of the best,
+and just suits a rifle.  Will you get it for me, gal?—say, will you
+get it for me?”
+
+“Will I? I will bring it to you, Leather-Stocking, though I toil a day
+in quest of you through the woods.  But where shall I find you, and
+how?”
+
+“Where?” said Natty, musing a moment—” to-morrow on the Vision; on the
+very top of the Vision, I’ll meet you, child, just as the sun gets
+over our heads.  See that it’s the fine grain; you’ll know it by the
+gloss and the price.”
+
+“I will do it,” said Elizabeth, firmly.
+
+Natty now seated himself, and placing his feet in the hole, with a
+slight effort he opened a passage through into the street.  The ladies
+heard the rustling of hay, and well understood the reason why Edwards
+was in the capacity of a teamster.
+
+“Come, Benny,” said the hunter: “‘twill be no darker to-night, for the
+moon will rise in an hour.”
+
+“Stay!” exclaimed Elizabeth; “it should not be said that you escaped
+in the presence of the daughter of Judge Temple.  Return, Leather-
+Stocking, and let us retire be fore you execute your plan.”
+
+Natty was about to reply, when the approaching footsteps of the jailer
+announced the necessity of his immediate return.  He had barely time
+to regain his feet, and to conceal the hole with the bedclothes,
+across which Benjamin very opportunely fell, before the key was
+turned, and the door of the apartment opened.
+
+“Isn’t Miss Temple ready to go?” said the civil jailer; “ it’s the
+usual hour for locking up.”
+
+“I follow you, sir,” returned Elizabeth “good-night, Leather-
+Stocking.”
+
+“It’s a fine grain, gal, and I think twill carry lead further than
+common.  I am getting old, and can’t follow up the game with the step
+I used to could,”
+
+Miss Temple waved her hand for silence, and preceded Louisa and the
+keeper from the apartment.  The man turned the key once, and observed
+that he would return and secure his prisoners, when he had lighted the
+ladies to the street.  Accordingly they parted at the door of the
+building, when the jailer retired to his dungeons, and the ladies
+walked, with throbbing hearts, toward the corner.
+
+“Now the Leather-Stocking refuses the money,” whispered Louisa, “it
+can all be given to Mr. Edwards, and that added to—”
+
+“Listen!” said Elizabeth; “ I hear the rustling of the hay; they are
+escaping at this moment.  Oh! they will be detected instantly!”
+
+By this time they were at the corner, where Edwards and Natty were in
+the act of drawing the almost helpless body of Benjamin through the
+aperture.  The oxen had started back from their hay, and were standing
+with their heads down the street, leaving room for the party to act
+in.
+
+“Throw the hay into the cart,” said Edwards, “or they will suspect how
+it has been done.  Quick, that they may not see it.”
+
+Natty had just returned from executing this order, when the light of
+the keeper’s candle shone through the hole, and instantly his voice
+was heard in the jail exclaiming for his prisoners.
+
+“What is to be done now?” said Edwards; “this drunken fellow will
+cause our detection, and we have not a moment to spare.”
+
+“Who’s drunk, ye lubber?” muttered the steward.
+
+“A break-jail! a break-jail!” shouted five or six voices from within.
+
+“We must leave him,” said Edwards.
+
+“‘Twouldn’t be kind, lad,” returned Natty; “he took half the disgrace
+of the stocks on himself to-day, and the creatur’ has feeling.”
+
+At this moment two or three men were heard issuing from the door of
+the “Bold Dragoon,” and among them the voice of Billy Kirby.
+
+“There’s no moon yet,” cried the wood-chopper; “but it’s a clear
+night.  Come, who’s for home? Hark! what a rumpus they’re kicking up
+in the jail—here’s go and see what it’s about.”
+
+“We shall be lost,” said Edwards, “if we don’t drop this man.”
+
+At that instant Elizabeth moved close to him, and said rapidly, in a
+low voice:
+
+“Lay him in the cart, and start the oxen; no one will look there.”
+
+“There’s a woman’s quickness in the thought,” said the youth.
+
+The proposition was no sooner made than executed.  The steward was
+seated on the hay, and enjoined to hold his peace and apply the goad
+that was placed in his hand, while the oxen were urged on.  So soon as
+this arrangement was completed, Edwards and the hunter stole along the
+houses for a short distance, when they disappeared through an opening
+that led into the rear of the buildings.
+
+The oxen were in brisk motion, and presently the cries of pursuit were
+heard in the street.  The ladies quickened their pace, with a wish to
+escape the crowd of constables and idlers that were approaching, some
+execrating, and some laughing at the exploit of the prisoners.  In the
+confusion, the voice of Kirby was plainly distinguishable above all
+the others, shouting and swearing that he would have the fugitives,
+threatening to bring back Natty in one pocket, and Benjamin in the
+other.
+
+“Spread yourselves, men,” he cried, as he passed the ladies, his heavy
+feet sounding along the street like the tread of a dozen; “spread
+yourselves; to the mountains; they’ll be in the mountains in a quarter
+of an hour, and then look out for a long rifle.”
+
+His cries were echoed from twenty mouths, for not only the jail but
+the taverns had sent forth their numbers, some earnest in the pursuit,
+and others joining it as in sport.
+
+As Elizabeth turned in at her father’s gate she saw the wood-chopper
+stop at the cart, when she gave Benjamin up for lost.  While they were
+hurrying up the walk, two figures, stealing cautiously but quickly
+under the shades of the trees, met the eyes of the ladies, and in a
+moment Edwards and the hunter crossed their path.
+
+“Miss Temple, I may never see you again,” exclaimed the youth; “let me
+thank you for all your kindness; you do not, cannot know my motives.”
+
+“Fly! fly!” cried Elizabeth; “the village is alarmed.  Do not be found
+conversing with me at such a moment, and in these grounds.”
+
+“Nay, I must speak, though detection were certain,”
+
+“Your retreat to the bridge is already cut off; before you can gain
+the wood your pursuers will be there.  If—”
+
+“If what?” cried the youth.  “Your advice has saved me once already; I
+will follow it to death.”
+
+“The street is now silent and vacant,” said Elizabeth, after a pause;
+“cross it, and you will find my father’s boat in the lake.  It would
+be easy to land from it where you please in the hills.”
+
+“But Judge Temple might complain of the trespass.”
+
+“His daughter shall be accountable, sir.”
+
+The youth uttered something in a low voice, that was heard only by
+Elizabeth, and turned to execute what she had suggested.  As they were
+separating, Natty approached the females, and said:
+
+“You’ll remember the canister of powder, children.  Them beavers must
+be had, and I and the pups be getting old; we want the best of
+ammunition.”
+
+“Come, Natty,” said Edwards, impatiently.
+
+“Coming, lad, coming.  God bless you, young ones, both of ye, for ye
+mean well and kindly to the old man.”
+
+The ladies paused until they had lost sight of the retreating figures,
+when they immediately entered the mansion-house.
+
+While this scene was passing in the walk, Kirby had overtaken the
+cart, which was his own, and had been driven by Edwards, without
+asking the owner, from the place where the patient oxen usually stood
+at evening, waiting the pleasure of their master.
+
+“Woa—come hither, Golden,” he cried; “why, how come you off the end of
+the bridge, where I left you, dummies?”
+
+“Heave ahead,” muttered Benjamin, giving a random blow with his lash,
+that alighted on the shoulder of the other.
+
+“Who the devil be you?” cried Billy, turning round in surprise, but
+unable to distinguish, in the dark, the hard visage that was just
+peering over the cart-rails.
+
+“Who be I? why, I’m helmsman aboard of this here craft d’ye see, and a
+straight wake I’m making of it.  Ay, ay! I’ve got the bridge right
+ahead, and the bilboes dead aft: I calls that good steerage, boy.
+Heave ahead.”
+
+“Lay your lash in the right spot, Mr. Benny Pump,” said the wood-
+chopper, “or I’ll put you in the palm of my hand and box your ears.
+Where be you going with my team?”
+
+“Team!”
+
+“Ay.  my cart and oxen,”
+
+“Why, you must know, Master Kirby, that the Leather-Stocking and I—
+that’s Benny Pump—you knows Ben?— well, Benny and I—no, me and Benny;
+dam’me if I know how ‘tis; but some of us are bound after a cargo of
+beaver-skins, d’ye see, so we’ve pressed the cart to ship them ‘ome
+in.  I say, Master Kirby, what a lubberly oar you pull—you handle an
+oar, boy, pretty much as a cow would a musket, or a lady would a
+marling-spike.”
+
+Billy had discovered the state of the steward’s mind, and he walked
+for some time alongside of the cart, musing with himself, when he took
+the goad from Benjamin (who fell back on the hay and was soon asleep)
+and drove his cattle down the street, over the bridge, and up the
+mountain, toward a clearing in which he was to work the next day,
+without any other interruption than a few hasty questions from parties
+of the constables.
+
+Elizabeth stood for an hour at the window of her room, and saw the
+torches of the pursuers gliding along the side of the mountain, and
+heard their shouts and alarms; but, at the end of that time, the last
+party returned, wearied and disappointed, and the village became as
+still as when she issued from the gate on her mission to the jail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+
+“And I could weep “—th’ Oneida chief
+His descant wildly thus begun—”
+But that I may not stain with grief
+The death-song of my father’s son.”—Gertrude OF Wyoming.
+
+It was yet early on the following morning, when Elizabeth and Louisa
+met by appointment, and proceeded to the store of Monsieur Le Quoi, in
+order to redeem the pledge the former had given to the Leather-
+Stocking.  The people were again assembling for the business of the
+day, but the hour was too soon for a crowd, and the ladies found the
+place in possession of its polite owner, Billy Kirby, one female
+customer, and the boy who did the duty of helper or clerk.
+
+Monsieur Le Quoi was perusing a packet of letters with manifest
+delight, while the wood-chopper, with one hand thrust in his bosom,
+and the other in the folds of his jacket, holding an axe under his
+right arm, stood sympathizing in the Frenchman’s pleasure with good-
+natured interest.  The freedom of manners that prevailed in the new
+settlements commonly levelled all difference in rank, and with it,
+frequently, all considerations of education and intelligence.  At the
+time the ladies entered the store, they were unseen by the owner, who
+was saying to Kirby:
+
+“Ah! ha! Monsieur Beel, dis lettair mak me de most happi of mans.  Ah!
+ma chére France! I vill see you again.”
+
+“I rejoice, monsieur, at anything that contributes to your happiness,”
+said Elizabeth, “ but hope we are not going to lose you entirely.”
+
+The complaisant shopkeeper changed the language to French and
+recounted rapidly to Elizabeth his hopes of being permitted to return
+to his own country.  Habit had, however, so far altered the manners of
+this pliable person age, that he continued to serve the wood-chopper,
+who was in quest of some tobacco, while he related to his more gentle
+visitor the happy change that had taken place in the dispositions of
+his own countrymen.
+
+The amount of it all was, that Mr. Le Quoi, who had fled from his own
+country more through terror than because he was offensive to the
+ruling powers in France, had succeeded at length in getting an
+assurance that his return to the West Indies would be unnoticed; and
+the Frenchman, who had sunk into the character of a country shopkeeper
+with so much grace, was about to emerge again from his obscurity into
+his proper level in society.
+
+We need not repeat the civil things that passed between the parties on
+this occasion, nor recount the endless repetitions of sorrow that the
+delighted Frenchman expressed at being compelled to quit the society
+of Miss Temple.  Elizabeth took an opportunity, during this
+expenditure of polite expressions, to purchase the powder privately of
+the boy, who bore the generic appellation of Jonathan.  Be fore they
+parted, however, Mr. Le Quoi, who seemed to think that he had not said
+enough, solicited the honor of a private interview with the heiress,
+with a gravity in his air that announced the importance of the
+subject.  After conceding the favor, and appointing a more favorable
+time for the meeting, Elizabeth succeeded in getting out of the store,
+into which the countrymen now began to enter, as usual, where they met
+with the same attention and bien seance as formerly.
+
+Elizabeth and Louisa pursued their walk as far as the bridge in
+profound silence; but when they reached that place the latter stopped,
+and appeared anxious to utter something that her diffidence
+suppressed.
+
+“Are you ill, Louisa?” exclaimed Miss Temple; “had we not better
+return, and seek another opportunity to meet the old man?”
+
+“Not ill, but terrified.  Oh! I never, never can go on that hill again
+with you only.  I am not equal to it, in deed I am not.”
+
+This was an unexpected declaration to Elizabeth, who, although she
+experienced no idle apprehension of a danger that no longer existed,
+felt most sensitively all the delicacy of maiden modesty.  She stood
+for some time, deeply reflecting within herself; but, sensible it was
+a time for action instead of reflection, she struggled to shake off
+her hesitation, and replied, firmly:
+
+“Well, then it must be done by me alone.  There is no other than
+yourself to be trusted, or poor old Leather-Stocking will be
+discovered.  Wait for me in the edge of these woods, that at least I
+may not be seen strolling in the hills by myself just now, One would
+not wish to create remarks, Louisa—if—if— You will wait for me, dear
+girl?”
+
+“A year, in sight of the village, Miss Temple,’ returned the agitated
+Louisa, “but do not, do not ask me to go on that hill.”
+
+Elizabeth found that her companion was really unable to proceed, and
+they completed their arrangement by posting Louisa out of the
+observation of the people who occasionally passed, but nigh the road,
+and in plain view of the whole valley.  Miss Temple then proceeded
+alone.  She ascended the road which has been so often mentioned in our
+narrative, with an elastic and firm step, fearful that the delay in
+the store of Mr. Le Quoi, and the time necessary for reaching the
+summit, would prevent her being punctual to the appointment Whenever
+she pressed an opening in the bushes, she would pause for breath, or,
+per haps, drawn from her pursuit by the picture at her feet, would
+linger a moment to gaze at the beauties of the valley.  The long
+drought had, however, changed its coat of verdure to a hue of brown,
+and, though the same localities were there, the view wanted the lively
+and cheering aspect of early summer.  Even the heavens seemed to share
+in the dried appearance of the earth, for the sun was concealed by a
+haziness in the atmosphere, which looked like a thin smoke without a
+particle of moisture, if such a thing were possible.  The blue sky was
+scarcely to be seen, though now, and then there was a faint lighting
+up in spots through which masses of rolling vapor could be discerned
+gathering around the horizon, as if nature were struggling to collect
+her floods for the relief of man.  The very atmosphere that Elizabeth
+inhaled was hot and dry, and by the time she reached the point where
+the course led her from the highway she experienced a sensation like
+suffocation.  But, disregarding her feelings, she hastened to execute
+her mission, dwelling on nothing but the disappointment, and even the
+helplessness, the hunter would experience without her aid.
+
+On the summit of the mountain which Judge Temple had named the
+“Vision,” a little spot had been cleared, in order that a better view
+might he obtained of the village and the valley.  At this point
+Elizabeth understood the hunter she was to meet him; and thither she
+urged her way, as expeditiously as the difficulty of the ascent, and
+the impediment of a forest, in a state of nature, would admit.
+Numberless were the fragments of rocks, trunks of fallen trees, and
+branches, with which she had to contend; but every difficulty vanished
+before her resolution, and, by her own watch, she stood on the desired
+spot several minutes before the appointed hour.
+
+After resting a moment on the end of a log, Miss Temple cast a glance
+about her in quest of her old friend, but he was evidently not in the
+clearing; she arose and walked around its skirts, examining every
+place where she thought it probable Natty might deem it prudent to
+conceal him self.  Her search was fruitless; and, after exhausting not
+only herself, but her conjectures, in efforts to discover or imagine
+his situation, she ventured to trust her voice in that solitary place.
+
+“Natty! Leather-Stocking! old man!” she called aloud, in every
+direction; but no answer was given, excepting the reverberations of
+her own clear tones, as they were echoed in the parched forest.
+
+Elizabeth approached the brow of the mountain, where a faint cry, like
+the noise produced by striking the hand against the mouth, at the same
+time that the breath is strongly exhaled, was heard answering to her
+own voice.  Not doubting in the least that it was the Leather-Stocking
+lying in wait for her, and who gave that signal to indicate the place
+where he was to be found, Elizabeth descended for near a hundred feet,
+until she gained a little natural terrace, thinly scattered with
+trees, that grew in the fissures of the rocks, which were covered by a
+scanty soil.  She had advanced to the edge of this platform, and was
+gazing over the perpendicular precipice that formed its face, when a
+rustling among the dry leaves near her drew her eyes in another
+direction.  Our heroine certainly was startled by the object that she
+then saw, but a moment restored her self-possession, and she advanced
+firmly, and with some interest in her manner, to the spot.
+
+Mohegan was seated on the trunk of a fallen oak, with his tawny visage
+turned toward her, and his eyes fixed on her face with an expression
+of wildness and fire, that would have terrified a less resolute
+female.  His blanket had fallen from his shoulders, and was lying in
+folds around him, leaving his breast, arms, and most of his body bare.
+‘The medallion of Washington reposed on his chest, a badge of
+distinction that Elizabeth well knew he only produced on great and
+solemn occasions.  But the whole appearance of the aged chief was more
+studied than common, and in some particulars it was terrific.  The
+long black hair was plaited on his head, failing away, so as to expose
+his high forehead and piercing eyes.  In the enormous incisions of his
+ears were entwined ornaments of silver, beads, and porcupine’s quills,
+mingled in a rude taste, and after the Indian fashions.  A large drop,
+composed of similar materials, was suspended from the cartilage of his
+nose, and, falling below his lips, rested on his chin.  Streaks of red
+paint crossed his wrinkled brow, and were traced down his cheeks, with
+such variations in the lines as caprice or custom suggested.  His body
+was also colored in the same manner; the whole exhibiting an Indian
+warrior prepared for some event of more than usual moment.
+
+“John! how fare you, worthy John?” said Elizabeth, as she approached
+him; “you have long been a stranger in the village.  You promised me a
+willow basket, and I have long had a shirt of calico in readiness for
+you.”
+
+The Indian looked steadily at her for some time without answering, and
+then, shaking his head, he replied, in his low, guttural tones:
+
+“John’s hand can make baskets no more—he wants no shirt.”
+
+But if he should, he will know where to come for it,” returned Miss
+Temple.  “Indeed old John.  I feel as if you had a natural right to
+order what you will from us.”
+
+“Daughter,” said the Indian, “listen : Six times ten hot summers have
+passed since John was young tall like a pine; straight like the bullet
+of Hawk-eye, strong as all buffalo; spry as the cat of the mountain.
+He was strong, and a warrior like the Young Eagle.  If his tribe
+wanted to track the Maquas for many suns, the eye of Chingachgook
+found the print of their moccasins.  If the people feasted and were
+glad, as they counted the scalps of their enemies, it was on his pole
+they hung.  If the squaws cried because there was no meat for their
+children, he was the first in the chase.  His bullet was swifter than
+the deer.  Daughter, then Chingachgook struck his tomahawk into the
+trees; it was to tell the lazy ones where to find him and the Mingoes—
+but he made no baskets.”
+
+“Those times have gone by, old warrior,” returned Elizabeth ; “ since
+then your people have disappeared, and, in place of chasing your
+enemies, you have learned to fear God and to live at peace.”
+
+“Stand here, daughter, where you can see the great spring, the wigwams
+of your father, and the land on the crooked river.  John was young
+when his tribe gave away the country, in council, from where the blue
+mountain stands above the water, to where the Susquehanna is hid by
+the trees.  All this, and all that grew in it, and all that walked
+over it, and all that fed there, they gave to the Fire-eater——for they
+loved him.  He was strong, and they were women, and he helped them.
+No Delaware would kill a deer that ran in his woods, nor stop a bird
+that flew over his land; for it was his.  Has John lived in peace?
+Daughter, since John was young, he has seen the white man from
+Frontinac come down on his white brothers at Albany and fight.  Did
+they fear God? He has seen his English and his American fathers
+burying their tomahawks in each other’s brains, for this very land.
+Did they fear God, and live in peace? He has seen the land pass away
+from the Fire-eater, and his children, and the child of his child, and
+a new chief set over the country.  Did they live in peace who did
+this? did they fear God?”
+
+“Such is the custom of the whites, John.  Do not the Delawares fight,
+and exchange their lands for powder, and blankets, and merchandise?”
+
+The Indian turned his dark eyes on his companion, and kept them there
+with a scrutiny that alarmed her a little.
+
+“Where are the blankets and merchandise that bought the right of the
+Fire-eater?” he replied in a more animated voice; “are they with him
+in his wigwam? Did they say to him, Brother, sell us your land, and
+take this gold, this silver, these blankets, these rifles, or even
+this rum? No; they tore it front him, as a scalp is torn from an
+enemy; and they that did it looked not behind them, to see whether he
+lived or died.  Do such men live in peace and fear the Great Spirit?”
+
+“But you hardly understand the circumstances,” said Elizabeth, more
+embarrassed than she would own, even to herself.  “If you knew our
+laws and customs better, you would Judge differently of our acts.  Do
+not believe evil of my father, old Mohegan, for he is just and good.”
+
+“The brother of Miquon is good, and he will do right.  I have said it
+to Hawk-eye---I have said it to the Young Eagle that the brother of
+Miquon would do justice.”
+
+“Whom call you the Young Eagle?” said Elizabeth, averting her face
+from the gaze of the Indian, as she asked the question; “whence comes
+he, and what are his rights?”
+
+“Has my daughter lived so long with him to ask this question?”
+returned the Indian warily.  “Old age freezes up the blood, as the
+frosts cover the great spring in winter; but youth keeps the streams
+of the blood open like a sun in the time of blossoms.  The Young Eagle
+has eyes; had he no tongue?”
+
+The loveliness to which the old warrior alluded was in no degree
+diminished by his allegorical speech; for the blushes of the maiden
+who listened covered her burning cheeks till her dark eyes seemed to
+glow with their reflection; but, after struggling a moment with shame,
+she laughed, as if unwilling to understand him seriously, and replied
+in pleasantry:
+
+“Not to make me the mistress of his secret.  He is too much of a
+Delaware to tell his secret thoughts to a woman.”
+
+“Daughter, the Great Spirit made your father with a white skin, and he
+made mine with a red; but he colored both their hearts with blood.
+When young, it is swift and warm; but when old, it is still and cold.
+Is there difference below the skin? No.  Once John had a woman.  She
+was the mother of so many sons”—he raised his hand with three fingers
+elevated—” and she had daughters that would have made the young
+Delawares happy.  She was kind, daughter, and what I said she did.
+You have different fashions; but do you think John did not love the
+wife of his youth—the mother of his children?”
+
+“And what has become of your family, John—your wife and your
+children?” asked Elizabeth, touched by the Indian’s manner.
+
+“Where is the ice that covered the great spring? It is melted, and
+gone with the waters.  John has lived till all his people have left
+him for the land of spirits; his time has come, and he is ready.”
+
+Mohegan dropped his head in his blanket, and sat in silence.  Miss
+Temple knew not what to say.  She wished to draw the thoughts of the
+old warrior from his gloomy recollections, but there was a dignity in
+his sorrow, and in his fortitude, that repressed her efforts to speak.
+After a long pause, however, she renewed the discourse by asking:
+
+“Where is the Leather-Stocking, John? I have brought this canister of
+powder at his request; but he is nowhere to he seen.  Will you take
+charge of it, and see it delivered?”
+
+The Indian raised his head slowly and looked earnestly at the gift,
+which she put into his hand.
+
+“This is the great enemy of my nation.  Without this, when could the
+white man drive the Delawares? Daughter, the Great Spirit gave your
+fathers to know how to make guns and powder, that they might sweep the
+Indians from the land.  There will soon be no red-skin in the country.
+When John has gone, the last will leave these hills, and his family
+will be dead.” The aged warrior stretched his body forward, leaning an
+elbow on his knee, and appeared to be taking a parting look at the
+objects of the vale, which were still visible through the misty
+atmosphere, though the air seemed to thicken at each moment around
+Miss Temple, who became conscious of an increased difficulty of
+respiration.  The eye of Mohegan changed gradually from its sorrowful
+expression to a look of wildness that might be supposed to border on
+the inspiration of a prophet, as he continued: “But he will go on to
+the country where his fathers have met.  The game shall be plenty as
+the Ash in the lakes.  No woman shall cry for meat: no Mingo can ever
+come The chase shall be for children; and all just red men shall live
+together as brothers.”
+
+“John! this is not the heaven of a Christian,” cried Miss Temple; “you
+deal now in the superstition of your forefathers.”
+
+“Fathers! sons!” said Mohegan, with firmness.—” all gone—all gone!—!
+have no son but the Young Eagle, and he has the blood of a white man.”
+
+“Tell me, John,” said Elizabeth, willing to draw his thoughts to other
+subjects, and at the same time yielding to her own powerful interest
+in the youth; “who is this Mr. Edwards? why are you so fond of him,
+and whence does he come ?”
+
+The Indian started at the question, which evidently recalled his
+recollection to earth.  Taking her hand, he drew Miss Temple to a seat
+beside him, and pointed to the country beneath them.
+
+“See, daughter,” he said, directing her looks toward the north; “as
+far as your young eyes can see, it was the land of his.  But immense
+volumes of smoke at that moment rolled over their heath, and, whirling
+in the eddies formed by the mountains, interposed a barrier to their
+sight, while he was speaking.  Startled by this circumstance, Miss
+Temple sprang to her feet, and, turning her eyes toward the summit of
+the mountain, she beheld It covered by a similar canopy, while a
+roaring sound was heard in the forest above her like the rushing of
+winds.
+
+“What means it, John?” she exclaimed: “we are enveloped in smoke, and
+I feel a heat like the glow of a furnace.”
+
+Before the Indian could reply, a voice was heard crying In the woods:
+“John! where are you, old Mohegan! the woods are on fire, and you have
+but a minute for escape.”
+
+The chief put his hand before his mouth, and, making it lay on his
+lips, produced the kind of noise that had attracted Elizabeth to the
+place, when a quick and hurried step was heard dashing through the
+dried underbrush and bushes, and presently Edwards rushed to his side,
+with horror an every feature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+
+“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove.”—Lay of the Last Minstrel.
+
+“IT would have been sad, indeed, to lose you in such manner, my old
+friend,” said Oliver, catching his breath for utterance.  “Up and
+away! even now we may be too late; the flames are circling round the
+point of the rock below, and, unless we can pass there, our only
+chance must be over the precipice.  Away! away! shake off your apathy,
+John; now is the time of need.”
+
+Mohegan pointed toward Elizabeth, who, forgetting her danger, had sunk
+back to a projection of the rock as soon as she recognized the sounds
+of Edwards’ voice, and said with something like awakened animation:
+
+“Save her—leave John to die.”
+
+“Her! whom mean you?” cried the youth, turning quickly to the place
+the other indicated; but when he saw the figure of Elizabeth bending
+toward him in an attitude that powerfully spoke terror, blended with
+reluctance to meet him in such a place, the shock deprived him of
+speech.
+
+“Miss Temple!” he cried, when he found words; “ you here! is such a
+death reserved for you!”
+
+“No, no, no—no death, I hope, for any of us, Mr. Edwards,” she
+replied, endeavoring to speak calmly; there is smoke, but no fire to
+harm us.  Let us endeavor to retire.”
+
+“Take my arm,” said Edwards; “there must he an opening in some
+direction for your retreat.  Are you equal to the effort?”
+
+“Certainly.  You surely magnify the danger, Mr. Ed wards.  Lead me out
+the way you came.”
+
+“I will—I will,” cried the youth, with a kind of hysterical utterance.
+“No, no—there is no danger—I have alarmed you unnecessarily.”
+
+“But shall we leave the Indian—can we leave him, as be says, to die?”
+
+An expression of painful emotion crossed the face of the young man; he
+stopped and cast a longing look at Mohegan but, dragging his companion
+after him, even against her will, he pursued his way with enormous
+strides toward the pass by which he had just entered the circle of
+flame.
+
+“Do not regard him, “ he said, in those tones that de note a desperate
+calmness; “he is used to the woods, and such scenes; and he will
+escape up the mountain—over the rock—or he can remain where he is in
+safety.”
+
+“You thought not so this moment, Edwards! Do not leave him there to
+meet with such a death,” cried Elizabeth, fixing a look on the
+countenance of her conductor that seemed to distrust his sanity.
+
+“An Indian born! who ever heard of an Indian dying by fire? An Indian
+cannot burn; the idea is ridiculous.  Hasten, hasten, Miss Temple, or
+the smoke may incommodate you.”
+
+“Edwards! your look, your eye, terrifies me! Tell me the danger; is it
+greater than it seems? I am equal to any trial.”
+
+“If we reach the point of yon rock before that sheet of fire, we are
+safe, Miss Temple,” exclaimed the young man in a voice that burst
+without the bounds of his forced composure.  “ Fly! the struggle is
+for life!”
+
+The place of the interview between Miss Temple and the Indian has
+already been described as one of those plat forms of rock, which form
+a sort of terrace in the mountains of that country, and the face of
+it, we have said, was both high and perpendicular.  Its shape was
+nearly a natural arc, the ends of which blended with the mountain, at
+points where its sides were less abrupt in their descent.  It was
+round one of these terminations of the sweep of the rock that Edwards
+had ascended, and it was toward the same place that he urged Elizabeth
+to a desperate exertion of speed.
+
+Immense clouds of white smoke had been pouring over the summit of the
+mountain, and had concealed the approach and ravages of the element;
+but a crackling sound drew the eyes of Miss Temple, as she flew over
+the ground supported by the young man, toward the outline of smoke
+where she already perceived the waving flames shooting forward from
+the vapor, now flaring high in the air, and then bending to the earth,
+seeming to light into combustion every stick and shrub on which they
+breathed.  The sight aroused them to redoubled efforts; but,
+unfortunately, a collection of the tops of trees, old and dried, lay
+directly across their course; and at the very moment when both had
+thought their safety insured, the warm current of the air swept a
+forked tongue of flame across the pile, which lighted at the touch;
+and when they reached the spot, the flying pair were opposed by the
+surly roaring of a body of fire, as if a furnace were glowing in their
+path.  They recoiled from the heat, and stood on a point of the rock,
+gazing in a stupor at the flames which were spreading rap idly down
+the mountain, whose side, too, became a sheet of living fire.  It was
+dangerous for one clad in the light and airy dress of Elizabeth to
+approach even the vicinity of the raging element; and those flowing
+robes, that gave such softness and grace to her form, seemed now to be
+formed for the instruments of her destruction.
+
+The villagers were accustomed to resort to that hill, in quest of
+timber and fuel; in procuring which, it was their usage to take only
+the bodies of the trees, leaving the tops and branches to decay under
+the operations of the weather.  Much of the hill was, consequently,
+covered with such light fuel, which, having been scorched under the
+sun for the last two months, was ignited with a touch.  Indeed, in
+some cases, there did not appear to be any contact between the fire
+and these piles, but the flames seemed to dart from heap to heap, as
+the fabulous fire of the temple is represented to reillumine its
+neglected lamp.
+
+There was beauty as well as terror in the sight, and Edwards and
+Elizabeth stood viewing the progress of the desolation, with a strange
+mixture of horror and interest.  The former, however, shortly roused
+himself to new exertions, and, drawing his companion after him, they
+skirted the edge of the smoke, the young man penetrating frequently
+into its dense volumes in search of a passage, but in every instance
+without success.  In this manner they proceeded in a semicircle around
+the upper part of the terrace, until arriving at the verge of the
+precipice opposite to the point where Edwards had ascended, the horrid
+conviction burst on both, at the same instant, that they were
+completely encircled by fire.  So long as a single pass up or down the
+mountain was unexplored, there was hope: but when retreat seemed to be
+absolutely impracticable, the horror of their situation broke upon
+Elizabeth as powerfully as if she had hitherto considered the danger
+light.
+
+“This mountain is doomed to be fatal to me!” she whispered;” we shall
+find our graves on it!”
+
+“Say not so, Miss Temple; there is yet hope,” returned the youth, in
+the same tone, while the vacant expression of his eye contradicted his
+words; “let us return to the point of the rock—there is—there must be—
+some place about it where we can descend.
+
+“Lead me there,” exclaimed Elizabeth; “let us leave no effort
+untried.” She did not wait for his compliance, but turning, retraced
+her steps to the brow of the precipice, murmuring to herself, in
+suppressed, hysterical sobs, My father! my poor, my distracted
+father!”
+
+Edwards was by her side in an instant, and with aching eyes he
+examined every fissure in the crags in quest of some opening that
+might offer facilities for flight.  But the smooth, even surface of
+the rocks afforded hardly a resting-place for a foot, much less those
+continued projections which would have been necessary for a descent of
+nearly a hundred feet.  Edwards was not slow in feeling the conviction
+that this hope was also futile, and, with a kind of feverish despair
+that still urged him to action, he turned to some new expedient.
+
+“There is nothing left, Miss Temple,” he said, “but to lower you from
+this place to the rock beneath.  If Natty were here, or even that
+Indian could be roused, their ingenuity and long practice would easily
+devise methods to do it; but I am a child at this moment in everything
+but daring.  Where shall I find means? This dress of mine is so light,
+and there is so little of it—then the blanket of Mohegan; we must try—
+we must try—anything is better than to see you a victim to such a
+death!”
+
+“And what will become of you?” said Elizabeth.  “In deed, indeed,
+neither you nor John must be sacrificed to my safety.”
+
+He heard her not, for he was already by the side of Mohegan, who
+yielded his blanket without a question, retaining his seat with Indian
+dignity and composure, though his own situation was even more critical
+than that of the others.  The blanket was cut into shreds, and the
+fragments fastened together: the loose linen jacket of the youth and
+the light muslin shawl of Elizabeth were attached to them, and the
+whole thrown over the rocks with the rapidity of lightning; but the
+united Pieces did not reach half-way to the bottom.
+
+“It will not do—it will not do!” cried Elizabeth; “ for me there is no
+hope! The fire comes slowly, but certainly.  See, it destroys the very
+earth before it!”
+
+Had the flames spread on that rock with half the quick ness with which
+they leaped from bush to tree in other parts of the mountain, our
+painful task would have soon ended; for they would have consumed
+already the captives they inclosed.  But the peculiarity of their
+situation afforded Elizabeth and her companion the respite of which
+they had availed themselves to make the efforts we have recorded.
+
+The thin covering of earth on the rock supported but a scanty and
+faded herbage, and most of the trees that had found root in the
+fissures had already died, during the in tense heats of preceding
+summers.  Those which still retained the appearance of life bore a few
+dry and withered leaves, while the others were merely the wrecks of
+pines, oaks, and maples.  No better materials to feed the fire could
+be found, had there been a communication with the flames; but the
+ground was destitute of the brush that led the destructive element,
+like a torrent, over the remainder of the hill.  As auxiliary to this
+scarcity of fuel, one of the large springs which abound in that
+country gushed out of the side of the ascent above, and, after
+creeping sluggishly along the level land, saturating the mossy
+covering of the rock with moisture, it swept around the base of the
+little cone that formed the pinnacle of the mountain, and, entering
+the canopy of smoke near one of the terminations of the terrace, found
+its way to the lake, not by dashing from rock to rock, but by the
+secret channels of the earth.  It would rise to the surface, here and
+there, in the wet seasons, but in the droughts of summer it was to be
+traced only by the bogs and moss that announced the proximity of
+water.  When the fire reached this barrier, it was compelled to pause,
+until a concentration of its heat could overcome the moisture, like an
+army awaiting the operations of a battering train, to open its way to
+desolation.
+
+That fatal moment seemed now to have arrived, for the hissing steams
+of the spring appeared to be nearly exhausted, and the moss of the
+rocks was already curling under the intense heat, while fragments of
+bark, that yet clung to the dead trees, began to separate from their
+trunks, and fall to the ground in crumbling masses.  The air seemed
+quivering with rays of heat, which might be seen playing along the
+parched stems of the trees.  There were moments when dark clouds of
+smoke would sweep along the little terrace; and, as the eye lost its
+power, the other senses contributed to give effect to the fearful
+horror of the scene.  At such moments, the roaring of the flames, the
+crackling of the furious element, with the tearing of falling
+branches, and occasionally the thundering echoes of some falling tree,
+united to alarm the victims.  Of the three, however, the youth
+appeared much the most agitated.  Elizabeth, having relinquished
+entirely the idea of escape, was fast obtaining that resigned
+composure with which the most delicate of her sex are sometimes known
+to meet unavoidable evils; while Mohegan, who was much nearer to the
+danger, maintained his seat with the invincible resignation of an
+Indian warrior.  Once or twice the eye of the aged chief, which was
+ordinarily fixed in the direction of the distant hills, turned toward
+the young pair, who seemed doomed to so early a death, with a slight
+indication of pity crossing his composed features, but it would
+immediately revert again to its former gaze, as if already looking
+into the womb of futurity.  Much of the time he was chanting a kind of
+low dirge in the Delaware tongue, using the deep and remarkable
+guttural tones of his people.
+
+“At such a moment, Mr. Edwards, all earthly distinctions end,”
+whispered Elizabeth; “persuade John to move nearer to us—let us die
+together.”
+
+“I cannot—he will not stir,” returned the youth, in the same horridly
+still tones.  “ He considers this as the happiest moment of his life,
+he is past seventy, and has been decaying rapidly for some time; he
+received some injury in chasing that unlucky deer, too, on the lake,
+Oh! Miss Temple, that was an unlucky chase, indeed! it has led, I
+fear, to this awful scene.”
+
+The smile of Elizabeth was celestial.  “Why name such a trifle now?—at
+this moment the heart is dead to all earthly emotions!”
+
+“If anything could reconcile a man to this death,” cried the youth,
+“it would be to meet it in such company!”
+
+“Talk not so, Edwards; talk not so,” interrupted Miss Temple.  “I am
+unworthy of it, and it is unjust to your self.  We must die; yes—yes—
+we must die—it is the will of God, and let us endeavor to submit like
+his own children.”
+
+“Die!” the youth rather shrieked than exclaimed, “no —no—no—there must
+yet be hope—you, at least, must-not, shall not die.”
+
+“In what way can we escape?” asked Elizabeth, pointing with a look of
+heavenly composure toward the fire “Observe! the flame is crossing the
+barrier of wet ground—it comes slowly, Edwards, but surely.  Ah! see!
+the tree! the tree is already lighted!”
+
+Her words were too true.  The heat of the conflagration had at length
+overcome the resistance of the spring, and the fire was slowly
+stealing along the half-dried moss; while a dead pine kindled with the
+touch of a forked flame, that, for a moment, wreathed around the stem
+of the tree, as it whined, in one of its evolutions, under the
+influence of the air.  The effect was instantaneous, The flames danced
+along the parched trunk of the pine like lightning quivering on a
+chain, and immediately a column of living fire was raging on the
+terrace.  It soon spread from tree to tree, and the scene was
+evidently drawing to a close.  The log on which Mohegan was seated
+lighted at its further end, and the Indian appeared to be surrounded
+by fire.  Still he was unmoved.  As his body was unprotected, his
+sufferings must have been great; but his fortitude was superior to
+all.  His voice could yet be heard even in the midst of these horrors.
+Elizabeth turned her head from the sight, and faced the valley Furious
+eddies of wind were created by the heat, and, just at the moment, the
+canopy of fiery smoke that overhung the valley was cleared away,
+leaving a distinct view of the peaceful village beneath them,
+My father!—--my lather!” shrieked Elizabeth “Oh! this—surely might
+have been spared me—but I submit.”
+
+The distance was not so great but the figure of Judge Temple could be
+seen, standing in his own grounds, and apparently contemplating, in
+perfect unconsciousness of the danger of his child, the mountain in
+flames.  This sight was still more painful than the approaching
+danger; and Elizabeth again faced the hill.
+
+“My intemperate warmth has done this!” cried Edwards, in the accents
+of despair.  “If I had possessed but a moiety of your heavenly
+resignation, Miss Temple, all might yet have been well.”
+
+“Name it not—name it not,” she said.  “It is now of no avail.  We must
+die, Edwards, we must die—let us do so as Christians.  But—no—you may
+yet escape, perhaps.  Your dress is not so fatal as mine.  Fly! Leave
+me, An opening may yet be found for you, possibly—certainly it is
+worth the effort.  Fly! leave me—but stay! You will see my father! my
+poor, my bereaved father! Say to him, then, Edwards, say to him, all
+that can appease his anguish.  Tell him that I died happy and
+collected; that I have gone to my beloved mother; that the hours of
+this life are nothing when balanced in the scales of eternity.  Say
+how we shall meet again.  And say,” she continued, dropping her voice,
+that had risen with her feelings, as if conscious of her worldly
+weakness, “how clear, how very dear, was my love for him; that it was
+near, too near, to my love for God.”
+
+The youth listened to her touching accents, but moved not.  In a
+moment he found utterance, and replied:
+
+“And is it me that you command to leave you! to leave you on the edge
+of the grave? Oh! Miss Temple, how little have you known me!” he
+cried, dropping on his knees at her feet, and gathering her flowing
+robe in his arms as if to shield her from the flames.  “I have been
+driven to the woods in despair, but your society has tamed the lion
+within me.  If I have wasted my time in degradation, ‘twas you that
+charmed me to it.  If I have forgotten my name and family, your form
+supplied the place of memory.  If I have forgotten my wrongs, ‘twas
+you that taught me charity.  No—no—dearest Elizabeth, I may die with
+you, but I can never leave you!”
+
+Elizabeth moved not, nor answered.  It was plain that her thoughts had
+been raised from the earth, The recollection of her father, and her
+regrets at their separation, had been mellowed by a holy sentiment,
+that lifted her above the level of earthly things, and she was fast
+losing the weakness of her sex in the near view of eternity.  But as
+she listened to these words she became once more woman.  She struggled
+against these feelings, and smiled, as she thought she was shaking off
+the last lingering feeling of nature, when the world, and all its
+seductions, rushed again to her heart, with the sounds of a human,
+voice, crying in piercing tones:
+
+“Gal! where he ye, gal! gladden the heart of an old man, if ye yet
+belong to ‘arth!”
+
+“Hist!” said Elizabeth; “ ‘tis the Leather-Stocking; he seeks me!”
+
+“Tis Natty!” shouted Edwards, “and we may yet be saved!”
+
+A wide and circling flame glared on their eyes for a moment, even
+above the fire of the woods, and a loud report followed.
+
+“'Tis the canister, ‘tis the powder,” cried the same voice, evidently
+approaching them.  “ ‘Tis the canister, and the precious child is
+lost.”
+
+At the next instant Natty rushed through the steams of the spring, and
+appeared on the terrace, without his deerskin cap, his hair burnt to
+his head, his shirt, of country check, black and filled with holes,
+and his red features of a deeper color than ever, by the heat he had
+encountered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+
+“Even from the land of shadows, now
+My father’s awful ghost appears.”—Gertrude Of Wyoming.
+
+For an hour after Louisa Grant was left by Miss Temple, in the
+situation already mentioned, she continued in feverish anxiety,
+awaiting the return of her friend.  But as the time passed by without
+the reappearance of Elizabeth, the terror of Louisa gradually
+increased, until her alarmed fancy had conjured every species of
+danger that appertained to the woods, excepting the one that really
+existed.  The heavens had become obscured by degrees, and vast volumes
+of smoke were pouring over the valley; but the thoughts of Louisa were
+still recurring to beasts, without dreaming of the real cause for
+apprehension.  She was stationed in the edge of the low pines and
+chestnuts that succeed the first or large growth of the forest, and
+directly above the angle where the highway turned from the straight
+course to the village, and ascended the mountain laterally.
+Consequently, she commanded a view, not only of the valley, but of the
+road beneath her.  The few travellers that passed, she observed, were
+engaged in earnest conversation, and frequently raised their eyes to
+the hill, and at length she saw the people leaving the court house,
+and gazing upward also.  While under the influence of the alarm
+excited by such unusual movements, reluctant to go, and yet fearful to
+remain, Louisa was startled by the low, cracking, but cautious treads
+of some one approaching through the bushes.  She was on the eve of
+flight, when Natty emerged from the cover, and stood at her side.  The
+old man laughed as he shook her kindly by a hand that was passive with
+fear.
+
+“I am glad to meet you here, child,” he said; “for the back of the
+mountain is a-fire, and it would be dangerous to go up it now, till it
+has been burnt over once, and the dead wood is gone.  There’s a
+foolish man, the comrade of that varmint who has given me all this
+trouble, digging for ore on the east side.  I told him that the
+kearless fellows, who thought to catch a practysed hunter in the woods
+after dark, had thrown the lighted pine-knots in the brush, and that
+‘twould kindle like tow, and warned him to leave the hill.  But he was
+set upon his business, and nothing short of Providence could move him.
+if he isn’t burnt and buried in a grave of his own digging, he’s made
+of salamanders.  Why, what ails the child? You look as skeary as if
+you’d seed more painters.  I wish there were more to be found! they’d
+count up faster than the beaver.  But where’s the good child with a
+bad father? Did she forget her promise to the old man?”
+
+“The hill! the hill!” shrieked Louisa; “she seeks you on the hill with
+the powder!”
+
+Natty recoiled several feet at this unexpected intelligence.
+
+“The Lord of Heaven have mercy on her! She’s on the Vision, and that’s
+a sheet of fire agin’ this.  Child, if ye love the dear one, and hope
+to find a friend when ye need it most, to the village, and give the
+alarm.  The men are used to fighting fire, and there may be a chance
+left, Fly! I bid ye fly! nor stop even for breath.”
+
+The Leather-Stocking had no sooner uttered this injunction, than he
+disappeared in the bushes, and, when last seen by Louisa, was rushing
+up the mountain, with a speed that none but those who were accustomed
+to the toil could attain.
+
+“Have I found ye!” the old man exclaimed, when he burst out of the
+smoke; “God be praised that I have found ye; but follow—there’s no
+time for talking.”
+
+“My dress!” said Elizabeth; “ it would be fatal to trust myself nearer
+to the flames in it.”
+
+“I bethought me of your flimsy things,” cried Natty, throwing loose
+the folds of a covering buckskin that he carried on his arm, and
+wrapping her form in it, in such a manner as to envelop her whole
+person; “ now follow, for it’s a matter of life and death to us all.”
+
+“But John! what will become of John?” cried Edwards; “can we leave the
+old warrior here to perish?”
+
+The eyes of Natty followed the direction of Edwards’ finger, where he
+beheld the Indian still seated as before,  with the very earth under
+his feet consuming with fire.  Without delay the hunter approached the
+spot, and spoke in Delaware:
+
+“Up and away, Chingachgook! will ye stay here to burn, like a Mingo at
+the stake? The Moravians have teached ye better, I hope; the Lord
+preserve me if the powder hasn’t flashed atween his legs, and the skin
+of his back is roasting.  Will ye come, I say; will ye follow me?”
+
+“Why should Mohegan go?” returned the Indian, gloomily.  “He has seen
+the days of an eagle, and his eye grows dim He looks on the valley; he
+looks on the water; he looks in the hunting-grounds—but he sees no
+Delawares.  Every one has a white skin.  My fathers say, from the far-
+off land, Come.  My women, my young warriors, my tribe, say, Come.
+The Great Spirit says, Come.  Let Mohegan die.”
+
+“But you forget your friend,” cried Edwards,
+
+“‘Tis useless to talk to an Indian with the death-fit on him, lad,”
+interrupted Natty, who seized the strips of the  blanket, and with
+wonderful dexterity strapped the passive chieftain to his own back;
+when he turned, and with a strength that seemed to bid defiance, not
+only to his years, but to his load, he led the way to the point whence
+he had issued.  As they crossed the little terrace of rock, one of the
+dead trees, that had been tottering for several minutes, fell on the
+spot where they had stood, and filled the air with its cinders.
+
+Such an event quickened the steps of the party, who followed the
+Leather-Stocking with the urgency required by the occasion.
+
+“Tread on the soft ground,” he cried, when they were in a gloom where
+sight availed them but little, “and keep in the white smoke; keep the
+skin close on her, lad; she’s a precious one—another will be hard to
+be found.”
+
+Obedient to the hunter’s directions, they followed his steps and
+advice implicitly; and, although the narrow pas sage along the winding
+of the spring led amid burning logs and falling branches, they happily
+achieved it in safety.  No one but a man long accustomed to the woods
+could have traced his route through the smoke, in which respiration
+was difficult, and sight nearly useless; but the experience of Natty
+conducted them to an opening through the rocks, where, with a little
+difficulty, they soon descended to another terrace, and emerged at
+once into a tolerably clear atmosphere.
+
+The feelings of Edwards and Elizabeth at reaching this spot may be
+imagined, though not easily described.  No one seemed to exult more
+than their guide, who turned, with Mohegan still lashed to his back,
+and, laughing in his own manner, said:
+
+“I knowed ‘twa the Frenchman’s powder, gal; it went so all together;
+your coarse grain will squib for a minute.  The Iroquois had none of
+the best powder when I went agin’ the Canada tribes, under Sir
+William.  Did I ever tell you the story, lad, consarning the scrimmage
+with—”
+
+“For God’s sake, tell me nothing now, Natty, until we are entirely
+safe.  Where shall we go next?”
+
+“Why, on the platform of rock over the cave, to be sure; you will be
+safe enough there, or we’ll go Into It, if you be so minded.”
+The young man started, and appeared agitated; but, Looking around him
+with an anxious eye, said quickly:
+
+“Shalt we be safe on the rock? cannot the fire reach us there, too?”
+
+“Can’t the boy see?” said Natty, with the coolness of one accustomed
+to the kind of danger he had just encountered.  “Had ye stayed in the
+place above ten minutes longer, you would both have been in ashes, but
+here you may stay forever, and no fire can touch you, until they burn
+the rocks as well as the woods.”
+
+With this assurance, which was obviously true, they proceeded to the
+spot, and Natty deposited his load, placing the Indian on the ground
+with his back against a fragment of the rocks.  Elizabeth sank on the
+ground, and buried her face in her hands, while her heart was swelling
+with a variety of conflicting emotions.
+
+“Let me urge you to take a restorative, Miss Temple,” said Edwards
+respectfully; “your frame will sink else.”
+
+“Leave me, leave me,” she said, raising her beaming eyes for a moment
+to his; “I feel too much for words! I am grateful, Oliver, for this
+miraculous escape; and next to my God to you.”
+
+Edwards withdrew to the edge of the rock, and shouted:
+
+“Benjamin! where are you, Benjamin?”
+
+A hoarse voice replied, as if from the bowels of the earth:
+
+“Hereaway, master; stowed in this here bit of a hole, which is all the
+time as hot as the cook’s coppers.  I’m tired of my berth, d’ye see,
+and if-so-be that Leather Stocking has got much overhauling to do
+before he sails after them said beaver I’ll go into dock again, and
+ride out my quarantine, till I can get prottick from the law, and so
+hold on upon the rest of my ‘spaniolas.”
+
+“Bring up a glass of water from the spring,” continued Edwards, “and
+throw a little wine in it; hasten, I entreat you!”
+
+“I knows but little of your small drink, Master Oliver,” returned the
+steward, his voice issuing out of the cave into the open air, “and the
+Jamaikey held out no longer than to take a parting kiss with Billy
+Kirby, when he anchored me alongside the highway last night, where you
+run me down in the chase.  But here’s summat of a red color that may
+suit a weak stomach, mayhap.  That Master Kirby is no first-rate in a
+boat; but he’ll tack a cart among the stumps, all the same as a Lon’on
+pilot will back and fill, through the colliers in the Pool.”
+
+As the steward ascended while talking, by the time he had ended his
+speech he appeared on the rock with the desired restoratives,
+exhibiting the worn-out and bloated features of a man who had run deep
+in a debauch, and that lately.
+
+Elizabeth took from the hands of Edwards the liquor which he offered
+and then motioned to be left again to herself.
+
+The youth turned at her bidding, and observed Natty kindly assiduous
+around the person of Mohegan.  When their eyes met, the hunter said
+sorrowfully:
+
+“His time has come, lad; see it in his eyes—when an Indian fixes his
+eye, he means to go but to one place; and what the wilful creatures
+put their minds on, they’re sure to do.”
+
+A quick tread prevented the reply, and in a few moments, to the
+amazement of the whole party, Mr. Grant was seen clinging to the side
+of the mountain, and striving to reach the place where they stood.
+Oliver sprang to his assistance, and by their united efforts the
+worthy divine was soon placed safely among them.
+
+“How came you added to our number?” cried Edwards.  “Is the hill alive
+with people at a time like this?”
+
+The hasty but pious thanksgivings of the clergyman were soon
+ejaculated, and, when he succeeded in collecting his bewildered
+senses, he replied:
+
+“I heard that my child was seen coming to the mountain; and, when the
+fire broke over its summit, my uneasiness drew me up the road, where I
+found Louisa, in terror for Miss Temple.  It was to seek her that I
+came into this dangerous place; and I think, but for God’s mercy,
+through the dogs of Natty, I should have perished in the flames
+myself.”
+
+“Ay! follow the hounds, and if there’s an opening they’ll scent it
+out,” said Natty; “their noses be given them the same as man’s
+reason.”
+
+“I did so, and they led me to this place; but, praise be to God that I
+see you all safe and well.”
+
+“No, no,” returned the hunter; “safe we be, but as for well, John
+can’t be called in a good way, unless you’ll say that for a man that’s
+taking his last look at ‘arth.”
+
+“He speaks the truth!” said the divine, with the holy awe with which
+he ever approached the dying; “I have been by too many death-beds, not
+to see that the hand of the tyrant is laid on this old warrior.  Oh!
+how consoling it is to know that he has not rejected the offered mercy
+in the hour of his strength and of worldly temptations! The offspring
+of a race of heathens, he has in truth been ‘as a brand plucked from
+the burning.’”
+
+“No, no,” returned Natty, who alone stood with him by the side of the
+dying warrior; “it is no burning that ails him, though his Indian
+feelings made him scorn to move, unless it be the burning of man’s
+wicked thoughts for near fourscore years; but it’s natur’ giving out
+in a chasm that’s run too long.—Down with ye, Hector! down, I say!
+Flesh Isn’t iron, that a man can live forever, and see his kith and
+kin driven to a far country, and he left to mourn, with none to keep
+him company.”
+
+“John,” said the divine, tenderly, “do you hear me? do you wish the
+prayers appointed by the church, at this trying moment?”
+
+The Indian turned his ghastly face toward the speaker, and fastened
+his dark eyes on him, steadily, but vacantly.
+
+No sign of recognition was made: and in a moment he moved his head
+again slowly toward the vale, and began to sing, using his own
+language, in those low, guttural tones, that have been so often
+mentioned, his notes rising with his theme, till they swelled so loud
+as to be distinct.
+
+“I will come! I will come! to the land of the just I will come! The
+Maquas I have slain! I have slain the Maquas! and the Great Spirit
+calls to his son.  I will come! I will come to the land of the just! I
+will come!”
+
+“What says he, Leather-Stocking?” Inquired the priest, with tender
+interest; “sings he the Redeemer’s praise?” “No, no—’tis his own
+praise that he speaks now,” said Natty, turning in a melancholy manner
+from the sight of his dying friend; “and a good right he has to say it
+all, for I know every word to be true.”
+
+“May heaven avert such self-righteousness from his heart! Humility and
+penitence are the seals of Christianity; and, without feeling them
+deeply seated in the soul, all hope is delusive, and leads to vain
+expectations.  Praise himself when his whole soul and body should
+unite to praise his Maker! John! you have enjoyed the blessings of a
+gospel ministry, and have been called from out a multitude of sinners
+and pagans, and, I trust.  for a wise and gracious purpose.  Do you
+now feel what it is to be justified by our Saviour’s death, and reject
+all weak and idle dependence on good works, that spring from man’s
+pride and vainglory?”
+
+The Indian did not regard his interrogator, but he raised his head
+again, and said in a low, distinct voice:
+
+“Who can say that the Maqous know the back of the Mohegan? What enemy
+that trusted in him did not see the morning? What Mingo that he chased
+ever sang the song of triumph? Did Mohegan ever he? No; the truth
+lived in him, and none else could come out of him.  In his youth he
+was a warrior, and his moccasins left the stain of blood.  In his age
+he was wise; his words at the council fire did not blow away with the
+winds.  “
+
+“Ah! he has abandoned that vain relic of paganism, his songs,” cried
+the divine; “ what says he now? is he sensible of his lost state?”
+
+“Lord!! man,” said Natty, “he knows his end is at hand as well as you
+or I; but, so far from thinking it a loss, he believes it to be a
+great gain.  He is old and stiff, and you have made the game so scarce
+and shy, that better shots than him find it hard to get a livelihood.
+Now he thinks he shall travel where it will always be good hunting ;
+Where no wicked or unjust Indians can go; and where he shall meet all
+his tribe together agin.  There’s not much loss in that, to a man
+whose hands are hardly fit for basket-making Loss! if there be any
+loss, ‘twill be to me.  I’m sure after he’s gone, there will be but
+little left for me but to follow.”
+
+“His example and end, which, I humbly trust, shall yet be made
+glorious,” returned Mr. Grant, “should lead your mind to dwell on the
+things of another life.  But I feel it to be my duty to smooth the way
+for the parting spirit.  This is the moment, John, when the reflection
+that you did not reject the mediation of the Redeemer, will bring balm
+to your soul.  Trust not to any act of former days, but lay the burden
+of your sins at his feet, and you have his own blessed assurance that
+he will not desert you.”
+
+“Though all you say be true, and you have scriptur' gospels for it,
+too,” said Natty, “you will make nothing of the Indian.  He hasn’t
+seen a Moravian p sin’ the war; and it’s hard to keep them from going
+hack to their native ways.  I should think ‘twould be as well to let
+the old man pass in peace.  He's happy now; I know it by his eye; and
+that’s more than I would say for the chief, sin’ the time the
+Delawares broke up from the head waters of their river and went west.
+Ah’s me! ‘tis a grevous long time that, and many dark days have we
+seen together sin’ it.”
+
+“Hawk-eye!” said Mohegan, rousing with the last glimmering of life.  “
+Hawk-eye! listen to the words of your brother.”
+
+“Yes, John,” said the hunter, in English, strongly affected by the
+appeal, and drawing to his side, we have been brothers; and more so
+than it means in the Indian tongue.  What would ye have with me,
+Chingachgook?”
+
+“Hawk-eye! my fathers call me to the happy hunting grounds.  The path
+is clear, and the eyes of Mohegan grow young.  I look—but I see no
+white-skins ; there are none to be seen but just and brave Indians.
+Farewell, Hawk-eye—you shall go with the Fire-eater and the Young
+Eagle to the white man’s heaven; but I go after my fathers.  Let the
+bow, and tomahawk, and pipe, and the wampum of Mohegan he laid in his
+grave; for when he starts 'twil be in the night, like a warrior on a
+war-party, and he can not stop to seek them.”
+
+“What says he, Nathaniel?” cried Mr. Grant, earnestly, and with
+obvious anxiety; “does he recall the promises of the mediation? and
+trust his salvation to the Rock of Ages?”
+
+Although the faith of the hunter was by no means clear, yet the fruits
+of early instruction had not entirely fallen in the wilderness.  He
+believed in one Cod, and one heaven; and when the strong feeling
+excited by the leave-taking of his old companion, which was exhibited
+by the powerful working of every muscle in his weather-beaten face,
+suffered him to speak, he replied:
+
+“No—no—he trusts only to the Great Spirit of the savages, and to his
+own good deeds.  He thinks, like all his people, that he is to be
+young agin, and to hunt, and be happy to the end of etarnity.  its
+pretty much the same with all colors, parson.  I could never bring
+myself to think that I shall meet with these hounds, or my piece, in
+another world; though the thought of leaving them forever sometimes
+brings hard feelings over me, and makes me cling to life with a
+greater craving than beseems three-Score-and-ten.”
+
+“The Lord in his mercy avert such a death from one who has been sealed
+with the sign of the cross!” cried the minister, in holy fervor.
+John—”
+
+He paused for the elements.  During the period occupied by the events
+which we have related, the dark clouds in the horizon had continued to
+increase in numbers and multitude; and the awful stillness that now
+pervaded the air, announced a crisis in the state of the atmosphere.
+The flames, which yet continued to rage along the sides of the
+mountain, no longer whirled in uncertain currents of their own eddies,
+but blazed high and steadily toward the heavens.  There was even a
+quietude in the ravages of the destructive element, as if it foresaw
+that a hand greater titan even its own desolating power, was about to
+stay its progress.  The piles of smoke which lay above the valley
+began to rise, and were dispelling rapidly; and streaks of livid
+lightning were dancing through the masses of clouds that impended over
+the western hills.  While Mr. Grant was speaking, a flash, which sent
+its quivering light through the gloom, laying bare the whole opposite
+horizon, was followed by a loud crash of thunder, that rolled away
+among the hills, seeming to shake the foundations of the earth to
+their centre.  Mohegan raised him self, as if in obedience to a signal
+for his departure, and stretched his wasted arm toward the west.  His
+dark face lighted with a look of joy; which, with all other
+expressions, gradually disappeared; the muscles stiffening as they
+retreated to a state of rest; a slight convulsion played, for a single
+instant, about his lips; and his arm slowly dropped by his side,
+leaving the frame of the dead warrior reposing against the rock with
+its glassy eyes open, and fixed on the distant hills, as if the
+deserted shell were tracing the flight of the spirit to its new abode.
+
+All this Mr. Grant witnessed in silent awe; but when the last echoes
+of the thunder died away he clasped his bands together, with pious
+energy, and repeated, in the full, rich tones of assured faith;
+
+“Lord! how unsearchable are Thy judgments; and Thy ways past finding
+out! ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
+latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy
+this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for my
+self, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.”
+
+As the divine closed this burst of devotion, he bowed his head meekly
+to his bosom, and looked all the dependence and humility that the
+inspired language expressed.
+
+When Mr. Grant retired from the body, the hunter approached, and
+taking the rigid hand of his friend, looked him wistfully in the face
+for some time without speaking, when he gave vent to his feelings by
+saying, in the mournful voice of one who felt deeply:
+
+“Red skin or white, it’s all over now! he's to be judged by a
+righteous Judge, and by no laws that’s made to suit times, and new
+ways.  Well, there’s only one more death, and the world will be left
+to me and the hounds, Ah’s me! a man must wait the time of God's
+pleasure, but I begin to weary of life.  There is scarcely a tree
+standing that I know, and it’s hard to find a face that I was ac-
+quainted with in my younger days.”
+
+Large drops of rain now began to fall, and diffuse them selves over
+the dry rock, while the approach of the thunder shower was rapid and
+certain.  ‘the body of the Indian was hastily removed into the cave
+beneath, followed by the whining hounds, who missed and moaned for the
+look of intelligence that had always met their salutations to the
+chief.
+
+Edwards made some hasty and confused excuse for not taking Elizabeth
+into the same place, which was now completely closed in front with
+logs and bark, saying some-thing that she hardly understood about its
+darkness, and the unpleasantness of being with the dead body.  Miss
+Temple, however, found a sufficient shelter against the torrent of
+rain that fell, under the projection of a rock which overhung them,
+But long before the shower was over, the sounds of voices were heard
+below them crying aloud for Elizabeth, and men soon appeared beating
+the dying embers of the bushes, as they worked their way cautiously
+among the unextinguished brands.
+
+At the first short cessation in the rain, Oliver conducted Elizabeth
+to the road, where he left her.  Before parting, however, he found
+time to say, in a fervent manner that his companion was now at no loss
+to interpret.
+
+“The moment of concealment is over, Miss Temple.  By this time to-
+morrow, I shall remove a veil that perhaps it has been weakness to
+keep around me and my allaus so long.  But I have had romantic and
+foolish wishes and weakness; and who has not, that is young and torn
+by conflicting passions? God bless you! I hear your father's voice; he
+is coming up the road, and I would not, just now, subject myself to
+detention.  Thank Heaven, you are safe again; that alone removes the
+weight of a world from my spirit!”
+
+He waited for no answer, but sprang into the woods.  Elizabeth,
+notwithstanding she heard the cries of her father as he called upon
+her name, paused until he was concealed among the smoking trees, when
+she turned, and in a moment rushed into the arms of her half-
+distracted Parent.
+
+A carriage had been provided, into which Miss Temple hastily entered;
+when the cry was passed along the hill, that the lost one was found,
+and the people returned to the village wet and dirty, but elated with
+the thought that the daughter of their landlord had escaped from so
+horrid and untimely an end.*
+
+  * The probability of a fire in the woods similar to that here described
+    has been questioned.  The writer can only say that he once witnessed a
+    fire in another part of New York that compelled a man to desert his
+    wagon and horses in the highway, and in which the latter were
+    destroyed.  In order to estimate the probability of such an event, it
+    is necessary to remember the effects of a long drought in that climate
+    and the abundance of dead wood which is found in a forest like that
+    described, The fires in the American forests frequently rage to such
+    an extent as to produce a sensible effect on the atmosphere at a
+    distance of fifty miles.  Houses, barns, and fences are quite commonly
+    swept away in their course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+
+“Selictar! unsheathe then our chief’s scimetar; Tambourgi! thy 'larum
+gives promise of war; Ye mountains! that see us descend to the shore,
+Shall view us as victors, or view us no more.”-Byron.
+
+The heavy showers that prevailed during the remainder of the day
+completely stopped the progress of the flames; though glimmering fires
+were observed during the night, on different parts of the hill,
+wherever there was a collection of fuel to feed the element.  The next
+day the woods for ‘many miles were black and smoking, and were
+stripped of every vestige of brush and dead wood; but the pines and
+hemlocks still reared their heads proudly among the hills, and even
+the smaller trees of the forest retained a feeble appearance of life
+and vegetation.
+
+The many tongues of rumor were busy in exaggerating the miraculous
+escape of Elizabeth; and a report was generally credited, that Mohegan
+had actually perished in the flames.  This belief became confirmed,
+and was indeed rendered probable, when the direful intelligence
+reached the village that Jotham Riddel, the miner, was found in his
+hole, nearly dead with suffocation, and burnt to such a degree that no
+hopes were entertained of his life.
+
+The public attention became much alive to the events of the last few
+days ; and, just at this crisis, the convicted counterfeiters took the
+hint from Natty, and, on the night succeeding the fire, found means to
+cut through their log prison also, and to escape unpunished.  When
+this news began to circulate through the village, blended with the
+fate of Jotham, and the exaggerated and tortured reports of the events
+on the hill, the popular opinion was freely expressed, as to the
+propriety of seizing such of the fugitives as remained within reach.
+Men talked of the cave as a secret receptacle of guilt; and, as the
+rumor of ores and metals found its way into the confused medley of
+conjectures, counterfeiting, and everything else that was wicked and
+dangerous to the peace of society, suggested themselves to the busy
+fancies of the populace.
+
+While the public mind was in this feverish state, it was hinted that
+the wood had been set on fire by Edwards and the Leather—Stocking, and
+that, consequently, they alone were responsible for the damages.  This
+opinion soon gained ground, being most circulated by those who, by
+their own heedlessness, had caused the evil; and there was one
+irresistible burst of the common sentiment that an attempt should he
+made to punish the offenders.  Richard was by no means deaf to this
+appeal, and by noon he set about in earnest to see the laws executed.
+
+Several stout young men were selected, and taken apart with an
+appearance of secrecy, where they received some important charge from
+the sheriff, immediately under the eyes, but far removed from the
+ears, of all in the village.  Possessed of a knowledge of their duty,
+these youths hurried into the hills, with a bustling manner, as if the
+fate of the world depended on their diligence, and, at the same time,
+with an air of mystery as great as if they were engaged on secret
+matters of the state.
+
+At twelve precisely a drum beat the “long roll ' before the” Bold
+Dragoon,” and Richard appeared, accompanied by Captain Hollister, who
+was clad in Investments as commander of the “Templeton Light
+Infantry,” when the former demanded of the latter the aid of the posse
+comitatus in enforcing the laws of the country.  We have not room to
+record the speeches of the two gentlemen on this occasion, but they
+are preserved in the columns of the little blue newspaper, which is
+yet to be found on the file, and are said to be highly creditable to
+the legal formula of one of the parties, and to the military precision
+of the other.  Everything had been previously arranged, and, as the
+red-coated drummer continued to roll out his clattering notes, some
+five-and-twenty privates appeared in the ranks, and arranged
+themselves in the order of battle.
+
+As this corps was composed of volunteers, and was commanded by a man
+who had passed the first five-and-thirty years of his life in camps
+and garrisons, it was the non-parallel of military science in that
+country, and was confidently pronounced by the judicious part of the
+Templeton community, to be equal in skill and appearance to any troops
+in the known world; in physical endowments they were, certainly, much
+superior! To this assertion there were but three dissenting voices,
+and one dissenting opinion.  The opinion belonged to Marmaduke, who,
+however, saw no necessity for its promulgation.  Of the voices, one,
+and that a pretty loud one’, came from the spouse of the commander
+himself, who frequently reproached her husband for condescending to
+lead such an irregular band of warriors, after he had filled the
+honorable station of sergeant-major to a dashing corps of Virginia
+cavalry through much of the recent war.
+
+Another of these skeptical sentiments was invariably expressed by Mr.
+Pump, whenever the company paraded generally in some such terms as
+these, which were uttered with that sort of meekness that a native of
+the island of our forefathers is apt to assume when he condescends to
+praise the customs or character of her truant progeny:
+
+“It’s mayhap that they knows summat about loading and firing, d'ye
+see, but as for working ship? why, a corporal’s guard of the
+Boadishey's marines would back and fill on their quarters in such a
+manner as to surround and captivate them all in half a glass.” As
+there was no one to deny this assertion, the marines of the Boadicea
+were held in a corresponding degree of estimation.
+
+The third unbeliever was Monsieur Le Quoi, who merely whispered to the
+sheriff, that the corps was one of the finest he had ever seen second
+only to the Mousquetaires of Le Boa Louis! However, as Mrs. Hollister
+thought there was something like actual service in the present
+appearances, and was, in consequence, too busily engaged with certain
+preparations of her own, to make her comments; as Benjamin was absent,
+and Monsieur Le Quoi too happy to find fault with anything, the corps
+escaped criticism and comparison altogether on this momentous day,
+when they certainly had greater need of self-confidence than on any
+other previous occasion.  Marmaduke was said to be again closeted with
+Mr. Van der School and no interruption was offered to the movements of
+the troops.  At two o’clock precisely the corps shouldered arms,
+beginning on the right wing, next to the veteran, and carrying the
+motion through to the left with great regularity.  When each
+musket was quietly fixed in its proper situation, the order was given
+to wheel to the left, and march.  As this was bringing raw troops, at
+once, to face their enemy, it is not to be supposed that the manoeuver
+was executed with their usual accuracy; but as the music struck up the
+inspiring air of Yankee-doodle, and Richard, accompanied by Mr.
+Doolittle preceded the troops boldly down the street, Captain
+Hollister led on, with his head elevated to forty-five degrees, with a
+little, low cocked hat perched on his crown, carrying a tremendous
+dragoon sabre at a poise, and trailing at his heels a huge steel
+scabbard, that had war in its very clattering.  There was a good deal
+of difficulty in getting all the platoons (there were six) to look the
+same way; but, by the time they reached the defile of the bridge, the
+troops were in sufficiently compact order.  In this manner they
+marched up the hill to the summit of the mountain, no other alteration
+taking place in the disposition of the forces, excepting that a mutual
+complaint was made, by the sheriff and the magistrate, of a failure in
+wind, which gradually’ brought these gentlemen to the rear.  It will
+be unnecessary to detail the minute movements that succeeded.  We
+shall briefly say, that the scouts came in and reported, that, so far
+from retreating, as had been anticipated, the fugitives had evidently
+gained a knowledge of the attack, and were fortifying for a desperate
+resistance.  This intelligence certainly made a material change, not
+only in the plans of the leaders, but in the countenances of the
+soldiery also.  The men looked at one another with serious faces, and
+Hiram and Richard began to consult together, apart.
+
+At this conjuncture, they were joined by Billy Kirby, who came along
+the highway, with his axe under his arm, as much in advance of his
+team as Captain Hollister had been of his troops in the ascent.  The
+wood-chopper was amazed at the military array, but the sheriff eagerly
+availed himself of this powerful reinforcement, and commanded his
+assistance in putting the laws in force.  Billy held Mr. Jones in too
+much deference to object; and it was finally arranged that he should
+be the bearer of a summons to the garrison to surrender before they
+proceeded to extremities.  The troops now divided, one party being led
+by the captain, over the Vision, and were brought in on the left of
+the cave, while the remainder advanced upon its right, under the
+orders of the lieutenant.  Mr. Jones and Dr. Todd—for the surgeon was
+in attendance also—appeared on the platform of rock, immediately over
+the heads of the garrison, though out of their sight.  Hiram thought
+this approaching too near, and he therefore accompanied Kirby along
+the side of the hill to within a safe distance of the fortifications,
+where he took shelter behind a tree.  Most of the men discovered great
+accuracy of eye in bringing some object in range between them and
+their enemy, and the only two of the besiegers, who were left in plain
+sight of the besieged, were Captain Hollister on one side, and the
+wood-chopper on the other.  The veteran stood up boldly to the front,
+supporting his heavy sword in one undeviating position, with his eye
+fixed firmly on his enemy, while the huge form of Billy was placed in
+that kind of quiet repose, with either hand thrust into his bosom,
+bearing his axe under his right arm, which permitted him, like his own
+oxen, to rest standing.  So far, not a word had been exchanged between
+the belligerents.  The besieged had drawn together a pile of black
+logs and branches of trees, which they had formed into a chevaux-de-
+frise, making a little circular abatis in front of the entrance to the
+cave.  As the ground was steep and slippery in every direction around
+the place, and Benjamin appeared behind the works on one side, and
+Natty on the other, the arrangement was by no means contemptible,
+especially as the front was sufficiently guarded by the difficulty of
+the approach.  By this time, Kirby had received his orders, and he
+advanced coolly along the mountain, picking his way with the same
+indifference as if he were pursuing his ordinary business.  When he
+was within a hundred feet of the works, the long and much-dreaded
+rifle of the Leather-Stocking was seen issuing from the parapet, and
+his voice cried aloud:
+
+“Keep off! Billy Kirby, keep off! I wish ye no harm; but if a man of
+ye all comes a step nigher, there’ll be blood spilt atwixt us.  God
+forgive the one that draws it first, but so it must be.”
+
+“Come, old chap,” said Billy, good-naturedly, “don’t be crabb’d, but
+hear what a man has got to say I’ve no consarn in the business, only
+to see right ‘twixt man and man; and I don’t kear the valie of a
+beetle-ring which gets the better; but there’s Squire Doolittle,
+yonder be hind the beech sapling, he has invited me to come in and ask
+you to give up to the law—that’s all.”
+
+“I see the varmint! I see his clothes!” cried the indignant Natty:
+“and if he’ll only show so much flesh as will bury a rifle bullet,
+thirty to the pound, I’ll make him feel me.  Go away, Billy, I bid ye;
+you know my aim, and I bear you no malice.”
+
+“You over-calculate your aim, Natty,” said the other, as he stepped
+behind a pine that stood near him, “if you think to shoot a man
+through a tree with a three-foot butt.  I can lay this tree right
+across you in ten minutes by any man's watch, and in less time, too;
+so be civil—I want no more than what’s right.”
+
+There was a simple seriousness in the countenance of Natty, that
+showed he was much in earnest; but it was also evident that he was
+reluctant to shed human blood.  He answered the taunt of the wood-
+chopper, by saying:
+
+“I know you drop a tree where you will, Billy Kirby; but if you show a
+hand, or an arm, in doing it, there’ll be bones to be set, and blood
+to staunch.  If it’s only to get into the cave that ye want, wait till
+a two hours’ sun, and you may enter it in welcome; but come in now you
+shall not.  There’s one dead body already, lying on the cold rocks,
+and there’s another in which the life can hardly be said to stay.  If
+you will come in, there’ll be dead with out as well as within.”
+
+The wood-chopper stepped out fearlessly from his cover, and cried:
+
+“That’s fair; and what’s fair is right.  He wants you to stop till
+it’s two hours to sundown; and I see reason in the thing.  A man can
+give up when he’s wrong, if you don’t crowd him too hard; but you
+crowd a man, and he gets to be like a stubborn ox—the more you beat,
+the worse he kicks.”
+
+The sturdy notions of independence maintained by Billy neither suited
+the emergency nor the impatience of Mr. Jones, who was burning with a
+desire to examine the hid den mysteries of the cave.  He therefore
+interrupted this amicable dialogue with his own voice;
+
+“I command you Nathaniel Bumppo, by my authority, to surrender your
+person to the law,” he cried.  “And I command you, gentlemen, to aid
+me in performing my duty.  Benjamin Penguillan I arrest you, and order
+you to follow me to the jail of the county, by virtue of this
+warrant.”
+
+“I’d follow ye, Squire Dickens,” said Benjamin, removing the pipe from
+his month (for during the whole scene the ex-major-domo had been very
+composedly smoking); ay! I’d sail in your wake, to the end of the
+world, if-so— be that there was such a place, where there isn’t,
+seeing that it’s round.  Now mayhap, Master Hollister, having lived
+all your life on shore, you isn’t acquainted that the world, d’ye see”
+
+“Surrender!” interrupted the veteran, in a voice that startled his
+hearers, and which actually caused his own forces to recoil several
+paces; surrender, Benjamin Pengullan, or expect no quarter.’”
+
+“Damn your quarter!” said Benjamin, rising from the log on which he
+was seated, and taking a squint along the barrel of the swivel, which
+had been brought on the hill during the night, and now formed the
+means of defence on his side of the works.  “ Look you, master or
+captain, thof I questions if ye know the name of a rope, except the
+one that’s to hang ye, there’s no need of singing out, as if ye was
+hailing a deaf man on a topgallant yard.  May-hap you think you’ve got
+my true name in your sheep skin; but what British sailor finds it
+worth while to sail in these seas, without a sham on his stern, in
+case of need, d’ye see.  If you call me Penguillan, you calls me by
+the name of the man on whose hand, dye see, I hove into daylight; and
+he was a gentleman ; and that’s more than my worst enemy will say of
+any of the family of Benjamin Stubbs.”
+
+“Send the warrant round to me, and I’ll put in an alias,” cried Hiram,
+from behind his cover.
+
+“Put in a jackass, and you’ll put in yourself, Mister Doo-but-little,”
+shouted Benjamin, who kept squinting along his little iron tube, with
+great steadiness.
+
+“I give you but one moment to yield,” cried Richard.  “Benjamin!
+Benjamin! this is not the gratitude I expected from you.”
+
+“I tell you, Richard Jones,” said Natty, who dreaded the sheriff’s
+influence over his comrade; “ though the canister the gal brought be
+lost, there’s powder enough in the cave to lift the rock you stand on.
+I’ll take off my roof if you don’t hold your peace.”
+
+“I think it beneath the dignity of my office to parley further with
+the prisoners,” the sheriff observer to his companion, while they both
+retired with a precipitancy that Captain Hollister mistook for the
+signal to advance.
+
+“Charge baggonet!” shouted the veteran; “ march!”
+
+Although this signal was certainly expected, it took the assailed a
+little by surprise, and the veteran approached the works, crying, “
+Courage, my brave lads! give them no quarter unless they surrender;”
+and struck a furious blow upward with his sabre, that would have
+divided the steward into moieties by subjecting him to the process of
+decapitation, but for the fortunate interference of the muzzle of the
+swivel.  As it was, the gun was dismounted at the critical moment that
+Benjamin was applying his pipe to the priming, and in consequence some
+five or six dozen of rifle bullets were projected into the air, in
+nearly a perpendicular line.  Philosophy teaches us that the atmos-
+phere will not retain lead; and two pounds of the metal, moulded into
+bullets of thirty to the pound, after describing an ellipsis in their
+journey, returned to the earth rattling among the branches of the
+trees directly over the heads of the troops stationed in the rear of
+their captain.  Much of the success of an attack, made by irregular
+soldiers, depends on the direction in which they are first got in
+motion.  In the present instance it was retrograde, and in less than a
+minute after the bellowing report of the swivel among the rocks and
+caverns, the whole weight of the attack from the left rested on the
+prowess of the single arm of the veteran.  Benjamin received a severe
+contusion from the recoil of his gun, which produced a short stupor,
+during which period the ex-steward was prostrate on the ground.
+Captain Hollister availed himself of this circumstance to scramble
+ever the breastwork and obtain a footing in the bastion—for such was
+the nature of the fortress, as connected with the cave.  The moment
+the veteran found himself within the works of his enemy, he rushed to
+the edge of the fortification, and, waving his sabre over his head,
+shouted:
+
+“Victory! come on, my brave boys, the work’s our own!”
+
+All this was perfectly military, and was such an example as a gallant
+officer was in some measure bound to exhibit to his men but the outcry
+was the unlucky cause of turning the tide of success.  Natty, who had
+been keeping a vigalent eye on the wood-chopper, and the enemy
+immediately before him, wheeled at this alarm, and was appalled at
+beholding his comrade on the ground, and the veteran standing on his
+own bulwark, giving forth the cry of victory! The muzzle of the long
+rifle was turned instantly toward the captain.  There was a moment
+when the life of the old soldier was in great jeopardy but the object
+to shoot at was both too large and too near for the Leather-Stocking,
+who, instead of pulling his trigger, applied the gun to the rear of
+his enemy, and by a powerful shove sent him outside of the works with
+much greater rapidity than he had entered them.  The spot on which
+Captain Hollister alighted was directly in front, where, as his feet
+touched the ground, so steep and slippery was the side of the
+mountain, it seemed to recede from under them.  His motion was swift,
+and so irregular as utterly to confuse the faculties of the old
+soldier.  During its continuance, he supposed himself to be mounted,
+and charging through the ranks of his enemy.  At every tree he made a
+blow, of course, as at a foot-soldier; and just as he was making the
+cut “St. George” at a half burnt sapling he landed in the highway,
+and, to his utter amazement, at the feet of his own spouse.  When Mrs.
+Hollister, who was toiling up the hill, followed by at least twenty
+curious boys, leaning with one hand on the staff with which she
+ordinarily walked, and bearing in the other an empty bag, witnessed
+this exploit of her husband, indignation immediately got the better,
+not only of her religion, but of her philosophy.
+
+“Why, sargeant! is it flying ye are?” she cried—” that I should live
+to see a husband of mine turn his hack to an inimy! and such a one!
+Here I have been telling the b’ys, as we come along, all about the
+saige of Yorrektown, and how ye was hurted; and how ye’d be acting the
+same agin the day; and I mate ye retraiting jist as the first gun is
+fired.  Och! I may trow away the bag! for if there’s plunder, ‘twill
+not be the wife of sich as yerself that will be privileged to be
+getting the same.  They do say, too, there is a power of goold and
+silver in the place—the Lord forgive me for setting my heart on
+woorldly things; but what falls in the battle, there’s scriptur’ for
+believing, is the just property of the victor,”
+
+“Retreating!” exclaimed the amazed veteran; “where’s my horse? he has
+been shot under me—I——”
+
+“Is the man mad?” interrupted his wife—” devil the horse do ye own,
+sargeant, and ye’re nothing but a shabby captain of malaishy.  Oh! if
+the ra’al captain was here, tis the other way ye’d be riding, dear, or
+you would not follow your laider!”
+
+While this worthy couple were thus discussing events, the battle began
+to rage more violently than ever above them.  When Leather-Stocking
+saw his enemy fairly under headway, as Benjamin would express it, he
+gave his attention to the right wing of the assailants.  It would have
+been easy for Kirby, with his powerful frame, to have seized the
+moment to scale the bastion, and, with his great strength, to have
+sent both of its defenders in pursuit of the veteran; but hostility
+appeared to he the passion that the wood-chopper indulged the least in
+at that moment, for, in a voice that was heard by the retreating left
+wing, he shouted:
+
+“Hurrah well done, captain! keep it up! how he handles his bush-hook!
+he makes nothing of a sapling!” and such other encouraging
+exclamations to the flying veteran, until, overcome by mirth, the
+good-natured fellow seated himself on the ground, kicking the earth
+with delight, and giving vent to peal after peal of laughter.
+
+Natty stood all this time in a menacing attitude, with his rifle
+pointed over the breastwork, watching with a quick and cautions eye
+the least movement of the assail ants.  The outcry unfortunately
+tempted the ungovernable curiosity of Hiram to take a peep from behind
+his cover at the state of the battle.  Though this evolution was
+performed with great caution, in protecting his front, he left, like
+many a better commander, his rear exposed to the attacks of his enemy.
+Mr. Doolittle belonged physically to a class of his countrymen, to
+whom Nature has denied, in their formation, the use of curved lines.
+Every thing about him was either straight or angular.  But his tailor
+was a woman who worked, like a regimental contractor, by a set of
+rules that gave the same configuration to the whole human species.
+Consequently, when Mr. Doolittle leaned forward in the manner
+described, a loose drapery appeared behind the tree, at which the
+rifle of Natty was pointed with the quickness of lightning.  A less
+experienced man would have aimed at the flowing robe, which hung like
+a festoon half-way to the earth ; but the Leather-Stocking knew both
+the man and his female tailor better; and when the smart report of the
+rifle was heard, Kirby, who watched the whole manoeuvre in breath less
+expectation.  saw the bark fly from the beech and the cloth, at some
+distance above the loose folds, wave at the same instant.  No battery
+was ever unmasked with more promptitiude than Hiram advanced from
+behind the tree at this summons.
+
+He made two or three steps, with great precision, to the front and,
+placing one hand on the afflicted part, stretched forth the other with
+a menacing air toward Natty, and cried aloud:
+
+“Gawl darn ye: this shan’t he settled so easy; I’ll follow it up from
+the ‘common pleas’ to the ‘court of errors.’”
+
+Such a shocking imprecation, from the mouth of so orderly a man as
+Squire Doolittle, with the fearless manner in which he exposed
+himself, together with, perhaps, the knowledge that Natty’s rifle was
+unloaded, encouraged the troops in the rear, who gave a loud shout,
+and fired a volley into the tree-tops, after the contents of the
+swivel.  Animated by their own noise, the men now rushed on in
+earnest; and Billy Kirby, who thought the joke, good as it was, had
+gone far enough, was in the act of scaling the works, when Judge
+Temple appeared on the opposite side, exclaiming:
+
+“Silence and peace! why do I see murder and blood shed attempted? Is
+not the law sufficient to protect itself, that armed bands must be
+gathered, as in rebellion and war, to see justice performed?”
+
+“‘Tis the posse comitatus,” shouted the sheriff, from a distant rock,
+“who-”
+
+“Say rather a posse of demons.  I command the peace.” “Hold shied not
+blood!” cried a voice from the top of the Vision.  “ Hold, for the
+sake of Heaven, fire no more! all shall be yielded! you shall enter
+the cave!”
+
+Amazement produced the desired effect.  Natty, who had reloaded his
+piece, quietly seated himself on the logs, and rested his head on his
+hands, while the “ Light Infantry” ceased their military movements,
+and waited the issue in suspense.
+
+In less than a minute Edwards came rushing down the hill, followed by
+Major Hartman, with a velocity that was surprising for his years.
+They reached the terrace in an instant, from which the youth led the
+way, by the hollow in the rock, to the mouth of the cave, into which
+they both entered, leaving all without silent, and gazing after them
+with astonishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+
+“I am dumb.
+Were you the doctor, and I knew you not?”-Shakespeare.
+
+During the five or six minutes that elapsed before the youth and Major
+reappeared.  Judge Temple and the sheriff together with most of the
+volunteers, ascended to the terrace, where the latter began to express
+their conjectures of the result, and to recount their individual
+services in the conflict.  But the sight of the peace-makers ascending
+the ravine shut every mouth.
+
+On a rude chair, covered with undressed deer-skins, they supported a
+human being, whom they seated carefully and respectfully in the midst
+of the assembly.  His head was covered by long, smooth locks of the
+color of snow.  His dress, which was studiously neat and clean, was
+composed of such fabrics as none but the wealthiest classes wear, but
+was threadbare and patched ; and on his feet were placed a pair of
+moccasins, ornamented in the best manner of Indian ingenuity.  The
+outlines of his face were grave and dignified, though his vacant eye,
+which opened and turned slowly to the faces of those around him in
+unmeaning looks, too surely’ announced that the period had arrived
+when age brings the mental imbecility of childhood.
+
+Natty had followed the supporters of this unexpected object to the top
+of the cave, and took his station at a little distance behind him,
+leaning no his rifle, in the midst of his pursuers, with a
+fearlessness that showed that heavier interests than those which
+affected himself were to be decided.  Major Hartmann placed himself
+beside the aged man, uncovered, with his whole soul beaming through
+those eyes which so commonly danced with frolic and humor.  Edwards
+rested with one hand familiarly but affectionately on the chair,
+though his heart was swelling with emotions that denied him utterance.
+
+All eyes were gazing intently, but each tongue continued mute.  At
+length the decrepit stranger, turning his vacant looks from face to
+face, made a feeble attempt to rise, while a faint smile crossed his
+wasted face, like an habitual effort at courtesy, as he said, in a
+hollow, tremulous voice:
+
+“Be pleased to be seated, gentlemen.  The council will open
+immediately.  Each one who loves a good and virtuous king will wish to
+see these colonies continue loyal.  Be seated—I pray you, be seated,
+gentlemen.  The troops shall halt for the night.”
+
+“This is the wandering of insanity!” said Marmaduke: “who will explain
+this scene.”
+
+“No, sir,” said Edwards firmly, “‘tis only the decay of nature; who is
+answerable for its pitiful condition, remains to be shown.”
+
+“Will the gentlemen dine with us, my son?” said the old stranger,
+turning to a voice that he both knew and loved.  “Order a repast
+suitable for his Majesty’s officers.  You know we have the best of
+game always at command,”
+
+“Who is this man?” asked Marmaduke, in a hurried voice, in which the
+dawnings of conjecture united with interest to put the question.
+
+“This man,” returned Edwards calmly, his voice, how ever, gradually
+rising as he proceeded; “this man, sir, whom you behold hid in
+caverns, and deprived of every-thing that can make life desirable, was
+once the companion and counsellor of those who ruled your country.
+This man, whom you see helpless and feeble, was once a warrior, so
+brave and fearless, that even the intrepid natives gave him the name
+of the Fire-eater.  This man, whom you now see destitute of even the
+ordinary comfort of a cabin, in which to shelter his head, was once
+the owner of great riches—and, Judge Temple, he was the rightful
+proprietor of this very soil on which we stand.  This man was the
+father of———”
+
+“This, then,” cried Marmaduke, with a powerful emotion, “this, then,
+is the lost Major Effingham!”
+
+“Lost indeed,” said the youth, fixing a piercing eye on the other.
+
+“And you! and you!” continued the Judge, articulating with difficulty.
+
+“I am his grandson.”
+
+A minute passed in profound silence.  All eyes were fixed on the
+speakers, and even the old German appeared to wait the issue in deep
+anxiety.  But the moment of agitation soon passed.  Marmaduke raised
+his head from his bosom, where it had sunk, not in shame, but in
+devout mental thanksgivings, and, as large tears fell over his fine,
+manly face, he grasped the hand of the youth warmly, and said:
+
+“Oliver, I forgive all thy harshness—all thy suspicions.  I now see it
+all.  I forgive thee everything, but suffering this aged man to dwell
+in such a place, when not only my habitation, but my fortune, were at
+his and thy command.”
+
+“He’s true as ter steel!” shouted Major Hartmann; “ titn’t I tell you,
+lat, dat Marmatuke Temple vas a friend dat woult never fail in ter
+dime as of neet?”
+
+“It is true, Judge Temple, that my opinions of your conduct have been
+staggered by what this worthy gentle man has told me.  When I found it
+impossible to convey my grandfather back whence the enduring love of
+this old man brought him, without detection and exposure, I went to
+the Mohawk in quest of one of his former comrades, in whose justice I
+had dependence.  He is your friend, Judge Temple, but, if what he says
+be true, both my father and myself may have judged you harshly.”
+
+“You name your father!” said Marmaduke tenderly— “was he, indeed, lost
+in the packet?”
+
+“He was.  He had left me, after several years of fruit less
+application and comparative poverty, in Nova Scotia, to obtain the
+compensation for his losses which the British commissioners had at
+length awarded.  After spending a year in England, he was returning to
+Halifax, on his way to a government to which he had been appointed, in
+the West Indies, intending to go to the place where my grand father
+had sojourned during and since the war, and take him with us.”
+
+“But thou!” said Marmaduke, with powerful interest; “I had thought
+that thou hadst perished with him.”
+
+A flush passed over the cheeks of the young man, who gazed about him
+at the wondering faces of the volunteers, and continued silent.
+Marmaduke turned to the veteran captain, who just then rejoined his
+command, and said:
+
+“March thy soldiers back again, and dismiss them, the zeal of the
+sheriff has much mistaken his duty.—Dr. Todd, I will thank you to
+attend to the injury which Hiram Doolittle has received in this
+untoward affair,—Richard, you will oblige me by sending up the
+carriage to the top of the hill.—Benjamin, return to your duty in my
+family.”
+
+Unwelcome as these orders were to most of the auditors, the suspicion
+that they had somewhat exceeded the whole some restraints of the law,
+and the habitual respect with which all the commands of the Judge were
+received, induced a prompt compliance.
+
+When they were gone, and the rock was left to the parties most
+interested in an explanation, Marmaduke, pointing to the aged Major
+Effingham, said to his grand son:
+
+“Had we not better remove thy parent from this open place until my
+carriage can arrive?”
+
+“Pardon me, sir, the air does him good, and he has taken it whenever
+there was no dread of a discovery.  I know not how to act, Judge
+Temple; ought I, can I suffer Major Effingham to become an inmate of
+your family?”
+
+“Thou shalt he thyself the judge,” said Marmaduke.  Thy father was my
+early friend, He intrusted his fortune to my care.  When we separated
+he had such confidence in me that he wished on security, no evidence
+of the trust, even had there been time or convenience for exacting it.
+This thou hast heard?”
+
+“Most truly, sir,” said Edwards, or rather Effingham as we must now
+call him.
+
+“We differed in politics.  If the cause of this country was
+successful, the trust was sacred with me, for none knew of thy
+father’s interest, if the crown still held its sway, it would he easy
+to restore the property of so loyal a subject as Colonel Effingham.
+Is not this plain?‘“
+
+“The premises are good, sir,” continued the youth, with the same
+incredulous look as before.
+
+“Listen—listen, poy,” said the German, “Dere is not a hair as of ter
+rogue in ter het of Herr Tchooge.”
+
+“We all know the issue of the struggle,” continued Marmaduke,
+disregarding both.  “Thy grandfather was left in Connecticut,
+regularly supplied by thy father with the means of such a subsistence
+as suited his wants.  This I well knew, though I never had intercourse
+with him, even in our happiest days.  Thy father retired with the
+troops to prosecute his claims on England.  At all events, his losses
+must be great, for his real estates were sold, and I became the lawful
+purchaser.  It was not unnatural to wish that he might have no bar to
+its just recovery.”
+
+“There was none, but the difficulty of providing for so many
+claimants.”
+
+“But there would have been one, and an insuperable one, and I
+announced to the world that I held these estates, multiplied by the
+times and my industry, a hundredfold in value, only as his trustee.
+Thou knowest that I supplied him with considerable sums immediately
+after the war.”
+
+“You did, until—”
+
+“My letters were returned unopened.  Thy father had much of thy own
+spirit, Oliver; he was sometimes hasty and rash.” The Judge continued,
+in a self-condemning manner; “ Perhaps my fault lies the other way: I
+may possibly look too far ahead, and calculate too deeply.  It
+certainly was a severe trial to allow the man whom I most loved, to
+think ill of me for seven years, in order that he might honestly apply
+for his just remunerations.  But, had he opened my last letters, thou
+wouldst have learned the whole truth.  Those I sent him to England, by
+what my agent writes me, he did read.  He died, Oliver, knowing all,
+he died my friend, and I thought thou hadst died with him”
+
+“Our poverty would not permit us to pay for two passages,” said the
+youth, with the extraordinary emotion with which he ever alluded to
+the degraded state of his family ; “ I was left in the Province to
+wait for his return, and, when the sad news of his loss reached me, I
+was nearly penniless.”
+
+“And what didst thou, boy?” asked Marmaduke in a faltering voice.
+
+“I took my passage here in search of my grandfather; for I well knew
+that his resources were gone, with the half pay of my father.  On
+reaching his abode, I learned that he had left it in secret; though
+the reluctant hireling, who had deserted him in his poverty, owned to
+my urgent en treaties, that he believed he had been carried away by an
+-old man who had formerly been his servant.  I knew at
+once it was Natty, for my father often—”
+
+“Was Natty a servant of thy grandfather?” exclaimed the Judge.
+
+“Of that too were you ignorant?” said the youth in evident surprise.
+
+“How should I know it? I never met the Major, nor was the name of
+Bumppo ever mentioned to me.  I knew him only as a man of the woods,
+and one who lived by hunting.  Such men are too common to excite
+surprise.”
+
+“He was reared in the family of my grandfather; served him for many
+years during their campaigns at the West, where he became attached to
+the woods; and he was left here as a kind of locum tenens on the lands
+that old Mohegan (whose life my grandfather once saved) induced the
+Delawares to grant to him when they admitted him as an honorary member
+of their tribe.
+
+“This, then, is thy Indian blood?”
+
+“I have no other,” said Edwards, smiling—” Major Effingham was adopted
+as the son of Mohegan, who at that time was the greatest man in his
+nation; and my father, who visited those people when a boy, received
+the name of the Eagle from them, on account of the shape of his face,
+as I understand.  They have extended his title to me, I have no other
+Indian blood or breeding; though I have seen the hour, Judge Temple,
+when I could wish that such had been my lineage and education.”
+
+“Proceed with thy tale,” said Marmaduke.
+
+“I have but little more to say, sir, I followed to the lake where I
+had so often been told that Natty dwelt, and found him maintaining his
+old master in secret; for even he could not bear to exhibit to the
+world, in his poverty and dotage, a man whom a whole people once
+looked up to with respect.”
+
+“And what did you?”
+
+“What did I? I spent my last money in purchasing a rifle, clad myself
+in a coarse garb, and learned to be a hunter by the side of Leather-
+Stocking.  You know the rest, Judge Temple.”
+
+“Ant vere vas olt Fritz Hartmann?” said the German, reproachfully;
+“didst never hear a name as of olt Fritz Hartmann from ter mout of ter
+fader, lat?”
+
+“I may have been mistaken, gentlemen,” returned the youth, ‘but I had
+pride, and could not submit to such an exposure as this day even has
+reluctantly brought to light.  I had plans that might have been
+visionary; but, should my parent survive till autumn, I purposed
+taking him with me to the city, where we have distant relatives, who
+must have learned to forget the Tory by this time.  He decays
+rapidly,” he continued mournfully, “and must soon lie by the side of
+old Mohegan.”
+
+The air being pure, and the day fine, the party continued conversing
+on the rock, until the wheels of Judge Temple’s carriage were heard
+clattering up the side of the mountain, during which time the
+conversation was maintained with deep interest, each moment clearing
+up some doubtful action, and lessening the antipathy of the youth to
+Marmaduke.  He no longer objected to the removal of his grand father,
+who displayed a childish pleasure when he found himself seated once
+more in a carriage.  When placed in the ample hall of the mansion-
+house, the eyes of the aged veteran turned slowly to the objects in
+the apartment, and a look like the dawn of intellect would, for
+moments flit across his features, when he invariably offered some use
+less courtesies to those near him, wandering painfully in his
+subjects.  The exercise and the change soon produced an exhaustion
+that caused them to remove him to his bed, where he lay for hours,
+evidently sensible of the change in his comforts, and exhibiting that
+mortifying picture of human nature, which too plainly shows that the
+propensities of the animal continue even after the nobler part of the
+creature appears to have vanished.
+
+Until his parent was placed comfortably in bed, with Natty seated at
+his side, Effingham did not quit him.  He then obeyed a summons to the
+library of the Judge, where he found the latter, with Major Hartmann,
+waiting for him.
+
+“Read this paper, Oliver,” said Marmaduke to him, as he entered, “and
+thou wilt find that, so far from intending thy family wrong during
+life, it has been my care to see that justice should be done at even a
+later day.”
+
+The youth took the paper, which his first glance told him was the will
+of the Judge.  Hurried and agitated as he was, he discovered that the
+date corresponded with the time of the unusual depression of
+Marmaduke.  As he proceeded, his eyes began to moisten, and the hand
+which held the instrument shook violently.
+
+The will commenced with the usual forms, spun out by the ingenuity of
+Mr. Van der School: but, after this subject was fairly exhausted, the
+pen of Marmaduke became plainly visible.  In clear, distinct, manly,
+and even eloquent language, he recounted his obligations to Colonel
+Effingham, the nature of their connection, and the circumstances in
+which they separated.  He then proceeded to relate the motives of his
+silence, mentioning, however, large sums that he had forwarded to his
+friend, which had been returned with the letters unopened.  After
+this, he spoke of his search for the grandfather who unaccountably
+disappeared, and his fears that the direct heir of the trust was
+buried in the ocean with his father.
+
+After, in short, recounting in a clear narrative, the events which our
+readers must now he able to connect, he proceeded to make a fair and
+exact statement of the sums left in his care by Colonel Effingham.  A
+devise of his whole estate to certain responsible trustees followed;
+to hold the same for the benefit, in equal moieties, of his daughter,
+on one part, and of Oliver Effingham, formerly a major in the army of
+Great Britain, and of his son Ed ward Effingham, and of his son Edward
+Oliver Effingham, or to the survivor of them, and the descendants of
+such survivor, forever, on the other part.  The trust was to endure
+until 1810, when, if no person appeared, or could be found, after
+sufficient notice, to claim the moiety so devised, then a certain sum,
+calculating the principal and interest of his debt to Colonel
+Effingham, was to be paid to the heirs-at-law of the Effingham family,
+and the bulk of his estate was to be conveyed in fee to his daughter,
+or her heirs.
+
+The tears fell from the eyes of the young man, as he read this
+undeniable testimony of the good faith of Marmaduke, and his
+bewildered gaze was still fastened on the paper, when a voice, that
+thrilled on every nerve, spoke near him, saying:
+
+“Do you yet doubt us, Oliver?”
+
+“I have never doubted you!” cried the youth, recovering his
+recollection and his voice, as he sprang to seize the hand of
+Elizabeth ; “no, not one moment has my faith in you wavered.”
+
+“And my father—”
+
+“God bless him!”
+
+“I thank thee, my son,” said the Judge, exchanging a warm pressure of
+the hand with the youth ; “but we have both erred: thou hast been too
+hasty, and I have been too slow.  One-half of my estates shall be
+thine as soon as they can be conveyed to thee; and, if what my
+suspicions tell me be true, I suppose the other must follow speedily.”
+He took the hand which he held, and united it with that of his
+daughter, and motioned toward the door to the Major.
+
+“I telt yon vat, gal!” said the old German, good-humoredly ; “if I vas
+as I vas ven I servit mit his grand-fader on ter lakes, ter lazy tog
+shouldn’t vin ter prize as for nottin’.”
+
+“Come, come, old Fritz,” said the Judge; “you are seventy, not
+seventeen; Richard waits for you with a bowl of eggnog, in the hall.”
+
+“Richart! ter duyvel!” exclaimed the other, hastening out of the room;
+“he makes ter nog as for ter horse.  vilt show ter sheriff mit my own
+hants! Ter duyvel! I pelieve he sweetens mit ter Yankee melasses!”
+
+Marmaduke smiled and nodded affectionately at the young couple, and
+closed the door after them.  If any of our readers expect that we are
+going to open it again, for their gratification, they are mistaken.
+
+The tete-a-tete continued for a very unreasonable time—-how long we
+shall not say; but it was ended by six o’clock in the evening, for at
+that hour Monsieur Le Quoi made his appearance agreeably to the
+appointment of the preceding day, and claimed the ear of Miss Temple.
+He was admitted ; when he made an offer of his hand, with much
+suavity, together with his “amis beeg and leet’, his père, his mere
+and his sucreboosh.” Elizabeth might, possibly, have previously
+entered into some embarrassing and binding engagements with Oliver,
+for she declined the tender of all, in terms as polite, though perhaps
+a little more decided, than those in which they were made.
+
+The Frenchman soon joined the German and the sheriff in the hall, who
+compelled him to take a seat with them at the table, where, by the aid
+of punch, wine, and egg nog, they soon extracted from the complaisant
+Monsieur Le Quoi the nature of his visit, it was evident that he had
+made the offer, as a duty which a well- bred man owed to a lady in
+such a retired place, before he had left the country, and that his
+feelings were but very little, if at all, interested in the matter.
+After a few potations, the waggish pair persuaded the exhilarated
+Frenchman that there was an inexcusable partiality in offering to one
+lady, and not extending a similar courtesy to another.  Consequently,
+about nine, Monsieur Le Quoi sallied forth to the rectory, on a
+similar mission to Miss Grant, which proved as successful as his first
+effort in love.
+
+When he returned to the mansion-house, at ten, Richard and the Major
+were still seated at the table.  They at tempted to persuade the Gaul,
+as the sheriff called him, that he should next try Remarkable
+Pettibone.  But, though stimulated by mental excitement and wine, two
+hours of abstruse logic were thrown away on this subject; for he
+declined their advice, with a pertinacity truly astonishing in so
+polite a man.
+
+When Benjamin lighted Monsieur Le Quoi from the door, he said, at
+parting:
+
+“If-so-be, Mounsheer, you’d run alongside Mistress Pettybones, as the
+Squire Dickens was bidding ye, ‘tis my notion you’d have been
+grappled; in which case, d’ye see, you mought have been troubled in
+swinging clear agin in a handsome manner; for thof Miss Lizzy and the
+parson’s young ‘un be tidy little vessels, that shoot by a body on a
+wind, Mistress Remarkable is summat of a galliot fashion: when you
+once takes ‘em in tow, they doesn’t like to be cast off agin.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+
+“Yes, sweep ye on!—We will not leave,
+For them who triumph those who grieve.
+With that armada gay
+Be laughter loud, and jocund shout—
+—But with that skill
+Abides the minstrel tale.  “—Lord of the Isles.
+
+The events of our tale carry us through the summer; and after making
+nearly the circle of the year, we must conclude our labors in the
+delightful month of October.  Many important incidents had, however,
+occurred in the intervening period; a few of which it may be necessary
+to  recount.
+
+The two principal were the marriage of Oliver and Elizabeth, and the
+death of Major Effingham.  They both took place early in September;
+and the former preceded the latter only a few days.  The old man
+passed away like the last glimmering of a taper; and, though his death
+cast a melancholy over the family, grief could not follow such an end.
+One of the chief concerns of Marmaduke was to reconcile the even
+conduct of a magistrate with the course that his feelings dictated to
+the criminals.  The day succeeding the discovery at the cave, however,
+Natty and Benjamin re-entered the jail peaceably, where they
+continued, well fed and comfortable, until the return of an express to
+Albany, who brought the governor’s pardon to the Leather-Stocking.  In
+the mean time, proper means were employed to satisfy Hiram for the
+assaults on his person ; and on the same day the two comrades issued
+together into society again, with their characters not at all affected
+by the  imprisonment.
+
+Mr. Doolittle began to discover that neither architecture nor his law
+was quite suitable to the growing wealth and intelligence of the
+settlement; and after exacting the last cent that was attainable in
+his compromise, to use the language of the country he “pulled up
+stakes,” and proceeded farther west, scattering his professional
+science and legal learning through the land; vestiges of both of which
+are to be discovered there even to the present hour.
+
+Poor Jotham, whose life paid the forfeiture of his folly,
+acknowledged, before he died, that his reasons for believing in a mine
+were extracted from the lips of a sibyl, who, by looking in a magic
+glass, was enabled to discover the hidden treasures of the earth.
+Such superstition was frequent in the new settlements; and, after the
+first surprise was over, the better part of the community forgot the
+subject.  But, at the same time that it removed from the breast of
+Richard a lingering suspicion of the acts of the three hunter, it
+conveyed a mortifying lesson to him, which brought many quiet hours,
+in future, to his cousin Marmaduke.  It may be remembered that the
+sheriff confidently pronounced this to be no “ visionary “scheme, and
+that word was enough to shut his lips, at any time within the next ten
+years.
+
+Monsieur Le Quoi, who has been introduced to our readers because no
+picture of that country would be faithful without some such character,
+found the island of Martinique, and his “sucreboosh,” in possession of
+the English but Marmaduke and his family were much gratified in soon
+hearing that he had returned to his bureau, in Paris; where he
+afterward issued yearly bulletins of his happiness, and of his
+gratitude to his friends in America.
+
+With this brief explanation, we must return to our narrative.  Let the
+American reader imagine one of our mildest October mornings, when the
+sun seems a ball of silvery fire, and the elasticity of the air is
+felt while it is inhaled, imparting vigor and life to the whole system
+; the weather, neither too warm nor too cold, but of that happy
+temperature which stirs the blood, without bringing the lassitude of
+spring.  It was on such a morning, about the middle of the month, that
+Oliver entered the hall where Elizabeth was issuing her usual orders
+for the day, and requesting her to join him in a short excursion to
+the lakeside.  The tender melancholy in the manner of her husband
+caught the attention of Elizabeth, who instantly abandoned her
+concerns, threw a light shawl across her shoulders, and, concealing
+her raven hair under a gypsy hat, and took his arm, and submitted
+herself, without a question, to his guidance.  They crossed the
+bridge, and had turned from the highway, along the margin of the lake,
+before a word was exchanged.  Elizabeth well knew, by the direction,
+the object of the walk, and respected the feelings of her companion
+too much to indulge in untimely conversation.  But when they gained
+the open fields, and her eye roamed over the placid lake, covered with
+wild fowl already journeying from the great northern waters to seek a
+warmer sun, but lingering to play in the limpid sheet of the Otsego,
+and to the sides of the mountain, which were gay with the thou- sand
+dyes of autumn, as if to grace their bridal, the swelling heart of the
+young wife burst out in speech.
+
+“This is not a time for silence, Oliver!” she said, clinging more
+fondly to his arm; “everything in Nature seems to speak the praises of
+the Creator; why should we, who have so much to be grateful for, be
+silent?”
+
+“Speak on!” said her husband, smiling; “I love the sounds of your
+voice.  You must anticipate our errand hither: I have told you my
+plans: how do you like them?”
+
+“I must first see them,” returned his wife.  “But I have had my plans,
+too; it is time I should begin to divulge them.”
+
+“You! It is something for the comfort of my old friend, Natty, I
+know.”
+
+“Certainly of Natty; but we have other friends besides the Leather-
+Stocking to serve.  Do you forget Louisa and her father?”
+
+“No, surely; have I not given one of the best farms in the county to
+the good divine? As for Louisa, I should wish you to keep her always
+near us.”
+
+“You do!” said Elizabeth, slightly compressing her lips; “but poor
+Louisa may have other views for herself; she may wish to follow my
+example, and marry.”
+
+“I don’t think it,” said Effingham, musing a moment,  really don’t
+know any one hereabouts good enough for her.”
+
+“Perhaps not her; but there are other places besides Templeton, and
+other churches besides ‘New St. Paul’s.’”
+
+“Churches, Elizabeth! you would not wish to lose Mr. Grant, surely!
+Though simple, he is an excellent man I shall never find another who
+has half the veneration for my orthodoxy.  You would humble me from a
+saint to a very common sinner.”
+
+“It must be done, sir,” returned the lady, with a half-concealed
+smile, “though it degrades you from an angel to a man.”
+
+“But you forget the farm?”
+
+“He can lease it, as others do.  Besides, would you have a clergyman
+toil in the fields?”
+
+“Where can he go? You forget Louisa.”
+
+“No, I do not forget Louisa,” said Elizabeth, again compressing her
+beautiful lips.  “You know, Effingham, that my father has told you
+that I ruled him, and that I should rule you.  I am now about to exert
+my power.”
+
+“Anything, anything, dear Elizabeth, but not at the expense of us all:
+not at the expense of your friend.”
+
+“How do you know, sir, that it will be so much at the expense of my
+friend?” said the lady, fixing her eyes with a searching look on his
+countenance, where they met only the unsuspecting expression of manly
+regret.
+
+“How do I know it? Why, it is natural that she should regret us.”
+It is our duty to struggle with our natural feelings,” returned the
+lady; “and there is but little cause to fear that such a spirit as
+Louisa’s will not effect it.”
+
+“But what is your plan?”
+
+“Listen, and you shall know.  My father has procured a call for Mr.
+Grant, to one of the towns on the Hudson where he can live more at his
+ease than in journeying through these woods; where he can spend the
+evening of his life in comfort and quiet; and where his daughter may
+meet with such society, and form such a connection, as may be proper
+for one of her years and character.”
+
+“Bess! you amaze me! I did not think you had been such a manager!”
+
+“Oh! I manage more deeply than you imagine, sir,” said the wife,
+archly smiling again; “ but it is thy will and it is your duty to
+submit—for a time at least.”
+
+Effingham laughed; but, as they approached the end of their walk, the
+subject was changed by common consent.
+
+The place at which they arrived was the little spot of level ground
+where the cabin of the Leather-Stocking had so long stood.  Elizabeth
+found it entirely cleared of rubbish, and beautifully laid down in
+turf, by the removal of sods, which, in common with the surrounding
+country, had grown gay, under the influence of profuse showers, as if
+a second spring had passed over the land.  This little place was
+surrounded by a circle of mason-work, and they entered by a small
+gate, near which, to the surprise of both, the rifle of Natty was
+leaning against the wall.  Hector and the slut reposed on the grass by
+its side, as if conscious that, however altered, they were lying on
+the ground and were surrounded by objects with which they were
+familiar.  The hunter himself was stretched on the earth, before a
+head-stone of white marble, pushing aside with his fingers the long
+grass that had already sprung up from the luxuriant soil around its
+base, apparently to lay bare the inscription.  By the side of this
+stone, which was a simple slab at the head of a grave, stood a rich
+monument, decorated with an urn and ornamented with the chisel.
+
+Oliver and Elizabeth approached the graves with a light tread, unheard
+by the old hunter, whose sunburnt face was working, and whose eyes
+twinkled as if something impeded their vision.  After some little time
+Natty raised himself slowly from the ground, and said aloud:
+
+“Well, well—I’m bold to say it’s all right! There’s something that I
+suppose is reading; but I can’t make anything of it; though the pipe
+and the tomahawk, and the moccasins, be pretty well—pretty well, for a
+man that, I dares to say, never seed ‘ither of the things.  Ah’s me!
+there they lie, side by side, happy enough! Who will there be to put
+me in the ‘arth when my time comes?”
+
+“When that unfortunate hour arrives, Natty, friends shall not be
+wanting to perform the last offices for you,” said Oliver, a little
+touched at the hunter’s soliloquy.
+
+The old man turned, without manifesting surprise, for he had got the
+Indian habits in this particular, and, running his hand under the
+bottom of his nose, seemed to wipe away his sorrow with the action.
+
+“You’ve come out to see the graves, children, have ye?” he said; “
+well, well, they’re wholesome sights to young as well as old.”
+
+“I hope they are fitted to your liking,” said Effingham, “no one has a
+better right than yourself to be consulted in the matter.”
+
+“Why, seeing that I ain’t used to fine graves,” returned the old man,
+“it is but little matter consarning my taste.  Ye laid the Major’s
+head to the west, and Mohegan’s to the east, did ye, lad?”
+
+“At your request it was done,”
+
+“It’s so best,” said the hunter; “they thought they had to journey
+different ways, children: though there is One greater than all, who’ll
+bring the just together, at His own time, and who’ll whiten the skin
+of a blackamoor, and place him on a footing with princes.”
+
+“There is but little reason to doubt that,” said Elizabeth, whose
+decided tones were changed to a soft, melancholy voice; “I trust we
+shall all meet again, and be happy together.”
+
+“Shall we, child, shall we?” exclaimed the hunter, with unusual
+fervor, “there’s comfort in that thought too.  But before I go, I
+should like to know what 'tis you tell these people, that be flocking
+into the country like pigeons in the spring, of the old Delaware, and
+of the bravest white man that ever trod the hills?”
+
+Effingham and Elizabeth were surprised at the manner of the Leather-
+Stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but, attributing
+it to the scene, the young man turned to the monument, and read aloud:
+
+“Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham Esquire, formally a Major in
+his B. Majesty’s 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of
+chivalrous loyalty; and a man of honesty.  To these virtues he added
+the graces of a Christian.  The morning of his life was spent in
+honor, wealth, and power; but its evening was obscured by poverty,
+neglect, and disease, which were alleviated only by the tender care of
+his old, faithful, and upright friend and attendant Nathaniel Bumppo.
+His descendants rest this stone to the virtues of the master, and to
+the enduring gratitude of the servant.”
+
+The Leather-Stocking started at the sound of his own name, and a smile
+of joy illuminated his wrinkled features, as he said:
+
+“And did ye say It, lad? have you then got the old man’s name cut in
+the stone, by the side of his master’s! God bless ye, children! ‘twas
+a kind thought, and kindness goes to the heart as Life shortens.”
+
+Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers.  Effingham made a fruitless
+effort before he succeeded in saying:
+
+“It is there cut in plain marble; but it should have been written in
+letters of gold!”
+
+“Show me the name, boy,” said Natty, with simple eagerness; “let me
+see my own name placed in such honor.  ‘Tis a gin’rous gift to a man
+who leaves none of his name and family behind him in a country where
+he has tarried so long.”
+
+Effingham guided his finger to the spot, and Natty followed the
+windings of the letters to the end with deep interest, when he raised
+himself from the tomb, and said:
+
+“I suppose it’s all right; and it’s kindly thought, and kindly done!
+But what have ye put over the red-skin”
+
+“You shall hear: This stone is raised to the memory of an Indian Chief
+of the Delaware tribe, who was known by the several names of John
+Mohegan Mohican———’”
+
+“Mo-hee-can, lad, they call theirselves! ‘hecan.”
+
+“Mohican; and Chingagook—”
+
+“‘Gach, boy; ‘gach-gook; Chingachgook, which interpreted, means Big-
+sarpent.  The name should he set down right, for an Indian’s name has
+always some meaning in it.”
+
+“I will see it altered.  ‘He was the last of his people who continued
+to inhabit this country; and it may he said of him that his faults
+were those of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man.’”
+
+“You never said truer word, Mr. Oliver; ah’s me! if you had knowed him
+as I did, in his prime, in that very battle where the old gentleman,
+who sleeps by his side saved his life, when them thieves, the
+Iroquois, had him at the stake, you’d have said all that, and more
+too.  I cut the thongs with this very hand, and gave him my own
+tomahawk and knife, seeing that the rifle was always my fav'rite
+weapon.  He did lay about him like a man! I met him as I was coming
+home from the trail, with eleven Mingo scalps on his pole.  You
+needn’t shudder, Madam Effingham, for they was all from shaved heads
+and warriors.  When I look about me, at these hills, where I used to
+could count sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree-tops, from
+the Delaware camps, it raises mournful thoughts, to think that not a
+red-skin is left of them all; unless it be a drunken vagabond from the
+Oneidas, or them Yankee Indians, who, they say, be moving up from the
+seashore; and who belong to none of Gods creatures, to my seeming,
+being, as it were, neither fish nor flesh—neither white man nor
+savage.  Well, well! the time has come at last, and I must go——”
+
+“Go!” echoed Edwards, “ whither do you go?”
+
+The Leather-Stocking; who had imbibed unconsciously, many of the
+Indian qualities, though he always thought of himself as of a
+civilized being, compared with even the Delawares, averted his face to
+conceal the workings of his muscles, as he stooped to lift a large
+pack from behind the tomb, which he placed deliberately on his
+shoulders.
+
+“Go!” exclaimed Elizabeth, approaching him with a hurried step; “you
+should not venture so far in the woods alone, at your time of life,
+Natty; indeed, it Is Imprudent, He is bent, Effingham, on some distant
+hunting.”
+
+“What Mrs. Effingham tells you is true, Leather-Stocking’ said
+Edwards; “there can be no necessity for your submitting to such
+hardships now.  So throw aside your pack, and confine your hunt to the
+mountains near us, if you will go.”
+
+“Hardship! ‘tis a pleasure, children, and the greatest that is left me
+on this side the grave.”
+
+“No, no; you shall not go to such a distance,” cried Elizabeth, laying
+her white hand on his deer-skin pack—” I am right! I feel his camp-
+kettle, and a canister of powder! He must not be suffered to wander so
+far from us, Oliver; remember how suddenly Mohegan dropped away.”
+
+“I knowed the parting would come hard, children—I knowed it would!”
+said Natty, “and so I got aside to look at the graves by myself, and
+thought if I left ye the keep sake which the Major gave me, when we
+first parted in the woods, ye wouldn’t take it unkind, but would know
+that, let the old man’s body go where it might, his feelings stayed
+behind him.”
+
+“This means something more than common,” exclaimed the youth.  “Where
+is it, Natty, that you purpose going?”
+
+The hunter drew nigh him with a confident, reasoning air, as If what
+he had to say would silence all objections, and replied:
+
+“Why, lad, they tell me that on the big lakes there’s the best of
+hunting, and a great range without a white man on it unless it may be
+one like myself.  I’m weary of living in clearings, and where the
+hammer is sounding in my ears from sunrise to sundown.  And though I’m
+much bound to ye both, children—I wouldn’t say it if It was not true—I
+crave to go into the woods agin—I do.”
+
+“Woods!” echoed Elizabeth, trembling with her feelings; “do you not
+call these endless forests woods?”
+
+“Ah! child, these be nothing to a man that’s used to the wilderness.
+I have took but little comfort sin’ your father come on with his
+settlers; but I wouldn’t go far, while the life was in the body that
+lies under the sod there.  But now he’s gone, and Chingachgook Is
+gone; and you be both young and happy.  Yes! the big house has rung
+with merriment this month past! And now I thought was the time to get
+a little comfort in the close of my days.  Woods! indeed! I doesn’t
+call these woods, Madam Effingham, where I lose myself every day of my
+life in the clearings.”
+
+“If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it, Leather-
+Stocking; if it be attainable it is yours.”
+
+“You mean all for the best, lad, I know; and so does madam, too; but
+your ways isn’t my ways.  ‘Tis like the dead there, who thought, when
+the breath was in them, that one went east, and one went west, to find
+their heavens; but they’ll meet at last, and so shall we, children.
+Yes, and as you’ve begun, and we shall meet in the land of the just at
+last.”
+
+“This is so new! so unexpected!” said Elizabeth, in almost breathless
+excitement; “I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us,
+Natty.”
+
+“Words are of no avail,” exclaimed her husband: “the habits of forty
+years are not to he dispossessed by the ties of a day.  I know you too
+well to urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a
+hut on one of the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and
+know that you are comfortable.”
+
+“Don’t fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his
+days be provided for, and his ind happy.  I know you mean all for the
+best, but our ways doesn't agree.  I love the woods, and ye relish the
+face of man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep
+stated hours and rules; nay, nay, you even over-feed the dogs, lad,
+from pure kindness; and hounds should be gaunty to run well.  The
+meanest of God’s creatures be made for some use, and I’m formed for
+the wilderness, If ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be
+agin!”
+
+The appeal was decisive; and not another word of en treaty for him to
+remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and
+wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with
+hands that almost refused to perform their office, he procured his
+pocket-book, and extended a parcel of bank-notes to the hunter.
+
+“Take these,” he said, “at least take these; secure them about your
+person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service.”
+
+The old man took the notes, and examined them with curious eye.
+
+“This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they’ve been
+making at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that
+hasn’t larning! No, no, lad-——take back the stuff; it will do me no
+sarvice, I took kear to get all the Frenchman’s powder afore he broke
+up, and they say lead grows where I’m going.  it isn’t even fit for
+wads, seeing that I use none but leather!—Madam Effingham, let an old
+man kiss your hand, and wish God’s choicest blessings on you and
+your’n”
+
+“Once more let me beseech you, stay!” cried Elizabeth.  Do not,
+Leather-Stocking, leave me to grieve for the man who has twice rescued
+me from death, and who has served those I love so faithfully.  For my
+sake, if not for your own, stay.  I shall see you in those frightful
+dreams that still haunt my nights, dying in poverty and age, by the
+side of those terrific beasts you slew.  There will be no evil, that
+sickness, want, and solitude can inflict, that my fancy will not
+conjure as your fate.  Stay with us, old man, if not for your own
+sake, at least for ours.”
+
+“Such thoughts and bitter dreams, Madam Effingham,” returned the
+hunter, solemnly, “ will never haunt an innocent parson long.  They’ll
+pass away with God’s pleasure.  And if the cat-a-mounts be yet brought
+to your eyes in sleep, tis not for my sake, but to show you the power
+of Him that led me there to save you.  Trust in God, madam, and your
+honorable husband, and the thoughts for an old man like me can never
+be long nor bitter.  I pray that the Lord will keep you in mind—the
+Lord that lives in clearings as well as in the wilderness—and bless
+you, and all that belong to you, from this time till the great day
+when the whites shall meet the red-skins in judgement, and justice
+shall be the law, and not power.”
+
+Elizabeth raised her head, and offered her colorless cheek to his
+salute, when he lifted his cap and touched it respectfully.  His hand
+was grasped with convulsive fervor by the youth, who continued silent.
+The hunter prepared himself for his journey, drawing his belt tighter,
+and wasting his moments in the little reluctant movements of a
+sorrowful departure.  Once or twice he essayed to speak, but a rising
+in his throat prevented it.  At length he shouldered his rifle, and
+cried with a clear huntsman’s call that echoed through the woods:
+He-e-e-re, he-e-e-re, pups—away, dogs, away!—ye'll be footsore afore
+ye see the end of the journey!”
+
+The hounds leaped from the earth at this cry, and scenting around the
+grave and silent pair, as if conscious of their own destination, they
+followed humbly at the heels of their master.  A short pause
+succeeded, during which even the youth concealed his face on his
+grandfather’s tomb.  When the pride of manhood, however, had sup
+pressed the feelings of nature, he turned to renew his en treaties,
+but saw that the cemetery was occupied only by himself and his wife.
+
+“He is gone!” cried Effingham.
+
+Elizabeth raised her face, and saw the old hunter standing looking
+back for a moment, on the verge of the wood.  As he caught their
+glances, he drew his hard hand hastily across his eyes again, waved it
+on high for an adieu, and, uttering a forced cry to his dogs, who were
+crouching at his feet, he entered the forest.
+
+This was the last they ever saw of the Leather-Stocking, whose rapid
+movements preceded the pursuit which Judge Temple both ordered and
+conducted.  He had gone far toward the setting sun—the foremost in
+that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the
+nation across the continent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
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+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Pioneers, by J. Fenimore Cooper
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pioneers
+       Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+Release Date: August, 2000 [EBook #2275]
+Last Updated: March 11, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIONEERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gary Rezny and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE PIONEERS
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      A Descriptive Tale
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By J. Fenimore Cooper
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER XXXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0034"> CHAPTER XXXIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XXXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XXXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XXXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XXXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XXXIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0040"> CHAPTER XL. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0041"> CHAPTER XLI. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As this work professes, in its title-page, to be a descriptive tale, they
+      who will take the trouble to read it may be glad to know how much of its
+      contents is literal fact, and how much is intended to represent a general
+      picture. The author is very sensible that, had he confined himself to the
+      latter, always the most effective, as it is the most valuable, mode of
+      conveying knowledge of this nature, he would have made a far better book.
+      But in commencing to describe scenes, and perhaps he may add characters,
+      that were so familiar to his own youth, there was a constant temptation to
+      delineate that which he had known, rather than that which he might have
+      imagined. This rigid adhesion to truth, an indispensable requisite in
+      history and travels, destroys the charm of fiction; for all that is
+      necessary to be conveyed to the mind by the latter had better be done by
+      delineations of principles, and of characters in their classes, than by a
+      too fastidious attention to originals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      New York having but one county of Otsego, and the Susquehanna but one
+      proper source, there can be no mistake as to the site of the tale. The
+      history of this district of country, so far as it is connected with
+      civilized men, is soon told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Otsego, in common with most of the interior of the province of New York,
+      was included in the county of Albany previously to the war of the
+      separation. It then became, in a subsequent division of territory, a part
+      of Montgomery; and finally, having obtained a sufficient population of its
+      own, it was set apart as a county by itself shortly after the peace of
+      1783. It lies among those low spurs of the Alleghanies which cover the
+      midland counties of New York, and it is a little east of a meridional line
+      drawn through the centre of the State. As the waters of New York flow
+      either southerly into the Atlantic or northerly into Ontario and its
+      outlet, Otsego Lake, being the source of the Susquehanna, is of necessity
+      among its highest lands. The face of the country, the climate as it was
+      found by the whites, and the manners of the settlers, are described with a
+      minuteness for which the author has no other apology than the force of his
+      own recollections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Otsego is said to be a word compounded of Ot, a place of meeting, and
+      Sego, or Sago, the ordinary term of salutation used by the Indians of this
+      region. There is a tradition which says that the neighboring tribes were
+      accustomed to meet on the banks of the lake to make their treaties, and
+      otherwise to strengthen their alliances, and which refers the name to this
+      practice. As the Indian agent of New York had a log dwelling at the foot
+      of the lake, however, it is not impossible that the appellation grew out
+      of the meetings that were held at his council fires; the war drove off the
+      agent, in common with the other officers of the crown; and his rude
+      dwelling was soon abandoned. The author remembers it, a few years later,
+      reduced to the humble office of a smoke-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1779 an expedition was sent against the hostile Indians, who dwelt
+      about a hundred miles west of Otsego, on the banks of the Cayuga. The
+      whole country was then a wilderness, and it was necessary to transport the
+      baggage of the troops by means of the rivers&mdash;a devious but
+      practicable route. One brigade ascended the Mohawk until it reached the
+      point nearest to the sources of the Susquehanna, whence it cut a lane
+      through the forest to the head of the Otsego. The boats and baggage were
+      carried over this &ldquo;portage,&rdquo; and the troops proceeded to the other
+      extremity of the lake, where they disembarked and encamped. The
+      Susquehanna, a narrow though rapid stream at its source, was much filled
+      with &ldquo;flood wood,&rdquo; or fallen trees; and the troops adopted a novel
+      expedient to facilitate their passage. The Otsego is about nine miles in
+      length, varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a half. The
+      water is of great depth, limpid, and supplied from a thousand springs. At
+      its foot the banks are rather less than thirty feet high the remainder of
+      its margin being in mountains, intervals, and points. The outlet, or the
+      Susquehanna, flows through a gorge in the low banks just mentioned, which
+      may have a width of two hundred feet. This gorge was dammed and the waters
+      of the lake collected: the Susquehanna was converted into a rill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When all was ready the troops embarked, the damn was knocked away, the
+      Otsego poured out its torrent, and the boats went merrily down with the
+      current.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General James Clinton, the brother of George Clinton, then governor of New
+      York, and the father of De Witt Clinton, who died governor of the same
+      State in 1827, commanded the brigade employed on this duty. During the
+      stay of the troops at the foot of the Otsego a soldier was shot for
+      desertion. The grave of this unfortunate man was the first place of human
+      interment that the author ever beheld, as the smoke-house was the first
+      ruin! The swivel alluded to in this work was buried and abandoned by the
+      troops on this occasion, and it was subsequently found in digging the
+      cellars of the authors paternal residence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after the close of the war, Washington, accompanied by many
+      distinguished men, visited the scene of this tale, it is said with a view
+      to examine the facilities for opening a communication by water with other
+      points of the country. He stayed but a few hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1785 the author's father, who had an interest in extensive tracts of
+      land in this wilderness, arrived with a party of surveyors. The manner in
+      which the scene met his eye is described by Judge Temple. At the
+      commencement of the following year the settlement began; and from that
+      time to this the country has continued to flourish. It is a singular
+      feature in American life that at the beginning of this century, when the
+      proprietor of the estate had occasion for settlers on a new settlement and
+      in a remote county, he was enabled to draw them from among the increase of
+      the former colony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the settlement of this part of Otsego a little preceded the birth
+      of the author, it was not sufficiently advanced to render it desirable
+      that an event so important to himself should take place in the wilderness.
+      Perhaps his mother had a reasonable distrust of the practice of Dr Todd,
+      who must then have been in the novitiate of his experimental acquirements.
+      Be that as it may, the author was brought an infant into this valley, and
+      all his first impressions were here obtained. He has inhabited it ever
+      since, at intervals; and he thinks he can answer for the faithfulness of
+      the picture he has drawn. Otsego has now become one of the most populous
+      districts of New York. It sends forth its emigrants like any other old
+      region, and it is pregnant with industry and enterprise. Its manufacturers
+      are prosperous, and it is worthy of remark that one of the most ingenious
+      machines known in European art is derived from the keen ingenuity which is
+      exercised in this remote region.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to prevent mistake, it may be well to say that the incidents of
+      this tale are purely a fiction. The literal facts are chiefly connected
+      with the natural and artificial objects and the customs of the
+      inhabitants. Thus the academy, and court-house, and jail, and inn, and
+      most similar things, are tolerably exact. They have all, long since, given
+      place to other buildings of a more pretending character. There is also
+      some liberty taken with the truth in the description of the principal
+      dwelling; the real building had no &ldquo;firstly&rdquo; and &ldquo;lastly.&rdquo; It was of
+      bricks, and not of stone; and its roof exhibited none of the peculiar
+      beauties of the &ldquo;composite order.&rdquo; It was erected in an age too primitive
+      for that ambitious school of architecture. But the author indulged his
+      recollections freely when he had fairly entered the door. Here all is
+      literal, even to the severed arm of Wolfe, and the urn which held the
+      ashes of Queen Dido.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Though forests still crown the mountains of Otsego, the bear, the
+    wolf, and the panther are nearly strangers to them.  Even the innocent
+    deer is rarely seen bounding beneath their arches; for the rifle and
+    the activity of the settlers have driven them to other haunts.  To
+    this change (which in some particulars is melancholy to one who knew
+    the country in its infancy), it may be added that the Otsego is
+    beginning to be a niggard of its treasures.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The author has elsewhere said that the character of Leather-Stocking is a
+      creation, rendered probable by such auxiliaries as were necessary to
+      produce that effect. Had he drawn still more upon fancy, the lovers of
+      fiction would not have so much cause for their objections to his work.
+      Still, the picture would not have been in the least true without some
+      substitutes for most of the other personages. The great proprietor
+      resident on his lands, and giving his name to instead of receiving it from
+      his estates as in Europe, is common over the whole of New York. The
+      physician with his theory, rather obtained from than corrected by
+      experiments on the human constitution; the pious, self-denying, laborious,
+      and ill-paid missionary; the half-educated, litigious, envious, and
+      disreputable lawyer, with his counterpoise, a brother of the profession,
+      of better origin and of better character; the shiftless, bargaining,
+      discontented seller of his &ldquo;betterments;&rdquo; the plausible carpenter, and
+      most of the others, are more familiar to all who have ever dwelt in a new
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be well to say here, a little more explicitly, that there was no
+      real intention to describe with particular accuracy any real characters in
+      this book. It has been often said, and in published statements, that the
+      heroine of this book was drawn after the sister of the writer, who was
+      killed by a fall from a horse now near half a century since. So ingenious
+      is conjecture that a personal resemblance has been discovered between the
+      fictitious character and the deceased relative! It is scarcely possible to
+      describe two females of the same class in life who would be less alike,
+      personally, than Elizabeth Temple and the sister of the author who met
+      with the deplorable fate mentioned. In a word, they were as unlike in this
+      respect as in history, character, and fortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Circumstances rendered this sister singularly dear to the author. After a
+      lapse of half a century, he is writing this paragraph with a pain that
+      would induce him to cancel it, were it not still more painful to have it
+      believed that one whom he regarded with a reverence that surpassed the
+      love of a brother was converted by him into the heroine of a work of
+      fiction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From circumstances which, after this Introduction, will be obvious to all,
+      the author has had more pleasure in writing &ldquo;The Pioneers&rdquo; than the book
+      will probably ever give any of its readers. He is quite aware of its
+      numerous faults, some of which he has endeavored to repair in this
+      edition; but as he has&mdash;in intention, at least&mdash;done his full
+      share in amusing the world, he trusts to its good-nature for overlooking
+      this attempt to please himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;See, Winter comes, to rule the varied years,
+     Sullen and sad, with all his rising train;
+     Vapors, and clouds, and storms.&rdquo;&mdash;Thomson.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Near the centre of the State of New York lies an extensive district of
+      country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak
+      with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and
+      valleys. It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; and
+      flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this region the
+      numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the valleys until,
+      uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest rivers of the United
+      States. The mountains are generally arable to the tops, although instances
+      are not wanting where the sides are jutted with rocks that aid greatly in
+      giving to the country that romantic and picturesque character which it so
+      eminently possesses. The vales are narrow, rich, and cultivated, with a
+      stream uniformly winding through each. Beautiful and thriving villages are
+      found interspersed along the margins of the small lakes, or situated at
+      those points of the streams which are favorable for manufacturing; and
+      neat and comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about them,
+      are scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the mountain tops.
+      Roads diverge in every direction from the even and graceful bottoms of the
+      valleys to the most rugged and intricate passes of the hills. Academies
+      and minor edifices of learning meet the eye of the stranger at every few
+      miles as he winds his way through this uneven territory, and places for
+      the worship of God abound with that frequency which characterize a moral
+      and reflecting people, and with that variety of exterior and canonical
+      government which flows from unfettered liberty of conscience. In short,
+      the whole district is hourly exhibiting how much can be done, in even a
+      rugged country and with a severe climate, under the dominion of mild laws,
+      and where every man feels a direct interest in the prosperity of a
+      commonwealth of which he knows himself to form a part. The expedients of
+      the pioneers who first broke ground in the settlement of this country are
+      succeeded by the permanent improvements of the yeoman who intends to leave
+      his remains to moulder under the sod which he tills, or perhaps of the
+      son, who, born in the land, piously wishes to linger around the grave of
+      his father. Only forty years * have passed since this territory was a
+      wilderness.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Our tale begins in 1793, about seven years after the commencement of
+    one of the earliest of those settlements which have conduced to effect
+    that magical change in the power and condition of the State to which
+    we have alluded.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Very soon after the establishment of the independence of the States by the
+      peace of 1783, the enterprise of their citizens was directed to a
+      development of the natural advantages of their widely extended dominions.
+      Before the war of the Revolution, the inhabited parts of the colony of New
+      York were limited to less than a tenth of its possessions, A narrow belt
+      of country, extending for a short distance on either side of the Hudson,
+      with a similar occupation of fifty miles on the banks of the Mohawk,
+      together with the islands of Nassau and Staten, and a few insulated
+      settlements on chosen land along the margins of streams, composed the
+      country, which was then inhabited by less than two hundred thousand souls.
+      Within the short period we have mentioned, the population has spread
+      itself over five degrees of latitude and seven of longitude, and has
+      swelled to a million and a half of inhabitants, who are maintained in
+      abundance, and can look forward to ages before the evil day must arrive
+      when their possessions shall become unequal to their wants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December, when
+      a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the district we have
+      described. The day had been fine for the season, and but two or three
+      large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the light reflected from
+      the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated in a sky of the purest
+      blue. The road wound along the brow of a precipice, and on one side was
+      upheld by a foundation of logs piled one upon the other, while a narrow
+      excavation in the mountain in the opposite direction had made a passage of
+      sufficient width for the ordinary travelling of that day. But logs,
+      excavation, and every thing that did not reach several feet above the
+      earth lay alike buried beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide
+      enough to receive the sleigh, * denoted the route of the highway, and this
+      was sunk nearly two feet below the surrounding surface.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Sleigh is the word used in every part of the United States to denote
+    a traineau.  It is of local use in the west of England, whence it is
+    most probably derived by the Americans.  The latter draw a distinction
+    between a sled, or sledge, and a sleigh, the sleigh being shod with
+    metal. Sleighs are also subdivided into two-horse and one-horse
+    sleighs.  Of the latter, there are the cutter, with thills so arranged
+    as to permit the horse to travel in the side track; the &ldquo;pung,&rdquo; or
+    &ldquo;tow-pung&rdquo; which is driven with a pole; and the &ldquo;gumper,&rdquo; a rude
+    construction used for temporary purposes in the new countries.  Many
+    of the American sleighs are elegant though the use of this mode of
+    conveyance is much lessened with the melioration of the climate
+    consequent to the clearing of the forests.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower, there
+      was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing, and all
+      the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even extended up the
+      hill to the point where the road turned short and ran across the level
+      land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but the summit itself
+      remained in the forest. There was glittering in the atmosphere, as if it
+      was filled with innumerable shining particles; and the noble bay horses
+      that drew the sleigh were covered, in many parts with a coat of
+      hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was seen to issue like smoke;
+      and every object in the view, as well as every arrangement of the
+      travellers, denoted the depth of a winter in the mountains. The harness,
+      which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the glossy varnishing of
+      the present day, was ornamented with enormous plates and buckles of brass,
+      that shone like gold in those transient beams of the sun which found their
+      way obliquely through the tops of the trees. Huge saddles, studded with
+      nails and fitted with cloth that served as blankets to the shoulders of
+      the cattle, supported four high, square-topped turrets, through which the
+      stout reins led from the mouths of the horses to the hands of the driver,
+      who was a negro, of apparently twenty years of age. His face, which nature
+      had colored with a glistening black, was now mottled with the cold, and
+      his large shining eyes filled with tears; a tribute to its power that the
+      keen frosts of those regions always extracted from one of his African
+      origin. Still, there was a smiling expression of good-humor in his happy
+      countenance, that was created by the thoughts of home and a Christmas
+      fireside, with its Christmas frolics. The sleigh was one of those large,
+      comfortable, old-fashioned conveyances, which would admit a whole family
+      within its bosom, but which now contained only two passengers besides the
+      driver. The color of its outside was a modest green, and that of its
+      inside a fiery red, The latter was intended to convey the idea of heat in
+      that cold climate. Large buffalo-skins trimmed around the edges with red
+      cloth cut into festoons, covered the back of the sleigh, and were spread
+      over its bottom and drawn up around the feet of the travellers&mdash;one
+      of whom was a man of middle age and the other a female just entering upon
+      womanhood. The former was of a large stature; but the precautions he had
+      taken to guard against the cold left but little of his person exposed to
+      view. A great-coat, that was abundantly ornamented by a profusion of furs,
+      enveloped the whole of his figure excepting the head, which was covered
+      with a cap of marten-skins lined with morocco, the sides of which were
+      made to fall, if necessary, and were now drawn close over the ears and
+      fastened beneath his chin with a black ribbon. The top of the cap was
+      surmounted with the tail of the animal whose skin had furnished the rest
+      of the materials, which fell back, not ungracefully, a few inches behind
+      the head. From beneath this mask were to be seen part of a fine, manly
+      face, and particularly a pair of expressive large blue eyes, that promised
+      extraordinary intellect, covert humor, and great benevolence. The form of
+      his companion was literally hid beneath the garments she wore. There were
+      furs and silks peeping from under a large camlet cloak with a thick
+      flannel lining, that by its cut and size was evidently intended for a
+      masculine wearer. A huge hood of black silk, that was quilted with down,
+      concealed the whole of her head, except at a small opening in front for
+      breath, through which occasionally sparkled a pair of animated jet-black
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the father and daughter (for such was the connection between the two
+      travellers) were too much occupied with their reflections to break a
+      stillness that derived little or no interruption from the easy gliding of
+      the sleigh by the sound of their voices. The former was thinking of the
+      wife that had held this their only child to her bosom, when, four years
+      before, she had reluctantly consented to relinquish the society of her
+      daughter in order that the latter might enjoy the advantages of an
+      education which the city of New York could only offer at that period. A
+      few months afterward death had deprived him of the remaining companion of
+      his solitude; but still he had enough real regard for his child not to
+      bring her into the comparative wilderness in which he dwelt, until the
+      full period had expired to which he had limited her juvenile labors. The
+      reflections of the daughter were less melancholy, and mingled with a
+      pleased astonishment at the novel scenery she met at every turn in the
+      road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mountain on which they were journeying was covered with pines that
+      rose without a branch some seventy or eighty feet, and which frequently
+      doubled that height by the addition of the tops. Through the innumerable
+      vistas that opened beneath the lofty trees, the eye could penetrate until
+      it was met by a distant inequality in the ground, or was stopped by a view
+      of the summit of the mountain which lay on the opposite side of the valley
+      to which they were hastening. The dark trunks of the trees rose from the
+      pure white of the snow in regularly formed shafts, until, at a great
+      height, their branches shot forth horizontal limbs, that were covered with
+      the meagre foliage of an evergreen, affording a melancholy contrast to the
+      torpor of nature below. To the travellers there seemed to be no wind; but
+      these pines waved majestically at their topmost boughs, sending forth a
+      dull, plaintive sound that was quite in consonance with the rest of the
+      melancholy scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sleigh had glided for some distance along the even surface, and the
+      gaze of the female was bent in inquisitive and, perhaps, timid glances
+      into the recesses of the forest, when a loud and continued howling was
+      heard, pealing under the long arches of the woods like the cry of a
+      numerous pack of hounds. The instant the sounds reached the ear of the
+      gentleman he cried aloud to the black:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hol up, Aggy; there is old Hector; I should know his bay among ten
+      thousand! The Leather-Stocking has put his hounds into the hills this
+      clear day, and they have started their game. There is a deer-track a few
+      rods ahead; and now, Bess, if thou canst muster courage enough to stand
+      fire, I will give thee a saddle for thy Christmas dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The black drew up, with a cheerful grin upon his chilled features, and
+      began thrashing his arms together in order to restore the circulation of
+      his fingers, while the speaker stood erect and, throwing aside his outer
+      covering, stepped from the sleigh upon a bank of snow which sustained his
+      weight without yielding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few moments the speaker succeeded in extricating a double-barrelled
+      fowling-piece from among a multitude of trunks and bandboxes. After
+      throwing aside the thick mittens which had encased his hands, there now
+      appeared a pair of leather gloves tipped with fur; he examined his
+      priming, and was about to move forward, when the light bounding noise of
+      an animal plunging through the woods was heard, and a fine buck darted
+      into the path a short distance ahead of him. The appearance of the animal
+      was sudden, and his flight inconceivably rapid; but the traveller appeared
+      to be too keen a sportsman to be disconcerted by either. As it came first
+      into view he raised the fowling-piece to his shoulder and, with a
+      practised eye and steady hand, drew a trigger. The deer dashed forward
+      undaunted, and apparently unhurt. Without lowering his piece, the
+      traveller turned its muzzle toward his victim, and fired again. Neither
+      discharge, however, seemed to have taken effect,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole scene had passed with a rapidity that confused the female, who
+      was unconsciously rejoicing in the escape of the buck, as he rather darted
+      like a meteor than ran across the road, when a sharp, quick sound struck
+      her ear, quite different from the full, round reports of her father's gun,
+      but still sufficiently distinct to be known as the concussion produced by
+      firearms. At the same instant that she heard this unexpected report, the
+      buck sprang from the snow to a great height in the air, and directly a
+      second discharge, similar in sound to the first, followed, when the animal
+      came to the earth, failing head long and rolling over on the crust with
+      its own velocity. A loud shout was given by the unseen marksman, and a
+      couple of men instantly appeared from behind the trunks of two of the
+      pines, where they had evidently placed themselves in expectation of the
+      passage of the deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! Natty, had I known you were in ambush, I should not have fired,&rdquo;
+       cried the traveller, moving toward the spot where the deer lay&mdash;near
+      to which he was followed by the delighted black, with his sleigh; &ldquo;but the
+      sound of old Hector was too exhilarating to be quiet; though I hardly
+      think I struck him, either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no&mdash;&mdash;Judge,&rdquo; returned the hunter, with an inward
+      chuckle, and with that look of exultation that indicates a consciousness
+      of superior skill, &ldquo;you burnt your powder only to warm your nose this cold
+      evening. Did ye think to stop a full-grown buck, with Hector and the slut
+      open upon him within sound, with that pop-gun in your hand! There's plenty
+      of pheasants among the swamps; and the snow-birds are flying round your
+      own door, where you may feed them with crumbs, and shoot them at pleasure,
+      any day; but if you're for a buck, or a little bear's meat, Judge, you'll
+      have to take the long rifle, with a greased wadding, or you'll waste more
+      powder than you'll fill stomachs, I'm thinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the speaker concluded he drew his bare hand across the bottom of his
+      nose, and again opened his enormous mouth with a kind of inward laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gun scatters well, Natty, And it has killed a deer before now,&rdquo; said
+      the traveller, smiling good-humoredly. &ldquo;One barrel was charged with
+      buckshot, but the other was loaded for birds only. Here are two hurts; one
+      through the neck, and the other directly through the heart. It is by no
+      means certain, Natty, but I gave him one of the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let who will kill him.&rdquo; said the hunter, rather surily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose the creature is to be eaten.&rdquo; So saying, he drew a large knife
+      from a leathern sheath, which was stuck through his girdle, or sash, and
+      cut the throat of the animal, &ldquo;If there are two balls through the deer, I
+      would ask if there weren't two rifles fired&mdash;besides, who ever saw
+      such a ragged hole from a smooth-bore as this through the neck? And you
+      will own yourself, Judge, that the buck fell at the last shot, which was
+      sent from a truer and a younger hand than your'n or mine either; but, for
+      my part, although I am a poor man I can live without the venison, but I
+      don't love to give up my lawful dues in a free country. Though, for the
+      matter of that, might often makes right here, as well as in the old
+      country, for what I can see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An air of sullen dissatisfaction pervaded the manner of the hunter during
+      the whole of his speech; yet he thought it prudent to utter the close of
+      the sentence in such an undertone as to leave nothing audible but the
+      grumbling sounds of his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Natty,&rdquo; rejoined the traveller, with undisturbed good-humor, &ldquo;it is
+      for the honor that I contend. A few dollars will pay for the venison; but
+      what will requite me for the lost honor of a buck's tail in my cap? Think,
+      Natty, how I should triumph over that quizzing dog, Dick Jones, who has
+      failed seven times already this season, and has only brought in one
+      woodchuck and a few gray squirrels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! The game is becoming hard to find, indeed, Judge, with your clearings
+      and betterments,&rdquo; said the old hunter, with a kind of compelled
+      resignation. &ldquo;The time has been when I have shot thirteen deer without
+      counting the fa'ns standing in the door of my own hut; and for bear's
+      meat, if one wanted a ham or so, he had only to watch a-nights, and he
+      could shoot one by moonlight, through the cracks of the logs, no fear of
+      his oversleeping himself neither, for the howling of the wolves was sartin
+      to keep his eyes open. There's old Hector&rdquo;&mdash;patting with affection a
+      tall hound of black and yellow spots, with white belly and legs, that just
+      then came in on the scent, accompanied by the slut he had mentioned; &ldquo;see
+      where the wolves bit his throat, the night I druv them from the venison
+      that was smoking on the chimney top&mdash;that dog is more to be trusted
+      than many a Christian man; for he never forgets a friend, and loves the
+      hand that gives him bread.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a peculiarity in the manner of the hunter that attracted the
+      notice of the young female, who had been a close and interested observer
+      of his appearance and equipments, from the moment he came into view. He
+      was tall, and so meagre as to make him seem above even the six feet that
+      he actually stood in his stockings. On his head, which was thinly covered
+      with lank, sandy hair, he wore a cap made of fox-skin, resembling in shape
+      the one we have already described, although much inferior in finish and
+      ornaments. His face was skinny and thin al most to emaciation; but yet it
+      bore no signs of disease&mdash;on the contrary, it had every indication of
+      the most robust and enduring health. The cold and exposure had, together,
+      given it a color of uniform red. His gray eyes were glancing under a pair
+      of shaggy brows, that over hung them in long hairs of gray mingled with
+      their natural hue; his scraggy neck was bare, and burnt to the same tint
+      with his face; though a small part of a shirt-collar, made of the country
+      check, was to be seen above the overdress he wore. A kind of coat, made of
+      dressed deer-skin, with the hair on, was belted close to his lank body by
+      a girdle of colored worsted. On his feet were deer-skin moccasins,
+      ornamented with porcupines' quills, after the manner of the Indians, and
+      his limbs were guarded with long leggings of the same material as the
+      moccasins, which, gartering over the knees of his tarnished buckskin
+      breeches, had obtained for him among the settlers the nickname of
+      Leather-Stocking. Over his left shoulder was slung a belt of deer-skin,
+      from which depended an enormous ox-horn, so thinly scraped as to discover
+      the powder it contained. The larger end was fitted ingeniously and
+      securely with a wooden bottom, and the other was stopped tight by a little
+      plug. A leathern pouch hung before him, from which, as he concluded his
+      last speech, he took a small measure, and, filling it accurately with
+      powder, he commenced reloading the rifle, which as its butt rested on the
+      snow before him reached nearly to the top of his fox-skin cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller had been closely examining the wounds during these
+      movements, and now, without heeding the ill-humor of the hunter's manner,
+      he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would fain establish a right, Natty, to the honor of this death; and
+      surely if the hit in the neck be mine it is enough; for the shot in the
+      heart was unnecessary&mdash;what we call an act of supererogation,
+      Leather-Stocking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may call it by what larned name you please, Judge,&rdquo; said the hunter,
+      throwing his rifle across his left arm, and knocking up a brass lid in the
+      breech, from which he took a small piece of greased leather and, wrapping
+      a bail in it, forced them down by main strength on the powder, where he
+      continued to pound them while speaking. &ldquo;It's far easier to call names
+      than to shoot a buck on the spring; but the creatur came by his end from a
+      younger hand than either your'n or mine, as I said before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What say you, my friend,&rdquo; cried the traveller, turning pleasantly to
+      Natty's companion; &ldquo;shall we toss up this dollar for the honor, and you
+      keep the silver if you lose; what say you, friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I killed the deer,&rdquo; answered the young man, with a little
+      haughtiness, as he leaned on another long rifle similar to that of Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here are two to one, indeed,&rdquo; replied the Judge with a smile; &ldquo;I am
+      outvoted&mdash;overruled, as we say on the bench. There is Aggy, he can't
+      vote, being a slave; and Bess is a minor&mdash;so I must even make the
+      best of it. But you'll send me the venison; and the deuce is in it, but I
+      make a good story about its death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The meat is none of mine to sell,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, adopting a
+      little of his companion's hauteur; &ldquo;for my part, I have known animals
+      travel days with shots in the neck, and I'm none of them who'll rob a man
+      of his rightful dues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are tenacious of your rights, this cold evening, Natty,&rdquo; returned the
+      Judge with unconquerable good-nature; &ldquo;but what say you, young man; will
+      three dollars pay you for the buck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let us determine the question of right to the satisfaction of us
+      both,&rdquo; said the youth firmly but respect fully, and with a pronunciation
+      and language vastly superior to his appearance: &ldquo;with how many shot did
+      you load your gun?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With five, sir,&rdquo; said the Judge, a little struck with the other's manner;
+      &ldquo;are they not enough to slay a buck like this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One would do it; but,&rdquo; moving to the tree from be hind which he had
+      appeared, &ldquo;you know, sir, you fired in this direction&mdash;here are four
+      of the bullets in the tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge examined the fresh marks in the bark of the pine, and, shaking
+      his head, said with a laugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are making out the case against yourself, my young advocate; where is
+      the fifth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here,&rdquo; said the youth, throwing aside the rough overcoat that he wore,
+      and exhibiting a hole in his under-garment, through which large drops of
+      blood were oozing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good God!&rdquo; exclaimed the Judge, with horror; &ldquo;have I been trifling here
+      about an empty distinction, and a fellow-creature suffering from my hands
+      without a murmur? But hasten&mdash;quick&mdash;get into my sleigh&mdash;it
+      is but a mile to the village, where surgical aid can be obtained&mdash;all
+      shall be done at my expense, and thou shalt live with me until thy wound
+      is healed, ay, and forever afterward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for your good intention, but I must decline your offer. I
+      have a friend who would be uneasy were he to hear that I am hurt and away
+      from him. The injury is but slight, and the bullet has missed the bones;
+      but I believe, sir, you will now admit me title to the venison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admit it!&rdquo; repeated the agitated Judge; &ldquo;I here give thee a right to
+      shoot deer, or bears, or anything thou pleasest in my woods, forever.
+      Leather-Stocking is the only other man that I have granted the same
+      privilege to; and the time is coming when it will be of value. But I buy
+      your deer&mdash;here, this bill will pay thee, both for thy shot and my
+      own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old hunter gathered his tall person up into an air of pride during
+      this dialogue, but he waited until the other had done speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's them living who say that Nathaniel Bumppo's right to shoot on
+      these hills is of older date than Marmaduke Temple's right to forbid him,&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;But if there's a law about it at all, though who ever heard of a
+      law that a man shouldn't kill deer where he pleased!&mdash;but if there is
+      a law at all, it should be to keep people from the use of smooth-bores. A
+      body never knows where his lead will fly, when he pulls the trigger of one
+      of them uncertain firearms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without attending to the soliloquy of Natty, the youth bowed his head
+      silently to the offer of the bank-note, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me: I have need of the venison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this will buy you many deer,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;take it, I entreat
+      you;&rdquo; and, lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, &ldquo;It is for a hundred
+      dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For an instant only the youth seemed to hesitate, and then, blushing even
+      through the high color that the cold had given to his cheeks, as if with
+      inward shame at his own weakness, he again declined the offer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this scene the female arose, and regardless of the cold air, she
+      threw back the hood which concealed her features, and now spoke, with
+      great earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, surely&mdash;young man&mdash;sir&mdash;you would not pain my
+      father so much as to have him think that he leaves a fellow-creature in
+      this wilderness whom his own hand has injured. I entreat you will go with
+      us, and receive medical aid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether his wound became more painful, or there was something irresistible
+      in the voice and manner of the fair pleader for her father's feelings, we
+      know not; but the distance of the young man's manner was sensibly softened
+      by this appeal, and he stood in apparent doubt, as if reluctant to comply
+      with and yet unwilling to refuse her request. The Judge, for such being
+      his office must in future be his title, watched with no little interest
+      the display of this singular contention in the feelings of the youth; and,
+      advancing, kindly took his hand, and, as he pulled him gently toward the
+      sleigh, urged him to enter it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no human aid nearer than Templeton,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the hut of
+      Natty is full three miles from this&mdash;come, come, my young friend, go
+      with us, and let the new doctor look to this shoulder of thine. Here is
+      Natty will take the tidings of thy welfare to thy friend; and shouldst
+      thou require it, thou shalt return home in the morning.&rdquo; The young man
+      succeeded in extricating his hand from the warm grasp of the Judge, but he
+      continued to gaze on the face of the female, who, regardless of the cold,
+      was still standing with her fine features exposed, which expressed feeling
+      that eloquently seconded the request of her father. Leather-Stocking
+      stood, in the meantime, leaning upon his long rifle, with his head turned
+      a little to one side, as if engaged in sagacious musing; when, having
+      apparently satisfied his doubts, by revolving the subject in his mind, he
+      broke silence. &ldquo;It may be best to go, lad, after all; for, if the shot
+      hangs under the skin, my hand is getting too old to be cutting into human
+      flesh, as I once used to, Though some thirty years agone, in the old war,
+      when I was out under Sir William, I travelled seventy miles alone in the
+      howling wilderness, with a rifle bullet in my thigh, and then cut it out
+      with my own jack-knife. Old Indian John knows the time well. I met him
+      with a party of the Delawares, on the trail of the Iroquois, who had been
+      down and taken five scalps on the Schoharie. But I made a mark on the
+      red-skin that I'll warrant he'll carry to his grave! I took him on the
+      posteerum, saving the lady's presence, as he got up from the ambushment,
+      and rattled three buckshot into his naked hide, so close that you might
+      have laid a broad joe upon them all&rdquo;&mdash;here Natty stretched out his
+      long neck, and straightened his body, as he opened his mouth, which
+      exposed a single tusk of yellow bone, while his eyes, his face, even his
+      whole frame seemed to laugh, although no sound was emitted except a kind
+      of thick hissing, as he inhaled his breath in quavers. &ldquo;I had lost my
+      bullet-mould in crossing the Oneida outlet, and had to make shift with the
+      buckshot; but the rifle was true, and didn't scatter like your two-legged
+      thing there, Judge, which don't do, I find, to hunt in company with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty's apology to the delicacy of the young lady was unnecessary, for,
+      while he was speaking, she was too much employed in helping her father to
+      remove certain articles of baggage to hear him. Unable to resist the kind
+      urgency of the travellers any longer, the youth, though still with an
+      unaccountable reluctance, suffered himself to be persuaded to enter the
+      sleigh. The black, with the aid of his master, threw the buck across the
+      baggage and entering the vehicle themselves, the Judge invited the hunter
+      to do so likewise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said the old roan, shaking his head; &ldquo;I have work to do at home
+      this Christmas eve&mdash;drive on with the boy, and let your doctor look
+      to the shoulder; though if he will only cut out the shot, I have yarbs
+      that will heal the wound quicker than all his foreign 'intments.&rdquo; He
+      turned, and was about to move off, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he
+      again faced the party, and added: &ldquo;If you see anything of Indian John,
+      about the foot of the lake, you had better take him with you, and let him
+      lend the doctor a hand; for, old as he is, he is curious at cuts and
+      bruises, and it's likelier than not he'll be in with brooms to sweep your
+      Christmas ha'arths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop, stop,&rdquo; cried the youth, catching the arm of the black as he
+      prepared to urge his horses forward; &ldquo;Natty&mdash;you need say nothing of
+      the shot, nor of where I am going&mdash;remember, Natty, as you love me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trust old Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; returned the hunter significantly; &ldquo;he
+      hasn't lived fifty years in the wilderness, and not larnt from the savages
+      how to hold his tongue&mdash;trust to me, lad; and remember old Indian
+      John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, Natty,&rdquo; said the youth eagerly, still holding the black by the arm.
+      &ldquo;I will just get the shot extracted, and bring you up to-night a quarter
+      of the buck for the Christmas dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was interrupted by the hunter, who held up his finger with an
+      expressive gesture for silence. He then moved softly along the margin of
+      the road, keeping his eyes steadfastly fixed on the branches of a pine.
+      When he had obtained such a position as he wished, he stopped, and,
+      cocking his rifle, threw one leg far behind him, and stretching his left
+      arm to its utmost extent along the barrel of his piece, he began slowly to
+      raise its muzzle in a line with the straight trunk of the tree. The eyes
+      of the group in the sleigh naturally preceded the movement of the rifle,
+      and they soon discovered the object of Natty's aim. On a small dead branch
+      of the pine, which, at the distance of seventy feet from the ground, shot
+      out horizontally, immediately beneath the living members of the tree, sat
+      a bird, that in the vulgar language of the country was indiscriminately
+      called a pheasant or a partridge. In size, it was but little smaller than
+      a common barn-yard fowl. The baying of the dogs, and the conversation that
+      had passed near the root of the tree on which it was perched, had alarmed
+      the bird, which was now drawn up near the body of the pine, with a head
+      and neck so erect as to form nearly a straight line with its legs. As soon
+      as the rifle bore on the victim, Natty drew his trigger, and the partridge
+      fell from its height with a force that buried it in the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie down, you old villain,&rdquo; exclaimed Leather-Stocking, shaking his
+      ramrod at Hector as he bounded toward the foot of the tree, &ldquo;lie down, I
+      say.&rdquo; The dog obeyed, and Natty proceeded with great rapidity, though with
+      the nicest accuracy, to reload his piece. When this was ended, he took up
+      his game, and, showing it to the party without a head, he cried: &ldquo;Here is
+      a tidbit for an old man's Christmas&mdash;never mind the venison, boy, and
+      remember Indian John; his yarbs are better than all the foreign 'intments.
+      Here, Judge,&rdquo; holding up the bird again, &ldquo;do you think a smooth-bore would
+      pick game off their roost, and not ruffle a feather?&rdquo; The old man gave
+      another of his remarkable laughs, which partook so largely of exultation,
+      mirth, and irony, and, shaking his head, he turned, with his rifle at a
+      trail, and moved into the forest with steps that were between a walk and a
+      trot. At each movement he made his body lowered several inches, his knees
+      yielding with an inclination inward; but, as the sleigh turned at a bend
+      in the road, the youth cast his eyes in quest of his old companion, and he
+      saw that he was already nearly concealed by the trunks of the tree; while
+      his dogs were following quietly in his footsteps, occasionally scenting
+      the deer track, that they seemed to know instinctively was now of no
+      further use to them. Another jerk was given to the sleigh, and
+      Leather-Stocking was hid from view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     All places that the eye of heaven visits
+     Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:
+     Think not the king did banish thee:
+     But thou the king.&mdash;Richard II
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      An ancestor of Marmaduke Temple had, about one hundred and twenty years
+      before the commencement of our tale, come to the colony of Pennsylvania, a
+      friend and co-religionist of its great patron. Old Marmaduke, for this
+      formidable prenomen was a kind of appellative to the race, brought with
+      him, to that asylum of the persecuted an abundance of the good things of
+      this life. He became the master of many thousands of acres of uninhabited
+      territory, and the supporter of many a score of dependents. He lived
+      greatly respected for his piety, and not a little distinguished as a
+      sectary; was intrusted by his associates with many important political
+      stations; and died just in time to escape the knowledge of his own
+      poverty. It was his lot to share the fortune of most of those who brought
+      wealth with them into the new settlements of the middle colonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The consequence of an emigrant into these provinces was generally to be
+      ascertained by the number of his white servants or dependents, and the
+      nature of the public situations that he held. Taking this rule as a guide,
+      the ancestor of our Judge must have been a man of no little note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is, however, a subject of curious inquiry at the present day, to look
+      into the brief records of that early period, and observe how regular, and
+      with few exceptions how inevitable, were the gradations, on the one hand,
+      of the masters to poverty, and on the other, of their servants to wealth.
+      Accustomed to ease, and unequal to the struggles incident to an infant
+      society, the affluent emigrant was barely enabled to maintain his own rank
+      by the weight of his personal superiority and acquirements; but, the
+      moment that his head was laid in the grave, his indolent and comparatively
+      uneducated offspring were compelled to yield precedency to the more active
+      energies of a class whose exertions had been stimulated by necessity. This
+      is a very common course of things, even in the present state of the Union;
+      but it was peculiarly the fortunes of the two extremes of society, in the
+      peaceful and unenterprising colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The posterity of Marmaduke did not escape the common lot of those who
+      depend rather on their hereditary possessions than on their own powers;
+      and in the third generation they had descended to a point below which, in
+      this happy country, it is barely possible for honesty, intellect and
+      sobriety to fall. The same pride of family that had, by its self-satisfied
+      indolence, conduced to aid their fail, now became a principle to stimulate
+      them to endeavor to rise again. The feeling, from being morbid, was
+      changed to a healthful and active desire to emulate the character, the
+      condition, and, peradventure, the wealth of their ancestors also. It was
+      the father of our new acquaintance, the Judge, who first began to reascend
+      in the scale of society; and in this undertaking he was not a little
+      assisted by a marriage, which aided in furnishing the means of educating
+      his only son in a rather better manner than the low state of the common
+      schools of Pennsylvania could promise; or than had been the practice in
+      the family for the two or three preceding generations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the school where the reviving prosperity of his father was enabled to
+      maintain him, young Marmaduke formed an intimacy with a youth whose years
+      were about equal to his own. This was a fortunate connection for our
+      Judge, and paved the way to most of his future elevation in life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not only great wealth but high court interest among the
+      connections of Edward Effingham. They were one of the few families then
+      resident in the colonies who thought it a degradation to its members to
+      descend to the pursuits of commerce; and who never emerged from the
+      privacy of domestic life unless to preside in the councils of the colony
+      or to bear arms in her defense. The latter had from youth been the only
+      employment of Edward's father. Military rank under the crown of Great
+      Britain was attained with much longer probation, and by much more toilsome
+      services, sixty years ago than at the present time. Years were passed
+      without murmuring, in the sub ordinate grades of the service; and those
+      soldiers who were stationed in the colonies felt, when they obtained the
+      command of a company, that they were entitled to receive the greatest
+      deference from the peaceful occupants of the soil. Any one of our readers
+      who has occasion to cross the Niagara may easily observe not only the self
+      importance, but the real estimation enjoyed by the hum blest
+      representative of the crown, even in that polar region of royal sunshine.
+      Such, and at no very distant period, was the respect paid to the military
+      in these States, where now, happily, no symbol of war is ever seen, unless
+      at the free and tearless voice of their people. When, therefore, the
+      father of Marmaduke's friend, after forty years' service, retired with the
+      rank of major, maintaining in his domestic establishment a comparative
+      splendor, he be came a man of the first consideration in his native colony
+      which was that of New York. He had served with fidelity and courage, and
+      having been, according to the custom of the provinces, intrusted with
+      commands much superior to those to which he was entitled by rank, with
+      reputation also. When Major Effingham yielded to the claims of age, he
+      retired with dignity, refusing his half-pay or any other compensation for
+      services that he felt he could no longer perform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ministry proffered various civil offices which yielded not only honor
+      but profit; but he declined them all, with the chivalrous independence and
+      loyalty that had marked his character through life. The veteran soon
+      caused this set of patriotic disinterestedness to be followed by another
+      of private munificence, that, however little it accorded with prudence,
+      was in perfect conformity with the simple integrity of his own views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The friend of Marmaduke was his only child; and to this son, on his
+      marriage with a lady to whom the father was particularly partial, the
+      Major gave a complete conveyance of his whole estate, consisting of money
+      in the funds, a town and country residence, sundry valuable farms in the
+      old parts of the colony, and large tracts of wild land in the new&mdash;in
+      this manner throwing himself upon the filial piety of his child for his
+      own future maintenance. Major Effingham, in declining the liberal offers
+      of the British ministry, had subjected himself to the suspicion of having
+      attained his dotage, by all those who throng the avenues to court
+      patronage, even in the remotest corners of that vast empire; but, when he
+      thus voluntarily stripped himself of his great personal wealth, the
+      remainder of the community seemed instinctively to adopt the conclusion
+      also that he had reached a second childhood. This may explain the fact of
+      his importance rapidly declining; and, if privacy was his object, the
+      veteran had soon a free indulgence of his wishes. Whatever views the world
+      might entertain of this act of the Major, to himself and to his child it
+      seemed no more than a natural gift by a father of those immunities which
+      he could no longer enjoy or improve, to a son, who was formed, both by
+      nature and education, to do both. The younger Effingham did not object to
+      the amount of the donation; for he felt that while his parent reserved a
+      moral control over his actions, he was relieving himself of a fatiguing
+      burden: such, indeed, was the confidence existing between them, that to
+      neither did it seem anything more than removing money from one pocket to
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the first acts of the young man, on coming into possession of his
+      wealth, was to seek his early friend, with a view to offer any assistance
+      that it was now in his power to bestow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The death of Marmaduke's father, and the consequent division of his small
+      estate, rendered such an offer extremely acceptable to the young
+      Pennsylvanian; he felt his own powers, and saw, not only the excellences,
+      but the foibles in the character of his friend. Effingham was by nature
+      indolent, confiding, and at times impetuous and indiscreet; but Marmaduke
+      was uniformly equable, penetrating, and full of activity and enterprise.
+      To the latter therefore, the assistance, or rather connection that was
+      proffered to him, seemed to produce a mutual advantage. It was cheerfully
+      accepted, and the arrangement of its conditions was easily completed. A
+      mercantile house was established in the metropolis of Pennsylvania, with
+      the avails of Mr. Effingham's personal property; all, or nearly all, of
+      which was put into the possession of Temple, who was the only ostensible
+      proprietor in the concern, while, in secret, the other was entitled to an
+      equal participation in the profits. This connection was thus kept private
+      for two reasons, one of which, in the freedom of their intercourse, was
+      frankly avowed to Marmaduke, while the other continued profoundly hid in
+      the bosom of his friend, The last was nothing more than pride. To the
+      descend ant of a line of soldiers, commerce, even in that indirect manner,
+      seemed a degrading pursuit; but an insuperable obstacle to the disclosure
+      existed in the prejudices of his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have already said that Major Effingham had served as a soldier with
+      reputation. On one occasion, while in command on the western frontier of
+      Pennsylvania against a league of the French and Indians, not only his
+      glory, but the safety of himself and his troops were jeoparded by the
+      peaceful policy of that colony. To the soldier, this was an unpardonable
+      offence. He was fighting in their defense&mdash;he knew that the mild
+      principles of this little nation of practical Christians would be
+      disregarded by their subtle and malignant enemies; and he felt the in jury
+      the more deeply because he saw that the avowed object of the colonists, in
+      withholding their succors, would only have a tendency to expose his
+      command, without preserving the peace. The soldier succeeded, after a
+      desperate conflict, in extricating himself, with a handful of his men,
+      from their murderous enemy; but he never for gave the people who had
+      exposed him to a danger which they left him to combat alone. It was in
+      vain to tell him that they had no agency in his being placed on their
+      frontier at all; it was evidently for their benefit that he had been so
+      placed, and it was their &ldquo;religious duty,&rdquo; so the Major always expressed
+      it, &ldquo;it was their religions duty to have supported him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At no time was the old soldier an admirer of the peaceful disciples of
+      Fox. Their disciplined habits, both of mind and body, had endowed them
+      with great physical perfection; and the eye of the veteran was apt to scan
+      the fair proportions and athletic frames of the colonists with a look that
+      seemed to utter volumes of contempt for their moral imbecility, He was
+      also a little addicted to the expression of a belief that, where there was
+      so great an observance of the externals of religion, there could not be
+      much of the substance. It is not our task to explain what is or what ought
+      to be the substance of Christianity, but merely to record in this place
+      the opinions of Major Effingham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowing the sentiments of the father in relation to this people, it was no
+      wonder that the son hesitated to avow his connection with, nay, even his
+      dependence on the integrity of, a Quaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been said that Marmaduke deduced his origin from the contemporaries
+      and friends of Penn. His father had married without the pale of the church
+      to which he belonged, and had, in this manner, forfeited some of the
+      privileges of his offspring. Still, as young Marmaduke was educated in a
+      colony and society where even the ordinary intercourse between friends was
+      tinctured with the aspect of this mild religion, his habits and language
+      were some what marked by its peculiarities. His own marriage at a future
+      day with a lady without not only the pale, but the influence, of this sect
+      of religionists, had a tendency, it is true, to weaken his early
+      impressions; still he retained them in some degree to the hour of his
+      death, and was observed uniformly, when much interested or agitated, to
+      speak in the language of his youth. But this is anticipating our tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Marmaduke first became the partner of young Effingham, he was quite
+      the Quaker in externals; and it was too dangerous an experiment for the
+      son to think of encountering the prejudices of the father on this subject.
+      The connection, therefore, remained a profound secret to all but those who
+      were interested in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few years Marmaduke directed the commercial operations of his house
+      with a prudence and sagacity that afforded rich returns. He married the
+      lady we have mentioned, who was the mother of Elizabeth, and the visits of
+      his friend were becoming more frequent. There was a speedy prospect of
+      removing the veil from their intercourse, as its advantages became each
+      hour more apparent to Mr. Effingham, when the troubles that preceded the
+      war of the Revolution extended themselves to an alarming degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Educated in the most dependent loyalty, Mr. Effingham had, from the
+      commencement of the disputes between the colonists and the crown, warmly
+      maintained what he believed to be the just prerogatives of his prince;
+      while, on the other hand, the clear head and independent mind of Temple
+      had induced him to espouse the cause of the people. Both might have been
+      influenced by early impressions; for, if the son of the loyal and gallant
+      soldier bowed in implicit obedience to the will of his sovereign, the
+      descendant of the persecuted followers of Penn looked back with a little
+      bitterness to the unmerited wrongs that had been heaped upon his
+      ancestors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This difference in opinion had long been a subject of amicable dispute
+      between them: but, Latterly, the contest was getting to be too important
+      to admit of trivial discussions on the part of Marmaduke, whose acute
+      discernment was already catching faint glimmerings of the important events
+      that were in embryo. The sparks of dissension soon kindled into a blaze;
+      and the colonies, or rather, as they quickly declared themselves, THE
+      STATES, became a scene of strife and bloodshed for years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short time before the battle of Lexington, Mr. Effingham, already a
+      widower, transmitted to Marmaduke, for safe-keeping, all his valuable
+      effects and papers; and left the colony without his father. The war had,
+      however, scarcely commenced in earnest, when he reappeared in New York,
+      wearing the Livery of his king; and, in a short time, he took the field at
+      the head of a provincial corps. In the mean time Marmaduke had completely
+      committed himself in the cause, as it was then called, of the rebel lion.
+      Of course, all intercourse between the friends ceased&mdash;on the part of
+      Colonel Effingham it was unsought, and on that of Marmaduke there was a
+      cautious reserve. It soon became necessary for the latter to abandon the
+      capital of Philadelphia; but he had taken the precaution to remove the
+      whole of his effects beyond the reach of the royal forces, including the
+      papers of his friend also. There he continued serving his country during
+      the struggle, in various civil capacities, and always with dignity and
+      usefulness. While, however, he discharged his functions with credit and
+      fidelity, Marmaduke never seemed to lose sight of his own interests; for,
+      when the estates of the adherents of the crown fell under the hammer, by
+      the acts of confiscation, he appeared in New York, and became the
+      purchaser of extensive possessions at comparatively low prices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true that Marmaduke, by thus purchasing estates that had been
+      wrested by violence from others, rendered himself obnoxious to the
+      censures of that Sect which, at the same time that it discards its
+      children from a full participation in the family union, seems ever
+      unwilling to abandon them entirely to the world. But either his success,
+      or the frequency of the transgression in others, soon wiped off this
+      slight stain from his character; and, although there were a few who,
+      dissatisfied with their own fortunes, or conscious of their own demerits,
+      would make dark hints concerning the sudden prosperity of the unportioned
+      Quaker, yet his services, and possibly his wealth, soon drove the
+      recollection of these vague conjectures from men's minds. When the war
+      ended, and the independence of the States was acknowledged, Mr. Temple
+      turned his attention from the pursuit of commerce, which was then
+      fluctuating and uncertain, to the settlement of those tracts of land which
+      he had purchased. Aided by a good deal of money, and directed by the
+      suggestions of a strong and practical reason, his enterprise throve to a
+      degree that the climate and rugged face of the country which he selected
+      would seem to forbid. His property increased in a tenfold ratio, and he
+      was already ranked among the most wealthy and important of his countrymen.
+      To inherit this wealth he had but one child&mdash;the daughter whom we
+      have introduced to the reader, and whom he was now conveying from school
+      to preside over a household that had too long wanted a mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the district in which his estates lay had become sufficiently
+      populous to be set off as a county, Mr. Temple had, according to the
+      custom of the new settlements, been selected to fill its highest judicial
+      station. This might make a Templar smile; but in addition to the apology
+      of necessity, there is ever a dignity in talents and experience that is
+      commonly sufficient, in any station, for the protection of its possessor;
+      and Marmaduke, more fortunate in his native clearness of mind than the
+      judge of King Charles, not only decided right, but was generally able to
+      give a very good reason for it. At all events, such was the universal
+      practice of the country and the times; and Judge Temple, so far from
+      ranking among the lowest of his judicial contemporaries in the courts of
+      the new counties, felt himself, and was unanimously acknowledged to be,
+      among the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall here close this brief explanation of the history and character of
+      some of our personages leaving them in future to speak and act for
+      themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;All that thou see'st is Natures handiwork;
+     Those rocks that upward throw their mossy brawl
+     Like castled pinnacles of elder times;
+     These venerable stems, that slowly rock
+     Their towering branches in the wintry gale;
+     That field of frost, which glitters in the sun,
+     Mocking the whiteness of a marble breast!
+     Yet man can mar such works with his rude taste,
+     Like some sad spoiler of a virgin's fame.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Duo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Some little while elapsed ere Marmaduke Temple was sufficiently recovered
+      from his agitation to scan the person of his new companion. He now
+      observed that he was a youth of some two or three and twenty years of age,
+      and rather above the middle height. Further observation was prevented by
+      the rough overcoat which was belted close to his form by a worsted sash,
+      much like the one worn by the old hunter. The eyes of the Judge, after
+      resting a moment on the figure of the stranger, were raised to a scrutiny
+      of his countenance. There had been a look of care visible in the features
+      of the youth, when he first entered the sleigh, that had not only
+      attracted the notice of Elizabeth, but which she had been much puzzled to
+      interpret. His anxiety seemed the strongest when he was enjoining his old
+      companion to secrecy; and even when he had decided, and was rather
+      passively suffering himself to be conveyed to the village, the expression
+      of his eyes by no means indicated any great degree of self-satisfaction at
+      the step. But the lines of an uncommonly prepossessing countenance were
+      gradually becoming composed; and he now sat silent, and apparently musing.
+      The Judge gazed at him for some time with earnestness, and then smiling,
+      as if at his own forgetfulness, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe, my young friend, that terror has driven you from my
+      recollection; your face is very familiar, and yet, for the honor of a
+      score of bucks' tails in my cap, I could not tell your name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came into the country but three weeks since,&rdquo; returned the youth
+      coldly, &ldquo;and I understand you have been absent twice that time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be five to-morrow. Yet your face is one that I have seen; though
+      it would not be strange, such has been my affright, should I see thee in
+      thy winding-sheet walking by my bedside to-night. What say'st thou, Bess?
+      Am I compos mentis or not? Fit to charge a grand jury, or, what is just
+      now of more pressing necessity, able to do the honors of Christmas eve in
+      the hall of Templeton?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More able to do either, my dear father.&rdquo; said a playful voice from under
+      the ample inclosures of the hood, &ldquo;than to kill deer with a smooth-bore.&rdquo;
+       A short pause followed, and the same voice, but in a different accent,
+      continued. &ldquo;We shall have good reasons for our thanksgiving to night, on
+      more accounts than one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The horses soon reached a point where they seemed to know by instinct that
+      the journey was nearly ended, and, bearing on the bits as they tossed
+      their heads, they rapidly drew the sleigh over the level land which lay on
+      the top of the mountain, and soon came to the point where the road
+      descended suddenly, but circuitously, into the valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge was roused from his reflections, when he saw the four columns of
+      smoke which floated above his own chimneys. As house, village, and valley
+      burst on his sight, he exclaimed cheerfully to his daughter:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, Bess, there is thy resting-place for life! And thine too, young man,
+      if thou wilt consent to dwell with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of his auditors involuntarily met; and, if the color that
+      gathered over the face of Elizabeth was contradicted by the cold
+      expression of her eye, the ambiguous smile that again played about the
+      lips of the stranger seemed equally to deny the probability of his
+      consenting to form one of this family group. The scene was one, however,
+      which might easily warm a heart less given to philanthropy than that of
+      Marmaduke Temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The side of the mountain on which our travellers were journeying, though
+      not absolutely perpendicular, was so steep as to render great care
+      necessary in descending the rude and narrow path which, in that early day,
+      wound along the precipices. The negro reined in his impatient steeds, and
+      time was given Elizabeth to dwell on a scene which was so rapidly altering
+      under the hands of man, that it only resembled in its outlines the picture
+      she had so often studied with delight in childhood. Immediately beneath
+      them lay a seeming plain, glittering without in equality, and buried in
+      mountains. The latter were precipitous, especially on the side of the
+      plain, and chiefly in forest. Here and there the hills fell away in long,
+      low points, and broke the sameness of the outline, or setting to the long
+      and wide field of snow, which, without house, tree, fence, or any other
+      fixture, resembled so much spot less cloud settled to the earth. A few
+      dark and moving spots were, however, visible on the even surface, which
+      the eye of Elizabeth knew to be so many sleighs going their several ways
+      to or from the village. On the western border of the plain, the mountains,
+      though equally high, were less precipitous, and as they receded opened
+      into irregular valleys and glens, or were formed into terraces and hollows
+      that admitted of cultivation. Although the evergreens still held dominion
+      over many of the hills that rose on this side of the valley, yet the
+      undulating outlines of the distant mountains, covered with forests of
+      beech and maple, gave a relief to the eye, and the promise of a kinder
+      soil. Occasionally spots of white were discoverable amidst the forests of
+      the opposite hills, which announced, by the smoke that curled over the
+      tops of the trees, the habitations of man and the commencement of
+      agriculture. These spots were sometimes, by the aid of united labor,
+      enlarged into what were called settlements, but more frequently were small
+      and insulated; though so rapid were the changes, and so persevering the
+      labors of those who had cast their fortunes on the success of the
+      enterprise, that it was not difficult for the imagination of Elizabeth to
+      conceive they were enlarging under her eye while she was gazing, in mute
+      wonder, at the alterations that a few short years had made in the aspect
+      of the country. The points on the western side of this remarkable plain,
+      on which no plant had taken root, were both larger and more numerous than
+      those on its eastern, and one in particular thrust itself forward in such
+      a manner as to form beautifully curved bays of snow on either side. On its
+      extreme end an oak stretched forward, as if to overshadow with its
+      branches a spot which its roots were forbidden to enter. It had released
+      itself from the thraldom that a growth of centuries had imposed on the
+      branches of the surrounding forest trees, and threw its gnarled and
+      fantastic arms abroad, in the wildness of liberty. A dark spot of a few
+      acres in extent at the southern extremity of this beautiful flat, and
+      immediately under the feet of our travellers, alone showed by its rippling
+      surface, and the vapors which exhaled from it, that what at first might
+      seem a plain was one of the mountain lakes, locked in the frosts of
+      winter. A narrow current rushed impetuously from its bosom at the open
+      place we have mentioned, and was to be traced for miles, as it wound its
+      way toward the south through the real valley, by its borders of hemlock
+      and pine, and by the vapor which arose from its warmer surface into the
+      chill atmosphere of the hills. The banks of this lovely basin, at its
+      outlet, or southern end, were steep, but not high; and in that direction
+      the land continued, far as the eye could reach, a narrow but graceful
+      valley, along which the settlers had scattered their humble habitations,
+      with a profusion that bespoke the quality of the soil and the comparative
+      facilities of intercourse, Immediately on the bank of the lake and at its
+      foot, stood the village of Templeton. It consisted of some fifty
+      buildings, including those of every description, chiefly built of wood,
+      and which, in their architecture, bore no great marks of taste, but which
+      also, by the unfinished appearance of most of the dwellings, indicated the
+      hasty manner of their construction, To the eye, they presented a variety
+      of colors. A few were white in both front and rear, but more bore that
+      expensive color on their fronts only, while their economical but ambitious
+      owners had covered the remaining sides of the edifices with a dingy red.
+      One or two were slowly assuming the russet of age; while the uncovered
+      beams that were to be seen through the broken windows of their second
+      stories showed that either the taste or the vanity of their proprietors
+      had led them to undertake a task which they were unable to accomplish. The
+      whole were grouped in a manner that aped the streets of a city, and were
+      evidently so arranged by the directions of one who looked to the wants of
+      posterity rather than to the convenience of the present incumbents. Some
+      three or four of the better sort of buildings, in addition to the
+      uniformity of their color, were fitted with green blinds, which, at that
+      season at least, were rather strangely contrasted to the chill aspect of
+      the lake, the mountains, the forests, and the wide fields of snow. Before
+      the doors of these pretending dwellings were placed a few saplings, either
+      without branches or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two
+      summers' growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post near the
+      threshold of princes. In truth, the occupants of these favored habitations
+      were the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king. They were the
+      dwellings of two young men who were cunning in the law; an equal number of
+      that class who chaffered to the wants of the community under the title of
+      storekeepers; and a disciple of Aesculapius, who, for a novelty, brought
+      more subjects into the world than he sent out of it. In the midst of this
+      incongruous group of dwellings rose the mansion of the Judge, towering
+      above all its neighbors. It stood in the centre of an inclosure of several
+      acres, which was covered with fruit-trees. Some of the latter had been
+      left by the Indians, and began already to assume the moss and inclination
+      of age, therein forming a very marked contrast to the infant plantations
+      that peered over most of the picketed fences of the village. In addition
+      to this show of cultivation were two rows of young Lombardy poplars, a
+      tree but lately introduced into America, formally lining either side of a
+      pathway which led from a gate that opened on the principal street to the
+      front door of the building. The house itself had been built entirely under
+      the superintendence of a certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have already
+      mentioned, and who, from his cleverness in small matters, and an entire
+      willingness to exert his talents, added to the circumstance of their being
+      sisters' children, ordinarily superintended all the minor concerns of
+      Marmaduke Temple. Richard was fond of saying that this child of invention
+      consisted of nothing more nor less than what should form the groundwork of
+      every clergyman's discourse, viz., a firstly and a lastly. He had
+      commenced his labors, in the first year of their residence, by erecting a
+      tall, gaunt edifice of wood, with its gable toward the highway. In this
+      shelter for it was little more, the family resided three years. By the end
+      of that period, Richard had completed his design. He had availed himself,
+      in this heavy undertaking, of the experience of a certain wandering
+      eastern mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few soiled plates of English
+      architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes, entablatures, and
+      particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue influence
+      over Richard's taste in everything that pertained to that branch of the
+      fine arts. Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to consider Hiram Doolittle a
+      perfect empiric in his profession, being in the constant habit of
+      listening to his treatises on architecture with a kind of indulgent smile;
+      yet, either from an inability to oppose them by anything plausible from
+      his own stores of learning or from secret admiration, Richard generally
+      submitted to the arguments of his co-adjutor. Together, they had not only
+      erected a dwelling for Marmaduke, but they had given a fashion to the
+      architecture of the whole county. The composite order, Mr. Doolittle would
+      contend, was an order composed of many others, and was intended to be the
+      most useful of all, for it admitted into its construction such alterations
+      as convenience or circumstances might require. To this proposition Richard
+      usually assented; and when rival geniuses who monopolize not only all the
+      reputation but most of the money of a neighborhood, are of a mind, it is
+      not uncommon to see them lead the fashion, even in graver matters. In the
+      present instance, as we have already hinted, the castle, as Judge
+      Templeton's dwelling was termed in common parlance, came to be the model,
+      in some one or other of its numerous excellences, for every aspiring
+      edifice within twenty miles of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house itself, or the &ldquo;lastly,&rdquo; was of stone: large, square, and far
+      from uncomfortable. These were four requisites, on which Marmaduke had
+      insisted with a little more than his ordinary pertinacity. But everything
+      else was peaceably assigned to Richard and his associate. These worthies
+      found the material a little too solid for the tools of their workmen,
+      which, in General, were employed on a substance no harder than the white
+      pine of the adjacent mountains, a wood so proverbially soft that it is
+      commonly chosen by the hunters for pillows. But for this awkward dilemma,
+      it is probable that the ambitious tastes of our two architects would have
+      left us much more to do in the way of description. Driven from the faces
+      of the house by the obduracy of the material, they took refuge in the
+      porch and on the roof. The former, it was decided, should be severely
+      classical, and the latter a rare specimen of the merits of the Composite
+      order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A roof, Richard contended, was a part of the edifice that the ancients
+      always endeavored to conceal, it being an excrescence in architecture that
+      was only to be tolerated on account of its usefulness. Besides, as he
+      wittily added, a chief merit in a dwelling was to present a front on
+      whichever side it might happen to be seen; for, as it was exposed to all
+      eyes in all weathers, there should be no weak flank for envy or
+      unneighborly criticism to assail. It was therefore decided that the roof
+      should be flat, and with four faces. To this arrangement, Marmaduke
+      objected the heavy snows that lay for months, frequently covering the
+      earth to a depth of three or four feet. Happily the facilities of the
+      composite order presented themselves to effect a compromise, and the
+      rafters were lengthened, so as to give a descent that should carry off the
+      frozen element. But, unluckily, some mistake was made in the admeasurement
+      of these material parts of the fabric; and, as one of the greatest
+      recommendations of Hiram was his ability to work by the &ldquo;square rule,&rdquo; no
+      opportunity was found of discovering the effect until the massive timbers
+      were raised on the four walls of the building. Then, indeed, it was soon
+      seen that, in defiance of all rule, the roof was by far the most
+      conspicuous part of the whole edifice. Richard and his associate consoled
+      themselves with the relief that the covering would aid in concealing this
+      unnatural elevation; but every shingle that was laid only multiplied
+      objects to look at. Richard essayed to remedy the evil with paint, and
+      four different colors were laid on by his own hands. The first was a
+      sky-blue, in the vain expectation that the eye might be cheated into the
+      belief it was the heavens themselves that hung so imposingly over
+      Marmaduke's dwelling; the second was what he called a &ldquo;cloud-color,&rdquo; being
+      nothing more nor less than an imitation of smoke; the third was what
+      Richard termed an invisible green, an experiment that did not succeed
+      against a background of sky. Abandoning the attempt to conceal, our
+      architects drew upon their invention for means to ornament the offensive
+      shingles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After much deliberation and two or three essays by moonlight, Richard
+      ended the affair by boldly covering the whole beneath a color that he
+      christened &ldquo;sunshine,&rdquo; a cheap way, as he assured his cousin the Judge, of
+      always keeping fair weather over his head. The platform, as well as the
+      caves of the house, were surmounted by gaudily painted railings, and the
+      genius of Hiram was exerted in the fabrication of divers urns and
+      mouldings, that were scattered profusely around this part of their labors.
+      Richard had originally a cunning expedient, by which the chimneys were
+      intended to be so low, and so situated, as to resemble ornaments on the
+      balustrades; but comfort required that the chimneys should rise with the
+      roof, in order that the smoke might be carried off, and they thus became
+      four extremely conspicuous objects in the view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this roof was much the most important architectural undertaking in
+      which Mr. Jones was ever engaged, his failure produced a correspondent
+      degree of mortification At first, he whispered among his acquaintances
+      that it proceeded from ignorance of the square rule on the part of Hiram;
+      but, as his eye became gradually accustomed to the object, he grew better
+      satisfied with his labors, and instead of apologizing for the defects, he
+      commenced praising the beauties of the mansion-house; he soon found
+      hearers, and, as wealth and comfort are at all times attractive, it was,
+      as has been said, made a model for imitation on a small scale. In less
+      than two years from its erection, he had the pleasure of standing on the
+      elevated platform, and of looking down on three humble imitators of its
+      beauty. Thus it is ever with fashion, which even renders the faults of the
+      great subjects of admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke bore this deformity in his dwelling with great good-nature, and
+      soon contrived, by his own improvements, to give an air of respectability
+      and comfort to his place of residence. Still, there was much of in
+      congruity, even immediately about the mansion-house. Although poplars had
+      been brought from Europe to ornament the grounds, and willows and other
+      trees were gradually springing up nigh the dwelling, yet many a pile of
+      snow betrayed the presence of the stump of a pine; and even, in one or two
+      instances, unsightly remnants of trees that had been partly destroyed by
+      fire were seen rearing their black, glistening columns twenty or thirty
+      feet above the pure white of the snow, These, which in the language of the
+      country are termed stubs, abounded in the open fields adjacent to the
+      village, and were accompanied, occasionally, by the ruin of a pine or a
+      hemlock that had been stripped of its bark, and which waved in melancholy
+      grandeur its naked limbs to the blast, a skeleton of its former glory. But
+      these and many other unpleasant additions to the view were unseen by the
+      delighted Elizabeth, who, as the horses moved down the side of the
+      mountain, saw only in gross the cluster of houses that lay like a map at
+      her feet; the fifty smokes that were curling from the valley to the
+      clouds; the frozen lake as it lay imbedded in mountains of evergreen, with
+      the long shadows of the pines on its white surface, lengthening in the
+      setting sun; the dark ribbon of water that gushed from the outlet and was
+      winding its way toward the distant Chesapeake&mdash;the altered, though
+      still remembered, scenes of her child hood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five years had wrought greater changes than a century would produce in
+      countries where time and labor have given permanency to the works of man.
+      To our young hunter and the Judge the scene had less novelty; though none
+      ever emerge from the dark forests of that mountain, and witness the
+      glorious scenery of that beauteous valley, as it bursts unexpectedly upon
+      them, without a feeling of delight. The former cast one admiring glance
+      from north to south, and sank his face again beneath the folds of his
+      coat; while the latter contemplated, with philanthropic pleasure, the
+      prospect of affluence and comfort that was expanding around him; the
+      result of his own enterprise, and much of it the fruits of his own
+      industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheerful sound of sleigh-bells, however, attracted the attention of
+      the whole party, as they came jingling up the sides of the mountain, at a
+      rate that announced a powerful team and a hard driver. The bushes which
+      lined the highway interrupted the view, and the two sleighs were close
+      upon each other before either was seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter?&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Falstaff
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A large lumber sleigh, drawn by four horses, was soon seen dashing through
+      the leafless bushes which fringed the road. The leaders were of gray, and
+      the pole-horses of a jet-black. Bells innumerable were suspended from
+      every part of the harness where one of the tinkling balls could be placed,
+      while the rapid movement of the equipage, in defiance of the steep ascent,
+      announced the desire of the driver to ring them to the utmost. The first
+      glance at this singular arrangement acquainted the Judge with the
+      character of those in the sleigh. It contained four male figures. On one
+      of those stools that are used at writing desks, lashed firmly to the sides
+      of the vehicle, was seated a little man, enveloped in a great-coat fringed
+      with fur, in such a manner that no part of him was visible, except a face
+      of an unvarying red color. There was an habitual upward look about the
+      head of this gentleman, as if dissatisfied with its natural proximity to
+      the earth; and the expression of his countenance was that of busy care, He
+      was the charioteer, and he guided the mettled animals along the precipice
+      with a fearless eye and a steady hand, Immediately behind him, with his
+      face toward the other two, was a tall figure, to whose appearance not even
+      the duplicate overcoats which he wore, aided by the corner of a
+      horse-blanket, could give the appearance of strength. His face was
+      protruding from beneath a woollen night cap; and, when he turned to the
+      vehicle of Marmaduke as the sleighs approached each other, it seemed
+      formed by nature to cut the atmosphere with the least possible resistance.
+      The eyes alone appeared to create any obstacle, for from either side of
+      his forehead their light-blue, glassy balls projected. The sallow of his
+      countenance was too permanent to be affected even by the intense cold of
+      the evening. Opposite to this personage sat a solid, short, and square
+      figure. No part of his form was to be discovered through his overdress,
+      but a face that was illuminated by a pair of black eyes that gave the lie
+      to every demure feature in his countenance. A fair, jolly wig furnished a
+      neat and rounded outline to his visage, and he, well as the other two,
+      wore marten-skin caps. The fourth was a meek-looking, long-visaged man,
+      without any other protection from the cold than that which was furnished
+      by a black surcoat, made with some little formality, but which was rather
+      threadbare and rusty. He wore a hat of extremely decent proportions,
+      though frequent brushing had quite destroyed its nap. His face was pale,
+      and withal a little melancholy, or what might be termed of a studious
+      complexion. The air had given it, just now, a light and somewhat feverish
+      flush, The character of his whole appearance, especially contrasted to the
+      air of humor in his next companion, was that of habitual mental care. No
+      sooner had the two sleighs approached within speaking distance, than the
+      driver of this fantastic equipage shouted aloud,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Draw up in the quarry&mdash;draw up, thou king of the Greeks; draw into
+      the quarry, Agamemnon, or I shall never be able to pass you. Welcome home,
+      Cousin 'Duke&mdash;welcome, welcome, black-eyed Bess. Thou seest, Marina
+      duke that I have taken the field with an assorted cargo, to do thee honor.
+      Monsieur Le Quoi has come out with only one cap; Old Fritz would not stay
+      to finish the bottle; and Mr. Grant has got to put the 'lastly' to his
+      sermon, yet. Even all the horses would come&mdash;by the-bye, Judge, I
+      must sell the blacks for you immediately; they interfere, and the nigh one
+      is a bad goer in double harness. I can get rid of them to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sell what thou wilt, Dickon,&rdquo; interrupted the cheerful voice of the
+      Judge, &ldquo;so that thou leavest me my daughter and my lands. And Fritz, my
+      old friend, this is a kind compliment, indeed, for seventy to pay to
+      five-and-forty. Monsieur Le Quoi, I am your servant. Mr. Grant,&rdquo; lifting
+      his cap, &ldquo;I feel indebted to your attention. Gentlemen, I make you
+      acquainted with my child. Yours are names with which she is very
+      familiar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Velcome, velcome Tchooge,&rdquo; said the elder of the party, with a strong
+      German accent. &ldquo;Miss Petsy vill owe me a kiss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And cheerfully will I pay It, my good sir,&rdquo; cried the soft voice of
+      Elizabeth; which sounded, in the clear air of the hills. Like tones of
+      silver, amid the loud cries of Richard. &ldquo;I have always a kiss for my old
+      friend. Major Hartmann.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the gentleman in the front seat, who had been addressed as
+      Monsieur Le Quoi, had arisen with some difficulty, owing to the impediment
+      of his overcoats, and steadying himself by placing one hand on the stool
+      of the charioteer, with the other he removed his cap, and bowing politely
+      to the Judge and profoundly to Elizabeth, he paid his compliments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cover thy poll, Gaul, cover thy poll,&rdquo; cried the driver, who was Mr.
+      Richard Jones; &ldquo;cover thy poll, or the frost will pluck out the remnant of
+      thy locks. Had the hairs on the head of Absalom been as scarce as thine,
+      he might have been living to this day.&rdquo; The jokes of Richard never failed
+      of exciting risibility, for he uniformly did honor to his own wit; and he
+      enjoyed a hearty laugh on the present occasion, while Mr. Le Quoi resumed
+      his seat with a polite reciprocation in his mirth. The clergyman, for such
+      was the office of Mr. Grant, modestly, though quite affectionately,
+      exchanged his greetings with the travellers also, when Richard prepared to
+      turn the heads of his horses homeward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the quarry alone that he could effect this object, without
+      ascending to the summit of the mountain. A very considerable excavation
+      had been made in the side of the hill, at the point where Richard had
+      succeeded in stopping the sleighs, from which the stones used for building
+      in the village were ordinarily quarried, and in which he now attempted to
+      turn his team. Passing itself was a task of difficulty, and frequently of
+      danger, in that narrow road; but Richard had to meet the additional risk
+      of turning his four-in-hand. The black civilly volunteered his services to
+      take off the leaders, and the Judge very earnestly seconded the measure
+      with his advice. Richard treated both proposals with great disdain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, and wherefore. Cousin 'Duke?&rdquo; he exclaimed, a little angrily; &ldquo;the
+      horses are gentle as lambs. You know that I broke the leaders myself, and
+      the pole-horses are too near my whip to be restive. Here is Mr. Le Quoi,
+      now, who must know something about driving, because he has rode out so
+      often with me; I will leave it to Mr. Le Quoi whether there is any
+      danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not in the nature of the Frenchman to disappoint expectations so
+      confidently formed; although he cat looking down the precipice which
+      fronted him, as Richard turned his leaders into the quarry, with a pair of
+      eyes that stood out like those of lobsters. The German's muscles were
+      unmoved, but his quick sight scanned each movement. Mr. Grant placed his
+      hands on the side of the sleigh, in preparation for a spring, but moral
+      timidity deterred him from taking the leap that bodily apprehension
+      strongly urged him to attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, by a sudden application of the whip, succeeded in forcing the
+      leaders into the snow-bank that covered the quarry; but the instant that
+      the impatient animals suffered by the crust, through which they broke at
+      each step, they positively refused to move an inch farther in that
+      direction. On the contrary, finding that the cries and blows of their
+      driver were redoubled at this juncture, the leaders backed upon the
+      pole-horses, who in their turn backed the sleigh. Only a single log lay
+      above the pile which upheld the road on the side toward the valley, and
+      this was now buried in the snow. The sleigh was easily breed across so
+      slight an impediment, and before Richard became conscious of his danger
+      one-half of the vehicle Was projected over a precipice, which fell
+      perpendicularly more than a hundred feet. The Frenchman, who by his
+      position had a full view of their threatened flight, instinctively threw
+      his body as far forward as possible, and cried,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! mon cher Monsieur Deeck! mon Dieu! que faites vous!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Donner und blitzen, Richart!&rdquo; exclaimed the veteran German, looking over
+      the side of the sleigh with unusual emotion, &ldquo;put you will preak ter
+      sleigh and kilt ter horses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Mr. Jones,&rdquo; said the clergyman, &ldquo;be prudent, good sir&mdash;be
+      careful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get up, obstinate devils!&rdquo; cried Richard, catching a bird's-eye view of
+      his situation, and in his eagerness to move forward kicking the stool on
+      which he sat&mdash;&ldquo;get up, I say&mdash;Cousin 'Duke, I shall have to sell
+      the grays too; they are the worst broken horses&mdash;Mr. Le Quoi&rdquo; Richard
+      was too much agitated to regard his pronunciation, of which he was
+      commonly a little vain: &ldquo;Monsieur La Quoi, pray get off my leg; you hold
+      my leg so tight that it's no wonder the horses back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merciful Providence!&rdquo; exclaimed the Judge; &ldquo;they will be all killed!&rdquo;
+       Elizabeth gave a piercing shriek, and the black of Agamemnon's face
+      changed to a muddy white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this critical moment, the young hunter, who during the salutations of
+      the parties had sat in rather sullen silence, sprang from the sleigh of
+      Marmaduke to the heads of the refractory leaders. The horses, which were
+      yet suffering under the injudicious and somewhat random blows of Richard,
+      were dancing up and down with that ominous movement that threatens a
+      sudden and uncontrollable start, still pressing backward. The youth gave
+      the leaders a powerful jerk, and they plunged aside, and re-entered the
+      road in the position in which they were first halted. The sleigh was
+      whirled from its dangerous position, and upset, with the runners outward.
+      The German and the divine were thrown, rather unceremoniously, into the
+      highway, but without danger to their bones. Richard appeared in the air,
+      describing the segment of a circle, of which the reins were the radii, and
+      landed, at the distance of some fifteen feet, in that snow-bank which the
+      horses had dreaded, right end uppermost. Here, as he instinctively grasped
+      the reins, as drowning men seize at straws, he admirably served the
+      purpose of an anchor. The Frenchman, who was on his legs, in the act of
+      springing from the sleigh, took an aerial flight also, much in the
+      attitude which boys assume when they play leap-frog, and, flying off in a
+      tangent to the curvature of his course, came into the snow-bank
+      head-foremost, where he remained, exhibiting two lathy legs on high, like
+      scarecrows waving in a corn-field. Major Hartmann, whose self-possession
+      had been admirably preserved during the whole evolution, was the first of
+      the party that gained his feet and his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ter deyvel, Richart!&rdquo; he exclaimed in a voice half serious, half-comical,
+      &ldquo;put you unload your sleigh very hautily!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be doubtful whether the attitude in which Mr. Grant continued for
+      an instant after his overthrow was the one into which he had been thrown,
+      or was assumed, in humbling himself before the Power that he reverenced,
+      in thanksgiving at his escape. When he rose from his knees, he began to
+      gaze about him, with anxious looks, after the welfare of his companions,
+      while every joint in his body trembled with nervous agitation. There was
+      some confusion in the faculties of Mr. Jones also: but as the mist
+      gradually cleared from before his eyes, he saw that all was safe, and,
+      with an air of great self-satisfaction, he cried, &ldquo;Well&mdash;that was
+      neatly saved, anyhow!&mdash;it was a lucky thought in me to hold on to the
+      reins, or the fiery devils would have been over the mountain by this time.
+      How well I recovered myself, 'Duke! Another moment would have been too
+      late; but I knew just the spot where to touch the off-leader; that blow
+      under his right flank, and the sudden jerk I gave the rein, brought them
+      round quite in rule, I must own myself.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The spectators, from immemorial usage, have a right to laugh at the
+    casualties of a sleigh ride; and the Judge was no sooner certain that
+    no one was done than he made full use of the privilege.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou jerk! thou recover thyself, Dickon!&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but for that brave
+      lad yonder, thou and thy horses, or rather mine, would have been dashed to
+      pieces&mdash;but where is Monsieur Le Quoi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! mon cher Juge! mon ami!&rdquo; cried a smothered voice, &ldquo;praise be God, I
+      live; vill you, Mister Agamemnon, be pleas come down ici, and help me on
+      my leg?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The divine and the negro seized the incarcerated Gaul by his legs and
+      extricated him from a snow-bank of three feet in depth, whence his voice
+      had sounded as from the tombs. The thoughts of Mr. Le Quoi, immediately on
+      his liberation, were not extremely collected; and, when he reached the
+      light, he threw his eyes upward, in order to examine the distance he had
+      fallen. His good-humor returned, however, with a knowledge of his safety,
+      though it was some little time before he clearly comprehended the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, monsieur,&rdquo; said Richard, who was busily assisting the black in
+      taking off the leaders; &ldquo;are you there? I thought I saw you flying toward
+      the top of the mountain just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Praise be God, I no fly down into the lake,&rdquo; returned the Frenchman, with
+      a visage that was divided between pain, occasioned by a few large
+      scratches that he had received in forcing his head through the crust, and
+      the look of complaisance that seemed natural to his pliable features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! mon cher Mister Deeck, vat you do next?&mdash;dere be noting you no
+      try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next thing, I trust, will be to learn to drive,&rdquo; said the Judge, who
+      bad busied himself in throwing the buck, together with several other
+      articles of baggage, from his own sleigh into the snow; &ldquo;here are seats
+      for you all, gentlemen; the evening grows piercingly cold, and the hour
+      approaches for the service of Mr. Grant; we will leave friend Jones to
+      repair the damages, with the assistance of Agamemnon, and hasten to a warm
+      fire. Here, Dickon, are a few articles of Bess' trumpery, that you can
+      throw into your sleigh when ready; and there is also a deer of my taking,
+      that I will thank you to bring. Aggy! remember that there will be a visit
+      from Santa Claus * to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The periodical visits of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, as he is
+    termed, were never forgotten among the inhabitants of New York, until
+    the emigration from New England brought in the opinions and usages of
+    the Puritans, like the &ldquo;bon homme de Noel.&rdquo; he arrives at each
+    Christmas.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The black grinned, conscious of the bribe that was offered him for silence
+      on the subject of the deer, while Richard, without in the least waiting
+      for the termination of his cousin's speech, began his reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Learn to drive, sayest thou, Cousin 'Duke? Is there a man in the county
+      who knows more of horse-flesh than myself? Who broke in the filly, that no
+      one else dare mount, though your coachman did pretend that he had tamed
+      her before I took her in hand; but anybody could see that he lied&mdash;he
+      was a great liar, that John&mdash;what's that, a buck?&rdquo; Richard abandoned
+      the horses, and ran to the spot where Marmaduke had thrown the deer, &ldquo;It
+      is a buck! I am amazed! Yes, here are two holes in him, he has fired both
+      barrels, and hit him each time, Egod! how Marmaduke will brag! he is a
+      prodigious bragger about any small matter like this now; well, to think
+      that 'Duke has killed a buck before Christmas! There will be no such thing
+      as living with him&mdash;they are both bad shots though, mere chance&mdash;mere
+      chance&mdash;now, I never fired twice at a cloven foot in my life&mdash;it
+      is hit or miss with me&mdash;dead or run away-had it been a bear, or a
+      wild-cat, a man might have wanted both barrels. Here! you Aggy! how far
+      off was the Judge when this buck was shot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! massa Richard, maybe a ten rod,&rdquo; cried the black, bending under one
+      of the horses, with the pretence of fastening a buckle, but in reality to
+      conceal the grin that opened a mouth from ear to ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten rod!&rdquo; echoed the other; &ldquo;way, Aggy, the deer I killed last winter
+      'was at twenty&mdash;yes! if anything it was nearer thirty than twenty. I
+      wouldn't shoot at a deer at ten rod: besides, you may remember, Aggy, I
+      only fired once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, massa Richard, I 'member 'em! Natty Bumppo fire t'oder gun. You
+      know, sir, all 'e folks say Natty kill him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The folks lie, you black devil!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard in great heat. &ldquo;I have
+      not shot even a gray squirrel these four years, to which that old rascal
+      has not laid claim, or some one else for him. This is a damned envious
+      world that we live in&mdash;people are always for dividing the credit at a
+      thing, in order to bring down merit to their own level. Now they have a
+      story about the Patent,* that Hiram Doolittle helped to plan the steeple
+      to St. Paul's; when Hiram knows that it is entirely mine; a little taken
+      front a print of his namesake in London, I own; but essentially, as to all
+      points of genius, my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The grants of land, made either by the crown or the state, were but
+    letters patent under the great seal, and the term &ldquo;patent&rdquo; is usually
+    applied to any district of extent thus conceded; though under the
+    crown, manorial rights being often granted with the soil, in the
+    older counties the word &ldquo;manor&rdquo; is frequently used.  There are many
+    manors in New York though all political and judicial rights have
+    ceased.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know where he come from,&rdquo; said the black, losing every mark of
+      humor in an expression of admiration, &ldquo;but eb'rybody say, he wounerful
+      handsome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And well they may say so, Aggy,&rdquo; cried Richard, leaving the buck and
+      walking up to the negro with the air of a man who has new interest
+      awakened within him, &ldquo;I think I may say, without bragging, that it is the
+      handsomest and the most scientific country church in America. I know that
+      the Connecticut settlers talk about their West Herfield meeting-house; but
+      I never believe more than half what they say, they are such unconscionable
+      braggers. Just as you have got a thing done, if they see it likely to be
+      successful, they are always for interfering; and then it's tea to one but
+      they lay claim to half, or even all of the credit. You may remember, Aggy,
+      when I painted the sign of the bold dragoon for Captain Hollister there
+      was that fellow, who was about town laying brick-dust on the houses, came
+      one day and offered to mix what I call the streaky black, for the tail and
+      mane; and then, because it looks like horse-hair, he tells everybody that
+      the sign was painted by himself and Squire Jones. If Marmaduke don't send
+      that fellow off the Patent, he may ornament his village with his own hands
+      for me,&rdquo; Here Richard paused a moment, and cleared his throat by a loud
+      hem, while the negro, who was all this time busily engaged in preparing
+      the sleigh, proceeded with his work in respectful silence. Owing to the
+      religious scruples of the Judge, Aggy was the servant of Richard, who had
+      his services for a time,* and who, of course, commanded a legal claim to
+      the respect of the young negro. But when any dispute between his lawful
+      and his real master occurred, the black felt too much deference for both
+      to express any opinion.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The manumission of the slaves in New York has been gradual.  When
+    public opinion became strong in their favor, then grew up a custom of
+    buying the services of a slave, for six or eight years, with a
+    condition to liberate him at the end of the period.  Then the law
+    provided that all born after a certain day should be free, the males
+    at twenty&mdash;eight and the females at twenty-five.  After this the owner
+    was obliged to cause his servants to be taught to read and write
+    before they reached the age of eighteen, and, finally, the few that
+    remained were all unconditionally liberated in 1826, or after the
+    publication of this tale.  It was quite usual for men more or less
+    connected with the Quakers, who never held slaves to adopt the first
+    expedient.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the mean while, Richard continued watching the negro as he fastened
+      buckle after buckle, until, stealing a look of consciousness toward the
+      other, he continued: &ldquo;Now, if that young man who was in your sleigh is a
+      real Connecticut settler, he will be telling everybody how he saved my
+      horses, when, if he had let them alone for half a minute longer, I would
+      have brought them in much better, without upsetting, with the whip amid
+      rein&mdash;it spoils a horse to give him his heal, I should not wonder if
+      I had to sell the whole team, just for that one jerk he gave them,&rdquo;
+       Richard paused and hemmed; for his conscience smote him a little for
+      censuring a man who had just saved his life. &ldquo;Who is the lad, Aggy&mdash;I
+      don't remember to have seen him before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The black recollected the hint about Santa Claus; and, while he briefly
+      explained how they had taken up the person in question on the top of the
+      mountain, he forbore to add anything concerning the accident or the wound,
+      only saying that he believed the youth was a stranger. It was so usual for
+      men of the first rank to take into their sleighs any one they found
+      toiling through the snow, that Richard was perfectly satisfied with this
+      explanation. He heard Aggy with great attention, and then remarked: &ldquo;Well,
+      if the lad has not been spoiled by the people in Templeton he may be a
+      modest young man, and, as he certainly meant well, I shall take some
+      notice of him&mdash;perhaps he is land-hunting&mdash;I say, Aggy, maybe he
+      is out hunting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh! yes, massa Richard,&rdquo; said the black, a little confused; for, as
+      Richard did all the flogging, he stood in great terror of his master, in
+      the main&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, sir, I b'lieve he be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had he a pack and an axe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, only he rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rifle!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, observing the confusion of the negro, which
+      now amounted to terror. &ldquo;By Jove, he killed the deer! I knew that
+      Marmaduke couldn't kill a buck on the jump&mdash;how was it, Aggy? Tell me
+      all about it, and I'll roast 'Duke quicker than he can roast his saddle&mdash;how
+      was it, Aggy? the lad shot the buck, and the Judge bought it, ha! and he
+      is taking the youth down to get the pay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The pleasure of this discovery had put Richard in such a good humor, that
+      the negro's fears in some measure vanished, and he remembered the stocking
+      of Santa Claus. After a gulp or two, he made out to reply;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forgit a two shot, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't lie, you black rascal!&rdquo; cried Richard, stepping on the snow-bank to
+      measure the distance from his lash to the negro's back; &ldquo;speak truth, or I
+      trounce you.&rdquo; While speaking, the stock was slowly rising in Richard's
+      right hand, and the lash drawing through his left, in the scientific
+      manner with which drummers apply the cat; and Agamemnon, after turning
+      each side of himself toward his master, and finding both equally unwilling
+      to remain there, fairly gave in. In a very few words he made his master
+      acquainted with the truth, at the same time earnestly conjuring Richard to
+      protect him from the displeasure of the lodge &ldquo;I'll do it, boy, I'll do
+      it,&rdquo; cried the other, rubbing his hands with delight; &ldquo;say nothing, but
+      leave me to manage Duke. I have a great mind to leave the deer on the
+      hill, and to make the fellow send for his own carcass; but no, I will let
+      Marmaduke tell a few bounces about it before I come out upon him. Come,
+      hurry in, Aggy, I must help to dress the lad's wound; this Yankee* doctor
+      knows nothing of surgery&mdash;I had to hold out Milligan's leg for him,
+      while he cut it off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * In America the term Yankee is of local meaning.  It is thought to be
+    derived from the manner in which the Indians of New England pronounced
+    the word &ldquo;English,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Yengeese.&rdquo; New York being originally a Dutch
+    province, the term of course was not known there, and Farther south
+    different dialects among the natives themselves probably produced a
+    different pronunciation Marmaduke and his cousin, being Pennsylvanians
+    by birth, were not Yankees in the American sense of the word.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Richard was now seated on the stool again, and, the black taking the hind
+      seat, the steeds were put in motion toward home, As they dashed down the
+      hill on a fast trot, the driver occasionally turned his face to Aggy, and
+      continued speaking; for, notwithstanding their recent rupture, the most
+      perfect cordiality was again existing between them, &ldquo;This goes to prove
+      that I turned the horses with the reins, for no man who is shot in the
+      right shoulder can have strength enough to bring round such obstinate
+      devils. I knew I did it from the first; but I did not want to multiply
+      words with Marmaduke about it.&mdash;Will you bite, you villain?&mdash;hip,
+      boys, hip! Old Natty, too, that is the best of it!&mdash;Well, well&mdash;'Duke
+      will say no more about my deer&mdash;and the Judge fired both barrels, and
+      hit nothing but a poor lad who was behind a pine-tree. I must help that
+      quack to take out the buckshot for the poor fellow.&rdquo; In this manner
+      Richard descended the mountain; the bells ringing, and his tongue going,
+      until they entered the village, when the whole attention of the driver was
+      devoted to a display of his horsemanship, to the admiration of all the
+      gaping women and children who thronged the windows to witness the arrival
+      of their landlord and his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made,
+     And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' th' heel;
+     There was no link to color Peter's hat,
+     And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing;
+     There were none fine, but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Shakespeare.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After winding along the side of the mountain, the road, on reaching the
+      gentle declivity which lay at the base of the hill, turned at a right
+      angle to its former course, and shot down an inclined plane, directly into
+      the village of Templeton. The rapid little stream that we have already
+      mentioned was crossed by a bridge of hewn timber, which manifested, by its
+      rude construction and the unnecessary size of its framework, both the
+      value of Labor and the abundance of materials. This little torrent, whose
+      dark waters gushed over the limestones that lined its bottom, was nothing
+      less than one of the many sources of the Susquehanna; a river to which the
+      Atlantic herself has extended an arm in welcome. It was at this point that
+      the powerful team of Mr. Jones brought him up to the more sober steeds of
+      our travellers. A small hill was risen, and Elizabeth found herself at
+      once amidst the incongruous dwellings of the village. The street was of
+      the ordinary width, notwithstanding the eye might embrace, in one view,
+      thousands and tens of thousands of acres, that were yet tenanted only by
+      the beasts of the forest. But such had been the will of her father, and
+      such had also met the wishes of his followers. To them the road that made
+      the most rapid approaches to the condition of the old, or, as they
+      expressed it, the down countries, was the most pleasant; and surely
+      nothing could look more like civilization than a city, even if it lay in a
+      wilderness! The width of the street, for so it was called, might have been
+      one hundred feet; but the track for the sleighs was much more limited. On
+      either side of the highway were piled huge heaps of logs, that were daily
+      increasing rather than diminishing in size, notwithstanding the enormous
+      fires that might be seen through every window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last object at which Elizabeth gazed when they renewed their journey,
+      after their encountre with Richard, was the sun, as it expanded in the
+      refraction of the horizon, and over whose disk the dark umbrage of a pine
+      was stealing, while it slowly sank behind the western hills. But his
+      setting rays darted along the openings of the mountain he was on, and
+      lighted the shining covering of the birches, until their smooth and glossy
+      coats nearly rivalled the mountain sides in color. The outline of each
+      dark pine was delineated far in the depths of the forest, and the rocks,
+      too smooth and too perpendicular to retain the snow that had fallen,
+      brightened, as if smiling at the leave-taking of the luminary. But at each
+      step as they descended, Elizabeth observed that they were leaving the day
+      behind them. Even the heartless but bright rays of a December sun were
+      missed as they glided into the cold gloom of the valley. Along the summits
+      of the mountains in the eastern range, it is true, the light still
+      lingered, receding step by step from the earth into the clouds that were
+      gathering with the evening mist, about the limited horizon, but the frozen
+      lake lay without a shadow on its bosom; the dwellings were becoming
+      already gloomy and indistinct, and the wood-cutters were shouldering their
+      axes and preparing to enjoy, throughout the long evening before them, the
+      comforts of those exhilarating fires that their labor had been supplying
+      with fuel. They paused only to gaze at the passing sleighs, to lift their
+      caps to Marmaduke, to exchange familiar nods with Richard, and each
+      disappeared in his dwelling. The paper curtains dropped behind our
+      travellers in every window, shutting from the air even the firelight of
+      the cheerful apartments, and when the horses of her father turned with a
+      rapid whirl into the open gate of the mansion-house, and nothing stood
+      before her but the cold dreary stone walls of the building, as she
+      approached them through an avenue of young and leafless poplars, Elizabeth
+      felt as if all the loveliness of the mountain-view had vanished like the
+      fancies of a dream. Marmaduke retained so much of his early habits as to
+      reject the use of bells, but the equipage of Mr. Jones came dashing
+      through the gate after them, sending its jingling sounds through every
+      cranny of the building, and in a moment the dwelling was in an uproar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a stone platform, of rather small proportions, considering the size of
+      the building, Richard and Hiram had, conjointly, reared four little
+      columns of wood, which in their turn supported the shingled roofs of the
+      portico&mdash;this was the name that Mr. Jones had thought proper to give
+      to a very plain, covered entrance. The ascent to the platform was by five
+      or six stone steps, somewhat hastily laid together, and which the frost
+      had already begun to move from their symmetrical positions, But the evils
+      of a cold climate and a superficial construction did not end here. As the
+      steps lowered the platform necessarily fell also, and the foundations
+      actually left the superstructure suspended in the air, leaving an open
+      space of a foot between the base of the pillars and the stones on which
+      they had originally been placed. It was lucky for the whole fabric that
+      the carpenter, who did the manual part of the labor, had fastened the
+      canopy of this classic entrance so firmly to the side of the house that,
+      when the base deserted the superstructure in the manner we have described,
+      and the pillars, for the want of a foundation, were no longer of service
+      to support the roof, the roof was able to uphold the pillars. Here was,
+      indeed, an unfortunate gap left in the ornamental part of Richard's
+      column; but, like the window in Aladdin's palace, it seemed only left in
+      order to prove the fertility of its master's resources. The composite
+      order again offered its advantages, and a second edition of the base was
+      given, as the booksellers say, with additions and improvements. It was
+      necessarily larger, and it was properly ornamented with mouldings; still
+      the steps continued to yield, and, at the moment when Elizabeth returned
+      to her father's door, a few rough wedges were driven under the pillars to
+      keep them steady, and to prevent their weight from separating them from
+      the pediment which they ought to have supported.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the great door which opened into the porch emerged two or three
+      female domestics, and one male. The latter was bareheaded, but evidently
+      more dressed than usual, and on the whole was of so singular a formation
+      and attire as to deserve a more minute description. He was about five feet
+      in height, of a square and athletic frame, with a pair of shoulders that
+      would have fitted a grenadier. His low stature was rendered the more
+      striking by a bend forward that he was in the habit of assuming, for no
+      apparent reason, unless it might be to give greater freedom to his arms,
+      in a particularly sweeping swing, that they constantly practised when
+      their master was in motion. His face was long, of a fair complexion, burnt
+      to a fiery red; with a snub nose, cocked into an inveterate pug; a mouth
+      of enormous dimensions, filled with fine teeth; and a pair of blue eyes,
+      that seemed to look about them on surrounding objects with habitual
+      contempt. His head composed full one-fourth of his whole length, and the
+      cue that depended from its rear occupied another. He wore a coat of very
+      light drab cloth, with buttons as large as dollars, bearing the impression
+      of a &ldquo;foul anchor.&rdquo; The skirts were extremely long, reaching quite to the
+      calf, and were broad in proportion. Beneath, there were a vest and
+      breeches of red plush, somewhat worn and soiled. He had shoes with large
+      buckles, and stockings of blue and white stripes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This odd-looking figure reported himself to be a native of the county of
+      Cornwall, in the island of Great Britain. His boyhood had passed in the
+      neighborhood of the tin mines, and his youth as the cabin-boy of a
+      smuggler, between Falmouth and Guernsey. From this trade he had been
+      impressed into the service of his king, and, for the want of a better, had
+      been taken into the cabin, first as a servant, and finally as steward to
+      the captain. Here he acquired the art of making chowder, lobster, and one
+      or two other sea-dishes, and, as he was fond of saying, had an opportunity
+      of seeing the world. With the exception of one or two outports in France,
+      and an occasional visit to Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Deal, he had in
+      reality seen no more of mankind, however, than if he had been riding a
+      donkey in one of his native mines. But, being discharged from the navy at
+      the peace of '83, he declared that, as he had seen all the civilized parts
+      of the earth, he was inclined to make a trip to the wilds of America We
+      will not trace him in his brief wanderings, under the influence of that
+      spirit of emigration that some times induces a dapper Cockney to quit his
+      home, and lands him, before the sound of Bow-bells is out of his ears,
+      within the roar of the cataract of Niagara; but shall only add that at a
+      very early day, even before Elizabeth had been sent to school, he had
+      found his way into the family of Marmaduke Temple, where, owing to a
+      combination of qualities that will be developed in the course of the tale,
+      he held, under Mr. Jones, the office of major-domo. The name of this
+      worthy was Benjamin Penguillan, according to his own pronunciation; but,
+      owing to a marvellous tale that he was in the habit of relating,
+      concerning the length of time he had to labor to keep his ship from
+      sinking after Rodney's victory, he had universally acquired the nick name
+      of Ben Pump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the side of Benjamin, and pressing forward as if a little jealous of
+      her station, stood a middle-aged woman, dressed in calico, rather
+      violently contrasted in color with a tall, meagre, shapeless figure, sharp
+      features, and a somewhat acute expression of her physiognomy. Her teeth
+      were mostly gone, and what did remain were of a tight yellow. The skin of
+      her nose was drawn tightly over the member, to hang in large wrinkles in
+      her cheeks and about her mouth. She took snuff in such quantities as to
+      create the impression that she owed the saffron of her lips and the
+      adjacent parts to this circumstance; but it was the unvarying color of her
+      whole face. She presided over the female part of the domestic
+      arrangements, in the capacity of housekeeper; was a spinster, and bore the
+      name of Remarkable Pettibone. To Elizabeth she was an entire stranger,
+      having been introduced into the family since the death of her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In addition to these, were three or four subordinate menials, mostly
+      black, some appearing at the principal door, and some running from the end
+      of the building, where stood the entrance to the cellar-kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these, there was a general rush from Richard's kennel, accompanied
+      with every canine tone from the howl of the wolf-dog to the petulant bark
+      of the terrier. The master received their boisterous salutations with a
+      variety of imitations from his own throat, when the dogs, probably from
+      shame of being outdone, ceased their out-cry. One stately, powerful
+      mastiff, who wore round his neck a brass collar, with &ldquo;M. T.&rdquo; engraved in
+      large letters on the rim, alone was silent. He walked majestically, amid
+      the confusion, to the side of the Judge, where, receiving a kind pat or
+      two, he turned to Elizabeth, who even stooped to kiss him, as she called
+      him kindly by the name of &ldquo;Old Brave.&rdquo; The animal seemed to know her, as
+      she ascended the steps, supported by Monsieur Le Quoi and her father, in
+      order to protect her from falling on the ice with which they were covered.
+      He looked wistfully after her figure, and when the door closed on the
+      whole party, he laid himself in a kennel that was placed nigh by, as if
+      conscious that the house contained some thing of additional value to
+      guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth followed her father, who paused a moment to whisper a message to
+      one of his domestics, into a large hall, that was dimly lighted by two
+      candles, placed in high, old-fashioned, brass candlesticks. The door
+      closed, and the party were at once removed from an atmosphere that was
+      nearly at zero, to one of sixty degrees above. In the centre of the hall
+      stood an enormous stove, the sides of which appeared to be quivering with
+      heat; from which a large, straight pipe, leading through the ceiling
+      above, carried off the smoke. An iron basin, containing water, was placed
+      on this furnace, for such only it could be called, in order to preserve a
+      proper humidity in the apartment. The room was carpeted, and furnished
+      with convenient, substantial furniture, some of which was brought from the
+      city, the remainder having been manufactured by the mechanics of
+      Templeton. There was a sideboard of mahogany, inlaid with ivory, and
+      bearing enormous handles of glittering brass, and groaning under the piles
+      of silver plate. Near it stood a set of prodigious tables, made of the
+      wild cherry, to imitate the imported wood of the sideboard, but plain and
+      without ornament of any kind. Opposite to these stood a smaller table,
+      formed from a lighter-colored wood, through the grains of which the wavy
+      lines of the curled maple of the mountains were beautifully undulating.
+      Near to this, in a corner, stood a heavy, old-fashioned, brass-faced
+      clock, incased in a high box, of the dark hue of the black walnut from the
+      seashore. An enormous settee, or sofa, covered with light chintz,
+      stretched along the walls for nearly twenty feet on one side of the hail;
+      and chairs of wood, painted a light yellow, with black lines that were
+      drawn by no very steady hand, were ranged opposite, and in the intervals
+      between the other pieces of furniture. A Fahrenheit's thermometer in a
+      mahogany case, and with a barometer annexed, was hung against the wall, at
+      some little distance from the stove, which Benjamin consulted, every half
+      hour, with prodigious exactitude. Two small glass chandeliers were
+      suspended at equal distances between the stove and outer doors, one of
+      which opened at each end of the hall, and gilt lustres were affixed to the
+      frame work of the numerous side-doors that led from the apartment. Some
+      little display in architecture had been made in constructing these frames
+      and casings, which were surmounted with pediments, that bore each a little
+      pedestal in its centre; on these pedestals were small busts in blacked
+      plaster-of-Paris. The style of the pedestals as well as the selection of
+      the busts were all due to the taste of Mr. Jones. On one stood Homer, a
+      most striking likeness, Richard affirmed, &ldquo;as any one might see, for it
+      was blind,&rdquo; Another bore the image of a smooth-visaged gentleman with a
+      pointed beard, whom he called Shakespeare. A third ornament was an urn,
+      which; from its shape, Richard was accustomed to say, intended to
+      represent itself as holding the ashes of Dido. A fourth was certainly old
+      Franklin, in his cap and spectacles. A fifth as surely bore the dignified
+      composure of the face of Washington. A sixth was a nondescript,
+      representing &ldquo;a man with a shirt-collar open,&rdquo; to use the language of
+      Richard, &ldquo;with a laurel on his head-it was Julius Caesar or Dr. Faustus;
+      there were good reasons for believing either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The walls were hung with a dark lead-colored English paper that
+      represented Britannia weeping over the tomb of Wolfe, The hero himself
+      stood at a little distance from the mourning goddess, and at the edge of
+      the paper. Each width contained the figure, with the slight exception of
+      one arm of the general, which ran over on the next piece, so that when
+      Richard essayed, with his own hands, to put together this delicate
+      outline, some difficulties occurred that prevented a nice conjunction; and
+      Britannia had reason to lament, in addition to the loss of her favorite's
+      life, numberless cruel amputations of his right arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The luckless cause of these unnatural divisions now announced his presence
+      in the halt by a loud crack of his whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Benjamin! you Ben Pump! is this the manner in which you receive the
+      heiress?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Excuse him, Cousin Elizabeth. The arrangements were
+      too intricate to be trusted to every one; but now I am here, things will
+      go on better.&mdash;Come, light up, Mr. Penguillan, light up, light up,
+      and let us see One another's faces. Well, 'Duke, I have brought home your
+      deer; what is to be done with it, ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the Lord, squire,&rdquo; commenced Benjamin, in reply, first giving his
+      mouth a wipe with the back of his hand, &ldquo;if this here thing had been
+      ordered sum'at earlier in the day, it might have been got up, d'ye see, to
+      your liking. I had mustered all hands and was exercising candles, when you
+      hove in sight; but when the women heard your bells they started an end, as
+      if they were riding the boat swain's colt; and if-so-be there is that man
+      in the house who can bring up a parcel of women when they have got headway
+      on them, until they've run out the end of their rope, his name is not
+      Benjamin Pump. But Miss Betsey here must have altered more than a
+      privateer in disguise, since she has got on her woman's duds, if she will
+      take offence with an old fellow for the small matter of lighting a few
+      candles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth and her father continued silent, for both experienced the same
+      sensation on entering the hall. The former had resided one year in the
+      building before she left home for school, and the figure of its lamented
+      mistress was missed by both husband and child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But candles had been placed in the chandeliers and lustres, and the
+      attendants were so far recovered from surprise as to recollect their use;
+      the oversight was immediately remedied, and in a minute the apartment was
+      in a blaze of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slight melancholy of our heroine and her father was banished by this
+      brilliant interruption; and the whole party began to lay aside the
+      numberless garments they had worn in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this operation Richard kept up a desultory dialogue with the
+      different domestics, occasionally throwing out a remark to the Judge
+      concerning the deer; but as his conversation at such moments was much like
+      an accompaniment on a piano, a thing that is heard without being attended
+      to, we will not undertake the task of recording his diffuse discourse,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant that Remarkable Pettibone had executed her portion of the
+      labor in illuminating, she returned to a position near Elizabeth, with the
+      apparent motive of receiving the clothes that the other threw aside, but
+      in reality to examine, with an air of curiosity&mdash;not unmixed with
+      jealousy&mdash;the appearance of the lady who was to supplant her in the
+      administration of their domestic economy. The housekeeper felt a little
+      appalled, when, after cloaks, coats, shawls, and socks had been taken off
+      in succession, the large black hood was removed, and the dark ringlets,
+      shining like the raven's wing, fell from her head, and left the sweet but
+      commanding features of the young lady exposed to view. Nothing could be
+      fairer and more spotless than the forehead of Elizabeth, and preserve the
+      appearance of life and health. Her nose would have been called Grecian,
+      but for a softly rounded swell, that gave in character to the feature what
+      it lost in beauty. Her mouth, at first sight, seemed only made for love;
+      but, the instant that its muscles moved, every expression that womanly
+      dignity could utter played around it with the flexibility of female grace.
+      It spoke not only to the ear, but to the eye. So much, added to a form of
+      exquisite proportions, rather full and rounded for her years, and of the
+      tallest medium height, she inherited from her mother. Even the color of
+      her eye, the arched brows, and the long silken lashes, came from the same
+      source; but its expression was her father's. Inert and composed, it was
+      soft, benevolent, and attractive; but it could be roused, and that without
+      much difficulty. At such moments it was still beautiful, though it was a
+      little severe. As the last shawl fell aside, and she stood dressed in a
+      rich blue riding-habit, that fitted her form with the nicest exactness;
+      her cheeks burning with roses, that bloomed the richer for the heat of the
+      hall, and her eyes lightly suffused with moisture that rendered their
+      ordinary beauty more dazzling, and with every feature of her speaking
+      countenance illuminated by the lights that flared around her, Remarkable
+      felt that her own power had ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The business of unrobing had been simultaneous. Marmaduke appeared in a
+      suit of plain, neat black; Monsieur Le Quoi in a coat of snuff-color,
+      covering a vest of embroidery, with breeches, and silk stockings, and
+      buckles&mdash;that were commonly thought to be of paste. Major Hartmann
+      wore a coat of sky-blue, with large brass buttons, a club wig, and boots;
+      and Mr. Richard Jones had set off his dapper little form in a frock of
+      bottle-green, with bullet-buttons, by one of which the sides were united
+      over his well-rounded waist, opening above, so as to show a jacket of red
+      cloth, with an undervest of flannel, faced with green velvet, and below,
+      so as to exhibit a pair of buckskin breeches, with long, soiled, white
+      top-boots, and spurs; one of the latter a little bent, from its recent
+      attacks on the stool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the young lady had extricated herself from her garments, she was at
+      liberty to gaze about her, and to examine not only the household over
+      which she was to preside, but also the air and manner in which the
+      domestic arrangements were conducted. Although there was much incongruity
+      in the furniture and appearance of the hall, there was nothing mean. The
+      floor was carpeted, even in its remotest corners. The brass candlesticks,
+      the gilt lustres, and the glass chandeliers, whatever might be their
+      keeping as to propriety and taste, were admirably kept as to all the
+      purposes of use and comfort. They were clean and glittering in the strong
+      light of the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Compared with the chill aspect of the December night without, the warmth
+      and brilliancy of the apartment produced an effect that was not unlike
+      enchantment. Her eye had not time to detect, in detail, the little errors
+      which in truth existed, but was glancing around her in delight, when an
+      object arrested her view that was in strong contrast to the smiling faces
+      and neatly attired person ages who had thus assembled to do honor to the
+      heiress of Templeton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a corner of the hall near the grand entrance stood the young hunter,
+      unnoticed, and for the moment apparently forgotten. But even the
+      forgetfulness of the Judge, which, under the influence of strong emotion,
+      had banished the recollection of the wound of this stranger, seemed
+      surpassed by the absence of mind in the youth himself. On entering the
+      apartment, he had mechanically lifted his cap, and exposed a head covered
+      with hair that rivalled, in color and gloss, the locks of Elizabeth.
+      Nothing could have wrought a greater transformation than the single act of
+      removing the rough fox-skin cap. If there was much that was prepossessing
+      in the countenance of the young hunter, there was something even noble in
+      the rounded outlines of his head and brow. The very air and manner with
+      which the member haughtily maintained itself over the coarse and even wild
+      attire in which the rest of his frame was clad, bespoke not only
+      familiarity with a splendor that in those new settlements was thought to
+      be unequalled, but something very like contempt also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hand that held the cap rested lightly on the little ivory-mounted
+      piano of Elizabeth, with neither rustic restraint nor obtrusive vulgarity.
+      A single finger touched the instrument, as if accustomed to dwell on such
+      places. His other arm was extended to its utmost length, and the hand
+      grasped the barrel of his long rifle with something like convulsive
+      energy. The act and the attitude were both involuntary, and evidently
+      proceeded from a feeling much deeper than that of vulgar surprise. His
+      appearance, connected as it was with the rough exterior of his dress,
+      rendered him entirely distinct from the busy group that were moving across
+      the other end of the long hall, occupied in receiving the travellers and
+      exchanging their welcomes; and Elizabeth continued to gaze at him in
+      wonder. The contraction of the stranger's brows in creased as his eyes
+      moved slowly from one object to another. For moments the expression of his
+      countenance was fierce, and then again it seemed to pass away in some
+      painful emotion. The arm that was extended bent and brought the hand nigh
+      to his face, when his head dropped upon it, and concealed the wonderfully
+      speaking lineaments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We forget, dear sir, the strange gentleman&rdquo; (for her life Elizabeth could
+      not call him otherwise) &ldquo;whom we have brought here for assistance, and to
+      whom we owe every attention.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All eyes were instantly turned in the direction of those of the speaker,
+      and the youth rather proudly elevated his head again, while he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wound is trifling, and I believe that Judge Temple sent for a
+      physician the moment we arrived.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said Marmaduke: &ldquo;I have not forgotten the object of thy
+      visit, young man, nor the nature of my debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, with something of a waggish leer, &ldquo;thou owest the
+      lad for the venison, I suppose that thou killed, Cousin 'Duke! Marmaduke!
+      Marmaduke! That was a marvellous tale of thine about the buck! Here, young
+      man, are two dollars for the deer, and Judge Temple can do no less than
+      pay the doctor. I shall charge you nothing for my services, but you shall
+      not fare the worst for that. Come, come, 'Duke, don't be down hearted
+      about it; if you missed the buck, you contrived to shoot this poor fellow
+      through a pine-tree. Now I own that you have beat me; I never did such a
+      thing in all my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I hope never will,&rdquo; returned the Judge, &ldquo;if you are to experience the
+      uneasiness that I have suffered; but be of good cheer, my young friend,
+      the injury must be small, as thou movest thy arm with apparent freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't make the matter worse, 'Duke, by pretending to talk about surgery,&rdquo;
+       interrupted Mr. Jones, with a contemptuous wave of the hand: &ldquo;it is a
+      science that can only be learned by practice. You know that my grandfather
+      was a doctor, but you haven't got a drop of medical blood in your veins.
+      These kind of things run in families. All my family by my father's side
+      had a knack at physic. 'There was my uncle that was killed at Brandywine&mdash;he
+      died as easy again as any other man the regiment, just from knowing how to
+      hold his breath naturally. Few men know how to breathe naturally.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt not, Dickon,&rdquo; returned the Judge, meeting the bright smile which,
+      in spite of himself, stole over the stranger's features, &ldquo;that thy family
+      thoroughly understand the art of letting life slip through their
+      lingers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard heard him quite coolly, and putting a hand in either pocket of his
+      surcoat, so as to press forward the skirts, began to whistle a tune; but
+      the desire to reply overcame his philosophy, and with great heat he
+      exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may affect to smile, Judge Temple, at hereditary virtues, if you
+      please; but there is not a man on your Patent who don't know better. Here,
+      even this young man, who has never seen anything but bears, and deer, and
+      woodchucks, knows better than to believe virtues are not transmitted in
+      families. Don't you, friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe that vice is not,&rdquo; said the stranger abruptly; his eye glancing
+      from the father to the daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The squire is right, Judge,&rdquo; observed Benjamin, with a knowing nod of his
+      head toward Richard, that bespoke the cordiality between them, &ldquo;Now, in
+      the old country, the king's majesty touches for the evil, and that is a
+      disorder that the greatest doctor in the fleet, or for the matter of that
+      admiral either: can't cure; only the king's majesty or a man that's been
+      hanged. Yes, the squire is right; for if-so-be that he wasn't, how is it
+      that the seventh son always is a doctor, whether he ships for the cockpit
+      or not? Now when we fell in with the mounsheers, under De Grasse, d'ye
+      see, we hid aboard of us a doctor&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Benjamin,&rdquo; interrupted Elizabeth, glancing her eyes from the
+      hunter to Monsieur Le Quoi, who was most politely attending to what fell
+      from each individual in succession, &ldquo;you shall tell me of that, and all
+      your entertaining adventures together; just now, a room must be prepared,
+      in which the arm of this gentleman can be dressed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will attend to that myself, Cousin Elizabeth,&rdquo; observed Richard,
+      somewhat haughtily. &ldquo;The young man will not suffer because Marmaduke
+      chooses to be a little obstinate. Follow me, my friend, and I will examine
+      the hurt myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be well to wait for the physician,&rdquo; said the hunter coldly; &ldquo;he
+      cannot be distant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard paused and looked at the speaker, a little astonished at the
+      language, and a good deal appalled at the refusal. He construed the latter
+      into an act of hostility, and, placing his hands in the pockets again, he
+      walked up to Mr. Grant, and, putting his face close to the countenance of
+      the divine, said in an undertone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, mark my words&mdash;there will be a story among the settlers, that
+      all our necks would have been broken but for that fellow&mdash;as if I did
+      not know how to drive. Why, you might have turned the horses yourself,
+      sir; nothing was easier; it was only pulling hard on the nigh rein, and
+      touching the off flank of the leader. I hope, my dear sir, you are not at
+      all hurt by the upset the lad gave us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reply was interrupted by the entrance of the village physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And about his shelves,
+     A beggarly account of empty boxes,
+     Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds.
+     Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
+     Were thinly scattered to make up a show.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Shakespeare.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Elnathan Todd, for such was the name of the man of physic, was
+      commonly thought to be, among the settlers, a gentleman of great mental
+      endowments, and he was assuredly of rare personal proportions. In height
+      he measured, without his shoes, exactly six feet and four inches. His
+      hands, feet, and knees corresponded in every respect with this formidable
+      stature; but every other part of his frame appeared to have been intended
+      for a man several sizes smaller, if we except the length of the limbs. His
+      shoulders were square, in one sense at least, being in a right line from
+      one side to the other; but they were so narrow, that the long dangling
+      arms they supported seemed to issue out of his back. His neck possessed,
+      in an eminent degree, the property of length to which we have alluded, and
+      it was topped by a small bullet-head that exhibited on one side a bush of
+      bristling brown hair and on the other a short, twinkling visage, that
+      appeared to maintain a constant struggle with itself in order to look
+      wise. He was the youngest son of a farmer in the western part of
+      Massachusetts, who, being in some what easy circumstances, had allowed
+      this boy to shoot up to the height we have mentioned, without the ordinary
+      interruptions of field labor, wood-chopping, and such other toils as were
+      imposed on his brothers. Elnathan was indebted for this exemption from
+      labor in some measure to his extraordinary growth, which, leaving him
+      pale, inanimate, and listless, induced his tender mother to pronounce him
+      &ldquo;a sickly boy, and one that was not equal to work, but who might earn a
+      living comfortably enough by taking to pleading law, or turning minister,
+      or doctoring, or some such like easy calling.' Still, there was great
+      uncertainty which of these vocations the youth was best endowed to fill;
+      but, having no other employment, the stripling was constantly lounging
+      about the homestead,&rdquo; munching green apples and hunting for sorrel; when
+      the same sagacious eye that had brought to light his latent talents seized
+      upon this circumstance as a clew to his future path through the turmoils
+      of the world. &ldquo;Elnathan was cut out for a doctor, she knew, for he was
+      forever digging for herbs, and tasting all kinds of things that grow'd
+      about the lots. Then again he had a natural love for doctor-stuff, for
+      when she had left the bilious pills out for her man, all nicely covered
+      with maple sugar just ready to take, Nathan had come in and swallowed them
+      for all the world as if they were nothing, while Ichabod (her husband)
+      could never get one down without making such desperate faces that it was
+      awful to look on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This discovery decided the matter. Elnathan, then about fifteen, was, much
+      like a wild colt, caught and trimmed by clipping his bushy locks; dressed
+      in a suit of homespun, dyed in the butternut bark; furnished with a &ldquo;New
+      Testament&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Webster's Spelling Book,&rdquo; and sent to school. As the boy
+      was by nature quite shrewd enough, and had previously, at odd times, laid
+      the foundations of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he was soon
+      conspicuous in the school for his learning. The delighted mother had the
+      gratification of hearing, from the lips of the master, that her son was a
+      &ldquo;prodigious boy, and far above all his class.&rdquo; He also thought that &ldquo;the
+      youth had a natural love for doctoring, as he had known him frequently
+      advise the smaller children against eating to much; and, once or twice,
+      when the ignorant little things had persevered in opposition to Elnathan's
+      advice, he had known her son empty the school-baskets with his own mouth,
+      to prevent the consequences.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this comfortable declaration from his school master, the lad
+      was removed to the house of the village doctor, a gentleman whose early
+      career had not been unlike that of our hero where he was to be seen
+      sometimes watering a horse, at others watering medicines, blue, yellow,
+      and red: then again he might be noticed lolling under an apple-tree, with
+      Ruddiman's Latin Grammar in his hand, and a corner of Denman's Midwifery
+      sticking out of a pocket; for his instructor held it absurd to teach his
+      pupil how to dispatch a patient regularly from this world, before he knew
+      how to bring him into it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This kind of life continued for a twelvemonth, when he suddenly appeared
+      at a meeting in a long coat (and well did it deserve the name!) of black
+      homespun, with little bootees, bound with an uncolored calf-skin for the
+      want of red morocco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after he was seen shaving with a dull razor. Three or four months had
+      scarce elapsed before several elderly ladies were observed hastening
+      toward the house of a poor woman in the village, while others were running
+      to and fro in great apparent distress. One or two boys were mounted,
+      bareback, on horses, and sent off at speed in various directions. Several
+      indirect questions were put concerning the place where the physician was
+      last seen; but all would not do; and at length Elnathan was seen issuing
+      from his door with a very grave air, preceded by a little white-headed
+      boy, out of breath, trotting before him. The following day the youth
+      appeared in the street, as the highway was called, and the neighborhood
+      was much edified by the additional gravity of his air. The same week he
+      bought a new razor; and the succeeding Sunday he entered the meeting-house
+      with a red silk handkerchief in his hand, and with an extremely demure
+      countenance. In the evening he called upon a young woman of his own class
+      in life, for there were no others to be found, and, when he was left alone
+      with the fair, he was called, for the first time in his life, Dr. Todd, by
+      her prudent mother. The ice once broken in this manner, Elnathan was
+      greeted from every mouth with his official appellation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another year passed under the superintendence of the same master, during
+      which the young physician had the credit of &ldquo;riding with the old doctor,&rdquo;
+       although they were generally observed to travel different roads. At the
+      end of that period, Dr. Todd attained his legal majority. He then took a
+      jaunt to Boston to purchase medicines, and, as some intimated, to walk the
+      hospital; we know not how the latter might have been, but, if true, he
+      soon walked through it, for he returned within a fortnight, bringing with
+      him a suspicious-looking box, that smelled powerfully of brimstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next Sunday he was married, and the following morning he entered a
+      one-horse sleigh with his bride, having before him the box we have
+      mentioned, with another filled with home-made household linen, a
+      paper-covered trunk with a red umbrella lashed to it, a pair of quite new
+      saddle-bags, and a handbox. The next intelligence that his friends
+      received of the bride and bridegroom was, that the latter was &ldquo;settled in
+      the new countries, and well to do as a doctor in Templeton, in York
+      State!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If a Templar would smile at the qualifications of Marmaduke to fill the
+      judicial seat he occupied, we are certain that a graduate of Leyden or
+      Edinburgh would be extremely amused with this true narration of the
+      servitude of Elnathan in the temple of Aesculapius. But the same
+      consolation was afforded to both the jurist and the leech, for Dr. Todd
+      was quite as much on a level with his own peers of the profession in that
+      country, as was Marmaduke with his brethren on the bench.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time and practice did wonders for the physician. He was naturally humane,
+      but possessed of no small share of moral courage; or, in other words, he
+      was chary of the lives of his patients, and never tried uncertain
+      experiments on such members of society as were considered useful; but,
+      once or twice, when a luckless vagrant had come under his care, he was a
+      little addicted to trying the effects of every phial in his saddle-bags on
+      the strangers constitution. Happily their number was small, and in most
+      cases their natures innocent. By these means Elnathan had acquired a
+      certain degree of knowledge in fevers and agues, and could talk with
+      judgment concerning intermittents, remittents, tertians, quotidians, etc.
+      In certain cutaneous disorders very prevalent in new settlements, he was
+      considered to be infallible; and there was no woman on the Patent but
+      would as soon think of becoming a mother without a husband as without the
+      assistance of Dr. Todd. In short, he was rearing, on this foundation of
+      sand a superstructure cemented by practice, though composed of somewhat
+      brittle materials. He however, occasionally renewed his elementary
+      studies, and, with the observation of a shrewd mind, was comfort ably
+      applying his practice to his theory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In surgery, having the least experience, and it being a business that
+      spoke directly to the senses, he was most apt to distrust his own powers;
+      but he had applied oils to several burns, cut round the roots of sundry
+      defective teeth, and sewed up the wounds of numberless wood choppers, with
+      considerable éclat, when an unfortunate jobber suffered a fracture of his
+      leg by the tree that he had been felling. It was on this occasion that our
+      hero encountered the greatest trial his nerves and moral feeling had ever
+      sustained. In the hour of need, however, he was not found wanting. Most of
+      the amputations in the new settlements, and they were quite frequent, were
+      per formed by some one practitioner who, possessing originally a
+      reputation, was enabled by this circumstance to acquire an experience that
+      rendered him deserving of it; and Elnathan had been present at one or two
+      of these operations. But on the present occasion the man of practice was
+      not to be obtained, and the duty fell, as a matter of course, to the share
+      of Mr. Todd. He went to work with a kind of blind desperation, observing,
+      at the same time, all the externals of decent gravity and great skill, The
+      sufferer's name was Milligan, and it was to this event that Richard
+      alluded, when he spoke of assisting the doctor at an amputation by holding
+      the leg! The limb was certainly cut off, and the patient survived the
+      operation. It was, however, two years before poor Milligan ceased to
+      complain that they had buried the leg in so narrow a box that it was
+      straitened for room; he could feel the pain shooting up from the inhumed
+      fragment into the living members. Marmaduke suggested that the fault might
+      lie in the arteries and nerves; but Richard, considering the amputation as
+      part of his own handiwork, strongly repelled the insinuation, at the same
+      time declaring that he had often heard of men who could tell when it was
+      about to rain, by the toes of amputated limbs, After two or three years,
+      notwithstanding, Milligan's complaints gradually diminished, the leg was
+      dug up, and a larger box furnished, and from that hour no one had heard
+      the sufferer utter another complaint on the subject. This gave the public
+      great confidence in Dr. Todd, whose reputation was hourly increasing, and,
+      luckily for his patients, his information also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding Dr. Todd's practice, and his success with the leg, he was
+      not a little appalled on entering the hall of the mansion-house. It was
+      glaring with the light of day; it looked so imposing, compared with the
+      hastily built and scantily furnished apartments which he frequented in his
+      ordinary practice, and contained so many well-dressed persons and anxious
+      faces, that his usually firm nerves were a good deal discomposed. He had
+      heard from the messenger who summoned him, that it was a gun-shot wound,
+      and had come from his own home, wading through the snow, with his
+      saddle-bags thrown over his arm, while separated arteries, penetrated
+      lungs, and injured vitals were whirling through his brain, as if he were
+      stalking over a field of battle, instead of Judge Temple's peaceable in
+      closure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first object that met his eye, as he moved into the room, was
+      Elizabeth in her riding-habit, richly laced with gold cord, her fine form
+      bending toward him, and her face expressing deep anxiety in every one of
+      its beautiful features. The enormous knees of the physician struck each
+      other with a noise that was audible; for, in the absent state of his mind,
+      he mistook her for a general officer, perforated with bullets, hastening
+      from the field of battle to implore assistance. The delusion, however, was
+      but momentary, and his eye glanced rapidly from the daughter to the
+      earnest dignity of the father's countenance; thence to the busy strut of
+      Richard, who was cooling his impatience at the hunter's indifference to
+      his assistance, by pacing the hall and cracking his whip; from him to the
+      Frenchman, who had stood for several minutes unheeded with a chair for the
+      lady; thence to Major Hartmann, who was very coolly lighting a pipe three
+      feet long by a candle in one of the chandeliers; thence to Mr. Grant, who
+      was turning over a manuscript with much earnestness at one of the lustres;
+      thence to Remarkable, who stood, with her arms demurely folded before her,
+      surveying, with a look of admiration and envy, the dress and beauty of the
+      young lady; and from her to Benjamin, who, with his feet standing wide
+      apart, and his arms akimbo, was balancing his square little body with the
+      indifference of one who is accustomed to wounds and bloodshed. All of
+      these seemed to be unhurt, and the operator began to breathe more freely;
+      but, before he had time to take a second look, the Judge, advancing, shook
+      him kindly by the hand, and spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art welcome, my good sir, quite welcome, indeed; here is a youth
+      whom I have unfortunately wounded in shooting a deer this evening, and who
+      requires some of thy assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shooting at a deer, 'Duke,&rdquo; interrupted Richard&mdash;&ldquo;shooting at a
+      deer. Who do you think can prescribe, unless he knows the truth of the
+      case? It is always so with some people; they think a doctor can be
+      deceived with the same impunity as another man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shooting at a deer, truly,&rdquo; returned the Judge, smiling, &ldquo;although it is
+      by no means certain that I did not aid in destroying the buck; but the
+      youth is injured by my hand, be that as it may; and it is thy skill that
+      must cure him, and my pocket shall amply reward thee for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two ver good tings to depend on,&rdquo; observed Monsieur Le Quoi, bowing
+      politely, with a sweep of his head to the Judge and to the practitioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, monsieur,&rdquo; returned the Judge; &ldquo;but we keep the young man in
+      pain. Remarkable, thou wilt please to provide linen for lint and
+      bandages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark caused a cessation of the compliments, and induced the
+      physician to turn an inquiring eye in the direction of his patient. During
+      the dialogue the young hunter had thrown aside his overcoat, and now stood
+      clad in a plain suit of the common, light-colored homespun of the country,
+      that was evidently but recently made. His hand was on the lapels of his
+      coat, in the attitude of removing the garment, when he suddenly suspended
+      the movement, and looked toward the commiserating Elizabeth, who was
+      standing in an unchanged posture, too much absorbed with her anxious
+      feelings to heed his actions. A slight color appeared on the brow of the
+      youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly the sight of blood may alarm the lady; I will retire to another
+      room while the wound is dressing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By no means.&rdquo; said Dr. Todd, who, having discovered that his patient was
+      far from being a man of importance, felt much emboldened to perform the
+      duty. &ldquo;The strong light of these candles is favorable to the operation,
+      and it is seldom that we hard students enjoy good eyesight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While speaking, Elnathan placed a pair of large iron-rimmed spectacles on
+      his face, where they dropped, as it were by long practice, to the
+      extremity of his slim pug nose; and, if they were of no service as
+      assistants to his eyes, neither were they any impediment to his vision;
+      for his little gray organs were twinkling above them like two stars
+      emerging from the envious cover of a cloud. The action was unheeded by all
+      but Remarkable, who observed to Benjamin:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Todd is a comely man to look on, and despu't pretty. How well he
+      seems in spectacles! I declare, they give a grand look to a body's face. I
+      have quite a great mind to try them myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The speech of the stranger recalled the recollection of Miss Temple, who
+      started as if from deep abstraction, and, coloring excessively, she
+      motioned to a young woman who served in the capacity of maid, and retired
+      with an air of womanly reserve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The field was now left to the physician and his patient, while the
+      different personages who remained gathered around the latter, with faces
+      expressing the various degrees of interest that each one felt in his
+      condition. Major Hartmann alone retained his seat, where he continued to
+      throw out vast quantities of smoke, now rolling his eyes up to the
+      ceiling, as if musing on the uncertainty of life, and now bending them on
+      the wounded man, with an expression that bespoke some consciousness of his
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time Elnathan, to whom the sight of a gun shot wound was a
+      perfect novelty, commenced his preparations with a solemnity and care that
+      were worthy of the occasion. An old shirt was procured by Benjamin, and
+      placed in the hand of the other, who tore divers bandages from it, with an
+      exactitude that marked both his own skill and the importance of the
+      operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When this preparatory measure was taken, Dr. Todd selected a piece of the
+      shirt with great care, and handing to Mr. Jones, without moving a muscle,
+      said: &ldquo;Here, Squire Jones, you are well acquainted with these things; will
+      you please to scrape the lint? It should be fine and soft, you know, my
+      dear sir; and be cautious that no cotton gets in, or it may p'izen the
+      wound. The shirt has been made with cotton thread, but you can easily pick
+      it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard assumed the office, with a nod at his cousin, that said quite
+      plainly, &ldquo;You see this fellow can't get along without me;&rdquo; and began to
+      scrape the linen on his knee with great diligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A table was now spread with phials, boxes of salve, and divers surgical
+      instruments. As the latter appeared in succession, from a case of red
+      morocco, their owner held up each implement to the strong light of the
+      chandelier, near to which he stood, and examined it with the nicest care.
+      A red silk handkerchief was frequently applied to the glittering steel, as
+      if to remove from the polished surfaces the least impediment which might
+      exist to the most delicate operation. After the rather scantily furnished
+      pocket-case which contained these instruments was exhausted, the physician
+      turned to his saddle-bags, and produced various phials, filled with
+      liquids of the most radiant colors. These were arranged in due order by
+      the side of the murderous saws, knives, and scissors, when Elnathan
+      stretched his long body to its utmost elevation, placing his hand on the
+      small of his back as if for support, and looked about him to discover
+      what effect this display of professional skill was likely to produce on
+      the spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my wort, toctor,&rdquo; observed Major Hartmann, with a roguish roll of
+      his little black eyes, but with every other feature of his face in a state
+      of perfect rest, &ldquo;put you have a very pretty pocket-book of tools tere,
+      and your toctor-stuff glitters as if it was petter for ter eyes as for ter
+      pelly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elnathan gave a hem&mdash;one that might have been equally taken for that
+      kind of noise which cowards are said to make in order to awaken their
+      dormant courage, or for a natural effort to clear the throat; if for the
+      latter it was successful; for, turning his face to the veteran German, he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, Major Hartmann, very true, sir; a prudent man will always
+      strive to make his remedies agreeable to the eyes, though they may not
+      altogether suit the stomach. It is no small part of our art, sir,&rdquo; and he
+      now spoke with the confidence of a man who understood his subject, &ldquo;to
+      reconcile the patient to what is for his own good, though at the same time
+      it may be unpalatable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain! Dr. Todd is right,&rdquo; said Remarkable, &ldquo;and has Scripter for what
+      he says. The Bible tells us how things may be sweet to the mouth, and
+      bitter to the inwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, true,&rdquo; interrupted the Judge, a little impatiently; &ldquo;but here is a
+      youth who needs no deception to lure him to his own benefit. I see, by his
+      eye, that he fears nothing more than delay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger had, without assistance, bared his own shoulder, when the
+      slight perforation produced by the pas sage of the buckshot was plainly
+      visible. The intense cold of the evening had stopped the bleeding, and Dr.
+      Todd, casting a furtive glance at the wound, thought it by no means so
+      formidable an affair as he had anticipated. Thus encouraged, he approached
+      his patient, and made some indication of an intention to trace the route
+      that had been taken by the lead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable often found occasions, in after days, to recount the minutiae
+      of that celebrated operation; and when she arrived at this point she
+      commonly proceeded as follows: &ldquo;And then the doctor tuck out of the pocket
+      book a long thing, like a knitting-needle, with a button fastened to the
+      end on't; and then he pushed it into the wound and then the young man
+      looked awful; and then I thought I should have swaned away&mdash;I felt in
+      sitch a dispu't taking; and then the doctor had run it right through his
+      shoulder, and shoved the bullet out on tother side; and so Dr. Todd cured
+      the young man&mdash;Of a ball that the Judge had shot into him&mdash;for
+      all the world as easy as I could pick out a splinter with my
+      darning-needle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the impressions of Remarkable on the subject; and such doubtless
+      were the opinions of most of those who felt it necessary to entertain a
+      species of religious veneration for the skill of Elnathan; but such was
+      far from the truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the physician attempted to introduce the instrument described by
+      Remarkable, he was repulsed by the stranger, with a good deal of decision,
+      and some little contempt, in his manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe, sir,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that a probe is not necessary; the shot has
+      missed the bone, and has passed directly through the arm to the opposite
+      side, where it remains but skin deep, and whence, I should think, it might
+      be easily extracted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gentleman knows best,&rdquo; said Dr. Todd, laying down the probe with the
+      air of a man who had assumed it merely in compliance with forms; and,
+      turning to Richard, he fingered the lint with the appearance of great care
+      and foresight. &ldquo;Admirably well scraped, Squire Jones: it is about the best
+      lint I have ever seen. I want your assistance, my good sir, to hold the
+      patient's arm while I make an incision for the ball. Now, I rather guess
+      there is not another gentleman present who could scrape the lint so well
+      as Squire Jones!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such things run in families,&rdquo; observed Richard, rising with alacrity to
+      render the desired assistance. &ldquo;My father, and my grandfather before him,
+      were both celebrated for their knowledge of surgery; they were not, like
+      Marmaduke here, puffed up with an accidental thing, such as the time when
+      he drew in the hip-joint of the man who was thrown from his horse; that
+      was the fall before you came into the settlement, doctor; but they were
+      men who were taught the thing regularly, spending half their lives in
+      learning those little niceties; though, for the matter of that, my
+      grandfather was a college-bred physician, and the best in the colony, too&mdash;that
+      is, in his neighborhood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it goes with the world, squire,&rdquo; cried Benjamin; &ldquo;if so be that a man
+      wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, d'ye see, and with regular
+      built swabs on his shoulders, he mustn't think to do it by getting in at
+      the cabin windows. There are two ways to get into a top, besides the
+      lubber-holes. The true way to walk aft is to begin forrard; tho'f it be
+      only in a humble way, like myself, d'ye see, which was from being only a
+      hander of topgallant sails, and a stower of the flying-jib, to keeping the
+      key of the captain's locker.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin speaks quite to the purpose,' continued Richard, &ldquo;I dare say that
+      he has often seen shot extracted in the different ships in which he has
+      served; suppose we get him to hold the basin; he must be used to the sight
+      of blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he is, squire, that he is,&rdquo; interrupted the cidevant steward;
+      &ldquo;many's the good shot, round, double-headed, and grape, that I've seen the
+      doctors at work on. For the matter of that, I was in a boat, alongside the
+      ship, when they cut out the twelve-pound shot from the thigh of the
+      captain of the Foodyrong, one of Mounsheer Ler Quaw's countrymen!&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * It is possible that the reader may start at this declaration of
+    Benjamin, but those who have lived in the new settlements of America
+    are too much accustomed to hear of these European exploits to doubt
+    it.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A twelve-pound ball from the thigh of a human being:&rdquo; exclaimed Mr.
+      Grant, with great simplicity, dropping the sermon he was again reading,
+      and raising his spectacles to the top of his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A twelve-pounder!&rdquo; echoed Benjamin, staring around him with much
+      confidence; &ldquo;a twelve-pounder! ay! a twenty-four-pound shot can easily be
+      taken from a man's body, if so be a doctor only knows how, There's Squire
+      Jones, now, ask him, sir; he reads all the books; ask him if he never fell
+      in with a page that keeps the reckoning of such things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, more important operations than that have been performed,&rdquo;
+       observed Richard; &ldquo;the encyclopaedia mentions much more incredible
+      circumstances than that, as, I dare say, you know, Dr. Todd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, there are incredible tales told in the encyclopaedias,&rdquo;
+       returned Elnathan, &ldquo;though I cannot say that I have ever seen, myself,
+      anything larger than a musket ball extracted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this discourse an incision had been made through the skin of the
+      young hunter's shoulder, and the lead was laid bare. Elnathan took a pair
+      of glittering forceps, and was in the act of applying them to the wound,
+      when a sudden motion of the patient caused the shot to fall out of itself,
+      The long arm and broad hand of the operator were now of singular service;
+      for the latter expanded itself, and caught the lead, while at the same
+      time an extremely ambiguous motion was made by its brother, so as to leave
+      it doubtful to the spectators how great was its agency in releasing the
+      shot, Richard, however, put the matter at rest by exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very neatly done, doctor! I have never seen a shot more neatly extracted;
+      and I dare say Benjamin will say the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, considering,&rdquo; returned Benjamin, &ldquo;I must say that it was ship-shape
+      and Brister-fashion. Now all that the doctor has to do, is to clap a
+      couple of plugs in the holes, and the lad will float in any gale that
+      blows in these here hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, sir, for what you have done,&rdquo; said the youth, with a little
+      distance; &ldquo;but here is a man who will take me under his care, and spare
+      you all, gentlemen, any further trouble on my account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole group turned their heads in surprise, and beheld, standing at
+      one of the distant doors of the hall, the person of Indian John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;From Sesquehanna's utmost springs,
+     Where savage tribes pursue their game,
+     His blanket tied with yellow strings,
+     The shepherd of the forest came.&rdquo;&mdash;Freneau.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Before the Europeans, or, to use a more significant term, the Christians,
+      dispossessed the original owners of the soil, all that section of country
+      which contains the New England States, and those of the Middle which lie
+      east of the mountains, was occupied by two great nations of Indians, from
+      whom had descended numberless tribes. But, as the original distinctions
+      between these nations were marked by a difference in language, as well as
+      by repeated and bloody wars, they were never known to amalgamate, until
+      after the power and inroads of the whites had reduced some of the tribes
+      to a state of dependence that rendered not only their political, but,
+      considering the wants and habits of a savage, their animal existence also,
+      extremely precarious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two great divisions consisted, on the one side, of the Five, or, as
+      they were afterward called, the Six Nations, and their allies; and, on the
+      other, of the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, with the numerous and powerful
+      tribes that owned that nation as their grandfather The former was
+      generally called, by the Anglo-Americans Iroquois, or the Six Nations, and
+      sometimes Mingoes. Their appellation among their rivals, seems generally
+      to have been the Mengwe, or Maqua. They consisted of the tribes or, as
+      their allies were fond of asserting, in order to raise their consequence,
+      of the several nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas,
+      Cayugas, and Senecas; who ranked, in the confederation in the order in
+      which they are named. The Tuscaroras were admitted to this union near a
+      century after its foundation, and thus completed the number of six.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the Lenni Lenape, or as they were called by the whites, from the
+      circumstances of their holding their great council-fire on the banks of
+      that river, the Delaware nation, the principal tribes, besides that which
+      bore the generic name, were the Mahicanni, Mohicans, or Mohegans, and the
+      Nanticokes, or Nentigoes. Of these the latter held the country along the
+      waters of the Chesapeake and the seashore; while the Mohegans occupied the
+      district between the Hudson and the ocean, including much of New England.
+      Of course these two tribes were the first who were dispossessed of their
+      lands by the Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wars of a portion of the latter are celebrated among us as the wars of
+      King Philip; but the peaceful policy of William Penn, or Miquon, as he was
+      termed by the natives, effected its object with less difficulty, though
+      not with less certainty. As the natives gradually disappeared from the
+      country of the Mohegans, some scattering families sought a refuge around
+      the council-fire of the mother tribe, or the Delawares.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This people had been induced to suffer themselves to be called women by
+      their old enemies, the Mingoes, or Iroquois. After the latter, having in
+      vain tried the effects of hostility, had recourse in artifice in order to
+      prevail over their rivals. According to this declaration, the Delawares
+      were to cultivate the arts of peace, and to intrust their defence entirely
+      to the men, or warlike tribes of the Six Nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This state of things continued until the war of the Revolution. When the
+      Lenni Lenape formally asserted their independence, and fearlessly declared
+      that they were again men. But, in a government so peculiarly republican as
+      the Indian polity, it was not at all times an easy task to restrain its
+      members within the rules of the nation. Several fierce and renowned
+      warriors of the Mohegans, finding the conflict with the whites to be in
+      vain, sought a refuge with their grandfather, and brought with them the
+      feelings and principles that had so long distinguished them in their own
+      tribe. These chieftains kept alive, in some measure, the martial spirit of
+      the Delawares; and would, at times, lead small parties against their
+      ancient enemies, or such other foes as incurred their resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among these warriors was one race particularly famous for their prowess,
+      and for those qualities that render an Indian hero celebrated. But war,
+      time, disease, and want had conspired to thin their number; and the sole
+      representative of this once renowned family now stood in the hall of
+      Marmaduke Temple. He had for a long time been an associate of the white
+      men, particularly in their wars, and having been, at the season when his
+      services were of importance, much noticed and flattered, he had turned
+      Christian and was baptized by the name of John. He had suffered severely
+      in his family during the recent war, having had every soul to whom he was
+      allied cut off by an inroad of the enemy; and when the last lingering
+      remnant of his nation extinguished their fires, among the hills of the
+      Delaware, he alone had remained, with a determination of laying his hones
+      in that country where his fathers had so long lived and governed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only, however, within a few months, that he had appeared among the
+      mountains that surrounded Templeton. To the hut of the old hunter he
+      seemed peculiarly welcome; and, as the habits of the Leather-Stocking were
+      so nearly assimilated to those of the savages, the conjunction of their
+      interests excited no surprise. They resided in the same cabin, ate of the
+      same food, and were chiefly occupied in the same pursuits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have already mentioned the baptismal name of this ancient chief; but in
+      his conversation with Natty, held in the language of the Delawares, he was
+      heard uniformly to call himself Chingachgook, which, interpreted, means
+      the &ldquo;Great Snake.&rdquo; This name he had acquired in his youth, by his skill
+      and prowess in war; but when his brows began to wrinkle with time, and he
+      stood alone, the last of his family, and his particular tribe, the few
+      Delawares, who yet continued about the head-waters of their river, gave
+      him the mournful appellation of Mohegan. Perhaps there was something of
+      deep feeling excited in the bosom of this inhabitant of the forest by the
+      sound of a name that recalled the idea of his nation in ruins, for he
+      seldom used it himself&mdash;never, indeed, excepting on the most solemn
+      occasions; but the settlers had united, according to the Christian custom,
+      his baptismal with his national name, and to them he was generally known
+      as John Mohegan, or, more familiarly, as Indian John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From his long association with the white men, the habits of Mohegan were a
+      mixture of the civilized and savage states, though there was certainly a
+      strong preponderance in favor of the latter. In common with all his
+      people, who dwelt within the influence of the Anglo-Americans, he had
+      acquired new wants, and his dress was a mixture of his native and European
+      fashions. Notwithstanding the in tense cold without, his head was
+      uncovered; but a profusion of long, black, coarse hair concealed his
+      forehead, his crown, and even hung about his cheeks, so as to convey the
+      idea, to one who knew his present amid former conditions, that he
+      encouraged its abundance, as a willing veil to hide the shame of a noble
+      soul, mourning for glory once known. His forehead, when it could be seen,
+      appeared lofty, broad, and noble. His nose was high, and of the kind
+      called Roman, with nostrils that expanded, in his seventieth year, with
+      the freedom that had distinguished them in youth. His mouth was large, but
+      compressed, and possessing a great share of expression and character, and,
+      when opened, it discovered a perfect set of short, strong, and regular
+      teeth. His chin was full, though not prominent; and his face bore the
+      infallible mark of his people, in its square, high cheek-bones. The eyes
+      were not large, but their black orbs glittered in the rays of the candles,
+      as he gazed intently down the hall, like two balls of fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant that Mohegan observed himself to be noticed by the group
+      around the young stranger, he dropped the blanket which covered the upper
+      part of his frame, from his shoulders, suffering it to fall over his
+      leggins of untanned deer-skin, where it was retained by a belt of bark
+      that confined it to his waist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he walked slowly down the long hail, the dignified and deliberate tread
+      of the Indian surprised the spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His shoulders, and body to his waist, were entirely bare, with the
+      exception of a silver medallion of Washington, that was suspended from his
+      neck by a thong of buckskin, and rested on his high chest, amid many
+      scars. His shoulders were rather broad and full; but the arms, though
+      straight and graceful, wanted the muscular appearance that labor gives to
+      a race of men. The medallion was the only ornament he wore, although
+      enormous slits in the rim of either ear, which suffered the cartilages to
+      fall two inches below the members, had evidently been used for the
+      purposes of decoration in other days in his hand he held a small basket of
+      the ash-wood slips, colored in divers fantastical conceits, with red and
+      black paints mingled with the white of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this child of the forest approached them, the whole party stood aside,
+      and allowed him to confront the object of his visit. He did not speak,
+      however, but stood fixing his glowing eyes on the shoulder of the young
+      hunter, and then turning them intently on the countenance of the Judge.
+      The latter was a good deal astonished at this unusual departure from the
+      ordinarily subdued and quiet manner of the Indian; but he extended his
+      hand, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art welcome, John. This youth entertains a high opinion of thy
+      skill, it seems, for he prefers thee to dress his wound even to our good
+      friend, Dr. Todd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan now spoke in tolerable English, but in a low, monotonous, guttural
+      tone;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The children of Miquon do not love the sight of blood; and yet the Young
+      Eagle has been struck by the hand that should do no evil!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mohegan! old John!&rdquo; exclaimed the Judge, &ldquo;thinkest thou that my hand has
+      ever drawn human blood willingly? For shame! for shame, old John! thy
+      religion should have taught thee better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The evil spirit sometimes lives in the best heart,&rdquo; returned John, &ldquo;but
+      my brother speaks the truth; his hand has never taken life, when awake;
+      no! not even when the children of the great English Father were making the
+      waters red with the blood of his people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely John,&rdquo; said Mr. Grant, with much earnestness, &ldquo;you remember the
+      divine command of our Saviour, 'Judge not, lest ye be judged.' What motive
+      could Judge Temple have for injuring a youth like this; one to whom he is
+      unknown, and from whom he can receive neither in jury nor favor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      John listened respectfully to the divine, and, when he had concluded, he
+      stretched out his arm, and said with energy:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is innocent. My brother has not done this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke received the offered hand of the other with a smile, that
+      showed, however he might be astonished at his suspicion, he had ceased to
+      resent it; while the wounded youth stood, gazing from his red friend to
+      his host, with interest powerfully delineated in his countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was this act of pacification exchanged, than John proceeded to
+      discharge the duty on which he had come. Dr. Todd was far from manifesting
+      any displeasure at this invasion of his rights, but made way for the new
+      leech with an air that expressed a willingness to gratify the humors of
+      his patient, now that the all-important part of the business was so
+      successfully performed, and nothing remained to be done but what any child
+      might effect, indeed, he whispered as much to Monsieur Le Quoi, when he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was fortunate that the ball was extracted before this Indian came in;
+      but any old woman can dress the wound. The young man, I hear, lives with
+      John and Natty Bumppo, and it's always best to humor a patient, when it
+      can be done discreetly&mdash;I say, discreetly, monsieur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainement,&rdquo; returned the Frenchman; &ldquo;you seem ver happy, Mister Todd,
+      in your pratice. I tink the elder lady might ver well finish vat you so
+      skeelfully begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Richard had, at the bottom, a great deal of veneration for the
+      knowledge of Mohegan, especially in external wounds; and, retaining all
+      his desire for a participation in glory, he advanced nigh the Indian, and
+      said: &ldquo;Sago, sago, Mohegan! sago my good fellow I am glad you have come;
+      give me a regular physician, like Dr. Todd to cut into flesh, and a native
+      to heal the wound. Do you remember, John, the time when I and you set the
+      bone of Natty Bumppo's little finger, after he broke it by falling from
+      the rock, when he was trying to get the partridge that fell on the cliffs?
+      I never could tell yet whether it was I or Natty who killed that bird: he
+      fired first, and the bird stooped, and then it was rising again as I
+      pulled trigger. I should have claimed it for a certainty, but Natty said
+      the hole was too big for shot, and he fired a single ball from his rifle;
+      but the piece I carried then didn't scatter, and I have known it to bore a
+      hole through a board, when I've been shooting at a mark, very much like
+      rifle bullets. Shall I help you, John? You know I have a knack at these
+      things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan heard this disquisition quite patiently, and, when Richard
+      concluded, he held out the basket which contained his specifics,
+      indicating, by a gesture, that he might hold it. Mr. Jones was quite
+      satisfied with this commission; and ever after, in speaking of the event,
+      was used to say that &ldquo;Dr. Todd and I cut out the bullet, and I and Indian
+      John dressed the wound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The patient was much more deserving of that epithet while under the hands
+      of Mohegan, than while suffering under the practice of the physician.
+      Indeed, the Indian gave him but little opportunity for the exercise of a
+      forbearing temper, as he had come prepared for the occasion. His dressings
+      were soon applied, and consisted only of some pounded bark, moistened with
+      a fluid that he had expressed from some of the simples of the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the native tribes of the forest there were always two kinds of
+      leeches to be met with. The one placed its whole dependence on the
+      exercise of a supernatural power, and was held in greater veneration than
+      their practice could at all justify; but the other was really endowed with
+      great skill in the ordinary complaints of the human body, and was more
+      particularly, as Natty had intimated, &ldquo;curous&rdquo; in cuts and bruises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While John and Richard were placing the dressings on the wound, Elnathan
+      was acutely eyeing the contents of Mohegan's basket, which Mr. Jones, in
+      his physical ardor had transferred to the doctor, in order to hold himself
+      one end of the bandages. Here he was soon enabled to detect sundry
+      fragments of wood and bark, of which he quite coolly took possession, very
+      possibly without any intention of speaking at all upon the subject; but,
+      when he beheld the full blue eye of Marmaduke watching his movements, he
+      whispered to the Judge:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not to be denied, Judge Temple, but what the savages are knowing in
+      small matters of physic. They hand these things down in their traditions.
+      Now in cancers and hydrophoby they are quite ingenious. I will just take
+      this bark home and analyze it; for, though it can't be worth sixpence to
+      the young man's shoulder, it may be good for the toothache, or rheumatism,
+      or some of them complaints. A man should never be above learning, even if
+      it be from an Indian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was fortunate for Dr. Todd that his principles were so liberal, as,
+      coupled with his practice, they were the means by which he acquired all
+      his knowledge, and by which he was gradually qualifying himself for the
+      duties of his profession. The process to which he subjected the specific
+      differed, however, greatly from the ordinary rules of chemistry; for
+      instead of separating he afterward united the component parts of Mohegan's
+      remedy, and was thus able to discover the tree whence the Indian had taken
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some ten years after this event, when civilization and its refinements had
+      crept, or rather rushed, into the settlements among these wild hills, an
+      affair of honor occurred, and Elnathan was seen to apply a salve to the
+      wound received by one of the parties, which had the flavor that was
+      peculiar to the tree, or root, that Mohegan had used. Ten years later
+      still, when England and the United States were again engaged in war, and
+      the hordes of the western parts of the State of New York were rushing to
+      the field, Elnathan, presuming on the reputation obtained by these two
+      operations, followed in the rear of a brigade of militia as its surgeon!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mohegan had applied the bark, he freely relinquished to Richard the
+      needle and thread that were used in sewing the bandages, for these were
+      implements of which the native but little understood the use: and, step
+      ping back with decent gravity, awaited the completion of the business by
+      the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reach me the scissors,&rdquo; said Mr. Jones, when he had finished, and
+      finished for the second time, after tying the linen in every shape and
+      form that it could be placed; &ldquo;reach me the scissors, for here is a thread
+      that must be cut off, or it might get under the dressings, and inflame the
+      wound. See, John, I have put the lint I scraped between two layers of the
+      linen; for though the bark is certainly best for the flesh, yet the lint
+      will serve to keep the cold air from the wound. If any lint will do it
+      good, it is this lint; I scraped it myself, and I will not turn my back at
+      scraping lint to any man on the Patent. I ought to know how, if anybody
+      ought, for my grandfather was a doctor, and my father had a natural turn
+      that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, squire, is the scissors,&rdquo; said Remarkable, producing from beneath
+      her petticoat of green moreen a pair of dull-looking shears; &ldquo;well, upon
+      my say-so, you have sewed on the rags as well as a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As well as a woman!&rdquo; echoed Richard with indignation; &ldquo;what do women know
+      of such matters? and you are proof of the truth of what I say. Who ever
+      saw such a pair of shears used about a wound? Dr. Todd, I will thank you
+      for the scissors from the case, Now, young man, I think you'll do. The
+      shot has been neatly taken out, although, perhaps, seeing I had a hand in
+      it, I ought not to say so; and the wound is admirably dressed. You will
+      soon be well again; though the jerk you gave my leaders must have a
+      tendency to inflame the shoulder, yet you will do, you will do, You were
+      rather flurried, I suppose, and not used to horses; but I forgive the
+      accident for the motive; no doubt you had the best of motives; yes, now
+      you will do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, gentlemen,&rdquo; said the wounded stranger, rising, and resuming his
+      clothes, &ldquo;it will be unnecessary for me to trespass longer on your time
+      and patience. There remains but one thing more to be settled, and that is,
+      our respective rights to the deer, Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I acknowledge it to be thine,&rdquo; said. Marmaduke; &ldquo;and much more deeply am
+      I indebted to thee than for this piece of venison. But in the morning thou
+      wilt call here, and we can adjust this, as well as more important matters
+      Elizabeth&rdquo;&mdash;for the young lady, being apprised that the wound was
+      dressed, had re-entered the hall&mdash;&ldquo;thou wilt order a repast for this
+      youth before we proceed to the church; and Aggy will have a sleigh
+      prepared to convey him to his friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, sir, I cannot go without a part of the deer,&rdquo; returned the youth,
+      seemingly struggling with his own feelings; &ldquo;I have already told you that
+      I needed the venison for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we will not be particular,&rdquo; exclaimed Richard; &ldquo;the Judge will pay
+      you in the morning for the whole deer; and, Remarkable, give the lad all
+      the animal excepting the saddle; so, on the whole, I think you may
+      consider yourself as a very lucky young man&mdash;you have been shot
+      without being disabled; have had the wound dressed in the best possible
+      manner here in the woods, as well as it would have been done in the
+      Philadelphia hospital, if not better; have sold your deer at a high price,
+      and yet can keep most of the carcass, with the skin in the bargain.
+      'Marky, tell Tom to give him the skin too, and in the morning bring the
+      skin to me and I will give you half a dollar for it, or at least
+      three-and-sixpence. I want just such a skin to cover the pillion that I am
+      making for Cousin Bess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, sir, for your liberality, and, I trust, am also thankful for
+      my escape,&rdquo; returned the stranger; &ldquo;but you reserve the very part of the
+      animal that I wished for my own use. I must have the saddle myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must!&rdquo; echoed Richard; &ldquo;must is harder to be swallowed than the horns of
+      the buck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, must,&rdquo; repeated the youth; when, turning his head proudly around
+      him, as if to see who would dare to controvert his rights, he met the
+      astonished gaze of Elizabeth, and proceeded more mildly: &ldquo;That is, if a
+      man is allowed the possession of that which his hand hath killed, and the
+      law will protect him in the enjoyment of his own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The law will do so,&rdquo; said Judge Temple, with an air of mortification
+      mingled with surprise. &ldquo;Benjamin, see that the whole deer is placed in the
+      sleigh; and have this youth conveyed to the hut of Leather Stocking. But,
+      young man thou hast a name, and I shall see you again, in order to
+      compensate thee for the wrong I have done thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am called Edwards,&rdquo; returned the hunter; &ldquo;Oliver Edwards, I am easily
+      to be seen, sir, for I live nigh by, and am not afraid to show my face,
+      having never injured any man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is we who have injured you, sir,&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;and the knowledge
+      that you decline our assistance would give my father great pain. He would
+      gladly see you in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young hunter gazed at the fair speaker until his earnest look brought
+      the blood to her temples; when, recollecting himself, he bent his head,
+      dropping his eyes to the carpet, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the morning, then, will I return, and see Judge Temple; and I will
+      accept his offer of the sleigh in token of amity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amity!&rdquo; repeated Marmaduke; &ldquo;there was no malice in the act that injured
+      thee, young man; there should be none in the feelings which it may
+      engender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,&rdquo;
+       observed Mr. Grant, &ldquo;is the language used by our Divine Master himself,
+      and it should be the golden rule with us, his humble followers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger stood a moment lost in thought, and then, glancing his dark
+      eyes rather wildly around the hall, he bowed low to the divine, and moved
+      from the apartment with an air that would not admit of detention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis strange that one so young should harbor such feelings of
+      resentment,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, when the door closed behind the stranger;
+      &ldquo;but while the pain is recent, and the sense of the injury so fresh, he
+      must feel more strongly than in cooler moments. I doubt not we shall see
+      him in the morning more tractable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth, to whom this speech was addressed, did not reply, but moved
+      slowly up the hall by herself, fixing her eyes on the little figure of the
+      English ingrain carpet that covered the floor; while, on the other hand,
+      Richard gave a loud crack with his whip, as the stranger disappeared, and
+      cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, 'Duke, you are your own master, but I would have tried law for the
+      saddle before I would have given it to the fellow. Do you not own the
+      mountains as well as the valleys? are not the woods your own? what right
+      has this chap, or the Leather-Stocking, to shoot in your woods without
+      your permission? Now, I have known a farmer in Pennsylvania order a
+      sportsman off his farm with as little ceremony as I would order Benjamin
+      to put a log in the stove&mdash;By-the-bye, Benjamin, see how the
+      thermometer stands.&mdash;Now, if a man has a right to do this on a farm
+      of a hundred acres, what power must a landlord have who owns sixty
+      thousand&mdash;ay, for the matter of that, including the late purchases, a
+      hundred thousand? There is Mohegan, to be sure, he may have some right,
+      being a native; but it's little the poor fellow can do now with his rifle.
+      How is this managed in France, Monsieur Le Quoi? Do you let everybody run
+      over your land in that country helter-skelter, as they do here, shooting
+      the game, so that a gentleman has but little or no chance with his gun?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bah! diable, no, Meester Deeck,&rdquo; replied the Frenchman; &ldquo;we give, in
+      France, no liberty except to the ladi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, to the women, I know,&rdquo; said Richard, &ldquo;that is your Salic law. I
+      read, sir, all kinds of books; of France, as well as England; of Greece,
+      as well as Rome. But if I were in 'Duke's place, I would stick up
+      advertisements to-morrow morning, forbidding all persons to shoot, or
+      trespass in any manner, on my woods. I could write such an advertisement
+      myself, in an hour, as would put a stop to the thing at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richart,&rdquo; said Major Hartmann, very coolly knocking the ashes from his
+      pipe into the spitting-box by his side, &ldquo;now listen; I have livet
+      seventy-five years on ter Mohawk, and in ter woots. You had better mettle
+      as mit ter deyvel, as mit ter hunters, Tey live mit ter gun, and a rifle
+      is better as ter law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't Marmaduke a judge?&rdquo; said Richard indignantly. &ldquo;Where is the use of
+      being a judge, or having a judge, if there is no law? Damn the fellow! I
+      have a great mind to sue him in the morning myself, before Squire
+      Doolittle, for meddling with my leaders. I am not afraid of his rifle. I
+      can shoot, too. I have hit a dollar many a time at fifty rods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast missed more dollars than ever thou hast hit, Dickon,&rdquo; exclaimed
+      the cheerful voice of the Judge. &ldquo;But we will now take our evening's
+      repast, which I perseive, by Remarkable's physiognomy, is ready. Monsieur
+      Le Quoi, Miss Temple has a hand at your service. Will you lead the way, my
+      child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! ma chere mam'selle, comme je suis enchante!&rdquo; said the Frenchman. &ldquo;Il
+      ne manque que les dames de faire un paradis de Templeton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Grant and Mohegan continued in the hall, while the remainder of the
+      party withdrew to an eating parlor, if we except Benjamin, who civilly
+      remained to close the rear after the clergyman and to open the front door
+      for the exit of the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John,&rdquo; said the divine, when the figure of Judge Temple disappeared, the
+      last of the group, &ldquo;to-morrow is the festival of the nativity of our
+      blessed Redeemer, when the church has appointed prayers and thanksgivings
+      to be offered up by her children, and when all are invited to partake of
+      the mystical elements. As you have taken up the cross, and become a
+      follower of good and an eschewer of evil, I trust I shall see you before
+      the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John will come,&rdquo; said the Indian, betraying no surprise; though he did
+      not understand all the terms used by the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; continued Mr. Grant, laying his hand gently on the tawny shoulder
+      of the aged chief, &ldquo;but it is not enough to be there in the body; you must
+      come in the spirit and in truth. The Redeemer died for all, for the poor
+      Indian as well as for the white man. Heaven knows no difference in color;
+      nor must earth witness a separation of the church. It is good and
+      profitable, John, to freshen the understanding, and support the wavering,
+      by the observance of our holy festivals; but all form is but stench in the
+      nostrils of the Holy One, unless it be accompanied by a devout and humble
+      spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian stepped back a little, and, raising his body to its utmost
+      powers of erection, he stretched his right arm on high, and dropped his
+      forefinger downward, as if pointing from the heavens; then, striking his
+      other band on his naked breast, he said, with energy:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The eye of the Great Spirit can see from the clouds&mdash;the bosom of
+      Mohegan is bare!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well, John, and I hope you will receive profit and consolation from
+      the performance of this duty. The Great Spirit overlooks none of his
+      children; and the man of the woods is as much an object of his care as he
+      who dwells in a palace. I wish you a good-night, and pray God to bless
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian bent his head, and they separated&mdash;the one to seek his
+      hut, and the other to join his party at the supper-table. While Benjamin
+      was opening the door for the passage of the chief, he cried, in a tone
+      that was meant to be encouraging:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The parson says the word that is true, John. If so be that they took
+      count of the color of the skin in heaven, why, they might refuse to muster
+      on their books a Christian-born, like myself, just for the matter of a
+      little tan, from cruising in warm latitudes; though, for the matter of
+      that, this damned norwester is enough to whiten the skin of a blackamore.
+      Let the reef out of your blanket, man, or your red hide will hardly
+      weather the night with out a touch from the frost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;For here the exile met from every clime,
+     And spoke, in friendship, every distant tongue.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Campbell.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We have made our readers acquainted with some variety in character and
+      nations, in introducing the most important personages of this legend to
+      their notice; but, in order to establish the fidelity of our narrative, we
+      shall briefly attempt to explain the reason why we have been obliged to
+      present so motley a dramatis personae.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Europe, at the period of our tale, was in the commencement of that
+      commotion which afterward shook her political institutions to the centre.
+      Louis the Sixteenth had been beheaded, and a nation once esteemed the most
+      refined among the civilized people of the world was changing its
+      character, and substituting cruelty for mercy, and subtlety and ferocity
+      for magnanimity and courage. Thousands of Frenchmen were compelled to
+      seek protection in distant lands. Among the crowds who fled from France
+      and her islands, to the United States of America, was the gentleman whom
+      we have already mentioned as Monsieur Le Quoi. He had been recommended to
+      the favor of Judge Temple by the head of an eminent mercantile house in
+      New York, with whom Marmaduke was in habits of intimacy, and accustomed to
+      exchange good offices. At his first interview with the Frenchman, our
+      Judge had discovered him to be a man of breeding, and one who had seen
+      much more prosperous days in his own country. From certain hints that had
+      escaped him, Monsieur Le Quoi was suspected of having been a West-India
+      planter, great numbers of whom had fled from St. Domingo and the other
+      islands, and were now living in the Union, in a state of comparative
+      poverty, and some in absolute want The latter was not, however, the lot of
+      Monsieur Le Quoi. He had but little, he acknowledged; but that little was
+      enough to furnish, in the language of the country, an assortment for a
+      store.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knowledge of Marmaduke was eminently practical, and there was no part
+      of a settler's life with which he was not familiar. Under his direction,
+      Monsieur Le Quoi made some purchases, consisting of a few cloths; some
+      groceries, with a good deal of gunpowder and tobacco; a quantity of
+      iron-ware, among which was a large proportion of Barlow's jack-knives,
+      potash-kettles, and spiders; a very formidable collection of crockery of
+      the coarsest quality and most uncouth forms; together with every other
+      common article that the art of man has devised for his wants, not
+      forgetting the luxuries of looking-glasses and Jew's-harps. With this
+      collection of valuables, Monsieur Le Quoi had stepped behind a counter,
+      and, with a wonderful pliability of temperament, had dropped into his
+      assumed character as gracefully as he had ever moved in any other. The
+      gentleness and suavity of his manners rendered him extremely popular;
+      besides this, the women soon discovered that he had taste. His calicoes
+      were the finest, or, in other words, the most showy, of any that were
+      brought into the country, and it was impossible to look at the prices
+      asked for his goods by &ldquo;so pretty a spoken man,&rdquo; Through these conjoint
+      means, the affairs of Monsieur Le Quoi were again in a prosperous
+      condition, and he was looked up to by the settlers as the second best man
+      on the &ldquo;Patent.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The term &ldquo;Patent&rdquo; which we have already used, and for which we may
+    have further occasion, meant the district of country that had been
+    originally granted to old Major Effingham by the &ldquo;king's letters
+    patent,&rdquo; and which had now become, by purchase under the act of
+    confiscation, the property of Marmaduke Temple.  It was a term in
+    common use throughout the new parts of the State; and was usually
+    annexed to the landlord's name, as &ldquo;Temple's or Effingham's Patent.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Major Hartmann was a descendant of a man who, in company with a number of
+      his countrymen, had emigrated with their families from the banks of the
+      Rhine to those of the Mohawk. This migration had occurred as far back as
+      the reign of Queen Anne; and their descendants were now living, in great
+      peace and plenty, on the fertile borders of that beautiful stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Germans, or &ldquo;High Dutchers,&rdquo; as they were called, to distinguish them
+      from the original or Low Dutch colonists, were a very peculiar people.
+      They possessed all the gravity of the latter, without any of their phlegm;
+      and like them, the &ldquo;High Dutchers&rdquo; were industrious, honest, and
+      economical, Fritz, or Frederick Hartmann, was an epitome of all the vices
+      and virtues, foibles and excellences, of his race. He was passionate
+      though silent, obstinate, and a good deal suspicious of strangers; of
+      immovable courage, in flexible honesty, and undeviating in his
+      friendships. In deed there was no change about him, unless it were from
+      grave to gay. He was serious by months, and jolly by weeks. He had, early
+      in their acquaintance, formed an attachment for Marmaduke Temple, who was
+      the only man that could not speak High Dutch that ever gained his entire
+      confidence Four times in each year, at periods equidistant, he left his
+      low stone dwelling on the banks of the Mohawk, and travelled thirty miles,
+      through the hills, to the door of the mansion-house in Templeton. Here he
+      generally stayed a week; and was reputed to spend much of that time in
+      riotous living, greatly countenanced by Mr. Richard Jones. But every one
+      loved him, even to Remarkable Pettibone, to whom he occasioned some
+      additional trouble, he was so frank, so sincere, and, at times, so
+      mirthful. He was now on his regular Christmas visit, and had not been in
+      the village an hour when Richard summoned him to fill a seat in the sleigh
+      to meet the landlord and his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before explaining the character and situation of Mr. Grant, it will be
+      necessary to recur to times far back in the brief history of the
+      settlement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There seems to be a tendency in human nature to endeavor to provide for
+      the wants of this world, before our attention is turned to the business of
+      the other. Religion was a quality but little cultivated amid the stumps of
+      Temple's Patent for the first few years of its settlement; but, as most of
+      its inhabitants were from the moral States of Connecticut and
+      Massachusetts, when the wants of nature were satisfied they began
+      seriously to turn their attention to the introduction of those customs and
+      observances which had been the principal care of their fore fathers. There
+      was certainly a great variety of opinions on the subject of grace and
+      free-will among the tenantry of Marmaduke; and, when we take into
+      consideration the variety of the religious instruction which they
+      received, it can easily be seen that it could not well be otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after the village had been formally laid out into the streets and
+      blocks that resembled a city, a meeting of its inhabitants had been
+      convened, to take into consideration the propriety of establishing an
+      academy. This measure originated with Richard, who, in truth, was much
+      disposed to have the institution designated a university, or at least a
+      college. Meeting after meeting was held, for this purpose, year after
+      year. The resolutions of these as sembiages appeared in the most
+      conspicuous columns of a little blue-looking newspaper, that was already
+      issued weekly from the garret of a dwelling-house in the village, and
+      which the traveller might as often see stuck into the fissure of a stake,
+      erected at the point where the footpath from the log-cabin of some settler
+      entered the highway, as a post-office for an individual. Sometimes the
+      stake supported a small box, and a whole neighborhood received a weekly
+      supply for their literary wants at this point, where the man who &ldquo;rides
+      post&rdquo; regularly deposited a bundle of the precious commodity. To these
+      flourishing resolutions, which briefly recounted the general utility of
+      education, the political and geographical rights of the village of
+      Templeton to a participation in the favors of the regents of the
+      university, the salubrity of the air, and wholesomeness of the water,
+      together with the cheapness of food and the superior state of morals in
+      the neighbor hood, were uniformly annexed, in large Roman capitals, the
+      names of Marmaduke Temple as chairman and Richard Jones as secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happily for the success of this undertaking, the regents were not
+      accustomed to resist these appeals to their generosity, whenever there was
+      the smallest prospect of a donation to second the request. Eventually
+      Judge Temple concluded to bestow the necessary land, and to erect the
+      required edifice at his own expense. The skill of Mr., or, as he was now
+      called, from the circumstance of having received the commission of a
+      justice of the peace, Squire Doolittle, was again put in requisition; and
+      the science of Mr. Jones was once more resorted to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall not recount the different devices of the architects on the
+      occasion; nor would it be decorous so to do, seeing that there was a
+      convocation of the society of the ancient and honorable fraternity &ldquo;of the
+      Free and Accepted Masons,&rdquo; at the head of whom was Richard, in the
+      capacity of master, doubtless to approve or reject such of the plans as,
+      in their wisdom, they deemed to be for the best. The knotty point was,
+      however, soon decided; and, on the appointed day, the brotherhood marched
+      in great state, displaying sundry banners and mysterious symbols, each man
+      with a little mimic apron before him, from a most cunningly contrived
+      apartment in the garret of the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo; an inn kept by one Captain
+      Hollister, to the site of the intended edifice. Here Richard laid the
+      corner stone, with suitable gravity, amidst an assemblage of more than
+      half the men, and all the women, within ten miles of Templeton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the succeeding week there was another meeting of the
+      people, not omitting swarms of the gentler sex, when the abilities of
+      Hiram at the &ldquo;square rule&rdquo; were put to the test of experiment. The frame
+      fitted well; and the skeleton of the fabric was reared without a single
+      accident, if we except a few falls from horses while the laborers were
+      returning home in the evening. From this time the work advanced with great
+      rapidity, and in the course of the season the Labor was completed; the
+      edifice Manding, in all its beauty and proportions, the boast of the
+      village, the study of young aspirants for architectural fame, and the
+      admiration of every settler on the Patent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a long, narrow house of wood, painted white, and more than half
+      windows; and, when the observer stood at the western side of the building,
+      the edifice offered but a small obstacle to a full view of the rising sun.
+      It was, in truth, but a very comfortless open place, through which the
+      daylight shone with natural facility. On its front were divers ornaments
+      in wood, designed by Richard and executed by Hiram; but a window in the
+      centre of the second story, immediately over the door or grand entrance,
+      and the &ldquo;steeple&rdquo; were the pride of the building. The former was, we
+      believe, of the composite order; for it included in its composition a
+      multitude of ornaments and a great variety of proportions. It consisted of
+      an arched compartment in the centres with a square and small division on
+      either side, the whole incased in heavy frames, deeply and laboriously
+      moulded in pine-wood, and lighted with a vast number of blurred and
+      green-looking glass of those dimensions which are commonly called &ldquo;eight
+      by ten.&rdquo; Blinds, that were intended to be painted green, kept the window
+      in a state of preservation, and probably might have contributed to the
+      effect of the whole, had not the failure in the public funds, which seems
+      always to be incidental to any undertaking of this kind, left them in the
+      sombre coat of lead-color with which they had been originally clothed. The
+      &ldquo;steeple&rdquo; was a little cupola, reared on the very centre of the roof, on
+      four tall pillars of pine that were fluted with a gouge, and loaded with
+      mouldings. On the tops of the columns was reared a dome or cupola,
+      resembling in shape an inverted tea-cup without its bottom, from the
+      centre of which projected a spire, or shaft of wood, transfixed with two
+      iron rods, that bore on their ends the letters N. S. E. and W, in the same
+      metal. The whole was surmounted by an imitation of one of the finny tribe,
+      carved in wood by the hands of Richard, and painted what he called a
+      &ldquo;scale-color.&rdquo; This animal Mr. Jones affirmed to be an admirable
+      resemblance of a great favorite of the epicures in that country, which
+      bore the title of &ldquo;lake-fish,&rdquo; and doubtless the assertion was true; for,
+      although intended to answer the purposes of a weathercock, the fish was
+      observed invariably to look with a longing eye in the direction of the
+      beautiful sheet of water that lay imbedded in the mountains of Templeton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a short time after the charter of the regents was received, the
+      trustees of this institution employed a graduate of one of the Eastern
+      colleges to instruct such youth as aspired to knowledge within the walls
+      of the edifice which we have described. The upper part of the building was
+      in one apartment, and was intended for gala-days and exhibitions; and the
+      lower contained two rooms that were intended for the great divisions of
+      education, viz., the Latin and the English scholars. The former were never
+      very numerous; though the sounds of &ldquo;nominative, pennaa&mdash;genitive,
+      penny,&rdquo; were soon heard to issue from the windows of the room, to the
+      great delight and manifest edification of the passenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only one laborer in this temple of Minerva, however, was known to get so
+      far as to attempt a translation of Virgil. He, indeed, appeared at the
+      annual exhibition, to the prodigious exultation of all his relatives, a
+      farmer's family in the vicinity, and repeated the whole of the first
+      eclogue from memory, observing the intonations of the dialogue with much
+      judgment and effect. The sounds, as they proceeded from his mouth, of
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;Titty-ree too patty-lee ree-coo-bans sub teg-mi-nee faa-gy
+  Syl-ves-trem ten-oo-i moo-sam, med-i-taa-ris, aa-ve-ny.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      were the last that had been heard in that building, as probably they were
+      the first that had ever been heard, in the same language, there or
+      anywhere else. By this time the trustees discovered that they had
+      anticipated the age and the instructor, or principal, was superseded by a
+      master, who went on to teach the more humble lesson of &ldquo;the more haste the
+      worst speed,&rdquo; in good plain English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this time until the date of our incidents, the academy was a common
+      country school, and the great room of the building was sometimes used as a
+      court-room, on extraordinary trials; sometimes for conferences of the
+      religious and the morally disposed, in the evening; at others for a ball
+      in the afternoon, given under the auspices of Richard; and on Sundays,
+      invariably, as a place of public worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When an itinerant priest of the persuasion of the Methodists, Baptists,
+      Universalists, or of the more numerous sect of the Presbyterians, was
+      accidentally in the neighborhood, he was ordinarily invited to officiate,
+      and was commonly rewarded for his services by a collection in a hat,
+      before the congregation separated. When no such regular minister offered,
+      a kind of colloquial prayer or two was made by some of the more gifted
+      members, and a sermon was usually read, from Sterne, by Mr. Richard Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The consequence of this desultory kind of priesthood was, as we have
+      already intimated, a great diversity of opinion on the more abstruse
+      points of faith. Each sect had its adherents, though neither was regularly
+      organized and disciplined. Of the religious education of Marmaduke we have
+      already written, nor was the doubtful character of his faith completely
+      removed by his marriage. The mother of Elizabeth was an Episcopalian, as
+      indeed, was the mother of the Judge himself; and the good taste of
+      Marmaduke revolted at the familiar colloquies which the leaders of the
+      conferences held with the Deity, in their nightly meetings. In form, he
+      was certainly an Episcopalian, though not a sectary of that denomination.
+      On the other hand, Richard was as rigid in the observance of the canons of
+      his church as he was inflexible in his opinions. Indeed, he had once or
+      twice essayed to introduce the Episcopal form of service, on the Sundays
+      that the pulpit was vacant; but Richard was a good deal addicted to
+      carrying things to an excess, and then there was some thing so papal in
+      his air that the greater part of his hearers deserted him on the second
+      Sabbath&mdash;on the third his only auditor was Ben Pump, who had all the
+      obstinate and enlightened orthodoxy of a high churchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the war of the Revolution, the English Church was supported in the
+      colonies, with much interest, by some of its adherents in the mother
+      country, and a few of the congregations were very amply endowed. But, for
+      the season, after the independence of the States was established, this
+      sect of Christians languished for the want of the highest order of its
+      priesthood. Pious and suitable divines were at length selected, and sent
+      to the mother country, to receive that authority which, it is understood,
+      can only be transmitted directly from one to the other, and thus obtain,
+      in order to reserve, that unity in their churches which properly belonged
+      to a people of the same nation. But unexpected difficulties presented
+      themselves, in the oaths with which the policy of England had fettered
+      their establishment; and much time was spent before a conscientious sense
+      of duty would permit the prelates of Britain to delegate the authority so
+      earnestly sought. Time, patience, and zeal, however, removed every
+      impediment, and the venerable men who had been set apart by the American
+      churches at length returned to their expecting dioceses, endowed with the
+      most elevated functions of their earthly church. Priests and deacons were
+      ordained, and missionaries provided, to keep alive the expiring flame of
+      devotion in such members as were deprived of the ordinary administrations
+      by dwelling in new and unorganized districts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this number was Mr. Grant. He had been sent into the county of which
+      Templeton was the capital, and had been kindly invited by Marmaduke, and
+      officiously pressed by Richard, to take up his abode in the village. A
+      small and humble dwelling was prepared for his family, and the divine had
+      made his appearance in the place but a few days previously to the time of
+      his introduction to the reader, As his forms were entirely new to most of
+      the inhabitants, and a clergyman of another denomination had previously
+      occupied the field, by engaging the academy, the first Sunday after his
+      arrival was allowed to pass in silence; but now that his rival had passed
+      on, like a meteor filling the air with the light of his wisdom, Richard
+      was empowered to give notice that &ldquo;Public worship, after the forms of the
+      Protestant Episcopal Church, would be held on the night before Christmas,
+      in the long room of the academy in Templeton, by the Rev. Mr. Grant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This annunciation excited great commotion among the different sectaries.
+      Some wondered as to the nature of the exhibition; others sneered; but a
+      far greater part, recollecting the essays of Richard in that way, and
+      mindful of the liberality, or rather laxity, of Marmaduke's notions on the
+      subject of sectarianism, thought it most prudent to be silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The expected evening was, however, the wonder of the hour; nor was the
+      curiosity at all diminished when Richard and Benjamin, on the morning of
+      the eventful day, were seen to issue from the woods in the neighborhood of
+      the village, each bearing on his shoulders a large bunch of evergreens.
+      This worthy pair was observed to enter the academy, and carefully to
+      fasten the door, after which their proceedings remained a profound secret
+      to the rest of the village; Mr. Jones, before he commenced this mysterious
+      business, having informed the school-master, to the great delight of the
+      white-headed flock he governed, that there could be no school that day.
+      Marmaduke was apprised of all these preparations by letter, and it was
+      especially arranged that he and Elizabeth should arrive in season to
+      participate in the solemnities of the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this digression, we shall return to our narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Now all admire, in each high-flavored dish
+     The capabilities of flesh&mdash;fowl&mdash;fish;
+     In order due each guest assumes his station,
+     Throbs high his breast with fond anticipation,
+     And prelibates the joys of mastication.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Heliogabaliad.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The apartment to which Monsieur Le Quoi handed Elizabeth communicated with
+      the hall, through the door that led under the urn which was supposed to
+      contain the ashes of Dido. The room was spacious, and of very just
+      proportions; but in its ornaments and furniture the same diversity of
+      taste and imperfection of execution were to be observed as existed in the
+      hall. Of furniture, there were a dozen green, wooden arm-chairs, with
+      cushions of moreen, taken from the same piece as the petticoat of
+      Remarkable. The tables were spread, and their materials and workmanship
+      could not be seen; but they were heavy and of great size, An enormous
+      mirror, in a gilt frame, hung against the wall, and a cheerful fire, of
+      the hard or sugar maple, was burning on the hearth. The latter was the
+      first object that struck the attention of the Judge, who on beholding it
+      exclaimed, rather angrily, to Richard:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How often have I forbidden the use of the sugar maple in my dwelling! The
+      sight of that sap, as it exudes with the heat, is painful to me, Richard,
+      Really, it behooves the owner of woods so extensive as mine, to be
+      cautious what example he sets his people, who are already felling the
+      forests as if no end could be found to their treasures, nor any limits to
+      their extent. If we go on in this way, twenty years hence we shall want
+      fuel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fuel in these hills, Cousin 'Duke!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, in derision&mdash;&ldquo;fuel!
+      why, you might as well predict that the fish will die for the want of
+      water in the lake, because I intend, when the frost gets out of the
+      ground, to lead one or two of the spring; through logs, into the village.
+      But you are always a little wild on such subject; Marmaduke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it wildness,&rdquo; returned the Judge earnestly, &ldquo;to condemn a practice
+      which devotes these jewels of the forest, these precious gifts of nature,
+      these mines of corn, forest and wealth, to the common uses of a fireplace?
+      But I must, and will, the instant the snow is off the earth, send out a
+      party into the mountains to explore for coal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coal!&rdquo; echoed Richard. &ldquo;Who the devil do you think will dig for coal
+      when, in hunting for a bushel he would have to rip up more of trees than
+      would keep him in fuel for a twelvemonth? Poh! poh! Marmaduke: you should
+      leave the management of these things to me, who have a natural turn that
+      way. It was I that ordered this fire, and a noble one it is, to warm the
+      blood of my pretty Cousin Bess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The motive, then, must be your apology, Dick,&rdquo; said the Judge.&mdash;&ldquo;But,
+      gentlemen, we are waiting.&mdash;Elizabeth, my child, take the head of the
+      table; Richard, I see, means to spare me the trouble of carving, by
+      sitting opposite to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I do,&rdquo; cried Richard. &ldquo;Here is a turkey to carve; and I
+      flatter myself that I understand carving a turkey, or, for that matter, a
+      goose, as well as any man alive.&mdash;Mr. Grant! Where's Mr. Grant? Will
+      you please to say grace, sir? Everything in getting cold. Take a thing
+      from the fire this cold weather, and it will freeze in five minutes. Mr.
+      Grant, we want you to say grace. 'For what we are about to receive, the
+      Lord make, us thankful Come, sit down, sit down. Do you eat wing or
+      breast, Cousin Bess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Elizabeth had not taken her seat, nor Was she in readiness to receive
+      either the wing or breast. Her Laughing eyes were glancing at the
+      arrangements of the table, and the quality and selection of the food. The
+      eyes of the father soon met the wondering looks of his daughter, and he
+      said, with a smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You perceive, my child, how much we are indebted to Remarkable for her
+      skill in housewifery. She has indeed provided a noble repast&mdash;such as
+      well might stop the cravings of hunger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Law!&rdquo; said Remarkable, &ldquo;I'm glad if the Judge is pleased; but I'm
+      notional that you'll find the sa'ce over done. I thought, as Elizabeth was
+      coming home, that a body could do no less than make things agreeable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My daughter has now grown to woman's estate, and is from this moment
+      mistress of my house,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;it is proper that all who live
+      with me address her as Miss Temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell!&rdquo; exclaimed Remarkable, a little aghast; &ldquo;well, who ever heerd of
+      a young woman's being called Miss? If the Judge had a wife now, I
+      shouldn't think of calling her anything but Miss Temple; but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Having nothing but a daughter you will observe that style to her, if you
+      please, in future,&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Judge looked seriously displeased, and, at such moments, carried a
+      particularly commanding air with him, the wary housekeeper made no reply;
+      and, Mr. Grant entering the room, the whole party were seated at the
+      table. As the arrangements of this repast were much in the prevailing
+      taste of that period and country, we shall endeavor to give a short
+      description of the appearance of the banquet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The table-linen was of the most beautiful damask, and the plates and
+      dishes of real china, an article of great luxury at this early period of
+      American commerce. The knives and forks were of exquisitely polished
+      steel, and were set in unclouded ivory. So much, being furnished by the
+      wealth of Marmaduke, was not only comfortable but even elegant. The
+      contents of the several dishes, and their positions, however, were the
+      result of the sole judgment of Remarkable. Before Elizabeth was placed an
+      enormous roasted turkey, and before Richard one boiled, in the centre of
+      the table stood a pair of heavy silver casters, surrounded by four dishes:
+      one a fricassee that consisted of gray squirrels; another of fish fried; a
+      third of fish boiled; the last was a venison steak. Between these dishes
+      and the turkeys stood, on the one side, a prodigious chine of roasted
+      bear's meat, and on the other a boiled leg of delicious mutton.
+      Interspersed among this load of meats was every species of vegetables that
+      the season and country afforded. The four corners were garnished with
+      plates of cake. On one was piled certain curiously twisted and complicated
+      figures, called &ldquo;nut-cakes,&rdquo; On another were heaps of a black-looking substance, which, receiving its hue from molasses, was properly termed
+      &ldquo;sweet-cake;&rdquo; a wonderful favorite in the coterie of Remarkable, A third
+      was filled, to use the language of the housekeeper, with &ldquo;cards of
+      gingerbread;&rdquo; and the last held a &ldquo;plum-cake,&rdquo; so called from the number
+      of large raisins that were showing their black heads in a substance of
+      suspiciously similar color. At each corner of the table stood saucers,
+      filled with a thick fluid of some what equivocal color and consistence,
+      variegated with small dark lumps of a substance that resembled nothing but
+      itself, which Remarkable termed her &ldquo;sweetmeats.&rdquo; At the side of each
+      plate, which was placed bottom upward, with its knife and fork most
+      accurately crossed above it, stood another, of smaller size, containing a
+      motley-looking pie, composed of triangular slices of apple, mince, pump
+      kin, cranberry, and custard so arranged as to form an entire whole,
+      Decanters of brandy, rum, gin, and wine, with sundry pitchers of cider,
+      beer, and one hissing vessel of &ldquo;flip,&rdquo; were put wherever an opening would
+      admit of their introduction. Notwithstanding the size of the tables, there
+      was scarcely a spot where the rich damask could be seen, so crowded were
+      the dishes, with their associated bottles, plates, and saucers. The object
+      seemed to be profusion, and it was obtained entirely at the expense of
+      order and elegance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the guests, as well as the Judge himself, seemed perfectly familiar
+      with this description of fare, for each one commenced eating, with an
+      appetite that promised to do great honor to Remarkable's taste and skill.
+      What rendered this attention to the repast a little surprising, was the
+      fact that both the German and Richard had been summoned from another table
+      to meet the Judge; but Major Hartmann both ate and drank without any rule,
+      when on his excursions; and Mr. Jones invariably made it a point to
+      participate in the business in hand, let it be what it would. The host
+      seemed to think some apology necessary for the warmth he had betrayed on
+      the subject of the firewood, and when the party were comfortably seated,
+      and engaged with their knives and forks, he observed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wastefulness of the settlers with the noble trees of this country is
+      shocking, Monsieur Le Quoi, as doubt less you have noticed. I have seen a
+      man fell a pine, when he has been in want of fencing stuff, and roll his
+      first cuts into the gap, where he left it to rot, though its top would
+      have made rails enough to answer his purpose, and its butt would have sold
+      in the Philadelphia market for twenty dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how the devil&mdash;I beg your pardon, Mr. Grant,&rdquo; interrupted
+      Richard: &ldquo;but how is the poor devil to get his logs to the Philadelphia
+      market, pray? put them in his pocket, ha! as you would a handful of
+      chestnuts, or a bunch of chicker-berries? I should like to see you walking
+      up High Street, with a pine log in each pocket!&mdash;Poh! poh! Cousin
+      'Duke, there are trees enough for us all, and some to spare. Why, I can
+      hardly tell which way the wind blows, when I'm out in the clearings, they
+      are so thick and so tall; I couldn't at all, if it wasn't for the clouds,
+      and I happen to know all the points of the compass, as it were, by heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! ay! squire,&rdquo; cried Benjamin, who had now entered and taken his place
+      behind the Judge's chair, a little aside withal, in order to be ready for
+      any observation like the present; &ldquo;look aloft, sir, look aloft. The old
+      seamen say, 'that the devil wouldn't make a sailor, unless he looked
+      aloft' As for the compass, why, there is no such thing as steering without
+      one. I'm sure I never lose sight of the main-top, as I call the squire's
+      lookout on the roof, but I set my compass, d'ye see, and take the bearings
+      and distance of things, in order to work out my course, if so be that it
+      should cloud up, or the tops of the trees should shut out the light of
+      heaven. The steeple of St. Paul's, now that we have got it on end, is a
+      great help to the navigation of the woods, for, by the Lord Harry! as was&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well, Benjamin,&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke, observing that his daughter
+      manifested displeasure at the major-domo's familiarity; &ldquo;but you forget
+      there is a lady in company, and the women love to do most of the talking
+      themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Judge says the true word,&rdquo; cried Benjamin, with one of his discordant
+      laughs. &ldquo;Now here is Mistress Remarkable Pettibones; just take the stopper
+      off her tongue, and you'll hear a gabbling worse like than if you should
+      happen to fall to leeward in crossing a French privateer, or some such
+      thing, mayhap, as a dozen monkeys stowed in one bag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It were impossible to say how perfect an illustration of the truth of
+      Benjamin's assertion the housekeeper would have furnished, if she had
+      dared; but the Judge looked sternly at her, and unwilling to incur his
+      resentment, yet unable to contain her anger, she threw herself out of the
+      room with a toss of the body that nearly separated her frail form in the
+      centre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, observing that his displeasure had produced the
+      desired effect, &ldquo;can you inform me of anything concerning the youth whom I
+      so unfortunately wounded? I found him on the mountain hunting in company
+      with the Leather-Stocking, as if they were of the same family; but there
+      is a manifest difference in their manners. The youth delivers himself in
+      chosen language, such as is seldom heard in these hills, and such as
+      occasions great surprise to me, how one so meanly clad, and following so
+      lowly a pursuit, could attain. Mohegan also knew him. Doubtless he is a
+      tenant of Natty's hut. Did you remark the language of the lad. Monsieur Le
+      Quoi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainement, Monsieur Temple,&rdquo; returned the French man, &ldquo;he deed
+      convairse in de excellent Anglaise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boy is no miracle,&rdquo; exclaimed Richard; &ldquo;I've known children that were
+      sent to school early, talk much better before they were twelve years old.
+      There was Zared Coe, old Nehemiah's son, who first settled on the
+      beaver-dam meadow, he could write almost as good hand as myself, when he
+      was fourteen; though it's true, I helped to teach him a little in the
+      evenings. But this shooting gentleman ought to be put in the stocks, if he
+      ever takes a rein in his hand again. He is the most awkward fellow about a
+      horse I ever met with. I dare say he never drove anything but oxen in his
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, I think, Dickon, you do the lad injustice,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;he
+      uses much discretion in critical moments. Dost thou not think so, Bess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing in this question particularly to excite blushes, but
+      Elizabeth started from the revery into which she had fallen, and colored
+      to her forehead as she answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me, dear sir, he appeared extremely skilful, and prompt, and
+      courageous; but perhaps Cousin Richard will say I am as ignorant as the
+      gentleman himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentleman!&rdquo; echoed Richard; &ldquo;do you call such chaps gentlemen, at school,
+      Elizabeth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every man is a gentleman that knows how to treat a woman with respect and
+      consideration,&rdquo; returned the young lady promptly, and a little smartly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much for hesitating to appear before the heiress in his
+      shirt-sleeves,&rdquo; cried Richard, winking at Monsieur Le Quoi, who returned
+      the wink with one eye, while he rolled the other, with an expression of
+      sympathy, toward the young lady. &ldquo;Well, well, to me he seemed anything but
+      a gentleman. I must say, however, for the lad, that he draws a good
+      trigger, and has a true aim. He's good at shooting a buck, ha! Marmaduke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richart,&rdquo; said Major Hartmann, turning his grave countenance toward the
+      gentleman he addressed, with much earnestness, &ldquo;ter poy is goot. He savet
+      your life, and my life, and ter life of i'ominie Grant, and ter life of
+      ter Frenchman; and, Richard, he shall never vant a pet to sleep in vile
+      olt Fritz Hartmann has a shingle to cover his het mit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, as you please, old gentleman,&rdquo; returned Mr. Jones,
+      endeavoring to look indifferent; &ldquo;put him into your own stone house, if
+      you will, Major. I dare say the lad never slept in anything better than a
+      bark shanty in his life, unless it was some such hut as the cabin of
+      Leather-Stocking. I prophesy you will soon spoil him; any one could see
+      how proud he grew, in a short time, just because he stood by my horses'
+      heads while I turned them into the highway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my old friend,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, &ldquo;it shall be my task to provide
+      in some manner for the youth; I owe him a debt of my own, besides the
+      service he has done me through my friends. And yet I anticipate some
+      little trouble in inducing him to accept of my services. He showed a
+      marked dislike, I thought, Bess, to my offer of a residence within these
+      walls for life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, dear sir,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, projecting her beautiful under-lip, &ldquo;I
+      have not studied the gentleman so closely as to read his feelings in his
+      countenance. I thought he might very naturally feel pain from his wound,
+      and therefore pitied him; but&rdquo;&mdash;and as she spoke she glanced her eye,
+      with suppressed curiosity, toward the major-domo&mdash;&ldquo;I dare say, sir,
+      that Benjamin can tell you something about him, he cannot have been in the
+      village, and Benjamin not have seen him often.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! I have seen the boy before,&rdquo; said Benjamin, who wanted little
+      encouragement to speak; &ldquo;he has been backing and filling in the wake of
+      Natty Bumppo, through the mountains, after deer, like a Dutch long-boat in
+      tow of an Albany sloop. He carries a good rifle, too, 'the
+      Leather-Stocking said, in my hearing, before Betty Hollister's bar-room
+      fire, no later than the Tuesday night, that the younger was certain death
+      to the wild beasts. If so be he can kill the wild-cat that has been heard
+      moaning on the lake-side since the hard frosts and deep snows have driven
+      the deer to herd, he will be doing the thing that is good. Your wild-cat
+      is a bad shipmate, and should be made to cruise out of the track of
+      Christian men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lives he in the hut of Bumppo?&rdquo; asked Marmaduke, with some interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheek by jowl; the Wednesday will be three weeks since he first hove in
+      sight, in company with Leather-Stocking. They had captured a wolf between
+      them, and had brought in his scalp for the bounty. That Mister Bump-ho has
+      a handy turn with him in taking off a scalp; and there's them, in this
+      here village, who say he l'arnt the trade by working on Christian men. If
+      so be that there is truth in the saying, and I commanded along shore here,
+      as your honor does, why, d'ye see, I'd bring him to the gangway for it,
+      yet. There's a very pretty post rigged alongside of the stocks; and for
+      the matter of a cat, I can fit one with my own hands; ay! and use it too,
+      for the want of a better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty; he has a kind of
+      natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains; and if the idlers
+      in the village take it into their heads to annoy him, as they sometimes do
+      reputed rogues, they shall find him protected by the strong arm of the
+      law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ter rifle is petter as ter law,&rdquo; said the Major sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That for his rifle!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, snapping his fingers; &ldquo;Ben is
+      right, and I&mdash;&rdquo; He was stopped by the sound of a common ship-bell,
+      that had been elevated to the belfry of the academy, which now announced,
+      by its incessant ringing, that the hour for the appointed service had
+      arrived. &ldquo;'For this and every other instance of his goodness&mdash;' I beg
+      pardon, Mr. Grant, will you please to return thanks, sir? It is time we
+      should be moving, as we are the only Episcopalians in the neighborhood;
+      that is, I and Benjamin, and Elizabeth; for I count half&mdash;breeds,
+      like Marmaduke as bad as heretics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The divine arose and performed the office meekly and fervently, and the
+      whole party instantly prepared themselves for the church&mdash;or rather
+      academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And calling sinful man to pray,
+     Loud, long, and deep the bell had tolled.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Scotts Burgher
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While Richard and Monsieur Le Quoi, attended by Benjamin, proceeded to the
+      academy by a foot-path through the snow, the judge, his daughter, the
+      divine, and the Major took a more circuitous route to the same place by
+      the streets of the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon had risen, and its orb was shedding a flood of light over the
+      dark outline of pines which crowned the eastern mountain. In many climates
+      the sky would have been thought clear and lucid for a noontide. The stars
+      twinkled in the heavens, like the last glimmerings of distant fire, so
+      much were they obscured by the overwhelming radiance of the atmosphere;
+      the rays from the moon striking upon the smooth, white surfaces of the
+      lake and fields, reflecting upward a light that was brightened by the
+      spotless color of the immense bodies of snow which covered the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth employed herself with reading the signs, one of which appeared
+      over almost every door; while the sleigh moved steadily, and at an easy
+      gait, along the principal street. Not only new occupations, but names that
+      were strangers to her ears, met her gaze at every step they proceeded. The
+      very houses seemed changed. This had been altered by an addition; that had
+      been painted; another had been erected on the site of an old acquaintance,
+      which had been banished from the earth almost as soon as it made its
+      appearance on it. All were, however, pouring forth their inmates, who
+      uniformly held their way toward the point where the expected exhibition of
+      the conjoint taste of Richard and Benjamin was to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After viewing the buildings, which really appeared to some advantage under
+      the bright but mellow light of the moon, our heroine turned her eyes to a
+      scrutiny of the different figures they passed, in search of any form that
+      she knew. But all seemed alike, as muffled in cloaks, hoods, coats, or
+      tippets, they glided along the narrow passages in the snow which led under
+      the houses, half hid by the bank that had been thrown up in excavating the
+      deep path in which they trod. Once or twice she thought there was a
+      stature or a gait that she recollected; but the person who owned it
+      instantly disappeared behind one of those enormous piles of wood that lay
+      before most of the doors, It was only as they turned from the main street
+      into another that intersected it at right angles, and which led directly
+      to the place of meeting, that she recognized a face and building that she
+      knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house stood at one of the principal corners in the village; and by its
+      well-trodden doorway, as well as the sign that was swinging with a kind of
+      doleful sound in the blasts that occasionally swept down the lake, was
+      clearly one of the most frequented inns in the place. The building was
+      only of one story; but the dormer-windows in the roof, the paint, the
+      window-shutters, and the cheerful fire that shone through the open door,
+      gave it an air of comfort that was not possessed by many of its neighbors.
+      The sign was suspended from a common ale-house post, and represented the
+      figure of a horseman, armed with sabre and pistols, and surmounted by a
+      bear-skin cap, with a fiery animal that he bestrode &ldquo;rampant.&rdquo; All these
+      particulars were easily to be seen by the aid of the moon, together with a
+      row of somewhat illegible writing in black paint, but in which Elizabeth,
+      to whom the whole was familiar, read with facility, &ldquo;The Bold Dragoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A man and a woman were issuing from the door of this habitation as the
+      sleigh was passing, The former moved with a stiff, military step, that was
+      a good deal heightened by a limp in one leg; but the woman advanced with a
+      measure and an air that seemed not particularly regardful of what she
+      might encounter. The light of the moon fell directly upon her full, broad,
+      and red visage, exhibiting her masculine countenance, under the mockery of
+      a ruffled cap that was intended to soften the lineamints of features that
+      were by no means squeamish. A small bonnet of black silk, and of a
+      slightly formal cut, was placed on the back of her head, but so as not to
+      shade her visage in the least. The face, as it encountered the rays of the
+      moon from the east, seemed not unlike sun rising in the west. She advanced
+      with masculine strides to intercept the sleigh; and the Judge, directing
+      the namesake of the Grecian king, who held the lines, to check his horse,
+      the parties were soon near to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good luck to ye, and a welcome home, Jooge,&rdquo; cried the female, with a
+      strong Irish accent; &ldquo;and I'm sure it's to me that ye're always welcome.
+      Sure! and there's Miss Lizzy, and a fine young woman she is grown. What a
+      heart-ache would she be giving the young men now, if there was sich a
+      thing as a rigiment in the town! Och! but it's idle to talk of sich
+      vanities, while the bell is calling us to mateing jist as we shall be
+      called away unexpictedly some day, when we are the laist calkilating.
+      Good-even, Major; will I make the bowl of gin toddy the night, or it's
+      likely ye'll stay at the big house the Christmas eve, and the very night
+      of yer getting there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to see you, Mrs. Hollister,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth. &ldquo;I have been
+      trying to find a face that I knew since we left the door of the
+      mansion-house; but none have I seen except your own. Your house, too, is
+      unaltered, while all the others are so changed that, but for the places
+      where they stand, they would be utter strangers. I observe you also keep
+      the dear sign that I saw Cousin Richard paint; and even the name at the
+      bottom, about which, you may remember, you had the disagreement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the bould dragoon, ye mane? And what name would he have, who niver
+      was known by any other, as my husband here, the captain, can testify? He
+      was a pleasure to wait upon, and was ever the foremost in need. Och! but
+      he had a sudden end! but it's to be hoped that he was justified by the
+      cause, And it's not Parson Grant there who'll gainsay that same. Yes, yes;
+      the squire would paint, and so I thought that we might have his face up
+      there, who had so often shared good and evil wid us. The eyes is no so
+      large nor so fiery as the captain's Own; but the whiskers and the cap is
+      as two paes. Well, well, I'll not keep ye in the cowld, talking, but will
+      drop in the morrow after sarvice, and ask ye how ye do. It's our bounden
+      duty to make the most of this present, and to go to the house which is
+      open to all; so God bless ye, and keep ye from evil! Will I make the
+      gin-twist the night, or no, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this question the German replied, very sententiously, in the
+      affirmative; and, after a few words had passed between the husband of the
+      fiery-faced hostess and the Judge, the sleigh moved on. It soon reached
+      the door of the academy, where the party alighted and entered the
+      building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Mr. Jones and his two companions, having a much shorter
+      distance to journey, had arrived before the appointed place some minutes
+      sooner than the party in the sleigh. Instead of hastening into the room in
+      order to enjoy the astonishment of the settlers, Richard placed a hand in
+      either pocket of his surcoat, and affected to walk about, in front of the
+      academy, like one to whom the ceremonies were familiar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The villagers proceeded uniformly into the building, with a decorum and
+      gravity that nothing could move, on such occasions; but with a haste that
+      was probably a little heightened by curiosity. Those who came in from the
+      adjacent country spent some little time in placing certain blue and white
+      blankets over their horses before they proceeded to indulge their desire
+      to view the interior of the house. Most of these men Richard approached,
+      and inquired after the health and condition of their families. The
+      readiness with which he mentioned the names of even the children, showed
+      how very familiarly acquainted he was with their circumstances; and the
+      nature of the answers he received proved that he was a general favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length one of the pedestrians from the village stopped also, and fixed
+      an earnest gaze at a new brick edifice that was throwing a long shadow
+      across the fields of snow, as it rose, with a beautiful gradation of light
+      and shade, under the rays of a full moon. In front of the academy was a
+      vacant piece of ground, that was intended for a public square. On the side
+      opposite to Mr. Jones, the new and as yet unfinished church of St. Paul's
+      was erected, This edifice had been reared during the preceding summer, by
+      the aid of what was called a subscription; though all, or nearly all, of
+      the money came from the pockets of the landlord. It had been built under a
+      strong conviction of the necessity of a more seemly place of worship than
+      &ldquo;the long room of the academy,&rdquo; and under an implied agreement that, after
+      its completion, the question should be fairly put to the people, that they
+      might decide to what denomination it should belong. Of course, this
+      expectation kept alive a strong excitement in some few of the sectaries
+      who were interested in its decision; though but little was said openly on
+      the subject. Had Judge Temple espoused the cause of any particular sect,
+      the question would have been immediately put at rest, for his influence
+      was too powerful to be opposed; but he declined interference in the
+      matter, positively refusing to lend even the weight of his name on the
+      side of Richard, who had secretly given an assurance to his diocesan that
+      both the building and the congregation would cheerfully come within the
+      pale of the Protestant Episcopal Church. But, when the neutrality of the
+      Judge was clearly ascertained, Mr. Jones discovered that he had to contend
+      with a stiff necked people. His first measure was to go among them and
+      commence a course of reasoning, in order to bring them round to his own
+      way of thinking. They all heard him patiently, and not a man uttered a
+      word in reply in the way of argument, and Richard thought, by the time
+      that he had gone through the settlement, the point was conclusively
+      decided in his favor. Willing to strike while the iron was hot, he called
+      a meeting, through the newspaper, with a view to decide the question by a
+      vote at once. Not a soul attended; and one of the most anxious afternoons
+      that he had ever known was spent by Richard in a vain discussion with Mrs.
+      Hollister, who strongly contended that the Methodist (her own) church was
+      the best entitled to and most deserving of, the possession of the new
+      tabernacle. Richard now perceived that he had been too sanguine, and had
+      fallen into the error of all those who ignorantly deal with that wary and
+      sagacious people. He assumed a disguise himself&mdash;that is, as well as
+      he knew how, and proceeded step by step to advance his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The task of erecting the building had been unanimously transferred to Mr.
+      Jones and Hiram Doolittle. Together they had built the mansion-house, the
+      academy, and the jail, and they alone knew how to plan and rear such a
+      structure as was now required. Early in the day, these architects had made
+      an equitable division of their duties. To the former was assigned the duty
+      of making all the plans, and to the latter the labor of superintending the
+      execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Availing himself of this advantage, Richard silently determined that the
+      windows should have the Roman arch; the first positive step in effecting
+      his wishes. As the building was made of bricks, he was enabled to conceal
+      his design until the moment arrived for placing the frames; then, indeed,
+      it became necessary to act. He communicated his wishes to Hiram with great
+      caution; and, without in the least adverting to the spiritual part of his
+      project, he pressed the point a little warmly on the score of
+      architectural beauty. Hiram heard him patiently, and without
+      contradiction, but still Richard was unable to discover the views of his
+      coadjutor on this interesting subject. As the right to plan was duly
+      delegated to Mr. Jones, no direct objection was made in words. but
+      numberless unexpected difficulties arose in the execution. At first there
+      was a scarcity in the right kind of material necessary to form the frames;
+      but this objection was instantly silenced by Richard running his pencil
+      through two feet of their length at one stroke. Then the expense was
+      mentioned; but Richard reminded Hiram that his cousin paid, and that he
+      was treasurer. This last intimation had great weight, and after a silent
+      and protracted, but fruitless opposition, the work was suffered to proceed
+      on the original plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next difficulty occurred in the steeple, which Richard had modelled
+      after one of the smaller of those spires that adorn the great London
+      cathedral. The imitation was somewhat lame, it was true, the proportions
+      being but in differently observed; but, after much difficulty, Mr. Jones
+      had the satisfaction of seeing an object reared that bore in its outlines,
+      a striking resemblance to a vinegar-cruet. There was less opposition to
+      this model than to the windows; for the settlers were fond of novelty, and
+      their steeple was without a precedent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the labor ceased for the season, and the difficult question of the
+      interior remained for further deliberation. Richard well knew that, when
+      he came to propose a reading-desk and a chancel, he must unmask; for these
+      were arrangements known to no church in the country but his own.
+      Presuming, however, on the advantages he had already obtained, he boldly
+      styled the building St. Paul's, and Hiram prudently acquiesced in this
+      appellation, making, however, the slight addition of calling it &ldquo;New St.
+      Paul's,&rdquo; feeling less aversion to a name taken from the English cathedral
+      than from the saint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pedestrian whom we have already mentioned, as pausing to contemplate
+      this edifice, was no other than the gentleman so frequently named as Mr.
+      or Squire Doolittle. He was of a tall, gaunt formation, with rather sharp
+      features, and a face that expressed formal propriety mingled with low
+      cunning. Richard approached him, followed by Monsieur Le Quoi and the
+      major-domo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-evening, squire,&rdquo; said Richard, bobbing his head, but without moving
+      his hands from his pockets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-evening, squire,&rdquo; echoed Hiram, turning his body in order to turn
+      his head also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A cold night, Mr. Doolittle, a cold night, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coolish; a tedious spell on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, looking at our church, ha! It looks well, by moonlight; how the tin
+      of the cupola glistens! I warrant you the dome of the other St. Paul's
+      never shines so in the smoke of London.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a pretty meeting-house to look on,&rdquo; returned Hiram, &ldquo;and I believe
+      that Monshure Ler Quow and Mr. Penguilliam will allow it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sairtainlee!&rdquo; exclaimed the complaisant Frenchman, &ldquo;it ees ver fine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought the monshure would say so. The last molasses that we had was
+      excellent good. It isn't likely that you have any more of it on hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! oui; ees, sair,&rdquo; returned Monsieur Le Quoi, with a slight shrug of
+      his shoulder, and a trifling grimace, &ldquo;dere is more. I feel ver happi dat
+      you love eet. I hope dat Madame Doleet' is in good 'ealth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, so as to be stirring,&rdquo; said Hiram. &ldquo;The squire hasn't finished the
+      plans for the inside of the meeting house yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no&mdash;no,&rdquo; returned Richard, speaking quickly, but making a
+      significant pause between each negative&mdash;.. &ldquo;it requires reflection.
+      There is a great deal of room to fill up, and I am afraid we shall not
+      know how to dispose of it to advantage. There will be a large vacant spot
+      around the pulpit, which I do not mean to place against the wall, like a
+      sentry-box stuck up on the side of a fort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is ruleable to put the deacons' box under the pulpit,&rdquo; said Hiram; and
+      then, as if he had ventured too much, he added, &ldquo;but there's different
+      fashions in different Countries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That there is,&rdquo; cried Benjamin; &ldquo;now, in running down the coast of Spain
+      and Portingall, you may see a nunnery stuck out on every headland, with
+      more steeples and outriggers such as dog-vanes and weathercocks, than
+      you'll find aboard of a three-masted schooner. If so be that a well-built
+      church is wanting, old England, after all, is the country to go to after
+      your models and fashion pieces. As to Paul's, thof I've never seen it,
+      being that it's a long way up town from Radcliffe Highway and the docks,
+      yet everybody knows that it's the grandest place in the world Now, I've no
+      opinion but this here church over there is as like one end of it as a
+      grampus is to a whale; and that's only a small difference in bulk.
+      Mounsheer Ler Quaw, here, has been in foreign parts; and thof that is not
+      the same as having been at home, yet he must have seen churches in France
+      too, and can form a small idee of what a church should be; now I ask the
+      mounsheer to his face if it is not a clever little thing, taking it by and
+      large.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It ees ver apropos of saircumstance,&rdquo; said the Frenchman&mdash;&ldquo;ver
+      judgment&mdash;but it is in the catholique country dat dey build de&mdash;vat
+      you call&mdash;ah a ah-ha&mdash;la grande cathédrale&mdash;de big church.
+      St. Paul, Londre, is ver fine; ver belle; ver grand&mdash;vat you call
+      beeg; but, Monsieur Ben, pardonnez-moi, it is no vort so much as Notre
+      Dame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! mounsheer, what is that you say?&rdquo; cried Benjamin; &ldquo;St. Paul's church
+      is not worth so much as a damn! Mayhap you may be thinking too that the
+      Royal Billy isn't so good a ship as the Billy de Paris; but she would have
+      licked two of her any day, and in all weathers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Benjamin had assumed a very threatening kind of attitude, flourishing
+      an arm with a bunch at the end of it that was half as big as Monsieur Le
+      Quoi's head, Richard thought it time to interpose his authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Benjamin, hush,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;you both misunderstand Monsieur Le Quoi
+      and forget yourself. But here comes Mr. Grant, and the service will
+      commence. Let us go in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frenchman, who received Benjamin's reply with a well-bred good-humor
+      that would not admit of any feeling but pity for the other's ignorance,
+      bowed in acquiescence and followed his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram and the major-domo brought up the rear, the latter grumbling as he
+      entered the building:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If so be that the king of France had so much as a house to live in that
+      would lay alongside of Paul's, one might put up with their jaw. It's more
+      than flesh and blood can bear to hear a Frenchman run down an English
+      church in this manner. Why, Squire Doolittle, I've been at the whipping of
+      two of them in one day&mdash;clean built, snug frigates with standing
+      royals and them new-fashioned cannonades on their quarters&mdash;such as,
+      if they had only Englishmen aboard of them, would have fout the devil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this ominous word in his mouth Benjamin entered the church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Goldsmith.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the united labors of Richard and Benjamin, the &ldquo;long room&rdquo;
+       was but an extremely inartificial temple. Benches; made in the coarsest
+      manner, and entirely with a view to usefulness, were arranged in rows for
+      the reception of the Congregation; while a rough, unpainted box was placed
+      against the wall, in the centre of the length of the apartment, as an
+      apology for a pulpit. Something like a reading-desk was in front of this
+      rostrum; and a small mahogany table from the mansion-house, covered with a
+      spotless damask cloth, stood a little on one side, by the way of an altar.
+      Branches of pines and hemlocks were stuck in each of the fissures that
+      offered in the unseasoned and hastily completed woodwork of both the
+      building and its furniture; while festoons and hieroglyphics met the eye
+      in vast profusion along the brown sides of the scratch-coated walls. As
+      the room was only lighted by some ten or fifteen miserable candles, and
+      the windows were without shutters, it would have been but a dreary,
+      cheerless place for the solemnities of a Christmas eve, had not the large
+      fire that was crackling at each end of the apartment given an air of
+      cheerfulness to the scene, by throwing an occasional glare of light
+      through the vistas of bushes and faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two sexes were separated by an area in the centre of the room
+      immediately before the pulpit; amid a few benches lined this space, that
+      were occupied by the principal personages of the village and its vicinity.
+      This distinction was rather a gratuitous concession made by the poorer and
+      less polished part of the population than a right claimed by the favored
+      few. One bench was occupied by the party of Judge Temple, including his
+      daughter, and, with the exception of Dr. Todd, no one else appeared
+      willing to incur the imputation of pride, by taking a seat in what was,
+      literally, the high place of the tabernacle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard filled the chair that was placed behind another table, in the
+      capacity of clerk; while Benjamin, after heaping sundry logs on the fire,
+      posted himself nigh by, in reserve for any movement that might require
+      co-operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would greatly exceed our limits to attempt a description of the
+      congregation, for the dresses were as various as the individuals. Some one
+      article of more than usual finery, and perhaps the relic of other days,
+      was to be seen about most of the females, in connection with the coarse
+      attire of the woods. This wore a faded silk, that had gone through at
+      least three generations, over coarse, woollen black stockings; that, a
+      shawl, whose dyes were as numerous as those of the rainbow, over an
+      awkwardly fitting gown of rough brown &ldquo;woman's wear.&rdquo; In short, each one
+      exhibited some favorite article, and all appeared in their best, both men
+      and women; while the ground-works in dress, in either sex, were the coarse
+      fabrics manufactured within their own dwellings. One man appeared in the
+      dress of a volunteer company of artillery, of which he had been a member
+      in the &ldquo;down countries,&rdquo; precisely for no other reason than because it was
+      the best suit he had. Several, particularly of the younger men, displayed
+      pantaloons of blue, edged with red cloth down the seams part of the
+      equipments of the &ldquo;Templeton Light Infantry,&rdquo; from a little vanity to be
+      seen in &ldquo;boughten clothes.&rdquo; There was also one man in a &ldquo;rifle frock,&rdquo;
+       with its fringes and folds of spotless white, striking a chill to the
+      heart with the idea of its coolness, although the thick coat of brown
+      &ldquo;home-made&rdquo; that was concealed beneath preserved a proper degree of
+      warmth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marked uniformity of expression in Countenance, especially in
+      that half of the congregation who did not enjoy the advantages of the
+      polish of the village. A sallow skin, that indicated nothing but exposure,
+      was common to all, as was an air of great decency and attention, mingled,
+      generally, with an expression of shrewdness, and in the present instance
+      of active curiosity. Now and then a face and dress were to be seen among
+      the congregation, that differed entirely from this description. If
+      pock-marked and florid, with gartered legs, and a coat that snugly fitted
+      the person of the wearer, it was surely an English emigrant, who had bent
+      his steps to this retired quarter of the globe. If hard-featured and
+      without color, with high cheek-bones, it was a native of Scotland, in
+      similar circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short, black-eyed man, with a cast of the swarthy Spaniard in his
+      face, who rose repeatedly to make room for the belles of the village as
+      they entered, was a son of Erin, who had lately left off his pack, and
+      become a stationary trader in Templeton. In short, half the nations in the
+      north of Europe had their representatives in this assembly, though all had
+      closely assimilated themselves to the Americans in dress and appearance,
+      except the English man. He, indeed, not only adhered to his native customs
+      in attire and living, but usually drove his plough among the stumps in the
+      same manner as he had before done on the plains of Norfolk, until
+      dear-bought experience taught him the useful lesson that a sagacious
+      people knew what was suited to their circumstances better than a casual
+      observer, or a sojourner who was, perhaps, too much prejudiced to compare
+      and, peradventure, too conceited to learn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth soon discovered that she divided the attention of the
+      congregation with Mr. Grant. Timidity, therefore, confined her observation
+      of the appearances which we have described to stoles glances; but, as the
+      stamping of feet was now becoming less frequent, and even the coughing,
+      and other little preliminaries of a congregation settling themselves down
+      into reverential attention, were ceasing, she felt emboldened to look
+      around her. Gradually all noises diminished, until the suppressed cough
+      denoted that it was necessary to avoid singularity, and the most profound
+      stillness pervaded the apartment. The snapping of the fires, as they threw
+      a powerful heat into the room, was alone heard, and each face and every
+      eye were turned on the divine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, a heavy stamping of feet was heard in the passage below,
+      as if a new-comer was releasing his limbs from the snow that was
+      necessarily clinging to the legs of a pedestrian. It was succeeded by no
+      audible tread; but directly Mohegan, followed by the Leather-Stocking and
+      the young hunter, made his appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their footsteps would not have been heard, as they trod the apartment in
+      their moccasins, but for the silence which prevailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian moved with great gravity across the floor, and, observing a
+      vacant seat next to the Judge, he took it, in a manner that manifested his
+      sense of his own dignity. Here, drawing his blanket closely around him so
+      as partly to conceal his countenance, he remained during the service
+      immovable, but deeply attentive. Natty passed the place that was so freely
+      taken by his red companion, and seated himself on one end of a log that
+      was lying near the fire, where he continued, with his rifle standing
+      between his legs, absorbed in reflections seemingly of no very pleasing
+      nature. The youth found a seat among the congregation, and another silence
+      prevailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Grant now arose and commenced his service with the sublime declaration
+      of the Hebrew prophet: &ldquo;The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth
+      keep silence before Him.&rdquo; The example of Mr. Jones was unnecessary to
+      teach the congregation to rise; the solemnity of the divine effected this
+      as by magic. After a short pause, Mr. Grant proceeded with the solemn and
+      winning exhortation of his service. Nothing was heard but the deep though
+      affectionate tones of the reader, as he went slowly through this exordium;
+      until, something unfortunately striking the mind of Richard as incomplete,
+      he left his place and walked on tiptoe from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the clergyman bent his knees in prayer and confession, the
+      congregation so far imitated his example as to resume their seats; whence
+      no succeeding effort of the divine, during the evening, was able to remove
+      them in a body. Some rose at times; but by far the larger part continued
+      unbending; observant, it is true, but it was the kind of observation that
+      regarded the ceremony as a spectacle rather than a worship in which they
+      were to participate. Thus deserted by his clerk Mr. Grant continued to
+      read; but no response was audible. The short and solemn pause that
+      succeeded each petition was made; still no voice repeated the eloquent
+      language of the prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lips of Elizabeth moved, but they moved in vain and accustomed as she
+      was to the service of the churches of the metropolis, she was beginning to
+      feel the awkwardness of the circumstance most painfully when a soft, low
+      female voice repeated after the priest, &ldquo;We have left undone those things
+      which we ought to have done.&rdquo; Startled at finding one of her own sex in
+      that place who could rise superior to natural timidity, Miss Temple turned
+      her eyes in the direction of the penitent. She observed a young female on
+      her knees, but a short distance from her, with her meek face humbly bent
+      over her book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of this stranger, for such she was, entirely, to Elizabeth,
+      was light and fragile. Her dress was neat and becoming; and her
+      countenance, though pale and slightly agitated, excited deep interest by
+      its sweet and melancholy expression. A second and third response was made
+      by this juvenile assistant, when the manly sounds of a male voice
+      proceeded from the opposite part of the room, Miss Temple knew the tones
+      of the young hunter instantly, and struggling to overcome her own
+      diffidence she added her low voice to the number.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time Benjamin stood thumbing the leaves of a prayer-book with
+      great industry; but some unexpected difficulties prevented his finding the
+      place. Before the divine reached the close of the confession, however,
+      Richard reappeared at the door, and, as he moved lightly across the room,
+      he took up the response, in a voice that betrayed no other concern than
+      that of not being heard. In his hand he carried a small open box, with the
+      figures &ldquo;8 by 10&rdquo; written in black paint on one of its sides; which,
+      having placed in the pulpit, apparently as a footstool for the divine, he
+      returned to his station in time to say, sonorously, &ldquo;Amen.&rdquo; The eyes of
+      the congregation, very naturally, were turned to the windows, as Mr. Jones
+      entered with his singular load; and then, as if accustomed to his &ldquo;general
+      agency,&rdquo; were again bent on the priest, in close and curious attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long experience of Mr. Grant admirably qualified him to perform his
+      present duty. He well understood the character of his listeners, who were
+      mostly a primitive people in their habits; and who, being a good deal
+      addicted to subtleties and nice distinctions in their religious opinions,
+      viewed the introduction of any such temporal assistance as form into their
+      spiritual worship not only with jealousy, but frequently with disgust. He
+      had acquired much of his knowledge from studying the great book of human
+      nature as it lay open in the world; and, knowing how dangerous it was to
+      contend with ignorance, uniformly endeavored to avoid dictating where his
+      better reason taught him it was the most prudent to attempt to lead, His
+      orthodoxy had no dependence on his cassock; he could pray with fervor and
+      with faith, if circumstances required it, without the assistance of his
+      clerk; and he had even been known to preach a most evangelical sermon, in
+      the winning manner of native eloquence, without the aid of a cambric
+      handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present instance he yielded, in many places, to the prejudices of
+      his congregation; and when he had ended, there was not one of his new
+      hearers who did not think the ceremonies less papal and offensive, and
+      more conformant to his or her own notions of devout worship, than they had
+      been led to expect from a service of forms, Richard found in the divine,
+      during the evening, a most powerful co-operator in his religious schemes.
+      In preaching, Mr. Grant endeavored to steer a middle course between the
+      mystical doctrines of those sublimated creeds which daily involve their
+      professors in the most absurd contradictions, and those fluent roles of
+      moral government which would reduce the Saviour to a level with the
+      teacher of a school of ethics. Doctrine it was necessary to preach, for
+      nothing less would have satisfied the disputatious people who were his
+      listeners, and who would have interpreted silence on his part into a tacit
+      acknowledgment of the superficial nature of his creed. We have already
+      said that, among the endless variety of religious instructors, the
+      settlers were accustomed to hear every denomination urge its own
+      distinctive precepts, and to have found one indifferent to this
+      Interesting subject would have been destructive to his influence. But Mr.
+      Grant so happily blended the universally received opinions of the
+      Christian faith with the dogmas of his own church that, although none were
+      entirely exempt from the influence of his reasons, very few took any alarm
+      at the innovation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When we consider the great diversity of the human character, influenced
+      as it is by education, by opportunity, and by the physical and moral
+      conditions of the creature, my dear hearers,&rdquo; he earnestly concluded &ldquo;it
+      can excite no surprise that creeds so very different in their tendencies
+      should grow out of a religion revealed, it is true, but whose revelations
+      are obscured by the lapse of ages, and whose doctrines were, after the
+      fashion of the countries in which they were first promulgated, frequently
+      delivered in parables, and in a language abounding in metaphors and loaded
+      with figures. On points where the learned have, in purity of heart, been
+      compelled to differ, the unlettered will necessarily be at variance. But,
+      happily for us, my brethren, the fountain of divine love flows from a
+      source too pure to admit of pollution in its course; it extends, to those
+      who drink of its vivifying waters, the peace of the righteous, and life
+      everlasting; it endures through all time, and it pervades creation. If
+      there be mystery in its workings, it is the mystery of a Divinity. With a
+      clear knowledge of the nature, the might, and the majesty of God, there
+      might be conviction, but there could be no faith. If we are required to
+      believe in doctrines that seem not in conformity with the deductions of
+      human wisdom, let us never forget that such is the mandate of a wisdom
+      that is infinite. It is sufficient for us that enough is developed to
+      point our path aright, and to direct our wandering steps to that portal
+      which shall open on the light of an eternal day. Then, indeed, it may be
+      humbly hoped that the film which has been spread by the subtleties of
+      earthly arguments will be dissipated by the spiritual light of Heaven; and
+      that our hour of probation, by the aid of divine grace, being once passed
+      in triumph, will be followed by an eternity of intelligence and endless
+      ages of fruition. All that is now obscure shall become plain to our
+      expanded faculties; and what to our present senses may seem irreconcilable
+      to our limited notions of mercy, of justice, and of love, shall stand
+      irradiated by the light of truth, confessedly the suggestions of
+      Omniscience, and the acts of an All-powerful Benevolence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a lesson of humility, my brethren, might not each of us obtain from
+      a review of his infant hours, and the recollection of his juvenile
+      passions! How differently do the same acts of parental rigor appear in the
+      eyes of the suffering child and of the chastened man! When the sophist
+      would supplant, with the wild theories of his worldly wisdom, the positive
+      mandates of inspiration, let him remember the expansion of his own feeble
+      intellects, and pause&mdash;let him feel the wisdom of God in what is
+      partially concealed as well as that which is revealed; in short, let him
+      substitute humility for pride of reason&mdash;let him have faith, and
+      live!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The consideration of this subject is full of consolation, my hearers, and
+      does not fail to bring with it lessons of humility and of profit, that,
+      duly improved, would both chasten the heart and strengthen the
+      feeble-minded man in his course. It is a blessed consolation to be able to
+      lay the misdoubtings of our arrogant nature at the threshold of the
+      dwelling-place of the Deity, from whence they shall be swept away, at the
+      great opening of the portal, like the mists of the morning before the
+      rising sun. It teaches us a lesson of humility, by impressing us with the
+      imperfection of human powers, and by warning us of the many weak points
+      where we are open to the attack of the great enemy of our race; it proves
+      to us that we are in danger of being weak, when our vanity would fain
+      soothe us into the belief that we are most strong; it forcibly points out
+      to us the vainglory of intellect, and shows us the vast difference between
+      a saving faith and the corollaries of a philosophical theology; and it
+      teaches us to reduce our self-examination to the test of good works. By
+      good works must be understood the fruits of repentance, the chiefest of
+      which is charity. Not that charity only which causes us to help the needy
+      and comfort the suffering, but that feeling of universal philanthropy
+      which, by teaching us to love, causes us to judge with lenity all men;
+      striking at the root of self-righteousness, and warning us to be sparing
+      of our condemnation of others, while our own salvation is not yet secure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lesson of expediency, my brethren, which I would gather from the
+      consideration of this subject, is most strongly inculcated by humility. On
+      the heading and essential points of our faith, there is but little
+      difference among those classes of Christians who acknowledge the
+      attributes of the Saviour, and depend on his mediation. But heresies have
+      polluted every church, and schisms are the fruit of disputation. In order
+      to arrest these dangers, and to insure the union of his followers, it
+      would seem that Christ had established his visible church and delegated
+      the ministry. Wise and holy men, the fathers of our religion, have
+      expended their labors in clearing what was revealed from the obscurities
+      of language, and the results of their experience and researches have been
+      embodied in the form of evangelical discipline That this discipline must
+      be salutary, is evident from the view of the weakness of human nature that
+      we have already taken; and that it may be profitable to us, and all who
+      listen to its precepts and its liturgy, may God, in his infinite wisdom,
+      grant!&mdash;And now to,&rdquo; etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this ingenious reference to his own forms and ministry, Mr. Grant
+      concluded his discourse. The most profound attention had been paid to the
+      sermon during the whole of its delivery, although the prayers had not been
+      received with so perfect demonstration of respect. This was by no means an
+      intended slight of that liturgy to which the divine alluded, but was the
+      habit of a people who owed their very existence, as a distinct nation, to
+      the doctrinal character of their ancestors. Sundry looks of private
+      dissatisfaction were exchanged between Hiram and one or two of the leading
+      members of the conference, but the feeling went no further at that time;
+      and the congregation, after receiving the blessing of Mr. Grant.,
+      dispersed in Silence, and with great decorum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Your creeds and dogmas of a learned church
+     May build a fabric, fair with moral beauty;
+     But it would seem that the strong hand of God
+     Can, only, 'rase the devil from the heart.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Duo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While the congregation was separating, Mr. Grant approached the place
+      where Elizabeth and her father were seated, leading the youthful female
+      whom we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, and presented her as his
+      daughter. Her reception was as cordial and frank as the manners of the
+      country and the value of good society could render it; the two young women
+      feeling, instantly, that they were necessary to the comfort of each other,
+      The Judge, to whom the clergyman's daughter was also a stranger, was
+      pleased to find one who, from habits, sex, and years, could probably
+      contribute largely to the pleasures of his own child, during her first
+      privations on her removal from the associations of a city to the solitude
+      of Templeton; while Elizabeth, who had been forcibly struck with the
+      sweetness and devotion of the youthful suppliant, removed the slight
+      embarrassment of the timid stranger by the ease of her own manners. They
+      were at once acquainted; and, during the ten minutes that the &ldquo;academy&rdquo;
+       was clearing, engagements were made between the young people, not only for
+      the succeeding day, but they would probably have embraced in their
+      arrangements half of the winter, had not the divine interrupted them by
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, gently, my dear Miss Temple, or you will make my girl too
+      dissipated. You forget that she is my housekeeper, and that my domestic
+      affairs must remain unattended to, should Louisa accept of half the kind
+      offers you are so good as to make her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should they not be neglected entirely, sir?&rdquo; interrupted
+      Elizabeth. &ldquo;There are but two of you; and certain I am that my father's
+      house will not only contain you both, but will open its doors
+      spontaneously to receive such guests. Society is a good not to be rejected
+      on account of cold forms, in this wilderness, sir; and I have often heard
+      my father say, that hospitality is not a virtue in a new country, the
+      favor being conferred by the guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The manner in which Judge Temple exercises its rites would confirm this
+      opinion; but we must not trespass too freely. Doubt not that you will see
+      us often, my child, particularly during the frequent visits that I shall
+      be compelled to make to the distant parts of the country. But to obtain an
+      influence with such a people,&rdquo; he continued, glancing his eyes toward the
+      few who were still lingering, curious observers of the interview, &ldquo;a
+      clergyman most not awaken envy or distrust by dwelling under so splendid a
+      roof as that of Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You like the roof, then, Mr. Grant,&rdquo; cried Richard, who had been
+      directing the extinguishment of the fires and other little necessary
+      duties, and who approached in time to hear the close of the divine's
+      speech. &ldquo;I am glad to find one man of taste at last. Here's 'Duke now,
+      pretends to call it by every abusive name he can invent; but though 'Duke
+      is a tolerable judge, he is a very poor carpenter, let me tell him. Well,
+      sir, well, I think we may say, without boasting, that the service was as
+      well per formed this evening as you often see; I think, quite as well as I
+      ever knew it to be done in old Trinity&mdash;that is, if we except the
+      organ. But there is the school-master leads the psalm with a very good
+      air. I used to lead myself, but latterly I have sung nothing but bass.
+      There is a good deal of science to be shown in the bass, and it affords a
+      fine opportunity to show off a full, deep voice. Benjamin, too, sings a
+      good bass, though he is often out in the words. Did you ever hear Benjamin
+      sing the 'Bay of Biscay,'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe he gave us part of it this evening,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, laughing.
+      &ldquo;There was, now and then, a fearful quaver in his voice, and it seems that
+      Mr. Penguillian is like most others who do one thing particularly well; he
+      knows nothing else. He has, certainly, a wonderful partiality to one tune,
+      and he has a prodigious self-confidence in that one, for he delivers
+      himself like a northwester sweeping across the lake. But come, gentlemen,
+      our way is clear, and the sleigh waits. Good-evening, Mr. Grant.
+      Good-night, young lady&mdash;remember you dine beneath the Corinthian
+      roof, to-morrow, with Elizabeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The parties separated, Richard holding a close dissertation with Mr. Le
+      Quoi, as they descended the stairs, on the subject of psalmody, which he
+      closed by a violent eulogium on the air of the &ldquo;Bay of Biscay, O,&rdquo; as
+      particularly connected with his friend Benjamin's execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the preceding dialogue, Mohegan retained his seat, with his head
+      shrouded in his blanket, as seemingly inattentive to surrounding objects
+      as the departing congregation was itself to the presence of the aged
+      chief, Natty, also, continued on the log where he had first placed
+      himself, with his head resting on one of his hands, while the other held
+      the rifle, which was thrown carelessly across his lap. His countenance
+      expressed uneasiness, and the occasional unquiet glances that he had
+      thrown around him during the service plainly indicated some unusual causes
+      for unhappiness. His continuing seated was, how ever, out of respect to
+      the Indian chief to whom he paid the utmost deference on all occasions,
+      although it was mingled with the rough manner of a hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young companion of these two ancient inhabitants of the forest
+      remained also standing before the extinguished brands, probably from an
+      unwillingness to depart without his comrades. The room was now deserted by
+      all but this group, the divine, and his daughter. As the party from the
+      mansion-house disappeared, John arose, and, dropping the blanket from his
+      head, he shook back the mass of black hair from his face, and, approaching
+      Mr. Grant, he extended his hand, and said solemnly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, I thank you. The words that have been said, since the rising
+      moon, have gone upward, and the Great Spirit is glad. What you have told
+      your children, they will remember, and be good.&rdquo; He paused a moment, and
+      then, elevating himself with the grandeur of an Indian chief, he added:
+      &ldquo;If Chingachgook lives to travel toward the setting sun, after his tribe,
+      and the Great Spirit carries him over the lakes and mountains with the
+      breath of his body, he will tell his people the good talk he has heard;
+      and they will believe him; for who can say that Mohegan has ever lied?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him place his dependence on the goodness of Divine mercy,&rdquo; said Mr.
+      Grant, to whom the proud consciousness of the Indian sounded a little
+      heterodox, &ldquo;and it never will desert him. When the heart is filled with
+      love to God, there is no room for sin. But, young man, to you I owe not
+      only an obligation, in common with those you saved this evening on the
+      mountain, but my thanks for your respectable and pious manner in assisting
+      in the service at a most embarrassing moment. I should be happy to see you
+      sometimes at my dwelling, when, perhaps, my conversation may strengthen
+      you in the path which you appear to have chosen. It is so unusual to find
+      one of your age and appearance, in these woods, at all acquainted with our
+      holy liturgy, that it lessens at once the distance between us, and I feel
+      that we are no longer strangers. You seem quite at home in the service; I
+      did not perceive that you had even a book, although good Mr. Jones, had
+      laid several in different parts of the room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be strange if I were ignorant of the service of our church,
+      sir,&rdquo; returned the youth modestly; &ldquo;for I was baptized in its communion
+      and I have never yet attended public worship elsewhere. For me to use the
+      forms of any other denomination would be as singular as our own have
+      proved to the people here this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You give me great pleasure, my dear sir,&rdquo; cried the divine, seizing the
+      other by the hand, and shaking it cordially. &ldquo;You will go home with me now&mdash;indeed
+      you must&mdash;my child has yet to thank you for saving my life. I
+      will-listen to no apologies. This worthy Indian, and your friend, there,
+      will accompany us. Bless me! to think that' he has arrived at manhood in
+      this country, without entering a dissenting * meeting-house!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The divines of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States
+    commonly call other denominations Dissenters, though there never was
+    an established church in their own country!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; interrupted the Leather-Stocking, &ldquo;I must away to the wigwam;
+      there's work there that mustn't be forgotten for all your churchings and
+      merry-makings. Let the lad go with you in welcome; he is used to keeping
+      company with ministers, and talking of such matters; so is old John, who
+      was christianized by the Moravians abouts the time of the old war. But I
+      am a plain unlarned man, that has sarved both the king and his country, in
+      his day, agin' the French and savages, but never so much as looked into a
+      book, or larnt a letter of scholarship, in my born days. I've never seen
+      the use of much in-door work, though I have lived to be partly bald, and
+      in my time have killed two hundred beaver in a season, and that without
+      counting the other game. If you mistrust what I am telling you, you can
+      ask Chingachgook there, for I did it in the heart of the Delaware country,
+      and the old man is knowing to the truth of every word I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt not, my friend, that you have been both a valiant soldier and
+      skilful hunter in your day,&rdquo; said the divine; &ldquo;but more is wanting to
+      prepare you for that end which approaches. You may have heard the maxim,
+      that 'young men may die, but that old men must'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure I never was so great a fool as to expect to live forever,&rdquo; said
+      Natty, giving one of his silent laughs; &ldquo;no man need do that who trails
+      the savages through the woods, as I have done, and lives, for the hot
+      months, on the lake streams. I've a strong constitution, I must say that
+      for myself, as is plain to be seen; for I've drunk the Onondaga water a
+      hundred times, while I've been watching the deer-licks, when the
+      fever-an'-agy seeds was to be seen in it as plain and as plenty as you can
+      see the rattle snakes on old Crumhorn. But then I never expected to hold
+      out forever; though there's them living who have seen the German flats a
+      wilderness; ay! and them that's larned, and acquainted with religion, too;
+      though you might look a week, now, and not find even the stump of a pine
+      on them; and that's a wood that lasts in the ground the better part of a
+      hundred years after the tree is dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is but time, my good friend,&rdquo; returned Mr. Grant, who began to take
+      an interest in the welfare of his new acquaintance, &ldquo;but I would have you
+      prepare for eternity. It is incumbent on you to attend places of public
+      worship, as I am pleased to see that you have done this evening. Would it
+      not be heedless in you to start on a day's toil of hard hunting, and leave
+      your ramrod and flint behind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be a young hand in the woods,&rdquo; interrupted Natty, with another
+      laugh, &ldquo;that didn't know how to dress a rod out of an ash sapling or find
+      a fire-stone in the mountains. No, no, I never expected to live forever;
+      but I see, times be altering in these mountains from what they was thirty
+      years ago, or, for that matter, ten years. But might makes right, and the
+      law is stronger than an old man, whether he is one that has much laming,
+      or only like me, that is better now at standing at the passes than in
+      following the hounds, as I once used to could. Heigh-ho! I never know'd
+      preaching come into a settlement but it made game scarce, and raised the
+      price of gunpowder; and that's a thing that's not as easily made as a
+      ramrod or an Indian flint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The divine, perceiving that he had given his opponent an argument by his
+      own unfortunate selection of a comparison, very prudently relinquished the
+      controversy; although he was fully determined to resume it at a more happy
+      moment, Repeating his request to the young hunter with great earnestness,
+      the youth and Indian consented to accompany him and his daughter to the
+      dwelling that the care of Mr. Jones had provided for their temporary
+      residence. Leather-Stocking persevered in his intention of returning to
+      the hut, and at the door of the building they separated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After following the course of one of the streets of the village a short
+      distance. Mr. Grant, who led the way, turned into a field, through a pair
+      of open bars, and entered a footpath, of but sufficient width to admit one
+      person to walk in at a time. The moon had gained a height that enabled her
+      to throw her rays perpendicularly on the valley; and the distinct shadows
+      of the party flitted along on the banks of the silver snow, like the
+      presence of aerial figures, gliding to their appointed place of meeting.
+      The night still continued intensely cold, although not a breath of wind
+      was felt. The path was beaten so hard that the gentle female, who made one
+      of the party, moved with ease along its windings; though the frost emitted
+      a low creaking at the impression of even her light footsteps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clergyman in his dark dress of broadcloth, with his mild, benevolent
+      countenance occasionally turned toward his companions, expressing that
+      look of subdued care which was its characteristic, presented the first
+      object in this singular group. Next to him moved the Indian, his hair
+      falling about his face, his head uncovered, and the rest of his form
+      concealed beneath his blanket. As his swarthy visage, with its muscles
+      fixed in rigid composure, was seen under the light of the moon, which
+      struck his face obliquely, he seemed a picture of resigned old age, on
+      whom the storms of winter had beaten in vain for the greater part of a
+      century; but when, in turning his head, the rays fell directly on his
+      dark, fiery eyes, they told a tale of passions unrestrained, and of
+      thoughts free as air. The slight person of Miss Grant, which followed
+      next, and which was but too thinly clad for the severity of the season,
+      formed a marked contrast to the wild attire and uneasy glances of the
+      Delaware chief; and more than once during their walk, the young hunter,
+      himself no insignificant figure in the group, was led to consider the
+      difference in the human form, as the face of Mohegan and the gentle
+      countenance of Miss Grant, with eyes that rivalled the soft hue of the
+      sky, met his view at the instant that each turned to throw a glance at the
+      splendid orb which lighted their path. Their way, which led through fields
+      that lay at some distance in the rear of the houses, was cheered by a
+      conversation that flagged or became animated with the subject. The first
+      to speak was the divine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it is so singular a circumstance to meet with one of
+      your age, that has not been induced by idle curiosity to visit any other
+      church than the one in which he has been educated, that I feel a strong
+      curiosity to know the history of a life so fortunately regulated. Your
+      education must have been excellent; as indeed is evident from your manners
+      and language. Of which of the States are you a native, Mr. Edwards? for
+      such, I believe, was the name that you gave Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of this! I was at a loss to conjecture, from your dialect, which does not
+      partake, particularly, of the peculiarities of any country with which I am
+      acquainted. You have, then, resided much in the cities, for no other part
+      of this country is so fortunate as to possess the constant enjoyment of
+      our excellent liturgy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young hunter smiled, as he listened to the divine while he so clearly
+      betrayed from what part of the country he had come himself; but, for
+      reasons probably connected with his present situation, he made no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am delighted to meet with you, my young friend, for I think an
+      ingenuous mind, such as I doubt not yours must be, will exhibit all the
+      advantages of a settled doctrine and devout liturgy. You perceive how I
+      was compelled to bend to the humors of my hearers this evening. Good Mr.
+      Jones wished me to read the communion, and, in fact, all the morning
+      service; but, happily, the canons do not require this of an evening. It
+      would have wearied a new congregation; but to-morrow I purpose
+      administering the sacrament, Do you commune, my young friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe not, sir,&rdquo; returned the youth, with a little embarrassment,
+      that was not at all diminished by Miss Grant's pausing involuntarily, and
+      turning her eyes on him in surprise; &ldquo;I fear that I am not qualified; I
+      have never yet approached the altar; neither would I wish to do it while I
+      find so much of the world clinging to my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Each must judge for himself,&rdquo; said Mr. Grant; &ldquo;though I should think that
+      a youth who had never been blown about by the wind of false doctrines, and
+      who has enjoyed the advantages of our liturgy for so many years in its
+      purity, might safely come. Yet, sir, it is a solemn festival, which none
+      should celebrate until there is reason to hope it is not mockery. I
+      observed this evening, in your manner to Judge Temple, a resentment that
+      bordered on one of the worst of human passions, We will cross this brook
+      on the ice; it must bear us all, I think, in safety. Be careful not to
+      slip, my child.&rdquo; While speaking, he descended a little bank by the path,
+      and crossed one of the small streams that poured their waters into the
+      lake; and, turning to see his daughter pass, observed that the youth had
+      advanced, and was kindly directing her footsteps. When all were safely
+      over, he moved up the opposite bank, and continued his discourse. &ldquo;It was
+      wrong, my dear sir, very wrong, to suffer such feelings to rise, under any
+      circumstances, and especially in the present, where the evil was not
+      intended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is good in the talk of my father,&rdquo; said Mohegan, stopping short,
+      and causing those who Were behind him to pause also; &ldquo;it is the talk of
+      Miquon. The white man may do as his fathers have told him; but the 'Young
+      Eagle' has the blood of a Delaware chief in his veins; it is red, and the
+      stain it makes can only be washed out with the blood of a Mingo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Grant was surprised by the interruption of the Indian, and, stopping,
+      faced the speaker. His mild features were confronted to the fierce and
+      determined looks of the chief, and expressed the horror he felt at hearing
+      such sentiments from one who professed the religion of his Saviour.
+      Raising his hands to a level with his head, he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John, John! is this the religion that you have learned from the
+      Moravians? But no&mdash;I will not be so uncharitable as to suppose it.
+      They are a pious, a gentle, and a mild people, and could never tolerate
+      these passions. Listen to the language of the Redeemer: 'But I say unto
+      you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that
+      hate you; pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.' This
+      is the command of God, John, and, without striving to cultivate such
+      feelings, no man can see Him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian heard the divine with attention; the unusual fire of his eye
+      gradually softened, and his muscles relaxed into their ordinary composure;
+      but, slightly shaking his head, he motioned with dignity for Mr. Grant to
+      resume his walk, and followed himself in silence, The agitation of the
+      divine caused him to move with unusual rapidity along the deep path, and
+      the Indian, without any apparent exertion, kept an equal pace; but the
+      young hunter observed the female to linger in her steps, until a trifling
+      distance intervened between the two former and the latter. Struck by the
+      circumstance, and not perceiving any new impediment to retard her
+      footstep, the youth made a tender of his assistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are fatigued, Miss Grant,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;the snow yields to the foot, and
+      you are unequal to the strides of us men. Step on the crust, I entreat
+      you, and take the help of my arm, Yonder light is, I believe, the house of
+      your father; but it seems yet at some distance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite equal to the walk,&rdquo; returned a low, tremulous voice; &ldquo;but I am
+      startled by the manner of that Indian, Oh! his eye was horrid, as he
+      turned to the moon, in speaking to my father. But I forgot, sir; he is
+      your friend, and by his language may be your relative; and yet of you I do
+      not feel afraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man stepped on the bank of snow, which firmly sustained his
+      weight, and by a gentle effort induced his companion to follow. Drawing
+      her arm through his own, he lifted his cap from his head, allowing the
+      dark locks to flow in rich curls over his open brow, and walked by her
+      side with an air of conscious pride, as if inviting an examination of his
+      utmost thoughts. Louisa took but a furtive glance at his person, and moved
+      quietly along, at a rate that was greatly quickened by the aid of his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are but little acquainted with this peculiar people, Miss Grant,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;or you would know that revenge is a virtue with an Indian. They are
+      taught, from infancy upward, to believe it a duty never to allow an injury
+      to pass unrevenged; and nothing but the stronger claims of hospitality can
+      guard one against their resentments where they have power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, sir,&rdquo; said Miss Grant, involuntarily withdrawing her arm from
+      his, &ldquo;you have not been educated with such unholy sentiments?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might be a sufficient answer to your excellent father to say that I
+      was educated in the church,&rdquo; he returned; &ldquo;but to you I will add that I
+      have been taught deep and practical lessons of forgiveness. I believe
+      that, on this subject, I have but little cause to reproach myself; it
+      shall be my endeavor that there yet be less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While speaking, he stopped, and stood with his arm again proffered to her
+      assistance. As he ended, she quietly accepted his offer, and they resumed
+      their walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Grant and Mohegan had reached the door of the former's residence, and
+      stood waiting near its threshold for the arrival of their young
+      companions. The former was earnestly occupied in endeavoring to correct,
+      by his precepts, the evil propensities that he had discovered in the
+      Indian during their conversation; to which the latter listened in Profound
+      but respectful attention. On the arrival of the young hunter and the lady,
+      they entered the building. The house stood at some distance from the
+      village, in the centre of a field, surrounded by stumps that were peering
+      above the snow, bearing caps of pure white, nearly two feet in thickness.
+      Not a tree nor a shrub was nigh it; but the house, externally, exhibited
+      that cheer less, unfurnished aspect which is so common to the hastily
+      erected dwellings of a new country. The uninviting character of its
+      outside was, however, happily relieved by the exquisite neatness and
+      comfortable warmth within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered an apartment that was fitted as a parlor, though the large
+      fireplace, with its culinary arrangements, betrayed the domestic uses to
+      which it was occasionally applied. The bright blaze from the hearth
+      rendered the light that proceeded from the candle Louisa produced
+      unnecessary; for the scanty furniture of the room was easily seen and
+      examined by the former. The floor was covered in the centre by a carpet
+      made of rags, a species of manufacture that was then, and yet continues to
+      be, much in use in the interior; while its edges, that were exposed to
+      view, were of unspotted cleanliness. There was a trifling air of better
+      life in a tea-table and work-stand, as well as in an old-fashioned
+      mahogany bookcase; but the chairs, the dining-table, and the rest of the
+      furniture were of the plainest and cheapest construction, Against the
+      walls were hung a few specimens of needle-work and drawing, the former
+      executed with great neatness, though of somewhat equivocal merit in their
+      designs, while the latter were strikingly deficient in both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the former represented a tomb, with a youthful female weeping over
+      it, exhibiting a church with arched windows in the background. On the tomb
+      were the names, with the dates of the births and deaths, of several
+      individuals, all of whom bore the name of Grant. An extremely cursory
+      glance at this record was sufficient to discover to the young hunter the
+      domestic state of the divine. He there read that he was a widower; and
+      that the innocent and timid maiden, who had been his companion, was the
+      only survivor of six children. The knowledge of the dependence which each
+      of these meek Christians had on the other for happiness threw an
+      additional charm around the gentle but kind attentions which the daughter
+      paid to the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These observations occurred while the party were seating themselves before
+      the cheerful fire, during which time there was a suspension of discourse.
+      But, when each was comfortably arranged, and Louisa, after laying aside a
+      thin coat of faded silk, and a gypsy hat, that was more becoming to her
+      modest, ingenuous countenance than appropriate to the season, had taken a
+      chair between her father and the youth, the former resumed the
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust, my young friend,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that the education you have received
+      has eradicated most of those revengeful principles which you may have
+      inherited by descent, for I understand from the expressions of John that
+      you have some of the blood of the Delaware tribe. Do not mistake me, I
+      beg, for it is not color nor lineage that constitutes merit; and I know
+      not that he who claims affinity to the proper owners of this soil has not
+      the best right to tread these hills with the lightest conscience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan turned solemnly to the speaker, and, with the peculiarly
+      significant gestures of an Indian, he spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, you are not yet past the summer of life; your limbs are young. Go
+      to the highest hill, and look around you. All that you see, from the
+      rising to the setting sun, from the head-waters of the great spring, to
+      where the 'crooked river' * is hid by the hills, is his. He has Delaware
+      blood, and his right is strong.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The Susquehannah means crooked river; &ldquo;hannah,&rdquo; or &ldquo;hannock,&rdquo; meant
+    river in many of the native dialects.  Thus we find Rappahannock as
+    far south as Virginia.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the brother of Miquon is just; he will cut the country in two parts,
+      as the river cuts the lowlands, and will say to the 'Young Eagle,' 'Child
+      of the Delawares! take it&mdash;keep it; and be a chief in the land of
+      your fathers.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; exclaimed the young hunter, with a vehemence that destroyed the
+      rapt attention with which the divine and his daughter were listening to
+      the Indian. &ldquo;The wolf of the forest is not more rapacious for his prey
+      than that man is greedy of gold; and yet his glidings into wealth are
+      subtle as the movements of a serpent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forbear, forbear, my son, forbear,&rdquo; interrupted Mr. Grant. &ldquo;These angry
+      passions most be subdued. The accidental injury you have received from
+      Judge Temple has heightened the sense of your hereditary wrongs. But
+      remember that the one was unintentional, and that the other is the effect
+      of political changes, which have, in their course, greatly lowered the
+      pride of kings, and swept mighty nations from the face of the earth. Where
+      now are the Philistines, who so often held the children of Israel in
+      bondage? or that city of Babylon, which rioted in luxury and vice, and who
+      styled herself the Queen of Nations in the drunkenness of her pride?
+      Remember the prayer of our holy litany, where we implore the Divine Power&mdash;'that
+      it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers,
+      and to turn their hearts. The sin of the wrongs which have been done to
+      the natives is shared by Judge Temple only in common with a whole people,
+      and your arm will speedily be restored to its strength.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This arm!&rdquo; repeated the youth, pacing the floor in violent agitation.
+      &ldquo;Think you, sir, that I believe the man a murderer? Oh, no! he is too
+      wily, too cowardly, for such a crime. But let him and his daughter riot in
+      their wealth&mdash;a day of retribution will come. No, no, no,&rdquo; he
+      continued, as he trod the floor more calmly&mdash;&ldquo;it is for Mohegan to
+      suspect him of an intent to injure me; but the trifle is not worth a
+      second thought.&rdquo; He seated himself, and hid his face between his hands, as
+      they rested on his knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the hereditary violence of a native's passion, my child,&rdquo; said Mr.
+      Grant in a low tone to his affrighted daughter, who was clinging in terror
+      to his arm. &ldquo;He is mixed with the blood of the Indians, you have heard;
+      and neither the refinements of education nor the advantages of our
+      excellent liturgy have been able entirely to eradicate the evil. But care
+      and time will do much for him yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the divine spoke in a low tone, yet what he uttered was heard by
+      the youth, who raised his head, with a smile of indefinite expression, and
+      spoke more calmly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be not alarmed, Miss Grant, at either the wildness of my manner or that
+      of my dress. I have been carried away by passions that I should struggle
+      to repress. I must attribute it, with your father, to the blood in my
+      veins, although I would not impeach my lineage willingly; for it is all
+      that is left me to boast of. Yes! I am proud of my descent from a Delaware
+      chief, who was a warrior that ennobled human nature. Old Mohegan was his
+      friend, and will vouch for his virtues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Grant here took up the discourse, and, finding the young man more
+      calm, and the aged chief attentive, he entered into a full and theological
+      discussion of the duty of forgiveness. The conversation lasted for more
+      than an hour, when the visitors arose, and, after exchanging good wishes
+      with their entertainers, they departed. At the door they separated,
+      Mohegan taking the direct route to the village, while the youth moved
+      toward the lake. The divine stood at the entrance of his dwelling,
+      regarding the figure of the aged chief as it glided, at an astonishing
+      gait for his years, along the deep path; his black, straight hair just
+      visible over the bundle formed by his blanket, which was sometimes blended
+      with the snow, under the silvery light of the moon. From the rear of the
+      house was a window that overlooked the lake; and here Louisa was found by
+      her father, when he entered, gazing intently on some object in the
+      direction of the eastern mountain. He approached the spot, and saw the
+      figure of the young hunter, at the distance of half a mile, walking with
+      prodigious steps across the wide fields of frozen snow that covered the
+      ice, toward the point where he knew the hut inhabited by the
+      Leather-Stocking was situated on the margin of the lake, under a rock that
+      was crowned by pines and hemlocks. At the next instant, the wild looking
+      form entered the shadow cast from the over-hanging trees, and was lost to
+      view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is marvellous how long the propensities of the savage continue in that
+      remarkable race,&rdquo; said the good divine; &ldquo;but if he perseveres as he has
+      commenced, his triumph shall yet be complete. Put me in mind, Louisa, to
+      lend him the homily 'against peril of idolatry,' at his next visit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surety, father, you do not think him in danger of relapsing into the
+      worship of his ancestors?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my child,&rdquo; returned the clergyman, laying his hand affectionately on
+      her flaxen locks, and smiling; &ldquo;his white blood would prevent it; but
+      there is such a thing as the idolatry of our passions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And I'll drink out of the quart pot&mdash;
+     Here's a health to the barley mow.
+     &ldquo;&mdash;Drinking Song.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On one of the corners, where the two principal streets of Templeton
+      intersected each other, stood, as we have already mentioned, the inn
+      called the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon&rdquo;. In the original plan it was ordained that the
+      village should stretch along the little stream that rushed down the
+      valley; and the street which led from the lake to the academy was intended
+      to be its western boundary. But convenience frequently frustrates the
+      best-regulated plans. The house of Mr., or as, in consequence of
+      commanding the militia of that vicinity, he was called, Captain Hollister,
+      had, at an early day, been erected directly facing the main street, and
+      ostensibly interposed a barrier to its further progress. Horsemen, and
+      subsequently teamsters, however, availed themselves of an opening, at the
+      end of the building, to shorten their passage westward, until in time the
+      regular highway was laid out along this course, and houses were gradually
+      built on either side, so as effectually to prevent any subsequent
+      correction of the evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two material consequences followed this change in the regular plans of
+      Marmaduke. The main street, after running about half its length, was
+      suddenly reduced for precisely that difference in its width; and &ldquo;Bold
+      Dragoon&rdquo; became, next to the mansion-house, by far the most conspicuous
+      edifice in the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conspicuousness, aided by the characters of the host and hostess,
+      gave the tavern an advantage over all its future competitors that no
+      circumstances could conquer. An effort was, however, made to do so; and at
+      the corner diagonally opposite, stood a new building that was in tended,
+      by its occupants, to look down all opposition. It was a house of wood,
+      ornamented in the prevailing style of architecture, and about the roof and
+      balustrades was one of the three imitators of the mansion-house. The upper
+      windows were filled with rough boards secured by nails, to keep out the
+      cold air&mdash;for the edifice was far from finished, although glass was
+      to be seen in the lower apartments, and the light of the powerful fires
+      within de noted that it was already inhabited. The exterior was painted
+      white on the front and on the end which was exposed to the street; but in
+      the rear, and on the side which was intended to join the neighboring
+      house, it was coarsely smeared with Spanish brown. Before the door stood
+      two lofty posts, connected at the top by a beam, from which was suspended
+      an enormous sign, ornamented around its edges with certain curious
+      carvings in pine boards, and on its faces loaded with Masonic emblems.
+      Over these mysterious figures was written, in large letters, &ldquo;The
+      Templeton Coffee-house, and Traveller's Hotel,&rdquo; and beneath them, &ldquo;By
+      Habakkuk Foote and Joshua Knapp.&rdquo; This was a fearful rival to the &ldquo;Bold
+      Dragoon,&rdquo; as our readers will the more readily perceive when we add that
+      the same sonorous names were to be seen over a newly erected store in the
+      village, a hatter's shop, and the gates of a tan-yard. But, either because
+      too much was attempted to be executed well, or that the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon&rdquo; had
+      established a reputation which could not be easily shaken, not only Judge
+      Temple and his friends, but most of the villagers also, who were not in
+      debt to the powerful firm we have named, frequented the inn of Captain
+      Hollister on all occasions where such a house was necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the present evening the limping veteran and his consort were hardly
+      housed after their return from the academy, when the sounds of stamping
+      feet at their threshold announced the approach of visitors, who were
+      probably assembling with a view to compare opinions on the subject of the
+      ceremonies they had witnessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public, or as it was called, the &ldquo;bar-room,&rdquo; of the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo;
+       was a spacious apartment, lined on three sides with benches and on the
+      fourth by fireplaces. Of the latter there were two of such size as to
+      occupy, with their enormous jambs, the whole of that side of the apartment
+      where they were placed, excepting room enough for a door or two, and a
+      little apartment in one corner, which was protected by miniature
+      palisades, and profusely garnished with bottles and glasses. In the
+      entrance to this sanctuary Mrs. Hollister was seated, with great gravity
+      in her air, while her husband occupied himself with stirring the fires,
+      moving the logs with a large stake burnt to a point at one end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, sargeant, dear,&rdquo; said the landlady, after she thought the veteran
+      had got the logs arranged in the most judicious manner, &ldquo;give over poking,
+      for it's no good ye'll be doing, now that they burn so convaniently.
+      There's the glasses on the table there, and the mug that the doctor was
+      taking his cider and ginger in, before the fire here&mdash;just put them
+      in the bar, will ye? for we'll be having the jooge, and the Major, and Mr.
+      Jones down the night, without reckoning Benjamin Poomp, and the lawyers;
+      so yell be fixing the room tidy; and put both flip irons in the coals; and
+      tell Jude, the lazy black baste, that if she's no be cleaning up the
+      kitchen I'll turn her out of the house, and she may live wid the jontlemen
+      that kape the 'Coffee house,' good luck to 'em. Och! sargeant, sure it's a
+      great privilege to go to a mateing where a body can sit asy, without
+      joomping up and down so often, as this Mr. Grant is doing that same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a privilege at all times, Mrs. Hollister, whether we stand or be
+      seated; or, as good Mr. Whitefleld used to do after he had made a
+      wearisome day's march, get on our knees and pray, like Moses of old, with
+      a flanker to the right and left to lift his hands to heaven,&rdquo; returned her
+      husband, who composedly performed what she had directed to be done. &ldquo;It
+      was a very pretty fight, Betty, that the Israelites had on that day with
+      the Amalekites, It seams that they fout on a plain, for Moses is mentioned
+      as having gone on the heights to overlook the battle, and wrestle in
+      prayer; and if I should judge, with my little larning, the Israelites
+      depended mainly on their horse, for it was written 'that Joshua cut up the
+      enemy with the edge of the sword; from which I infer, not only that they
+      were horse, but well diseiplyned troops. Indeed, it says as much as that
+      they were chosen men; quite likely volunteers; for raw dragoons seldom
+      strike with the edge of their swords, particularly if the weapon be any
+      way crooked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw! why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small a
+      matter?&rdquo; interrupted the landlady; &ldquo;sure, it was the Lord who was with
+      'em; for he always sided with the Jews, before they fell away; and it's
+      but little matter what kind of men Joshua commanded, so that he was doing
+      the right bidding. Aven them cursed millaishy, the Lord forgive me for
+      swearing, that was the death of him, wid their cowardice, would have
+      carried the day in old times. There's no rason to be thinking that the
+      soldiers were used to the drill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say, Mrs. Hollister, that I have not often seen raw troops fight
+      better than the left flank of the militia, at the time you mention. They
+      rallied handsomely, and that without beat of drum, which is no easy thing
+      to do under fire, and were very steady till he fell. But the Scriptures
+      contain no unnecessary words; and I will maintain that horse, who know how
+      to strike with the edge of the sword, must be well disoiplyned. Many a
+      good sarmon has been preached about smaller matters than that one word! If
+      the text was not meant to be particular, why wasn't it written with the
+      sword, and not with the edge? Now, a back-handed stroke, on the edge,
+      takes long practice. Goodness! what an argument would Mr. Whitefield make
+      of that word edge! As to the captain, if he had only called up the guard
+      of dragoons when he rallied the foot, they would have shown the inimy what
+      the edge of a sword was; for, although there was no commissioned officer
+      with them, yet I think I must say,&rdquo; the veteran continued, stiffening his
+      cravat about his throat, and raising himself up with the air of a
+      drill-sergeant, &ldquo;they were led by a man who knowed how to bring them on,
+      in spite of the ravine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it lade on ye would,&rdquo; cried the landlady, &ldquo;when ye know yourself, Mr.
+      Hollister, that the baste he rode was but little able to joomp from one
+      rock to another, and the animal was as spry as a squirrel? Och! but it's
+      useless to talk, for he's gone this many a year. I would that he had lived
+      to see the true light; but there's mercy for a brave sowl, that died in
+      the saddle, fighting for the liberty. It is a poor tombstone they have
+      given him, anyway, and many a good one that died like himself; but the
+      sign is very like, and I will be kapeing it up, while the blacksmith can
+      make a hook for it to swing on, for all the 'coffee-houses' betwane this
+      and Albany.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no saying where this desultory conversation would have led the
+      worthy couple, had not the men, who were stamping the snow off their feet
+      on the little platform before the door, suddenly ceased their occupation,
+      and entered the bar-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For ten or fifteen minutes the different individuals, who intended either
+      to bestow or receive edification before the fires of the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon&rdquo; on
+      that evening, were collecting, until the benches were nearly filled with
+      men of different occupations. Dr. Todd and a slovenly-looking,
+      shabby-genteel young man, who took tobacco profusely, wore a coat of
+      imported cloth cut with something like a fashionable air, frequently
+      exhibited a large French silver watch, with a chain of woven hair and a
+      silver key, and who, altogether, seemed as much above the artisans around
+      him as he was himself inferior to the real gentle man, occupied a
+      high-back wooden settee, in the most comfortable corner in the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sundry brown mugs, containing cider or beer, were placed between the heavy
+      andirons, and little groups were found among the guests as subjects arose
+      or the liquor was passed from one to the other. No man was seen to drink
+      by himself, nor in any instance was more than one vessel considered
+      necessary for the same beverage; but the glass or the mug was passed from
+      hand to hand until a chasm in the line or a regard to the rights of
+      ownership would regularly restore the dregs of the potation to him who de
+      frayed the cost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Toasts were uniformly drunk; and occasionally some one who conceived
+      himself peculiarly endowed by Nature to shine in the way of wit would
+      attempt some such sentiment as &ldquo;hoping that he&rdquo; who treated &ldquo;might make a
+      better man than his father;&rdquo; or &ldquo;live till all his friends wished him
+      dead;&rdquo; while the more humble pot-companion contented himself by saying,
+      with a most composing gravity in his air, &ldquo;Come, here's luck,&rdquo; or by
+      expressing some other equally comprehensive desire. In every instance the
+      veteran landlord was requested to imitate the custom of the cupbearers to
+      kings, and taste the liquor he presented, by the invitation of &ldquo;After you
+      is manners,&rdquo; with which request he ordinarily complied by wetting his
+      lips, first expressing the wish of &ldquo;Here's hoping,&rdquo; leaving it to the
+      imagination of the hearers to fill the vacuum by whatever good each
+      thought most desirable. During these movements the landlady was busily
+      occupied with mixing the various compounds required by her customers, with
+      her own hands, and occasionally exchanging greetings and inquiries
+      concerning the conditions of their respective families, with such of the
+      villagers as approached the bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the common thirst being in some measure assuaged, conversation
+      of a more general nature became the order of the hour. The physician and
+      his companion, who was one of the two lawyers of the village, being
+      considered the best qualified to maintain a public discourse with credit,
+      were the principal speakers, though a remark was hazarded, now and then,
+      by Mr. Doolittle, who was thought to be their inferior only in the
+      enviable point of education. A general silence was produced on all but the
+      two speakers, by the following observation from the practitioner of the
+      law:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, Dr. Todd, I understand that you have been per forming an important
+      operation this evening by cutting a charge of buckshot from the shoulder
+      of the son of Leather-Stocking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; returned other, elevating his little head with an air of
+      importance. &ldquo;I had a small job up at the Judge's in that way; it was,
+      however, but a trifle to what it might have been, had it gone through the
+      body. The shoulder is not a very vital part; and I think the young man
+      will soon be well. But I did not know that the patient was a son of
+      Leather-Stocking; it is news to me to hear that Natty had a wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is by no means a necessary consequence,&rdquo; returned the other, winking,
+      with a shrewd look around the bar room; &ldquo;there is such a thing, I suppose
+      you know, in law as a filius nullius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spake it out, man,&rdquo; exclaimed the landlady; &ldquo;spake it out in king's
+      English; what for should ye be talking Indian in a room full of Christian
+      folks, though it is about a poor hunter, who is but little better in his
+      ways than the wild savages themselves? Och! it's to be hoped that the
+      missionaries will, in his own time, make a conversion of the poor devils;
+      and then it will matter little of what color is the skin, or wedder there
+      be wool or hair on the head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! it is Latin, not Indian, Miss Hollister!&rdquo; returned the lawyer,
+      repeating his winks and shrewd looks; &ldquo;and Dr. Todd understands Latin, or
+      how would he read the labels on his gallipots and drawers? No, no, Miss
+      Hollis ter, the doctor understands me; don't you, doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hem&mdash;why, I guess I am not far out of the way,&rdquo; returned Elnathan,
+      endeavoring to imitate the expression of the other's countenance, by
+      looking jocular. &ldquo;Latin is a queer language, gentlemen; now I rather guess
+      there is no one in the room, except Squire Lippet, who can believe that
+      'Far. Av.' means oatmeal, in English.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lawyer in his turn was a good deal embarrassed by this display of
+      learning; for, although he actually had taken his first degree at one of
+      the eastern universities, he was somewhat puzzled with the terms used by
+      his companion. It was dangerous, however, to appear to be out done in
+      learning in a public bar-room, and before so many of his clients; he
+      therefore put the best face on the matter, and laughed knowingly as if
+      there were a good joke concealed under it, that was understood only by the
+      physician and himself. All this was attentively observed by the listeners,
+      who exchanged looks of approbation; and the expressions of &ldquo;tonguey mati,&rdquo;
+       and &ldquo;I guess Squire Lippet knows if anybody does,&rdquo; were heard in different
+      parts of the room, as vouchers for the admiration of his auditors. Thus
+      encouraged, the lawyer rose from his chair, and turning his back to the
+      fire, and facing the company, he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The son of Natty, or the son of nobody, I hope the young man is not going
+      to let the matter drop. This is a country of law; and I should like to see
+      it fairly tried, whether a man who owns, or says he owns, a hundred
+      thousand acres of land, has any more right to shoot a body than another.
+      What do you think of it, Dr. Todd?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir, I am of opinion that the gentleman will soon be well, as I said
+      before; the wound isn't in a vital part; and as the ball was extracted so
+      soon, and the shoulder was what I call well attended to, I do not think
+      there is as much danger as there might have been.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Squire Doolittle,&rdquo; continued the attorney, raising his voice, &ldquo;you
+      are a magistrate, and know what is law and what is not law. I ask you,
+      sir, if shooting a man is a thing that is to be settled so very easily?
+      Suppose, sir, that the young man had a wife and family; and suppose that
+      he was a mechanic like yourself, sir; and suppose that his family
+      depended on him for bread; and suppose that the ball, instead of merely
+      going through the flesh, had broken the shoulder-blade, and crippled him
+      forever; I ask you all, gentlemen, supposing this to be the case, whether
+      a jury wouldn't give what I call handsome damages?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the close of this supposititious case was addressed to the company
+      generally, Hiram did not at first consider himself called on for a reply;
+      but finding the eyes of the listeners bent on him in expectation, he
+      remembered his character for judicial discrimination, and spoke, observing
+      a due degree of deliberation and dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, if a man should shoot another,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and if he should do it on
+      purpose and if the law took notice on't, and if a jury should find him
+      guilty, it would be likely to turn out a state-prison matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would so, sir,&rdquo; returned the attorney. &ldquo;The law, gentlemen, is no
+      respecter of persons in a free country. It is one of the great blessings
+      that has been handed down to us from our ancestors, that all men are equal
+      in the eye of the laws, as they are by nater. Though some may get
+      property, no one knows how, yet they are not privileged to transgress the
+      laws any more than the poorest citizen in the State. This is my notion,
+      gentlemen: and I think that it a man had a mind to bring this matter up,
+      something might be made out of it that would help pay for the salve&mdash;ha!
+      doctor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir,&rdquo; returned the physician, who appeared a little uneasy at the
+      turn the conversation was taking, &ldquo;I have the promise of Judge Temple
+      before men&mdash;not but what I would take his word as soon as his note of
+      hand&mdash;but it was before men. Let me see&mdash;there was Mounshier Ler
+      Quow, and Squire Jones, and Major Hartmann, and Miss Pettibone, and one or
+      two of the blacks by, when he said that his pocket would amply reward me
+      for what I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was the promise made before or after the service was performed?&rdquo; asked
+      the attorney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have been both,&rdquo; returned the discreet physician; &ldquo;though I'm
+      certain he said so before I undertook the dressing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it seems that he said his pocket should reward you, doctor,&rdquo; observed
+      Hiram. &ldquo;Now I don't know that the law will hold a man to such a promise;
+      he might give you his pocket with sixpence in't, and tell you to take your
+      pay out on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would not be a reward in the eye of the law,&rdquo; interrupted the
+      attorney&mdash;&ldquo;not what is called a 'quid pro quo;' nor is the pocket to
+      be considered as an agent, but as part of a man's own person, that is, in
+      this particular. I am of opinion that an action would lie on that promise,
+      and I will undertake to bear him out, free of costs, if he don't recover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this proposition the physician made no reply; but he was observed to
+      cast his eyes around him, as if to enumerate the witnesses, in order to
+      substantiate this promise also, at a future day, should it prove
+      necessary. A subject so momentous as that of suing Judge Temple was not
+      very palatable to the present company in so public a place; and a short
+      silence ensued, that was only interrupted by the opening of the door, and
+      the entrance of Natty himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old hunter carried in his hand his never-failing companion, the rifle;
+      and although all of the company were uncovered excepting the lawyer, who
+      wore his hat on one side, with a certain dam'me air, Natty moved to the
+      front of one of the fires without in the least altering any part of his
+      dress or appearance. Several questions were addressed to him, on the
+      subject of the game he had killed, which he answered readily, and with
+      some little interest; and the landlord, between whom and Natty there
+      existed much cordiality, on account of their both having been soldiers in
+      youth, offered him a glass of a liquid which, if we might judge from its
+      reception, was no unwelcome guest. When the forester had got his potation
+      also, he quietly took his seat on the end of one of the logs that lay nigh
+      the fires, and the slight interruption produced by his entrance seemed to
+      be forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The testimony of the blacks could not be taken, sir,&rdquo; continued the
+      lawyer, &ldquo;for they are all the property of Mr. Jones, who owns their time.
+      But there is a way by which Judge Temple, or any other man, might be made
+      to pay for shooting another, and for the cure in the bargain. There is a
+      way, I say, and that without going into the 'court of errors,' too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a mighty big error ye would make of it, Mister Todd,&rdquo; cried the
+      landlady, &ldquo;should ye be putting the matter into the law at all, with
+      Joodge Temple, who has a purse as long as one of them pines on the hill,
+      and who is an asy man to dale wid, if yees but mind the humor of him. He's
+      a good man is Joodge Temple, and a kind one, and one who will be no the
+      likelier to do the pratty thing, becase ye would wish to tarrify him wid
+      the law. I know of but one objaction to the same, which is an
+      over-careless ness about his sowl. It's neither a Methodie, nor a Papish,
+      nor Parsbetyrian, that he is, but just nothing at all; and it's hard to
+      think that he, 'who will not fight the good fight, under the banners of a
+      rig'lar church, in this world, will be mustered among the chosen in
+      heaven,' as my husband, the captain there, as ye call him, says&mdash;though
+      there is but one captain that I know, who desarves the name. I hopes,
+      Lather-Stocking, ye'll no be foolish, and putting the boy up to try the
+      law in the matter; for 'twill be an evil day to ye both, when ye first
+      turn the skin of so paceable an animal as a sheep into a bone of
+      contention, The lad is wilcome to his drink for nothing, until his
+      shoulther will bear the rifle agin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's gin'rous,&rdquo; was heard from several mouths at once, for this
+      was a company in which a liberal offer was not thrown away; while the
+      hunter, instead 'of expressing any of that indignation which he might be
+      supposed to feel, at hearing the hurt of his young companion alluded to,
+      opened his mouth, with the silent laugh for which he was so remarkable;
+      and after he had indulged his humor, made this reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knowed the Judge would do nothing with his smooth bore when he got out
+      of his sleigh. I never saw but one smooth-bore that would carry at all,
+      and that was a French ducking-piece, upon the big lakes; it had a barrel
+      half as long agin as my rifle, and would throw fine shot into a goose at
+      one hundred yards; but it made dreadful work with the game, and you wanted
+      a boat to carry it about in. When I went with Sir William agin' the
+      French, at Fort Niagara, all the rangers used the rifle; and a dreadful
+      weapon it is, in the hands of one who knows how to charge it, and keep a
+      steady aim. The captain knows, for he says he was a soldier in Shirley's;
+      and, though they were nothing but baggonet-men, he must know how we cut up
+      the French and Iroquois in the skrimmages in that war. Chingachgook, which
+      means 'Big Sarpent' in English, old John Mohegan, who lives up at the hut
+      with me, was a great warrior then, and was out with us; he can tell all
+      about it, too; though he was overhand for the tomahawk, never firing more
+      than once or twice, before he was running in for the scalps. Ah! times is
+      dreadfully altered since then. Why, doctor, there was nothing but a foot
+      path, or at the most a track for pack-horses, along the Mohawk, from the
+      Jarman Flats up to the forts. Now, they say, they talk of running one of
+      them wide roads with gates on it along the river; first making a road, and
+      then fencing it up! I hunted one season back of the Kaatskills, nigh-hand
+      to the settlements, and the dogs often lost the scent, when they came to
+      them highways, there was so much travel on them; though I can't say that
+      the brutes was of a very good breed. Old Hector will wind a deer, in the
+      fall of the year, across the broadest place in the Otsego, and that is a
+      mile and a half, for I paced it my self on the ice, when the tract was
+      first surveyed, under the Indian grant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sames to me, Natty, but a sorry compliment to call your comrad after
+      the evil one,&rdquo; said the landlady; &ldquo;and it's no much like a snake that old
+      John is looking now, Nimrod would be a more becoming name for the lad, and
+      a more Christian, too, seeing that it conies from the Bible. The sargeant
+      read me the chapter about him, the night before my christening, and a
+      mighty asement it was to listen to anything from the book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old John and Chingachgook were very different men to look on,&rdquo; returned
+      the hunter, shaking his head at his melancholy recollections. &ldquo;In the
+      'fifty-eighth war' he was in the middle of manhood, and taller than now by
+      three inches. If you had seen him, as I did, the morning we beat Dieskau,
+      from behind our log walls, you would have called him as comely a redskin
+      as ye ever set eyes on. He was naked all to his breech-cloth and leggins;
+      and you never seed a creatur' so handsomely painted. One side of his face
+      was red and the other black. His head was shaved clean, all to a few hairs
+      on the crown, where he wore a tuft of eagle's feathers, as bright as if
+      they had come from a peacock's tail. He had colored his sides so that they
+      looked like anatomy, ribs and all, for Chingachgook had a great taste in
+      such things, so that, what with his bold, fiery countenance, his knife,
+      and his tomahawk, I have never seen a fiercer warrior on the ground. He
+      played his part, too, like a man, for I saw him next day with thirteen
+      scalps on his pole. And I will say this for the 'Big Snake,' that he
+      always dealt fair, and never scalped any that he didn't kill with his own
+      hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well!&rdquo; cried the landlady, &ldquo;fighting is fighting anyway, and there
+      is different fashions in the thing; though I can't say that I relish
+      mangling a body after the breath is out of it; neither do I think it can
+      be uphild by doctrine. I hope, sargeant, ye niver was helping in sich evil
+      worrek.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was my duty to keep my ranks, and to stand or fall by the baggonet or
+      lead,&rdquo; returned the veteran. &ldquo;I was then in the fort, and seldom leaving
+      my place, saw but little of the savages, who kept on the flanks or in
+      front, skrimmaging. I remember, howsomever, to have heard mention made of
+      the 'Great Snake,' as he was called, for he was a chief of renown; but
+      little did I ever expect to see him enlisted in the cause of Christianity,
+      and civilized like old John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! he was Christianized by the Moravians, who were always over-intimate
+      with the Delawares,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking. &ldquo;It's my opinion that, had
+      they been left to themselves, there would be no such doings now about the
+      head-waters of the two rivers, and that these hills mought have been kept
+      as good hunting-ground by their right owner, who is not too old to carry a
+      rifle, and whose sight is as true as a fish-hawk hovering&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was interrupted by more stamping at the door, and presently the party
+      from the mansion-house entered, followed by the Indian himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;There's quart-pot, pint-pot.
+     Mit-pint, Gill-pot, half-gill, nipperkin.
+     And the brown bowl&mdash;
+     Here's a health to the barley mow,
+     My brave boys,
+     Here's a health to the barley mow.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Drinking Song.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Some little commotion was produced by the appearance of the new guests,
+      during which the lawyer slunk from the room. Most of the men approached
+      Marmaduke, and shook his offered hand, hoping &ldquo;that the Judge was well;&rdquo;
+       while Major Hartmann having laid aside his hat and wig, and substituted
+      for the latter a warm, peaked woollen nightcap, took his seat very quietly
+      on one end of the settee, which was relinquished by its former occupant.
+      His tobacco-box was next produced, and a clean pipe was handed him by the
+      landlord. When he had succeeded in raising a smoke, the Major gave a long
+      whiff, and, turning his head toward the bar, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Petty, pring in ter toddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time the Judge had exchanged his salutations with most of the
+      company, and taken a place by the side of the Major, and Richard had
+      bustled himself into the most comfortable seat in the room. Mr. Le Quoi
+      was the last seated, nor did he venture to place his chair finally, until
+      by frequent removals he had ascertained that he could not possibly
+      intercept a ray of heat front any individual present. Mohegan found a
+      place on an end of one of the benches, and somewhat approximated to the
+      bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When these movements had subsided, the Judge remarked pleasantly: &ldquo;Well,
+      Betty, I find you retain your popularity through all weathers, against all
+      rivals, and among all religions. How liked you the sermon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it the sarmon?&rdquo; exclaimed the landlady. &ldquo;I can't say but it was
+      rasonable; but the prayers is mighty unasy. It's no small a matter for a
+      body in their fifty-nint' year to be moving so much in church. Mr. Grant
+      sames a godly man, any way, and his garrel a hommble on; and a devout.
+      Here, John, is a mug of cider, laced with whiskey. An Indian will drink
+      cider, though he niver be athirst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say,&rdquo; observed Hiram, with due deliberation, &ldquo;that it was a
+      tongney thing; and I rather guess that it gave considerable satisfaction,
+      There was one part, though, which might have been left out, or something
+      else put in; but then I s'pose that, as it was a written discourse, it is
+      not so easily altered as where a minister preaches without notes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ày! there's the rub, Joodge,&rdquo; cried the landlady. &ldquo;How can a man stand up
+      and be preaching his word, when all that he is saying is written down, and
+      he is as much tied to it as iver a thaving dragoon was to the pickets?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, waving his hand for silence, &ldquo;there is
+      enough said; as Mr. Grant told us, there are different sentiments on such
+      subjects, and in my opinion he spoke most sensibly. So, Jotham, I am told
+      you have sold your betterments to a new settler, and have moved into the
+      village and opened a school. Was it cash or dicker?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who was thus addressed occupied a seat immediately behind
+      Marmaduke, and one who was ignorant of the extent of the Judge's
+      observation might have thought he would have escaped notice. He was of a
+      thin, shapeless figure, with a discontented expression of countenance, and
+      with something extremely shiftless in his whole air, Thus spoken to, after
+      turning and twisting a little, by way of preparation, he made a reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why part cash and part dicker. I sold out to a Pumfietman who was
+      so'thin' forehanded. He was to give me ten dollar an acre for the
+      clearin', and one dollar an acre over the first cost on the woodland, and
+      we agreed to leave the buildin's to men. So I tuck Asa Montagu, and he
+      tuck Absalom Bement, and they two tuck old Squire Napthali Green. And so
+      they had a meetin', and made out a vardict of eighty dollars for the
+      buildin's. There was twelve acres of clearin' at ten dollars, and
+      eighty-eight at one, and the whole came to two hundred and eighty-six
+      dollars and a half, after paying the men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hum,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, &ldquo;what did you give for the place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, besides what's comin' to the Judge, I gi'n my brother Tim a hundred
+      dollars for his bargain; but then there's a new house on't, that cost me
+      sixty more, and I paid Moses a hundred dollars for choppin', and loggin',
+      and sowin', so that the whole stood to me in about two hundred and sixty
+      dollars. But then I had a great crop oft on't, and as I got twenty-six
+      dollars and a half more than it cost, I conclude I made a pretty good
+      trade on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but you forgot that the crop was yours without the trade, and you
+      have turned yourself out of doors for twenty-six dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! the Judge is clean out,&rdquo; said the man with a look of sagacious
+      calculation; &ldquo;he turned out a span of horses, that is wuth a hundred and
+      fifty dollars of any man's money, with a bran-new wagon; fifty dollars in
+      cash, and a good note for eighty more; and a side-saddle that was valued
+      at seven and a half&mdash;so there was jist twelve shillings betwixt us. I
+      wanted him to turn out a set of harness, and take the cow and the sap
+      troughs. He wouldn't&mdash;but I saw through it; he thought I should have
+      to buy the tacklin' afore I could use the wagon and horses; but I knowed a
+      thing or two myself; I should like to know of what use is the tacklin' to
+      him! I offered him to trade back agin for one hundred and fifty-five. But
+      my woman said she wanted to churn, so I tuck a churn for the change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do you mean to do with your time this winter? You must remember
+      that time is money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, as master has gone down country to see his mother, who, they say, is
+      going to make a die on't, I agreed to take the school in hand till he
+      comes back, It times doesn't get worse in the spring, I've some notion of
+      going into trade, or maybe I may move off to the Genesee; they say they
+      are carryin' on a great stroke of business that-a-way. If the wust comes
+      to the wust, I can but work at my trade, for I was brought up in a shoe
+      manufactory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It would seem that Marmaduke did not think his society of sufficient value
+      to attempt inducing him to remain where he was, for he addressed no
+      further discourse to the man, but turned his attention to other subjects.
+      After a short pause, Hiram ventured a question:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What news does the Judge bring us from the Legislature? It's not likely
+      that Congress has done much this session; or maybe the French haven't fit
+      any more battles lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The French, since they have beheaded their king, have done nothing but
+      fight,&rdquo; returned the Judge. &ldquo;The character of the nation seems changed. I
+      knew many French gentlemen during our war, and they all appeared to me to
+      be men of great humanity and goodness of heart; but these Jacobins are as
+      blood thirsty as bull-dogs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was one Roshambow wid us down at Yorrektown,&rdquo; cried the landlady &ldquo;a
+      mighty pratty man he was too; and their horse was the very same. It was
+      there that the sargeant got the hurt in the leg from the English
+      batteries, bad luck to 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! mon pauvre Roi&rdquo; muttered Monsieur Le Quoi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Legislature have been passing laws,&rdquo; continued Marmaduke, &ldquo;that the
+      country much required. Among others, there is an act prohibiting the
+      drawing of seines, at any other than proper seasons, in certain of our
+      streams and small lakes; and another, to prohibit the killing of deer in
+      the teeming months. These are laws that were loudly called for by
+      judicious men; nor do I despair of getting an act to make the unlawful
+      felling of timber a criminal offence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter listened to this detail with breathless attention, and, when
+      the Judge had ended, he laughed in open derision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may make your laws, Judge,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;but who will you find to watch
+      the mountains through the long summer days, or the lakes at night? Game is
+      game, and he who finds may kill; that has been the law in these mountains
+      for forty years to my sartain knowledge; and I think one old law is worth
+      two new ones. None but a green one would wish to kill a doe with a fa'n by
+      its side, unless his moccasins were getting old, or his leggins ragged,
+      for the flesh is lean and coarse. But a rifle rings among the rocks along
+      the lake shore, sometimes, as if fifty pieces were fired at once&mdash;it
+      would be hard to tell where the man stood who pulled the trigger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Armed with the dignity of the law, Mr. Bumppo,&rdquo; returned the Judge,
+      gravely, &ldquo;a vigilant magistrate can prevent much of the evil that has
+      hitherto prevailed, and which is already rendering the game scarce. I hope
+      to live to see the day when a man's rights in his game shall be as much
+      respected as his title to his farm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your titles and your farms are all new together,&rdquo; cried Natty; &ldquo;but laws
+      should be equal, and not more for one than another. I shot a deer, last
+      Wednesday was a fort night, and it floundered through the snow-banks till
+      it got over a brush fence; I catched the lock of my rifle in the twigs in
+      following, and was kept back, until finally the creature got off. Now I
+      want to know who is to pay me for that deer; and a fine buck it was. If
+      there hadn't been a fence I should have gotten another shot into it; and I
+      never drawed upon anything that hadn't wings three times running, in my
+      born days. No, no, Judge, it's the farmers that makes the game scarce, and
+      not the hunters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ter teer is not so plenty as in tee old war, Pumppo,&rdquo; said the Major, who
+      had been an attentive listener, amid clouds of smoke; &ldquo;put ter lant is not
+      mate as for ter teer to live on, put for Christians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Major, I believe you're a friend to justice and the right, though
+      you go so often to the grand house; but it's a hard case to a man to have
+      his honest calling for a livelihood stopped by laws, and that, too, when,
+      if right was done, he mought hunt or fish on any day in the week, or on
+      the best flat in the Patent, if he was so minded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I unterstant you, Letter-Stockint,&rdquo; returned the Major, fixing his black
+      eyes, with a look of peculiar meaning, on the hunter: &ldquo;put you didn't use
+      to be so prutent as to look ahet mit so much care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe there wasn't so much occasion,&rdquo; said the hunter, a little sulkily;
+      when he sank into a silence from which he was not roused for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Judge was saying so'thin' about the French,&rdquo; Hiram observed when the
+      pause in the conversation had continued a decent time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke, &ldquo;the Jacobins of France seem rushing from
+      one act of licentiousness to an other, They continue those murders which
+      are dignified by the name of executions. You have heard that they have
+      added the death of their queen to the long list of their crimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Les monstres!&rdquo; again murmured Monsieur Le Quoi, turning himself suddenly
+      in his chair, with a convulsive start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The province of La Vendée is laid waste by the troops of the republic,
+      and hundreds of its inhabitants, who are royalists in their sentiments,
+      are shot at a time. La Vendée is a district in the southwest of France,
+      that continues yet much attached to the family of the Bourbons; doubtless
+      Monsieur Le Quoi is acquainted with it, and can describe it more
+      faithfully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Non, non, non, mon cher ami,&rdquo; returned the Frenchman in a suppressed
+      voice, but speaking rapidly, and gesticulating with his right hand, as if
+      for mercy, while with his left he concealed his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There have been many battles fought lately,&rdquo; continued Marmaduke, &ldquo;and
+      the infuriated republicans are too often victorious. I cannot say,
+      however, that I am sorry that they have captured Toulon from the English,
+      for it is a place to which they have a just right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah&mdash;ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Monsieur Le Quoi, springing on his feet and
+      flourishing both arms with great animation; &ldquo;ces Anglais!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frenchman continued to move about the room with great alacrity for a
+      few minutes, repeating his exclamations to himself; when overcome by the
+      contrary nature of his emotions, he suddenly burst out of the house, and
+      was seen wading through the snow toward his little shop, waving his arms
+      on high, as if to pluck down honor from the moon. His departure excited
+      but little surprise, for the villagers were used to his manner; but Major
+      Hartmann laughed outright, for the first during his visit, as he lifted
+      the mug, and observed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ter Frenchman is mat&mdash;put he is goot as for noting to trink: he is
+      trunk mit joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The French are good soldiers,&rdquo; said Captain Hollis ter; &ldquo;they stood us in
+      hand a good turn at Yorktown; nor do I think, although I am an ignorant
+      man about the great movements of the army, that his excellency would have
+      been able to march against Cornwallis without their reinforcements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye spake the trot', sargeant,&rdquo; interrupted his wife, &ldquo;and I would iver
+      have ye be doing the same. It's varry pratty men is the French; and jist
+      when I stopt the cart, the time when ye was pushing on in front it was, to
+      kape the riglers in, a rigiment of the jontlemen marched by, and so I
+      dealt them out to their liking. Was it pay I got? Sure did I, and in good
+      solid crowns; the divil a bit of continental could they muster among them
+      all, for love nor money. Och! the Lord forgive me for swearing and
+      spakeing of such vanities; but this I will say for the French, that they
+      paid in good silver; and one glass would go a great way wid 'em, for they
+      gin'rally handed it back wid a drop in the cup; and that's a brisk trade,
+      Joodge, where the pay is good, and the men not over-partic'lar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A thriving trade, Mrs. Hollister,&rdquo; said Marmaduke. &ldquo;But what has become
+      of Richard? he jumped up as soon as seated, and has been absent so long
+      that I am really fearful he has frozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of that, Cousin 'Duke,&rdquo; cried the gentleman himself; &ldquo;business
+      will sometimes keep a man warm the coldest night that ever snapt in the
+      mountains. Betty, your husband told me, as we came out of church, that
+      your hogs were getting mangy, and so I have been out to take a look at
+      them, and found it true. I stepped across, doctor, and got your boy to
+      weigh me out a pound of salts, and have been mixing it with their swill.
+      I'll bet a saddle of venison against a gray squirrel that they are better
+      in a week. And now, Mrs. Hollister, I'm ready for a hissing mug of flip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure I know'd ye'd be wanting that same,&rdquo; said the landlady; &ldquo;it's fixt
+      and ready to the boiling. Sargeant, dear, be handing up the iron, will ye?&mdash;no,
+      the one on the far fire, it's black, ye will see. Ah! you've the thing
+      now; look if it's not as red as a cherry.&rdquo; The beverage was heated, and
+      Richard took that kind of draught which men are apt to indulge in who
+      think that they have just executed a clever thing, especially when they
+      like the liquor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! you have a hand. Betty, that was formed to mix flip,&rdquo; cried Richard,
+      when he paused for breath. &ldquo;The very iron has a flavor in it. Here, John,
+      drink, man, drink! I and you and Dr. Todd have done a good thing with the
+      shoulder of that lad this very night. 'Duke, I made a song while you were
+      gone&mdash;one day when I had nothing to do; so I'll sing you a verse or
+      two, though I haven't really determined on the tune yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is life but a scene of care, Where each one must toil in his way?
+      Then let us be jolly, and prove that we are A set of good fellows, who
+      seem very rare, And can laugh and sing all the day. Then let us be jolly
+      And cast away folly, For grief turns a black head to gray.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, 'Duke, what do you think of that? There is another verse of it,
+      all but the last line. I haven't got a rhyme for the last line yet. Well,
+      old John, what do you think of the music? as good as one of your
+      war-songs, ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good!&rdquo; said Mohegan, who had been sharing deeply in the potations of the
+      landlady, besides paying a proper respect to the passing mugs of the Major
+      and Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravo! pravo! Richart,&rdquo; cried the Major, whose black eyes were beginning
+      to swim in moisture; &ldquo;pravisimo his a goot song; put Natty Pumppo has a
+      petter. Letter-Stockint, vilt sing? say, olt poy, vilt sing ter song as
+      apout ter wools?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major,&rdquo; returned the hunter, with a melancholy shake of the head,
+      &ldquo;I have lived to see what I thought eyes could never behold in these
+      hills, and I have no heart left for singing. If he that has a right to be
+      master and ruler here is forced to squinch his thirst, when a-dry, with
+      snow-Water, it ill becomes them that have lived by his bounty to be making
+      merry, as if there was nothing in the world but sunshine and summer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had spoken, Leather-Stocking again dropped his head on his knees,
+      and concealed his hard and wrinkled features with his hands. The change
+      from the excessive cold without to the heat of the bar-room, coupled with
+      the depth and frequency of Richard's draughts, had already levelled
+      whatever inequality there might have existed between him and the other
+      guests, on the score of spirits; and he now held out a pair of swimming
+      mugs of foaming flip toward the hunter, as he cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merry! ay! merry Christmas to you, old boy! Sun shine and summer! no! you
+      are blind, Leather-Stocking, 'tis moonshine and winter&mdash;take these
+      spectacles, and open your eyes&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     So let us be jolly,
+     And cast away folly,
+     For grief turns a black head to gray.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;Hear how old John turns his quavers. What damned dull music an
+      Indian song is, after all, Major! I wonder if they ever sing by note.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Richard was singing and talking, Mohegan was uttering dull,
+      monotonous tones, keeping time by a gentle motion of his head and body. He
+      made use of but few words, and such as he did utter were in his native
+      language, and consequently only understood by himself and Natty. Without
+      heeding Richard, he continued to sing a kind of wild, melancholy air, that
+      rose, at times, in sudden and quite elevated notes, and then fell again
+      into the low, quavering sounds that seemed to compose the character of his
+      music.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attention of the company was now much divided, the men in the rear
+      having formed themselves into little groups, where they were discussing
+      various matters; among the principal of which were the treatment of mangy
+      hogs and Parson Grant's preaching; while Dr. Todd was endeavoring to
+      explain to Marmaduke the nature of the hurt received by the young hunter.
+      Mohegan continued to sing, while his countenance was becoming vacant,
+      though, coupled with his thick, bushy hair, it was assuming an expression
+      very much like brutal ferocity. His notes were gradually growing louder,
+      and soon rose to a height that caused a general cessation in the
+      discourse. The hunter now raised his head again, and addressed the old
+      warrior warmly in the Delaware language, which, for the benefit of our
+      readers, we shall render freely into English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you sing of your battles, Chingachgook, and of the warriors you
+      have slain, when the worst enemy of all is near you, and keeps the Young
+      Eagle from his rights? I have fought in as many battles as any warrior in
+      your tribe, but cannot boast of my deeds at such a time as this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hawk-eye,&rdquo; said the Indian, tottering with a doubtful step from his
+      place, &ldquo;I am the Great Snake of the Delawares; I can track the Mingoes
+      like an adder that is stealing on the whip-poor-will's eggs, and strike
+      them like the rattlesnake dead at a blow. The white man made the tomahawk
+      of Chingachgook bright as the waters of Otsego, when the last sun is
+      shining; but it is red with the blood of the Maquas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why have you slain the Mingo warriors? Was it not to keep these
+      hunting-grounds and lakes to your father's children? and were they not
+      given in solemn council to the Fire-eater? and does not the blood of a
+      warrior run in the veins of a young chief, who should speak aloud where
+      his voice is now too low to be heard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The appeal of the hunter seemed in some measure to recall the confused
+      faculties of the Indian, who turned his face toward the listeners and
+      gazed intently on the Judge. He shook his head, throwing his hair back
+      from his countenance, and exposed eyes that were glaring with an
+      expression of wild resentment. But the man was not himself. His hand
+      seemed to make a fruitless effort to release his tomahawk, which was
+      confined by its handle to his belt, while his eyes gradually became
+      vacant. Richard at that instant thrusting a mug before him, his features
+      changed to the grin of idiocy, and seizing the vessel with both hands, he
+      sank backward on the bench and drank until satiated, when he made an
+      effort to lay aside the mug with the helplessness of total inebriety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shed not blood!&rdquo; exclaimed the hunter, as he watched the countenance of
+      the Indian in its moment of ferocity; &ldquo;but he is drunk and can do no harm.
+      This is the way with all the savages; give them liquor, and they make dogs
+      of themselves. Well, well&mdash;the day will come when right will be done;
+      and we must have patience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty still spoke in the Delaware language, and of course was not
+      understood. He had hardly concluded before Richard cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, old John is soon sewed up. Give him a berth, captain, in the barn,
+      and I will pay for it. I am rich to night, ten times richer than 'Duke,
+      with all his lands, and military lots, and funded debts, and bonds, and
+      mortgages,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Come, let us be jolly,
+     And cast away folly, For grief&mdash;-'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drink, King Hiram&mdash;drink, Mr. Doo-nothing&mdash;-drink, sir, I say.
+      This is a Christmas eve, which comes, you know, but once a year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He! he! he! the squire is quite moosical to-night,&rdquo; said Hiram, whose
+      visage began to give marvellous signs of relaxation. &ldquo;I rather guess we
+      shall make a church on't yet, squire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A church, Mr. Doolittle! we will make a cathedral of it! bishops,
+      priests, deacons, wardens, vestry, and choir; organ, organist, amid
+      bellows! By the Lord Harry, as Benjamin says, we will clap a steeple on
+      the other end of it, and make two churches of it. What say you, 'Duke,
+      will you pay? ha! my cousin Judge, wilt pay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou makest such a noise, Dickon,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke, &ldquo;it is impossible
+      that I can hear what Dr. Todd is saying. I think thou observedst, it is
+      probable the wound will fester, so as to occasion danger to the limb in
+      this cold weather?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of nater, sir, quite out of nater,&rdquo; said Elnathan, attempting to
+      expectorate, but succeeding only in throwing a light, frothy substance,
+      like a flake of snow, into the fire&mdash;&ldquo;quite out of nater that a wound
+      so well dressed, and with the ball in my pocket, should fester. I s'pose,
+      as the Judge talks of taking the young man into his house, it will be most
+      convenient if I make but one charge on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think one would do,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke, with that arch smile
+      that so often beamed on his face; leaving the beholder in doubt whether he
+      most enjoyed the character of his companion or his own covert humor. The
+      landlord had succeeded in placing the Indian on some straw in one of his
+      outbuildings, where, covered with his own blanket, John continued for the
+      remainder of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Major Hartmann began to grow noisy and jocular; glass
+      succeeded glass, and mug after mug was introduced, until the carousal had
+      run deep into the night, or rather morning; when the veteran German
+      expressed an inclination to return to the mansion-house. Most of the party
+      had already retired, but Marmaduke knew the habits of his friend too well
+      to suggest an earlier adjournment. So soon, however, as the proposal was
+      made, the Judge eagerly availed himself of it, and the trio prepared to
+      depart. Mrs. Hollister attended them to the door in person, cautioning her
+      guests as to the safest manner of leaving her premises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lane on Mister Jones, Major,&rdquo; said she &ldquo;he's young and will be a support
+      to ye. Well, it's a charming sight to see ye, anyway, at the Bould
+      Dragoon; and sure it's no harm to be kaping a Christmas eve wid a light
+      heart, for it's no telling when we may have sorrow come upon us. So
+      good-night, Joodge, and a merry Christmas to ye all tomorrow morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentlemen made their adieus as well as they could, and taking the
+      middle of the road, which was a fine, wide, and well-beaten path, they did
+      tolerably well until they reached the gate of the mansion-house: but on
+      entering the Judge's domains they encountered some slight difficulties. We
+      shall not stop to relate them, but will just mention that in the morning
+      sundry diverging paths were to be seen in the snow; and that once during
+      their progress to the door, Marmaduke, missing his companions, was enabled
+      to trace them by one of these paths to a spot where he discovered them
+      with nothing visible but their heads, Richard singing in a most vivacious
+      strain:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, let us be jolly, And cast away folly, For grief turns a black head
+      to gray.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;As she lay, on that day, in the Bay of Biscay, O!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Previously to the occurrence of the scene at the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo; Elizabeth
+      had been safely reconducted to the mansion-house, where she was left as
+      its mistress, either to amuse or employ herself during the evening as best
+      suited her own inclinations. Most of the lights were extinguished; but as
+      Benjamin adjusted with great care and regularity four large candles, in as
+      many massive candlesticks of brass, in a row on the sideboard, the hall
+      possessed a peculiar air of comfort and warmth, contrasted with the
+      cheerless aspect of the room she had left in the academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable had been one of the listeners to Mr. Grant, and returned with
+      her resentment, which had been not a little excited by the language of the
+      Judge, somewhat softened by reflection and the worship. She recollected
+      the youth of Elizabeth, and thought it no difficult task, under present
+      appearances, to exercise that power indirectly which hitherto she had
+      enjoyed undisputed. The idea of being governed, or of being compelled to
+      pay the deference of servitude, was absolutely intolerable; and she had
+      already determined within herself, some half dozen times, to make an
+      effort that should at once bring to an issue the delicate point of her
+      domestic condition. But as often as she met the dark, proud eye of
+      Elizabeth, who was walking up and down the apartment, musing on the scenes
+      of her youth and the change in her condition, and perhaps the events of
+      the day, the housekeeper experienced an awe that she would not own to
+      herself could be excited by anything mortal. It, however, checked her
+      advances, and for some time held her tongue-tied. At length she determined
+      to commence the discourse by entering on a subject that was apt to level
+      all human distinctions, and in which she might display her own abilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was quite a wordy sarmon that Parson Grant gave us to-night,&rdquo; said
+      Remarkable. &ldquo;The church ministers be commonly smart sarmonizers, but they
+      write down their idees, which is a great privilege. I don't think that, by
+      nater, they are as tonguey speakers, for an off-hand discourse, as the
+      standing-order ministers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what denomination do you distinguish as the standing-order?&rdquo; inquired
+      Miss Temple, with some surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the Presbyter'ans and Congregationals, and Baptists, too, for-til'
+      now; and all sitch as don't go on their knees to prayer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By that rule, then, you would call those who belong' to the persuasion of
+      my father, the sitting-order,&rdquo; observed Elizabeth. &ldquo;I'm sure I've never
+      heard 'em spoken of by any other' name than Quakers, so called,&rdquo; returned
+      Remarkable, betraying a slight uneasiness; &ldquo;I should be the last to call
+      them otherwise, for I never in my life used a disparaging' tarm of the
+      Judge, or any of his family. I've always set store by the Quakers, they
+      are so pretty-spoken, clever people, and it's a wonderment to me how your
+      father come to marry into a church family; for they are as contrary in
+      religion as can be. One sits still, and, for the most part; says nothing,
+      while the church folks practyse all kinds of ways, so that I sometimes
+      think it quite moosical to see them; for I went to a church-meeting once
+      before, down country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have found an excellence in the church liturgy that has hitherto
+      escaped me. I will thank you to inquire whether the fire in my room burns;
+      I feel fatigued with my journey, and will retire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable felt a wonderful inclination to tell the young mistress of the
+      mansion that by opening a door she might see for herself; but prudence got
+      the better of resentment, and after pausing some little time, as a salve
+      to her dignity, she did as desired. The report was favorable, and the
+      young lady, wishing Benjamin, who was filling the stove with wood, and the
+      housekeeper, each a good-night, withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant the door closed on Miss Temple, Remarkable commenced a sort
+      of mysterious, ambiguous discourse, that was neither abusive nor
+      commendatory of the qualities of the absent personage, but which seemed to
+      be drawing nigh, by regular degrees, to a most dissatisfied description.
+      The major-domo made no reply, but continued his occupation with great
+      industry, which being happily completed, he took a look at the
+      thermometer, and then opening a drawer of the sideboard, he produced a
+      supply of stimulants that would have served to keep the warmth in his
+      system without the aid of the enormous fire he had been building. A small
+      stand was drawn up near the stove, and the bottles and the glasses
+      necessary for convenience were quietly arranged. Two chairs were placed by
+      the side of this comfortable situation, when Benjamin, for the first time,
+      appeared to observe his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;come, Mistress Remarkable, bring yourself to an anchor
+      on this chair. It's a peeler without, I can tell you, good woman; but what
+      cares I? blow high or blow low, d'ye see, it's all the same thing to Ben.
+      The niggers are snug stowed below before a fire that would roast an ox
+      whole. The thermometer stands now at fifty-five, but if there's any vartue
+      in good maple wood, I'll weather upon it, before one glass, as much as ten
+      points more, so that the squire, when he comes home from Betty Hollister's
+      warm room, will feel as hot as a hand that has given the rigging a lick
+      with bad tar. Come, mistress, bring up in this here chair, and tell me how
+      you like our new heiress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, to my notion, Mr. Penguillum&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pump, Pump,&rdquo; interrupted Benjamin; &ldquo;it's Christmas eve, Mistress
+      Remarkable, and so, d'ye see, you had better call me Pump. It's a shorter
+      name, and as I mean to pump this here decanter till it sucks, why, you may
+      as well call me Pump.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever!&rdquo; cried Remarkable, with a laugh that seemed to unhinge
+      every joint in her body. &ldquo;You're a moosical creature, Benjamin, when the
+      notion takes you. But, as I was saying, I rather guess that times will be
+      altered now in this house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Altered!&rdquo; exclaimed the major-domo, eyeing the bottle, that was assuming
+      the clear aspect of cut glass with astonishing rapidity; &ldquo;it don't matter
+      much, Mistress Remarkable, so long as I keep the keys of the lockers in my
+      pocket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say,&rdquo; continued the housekeeper, &ldquo;but there's good eatables and
+      drinkables enough in the house for a body's content&mdash;a little more
+      sugar, Benjamin, in the glass&mdash;for Squire Jones is an excellent
+      provider. But new lords, new laws; and I shouldn't wonder if you and I had
+      an unsartain time on't in footer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is as unsartain as the wind that blows,&rdquo; said Benjamin, with a
+      moralizing air; &ldquo;and nothing is more varible than the wind, Mistress
+      Remarkable, unless you happen to fall in with the trades, d'ye see, and
+      then you may run for the matter of a month at a time, with studding-sails
+      on both sides, alow and aloft, and with the cabin-boy at the wheel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that life is disp'ut unsartain,&rdquo; said Remarkable, compressing her
+      features to the humor of her companion; &ldquo;but I expect there will be great
+      changes made in the house to rights; and that you will find a young man
+      put over your head, as there is one that wants to be over mine; and after
+      having been settled as long as you have, Benjamin, I should judge that to
+      be hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Promotion should go according to length of sarvice,&rdquo; said the major-domo;
+      &ldquo;and if-so-be that they ship a hand for my berth, or place a new steward
+      aft, I shall throw up my commission in less time than you can put a
+      pilot-boat in stays. The Squire Dickon&rdquo;&mdash;this was a common misnomer
+      with Benjamin&mdash;&ldquo;is a nice gentleman, and as good a man to sail with
+      as heart could wish, yet I shall tel the squire, d'ye see, in plain
+      English, and that's my native tongue, that if-so-be he is thinking of
+      putting any Johnny Raw over my head, why, I shall resign. I began forrard,
+      Mistress Prettybones, and worked my way aft, like a man. I was six months
+      aboard a Garnsey lugger, hauling in the slack of the lee-sheet and coiling
+      up rigging. From that I went a few trips in a fore-and-after, in the same
+      trade, which, after all, was but a blind kind of sailing in the dark,
+      where a man larns but little, excepting how to steer by the stars. Well,
+      then, d'ye see, I larnt how a topmast should be slushed, and how a
+      topgallant-sail was to be becketted; and then I did small jobs in the
+      cabin, such as mixing the skipper's grog. 'Twas there I got my taste,
+      which, you must have often seen, is excel lent. Well, here's better
+      acquaintance to us.&rdquo; Remarkable nodded a return to the compliment, and
+      took a sip of the beverage before her; for, provided it was well
+      sweetened, she had no objection to a small potation now and then, After
+      this observance of courtesy between the worthy couple, the dialogue
+      proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have had great experiences in life, Benjamin; for, as the Scripter
+      says, 'They that go down to the sea in ships see the works of the Lord.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! for that matter, they in brigs and schooners, too; and it mought say,
+      the works of the devil. The sea, Mistress Remarkable, is a great advantage
+      to a man, in the way of knowledge, for he sees the fashions of nations and
+      the shape of a country. Now, I suppose, for myself here, who is but an
+      unlarned man to some that follows the seas, I suppose that, taking the
+      coast from Cape Ler Hogue as low down as Cape Finish-there, there isn't so
+      much as a headland, or an island, that I don't know either the name of it
+      or something more or less about it. Take enough, woman, to color the
+      water. Here's sugar. It's a sweet tooth, that fellow that you hold on upon
+      yet, Mistress Prettybones. But, as I was saying, take the whole coast
+      along, I know it as well as the way from here to the Bold Dragoon; and a
+      devil of acquaintance is that Bay of Biscay. Whew! I wish you could but
+      hear the wind blow there. It sometimes takes two to hold one man's hair on
+      his head. Scudding through the bay is pretty much the same thing as
+      travelling the roads in this country, up one side of a mountain and down
+      the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell!&rdquo; exclaimed Remarkable; &ldquo;and does the sea run as high as
+      mountains, Benjamin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I will tell; but first let's taste the grog. Hem! it's the right
+      kind of stuff, I must say, that you keep in this country; but then you're
+      so close aboard the West Indies, you make but a small run of it. By the
+      Lord Harry, woman, if Garnsey only lay somewhere between Cape Hatteras and
+      the bite of Logann, but you'd see rum cheap! As to the seas, they runs
+      more in uppers in the Bay of Biscay, unless it may be in a sow-wester,
+      when they tumble about quite handsomely; thof it's not in the narrow sea
+      that you are to look for a swell; just go off the Western Islands, in a
+      westerly blow, keeping the land on your larboard hand, with the ship's
+      head to the south'ard, and bring to, under a close-reefed topsail; or,
+      mayhap, a reefed foresail, with a fore-topmast-staysail and mizzen
+      staysail to keep her up to the sea, if she will bear it; and ay there for
+      the matter of two watches, if you want to see mountains. Why, good woman,
+      I've been off there in the Boadishey frigate, when you could see nothing
+      but some such matter as a piece of sky, mayhap, as big as the main sail;
+      and then again, there was a hole under your lee-quarter big enough to hold
+      the whole British navy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! for massy's sake! and wa'n't you afeard, Benjamin? and how did you
+      get off?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afeard! who the devil do you think was to be frightened at a little salt
+      water tumbling about his head? As for getting off, when we had enough of
+      it, and had washed our decks down pretty well, we called all hands, for,
+      d'ye see, the watch below was in their hammocks, all the same as if they
+      were in one of your best bedrooms; and so we watched for a smooth time,
+      clapt her helm hard a weather, let fall the foresail, and got the tack
+      aboard; and so, when we got her afore it, I ask you, Mistress Prettybones,
+      if she didn't walk? didn't she? I'm no liar, good woman, when I say that I
+      saw that ship jump from the top of one sea to another, just like one of
+      these squirrels that can fly jumps from tree to tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! clean out of the water?&rdquo; exclaimed Remarkable, lifting her two
+      lank arms, with their bony hands spread in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was no such easy matte: to get out of the water, good woman; for the
+      spray flew so that you couldn't tell which was sea or which was cloud. So
+      there we kept her afore it for the matter of two glasses. The first
+      lieutenant he cun'd the ship himself, and there was four quarter masters
+      at the wheel, besides the master with six forecastle men in the gun-room
+      at the relieving tackles. But then she behaved herself so well! Oh! she
+      was a sweet ship, mistress! That one frigate was well worth more, to live
+      in, than the best house in the island. If I was king of England I'd have
+      her hauled up above Lon'on bridge, and fit her up for a palace; because
+      why? if anybody can afford to live comfortably, his majesty can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! but, Benjamin,&rdquo; cried the listener, who was in an ecstasy of
+      astonishment at this relation of the steward's dangers, &ldquo;what did you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do! why, we did our duty like hearty fellows. Now if the countrymen of
+      Monnsheer Ler Quaw had been aboard of her, they would have just struck her
+      ashore on some of them small islands; but we run along the land until we
+      found her dead to leeward off the mountains of Pico, and dam'me if I know
+      to this day how we got there&mdash;whether we jumped over the island or
+      hauled round it; but there we was, and there we lay, under easy sail,
+      fore-reaching first upon one tack and then upon t'other, so as to poke her
+      nose out now and then and take a look to wind'ard till the gale blowed its
+      pipe out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder, now!&rdquo; exclaimed Remarkable, to whom most of the terms used by
+      Benjamin were perfectly unintelligible, but who had got a confused idea of
+      a raging tempest. &ldquo;It must be an awful life, that going to sea! and I
+      don't feel astonishment that you are so affronted with the thoughts, of
+      being forced to quit a comfortable home like this. Not that a body cares
+      much for't, as there's more houses than one to live in. Why, when the
+      Judge agreed with me to come and live with him, I'd no more notion of
+      stopping any time than anything. I happened in just to see how the family
+      did, about a week after Mrs. Temple died, thinking to be back home agin'
+      night; but the family was in such a distressed way that I couldn't but
+      stop awhile and help em on. I thought the situation a good one, seeing
+      that I was an unmarried body, and they were so much in want of help; so I
+      tarried.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a long time you've left your anchors down in the same place,
+      mistress. I think yo' must find that the ship rides easy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you talk, Benjamin! there's no believing a word you say. I must say
+      that the Judge and Squire Jones have both acted quite clever, so long; but
+      I see that now we shall have a specimen to the contrary. I heern say thats
+      the Judge was gone a great 'broad, and that he meant to bring his darter
+      hum, but I didn't calculate on sich carrins on. To my notion, Benjamin,
+      she's likely to turn out a desp'ut ugly gal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugly!&rdquo; echoed the major-domo, opening eyes that were beginning to close
+      in a very suspicious sleepiness, in wide amazement. &ldquo;By the Lord Harry,
+      woman, I should as soon think of calling the Boadishey a clumsy frigate.
+      What the devil would you have? Arn't her eyes as bright as the morning and
+      evening stars? and isn't her hair as black and glistening as rigging that
+      has just had a lick of tar? doesn't she move as stately as a first-rate in
+      smooth water, on a bowline? Why, woman, the figure-head of the Boadishey
+      was a fool to her, and that, as I've often heard the captain say, was an
+      image of a great queen; and arn't queens always comely, woman? for who do
+      you think would be a king, and not choose a handsome bedfellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk decent, Benjamin,&rdquo; said the housekeeper, &ldquo;Or I won't keep your
+      company. I don't gainsay her being comely to look on, but I will maintain
+      that she's likely to show poor conduct. She seems to think herself too
+      good to talk to a body. From what Squire Jones had telled me, I some
+      expected to be quite captivated by her company. Now, to my reckoning,
+      Lowizy Grant is much more pritty behaved than Betsey Temple. She wouldn't
+      so much as hold discourse with me when I wanted to ask her how she felt on
+      coming home and missing her mammy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps she didn't understand you, woman; you are none of the best
+      linguister; and then Miss Lizzy has been exercising the king's English
+      under a great Lon'on lady, and, for that matter, can talk the language
+      almost as well as myself, or any native-born British subject. You've
+      forgot your schooling, and the young mistress is a great scollard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mistress!&rdquo; cried Remarkable; &ldquo;don't make one out to be a nigger,
+      Benjamin. She's no mistress of mine, and never will be. And as to speech,
+      I hold myself as second to nobody out of New England. I was born and
+      raised in Essex County; and I've always heern say that the Bay State was
+      provarbal for pronounsation!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've often heard of that Bay of State,&rdquo; said Benjamin, &ldquo;but can't say
+      that I've ever been in it, nor do I know exactly whereaway it is that it
+      lays; but I suppose there is good anchorage in it, and that it's no bad
+      place for the taking of ling; but for size it can't be so much as a yawl
+      to a sloop of war compared with the Bay of Biscay, or, mayhap, Torbay. And
+      as for language, if you want to hear the dictionary overhauled like a
+      log-line in a blow, you must go to Wapping and listen to the Lon'oners as
+      they deal out their lingo. Howsomever, I see no such mighty matter that
+      Miss Lizzy has been doing to you, good woman; so take another drop of your
+      brews and forgive and forget, like an honest soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed! and I shan't do sitch a thing, Benjamin. This treatment is a
+      newity to me, and what I won't put up with. I have a hundred and fifty
+      dollars at use, besides a bed and twenty sheep, to good; and I don't crave
+      to live in a house where a body mustn't call a young woman by her given
+      name to her face. I will call her Betsey as much as I please; it's a free
+      country, and no one can stop me. I did intend to stop while summer, but I
+      shall quit to-morrow morning; and I will talk just as I please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that matter, Mistress Remarkable,&rdquo; said Benjamin, &ldquo;there's none here
+      who will contradict you; for I'm of opinion that it would be as easy to
+      stop a hurricane with a Barcelony handkerchy as to bring up your tongue
+      when the stopper is off. I say, good woman, do they grow many monkeys
+      along the shores of that Bay of State?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a monkey yourself, Mr. Penguillum,&rdquo; cried the enraged housekeeper,
+      &ldquo;or a bear&mdash;a black, beastly bear! and ain't fit for a decent woman
+      to stay with. I'll never, keep your company agin, sir, if I should live
+      thirty years with the Judge. Sitch talk is more befitting the kitchen than
+      the keeping-room of a house of one who is well-to-do in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look you, Mistress Pitty&mdash;Patty&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;Prettybones,
+      mayhap I'm some such matter as a bear, as they will find who come to
+      grapple with me; but dam'me if I'm a monkey&mdash;a thing that chatters
+      without knowing a word of what it says&mdash;a parrot; that will hold a
+      dialogue, for what an honest man knows, in a dozen languages; mayhap in
+      the Bay of State lingo; mayhap in Greek or High Dutch. But dost it know
+      what it means itself? canst answer me that, good woman? Your midshipman
+      can sing out, and pass the word, when the captain gives the order, but
+      just send him adrift by himself, and let him work the ship of his own
+      head, and stop my grog if you don't find all the Johnny Raws laughing at
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop your grog, indeed!&rdquo; said Remarkable, rising with great indignation,
+      and seizing a candle; &ldquo;you're groggy now, Benjamin and I'll quit the room
+      before I hear any misbecoming words from you.&rdquo; The housekeeper retired,
+      with a manner but little less dignified, as she thought, than the air of
+      the heiress, muttering as she drew the door after her, with a noise like
+      the report of a musket, the opprobrious terms of &ldquo;drunkard,&rdquo; &ldquo;sot,&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;beast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's that you say is drunk?&rdquo; cried Benjamin fiercely, rising and making
+      a movement toward Remarkable. &ldquo;You talk of mustering yourself with a lady
+      you're just fit to grumble and find fault. Where the devil should you larn
+      behavior and dictionary? in your damned Bay of State, ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin here fell back in his chair, and soon gave vent to certain
+      ominous sounds, which resembled not a little the growling of his favorite
+      animal the bear itself. Before, however, he was quite locked&mdash;to use
+      the language that would suit the Della-cruscan humor of certain refined
+      minds of the present day&mdash;&ldquo;in the arms of Morpheus,&rdquo; he spoke aloud,
+      observing due pauses between his epithets, the impressive terms of
+      &ldquo;monkey,&rdquo; &ldquo;parrot,&rdquo; &ldquo;picnic,&rdquo; &ldquo;tar pot,&rdquo; and &ldquo;linguisters&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall not attempt to explain his meaning nor connect his sentences; and
+      our readers must be satisfied with our informing them that they were
+      expressed with all that coolness of contempt that a man might well be
+      supposed to feel for a monkey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearly two hours passed in this sleep before the major domo was awakened
+      by the noisy entrance of Richard, Major Hartmann, and the master of the
+      mansion. Benjamin so far rallied his confused faculties as to shape the
+      course of the two former to their respective apartments, when he
+      disappeared himself, leaving the task of securing the house to him who was
+      most interested in its safety. Locks and bars were but little attended to
+      in the early days of that settlement, and so soon as Marmaduke had given
+      an eye to the enormous fires of his dwelling he retired. With this act of
+      prudence closes the first night of our tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Watch (aside).
+     Some treason, masters&mdash;
+     Yet stand close.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Much Ado About Nothing.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was fortunate for more than one of the bacchanalians who left the &ldquo;Bold
+      Dragoon&rdquo; late in the evening that the severe cold of the season was
+      becoming rapidly less dangerous as they threaded the different mazes
+      through the snow-banks that led to their respective dwellings. Then
+      driving clouds began toward morning to flit across the heavens, and the
+      moon set behind a volume of vapor that was impelled furiously toward the
+      north, carrying with it the softer atmosphere from the distant ocean. The
+      rising sun was obscured by denser and increasing columns of clouds, while
+      the southerly wind that rushed up the valley brought the never-failing
+      symptoms of a thaw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite late in the morning before Elizabeth, observing the faint
+      glow which appeared on the eastern mountain long after the light of the
+      sun had struck the opposite hills, ventured from the house, with a view to
+      gratify her curiosity with a glance by daylight at the surrounding objects
+      before the tardy revellers of the Christmas eve should make their
+      appearance at the breakfast-table. While she was drawing the folds of her
+      pelisse more closely around her form, to guard against a cold that was yet
+      great though rapidly yielding, in the small inclosure that opened in the
+      rear of the house on a little thicket of low pines that were springing up
+      where trees of a mightier growth had lately stood, she was surprised at
+      the voice of Mr. Jones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merry Christmas, merry Christmas to you, Cousin Bess,&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;Ah,
+      ha! an early riser, I see; but I knew I should steal a march on you. I
+      never was in a house yet where I didn't get the first Christmas greeting
+      on every soul in it, man, woman, and child&mdash;great and small&mdash;black,
+      white, and yellow. But stop a minute till I can just slip on my coat. You
+      are about to look at the improvements, I see, which no one can explain so
+      well as I, who planned them all. It will be an hour before 'Duke and the
+      Major can sleep off Mrs. Hollister's confounded distillations, and so I'll
+      come down and go with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth turned and observed her cousin in his night cap, with his head
+      out of his bedroom window, where his zeal for pre-eminence, in defiance of
+      the weather, had impelled him to thrust it. She laughed, and promising to
+      wait for his company re-entered the house, making her appearance again,
+      holding in her hand a packet that was secured by several large and
+      important seals, just in time to meet the gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Bessy, come,&rdquo; he cried, drawing one of her arms through his own;
+      &ldquo;the snow begins to give, but it will bear us yet. Don't you snuff old
+      Pennsylvania in the very air? This is a vile climate, girl; now at sunset,
+      last evening, it was cold enough to freeze a man's zeal, and that, I can
+      tell you, takes a thermometer near zero for me; then about nine or ten it
+      began to moderate; at twelve it was quite mild, and here all the rest of
+      the night I have been so hot as not to bear a blanket on the bed.&mdash;Holla!
+      Aggy&mdash;merry Christmas, Aggy&mdash;I say, do you hear me, you black
+      dog! there's a dollar for you; and if the gentle men get up before I come
+      back, do you come out and let me know. I wouldn't have 'Duke get the start
+      of me for the worth of your head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The black caught the money from the snow, and promising a due degree of
+      watchfulness, he gave the dollar a whirl of twenty feet in the air, and
+      catching it as it fell in the palm of his hand, he withdrew to the
+      kitchen, to exhibit his present, with a heart as light as his face was
+      happy in its expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, rest easy, my dear coz,&rdquo; said the young lady; &ldquo;I took a look in at my
+      father, who is likely to sleep an hour; and by using due vigilance you
+      will secure all the honors of the season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Duke is your father, Elizabeth; but 'Duke is a man who likes to be
+      foremost, even in trifles. Now, as for myself, I care for no such things,
+      except in the way of competition; for a thing which is of no moment in
+      itself may be made of importance in the way of competition. So it is with
+      your father&mdash;he loves to be first; but I only; struggle with him as a
+      competitor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all very clear, sir,&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;you would not care a fig for
+      distinction if there were no one in the world but yourself; but as there
+      happens to be a great many others, why, you must struggle with them all&mdash;in
+      the way of competition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly so; I see you are a clever girl, Bess, and one who does credit to
+      her masters. It was my plan to send you to that school; for when your
+      father first mentioned the thing, I wrote a private letter for advice to a
+      judicious friend in the city, who recommended the very school you went to.
+      'Duke was a little obstinate at first, as usual, but when he heard the
+      truth he was obliged to send you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, a truce to 'Duke's foibles, sir; he is my father, and if you knew
+      what he has been doing for you while we were in Albany, you would deal
+      more tenderly with his character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For me!&rdquo; cried Richard, pausing a moment in his walk to reflect. &ldquo;Oh! he
+      got the plans of the new Dutch meeting-house for me, I suppose; but I care
+      very little about it, for a man of a certain kind of talent is seldom
+      aided by any foreign suggestions; his own brain is the best architect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No such thing,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, looking provokingly knowing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! let me see&mdash;perhaps he had my name put in the bill for the new
+      turnpike, as a director.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He might possibly; but it is not to such an appointment that I allude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such an appointment!&rdquo; repeated Mr. Jones, who began to fidget with
+      curiosity; &ldquo;then it is an appointment. If it is in the militia, I won't
+      take it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, it is not in the militia,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, showing the packet in
+      her hand, and then drawing it back with a coquettish air; &ldquo;it is an office
+      of both honor and emolument.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honor and emolument!&rdquo; echoed Richard, in painful suspense; &ldquo;show me the
+      paper, girl. Say, is it an office where there is anything to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have hit it, Cousin Dickon; it is the executive office of the county;
+      at least so said my father when he gave me this packet to offer you as a
+      Christmas-box. Surely, if anything will please Dickon,' he said, 'it will
+      be to fill the executive chair of the county.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Executive chair! what nonsense!&rdquo; cried the impatient gentleman, snatching
+      the packet from her hand; &ldquo;there is no such office in the county. Eh!
+      what! it is, I declare, a commission, appointing Richard Jones, Esquire,
+      sheriff of the county. Well, this is kind in 'Duke, positively. I must say
+      'Duke has a warm heart, and never forgets his friends. Sheriff! High
+      Sheriff of&mdash;! it sounds well, Bess, but it shall execute better.
+      'Duke is a judicious man after all, and knows human nature thoroughly, I'm
+      much obliged to him,&rdquo; continued Richard, using the skirt of his coat
+      unconsciously to wipe his eyes; &ldquo;though I would do as much for him any
+      day, as he shall see, if I have an opportunity to perform any of the
+      duties of my office on him. It shall be done, Cousin Bess&mdash;&mdash;it
+      shall be done, I say. How this cursed south wind makes one's eyes water!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Richard,&rdquo; said the laughing maiden, &ldquo;now I think you will find
+      something to do. I have often heard you complain of old that there was
+      nothing to do in this new country, while to my eyes it seemed as if
+      everything remained to be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do!&rdquo; echoed Richard, who blew his nose, raised his little form to its
+      greatest elevation, and looked serious. &ldquo;Everything depends on system,
+      girl. I shall sit down this afternoon and systematize the county. I must
+      have deputies, you know. I will divide the county into districts, over
+      which I will place my deputies; and I will have one for the village, which
+      I will call my home department. Let me see&mdash;ho! Benjamin! yes,
+      Benjamin will make a good deputy; he has been naturalized, and would
+      answer admirably if he could only ride on horseback.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Mr. Sheriff,&rdquo; said his companion; &ldquo;and as he understands ropes so
+      well, he would be very expert, should occasion happen for his services in
+      another way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; interrupted the other; &ldquo;I flatter myself that no man could hang a
+      man better than&mdash;that is&mdash;ha!&mdash;oh! yes, Benjamin would do
+      extremely well in such an unfortunate dilemma, if he could be persuaded to
+      attempt it. But I should despair of the thing. I never could induce him to
+      hang, or teach him to ride on horseback. I must seek another deputy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, as you have abundant leisure for all these important affairs,
+      I beg that you will forget that you are high sheriff, and devote some
+      little of your time to gallantry. Where are the beauties and improvements
+      which you were to show me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where? why, everywhere! Here I have laid out some new streets; and when
+      they are opened, and the trees felled, and they are all built up, will
+      they not make a fine town? Well, 'Duke is a liberal-hearted fellow, with
+      all his stubbornness. Yes, yes; I must have at least four deputies,
+      besides a jailer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no streets in the direction of our walk,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, &ldquo;unless
+      you call the short avenues through these pine bushes by that name. Surely
+      you do not contemplate building houses, very soon, in that forest before
+      us, and in those swamps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must run our streets by the compass, coz, and disregard trees, hills,
+      ponds, stumps, or, in fact, anything but posterity. Such is the will of
+      your father, and your father, you know&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you made sheriff, Mr. Jones,&rdquo; interrupted the lady, with a tone that
+      said very plainly to the gentleman that he was touching a forbidden
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, I know it,&rdquo; cried Richard; &ldquo;and if it were in my power, I'd
+      make 'Duke a king. He is a noble hearted fellow, and would make an
+      excellent king; that is, if he had a good prime minister. But who have we
+      here? voices in the bushes&mdash;a combination about mischief, I'll wager
+      my commission. Let us draw near and examine a little into the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this dialogue, as the parties had kept in motion, Richard and his
+      cousin advanced some distance from the house into the open space in the
+      rear of the village, where, as may be gathered from the conversation,
+      streets were planned and future dwellings contemplated; but where, in
+      truth, the only mark of improvement that was to be seen was a neglected
+      clearing along the skirt of a dark forest of mighty pines, over which the
+      bushes or sprouts of the same tree had sprung up to a height that
+      interspersed the fields of snow with little thickets of evergreen. The
+      rushing of the wind, as it whistled through the tops of these mimic trees,
+      prevented the footsteps of the pair from being heard, while the branches
+      concealed their persons. Thus aided, the listeners drew nigh to a spot
+      where the young hunter, Leather-Stocking, and the Indian chief were
+      collected in an earnest consultation. The former was urgent in his manner,
+      and seemed to think the subject of deep importance, while Natty appeared
+      to listen with more than his usual attention to what the other was saying.
+      Mohegan stood a little on one side, with his head sunken on his chest, his
+      hair falling forward so as to conceal most of his features, and his whole
+      attitude expressive of deep dejection, if not of shame. &ldquo;Let us withdraw,&rdquo;
+       whispered Elizabeth; &ldquo;we are intruders, and can have no right to listen to
+      the secrets of these men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No right!&rdquo; returned Richard a little impatiently, in the same tone, and
+      drawing her arm so forcibly through his own as to prevent her retreat;
+      &ldquo;you forget, cousin, that it is my duty to preserve the peace of the
+      county and see the laws executed, these wanderers frequently commit
+      depredations, though I do not think John would do anything secretly. Poor
+      fellow! he was quite boozy last night, and hardly seems to be over it yet.
+      Let us draw nigher and hear what they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the lady's reluctance, Richard, stimulated doubtless by
+      his sense of duty, prevailed; and they were soon so near as distinctly to
+      hear sounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bird must be had,&rdquo; said Natty, &ldquo;by fair means or foul. Heigho! I've
+      known the time, lad, when the wild turkeys wasn't over-scarce in the
+      country; though you must go into the Virginia gaps if you want them now.
+      'to be sure, there is a different taste to a partridge and a well-fatted
+      turkey; though, to my eating, beaver's tail and bear's ham make the best
+      of food. But then every one has his own appetite. I gave the last
+      farthing, all to that shilling, to the French trader, this very morning,
+      as I came through the town, for powder; so, as you have nothing, we can
+      have but one shot for it. I know that Billy Kirby is out, and means to
+      have a pull of the trigger at that very turkey. John has a true eye for a
+      single fire, and, some how, my hand shakes so whenever I have to do
+      anything extrawnary, that I often lose my aim. Now, when I killed the
+      she-bear this fall, with her cubs, though they were so mighty ravenous, I
+      knocked them over one at a shot, and loaded while I dodged the trees in
+      the bargain; but this is a very different thing, Mr. Oliver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This,&rdquo; cried the young man, with an accent that sounded as if he took a
+      bitter pleasure in his poverty, while he held a shilling up before his
+      eyes, &ldquo;this is all the treasure that I possess&mdash;this and my rifle!
+      Now, indeed, I have become a man of the woods, and must place my sole
+      dependence on the chase. Come, Natty, let us stake the last penny for the
+      bird; with your aim, it cannot fail to be successful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather it should be John, lad; my heart jumps into my mouth,
+      because you set your mind so much out; and I'm sartain that I shall miss
+      the bird. Them Indians can shoot one time as well as another; nothing ever
+      troubles them. I say, John, here's a shilling; take my rifle, and get a
+      shot at the big turkey they've put up at the stump. Mr. Oliver is
+      over-anxious for the creatur', and I'm sure to do nothing when I have
+      over-anxiety about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian turned his head gloomily, and after looking keenly for a
+      moment, in profound silence, at his companions, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When John was young, eyesight was not straighter than his bullet. The
+      Mingo squaws cried out at the sound of his rifle. The Mingo warriors were
+      made squaws. When did he ever shoot twice? The eagle went above the clouds
+      when he passed the wigwam of Chingachgook; his feathers were plenty with
+      the women. But see,&rdquo; he said, raising his voice from the low, mournful
+      tones in which he had spoken to a pitch of keen excitement, and stretching
+      forth both hands, &ldquo;they shake like a deer at the wolf's howl. Is John old?
+      When was a Mohican a squaw with seventy winters? No! the white man brings
+      old age with him&mdash;rum is his tomahawk!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then, do you use it, old man?&rdquo; exclaimed the young hunter; &ldquo;why will
+      one, so noble by nature, aid the devices of the devil by making himself a
+      beast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beast! is John a beast?&rdquo; replied the Indian slowly; &ldquo;yes; you say no lie,
+      child of the Fire-eater! John is a beast. The smokes were once few in
+      these hills, The deer would lick the hand of a white man and the birds
+      rest on his head. They were strangers to him. My fathers came from the
+      shores of the salt lake. They fled before rum. They came to their
+      grandfather, and they lived in peace; or, when they did raise the hatchet,
+      it was to strike it into the brain of a Mingo. They gathered around the
+      council fire, and what they said was done. Then John was a man. But
+      warriors and traders with light eyes followed them. One brought the long
+      knife and one brought rum. They were more than the pines on the mountains;
+      and they broke up the councils and took the lands, The evil spirit was in
+      their jugs, and they let him loose. Yes yes&mdash;you say no lie, Young
+      Eagle; John is a Christian beast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, old warrior,&rdquo; cried the youth, grasping his hand; &ldquo;I should
+      be the last to reproach you. The curses of Heaven light on the cupidity
+      that has destroyed such a race. Remember, John, that I am of your family,
+      and it is now my greatest pride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The muscles of Mohegan relaxed a little, and he said, more mildly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a Delaware, my son; your words are not heard&mdash;John cannot
+      shoot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that lad had Indian blood in him,&rdquo; whispered Richard, &ldquo;by the
+      awkward way he handled my horses last night. You see, coz, they never use
+      harness. But the poor fellow shall have two shots at the turkey, if he
+      wants it, for I'll give him another shilling myself; though, perhaps, I
+      had better offer to shoot for him. They have got up their Christmas
+      sports, I find, in the bushes yonder, where you hear the laughter&mdash;though
+      it is a queer taste this chap has for turkey; not but what it is good
+      eating, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold, Cousin Richard,&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth, clinging to his arm; &ldquo;would
+      it be delicate to offer a shilling to that gentleman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentleman, again! Do you think a half-breed, like him, will refuse money?
+      No, no, girl, he will take the shilling; ay! and even rum too,
+      notwithstanding he moralizes so much about it, But I'll give the lad a
+      chance for his turkey; for that Billy Kirby is one of the best marksmen in
+      the country; that is, if we except the&mdash;the gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, who found her strength unequal to her will, &ldquo;then,
+      sir, I will speak.&rdquo; She advanced, with an air of determination, in front
+      of her cousin, and entered the little circle of bushes that surrounded the
+      trio of hunters. Her appearance startled the youth, who at first made an
+      unequivocal motion toward retiring, but, recollecting himself, bowed, by
+      lifting his cap, and resumed his attitude of leaning on his rifle. Neither
+      Natty nor Mohegan betrayed any emotion, though the appearance of Elizabeth
+      was so entirely unexpected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I find,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;that the old Christmas sport of shooting the turkey
+      is yet in use among you. I feel inclined to try my chance for a bird.
+      Which of you will take this money, and, after paying my fee, give me the
+      aid of his rifle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a sport for a lady?&rdquo; exclaimed the young hunter, with an emphasis
+      that could not well be mistaken, and with a rapidity that showed he spoke
+      without consulting anything but feeling. &ldquo;Why not, sir? If it be inhuman
+      the sin is not confined to one sex only. But I have my humor as well as
+      others. I ask not your assistance, but&rdquo;&mdash;turning to Natty, and
+      dropping a dollar in his hand&mdash;&ldquo;this old veteran of the forest will
+      not be so ungallant as to refuse one fire for a lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leather-Stocking dropped the money into his pouch, and throwing up the end
+      of his rifle he freshened his priming; and first laughing in his usual
+      manner, he threw the piece over his shoulder, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Billy Kirby don't get the bird before me, and the Frenchman's powder
+      don't hang fire this damp morning, you'll see as fine a turkey dead, in a
+      few minutes, as ever was eaten in the Judge's shanty. I have knowed the
+      Dutch women, on the Mohawk and Schoharie, count greatly on coming to the
+      merry-makings; and so, lad, you shouldn't be short with the lady. Come,
+      let us go forward, for if we wait the finest bird will be gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have a right before you, Natty, and shall try on my own luck first.
+      You will excuse me, Miss Temple; I have much reason to wish that bird, and
+      may seem ungallant, but I must claim my privileges.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Claim anything that is justly your own, sir,&rdquo; returned the lady; &ldquo;we are
+      both adventurers; and this is my knight. I trust my fortune to his hand
+      and eye. Lead on, Sir Leather-Stocking, and we will follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty, who seemed pleased with the frank address of the young and
+      beauteous Elizabeth, who had so singularly intrusted him with such a
+      commission, returned the bright smile with which she had addressed him, by
+      his own peculiar mark of mirth, and moved across the snow toward the spot
+      whence the sounds of boisterous mirth proceeded, with the long strides of
+      a hunter. His companions followed in silence, the youth casting frequent
+      and uneasy glances toward Elizabeth, who was detained by a motion from
+      Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think, Miss Temple,&rdquo; he said, so soon as the others were out of
+      hearing, &ldquo;that if you really wished a turkey, you would not have taken a
+      stranger for the office, and such a one as Leather-Stocking. But I can
+      hardly believe that you are serious, for I have fifty, at this moment,
+      shut up in the coops, in every stage of fat, so that you might choose any
+      quality you pleased. There are six that I am trying an experiment on, by
+      giving them brick-bats with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough, Cousin Dickon,&rdquo; interrupted the lady; &ldquo;I do wish the bird, and it
+      is because I so wish that I commissioned this Mr. Leather-Stocking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever hear of the great shot that I made at the wolf, Cousin
+      Elizabeth, who was carrying off your father's sheep?&rdquo; said Richard,
+      drawing himself up with an air of displeasure. &ldquo;He had the sheep on his
+      hack; and, had the head of the wolf been on the other side, I should have
+      killed him dead; as it was&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You killed the sheep&mdash;I know it all, dear coz. But would it have
+      been decorous for the High Sheriff of&mdash;to mingle in such sports as
+      these?&rdquo; &ldquo;Surely you did not think that I intended actually to fire with my
+      own hands?&rdquo; said Mr. Jones. &ldquo;But let us follow, and see the shooting.
+      There is no fear of anything unpleasant occurring to a female in this new
+      country, especially to your father's daughter, and in my presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father's daughter fears nothing, sir, more especially when escorted by
+      the highest executive officer in the county.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his arm, and he led her through the mazes of the bushes to the
+      spot where most of the young men of the village were collected for the
+      sports of shooting a Christmas match, and whither Natty and his Companions
+      had already preceded them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I guess, by all this quaint array,
+     The burghers hold their sports to-day.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Scott.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The ancient amusement of shooting the Christmas turkey is one of the few
+      sports that the settlers of a new country seldom or never neglect to
+      observe. It was connected with the daily practices of a people who often
+      laid aside the axe or the scythe to seize the rifle, as the deer glided
+      through the forests they were felling, or the bear entered their rough
+      meadows to scent the air of a clearing, and to scan, with a look of
+      sagacity, the progress of the invader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the present occasion, the usual amusement of the day had been a little
+      hastened, in order to allow a fair opportunity to Mr. Grant, whose
+      exhibition was not less a treat to the young sportsmen than the one which
+      engaged their present attention. The owner of the birds was a free black,
+      who had prepared for the occasion a collection of game that was admirably
+      qualified to inflame the appetite of an epicure, and was well adapted to
+      the means and skill of the different competitors, who were of all ages. He
+      had offered to the younger and more humble marks men divers birds of an
+      inferior quality, and some shooting had already taken place, much to the
+      pecuniary advantage of the sable owner of the game. The order of the
+      sports was extremely simple, and well understood. The bird was fastened by
+      a string to the stump of a large pine, the side of which, toward the point
+      where the marksmen were placed, had been flattened with an axe, in order
+      that it might serve the purpose of a target, by which the merit of each
+      individual might be ascertained. The distance between the stump and
+      shooting-stand was one hundred measured yards; a foot more or a foot less
+      being thought an invasion of the right of one of the parties. The negro
+      affixed his own price to every bird, and the terms of the chance; but,
+      when these were once established, he was obliged, by the strict principles
+      of public justice that prevailed in the country, to admit any adventurer
+      who might offer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The throng consisted of some twenty or thirty young men, most of whom had
+      rifles, and a collection of all the boys in the village. The little
+      urchins, clad in coarse but warm garments, stood gathered around the more
+      distinguished marksmen, with their hands stuck under their waistbands,
+      listening eagerly to the boastful stories of skill that had been exhibited
+      on former occasions, and were already emulating in their hearts these
+      wonderful deeds in gunnery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief speaker was the man who had been mentioned by Natty as Billy
+      Kirby. This fellow, whose occupation, when he did labor, was that of
+      clearing lands, or chopping jobs, was of great stature, and carried in his
+      very air the index of his character. He was a noisy, boisterous, reckless
+      lad, whose good-natured eye contradicted the bluntness and bullying tenor
+      of his speech. For weeks he would lounge around the taverns of the county,
+      in a state of perfect idleness, or doing small jobs for his liquor and his
+      meals, and cavilling with applicants about the prices of his labor;
+      frequently preferring idleness to an abatement of a little of his
+      independence, or a cent in his wages. But, when these embarrassing points
+      were satisfactorily arranged, he would shoulder his axe and his rifle,
+      slip his arms through the straps of his pack, and enter the woods with the
+      tread of a Hercules. His first object was to learn his limits, round which
+      he would pace, occasionally freshening, with a blow of his axe, the marks
+      on the boundary trees; and then he would proceed, with an air of great
+      deliberation, to the centre of his premises, and, throwing aside his
+      superfluous garments, measure, with a knowing eye, one or two of the
+      nearest trees that were towering apparently into the very clouds as he
+      gazed upward. Commonly selecting one of the most noble for the first trial
+      of his power, he would approach it with a listless air, whistling a low
+      tune; and wielding his axe with a certain flourish, not unlike the salutes
+      of a fencing-master, he would strike a light blow into the bark, and
+      measure his distance. The pause that followed was ominous of the fall of
+      the forest which had flourished there for centuries. The heavy and brisk
+      blows that he struck were soon succeeded by the thundering report of the
+      tree, as it came, first cracking and threatening with the separation of
+      its own last ligaments, then threshing and tearing with its branches the
+      tops of its surrounding brethren, and finally meeting the ground with a
+      shock but little inferior to an earthquake. From that moment the sounds of
+      the axe were ceaseless, while the failing of the trees was like a distant
+      cannonading; and the daylight broke into the depths of the woods with the
+      suddenness of a winter morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For days, weeks, nay months, Billy Kirby would toil with an ardor that
+      evinced his native spirit, and with an effect that seemed magical, until,
+      his chopping being ended, his stentorian lungs could be heard emitting
+      sounds, as he called to his patient oxen, which rang through the hills
+      like the cries of an alarm. He had been often heard, on a mild summer'
+      evening, a long mile across the vale of Templeton; when the echoes from
+      the mountains would take up his cries, until they died away in the feeble
+      sounds from the distant rocks that overhung the lake. His piles, or, to
+      use the language of the country, his logging ended, with a dispatch that
+      could only accompany his dexterity and herculean strength, the jobber
+      would collect together his implements of labor, light the heaps of timber,
+      and march away under the blaze of the prostrate forest, like the conqueror
+      of some city who, having first prevailed over his adversary, applies the
+      torch as the finishing blow to his conquest. For a long time Billy Kirby
+      would then be seen sauntering around the taverns, the rider of scrub
+      races, the bully of cock-fights, and not infrequently the hero of such
+      sports as the one in hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between him and the Leather-Stocking there had long existed a jealous
+      rivalry on the point of skill with the rifle. Notwithstanding the long
+      practice of Natty, it was commonly supposed that the steady nerves and the
+      quick eye of the wood-chopper rendered him his equal. The competition had,
+      however, been confined hitherto to boasting, and comparisons made from
+      their success in various hunting excursions; but this was the first time
+      they had ever come in open collision. A good deal of higgling about the
+      price of the choicest bird had taken place between Billy Kirby and its
+      owner before Natty and his companions rejoined the sportsmen It had,
+      however, been settled at one shilling * a shot, which was the highest sum
+      ever exacted, the black taking care to protect himself from losses, as
+      much as possible, by the conditions of the sport.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Before the Revolution, each province had its own money of account
+    though neither coined any but copper pieces.  In New York the Spanish
+    dollar was divided into eight shillings, each of the value of a
+    fraction more than sixpence sterling.  At present the Union has
+    provided a decimal system, with coins to represent it.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The turkey was already fastened at the &ldquo;mark,&rdquo; but its body was entirely
+      hid by the surrounding snow, nothing being visible but its red swelling
+      head and its long neck. If the bird was injured by any bullet that struck
+      below the snow, it was to continue the property of its present owner; but
+      if a feather was touched in a visible part, the animal became the prize of
+      the successful adventurer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These terms were loudly proclaimed by the negro, who was seated in the
+      snow, in a somewhat hazardous vicinity to his favorite bird, when
+      Elizabeth and her cousin approached the noisy sportsmen. The sounds of
+      mirth and contention sensibly lowered at this unexpected visit; but, after
+      a moment's pause, the curious interest exhibited in the face of the young
+      lady, together with her smiling air, restored the freedom of the morning;
+      though it was somewhat chastened, both in language and vehemence, by the
+      presence of such a spectator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand out of the way there, boys!&rdquo; cried the wood-chopper, who was
+      placing himself at the shooting-point&mdash;stand out of the way, you
+      little rascals, or I will shoot through you. Now, Brom, take leave of your
+      turkey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; cried the young hunter; &ldquo;I am a candidate for a chance. Here is my
+      shilling, Brom; I wish a shot too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may wish it in welcome,&rdquo; cried Kirby, &ldquo;but if I ruffle the gobbler's
+      feathers, how are you to get it? Is money so plenty in your deer-skin
+      pocket, that you pay for a chance that you may never have?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How know you, sir, how plenty money is in my pocket?&rdquo; said the youth
+      fiercely. &ldquo;Here is my shilling, Brom, and I claim a right to shoot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be crabbed, my boy,&rdquo; said the other, who was very coolly fixing his
+      flint. &ldquo;They say you have a hole in your left shoulder yourself, so I
+      think Brom may give you a fire for half-price. It will take a keen one to
+      hit that bird, I can tell you, my lad, even if I give you a chance, which
+      is what I have no mind to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be boasting, Billy Kirby,&rdquo; said Natty, throwing the breech of his
+      rifle into the snow, and leaning on its barrel; &ldquo;you'll get but one shot
+      at the creatur', for if the lad misses his aim, which wouldn't be a wonder
+      if he did, with his arm so stiff and sore, you'll find a good piece and an
+      old eye coming a'ter you. Maybe it's true that I can't shoot as I used to
+      could, but a hundred yards is a short distance for a long rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, old Leather-Stocking, are you out this morning?&rdquo; cried his reckless
+      opponent. &ldquo;Well, fair play's a jewel. I've the lead of you, old fellow; so
+      here goes for a dry throat or a good dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The countenance of the negro evinced not only all the interest which his
+      pecuniary adventure might occasion, but also the keen excitement that the
+      sport produced in the others, though with a very different wish as to the
+      result. While the wood-chopper was slowly and steadily raising his rifle,
+      he bawled;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fair play, Billy Kirby&mdash;stand back&mdash;make 'em stand back, boys&mdash;gib
+      a nigger fair play&mdash;poss-up,&mdash;gobbler; shake a head, fool; don't
+      you see 'em taking aim?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These cries, which were intended as much to distract the attention of the
+      marksman as for anything else, were fruitless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nerves of the wood-chopper were not so easily shaken, and he took his
+      aim with the utmost deliberation. Stillness prevailed for a moment, and he
+      fired. The head of the turkey was seen to dash on one side, and its wings
+      were spread in momentary fluttering; but it settled itself down calmly
+      into its bed of snow, and glanced its eyes uneasily around. For a time
+      long enough to draw a deep breath, not a sound was heard. The silence was
+      then broken by the noise of the negro, who laughed, and shook his body
+      with all kinds of antics, rolling over in the snow in the excess of
+      delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, a gobbler,&rdquo; he cried, jumping up and affecting to embrace his
+      bird; &ldquo;I tell 'em to poss-up, and you see 'em dodge. Gib anoder shillin',
+      Billy, and halb anoder shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;the shot is mine,&rdquo; said the young hunter; &ldquo;you have my money
+      already. Leave the mark, and let me try my luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! it's but money thrown away, lad,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking. &ldquo;A turkey's
+      head and neck is but a small mark for a new hand and a lame shoulder.
+      You'd best let me take the fire, and maybe we can make some settlement
+      with the lady about the bird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The chance is mine,&rdquo; said the young hunter. &ldquo;Clear the ground, that I may
+      take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The discussions and disputes concerning the last shot were now abating, it
+      having been determined that if the turkey's head had been anywhere but
+      just where it was at that moment, the bird must certainly have been
+      killed. There was not much excitement produced by the preparations of the
+      youth, who proceeded in a hurried manner to take his aim, and was in the
+      act of pulling the trigger, when he was stopped by Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your hand shakes, lad,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and you seem over eager. Bullet-wounds
+      are apt to weaken flesh, and to my judgment you'll not shoot so well as in
+      common. If you will fire, you should shoot quick, before there is time to
+      shake off the aim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fair play,&rdquo; again shouted the negro; &ldquo;fair play&mdash;gib a nigger fair
+      play. What right a Nat Bumppo advise a young man? Let 'em shoot&mdash;clear
+      a ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth fired with great rapidity, but no motion was made by the turkey;
+      and, when the examiners for the ball returned from the &ldquo;mark,&rdquo; they
+      declared that he had missed the stump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth observed the change in his countenance, and could not help
+      feeling surprise that one so evidently superior to his companions should
+      feel a trifling loss so sensibly. But her own champion was now preparing
+      to enter the lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mirth of Brom, which had been again excited, though in a much smaller
+      degree than before, by the failure of the second adventurer, vanished the
+      instant Natty took his stand. His skin became mottled with large brown
+      spots, that fearfully sullied the lustre of his native ebony, while his
+      enormous lips gradually compressed around two rows of ivory that had
+      hitherto been shining in his visage like pearls set in jet. His nostrils,
+      at all times the most conspicuous feature of his face, dilated until they
+      covered the greater part of the diameter of his countenance; while his
+      brown and bony hands unconsciously grasped the snow-crust near him, the
+      excitement of the moment completely overcoming his native dread of cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these indications of apprehension were exhibited in the sable owner
+      of the turkey, the man who gave rise to this extraordinary emotion was as
+      calm and collected as if there was not to be a single spectator of his
+      skill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was down in the Dutch settlements on the Schoharie,&rdquo; said Natty,
+      carefully removing the leather guard from the lock of his rifle, &ldquo;just
+      before the breaking out of the last war, and there was a shooting-match
+      among the boys; so I took a hand. I think I opened a good many Dutch eyes
+      that day; for I won the powder-horn, three bars of lead, and a pound of as
+      good powder as ever flashed in pan. Lord! how they did swear in Jarman!
+      They did tell me of one drunken Dutchman who said he'd have the life of me
+      before I got back to the lake agin. But if he had put his rifle to his
+      shoulder with evil intent God would have punished him for it; and even if
+      the Lord didn't, and he had missed his aim, I know one that would have
+      given him as good as he sent, and better too, if good shooting could come
+      into the 'count.&rdquo; By this time the old hunter was ready for his business,
+      and throwing his right leg far behind him, and stretching his left arm
+      along the barrel of his piece, he raised it toward the bird, Every eye
+      glanced rapidly from the marks man to the mark; but at the moment when
+      each ear was expecting the report of the rifle, they were disappointed by
+      the ticking sound of the flint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A snap, a snap!&rdquo; shouted the negro, springing from his crouching posture
+      like a madman, before his bird. &ldquo;A snap good as fire&mdash;Natty Bumppo
+      gun he snap&mdash;Natty Bumppo miss a turkey!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Natty Bumppo hit a nigger,&rdquo; said the indignant old hunter, &ldquo;if you don't
+      get out of the way, Brom. It's contrary to the reason of the thing, boy,
+      that a snap should count for a fire, when one is nothing more than a
+      fire-stone striking a steel pan, and the other is sudden death; so get out
+      of my way, boy, and let me show Billy Kirby how to shoot a Christmas
+      turkey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gib a nigger fair play!&rdquo; cried the black, who continued resolutely to
+      maintain his post, and making that appeal to the justice of his auditors
+      which the degraded condition of his caste so naturally suggested.
+      &ldquo;Eberybody know dat snap as good as fire. Leab it to Massa Jone&mdash;leab
+      it to lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain,&rdquo; said the wood-chopper; &ldquo;it's the law of the game in this part
+      of the country, Leather-Stocking. If you fire agin you must pay up the
+      other shilling. I b'lieve I'll try luck once more myself; so, Brom, here's
+      my money, and I take the next fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's likely you know the laws of the woods better than I do, Billy
+      Kirby,&rdquo; returned Natty. &ldquo;You come in with the settlers, with an ox-goad in
+      your hand, and I come in with moccasins on my feet, and with a good rifle
+      on my shoulders, so long back as afore the old war. Which is likely to
+      know the best? I say no man need tell me that snapping is as good as
+      firing when I pull the trigger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leab it to Massa Jone,&rdquo; said the alarmed negro; &ldquo;he know eberyting.&rdquo; This
+      appeal to the knowledge of Richard was too flattering to be unheeded. He
+      therefore advanced a little from the spot whither the delicacy of
+      Elizabeth had induced her to withdraw, and gave the following opinion,
+      with the gravity that the subject and his own rank demanded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There seems to be a difference in opinion,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;on the subject of
+      Nathaniel Bumppo's right to shoot at Abraham Freeborn's turkey without the
+      said Nathaniel paying one shilling for the privilege.&rdquo; The fact was too
+      evident to be denied, and after pausing a moment, that the audience might
+      digest his premises, Richard proceeded: &ldquo;It seems proper that I should
+      decide this question, as I am bound to preserve the peace of the county;
+      and men with deadly weapons in their hands should not be heedlessly left
+      to contention and their own malignant passions. It appears that there was
+      no agreement, either in writing or in words, on the disputed point;
+      therefore we must reason from analogy, which is, as it were, comparing one
+      thing with another. Now, in duels, where both parties shoot, it is
+      generally the rule that a snap is a fire; and if such is the rule where
+      the party has a right to fire back again, it seems to me unreasonable to
+      say that a man may stand snapping at a defenceless turkey all day. I
+      therefore am of the opinion that Nathaniel Bumppo has lost his chance, and
+      must pay another shilling before he renews his right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As this opinion came from so high a quarter, and was delivered with
+      effect, it silenced all murmurs&mdash;for the whole of the spectators had
+      begun to take sides with great warmth&mdash;except from the
+      Leather-Stocking himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think Miss Elizabeth's thoughts should be taken,&rdquo; said Natty. &ldquo;I've
+      known the squaws give very good counsel when the Indians had been
+      dumfounded. If she says that I ought to lose, I agree to give it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I adjudge you to be a loser for this time,&rdquo; said Miss Temple; &ldquo;but
+      pay your money and renew your chance; unless Brom will sell me the bird
+      for a dollar. I will give him the money, and save the life of the poor
+      victim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This proposition was evidently but little relished by any of the
+      listeners, even the negro feeling the evil excitement of the chances. In
+      the mean while, as Billy Kirby was preparing himself for another shot,
+      Natty left the stand, with an extremely dissatisfied manner, muttering:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There hasn't been such a thing as a good flint sold at the foot of the
+      lake since the Indian traders used to come into the country; and, if a
+      body should go into the flats along the streams in the hills to hunt for
+      such a thing, it's ten to one but they will be all covered up with the
+      plough. Heigho! it seems to me that just as the game grows scarce, and a
+      body wants the best ammunition to get a livelihood, everything that's bad
+      falls on him like a judgment. But I'll change the stone, for Billy Kirby
+      hasn't the eye for such a mark, I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wood-chopper seemed now entirely sensible that his reputation depended
+      on his care; nor did he neglect any means to insure success. He drew up
+      his rifle, and renewed his aim again and again, still appearing reluctant
+      to fire, No sound was heard from even Brom, during these portentous
+      movements, until Kirby discharged his piece, with the same want of success
+      as before. Then, indeed, the shouts of the negro rang through the bushes
+      and sounded among the trees of the neighboring forest like the outcries of
+      a tribe of Indians. He laughed, rolling his head first on one side, then
+      on the other, until nature seemed exhausted with mirth. He danced until
+      his legs were wearied with motion in the snow; and, in short, he exhibited
+      all that violence of joy that characterizes the mirth of a thoughtless
+      negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wood-chopper had exerted all his art, and felt a proportionate degree
+      of disappointment at the failure. He first examined the bird with the
+      utmost attention, and more than once suggested that he had touched its
+      feathers; but the voice of the multitude was against him, for it felt
+      disposed to listen to the often-repeated cries of the black to &ldquo;gib a
+      nigger fair play.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding it impossible to make out a title to the bird, Kirby turned
+      fiercely to the black and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut your oven, you crow! Where is the man that can hit a turkey's head
+      at a hundred yards? I was a fool for trying. You needn't make an uproar
+      like a falling pine-tree about it. Show me the man who can do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look this a-way, Billy Kirby,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, &ldquo;and let them clear
+      the mark, and I'll show you a man who's made better shots afore now, and
+      that when he's been hard pressed by the savages and wild beasts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps there is one whose rights come before ours, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo;
+       said Miss Temple. &ldquo;If so, we will waive our privilege.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it be me that you have reference to,&rdquo; said the young hunter, &ldquo;I shall
+      decline another chance. My shoulder is yet weak, I find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth regarded his manner, and thought that she could discern a tinge
+      on his cheek that spoke the shame of conscious poverty. She said no more,
+      but suffered her own champion to make a trial. Although Natty Bumppo had
+      certainly made hundreds of more momentous shots at his enemies or his
+      game, yet he never exerted himself more to excel. He raised his piece
+      three several times: once to get his range; once to calculate his
+      distance; and once because the bird, alarmed by the death-like stillness,
+      turned its head quickly to examine its foes. But the fourth time he fired.
+      The smoke, the report, and the momentary shock prevented most of the
+      spectators from instantly knowing the result; but Elizabeth, when she saw
+      her champion drop the end of his rifle in the snow and open his mouth in
+      one of its silent laughs, and then proceed very coolly to recharge his
+      piece, knew that he had been successful. The boys rushed to the mark, and
+      lifted the turkey on high, lifeless, and with nothing but the remnant of a
+      head. &ldquo;Bring in the creatur',&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, &ldquo;and put it at the
+      feet of the lady. I was her deputy in the matter, and the bird is her
+      property.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a good deputy you have proved yourself,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth&mdash;&ldquo;so
+      good, Cousin Richard, that I would advise you to remember his qualities.&rdquo;
+       She paused, and the gayety that beamed on her face gave place to a more
+      serious earnestness. She even blushed a little as she turned to the young
+      hunter, and with the charm of a woman's manner added: &ldquo;But it was only to
+      see an exhibition of the far-famed skill of Leather-Stocking, that I tried
+      my fortunes. Will you, sir, accept the bird as a small peace offering for
+      the hurt that prevented your own success?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The expression with which the youth received this present was
+      indescribable, He appeared to yield to the blandishment of her air, in
+      opposition to a strong inward impulse to the contrary. He bowed, and
+      raised the victim silently from her feet, but continued silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth handed the black a piece of silver as a remuneration for his
+      loss, which had some effect in again unbending his muscles, and then
+      expressed to her companion her readiness to return homeward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a minute, Cousin Bess,&rdquo; cried Richard; &ldquo;there is an uncertainty
+      about the rules of this sport that it is proper I should remove. If you
+      will appoint a committee, gentlemen, to wait on me this morning, I will
+      draw up in writing a set of regulations&mdash;' He stopped, with some
+      indignation, for at that instant a hand was laid familiarly on the
+      shoulder of the High Sheriff of&mdash;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A merry Christmas to you, Cousin Dickon,&rdquo; said Judge Temple, who had
+      approached the party unperceived: &ldquo;I must have a vigilant eye to my
+      daughter, sir, if you are to be seized daily with these gallant fits. I
+      admire the taste which would introduce a lady to such scenes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is her own perversity, 'Duke,&rdquo; cried the disappointed sheriff, who
+      felt the loss of the first salutation as grievously as many a man would a
+      much greater misfortune; &ldquo;and I must say that she comes honestly by it. I
+      led her out to show her the improvements, but away she scampered, through
+      the snow, at the first sound of fire-arms, the same as if she had been
+      brought up in a camp, instead of a first-rate boarding-school. I do think,
+      Judge Temple, that such dangerous amusements should be suppressed, by
+      statute; nay, I doubt whether they are not already indictable at common
+      law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, as you are sheriff of the county, it becomes your duty to
+      examine into the matter,&rdquo; returned the smiling Marmaduke, &ldquo;I perceive that
+      Bess has executed her commission, and I hope it met with a favorable
+      reception.&rdquo; Richard glanced his eye at the packet which he held in his
+      hand, and the slight anger produced by disappointment vanished instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! 'Duke, my dear cousin,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;step a little on one side; I have
+      something I would say to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke complied, and the sheriff led him to a little distance in the
+      bushes, and continued: &ldquo;First, 'Duke, let me thank you for your friendly
+      interest with the Council and the Governor, without which I am confident
+      that the greatest merit would avail but little. But we are sisters'
+      children&mdash;we are sisters' children, and you may use me like one of
+      your horses; ride me or drive me, 'Duke, I am wholly yours. But in my
+      humble opinion, this young companion of Leather-Stocking requires looking
+      after. He has a very dangerous propensity for turkey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave him to my management, Dickon,&rdquo; said the Judge, &ldquo;and I will cure his
+      appetite by indulgence. It is with him that I would speak. Let us rejoin
+      the sportsmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Poor wretch! the mother that him bare,
+     If she had been in presence there,
+     In his wan face, and sunburnt hair,
+     She had not known her child.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Scott.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It diminished, in no degree, the effect produced by the conversation which
+      passed between Judge Temple and the I young hunter, that the former took
+      the arm of his daughter and drew it through his own, when he advanced from
+      the spot whither Richard had led him to that where the youth was standing,
+      leaning on his rifle, and contemplating the dead bird at his feet. The
+      presence of Marmaduke did not interrupt the sports, which were resumed by
+      loud and clamorous disputes concerning the conditions of a chance that
+      involved the life of a bird of much inferior quality to the last.
+      Leather-Stocking and Mohegan had alone drawn aside to their youthful
+      companion; and, although in the immediate vicinity of such a throng, the
+      following conversation was heard only by those who were interested in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have greatly injured you, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; said the Judge; but the sudden
+      and inexplicable start with which the person spoken to received this
+      unexpected address, caused him to pause a moment. As no answer was given,
+      and the strong emotion exhibited in the countenance of the youth gradually
+      passed away, he continued: &ldquo;But fortunately it is in some measure in my
+      power to compensate you for what I have done. My kinsman, Richard Jones,
+      has received an appointment that will, in future, deprive me of his
+      assistance, and leave me, just now, destitute of one who might greatly aid
+      me with his pen. Your manner, notwithstanding appearances, is a sufficient
+      proof of your education, nor will thy shoulder suffer thee to labor, for
+      some time to come.&rdquo; (Marmaduke insensibly relapsed into the language of
+      the Friends as he grew warm.) &ldquo;My doors are open to thee, my young friend,
+      for in this infant country we harbor no suspicions; little offering to
+      tempt the cupidity of the evil-disposed. Be come my assistant, for at
+      least a season, and receive such compensation as thy services will
+      deserve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing in the manner of the offer of the Judge to justify the
+      reluctance, amounting nearly to loathing, with which the youth listened to
+      his speech; but, after a powerful effort for self-command, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would serve you, sir, or any other man, for an honest support, for I do
+      not affect to conceal that my necessities are very great, even beyond what
+      appearances would indicate; but I am fearful that such new duties would
+      interfere too much with more important business; so that I must decline
+      your offer, and depend on my rifle, as before, for subsistence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard here took occasion to whisper to the young lady, who had shrunk a
+      little from the foreground of the picture:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, you see, Cousin Bess, is the natural reluctance of a half-breed to
+      leave the savage state. Their attachment to a wandering life is, I verily
+      believe, unconquerable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a precarious life,&rdquo; observed Marmaduke, without hearing the
+      sheriff's observation, &ldquo;and one that brings more evils with it than
+      present suffering. Trust me, young friend, my experience is greater than
+      thine, when I tell thee that the unsettled life of these hunters is of
+      vast disadvantage for temporal purposes, and it totally removes one from
+      the influence of more sacred things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Judge,&rdquo; interrupted the Leather-Stocking, who was hitherto
+      unseen, or disregarded; &ldquo;take him into your shanty in welcome, but tell
+      him truth. I have lived in the woods for forty long years, and have spent
+      five at a time without seeing the light of a clearing bigger than a window
+      in the trees; and I should like to know where you'll find a man, in his
+      sixty-eighth year, who can get an easier living, for all your betterments
+      and your deer laws; and, as for honesty, or doing what's right between man
+      and man, I'll not turn my back to the longest-winded deacon on your
+      Patent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art an exception, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; returned the Judge, nodding
+      good-naturedly at the hunter; &ldquo;for thou hast a temperance unusual in thy
+      class, and a hardihood exceeding thy years. But this youth is made of
+      materials too precious to be wasted in the forest&mdash;I entreat thee to
+      join my family, if it be but till thy arm is healed. My daughter here, who
+      is mistress of my dwelling, wilt tell thee that thou art welcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, whose earnestness was a little checked by
+      female reserve. &ldquo;The unfortunate would be welcome at any time, but doubly
+      so when we feel that we have occasioned the evil ourselves,&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said
+      Richard, &ldquo;and if you relish turkey, young man, there are plenty in the
+      coops, and of the best kind, I can assure you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding himself thus ably seconded, Marmaduke pushed his advantage to the
+      utmost. He entered into a detail of the duties that would attend the
+      situation, and circumstantially mentioned the reward, and all those points
+      which are deemed of importance among men of business. The youth listened
+      in extreme agitation. There was an evident contest in his feelings; at
+      times he appeared to wish eagerly for the change, and then again the
+      incomprehensible expression of disgust would cross his features, like a
+      dark cloud obscuring a noonday sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian, in whose manner the depression of self-abasement was most
+      powerfully exhibited, listened to the offers of the Judge with an interest
+      that increased with each syllable. Gradually he drew nigher to the group
+      and when, with his keen glance, he detected the most marked evidence of
+      yielding in the countenance of his young companion, he changed at once
+      from his attitude and look of shame to the front of an Indian warrior, and
+      moving, with great dignity, closer to the parties, he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to your father,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;his words are old. Let the Young Eagle
+      and the Great Land Chief eat together; let them sleep, without fear, near
+      each other. The children of Miquon love not blood: they are just, and will
+      do right. The sun must rise and set often, Before men can make one
+      family; it is not the work of a day, but of many winters. The Mingoes and
+      the Delawares are born enemies; their blood can never mix in the wigwam;
+      it never will run in the same stream in the battle. What makes the brother
+      of Miquon and the Young Eagle foes? They are of the same tribe; their
+      fathers and mothers are one. Learn to wait, my son, you are a Delaware,
+      and an Indian warrior knows how to be patient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This figurative address seemed to have great weight with the young man,
+      who gradually yielded to the representations of Marmaduke, and eventually
+      consented to his proposal. It was, however, to be an experiment only; and,
+      if either of the parties thought fit to rescind the engagement, it was
+      left at his option so to do. The remarkable and ill-concealed reluctance
+      of the youth to accept of an offer, which most men in his situation would
+      consider as an unhoped-for elevation, occasioned no little surprise in
+      those to whom he was a stranger; and it left a slight impression to his
+      disadvantage. When the parties separated, they very naturally made the
+      subject the topic of a conversation, which we shall relate; first
+      commencing with the Judge, his daughter, and Richard, who were slowly
+      pursuing the way back to the mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have surely endeavored to remember the holy man dates of our Redeemer,
+      when he bids us 'love them who despitefully use you,' in my intercourse
+      with this incomprehensible boy,&rdquo; said Marmaduke. &ldquo;I know not what there is
+      in my dwelling to frighten a lad of his years, unless it may he thy
+      presence and visage, Bess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said Richard, with great simplicity, &ldquo;it is not Cousin Bess. But
+      when did you ever know a half-breed, 'Duke, who could bear civilization?
+      For that matter, they are worse than the savages themselves! Did you
+      notice how knock-kneed he stood, Elizabeth, and what a wild look he had in
+      his eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heeded not his eyes, nor his knees, which would be all the better for a
+      little humbling. Really, my dear sir, I think you did exercise the
+      Christian virtue of patience to the utmost. I was disgusted with his airs,
+      long before he consented to make one of our family. Truly we are much
+      honored by the association! In what apartment is he to be placed, sir; and
+      at what table is he to receive his nectar and ambrosia?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With Benjamin and Remarkable,&rdquo; interrupted Mr. Jones; &ldquo;you sorely would
+      not make the youth eat with the blacks! He is part Indian, it is true; but
+      the natives hold the negroes in great contempt. No, no; he would starve
+      before he would break a crust with the negroes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am but too happy, Dickon, to tempt him to eat with ourselves,&rdquo; said
+      Marmaduke, &ldquo;to think of offering even the indignity you propose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, sir,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, with an air that was slightly affected, as if
+      submitting to her father's orders in opposition to her own will, &ldquo;it is
+      your pleasure that he be a gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly; he is to fill the station of one. Let him receive the
+      treatment that is due to his place, until we find him unworthy of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, 'Duke,&rdquo; cried the sheriff, &ldquo;you will find it no easy matter
+      to make a gentleman of him. The old proverb says that 'it takes three
+      generations to make a gentleman.' There was my father whom everybody knew
+      my grandfather was an M.D., and his father a D.D.; and his father came
+      from England, I never could come at the truth of his origin; but he was
+      either a great mer chant in London, or a great country lawyer, or the
+      youngest son of a bishop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a true American genealogy for you,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, laughing. &ldquo;It
+      does very well till you get across the water, where, as everything is
+      obscure, it is certain to deal in the superlative. You are sure that your
+      English progenitor was great, Dickon, whatever his profession might have
+      been?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I am,&rdquo; returned the other. &ldquo;I have heard my old aunt talk of
+      him by the month. We are of a good family, Judge Temple, and have never
+      filled any but honorable stations in life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I marvel that you should be satisfied with so scanty a provision of
+      gentility in the olden time, Dickon. Most of the American genealogists
+      commence their traditions like the stories for children, with three
+      brothers, taking especial care that one of the triumvirate shall be the
+      progenitor of any of the same name who may happen to be better furnished
+      with worldly gear than themselves. But, here, all are equal who know how
+      to conduct themselves with propriety; and Oliver Edwards comes into my
+      family on a footing with both the high sheriff and the judge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, 'Duke, I call this democracy, not republicanism; but I say nothing;
+      only let him keep within the law, or I shall show him that the freedom of
+      even this country is under wholesome restraint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Dickon, you will not execute till I condemn! But what says Bess
+      to the new inmate? We must pay a deference to the ladies in this matter,
+      after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir!&rdquo; returned Elizabeth, &ldquo;I believe I am much like a certain Judge
+      Temple in this particular&mdash;not easily to be turned from my opinion.
+      But, to be serious, although I must think the introduction of a
+      demi-savage into the family a somewhat startling event, whomsoever you
+      think proper to countenance may be sure of my respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge drew her arm more closely in his own and smiled, while Richard
+      led the way through the gate of the little court-yard in the rear of the
+      dwelling, dealing out his ambiguous warnings with his accustomed
+      loquacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, the foresters&mdash;for the three hunters,
+      notwithstanding their difference in character, well deserved this common
+      name&mdash;pursued their course along the skirts of the village in
+      silence. It was not until they had reached the lake, and were moving over
+      its frozen surface toward the foot of the mountain, where the hut stood,
+      that the youth exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who could have foreseen this a month since! I have consented to serve
+      Marmaduke Temple&mdash;to be an inmate in the dwelling of the greatest
+      enemy of my race; yet what better could I do? The servitude cannot be
+      long; and, when the motive for submitting to it ceases to exist, I will
+      shake it off like the dust from my feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he a Mingo, that you will call him enemy?&rdquo; said Mohegan. &ldquo;The Delaware
+      warrior sits still, and waits the time of the Great Spirit. He is no
+      woman, to cry out like a child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm mistrustful, John,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, in whose air there
+      had been, during the whole business, a strong expression of doubt and
+      uncertainty. &ldquo;They say that there's new laws in the land, and I'm sartin
+      that there's new ways in the mountains. One hardly knows the lakes and
+      streams, they've altered the country so much. I must say I'm mistrustful
+      of such smooth speakers; for I've known the whites talk fair when they
+      wanted the Indian lands most. This I will say, though I'm a white myself,
+      and was born nigh York, and of honest parents, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will submit,&rdquo; said the youth; &ldquo;I will forget who I am. Cease to
+      remember, old Mohegan, that I am the descendant of a Delaware chief, who
+      once was master of these noble hills, these beautiful vales, and of this
+      water, over which we tread. Yes, yes; I will become his bonds man&mdash;his
+      slave, Is it not an honorable servitude, old man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old man!&rdquo; repeated the Indian solemnly, and pausing in his walk, as
+      usual, when much excited; &ldquo;yes, John is old. Son of my brother! if Mohegan
+      was young, when would his rifle be still? Where would the deer hide, and
+      he not find him? But John is old; his hand is the hand of a squaw; his
+      tomahawk is a hatchet; brooms and baskets are his enemies&mdash;he strikes
+      no other. Hunger and old age come together. See Hawk-eye! when young, he
+      would go days and eat nothing; but should he not put the brush on the fire
+      now, the blaze would go out. Take the son of Miquon by the hand, and he
+      will help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm not the man I was, I'll own, Chingachgook,&rdquo; returned the
+      Leather-Stocking; &ldquo;but I can go without a meal now, on occasion. When we
+      tracked the Iroquois through the 'Beech-woods,' they drove the game afore
+      them, for I hadn't a morsel to eat from Monday morning come Wednesday
+      sundown, and then I shot as fat a buck, on the Pennsylvany line, as ever
+      mortal laid eyes on. It would have done your heart good to have seen the
+      Delaware eat; for I was out scouting and skrimmaging with their tribe at
+      the time. Lord! The Indians, lad, lay still, and just waited till
+      Providence should send them their game, but I foraged about, and put a
+      deer up, and put him down too, afore he had made a dozen jumps. I was too
+      weak and too ravenous to stop for his flesh, so I took a good drink of his
+      blood, and the Indians ate of his meat raw. John was there, and John
+      knows. But then starvation would be apt to be too much for me now, I will
+      own, though I'm no great eater at any time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough is said, my friend,&rdquo; cried the youth. &ldquo;I feel that everywhere the
+      sacrifice is required at my hands, and it shall be made; but say no more,
+      I entreat you; I can not bear this subject now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His companions were silent; and they soon reached the hut, which they
+      entered, after removing certain complicated and ingenious fastenings, that
+      were put there apparently to guard a property of but very little value.
+      Immense piles of snow lay against the log walls of this secluded
+      habitation on one side; while fragments of small trees, and branches of
+      oak and chestnut, that had been torn from their parent stems by the winds,
+      were thrown into a pile on the other. A small column of smoke rose through
+      a chimney of sticks, cemented with clay, along the side of the rock, and
+      had marked the snow above with its dark tinges, in a wavy line, from the
+      point of emission to an other, where the hill receded from the brow of a
+      precipice, and held a soil that nourished trees of a gigantic growth, that
+      overhung the little bottom beneath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remainder of the day passed off as such days are commonly spent in a
+      new country. The settlers thronged to the academy again, to witness the
+      second effort of Mr. Grant; and Mohegan was one of his hearers. But, not
+      withstanding the divine fixed his eyes intently on the Indian when he
+      invited his congregation to advance to the table, the shame of last
+      night's abasement was yet too keen in the old chief to suffer him to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the people were dispersing, the clouds that had been gathering all
+      the morning were dense and dirty, and before half of the curious
+      congregation had reached their different cabins, that were placed in every
+      glen and hollow of the mountains, or perched on the summits of the hills
+      themselves, the rain was falling in torrents. The dark edges of the stumps
+      began to exhibit themselves, as the snow settled rapidly; the fences of
+      logs and brush, which before had been only traced by long lines of white
+      mounds, that ran across the valley and up the mountains, peeped out from
+      their covering, and the black stubs were momentarily becoming more
+      distinct, as large masses of snow and ice fell from their sides, under the
+      influence of the thaw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sheltered in the warm hall of her father's comfortable mansion, Elizabeth,
+      accompanied by Louisa Grant, looked abroad with admiration at the
+      ever-varying face of things without. Even the village, which had just
+      before been glittering with the color of the frozen element, reluctantly
+      dropped its mask, and the houses exposed their dark roofs and smoked
+      chimneys. The pines shook off the covering of snow, and everything seemed
+      to be assuming its proper hues with a transition that bordered on the
+      supernatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;And yet, poor Edwin was no vulgar boy.&rdquo;
+     &mdash;Beattie.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The close of Christmas Day, A.D. 1793, was tempestuous, but comparatively
+      warm. When darkness had again hid the objects in the village from the gaze
+      of Elizabeth, she turned from the window, where she had remained while the
+      least vestige of light lingered over the tops of the dark pines, with a
+      curiosity that was rather excited than appeased by the passing glimpses of
+      woodland scenery that she had caught during the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With her arm locked in that of Miss Grant, the young mistress of the
+      mansion walked slowly up and down the hall, musing on scenes that were
+      rapidly recurring to her memory, and possibly dwelling, at times, in the
+      sanctuary of her thoughts, on the strange occurrences that had led to the
+      introduction to her father's family of one whose Manners so singularly
+      contradicted the inferences to be drawn from his situation. The expiring
+      heat of the apartment&mdash;for its great size required a day to reduce
+      its temperature&mdash;had given to her cheeks a bloom that exceeded their
+      natural color, while the mild and melancholy features of Louisa were
+      brightened with a faint tinge, that, like the hectic of disease, gave a
+      painful interest to her beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of the gentlemen, who were yet seated around the rich wines of
+      Judge Temple, frequently wandered from the table, that was placed at one
+      end of the hall, to the forms that were silently moving over its length.
+      Much mirth, and that, at times, of a boisterous kind, proceeded from the
+      mouth of Richard; but Major Hartmann was not yet excited to his pitch of
+      merriment, and Marmaduke respected the presence of his clerical guest too
+      much to indulge in even the innocent humor that formed no small ingredient
+      in his character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were, and such continued to be, the pursuits of the party, for half
+      an hour after the shutters were closed, and candles were placed in various
+      parts of the hall, as substitutes for departing daylight. The appearance
+      of Benjamin, staggering under the burden of an armful of wood, was the
+      first interruption to the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How now, Master Pump!&rdquo; roared the newly appointed sheriff; &ldquo;is there not
+      warmth enough in 'Duke's best Madeira to keep up the animal heat through
+      this thaw? Remember, old boy, that the Judge is particular with his beech
+      and maple, beginning to dread already a scarcity of the precious articles.
+      Ha! ha! ha! 'Duke, you are a good, warm-hearted relation, I will own, as
+      in duty bound, but you have some queer notions about you, after all.
+      'Come, let us be jolly, and cast away folly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The notes gradually sank into a hum, while the major-domo threw down his
+      load, and, turning to his interrogator with an air of earnestness,
+      replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, look you, Squire Dickon, mayhap there's a warm latitude round about
+      the table there, thof it's not the stuff to raise the heat in my body,
+      neither; the raal Jamaiky being the only thing to do that, besides good
+      wood, or some such matter as Newcastle coal. But, if I know anything of
+      the weather, d'ye see, it's time to be getting all snog, and for putting
+      the ports in and stirring the fires a bit. Mayhap I've not followed the
+      seas twenty-seven years, and lived another seven in these here woods, for
+      nothing, gemmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, does it bid fair for a change in the weather, Benjamin?&rdquo; inquired
+      the master of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a shift of wind, your honor,&rdquo; returned the steward; &ldquo;and when
+      there's a shift of wind, you may look for a change in this here climate. I
+      was aboard of one of Rodney's fleet, d'ye see, about the time we licked De
+      Grasse, Mounsheer Lor Quaw's countryman, there; and the wind was here at
+      the south'ard and east'ard; and I was below, mixing a toothful of hot
+      stuff for the captain of marines, who dined, d'ye see, in the cabin, that
+      there very same day; and I suppose he wanted to put out the captain's fire
+      with a gun-room ingyne; and so, just as I got it to my own liking, after
+      tasting pretty often, for the soldier was difficult to please, slap came
+      the foresail agin' the mast, whiz went the ship round on her heel, like a
+      whirligig. And a lucky thing was it that our helm was down; for as she
+      gathered starnway she paid off, which was more than every ship in the
+      fleet did, or could do. But she strained herself in the trough of the sea,
+      and she shipped a deal of water over her quarter. I never swallowed so
+      much clear water at a time in my life as I did then, for I was looking up
+      the after-hatch at the instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder, Benjamin, that you did not die with a dropsy!&rdquo; said Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mought, Judge,&rdquo; said the old tar, with a broad grin; &ldquo;but there was no
+      need of the medicine chest for a cure; for, as I thought the brew was
+      spoilt for the marine's taste, and there was no telling when another sea
+      might come and spoil it for mine. I finished the mug on the spot. So then
+      all hands was called to the pumps, and there we began to ply the pumps&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but the weather?&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke; &ldquo;what of the weather
+      without doors?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why here the wind has been all day at the south, and now there's a lull,
+      as if the last blast was out of the bellows; and there's a streak along
+      the mountains, to the northard, that, just now, wasn't wider than the
+      bigness of your hand; and then the clouds drive afore it as you'd brail a
+      mainsail, and the stars are heaving in sight, like so many lights and
+      beacons, put there to warn us to pile on the wood; and, if so be that I'm
+      a judge of weather, it's getting to be time to build on a fire, or you'll
+      have half of them there porter bottles, and them dimmyjohns of wine, in
+      the locker here, breaking with the frost, afore the morning watch is
+      called.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a prudent sentinel,&rdquo; said the Judge. &ldquo;Act thy pleasure with the
+      forests, for this night at feast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin did as he was ordered; nor had two hours elapsed, before the
+      prudence of his precautions became very visible. The south wind had,
+      indeed, blown itself out, and it was succeeded by the calmness that
+      usually gave warning of a serious change in the weather. Long before the
+      family retired to rest, the cold had become cuttingly severe; and when
+      Monsieur Le Quoi sallied forth under a bright moon, to seek his own
+      abode, he was compelled to beg a blanket, in which he might envelop c his
+      form, in addition to the numerous garments that his sagacity had provided
+      for the occasion. The divine and his daughter remained as inmates of the
+      mansion-house during the night, and the excess of last night's merriment
+      induced the gentlemen to make an early retreat to their several
+      apartments. Long before midnight, the whole family were invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth and her friend had not yet lost their senses in sleep, and the
+      howlings of the northwest wind were heard around the buildings, and
+      brought with them that exquisite sense of comfort that is ever excited
+      under such circumstances, in an apartment where the fire has not yet
+      ceased to glimmer, and curtains, and shutters, and feathers unite to
+      preserve the desired temperature. Once, just as her eyes had opened,
+      apparently in the last stage of drowsiness, the roaring winds brought with
+      them a long and plaintive howl, that seemed too wild for a dog, and yet
+      resembled the cries of that faithful animal, when night awakens his
+      vigilance, and gives sweetness and solemnity to its charms. The form of
+      Louis Grant instinctively pressed nearer to that of the young heiress,
+      who, finding her companion was yet awake, said in a low tone, as if afraid
+      to break a charm with her voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those distant cries are plaintive, and even beautiful. Can they be the
+      hounds from the hut of Leather-Stocking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are wolves, who have ventured from the mountain, on the lake,&rdquo;
+       whispered Louisa, &ldquo;and who are only kept from the village by the lights.
+      One night, since we have been here, hunger drove them to our very door.
+      Oh, what a dreadful night it was! But the riches of Judge Temple have
+      given him too many safeguards, to leave room for fear in this house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The enterprise of Judge Temple is taming the very forests!&rdquo; exclaimed
+      Elizabeth, throwing off the covering, and partly rising in the bed. &ldquo;How
+      rapidly is civilization treading on the foot of Nature!&rdquo; she continued, as
+      her eye glanced over not only the comforts, but the luxuries of her
+      apartment, and her ear again listened to the distant, but often repeated
+      howls from the lake. Finding, how-ever, that the timidity of her companion
+      rendered the sounds painful to her, Elizabeth resumed her place, and soon
+      forgot the changes in the country, with those in her own condition, in a
+      deep sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following morning, the noise of the female servant, who entered the
+      apartment to light the fire, awoke the females. They arose, and finished
+      the slight preparations of their toilets in a clear, cold atmosphere,
+      that penetrated through all the defences of even Miss Temple's warm room.
+      When Elizabeth was attired, she approached a window and drew its curtain,
+      and throwing open its shutters she endeavored to look abroad on the
+      village and the lake. But a thick covering of frost on the glass, while it
+      admitted the light, shut out the view. She raised the sash, and then,
+      indeed, a glorious scene met her delighted eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lake had exchanged its covering of unspotted snow for a face of dark
+      ice, that reflected the rays of the rising sun like a polished mirror. The
+      houses clothed in a dress of the same description, but which, owing to its
+      position, shone like bright steel; while the enormous icicles that were
+      pendent from every roof caught the brilliant light, apparently throwing it
+      from one to the other, as each glittered, on the side next the luminary,
+      with a golden lustre that melted away, on its opposite, into the dusky
+      shades of a background. But it was the appearance of the boundless forests
+      that covered the hills as they rose in the distance, one over the other,
+      that most attracted the gaze of Miss Temple. The huge branches of the
+      pines and hemlocks bent with the weight of the ice they supported, while
+      their summits rose above the swelling tops of the oaks, beeches, and
+      maples, like spires of burnished silver issuing from domes of the same
+      material. The limits of the view, in the west, were marked by an
+      undulating outline of bright light, as if, reversing the order of nature,
+      numberless suns might momentarily he expected to heave above the horizon.
+      In the foreground of the picture, along the shores of the lake, and near
+      to the village, each tree seemed studded with diamonds. Even the sides of
+      the mountains where the rays of the sun could not yet fall, were decorated
+      with a glassy coat, that presented every gradation of brilliancy, from the
+      first touch of the luminary to the dark foliage of the hemlock, glistening
+      through its coat of crystal. In short, the whole view was one scene of
+      quivering radiancy, as lake, mountains, village, and woods, each emitted a
+      portion of light, tinged with its peculiar hue, and varied by its position
+      and its magnitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;see, Louisa; hasten to the window, and observe
+      the miraculous change!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Grant complied; and, after bending for a moment in silence from the
+      opening, she observed, in a low tone, as if afraid to trust the sound of
+      her voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The change is indeed wonderful! I am surprised that he should be able to
+      effect it so soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth turned in amazement, to hear so skeptical a sentiment from one
+      educated like her companion; but was surprised to find that, instead of
+      looking at the view, the mild blue eyes of Miss Grant were dwelling on the
+      form of a well-dressed young man, who was standing before the door of the
+      building, in earnest conversation with her father. A second look was
+      necessary before she was able to recognize the person of the young hunter
+      in a plain, but assuredly the ordinary, garb of a gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything in this magical country seems to border on the marvellous,&rdquo;
+       said Elizabeth; &ldquo;and, among all the changes, this is certainly not the
+      least wonderful, The actors are as unique as the scenery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Grant colored and drew in her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a simple country girl, Miss Temple, and I am afraid you will find me
+      but a poor companion,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&mdash;I am not sure that I understand
+      all you say. But I really thought that you wished me to notice the
+      alteration in Mr. Edwards, Is it not more wonderful when we recollect his
+      origin? They say he is part Indian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a genteel savage; but let us go down, and give the sachem his tea;
+      for I suppose he is a descendant of King Philip, if not a grandson of
+      Pocahontas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies were met in the hall by Judge Temple, who took his daughter
+      aside to apprise her of that alteration in the appearance of their new
+      inmate, with which she was already acquainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He appears reluctant to converse on his former situation,&rdquo; continued
+      Marmaduke &ldquo;but I gathered from his discourse, as is apparent from his
+      manner, that he has seen better days; and I am really inclining to the
+      opinion of Richard, as to his origin; for it was no unusual thing for the
+      Indian agents to rear their children in a laudable manner, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, my dear sir,&rdquo; interrupted his daughter, laughing and averting
+      her eyes; &ldquo;it is all well enough, I dare say; but, as I do not understand
+      a word of the Mohawk language he must be content to speak English; and as
+      for his behavior, I trust to your discernment to control it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! but, Bess,&rdquo; cried the judge, detaining her gently by the hand,
+      &ldquo;nothing must be said to him of his past life. This he has begged
+      particularly of me, as a favor, He is, perhaps, a little soured, just now,
+      with his wounded arm; the injury seems very light, and another time he may
+      be more communicative.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I am not much troubled, sir, with that laudable thirst after
+      knowledge that is called curiosity. I shall believe him to be the child of
+      Corn-stalk, or Corn-planter, or some other renowned chieftain; possibly of
+      the Big Snake himself; and shall treat him as such until he sees fit to
+      shave his good-looking head, borrow some half-dozen pair of my best
+      earrings, shoulder his rifle again, and disappear as suddenly as he made
+      his entrance. So come, my dear sir, and let us not forget the rites of
+      hospitality, for the short time he is to remain with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Temple smiled at the playfulness of his child, and taking her arm
+      they entered the breakfast parlor, where the young hunter was seated with
+      an air that showed his determination to domesticate himself in the family
+      with as little parade as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the incidents that led to this extraordinary increase in the
+      family of Judge Temple, where, having once established the youth, the
+      subject of our tale requires us to leave him for a time, to pursue with
+      diligence and intelligence the employments that were assigned him by
+      Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Hartmann made his customary visit, and took his leave of the party
+      for the next three months. Mr. Grant was compelled to be absent most of
+      his time, in remote parts of the country, and his daughter became almost a
+      constant visitor at the mansion-house. Richard entered, with his
+      constitutional eagerness, on the duties of his new office; and, as
+      Marmaduke was much employed with the constant applications of adventures
+      for farms, the winter passed swiftly away. The lake was the principal
+      scene for the amusements of the young people; where the ladies, in their
+      one-horse cutter, driven by Richard, and attended, when the snow would
+      admit of it, by young Edwards on his skates, spent many hours taking the
+      benefit of exercise in the clear air of the hills. The reserve of the
+      youth gradually gave way to time and his situation, though it was still
+      evident, to a close observer, that he had frequent moments of bitter and
+      intense feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth saw many large openings appear in the sides of the mountains
+      during the three succeeding months, where different settlers had, in the
+      language of the country &ldquo;made their pitch,&rdquo; while the numberless sleighs
+      that passed through the village, loaded with wheat and barrels of
+      potashes, afforded a clear demonstration that all these labors were not
+      undertaken in vain. In short, the whole country was exhibiting the bustle
+      of a thriving settlement, where the highways were thronged with sleighs,
+      bearing piles of rough household furniture, studded, here and there, with
+      the smiling faces of women and children, happy in the excitement of
+      novelty; or with loads of produce, hastening to the common market at
+      Albany, that served as so many snares to induce the emigrants to enter
+      into those wild mountains in search of competence and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The village was alive with business, the artisans increasing in wealth
+      with the prosperity of the country, and each day witnessing some nearer
+      approach to the manners and usages of an old-settled town. The man who
+      carried the mail or &ldquo;the post,&rdquo; as he was called, talked much of running a
+      stage, and, once or twice during the winter, he was seen taking a single
+      passenger, in his cutter, through the snow-banks, toward the Mohawk, along
+      which a regular vehicle glided, semi-weekly, with the velocity of
+      lightning, and under the direction of a knowing whip from the &ldquo;down
+      countries,&rdquo; Toward spring, divers families, who had been into the &ldquo;old
+      States&rdquo; to see their relatives, returned in time to save the snow,
+      frequently bringing with them whole neighborhoods, who were tempted by
+      their representations to leave the farms of Connecticut and Massachusetts,
+      to make a trial of fortune in the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During all this time, Oliver Edwards, whose sudden elevation excited no
+      surprise in that changeful country, was earnestly engaged in the service
+      of Marmaduke, during the days; but his nights were often spent in the hut
+      of Leather-Stocking. The intercourse between the three hunters was
+      maintained with a certain air of mystery, it is true, but with much zeal
+      and apparent interest to all the parties. Even Mohegan seldom came to the
+      mansion-house, and Natty never; but Edwards sought every leisure moment to
+      visit his former abode, from which he would often return in the gloomy
+      hours of night through the snow, or, if detained beyond the time at which
+      the family retired to rest, with the morning sun. These visits certainly
+      excited much speculation in those to whom they were known, but no comments
+      were made, excepting occasionally in whispers from Richard, who would say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not at all remarkable; a half-breed can never be weaned from the
+      savage ways&mdash;and, for one of his lineage, the boy is much nearer
+      civilization than could, in reason, be expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Away! nor let me loiter in my song,
+     For we have many a mountain-path to tread.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Byron.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As the spring gradually approached, the immense piles of snow that, by
+      alternate thaws and frosts, and repeated storms, had obtained a firmness
+      which threatened a tiresome durability, began to yield to the influence of
+      milder breezes and a warmer sun. The gates of heaven at times seemed to
+      open, and a bland air diffused itself over the earth, when animate and
+      inanimate nature would awaken, and, for a few hours, the gayety of spring
+      shone in every eye and smiled on every field. But the shivering blasts
+      from the north would carry their chill influence over the scene again, and
+      the dark and gloomy clouds that intercepted the rays of the sun were not
+      more cold and dreary than the reaction. These struggles between the
+      seasons became daily more frequent, while the earth, like a victim to
+      contention, slowly lost the animated brilliancy of winter, without
+      obtaining the aspect of spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several weeks were consumed in this cheerless manner, during which the
+      inhabitants of the country gradually changed their pursuits from the
+      social and bustling movements of the time of snow to the laborious and
+      domestic engagements of the coming season, The village was no longer
+      thronged with visitors; the trade that had enlivened the shops for several
+      months, began to disappear; the highways lost their shining coats of
+      beaten snow in impassable sloughs, and were deserted by the gay and noisy
+      travellers who, in sleighs, had, during the winter, glided along their
+      windings; and, in short, everything seemed indicative of a mighty change,
+      not only in the earth, but in those who derived their sources of comfort
+      and happiness from its bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The younger members of the family in the mansion house, of which Louisa
+      Grant was now habitually one, were by no means indifferent observers of
+      these fluctuating and tardy changes. While the snow rendered the roads
+      passable, they had partaken largely in the amusements of the winter, which
+      included not only daily rides over the mountains, and through every valley
+      within twenty miles of them, but divers ingenious and varied sources of
+      pleasure on the bosom of their frozen lake. There had been excursions in
+      the equipage of Richard, when with his four horses he had outstripped the
+      winds, as it flew over the glassy ice which invariably succeeded a thaw.
+      Then the exciting and dangerous &ldquo;whirligig&rdquo; would be suffered to possess
+      its moment of notice. Cutters, drawn by a single horse, and handsleds,
+      impelled by the gentlemen on skates, would each in turn be used; and, in
+      short, every source of relief against the tediousness of a winter in the
+      mountains was resorted to by the family, Elizabeth was compelled to
+      acknowledge to her father, that the season, with the aid of his library,
+      was much less irksome than she had anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As exercise in the open air was in some degree necessary to the habits of
+      the family, when the constant recurrence of frosts and thaws rendered the
+      roads, which were dangerous at the most favorable times, utterly
+      impassable for wheels, saddle-horses were used as substitutes for other
+      conveyances. Mounted on small and sure-footed beasts, the ladies would
+      again attempt the passages of the mountains and penetrate into every
+      retired glen where the enterprise of a settler had induced him to
+      establish himself. In these excursions they were attended by some one or
+      all of the gentlemen of the family, as their different pursuits admitted.
+      Young Edwards was hourly becoming more familiarized to his situation, and
+      not infrequently mingled in the parties with an unconcern and gayety that
+      for a short time would expel all unpleasant recollections from his mind.
+      Habit, and the buoyancy of youth, seemed to be getting the ascendency over
+      the secret causes of his uneasiness; though there were moments when the
+      same remarkable expression of disgust would cross his intercourse with
+      Marmaduke, that had distinguished their conversations in the first days of
+      their acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at the close of the month of March, that the sheriff succeeded in
+      persuading his cousin and her young friend to accompany him in a ride to a
+      hill that was said to overhang the lake in a manner peculiar to itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, Cousin Bess,&rdquo; continued the indefatigable Richard, &ldquo;we will stop
+      and see the 'sugar bush' of Billy Kirby; he is on the east end of the
+      Ransom lot, making sugar for Jared Ransom. There is not a better hand over
+      a kettle in the county than that same Kirby. You remember, 'Duke, that I
+      had him his first season in our camp; and it is not a wonder that he knows
+      something of his trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a good chopper, is Billy,&rdquo; observed Benjamin, who held the bridle of
+      the horse while the sheriff mounted; &ldquo;and he handles an axe much the same
+      as a forecastleman does his marling-spike, or a tailor his goose. They say
+      he'll lift a potash-kettle off the arch alone, though I can't say that
+      I've ever seen him do it with my own eyes; but that is the say. And I've
+      seen sugar of his making, which, maybe, wasn't as white as an old
+      topgallant sail, but which my friend, Mistress Pettibones, within there,
+      said had the true molasses smack to it; and you are not the one, Squire
+      Dickens, to be told that Mistress Remarkable has a remarkable tooth for
+      sweet things in her nut-grinder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The loud laugh that succeeded the wit of Benjamin, and in which he
+      participated with no very harmonious sounds himself, very fully
+      illustrated the congenial temper which existed between the pair. Most of
+      its point was, however, lost on the rest of the party, who were either
+      mounting their horses or assisting the ladies at the moment. When all were
+      safely in their saddles, they moved through the village in great order.
+      They paused for a moment before the door of Monsieur Le Quoi, until he
+      could bestride his steed, and then, issuing from the little cluster of
+      houses, they took one of the principal of those highways that centred in
+      the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As each night brought with it a severe frost, which the heat of the
+      succeeding day served to dissipate, the equestrians were compelled to
+      proceed singly along the margin of the road, where the turf, and firmness
+      of the ground, gave the horses a secure footing. Very trifling indications
+      of vegetation were to be seen, the surface of the earth presenting a cold,
+      wet, and cheerless aspect that chilled the blood. The snow yet lay
+      scattered over most of those distant clearings that were visible in
+      different parts of the mountains; though here and there an opening might
+      be seen where, as the white covering yielded to the season, the bright and
+      lively green of the wheat served to enkindle the hopes of the husbandman.
+      Nothing could be more marked than the contrast between the earth and the
+      heavens; for, while the former presented the dreary view that we have
+      described, a warm and invigorating sun was dispensing his heats from a sky
+      that contained but a solitary cloud, and through an atmosphere that
+      softened the colors of the sensible horizon until it shone like a sea of
+      blue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard led the way on this, as on all other occasions that did not
+      require the exercise of unusual abilities; and as he moved along, he
+      essayed to enliven the party with the sounds of his experienced voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is your true sugar weather, 'Duke,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;a frosty night and a
+      sunshiny day. I warrant me that the sap runs like a mill-tail up the
+      maples this warm morning. It is a pity, Judge, that you do not introduce a
+      little more science into the manufactory of sugar among your tenants. It
+      might be done, sir, without knowing as much as Dr. Franklin&mdash;it might
+      be done, Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first object of my solicitude, friend Jones,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke, &ldquo;is
+      to protect the sources of this great mine of comfort and wealth from the
+      extravagance of the people themselves. When this important point shall be
+      achieved, it will be in season to turn our attention to an improvement in
+      the manufacture of the article, But thou knowest, Richard, that I have
+      already subjected our sugar to the process of the refiner, and that the
+      result has produced loaves as white as the snow on yon fields, and
+      possessing the saccharine quality in its utmost purity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saccharine, or turpentine, or any other 'ine, Judge Temple, you have
+      never made a loaf larger than a good-sized sugar-plum,&rdquo; returned the
+      sheriff. &ldquo;Now, sir, I assert that no experiment is fairly tried, until it
+      be reduced to practical purposes. If, sir, I owned a hundred, or, for that
+      matter, two hundred thousand acres of land, as you do. I would build a
+      sugar house in the village; I would invite learned men to an investigation
+      of the subject&mdash;and such are easily to be found, sir; yes, sir, they
+      are not difficult to find&mdash;men who unite theory with practice; and I
+      would select a wood of young and thrifty trees; and, instead of making
+      loaves of the size of a lump of candy, dam'me, 'Duke, but I'd have them as
+      big as a haycock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And purchase the cargo of one of those ships that they say are going to
+      China,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;turn your potash-kettles into teacups, the
+      scows on the lake into saucers, bake your cake in yonder lime-kiln, and
+      invite the county to a tea-party. How wonderful are the projects of
+      genius! Really, sir, the world is of opinion that Judge Temple has tried
+      the experiment fairly, though he did not cause his loaves to be cast in
+      moulds of the magnitude that would suit your magnificent conceptions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may laugh, Cousin Elizabeth&mdash;you may laugh, madam,&rdquo; retorted
+      Richard, turning himself so much in his saddle as to face the party, and
+      making dignified gestures with his whip; &ldquo;but I appeal to common sense,
+      good sense, or, what is of more importance than either, to the sense of
+      taste, which is one of the five natural senses, whether a big loaf of
+      sugar is not likely to contain a better illustration of a proposition than
+      such a lump as one of your Dutch women puts under her tongue when she
+      drinks her tea. There are two ways of doing everything, the right way and
+      the wrong way. You make sugar now, I will admit, and you may, possibly,
+      make loaf-sugar; but I take the question to be, whether you make the best
+      possible sugar, and in the best possible loaves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art very right, Richard,&rdquo; observed Marmaduke, with a gravity in his
+      air that proved how much he was interested in the subject. &ldquo;It is very
+      true that we manufacture sugar, and the inquiry is quite useful, how much?
+      and in what manner? I hope to live to see the day when farms and
+      plantations shall be devoted to this branch of business. Little is known
+      concerning the properties of the tree itself, the source of all this
+      wealth; how much it may be improved by cultivation, by the use of the hoe
+      and plough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hoe and plough!&rdquo; roared the sheriff; &ldquo;would you set a man hoeing round
+      the root of a maple like this?&rdquo; pointing to one of the noble trees that
+      occur so frequently in that part of the country. &ldquo;Hoeing trees! are you
+      mad, 'Duke? This is next to hunting for coal! Poh! poh! my dear cousin,
+      hear reason, and leave the management of the sugar-bush to me. Here is Mr.
+      Le Quoi&mdash;he has been in the West Indies, and has seen sugar made. Let
+      him give an account of how it is made there, and you will hear the
+      philosophy of the thing. Well, monsieur, how is it that you make sugar in
+      the West Indies; anything in Judge Temples fashion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentleman to whom this query was put was mounted on a small horse, of
+      no very fiery temperament, and was riding with his stirrups so short as to
+      bring his knees, while the animal rose a small ascent in the wood-path
+      they were now travelling, into a somewhat hazardous vicinity to his chin.
+      There was no room for gesticulation or grace in the delivery of his reply,
+      for the mountain was steep and slippery; and, although the Frenchman had
+      an eye of uncommon magnitude on either side of his face, they did not seem
+      to be half competent to forewarn him of the impediments of bushes, twigs,
+      and fallen trees, that were momentarily crossing his path. With one hand
+      employed in averting these dangers, and the other grasping his bridle to
+      check an untoward speed that his horse was assuming, the native of France
+      responded as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sucre! dey do make sucre in Martinique; mais&mdash;mais ce n'est pas one
+      tree&mdash;ah&mdash;ah&mdash;vat you call&mdash;je voudrois que ces
+      chemins fussent au diable&mdash;vat you call&mdash;steeck pour la
+      promenade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cane,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, smiling at the imprecation which the wary
+      Frenchman supposed was understood only by himself. &ldquo;Oui, mam'selle, cane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; cried Richard, &ldquo;cane is the vulgar name for it, but the real
+      term is saccharum officinarum; and what we call the sugar, or hard maple,
+      is acer saccharinum. These are the learned names, monsieur, and are such
+      as, doubtless, you well understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this Greek or Latin, Mr. Edwards?&rdquo; whispered Elizabeth to the youth,
+      who was opening a passage for herself and her companions through the
+      bushes, &ldquo;or perhaps it is a still more learned language, for an
+      interpretation of which we must look to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dark eye of the young man glanced toward the speaker, but its
+      resentful expression changed in a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall remember your doubts, Miss Temple, when next I visit my old
+      friend Mohegan, and either his skill, or that of Leather-Stocking, shall
+      solve them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are you, then, really ignorant of their language?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not absolutely; but the deep learning of Mr. Jones is more familiar to
+      me, or even the polite masquerade of Monsieur Le Quoi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you speak French?&rdquo; said the lady, with quickness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a common language with the Iroquois, and through the Canadas,&rdquo; he
+      answered, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! but they are Mingoes, and your enemies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be well for me if I have no worse,&rdquo; said the youth, dashing ahead
+      with his horse, and putting an end to the evasive dialogue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discourse, however, was maintained with great vigor by Richard, until
+      they reached an open wood on the summit of the mountain, where the
+      hemlocks and pines totally disappeared, and a grove of the very trees that
+      formed the subject of debate covered the earth with their tall, straight
+      trunks and spreading branches, in stately pride. The underwood had been
+      entirely removed from this grove, or bush, as, in conjunction with the
+      simple arrangements for boiling, it was called, and a wide space of many
+      acres was cleared, which might be likened to the dome of a mighty temple,
+      to which the maples formed the columns, their tops composing the capitals
+      and the heavens the arch. A deep and careless incision had been made into
+      each tree, near its root, into which little spouts, formed of the bark
+      of the alder, or of the sumach, were fastened; and a trough, roughly dug
+      out of the linden, or basswood, was lying at the root of each tree, to
+      catch the sap that flowed from this extremely wasteful and inartificial
+      arrangement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party paused a moment, on gaining the flat, to breathe their horses,
+      and, as the scene was entirely new to several of their number, to view the
+      manner of collecting the fluid. A fine, powerful voice aroused them from
+      their momentary silence, as it rang under the branches of the trees,
+      singing the following words of that inimitable doggerel, whose verses, if
+      extended, would reach from the Caters of the Connecticut to the shores of
+      Ontario. The tune was, of course, a familiar air which, although it is
+      said to have been first applied to this nation in derision, circumstances
+      have since rendered so glorious that no American ever hears its jingling
+      cadence without feeling a thrill at his heart:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Eastern States be full of men, The Western Full of woods, sir, The
+      hill be like a cattle-pen, The roads be full of goods, sir! Then flow
+      away, my sweety sap, And I will make you boily; Nor catch a wood man's
+      hasty nap, For fear you should get roily. The maple-tree's a precious one,
+      'Tis fuel, food, and timber; And when your stiff day's work is done, Its
+      juice will make you limber, Then flow away, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what's a man without his glass. His wife without her tea, sir? But
+      neither cup nor mug will pass, Without his honey-bee, sir! Then flow
+      away,&rdquo; etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the execution of this sonorous doggerel, Richard kept time with his
+      whip on the mane of his charger, accompanying the gestures with a
+      corresponding movement of his head and body. Toward the close of the song,
+      he was overheard humming the chorus, and, at its last repetition, to
+      strike in at &ldquo;sweety sap,&rdquo; and carry a second through, with a prodigious
+      addition to the &ldquo;effect&rdquo; of the noise, if not to that of the harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done us!&rdquo; roared the sheriff, on the same key with the tune; &ldquo;a very
+      good song, Billy Kirby, and very well sung. Where got you the words, lad?
+      Is there more of it, and can you furnish me with a copy?&rdquo; The
+      sugar-boiler, who was busy in his &ldquo;camp,&rdquo; at a short distance from the
+      equestrians, turned his head with great indifference, and surveyed the
+      party, as they approached, with admirable coolness. To each individual, as
+      he or she rode close by him, he gave a nod that was extremely good-natured
+      and affable, but which partook largely of the virtue of equality, for not
+      even to the ladies did he in the least vary his mode of salutation, by
+      touching the apology for a hat that he wore, or by any other motion than
+      the one we have mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How goes it, how goes it, sheriff?&rdquo; said the wood-chopper; &ldquo;what's the
+      good word in the village?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, much as usual, Billy,&rdquo; returned Richard. &ldquo;But how is this? where are
+      your four kettles, and your troughs, and your iron coolers? Do you make
+      sugar in this slovenly way? I thought you were one of the best
+      sugar-boilers in the county.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm all that, Squire Jones,&rdquo; said Kirby, who continued his occupation;
+      &ldquo;I'll turn my back to no man in the Otsego hills for chopping and logging,
+      for boiling down the maple sap, for tending brick-kiln, splitting out
+      rails, making potash, and parling too, or hoeing corn; though I keep
+      myself pretty much to the first business, seeing that the axe comes most
+      natural to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You be von Jack All-trade, Mister Beel,&rdquo; said Monsieur Le Quoi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo; said Kirby, looking up with a simplicity which, coupled with his
+      gigantic frame and manly face, was a little ridiculous, &ldquo;if you be for
+      trade, mounsher, here is some as good sugar as you'll find the season
+      through. It's as clear from dirt as the Jarman Flats is free from stumps,
+      and it has the raal maple flavor. Such stuff would sell in York for
+      candy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frenchman approached the place where Kirby had deposited his cake of
+      sugar, under the cover of a bark roof, and commenced the examination of
+      the article with the eye of one who well understood its value. Marmaduke
+      had dismounted, and was viewing the works and the trees very closely, and
+      not without frequent expressions of dissatisfaction at the careless manner
+      in which the manufacture was conducted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have much experience in these things, Kirby,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;what course
+      do you pursue in making your sugar? I see you have but two kettles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two is as good as two thousand, Judge. I'm none of your polite
+      sugar-makers, that boils for the great folks; but if the raal sweet maple
+      is wanted, I can answer your turn. First, I choose, and then I tap my
+      trees; say along about the last of February, or in these mountains maybe
+      not afore the middle of March; but anyway, just as the sap begins to
+      cleverly run&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, in this choice,&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke, &ldquo;are you governed by any
+      outward signs that prove the quality of the tree?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there's judgment in all things,&rdquo; said Kirby, stirring the liquor in
+      his kettles briskly. &ldquo;There's some thing in knowing when and how to stir
+      the pot. It's a thing that must be larnt. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor
+      for that matter Templeton either, though it may be said to be a
+      quick-growing place. I never put my axe into a stunty tree, or one that
+      hasn't a good, fresh-looking bark: for trees have disorders, like
+      creatur's; and where's the policy of taking a tree that's sickly, any more
+      than you'd choose a foundered horse to ride post, or an over heated ox to
+      do your logging?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that is true. But what are the signs of illness? how do you
+      distinguish a tree that is well from one that is diseased?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does the doctor tell who has fever and who colds?&rdquo; interrupted
+      Richard. &ldquo;By examining the skin, and feeling the pulse, to be sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain,&rdquo; continued Billy; &ldquo;the squire ain't far out of the way. It's by
+      the look of the thing, sure enough. Well, when the sap begins to get a
+      free run, I hang over the kettles, and set up the bush. My first boiling I
+      push pretty smartly, till I get the virtue of the sap; but when it begins
+      to grow of a molasses nater, like this in the kettle, one mustn't drive
+      the fires too hard, or you'll burn the sugar; and burny sugar is bad to
+      the taste, let it be never so sweet. So you ladle out from one kettle into
+      the other till it gets so, when you put the stirring-stick into it, that
+      it will draw into a thread&mdash;when it takes a kerful hand to manage it.
+      There is a way to drain it off, after it has grained, by putting clay into
+      the pans; bitt it isn't always practised; some doos and some doosn't.
+      Well, mounsher, be we likely to make a trade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will give you, Mister Etel, for von pound, dix sous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I expect cash for it; I never dicker my sugar, But, seeing that it's
+      you, mounsher,&rdquo; said Billy, with a Coaxing smile, &ldquo;I'll agree to receive a
+      gallon of rum, and cloth enough for two shirts if you'll take the molasses
+      in the bargain. It's raal good. I wouldn't deceive you or any man and to
+      my drinking it's about the best molasses that come out of a sugar-bush.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Le Quoi has offered you ten pence,&rdquo; said young Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manufacturer stared at the speaker with an air of great freedom, but
+      made no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oui,&rdquo; said the Frenchman, &ldquo;ten penny. Jevausraner cie, monsieur: ah! mon
+      Anglois! je l'oublie toujours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wood-chopper looked from one to the other with some displeasure; and
+      evidently imbibed the opinion that they were amusing themselves at his
+      expense. He seized the enormous ladle, which was lying on one of his
+      kettles, and began to stir the boiling liquid with great diligence. After
+      a moment passed in dipping the ladle full, and then raising it on high, as
+      the thick rich fluid fell back into the kettle, he suddenly gave it a
+      whirl, as if to cool what yet remained, and offered the bowl to Mr. Le
+      Quoi, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taste that, mounsher, and you will say it is worth more than you offer.
+      The molasses itself would fetch the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The complaisant Frenchman, after several timid efforts to trust his lips
+      in contact with the howl of the ladle, got a good swallow of the scalding
+      liquid. He clapped his hands on his breast, and looked most piteously at
+      the ladies, for a single instant; and then, to use the language of Billy,
+      when he afterward recounted the tale, &ldquo;no drumsticks ever went faster on
+      the skin of a sheep than the Frenchman's legs, for a round or two; and
+      then such swearing and spitting in French you never saw. But it's a
+      knowing one, from the old countries, that thinks to get his jokes smoothly
+      over a wood-chopper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The air of innocence with which Kirby resumed the occupation of stirring
+      the contents of his kettles would have completely deceived the spectators
+      as to his agency in the temporary sufferings of Mr. Le Quoi, had not the
+      reckless fellow thrust his tongue into his cheek, and cast his eyes over
+      the party, with a simplicity of expression that was too exquisite to be
+      natural. Mr. Le Quoi soon recovered his presence of mind and his decorum;
+      and he briefly apologized to the ladies for one or two very intemperate
+      expressions that had escaped him in a moment of extraordinary excitement,
+      and, remounting his horse, he continued in the background during the
+      remainder of the visit, the wit of Kirby putting a violent termination, at
+      once, to all negotiations on the subject of trade. During all this time,
+      Marmaduke had been wandering about the grove, making observations on his
+      favorite trees, and the wasteful manner in which the wood-chopper
+      conducted his manufacture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It grieves me to witness the extravagance that pervades this country,&rdquo;
+       said the Judge, &ldquo;where the settlers trifle with the blessings they might
+      enjoy, with the prodigality of successful adventurers. You are not exempt
+      from the censure yourself, Kirby, for you make dreadful wounds in these
+      trees where a small incision would effect the same object. I earnestly beg
+      you will remember that they are the growth of centuries, and when once
+      gone none living will see their loss remedied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I don't know, Judge,&rdquo; returned the man he ad dressed; &ldquo;it seems to
+      me, if there's plenty of anything in this mountaynious country, it's the
+      trees. If there's any sin in chopping them, I've a pretty heavy account to
+      settle; for I've chopped over the best half of a thousand acres, with my
+      own hands, counting both Varmount and York States; and I hope to live to
+      finish the whull, before I lay up my axe. Chopping comes quite natural to
+      me, and I wish no other employment; but Jared Ransom said that he thought
+      the sugar was likely to be source this season, seeing that so many folks
+      was coming into the settlement, and so I concluded to take the 'bush' on
+      sheares for this one spring. What's the best news, Judge, consarning
+      ashes? do pots hold so that a man can live by them still? I s'pose they
+      will, if they keep on fighting across the water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou reasonest with judgment, William,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke. &ldquo;So long as
+      the Old Worm is to be convulsed with wars, so long will the harvest of
+      America continue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it's an ill wind, Judge, that blows nobody any good. I'm sure the
+      country is in a thriving way; and though I know you calkilate greatly on
+      the trees, setting as much store by them as some men would by their
+      children, yet to my eyes they are a sore sight any time, unless I'm
+      privileged to work my will on them: in which case I can't say but they are
+      more to my liking. I have heard the settlers from the old countries say
+      that their rich men keep great oaks and elms, that would make a barrel of
+      pots to the tree, standing round their doors and humsteds and scattered
+      over their farms, just to look at. Now, I call no country much improved
+      that is pretty well covered with trees. Stumps are a different thing, for
+      they don't shade the land; and, besides, you dig them&mdash;they make a
+      fence that will turn anything bigger than a hog, being grand for breachy
+      cattle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Opinions on such subjects vary much in different countries,&rdquo; said
+      Marmaduke; &ldquo;but it is not as ornaments that I value the noble trees of
+      this country; it is for their usefulness We are stripping the forests, as
+      if a single year would replace what we destroy. But the hour approaches
+      when the laws will take notice of not only the woods, but the game they
+      contain also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this consoling reflection, Marmaduke remounted, and the equestrians
+      passed the sugar-camp, on their way to the promised landscape of Richard.
+      The wood-chop-per was left alone, in the bosom of the forest, to pursue
+      his labors. Elizabeth turned her head, when they reached the point where
+      they were to descend the mountain, and thought that the slow fires that
+      were glimmering under his enormous kettles, his little brush shelter,
+      covered with pieces of hemlock bark, his gigantic size, as he wielded his
+      ladle with a steady and knowing air, aided by the back-ground of stately
+      trees, with their spouts and troughs, formed, altogether, no unreal
+      picture of human life in its first stages of civilization. Perhaps
+      whatever the scene possessed of a romantic character was not injured by
+      the powerful tones of Kirby's voice ringing through the woods as he again
+      awoke his strains to another tune, which was but little more scientific
+      than the former. All that she understood of the words were:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when the proud forest is falling, To my oxen cheerfully calling, From
+      morn until night I am bawling, Whoa, back there, and haw and gee; Till our
+      labor is mutually ended, By my strength and cattle befriended, And against
+      the mosquitoes defended By the bark of the walnut-trees. Away! then, you
+      lads who would buy land; Choose the oak that grows on the high land, or
+      the silvery pine on the dry land, it matters but little to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Speed! Malise, speed! such cause of haste
+     Thine active sinews never braced.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Scott.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The roads of Otsego, if we except the principal high ways, were, at the
+      early day of our tale, but little better than wood-paths. The high trees
+      that were growing on the very verge of the wheel-tracks excluded the sun's
+      rays, unless at meridian; and the slowness of the evaporation, united with
+      the rich mould of vegetable decomposition that covered the whole country
+      to the depth of several inches, occasioned but an indifferent foundation
+      for the footing of travellers. Added to these were the inequalities of a
+      natural surface, and the constant recurrence of enormous and slippery
+      roots that were laid bare by the removal of the light soil, together with
+      stumps of trees, to make a passage not only difficult but dangerous. Yet
+      the riders among these numerous obstructions, which were such as would
+      terrify an unpracticed eye, gave no demonstrations of uneasiness as their
+      horses toiled through the sloughs or trotted with uncertain paces along
+      the dark route. In many places the marks on the trees were the only
+      indications of a road, with perhaps an occasional remnant of a pine that,
+      by being cut close to the earth, so as to leave nothing visible but its
+      base of roots, spreading for twenty feet in every direction, was
+      apparently placed there as a beacon to warn the traveller that it was the
+      centre of a highway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Into one of these roads the active sheriff led the way, first striking out
+      of the foot-path, by which they had descended from the sugar-bush, across
+      a little bridge, formed of round logs laid loosely on sleepers of pine, in
+      which large openings of a formidable width were frequent. The nag of
+      Richard, when it reached one of these gaps, laid its nose along the logs
+      and stepped across the difficult passage with the sagacity of a man; but
+      the blooded filly which Miss Temple rode disdained so humble a movement.
+      She made a step or two with an unusual caution, and then, on reaching the
+      broadest opening, obedient to the curt and whip of her fearless mistress,
+      she bounded across the dangerous pass with the activity of a squirrel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, gently, my child,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, who was following in the
+      manner of Richard; &ldquo;this is not a country for equestrian feats. Much
+      prudence is requisite to journey through our rough paths with safety. Thou
+      mayst practise thy skill in horsemanship on the plains of New Jersey with
+      safety; but in the hills of Otsego they may be suspended for a time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may as well then relinquish my saddle at once, dear sir,&rdquo; returned his
+      daughter; &ldquo;for if it is to be laid aside until this wild country be
+      improved, old age will overtake me, and put an end to what you term my
+      equestrian feats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not so, my child,&rdquo; returned her father; &ldquo;but if thou venturest again
+      as in crossing this bridge, old age will never overtake thee, but I shall
+      be left to mourn thee, cut off in thy pride, my Elizabeth. If thou hadst
+      seen this district of country, as I did, when it lay in the sleep of
+      nature, and had witnessed its rapid changes as it awoke to supply the
+      wants of man, thou wouldst curb thy impatience for a little time, though
+      thou shouldst not check thy steed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recollect hearing you speak of your first visit to these woods, but the
+      impression is faint, and blended with the confused images of childhood.
+      Wild and unsettled as it may yet seem, it must have been a thousand times
+      more dreary then. Will you repeat, dear sir, what you then thought of your
+      enterprise, and what you felt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this speech of Elizabeth, which was uttered with the fervor of
+      affection, young Edwards rode more closely to the side of the Judge, and
+      bent his dark eyes on his countenance with an expression that seemed to
+      read his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou wast then young, my child, but must remember when I left thee and
+      thy mother, to take my first survey of these uninhabited mountains,&rdquo; said
+      Marmaduke. &ldquo;But thou dost not feel all the secret motives that can urge a
+      man to endure privations in order to accumulate wealth. In my case they
+      have not been trifling, and God has been pleased to smile on my efforts.
+      If I have encountered pain, famine, and disease in accomplishing the
+      settlement of this rough territory, I have not the misery of failure to
+      add to the grievances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Famine!&rdquo; echoed Elizabeth; &ldquo;I thought this was the land of abundance! Had
+      you famine to contend with?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so, my child,&rdquo; said her father. &ldquo;Those who look around them now, and
+      see the loads of produce that issue out of every wild path in these
+      mountains during the season of travelling, will hardly credit that no more
+      than five years have elapsed since the tenants of these woods were
+      compelled to eat the scanty fruits of the forest to sustain life, and,
+      with their unpracticed skill, to hunt the beasts as food for their
+      starving families.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; cried Richard, who happened to overhear the last of this speech
+      between the notes of the wood-chopper's song, which he was endeavoring to
+      breathe aloud; &ldquo;that was the starving-time,* Cousin Bess. I grew as lank
+      as a weasel that fall, and my face was as pale as one of your
+      fever-and-ague visages. Monsieur Le Quoi, there, fell away like a pumpkin
+      in drying; nor do I think you have got fairly over it yet, monsieur.
+      Benjamin, I thought, bore it with a worse grace than any of the family;
+      for he swore it was harder to endure than a short allowance in the calm
+      latitudes. Benjamin is a sad fellow to swear if you starve him ever so
+      little. I had half a mind to quit you then, 'Duke, and to go into
+      Pennsylvania to fatten; but, damn it, thinks I, we are sisters' children,
+      and I will live or die with him, after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The author has no better apology for interrupting the interest of a
+    work of fiction by these desultory dialogues than that they have ref-
+    erence to facts.  In reviewing his work, after so many years, he is
+    compelled to confess it is injured by too many allusions to incidents
+    that are not at all suited to satisfy the just expectations of the
+    general reader.  One of these events is slightly touched on in the
+    commencement of this chapter.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      More than thirty years since a very near and dear relative of the writer,
+      an elder sister and a second mother, was killed by a fall from a horse in
+      a ride among the very mountains mentioned in this tale. Few of her sex and
+      years were more extensively known or more universally beloved than the
+      admirable woman who thus fell a victim to the chances of the wilderness.
+      &ldquo;I do not forget thy kindness,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, &ldquo;nor that we are of one
+      blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my dear father,&rdquo; cried the wondering Elizabeth, &ldquo;was there actual
+      suffering? Where were the beautiful and fertile vales of the Mohawk? Could
+      they not furnish food for your wants?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a season of scarcity; the necessities of life commanded a high
+      price in Europe, and were greedily sought after by the speculators. The
+      emigrants from the East to the West invariably passed along the valley of
+      the Mohawk, and swept away the means of subsistence like a swarm of
+      locusts, Nor were the people on the Flats in a much better condition. They
+      were in want themselves, but they spared the little excess of provisions
+      that nature did not absolutely require, with the justice of the German
+      character. There was no grinding of the poor. The word speculator was then
+      unknown to them. I have seen many a stout man, bending under the load of
+      the bag of meal which he was carrying from the mills of the Mohawk,
+      through the rugged passes of these mountains, to feed his half-famished
+      children, with a heart so light, as he approached his hut, that the thirty
+      miles he had passed seemed nothing. Remember, my child, it was in our very
+      infancy; we had neither mills, nor grain, nor roads, nor often clearings;
+      we had nothing of increase but the mouths that were to be fed: for even at
+      that inauspicious moment the restless spirit of emigration was not idle;
+      nay, the general scarcity which extended to the East tended to increase
+      the number of adventurers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how, dearest father, didst thou encounter this dreadful evil?&rdquo; said
+      Elizabeth, unconsciously adopting the dialect of her parent in the warmth
+      of her sympathy. &ldquo;Upon thee must have fallen the responsibility, if not
+      the suffering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It did, Elizabeth,&rdquo; returned the Judge, pausing for a single moment, as
+      if musing on his former feelings. &ldquo;I had hundreds at that dreadful time
+      daily looking up to me for bread. The sufferings of their families and the
+      gloomy prospect before them had paralyzed the enterprise and efforts of my
+      settlers; hunger drove them to the woods for food, but despair sent them
+      at night, enfeebled and wan, to a sleepless pillow. It was not a moment
+      for in action. I purchased cargoes of wheat from the granaries of
+      Pennsylvania; they were landed at Albany and brought up the Mohawk in
+      boats; from thence it was transported on pack-horses into the wilderness
+      and distributed among my people. Seines were made, and the lakes and
+      rivers were dragged for fish. Something like a miracle was wrought in our
+      favor, for enormous shoals of herrings were discovered to have wandered
+      five hundred miles through the windings of the impetuous Susquehanna, and
+      the lake was alive with their numbers. These were at length caught and
+      dealt out to the people, with proper portions of salt, and from that
+      moment we again began to prosper.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * All this was literally true.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; cried Richard, &ldquo;and I was the man who served out the fish and salt.
+      When the poor devils came to receive their rations, Benjamin, who was my
+      deputy, was obliged to keep them off by stretching ropes around me, for
+      they smelt so of garlic, from eating nothing but the wild onion, that the
+      fumes put me out often in my measurement. You were a child then, Bess, and
+      knew nothing of the matter, for great care was observed to keep both you
+      and your mother from suffering. That year put me back dreadfully, both in
+      the breed of my hogs and of my turkeys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Bess,&rdquo; cried the Judge, in a more cheerful tone, disregarding the
+      interruption of his cousin, &ldquo;he who hears of the settlement of a country
+      knows but little of the toil and suffering by which it is accomplished.
+      Unimproved and wild as this district now seems to your eyes, what was it
+      when I first entered the hills? I left my party, the morning of my
+      arrival, near the farms of the Cherry Valley, and, following a deer-path,
+      rode to the summit of the mountain that I have since called Mount Vision;
+      for the sight that there met my eyes seemed to me as the deceptions of a
+      dream. The fire had run over the pinnacle, and in a great measure laid
+      open the view. The leaves were fallen, and I mounted a tree and sat for an
+      hour looking on the silent wilderness. Not an opening was to be seen in
+      the boundless forest except where the lake lay, like a mirror of glass.
+      The water was covered by myriads of the wild-fowl that migrate with the
+      changes in the season; and while in my situation on the branch of the
+      beech, I saw a bear, with her cubs, descend to the shore to drink. I had
+      met many deer, gliding through the woods, in my journey; but not the
+      vestige of a man could I trace during my progress, nor from my elevated
+      observatory. No clearing, no hut, none of the winding roads that are now
+      to be seen, were there; nothing but mountains rising behind mountains; and
+      the valley, with its surface of branches enlivened here and there with the
+      faded foliage of some tree that parted from its leaves with more than
+      ordinary reluctance. Even the Susquehanna was then hid by the height and
+      density of the forest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And were you alone?&rdquo; asked Elizabeth: &ldquo;passed you the night in that
+      solitary state?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so, my child,&rdquo; returned the father. &ldquo;After musing on the scene for an
+      hour, with a mingled feeling of pleasure and desolation, I left my perch
+      and descended the mountain. My horse was left to browse on the twigs that
+      grew within his reach, while I explored the shores of the lake and the
+      spot where Templeton stands. A pine of more than ordinary growth stood
+      where my dwelling is now placed! A wind&mdash;row had been opened through
+      the trees from thence to the lake, and my view was but little impeded.
+      Under the branches of that tree I made my solitary dinner. I had just
+      finished my repast as I saw smoke curling from under the mountain, near
+      the eastern bank of the lake. It was the only indication of the vicinity
+      of man that I had then seen. After much toil I made my way to the spot,
+      and found a rough cabin of logs, built against the foot of a rock, and
+      bearing the marks of a tenant, though I found no one within it&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the hut of Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; said Edwards quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was; though I at first supposed it to be a habitation of the Indians.
+      But while I was lingering around the spot Natty made his appearance,
+      staggering under the carcass of a buck that he had slain. Our acquaintance
+      commenced at that time; before, I had never heard that such a being
+      tenanted the woods. He launched his bark canoe and set me across the foot
+      of the lake to the place where I had fastened my horse, and pointed out a
+      spot where he might get a scanty browsing until the morning; when I
+      returned and passed the night in the cabin of the hunter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple was so much struck by the deep attention of young Edwards
+      during this speech that she forgot to resume her interrogations; but the
+      youth himself continued the discourse by asking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how did the Leather-Stocking discharge the duties of a host sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, simply but kindly, until late in the evening, when he discovered my
+      name and object, and the cordiality of his manner very sensibly
+      diminished, or, I might better say, disappeared. He considered the
+      introduction of the settlers as an innovation on his rights, I believe for
+      he expressed much dissatisfaction at the measure, though it was in his
+      confused and ambiguous manner. I hardly understood his objections myself,
+      but supposed they referred chiefly to an interruption of the hunting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you then purchased the estate, or were you examining it with an
+      intent to buy?&rdquo; asked Edwards, a little abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It had been mine for several years. It was with a view to People the land
+      that I visited the lake. Natty treated me hospitably, but coldly, I
+      thought, after he learned the nature of my journey. I slept on his own
+      bear&mdash;skin, however, and in the morning joined my surveyors again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Said he nothing of the Indian rights, sir? The Leather-Stocking is much
+      given to impeach the justice of the tenure by which the whites hold the
+      country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember that he spoke of them, but I did not nearly comprehend him,
+      and may have forgotten what he said; for the Indian title was extinguished
+      so far back as the close of the old war, and if it had not been at all, I
+      hold under the patents of the Royal Governors, confirmed by an act of our
+      own State Legislature, and no court in the country can affect my title.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless, sir, your title is both legal and equitable,&rdquo; returned the
+      youth coldly, reining his horse back and remaining silent till the subject
+      was changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was seldom Mr. Jones suffered any conversation to continue for a great
+      length of time without his participation. It seems that he was of the
+      party that Judge Temple had designated as his surveyors; and he embraced
+      the opportunity of the pause that succeeded the retreat of young Edwards
+      to take up the discourse, and with a narration of their further
+      proceedings, after his own manner. As it wanted, however, the interest
+      that had accompanied the description of the Judge, we must decline the
+      task of committing his sentences to paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They soon reached the point where the promised view was to be seen. It was
+      one of those picturesque and peculiar scenes that belong to the Otsego,
+      but which required the absence of the ice and the softness of a summer's
+      landscape to be enjoyed in all its beauty. Marmaduke had early forewarned
+      his daughter of the season, and of its effect on the prospect; and after
+      casting a cursory glance at its capabilities, the party returned homeward,
+      perfectly satisfied that its beauties would repay them for the toil of a
+      second ride at a more propitious season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The spring is the gloomy time of the American year,&rdquo; said the Judge, &ldquo;and
+      it is more peculiarly the case in these mountains. The winter seems to
+      retreat to the fast nesses of the hills, as to the citadel of its
+      dominion, and is only expelled after a tedious siege, in which either
+      party, at times, would seem to be gaining the victory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very just and apposite figure, Judge Temple,&rdquo; observed the sheriff;
+      &ldquo;and the garrison under the command of Jack Frost make formidable sorties&mdash;you
+      understand what I mean by sorties, monsieur; sallies, in English&mdash;and
+      sometimes drive General Spring and his troops back again into the low
+      countries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes sair,&rdquo; returned the Frenchman, whose prominent eyes were watching the
+      precarious footsteps of the beast he rode, as it picked its dangerous way
+      among the roots of trees, holes, log bridges, and sloughs that formed the
+      aggregate of the highway. &ldquo;Je vous entends; de low countrie is freeze up
+      for half de year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The error of Mr. Le Quoi was not noticed by the sheriff; and the rest of
+      the party were yielding to the influence of the changeful season, which
+      was already teaching the equestrians that a continuance of its mildness
+      was not to be expected for any length of time. Silence and thoughtfulness
+      succeeded the gayety and conversation that had prevailed during the
+      commencement of the ride, as clouds began to gather about the heavens,
+      apparently collecting from every quarter, in quick motion, without the
+      agency of a breath of air,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While riding over one of the cleared eminencies that occurred in their
+      route, the watchful eye of Judge Temple pointed out to his daughter the
+      approach of a tempest. Flurries of snow already obscured the mountain that
+      formed the northern boundary of the lake, and the genial sensation which
+      had quickened the blood through their veins was already succeeded by the
+      deadening influence of an approaching northwester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of the party were now busily engaged in making the best of their way
+      to the village, though the badness of the roads frequently compelled them
+      to check the impatience of their animals, which often carried them over
+      places that would not admit of any gait faster than a walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard continued in advance, followed by Mr. Le Quoi; next to whom rode
+      Elizabeth, who seemed to have imbibed the distance which pervaded the
+      manner of young Edwards since the termination of the discourse between the
+      latter and her father. Marmaduke followed his daughter, giving her
+      frequent and tender warnings as to the management of her horse. It was,
+      possibly, the evident dependence that Louisa Grant placed on his
+      assistance which induced the youth to continue by her side, as they
+      pursued their way through a dreary and dark wood, where the rays of the
+      sun could but rarely penetrate, and where even the daylight was obscured
+      and rendered gloomy by the deep forests that surrounded them. No wind had
+      yet reached the spot where the equestrians were in motion, but that dead
+      silence that often precedes a storm contributed to render their situation
+      more irksome than if they were already subject to the fury of the tempest.
+      Suddenly the voice of young Edwards was heard shouting in those appalling
+      tones that carry alarm to the very soul, and which curdle the blood of
+      those that hear them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tree! a tree! Whip&mdash;spur for your lives! a tree! a tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tree! a tree!&rdquo; echoed Richard, giving his horse a blow that caused the
+      alarmed beast to jump nearly a rod, throwing the mud and water into the
+      air like a hurricane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Von tree! von tree!&rdquo; shouted the Frenchman, bending his body on the neck
+      of his charger, shutting his eyes, and playing on the ribs of his beast
+      with his heels at a rate that caused him to be conveyed on the crupper of
+      the sheriff with a marvellous speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth checked her filly and looked up, with an unconscious but alarmed
+      air, at the very cause of their danger, while she listened to the
+      crackling sounds that awoke the stillness of the forest; but the next
+      instant her bridlet was seized by her father, who cried, &ldquo;God protect my
+      child!&rdquo; and she felt herself hurried onward, impelled by the vigor of his
+      nervous arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each one of the party bowed to his saddle-bows as the tearing of branches
+      was succeeded by a sound like the rushing of the winds, which was followed
+      by a thundering report, and a shock that caused the very earth to tremble
+      as one of the noblest ruins of the forest fell directly across their path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One glance was enough to assure Judge Temple that his daughter and those
+      in front of him were safe, and he turned his eyes, in dreadful anxiety, to
+      learn the fate of the others. Young Edwards was on the opposite side of
+      the tree, his form thrown back in his saddle to its utmost distance, his
+      left hand drawing up his bridle with its greatest force, while the right
+      grasped that of Miss Grant so as to draw the head of her horse under its
+      body. Both the animals stood shaking in every joint with terror, and
+      snorting fearfully. Louisa herself had relinquished her reins, and, with
+      her hands pressed on her face, sat bending forward in her saddle, in an
+      attitude of despair, mingled strangely with resignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you safe?&rdquo; cried the Judge, first breaking the awful silence of the
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By God's blessing,&rdquo; returned the youth; &ldquo;but if there had been branches
+      to the tree we must have been lost&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was interrupted by the figure of Louisa slowly yielding in her saddle,
+      and but for his arm she would have sunk to the earth. Terror, however, was
+      the only injury that the clergyman's daughter had sustained, and, with the
+      aid of Elizabeth, she was soon restored to her senses. After some little
+      time was lost in recovering her strength, the young lady was replaced in
+      her saddle, and supported on either side by Judge Temple and Mr. Edwards
+      she was enabled to follow the party in their slow progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sudden fallings of the trees,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, &ldquo;are the most
+      dangerous accidents in the forest, for they are not to be foreseen, being
+      impelled by no winds, nor any extraneous or visible cause against which we
+      can guard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason of their falling, Judge Temple, is very obvious,&rdquo; said the
+      sheriff. &ldquo;The tree is old and decayed, and it is gradually weakened by the
+      frosts, until a line drawn from the centre of gravity falls without its
+      base, and then the tree comes of a certainty; and I should like to know
+      what greater compulsion there can be for any thing than a mathematical
+      certainty. I studied math&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, Richard,&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke; &ldquo;thy reasoning is true, and,
+      if my memory be not over-treacherous, was furnished by myself on a former
+      occasion, But how is one to guard against the danger? Canst thou go
+      through the forests measuring the bases and calculating the centres of the
+      oaks? Answer me that, friend Jones, and I will say thou wilt do the
+      country a service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer thee that, friend Temple!&rdquo; returned Richard; &ldquo;a well-educated man
+      can answer thee anything, sir. Do any trees fall in this manner but such
+      as are decayed? Take care not to approach the roots of a rotten tree, and
+      you will be safe enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be excluding us entirely from the forests,&rdquo; said Marmaduke.
+      &ldquo;But, happily, the winds usually force down most of these dangerous ruins,
+      as their currents are admitted into the woods by the surrounding
+      clearings, and such a fall as this has been is very rare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Louisa by this time had recovered so much strength as to allow the party
+      to proceed at a quicker pace, but long before they were safely housed they
+      were overtaken by the storm; and when they dismounted at the door of the
+      mansion-house, the black plumes of Miss Temple's hat were drooping with
+      the weight of a load of damp snow, and the coats of the gentlemen were
+      powdered with the same material.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Edwards was assisting Louisa from her horse, the warm-hearted girl
+      caught his hand with fervor and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Edwards, both father and daughter owe their lives to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A driving northwesterly storm succeeded, and before the sun was set every
+      vestige of spring had vanished; the lake, the mountains, the village, and
+      the fields being again hidden under one dazzling coat of snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Men, boys, and girls
+     Desert the unpeopled village; and wild crowds
+     Spread o'er the plain, by the sweet phrensy driven.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Somerville.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      From this time to the close of April the weather continued to be a
+      succession of neat and rapid changes. One day the soft airs of spring
+      seemed to be stealing along the valley, and, in unison with an
+      invigorating sun, attempting covertly to rouse the dormant powers of the
+      vegetable world, while, on the next, the surly blasts from the north would
+      sweep across the lake and erase every impression left by their gentle
+      adversaries. The snow, however, finally disappeared, and the green wheat
+      fields were seen in every direction, spotted with the dark and charred
+      stumps that had, the preceding season, supported some of the proudest
+      trees of the forest. Ploughs were in motion, wherever those useful
+      implements could be used, and the smokes of the sugar-camps were no longer
+      seen issuing from the woods of maple. The lake had lost the beauty of a
+      field of ice, but still a dark and gloomy covering concealed its waters,
+      for the absence of currents left them yet hidden under a porous crust,
+      which, saturated with the fluid, barely retained enough strength to
+      preserve the continuity of its parts. Large flocks of wild geese were seen
+      passing over the country, which hovered, for a time, around the hidden
+      sheet of water, apparently searching for a resting-place; and then, on
+      finding themselves excluded by the chill covering, would soar away to the
+      north, filling the air with discordant screams, as if venting their
+      complaints at the tardy operations of Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a week, the dark covering of the Otsego was left to the undisturbed
+      possession of two eagles, who alighted on the centre of its field, and sat
+      eyeing their undisputed territory. During the presence of these monarchs
+      of the air, the flocks of migrating birds avoided crossing the plain of
+      ice by turning into the hills, apparently seeking the protection of the
+      forests, while the white and bald heads of the tenants of the lake were
+      turned upward, with a look of contempt. But the time had come when even
+      these kings of birds were to be dispossessed. An opening had been
+      gradually increasing at the lower extremity of the lake, and around the
+      dark spot where the current of the river prevented the formation of ice
+      during even the coldest weather; and the fresh southerly winds, that now
+      breathed freely upon the valley, made an impression on the waters. Mimic
+      waves began to curl over the margin of the frozen field, which exhibited
+      an outline of crystallizations that slowly receded toward the north. At
+      each step the power of the winds and the waves increased, until, after a
+      struggle of a few hours, the turbulent little billows succeeded in setting
+      the whole field in motion, when it was driven beyond the reach of the eye,
+      with a rapidity that was as magical as the change produced in the scene by
+      this expulsion of the lingering remnant of winter. Just as the last sheet
+      of agitated ice was disappearing in the distance, the eagles rose, and
+      soared with a wide sweep above the clouds, while the waves tossed their
+      little caps of snow in the air, as if rioting in their release from a
+      thraldom of five minutes' duration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following morning Elizabeth was awakened by the exhilarating sounds of
+      the martens, who were quarrelling and chattering around the little boxes
+      suspended above her windows, and the cries of Richard, who was calling in
+      tones animating as signs of the season itself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Awake! awake! my fair lady! the gulls are hovering over the lake already,
+      and the heavens are alive with pigeons. You may look an hour before you
+      can find a hole through which to get a peep at the sun. Awake! awake! lazy
+      ones' Benjamin is overhauling the ammunition, and we only wait for our
+      breakfasts, and away for the mountains and pigeon-shooting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no resisting this animated appeal, and in a few minutes Miss
+      Temple and her friend descended to the parlor. The doors of the hall were
+      thrown open, and the mild, balmy air of a clear spring morning was
+      ventilating the apartment, where the vigilance of the ex-steward had been
+      so long maintaining an artificial heat with such unremitted diligence. The
+      gentlemen were impatiently waiting for their morning's repast, each
+      equipped in the garb of a sportsman. Mr. Jones made many visits to the
+      southern door, and would cry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, Cousin Bess! see, 'Duke, the pigeon-roosts of the south have broken
+      up! They are growing more thick every instant, Here is a flock that the
+      eye cannot see the end of. There is food enough in it to keep the army of
+      Xerxes for a month, and feathers enough to make beds for the whole
+      country. Xerxes, Mr. Edwards, was a Grecian king, who&mdash;no, he was a
+      Turk, or a Persian, who wanted to conquer Greece, just the same as these
+      rascals will overrun our wheat fields, when they come back in the fall.
+      Away! away! Bess; I long to pepper them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In this wish both Marmaduke and young Edwards seemed equally to
+      participate, for the sight was exhilarating to a sportsman; and the ladies
+      soon dismissed the party after a hasty breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the heavens were alive with pigeons, the whole village seemed equally
+      in motion with men, women, and children. Every species of firearm, from
+      the French ducking gun, with a barrel near six feet in length, to the
+      common horseman's pistol, was to be seen in the hands of the men and boys;
+      while bows and arrows, some made of the simple stick of walnut sapling and
+      others in a rude imitation of the ancient cross-bows, were carried by many
+      of the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The houses and the signs of life apparent in the village drove the alarmed
+      birds from the direct line of their flight, toward the mountains, along
+      the sides and near the bases of which they were glancing in dense masses,
+      equally wonderful by the rapidity of their motion and their incredible
+      numbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have already said that, across the inclined plane which fell from the
+      steep ascent of the mountain to the banks of the Susquehanna, ran the
+      highway on either side of which a clearing of many acres had been made at
+      a very early day. Over those clearings, and up the eastern mountain, and
+      along the dangerous path that was cut into its side, the different
+      individuals posted themselves, and in a few moments the attack commenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the sportsmen was the tall, gaunt form of Leather-Stocking, walking
+      over the field, with his rifle hanging on his arm, his dogs at his heels;
+      the latter now scenting the dead or wounded birds that were beginning to
+      tumble from the flocks, and then crouching under the legs of their master,
+      as if they participated in his feelings at this wasteful and
+      unsportsmanlike execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reports of the firearms became rapid, whole volleys rising from the
+      plain, as flocks of more than ordinary numbers darted over the opening,
+      shadowing the field like a cloud; and then the light smoke of a single
+      piece would issue from among the leafless bushes on the mountain, as death
+      was hurled on the retreat of the affrighted birds, who were rising from a
+      volley, in a vain effort to escape. Arrows and missiles of every kind were
+      in the midst of the flocks; and so numerous were the birds, and so low did
+      they take their flight, that even long poles in the hands of those on the
+      sides of the mountain were used to strike them to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During all this time Mr. Jones, who disdained the humble and ordinary
+      means of destruction used by his companions, was busily occupied, aided by
+      Benjamin, in making arrangements for an assault of more than ordinarily
+      fatal character. Among the relics of the old military excursions, that
+      occasionally are discovered throughout the different districts of the
+      western part of New York, there had been found in Templeton, at its
+      settlement, a small swivel, which would carry a ball of a pound weight. It
+      was thought to have been deserted by a war-party of the whites in one of
+      their inroads into the Indian settlements, when, perhaps, convenience or
+      their necessity induced them to leave such an incumberance behind them in
+      the woods. This miniature cannon had been released from the rust, and
+      being mounted on little wheels was now in a state for actual service. For
+      several years it was the sole organ for extraordinary rejoicings used in
+      those mountains. On the mornings of the Fourth of July it would be heard
+      ringing among the hills; and even Captain Hollister, who was the highest
+      authority in that part of the country on all such occasions, affirmed
+      that, considering its dimensions, it was no despicable gun for a salute.
+      It was somewhat the worse for the service it had performed, it is true,
+      there being but a trifling difference in size between the touch-hole and
+      the muzzle Still, the grand conceptions of Richard had suggested the
+      importance of such an instrument in hurling death at his nimble enemies.
+      The swivel was dragged by a horse into a part of the open space that the
+      sheriff thought most eligible for planning a battery of the kind, and Mr.
+      Pump proceeded to load it. Several handfuls of duck-shot were placed on
+      top of the powder, and the major-domo announced that his piece was ready
+      for service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sight of such an implement collected all the idle spectators to the
+      spot, who, being mostly boys, filled the air with cries of exultation and
+      delight The gun was pointed high, and Richard, holding a coal of fire in a
+      pair of tongs, patiently took his seat on a stump, awaiting the appearance
+      of a flock worthy of his notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So prodigious was the number of the birds that the scattering fire of the
+      guns, with the hurling of missiles and the cries of the boys, had no other
+      effect than to break off small flocks from the immense masses that
+      continued to dart along the valley, as if the whole of the feathered tribe
+      were pouring through that one pass. None pretended to collect the game,
+      which lay scattered over the fields in such profusion as to cover the very
+      ground with fluttering victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leather-Stocking was a silent but uneasy spectator of all these
+      proceedings, but was able to keep his sentiments to himself until he saw
+      the introduction of the swivel into the sports.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This comes of settling a country!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Here have I known the pigeon
+      to fly for forty long years, and, till you made your clearings, there was
+      nobody to skeart or to hurt them, I loved to see them come into the woods,
+      for they were company to a body, hurting nothing&mdash;being, as it was,
+      as harmless as a garter-snake. But now it gives me sore thoughts when I
+      hear the frighty things whizzing through the air, for I know it's only a
+      motion to bring out all the brats of the village. Well, the Lord won't see
+      the waste of his creatures for nothing, and right will be done to the
+      pigeons, as well as others, by and by. There's Mr. Oliver as bad as the
+      rest of them, firing into the flocks as if he was shooting down nothing
+      but Mingo warriors.&rdquo; Among the sportsmen was Billy Kirby, who, armed with
+      an old musket, was loading, and, without even looking into the air, was
+      firing and shouting as his victims fell even on his own person. He heard
+      the speech of Natty, and took upon himself to reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! old Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;grumbling at the loss of a few
+      pigeons! If you had to sow your wheat twice, and three times, as I have
+      done, you wouldn't be so massyfully feeling toward the divils. Hurrah,
+      boys! scatter the feathers! This is better than shooting at a turkey's
+      head and neck, old fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's better for you, maybe, Billy Kirby,&rdquo; replied the indignant old
+      hunter, &ldquo;and all them that don't know how to put a ball down a
+      rifle-barrel, or how to bring it up again with a true aim; but it's wicked
+      to be shooting into flocks in this wasty manner, and none to do it who
+      know how to knock over a single bird. If a body has a craving for pigeon's
+      flesh, why, it's made the same as all other creatures, for man's eating;
+      but not to kill twenty and eat one. When I want such a thing I go into the
+      woods till I find one to my liking, and then I shoot him off the branches,
+      without touching the feather of another, though there might be a hundred
+      on the same tree. You couldn't do such a thing, Billy Kirby&mdash;you
+      couldn't do it if you tried.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that, old corn-stalk! you sapless stub!&rdquo; cried the wood-chopper.
+      &ldquo;You have grown wordy, since the affair of the turkey; but if you are for
+      a single shot, here goes at that bird which comes on by himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fire from the distant part of the field had driven a single pigeon
+      below the flock to which it belonged, and, frightened with the constant
+      reports of the muskets, it was approaching the spot where the disputants
+      stood, darting first from One side and then to the other, cutting the air
+      with the swiftness of lightning, and making a noise with its wings not
+      unlike the rushing of a bullet. Unfortunately for the wood-chopper,
+      notwithstanding his vaunt, he did not see this bird until it was too late
+      to fire as it approached, and he pulled the trigger at the unlucky moment
+      when it was darting immediately over his head. The bird continued its
+      course with the usual velocity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty lowered his rifle from his arm when the challenge was made, and
+      waiting a moment, until the terrified victim had got in a line with his
+      eye, and had dropped near the bank of the lake, he raised it again with
+      uncommon rapidity, and fired. It might have been chance, or it might have
+      been skill, that produced the result; it was probably a union of both; but
+      the pigeon whirled over in the air, and fell into the lake with a broken
+      wing At the sound of his rifle, both his dogs started from his feet, and
+      in a few minutes the &ldquo;slut&rdquo; brought out the bird, still alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wonderful exploit of Leather-Stocking was noised through the field
+      with great rapidity, and the sportsmen gathered in, to learn the truth of
+      the report.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rdquo; said young Edwards, &ldquo;have you really killed a pigeon on the wing,
+      Natty, with a single ball?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't I killed loons before now, lad, that dive at the flash?&rdquo; returned
+      the hunter. &ldquo;It's much better to kill only such as you want, without
+      wasting your powder and lead, than to be firing into God's creatures in
+      this wicked manner. But I came out for a bird, and you know the reason why
+      I like small game, Mr. Oliver, and now I have got one Twill go home, for I
+      don't relish to see these wasty ways that you are all practysing, as if
+      the least thing wasn't made for use, and not to destroy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou sayest well, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, &ldquo;and I begin to
+      think it time to put an end to this work of destruction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put an ind, Judge, to your clearings. Ain't the woods His work as well as
+      the pigeons? Use, but don't waste. Wasn't the woods made for the beasts
+      and birds to harbor in? and when man wanted their flesh, their skins, or
+      their feathers, there's the place to seek them. But I'll go to the hut
+      with my own game, for I wouldn't touch one of the harmless things that
+      cover the ground here, looking up with their eyes on me, as if they only
+      wanted tongues to say their thoughts.&rdquo; With this sentiment in his month,
+      Leather-Stocking threw his rifle over his arm, and, followed by his dogs,
+      stepped across the clearing with great caution, taking care not to tread
+      on one of the wounded birds in his path. He soon entered the bushes on the
+      margin of the lake and was hid from view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever impression the morality of Natty made on the Judge, it was
+      utterly lost on Richard. He availed himself of the gathering of the
+      sportsmen, to lay a plan for one &ldquo;fell swoop&rdquo; of destruction. The
+      musket-men were drawn up in battle array, in a line extending on each side
+      of his artillery, with orders to await the signal of firing from himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand by, my lads,&rdquo; said Benjamin, who acted as an aid de-camp on this
+      occasion, &ldquo;stand by, my hearties, and when Squire Dickens heaves out the
+      signal to begin firing, d'ye see, you may open upon them in a broadside.
+      Take care and fire low, boys, and you'll be sure to hull the flock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire low!&rdquo; shouted Kirby; &ldquo;hear the old fool! If we fire low, we may hit
+      the stumps, but not ruffle a pigeon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should you know, you lubber?&rdquo; cried Benjamin, with a very unbecoming
+      heat for an officer on the eve of battle&mdash;&ldquo;how should you know, you
+      grampus? Haven't I sailed aboard of the Boadishy for five years? and
+      wasn't it a standing order to fire low, and to hull your enemy! Keep
+      silence at your guns, boys and mind the order that is passed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The loud laughs of the musket-men were silenced by the more authoritative
+      voice of Richard, who called for attention and obedience to his signals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some millions of pigeons were supposed to have already passed, that
+      morning, over the valley of Templeton; but nothing like the flock that was
+      now approaching had been seen before. It extended from mountain to
+      mountain in one solid blue mass, and the eye looked in vain, over the
+      southern hills, to find its termination. The front of this living column
+      was distinctly marked by a line but very slightly indented, so regular and
+      even was the flight. Even Marmaduke forgot the morality of
+      Leather-Stocking as it approached, and, in common with the rest, brought
+      his musket to a poise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; cried the sheriff, clapping a coal to the priming of the cannon.
+      As half of Benjamin's charge escaped through the touch-hole, the whole
+      volley of the musketry preceded the report of the swivel. On receiving
+      this united discharge of small-arms, the front of the flock darted upward,
+      while, at the same instant, myriads of those in the rear rushed with
+      amazing rapidity into their places, so that, when the column of white
+      smoke gushed from the mouth of the little cannon, an accumulated mass of
+      objects was gliding over its point of direction. The roar of the gun
+      echoed along the mountains, and died away to the north, like distant
+      thunder, while the whole flock of alarmed birds seemed, for a moment,
+      thrown into one disorderly and agitated mass. The air was filled with
+      their irregular flight, layer rising above layer, far above the tops of
+      the highest pines, none daring to advance beyond the dangerous pass; when,
+      suddenly, some of the headers of the feathered tribes shot across the
+      valley, taking their flight directly over the village, and hundreds of
+      thousands in their rear followed the example, deserting the eastern side
+      of the plain to their persecutors and the slain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Victory!&rdquo; shouted Richard, &ldquo;victory! we have driven the enemy from the
+      field.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so, Dickon,&rdquo; said Marmaduke; &ldquo;the field is covered with them; and,
+      like the Leather-Stocking, I see nothing but eyes, in every direction, as
+      the innocent sufferers turn their heads in terror. Full one-half of those
+      that have fallen are yet alive; and I think it is time to end the sport,
+      if sport it be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sport!&rdquo; cried the sheriff; &ldquo;it is princely sport! There are some
+      thousands of the blue-coated boys on the ground, so that every old woman
+      in the village may have a pot-pie for the asking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we have happily frightened the birds from this side of the valley,&rdquo;
+       said Marmaduke, &ldquo;and the carnage must of necessity end for the present.
+      Boys, I will give you sixpence a hundred for the pigeons' heads only; so
+      go to work, and bring them into the village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This expedient produced the desired effect, for every urchin on the ground
+      went industriously to work to wring the necks of the wounded birds. Judge
+      Temple retired toward his dwelling with that kind of feeling that many a
+      man has experienced before him, who discovers, after the excitement of the
+      moment has passed, that he has purchased pleasure at the price of misery
+      to others. Horses were loaded with the dead; and, after this first burst
+      of sporting, the shooting of pigeons became a business, with a few idlers,
+      for the remainder of the season, Richard, however, boasted for many a year
+      of his shot with the &ldquo;cricket;&rdquo; and Benjamin gravely asserted that he
+      thought they had killed nearly as many pigeons on that day as there were
+      Frenchmen destroyed on the memorable occasion of Rodney's victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;Help, masters, help; here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor
+  Man's right in the law.&rdquo;
+   &mdash;Pericles of Tyre.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The advance of the season now became as rapid as its first approach had
+      been tedious and lingering. The days were uniformly mild, while the
+      nights, though cool, were no longer chilled by frosts. The whip-poor-will
+      was heard whistling his melancholy notes along the margin of the lake, and
+      the ponds and meadows were sending forth the music of their thousand
+      tenants. The leaf of the native poplar was seen quivering in the woods;
+      the sides of the mountains began to lose their hue of brown, as the lively
+      green of the different members of the forest blended their shades with the
+      permanent colors of the pine and hemlock; and even the buds of the tardy
+      oak were swelling with the promise of the coming summer. The gay and
+      fluttering blue-bird, the social robin, and the industrious little wren
+      were all to be seen enlivening the fields with their presence and their
+      songs; while the soaring fish-hawk was already hovering over the waters of
+      the Otsego, watching with native voracity for the appearance of his prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tenants of the lake were far-famed for both their quantities and their
+      quality, and the ice had hardly disappeared before numberless little boats
+      were launched from the shores, and the lines of the fishermen were dropped
+      into the inmost recesses of its deepest caverns, tempting the unwary
+      animals with every variety of bait that the ingenuity or the art of man
+      had invented. But the slow though certain adventures with hook and line
+      were ill suited to the profusion and impatience of the settlers. More
+      destructive means were resorted to; and, as the season had now arrived
+      when the bass fisheries were allowed by the provisions of the law that
+      Judge Temple had procured, the sheriff declared his intention, by availing
+      himself of the first dark night, to enjoy the sport in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you shall be present, Cousin Bess,&rdquo; he added, when he announced this
+      design, &ldquo;and Miss Grant, and Mr. Edwards; and I will show you what I call
+      fishing not nibble, nibble, nibble, as 'Duke does when he goes after the
+      salmon-trout. There he will sit for hours, in a broiling sun or, perhaps,
+      over a hole in the lee, in the coldest days in winter, under the lee of a
+      few bushes, and not a fish will he catch, after all this mortification of
+      the flesh. No, no&mdash;give me a good seine that's fifty or sixty fathoms
+      in length, with a jolly parcel of boatmen to crack their jokes the while,
+      with Benjamin to steer, and let us haul them in by thousands; I call that
+      fishing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Dickon,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, &ldquo;thou knowest but little of the pleasure
+      there is in playing with the hook and line, or thou wouldst be more saving
+      of the game. I have known thee to leave fragments enough behind thee, when
+      thou hast headed a night party on the lake, to feed a dozen famishing
+      families.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not dispute the matter, Judge Temple; this night will I go; and I
+      invite the company to attend, and then let them decide between us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard was busy during most of the afternoon, making his preparations for
+      the important occasion. Just as the light of the settling sun had
+      disappeared, and a new moon had begun to throw its shadows on the earth,
+      the fisher-men took their departure, in a boat, for a point that was
+      situated on the western shore of the lake, at the distance of rather more
+      than half a mile from the village. The ground had become settled, and the
+      walking was good and dry. Marmaduke, with his daughter, her friend, and
+      young Edwards, continued on the high grassy banks at the outlet of the
+      placid sheet of water, watching the dark object that was moving across the
+      lake, until it entered the shade of the western hills, and was lost to the
+      eye. The distance round by land to the point of destination was a mile,
+      and he observed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is time for us to be moving; the moon will be down ere we reach the
+      point, and then the miraculous hauls of Dickon will commence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening was warm, and, after the long and dreary winter from which
+      they had just escaped, delightfully invigorating. Inspirited by the scene
+      and their anticipated amusement, the youthful companions of the Judge
+      followed his steps, as he led them along the shores of the Otsego, and
+      through the skirts of the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; said young Edwards, &ldquo;they are building their fire already; it
+      glimmers for a moment, and dies again like the light of a firefly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now it blazes,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;you can perceive figures moving around
+      the light. Oh! I would bet my jewels against the gold beads of Remarkable,
+      that my impatient Cousin Dickon had an agency in raising that bright
+      flame; and see! it fades again, like most of his brilliant schemes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast guessed the truth, Bess,&rdquo; said her father; &ldquo;he has thrown an
+      armful of brush on the pile, which has burnt out as soon as lighted. But
+      it has enabled them to find a better fuel, for their fire begins to blaze
+      with a more steady flame. It is the true fisherman's beacon now; observe
+      how beautifully it throw s its little circle of light on the water!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of the fire urged the pedestrians on, for even the ladies
+      had become eager to witness the miraculous draught. By the time they
+      reached the bank, which rose above the low point where the fishermen had
+      landed, the moon had sunk behind the top of the western pines, and, as
+      most of the stars were obscured by clouds, there was but little other
+      light than that which proceeded from the fire. At the suggestion of
+      Marmaduke, his companions paused to listen to the conversation of those
+      below them, and examine the party for a moment before they descended to
+      the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole group were seated around the fire, with the exception of Richard
+      and Benjamin; the former of whom occupied the root of a decayed stump,
+      that had been drawn to the spot as part of their fuel, and the latter was
+      standing, with his arms akimbo, so near to the flame that the smoke
+      occasionally obscured his solemn visage, as it waved around the pile in
+      obedience to the night airs that swept gently over the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, look you, squire, said the major-domo. You may call a lake-fish that
+      will weigh twenty or thirty pounds a serious matter, but to a man who has
+      hauled in a shovel-nosed shirk, d'ye see, it's but a poor kind of fishing
+      after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, Benjamin,&rdquo; returned the sheriff; &ldquo;a haul of one thousand
+      Otsego bass, without counting pike, pickerel, perch, bull-pouts,
+      salmon-trouts, and suckers, is no bad fishing, let me tell you. There may
+      he sport in sticking a shark, but what is he good for after you have got
+      him? Now, any one of the fish that I have named is fit to set before a
+      king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, squire,&rdquo; returned Benjamin, &ldquo;just listen to the philosophy of the
+      thing. Would it stand to reason, that such a fish should live and be
+      catched in this here little pond of water, where it's hardly deep enough
+      to drown a man, as you'll find in the wide ocean, where, as every body
+      knows that is, everybody that has followed the seas, whales and grampuses
+      are to be seen, that are as long as one of the pine-trees on yonder
+      mountain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Softly, softly, Benjamin,&rdquo; said the sheriff, as if he wished to save the
+      credit of his favorite; &ldquo;why, some of the pines will measure two hundred
+      feet, and even more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two hundred or two thousand, it's all the same thing,&rdquo; cried Benjamin,
+      with an air which manifested that he was not easily to be bullied out of
+      his opinion, on a subject like the present. &ldquo;Haven't I been there, and
+      haven't I seen? I have said that you fall in with whales as long as one of
+      them there pines: and what I have once said I'll stand to!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this dialogue, which was evidently but the close of much longer
+      discussion, the huge frame of Billy Kirby was seen extended on one side of
+      the fire, where he was picking his teeth with splinters of the chips near
+      him, and occasionally shaking his head with distrust of Benjamin's
+      assertions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've a notion,&rdquo; said the wood-chopper, &ldquo;that there's water in this lake
+      to swim the biggest whale that ever was invented; and, as to the pines, I
+      think I ought to know so'thing consarning them; I have chopped many a one
+      that was sixty times the length of my helve, without counting the eye; and
+      I believe, Benny, that if the old pine that stands in the hollow of the
+      Vision Mountain just over the village&mdash;you may see the tree itself by
+      looking up, for the moon is on its top yet&mdash;well, now I believe, if
+      that same tree was planted out in the deepest part of the lake, there
+      would be water enough for the biggest ship that ever was built to float
+      over it, without touching its upper branches, I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did'ee ever see a ship, Master Kirby?&rdquo; roared the steward, &ldquo;did'ee ever
+      see a ship, man? or any craft bigger than a lime-scow, or a wood-boat, on
+      this here small bit of fresh water?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have,&rdquo; said the wood-chopper stoutly; &ldquo;I can say that I have, and
+      tell no lie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did'ee ever see a British ship, Master Kirby? an English line-of-battle
+      ship, boy? Where did'ee ever fall in with a regular built vessel, with
+      starn-post and cutwater, gar board-streak and plank-shear, gangways, and
+      hatchways, and waterways, quarter-deck, and forecastle, ay, and
+      flush-deck?&mdash;tell me that, man, if you can; where away did'ee ever
+      fall in with a full-rigged, regular-built, necked vessel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole company were a good deal astounded with this overwhelming
+      question, and even Richard afterward remarked that it &ldquo;was a thousand
+      pities that Benjamin could not read, or he must have made a valuable
+      officer to the British marine. It is no wonder that they overcame the
+      French so easily on the water, when even the lowest sailor so well
+      understood the different parts of a vessel.&rdquo; But Billy Kirby was a
+      fearless wight, and had great jealousy of foreign dictation; he had risen
+      on his feet, and turned his back to the fire, during the voluble delivery
+      of this interrogatory; and when the steward ended, contrary to all
+      expectation, he gave the following spirited reply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where! why, on the North River, and maybe on Champlain. There's sloops on
+      the river, boy, that would give a hard time on't to the stoutest vessel
+      King George owns. They carry masts of ninety feet in the clear of good
+      solid pine, for I've been at the chopping of many a one in Varmount State.
+      I wish I was captain in one of them, and you was in that Board-dish that
+      you talk so much about, and we'd soon see what good Yankee stuff is made
+      on, and whether a Varmounter's hide ain't as thick as an Englishman's.&rdquo;
+       The echoes from the opposite hills, which were more than half a mile from
+      the fishing point, sent back the discordant laugh that Benjamin gave forth
+      at this challenge; and the woods that covered their sides seemed, by the
+      noise that issued from their shades, to be full of mocking demons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us descend to the shore,&rdquo; whispered Marmaduke, &ldquo;or there will soon be
+      ill-blood between them. Benjamin is a fearless boaster; and Kirby, though
+      good-natured, is a careless son of the forest, who thinks one American
+      more than a match for six Englishmen. I marvel that Dickon is silent,
+      where there is such a trial of skill in the superlative!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The appearance of Judge Temple and the ladies produced, if not a
+      pacification, at least a cessation of hostilities. Obedient to the
+      directions of Mr. Jones the fishermen prepared to launch their boat, which
+      had been seen in the background of the view, with the net carefully
+      disposed on a little platform in its stern, ready for service. Richard
+      gave vent to his reproaches at the tardiness of the pedestrians, when all
+      the turbulent passions of the party were succeeded by a calm, as mild and
+      as placid as that which prevailed over the beautiful sheet of water that
+      they were about to rifle of its best treasures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had now become so dark as to render objects, without the reach
+      of the light of the fire, not only indistinct, but in most cases
+      invisible. For a little distance the water was discernible, glistening, as
+      the glare from the fire danced over its surface, touching it here and
+      there with red quivering streaks; but, at a hundred feet from the shore,
+      there lay a boundary of impenetrable gloom. One or two stars were shining
+      through the openings of the clouds, and the lights were seen in the
+      village, glimmering faintly, as if at an immeasurable distance. At times,
+      as the fire lowered, or as the horizon cleared, the outline of the
+      mountain, on the other side of the lake, might be traced by its
+      undulations; but its shadow was cast, wide and dense, on the bosom of the
+      water, rendering the darkness in that direction trebly deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin Pump was invariably the coxswain and net caster of Richard's
+      boat, unless the sheriff saw fit to preside in person: and, on the present
+      occasion, Billy Kirby, and a youth of about half his strength, were
+      assigned to the oars. The remainder of the assistants were stationed at
+      the drag-ropes. The arrangements were speedily made, and Richard gave the
+      signal to &ldquo;shove off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth watched the motion of the batteau as it pulled from the shore,
+      letting loose its rope as it went, but it soon disappeared in the
+      darkness, when the ear was her only guide to its evolutions. There was
+      great affectation of stillness during all these manoeuvers, in order, as
+      Richard assured them, &ldquo;not to frighten the bass, who were running into the
+      shoal waters, and who would approach the light if not disturbed by the
+      sounds from the fishermen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hoarse voice of Benjamin was alone heard issuing out of the gloom, as
+      he uttered, in authoritative tones, &ldquo;Pull larboard oar,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pull starboard,&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Give way together, boys,&rdquo; and such other indicative mandates as were
+      necessary for the right disposition of his seine. A long time was passed
+      in this necessary part of the process, for Benjamin prided himself greatly
+      on his skill in throwing the net, and, in fact, most of the success of the
+      sport depended on its being done with judgment. At length a loud splash in
+      the water, as he threw away the &ldquo;staff,&rdquo; or &ldquo;stretcher,&rdquo; with a hoarse
+      call from the steward of &ldquo;Clear,&rdquo; announced that the boat was returning;
+      when Richard seized a brand from the fire, and ran to a point as far above
+      the centre of the fishing-ground, as the one from which the batteau had
+      started was below it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stick her in dead for the squire, boys,&rdquo; said the steward, &ldquo;and we'll
+      have a look at what grows in this here pond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In place of the falling net were now to be heard the quick strokes of the
+      oars, and the noise of the rope running out of the boat. Presently the
+      batteau shot into the circle of light, and in an instant she was pulled to
+      the shore. Several eager hands were extended to receive the line, and,
+      both ropes being equally well manned, the fishermen commenced hauling in
+      with slow, and steady drags, Richard standing to the centre, giving
+      orders, first to one party, and then to the other, to increase or slacken
+      their efforts, as occasion required. The visitors were posted near him,
+      and enjoyed a fair view of the whole operation, which was slowly advancing
+      to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opinions as to the result of their adventure were now freely hazarded by
+      all the men, some declaring that the net came in as light as a feather,
+      and others affirming that it seemed to be full of logs. As the ropes were
+      many hundred feet in length, these opposing sentiments were thought to be
+      of little moment by the sheriff, who would go first to one line, and then
+      to the other, giving each small pull, in order to enable him to form an
+      opinion for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Benjamin,&rdquo; he cried, as he made his first effort in this way, &ldquo;you
+      did not throw the net clear. I can move it with my little finger. The rope
+      slackens in my hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever see a whale, squire?&rdquo; responded the steward: &ldquo;I say that, if
+      that there net is foul, the devil is in the lake in the shape of a fish,
+      for I cast it as far as ever rigging was rove over the quarter-deck of a
+      flag-ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Richard discovered his mistake, when he saw Billy Kirby before him,
+      standing with his feet in the water, at an angle of forty-five degrees,
+      inclining southward, and expending his gigantic strength in sustaining
+      himself in that posture. He ceased his remonstrances, and proceeded to the
+      party at the other line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see the 'staffs,'&rdquo; shouted Mr. Jones&mdash;&ldquo;gather in boys, and away
+      with it; to shore with her!&mdash;to shore with her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this cheerful sound, Elizabeth strained her eyes and saw the ends of
+      the two sticks on the seine emerging from the darkness, while the men
+      closed near to each other, and formed a deep bag of their net. The
+      exertions of the fishermen sensibly increased, and the voice of Richard
+      was heard encouraging them to make their greatest efforts at the present
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now's the time, my lads,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;let us get the ends to land, and all
+      we have will be our own&mdash;away with her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away with her, it is,&rdquo; echoed Benjamin!&mdash;&ldquo;hurrah! ho-a-hay,
+      ho-a-hoy, ho-a!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In with her,&rdquo; shouted Kirby, exerting himself in a manner that left
+      nothing for those in his rear to do, but to gather up the slack of the
+      rope which passed through his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Staff, ho!&rdquo; shouted the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Staff, ho!&rdquo; echoed Kirby, from the other rope. The men rushed to the
+      water's edge, some seizing the upper rope, and some the lower or lead
+      rope, and began to haul with great activity and zeal, A deep semicircular
+      sweep of the little balls that supported the seine in its perpendicular
+      position was plainly visible to the spectators, and, as it rapidly
+      lessened in size, the bag of the net appeared, while an occasional flutter
+      on the water announced the uneasiness of the prisoners it contained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haul in, my lads,&rdquo; shouted Richard&mdash;&ldquo;I can see the dogs kicking to
+      get free. Haul in, and here's a cast that will pay for the labor.&rdquo; Fishes
+      of various sorts were now to be seen, entangled in the meshes of the net,
+      as it was passed through the hands of the laborers; and the water, at a
+      little distance from the shore, was alive with the movements of the
+      alarmed victims. Hundreds of white sides were glancing up to the surface
+      of the water, and glistening in the fire light, when, frightened at the
+      uproar and the change, the fish would again dart to the bottom, in
+      fruitless efforts for freedom. &ldquo;Hurrah!&rdquo; shouted Richard: &ldquo;one or two more
+      heavy drags, boys, and we are safe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheerily, boys, cheerily!&rdquo; cried Benjamin; &ldquo;I see a salmon-trout that is
+      big enough for a chowder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away with you, you varmint!&rdquo; said Billy Kirby, plucking a bullpout from
+      the meshes, and casting the animal back into the lake with contempt.
+      &ldquo;Pull, boys, pull; here's all kinds, and the Lord condemn me for a liar,
+      if there ain't a thousand bass!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Inflamed beyond the bounds of discretion at the sight, and forgetful of
+      the season, the wood-chopper rushed to his middle into the water, and
+      began to drive the reluctant animals before him from their native element.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull heartily, boys,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, yielding to the excitement of the
+      moment, and laying his hands to the net, with no trifling addition to the
+      force. Edwards had preceded him; for the sight of the immense piles of
+      fish, that were slowly rolling over on the gravelly beach, had impelled
+      him also to leave the ladies and join the fishermen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great care was observed in bringing the net to land, and, after much toil,
+      the whole shoal of victims was safely deposited in a hollow of the bank,
+      where they were left to flutter away their brief existence in the new and
+      fatal element.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Elizabeth and Louisa were greatly excited and highly gratified by
+      seeing two thousand captives thus drawn from the bosom of the lake, and
+      laid prisoners at their feet. But when the feelings of the moment were
+      passing away, Marmaduke took in his hands a bass, that might have weighed
+      two pounds, and after viewing it a moment, in melancholy musing, he turned
+      to his daughter, and observed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a fearful expenditure of the choicest gifts of Providence. These
+      fish, Bess, which thou seest lying in such piles before thee, and which by
+      to-morrow evening will be rejected food on the meanest table in Templeton,
+      are of a quality and flavor that, in other countries, would make them
+      esteemed a luxury on the tables of princes or epicures. The world has no
+      better fish than the bass of Otsego; it unites the richness of the shad*
+      to the firmness of the salmon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Of all the fish the writer has ever tasted, he thinks the one in
+    question the best.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely, dear sir,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, &ldquo;they must prove a great blessing
+      to the country, and a powerful friend to the poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor are always prodigal, my child, where there is plenty, and seldom
+      think of a provision against the morrow. But, if there can be any excuse
+      for destroying animals in this manner, it is in taking the bass. During
+      the winter, you know, they are entirely protected from our assaults by the
+      ice, for they refuse the hook; and during the hot months they are not
+      seen. It is supposed they retreat to the deep and cool waters of the lake,
+      at that season; and it is only in the spring and autumn that, for a few
+      days, they are to be found around the points where they are within the
+      reach of a seine. But, like all the other treasures of the wilderness,
+      they already begin to disappear before the wasteful extravagance of man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disappear, Duke! disappear!&rdquo; exclaimed the sheriff &ldquo;if you don't call
+      this appearing, I know not what you will. Here are a good thousand of the
+      shiners, some hundreds of suckers, and a powerful quantity of other fry.
+      But this is always the way with you, Marmaduke: first it's the trees, then
+      it's the deer; after that it's the maple sugar, and so on to the end of
+      the chapter. One day you talk of canals through a country where there's a
+      river or a lake every half-mile, just because the water won't run the way
+      you wish it to go; and, the next, you say some thing about mines of coal,
+      though any man who has good eyes like myself&mdash;I say, with good eyes&mdash;can
+      see more wood than would keep the city of London in fuel for fifty years;
+      wouldn't it, Benjamin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, for that, squire,&rdquo; said the steward, &ldquo;Lon'on is no small place. If
+      it was stretched an end, all the same as a town on one side of the river,
+      it would cover some such matter as this here lake. Thof I dar'st to say,
+      that the wood in sight might sarve them a good turn, seeing that the
+      Lon'oners mainly burn coal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we are on the subject of coal, Judge Temple,&rdquo; interrupted the
+      sheriff, &ldquo;I have a thing of much importance to communicate to you; but I
+      will defer it&mdash;until tomorrow. I know that you intend riding into the
+      eastern part of the Patent, and I will accompany you, and conduct you to a
+      spot where some of your projects may be realized. We will say no more now,
+      for there are listeners; but a secret has this evening been revealed to
+      me, 'Duke, that is of more consequence to your welfare than all your
+      estate united.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke laughed at the important intelligence, to which in a variety of
+      shapes he was accustomed, and the sheriff, with an air of great dignity,
+      as if pitying his want of faith, proceeded in the business more
+      immediately Before them. As the labor of drawing the net had been very
+      great, he directed one party of his men to commence throwing the fish into
+      piles, preparatory to the usual division, while another, under the
+      superintendence of Benjamin, prepared the seine for a second haul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;While from its margin, terrible to tell,
+     Three sailors with their gallant boatswain fell.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Falconer.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While the fishermen were employed in making the preparations for an
+      equitable division of the spoil, Elizabeth and her friend strolled a short
+      distance from the group, along the shore of the lake. After reaching a
+      point to which even the brightest of the occasional gleams of the fire did
+      not extend, they turned, and paused a moment, in contemplation of the busy
+      and lively party they had left, and of the obscurity which, like the gloom
+      of oblivion, seemed to envelop the rest of the creation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is indeed a subject for the pencil!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth. &ldquo;Observe
+      the countenance of that woodchopper, while he exults in presenting a
+      larger fish than common to my cousin sheriff; and see, Louisa, how hand
+      some and considerate my dear father looks, by the light of that fire,
+      where he stands viewing the havoc of the game. He seems melancholy, as if
+      he actually thought that a day of retribution was to follow this hour of
+      abundance and prodigality! Would they not make a picture, Louisa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that I am ignorant of all such accomplishments, Miss Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call me by my Christian name,&rdquo; interrupted Elizabeth; &ldquo;this is not a
+      place, neither is this a scene, for forms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if I may venture an opinion,&rdquo; said Louisa timidly, &ldquo;I should
+      think it might indeed make a picture. The selfish earnestness of that
+      Kirby over his fish would contrast finely with the&mdash;the&mdash;expression
+      of Mr. Edwards' face. I hardly know what to call it; but it is&mdash;a&mdash;is&mdash;you
+      know what I would say, dear Elizabeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do me too much credit, Miss Grant,&rdquo; said the heiress; &ldquo;I am no
+      diviner of thoughts, or interpreter of expressions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was certainly nothing harsh or even cold in the manner of the
+      speaker, but still it repressed the conversation, and they continued to
+      stroll still farther from the party, retaining each other's arm, but
+      observing a profound silence. Elizabeth, perhaps conscious of the
+      improper phraseology of her last speech, or perhaps excited by the new
+      object that met her gaze, was the first to break the awkward cessation in
+      the discourse, by exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, Louisa! we are not alone; there are fishermen lighting a fire on
+      the other side of the lake, immediately opposite to us; it must be in
+      front of the cabin of Leather-Stocking!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the obscurity, which prevailed most immediately under the eastern
+      mountain, a small and uncertain light was plainly to be seen, though, as
+      it was occasionally lost to the eye, it seemed struggling for existence.
+      They observed it to move, and sensibly to lower, as it carried down the
+      descent of the bank to the shore. Here, in a very short time, its flame
+      gradually expanded, and grew brighter, until it became of the size of a
+      man's head, when it continued to shine a steady ball of fire. Such an
+      object, lighted as it were by magic, under the brow of the mountain, and
+      in that retired and unfrequented place, gave double interest to the beauty
+      and singularity of its appearance. It did not at all resemble the large
+      and unsteady light of their own fire, being much more clear and bright,
+      and retaining its size and shape with perfect uniformity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are moments when the best-regulated minds are more or less subjected
+      to the injurious impressions which few have escaped in infancy; and
+      Elizabeth smiled at her own weakness, while she remembered the idle tales
+      which were circulated through the village, at the expense of the
+      Leather-Stocking. The same ideas seized her companion, and at the same
+      instant, for Louisa pressed nearer to her friend, as she said in a low
+      voice, stealing a timid glance toward the bushes and trees that overhung
+      the bank near them:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever hear the singular ways of this Natty spoken of, Miss Temple?
+      They say that, in his youth, he was an Indian warrior; or, what is the
+      same thing, a white man leagued with the savages; and it is thought he has
+      been concerned in many of their inroads, in the old wars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The thing is not at all improbable,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth; &ldquo;he is not alone
+      in that particular.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, surely; but is it not strange that he is so cautious with his hut? He
+      never leaves it, without fastening it in a remarkable manner; and in
+      several instances, when the children, or even the men of the village, have
+      wished to seek a shelter there from the storms, he has been known to drive
+      them from his door with rudeness and threats. That surely is singular to
+      this country!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is certainly not very hospitable; but we must remember his aversion to
+      the customs of civilized life. You heard my father say, a few days since,
+      how kindly he was treated by him on his first visit to his place.&rdquo;
+       Elizabeth paused, and smiled, with an expression of peculiar archness,
+      though the darkness hid its meaning from her companion, as she continued:
+      &ldquo;Besides, he certainly admits the visits of Mr. Edwards, whom we both know
+      to be far from a savage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this speech Louisa made no reply, but continued gazing on the object
+      which had elicited her remarks. In addition to the bright and circular
+      flame, was now to be seen a fainter, though a vivid light, of an equal
+      diameter to the other at the upper end, but which, after extending
+      downward for many feet, gradually tapered to a point at its lower
+      extremity. A dark space was plainly visible between the two, and the new
+      illumination was placed beneath the other, the whole forming an appearance
+      not unlike an inverted note of admiration. It was soon evident that the
+      latter was nothing but the reflection, from the water, of the former, and
+      that the object, whatever it might be, was advancing across, or rather
+      over the lake, for it seemed to be several feet above its surface, in a
+      direct line with themselves. Its motion was amazingly rapid, the ladies
+      having hardly discovered that it was moving at all, before the waving
+      light of a flame was discerned, losing its regular shape, while it
+      increased in size, as it approached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears to be supernatural!&rdquo; whispered Louisa, beginning to retrace
+      her steps toward the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is beautiful!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A brilliant though waving flame was now plainly visible, gracefully
+      gliding over the lake, and throwing its light on the water in such a
+      manner as to tinge it slightly though in the air, so strong was the
+      contrast, the darkness seemed to have the distinctness of material
+      substances, as if the fire were imbedded in a setting of ebony. This
+      appearance, however, gradually wore off, and the rays from the torch
+      struck out, and enlightened the atmosphere in front of it, leaving the
+      background in a darkness that was more impenetrable than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho! Natty, is that you?&rdquo; shouted the sheriff. &ldquo;Paddle in, old boy, and
+      I'll give you a mess of fish that is fit to place before the governor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The light suddenly changed its direction, and a long and slightly built
+      boat hove up out of the gloom, while the red glare fell on the
+      weather-beaten features of the Leather-Stocking, whose tall person was
+      seen erect in the frail vessel, wielding, with the grace of an experienced
+      boatman, a long fishing-spear, which he held by its centre, first dropping
+      one end and then the other into the water, to aid in propelling the little
+      canoe of bark, we will not say through, but over, the water. At the
+      farther end of the vessel a form was faintly seen, guiding its motions,
+      and using a paddle with the ease of one who felt there was no necessity
+      for exertion. The Leather-Stocking struck his spear lightly against the
+      short staff which up held, on a rude grating framed of old hoops of iron,
+      the knots of pine that composed the fuel, and the light, which glared
+      high, for an instant fell on the swarthy features and dark, glancing eyes
+      of Mohegan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat glided along the shore until it arrived opposite the
+      fishing-ground, when it again changed its direction and moved on to the
+      land, with a motion so graceful, and yet so rapid, that it seemed to
+      possess the power of regulating its own progress. The water in front of
+      the canoe was hardly ruffled by its passage and no sound betrayed the
+      collision, when the light fabric shot on the gravelly beach for nearly
+      half its length, Natty receding a step or two from its bow, in order to
+      facilitate the landing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Approach, Mohegan,&rdquo; said Marmaduke; &ldquo;approach, Leather-Stocking, and load
+      your canoe with bass. It would be a shame to assail the animals with the
+      spear, when such multitudes of victims lie here, that will be lost as food
+      for the want of mouths to consume them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Judge,&rdquo; returned Natty, his tall figure stalking over the narrow
+      beach, and ascending to the little grassy bottom where the fish were laid
+      in piles; &ldquo;I eat of no man's wasty ways. I strike my spear into the eels
+      or the trout, when I crave the creatur'; but I wouldn't be helping to such
+      a sinful kind of fishing for the best rifle that was ever brought out from
+      the old countries. If they had fur, like the beaver, or you could tan
+      their hides, like a buck, something might be said in favor of taking them
+      by the thousand with your nets; but as God made them for man's food, and
+      for no other disarnable reason, I call it sinful and wasty to catch more
+      than can be eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your reasoning is mine; for once, old hunter, we agree in opinion; and I
+      heartily wish we could make a convert of the sheriff. A net of half the
+      size of this would supply the whole village with fish for a week at one
+      haul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leather-Stocking did not relish this alliance in sentiment; and he
+      shook his head doubtingly as he answered;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; we are not much of one mind, Judge, or you'd never turn good
+      hunting-grounds into stumpy pastures. And you fish and hunt out of rule;
+      but, to me, the flesh is sweeter where the creatur' has some chance for
+      its life; for that reason, I always use a single ball, even if it be at a
+      bird or a squirrel. Besides, it saves lead; for, when a body knows how to
+      shoot, one piece of lead is enough for all, except hard-lived animals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff heard these opinions with great indignation; and when he
+      completed the last arrangement for the division, by carrying with his own
+      hands a trout of a large size, and placing it on four different piles in
+      succession, as his vacillating ideas of justice required, gave vent to his
+      spleen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very pretty confederacy, indeed! Judge Temple, the landlord and owner
+      of a township, with Nathaniel Bumppo a lawless squatter, and professed
+      deer-killer, in order to preserve the game of the county! But, 'Duke, when
+      I fish I fish; so, away, boys, for another haul, and we'll send out wagons
+      and carts in the morning to bring in our prizes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke appeared to understand that all opposition to the will of the
+      sheriff would be useless, and he strolled from the fire to the place where
+      the canoe of the hunters lay, whither the ladies and Oliver Edwards had
+      already preceded him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Curiosity induced the females to approach this spot; but it was a
+      different motive that led the youth thither. Elizabeth examined the light
+      ashen timbers and thin bark covering of the canoe, in admiration of its
+      neat but simple execution, and with wonder that any human being could be
+      so daring as to trust his life in so frail a vessel. But the youth
+      explained to her the buoyant properties of the boat, and its perfect
+      safety when under proper management; adding, in such glowing terms, a
+      description of the manner in which the fish were struck with the spear,
+      that she changed suddenly, from an apprehension of the danger of the
+      excursion, to a desire to participate in its pleasures. She even ventured
+      a proposition to that effect to her father, laughing at the same time at
+      her own wish, and accusing herself of acting under a woman's caprice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not so, Bess,&rdquo; returned the Judge; &ldquo;I would have you above the idle
+      fears of a silly girl. These canoes are the safest kind of boats to those
+      who have skill and steady nerves. I have crossed the broadest part of the
+      Oneida in one much smaller than this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I the Ontary,&rdquo; interrupted the Leather-Stocking; &ldquo;and that with
+      squaws in the canoe, too. But the Delaware women are used to the paddle,
+      and are good hands in a boat of this natur', If the young lady would like
+      to see an old man strike a trout for his breakfast, she is welcome to a
+      seat. John will say the same, seeing that he built the canoe, which was
+      only launched yesterday; for I'm not over-curious at such small work as
+      brooms, and basket-making, and other like Indian trades.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty gave Elizabeth one of his significant laughs, with a kind nod of the
+      head, when he concluded his invitation but Mohegan, with the native grace
+      of an Indian, approached, and taking her soft white hand into his own
+      swarthy and wrinkled palm, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, granddaughter of Miquon, and John will be glad. Trust the Indian;
+      his head is old, though his hand is not steady. The Young Eagle will go,
+      and see that no harm hurts his sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, blushing slightly, &ldquo;your friend Mohegan has
+      given a promise for you. Do you redeem the pledge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With my life, if necessary, Miss Temple,&rdquo; cried the youth, with fervor.
+      &ldquo;The sight is worth some little apprehension; for of real danger there is
+      none, I will go with you and Miss Grand, however, to save appearances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With me!&rdquo; exclaimed Louisa. &ldquo;No, not with me, Mr. Edwards; nor, surely,
+      do you mean to trust yourself in that slight canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I shall; for I have no apprehensions any longer,&rdquo; said Elizabeth,
+      stepping into the boat, and taking a seat where the Indian directed. &ldquo;Mr.
+      Edwards, you may remain, as three do seem to be enough for such an egg
+      shell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall hold a fourth,&rdquo; cried the young man, springing to her side, with
+      a violence that nearly shook the weak fabric of the vessel asunder.
+      &ldquo;Pardon me, Miss Temple, that I do not permit these venerable Charons to
+      take you to the shades unattended by your genius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it a good or evil spirit?&rdquo; asked Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And mine,&rdquo; added the maiden, with an air that strangely blended pique
+      with satisfaction. But the motion of the canoe gave rise to new ideas, and
+      fortunately afforded a good excuse to the young man to change the
+      discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appeared to Elizabeth that they glided over the water by magic, so easy
+      and graceful was the manner in which Mohegan guided his little bark. A
+      slight gesture with his spear indicated the way in which Leather-Stocking
+      wished to go, and a profound silence was preserved by the whole party, as
+      the precaution necessary to the success of their fishery. At that point of
+      the lake the water shoaled regularly differing in this particular
+      altogether from those parts where the mountains rose nearly in
+      perpendicular precipices from the beach. There the largest vessels could
+      have lain, with their yards interlocked with the pines; while here a
+      scanty growth of rushes lifted their tops above the lake, gently curling
+      the waters, as their bending heads waved with the passing breath of the
+      night air. It was at the shallow points only that the bass could be found,
+      or the net cast with success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth saw thousands of these fish swimming in shoals along the shallow
+      and warm waters of the shore; for the flaring light of their torch laid
+      bare the mysteries of the lake, as plainly as if the limpid sheet of the
+      Otsego was but another atmosphere. Every instant she expected to see the
+      impending spear of Leather-Stocking darting into the thronging hosts that
+      were rushing beneath her, where it would seem that a blow could not go
+      amiss; and where, as her father had already said, the prize that would be
+      obtained was worthy any epicure. But Natty had his peculiar habits, and,
+      it would seem, his peculiar tastes also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His tall stature, and his erect posture, enabled him to see much farther
+      than those who were seated in the bottom of the canoe; and he turned his
+      head warily in every direction, frequently bending his body forward, and
+      straining his vision, as if desirous of penetrating the water that
+      surrounded their boundary of light. At length his anxious scrutiny was
+      rewarded with success, and, waving his spear from the shore, he said in a
+      cautious tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send her outside the bass, John; I see a laker there, that has run out of
+      the school. It's seldom one finds such a creatur' in shallow water, where
+      a spear can touch it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan gave a wave of assent with his hand, and in the next instant the
+      canoe was without the &ldquo;run of the bass,&rdquo; and in water nearly twenty feet
+      in depth. A few additional knots were laid on the grating, and the light
+      penetrated to the bottom, Elizabeth then saw a fish of unusual size
+      floating above small pieces of logs and sticks. The animal was only
+      distinguishable, at that distance, by a slight but almost imperceptible
+      motion of its fins and tail. The curiosity excited by this unusual
+      exposure of the secrets of the lake seemed to be mutual between the
+      heiress of the land and the lord of these waters, for the &ldquo;salmon-trout&rdquo;
+       soon announced his interest by raising his head and body for a few degrees
+      above a horizontal line, and then dropping them again into a horizontal
+      position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whist! whist!&rdquo; said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made
+      by Elizabeth in bending over the side of the canoe in curiosity; &ldquo;'tis a
+      skeary animal, and it's a far stroke for a spear. My handle is but
+      fourteen foot, and the creator' lies a good eighteen from the top of the
+      water: but I'll try him, for he's a ten&mdash;pounder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While speaking, the Leather-Stocking was poising and directing his weapon.
+      Elizabeth saw the bright, polished tines, as they slowly and silently
+      entered the water, where the refraction pointed them many degrees from the
+      true direction of the fish; and she thought that the intended victim saw
+      them also, as he seemed to increase the play of his tail and fins, though
+      without moving his station. At the next instant the tall body of Natty
+      bent to the water's edge, and the handle of his spear disappeared in the
+      lake. The long, dark streak of the gliding weapon, and the little bubbling
+      vortex which followed its rapid flight, were easily to be seen: but it was
+      not until the handle snot again into the air by its own reaction, and its
+      master catching it in his hand, threw its tines uppermost, that Elizabeth
+      was acquainted with the success of the blow. A fish of great size was
+      transfixed by the barbed steel, and was very soon shaken from its impaled
+      situation into the bottom of the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do, John,&rdquo; said Natty, raising his prize by one of his fingers,
+      and exhibiting it before the torch; &ldquo;I shall not strike another blow
+      to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian again waved his hand, and replied with the simple and energetic
+      monosyllable of:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth was awakened from the trance created by this scene, and by
+      gazing in that unusual manner at the bot tom of the lake, be the hoarse
+      sounds of Benjamin's voice, and the dashing of oars, as the heavier boat
+      of the seine-drawers approached the spot where the canoe lay, dragging
+      after it the folds of the net.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haul off, haul off, Master Bumppo,&rdquo; cried Benjamin, &ldquo;your top-light
+      frightens the fish, who see the net and sheer off soundings. A fish knows
+      as much as a horse, or, for that matter, more, seeing that it's brought up
+      on the water. Haul oil, Master Bumppo, haul off, I say, and give a wide
+      berth to the seine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan guided their little canoe to a point where the movements of the
+      fishermen could be observed, without interruption to the business, and
+      then suffered it to lie quietly on the water, looking like an imaginary
+      vessel floating in air. There appeared to be much ill-humor among the
+      party in the batteau, for the directions of Benjamin were not only
+      frequent, but issued in a voice that partook largely of dissatisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull larboard oar, will ye, Master Kirby?&rdquo; cried the old seaman; &ldquo;pull
+      larboard best. It would puzzle the oldest admiral in their British fleet
+      to cast this here net fair, with a wake like a corkscrew. Full starboard,
+      boy, pull starboard oar, with a will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harkee, Mister Pump,&rdquo; said Kirby, ceasing to row, and speaking with sonic
+      spirit; &ldquo;I'm a man that likes civil language and decent treatment, such as
+      is right 'twixt man and man. If you want us to go hoy, say so, and hoy
+      I'll go, for the benefit of the company; but I'm not used to being ordered
+      about like dumb cattle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's dumb cattle?&rdquo; echoed Benjamin, fiercely, turning his forbidding
+      face to the glare of light from the canoe, and exhibiting every feature
+      teeming with the expression of disgust. &ldquo;If you want to come aft and con
+      the boat round, come and be damned, and pretty steerage you'll make of it.
+      There's but another heave of the net in the stern-sheets, and we're clear
+      of the thing. Give way, will ye? and shoot her ahead for a fathom or two,
+      and if you catch me afloat again with such a horse-marine as yourself,
+      why, rate me a ship's jackass, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably encouraged by the prospect of a speedy termination to his labor,
+      the wood-chopper resumed his oar, and, under strong excitement, gave a
+      stroke that not only cleared the boat of the net but of the steward at the
+      same instant. Benjamin had stood on the little platform that held the
+      seine, in the stern of the boat, and the violent whirl occasioned by the
+      vigor of the wood-chopper's arm completely destroyed his balance. The
+      position of the lights rendered objects in the batteau distinguishable,
+      both from the canoe and the shore; and the heavy fall on the water drew
+      all eyes to the steward, as he lay struggling, for a moment, in sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A loud burst of merriment, to which the lungs of Kirby contributed no
+      small part, broke out like a chorus of laughter, and ran along the eastern
+      mountain, in echoes, until it died away in distant, mocking mirth, among
+      the rocks and woods. The body of the steward was seen slowly to disappear,
+      as was expected; but when the light waves, which had been raised by his
+      fall, began to sink in calmness, and the water finally closed over his
+      head, unbroken and still, a very different feeling pervaded the
+      spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How fare you, Benjamin?&rdquo; shouted Richard from the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dumb devil can't swim a stroke!&rdquo; exclaimed Kirby, rising, and
+      beginning to throw aside his clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paddle up, Mohegan,&rdquo; cried young Edwards, &ldquo;the light will show us where
+      he lies, and I will dive for the body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! save him! for God's sake, save him!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth, bowing her
+      head on the side of the canoe in horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A powerful and dexterous sweep of Mohegan's paddle sent the canoe directly
+      over the spot where the steward had fallen, and a loud shout from the
+      Leather-Stocking announced that he saw the body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady the boat while I dive,&rdquo; again cried Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, lad, gently,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;I'll spear the creatur' up in half the
+      time, and no risk to anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The form of Benjamin was lying about half-way to the bottom, grasping with
+      both hands some broken rushes. The blood of Elizabeth curdled to her
+      heart, as she saw the figure of a fellow-creature thus extended under an
+      immense sheet of water, apparently in motion by the undulations of the
+      dying waves, with its face and hands, viewed by that light, and through
+      the medium of the fluid, already colored with hues like death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same instant, she saw the shining tines of Natty's spear
+      approaching the head of the sufferer, and entwinning themselves, rapidly
+      and dexterously, in the hairs of his cue and the cape of his coat. The
+      body was now raised slowly, looking ghastly and grim as its features
+      turned upward to the light and approached the surface. The arrival of the
+      nostrils of Benjamin into their own atmosphere was announced by a
+      breathing that would have done credit to a porpoise. For a moment, Natty
+      held the steward suspended, with his head just above the water, while his
+      eyes slowly opened and stared about him, as if he thought that he had
+      reached a new and unexplored country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As all the parties acted and spoke together, much less time was consumed
+      in the occurrence of these events than in their narration. To bring the
+      batteau to the end of the spear, and to raise the form of Benjamin into
+      the boat, and for the whole party to regain the shore, required but a
+      minute. Kirby, aided by Richard, whose anxiety induced him to run into the
+      water to meet his favorite assistant, carried the motionless steward up
+      the bank, and seated him before the fire, while the sheriff proceeded to
+      order the most approved measures then in use for the resuscitation of the
+      drowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Run, Billy,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;to the village, and bring up the rum-hogshead
+      that lies before the door, in which I am making vinegar, and be quick,
+      boy, don't stay to empty the vinegar, and stop at Mr. Le Quoi's, and buy a
+      paper of tobacco and half a dozen pipes; and ask Remarkable for some salt,
+      and one of her flannel petticoats; and ask Dr. Todd to send his lancet,
+      and to come himself; and&mdash;ha! 'Duke, what are you about? would you
+      strangle a man who is full of water, by giving him rum? Help me to open
+      his hand, that I may pat it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time Benjamin sat, with his muscles fixed, his mouth shut, and
+      his hands clinching the rushes which he had seized in the confusion of the
+      moment and which, as he held fast, like a true seaman, had been the means
+      of preventing his body from rising again to the surface. His eyes,
+      however, were open, and stared wildly on the group about the fire, while
+      his lungs were playing like a blacksmith's bellows, as if to compensate
+      themselves for the minute of inaction to which they had been subjected. As
+      he kept his lips compressed, with a most inveterate determination, the air
+      was compelled to pass through his nostrils, and he rather snorted than
+      breathed, and in such a manner that nothing but the excessive agitation of
+      the sheriff could at all justify his precipitous orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bottle, applied to the steward's lips by Marmaduke, acted like a
+      charm. His mouth opened instinctively; his hands dropped the rushes, and
+      seized the glass; his eyes raised from their horizontal stare to the
+      heavens; and the whole man was lost, for a moment, in a new sensation.
+      Unhappily for the propensity of the steward, breath was as necessary after
+      one of these draughts as after his submersion, and the time at length
+      arrived when he was compelled to let go the bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Benjamin!&rdquo; roared the sheriff; &ldquo;you amaze me! for a man of your
+      experience in drownings to act so foolishly! Just now, you were half full
+      of water, and now you are&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Full of grog,&rdquo; interrupted the steward, his features settling down, with
+      amazing flexibility, into their natural economy. &ldquo;But, d'yesee, squire, I
+      kept my hatches chose, and it's but little water that ever gets into my
+      scuttle-butt. Harkee, Master Kirby! I've followed the salt-water for the
+      better part of a man's life, and have seen some navigation on the fresh;
+      but this here matter I will say in your favor, and that is, that you're
+      the awk'ardest green 'un that ever straddled a boat's thwart. Them that
+      likes you for a shipmate, may sail with you and no thanks; but dam'me if I
+      even walk on the lake shore in your company. For why? you'd as lief drown
+      a man as one of them there fish; not to throw a Christian creature so much
+      as a rope's end when he was adrift, and no life-buoy in sight! Natty
+      Bumppo, give us your fist. There's them that says you're an Indian, and a
+      scalper, but you've served me a good turn, and you may set me down for a
+      friend; thof it would have been more ship shape like to lower the bight of
+      a rope or running bowline below me, than to seize an old seaman by his
+      head-lanyard; but I suppose you are used to taking men by the hair, and
+      seeing you did me good instead of harm thereby, why, it's the same thing,
+      d'ye see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke prevented any reply, and assuming the action of matters with a
+      dignity and discretion that at once silenced all opposition from his
+      cousin, Benjamin was dispatched to the village by land, and the net was
+      hauled to shore in such a manner that the fish for once escaped its meshes
+      with impunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The division of the spoils was made in the ordinary manner, by placing one
+      of the party with his hack to the game, who named the owner of each pile.
+      Bill Kirby stretched his large frame on the grass by the side of the fire,
+      as sentinel until morning, over net and fish; and the remainder of the
+      party embarked in the batteau, to return to the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wood-chopper was seen broiling his supper on the coals as they lost
+      sight of the fire, and when the boat approached the shore, the torch of
+      Mohegan's canoe was shining again under the gloom of the eastern mountain.
+      Its motion ceased suddenly; a scattering of brands was in the air, and
+      then all remained dark as the conjunction of night, forest, and mountain
+      could render the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thoughts of Elizabeth wandered from the youth, who was holding a
+      canopy of shawls over herself and Louisa, to the hunter and the Indian
+      warrior; and she felt an awakening curiosity to visit a hut where men of
+      such different habits and temperament were drawn together as by common
+      impulse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Cease all this parlance about hills and dales.
+     None listen to thy scenes of boyish frolic.
+     Fond dotard! with such tickled ears as thou dost
+     Come to thy tale.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Duo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jones arose on the following morning with the sun, and, ordering his
+      own and Marmaduke's steeds to be saddled, he proceeded, with a countenance
+      big with some business of unusual moment to the apartment of the Judge.
+      The door was unfastened, and Richard entered, with the freedom that
+      characterized not only the intercourse between the cousins, but the
+      ordinary manners of the sheriff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, 'Duke, to horse,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;and I will explain to you my meaning
+      in the allusions I made last night. David says, in the Psalms&mdash;no, it
+      was Solomon, but it was all in the family&mdash;Solomon said there was a
+      time for all things; and, in my humble opinion, a fishing-party is not the
+      moment for discussing important subjects. Ha! why, what the devil ails
+      you, Marmaduke? Ain't you well? Let me feel your pulse; my grandfather,
+      you know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite well in the body, Richard,&rdquo; interrupted the Judge, repulsing his
+      cousin, who was about to assume the functions that rightly belonged to Dr.
+      Todd; &ldquo;but ill at heart. I received letters by the post last night, after
+      we returned from the point, and this among the number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff took the letter, but without turning his eyes on the writing,
+      for he was examining the appearance of the other with astonishment. From
+      the face of his cousin the gaze of Richard wandered to the table, which
+      was covered with letters, packets, and newspapers; then to the apartment
+      and all it contained. On the bed there was the impression that had been
+      made by a human form, but the coverings were unmoved, and everything
+      indicated that the occupant of the room had passed a sleepless night. The
+      candles had burned to the sockets, and had evidently extinguished
+      themselves in their own fragments Marmaduke had drawn his curtains, and
+      opened both the shutters and the sashes, to admit the balmy air &ldquo;of a
+      spring morning; but his pale cheek, his quivering lip, and his sunken eye
+      presented altogether so very different an appearance from the usual calm,
+      manly, and cheerful aspect of the Judge, that the sheriff grew each moment
+      more and more bewildered with astonishment. At length Richard found time
+      to cast his eyes on the direction of the letter, which he still held
+      unopened, crumpling it in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! a ship-letter!&rdquo; he exclaimed; &ldquo;and from England, ha! 'Duke, there
+      must be news of importance! indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read it,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, pacing the floor in excessive agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard, who commonly thought aloud, was unable to read a letter without
+      suffering part of its contents to escape him in audible sounds. So much of
+      the epistle as was divulged in that manner, we shall lay before the
+      reader, accompanied by the passing remarks of the sheriff:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'London, February 12, 1793.' What a devil of a passage she had! but the
+      wind has been northwest for six weeks, until within the last fortnight.
+      Sir, your favors of August 10th, September 23d, and of December 1st, were
+      received in due season, and the first answered by return of packet. Since
+      the receipt of the last, I' &ldquo;&mdash;here a long passage was rendered
+      indistinct by a kind of humming noise by the sheriff&mdash;&rdquo; 'I grieve to
+      say that '&mdash;hum, hum, bad enough to be sure&mdash;' but trusts that a
+      merciful Providence has seen fit'&mdash;hum, hum, hum seems to be a good,
+      pious sort of a man, 'Duke; belongs to the Established Church, I dare say;
+      hum, hum&mdash;' vessel sailed from Falmouth on or about the 1st September
+      of last year, and'&mdash;hum, hum, hum, 'If anything should transpire on
+      this afflicting subject shall not fail'&mdash;hum, hum; really a
+      good-hearted man, for a lawyer&mdash;'but Can communicate nothing further
+      at present'&mdash;hum, hum. 'The national convention'&mdash;hum, hum&mdash;'unfortunate
+      Louis'&mdash;hum, hum&mdash;'example of your Washington'&mdash;a very
+      sensible man, I declare, and none of your crazy democrats. Hum, hum&mdash;'our
+      gallant navy'&mdash;hum, hum&mdash;'under our most excellent monarch'&mdash;ay,
+      a good man enough, that King George, but bad advisers: hum, hum&mdash;'I
+      beg to conclude with assurances of my perfect respect.'&mdash;hum, hum&mdash;'Andrew
+      Holt. '&mdash;Andrew Holt, a very sensible, feeling man, this Mr. Andrew
+      Holt&mdash;but the writer of evil tidings. What will you do next, Cousin
+      Marmaduke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can I do, Richard, but trust to time, and the will of Heaven? Here
+      is another letter from Connecticut, but it only repeats the substance of
+      the last. There is but one consoling reflection to be gathered from the
+      English news, which is, that my last letter was received by him before the
+      ship sailed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is bad enough, indeed! 'Duke, bad enough, indeed! and away go all my
+      plans, of putting wings to the house, to the devil. I had made
+      arrangements for a ride to introduce you to something of a very important
+      nature. You know how much you think of mines&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not of mines,&rdquo; interrupted the Judge: &ldquo;there is a sacred duty to be
+      performed, and that without delay, I must devote this day to writing; and
+      thou must be my assistant, Richard; it will not do to employ Oliver in a
+      matter of such secrecy and interest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, 'Duke,&rdquo; cried the sheriff, squeezing his hand, &ldquo;I am your man,
+      just now; we are sister's children, and blood, after all, is the best
+      cement to make friendship stick together. Well, well, there is no hurry
+      about the silver mine, just now; another time will do as well. We shall
+      want Dirky Van, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke assented to this indirect question, and the sheriff relinquished
+      all his intentions on the subject of the ride, and, repairing to the
+      breakfast parlor, he dispatched a messenger to require the immediate
+      presence of Dirck Van der School.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The village of Templeton at that time supported but two lawyers, one of
+      whom was introduced to our readers in the bar-room of the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon.&rdquo;
+       and the other was the gentleman of whom Richard spoke by the friendly yet
+      familiar appellation of Dirck, or Dirky Van. Great good-nature, a very
+      tolerable share of skill in his profession, and, considering the
+      circumstances, no contemptible degree of honesty, were the principal
+      ingredients in the character of this man, who was known to the settlers as
+      Squire Van der School, and sometimes by the flattering though anomalous
+      title of the &ldquo;Dutch&rdquo; or &ldquo;honest lawyer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We would not wish to mislead our readers in their conceptions of any of
+      our characters, and we therefore feel it necessary to add that the
+      adjective, in the preceding agnomen of Mr. Van der School, was used in
+      direct reference to its substantive. Our orthodox friends need not be told
+      that all the merit in this world is comparative; and, once for all, we
+      desire to say that, where anything which involves qualities or characters
+      is asserted, we must be understood to mean, &ldquo;under the circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During the remainder of the day, the Judge was closeted with his cousin
+      and his lawyer; and no one else was admitted to his apartment, excepting
+      his daughter. The deep distress that so evidently affected Marmaduke was
+      in some measure communicated to Elizabeth also; for a look of dejection
+      shaded her intelligent features, and the buoyancy of her animated spirits
+      was sensibly softened. Once on that day, young Edwards, who was a
+      wondering and observant spectator of the sudden alteration produced in the
+      heads of the family, detected a tear stealing over the cheek of Elizabeth,
+      and suffusing her bright eyes with a softness that did not always belong
+      to their expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have any evil tidings been received, Miss Temple?&rdquo; he inquired, with an
+      interest and voice that caused Louisa Grant to raise her head from her
+      needlework, with a quickness at which she instantly blushed herself. &ldquo;I
+      would offer my services to your father, if, as I suspect, he needs an
+      agent in some distant place, and I thought it would give you relief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have certainly heard bad news,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth, &ldquo;and it may be
+      necessary that my father should leave home for a short period; unless I
+      can persuade him to trust my cousin Richard with the business, whose
+      absence from the country, just at this time, too, might be inexpedient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth paused a moment, and the blood gathered slowly to his temples as
+      he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it be of a nature that I could execute-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is such as can only be confided to one we know&mdash;one of
+      ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, you know me, Miss Temple!&rdquo; he added, with a warmth that he seldom
+      exhibited, but which did some times escape him in the moments of their
+      frank communications. &ldquo;Have I lived five months under your roof to be a
+      stranger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth was engaged with her needle also, and she bent her head to one
+      side, affecting to arrange her muslin; but her hand shook, her color
+      heightened, and her eyes lost their moisture in an expression of
+      ungovernable interest, as she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much do we know of you, Mr. Edwards?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much!&rdquo; echoed the youth, gazing from the speaker to the mild
+      countenance of Louisa, that was also illuminated with curiosity; &ldquo;how much
+      Have I been so long an inmate with you and not known?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of Elizabeth turned slowly from its affected position, and the
+      look of confusion that had blended so strongly with an expression of
+      interest changed to a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know you, sir, indeed; you are called Mr. Oliver Edwards. I understand
+      that you have informed my friend Miss Grant that you are a native&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elizabeth!&rdquo; exclaimed Louisa, blushing to the eyes, and trembling like an
+      aspen; &ldquo;you misunderstood me, dear Miss Temple; I&mdash;I&mdash;it was
+      only a conjecture. Besides, if Mr. Edwards is related to the natives why
+      should we reproach him? In what are we better? at least I, who am the
+      child of a poor and unsettled clergyman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth shook her head doubtingly, and even laughed, but made no reply,
+      until, observing the melancholy which pervaded the countenance of her
+      companion, who was thinking of the poverty and labors of her father, she
+      continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Louisa, humility carries you too far. The daughter of a minister of
+      the church can have no superiors. Neither I nor Mr. Edwards is quite your
+      equal, unless,&rdquo; she added, again smiling, &ldquo;he is in secret a king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A faithful servant of the King of kings, Miss Temple, is inferior to none
+      on earth,&rdquo; said Louisa; &ldquo;but his honors are his own; I am only the child
+      of a poor and friendless man, and can claim no other distinction. Why,
+      then, should I feel myself elevated above Mr. Edwards, because&mdash;because&mdash;perhaps
+      he is only very, very distantly related to John Mohegan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Glances of a very comprehensive meaning were exchanged between the heiress
+      and the young man, as Louisa betrayed, while vindicating his lineage, the
+      reluctance with which she admitted his alliance with the old warrior; but
+      not even a smile at the simplicity of their companion was indulged in by
+      either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On reflection, I must acknowledge that my situation here is somewhat
+      equivocal,&rdquo; said Edwards, &ldquo;though I may be said to have purchased it with
+      my blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The blood, too, of one of the native lords of the soil!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth,
+      who evidently put little faith in his aboriginal descent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I bear the marks of my lineage so very plainly impressed on my
+      appearance? I am dark, but not very red&mdash;not more so than common?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather more so, just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure, Miss Temple,&rdquo; cried Louisa, &ldquo;you cannot have taken much notice
+      of Mr. Edwards. His eyes are not so black as Mohegan's or even your own,
+      nor is his hair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very possibly, then, I can lay claim to the same de scent It would be a
+      great relief to my mind to think so, for I own that I grieve when I see
+      old Mohegan walking about these lands like the ghost of one of their
+      ancient possessors, and feel how small is my own right to possess them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you?&rdquo; cried the youth, with a vehemence that startled the ladies
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, indeed,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth, after suffering a moment to pass in
+      surprise; &ldquo;but what can I do&mdash;what can my father do? Should we offer
+      the old man a home' and a maintenance, his habits would compel him to
+      refuse us. Neither were we so silly as to wish such a thing, could we
+      convert these clearings and farms again into hunting grounds, as the
+      Leather-Stocking would wish to see them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak the truth, Miss Temple,&rdquo; said Edwards. &ldquo;What can you do indeed?
+      But there is one thing that I am certain you can and will do, when you
+      become the mistress of these beautiful valleys&mdash;use your wealth with
+      indulgence to the poor, and charity to the needy; indeed, you can do no
+      more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And That will be doing a good deal,&rdquo; said Louisa, smiling in her turn.
+      &ldquo;But there will, doubtless, be one to take the direction of such things
+      from her hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not about to disclaim matrimony, like a silly girl, who dreams of
+      nothing else from morn till night; but I am a nun here, without the vow of
+      celibacy. Where shall I find a husband in these forests?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is none, Miss Temple,&rdquo; said Edwards quickly; &ldquo;there is none who has
+      a right to aspire to you, and I know that you will wait to be sought by
+      your equal; or die, as you live, loved, respected, and admired by all who
+      know you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man seemed to think that he had said all that was required by
+      gallantry, for he arose, and, taking his hat, hurried from the apartment.
+      Perhaps Louisa thought that he had said more than was necessary, for she
+      sighed, with an aspiration so low that it was scarcely audible to herself,
+      and bent her head over her work again. And it is possible that Miss Temple
+      wished to hear more, for her eyes continued fixed for a minute on the door
+      through which the young man had passed, then glanced quickly toward her
+      companion, when the long silence that succeeded manifested how much zest
+      may be given to the conversation of two maidens under eighteen, by the
+      presence of a youth of three-and-twenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first person encountered by Mr. Edwards, as he rather rushed than
+      walked from the house, was the little square-built lawyer, with a large
+      bundle of papers under his arm, a pair of green spectacles on his nose,
+      with glasses at the sides, as if to multiply his power of detecting frauds
+      by additional organs of vision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Van der School was a well-educated man, but of slow comprehension, who
+      had imbibed a wariness in his speeches and actions, from having suffered
+      by his collisions with his more mercurial and apt brethren who had laid
+      the foundations of their practice in the Eastern courts, and who had
+      sucked in shrewdness with their mother's milk. The caution of this
+      gentleman was exhibited in his actions, by the utmost method and
+      punctuality, tinctured with a good deal of timidity; and in his speeches,
+      by a parenthetical style, that frequently left to his auditors a long
+      search after his meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good-morning to you, Mr. Van der School,&rdquo; said Edwards; &ldquo;it seems to be
+      a busy day with us at the mansion-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-morning, Mr. Edwards (if that is your name [for, being a stranger,
+      we have no other evidence of the fact than your own testimony], as I
+      understand you have given it to Judge Temple), good-morning, sir. It is,
+      apparently a busy day (but a man of your discretion need not be told
+      [having, doubtless, discovered it of your own accord], that appearances
+      are often deceitful) up at the mansion-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you papers of consequence that will require copying? Can I be of
+      assistance in any way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are papers (as doubtless you see [for your eyes are young] by the
+      outsides) that require copying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I will accompany you to your office, and receive such as are
+      most needed, and by night I shall have them done if there be much haste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall always be glad to see you, sir, at my office (as in duty bound,
+      not that it is obligatory to receive any man within your dwelling unless
+      so inclined), which is a castle, according to the forms of politeness, or
+      at any other place; but the papers are most strictly confidential (and, as
+      such, cannot be read by any one), unless so directed (by Judge Temple's
+      solemn injunctions), and are invisible to all eyes; excepting those whose
+      duties (I mean assumed duties) require it of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, as I perceive that I can be of no service, I wish you another
+      good-morning; but beg you will remember that I am quite idle just now, and
+      I wish you would intimate as much to Judge Temple, and make him a ten der
+      of my services in any part of the world, \ unless&mdash;unless&mdash;it be
+      far from Templeton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will make the communication, sir, in your name (with your own
+      qualifications), as your agent. Good morning, sir. But stay proceedings,
+      Mr. Edwards (so called), for a moment. Do you wish me to state the offer
+      of travelling as a final contract (for which consideration has been
+      received at former dates [by sums advanced], which would be binding), or
+      as a tender of services for which compensation is to be paid (according to
+      future agreement between the parties), on performance of the conditions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any way, any way,&rdquo; said Edwards; &ldquo;he seems in distress, and I would
+      assist him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The motive is good, sir (according to appearances which are often
+      deceitful] on first impressions), and does you honor. I will mention your
+      wish, young gentleman (as you now seem), and will not fail to communicate
+      the answer by five o'clock P.M. of this present day (God willing), if you
+      give me an opportunity so to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ambiguous nature of the situation and character of Mr. Edwards had
+      rendered him an object of peculiar suspicion to the lawyer, and the youth
+      was consequently too much accustomed to similar equivocal and guarded
+      speeches to feel any unusual disgust at the present dialogue. He saw at
+      once that it was the intention of the practitioner to conceal the nature
+      of his business, even from the private secretary of Judge Temple; and he
+      knew too well the difficulty of comprehending the meaning of Mr. Van der
+      School, when the gentleman most wished to be luminous in his discourse,
+      not to abandon all thoughts of a discovery, when he perceived that the
+      attorney was endeavoring to avoid anything like an approach to a
+      cross-examination. They parted at the gate, the lawyer walking with an
+      important and hurried air toward his office, keeping his right hand firmly
+      clinched on the bundle of papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must have been obvious to all our readers, that the youth entertained
+      an unusual and deeply seated prejudice against the character of the Judge;
+      but owing to some counteracting cause, his sensations were now those of
+      powerful interest in the state of his patron's present feelings, and in
+      the cause of his secret uneasiness. He remained gazing after the lawyer
+      until the door closed on both the bearer and the mysterious packet, when
+      he returned slowly to the dwelling, and endeavored to forget his curiosity
+      in the usual avocations of his office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Judge made his reappearance in the circles of his family, his
+      cheerfulness was tempered by a shade of melancholy that lingered for many
+      days around his manly brow; but the magical progression of the season
+      aroused him from his temporary apathy, and his smiles returned with the
+      summer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heats of the days, and the frequent occurrence of balmy showers, had
+      completed in an incredibly short period the growth of plants which the
+      lingering spring had so long retarded in the germ; and the woods presented
+      every shade of green that the American forests know. The stumps in the
+      cleared fields were already hidden beneath the wheat that was waving with
+      every breath of the sum mer air, shining and changing its hues like
+      velvet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the continuance of his cousin's dejection, Mr. Jones forebore, with
+      much consideration, to press on his attention a business that each hour
+      was drawing nearer to the heart of the sheriff, and which, if any opinion
+      could be formed by his frequent private conferences with the man who was
+      introduced in these pages by the name of Jotham, at the bar-room of the
+      Bold Dragoon, was becoming also of great importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the sheriff ventured to allude again to the subject; and one
+      evening, in the beginning of July, Marmaduke made him a promise of
+      devoting the following day to the desired excursion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Speak on, my dearest father!
+     Thy words are like the breezes of the west.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Milman.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was a mild and soft morning, when Marmaduke and Richard mounted their
+      horses and proceeded on the expedition that had so long been uppermost in
+      the thoughts of the latter; and Elizabeth and Louisa appeared at the same
+      instant in the hall, attired for an excursion on foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of Miss Grant was covered by a neat little hat of green silk, and
+      her modest eyes peered from under its shade, with the soft languor that
+      characterized her whole appearance; but Miss Temple trod her father's wide
+      apartments with the step of their mistress, holding in her hands, dangling
+      by one of its ribbons, the gypsy that was to conceal the glossy locks that
+      curled around her polished fore head in rich profusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? are you for a walk, Bess?&rdquo; cried the Judge, suspending his
+      movements for a moment to smile, with a father's fondness, at the display
+      of womanly grace and beauty that his child presented. &ldquo;Remember the heats
+      of July, my daughter; nor venture further than thou canst retrace before
+      the meridian. Where is thy parasol, girl? thou wilt lose tine polish of
+      that brow, under this sun and southern breeze, unless thou guard it with
+      unusual care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall then do more honor to my connections,&rdquo; returned the smiling
+      daughter. &ldquo;Cousin Richard has a bloom that any lady might envy. At present
+      the resemblance between us is so trifling that no stranger would know us
+      to be 'sisters' children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grandchildren, you mean, Cousin Bess,&rdquo; said the sheriff. &ldquo;But on, Judge
+      Temple; time and tide wait for no man; and if you take my counsel, sir, in
+      twelve months from this day you may make an umbrella for your daughter of
+      her camel's-hair shawl, and have its frame of solid silver. I ask nothing
+      for myself, 'Duke; you have been a good friend to me already; besides, all
+      that I have will go to Bess there, one of these melancholy days, so it's
+      as long as it's short, whether I or you leave it. But we have a day's ride
+      before us, sir; so move forward, or dismount, and say you won't go at
+      once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, patience, Dickon,&rdquo; returned the Judge, checking his horse and
+      turning again to his daughter. &ldquo;If thou art for the mountains, love, stray
+      not too deep into the forest. I entreat thee; for, though it is done often
+      with impunity, there is sometimes danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at this season, I believe, sir,&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;for, I will
+      confess, it is the intention of Louisa and myself to stroll among the
+      hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Less at this season than in the winter, dear; but still there may be
+      danger in venturing too far. But though thou art resolute, Elizabeth, thou
+      art too much like thy mother not to be prudent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of the parent turned reluctantly from his child, and the Judge
+      and sheriff rode slowly through the gateway, and disappeared among the
+      buildings of the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this short dialogue, young Edwards stood, an attentive listener,
+      holding in his hand a fishing-rod, the day and the season having tempted
+      him also to desert the house for the pleasure of exercise in the air. As
+      the equestrians turned through the gate, he approached the young females,
+      who were already moving toward the street, and was about to address them,
+      as Louisa paused, and said quickly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Edwards would speak to us, Elizabeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other stopped also, and turned to the youth, politely but with a
+      slight coldness in her air, that sensibly checked the freedom with which
+      he had approached them,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your father is not pleased that you should walk unattended in the hills,
+      Miss Temple. If I might offer my self as a protector&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does my father select Mr. Oliver Edwards as the organ of his
+      displeasure?&rdquo; interrupted the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heaven! you misunderstood my meaning; I should have said uneasy or
+      not pleased. I am his servant, madam, and in consequence yours. I repeat
+      that, with your consent, I will change my rod for a fowling-piece, and
+      keep nigh you on the mountain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Mr. Edwards; but where there is no danger, no protection is
+      required. We are not yet reduced to wandering among these free hills
+      accompanied by a body guard. If such a one is necessary there he is,
+      however.&mdash;Here, Brave&mdash;Brave&mdash;&mdash;my noble Brave!&rdquo; The
+      huge mastif that has been already mentioned, appeared from his kennel,
+      gaping and stretching himself with pampered laziness; but as his mistress
+      again called:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, dear Brave; once you have served your master well; let us see how
+      you can do your duty by his daughter&rdquo;&mdash;the dog wagged his tail, as if
+      he understood her language, walked with a stately gait to her side, where
+      he seated himself, and looked up at her face, with an intelligence but
+      little inferior to that which beamed in her own lovely countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She resumed her walk, but again paused, after a few steps, and added, in
+      tones of conciliation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can be serving us equally, and, I presume, more agreeably to
+      yourself, Mr. Edwards, by bringing us a string of your favorite perch for
+      the dinner-table.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they again began to walk Miss Temple did not look back to see how the
+      youth bore this repulse; but the head of Louisa was turned several times
+      before they reached the gate on that considerate errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid, Elizabeth,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;that we have mortified Oliver. He is
+      still standing where we left him, leaning on his rod. Perhaps he thinks us
+      proud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He thinks justly,&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Temple, as if awaking from a deep
+      musing; &ldquo;he thinks justly, then. We are too proud to admit of such
+      particular attentions from a young man in an equivocal situation. What!
+      make him the companion of our most private walks! It is pride, Louisa, but
+      it is the pride of a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was several minutes before Oliver aroused himself from the abstracted
+      position in which he was standing when Louisa last saw him; but when he
+      did, he muttered something rapidly and incoherently, and, throwing his rod
+      over his shoulder, he strode down the walk through the gate and along one
+      of the streets of the village, until he reached the lake-shore, with the
+      air of an emperor. At this spot boats were kept for the use of Judge
+      Temple and his family. The young man threw himself into a light skiff,
+      and, seizing the oars, he sent it across the lake toward the hut of
+      Leather-Stocking, with a pair of vigorous arms. By the time he had rowed a
+      quarter of a mile, his reflections were less bitter; and when he saw the
+      bushes that lined the shore in front of Natty's habitation gliding by him,
+      as if they possessed the motion which proceeded from his own efforts, he
+      was quite cooled in mind, though somewhat heated in body. It is quite
+      possible that the very same reason which guided the conduct of Miss Temple
+      suggested itself to a man of the breeding and education of the youth; and
+      it is very certain that, if such were the case, Elizabeth rose instead of
+      falling in the estimation of Mr. Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The oars were now raised from the water, and the boat shot close in to the
+      land, where it lay gently agitated by waves of its own creating, while the
+      young man, first casting a cautious and searching glance around him in
+      every direction, put a small whistle to his mouth, and blew a long, shrill
+      note that rang among the echoing rocks behind the hut. At this alarm, the
+      hounds of Natty rushed out of their bark kennel, and commenced their long,
+      piteous howls, leaping about as if half frantic, though restrained by the
+      leashes of buckskin by which they were fastened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quiet, Hector, quiet,&rdquo; said Oliver, again applying his whistle to his
+      mouth, and drawing out notes still more shrill than before. No reply was
+      made, the dogs having returned to their kennel at the sound of his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edwards pulled the bows of the boat on the shore, and landing, ascended
+      the beach and approached the door of the cabin. The fastenings were soon
+      undone, and he entered, closing the door after him, when all was as
+      silent, in that retired spot, as if the foot of man had never trod the
+      wilderness. The sounds of the hammers, that were in incessant motion in
+      the village, were faintly heard across the water; but the dogs had
+      crouched into their lairs, satisfied that none but the privileged had
+      approached the forbidden ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour elapsed before the youth reappeared, when he fastened
+      the door again, and spoke kindly to the hounds. The dogs came out at the
+      well-known tones, and the slut jumped upon his person, whining and barking
+      as if entreating Oliver to release her from prison. But old Hector raised
+      his nose to the light current of air, and opened a long howl, that might
+      have been heard for a mile. &ldquo;Ha! what do you scent, old veteran of the
+      woods?&rdquo; cried Edwards. &ldquo;If a beast, it is a bold one; and if a man, an
+      impudent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He sprang through the top of a pine that had fallen near the side of the
+      hut, and ascended a small hillock that sheltered the cabin to the south,
+      where he caught a glimpse of the formal figure of Hiram Doolittle, as it
+      vanished, with unusual rapidity for the architect, amid the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that fellow be wanting here?&rdquo; muttered Oliver. &ldquo;He has no
+      business in this quarter, unless it be curiosity, which is an endemic in
+      these woods. But against that I will effectually guard, though the dogs
+      should take a liking to his ugly visage, and let him pass.&rdquo; The youth
+      returned to the door, while giving vent to this soliloquy, and completed
+      the fastenings by placing a small chain through a staple, and securing it
+      there by a padlock. &ldquo;He is a pettifogger, and surely must know that there
+      is such a thing as feloniously breaking into a man's house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently well satisfied with this arrangement, the youth again spoke to
+      the hounds; and, descending to the shore, he launched his boat, and taking
+      up his oars, pulled off into the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were several places in the Otsego that were celebrated
+      fishing-ground for perch. One was nearly opposite to the cabin, and
+      another, still more famous, was near a point, at the distance of a mile
+      and a half above it, under the brow of the mountain, and on the same side
+      of the lake with the hut. Oliver Edwards pulled his little skiff to the
+      first, and sat, for a minute, undecided whether to continue there, with
+      his eyes on the door of the cabin, or to change his ground, with a view to
+      get superior game. While gazing about him, he saw the light-colored bark
+      canoe of his old companions riding on the water, at the point we have
+      mentioned, and containing two figures, that he at once knew to be Mohegan
+      and the Leather-Stocking. This decided the matter, and the youth pulled,
+      in a very few minutes, to the place where his friends were fishing, and
+      fastened his boat to the light vessel of the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old men received Oliver with welcoming nods, but neither drew his line
+      from the water nor in the least varied his occupation. When Edwards had
+      secured his own boat, he baited his hook and threw it into the lake, with
+      out speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you stop at the wigwam, lad, as you rowed past?&rdquo; asked Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and I found all safe; but that carpenter and justice of the peace,
+      Mr., or as they call him, Squire, Doolittle, was prowling through the
+      woods. I made sure of the door before I left the hut, and I think he is
+      too great a coward to approach the hounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's little to be said in favor of that man,&rdquo; said Natty, while he
+      drew in a perch and baited his hook. &ldquo;He craves dreadfully to come into
+      the cabin, and has as good as asked me as much to my face; but I put him
+      off with unsartain answers, so that he is no wiser than Solo mon. This
+      comes of having so many laws that such a man may be called on to intarpret
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear he is more knave than fool,&rdquo; cried Edwards; &ldquo;he makes a tool of,
+      that simple man, the sheriff; and I dread that his impertinent curiosity
+      may yet give us much trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he harbors too much about the cabin, lad, I'll shoot the creatur',&rdquo;
+       said the Leather-Stocking, quite simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Natty, you must remember the law,&rdquo; said Edwards, &ldquo;or we shall
+      have you in trouble; and that, old man, would be an evil day and sore
+      tidings to us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it, boy?&rdquo; exclaimed the hunter, raising his eyes, with a look of
+      friendly interest, toward the youth. &ldquo;You have the true blood in your
+      veins, Mr. Oliver; and I'll support it to the face of Judge Temple or in
+      any court in the country. How is it, John? Do I speak the true word? Is
+      the lad stanch, and of the right blood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a Delaware,&rdquo; said Mohegan, &ldquo;and my brother. The Young Eagle is
+      brave, and he will be a chief. No harm can come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; cried the youth impatiently, &ldquo;say no more about it, my good
+      friends; if I am not all that your partiality would make me, I am yours
+      through life, in prosperity as in poverty. We will talk of other matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old hunters yielded to his wish, which seemed to be their law. For a
+      short time a profound silence prevailed, during which each man was very
+      busy with his hook and line, but Edwards, probably feeling that it
+      remained with him to renew the discourse, soon observed, with the air of
+      one who knew not what he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How beautifully tranquil and glassy the lake is! Saw you it ever more
+      calm and even than at this moment, Natty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have known the Otsego water for five-and-forty years,&rdquo; said Leather&mdash;Stocking,
+      &ldquo;and I will say that for it, which is, that a cleaner spring or better
+      fishing is not to be found in the land. Yes, yes; I had the place to
+      myself once, and a cheerful time I had of it. The game was plenty as heart
+      could wish; and there was none to meddle with the ground unless there
+      might have been a hunting party of the Delawares crossing the hills, or,
+      maybe, a rifling scout of them thieves, the Iroquois. There was one or two
+      Frenchmen that squatted in the flats further west, and married squaws; and
+      some of the Scotch-Irishers, from the Cherry Valley, would come on to the
+      lake, and borrow my canoe to take a mess of parch, or drop a line for
+      salmon-trout; but, in the main, it was a cheerful place, and I had but
+      little to disturb me in it. John would come, and John knows.&rdquo; Mohegan
+      turned his dark face at this appeal; and, moving his hand forward with
+      graceful motion of assent, he spoke, using the Delaware language:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The land was owned by my people; we gave it to my brother in council&mdash;to
+      the Fire-eater; and what the Delawares give lasts as long as the waters
+      run. Hawk-eye smoked at that council, for we loved him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, John,&rdquo; said Natty, &ldquo;I was no chief, seeing that I knowed nothing
+      of scholarship, and had a white skin. But it was a comfortable
+      hunting-ground then, lad, and would have been so this day, but for the
+      money of Marmaduke Temple, and the twisty ways of the law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have been a sight of melancholy pleasure in deed,&rdquo; said Edwards,
+      while his eye roved along the shores and over the hills, where the
+      clearings, groaning with the golden corn, were cheering the forest with
+      the signs of life, &ldquo;to have roamed over these mountains and along this
+      sheet of beautiful water, without a living soul to speak to, or to thwart
+      your humor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't I said it was cheerful?&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking. &ldquo;Yes, yes, when
+      the trees began to be covered with leaves, and the ice was out of the
+      hake, it was a second paradise. I have travelled the woods for fifty-three
+      years, and have made them my home for more than forty, and I can say that
+      I have met but one place that was more to my liking; and that was only to
+      eyesight, and not for hunting or fishing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where was that?&rdquo; asked Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where! why, up on the Catskills. I used often to go up into the mountains
+      after wolves' skins and bears; once they paid me to get them a stuffed
+      painter, and so I often went. There's a place in them hills that I used to
+      climb to when I wanted to see the carryings on of the world, that would
+      well pay any man for a barked shin or a torn moccasin. You know the
+      Catskills, lad; for you must have seen them on your left, as you followed
+      the river up from York, looking as blue as a piece of clear sky, and
+      holding the clouds on their tops, as the smoke curls over the head of an
+      Indian chief at the council fire. Well, there's the High-peak and the
+      Round-top, which lay back like a father and mother among their children,
+      seeing they are far above all the other hills. But the place I mean is
+      next to the river, where one of the ridges juts out a little from the
+      rest, and where the rocks fall, for the best part of a thousand feet, so
+      much up and down, that a man standing on their edges is fool enough to
+      think he can jump from top to bottom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What see you when you get there?&rdquo; asked Edwards,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Creation,&rdquo; said Natty, dropping the end of his rod into the water, and
+      sweeping one hand around him in a circle, &ldquo;all creation, lad. I was on
+      that hill when Vaughan burned 'Sopus in the last war; and I saw the
+      vessels come out of the Highlands as plain as I can see that lime-scow
+      rowing into the Susquehanna, though one was twenty times farther from me
+      than the other. The river was in sight for seventy miles, looking like a
+      curled shaving under my feet, though it was eight long miles to its banks.
+      I saw the hills in the Hampshire grants, the highlands of the river, and
+      all that God had done, or man could do, far as eye could reach&mdash;you
+      know that the Indians named me for my sight, lad; and from the flat on the
+      top of that mountain, I have often found the place where Albany stands.
+      And as for 'Sopus, the day the royal troops burnt the town, the smoke
+      seemed so nigh, that I thought I could hear the screeches of the women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have been worth the toil to meet with such a glorious view.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If being the best part of a mile in the air and having men's farms and
+      houses your feet, with rivers looking like ribbons, and mountains bigger
+      than the 'Vision seeming to be hay-stacks of green grass under you, gives
+      any satisfaction to a man, I can recommend the spot. When I first came
+      into the woods to live, I used to have weak spells when I felt lonesome:
+      and then I would go into the Catskills, and spend a few days on that hill
+      to look at the ways of man; but it's now many a year since I felt any such
+      longings, and I am getting too old for rugged rocks. But there's a place,
+      a short two miles back of that very hill, that in late times I relished
+      better than the mountains: for it was more covered with the trees, and
+      natural.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where was that?&rdquo; inquired Edwards, whose curiosity was strongly
+      excited by the simple description of the hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there's a fall in the hills where the water of two little ponds.
+      that lie near each other, breaks out of their bounds and runs over the
+      rocks into the valley. The stream is, maybe, such a one as would turn a
+      mill, if so useless thing was wanted in the wilderness. But the hand that
+      made that 'Leap' never made a mill. There the water comes crooking and
+      winding among the rocks, first so slow that a trout could swim in it, and
+      then starting and running like a creatur' that wanted to make a far
+      spring, till it gets to where the mountain divides, like the cleft hoof of
+      a deer, leaving a deep hollow for the brook to tumble into. The first
+      pitch is nigh two hundred feet, and the water looks like flakes of driven
+      snow afore it touches the bottom; and there the stream gathers itself
+      together again for a new start, and maybe flutters over fifty feet of flat
+      rock before it falls for another hundred, when it jumps about from shelf
+      to shelf, first turning this-away and then turning that-away, striving to
+      get out of the hollow, till it finally comes to the plain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never heard of this spot before; it is not mentioned in the
+      books.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never read a book in my life,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking; &ldquo;and how should a
+      man who has lived in towns and schools know anything about the wonders of
+      the woods? No, no, lad; there has that little stream of water been playing
+      among the hills since He made the world, and not a dozen white men have
+      ever laid eyes on it. The rock sweeps like mason-work, in a half-round, on
+      both sides of the fall, and shelves over the bottom for fifty feet; so
+      that when I've been sitting at the foot of the first pitch, and my hounds
+      have run into the caverns behind the sheet of water, they've looked no
+      bigger than so many rabbits. To my judgment, lad, it's the best piece of
+      work that I've met with in the woods; and none know how often the hand of
+      God is seen in the wilderness, but them that rove it for a man's life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What becomes of the water? In which direction does it run? Is it a
+      tributary of the Delaware?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan!&rdquo; said Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the water run into the Delaware?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; it's a drop for the old Hudson, and a merry time it has till it
+      gets down off the mountain. I've sat on the shelving rock many a long
+      hour, boy, and watched the bubbles as they shot by me, and thought how
+      long it would be before that very water, which seemed made for the
+      wilderness, would be under the bottom of a vessel, and tossing in the salt
+      sea. It is a spot to make a man solemnize. You go right down into the
+      valley that lies to the east of the High Peak, where, in the fall of the
+      year, thousands of acres of woods are before your eyes, in the deep
+      hollow, and along the side of the mountain, painted like ten thousand
+      rainbows, by no hand of man, though without the ordering of God's
+      providence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are eloquent, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; exclaimed the youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan!&rdquo; repeated Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The recollection of the sight has warmed your blood, old man. How many
+      years is it since you saw the place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter made no reply; but, bending his ear near the water, he sat
+      holding his breath, and listening attentively as if to some distant sound.
+      At length he raised his head, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I hadn't fastened the hounds with my own hands, with a fresh leash of
+      green buckskin, I'd take a Bible oath that I heard old Hector ringing his
+      cry on the mountain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible,&rdquo; said Edwards; &ldquo;it is not an hour since I saw him in
+      his kennel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the attention of Mohegan was attracted to the sounds; but,
+      notwithstanding the youth was both silent and attentive, he could hear
+      nothing but the lowing of some cattle from the western hills. He looked at
+      the old men, Natty sitting with his hand to his ear, like a trumpet, and
+      Mohegan bending forward, with an arm raised to a level with his face,
+      holding the forefinger elevated as a signal for attention, and laughed
+      aloud at what he deemed to be imaginary sounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laugh if you will, boy,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, &ldquo;the hounds be out, and
+      are hunting a deer, No man can deceive me in such a matter. I wouldn't
+      have had the thing happen for a beaver's skin. Not that I care for the
+      law; but the venison is lean now, and the dumb things run the flesh off
+      their own bones for no good. Now do you hear the hounds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Edwards started, as a full cry broke on his ear, changing from the distant
+      sounds that were caused by some intervening hill, to confused echoes that
+      rang among the rocks that the dogs were passing, and then directly to a
+      deep and hollow baying that pealed under the forest under the Lake shore.
+      These variations in the tones of the hounds passed with amazing rapidity;
+      and, while his eyes were glancing along the margin of the water, a tearing
+      of the branches of the alder and dogwood caught his attention, at a spot
+      near them and at the next moment a noble buck sprang on the shore, and
+      buried himself in the lake. A full-mouthed cry followed, when Hector and
+      the slut shot through the opening in the bushes, and darted into the lake
+      also, bearing their breasts gallantly against the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oft in the full descending flood he tries
+     To lose the scent, and lave his burning sides.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Thomson.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knowed it&mdash;I knowed it!&rdquo; cried Natty, when both deer and hounds
+      were in full view; &ldquo;the buck has gone by them with the wind, and it has
+      been too much for the poor rogues; but I must break them of these tricks,
+      or they'll give me a deal of trouble. He-ere, he-ere&mdash;shore with you,
+      rascals&mdash;shore with you&mdash;will ye? Oh! off with you, old Hector,
+      or I'll hackle your hide with my ramrod when I get ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dogs knew their master's voice, and after swimming in a circle, as if
+      reluctant to give over the chase, and yet afraid to persevere, they
+      finally obeyed, and returned to the land, where they filled the air with
+      their cries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time the deer, urged by his fears, had swum over half the
+      distance between the shore and the boats, before his terror permitted him
+      to see the new danger. But at the sounds of Natty's voice, he turned short
+      in his course and for a few moments seemed about to rush back again, and
+      brave the dogs. His retreat in this direction was, however, effectually
+      cut off, and, turning a second time, he urged his course obliquely for the
+      centre of the lake, with an intention of landing on the western shore. As
+      the buck swam by the fishermen, raising his nose high into the air,
+      curling the water before his slim neck like the beak of a galley, the
+      Leather-Stocking began to sit very uneasy in his canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis a noble creatur'!&rdquo; he exclaimed; &ldquo;what a pair of horns! a man might
+      hang up all his garments on the branches. Let me see&mdash;July is the
+      last month, and the flesh must be getting good.&rdquo; While he was talking,
+      Natty had instinctively employed himself in fastening the inner end of the
+      bark rope, that served him for a cable, to a paddle, and, rising suddenly
+      on his legs, he cast this buoy away, and cried; &ldquo;Strike out, John! let her
+      go. The creatur's a fool to tempt a man in this way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan threw the fastening of the youth's boat from the canoe, and with
+      one stroke of his paddle sent the light bark over the water like a meteor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold!&rdquo; exclaimed Edwards. &ldquo;Remember the law, my old friends. You are in
+      plain sight of the village, and I know that Judge Temple is determined to
+      prosecute all, indiscriminately, who kill deer out of season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The remonstrance came too late; the canoe was already far from the skiff,
+      and the two hunters were too much engaged in the pursuit to listen to his
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The buck was now within fifty yards of his pursuers, cutting the water
+      gallantly, and snorting at each breath with terror and his exertions,
+      while the canoe seemed to dance over the waves as it rose and fell with
+      the undulations made by its own motion. Leather-Stocking raised his rifle
+      and freshened the priming, but stood in suspense whether to slay his
+      victim or not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I, John or no?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It seems but a poor advantage to take of
+      the dumb thing, too. I won't; it has taken to the water on its own natur',
+      which is the reason that God has given to a deer, and I'll give it the
+      lake play; so, John, lay out your arm, and mind the turn of the buck; it's
+      easy to catch them, but they'll turn like a snake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian laughed at the conceit of his friend, but continued to send the
+      canoe forward with a velocity' that proceeded much more from skill than
+      his strength. Both of the old men now used the language of the Delawares
+      when they spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hugh!&rdquo; exclaimed Mohegan; &ldquo;the deer turns his head. Hawk-eye, lift your
+      spear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty never moved abroad without taking with him every implement that
+      might, by possibility, be of service in his pursuits. From his rifle he
+      never parted; and although intending to fish with the line, the canoe was
+      invariably furnished with all of its utensils, even to its grate This
+      precaution grew out of the habits of the hunter, who was often led, by his
+      necessities or his sports, far beyond the limits of his original
+      destination. A few years earlier than the date of our tale, the
+      Leather-Stocking had left his hut on the shores of the Otsego, with his
+      rifle and his hounds, for a few days' hunting in the hills; but before he
+      returned he had seen the waters of Ontario. One, two, or even three
+      hundred miles had once been nothing to his sinews, which were now a little
+      stiffened by age. The hunter did as Mohegan advised, and prepared to
+      strike a blow with the barbed weapon into the neck of the buck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay her more to the left, John,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;lay her more to the left;
+      another stroke of the paddle and I have him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While speaking he raised the spear, and darted it front him like an arrow.
+      At that instant the buck turned, the long pole glanced by him, the iron
+      striking against his horn, and buried itself harmlessly in the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back water,&rdquo; cried Natty, as the canoe glided over the place where the
+      spear had fallen; &ldquo;hold water, John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The pole soon reappeared, shooting up from the lake, and, as the hunter
+      seized it in his hand, the Indian whirled the light canoe round, and
+      renewed the chase. But this evolution gave the buck a great advantage; and
+      it also allowed time for Edwards to approach the scene of action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your hand, Natty!&rdquo; cried the youth, &ldquo;hold your hand; remember it is
+      out of season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remonstrance was made as the batteau arrived close to the place where
+      the deer was struggling with the water, his back now rising to the
+      surface, now sinking beneath it, as the waves curled from his neck, the
+      animal still sustaining itself nobly against the odds,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurrah!&rdquo; shouted Edwards, inflamed beyond prudence at the sight; &ldquo;mind
+      him as he doubles&mdash;mind him as he doubles; sheer more to the right,
+      Mohegan, more to the right, and I'll have him by the horns; I'll throw the
+      rope over his antlers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dark eye of the old warrior was dancing in his head with a wild
+      animation, and the sluggish repose in which his aged frame had been
+      resting in the canoe was now changed to all the rapid inflections of
+      practiced agility. The canoe whirled with each cunning evolution of the
+      chase, like a bubble floating in a whirlpool; and when the direction of
+      the pursuit admitted of a straight course the little bark skimmed the lake
+      with a velocity that urged the deer to seek its safety in some new turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the frequency of these circuitous movements that, by confining the
+      action to so small a compass, enabled the youth to keep near his
+      companions. More than twenty times both the pursued and the pursuer glided
+      by him, just without the reach of his oars, until he thought the best way
+      to view the sport was to remain stationary, and, by watching a favorable
+      opportunity, assist as much as he could in taking the victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not required to wait long, for no sooner had he adopted this
+      resolution, and risen in the boat, than he saw the deer coming bravely
+      toward him, with an apparent intention of pushing for a point of land at
+      some distance from the hounds, who were still barking and howling on the
+      shore. Edwards caught the painter of his skiff, and, making a noose, cast
+      it from him with all his force, and luckily succeeded in drawing its knot
+      close around one of the antlers of the buck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For one instant the skiff was drawn through the water, but in the next the
+      canoe glided before it, and Natty, bending low, passed his knife across
+      the throat of the animal, whose blood followed the wound, dyeing the
+      waters. The short time that was passed in the last struggles of the animal
+      was spent by the hunters in bringing their boats together and securing
+      them in that position, when Leather-Stocking drew the deer from the water
+      and laid its lifeless form in the bottom of the canoe. He placed his hands
+      on the ribs, and on different parts of the body of his prize, and then,
+      raising his head, he laughed in his peculiar manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much for Marmaduke Temple's law!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;This warms a body's blood,
+      old John: I haven't killed a buck in the lake afore this, sin' many a
+      year. I call that good venison, lad: and I know them that will relish the
+      creatur's steaks for all the betterments in the land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian had long been drooping with his years, and perhaps under the
+      calamities of his race, but this invigorating and exciting sport caused a
+      gleam of sunshine to cross his swarthy face that had long been absent from
+      his features. It was evident the old man enjoyed the chase more as a
+      memorial of his youthful sports and deeds than with any expectation of
+      profiting by the success. He felt the deer, however, lightly, his hand
+      already trembling with the reaction of his unusual exertions, and smiled
+      with a nod of approbation, as he said, in the emphatic and sententious
+      manner of his people:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid, Natty,&rdquo; said Edwards, when the heat of the moment had
+      passed, and his blood began to cool, &ldquo;that we have all been equally
+      transgressors of the law. But keep your own counsel, and there are none
+      here to betray us. Yet how came those dogs at large? I left them securely
+      fastened, I know, for I felt the thongs and examined the knots when I was
+      at the hunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been too much for the poor things,&rdquo; said Natty, &ldquo;to have such a
+      buck take the wind of them. See, lad, the pieces of the buckskin are
+      hanging from their necks yet. Let us paddle up, John, and I will call them
+      in and look a little into the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the old hunter landed and examined the thongs that were yet fast to
+      the hounds, his countenance sensibly changed, and he shook his head
+      doubtingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here has been a knife at work,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;this skin was never torn, nor
+      is this the mark of a hound's tooth. No, no&mdash;Hector is not in fault,
+      as I feared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the leather been cut?&rdquo; cried Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no&mdash;I didn't say it had been cut, lad; but this is a mark that
+      was never made by a jump or a bite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could that rascally carpenter have dared!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! he durst do anything when there is no danger,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;he is a
+      curious body, and loves to be helping other people on with their consarns.
+      But he had best not harbor so much near the wigwam!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Mohegan had been examining, with an Indian's sagacity,
+      the place where the leather thong had been separated. After scrutinizing
+      it closely, he said, in Delaware:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was cut with a knife&mdash;a sharp blade and a long handle&mdash;the
+      man was afraid of the dogs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is this, Mohegan?&rdquo; exclaimed Edwards; &ldquo;you saw it not! how can you
+      know these facts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, son,&rdquo; said the warrior. &ldquo;The knife was sharp, for the cut was
+      smooth; the handle was long, for a man's arm would not reach from this
+      gash to the cut that did not go through the skin; he was a coward, or he
+      would have cut the thongs around the necks of the hounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On my life,&rdquo; cried Natty, &ldquo;John is on the scent! It was the carpenter;
+      and he has got on the rock back of the kennel and let the dogs loose by
+      fastening his knife to a stick. It would be an easy matter to do it where
+      a man is so minded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should he do so?&rdquo; asked Edwards; &ldquo;who has done him wrong, that he
+      should trouble two old men like you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a hard matter, lad, to know men's ways, I find, since the settlers
+      have brought in their new fashions, But is there nothing to be found out
+      in the place? and maybe he is troubled with his longings after other
+      people's business, as he often is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your suspicions are just. Give me the canoe; I am young and strong, and
+      will get down there yet, perhaps, in time to interrupt his plans. Heaven
+      forbid that we should be at the mercy of such a man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His proposal was accepted, the deer being placed in the skiff in order to
+      lighten the canoe, and in less than five minutes the little vessel of bark
+      was gilding over the glassy lake, and was soon hid by the points of land
+      as it shot close along the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan followed slowly with the skiff, while Natty called his hounds to
+      him, bade them keep close, and, shouldering his rifle, he ascended the
+      mountain, with an intention of going to the hut by land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ask me not what the maiden feels,
+     Left in that dreadful hour alone:
+     Perchance, her reason stoops, or reel!
+     Perchance, a courage not her own
+     Braces her mind to desperate tone.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Scott.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While the chase was occurring on the lake, Miss Temple and her companion
+      pursued their walk on the mountain. Male attendants on such excursions
+      were thought to be altogether unnecessary, for none were even known to
+      offer insult to a female who respected herself. After the embarrassment
+      created by the parting discourse with Edwards had dissipated, the girls
+      maintained a conversation that was as innocent and cheerful as themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path they took led them but a short distance above the hut of
+      Leather-Stocking, and there was a point in the road which commanded a
+      bird's-eye view of the sequestered spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a feeling that might have been, natural, and must have been powerful,
+      neither of the friends, in their frequent and confidential dialogues, had
+      ever trusted herself to utter one syllable concerning the equivocal
+      situation in which the young man who was now so intimately associated with
+      them had been found. If judge Temple had deemed it prudent to make any
+      inquiries on the subject, he had also thought it proper to keep the
+      answers to him self; though it was so common an occurrence to find the
+      well-educated youth of the Eastern States in every stage of their career
+      to wealth, that the simple circumstance of his intelligence, connected
+      with his poverty, would not, at that day and in that country, have excited
+      any very powerful curiosity. With his breeding, it might have been
+      different; but the youth himself had so effectually guarded against
+      surprise on this subject, by his cold and even, in some cases, rude
+      deportment, that when his manners seemed to soften by time, the Judge, if
+      he thought about it at all, would have been most likely to imagine that
+      the improvement was the result of his late association. But women are
+      always more alive to such subjects than men; and what the abstraction of
+      the father had overlooked, the observation of the daughter had easily
+      detected. In the thousand little courtesies of polished life she had early
+      discovered that Edwards was not wanting, though his gentleness was so
+      often crossed by marks of what she conceived to be fierce and
+      uncontrollable passions. It may, perhaps, be unnecessary to tell the
+      reader that Louisa Grant never reasoned so much after the fashions of the
+      world. The gentle girl, however, had her own thoughts on the subject, and,
+      like others, she drew her own conclusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would give all my other secrets, Louisa,&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Temple,
+      laughing, and shaking back her dark locks, with a look of childish
+      simplicity that her intelligent face seldom expressed, &ldquo;to be mistress of
+      all that those rude logs have heard and witnessed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were both looking at the secluded hut at the instant, and Miss Grant
+      raised her mild eyes as she answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure they would tell nothing to the disadvantage of Mr. Edwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not; but they might, at least, tell who he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, dear Miss Temple, we know all that already. I have heard it all very
+      rationally explained by your cousin&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The executive chief! he can explain anything. His ingenuity will one day
+      discover the philosopher's stone. But what did he say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say!&rdquo; echoed Louisa, with a look of surprise; &ldquo;why, everything that
+      seemed to me to be satisfactory, and I now believed it to be true. He said
+      that Natty Bumppo had lived most of his life in the woods and among the
+      Indians, by which means he had formed an acquaintance with old John, the
+      Delaware chief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed! that was quite a matter-of-fact tale for Cousin Dickon. What came
+      next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe he accounted for their close intimacy by some story about the
+      Leather-Stocking saving the life of John in a battle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing more likely,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, a little impatiently; &ldquo;but what is
+      all this to the purpose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Elizabeth, you must bear with my ignorance, and I will repeat all
+      that I remember to have overheard for the dialogue was between my father
+      and the sheriff, so lately as the last time they met, He then added that
+      the kings of England used to keep gentlemen as agents among the different
+      tribes of Indians, and sometimes officers in the army, who frequently
+      passed half their lives on the edge of the wilderness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Told with wonderful historical accuracy! And did he end there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no&mdash;then he said that these agents seldom married; and&mdash;and&mdash;they
+      must have been wicked men, Elizabeth! but I assure you he said so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; said Miss Temple, blushing and smiling, though so slightly
+      that both were unheeded by her companion; &ldquo;skip all that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, he said that they often took great pride in the education of
+      their children, whom they frequently sent to England, and even to the
+      colleges; and this is the way that he accounts for the liberal manner in
+      which Mr. Edwards has been taught; for he acknowledges that he knows
+      almost as much as your father&mdash;or mine&mdash;or even himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite a climax in learning'. And so he made Mohegan the granduncle or
+      grandfather of Oliver Edwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard him yourself, then?&rdquo; said Louisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Often; but not on this subject. Mr. Richard Jones, you know, dear, has a
+      theory for everything; but has he one which will explain the reason why
+      that hut is the only habitation within fifty miles of us whose door is not
+      open to every person who may choose to lift its latch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never heard him say anything on this subject,&rdquo; returned the
+      clergyman's daughter; &ldquo;but I suppose that, as they are poor, they very
+      naturally are anxious to keep the little that they honestly own. It is
+      sometimes dangerous to be rich, Miss Temple; but you cannot know how hard
+      it is to be very, very poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor you, I trust, Louisa; at least I should hope that, in this land of
+      abundance, no minister of the church could be left in absolute suffering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There cannot be actual misery,&rdquo; returned the other, in a low and humble
+      tone, &ldquo;where there is a dependence on our Maker; but there may be such
+      suffering as will cause the heart to ache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not you&mdash;not you,&rdquo; said the impetuous Elizabeth&mdash;&ldquo;not you,
+      dear girl, you have never known the misery that is connected with
+      poverty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Miss Temple, you little understand the troubles of this life, I
+      believe. My father has spent many years as a missionary in the new
+      countries, where his people were poor, and frequently we have been without
+      bread; unable to buy, and ashamed to beg, because we would not disgrace
+      his sacred calling. But how often have I seen him leave his home, where
+      the sick and the hungry felt, when he left them, that they had lost their
+      only earthly friend, to ride on a duty which could not be neglected for
+      domes tic evils! Oh! how hard it must be to preach consolation to others
+      when your own heart is bursting with anguish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it is all over now! your father's income must now be equal to his
+      wants&mdash;it must be&mdash;it shall be&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is,&rdquo; replied Louisa, dropping her head on her bosom to conceal the
+      tears which flowed in spite of her gentle Christianity&mdash;&ldquo;for there
+      are none left to be supplied but me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The turn the conversation had taken drove from the minds of the young
+      maidens all other thoughts but those of holy charity; and Elizabeth folded
+      her friend in her arms, when the latter gave vent to her momentary grief
+      in audible sobs. When this burst of emotion had subsided, Louisa raised
+      her mild countenance, and they continued their walk in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time they had gained the summit of the mountain, where they left
+      the highway, and pursued their course under the shade of the stately trees
+      that crowned the eminence. The day was becoming warm, and the girls
+      plunged more deeply into the forest, as they found its invigorating
+      coolness agreeably contrasted to the excessive heat they had experienced
+      in the ascent. The conversation, as if by mutual consent, was entirely
+      changed to the little incidents and scenes of their walk, and every tall
+      pine, and every shrub or flower, called forth some simple expression of
+      admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this manner they proceeded along the margin of the precipice, catching
+      occasional glimpses of the placid Otsego, or pausing to listen to the
+      rattling of wheels and the sounds of hammers that rose from the valley, to
+      mingle the signs of men with the scenes of nature, when Elizabeth suddenly
+      started, and exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen! there are the cries of a child on this mountain! Is there a
+      clearing near us, or can some little one have strayed from its parents?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such things frequently happen,&rdquo; returned Louisa. &ldquo;Let us follow the
+      sounds; it may be a wanderer starving on the hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Urged by this consideration, the females pursued the low, mournful sounds,
+      that proceeded from the forest, with quick and impatient steps. More than
+      once, the ardent Elizabeth was on the point of announcing that she saw the
+      sufferer, when Louisa caught her by the arm, and pointing behind them,
+      cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at the dog!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Brave had been their companion, from the time the voice of his young
+      mistress lured him from his kennel, to the present moment. His advanced
+      age had long before deprived him of his activity; and when his companions
+      stopped to view the scenery, or to add to their bouquets, the mastiff
+      would lay his huge frame on the ground and await their movements, with his
+      eyes closed, and a listlessness in his air that ill accorded with the
+      character of a protector. But when, aroused by this cry from Louisa, Miss
+      Temple turned, she saw the dog with his eyes keenly set on some distant
+      object, his head bent near the ground, and his hair actually rising on his
+      body, through fright or anger. It was most probably the latter, for he was
+      growling in a low key, and occasionally showing his teeth, in a manner
+      that would have terrified his mistress, had she not so well known his good
+      qualities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;be quiet, Brave! What do you see, fellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sounds of her voice, the rage of the mastiff, instead of being at
+      all diminished, was very sensibly increased. He stalked in front of the
+      ladies, and seated himself at the feet of his mistress, growling louder
+      than before, and occasionally giving vent to his ire by a short, surly
+      barking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he see?&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;there must be some animal in sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hearing no answer from her companion, Miss Temple turned her head and
+      beheld Louisa, standing with her face whitened to the color of death, and
+      her finger pointing upward with a sort of flickering, convulsed motion.
+      The quick eye of Elizabeth glanced in the direction indicated by her
+      friend, where she saw the fierce front and glaring eyes of a female
+      panther, fixed on them in horrid malignity, and threatening to leap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us fly,&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth, grasping the arm of Louisa, whose form
+      yielded like melting snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a single feeling in the temperament of Elizabeth Temple that
+      could prompt her to desert a companion in such an extremity. She fell on
+      her knees by the side of the inanimate Louisa, tearing from the person of
+      her friend, with instinctive readiness, such parts of her dress as might
+      obstruct her respiration, and encouraging their only safeguard, the dog,
+      at the same time, by the sounds of her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Courage, Brave!&rdquo; she cried, her own tones beginning to tremble, &ldquo;courage,
+      courage, good Brave!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter-grown cub, that had hitherto been unseen, now appeared, dropping
+      from the branches of a sapling that grew under the shade of the beech
+      which held its dam. This ignorant but vicious creature approached the dog,
+      imitating the actions and sounds of its parent, but exhibiting a strange
+      mixture of the playfulness of a kitten with the ferocity of its race.
+      Standing on its hind-legs, it would rend the bark of a tree with its
+      fore-paws, and play the antics of a cat; and then, by lashing itself with
+      its tail, growling, and scratching the earth, it would at tempt the
+      manifestations of anger that rendered its parent so terrific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time Brave stood firm and undaunted, his short tail erect, his
+      body drawn backward on its haunches, and his eyes following the movements
+      of both dam and cub. At every gambol played by the latter, it approached
+      nigher to the dog, the growling of the three becoming more horrid at each
+      moment, until the younger beast, over-leaping its intended bound, fell
+      directly before the mastiff. There was a moment of fearful cries and
+      struggles, but they ended almost as soon as commenced, by the cub
+      appearing in the air, hurled from the jaws of Brave, with a violence that
+      sent it against a tree so forcibly as to render it completely senseless.
+      Elizabeth witnessed the short struggle, and her blood was warming with the
+      triumph of the dog, when she saw the form of the old panther in the air,
+      springing twenty feet from the branch of the beech to the back of the
+      mastiff. No words of ours can describe the fury of the conflict that
+      followed. It was a confused struggle on the dry leaves, accompanied by
+      loud and terrific cries. Miss Temple continued on her knees, bending over
+      the form of Louisa, her eyes fixed on the animals with an interest so
+      horrid, and yet so intense, that she almost forgot her own stake in the
+      result. So rapid and vigorous were the bounds of the inhabitant of the
+      forest, that its active frame seemed constantly in the air, while the dog
+      nobly faced his foe at each successive leap. When the panther lighted on
+      the shoulders of the mastiff, which was its constant aim, old Brave,
+      though torn with her talons, and stained with his own blood, that already
+      flowed from a dozen wounds, would shake off his furious foe like a
+      feather, and, rearing on his hind-legs, rush to the fray again, with jaws
+      distended, and a dauntless eye. But age, and his pampered life, greatly
+      disqualified the noble mastiff for such a struggle. In everything but
+      courage, he was only the vestige of what he had once been. A higher bound
+      than ever raised the wary and furious beast far beyond the reach of the
+      dog, who was making a desperate but fruitless dash at her, from which she
+      alighted in a favorable position, on the back of her aged foe. For a
+      single moment only could the panther remain there, the great strength of
+      the dog returning with a convulsive effort. But Elizabeth saw, as Brave
+      fastened his teeth in the side of his enemy, that the collar of brass
+      around his neck, which had been glittering throughout the fray, was of the
+      color of blood, and directly that his frame was sinking to the earth,
+      where it soon lay prostrate and helpless. Several mighty efforts of the
+      wild-cat to extricate herself from the jaws of the dog followed, but they
+      were fruitless, until the mastiff turned on his back, his lips collapsed,
+      and his teeth loosened, when the short convulsions and stillness that
+      succeeded announced the death of poor Brave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth now lay wholly at the mercy of the beast. There is said to be
+      something in the front of the image of the Maker that daunts the hearts of
+      the inferior beings of his creation; and it would seem that some such
+      power, in the present instance, suspended the threatened blow. The eyes of
+      the monster and the kneeling maiden met for an instant, when the former
+      stooped to examine her fallen foe; next, to scent her luckless cub. From
+      the latter examination it turned, however, with its eyes apparently
+      emitting flashes of fire, its tail lashing its sides furiously, and its
+      claws projecting inches from her broad feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple did not or could not move. Her hands were clasped in the
+      attitude of prayer, but her eyes were still drawn to her terrible enemy&mdash;her
+      cheeks were blanched to the whiteness of marble, and her lips were
+      slightly separated with horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment seemed now to have arrived for the fatal termination, and the
+      beautiful figure of Elizabeth was bowing meekly to the stroke, when a
+      rustling of leaves behind seemed rather to mock the organs than to meet
+      her ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hist! hist!&rdquo; said a low voice, &ldquo;stoop lower, gal; your bonnet hides the
+      creatur's head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was rather the yielding of nature than a compliance with this
+      unexpected order, that caused the head of our heroine to sink on her
+      bosom; when she heard the report of the rifle, the whizzing of the bullet,
+      and the enraged cries of the beast, who was rolling over on the earth,
+      biting its own flesh, and tearing the twigs and branches within its reach.
+      At the next instant the form of the Leather-Stocking rushed by her, and he
+      called aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, Hector! come in, old fool; 'tis a hard-lived animal, and may
+      jump agin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty fearlessly maintained his position in front of the females,
+      notwithstanding the violent bounds and threatening aspect of the wounded
+      panther, which gave several indications of returning strength and
+      ferocity, until his rifle was again loaded, when he stepped up to the
+      enraged animal, and, placing the muzzle close to its head, every spark of
+      life was extinguished by the discharge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The death of her terrible enemy appeared to Elizabeth like a resurrection
+      from her own grave. There was an elasticity in the mind of our heroine
+      that rose to meet the pressure of instant danger, and the more direct it
+      had been, the more her nature had struggled to overcome them. But still
+      she was a woman. Had she been left to herself in her late extremity, she
+      would probably have used her faculties to the utmost, and with discretion,
+      in protecting her person; but, encumbered with her inanimate friend,
+      retreat was a thing not to be attempted. Notwithstanding the fearful
+      aspect of her foe, the eye of Elizabeth had never shrunk from its gaze,
+      and long after the event her thoughts would recur to her passing
+      sensations, and the sweetness of her midnight sleep would be disturbed, as
+      her active fancy conjured, in dreams, the most trifling movements of
+      savage fury that the beast had exhibited in its moment of power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall leave the reader to imagine the restoration of Louisa's senses,
+      and the expressions of gratitude which fell from the young women. The
+      former was effected by a little water, that was brought from one of the
+      thousand springs of those mountains, in the cap of the Leather-Stocking;
+      and the latter were uttered with the warmth that might be expected from
+      the character of Elizabeth. Natty received her vehement protestations of
+      gratitude with a simple expression of good-will, and with indulgence for
+      her present excitement, but with a carelessness that showed how little he
+      thought of the service he had rendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;be it so, gal; let it be so, if you wish it&mdash;we'll
+      talk the thing over another time. Come, come&mdash;let us get into the
+      road, for you've had terror enough to make you wish yourself in your
+      father's house agin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was uttered as they were proceeding, at a pace that was adapted to
+      the weakness of Louisa, toward the highway; on reaching which the ladies
+      separated from their guide, declaring themselves equal to the remainder of
+      the walk without his assistance, and feeling encouraged by the sight of
+      the village which lay beneath their feet like a picture, with its limpid
+      lake in front, the winding stream along its margin, and its hundred
+      chimneys of whitened bricks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader need not be told the nature of the emotions which two youthful,
+      ingenuous, and well-educated girls would experience at their escape from a
+      death so horrid as the one which had impended over them, while they
+      pursued their way in silence along the track on the side of the mountain;
+      nor how deep were their mental thanks to that Power which had given them
+      their existence, and which had not deserted them in their extremity;
+      neither how often they pressed each other's arms as the assurance of their
+      present safety came, like a healing balm, athwart their troubled spirits,
+      when their thoughts were recurring to the recent moments of horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leather-Stocking remained on the hill, gazing after their retiring
+      figures, until they were hidden by a bend in the road, when he whistled in
+      his dogs, and shouldering his rifle, he returned into the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it was a skeary thing to the young creatur's,&rdquo; said Natty, while he
+      retrod the path toward the plain. &ldquo;It might frighten an older woman, to
+      see a she-painter so near her, with a dead cub by its side. I wonder if I
+      had aimed at the varmint's eye, if I shouldn't have touched the life
+      sooner than in the forehead; but they are hard-lived animals, and it was a
+      good shot, consid'ring that I could see nothing but the head and the peak
+      of its tail. Hah! who goes there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How goes it, Natty?&rdquo; said Mr. Doolittle, stepping out of the bushes, with
+      a motion that was a good deal accelerated by the sight of the rifle, that
+      was already lowered in his direction. &ldquo;What! shooting this warm day! Mind,
+      old man, the law don't get hold on you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The law, squire! I have shook hands with the law these forty year,&rdquo;
+       returned Natty; &ldquo;for what has a man who lives in the wilderness to do with
+      the ways of the law?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much, maybe,&rdquo; said Hiram; &ldquo;but you sometimes trade in venison. I
+      s'pose you know, Leather-Stocking, that there is an act passed to lay a
+      fine of five pounds currency, or twelve dollars and fifty cents, by
+      decimals, on every man who kills a deer betwixt January and August. The
+      Judge had a great hand in getting the law through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can believe it,&rdquo; returned the old hunter; &ldquo;I can believe that or
+      anything of a man who carries on as he does in the country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the law is quite positive, and the Judge is bent on putting it in
+      force&mdash;five pounds penalty. I thought I heard your hounds out on the
+      scent of so'thing this morning; I didn't know but they might get you in
+      difficulty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They know their manners too well,&rdquo; said Natty carelessly. &ldquo;And how much
+      goes to the State's evidence, squire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much?&rdquo; repeated Hiram, quailing under the honest but sharp look of
+      the hunter; &ldquo;the informer gets half, I&mdash;I believe&mdash;yes, I guess
+      it's half. But there's blood on your sleeve, man&mdash;you haven't been
+      shooting anything this morning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have, though,&rdquo; said the hunter, nodding his head significantly to the
+      other, &ldquo;and a good shot I made of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;H-e-m!&rdquo; ejaculated the magistrate; &ldquo;and where is the game? I s'pose it's
+      of a good natur', for your dogs won't hunt anything that isn't choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'll hunt anything I tell them to, squire,&rdquo; cried Natty, favoring the
+      other with his laugh. &ldquo;They'll hunt you, if I say so. He-e-e-re,
+      he-e-e-re, Hector&mdash;he-e-e-re, slut&mdash;come this a-way, pups&mdash;come
+      this a-way&mdash;-come hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I have always heard a good character of the dogs,&rdquo; returned Mr.
+      Doolittle, quickening his pace by raising each leg in rapid succession, as
+      the hounds scented around his person. &ldquo;And where is the game,
+      Leather-Stocking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During this dialogue, the speakers had been walking at a very fast gait,
+      and Natty swung the end of his rifle round, pointing through the bushes,
+      and replied: &ldquo;There lies one. How do you like such meat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This!&rdquo; exclaimed Hiram; &ldquo;why, this is Judge Temple's dog Brave. Take
+      care, Leather-Stocking, and don't make an enemy of the Judge. I hope you
+      haven't harmed the animal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look for yourself, Mr. Doolittle,&rdquo; said Natty, drawing his knife from his
+      girdle, and wiping it in a knowing manner, once or twice across his
+      garment of buckskin; &ldquo;does his throat look as if I had cut it with this
+      knife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is dreadfully torn! it's an awful wound&mdash;no knife ever did this
+      deed. Who could have done it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The painters behind you, squire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Painters!&rdquo; echoed Hiram, whirling on his heel with an agility that would
+      have done credit to a dancing' master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be easy, man,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;there's two of the venomous things; but the
+      dog finished one, and I have fastened the other's jaws for her; so don't
+      be frightened, squire; they won't hurt you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where's the deer?&rdquo; cried Hiram, staring about him with a bewildered
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan? deer!&rdquo; repeated Natty. &ldquo;Sartain; an't there venison here, or didn't
+      you kill a buck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! when the law forbids the thing, squire!&rdquo; said the old hunter, &ldquo;I
+      hope there's no law agin' killing the painters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! there's a bounty on the scalps&mdash;but&mdash;will your dogs hunt
+      painters, Natty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything; didn't I tell you they would hunt a man? He-e-re, he-e-re, pups&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, I remember. Well, they are strange dogs, I must say&mdash;I am
+      quite in a wonderment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty had seated himself on the ground, and having laid the grim head of
+      his late ferocious enemy in his lap, was drawing his knife with a
+      practiced hand around the ears, which he tore from the head of the beast
+      in such a manner as to preserve their connection, when he answered;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What at, squire? did you never see a painter's scalp afore? Come, you are
+      a magistrate, I wish you'd make me out an order for the bounty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bounty!&rdquo; repeated Hiram, holding the ears on the end of his finger
+      for a moment, as if uncertain how to proceed. &ldquo;Well, let us go down to
+      your hut, where you can take the oath, and I will write out the order, I
+      suppose you have a Bible? All the law wants is the four evangelists and
+      the Lord's prayer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I keep no books,&rdquo; said Natty, a little coldly; &ldquo;not such a Bible as the
+      law needs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! there's but one sort of Bible that's good in law,&rdquo; returned the
+      magistrate, &ldquo;and your'n will do as well as another's. Come, the carcasses
+      are worth nothing, man; let us go down and take the oath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Softly, softly, squire,&rdquo; said the hunter, lifting his trophies very
+      deliberately from the ground, and shouldering his rifle; &ldquo;why do you want
+      an oath at all, for a thing that your own eyes has seen? Won't you believe
+      yourself, that another man must swear to a fact that you know to be true?
+      You have seen me scalp the creatur's, and if I must swear to it, it shall
+      be before Judge Temple, who needs an oath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we have no pen or paper here, Leather-Stocking; we must go to the hut
+      for them, or how can I write the order?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty turned his simple features on the cunning magistrate with another of
+      his laughs, as he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what should I be doing with scholars' tools? I want no pens or paper,
+      not knowing the use of either; and I keep none. No, no, I'll bring the
+      scalps into the village, squire, and you can make out the order on one of
+      your law-books, and it will be all the better for it. The deuce take this
+      leather on the neck of the dog, it will strangle the old fool. Can you
+      lend me a knife, squire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram, who seemed particularly anxious to be on good terms with his
+      companion, unhesitatingly complied. Natty cut the thong from the neck of
+      the hound, and, as he returned the knife to its owner, carelessly
+      remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis a good bit of steel, and has cut such leather as this very same,
+      before now, I dare say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean to charge me with letting your hounds loose?&rdquo; exclaimed
+      Hiram, with a consciousness that disarmed his caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loose!&rdquo; repeated the hunter&mdash;&ldquo;I let them loose myself. I always let
+      them loose before I leave the hut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ungovernable amazement with which Mr. Doolittle listened to this
+      falsehood would have betrayed his agency in the liberation of the dogs,
+      had Natty wanted any further confirmation; and the coolness and management
+      of the old man now disappeared in open indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look you here, Mr. Doolittle,&rdquo; he said, striking the breech of his rifle
+      violently on the ground; &ldquo;what there is in the wigwam of a poor man like
+      me, that one like you can crave, I don't know; but this I tell you to your
+      face, that you never shall put foot under the roof of my cabin with my
+      consent, and that, if you harbor round the spot as you have done lately,
+      you may meet with treatment that you will little relish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And let me tell you, Mr. Bumppo,&rdquo; said Hiram, retreating, however, with a
+      quick step, &ldquo;that I know you've broke the law, and that I'm a magistrate,
+      and will make you feel it too, before you are a day older.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That for you and your law, too,&rdquo; cried Natty, snap ping his fingers at
+      the justice of the peace; &ldquo;away with you, you varmint, before the devil
+      tempts me to give you your desarts. Take care, if I ever catch your
+      prowling face in the woods agin, that I don't shoot it for an owl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is something at all times commanding in honest indignation, and
+      Hiram did not stay to provoke the wrath of the old hunter to extremities.
+      When the intruder was out of sight, Natty proceeded to the hut, where he
+      found all quiet as the grave. He fastened his dogs, and tapping at the
+      door, which was opened by Edwards, asked;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is all safe, lad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything,&rdquo; returned the youth. &ldquo;Some one attempted the lock, but it was
+      too strong for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the creatur',&rdquo; said Natty, &ldquo;but he'll not trust himself within the
+      reach of my rifle very soon&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; What more was uttered by the
+      Leather-Stocking, in his vexation, was rendered inaudible by the closing
+      of the door of the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Timon of Athens.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When Marmaduke Temple and his cousin rode through the gate of the former,
+      the heart of the father had been too recently touched with the best
+      feelings of our nature, to leave inclination for immediate discourse.
+      There was an importance in the air of Richard, which would not have
+      admitted of the ordinary informal conversation of the sheriff, without
+      violating all the rules of consistency; and the equestrians pursued their
+      way with great diligence, for more than a mile, in profound silence. At
+      length the soft expression of parental affection was slowly chased from
+      the handsome features of the Judge, and was gradually supplanted by the
+      cast of humor and benevolence that was usually seated on his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Dickon,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;since I have yielded myself so far implicitly to
+      your guidance, I think the moment has arrived when I am entitled to
+      further confidence. Why and wherefore are we journeying together in this
+      solemn gait?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff gave a loud hem, that rang far in the forest, and keeping his
+      eyes fixed on objects before him like a man who is looking deep into
+      futurity:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There has always been one point of difference between us, Judge Temple, I
+      may say, since our nativity,&rdquo; he replied; &ldquo;not that I would insinuate that
+      you are at all answerable for the acts of Nature; for a man is no more to
+      be condemned for the misfortunes of his birth, than he is to be commended
+      for the natural advantages he may possess; but on one point we may be said
+      to have differed from our births, and they, you know, occurred within two
+      days of each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really marvel, Richard, what this one point can be, for, to my eyes, we
+      seem to differ so materially, and so often&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mere consequences, sir,&rdquo; interrupted the sheriff; &ldquo;all our minor
+      differences proceed from one cause, and that is, our opinions of the
+      universal attainments of genius.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what, Dickon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak plain English, I believe, Judge Temple: at least I ought; for my
+      father, who taught me, could speak&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Greek and Latin,&rdquo; interrupted Marmaduke. &ldquo;I well know the qualifications
+      of your family in tongues, Dickon. But proceed to the point; why are we
+      travelling over this mountain to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To do justice to any subject, sir, the narrator must be suffered to
+      proceed in his own way,&rdquo; continued the sheriff. &ldquo;You are of opinion, Judge
+      Temple, that a man is to be qualified by nature and education to do only
+      one thing well, whereas I know that genius will supply the place of
+      learning, and that a certain sort of man can do anything and everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like yourself, I suppose,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I scorn personalities, sir, I say nothing of myself; but there are three
+      men on your Patent, of the kind that I should term talented by nature for
+      her general purposes though acting under the influence of different
+      situations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are better off, then, than I had supposed. Who are these triumviri?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir, one is Hiram Doolittle; a carpenter by trade, as you know&mdash;and
+      I need only point to the village to exhibit his merits. Then he is a
+      magistrate, and might shame many a man, in his distribution of justice,
+      who has had better opportunities.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he is one,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, with the air of a man that was
+      determined not to dispute the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jotham Riddel is another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jotham Riddel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, that dissatisfied, shiftless, lazy, speculating fellow! he who
+      changes his county every three years, his farm every six months, and his
+      occupation every season! an agriculturist yesterday, a shoemaker to-day,
+      and a school master to-morrow! that epitome of all the unsteady and
+      profitless propensities of the settlers without one of their good
+      qualities to counterbalance the evil! Nay, Richard, this is too bad for
+      even&mdash;but the third.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As the third is not used to hearing such comments on his character, Judge
+      Temple, I shall not name him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The amount of all this, then, Dickon, is that the trio, of which you are
+      one, and the principal, have made some important discovery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not said that I am one, Judge Temple. As I told you before, say
+      nothing egotistical. But a discovery has been made, and you are deeply
+      interested in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proceed&mdash;I am all ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, 'Duke, you are bad enough, I own, but not so bad as that, either;
+      your ears are not quite full grown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff laughed heartily at his own wit, and put himself in good humor
+      thereby, when he gratified his patient cousin with the following
+      explanation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know, 'Duke, there is a man living on your estate that goes by the
+      name of Natty Bumppo. Here has this man lived, by what I can learn, for
+      more than forty years&mdash;by himself, until lately; and now with strange
+      companions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Part very true, and all very probable,&rdquo; said the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All true, sir; all true. Well, within these last few months have appeared
+      as his companions an old Indian chief, the last, or one of the last of his
+      tribe that is to be found in this part of the country, and a young man,
+      who is said to be the son of some Indian agent, by a squaw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who says that?&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, with an interest; that he had not
+      manifested before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? why, common sense&mdash;common report&mdash;the hue and cry. But
+      listen till you know all. This youth has very pretty talents&mdash;yes,
+      what I call very pretty talents&mdash;and has been well educated, has seen
+      very tolerable company, and knows how to behave himself when he has a mind
+      to. Now, Judge Temple, can you tell me what has brought three such men as
+      Indian John, Natty Bumppo, and Oliver Edwards together?&rdquo; Marmaduke turned
+      his countenance, in evident surprise, to his cousin, and replied quickly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast unexpectedly hit on a subject, Richard, that has often occupied
+      my mind. But knowest thou anything of this mystery, or are they only the
+      crude conjectures of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crude nothing, 'Duke, crude nothing: but facts, stubborn facts. You know
+      there are mines in these mountains; I have often heard you say that you
+      believed in their existence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Reasoning from analogy, Richard, but not with any certainty of the fact.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard them mentioned, and have seen specimens of the ore, sir;
+      you will not deny that! and, reasoning from analogy, as you say, if there
+      be mines in South America, ought there not to be mines in North America
+      too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, I deny nothing, my cousin. I certainly have heard many rumors
+      of the existence of mines in these hills: and I do believe that I have
+      seen specimens of the precious metals that have been found here. It would
+      occasion me no surprise to learn that tin and silver, or what I consider
+      of more consequence, good coal&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Damn your coal,&rdquo; cried the sheriff; &ldquo;who wants to find coal in these
+      forests? No, no&mdash;silver, 'Duke; silver is the one thing needful, and
+      silver is to be found. But listen: you are not to be told that the natives
+      have long known the use of gold and silver; now who so likely to be
+      acquainted where they are to be found as the ancient inhabitants of a
+      country? I have the best reasons for believing that both Mohegan and the
+      Leather-Stocking have been privy to the existence of a mine in this very
+      mountain for many years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sheriff had now touched his cousin in a sensitive spot; and Marmaduke
+      lent a more attentive ear to the speaker, who, after waiting a moment to
+      see the effect of this extraordinary development, proceeded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, I have my reasons, and at a proper time you shall know them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No time is so good as the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, be attentive,&rdquo; continued Richard, looking cautiously about
+      him, to make certain that no eavesdropper was hid in the forest, though
+      they were in constant motion. &ldquo;I have seen Mohegan and the
+      Leather-Stocking, with my own eyes&mdash;and my eyes are as good as
+      anybody's eyes&mdash;I have seen them, I say, both going up the mountain
+      and coming down it, with spades and picks; and others have seen them
+      carrying things into their hut, in a secret and mysterious manner, after
+      dark. Do you call this a fact of importance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge did not reply, but his brow had contracted, with a
+      thoughtfulness that he always wore when much interested, and his eyes
+      rested on his cousin in expectation of hearing more. Richard continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was ore. Now, sir, I ask if you can tell me who this Mr. Oliver
+      Edwards is, that has made a part of your household since Christmas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke again raised his eyes, but continued silent, shaking his head in
+      the negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he is a half-breed we know, for Mohegan does not scruple to call him
+      openly his kinsman; that he is well educated we know. But as to his
+      business here&mdash;do you remember that about a month before this young
+      man made his appearance among us, Natty was absent from home several days?
+      You do; for you inquired for him, as you wanted some venison to take to
+      your friends, when you went for Bess. Well, he was not to be found. Old
+      John was left in the hut alone, and when Natty did appear, although he
+      came on in the night, he was seen drawing one of those jumpers that they
+      carry their grain to mill in, and to take out something with great care,
+      that he had covered up under his bear-skins. Now let me ask you, Judge
+      Temple, what motive could induce a man like the Leather-Stocking to make a
+      sled, and toil with a load over these mountains, if he had nothing but his
+      rifle or his ammunition to carry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They frequently make these jumpers to convey their game home, and you say
+      he had been absent many days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did he kill it? His rifle was in the village, to be mended. No, no&mdash;that
+      he was gone to some unusual place is certain; that he brought back some
+      secret utensils is more certain; and that he has not allowed a soul to
+      approach his hut since is most certain of all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was never fond of intruders&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; interrupted Richard; &ldquo;but did he drive them from his cabin
+      morosely? Within a fortnight of his return, this Mr. Edwards appears. They
+      spend whole days in the mountains, pretending to be shooting, but in
+      reality exploring; the frosts prevent their digging at that time, and he
+      avails himself of a lucky accident to get into good quarters. But even
+      now, he is quite half of his time in that hut&mdash;many hours every
+      night. They are smelting, 'Duke they are smelting, and as they grow rich,
+      you grow poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much of this is thine own, Richard, and how much comes from others? I
+      would sift the wheat from the chaff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Part is my own, for I saw the jumper, though it was broken up and burnt
+      in a day or two. I have told you that I saw the old man with his spades
+      and picks. Hiram met Natty, as he was crossing the mountain, the night of
+      his arrival with the sled, and very good-naturedly offered&mdash;Hiram is
+      good-natured&mdash;to carry up part of his load, for the old man had a
+      heavy pull up the back of the mountain, but he wouldn't listen to the
+      thing, and repulsed the offer in such a manner that the squire said he had
+      half a mind to swear the peace against him. Since the snow has been off,
+      more especially after the frosts got out of the ground, we have kept a
+      watchful eye on the gentle man, in which we have found Jotham useful.&rdquo;
+       Marmaduke did not much like the associates of Richard in this business;
+      still he knew them to be cunning and ready expedients; and as there was
+      certainly something mysterious, not only in the connection between the old
+      hunters and Edwards, but in what his cousin had just related, he began to
+      revolve the subject in his own mind with more care. On reflection, he
+      remembered various circumstances that tended to corroborate these
+      suspicions, and, as the whole business favored one of his infirmities, he
+      yielded the more readily to their impression. The mind of Judge Temple, at
+      all times comprehensive, had received from his peculiar occupations a bias
+      to look far into futurity, in his speculations on the improvements that
+      posterity were to make in his lands. To his eye, where others saw nothing
+      but a wilderness, towns, manufactories, bridges, canals, mines, and all
+      the other resources of an old country were constantly presenting
+      themselves, though his good sense suppressed, in some degree, the
+      exhibition of these expectations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the sheriff allowed his cousin full time to reflect on what he had
+      heard, the probability of some pecuniary adventure being the connecting
+      link in the chain that brought Oliver Edwards into the cabin of
+      Leather-Stocking appeared to him each moment to be stronger. But Marmaduke
+      was too much in the habit of examining both sides of a subject not to
+      perceive the objections, and he reasoned with himself aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot be so, or the youth would not be driven so near the verge of
+      poverty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What so likely to make a man dig for money as being poor?&rdquo; cried the
+      sheriff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, there is an elevation of character about Oliver that proceeds
+      from education, which would forbid so clandestine a proceeding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could an ignorant fellow smelt?&rdquo; continued Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess hints that he was reduced even to his last shilling when we took him
+      into our dwelling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He had been buying tools. And would he spend his last sixpence for a shot
+      at a turkey had he not known where to get more?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I have possibly been so long a dupe? His manner has been rude to me
+      at times, but I attributed it to his conceiving himself injured, and to
+      his mistaking the forms of the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't you been a dupe all your life, 'Duke, and an't what you call
+      ignorance of forms deep cunning, to conceal his real character?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he were bent on deception, he would have concealed his knowledge, and
+      passed with us for an inferior man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He cannot. I could no more pass for a fool, myself, than I could fly.
+      Knowledge is not to be concealed, like a candle under a bushel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard,&rdquo; said the Judge, turning to his cousin, &ldquo;there are many reasons
+      against the truth of thy conjectures, but thou hast awakened suspicions
+      which must be satisfied. But why are we travelling here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jotham, who has been much in the mountain latterly, being kept there by
+      me and Hiram, has made a discovery, which he will not explain, he says,
+      for he is bound by an oath; but the amount is, that he knows where the ore
+      lies, and he has this day begun to dig. I would not consent to the thing,
+      'Duke, without your knowledge, for the land is yours; and now you know the
+      reason of our ride. I call this a countermine, ha!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is the desirable spot?&rdquo; asked the Judge with an air half
+      comical, half serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At hand; and when we have visited that, I will show you one of the places
+      that we have found within a week, where our hunters have been amusing
+      themselves for six months past.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentlemen continued to discuss the matter, while their horses picked
+      their way under the branches of the trees and over the uneven ground of
+      the mountain. They soon arrived at the end of their journey, where, in
+      truth, they found Jotham already buried to his neck in a hole that he had
+      been digging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke questioned the miner very closely as to his reasons for
+      believing in the existence of the precious metals near that particular
+      spot; but the fellow maintained an obstinate mystery in his answers. He
+      asserted that he had the best of reasons for what he did, and inquired of
+      the judge what portion of the profits would fall to his own share, in the
+      event of success, with an earnestness that proved his faith. After
+      spending an hour near the place, examining the stones, and searching for
+      the usual indications of the proximity of ore, the Judge remounted and
+      suffered his cousin to lead the way to the place where the mysterious trio
+      had been making their excavation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spot chosen by Jotham was on the back of the mountain that overhung
+      the hut of Leather-Stocking, and the place selected by Natty and his
+      companions was on the other side of the same hill, but above the road,
+      and, of course, in an opposite direction to the route taken by the ladies
+      in their walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be safe in approaching the place now,&rdquo; said Richard, while they
+      dismounted and fastened their horses; &ldquo;for I took a look with the glass,
+      and saw John and Leather-Stocking in their canoe fishing before we left
+      home, and Oliver is in the same pursuit; but these may be nothing but
+      shams to blind our eye; so we will be expeditious, for it would not be
+      pleasant to be caught here by them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on my own land?&rdquo; said Marmaduke sternly. &ldquo;If it be as you suspect, I
+      will know their reasons for making this excavation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mum,&rdquo; said Richard, laying a finger on his lip, and leading the way down
+      a very difficult descent to a sort of natural cavern, which was found in
+      the face of the rock, and was not unlike a fireplace in shape. In front of
+      this place lay a pile of earth, which had evidently been taken from the
+      recess, and part of which was yet fresh. An examination of the exterior of
+      the cavern left the Judge in doubt whether it was one of Nature's frolics
+      that had thrown it into that shape, or whether it had been wrought by the
+      hands of man, at some earlier period. But there could be no doubt that the
+      whole of the interior was of recent formation, and the marks of the pick
+      were still visible where the soft, lead-colored rock had opposed itself to
+      the progress of the miners. The whole formed an excavation of about twenty
+      feet in width, and nearly twice that distance in depth. The height was
+      much greater than was required for the ordinary purposes of experiment,
+      but this was evidently the effect of chance, as the roof of the cavern was
+      a natural stratum of rock that projected many feet beyond the base of the
+      pile. Immediately in front of the recess, or cave, was a little terrace,
+      partly formed by nature, and partly by the earth that had been carelessly
+      thrown aside by the laborers. The mountain fell off precipitously in front
+      of the terrace, and the approach by its sides, under the ridge of the
+      rocks, was difficult and a little dangerous. The whole was wild, rude, and
+      apparently incomplete; for, while looking among the bushes, the sheriff
+      found the very implements that had been used in the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sheriff thought that his cousin had examined the spot
+      sufficiently, he asked solemnly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judge Temple, are you satisfied?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly, that there is something mysterious and perplexing in this
+      business. It is a secret spot, and cunningly devised, Richard; yet I see
+      no symptoms of ore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you expect, sir, to find gold and silver lying like pebbles on the
+      surface of the earth?&mdash;dollars and dimes ready coined to your hands?
+      No, no&mdash;the treasure must be sought after to be won. But let them
+      mine; I shall countermine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge took an accurate survey of the place, and noted in his
+      memorandum-book such marks as were necessary to find it again in the event
+      of Richard's absence; when the cousins returned to their horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the highway they separated, the sheriff to summon twenty-four
+      &ldquo;good men and true,&rdquo; to attend as the inquest of the county, on the
+      succeeding Monday, when Marmaduke held his stated court of &ldquo;common pleas
+      and general sessions of the peace,&rdquo; and the Judge to return, musing deeply
+      on what he had seen and heard in the course of the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the horse of the latter reached the spot where the highway fell
+      toward the valley, the eye of Marmaduke rested, it is true, on the same
+      scene that had, ten minutes before, been so soothing to the feelings of
+      his daughter and her friend, as they emerged from the forest; but it
+      rested in vacancy. He threw the reins to his sure footed beast, and
+      suffered the animal to travel at his own gait, while he soliloquized as
+      follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be more in this than I at first supposed. I have suffered my
+      feelings to blind my reason, in admitting an unknown youth in this manner
+      to my dwelling; yet this is not the land of suspicion. I will have
+      Leather-Stocking before me, and, by a few direct questions, extract the
+      truth from the simple old man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that instant the Judge caught a glimpse of the figures of Elizabeth and
+      Louisa, who were slowly descending the mountain, short distance before
+      him. He put spurs to his horse, and riding up to them, dismounted, and
+      drove his steed along the narrow path. While the agitated parent was
+      listening to the vivid description that his daughter gave of her recent
+      danger, and her unexpected escape, all thoughts of mines, vested rights,
+      and examinations were absorbed in emotion; and when the image of Natty
+      again crossed his recollection, it was not as a law Less and depredating
+      squatter, but as the preserver of his child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The court awards it, and the law doth give it.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Merchant of Venice.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable Pettibone, who had forgotten the wound received by her pride,
+      in contemplation of the ease and comforts of her situation, and who still
+      retained her station in the family of judge Temple, was dispatched to the
+      humble dwelling which Richard already styled &ldquo;The Rectory,&rdquo; in attendance
+      on Louisa, who was soon consigned to the arms of her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Marmaduke and his daughter were closeted for more than
+      an hour, nor shall we invade the sanctuary of parental love, by relating
+      the conversation. When the curtain rises on the reader, the Judge is seen
+      walking up and down the apartment, with a tender melancholy in his air,
+      and his child reclining on a settee, with a flushed cheek, and her dark
+      eyes seeming to float in crystals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a timely rescue! it was, indeed, a timely rescue, my child!&rdquo; cried
+      the Judge. &ldquo;Then thou didst not desert thy friend, my noble Bess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I may as well take the credit of fortitude,&rdquo; said Elizabeth,
+      &ldquo;though I much doubt if flight would have availed me anything, had I even
+      courage to execute such an intention. But I thought not of the expedient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what didst thou think, love? where did thy thoughts dwell most, at
+      that fearful moment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The beast! the beast!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, veiling her face with her hand.
+      &ldquo;Oh! I saw nothing, I thought of nothing but the beast. I tried to think
+      of better things, but the horror was too glaring, the danger too much
+      before my eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, thou art safe, and we will converse no more on the unpleasant
+      subject. I did not think such an animal yet remained in our forests; but
+      they will stray far from their haunts when pressed by hunger, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A loud knocking at the door of the apartment interrupted what he was about
+      to utter, and he bid the applicant enter. The door was opened by Benjamin,
+      who came in with a discontented air, as if he felt that he had a
+      communication to make that would be out of season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is Squire Doolittle below, sir,&rdquo; commenced the major-domo. &ldquo;He has
+      been standing off and on in the door-yard for the matter of a glass; and
+      he has summat on his mind that he wants to heave up, d'ye see; but I tells
+      him, says I, man, would you be coming aboard with your complaints, said I,
+      when the judge has gotten his own child, as it were, out of the jaws of a
+      lion? But damn the bit of manners has the fellow, any more than if he was
+      one of them Guineas down in the kitchen there; and so as he was sheering
+      nearer, every stretch he made toward the house, I could do no better than
+      to let your honor know that the chap was in the offing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have business of importance,&rdquo; said Marmaduke: &ldquo;something in
+      relation to his office, most probably, as the court sits so shortly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, you have it, sir,&rdquo; cried Benjamin; &ldquo;it's summat about a complaint
+      that he has to make of the old Leather-Stocking, who, to my judgment, is
+      the better man of the two. It's a very good sort of a man is this Master
+      Bumppo, and he has a way with a spear, all the same as if he was brought
+      up at the bow-oar of the captain's barge, or was born with a boat-hook in
+      his hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Against the Leather-Stocking!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, rising from her reclining
+      posture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rest easy, my child; some trifle, I pledge you; I believe I am already
+      acquainted with its import Trust me, Bess, your champion shall be safe in
+      my care. Show Mr. Doolittle in, Benjamin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple appeared satisfied with this assurance, but fastened her dark
+      eyes on the person of the architect, who profited by the permission, and
+      instantly made his appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the impatience of Hiram seemed to vanish the instant he entered the
+      apartment. After saluting the Judge and his daughter, he took the chair to
+      which Marmaduke pointed, and sat for a minute, composing his straight
+      black hair, with a gravity of demeanor that was in tended to do honor to
+      his official station. At length he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's likely, from what I hear, that Miss Temple had a narrow chance with
+      the painters, on the mountain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke made a gentle inclination of his head, by way of assent, but
+      continued silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I s'pose the law gives a bounty on the scalps,&rdquo; continued Hiram, &ldquo;in
+      which case the Leather-Stocking will make a good job on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be my care to see that he is rewarded,&rdquo; returned the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, I rather guess that nobody hereabouts doubts the Judge's
+      generosity. Does he know whether the sheriff has fairly made up his mind
+      to have a reading desk or a deacon's pew under the pulpit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not heard my cousin speak on that subject, lately,&rdquo; replied
+      Marmaduke. &ldquo;I think it's likely that we will have a pretty dull court
+      on't, from what I can gather. I hear that Jotham Riddel and the man who
+      bought his betterments have agreed to leave their difference to men, and I
+      don't think there'll be more than two civil cases in the calendar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad of it,&rdquo; said the judge; &ldquo;nothing gives me more pain than to see
+      my settlers wasting their time and substance in the unprofitable struggles
+      of the law. I hope it may prove true, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather guess 'twill be left out to men,&rdquo; added Hiram, with an air
+      equally balanced between doubt and assurance, but which judge Temple
+      understood to mean certainty; &ldquo;I some think that I am appointed a referee
+      in the case myself; Jotham as much as told me that he should take me. The
+      defendant, I guess, means to take Captain Hollister, and we two have
+      partly agreed on Squire Jones for the third man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any criminals to be tried?&rdquo; asked Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's the counterfeiters,&rdquo; returned the magistrate, &ldquo;as they were
+      caught in the act, I think it likely that they'll be indicted, in which
+      case it's probable they'll be tried.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, sir; I had forgotten those men. There are no more, I hope.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Why, there is a threaten to come forward with an assault that happened at
+      the last independence day; but I'm not sartain that the law'll take hold
+      on't. There was plaguey hard words passed, but whether they struck or not
+      I haven't heard. There's some folks talk of a deer or two being killed out
+      of season, over on the west side of the Patent, by some of the squatters
+      on the 'Fractions.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let a complaint be made, by all means,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;I am determined
+      to see the law executed to the letter, on all such depredators.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes, I thought the judge was of that mind; I came partly on such a
+      business myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo; exclaimed Marmaduke, comprehending in an instant how completely he
+      had been caught by the other's cunning; &ldquo;and what have you to say, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I some think that Natty Bumppo has the carcass of a deer in his hut at
+      this moment, and a considerable part of my business was to get a
+      search-warrant to examine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think, sir! do you know that the law exacts an oath, before I can
+      issue such a precept? The habitation of a citizen is not to be idly
+      invaded on light suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather think I can swear to it myself,&rdquo; returned the immovable Hiram;
+      &ldquo;and Jotham is in the street, and as good as ready to come in and make
+      oath to the same thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then issue the warrant thyself; thou art a magistrate, Mr. Doolittle; why
+      trouble me with the matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, seeing it's the first complaint under the law, and knowing the judge
+      set his heart on the thing, I thought it best that the authority to search
+      should come from himself. Besides, as I'm much in the woods, among the
+      timber, I don't altogether like making an enemy of the Leather Stocking.
+      Now, the Judge has a weight in the county that puts him above fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple turned her face to the callous Architect as she said' &ldquo;And
+      what has any honest person to dread from so kind a man as Bumppo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it's as easy, miss, to pull a rifle trigger on a magistrate as on a
+      painter. But if the Judge don't conclude to issue the warrant, I must go
+      home and make it out myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not refused your application, sir,&rdquo; said Marmaduke, perceiving at
+      once that his reputation for impartiality was at stake; &ldquo;go into my
+      office, Mr. Doolittle, where I will join you, and sign the warrant.&rdquo; Judge
+      Temple stopped the remonstrances which Elizabeth was about to utter, after
+      Hiram had withdrawn, by laying his hand on her mouth, and saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is more terrible in sound than frightful in reality, my child. I
+      suppose that the Leather-Stocking has shot a deer, for the season is
+      nearly over, and you say that he was hunting with his dogs when he came so
+      timely to your assistance. But it will be only to examine his cabin, and
+      find the animal, when you can pay the penalty out of your own pocket,
+      Bess. Nothing short of the twelve dollars and a half will satisfy this
+      harpy, I perceive; and surely my reputation as judge is worth that
+      trifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth was a good deal pacified with this assurance, and suffered her
+      father to leave her, to fulfil his promise to Hiram.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Marmaduke left his office after executing his disagreeable duty, he
+      met Oliver Edwards, walking up the gravelled walk in front of the
+      mansion-house with great strides, and with a face agitated by feeling. On
+      seeing judge Temple, the youth turned aside, and with a warmth in his
+      manner that was not often exhibited to Marmaduke, he cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I congratulate you, sir; from the bottom of my soul, I congratulate you,
+      Judge Temple. Oh! it would have been too horrid to have recollected for a
+      moment! I have just left the hut, where, after showing me his scalps, old
+      Natty told me of the escape of the ladies, as the thing to be mentioned
+      last. Indeed, indeed, sir, no words of mine can express half of what I
+      have felt &ldquo;&mdash;the youth paused a moment, as if suddenly recollecting
+      that he was overstepping prescribed limits, and concluded with a good deal
+      of embarrassment&mdash;&ldquo;what I have felt at this danger to Miss&mdash;Grant,
+      and&mdash;and your daughter, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the heart of Marmaduke was too much softened to admit his cavilling at
+      trifles, and, without regarding the confusion of the other, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank thee, thank thee, Oliver; as thou sayest, it is almost too horrid
+      to be remembered. But come, let us hasten to Bess, for Louisa has already
+      gone to the rectory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man sprang forward, and, throwing open a door, barely permitted
+      the Judge to precede him, when he was in the presence of Elizabeth in a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cold distance that often crossed the demeanor of the heiress, in her
+      intercourse with Edwards, was now entirely banished, and two hours were
+      passed by the party, in the free, unembarrassed, and confiding manner of
+      old and esteemed friends. Judge Temple had forgotten the suspicions
+      engendered during his morning's ride, and the youth and maiden conversed,
+      laughed, and were sad by turns, as impulse directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, Edwards, after repeating his intention to do so for the third
+      time, left the mansion-house to go to the rectory on a similar errand of
+      friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this short period, a scene was passing at the hut that completely
+      frustrated the benevolent intentions of Judge Temple in favor of the
+      Leather-Stocking, and at once destroyed the short-lived harmony between
+      the youth and Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Hiram Doolittle had obtained his search-warrant, his first business
+      was to procure a proper officer to see it executed. The sheriff was
+      absent, summoning in person the grand inquest for the county; the deputy
+      who resided in the village was riding on the same errand, in a different
+      part of the settlement; and the regular constable of the township had been
+      selected for his station from motives of charity, being lame of a leg.
+      Hiram intended to accompany the officer as a spectator, but he felt no
+      very strong desire to bear the brunt of the battle. It was, however,
+      Saturday, and the sun was already turning the shadows of the pines toward
+      the east; on the morrow the conscientious magistrate could not engage in
+      such an expedition at the peril of his soul and long before Monday, the
+      venison, and all vestiges of the death of the deer, might be secreted or
+      destroyed. Happily, the lounging form of Billy Kirby met his eye, and
+      Hiram, at all time fruitful in similar expedients, saw his way clear at
+      once. Jotham, who was associated in the whole business, and who had left
+      the mountain in consequence of a summons from his coadjutor, but who
+      failed, equally with Hiram, in the unfortunate particular of nerve, was
+      directed to summon the wood-chopper to the dwelling of the magistrate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Billy appeared, he was very kindly invited to take the chair in which
+      he had already seated himself, and was treated in all respects as if he
+      were an equal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judge Temple has set his heart on putting the deer law in force,&rdquo; said
+      Hiram, after the preliminary civilities were over, &ldquo;and a complaint has
+      been laid before him that a deer has been killed. He has issued a
+      search-warrant, and sent for me to get somebody to execute it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kirby, who had no idea of being excluded from the deliberative part of any
+      affair in which he was engaged, drew up his bushy head in a reflecting
+      attitude, and after musing a moment, replied by asking a few questions,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sheriff has gone out of the way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to be found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And his deputy too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both gone on the skirts of the Patent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I saw the constable hobbling about town an hour ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; said Hiram, with a coaxing smile and knowing nod, &ldquo;but this
+      business wants a man&mdash;not a cripple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said Billy, laughing, &ldquo;will the chap make fight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a little quarrelsome at times, and thinks he's the best man in the
+      country at rough and tumble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard him brag once,&rdquo; said Jotham, &ldquo;that there wasn't a man 'twixt the
+      Mohawk Flats and the Pennsylvany line that was his match at a close hug.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you?&rdquo; exclaimed Kirby, raising his huge frame in his seat, like a
+      lion stretching in his lair; &ldquo;I rather guess he never felt a Varmounter's
+      knuckles on his backbone-But who is the chap?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said Jotham, &ldquo;it's&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's agin' law to tell,&rdquo; interrupted Hiram, &ldquo;unless you'll qualify to
+      sarve. You'd be the very man to take him, Bill, and I'll make out a
+      special deputation in a minute, when you will get the fees.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the fees?&rdquo; said Kirby, laying his large hand on the leaves of a
+      statute-book that Hiram had opened in order to give dignity to his office,
+      which he turned over in his rough manner, as if he were reflecting on a
+      subject about which he had, in truth, already decided; &ldquo;will they pay a
+      man for a broken head?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'll be something handsome,&rdquo; said Hiram.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Damn the fees,&rdquo; said Billy, again laughing&mdash;&ldquo;does the fellow think
+      he's the best wrestler in the county, though? what's his inches?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's taller than you be,&rdquo; said Jotham, &ldquo;and one of the biggest&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Talkers, he was about to add, but the impatience of Kirby interrupted him.
+      The wood-chopper had nothing fierce or even brutal in his appearance; the
+      character of his expression was that of good-natured vanity. It was
+      evident he prided himself on the powers of the physical man, like all who
+      have nothing better to boast of; and, stretching out his broad hand, with
+      the palm downward, he said, keeping his eyes fastened on his own bones and
+      sinews:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, give us a touch of the book. I'll swear, and you'll see that I'm a
+      man to keep my oath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram did not give the wood-chopper time to change his mind, but the oath
+      was administered without unnecessary delay. So soon as this preliminary
+      was completed, the three worthies left the house, and proceeded by the
+      nearest road toward the hut. They had reached the bank of the lake, and
+      were diverging from the route of the highway, before Kirby recollected
+      that he was now entitled to the privilege of the initiated, and repeated
+      his question as to the name of the offender,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way, which way, squire?&rdquo; exclaimed the hardy wood-chopper; &ldquo;I
+      thought it was to search a house that you wanted me, not the woods. There
+      is nobody lives on this side of the lake, for six miles, unless you count
+      the Leather-Stocking and old John for settlers. Come, tell me the chap's
+      name, and I warrant me that I lead you to his clearing by a straighter
+      path than this, for I know every sapling that grows within two miles of
+      Templeton.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the way,&rdquo; said Hiram, pointing forward and quickening his step,
+      as if apprehensive that Kirby would desert, &ldquo;and Bumppo is the man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kirby stopped short, and looked from one of his companions to the other in
+      astonishment. He then burst into a loud laugh, and cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? Leather-Stocking! He may brag of his aim and his rifle, for he has
+      the best of both, as I will own myself, for sin' he shot the pigeon I
+      knock under to him; but for a wrestle! why, I would take the creatur'
+      between my finger and thumb, and tie him in a bow-knot around my neck for
+      a Barcelony. The man is seventy, and was never anything particular for
+      strength.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a deceiving man,&rdquo; said Hiram, &ldquo;like all the hunters; he is stronger
+      than he seems; besides, he has his rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That for his rifle!&rdquo; cried Billy; &ldquo;he'd no more hurt me with his rifle
+      than he'd fly. He's a harmless creatur', and I must say that I think he
+      has as good right to kill deer as any man on the Patent. It's his main
+      support, and this is a free country, where a man is privileged to follow
+      any calling he likes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to that doctrine,&rdquo; said Jotham, &ldquo;anybody may shoot a deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the man's calling, I tell you,&rdquo; returned Kirby, &ldquo;and the law was
+      never made for such as he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The law was made for all,&rdquo; observed Hiram, who began to think that the
+      danger was likely to fall to his own share, notwithstanding his
+      management; &ldquo;and the law is particular in noticing parjury.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See here, Squire Doolittle,&rdquo; said the reckless woodchopper; &ldquo;I don't care
+      the valie of a beetlering for you and your parjury too. But as I have come
+      so far, I'll go down and have a talk with the old man, and maybe we'll fry
+      a steak of the deer together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if you can get in peaceably, so much the better,&rdquo; said the
+      magistrate. &ldquo;To my notion, strife is very unpopular; I prefar, at all
+      times, clever conduct to an ugly temper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the whole party moved at a great pace, they soon reached the hut, where
+      Hiram thought it prudent to halt on the outside of the top of the fallen
+      pine, which formed a chevaux-de-frise, to defend the approach to the
+      fortress, on the side next the village. The delay was little relished by
+      Kirby, who clapped his hands to his mouth, and gave a loud halloo that
+      brought the dogs out of their kennel, and, almost at the same instant, the
+      scantily-covered head of Natty from the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie down, old fool,&rdquo; cried the hunter; &ldquo;do you think there's more
+      painters about you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! Leather-Stocking, I've an arrand with you,&rdquo; cried Kirby; &ldquo;here's the
+      good people of the State have been writing you a small letter, and they've
+      hired me to ride post.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you have with me, Billy Kirby?&rdquo; said Natty, stepping across
+      his threshold, and raising his hand over his eyes, to screen them from the
+      rays of the setting sun, while he took a survey of his visitor. &ldquo;I've no
+      land to clear, and Heaven knows I would set out six trees afore I would
+      cut down one.&mdash;Down, Hector, I say; into your kennel with ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you, old boy?&rdquo; roared Billy; &ldquo;then so much the better for me. But I
+      must do my arrand. Here's a letter for you, Leather-Stocking. If you can
+      read it, it's all well, and if you can't, here's Squire Doolittle at hand,
+      to let you know what it means. It seems you mistook the twentieth of July
+      for the first of August, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time Natty had discovered the lank person of Hiram, drawn up under
+      the cover of a high stump; and all that was complacent in his manner
+      instantly gave way to marked distrust and dissatisfaction. He placed his
+      head within the door of his hut, and said a few words in an undertone,
+      when he again appeared, and continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've nothing for ye; so away, afore the Evil One tempts me to do you
+      harm. I owe you no spite, Billy Kirby, and what for should you trouble an
+      old man who has done you no harm?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kirby advanced through the top of the pine, to within a few feet of the
+      hunter, where he seated himself on the end of a log, with great composure,
+      and began to examine the nose of Hector, with whom he was familiar, from
+      their frequently meeting in the woods, where he sometimes fed the dog from
+      his own basket of provisions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've outshot me, and I'm not ashamed to say it,&rdquo; said the wood-chopper;
+      &ldquo;but I don't owe you a grudge for that, Natty! though it seems that you've
+      shot once too often, for the story goes that you've killed a buck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've fired but twice to-day, and both times at the painters,&rdquo; returned
+      the Leather-Stocking; &ldquo;see, here are the scalps! I was just going in with
+      them to the Judge's to ask the bounty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Natty was speaking, he tossed the ears to Kirby, who continued
+      playing with them with a careless air, holding them to the dogs, and
+      laughing at their movements when they scented the unusual game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Hiram, emboldened by the advance of the deputed constable, now
+      ventured to approach also, and took up the discourse with the air of
+      authority that became his commission. His first measure was to read the
+      warrant aloud, taking care to give due emphasis to the most material
+      parts, and concluding with the name of the Judge in very audible and
+      distinct tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Marmaduke Temple put his name to that bit of paper?&rdquo; said Natty,
+      shaking his head; &ldquo;well, well, that man loves the new ways, and his
+      betterments, and his lands, afore his own flesh and blood. But I won't
+      mistrust the gal; she has an eye like a full-grown buck! poor thing, she
+      didn't choose her father, and can't help it. I know but little of the law,
+      Mr. Doolittle; what is to be done, now you've read your commission?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! it's nothing but form, Natty,&rdquo; said Hiram, endeavoring to assume a
+      friendly aspect. &ldquo;Let's go in, and talk the thing over in reason; I dare
+      to say that the money can be easily found, and I partly conclude, from
+      what passed, that Judge Temple will pay it himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old hunter had kept a keen eye on the movements of his three visitors,
+      from the beginning, and had maintained his position, just without the
+      threshold of the cabin, with a determined manner, that showed he was not
+      to be easily driven from his post. When Hiram drew nigher, as if expecting
+      his proposition would be accepted, Natty lifted his hand, and motioned for
+      him to retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't I told you more than once, not to tempt me?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I trouble
+      no man; why can't the law leave me to myself? Go back&mdash;go back, and
+      tell your Judge that he may keep his bounty; but I won't have his wasty
+      ways brought into my hut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This offer, however, instead of appeasing the curiosity of Hiram, seemed
+      to inflame it the more; while Kirby cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's fair, squire; he forgives the county his demand, and the
+      county should forgive him the fine; it's what I call an even trade, and
+      should be concluded on the spot. I like quick dealings, and what's fair
+      'twixt man and man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I demand entrance into this house,&rdquo; said Hiram, summoning all the dignity
+      he could muster to his assistance, &ldquo;in the name of the people; and by
+      virtue of this warrant, and of my office, and with this peace officer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand back, stand back, squire, and don't tempt me,&rdquo; said the
+      Leather-Stocking, motioning him to retire, with great earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop us at your peril,&rdquo; continued Hiram. &ldquo;Billy! Jotham! close up&mdash;I
+      want testimony.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram had mistaken the mild but determined air of Natty for submission,
+      and had already put his foot on the threshold to enter, when he was seized
+      unexpectedly by his shoulders, and hurled over the little bank toward the
+      lake, to the distance of twenty feet. The suddenness of the movement, and
+      the unexpected display of strength on the part of Natty, created a
+      momentary astonishment in his invaders, that silenced all noises; but at
+      the next instant Billy Kirby gave vent to his mirth in peals of laughter,
+      that he seemed to heave up from his very soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, old stub!&rdquo; he shouted; &ldquo;the squire knowed you better than I
+      did. Come, come, here's a green spot; take it out like men, while Jotham
+      and I see fair play.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;William Kirby, I order you to do your duty,&rdquo; cried Hiram, from under the
+      bank; &ldquo;seize that man; I order you to seize him in the name of the
+      people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Leather-Stocking now assumed a more threatening attitude; his
+      rifle was in his hand, and its muzzle was directed toward the
+      wood-chopper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand off, I bid ye,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;you know my aim, Billy Kirby; I don't
+      crave your blood, but mine and your'n both shall turn this green grass
+      red, afore you put foot into the hut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the affair appeared trifling, the wood-chopper seemed disposed to
+      take sides with the weaker party; but, when the firearms were introduced,
+      his manner very sensibly changed. He raised his large frame from the log,
+      and, facing the hunter with an open front, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't come here as your enemy, Leather-Stocking; but I don't value the
+      hollow piece of iron in your hand so much as a broken axe-helve; so,
+      squire, say the word, and keep within the law, and we'll soon see who's
+      the best main of the two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But no magistrate was to be seen! The instant the rifle was produced Hiram
+      and Jotham vanished; and when the wood-chopper bent his eyes about him in
+      surprise at receiving no answer, he discovered their retreating figures
+      moving toward the village at a rate that sufficiently indicated that they
+      had not only calculated the velocity of a rifle-bullet, but also its
+      probable range.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've scared the creatur's off,&rdquo; said Kirby, with great contempt
+      expressed on his broad features; &ldquo;but you are not going to scare me; so,
+      Mr. Bumppo, down with your gun, or there'll be trouble 'twixt us.&rdquo; Natty
+      dropped his rifle, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you no harm, Billy Kirby; but I leave it to yourself, whether an
+      old man's hut is to be run down by such varmint. I won't deny the buck to
+      you, Billy, and you may take the skin in, if you please, and show it as
+      testimony. The bounty will pay the fine, and that ought to satisfy any
+      man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twill, old boy, 'twill,&rdquo; cried Kirby, every shade of displeasure
+      vanishing from his open brow at the peace-offering; &ldquo;throw out the hide,
+      and that shall satisfy the law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty entered the hut, and soon reappeared, bringing with him the desired
+      testimonial; and the wood-chopper departed, as thoroughly reconciled to
+      the hunter as if nothing had happened. As he paced along the margin of the
+      lake he would burst into frequent fits of laughter, while he recollected
+      the summerset of Hiram: and, on the whole, he thought the affair a very
+      capital joke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before Billy' reached the village, however, the news of his danger,
+      and of Natty's disrespect of the law, and of Hiram's discomfiture, were in
+      circulation. A good deal was said about sending for the sheriff; some
+      hints were given about calling out the posse comitatus to avenge the
+      insulted laws; and many of the citizens were collected, deliberating how
+      to proceed. The arrival of Billy with the skin, by removing all grounds
+      for a search, changed the complexion of things materially. Nothing now
+      remained but to collect the fine and assert the dignity of the people; all
+      of which, it was unanimously agreed, could be done as well on the
+      succeeding Monday as on Saturday night&mdash;a time kept sacred by large
+      portion of the settlers. Accordingly, all further proceedings were
+      suspended for six-and-thirty hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And dar'st thou then
+     To beard the lion in his den,
+     The Douglas in his hall.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Marmion.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The commotion was just subsiding, and the inhabitants of the village had
+      begun to disperse from the little groups that had formed, each retiring to
+      his own home, and closing his door after him, with the grave air of a man
+      who consulted public feeling in his exterior deportment, when Oliver
+      Edwards, on his return from the dwelling of Mr. Grant, encountered the
+      young lawyer, who is known to the reader as Mr. Lippet. There was very
+      little similarity in the manners or opinions of the two; but as they both
+      belonged to the more intelligent class of a very small community, they
+      were, of course, known to each other, and as their meeting was at a point
+      where silence would have been rudeness, the following conversation was the
+      result of their interview:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fine evening, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; commenced the lawyer, whose disinclination
+      to the dialogue was, to say the least, very doubtful; &ldquo;we want rain sadly;
+      that's the worst of this climate of ours, it's either a drought or a
+      deluge. It's likely you've been used to a more equal temperature?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a native of this State,&rdquo; returned Edwards, coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well. I've often heard that point disputed; but it's so easy to get a man
+      naturalized, that it's of little consequence where he was born. I wonder
+      what course the Judge means to take in this business of Natty Bumppo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of Natty Bumppo!&rdquo; echoed Edwards; &ldquo;to what do you allude, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven't you heard!&rdquo; exclaimed the other, with a look of surprise, so
+      naturally assumed as completely to deceive his auditor; &ldquo;it may turn out
+      an ugly business. It seems that the old man has been out in the hills, and
+      has shot a buck this morning, and that, you know, is a criminal matter in
+      the eyes of Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! he has, has he?&rdquo; said Edwards, averting his face to conceal the color
+      that collected in his sunburnt cheek. &ldquo;Well, if that be all, he must even
+      pay the fine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's five pound currency,&rdquo; said the lawyer; &ldquo;could Natty muster so much
+      money at once?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could he!&rdquo; cried the youth. &ldquo;I am not rich, Mr. Lippet; far from it&mdash;I
+      am poor, and I have been hoarding my salary for a purpose that lies near
+      my heart; but, Before that old man should lie one hour in a jail, I would
+      spend the last cent to prevent it. Besides, he has killed two panthers,
+      and the bounty will discharge the fine many times over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; said the lawyer, rubbing his hands together, with an
+      expression of pleasure that had no artifice about it; &ldquo;we shall make it
+      out; I see plainly we shall make it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make what out, sir? I must beg an explanation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, killing the buck is but a small matter compared to what took place
+      this afternoon,&rdquo; continued Mr. Lippet, with a confidential and friendly
+      air that won upon the youth, little as he liked the man. &ldquo;It seems that a
+      complaint was made of the fact, and a suspicion that there was venison in
+      the hut was sworn to, all which is provided for in the statute, when Judge
+      Temple granted the search warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A search-warrant!&rdquo; echoed Edwards, in a voice of horror, and with a face
+      that should have been again averted to conceal its paleness; &ldquo;and how much
+      did they discover? What did they see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They saw old Bumppo's rifle; and that is a sight which will quiet most
+      men's curiosity in the woods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did they! did they!&rdquo; shouted Edwards, bursting into a convulsive laugh;
+      &ldquo;so the old hero beat them back beat them back! did he?&rdquo; The lawyer
+      fastened his eyes in astonishment on the youth, but, as his wonder gave
+      way to the thoughts that were commonly uppermost in his mind, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no laughing matter, let me tell you, sir; the forty dollars of
+      bounty and your six months of salary will be much reduced before you can
+      get the matter fairly settled. Assaulting a magistrate in the execution of
+      his duty, and menacing a constable with firearms at the same time, is a
+      pretty serious affair, and is punishable with both fine and imprisonment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Imprisonment!&rdquo; repeated Oliver; &ldquo;imprison the Leather-Stocking! no, no,
+      sir; it would bring the old man to his grave. They shall never imprison
+      the Leather-Stocking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; said Lippet, dropping all reserve from his manner,
+      &ldquo;you are called a curious man; but if you can tell me how a jury is to be
+      prevented from finding a verdict of guilty, if this case comes fairly
+      before them, and the proof is clear, I shall acknowledge that you know
+      more law than I do, who have had a license in my pocket for three years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the reason of Edwards was getting the ascendency of his
+      feelings, and, as he began to see the real difficulties of the case, he
+      listened more readily to the conversation of the lawyer. The ungovernable
+      emotion that escaped the youth, in the first moments of his surprise,
+      entirely passed away; and, although it was still evident that he continued
+      to be much agitated by what he had heard, he succeeded in yielding forced
+      attention to the advice which the other uttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the confused state of his mind, Oliver soon discovered
+      that most of the expedients of the lawyer were grounded in cunning, and
+      plans that required a time to execute them that neither suited his
+      disposition nor his necessities. After, however, giving Mr. Lippet to
+      understand that he retained him in the event of a trial, an assurance
+      that at once satisfied the lawyer, they parted, one taking his course with
+      a deliberate tread in the direction of the little building that had a
+      wooden sign over its door, with &ldquo;Chester Lippet, Attorney-at-law,&rdquo; painted
+      on it; and the other pacing over the ground with enormous strides toward
+      the mansion-house. We shall take leave of the attorney for the present,
+      and direct the attention of the reader to the client.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Edwards entered the hall, whose enormous doors were opened to the
+      passage of the air of a mild evening, he found Benjamin engaged in some of
+      his domestic avocations, and in a hurried voice inquired where Judge
+      Temple was to be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the Judge has stepped into his office, with that master carpenter,
+      Mister Doolittle; but Miss Lizzy is in that there parlor. I say, Master
+      Oliver, we'd like to have had a bad job of that panther, or painter's work&mdash;some
+      calls it one, and some calls it t'other&mdash;but I know little of the
+      beast, seeing that it is not of British growth. I said as much as that it
+      was in the hills the last winter for I heard it moaning on the lake shore
+      one evening in the fall, when I was pulling down from the fishing-point in
+      the skiff. Had the animal come into open water, where a man could see
+      where and how to work his vessel, I would have engaged the thing myself;
+      but looking aloft among the trees is all the same to me as standing on the
+      deck of one ship, and looking at another vessel's tops. I never can tell
+      one rope from another&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; interrupted Edwards; &ldquo;I must see Miss Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you shall see her, sir,&rdquo; said the steward; &ldquo;she's in this here room.
+      Lord, Master Edwards, what a loss she'd have been to the Judge! Dam'me if
+      I know where he would have gotten such another daughter; that is, full
+      grown, d'ye see. I say, sir, this Master Bumppo is a worthy man, and seems
+      to have a handy way with him, with firearms and boat-hooks. I'm his
+      friend, Master Oliver, and he and you may both set me down as the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may want your friendship, my worthy fellow,&rdquo; cried Edwards, squeezing
+      his hand convulsively; &ldquo;we may want your friendship, in which case you
+      shall know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting to hear the earnest reply that Benjamin meditated, the
+      youth extricated himself from the vigorous grasp of the steward, and
+      entered the parlor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth was alone, and still reclining on the sofa, where we last left
+      her. A hand, which exceeded all that the ingenuity of art could model, in
+      shape and color, veiled her eyes; and the maiden was sitting as if in deep
+      communion with herself. Struck by the attitude and loveliness of the form
+      that met his eye, the young man checked his impatience, and approached her
+      with respect and caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Temple&mdash;Miss Temple,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I hope I do not intrude; but I
+      am anxious for an interview, if it be only for a moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth raised her face, and exhibited her dark eyes swimming in
+      moisture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it you, Edwards?&rdquo; she said, with a sweetness in her voice, and a
+      softness in her air, that she often used to her father, but which, from
+      its novelty to himself, thrilled on every nerve of the youth; &ldquo;how left
+      you our poor Louisa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is with her father, happy and grateful,&rdquo; said Oliver, &ldquo;I never
+      witnessed more feeling than she manifested, when I ventured to express my
+      pleasure at her escape. Miss Temple, when I first heard of your horrid
+      situation, my feelings were too powerful for utterance; and I did not
+      properly find my tongue, until the walk to Mr. Grant's had given me time
+      to collect myself. I believe&mdash;I do believe, I acquitted myself better
+      there, for Miss Grant even wept at my silly speeches.&rdquo; For a moment
+      Elizabeth did not reply, but again veiled her eyes with her hand. The
+      feeling that caused the action, however, soon passed away, and, raising
+      her face again to his gaze, she continued with a smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your friend, the Leather-Stocking, has now become my friend, Edwards; I
+      have been thinking how I can best serve him; perhaps you, who know his
+      habits and his wants so well, can tell me&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can,&rdquo; cried the youth, with an impetuosity that startled his companion.
+      &ldquo;I can, and may Heaven reward you for the wish, Natty has been so
+      imprudent as to for get the law, and has this day killed a deer. Nay, I
+      believe I must share in the crime and the penalty, for I was an accomplice
+      throughout. A complaint has been made to your father, and he has granted a
+      search&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it all,&rdquo; interrupted Elizabeth; &ldquo;I know it all. The forms of the
+      law must be complied with, however; the search must be made, the deer
+      found, and the penalty paid. But I must retort your own question. Have you
+      lived so long in our family not to know us? Look at me, Oliver Edwards. Do
+      I appear like one who would permit the man that has just saved her life to
+      linger in a jail for so small a sum as this fine? No, no, sir; my father
+      is a judge, but he is a man and a Christian. It is all under stood, and no
+      harm shall follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a load of apprehension do your declarations remove!&rdquo; exclaimed
+      Edwards: &ldquo;He shall not be disturbed again! your father will protect him! I
+      have assurance, Miss Temple, that he will, and I must believe it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may have his own, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth, &ldquo;for here he
+      comes to make it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the appearance of Marmaduke, who entered the apartment, contradicted
+      the flattering anticipations of his daughter. His brow was contracted, and
+      his manner disturbed. Neither Elizabeth nor the youth spoke; but the Judge
+      was allowed to pace once or twice across the room without interruption,
+      when he cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our plans are defeated, girl; the obstinacy of the Leather-Stocking has
+      brought down the indignation of the law on his head, and it is now out of
+      my power to avert it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How? in what manner?&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;the fine is nothing surely&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not&mdash;I could not anticipate that an old, a friendless man like
+      him, would dare to oppose the officers of justice,&rdquo; interrupted the Judge,
+      &ldquo;I supposed that he would submit to the search, when the fine could have
+      been paid, and the law would have been appeased; but now he will have to
+      meet its rigor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what must the punishment be, sir?&rdquo; asked Edwards, struggling to
+      speak with firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke turned quickly to the spot where the youth had withdrawn, and
+      exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You here! I did not observe you. I know not what it will be, sir; it is
+      not usual for a judge to decide until he has heard the testimony, and the
+      jury have convicted. Of one thing, however, you may be assured, Mr.
+      Edwards; it shall be whatever the law demands, notwithstanding any
+      momentary weakness I may have exhibited, because the luckless man has been
+      of such eminent service to my daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one, I believe, doubts the sense of justice which Judge Temple
+      entertains!&rdquo; returned Edwards bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But let us converse calmly, sir. Will not the years, the habits, nay, the
+      ignorance of my old friend, avail him any thing against this charge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ought they? They may extenuate, but can they ac quit? Would any society
+      be tolerable, young man, where the ministers of justice are to be opposed
+      by men armed with rifles? Is it for this that I have tamed the wilder
+      ness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you tamed the beasts that so lately threatened the life of Miss
+      Temple, sir, your arguments would apply better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Edwards!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, my child,&rdquo; interrupted the father; &ldquo;the youth is unjust; but I
+      have not given him cause. I overlook thy remark, Oliver, for I know thee
+      to be the friend of Natty, and zeal in his behalf has overcome thy
+      discretion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is my friend,&rdquo; cried Edwards, &ldquo;and I glory in the title. He is
+      simple, unlettered, even ignorant; prejudiced, perhaps, though I feel that
+      his opinion of the world is too true; but he has a heart, Judge Temple,
+      that would atone for a thousand faults; he knows his friends, and never
+      deserts them, even if it be his dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a good character, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; returned Marmaduke, mildly; &ldquo;but
+      I have never been so fortunate as to secure his esteem, for to me he has
+      been uniformly repulsive; yet I have endured it, as an old man's whim,
+      However, when he appears before me, as his judge, he shall find that his
+      former conduct shall not aggravate, any more than his recent services
+      shall extenuate, his crime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crime!&rdquo; echoed Edwards: &ldquo;is it a crime to drive a prying miscreant from
+      his door? Crime! Oh, no, sir; if there be a criminal involved in this
+      affair, it is not he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who may it be, sir?&rdquo; asked Judge Temple, facing the agitated youth,
+      his features settled to their usual composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This appeal was more than the young man could bear. Hitherto he had been
+      deeply agitated by his emotions; but now the volcano burst its boundaries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who! and this to me!&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;ask your own conscience, Judge Temple.
+      Walk to that door, sir, and look out upon the valley, that placid lake,
+      and those dusky mountains, and say to your own heart, if heart you have,
+      whence came these riches, this vale, those hills, and why am I their
+      owner? I should think, sir, that the appearance of Mohegan and the
+      Leather-Stocking, stalking through the country, impoverished and forlorn,
+      would wither your sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke heard this burst of passion, at first, with deep amazement; but
+      when the youth had ended, he beckoned to his impatient daughter for
+      silence, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver Edwards, thou forgettest in whose presence thou standest. I have
+      heard, young man, that thou claimest descent from the native owners of the
+      soil; but surely thy education has been given thee to no effect, if it has
+      not taught thee the validity of the claims that have transferred the title
+      to the whites. These lands are mine by the very grants of thy ancestry, if
+      thou art so descended; and I appeal to Heaven for a testimony of the uses
+      I have put them to. After this language, we must separate. I have too long
+      sheltered thee in my dwelling; but the time has arrived when thou must
+      quit it. Come to my office, and I will discharge the debt I owe thee.
+      Neither shall thy present intemperate language mar thy future fortunes, if
+      thou wilt hearken to the advice of one who is by many years thy senior.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ungovernable feeling that caused the violence of the youth had passed
+      away, and he stood gazing after the retiring figure of Marmaduke, with a
+      vacancy in his eye that denoted the absence of his mind. At length he
+      recollected himself, and, turning his head slowly around the apartment, he
+      beheld Elizabeth, still seated on the sofa, but with her head dropped on
+      her bosom, and her face again concealed by her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Temple,&rdquo; he said&mdash;all violence had left his manner&mdash;&ldquo;Miss
+      Temple&mdash;I have forgotten myself&mdash;forgotten you. You have heard
+      what your father has decreed, and this night I leave here. With you, at
+      least, I would part in amity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth slowly raised her face, across which a momentary expression of
+      sadness stole; but as she left her seat, her dark eyes lighted with their
+      usual fire, her cheek flushed to burning, and her whole air seemed to
+      belong to another nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I forgive you, Edwards, and my father will forgive you,&rdquo; she said, when
+      she reached the door. &ldquo;You do not know us, but the time may come when your
+      opinions shall change&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of you! never!&rdquo; interrupted the youth; &ldquo;I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would speak, sir, and not listen. There is something in this affair
+      that I do not comprehend; but tell the Leather-Stocking he has friends as
+      well as judges in us. Do not let the old man experience unnecessary
+      uneasiness at this rupture. It is impossible that you could increase his
+      claims here; neither shall they be diminished by any thing you have said.
+      Mr. Edwards, I wish you happiness, and warmer friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth would have spoken, but she vanished from the door so rapidly,
+      that when he reached the hall her form was nowhere to be seen. He paused a
+      moment, in stupor, and then, rushing from the house, instead of following
+      Marmaduke in his &ldquo;office,&rdquo; he took his way directly for the cabin of the
+      hunters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Who measured earth, described the starry spheres,
+     And traced the long records of lunar years.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Pope.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Richard did not return from the exercise of his official duties until late
+      in the evening of the following day. It had been one portion of his
+      business to superintend the arrest of part of a gang of counterfeiters,
+      that had, even at that early period, buried themselves in the woods, to
+      manufacture their base coin, which they afterward circulated from one end
+      of the Union to the other. The expedition had been completely successful,
+      and about midnight the sheriff entered the village, at the head of a posse
+      of deputies and constables, in the centre of whom rode, pinioned, four of
+      the malefactors. At the gate of the mansion-house they separated, Mr.
+      Jones directing his assistants to proceed with their charge to the county
+      jail, while he pursued his own way up the gravel walk, with the kind of
+      self-satisfaction that a man of his organization would feel, who had
+      really for once done a very clever thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holla! Aggy!&rdquo; shouted the sheriff, when he reached the door; &ldquo;where are
+      you, you black dog? will you keep me here in the dark all night? Holla!
+      Aggy! Brave! Brave! hoy, hoy&mdash;where have you got to, Brave? Off his
+      watch! Everybody is asleep but myself! Poor I must keep my eyes open, that
+      others may sleep in safety. Brave! Brave! Well, I will say this for the
+      dog, lazy as he's grown, that it is the first time I ever knew him to let
+      any one come to the door after dark, without having a smell to know
+      whether it was an honest man or not. He could tell by his nose, almost as
+      well as I could myself by looking at them. Holla! you Agamemnon! where are
+      you? Oh! here comes the dog at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the sheriff had dismounted, and observed a form, which he
+      supposed to be that of Brave, slowly creeping out of the kennel; when, to
+      his astonishment, it reared itself on two legs instead of four, and he was
+      able to distinguish, by the starlight, the curly head and dark visage of
+      the negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha! what the devil are you doing there, you black rascal?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Is
+      it not hot enough for your Guinea blood in the house this warm night, but
+      you must drive out the poor dog, and sleep in his straw?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the boy was quite awake, and, with a blubbering whine, he
+      attempted to reply to his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! masser Richard! masser Richard! such a ting! such a ting! I nebber
+      tink a could 'appen! neber tink he die! Oh, Lor-a-gor! ain't bury&mdash;keep
+      'em till masser Richard get back&mdash;got a grabe dug&mdash;&rdquo; Here the
+      feelings of the negro completely got the mastery, and, instead of making
+      any intelligible explanation of the causes of his grief, he blubbered
+      aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh! what! buried! grave! dead!&rdquo; exclaimed Richard, with a tremor in his
+      voice; &ldquo;nothing serious? Nothing has happened to Benjamin, I hope? I know
+      he has been bilious, but I gave him&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, worser 'an dat! worser 'an dat!&rdquo; sobbed the negro. &ldquo;Oh! de Lor! Miss
+      'Lizzy an' Miss Grant&mdash;walk&mdash;mountain&mdash;poor Bravy '&mdash;kill
+      a lady&mdash;painter&mdash;-Oh, Lor, Lor!&mdash;Natty Bumppo&mdash;tare he
+      troat open&mdash;come a see, masser Richard&mdash;here he be&mdash;here he
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As all this was perfectly inexplicable to the sheriff, he was very glad to
+      wait patiently until the black brought a lantern from the kitchen, when he
+      followed Aggy to the kennel, where he beheld poor Brave, indeed, lying in
+      his blood, stiff and cold, but decently covered with the great coat of the
+      negro. He was on the point of demanding an explanation; but the grief of
+      the black, who had fallen asleep on his voluntary watch, having burst out
+      afresh on his waking, utterly disqualified the lad from giving one.
+      Luckily, at this moment the principal door of the house opened, and the
+      coarse features of Benjamin were thrust over the threshold, with a candle
+      elevated above them, shedding its dim rays around in such a manner as to
+      exhibit the lights and shadows of his countenance. Richard threw his
+      bridle to the black, and, bidding him look to the horse, he entered the
+      hall. &ldquo;What is the meaning of the dead dog?&rdquo; he cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Miss Temple?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin made one of his square gestures, with the thumb of his left hand
+      pointing over his right shoulder, as he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turned in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judge Temple&mdash;where is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In his berth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But explain; why is Brave dead? and what is the cause of Aggy's grief?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it's all down, squire,&rdquo; said Benjamin, pointing to a slate that lay
+      on the table, by the side of a mug of toddy, a short pipe in which the
+      tobacco was yet burning, and a prayer-book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the other pursuits of Richard, he had a passion to keep a register
+      of all passing events; and his diary, which was written in the manner of a
+      journal, or log-book, embraced not only such circumstances as affected
+      himself, but observations on the weather, and all the occurrences of the
+      family, and frequently of the village. Since his appointment to the office
+      of sheriff and his consequent absences from home, he had employed Benjamin
+      to make memoranda on a slate, of whatever might be thought worth
+      remembering, which, on his return, were regularly transferred to the
+      journal with proper notations of the time, manner, and other little
+      particulars. There was, to be sure, one material objection to the
+      clerkship of Benjamin, which the ingenuity of no one but Richard could
+      have overcome. The steward read nothing but his prayer-book, and that only
+      in particular parts, and by the aid of a good deal of spelling, and some
+      misnomers; but he could not form a single letter with a pen. This would
+      have been an insuperable bar to journalizing with most men; but Richard
+      invented a kind of hieroglyphical character, which was intended to note
+      all the ordinary occurrences of a day, such as how the wind blew, whether
+      the sun shone, or whether it rained, the hours, etc.; and for the
+      extraordinary, after giving certain elementary lectures on the subject,
+      the sheriff was obliged to trust to the ingenuity of the major-domo. The
+      reader will at once perceive, that it was to this chronicle that Benjamin
+      pointed, instead of directly answering the sheriff's interrogatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Jones had drunk a glass of toddy, he brought forth from its
+      secret place his proper journal, and, seating himself by the table, he
+      prepared to transfer the contents of the slate to the paper, at the same
+      time that he appeased his curiosity. Benjamin laid one hand on the back of
+      the sheriff's chair, in a familiar manner, while he kept the other at
+      liberty to make use of a forefinger, that was bent like some of his own
+      characters, as an index to point out his meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing referred to by the sheriff was the diagram of a compass,
+      cut in one corner of the slate for permanent use. The cardinal points were
+      plainly marked on it, and all the usual divisions were indicated in such a
+      manner that no man who had ever steered a ship could mistake them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said the sheriff, seating himself down comfort ably in his chair,
+      &ldquo;you'd the wind southeast, I see, all last night I thought it would have
+      blown up rain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Devil the drop, sir,&rdquo; said Benjamin; &ldquo;I believe that the scuttle-butt up
+      aloft is emptied, for there hasn't so much water fell in the country for
+      the last three weeks as would float Indian John's canoe, and that draws
+      just one inch nothing, light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well but didn't the wind change here this morning? there was a change
+      where I was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure it did, squire; and haven't I logged it as a shift of wind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see where, Benjamin&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't see!&rdquo; interrupted the steward, a little crustily; &ldquo;ain't there a
+      mark agin' east-and-by-nothe-half-nothe, with summat like a rising sun at
+      the end of it, to show 'twas in the morning watch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, that is very legible; but where is the change noted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where! why doesn't it see this here tea-kettle, with a mark run from the
+      spout straight, or mayhap a little crooked or so, into
+      west-and-by-southe-half-southe? now I call this a shift of wind, squire.
+      Well, do you see this here boar's head that you made for me, alongside of
+      the compass&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay&mdash;Boreas&mdash;&mdash;-I see. Why, you've drawn lines from its
+      mouth, extending from one of your marks to the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's no fault of mine, Squire Dickens; 'tis your d&mdash;&mdash;d
+      climate. The wind has been at all them there marks this very day, and
+      that's all round the compass, except a little matter of an Irishman's
+      hurricane at meridium, which you'll find marked right up and down. Now,
+      I've known a sow-wester blow for three weeks, in the channel, with a clean
+      drizzle, in which you might wash your face and hands without the trouble
+      of hauling in water from alongside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Benjamin,&rdquo; said the sheriff, writing in his journal; &ldquo;I
+      believe I have caught the idea. Oh! here's a cloud over the rising sun&mdash;so
+      you had it hazy in the morning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir,&rdquo; said Benjamin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah it's Sunday, and here are the marks for the length of the sermon&mdash;one,
+      two, three, four&mdash;what! did Mr. Grant preach forty minutes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, summat like it; it was a good half-hour by my own glass, and then
+      there was the time lost in turning it, and some little allowance for
+      leeway in not being over-smart about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Benjamin, this is as long as a Presbyterian; you never could have been
+      ten minutes in turning the glass!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, do you see, Squire, the parson was very solemn, and I just closed my
+      eyes in order to think the better with myself, just the same as you'd put
+      in the dead-lights to make all snug, and when I opened them agin I found
+      the congregation were getting under way for home, so I calculated the ten
+      minutes would cover the leeway after the glass was out. It was only some
+      such matter as a cat's nap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, ho! Master Benjamin, you were asleep, were you? but I'll set down no
+      such slander against an orthodox divine.&rdquo; Richard wrote twenty-nine
+      minutes in his journal, and continued: &ldquo;Why, what's this you've got
+      opposite ten o'clock A.M.? A full moon! had you a moon visible by day? I
+      have heard of such portents before now, but&mdash;eh! what's this
+      alongside of it? an hour-glass?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That!&rdquo; said Benjamin, looking coolly over the sheriff's shoulder, and
+      rolling the tobacco about in his mouth with a jocular air; &ldquo;why, that's a
+      small matter of my own. It's no moon, squire, but only Betty Hollister's
+      face; for, d'ye see, sir, hearing all the same as if she had got up a new
+      cargo of Jamaiky from the river, I called in as I was going to the church
+      this morning&mdash;ten A.M. was it?&mdash;just the time&mdash;and tried a
+      glass; and so I logged it, to put me in mind of calling to pay her like an
+      honest man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was it, was it?&rdquo; said the sheriff, with some displeasure at this
+      innovation on his memoranda; &ldquo;and could you not make a better glass than
+      this? it looks like a death's-head and an hour-glass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, as I liked the stuff, squire,&rdquo; returned the steward, &ldquo;I turned in,
+      homeward bound, and took t'other glass, which I set down at the bottom of
+      the first, and that gives the thing the shape it has. But as I was there
+      again to-night, and paid for the three at once, your honor may as well run
+      the sponge over the whole business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will buy you a slate for your own affairs, Benjamin,&rdquo; said the sheriff;
+      &ldquo;I don't like to have the journal marked over in this manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't&mdash;you needn't, squire; for, seeing that I was likely to
+      trade often with the woman while this barrel lasted. I've opened a fair
+      account with Betty, and she keeps her marks on the back of her bar-door,
+      and I keeps the tally on this here bit of a stick.&rdquo; As Benjamin concluded
+      he produced a piece of wood, on which five very large, honest notches were
+      apparent. The sheriff cast his eyes on this new ledger for a moment, and
+      continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have we here! Saturday, two P.M.&mdash;Why here's a whole family
+      piece! two wine-glasses upside-down!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's two women; the one this a-way is Miss 'Lizzy, and t'other is the
+      parson's young'un.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cousin Bess and Miss Grant!&rdquo; exclaimed the sheriff, in amazement; &ldquo;what
+      have they to do with my journal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'd enough to do to get out of the jaws of that there painter or
+      panther,&rdquo; said the immovable steward. &ldquo;This here thingumy, squire, that
+      maybe looks summat like a rat, is the beast, d'ye see; and this here
+      t'other thing, keel uppermost, is poor old Brave, who died nobly, all the
+      same as an admiral fighting for his king and country; and that there&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scarecrow,&rdquo; interrupted Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, mayhap it do look a little wild or so,&rdquo; continued the steward; &ldquo;but
+      to my judgment, squire, it's the best image I've made, seeing it's most
+      like the man himself; well, that's Natty Bumppo, who shot this here
+      painter, that killed that there dog, who would have eaten or done worse to
+      them here young ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what the devil does all this mean?&rdquo; cried Richard, impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mean!&rdquo; echoed Benjamin; &ldquo;it is as true as the Boadishey's log book&mdash;&rdquo;
+       He was interrupted by the sheriff, who put a few direct questions to him,
+      that obtained more intelligible answers, by which means he became
+      possessed of a tolerably correct idea of the truth, When the wonder, and
+      we must do Richard the justice to say, the feelings also, that were
+      created by this narrative, had in some degree subsided, the sheriff turned
+      his eyes again on his journal, where more inexplicable hieroglyphics met
+      his view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have we here?&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;two men boxing! Has there been a breach of
+      the peace? Ah, that's the way, the moment my back is turned&mdash;.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the Judge and young Master Edwards,&rdquo; interrupted the steward, very
+      cavalierly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How! 'Duke fighting with Oliver! what the devil has got into you all?
+      More things have happened within the last thirty-six hours than in the
+      preceding six months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's so indeed, squire,&rdquo; returned the steward, &ldquo;I've known a smart
+      chase, and a fight at the tail of it, where less has been logged than I've
+      got on that there slate. Howsomever, they didn't come to facers, only
+      passed a little jaw fore and aft.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Explain! explain!&rdquo; cried Richard; &ldquo;it was about the mines, ha! Ay, ay, I
+      see it, I see it; here is a man with a pick on his shoulder. So you heard
+      it all, Benjamin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes, it was about their minds, I believe, squire,&rdquo; returned the
+      steward; &ldquo;and, by what I can learn, they spoke them pretty plainly to one
+      another. Indeed, I may say that I overheard a small matter of it myself,
+      seeing that the windows was open, and I hard by. But this here is no pick,
+      but an anchor on a man's shoulder; and here's the other fluke down his
+      back, maybe a little too close, which signifies that the lad has got under
+      way and left his moorings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Edwards left the house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard pursued this advantage; and, after a long and close examination,
+      he succeeded in getting out of Benjamin all that he knew, not only
+      concerning the misunderstanding, but of the attempt to search the hut, and
+      Hiram's discomfiture. The sheriff was no sooner possessed of these facts,
+      which Benjamin related with all possible tenderness to the
+      Leather-Stocking, than, snatching up his hat, and bidding the astonished
+      steward secure the doors and go to his bed, he left the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For at least five minutes, after Richard disappeared, Benjamin stood with
+      his arms akimbo, and his eyes fastened on the door; when, having collected
+      his astonished faculties, he prepared to execute the orders he had
+      received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been already said that the &ldquo;court of common pleas and general
+      sessions of the peace,&rdquo; or, as it is commonly called, the &ldquo;county court,&rdquo;
+       over which Judge Temple presided, held one of its stated sessions on the
+      following morning. The attendants of Richard were officers who had come to
+      the village, as much to discharge their usual duties at this court, as to
+      escort the prisoners and the sheriff knew their habits too well, not to
+      feel confident that he should find most, if not all of them, in the public
+      room of the jail, discussing the qualities of the keeper's liquors.
+      Accordingly he held his way through the silent streets of the village,
+      directly to the small and insecure building that contained all the
+      unfortunate debt ors and some of the criminals of the county, and where
+      justice was administered to such unwary applicants as were so silly as to
+      throw away two dollars in order to obtain one from their neighbors. The
+      arrival of four malefactors in the custody of a dozen officers was an
+      event, at that day, in Templeton; and, when the sheriff reached the jail,
+      he found every indication that his subordinates in tended to make a night
+      of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nod of the sheriff brought two of his deputies to the door, who in
+      their turn drew off six or seven of the constables. With this force
+      Richard led the way through the village, toward the bank of the lake,
+      undisturbed by any noise, except the barking of one or two curs, who were
+      alarmed by the measured tread of the party, and by the low murmurs that
+      ran through their own numbers, as a few cautious questions and answers
+      were exchanged, relative to the object of their expedition. When they had
+      crossed the little bridge of hewn logs that was thrown over the
+      Susquehanna, they left the highway, and struck into that field which had
+      been the scene of the victory over the pigeons. From this they followed
+      their leader into the low bushes of pines and chestnuts which had sprung
+      up along the shores of the lake, where the plough had not succeeded the
+      fall of the trees, and soon entered the forest itself. Here Richard paused
+      and collected his troop around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have required your assistance, my friends,&rdquo; he cried, in a low voice,
+      &ldquo;in order to arrest Nathaniel Bumppo, commonly called the Leather-Stocking
+      He has assaulted a magistrate, and resisted the execution of a search-war
+      rant, by threatening the life of a constable with his rifle. In short, my
+      friends, he has set an example of rebellion to the laws, and has become a
+      kind of outlaw. He is suspected of other misdemeanors and offences against
+      private rights; and I have this night taken on myself, by the virtue of my
+      office as sheriff, to arrest the said Bumppo, and bring him to the county
+      jail, that he may be present and forthcoming to answer to these heavy
+      charges before the court to-morrow morning. In executing this duty,
+      friends and fellow-citizens, you are to use courage and discretion;
+      courage, that you may not be daunted by any lawless attempt that this man
+      may make with his rifle and his dogs to oppose you; and discretion, which
+      here means caution and prudence, that he may not escape from this sudden
+      attack&mdash;and for other good reasons that I need not mention. You will
+      form yourselves in a complete circle around his hut, and at the word
+      'advance,' called aloud by me, you will rush forward and, without giving
+      the criminal time for deliberation, enter his dwelling by force, and make
+      him your prisoner. Spread yourselves for this purpose, while I shall
+      descend to the shore with a deputy, to take charge of that point; and all
+      communications must be made directly to me, under the bank in front of the
+      hut, where I shall station myself and remain, in order to receive them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech, which Richard had been studying during his walk, had the
+      effect that all similar performances produce, of bringing the dangers of
+      the expedition immediately before the eyes of his forces. The men divided,
+      some plunging deeper into the forest, in order to gain their stations
+      without giving an alarm, and others Continuing to advance, at a gait that
+      would allow the whole party to go in order; but all devising the best plan
+      to repulse the attack of a dog, or to escape a rifle-bullet. It was a
+      moment of dread expectation and interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sheriff thought time enough had elapsed for the different
+      divisions of his force to arrive at their stations, he raised his voice in
+      the silence of the forest, and shouted the watchword. The sounds played
+      among the arched branches of the trees in hollow cadences; but when the
+      last sinking tone was lost on the ear, in place of the expected howls of
+      the dogs, no other noises were returned but the crackling of torn branches
+      and dried sticks, as they yielded before the advancing steps of the
+      officers. Even this soon ceased, as if by a common consent, when the
+      curiosity and impatience of the sheriff getting the complete ascendency
+      over discretion, he rushed up the bank, and in a moment stood on the
+      little piece of cleared ground in front of the spot where Natty had so
+      long lived, To his amazement, in place of the hut he saw only its
+      smouldering ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party gradually drew together about the heap of ashes and the ends of
+      smoking logs; while a dim flame in the centre of the ruin, which still
+      found fuel to feed its lingering life, threw its pale light, flickering
+      with the passing currents of the air, around the circle&mdash;now showing
+      a face with eyes fixed in astonishment, and then glancing to another
+      countenance, leaving the former shaded in the obscurity of night. Not a
+      voice was raised in inquiry, nor an exclamation made in astonishment. The
+      transition from excitement to disappointment was too powerful for Speech;
+      and even Richard lost the use of an organ that was seldom known to fail
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole group were yet in the fullness of their surprise, when a tall
+      form stalked from the gloom into the circle, treading down the hot ashes
+      and dying embers with callous feet; and, standing over the light, lifted
+      his cap, and exposed the bare head and weather-beaten features of the
+      Leather-Stocking. For a moment he gazed at the dusky figures who
+      surrounded him, more in sorrow than in anger before he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would ye with an old and helpless man?&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;You've driven
+      God's creatur's from the wilderness, where His providence had put them
+      for His own pleasure; and you've brought in the troubles and diviltries of
+      the law, where no man was ever known to disturb another. You have driven
+      me, that have lived forty long years of my appointed time in this very
+      spot, from my home and the shelter of my head, lest you should put your
+      wicked feet and wasty ways in my cabin. You've driven me to burn these
+      logs, under which I've eaten and drunk&mdash;the first of Heaven's gifts,
+      and the other of the pure springs&mdash;for the half of a hundred years;
+      and to mourn the ashes under my feet, as a man would weep and mourn for
+      the children of his body. You've rankled the heart of an old man, that has
+      never harmed you or your'n, with bitter feelings toward his kind, at a
+      time when his thoughts should be on a better world; and you've driven him
+      to wish that the beasts of the forest, who never feast on the blood of
+      their own families, was his kindred and race; and now, when he has come to
+      see the last brand of his hut, before it is incited into ashes, you follow
+      him up, at midnight, like hungry hounds on the track of a worn-out and
+      dying deer. What more would ye have? for I am here&mdash;one too many. I
+      come to mourn, not to fight; and, if it is God's pleasure, work your will
+      on me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the old man ended he stood, with the light glimmering around his
+      thinly covered head, looking earnestly at the group, which receded from
+      the pile with an involuntary movement, without the reach of the quivering
+      rays, leaving a free passage for his retreat into the bushes, where
+      pursuit in the dark would have been fruit less. Natty seemed not to regard
+      this advantage, but stood facing each individual in the circle in
+      succession, as if to see who would be the first to arrest him. After a
+      pause of a few moments Richard began to rally his confused faculties, and,
+      advancing, apologized for his duty, and made him his prisoner. The party
+      flow collected, and, preceded by the sheriff, with Natty in their centre,
+      they took their way toward the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the walk, divers questions were put to the prisoner concerning his
+      reasons for burning the hut, and whither Mohegan had retreated; but to all
+      of them he observed a profound silence, until, fatigued with their
+      previous duties, and the lateness of the hour, the sheriff and his
+      followers reached the village, and dispersed to their several places of
+      rest, after turning the key of a jail on the aged and apparently
+      friendless Leather-Stocking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Fetch here the stocks, ho!
+     You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend bragget,
+     We'll teach you.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Lear.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The long days and early sun of July allowed time for a gathering of the
+      interested, before the little bell of the academy announced that the
+      appointed hour had arrived for administering right to the wronged, and
+      punishment to the guilty. Ever since the dawn of day, the highways and
+      woodpaths that, issuing from the forests, and winding among the sides of
+      the mountains, centred in Templeton, had been thronged with equestrians
+      and footmen, bound to the haven of justice. There was to be seen a
+      well-clad yeoman, mounted on a sleek, switch-tailed steed, rambling along
+      the highway, with his red face elevated in a manner that said, &ldquo;I have
+      paid for my land, and fear no man;&rdquo; while his bosom was swelling with the
+      pride of being one of the grand inquest for the county. At his side rode a
+      companion, his equal in independence of feeling, perhaps, but his inferior
+      in thrift, as in property and consideration. This was a professed dealer
+      in lawsuits&mdash;a man whose name appeared in every calendar&mdash;whose
+      substance, gained in the multifarious expedients of a settler's change
+      able habits, was wasted in feeding the harpies of the courts. He was
+      endeavoring to impress the mind of the grand juror with the merits of a
+      cause now at issue, Along with these was a pedestrian, who, having thrown
+      a rifle frock over his shirt, and placed his best wool hat above his
+      sunburnt visage, had issued from his retreat in the woods by a footpath,
+      and was striving to keep company with the others, on his way to hear and
+      to decide the disputes of his neighbors, as a petit juror. Fifty similar
+      little knots of countrymen might have been seen, on that morning,
+      journeying toward the shire-town on the same errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By ten o'clock the streets of the village were filled with busy faces;
+      some talking of their private concerns, some listening to a popular
+      expounder of political creeds; and others gaping in at the open stores,
+      admiring the finery, or examining scythes, axes, and such other
+      manufactures as attracted their curiosity or excited their admiration. A
+      few women were in the crowd, most carrying infants, and followed, at a
+      lounging, listless gait, by their rustic lords and masters. There was one
+      young couple, in whom connubial love was yet fresh, walking at a
+      respectful distance from each other; while the swain directed the timid
+      steps of his bride, by a gallant offering of a thumb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first stroke of the bell, Richard issued from the door of the &ldquo;Bold
+      Dragoon,&rdquo; flourishing a sheathed sword, that he was fond of saying his
+      ancestors had carried in one of Cromwell's victories, and crying, in an
+      authoritative tone, to &ldquo;clear the way for the court.&rdquo; The order was obeyed
+      promptly, though not servilely, the members of the crowd nodding
+      familiarly to the members of the procession as it passed. A party of
+      constables with their staves followed the sheriff, preceding Marmaduke and
+      four plain, grave-looking yeomen, who were his associates on the bench.
+      There was nothing to distinguish these Subordinate judges from the better
+      part of the spectators, except gravity, which they affected a little more
+      than common, and that one of their number was attired in an old-fashioned
+      military coat, with skirts that reached no lower than the middle of his
+      thighs, and bearing two little silver epaulets, not half so big as a
+      modern pair of shoulder-knots. This gentleman was a colonel of the
+      militia, in attendance on a court-martial, who found leisure to steal a
+      moment from his military to attend to his civil jurisdiction; but this
+      incongruity excited neither notice nor comment. Three or four clean-shaved
+      lawyers followed, as meek as if they were lambs going to the slaughter.
+      One or two of their number had contrived to obtain an air of scholastic
+      gravity by wearing spectacles. The rear was brought up by another posse of
+      constables, and the mob followed the whole into the room where the court
+      held its sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The edifice was composed of a basement of squared logs, perforated here
+      and there with small grated windows, through which a few wistful faces
+      were gazing at the crowd without. Among the captives were the guilty,
+      downcast countenances of the counterfeiters, and the simple but honest
+      features of the Leather-Stocking. The dungeons were to be distinguished,
+      externally, from the debtors' apartments only by the size of the
+      apertures, the thickness of the grates, and by the heads of the spikes
+      that were driven into the logs as a protection against the illegal use of
+      edge-tools. The upper story was of frame work, regularly covered with
+      boards, and contained one room decently fitted up for the purpose of
+      justice. A bench, raised on a narrow platform to the height of a man above
+      the floor, and protected in front by a light railing, ran along one of its
+      sides. In the centre was a seat, furnished with rude arms, that was always
+      filled by the presiding judge. In front, on a level with the floor of the
+      room, was a large table covered with green baize, and surrounded by
+      benches; and at either of its ends were rows of seats, rising one over the
+      other, for jury-boxes. Each of these divisions was surrounded by a
+      railing. The remainder of the room was an open square, appropriated to the
+      spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the judges were seated, the lawyers had taken possession of the
+      table, and the noise of moving feet had ceased in the area, the
+      proclamations were made in the usual form, the jurors were sworn, the
+      charge was given, and the court proceeded to hear the business before
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall not detain the reader with a description of the captious
+      discussions that occupied the court for the first two hours, Judge Temple
+      had impressed on the jury, in his charge, the necessity for dispatch on
+      their part, recommending to their notice, from motives of humanity, the
+      prisoners in the jail as the first objects of their attention.
+      Accordingly, after the period we have mentioned had elapsed, the cry of
+      the officer to &ldquo;clear the way for the grand jury,&rdquo; announced the entrance
+      of that body. The usual forms were observed, when the foreman handed up to
+      the bench two bills, on both of which the Judge observed, at the first
+      glance of his eye, the name of Nathaniel Bumppo. It was a leisure moment
+      with the court; some low whispering passed between the bench and the
+      sheriff, who gave a signal to his officers, and in a very few minutes the
+      silence that prevailed was interrupted by a general movement in the outer
+      crowd, when presently the Leather-Stocking made his appearance, ushered
+      into the criminal's bar under the custody of two constables, The hum
+      ceased, the people closed into the open space again, and the silence soon
+      became so deep that the hard breathing of the prisoner was audible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty was dressed in his buckskin garments, without his coat, in place of
+      which he wore only a shirt of coarse linen-cheek, fastened at his throat
+      by the sinew of a deer, leaving his red neck and weather-beaten face
+      exposed and bare. It was the first time that he had ever crossed the
+      threshold of a court of justice, and curiosity seemed to be strongly
+      blended with his personal feelings. He raised his eyes to the bench,
+      thence to the jury-boxes, the bar, and the crowd without, meeting
+      everywhere looks fastened on himself. After surveying his own person, as
+      searching the cause of this unusual attraction, he once more turned his
+      face around the assemblage, and opened his mouth in one of his silent and
+      remarkable laughs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prisoner, remove your cap,&rdquo; said Judge Temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The order was either unheard or unheeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nathaniel Bumppo, be uncovered,&rdquo; repeated the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty started at the sound of his name, and, raising his face earnestly
+      toward the bench, he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Lippet arose from his seat at the table, and whispered in the ear of
+      the prisoner; when Natty gave him a nod of assent, and took the deer-skin
+      covering from his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. District Attorney,&rdquo; said the Judge, &ldquo;the prisoner is ready; we wait
+      for the indictment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The duties of public prosecutor were discharged by Dirck Van der School,
+      who adjusted his spectacles, cast a cautious look around him at his
+      brethren of the bar, which he ended by throwing his head aside so as to
+      catch one glance over the glasses, when he proceeded to read the bill
+      aloud. It was the usual charge for an assault and battery on the person of
+      Hiram Doolittle, and was couched in the ancient language of such
+      instruments, especial care having been taken by the scribe not to omit the
+      name of a single offensive weapon known to the law. When he had done, Mr.
+      Van der School removed his spectacles, which he closed and placed in his
+      pocket, seemingly for the pleasure of again opening and replacing them on
+      his nose, After this evolution was repeated once or twice, he handed the
+      bill over to Mr. Lippet, with a cavalier air, that said as much as &ldquo;Pick a
+      hole in that if you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty listened to the charge with great attention, leaning forward toward
+      the reader with an earnestness that denoted his interest; and, when it was
+      ended, he raised his tall body to the utmost, and drew a long sigh. All
+      eyes were turned to the prisoner, whose voice was vainly expected to break
+      the stillness of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard the presentment that the grand jury have made, Nathaniel
+      Bumppo,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;what do you plead to the charge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man drooped his head for a moment in a reflecting attitude, and
+      then, raising it, he laughed before he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I handled the man a little rough or so, is not to be denied; but
+      that there was occasion to make use of all the things that the gentleman
+      has spoken of is downright untrue. I am not much of a wrestler, seeing
+      that I'm getting old; but I was out among the Scotch-Irishers&mdash;let me
+      see&mdash;it must have been as long ago as the first year of the old war&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Lippet, if you are retained for the prisoner,&rdquo; interrupted Judge
+      Temple, &ldquo;instruct your client how to plead; if not, the court will assign
+      him counsel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aroused from studying the indictment by this appeal, the attorney got up,
+      and after a short dialogue with the hunter in a low voice, he informed the
+      court that they were ready to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you plead guilty or not guilty?&rdquo; said the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may say not guilty, with a clean conscience,&rdquo; returned Natty; &ldquo;for
+      there's no guilt in doing what's right; and I'd rather died on the spot,
+      than had him put foot in the hut at that moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard started at this declaration and bent his eyes significantly on
+      Hiram, who returned the look with a slight movement of his eyebrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proceed to open the cause, Mr. District Attorney,&rdquo; continued the Judge.
+      &ldquo;Mr. Clerk, enter the plea of not guilty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a short opening address from Mr. Van der School, Hiram was summoned
+      to the bar to give his testimony. It was delivered to the letter, perhaps,
+      but with all that moral coloring which can be conveyed under such
+      expressions as, &ldquo;thinking no harm,&rdquo; &ldquo;feeling it my bounden duty as a
+      magistrate,&rdquo; and &ldquo;seeing that the constable was back'ard in the business.&rdquo;
+       When he had done, and the district attorney declined putting any further
+      interrogatories, Mr. Lippet arose, with an air of keen investigation, and
+      asked the following questions:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you a constable of this county, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; said Hiram, &ldquo;I'm only a justice-peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you, Mr. Doolittle, in the face of this court, putting it to your
+      conscience and your knowledge of the law, whether you had any right to
+      enter that man's dwelling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hem!&rdquo; said Hiram, undergoing a violent struggle between his desire for
+      vengeance, and his love of legal fame: &ldquo;I do suppose&mdash;that in&mdash;that
+      is&mdash;strict law&mdash;that supposing&mdash;maybe I hadn't a real&mdash;lawful
+      right; but as the case was&mdash;and Billy was so back'ard&mdash;I thought
+      I might come for'ard in the business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ask you again, sir,&rdquo; continued the lawyer, following up his success,
+      &ldquo;whether this old, this friendless old man, did or did not repeatedly
+      forbid your entrance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I must say,&rdquo; said Hiram, &ldquo;that he was considerable cross-grained;
+      not what I call clever, seeing that it was only one neighbor wanting to go
+      into the house of another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! then you own it was only meant for a neighborly visit on your part,
+      and without the sanction of law. Remember, gentlemen, the words of the
+      witness, 'one neighbor wanting to enter the house of another.' Now, sir, I
+      ask you if Nathaniel Bumppo did not again and again order you not to
+      enter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was some words passed between us,&rdquo; said Hiram, &ldquo;but I read the
+      warrant to him aloud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I repeat my question; did he tell you not to enter his habitation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a good deal passed betwixt us&mdash;but I've the warrant in my
+      pocket; maybe the court would wish to see it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Witness,&rdquo; said Judge Temple, &ldquo;answer the question directly; did or did
+      not the prisoner forbid your entering his hut?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I some think&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer without equivocation,&rdquo; continued the Judge sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did you attempt to enter after his order?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did; but the warrant was in my hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proceed, Mr. Lippet, with your examination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the attorney saw that the impression was in favor of his client, and
+      waving his hand with a supercilious manner, as if unwilling to insult the
+      understanding of the jury with any further defence, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir; I leave it for your honor to charge; I rest my case here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. District Attorney,&rdquo; said the Judge, &ldquo;have you anything to say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Van der School removed his spectacles, folded them and, replacing them
+      once more on his nose, eyed the other bill which he held in his hand, and
+      then said, looking at the bar over the top of his glasses; &ldquo;I shall rest
+      the prosecution here, if the court please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Temple arose and began the charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen of the jury,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you have heard the testimony, and I
+      shall detain you but a moment. If an officer meet with resistance in the
+      execution of a process, he has an undoubted right to call any citizen to
+      his assistance; and the acts of such assistant come within the protection
+      of the law. I shall leave you to judge, gentlemen, from the testimony, how
+      far the witness in this prosecution can be so considered, feeling less
+      reluctance to submit the case thus informally to your decision, because
+      there is yet another indictment to be tried, which involves heavier
+      charges against the unfortunate prisoner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tone of Marmaduke was mild and insinuating, and, as his sentiments
+      were given with such apparent impartiality, they did not fail of carrying
+      due weight with the jury. The grave-looking yeomen who composed this
+      tribunal laid their heads together for a few minutes, without leaving the
+      box, when the foreman arose, and, after the forms of the court were duly
+      observed, he pronounced the prisoner to be &ldquo;Not guilty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are acquitted of this charge, Nathaniel Bumppo,&rdquo; said the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan!&rdquo; said Natty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are found not guilty of striking and assaulting Mr. Doolittle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, I'll not deny but that I took him a little roughly by the
+      shoulders,&rdquo; said Natty, looking about him with great simplicity, &ldquo;and that
+      I&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are acquitted,&rdquo; interrupted the Judge, &ldquo;and there is nothing further
+      to be said or done in the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A look of joy lighted up the features of the old man, who now comprehended
+      the case, and, placing his cap eagerly on his head again, he threw up the
+      bar of his little prison, and said, feelingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must say this for you, Judge Temple, that the law has not been so hard
+      on me as I dreaded. I hope God will bless you for the kind things you've
+      done to me this day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the staff of the constable was opposed to his egress, and Mr. Lippet
+      whispered a few words in his ear, when the aged hunter sank back into his
+      place, and, removing his cap, stroked down the remnants of his gray and
+      sandy locks, with an air of mortification mingled with submission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. District Attorney,&rdquo; said Judge Temple, affecting to busy himself with
+      his minutes, &ldquo;proceed with the second indictment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Van der School took great care that no part of the presentment, which
+      he now read, should be lost on his auditors. It accused the prisoner of
+      resisting the execution of a search-warrant, by force of arms, and
+      particularized in the vague language of the law, among a variety of other
+      weapons, the use of the rifle. This was indeed a more serious charge than
+      an ordinary assault and battery, and a corresponding degree of interest
+      was manifested by the spectators in its result. The prisoner was duly
+      arraigned, and his plea again demanded. Mr. Lippet had anticipated the
+      answers of Natty, and in a whisper advised him how to plead. But the
+      feelings of the old hunter were awakened by some of the expressions in the
+      indictment, and, forgetful of his caution, he exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis a wicked untruth; I crave no man's blood. Them thieves, the
+      Iroquois, won't say it to any face that I ever thirsted after man's blood,
+      I have fou't as soldier that feared his Maker and his officer, but I never
+      pulled trigger on any but a warrior that was up and awake. No man can say
+      that I ever struck even a Mingo in his blanket. I believe there's some who
+      thinks there's no God in a wilderness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attend to your plea, Bumppo,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;you hear that you are
+      accused of using your rifle against an officer of justice? Are you guilty
+      or not guilty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the irritated feelings of Natty had found vent: and he rested
+      on the bar for a moment, in a musing posture, when he lifted his face,
+      with his silent laugh, and, pointing to where the wood-chopper stood, he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would Billy Kirby be standing there, d'ye think, if I had used the
+      rifle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you deny it,&rdquo; said Mr. Lippet; &ldquo;you plead not guilty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;Billy knows that I never fired at all. Billy, do
+      you remember the turkey last winter? Ah me! that was better than common
+      firing; but I can't shoot as I used to could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enter the plea of not guilty,&rdquo; said Judge Temple, strongly affected by
+      the simplicity of the prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram was again sworn, and his testimony given on the second charge. He
+      had discovered his former error, and proceeded more cautiously than
+      before. He related very distinctly and, for the man, with amazing
+      terseness, the suspicion against the hunter, the complaint, the issuing of
+      the warrant, and the swearing in of Kirby; all of which, he affirmed, were
+      done in due form of law. He then added the manner in which the constable
+      had been received; and stated, distinctly, that Natty had pointed the
+      rifle at Kirby, and threatened his life if he attempted to execute his
+      duty. All this was confirmed by Jotham, who was observed to adhere closely
+      to the story of the magistrate. Mr. Lippet conducted an artful
+      cross-examination of these two witnesses, but, after consuming much time,
+      was compelled to relinquish the attempt to obtain any advantage, in
+      despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the District Attorney called the wood-chopper to the bar, Billy
+      gave an extremely confused account of the whole affair, although he
+      evidently aimed at the truth, until Mr. Van der School aided him, by
+      asking some direct questions:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears from examining the papers, that you demanded admission into
+      the hut legally; so you were put in bodily fear by his rifle and threats?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't mind them that, man,&rdquo; said Billy, snapping his fingers; &ldquo;I
+      should be a poor stick to mind old Leather-Stocking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I understood you to say (referring to your previous words [as
+      delivered here in court] in the commencement of your testimony) that you
+      thought he meant to shoot you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I did; and so would you, too, squire, if you had seen a chap
+      dropping a muzzle that never misses, and cocking an eye that has a natural
+      squint by long practice I thought there would be a dust on't, and my back
+      was up at once; but Leather-Stocking gi'n up the skin, and so the matter
+      ended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Billy,&rdquo; said Natty, shaking his head, &ldquo;'twas a lucky thought in me to
+      throw out the hide, or there might have been blood spilt; and I'm sure, if
+      it had been your'n, I should have mourned it sorely the little while I
+      have to stay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; returned Billy, facing the prisoner with a
+      freedom and familiarity that utterly disregarded the presence of the
+      court, &ldquo;as you are on the subject it may be that you've no&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on with your examination, Mr. District Attorney.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That gentleman eyed the familiarity between his witness and the prisoner
+      with manifest disgust, and indicated to the court that he was done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you didn't feel frightened, Mr. Kirby?&rdquo; said the counsel for the
+      prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me! no,&rdquo; said Billy, casting his eyes oven his own huge frame with
+      evident self-satisfaction; &ldquo;I'm not to be skeared so easy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look like a hardy man; where were you born, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Varmount State; 'tis a mountaynious place, but there's a stiff soil, and
+      it's pretty much wooded with beech and maple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always heard so,&rdquo; said Mr. Lippet soothingly. &ldquo;You have been used
+      to the rifle yourself in that country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I pull the second best trigger in this county. I knock under to Natty
+      Bumppo, there, sin' he shot the pigeon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leather-Stocking raised his head, and laughed again, when he abruptly
+      thrust out a wrinkled hand, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're young yet, Billy, and haven't seen the matches that I have; but
+      here's my hand; I bear no malice to you, I don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Lippet allowed this conciliatory offering to be accepted, and
+      judiciously paused, while the spirit of peace was exercising its influence
+      over the two; but the Judge interposed his authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is an improper place for such dialogues,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;proceed with
+      your examination of this witness, Mr. Lippet, or I shall order the next.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The attorney started, as if unconscious of any impropriety, and continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you settled the matter with Natty amicably on the spot, did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He gi'n me the skin, and I didn't want to quarrel with an old man; for my
+      part, I see no such mighty matter in shooting a buck!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you parted friends? and you would never have thought of bringing the
+      business up before a court, hadn't you been subpoenaed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think I should; he gi'n the skin, and I didn't feel a hard
+      thought, though Squire Doolittle got some affronted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done, sir,&rdquo; said Mr. Lippet, probably relying on the charge of the
+      Judge, as he again seated himself, with the air of a main who felt that
+      his success was certain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Van der School arose to address the jury, he commenced by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen of the jury, I should have interrupted the leading questions
+      put by the prisoner's counsel (by leading questions I mean telling him
+      what to say), did I not feel confident that the law of the land was
+      superior to any advantages (I mean legal advantages) which he might
+      obtain by his art. The counsel for the prisoner, gentlemen, has endeavored
+      to persuade you, in opposition to your own good sense, to believe that
+      pointing a rifle at a constable (elected or deputed) is a very innocent
+      affair; and that society (I mean the commonwealth, gentlemen) shall not be
+      endangered thereby. But let me claim your attention, while we look over
+      the particulars of this heinous offence.&rdquo; Here Mr. Vain der School favored
+      the jury with an abridgment of the testimony, recounted in such a manner
+      as utterly to confuse the faculties of his worthy listeners. After this
+      exhibition he closed as follows: &ldquo;And now, gentlemen, having thus made
+      plain to your senses the crime of which this unfortunate man has been
+      guilty (unfortunate both on account of his ignorance and his guilt), I
+      shall leave you to your own consciences; not in the least doubting that
+      you will see the importance (notwithstanding the prisoner's counsel
+      [doubtless relying on your former verdict] wishes to appear so confident
+      of success) of punishing the offender, and asserting the dignity of the
+      laws.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now the duty of the Judge to deliver his charge. It consisted of a
+      short, comprehensive summary of the testimony, laying bare the artifice of
+      the prisoner's counsel, and placing the facts in so obvious a light that
+      they could not well be misunderstood. &ldquo;Living as we do, gentlemen,&rdquo; he
+      concluded, &ldquo;on the skirts of society, it becomes doubly necessary to
+      protect the ministers of the law. If you believe the witnesses, in their
+      construction of the acts of the prisoner, it is your duty to convict him;
+      but if you believe that the old man, who this day appears before you,
+      meant not to harm the constable, but was acting more under the influence
+      of habit than by the instigations of malice, it will be your duty to judge
+      him, but to do it with lenity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As before, the jury did not leave their box; but, after a consultation of
+      some little time, their foreman arose, and pronounced the prisoner Guilty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was but little surprise manifested in the courtroom at this verdict,
+      as the testimony, the greater part of which we have omitted, was too clear
+      and direct to be passed over. The judges seemed to have anticipated this
+      sentiment, for a consultation was passing among them also, during the
+      deliberation of the jury, and the preparatory movements of the &ldquo;bench&rdquo;
+       announced the coming sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nathaniel Bumppo,&rdquo; commenced the Judge, making the customary pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old hunter, who had been musing again, with his head on the bar,
+      raised himself, and cried, with a prompt, military tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge waved his hand for silence, and proceeded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In forming their sentence, the court have been governed as much by the
+      consideration of your ignorance of the laws as by a strict sense of the
+      importance of punishing such outrages as this of which you have been found
+      guilty. They have therefore passed over the obvious punishment of whipping
+      on the bare back, in mercy to your years; but, as the dignity of the law
+      requires an open exhibition of the consequences of your crime, it is
+      ordered that you be conveyed from this room to the public stocks, where
+      you are to be confined for one hour; that you pay a fine to the State of
+      one hundred dollars; and that you be imprisoned in the jail of this county
+      for one calendar month, and, furthermore, that your imprisonment do not
+      cease until the said fine shall be paid. I feel it my duty, Nathaniel
+      Bumppo&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where should I get the money?&rdquo; interrupted the Leather-Stocking
+      eagerly; &ldquo;where should I get the money? you'll take away the bounty on the
+      painters, because I cut the throat of a deer; and how is an old man to
+      find so much gold or silver in the woods? No, no, Judge; think better of
+      it, and don't talk of shutting me up in a jail for the little time I have
+      to stay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you have anything to urge against the passing of the sentence, the
+      court will yet hear you,&rdquo; said the Judge, mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have enough to say agin' it,&rdquo; cried Natty, grasping the bar on which
+      his fingers were working with a convulsed motion. &ldquo;Where am I to get the
+      money? Let me out into the woods and hills, where I've been used to
+      breathe the clear air, and though I'm threescore and ten, if you've left
+      game enough in the country, I'll travel night and day but I'll make you up
+      the sum afore the season is over. Yes, yes&mdash;you see the reason of the
+      thing, and the wicked ness of shutting up an old man that has spent his
+      days, as one may say, where he could always look into the windows of
+      heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be governed by the law&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not to me of law, Marmaduke Temple,&rdquo; interrupted the hunter. &ldquo;Did
+      the beast of the forest mind your laws, when it was thirsty and hungering
+      for the blood of your own child? She was kneeling to her God for a greater
+      favor than I ask, and he heard her; and if you now say no to my prayers,
+      do you think he will be deaf?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My private feelings must not enter into&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear me, Marmaduke Temple,&rdquo; interrupted the old man, with melancholy
+      earnestness, &ldquo;and hear reason. I've travelled these mountains when you was
+      no judge, but an infant in your mother's arms; and I feel as if I had a
+      right and a privilege to travel them agin afore I die. Have you forgot the
+      time that you come on to the lake shore, when there wasn't even a jail to
+      lodge in: and didn't I give you my own bear-skin to sleep on, and the fat
+      of a noble buck to satisfy the cravings of your hunger? Yes, yes&mdash;you
+      thought it no sin then to kill a deer! And this I did, though I had no
+      reason to love you, for you had never done anything but harm to them that
+      loved and sheltered me. And now, will you shut me up in your dungeons to
+      pay me for my kindness? A hundred dollars! Where should I get the money?
+      No, no&mdash;there's them that says hard things of you, Marmaduke Temple,
+      but you ain't so bad as to wish to see an old man die in a prison, because
+      he stood up for the right. Come, friend, let me pass; it's long sin' I've
+      been used to such crowds, and I crave to be in the woods agin. Don't fear
+      me, Judge&mdash;I bid you not to fear me; for if there's beaver enough
+      left on the streams, or the buckskins will sell for a shilling apiece, you
+      shall have the last penny of the fine. Where are ye, pups? come away,
+      dogs, come away! we have a grievous toil to do for our years, but it shall
+      be done&mdash;yes, yes, I've promised it, and it shall be done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is unnecessary to say that the movement of the Leather-Stocking was
+      again intercepted by the constable; but, before he had time to speak, a
+      bustling in the crowd, and a loud hem, drew all eyes to another part of
+      the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin had succeeded in edging his way through the people, and was now
+      seen balancing his short body, with one foot in a window and the other on
+      a railing of the jury-box. To the amazement of the whole court, the
+      steward was evidently preparing to speak. After a good deal of difficulty,
+      he succeeded in drawing from his pocket a small bag, and then found
+      utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If-so-be,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that your honor is agreeable to trust the poor
+      fellow out on another cruise among the beasts, here's a small matter that
+      will help to bring down the risk, seeing that there's just thirty-five of
+      your Spaniards in it; and I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that they
+      was raal British guineas, for the sake of the old boy. But 'tis as it is;
+      and if Squire Dickens will just be so good as to overhaul this small bit
+      of an account, and take enough from the bag to settle the same, he's
+      welcome to hold on upon the rest, till such time as the Leather-Stocking
+      can grapple with them said beaver, or, for that matter, forever, and no
+      thanks asked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Benjamin concluded, he thrust out the wooden register of his arrears to
+      the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon&rdquo; with one hand, while he offered his bag of dollars with
+      the other. Astonishment at this singular interruption produced a profound
+      stillness in the room, which was only interrupted by the sheriff, who
+      struck his sword on the table, and cried: &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There must be an end to this,&rdquo; said the Judge, struggling to overcome his
+      feelings. &ldquo;Constable, lead the prisoner to the stocks. Mr. Clerk, what
+      stands next on the calendar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty seemed to yield to his destiny, for he sank his head on his chest,
+      and followed the officer from the court room in silence. The crowd moved
+      back for the passage of the prisoner, and when his tall form was seen
+      descending from the outer door, a rush of the people to the scene of his
+      disgrace followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ha! ha! look! he wears cruel garters!&rdquo;&mdash;Lear.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The punishments of the common law were still known, at the time of our
+      tale, to the people of New York; and the whipping-post, and its companion,
+      the stocks, were not yet supplanted by the more merciful expedients of the
+      public prison. Immediately in front of the jail those relics of the older
+      times were situated, as a lesson of precautionary justice to the
+      evil-doers of the settlement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty followed the constables to this spot, bowing his head in submission
+      to a power that he was unable to oppose, and surrounded by the crowd that
+      formed a circle about his person, exhibiting in their countenances strong
+      curiosity. A constable raised the upper part of the stocks, and pointed
+      with his finger to the holes where the old man was to place his feet.
+      Without making the least objection to the punishment, the Leather-Stocking
+      quietly seated himself on the ground, and suffered his limbs to be laid in
+      the openings, without even a murmur; though he cast one glance about him,
+      in quest of that sympathy that human nature always seems to require under
+      suffering but he met no direct manifestations of pity, neither did he see
+      any unfeeling exultation, or hear a single reproachful epithet. The
+      character of the mob, if it could be called by such a name, was that of
+      attentive subordination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The constable was in the act of lowering the upper plank, when Benjamin,
+      who had pressed close to the side of the prisoner, said, in his hoarse
+      tone, as if seeking for some cause to create a quarrel:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where away, master constable, is the use of clapping a man in them here
+      bilboes? It neither stops his grog nor hurts his back; what for is it that
+      you do the thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis the sentence of the court, Mr. Penguillium, and there's law for it,
+      I s'pose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, I know that there's law for the thing; but where away do you find
+      the use, I say? it does no harm, and it only keeps a man by the heels for
+      the small matter of two glasses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it no harm, Benny Pump,&rdquo; said Natty, raising his eyes with a piteous
+      look in the face of the steward&mdash;&ldquo;is it no harm to show off a man in
+      his seventy-first year, like a tame bear, for the settlers to look on? Is
+      it no harm to put an old soldier, that has served through the war of
+      'fifty-six, and seen the enemy in the 'seventy-six business, into a place
+      like this, where the boys can point at him and say, I have known the time
+      when he was a spectacle for the county? Is it no harm to bring down the
+      pride of an honest man to be the equal of the beasts of the forest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin stared about him fiercely, and could he have found a single face
+      that expressed contumely, he would have been prompt to quarrel with its
+      owner; but meeting everywhere with looks of sobriety, and occasionally of
+      commiseration, he very deliberately seated himself by the side of the
+      hunter, and, placing his legs in the two vacant holes of the stocks, he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now lower away, master constable, lower away, I tell ye! If-so-be there's
+      such a thing hereabouts, as a man that wants to see a bear, let him look
+      and be d&mdash;d, and he shall find two of them, and mayhap one of the
+      same that can bite as well as growl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I have no orders to put you in the stocks, Mr. Pump,&rdquo; cried the
+      constable; &ldquo;you must get up and let me do my duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've my orders, and what do you need better to meddle with my own feet?
+      so lower away, will ye, and let me see the man that chooses to open his
+      mouth with a grin on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There can't be any harm in locking up a creatur' that will enter the
+      pound,&rdquo; said the constable, laughing, and closing the stocks on them both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was fortunate that this act was executed with decision, for the whole
+      of the spectators, when they saw Benjamin assume the position he took,
+      felt an inclination for merriment, which few thought it worth while to
+      suppress. The steward struggled violently for his liberty again, with an
+      evident intention of making battle on those who stood nearest to him; but
+      the key was already turned, and all his efforts were vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark ye, master constable,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;just clear away your bilboes for
+      the small matter of a log-glass, will ye, and let me show some of them
+      there chaps who it is they are so merry about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, you would go in, and you can't come out,&rdquo; returned the officer,
+      &ldquo;until the time has expired that the Judge directed for the keeping of the
+      prisoner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin, finding that his threats and his struggles were useless, had
+      good sense enough to learn patience from the resigned manner of his
+      companion, and soon settled himself down by the side of Natty, with a
+      contemptuousness expressed in his hard features, that showed he had
+      substituted disgust for rage. When the violence of the steward's feelings
+      had in some measure subsided, he turned to his fellow-sufferer, and, with
+      a motive that might have vindicated a worse effusion, he attempted the
+      charitable office of consolation,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taking it by and large, Master Bump-ho, it's but a small matter after
+      all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, I've known very good sort of men, aboard of the
+      Boadishey, laid by the heels, for nothing, mayhap, but forgetting that
+      they'd drunk their allowance already, when a glass of grog has come in
+      their way. This is nothing more than riding with two anchors ahead,
+      waiting for a turn in the tide, or a shift of wind, d'ye see, with a soft
+      bottom and plenty of room for the sweep of your hawse. Now I've seen many
+      a man, for over-shooting his reckoning, as I told ye moored head and
+      starn, where he couldn't so much as heave his broadside round, and mayhap
+      a stopper clapped on his tongue too, in the shape of a pump-bolt lashed
+      athwartship his jaws, all the same as an outrigger along side of a
+      taffrel-rail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter appeared to appreciate the kind intentions of the other, though
+      he could not understand his eloquence, and, raising his humbled
+      countenance, he attempted a smile, as he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis nothing, I say, but a small matter of a squall that will soon blow
+      over,&rdquo; continued Benjamin. &ldquo;To you that has such a length of keel, it must
+      be all the same as nothing; thof, seeing that I am little short in my
+      lower timbers, they've triced my heels up in such a way as to give me a
+      bit of a cant. But what cares I, Master Bump-ho, if the ship strains a
+      little at her anchor? it's only for a dog-watch, and dam'me but she'll
+      sail with you then on that cruise after them said beaver. I'm not much
+      used to small arms, seeing that I was stationed at the ammunition-boxes,
+      being summat too low-rigged to see over the hammock-cloths; but I can
+      carry the game, d'ye see, and mayhap make out to lend a hand with the
+      traps; and if so, be you're any way so handy with them as ye be with your
+      boat-hook, 'twill be but a short cruise after all, I've squared the yards
+      with Squire Dickens this morning, and I shall send him word that he
+      needn't bear my name on the books again till such time as the cruise is
+      over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're used to dwell with men, Benny,&rdquo; said Leather-Stocking, mournfully,
+      &ldquo;and the ways of the woods would be hard on you, if&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit&mdash;not a bit,&rdquo; cried the steward; &ldquo;I'm none of your
+      fair-weather chaps, Master Bump-ho, as sails only in smooth water. When I
+      find a friend, I sticks by him, d'ye see. Now, there's no better man
+      a-going than Squire Dickens, and I love him about the same as I loves
+      Mistress Hollister's new keg of Jamaiky.&rdquo; The steward paused, and turning
+      his uncouth visage on the hunter, he surveyed him with a roguish leer of
+      his eye, and gradually suffered the muscles of his hard features to relax,
+      until his face was illuminated by the display of his white teeth, when he
+      dropped his voice, and added; &ldquo;I say, Master Leather-Stocking, 'tis
+      fresher and livelier than any Hollands you'll get in Garnsey. But we'll
+      send a hand over and ask the woman for a taste, for I'm so jammed in these
+      here bilboes that I begin to want summat to lighten my upper works.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty sighed, and gazed about him on the crowd, that already began to
+      disperse, and which had now diminished greatly, as its members scattered
+      in their various pursuits. He looked wistfully at Benjamin, but did not
+      reply; a deeply-seated anxiety seeming to absorb every other sensation,
+      and to throw a melancholy gloom over his wrinkled features, which were
+      working with the movements of his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steward was about to act on the old principle, that silence gives
+      consent, when Hiram Doolittle, attended by Jotham, stalked out of the
+      crowd, across the open space, and approached the stocks. The magistrate
+      passed by the end where Benjamin was seated, and posted himself, at a safe
+      distance from the steward, in front of the Leather-Stocking. Hiram stood,
+      for a moment, cowering before the keen looks that Natty fastened on him,
+      and suffering under an embarrassment that was quite new; when having in
+      some degree recovered himself, he looked at the heavens, and then at the
+      smoky atmosphere, as if it were only an ordinary meeting with a friend,
+      and said in his formal, hesitating way:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite a scurcity of rain, lately; I some think we shall have a long
+      drought on't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin was occupied in untying his bag of dollars, and did not observe
+      the approach of the magistrate, while Natty turned his face, in which
+      every muscle was working, away from him in disgust, without answering.
+      Rather encouraged than daunted by this exhibition of dislike, Hiram, after
+      a short pause, continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The clouds look as if they'd no water in them, and the earth is
+      dreadfully parched. To my judgment, there'll be short crops this season,
+      if the rain doesn't fail quite speedily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The air with which Mr. Doolittle delivered this prophetical opinion was
+      peculiar to his species. It was a jesuitical, cold, unfeeling, and selfish
+      manner, that seemed to say, &ldquo;I have kept within the law,&rdquo; to the man he
+      had so cruelly injured. It quite overcame the restraint that the old
+      hunter had been laboring to impose on himself, and he burst out in a warm
+      glow of indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should the rain fall from the clouds,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;when you force the
+      tears from the eyes of the old, the sick, and the poor! Away with ye&mdash;away
+      with ye! you may be formed in the image of the Maker, but Satan dwells in
+      your heart. Away with ye, I say! I am mournful, and the sight of ye brings
+      bitter thoughts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin ceased thumbing his money, and raised his head at the instant
+      that Hiram, who was thrown off his guard by the invectives of the hunter,
+      unluckily trusted his person within reach of the steward, who grasped one
+      of his legs with a hand that had the grip of a vise, and whirled the
+      magistrate from his feet, before he had either time to collect his senses
+      or to exercise the strength he did really possess. Benjamin wanted neither
+      proportions nor manhood in his head, shoulders, and arms, though all the
+      rest of his frame appeared to be originally intended for a very different
+      sort of a man. He exerted his physical powers on the present occasion,
+      with much discretion; and, as he had taken his antagonist at a great
+      disadvantage, the struggle resulted very soon in Benjamin getting the
+      magistrate fixed in a posture somewhat similar to his own, and manfully
+      placed face to face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're a ship's cousin, I tell ye, Master Doo-but-little,&rdquo; roared the
+      steward; &ldquo;some such matter as a ship's cousin, sir. I know you, I do, with
+      your fair-weather speeches to Squire Dickens, to his face, and then you go
+      and sarve out your grumbling to all the old women in the town, do ye?
+      Ain't it enough for any Christian, let him harbor never so much malice, to
+      get an honest old fellow laid by the heels in this fashion, without
+      carrying sail so hard on the poor dog, as if you would run him down as he
+      lay at his anchors? But I've logged many a hard thing against your name,
+      master, and now the time's come to foot up the day's work, d'ye see; so
+      square yourself, you lubber, square yourself, and we'll soon know who's
+      the better man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jotham!&rdquo; cried the frightened magistrate&mdash;&ldquo;Jotham! call in the
+      constables. Mr. Penguillium, I command the peace&mdash;I order you to keep
+      the peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's been more peace than love atwixt us, master,&rdquo; cried the steward,
+      making some very unequivocal demonstrations toward hostility; &ldquo;so mind
+      yourself! square your self, I say! do you smell this here bit of a
+      sledge-hammer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay hands on me if you dare!&rdquo; exclaimed Hiram, as well as he could, under
+      the grasp which the steward held on his throttle&mdash;&ldquo;lay hands on me if
+      you dare!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you call this laying, master, you are welcome to the eggs,&rdquo; roared the
+      steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It becomes our disagreeable duty to record here, that the acts of Benjamin
+      now became violent; for he darted his sledge-hammer violently on the anvil
+      of Mr. Doolittle's countenance, and the place became in an instant a scene
+      of tumult and confusion. The crowd rushed in a dense circle around the
+      spot, while some ran to the court room to give the alarm, and one or two
+      of the more juvenile part of the multitude had a desperate trial of speed
+      to see who should be the happy man to communicate the critical situation
+      of the magistrate to his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin worked away, with great industry and a good deal of skill, at his
+      occupation, using one hand to raise up his antagonist, while he knocked
+      him over with the other; for he would have been disgraced in his own
+      estimation, had he struck a blow on a fallen adversary. By this
+      considerate arrangement he had found means to hammer the visage of Hiram
+      out of all shape, by the time Richard succeeded in forcing his way through
+      the throng to the point of combat. The sheriff afterward declared that,
+      independently of his mortification as preserver of the peace of the
+      county, at this interruption to its harmony, he was never so grieved in
+      his life as when he saw this breach of unity between his favorites. Hiram
+      had in some degree become necessary to his vanity, and Benjamin, strange
+      as it may appear, he really loved. This attachment was exhibited in the
+      first words that he uttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squire Doolittle! Squire Doolittle! I am ashamed to see a man of your
+      character and office forget himself so much as to disturb the peace,
+      insult the court, and beat poor Benjamin in this manner!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound of Mr. Jones' voice, the steward ceased his employment, and
+      Hiram had an opportunity of raising his discomfited visage toward the
+      mediator. Emboldened by the sight of the sheriff, Mr. Doolittle again had
+      recourse to his lungs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll have law on you for this,&rdquo; he cried desperately; &ldquo;I'll have the law
+      on you for this. I call on you, Mr. Sheriff, to seize this man, and I
+      demand that you take his body into custody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time Richard was master of the true state of the case, and,
+      turning to the steward, he said reproach fully:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Benjamin, how came you in the stocks? I always thought you were mild and
+      docile as a lamb. It was for your docility that I most esteemed you.
+      Benjamin! Benjamin! you have not only disgraced yourself, but your
+      friends, by this shameless conduct, Bless me! bless me! Mr. Doolittle, he
+      seems to have knocked your face all of one side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hiram by this time had got on his feet again, and with out the reach of
+      the steward, when he broke forth in violent appeals for vengeance. The
+      offence was too apparent to be passed over, and the sheriff, mindful of
+      the impartiality exhibited by his cousin in the recent trial of the
+      Leather-Stocking, came to the painful conclusion that it was necessary to
+      commit his major-domo to prison. As the time of Natty's punishment was
+      expired, and Benjamin found that they were to be confined, for that night
+      at least, in the same apartment, he made no very strong objection to the
+      measure, nor spoke of bail, though, as the sheriff preceded the party of
+      constables that conducted them to the jail, he uttered the following
+      remonstrance:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to being berthed with Master Bump-ho for a night or so, it's but
+      little I think of it, Squire Dickens, seeing that I calls him an honest
+      man, and one as has a handy way with boat-hooks and rifles; but as for
+      owning that a man desarves anything worse than a double allowance, for
+      knocking that carpenters face a-one-side, as you call it, I'll maintain
+      it's agin' reason and Christianity. If there's a bloodsucker in this 'ere
+      county, it's that very chap. Ay! I know him! and if he hasn't got all the
+      same as dead wood in his headworks, he knows summat of me. Where's the
+      mighty harm, squire, that you take it so much to heart? It's all the same
+      as any other battle, d'ye see sir, being broadside to broadside, only that
+      it was foot at anchor, which was what we did in Port Pray a roads, when
+      Suff'ring came in among us; and a suff'ring time he had of it before he
+      got out again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richard thought it unworthy of him to make any reply to this speech, but
+      when his prisoners were safely lodged in an outer dungeon, ordering the
+      bolts to be drawn and the key turned, he withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin held frequent and friendly dialogues with different people,
+      through the iron gratings, during the afternoon; but his companion paced
+      their narrow' limits, in his moccasins, with quick, impatient treads, his
+      face hanging on his breast in dejection, or when lifted, at moments, to
+      the idlers at the window, lighted, perhaps, for an instant, with the
+      childish aspect of aged forgetfulness, which would vanish directly in an
+      expression of deep and obvious anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the day, Edwards was seen at the window, in earnest
+      dialogue with his friend; and after he departed it was thought that he
+      had communicated words of comfort to the hunter, who threw himself on his
+      pallet and was soon in a deep sleep. The curious spectators had exhausted
+      the conversation of the steward, who had drunk good fellowship with half
+      of his acquaintance, and, as Natty was no longer in motion, by eight
+      o'clock, Billy Kirby, who was the last lounger at the window, retired into
+      the &ldquo;Templeton Coffee-house,&rdquo; when Natty rose and hung a blanket before
+      the opening, and the prisoners apparently retired for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And to avoid the foe's pursuit,
+     With spurring put their cattle to't;
+     And till all four were out of wind,
+     And danger too, neer looked behind.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Hudibras.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As the shades of evening approached, the jurors, witnesses, and other
+      attendants on the court began to disperse, and before nine o'clock the
+      village was quiet, and its streets nearly deserted. At that hour Judge
+      Temple and his daughter, followed at a short distance by Louisa Grant,
+      walked slowly down the avenue, under the slight shadows of the young
+      poplars, holding the following discourse:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can best soothe his wounded spirit, my child,&rdquo; said Marmaduke; &ldquo;but
+      it will be dangerous to touch on the nature of his offence; the sanctity
+      of the laws must be respected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, sir,&rdquo; cried the impatient Elizabeth, &ldquo;those laws that condemn a
+      man like the Leather-Stocking to so severe a punishment, for an offence
+      that even I must think very venial, cannot be perfect in themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou talkest of what thou dost not understand, Elizabeth,&rdquo; returned her
+      father. &ldquo;Society cannot exist without wholesome restraints. Those
+      restraints cannot be inflicted without security and respect to the persons
+      of those who administer them; and it would sound ill indeed to report that
+      a judge had extended favor to a convicted criminal, because he had saved
+      the life of his child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see&mdash;I see the difficulty of your situation, dear sir,&rdquo; cried the
+      daughter; &ldquo;but, in appreciating the offence of poor Natty, I cannot
+      separate the minister of the law from the man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There thou talkest as a woman, child; it is not for an assault on Hiram
+      Doolittle, but for threatening the life of a constable, who was in the
+      performance of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is immaterial whether it be one or the other,&rdquo; interrupted Miss
+      Temple, with a logic that contained more feeling than reason; &ldquo;I know
+      Natty to be innocent, and thinking so I must think all wrong who oppress
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His judge among the number! thy father, Elizabeth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, nay; do not put such questions to me; give me my commission,
+      father, and let me proceed to execute it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge paused a moment, smiling fondly on his child, and then dropped
+      his hand affectionately on her shoulder, as he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast reason, Bess, and much of it, too, but thy heart lies too near
+      thy head, But listen; in this pocketbook are two hundred dollars. Go to
+      the prison&mdash;there are none in this pace to harm thee&mdash;give this
+      note to the jailer, and, when thou seest Bumppo, say what thou wilt to the
+      poor old man; give scope to the feeling of thy warm heart; but try to
+      remember, Elizabeth, that the laws alone remove us from the condition of
+      the savages; that he has been criminal, and that his judge was thy
+      father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple made no reply, but she pressed the hand that held the
+      pocket-book to her bosom, and, taking her friend by the arm, they issued
+      together from the inclosure into the principal street of the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they pursued their walk in silence, under the row of houses, where the
+      deeper gloom of the evening effectually concealed their persons, no sound
+      reached them, excepting the slow tread of a yoke of oxen, with the
+      rattling of a cart, that were moving along the street in the same
+      direction with themselves. The figure of the teamster was just discernible
+      by the dim light, lounging by the side of his cattle with a listless air,
+      as if fatigued by the toil of the day. At the corner, where the jail
+      stood, the progress of the ladies was impeded, for a moment, by the oxen,
+      who were turned up to the side of the building, and given a lock of hay,
+      which they had carried on their necks, as a reward for their patient
+      labor, The whole of this was so natural, and so common, that Elizabeth saw
+      nothing to induce a second glance at the team, until she heard the
+      teamster speaking to his cattle in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mind yourself, Brindle; will you, sir! will you!&rdquo; The language itself was
+      so unusual to oxen, with which all who dwell in a new country are
+      familiar; but there was something in the voice, also, that startled Miss
+      Temple On turning the corner, she necessarily approached the man, and her
+      look was enabled to detect the person of Oliver Edwards, concealed under
+      the coarse garb of a teamster. Their eyes met at the same instant, and,
+      not withstanding the gloom, and the enveloping cloak of Elizabeth, the
+      recognition was mutual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Temple!&rdquo; &ldquo;Mr. Edwards!&rdquo; were exclaimed simultaneously, though a
+      feeling that seemed common to both rendered the words nearly inaudible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible!&rdquo; exclaimed Edwards, after the moment of doubt had passed;
+      &ldquo;do I see you so nigh the jail! but you are going to the rectory: I beg
+      pardon, Miss Grant, I believe; I did not recognize you at first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sigh which Louisa tittered was so faint, that it was only heard by
+      Elizabeth, who replied quickly, &ldquo;We are going not only to the jail, Mr.
+      Edwards' but into it. We wish to show the Leather-Stocking that we do not
+      forget his services, and that at the same time we must be just, we are
+      also grateful. I suppose you are on a similar errand; but let me beg that
+      you will give us leave to precede you ten minutes. Good-night, sir; I&mdash;I&mdash;am
+      quite sorry, Mr. Edwards, to see you reduced to such labor; I am sure my
+      father would&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall wait your pleasure, madam,&rdquo; interrupted the youth coldly. &ldquo;May I
+      beg that you will not mention my being here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, returning his bow by a slight inclination of
+      her head, and urging the tardy Louisa forward. As they entered the
+      jailer's house, however, Miss Grant found leisure to whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it not be well to offer part of your money to Oliver? half of it
+      will pay the fine of Bumppo; and he is so unused to hardships! I am sure
+      my father will subscribe much of his little pittance, to place him in a
+      station that is more worthy of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The involuntary smile that passed over the features of Elizabeth was
+      blended with an expression of deep and heartfelt pity. She did not reply,
+      however, and the appearance of the jailer soon recalled the thoughts of
+      both to the object of their visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rescue of the ladies, and their consequent interest in his prisoner,
+      together with the informal manners that prevailed in the country, all
+      united to prevent any surprise on the part of the jailer, at their request
+      for admission to Bumppo. The note of Judge Temple, however, would have
+      silenced all objections, if he had felt them and he led the way without
+      hesitation to the apartment that held the prisoners. The instant the key
+      was put into the lock, the hoarse voice of Benjamin was heard, demanding:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yo hoy! who comes there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some visitors that you'll be glad to see,&rdquo; returned the jailer. &ldquo;What
+      have you done to the lock, that it won't turn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Handsomely, handsomely, master,&rdquo; cried the steward: &ldquo;I have just drove a
+      nail into a berth alongside of this here bolt, as a stopper, d'ye see, so
+      that Master Doo-but-little can't be running in and breezing up another
+      fight atwixt us: for, to my account, there'll be but a han-yan with me
+      soon, seeing that they'll mulct me of my Spaniards, all the same as if I'd
+      over-flogged the lubber. Throw your ship into the wind, and lay by for a
+      small matter, will ye? and I'll soon clear a passage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sounds of hammering gave an assurance that the steward was in earnest,
+      and in a short time the lock yielded, when the door was opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Benjamin had evidently been anticipating the seizure of his money, for he
+      had made frequent demands on the favorite cask at the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo;
+       during the afternoon and evening, and was now in that state which by
+      marine imagery is called &ldquo;half-seas-over.&rdquo; It was no easy thing to destroy
+      the balance of the old tar by the effects of liquor, for, as he expressed
+      it himself, &ldquo;he was too low-rigged not to carry sail in all weathers;&rdquo; but
+      he was precisely in that condition which is so expressively termed
+      &ldquo;muddy.&rdquo; When he perceived who the visitors were, he retreated to the side
+      of the room where his pallet lay, and, regardless of the presence of his
+      young mistress, seated himself on it with an air of great sobriety,
+      placing his back firmly against the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you undertake to spoil my locks in this manner, Mr. Pump,&rdquo; said the
+      jailer, &ldquo;I shall put a stopper, as you call it, on your legs, and tie you
+      down to your bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for should ye, master?&rdquo; grumbled Benjamin; &ldquo;I've rode out one squall
+      to-day anchored by the heels, and I wants no more of them. Where's the
+      harm o' doing all the same as yourself? Leave that there door free out
+      board, and you'll find no locking inboard, I'll promise ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must shut up for the night at nine,&rdquo; said the jailer, &ldquo;and it's now
+      forty-two minutes past eight.&rdquo; He placed the little candle on a rough pine
+      table, and withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leather-Stocking!&rdquo; said Elizabeth, when the key of the door was turned on
+      them again, &ldquo;my good friend, Leather-Stocking! I have come on a message of
+      gratitude. Had you submitted to the search, worthy old man, the death of
+      the deer would have been a trifle, and all would have been well&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Submit to the sarch!&rdquo; interrupted Natty, raising his face from resting on
+      his knees, without rising from the corner where he had seated himself;
+      &ldquo;d'ye think gal, I would let such a varmint into my hut? No, no&mdash;I
+      wouldn't have opened the door to your own sweet countenance then. But they
+      are welcome to search among the coals and ashes now; they'll find only
+      some such heap as is to be seen at every pot-ashery in the mountains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man dropped his face again on one hand, and seemed to be lost in
+      melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hut can be rebuilt, and made better than before,&rdquo; returned Miss
+      Temple; &ldquo;and it shall be my office to see it done, when your imprisonment
+      is ended.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can ye raise the dead, child?&rdquo; said Natty, in a sorrowful voice: &ldquo;can ye
+      go into the place where you've laid your fathers, and mothers, and
+      children, and gather together their ashes, and make the same men and women
+      of them as afore? You do not know what 'tis to lay your head for more than
+      forty years under the cover of the same logs, and to look at the same
+      things for the better part of a man's life. You are young yet, child,
+      but you are one of the most precious of God's creatures. I had hoped for
+      ye that it might come to pass, but it's all over now; this, put to that,
+      will drive the thing quite out of his mind for ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple must have understood the meaning of the old man better than
+      the other listeners; for while Louisa stood innocently by her side,
+      commiserating the griefs of the hunter, she bent her head aside, so as to
+      conceal her features. The action and the feeling that caused it lasted but
+      a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Other logs, and better, though, can be had, and shall be found for you,
+      my old defender,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;Your confinement will soon be over, and,
+      before that time arrives, I shall have a house prepared for you, where I
+      you may spend the close of your long and harmless life in ease and
+      plenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ease and plenty! house!&rdquo; repeated Natty, slowly. &ldquo;You mean well, you mean
+      well, and I quite mourn that it cannot be; but he has seen me a sight and
+      a laughing-stock for&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Damn your stocks,&rdquo; said Benjamin, flourishing his bottle with one hand,
+      from which he had been taking hasty and repeated draughts, while he made
+      gestures of disdain with the other: &ldquo;who cares for his bilboes? There's a
+      leg that been stuck up on end like a jibboom for an hour, d'ye see, and
+      what's it the worse for't, ha? canst tell me, what's it the worser, ha?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you forget, Mr. Pump, in whose presence you are,&rdquo; said
+      Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget you, Miss Lizzy?&rdquo; returned the steward; &ldquo;if I do, dam'me; you are
+      not to be forgot, like Goody Pretty-bones, up at the big house there. I
+      say, old sharpshooter, she may have pretty bones, but I can't say so much
+      for her flesh, d'ye see, for she looks somewhat like anatomy with another
+      man's jacket on. Now for the skin of her face, it's all the same as a new
+      topsail with a taut bolt-rope, being snug at the leeches, but all in a
+      bight about the inner cloths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace&mdash;I command you to be silent, sir!&rdquo; said Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, ma'am,&rdquo; returned the steward. &ldquo;You didn't say I shouldn't drink,
+      though.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not speak of what is to become of others,&rdquo; said Miss Temple,
+      turning again to the hunter&mdash;&ldquo;but of your own fortunes, Natty. It
+      shall be my care to see that you pass the rest of your days in ease and
+      plenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ease and plenty!&rdquo; again repeated the Leather-Stocking; &ldquo;what ease can
+      there be to an old man, who must walk a mile across the open fields,
+      before he can find a shade to hide him from a scorching sun! or what
+      plenty is there where you hunt a day, and not start a buck, or see
+      anything bigger than a mink, or maybe a stray fox! Ah! I shall have a hard
+      time after them very beavers, for this fine. I must go low toward the
+      Pennsylvania line in search of the creatures, maybe a hundred mile; for
+      they are not to be got here-away. No, no&mdash;your betterments and
+      clearings have druv the knowing things out of the country, and instead of
+      beaver-dams, which is the nater of the animal, and according to
+      Providence, you turn back the waters over the low grounds with your
+      mill-dams, as if 'twas in man to stay the drops from going where He wills
+      them to go&mdash;Benny, unless you stop your hand from going so often to
+      your mouth, you won't be ready to start when the time comes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark'ee, Master Bump-ho,&rdquo; said the steward; &ldquo;don't you fear for Ben, When
+      the watch is called, set me of my legs and give me the bearings and the
+      distance of where you want me to steer, and I'll carry sail with the best
+      of you, I will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The time has come now,&rdquo; said the hunter, listening; &ldquo;I hear the horns of
+      the oxen rubbing agin' the side of the jail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, say the word, and then heave ahead, shipmate,&rdquo; said Benjamin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won't betray us, gal?&rdquo; said Natty, looking simply into the face of
+      Elizabeth&mdash;&ldquo;you won't betray an old man, who craves to breathe the
+      clear air of heaven? I mean no harm; and if the law says that I must pay
+      the hundred dollars, I'll take the season through, but it shall be
+      forthcoming; and this good man will help me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You catch them,&rdquo; said Benjamin, with a sweeping gesture of his arm, &ldquo;and
+      if they get away again, call me a slink, that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what mean you?&rdquo; cried the wondering Elizabeth. &ldquo;Here you must stay
+      for thirty days; but I have the money for your fine in this purse. Take
+      it; pay it in the morning, and summon patience for your mouth. I will come
+      often to see you, with my friend; we will make up your clothes with our
+      own hands; indeed, indeed, you shall be comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would ye, children?&rdquo; said Natty, advancing across the floor with an air
+      of kindness, and taking the hand of Elizabeth, &ldquo;would ye be so kearful of
+      an old man, and just for shooting a beast which cost him nothing? Such
+      things doesn't run in the blood, I believe, for you seem not to forget a
+      favor. Your little fingers couldn't do much on a buckskin, nor be you used
+      to push such a thread as sinews. But if he hasn't got past hearing, he
+      shalt hear it and know it, that he may see, like me, there is some who
+      know how to remember a kindness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him nothing,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, earnestly; &ldquo;if you love me, if you
+      regard my feelings, tell him nothing. It is of yourself only I would talk,
+      and for yourself only I act. I grieve, Leather-Stocking, that the law
+      requires that you should be detained here so long; but, after all, it will
+      be only a short month, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A month?&rdquo; exclaimed Natty, opening his mouth with his usual laugh, &ldquo;not a
+      day, nor a night, nor an hour, gal. Judge Temple may sintence, but he
+      can't keep without a better dungeon than this. I was taken once by the
+      French, and they put sixty-two of us in a block-house, nigh hand to old
+      Frontinac; but 'twas easy to cut through a pine log to them that was used
+      to timber.&rdquo; The hunter paused, and looked cautiously around the room,
+      when, laughing again, he shoved the steward gently from his post, and
+      removing the bedclothes, discovered a hole recently cut in the logs with a
+      mallet and chisel. &ldquo;It's only a kick, and the outside piece is off, and
+      then&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Off! ay, off!&rdquo; cried Benjamin, rising from his stupor; &ldquo;well, here's off.
+      Ay! ay! you catch 'em, and I'll hold on to them said beaver-hats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear this lad will trouble me much,&rdquo; said Natty; &ldquo;'twill be a hard pull
+      for the mountain, should they take the scent soon, and he is not in a
+      state of mind to run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Run!&rdquo; echoed the steward; &ldquo;no, sheer alongside, and let's have a fight of
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace!&rdquo; ordered Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, ma'am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not leave us, surely, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; continued Miss Temple;
+      &ldquo;I beseech you, reflect that you will be driven to the woods entirely, and
+      that you are fast getting old. Be patient for a little time, when you can
+      go abroad openly, and with honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there beaver to be catched here, gal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If not, here is money to discharge the fine, and in a month you are free.
+      See, here it is in gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gold!&rdquo; said Natty, with a kind of childish curiosity; &ldquo;it's long sin'
+      I've seen a gold-piece. We used to get the broad joes, in the old war, as
+      plenty as the bears be now. I remember there was a man in Dieskau's army,
+      that was killed, who had a dozen of the shining things sewed up in his
+      shirt. I didn't handle them myself, but I seen them cut out with my own
+      eyes; they was bigger and brighter than them be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are English guineas, and are yours,&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;an earnest of
+      what shall be done for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me! why should you give me this treasure!&rdquo; said Natty, looking earnestly
+      at the maiden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why! have you not saved my life? Did you not rescue me from the jaws of
+      the beast?&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth, veiling her eyes, as if to hide some
+      hideous object from her view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter took the money, and continued turning it in his hand for some
+      time, piece by piece, talking aloud during the operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a rifle, they say, out on the Cherry Valley, that will carry a
+      hundred rods and kill. I've seen good guns in my day, but none quite equal
+      to that. A hundred rods with any sartainty is great shooting! Well, well&mdash;I'm
+      old, and the gun I have will answer my time. Here, child, take back your
+      gold. But the hour has come; I hear him talking to the cattle, and I must
+      be going. You won't tell of us, gal&mdash;you won't tell of us, will ye?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell of you!&rdquo; echoed Elizabeth. &ldquo;But take the money, old man; take the
+      money, even if you go into the mountains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said Natty, shaking his head kindly; &ldquo;I would not rob you so for
+      twenty rifles. But there's one thing you can do for me, if ye will, that
+      no other is at hand to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name it&mdash;name it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it's only to buy a canister of powder&mdash;'twill cost two silver
+      dollars. Benny Pump has the money ready, but we daren't come into the town
+      to get it. Nobody has it but the Frenchman. 'Tis of the best, and just
+      suits a rifle. Will you get it for me, gal?&mdash;say, will you get it for
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will I? I will bring it to you, Leather-Stocking, though I toil a day in
+      quest of you through the woods. But where shall I find you, and how?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; said Natty, musing a moment&mdash;&ldquo;to-morrow on the Vision; on
+      the very top of the Vision, I'll meet you, child, just as the sun gets
+      over our heads. See that it's the fine grain; you'll know it by the gloss
+      and the price.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do it,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty now seated himself, and placing his feet in the hole, with a slight
+      effort he opened a passage through into the street. The ladies heard the
+      rustling of hay, and well understood the reason why Edwards was in the
+      capacity of a teamster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Benny,&rdquo; said the hunter: &ldquo;'twill be no darker to-night, for the
+      moon will rise in an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth; &ldquo;it should not be said that you escaped in
+      the presence of the daughter of Judge Temple. Return, Leather-Stocking,
+      and let us retire Before you execute your plan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty was about to reply, when the approaching footsteps of the jailer
+      announced the necessity of his immediate return. He had barely time to
+      regain his feet, and to conceal the hole with the bedclothes, across which
+      Benjamin very opportunely fell, before the key was turned, and the door of
+      the apartment opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't Miss Temple ready to go?&rdquo; said the civil jailer; &ldquo;it's the usual
+      hour for locking up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I follow you, sir,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth &ldquo;good-night, Leather-Stocking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a fine grain, gal, and I think twill carry lead further than common.
+      I am getting old, and can't follow up the game with the step I used to
+      could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Temple waved her hand for silence, and preceded Louisa and the keeper
+      from the apartment. The man turned the key once, and observed that he
+      would return and secure his prisoners, when he had lighted the ladies to
+      the street. Accordingly they parted at the door of the building, when the
+      jailer retired to his dungeons, and the ladies walked, with throbbing
+      hearts, toward the corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now the Leather-Stocking refuses the money,&rdquo; whispered Louisa, &ldquo;it can
+      all be given to Mr. Edwards, and that added to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen!&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;I hear the rustling of the hay; they are
+      escaping at this moment. Oh! they will be detected instantly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time they were at the corner, where Edwards and Natty were in the
+      act of drawing the almost helpless body of Benjamin through the aperture.
+      The oxen had started back from their hay, and were standing with their
+      heads down the street, leaving room for the party to act in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Throw the hay into the cart,&rdquo; said Edwards, &ldquo;or they will suspect how it
+      has been done. Quick, that they may not see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty had just returned from executing this order, when the light of the
+      keeper's candle shone through the hole, and instantly his voice was heard
+      in the jail exclaiming for his prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to be done now?&rdquo; said Edwards; &ldquo;this drunken fellow will cause
+      our detection, and we have not a moment to spare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who's drunk, ye lubber?&rdquo; muttered the steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A break-jail! a break-jail!&rdquo; shouted five or six voices from within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must leave him,&rdquo; said Edwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Twouldn't be kind, lad,&rdquo; returned Natty; &ldquo;he took half the disgrace of
+      the stocks on himself to-day, and the creatur' has feeling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment two or three men were heard issuing from the door of the
+      &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo; and among them the voice of Billy Kirby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no moon yet,&rdquo; cried the wood-chopper; &ldquo;but it's a clear night.
+      Come, who's for home? Hark! what a rumpus they're kicking up in the jail&mdash;here's
+      go and see what it's about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be lost,&rdquo; said Edwards, &ldquo;if we don't drop this man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that instant Elizabeth moved close to him, and said rapidly, in a low
+      voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay him in the cart, and start the oxen; no one will look there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a woman's quickness in the thought,&rdquo; said the youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proposition was no sooner made than executed. The steward was seated
+      on the hay, and enjoined to hold his peace and apply the goad that was
+      placed in his hand, while the oxen were urged on. So soon as this
+      arrangement was completed, Edwards and the hunter stole along the houses
+      for a short distance, when they disappeared through an opening that led
+      into the rear of the buildings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The oxen were in brisk motion, and presently the cries of pursuit were
+      heard in the street. The ladies quickened their pace, with a wish to
+      escape the crowd of constables and idlers that were approaching, some
+      execrating, and some laughing at the exploit of the prisoners. In the
+      confusion, the voice of Kirby was plainly distinguishable above all the
+      others, shouting and swearing that he would have the fugitives,
+      threatening to bring back Natty in one pocket, and Benjamin in the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spread yourselves, men,&rdquo; he cried, as he passed the ladies, his heavy
+      feet sounding along the street like the tread of a dozen; &ldquo;spread
+      yourselves; to the mountains; they'll be in the mountains in a quarter of
+      an hour, and then look out for a long rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His cries were echoed from twenty mouths, for not only the jail but the
+      taverns had sent forth their numbers, some earnest in the pursuit, and
+      others joining it as in sport.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Elizabeth turned in at her father's gate she saw the wood-chopper stop
+      at the cart, when she gave Benjamin up for lost. While they were hurrying
+      up the walk, two figures, stealing cautiously but quickly under the shades
+      of the trees, met the eyes of the ladies, and in a moment Edwards and the
+      hunter crossed their path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Temple, I may never see you again,&rdquo; exclaimed the youth; &ldquo;let me
+      thank you for all your kindness; you do not, cannot know my motives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fly! fly!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;the village is alarmed. Do not be found
+      conversing with me at such a moment, and in these grounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I must speak, though detection were certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your retreat to the bridge is already cut off; before you can gain the
+      wood your pursuers will be there. If&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If what?&rdquo; cried the youth. &ldquo;Your advice has saved me once already; I will
+      follow it to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The street is now silent and vacant,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, after a pause;
+      &ldquo;cross it, and you will find my father's boat in the lake. It would be
+      easy to land from it where you please in the hills.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Judge Temple might complain of the trespass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His daughter shall be accountable, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth uttered something in a low voice, that was heard only by
+      Elizabeth, and turned to execute what she had suggested. As they were
+      separating, Natty approached the females, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll remember the canister of powder, children. Them beavers must be
+      had, and I and the pups be getting old; we want the best of ammunition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Natty,&rdquo; said Edwards, impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coming, lad, coming. God bless you, young ones, both of ye, for ye mean
+      well and kindly to the old man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies paused until they had lost sight of the retreating figures,
+      when they immediately entered the mansion-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this scene was passing in the walk, Kirby had overtaken the cart,
+      which was his own, and had been driven by Edwards, without asking the
+      owner, from the place where the patient oxen usually stood at evening,
+      waiting the pleasure of their master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woa&mdash;come hither, Golden,&rdquo; he cried; &ldquo;why, how come you off the end
+      of the bridge, where I left you, dummies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heave ahead,&rdquo; muttered Benjamin, giving a random blow with his lash, that
+      alighted on the shoulder of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who the devil be you?&rdquo; cried Billy, turning round in surprise, but unable
+      to distinguish, in the dark, the hard visage that was just peering over
+      the cart-rails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who be I? why, I'm helmsman aboard of this here craft d'ye see, and a
+      straight wake I'm making of it. Ay, ay! I've got the bridge right ahead,
+      and the bilboes dead aft: I calls that good steerage, boy. Heave ahead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay your lash in the right spot, Mr. Benny Pump,&rdquo; said the wood-chopper,
+      &ldquo;or I'll put you in the palm of my hand and box your ears. Where be you
+      going with my team?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Team!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, my cart and oxen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you must know, Master Kirby, that the Leather-Stocking and I&mdash;that's
+      Benny Pump&mdash;you knows Ben?&mdash;well, Benny and I&mdash;no, me and
+      Benny; dam'me if I know how 'tis; but some of us are bound after a cargo
+      of beaver-skins, d'ye see, so we've pressed the cart to ship them 'ome in.
+      I say, Master Kirby, what a lubberly oar you pull&mdash;you handle an oar,
+      boy, pretty much as a cow would a musket, or a lady would a
+      marling-spike.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Billy had discovered the state of the steward's mind, and he walked for
+      some time alongside of the cart, musing with himself, when he took the
+      goad from Benjamin (who fell back on the hay and was soon asleep) and
+      drove his cattle down the street, over the bridge, and up the mountain,
+      toward a clearing in which he was to work the next day, without any other
+      interruption than a few hasty questions from parties of the constables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth stood for an hour at the window of her room, and saw the torches
+      of the pursuers gliding along the side of the mountain, and heard their
+      shouts and alarms; but, at the end of that time, the last party returned,
+      wearied and disappointed, and the village became as still as when she
+      issued from the gate on her mission to the jail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And I could weep&rdquo;&mdash;
+     th' Oneida chief
+     His descant wildly thus begun&mdash;
+     &ldquo;But that I may not stain with grief
+     The death-song of my father's son.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Gertrude of Wyoming.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was yet early on the following morning, when Elizabeth and Louisa met
+      by appointment, and proceeded to the store of Monsieur Le Quoi, in order
+      to redeem the pledge the former had given to the Leather-Stocking. The
+      people were again assembling for the business of the day, but the hour was
+      too soon for a crowd, and the ladies found the place in possession of its
+      polite owner, Billy Kirby, one female customer, and the boy who did the
+      duty of helper or clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Le Quoi was perusing a packet of letters with manifest delight,
+      while the wood-chopper, with one hand thrust in his bosom, and the other
+      in the folds of his jacket, holding an axe under his right arm, stood
+      sympathizing in the Frenchman's pleasure with good-natured interest. The
+      freedom of manners that prevailed in the new settlements commonly levelled
+      all difference in rank, and with it, frequently, all considerations of
+      education and intelligence. At the time the ladies entered the store, they
+      were unseen by the owner, who was saying to Kirby:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! ha! Monsieur Beel, dis lettair mak me de most happi of mans. Ah! ma
+      chére France! I vill see you again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rejoice, monsieur, at anything that contributes to your happiness,&rdquo;
+       said Elizabeth, &ldquo;but hope we are not going to lose you entirely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The complaisant shopkeeper changed the language to French and recounted
+      rapidly to Elizabeth his hopes of being permitted to return to his own
+      country. Habit had, however, so far altered the manners of this pliable
+      person age, that he continued to serve the wood-chopper, who was in quest
+      of some tobacco, while he related to his more gentle visitor the happy
+      change that had taken place in the dispositions of his own countrymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The amount of it all was, that Mr. Le Quoi, who had fled from his own
+      country more through terror than because he was offensive to the ruling
+      powers in France, had succeeded at length in getting an assurance that his
+      return to the West Indies would be unnoticed; and the Frenchman, who had
+      sunk into the character of a country shopkeeper with so much grace, was
+      about to emerge again from his obscurity into his proper level in society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We need not repeat the civil things that passed between the parties on
+      this occasion, nor recount the endless repetitions of sorrow that the
+      delighted Frenchman expressed at being compelled to quit the society of
+      Miss Temple. Elizabeth took an opportunity, during this expenditure of
+      polite expressions, to purchase the powder privately of the boy, who bore
+      the generic appellation of Jonathan. Before they parted, however, Mr. Le
+      Quoi, who seemed to think that he had not said enough, solicited the honor
+      of a private interview with the heiress, with a gravity in his air that
+      announced the importance of the subject. After conceding the favor, and
+      appointing a more favorable time for the meeting, Elizabeth succeeded in
+      getting out of the store, into which the countrymen now began to enter, as
+      usual, where they met with the same attention and bien seance as formerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth and Louisa pursued their walk as far as the bridge in profound
+      silence; but when they reached that place the latter stopped, and appeared
+      anxious to utter something that her diffidence suppressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ill, Louisa?&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Temple; &ldquo;had we not better return,
+      and seek another opportunity to meet the old man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not ill, but terrified. Oh! I never, never can go on that hill again with
+      you only. I am not equal to it, in deed I am not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was an unexpected declaration to Elizabeth, who, although she
+      experienced no idle apprehension of a danger that no longer existed, felt
+      most sensitively all the delicacy of maiden modesty. She stood for some
+      time, deeply reflecting within herself; but, sensible it was a time for
+      action instead of reflection, she struggled to shake off her hesitation,
+      and replied, firmly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then it must be done by me alone. There is no other than yourself
+      to be trusted, or poor old Leather-Stocking will be discovered. Wait for
+      me in the edge of these woods, that at least I may not be seen strolling
+      in the hills by myself just now, One would not wish to create remarks,
+      Louisa&mdash;if&mdash;if&mdash;You will wait for me, dear girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A year, in sight of the village, Miss Temple,&rdquo; returned the agitated
+      Louisa, &ldquo;but do not, do not ask me to go on that hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth found that her companion was really unable to proceed, and they
+      completed their arrangement by posting Louisa out of the observation of
+      the people who occasionally passed, but nigh the road, and in plain view
+      of the whole valley. Miss Temple then proceeded alone. She ascended the
+      road which has been so often mentioned in our narrative, with an elastic
+      and firm step, fearful that the delay in the store of Mr. Le Quoi, and the
+      time necessary for reaching the summit, would prevent her being punctual
+      to the appointment Whenever she pressed an opening in the bushes, she
+      would pause for breath, or, perhaps, drawn from her pursuit by the
+      picture at her feet, would linger a moment to gaze at the beauties of the
+      valley. The long drought had, however, changed its coat of verdure to a
+      hue of brown, and, though the same localities were there, the view wanted
+      the lively and cheering aspect of early summer. Even the heavens seemed to
+      share in the dried appearance of the earth, for the sun was concealed by a
+      haziness in the atmosphere, which looked like a thin smoke without a
+      particle of moisture, if such a thing were possible. The blue sky was
+      scarcely to be seen, though now, and then there was a faint lighting up in
+      spots through which masses of rolling vapor could be discerned gathering
+      around the horizon, as if nature were struggling to collect her floods for
+      the relief of man. The very atmosphere that Elizabeth inhaled was hot and
+      dry, and by the time she reached the point where the course led her from
+      the highway she experienced a sensation like suffocation. But,
+      disregarding her feelings, she hastened to execute her mission, dwelling
+      on nothing but the disappointment, and even the helplessness, the hunter
+      would experience without her aid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the summit of the mountain which Judge Temple had named the &ldquo;Vision,&rdquo; a
+      little spot had been cleared, in order that a better view might be
+      obtained of the village and the valley. At this point Elizabeth understood
+      the hunter she was to meet him; and thither she urged her way, as
+      expeditiously as the difficulty of the ascent, and the impediment of a
+      forest, in a state of nature, would admit. Numberless were the fragments
+      of rocks, trunks of fallen trees, and branches, with which she had to
+      contend; but every difficulty vanished before her resolution, and, by her
+      own watch, she stood on the desired spot several minutes before the
+      appointed hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After resting a moment on the end of a log, Miss Temple cast a glance
+      about her in quest of her old friend, but he was evidently not in the
+      clearing; she arose and walked around its skirts, examining every place
+      where she thought it probable Natty might deem it prudent to conceal him
+      self. Her search was fruitless; and, after exhausting not only herself,
+      but her conjectures, in efforts to discover or imagine his situation, she
+      ventured to trust her voice in that solitary place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Natty! Leather-Stocking! old man!&rdquo; she called aloud, in every direction;
+      but no answer was given, excepting the reverberations of her own clear
+      tones, as they were echoed in the parched forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth approached the brow of the mountain, where a faint cry, like the
+      noise produced by striking the hand against the mouth, at the same time
+      that the breath is strongly exhaled, was heard answering to her own voice.
+      Not doubting in the least that it was the Leather-Stocking lying in wait
+      for her, and who gave that signal to indicate the place where he was to be
+      found, Elizabeth descended for near a hundred feet, until she gained a
+      little natural terrace, thinly scattered with trees, that grew in the
+      fissures of the rocks, which were covered by a scanty soil. She had
+      advanced to the edge of this platform, and was gazing over the
+      perpendicular precipice that formed its face, when a rustling among the
+      dry leaves near her drew her eyes in another direction. Our heroine
+      certainly was startled by the object that she then saw, but a moment
+      restored her self-possession, and she advanced firmly, and with some
+      interest in her manner, to the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan was seated on the trunk of a fallen oak, with his tawny visage
+      turned toward her, and his eyes fixed on her face with an expression of
+      wildness and fire, that would have terrified a less resolute female. His
+      blanket had fallen from his shoulders, and was lying in folds around him,
+      leaving his breast, arms, and most of his body bare. 'The medallion of
+      Washington reposed on his chest, a badge of distinction that Elizabeth
+      well knew he only produced on great and solemn occasions. But the whole
+      appearance of the aged chief was more studied than common, and in some
+      particulars it was terrific. The long black hair was plaited on his head,
+      failing away, so as to expose his high forehead and piercing eyes. In the
+      enormous incisions of his ears were entwined ornaments of silver, beads,
+      and porcupine's quills, mingled in a rude taste, and after the Indian
+      fashions. A large drop, composed of similar materials, was suspended from
+      the cartilage of his nose, and, falling below his lips, rested on his
+      chin. Streaks of red paint crossed his wrinkled brow, and were traced down
+      his cheeks, with such variations in the lines as caprice or custom
+      suggested. His body was also colored in the same manner; the whole
+      exhibiting an Indian warrior prepared for some event of more than usual
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John! how fare you, worthy John?&rdquo; said Elizabeth, as she approached him;
+      &ldquo;you have long been a stranger in the village. You promised me a willow
+      basket, and I have long had a shirt of calico in readiness for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian looked steadily at her for some time without answering, and
+      then, shaking his head, he replied, in his low, guttural tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John's hand can make baskets no more&mdash;he wants no shirt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if he should, he will know where to come for it,&rdquo; returned Miss
+      Temple. &ldquo;Indeed old John. I feel as if you had a natural right to order
+      what you will from us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Daughter,&rdquo; said the Indian, &ldquo;listen: Six times ten hot summers have
+      passed since John was young tall like a pine; straight like the bullet of
+      Hawk-eye, strong as all buffalo; spry as the cat of the mountain. He was
+      strong, and a warrior like the Young Eagle. If his tribe wanted to track
+      the Maquas for many suns, the eye of Chingachgook found the print of their
+      moccasins. If the people feasted and were glad, as they counted the scalps
+      of their enemies, it was on his pole they hung. If the squaws cried
+      because there was no meat for their children, he was the first in the
+      chase. His bullet was swifter than the deer. Daughter, then Chingachgook
+      struck his tomahawk into the trees; it was to tell the lazy ones where to
+      find him and the Mingoes&mdash;but he made no baskets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those times have gone by, old warrior,&rdquo; returned Elizabeth; &ldquo;since then
+      your people have disappeared, and, in place of chasing your enemies, you
+      have learned to fear God and to live at peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand here, daughter, where you can see the great spring, the wigwams of
+      your father, and the land on the crooked river. John was young when his
+      tribe gave away the country, in council, from where the blue mountain
+      stands above the water, to where the Susquehanna is hid by the trees. All
+      this, and all that grew in it, and all that walked over it, and all that
+      fed there, they gave to the Fire-eater&mdash;&mdash;for they loved him. He
+      was strong, and they were women, and he helped them. No Delaware would
+      kill a deer that ran in his woods, nor stop a bird that flew over his
+      land; for it was his. Has John lived in peace? Daughter, since John was
+      young, he has seen the white man from Frontinac come down on his white
+      brothers at Albany and fight. Did they fear God? He has seen his English
+      and his American fathers burying their tomahawks in each other's brains,
+      for this very land. Did they fear God, and live in peace? He has seen the
+      land pass away from the Fire-eater, and his children, and the child of his
+      child, and a new chief set over the country. Did they live in peace who
+      did this? did they fear God?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such is the custom of the whites, John. Do not the Delawares fight, and
+      exchange their lands for powder, and blankets, and merchandise?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian turned his dark eyes on his companion, and kept them there with
+      a scrutiny that alarmed her a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are the blankets and merchandise that bought the right of the
+      Fire-eater?&rdquo; he replied in a more animated voice; &ldquo;are they with him in
+      his wigwam? Did they say to him, Brother, sell us your land, and take this
+      gold, this silver, these blankets, these rifles, or even this rum? No;
+      they tore it front him, as a scalp is torn from an enemy; and they that
+      did it looked not behind them, to see whether he lived or died. Do such
+      men live in peace and fear the Great Spirit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you hardly understand the circumstances,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, more
+      embarrassed than she would own, even to herself. &ldquo;If you knew our laws and
+      customs better, you would Judge differently of our acts. Do not believe
+      evil of my father, old Mohegan, for he is just and good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The brother of Miquon is good, and he will do right. I have said it to
+      Hawk-eye&mdash;-I have said it to the Young Eagle that the brother of
+      Miquon would do justice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom call you the Young Eagle?&rdquo; said Elizabeth, averting her face from
+      the gaze of the Indian, as she asked the question; &ldquo;whence comes he, and
+      what are his rights?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has my daughter lived so long with him to ask this question?&rdquo; returned
+      the Indian warily. &ldquo;Old age freezes up the blood, as the frosts cover the
+      great spring in winter; but youth keeps the streams of the blood open like
+      a sun in the time of blossoms. The Young Eagle has eyes; had he no
+      tongue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The loveliness to which the old warrior alluded was in no degree
+      diminished by his allegorical speech; for the blushes of the maiden who
+      listened covered her burning cheeks till her dark eyes seemed to glow with
+      their reflection; but, after struggling a moment with shame, she laughed,
+      as if unwilling to understand him seriously, and replied in pleasantry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to make me the mistress of his secret. He is too much of a Delaware
+      to tell his secret thoughts to a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Daughter, the Great Spirit made your father with a white skin, and he
+      made mine with a red; but he colored both their hearts with blood. When
+      young, it is swift and warm; but when old, it is still and cold. Is there
+      difference below the skin? No. Once John had a woman. She was the mother
+      of so many sons&rdquo;&mdash;he raised his hand with three fingers elevated&mdash;&ldquo;and
+      she had daughters that would have made the young Delawares happy. She was
+      kind, daughter, and what I said she did. You have different fashions; but
+      do you think John did not love the wife of his youth&mdash;the mother of
+      his children?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what has become of your family, John&mdash;your wife and your
+      children?&rdquo; asked Elizabeth, touched by the Indian's manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the ice that covered the great spring? It is melted, and gone
+      with the waters. John has lived till all his people have left him for the
+      land of spirits; his time has come, and he is ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan dropped his head in his blanket, and sat in silence. Miss Temple
+      knew not what to say. She wished to draw the thoughts of the old warrior
+      from his gloomy recollections, but there was a dignity in his sorrow, and
+      in his fortitude, that repressed her efforts to speak. After a long pause,
+      however, she renewed the discourse by asking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the Leather-Stocking, John? I have brought this canister of
+      powder at his request; but he is nowhere to be seen. Will you take charge
+      of it, and see it delivered?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian raised his head slowly and looked earnestly at the gift, which
+      she put into his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the great enemy of my nation. Without this, when could the white
+      man drive the Delawares? Daughter, the Great Spirit gave your fathers to
+      know how to make guns and powder, that they might sweep the Indians from
+      the land. There will soon be no red-skin in the country. When John has
+      gone, the last will leave these hills, and his family will be dead.&rdquo; The
+      aged warrior stretched his body forward, leaning an elbow on his knee, and
+      appeared to be taking a parting look at the objects of the vale, which
+      were still visible through the misty atmosphere, though the air seemed to
+      thicken at each moment around Miss Temple, who became conscious of an
+      increased difficulty of respiration. The eye of Mohegan changed gradually
+      from its sorrowful expression to a look of wildness that might be supposed
+      to border on the inspiration of a prophet, as he continued: &ldquo;But he will
+      go on to the country where his fathers have met. The game shall be plenty
+      as the Ash in the lakes. No woman shall cry for meat: no Mingo can ever
+      come The chase shall be for children; and all just red men shall live
+      together as brothers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John! this is not the heaven of a Christian,&rdquo; cried Miss Temple; &ldquo;you
+      deal now in the superstition of your forefathers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fathers! sons!&rdquo; said Mohegan, with firmness.&mdash;&ldquo;all gone&mdash;all
+      gone!&mdash;have no son but the Young Eagle, and he has the blood of a
+      white man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, John,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, willing to draw his thoughts to other
+      subjects, and at the same time yielding to her own powerful interest in
+      the youth; &ldquo;who is this Mr. Edwards? why are you so fond of him, and
+      whence does he come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian started at the question, which evidently recalled his
+      recollection to earth. Taking her hand, he drew Miss Temple to a seat
+      beside him, and pointed to the country beneath them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, daughter,&rdquo; he said, directing her looks toward the north; &ldquo;as far as
+      your young eyes can see, it was the land of his. But immense volumes of
+      smoke at that moment rolled over their heath, and, whirling in the eddies
+      formed by the mountains, interposed a barrier to their sight, while he was
+      speaking. Startled by this circumstance, Miss Temple sprang to her feet,
+      and, turning her eyes toward the summit of the mountain, she beheld It
+      covered by a similar canopy, while a roaring sound was heard in the forest
+      above her like the rushing of winds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What means it, John?&rdquo; she exclaimed: &ldquo;we are enveloped in smoke, and I
+      feel a heat like the glow of a furnace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the Indian could reply, a voice was heard crying In the woods:
+      &ldquo;John! where are you, old Mohegan! the woods are on fire, and you have but
+      a minute for escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief put his hand before his mouth, and, making it lay on his lips,
+      produced the kind of noise that had attracted Elizabeth to the place, when
+      a quick and hurried step was heard dashing through the dried underbrush
+      and bushes, and presently Edwards rushed to his side, with horror an every
+      feature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Love rules the court, the camp, the grove.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Lay of the Last Minstrel.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;IT would have been sad, indeed, to lose you in such manner, my old
+      friend,&rdquo; said Oliver, catching his breath for utterance. &ldquo;Up and away!
+      even now we may be too late; the flames are circling round the point of
+      the rock below, and, unless we can pass there, our only chance must be
+      over the precipice. Away! away! shake off your apathy, John; now is the
+      time of need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mohegan pointed toward Elizabeth, who, forgetting her danger, had sunk
+      back to a projection of the rock as soon as she recognized the sounds of
+      Edwards' voice, and said with something like awakened animation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save her&mdash;leave John to die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her! whom mean you?&rdquo; cried the youth, turning quickly to the place the
+      other indicated; but when he saw the figure of Elizabeth bending toward
+      him in an attitude that powerfully spoke terror, blended with reluctance
+      to meet him in such a place, the shock deprived him of speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Temple!&rdquo; he cried, when he found words; &ldquo;you here! is such a death
+      reserved for you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, no&mdash;no death, I hope, for any of us, Mr. Edwards,&rdquo; she
+      replied, endeavoring to speak calmly; there is smoke, but no fire to harm
+      us. &ldquo;Let us endeavor to retire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take my arm,&rdquo; said Edwards; &ldquo;there must be an opening in some direction
+      for your retreat. Are you equal to the effort?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly. You surely magnify the danger, Mr. Edwards. Lead me out the
+      way you came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will&mdash;I will,&rdquo; cried the youth, with a kind of hysterical
+      utterance. &ldquo;No, no&mdash;there is no danger&mdash;I have alarmed you
+      unnecessarily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But shall we leave the Indian&mdash;can we leave him, as he says, to
+      die?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression of painful emotion crossed the face of the young man; he
+      stopped and cast a longing look at Mohegan but, dragging his companion
+      after him, even against her will, he pursued his way with enormous strides
+      toward the pass by which he had just entered the circle of flame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not regard him,&rdquo; he said, in those tones that de note a desperate
+      calmness; &ldquo;he is used to the woods, and such scenes; and he will escape up
+      the mountain&mdash;over the rock&mdash;or he can remain where he is in
+      safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You thought not so this moment, Edwards! Do not leave him there to meet
+      with such a death,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, fixing a look on the countenance of
+      her conductor that seemed to distrust his sanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Indian born! who ever heard of an Indian dying by fire? An Indian
+      cannot burn; the idea is ridiculous. Hasten, hasten, Miss Temple, or the
+      smoke may incommodate you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Edwards! your look, your eye, terrifies me! Tell me the danger; is it
+      greater than it seems? I am equal to any trial.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we reach the point of yon rock before that sheet of fire, we are safe,
+      Miss Temple,&rdquo; exclaimed the young man in a voice that burst without the
+      bounds of his forced composure. &ldquo;Fly! the struggle is for life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The place of the interview between Miss Temple and the Indian has already
+      been described as one of those platforms of rock, which form a sort of
+      terrace in the mountains of that country, and the face of it, we have
+      said, was both high and perpendicular. Its shape was nearly a natural arc,
+      the ends of which blended with the mountain, at points where its sides
+      were less abrupt in their descent. It was round one of these terminations
+      of the sweep of the rock that Edwards had ascended, and it was toward the
+      same place that he urged Elizabeth to a desperate exertion of speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immense clouds of white smoke had been pouring over the summit of the
+      mountain, and had concealed the approach and ravages of the element; but a
+      crackling sound drew the eyes of Miss Temple, as she flew over the ground
+      supported by the young man, toward the outline of smoke where she already
+      perceived the waving flames shooting forward from the vapor, now flaring
+      high in the air, and then bending to the earth, seeming to light into
+      combustion every stick and shrub on which they breathed. The sight aroused
+      them to redoubled efforts; but, unfortunately, a collection of the tops of
+      trees, old and dried, lay directly across their course; and at the very
+      moment when both had thought their safety insured, the warm current of the
+      air swept a forked tongue of flame across the pile, which lighted at the
+      touch; and when they reached the spot, the flying pair were opposed by the
+      surly roaring of a body of fire, as if a furnace were glowing in their
+      path. They recoiled from the heat, and stood on a point of the rock,
+      gazing in a stupor at the flames which were spreading rap idly down the
+      mountain, whose side, too, became a sheet of living fire. It was dangerous
+      for one clad in the light and airy dress of Elizabeth to approach even the
+      vicinity of the raging element; and those flowing robes, that gave such
+      softness and grace to her form, seemed now to be formed for the
+      instruments of her destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The villagers were accustomed to resort to that hill, in quest of timber
+      and fuel; in procuring which, it was their usage to take only the bodies
+      of the trees, leaving the tops and branches to decay under the operations
+      of the weather. Much of the hill was, consequently, covered with such
+      light fuel, which, having been scorched under the sun for the last two
+      months, was ignited with a touch. Indeed, in some cases, there did not
+      appear to be any contact between the fire and these piles, but the flames
+      seemed to dart from heap to heap, as the fabulous fire of the temple is
+      represented to reillumine its neglected lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was beauty as well as terror in the sight, and Edwards and Elizabeth
+      stood viewing the progress of the desolation, with a strange mixture of
+      horror and interest. The former, however, shortly roused himself to new
+      exertions, and, drawing his companion after him, they skirted the edge of
+      the smoke, the young man penetrating frequently into its dense volumes in
+      search of a passage, but in every instance without success. In this manner
+      they proceeded in a semicircle around the upper part of the terrace, until
+      arriving at the verge of the precipice opposite to the point where Edwards
+      had ascended, the horrid conviction burst on both, at the same instant,
+      that they were completely encircled by fire. So long as a single pass up
+      or down the mountain was unexplored, there was hope: but when retreat
+      seemed to be absolutely impracticable, the horror of their situation broke
+      upon Elizabeth as powerfully as if she had hitherto considered the danger
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This mountain is doomed to be fatal to me!&rdquo; she whispered; &ldquo;we shall find
+      our graves on it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not so, Miss Temple; there is yet hope,&rdquo; returned the youth, in the
+      same tone, while the vacant expression of his eye contradicted his words;
+      &ldquo;let us return to the point of the rock&mdash;there is&mdash;there must be&mdash;some
+      place about it where we can descend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lead me there,&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth; &ldquo;let us leave no effort untried.&rdquo;
+       She did not wait for his compliance, but turning, retraced her steps to
+      the brow of the precipice, murmuring to herself, in suppressed, hysterical
+      sobs, &ldquo;My father! my poor, my distracted father!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Edwards was by her side in an instant, and with aching eyes he examined
+      every fissure in the crags in quest of some opening that might offer
+      facilities for flight. But the smooth, even surface of the rocks afforded
+      hardly a resting-place for a foot, much less those continued projections
+      which would have been necessary for a descent of nearly a hundred feet.
+      Edwards was not slow in feeling the conviction that this hope was also
+      futile, and, with a kind of feverish despair that still urged him to
+      action, he turned to some new expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing left, Miss Temple,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but to lower you from this
+      place to the rock beneath. If Natty were here, or even that Indian could
+      be roused, their ingenuity and long practice would easily devise methods
+      to do it; but I am a child at this moment in everything but daring. Where
+      shall I find means? This dress of mine is so light, and there is so little
+      of it&mdash;then the blanket of Mohegan; we must try&mdash;we must try&mdash;anything
+      is better than to see you a victim to such a death!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will become of you?&rdquo; said Elizabeth. &ldquo;In deed, indeed, neither
+      you nor John must be sacrificed to my safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard her not, for he was already by the side of Mohegan, who yielded
+      his blanket without a question, retaining his seat with Indian dignity and
+      composure, though his own situation was even more critical than that of
+      the others. The blanket was cut into shreds, and the fragments fastened
+      together: the loose linen jacket of the youth and the light muslin shawl
+      of Elizabeth were attached to them, and the whole thrown over the rocks
+      with the rapidity of lightning; but the united Pieces did not reach
+      half-way to the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not do&mdash;it will not do!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth; &ldquo;for me there is
+      no hope! The fire comes slowly, but certainly. See, it destroys the very
+      earth before it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the flames spread on that rock with half the quickness with which
+      they leaped from bush to tree in other parts of the mountain, our painful
+      task would have soon ended; for they would have consumed already the
+      captives they inclosed. But the peculiarity of their situation afforded
+      Elizabeth and her companion the respite of which they had availed
+      themselves to make the efforts we have recorded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thin covering of earth on the rock supported but a scanty and faded
+      herbage, and most of the trees that had found root in the fissures had
+      already died, during the in tense heats of preceding summers. Those which
+      still retained the appearance of life bore a few dry and withered leaves,
+      while the others were merely the wrecks of pines, oaks, and maples. No
+      better materials to feed the fire could be found, had there been a
+      communication with the flames; but the ground was destitute of the brush
+      that led the destructive element, like a torrent, over the remainder of
+      the hill. As auxiliary to this scarcity of fuel, one of the large springs
+      which abound in that country gushed out of the side of the ascent above,
+      and, after creeping sluggishly along the level land, saturating the mossy
+      covering of the rock with moisture, it swept around the base of the little
+      cone that formed the pinnacle of the mountain, and, entering the canopy of
+      smoke near one of the terminations of the terrace, found its way to the
+      lake, not by dashing from rock to rock, but by the secret channels of the
+      earth. It would rise to the surface, here and there, in the wet seasons,
+      but in the droughts of summer it was to be traced only by the bogs and
+      moss that announced the proximity of water. When the fire reached this
+      barrier, it was compelled to pause, until a concentration of its heat
+      could overcome the moisture, like an army awaiting the operations of a
+      battering train, to open its way to desolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That fatal moment seemed now to have arrived, for the hissing steams of
+      the spring appeared to be nearly exhausted, and the moss of the rocks was
+      already curling under the intense heat, while fragments of bark, that yet
+      clung to the dead trees, began to separate from their trunks, and fall to
+      the ground in crumbling masses. The air seemed quivering with rays of
+      heat, which might be seen playing along the parched stems of the trees.
+      There were moments when dark clouds of smoke would sweep along the little
+      terrace; and, as the eye lost its power, the other senses contributed to
+      give effect to the fearful horror of the scene. At such moments, the
+      roaring of the flames, the crackling of the furious element, with the
+      tearing of falling branches, and occasionally the thundering echoes of
+      some falling tree, united to alarm the victims. Of the three, however, the
+      youth appeared much the most agitated. Elizabeth, having relinquished
+      entirely the idea of escape, was fast obtaining that resigned composure
+      with which the most delicate of her sex are sometimes known to meet
+      unavoidable evils; while Mohegan, who was much nearer to the danger,
+      maintained his seat with the invincible resignation of an Indian warrior.
+      Once or twice the eye of the aged chief, which was ordinarily fixed in the
+      direction of the distant hills, turned toward the young pair, who seemed
+      doomed to so early a death, with a slight indication of pity crossing his
+      composed features, but it would immediately revert again to its former
+      gaze, as if already looking into the womb of futurity. Much of the time he
+      was chanting a kind of low dirge in the Delaware tongue, using the deep
+      and remarkable guttural tones of his people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At such a moment, Mr. Edwards, all earthly distinctions end,&rdquo; whispered
+      Elizabeth; &ldquo;persuade John to move nearer to us&mdash;let us die together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot&mdash;he will not stir,&rdquo; returned the youth, in the same
+      horridly still tones. &ldquo;He considers this as the happiest moment of his
+      life, he is past seventy, and has been decaying rapidly for some time; he
+      received some injury in chasing that unlucky deer, too, on the lake, Oh!
+      Miss Temple, that was an unlucky chase, indeed! it has led, I fear, to
+      this awful scene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The smile of Elizabeth was celestial. &ldquo;Why name such a trifle now?&mdash;at
+      this moment the heart is dead to all earthly emotions!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If anything could reconcile a man to this death,&rdquo; cried the youth, &ldquo;it
+      would be to meet it in such company!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not so, Edwards; talk not so,&rdquo; interrupted Miss Temple. &ldquo;I am
+      unworthy of it, and it is unjust to your self. We must die; yes&mdash;yes&mdash;we
+      must die&mdash;it is the will of God, and let us endeavor to submit like
+      his own children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Die!&rdquo; the youth rather shrieked than exclaimed, &ldquo;no&mdash;no&mdash;no&mdash;there
+      must yet be hope&mdash;you, at least, must-not, shall not die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way can we escape?&rdquo; asked Elizabeth, pointing with a look of
+      heavenly composure toward the fire &ldquo;Observe! the flame is crossing the
+      barrier of wet ground&mdash;it comes slowly, Edwards, but surely. Ah! see!
+      the tree! the tree is already lighted!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her words were too true. The heat of the conflagration had at length
+      overcome the resistance of the spring, and the fire was slowly stealing
+      along the half-dried moss; while a dead pine kindled with the touch of a
+      forked flame, that, for a moment, wreathed around the stem of the tree, as
+      it whined, in one of its evolutions, under the influence of the air. The
+      effect was instantaneous, The flames danced along the parched trunk of the
+      pine like lightning quivering on a chain, and immediately a column of
+      living fire was raging on the terrace. It soon spread from tree to tree,
+      and the scene was evidently drawing to a close. The log on which Mohegan
+      was seated lighted at its further end, and the Indian appeared to be
+      surrounded by fire. Still he was unmoved. As his body was unprotected, his
+      sufferings must have been great; but his fortitude was superior to all.
+      His voice could yet be heard even in the midst of these horrors. Elizabeth
+      turned her head from the sight, and faced the valley Furious eddies of
+      wind were created by the heat, and, just at the moment, the canopy of
+      fiery smoke that overhung the valley was cleared away, leaving a distinct
+      view of the peaceful village beneath them. &ldquo;My father!&mdash;&mdash;my
+      father!&rdquo; shrieked Elizabeth &ldquo;Oh! this&mdash;surely might have been spared
+      me&mdash;but I submit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The distance was not so great but the figure of Judge Temple could be
+      seen, standing in his own grounds, and apparently contemplating, in
+      perfect unconsciousness of the danger of his child, the mountain in
+      flames. This sight was still more painful than the approaching danger; and
+      Elizabeth again faced the hill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My intemperate warmth has done this!&rdquo; cried Edwards, in the accents of
+      despair. &ldquo;If I had possessed but a moiety of your heavenly resignation,
+      Miss Temple, all might yet have been well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name it not&mdash;name it not,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It is now of no avail. We must
+      die, Edwards, we must die&mdash;let us do so as Christians. But&mdash;no&mdash;you
+      may yet escape, perhaps. Your dress is not so fatal as mine. Fly! Leave
+      me, An opening may yet be found for you, possibly&mdash;certainly it is
+      worth the effort. Fly! leave me&mdash;but stay! You will see my father! my
+      poor, my bereaved father! Say to him, then, Edwards, say to him, all that
+      can appease his anguish. Tell him that I died happy and collected; that I
+      have gone to my beloved mother; that the hours of this life are nothing
+      when balanced in the scales of eternity. Say how we shall meet again. And
+      say,&rdquo; she continued, dropping her voice, that had risen with her feelings,
+      as if conscious of her worldly weakness, &ldquo;how clear, how very dear, was my
+      love for him; that it was near, too near, to my love for God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth listened to her touching accents, but moved not. In a moment he
+      found utterance, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is it me that you command to leave you! to leave you on the edge of
+      the grave? Oh! Miss Temple, how little have you known me!&rdquo; he cried,
+      dropping on his knees at her feet, and gathering her flowing robe in his
+      arms as if to shield her from the flames. &ldquo;I have been driven to the woods
+      in despair, but your society has tamed the lion within me. If I have
+      wasted my time in degradation, 'twas you that charmed me to it. If I have
+      forgotten my name and family, your form supplied the place of memory. If I
+      have forgotten my wrongs, 'twas you that taught me charity. No&mdash;no&mdash;dearest
+      Elizabeth, I may die with you, but I can never leave you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth moved not, nor answered. It was plain that her thoughts had been
+      raised from the earth, The recollection of her father, and her regrets at
+      their separation, had been mellowed by a holy sentiment, that lifted her
+      above the level of earthly things, and she was fast losing the weakness of
+      her sex in the near view of eternity. But as she listened to these words
+      she became once more woman. She struggled against these feelings, and
+      smiled, as she thought she was shaking off the last lingering feeling of
+      nature, when the world, and all its seductions, rushed again to her heart,
+      with the sounds of a human, voice, crying in piercing tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gal! where be ye, gal! gladden the heart of an old man, if ye yet belong
+      to 'arth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hist!&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;'tis the Leather-Stocking; he seeks me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis Natty!&rdquo; shouted Edwards, &ldquo;and we may yet be saved!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wide and circling flame glared on their eyes for a moment, even above
+      the fire of the woods, and a loud report followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis the canister, 'tis the powder,&rdquo; cried the same voice, evidently
+      approaching them. &ldquo;'Tis the canister, and the precious child is lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the next instant Natty rushed through the steams of the spring, and
+      appeared on the terrace, without his deerskin cap, his hair burnt to his
+      head, his shirt, of country check, black and filled with holes, and his
+      red features of a deeper color than ever, by the heat he had encountered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Even from the land of shadows, now
+     My father's awful ghost appears.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Gertrude Of Wyoming.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      For an hour after Louisa Grant was left by Miss Temple, in the situation
+      already mentioned, she continued in feverish anxiety, awaiting the return
+      of her friend. But as the time passed by without the reappearance of
+      Elizabeth, the terror of Louisa gradually increased, until her alarmed
+      fancy had conjured every species of danger that appertained to the woods,
+      excepting the one that really existed. The heavens had become obscured by
+      degrees, and vast volumes of smoke were pouring over the valley; but the
+      thoughts of Louisa were still recurring to beasts, without dreaming of the
+      real cause for apprehension. She was stationed in the edge of the low
+      pines and chestnuts that succeed the first or large growth of the forest,
+      and directly above the angle where the highway turned from the straight
+      course to the village, and ascended the mountain laterally. Consequently,
+      she commanded a view, not only of the valley, but of the road beneath her.
+      The few travellers that passed, she observed, were engaged in earnest
+      conversation, and frequently raised their eyes to the hill, and at length
+      she saw the people leaving the court house, and gazing upward also. While
+      under the influence of the alarm excited by such unusual movements,
+      reluctant to go, and yet fearful to remain, Louisa was startled by the
+      low, cracking, but cautious treads of some one approaching through the
+      bushes. She was on the eve of flight, when Natty emerged from the cover,
+      and stood at her side. The old man laughed as he shook her kindly by a
+      hand that was passive with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to meet you here, child,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;for the back of the
+      mountain is a-fire, and it would be dangerous to go up it now, till it has
+      been burnt over once, and the dead wood is gone. There's a foolish man,
+      the comrade of that varmint who has given me all this trouble, digging for
+      ore on the east side. I told him that the kearless fellows, who thought to
+      catch a practysed hunter in the woods after dark, had thrown the lighted
+      pine-knots in the brush, and that 'twould kindle like tow, and warned him
+      to leave the hill. But he was set upon his business, and nothing short of
+      Providence could move him, if he isn't burnt and buried in a grave of his
+      own digging, he's made of salamanders. Why, what ails the child? You look
+      as skeary as if you'd seed more painters. I wish there were more to be
+      found! they'd count up faster than the beaver. But where's the good child
+      with a bad father? Did she forget her promise to the old man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hill! the hill!&rdquo; shrieked Louisa; &ldquo;she seeks you on the hill with the
+      powder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty recoiled several feet at this unexpected intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord of Heaven have mercy on her! She's on the Vision, and that's a
+      sheet of fire agin' this. Child, if ye love the dear one, and hope to find
+      a friend when ye need it most, to the village, and give the alarm. The men
+      are used to fighting fire, and there may be a chance left, Fly! I bid ye
+      fly! nor stop even for breath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leather-Stocking had no sooner uttered this injunction, than he
+      disappeared in the bushes, and, when last seen by Louisa, was rushing up
+      the mountain, with a speed that none but those who were accustomed to the
+      toil could attain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I found ye!&rdquo; the old man exclaimed, when he burst out of the smoke;
+      &ldquo;God be praised that I have found ye; but follow&mdash;there's no time for
+      talking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dress!&rdquo; said Elizabeth; &ldquo;it would be fatal to trust myself nearer to
+      the flames in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bethought me of your flimsy things,&rdquo; cried Natty, throwing loose the
+      folds of a covering buckskin that he carried on his arm, and wrapping her
+      form in it, in such a manner as to envelop her whole person; &ldquo;now follow,
+      for it's a matter of life and death to us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But John! what will become of John?&rdquo; cried Edwards; &ldquo;can we leave the old
+      warrior here to perish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of Natty followed the direction of Edwards' finger, where he
+      beheld the Indian still seated as before, with the very earth under his
+      feet consuming with fire. Without delay the hunter approached the spot,
+      and spoke in Delaware:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up and away, Chingachgook! will ye stay here to burn, like a Mingo at the
+      stake? The Moravians have teached ye better, I hope; the Lord preserve me
+      if the powder hasn't flashed atween his legs, and the skin of his back is
+      roasting. Will ye come, I say; will ye follow me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should Mohegan go?&rdquo; returned the Indian, gloomily. &ldquo;He has seen the
+      days of an eagle, and his eye grows dim He looks on the valley; he looks
+      on the water; he looks in the hunting-grounds&mdash;but he sees no
+      Delawares. Every one has a white skin. My fathers say, from the far-off
+      land, Come. My women, my young warriors, my tribe, say, Come. The Great
+      Spirit says, Come. Let Mohegan die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you forget your friend,&rdquo; cried Edwards,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis useless to talk to an Indian with the death-fit on him, lad,&rdquo;
+       interrupted Natty, who seized the strips of the blanket, and with
+      wonderful dexterity strapped the passive chieftain to his own back; when
+      he turned, and with a strength that seemed to bid defiance, not only to
+      his years, but to his load, he led the way to the point whence he had
+      issued. As they crossed the little terrace of rock, one of the dead trees,
+      that had been tottering for several minutes, fell on the spot where they
+      had stood, and filled the air with its cinders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an event quickened the steps of the party, who followed the
+      Leather-Stocking with the urgency required by the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tread on the soft ground,&rdquo; he cried, when they were in a gloom where
+      sight availed them but little, &ldquo;and keep in the white smoke; keep the skin
+      close on her, lad; she's a precious one&mdash;another will be hard to be
+      found.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Obedient to the hunter's directions, they followed his steps and advice
+      implicitly; and, although the narrow pas sage along the winding of the
+      spring led amid burning logs and falling branches, they happily achieved
+      it in safety. No one but a man long accustomed to the woods could have
+      traced his route through the smoke, in which respiration was difficult,
+      and sight nearly useless; but the experience of Natty conducted them to an
+      opening through the rocks, where, with a little difficulty, they soon
+      descended to another terrace, and emerged at once into a tolerably clear
+      atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The feelings of Edwards and Elizabeth at reaching this spot may be
+      imagined, though not easily described. No one seemed to exult more than
+      their guide, who turned, with Mohegan still lashed to his back, and,
+      laughing in his own manner, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knowed 'twa the Frenchman's powder, gal; it went so all together; your
+      coarse grain will squib for a minute. The Iroquois had none of the best
+      powder when I went agin' the Canada tribes, under Sir William. Did I ever
+      tell you the story, lad, consarning the scrimmage with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake, tell me nothing now, Natty, until we are entirely safe.
+      Where shall we go next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, on the platform of rock over the cave, to be sure; you will be safe
+      enough there, or we'll go Into It, if you be so minded.&rdquo; The young man
+      started, and appeared agitated; but, Looking around him with an anxious
+      eye, said quickly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shalt we be safe on the rock? cannot the fire reach us there, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't the boy see?&rdquo; said Natty, with the coolness of one accustomed to
+      the kind of danger he had just encountered. &ldquo;Had ye stayed in the place
+      above ten minutes longer, you would both have been in ashes, but here you
+      may stay forever, and no fire can touch you, until they burn the rocks as
+      well as the woods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this assurance, which was obviously true, they proceeded to the spot,
+      and Natty deposited his load, placing the Indian on the ground with his
+      back against a fragment of the rocks. Elizabeth sank on the ground, and
+      buried her face in her hands, while her heart was swelling with a variety
+      of conflicting emotions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me urge you to take a restorative, Miss Temple,&rdquo; said Edwards
+      respectfully; &ldquo;your frame will sink else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me, leave me,&rdquo; she said, raising her beaming eyes for a moment to
+      his; &ldquo;I feel too much for words! I am grateful, Oliver, for this
+      miraculous escape; and next to my God to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Edwards withdrew to the edge of the rock, and shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Benjamin! where are you, Benjamin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A hoarse voice replied, as if from the bowels of the earth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hereaway, master; stowed in this here bit of a hole, which is all the
+      time as hot as the cook's coppers. I'm tired of my berth, d'ye see, and
+      if-so-be that Leather Stocking has got much overhauling to do before he
+      sails after them said beaver I'll go into dock again, and ride out my
+      quarantine, till I can get prottick from the law, and so hold on upon the
+      rest of my 'spaniolas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring up a glass of water from the spring,&rdquo; continued Edwards, &ldquo;and throw
+      a little wine in it; hasten, I entreat you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knows but little of your small drink, Master Oliver,&rdquo; returned the
+      steward, his voice issuing out of the cave into the open air, &ldquo;and the
+      Jamaikey held out no longer than to take a parting kiss with Billy Kirby,
+      when he anchored me alongside the highway last night, where you run me
+      down in the chase. But here's summat of a red color that may suit a weak
+      stomach, mayhap. That Master Kirby is no first-rate in a boat; but he'll
+      tack a cart among the stumps, all the same as a Lon'on pilot will back and
+      fill, through the colliers in the Pool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the steward ascended while talking, by the time he had ended his speech
+      he appeared on the rock with the desired restoratives, exhibiting the
+      worn-out and bloated features of a man who had run deep in a debauch, and
+      that lately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth took from the hands of Edwards the liquor which he offered and
+      then motioned to be left again to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth turned at her bidding, and observed Natty kindly assiduous
+      around the person of Mohegan. When their eyes met, the hunter said
+      sorrowfully:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His time has come, lad; see it in his eyes&mdash;when an Indian fixes his
+      eye, he means to go but to one place; and what the wilful creatures put
+      their minds on, they're sure to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick tread prevented the reply, and in a few moments, to the amazement
+      of the whole party, Mr. Grant was seen clinging to the side of the
+      mountain, and striving to reach the place where they stood. Oliver sprang
+      to his assistance, and by their united efforts the worthy divine was soon
+      placed safely among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How came you added to our number?&rdquo; cried Edwards. &ldquo;Is the hill alive with
+      people at a time like this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hasty but pious thanksgivings of the clergyman were soon ejaculated,
+      and, when he succeeded in collecting his bewildered senses, he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard that my child was seen coming to the mountain; and, when the fire
+      broke over its summit, my uneasiness drew me up the road, where I found
+      Louisa, in terror for Miss Temple. It was to seek her that I came into
+      this dangerous place; and I think, but for God's mercy, through the dogs
+      of Natty, I should have perished in the flames myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay! follow the hounds, and if there's an opening they'll scent it out,&rdquo;
+       said Natty; &ldquo;their noses be given them the same as man's reason.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did so, and they led me to this place; but, praise be to God that I see
+      you all safe and well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; returned the hunter; &ldquo;safe we be, but as for well, John can't be
+      called in a good way, unless you'll say that for a man that's taking his
+      last look at 'arth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He speaks the truth!&rdquo; said the divine, with the holy awe with which he
+      ever approached the dying; &ldquo;I have been by too many death-beds, not to see
+      that the hand of the tyrant is laid on this old warrior. Oh! how consoling
+      it is to know that he has not rejected the offered mercy in the hour of
+      his strength and of worldly temptations! The offspring of a race of
+      heathens, he has in truth been 'as a brand plucked from the burning.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; returned Natty, who alone stood with him by the side of the
+      dying warrior; &ldquo;it is no burning that ails him, though his Indian feelings
+      made him scorn to move, unless it be the burning of man's wicked thoughts
+      for near fourscore years; but it's natur' giving out in a chasm that's run
+      too long.&mdash;Down with ye, Hector! down, I say! Flesh Isn't iron, that
+      a man can live forever, and see his kith and kin driven to a far country,
+      and he left to mourn, with none to keep him company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John,&rdquo; said the divine, tenderly, &ldquo;do you hear me? do you wish the
+      prayers appointed by the church, at this trying moment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian turned his ghastly face toward the speaker, and fastened his
+      dark eyes on him, steadily, but vacantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sign of recognition was made: and in a moment he moved his head again
+      slowly toward the vale, and began to sing, using his own language, in
+      those low, guttural tones, that have been so often mentioned, his notes
+      rising with his theme, till they swelled so loud as to be distinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will come! I will come! to the land of the just I will come! The Maquas
+      I have slain! I have slain the Maquas! and the Great Spirit calls to his
+      son. I will come! I will come to the land of the just! I will come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What says he, Leather-Stocking?&rdquo; Inquired the priest, with tender
+      interest; &ldquo;sings he the Redeemer's praise?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no&mdash;'tis his own praise that he speaks now,&rdquo; said Natty, turning
+      in a melancholy manner from the sight of his dying friend; &ldquo;and a good
+      right he has to say it all, for I know every word to be true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May heaven avert such self-righteousness from his heart! Humility and
+      penitence are the seals of Christianity; and, without feeling them deeply
+      seated in the soul, all hope is delusive, and leads to vain expectations.
+      Praise himself when his whole soul and body should unite to praise his
+      Maker! John! you have enjoyed the blessings of a gospel ministry, and have
+      been called from out a multitude of sinners and pagans, and, I trust, for
+      a wise and gracious purpose. Do you now feel what it is to be justified by
+      our Saviour's death, and reject all weak and idle dependence on good
+      works, that spring from man's pride and vainglory?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian did not regard his interrogator, but he raised his head again,
+      and said in a low, distinct voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can say that the Maqous know the back of the Mohegan? What enemy that
+      trusted in him did not see the morning? What Mingo that he chased ever
+      sang the song of triumph? Did Mohegan ever he? No; the truth lived in him,
+      and none else could come out of him. In his youth he was a warrior, and
+      his moccasins left the stain of blood. In his age he was wise; his words
+      at the council fire did not blow away with the winds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! he has abandoned that vain relic of paganism, his songs,&rdquo; cried the
+      divine; &ldquo;what says he now? is he sensible of his lost state?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord!! man,&rdquo; said Natty, &ldquo;he knows his end is at hand as well as you or
+      I; but, so far from thinking it a loss, he believes it to be a great gain.
+      He is old and stiff, and you have made the game so scarce and shy, that
+      better shots than him find it hard to get a livelihood. Now he thinks he
+      shall travel where it will always be good hunting; Where no wicked or
+      unjust Indians can go; and where he shall meet all his tribe together
+      agin. There's not much loss in that, to a man whose hands are hardly fit
+      for basket-making Loss! if there be any loss, 'twill be to me. I'm sure
+      after he's gone, there will be but little left for me but to follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His example and end, which, I humbly trust, shall yet be made glorious,&rdquo;
+       returned Mr. Grant, &ldquo;should lead your mind to dwell on the things of
+      another life. But I feel it to be my duty to smooth the way for the
+      parting spirit. This is the moment, John, when the reflection that you did
+      not reject the mediation of the Redeemer, will bring balm to your soul.
+      Trust not to any act of former days, but lay the burden of your sins at
+      his feet, and you have his own blessed assurance that he will not desert
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Though all you say be true, and you have scriptur' gospels for it, too,&rdquo;
+       said Natty, &ldquo;you will make nothing of the Indian. He hasn't seen a
+      Moravian priest sin' the war; and it's hard to keep them from going back to
+      their native ways. I should think 'twould be as well to let the old man
+      pass in peace. He's happy now; I know it by his eye; and that's more than
+      I would say for the chief, sin' the time the Delawares broke up from the
+      head waters of their river and went west. Ah's me! 'tis a grevious long
+      time that, and many dark days have we seen together sin' it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hawk-eye!&rdquo; said Mohegan, rousing with the last glimmering of life.
+      &ldquo;Hawk-eye! listen to the words of your brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, John,&rdquo; said the hunter, in English, strongly affected by the appeal,
+      and drawing to his side, &ldquo;we have been brothers; and more so than it means
+      in the Indian tongue. What would ye have with me, Chingachgook?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hawk-eye! my fathers call me to the happy hunting grounds. The path is
+      clear, and the eyes of Mohegan grow young. I look&mdash;but I see no
+      white-skins; there are none to be seen but just and brave Indians.
+      Farewell, Hawk-eye&mdash;you shall go with the Fire-eater and the Young
+      Eagle to the white man's heaven; but I go after my fathers. Let the bow,
+      and tomahawk, and pipe, and the wampum of Mohegan he laid in his grave;
+      for when he starts 'twil be in the night, like a warrior on a war-party,
+      and he can not stop to seek them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What says he, Nathaniel?&rdquo; cried Mr. Grant, earnestly, and with obvious
+      anxiety; &ldquo;does he recall the promises of the mediation? and trust his
+      salvation to the Rock of Ages?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the faith of the hunter was by no means clear, yet the fruits of
+      early instruction had not entirely fallen in the wilderness. He believed
+      in one God, and one heaven; and when the strong feeling excited by the
+      leave-taking of his old companion, which was exhibited by the powerful
+      working of every muscle in his weather-beaten face, suffered him to speak,
+      he replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no&mdash;he trusts only to the Great Spirit of the savages, and
+      to his own good deeds. He thinks, like all his people, that he is to be
+      young agin, and to hunt, and be happy to the end of etarnity, its pretty
+      much the same with all colors, parson. I could never bring myself to think
+      that I shall meet with these hounds, or my piece, in another world; though
+      the thought of leaving them forever sometimes brings hard feelings over
+      me, and makes me cling to life with a greater craving than beseems
+      three-Score-and-ten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord in his mercy avert such a death from one who has been sealed
+      with the sign of the cross!&rdquo; cried the minister, in holy fervor. &ldquo;John&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused for the elements. During the period occupied by the events which
+      we have related, the dark clouds in the horizon had continued to increase
+      in numbers and multitude; and the awful stillness that now pervaded the
+      air, announced a crisis in the state of the atmosphere. The flames, which
+      yet continued to rage along the sides of the mountain, no longer whirled
+      in uncertain currents of their own eddies, but blazed high and steadily
+      toward the heavens. There was even a quietude in the ravages of the
+      destructive element, as if it foresaw that a hand greater titan even its
+      own desolating power, was about to stay its progress. The piles of smoke
+      which lay above the valley began to rise, and were dispelling rapidly; and
+      streaks of livid lightning were dancing through the masses of clouds that
+      impended over the western hills. While Mr. Grant was speaking, a flash,
+      which sent its quivering light through the gloom, laying bare the whole
+      opposite horizon, was followed by a loud crash of thunder, that rolled
+      away among the hills, seeming to shake the foundations of the earth to
+      their centre. Mohegan raised him self, as if in obedience to a signal for
+      his departure, and stretched his wasted arm toward the west. His dark face
+      lighted with a look of joy; which, with all other expressions, gradually
+      disappeared; the muscles stiffening as they retreated to a state of rest;
+      a slight convulsion played, for a single instant, about his lips; and his
+      arm slowly dropped by his side, leaving the frame of the dead warrior
+      reposing against the rock with its glassy eyes open, and fixed on the
+      distant hills, as if the deserted shell were tracing the flight of the
+      spirit to its new abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this Mr. Grant witnessed in silent awe; but when the last echoes of
+      the thunder died away he clasped his bands together, with pious energy,
+      and repeated, in the full, rich tones of assured faith;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord! how unsearchable are Thy judgments; and Thy ways past finding out!
+      'I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
+      upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in
+      my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for my self, and mine eyes
+      shall behold, and not another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the divine closed this burst of devotion, he bowed his head meekly to
+      his bosom, and looked all the dependence and humility that the inspired
+      language expressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Grant retired from the body, the hunter approached, and taking
+      the rigid hand of his friend, looked him wistfully in the face for some
+      time without speaking, when he gave vent to his feelings by saying, in the
+      mournful voice of one who felt deeply:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Red skin or white, it's all over now! he's to be judged by a righteous
+      Judge, and by no laws that's made to suit times, and new ways. Well,
+      there's only one more death, and the world will be left to me and the
+      hounds, Ah's me! a man must wait the time of God's pleasure, but I begin
+      to weary of life. There is scarcely a tree standing that I know, and it's
+      hard to find a face that I was acquainted with in my younger days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Large drops of rain now began to fall, and diffuse themselves over the
+      dry rock, while the approach of the thunder shower was rapid and certain.
+      The body of the Indian was hastily removed into the cave beneath, followed
+      by the whining hounds, who missed and moaned for the look of intelligence
+      that had always met their salutations to the chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edwards made some hasty and confused excuse for not taking Elizabeth into
+      the same place, which was now completely closed in front with logs and
+      bark, saying some-thing that she hardly understood about its darkness, and
+      the unpleasantness of being with the dead body. Miss Temple, however,
+      found a sufficient shelter against the torrent of rain that fell, under
+      the projection of a rock which overhung them, But long before the shower
+      was over, the sounds of voices were heard below them crying aloud for
+      Elizabeth, and men soon appeared beating the dying embers of the bushes,
+      as they worked their way cautiously among the unextinguished brands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first short cessation in the rain, Oliver conducted Elizabeth to
+      the road, where he left her. Before parting, however, he found time to
+      say, in a fervent manner that his companion was now at no loss to
+      interpret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The moment of concealment is over, Miss Temple. By this time to-morrow, I
+      shall remove a veil that perhaps it has been weakness to keep around me
+      and my afffairs so long. But I have had romantic and foolish wishes and
+      weakness; and who has not, that is young and torn by conflicting passions?
+      God bless you! I hear your father's voice; he is coming up the road, and I
+      would not, just now, subject myself to detention. Thank Heaven, you are
+      safe again; that alone removes the weight of a world from my spirit!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited for no answer, but sprang into the woods. Elizabeth,
+      notwithstanding she heard the cries of her father as he called upon her
+      name, paused until he was concealed among the smoking trees, when she
+      turned, and in a moment rushed into the arms of her half-distracted
+      Parent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A carriage had been provided, into which Miss Temple hastily entered; when
+      the cry was passed along the hill, that the lost one was found, and the
+      people returned to the village wet and dirty, but elated with the thought
+      that the daughter of their landlord had escaped from so horrid and
+      untimely an end.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * The probability of a fire in the woods similar to that here described
+    has been questioned.  The writer can only say that he once witnessed a
+    fire in another part of New York that compelled a man to desert his
+    wagon and horses in the highway, and in which the latter were
+    destroyed.  In order to estimate the probability of such an event, it
+    is necessary to remember the effects of a long drought in that climate
+    and the abundance of dead wood which is found in a forest like that
+    described, The fires in the American forests frequently rage to such
+    an extent as to produce a sensible effect on the atmosphere at a
+    distance of fifty miles.  Houses, barns, and fences are quite commonly
+    swept away in their course.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Selictar! unsheathe then our chief's scimetar;
+     Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of war;
+     Ye mountains! that see us descend to the shore,
+     Shall view us as victors, or view us no more.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Byron.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The heavy showers that prevailed during the remainder of the day
+      completely stopped the progress of the flames; though glimmering fires
+      were observed during the night, on different parts of the hill, wherever
+      there was a collection of fuel to feed the element. The next day the woods
+      for 'many miles were black and smoking, and were stripped of every vestige
+      of brush and dead wood; but the pines and hemlocks still reared their
+      heads proudly among the hills, and even the smaller trees of the forest
+      retained a feeble appearance of life and vegetation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The many tongues of rumor were busy in exaggerating the miraculous escape
+      of Elizabeth; and a report was generally credited, that Mohegan had
+      actually perished in the flames. This belief became confirmed, and was
+      indeed rendered probable, when the direful intelligence reached the
+      village that Jotham Riddel, the miner, was found in his hole, nearly dead
+      with suffocation, and burnt to such a degree that no hopes were
+      entertained of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public attention became much alive to the events of the last few days;
+      and, just at this crisis, the convicted counterfeiters took the hint from
+      Natty, and, on the night succeeding the fire, found means to cut through
+      their log prison also, and to escape unpunished. When this news began to
+      circulate through the village, blended with the fate of Jotham, and the
+      exaggerated and tortured reports of the events on the hill, the popular
+      opinion was freely expressed, as to the propriety of seizing such of the
+      fugitives as remained within reach. Men talked of the cave as a secret
+      receptacle of guilt; and, as the rumor of ores and metals found its way
+      into the confused medley of conjectures, counterfeiting, and everything
+      else that was wicked and dangerous to the peace of society, suggested
+      themselves to the busy fancies of the populace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the public mind was in this feverish state, it was hinted that the
+      wood had been set on fire by Edwards and the Leather-Stocking, and that,
+      consequently, they alone were responsible for the damages. This opinion
+      soon gained ground, being most circulated by those who, by their own
+      heedlessness, had caused the evil; and there was one irresistible burst of
+      the common sentiment that an attempt should be made to punish the
+      offenders. Richard was by no means deaf to this appeal, and by noon he set
+      about in earnest to see the laws executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several stout young men were selected, and taken apart with an appearance
+      of secrecy, where they received some important charge from the sheriff,
+      immediately under the eyes, but far removed from the ears, of all in the
+      village. Possessed of a knowledge of their duty, these youths hurried into
+      the hills, with a bustling manner, as if the fate of the world depended on
+      their diligence, and, at the same time, with an air of mystery as great as
+      if they were engaged on secret matters of the state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At twelve precisely a drum beat the &ldquo;long roll&rdquo; before the &ldquo;Bold Dragoon,&rdquo;
+       and Richard appeared, accompanied by Captain Hollister, who was clad in
+      Investments as commander of the &ldquo;Templeton Light Infantry,&rdquo; when the
+      former demanded of the latter the aid of the posse comitatus in enforcing
+      the laws of the country. We have not room to record the speeches of the
+      two gentlemen on this occasion, but they are preserved in the columns of
+      the little blue newspaper, which is yet to be found on the file, and are
+      said to be highly creditable to the legal formula of one of the parties,
+      and to the military precision of the other. Everything had been previously
+      arranged, and, as the red-coated drummer continued to roll out his
+      clattering notes, some five-and-twenty privates appeared in the ranks, and
+      arranged themselves in the order of battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this corps was composed of volunteers, and was commanded by a man who
+      had passed the first five-and-thirty years of his life in camps and
+      garrisons, it was the non-parallel of military science in that country,
+      and was confidently pronounced by the judicious part of the Templeton
+      community, to be equal in skill and appearance to any troops in the known
+      world; in physical endowments they were, certainly, much superior! To this
+      assertion there were but three dissenting voices, and one dissenting
+      opinion. The opinion belonged to Marmaduke, who, however, saw no necessity
+      for its promulgation. Of the voices, one, and that a pretty loud one',
+      came from the spouse of the commander himself, who frequently reproached
+      her husband for condescending to lead such an irregular band of warriors,
+      after he had filled the honorable station of sergeant-major to a dashing
+      corps of Virginia cavalry through much of the recent war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another of these skeptical sentiments was invariably expressed by Mr.
+      Pump, whenever the company paraded generally in some such terms as these,
+      which were uttered with that sort of meekness that a native of the island
+      of our forefathers is apt to assume when he condescends to praise the
+      customs or character of her truant progeny:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's mayhap that they knows summat about loading and firing, d'ye see,
+      but as for working ship? why, a corporal's guard of the Boadishey's
+      marines would back and fill on their quarters in such a manner as to
+      surround and captivate them all in half a glass.&rdquo; As there was no one to
+      deny this assertion, the marines of the Boadicea were held in a
+      corresponding degree of estimation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third unbeliever was Monsieur Le Quoi, who merely whispered to the
+      sheriff, that the corps was one of the finest he had ever seen second only
+      to the Mousquetaires of Le Boa Louis! However, as Mrs. Hollister thought
+      there was something like actual service in the present appearances, and
+      was, in consequence, too busily engaged with certain preparations of her
+      own, to make her comments; as Benjamin was absent, and Monsieur Le Quoi
+      too happy to find fault with anything, the corps escaped criticism and
+      comparison altogether on this momentous day, when they certainly had
+      greater need of self-confidence than on any other previous occasion.
+      Marmaduke was said to be again closeted with Mr. Van der School and no
+      interruption was offered to the movements of the troops. At two o'clock
+      precisely the corps shouldered arms, beginning on the right wing, next to
+      the veteran, and carrying the motion through to the left with great
+      regularity. When each musket was quietly fixed in its proper situation,
+      the order was given to wheel to the left, and march. As this was bringing
+      raw troops, at once, to face their enemy, it is not to be supposed that
+      the manoeuver was executed with their usual accuracy; but as the music
+      struck up the inspiring air of Yankee-doodle, and Richard, accompanied by
+      Mr. Doolittle preceded the troops boldly down the street, Captain
+      Hollister led on, with his head elevated to forty-five degrees, with a
+      little, low cocked hat perched on his crown, carrying a tremendous dragoon
+      sabre at a poise, and trailing at his heels a huge steel scabbard, that
+      had war in its very clattering. There was a good deal of difficulty in
+      getting all the platoons (there were six) to look the same way; but, by
+      the time they reached the defile of the bridge, the troops were in
+      sufficiently compact order. In this manner they marched up the hill to the
+      summit of the mountain, no other alteration taking place in the
+      disposition of the forces, excepting that a mutual complaint was made, by
+      the sheriff and the magistrate, of a failure in wind, which gradually'
+      brought these gentlemen to the rear. It will be unnecessary to detail the
+      minute movements that succeeded. We shall briefly say, that the scouts
+      came in and reported, that, so far from retreating, as had been
+      anticipated, the fugitives had evidently gained a knowledge of the attack,
+      and were fortifying for a desperate resistance. This intelligence
+      certainly made a material change, not only in the plans of the leaders,
+      but in the countenances of the soldiery also. The men looked at one
+      another with serious faces, and Hiram and Richard began to consult
+      together, apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this conjuncture, they were joined by Billy Kirby, who came along the
+      highway, with his axe under his arm, as much in advance of his team as
+      Captain Hollister had been of his troops in the ascent. The wood-chopper
+      was amazed at the military array, but the sheriff eagerly availed himself
+      of this powerful reinforcement, and commanded his assistance in putting
+      the laws in force. Billy held Mr. Jones in too much deference to object;
+      and it was finally arranged that he should be the bearer of a summons to
+      the garrison to surrender before they proceeded to extremities. The troops
+      now divided, one party being led by the captain, over the Vision, and were
+      brought in on the left of the cave, while the remainder advanced upon its
+      right, under the orders of the lieutenant. Mr. Jones and Dr. Todd&mdash;for
+      the surgeon was in attendance also&mdash;appeared on the platform of rock,
+      immediately over the heads of the garrison, though out of their sight.
+      Hiram thought this approaching too near, and he therefore accompanied
+      Kirby along the side of the hill to within a safe distance of the
+      fortifications, where he took shelter behind a tree. Most of the men
+      discovered great accuracy of eye in bringing some object in range between
+      them and their enemy, and the only two of the besiegers, who were left in
+      plain sight of the besieged, were Captain Hollister on one side, and the
+      wood-chopper on the other. The veteran stood up boldly to the front,
+      supporting his heavy sword in one undeviating position, with his eye fixed
+      firmly on his enemy, while the huge form of Billy was placed in that kind
+      of quiet repose, with either hand thrust into his bosom, bearing his axe
+      under his right arm, which permitted him, like his own oxen, to rest
+      standing. So far, not a word had been exchanged between the belligerents.
+      The besieged had drawn together a pile of black logs and branches of
+      trees, which they had formed into a chevaux-de-frise, making a little
+      circular abatis in front of the entrance to the cave. As the ground was
+      steep and slippery in every direction around the place, and Benjamin
+      appeared behind the works on one side, and Natty on the other, the
+      arrangement was by no means contemptible, especially as the front was
+      sufficiently guarded by the difficulty of the approach. By this time,
+      Kirby had received his orders, and he advanced coolly along the mountain,
+      picking his way with the same indifference as if he were pursuing his
+      ordinary business. When he was within a hundred feet of the works, the
+      long and much-dreaded rifle of the Leather-Stocking was seen issuing from
+      the parapet, and his voice cried aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep off! Billy Kirby, keep off! I wish ye no harm; but if a man of ye
+      all comes a step nigher, there'll be blood spilt atwixt us. God forgive
+      the one that draws it first, but so it must be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, old chap,&rdquo; said Billy, good-naturedly, &ldquo;don't be crabb'd, but hear
+      what a man has got to say I've no consarn in the business, only to see
+      right 'twixt man and man; and I don't kear the valie of a beetle-ring
+      which gets the better; but there's Squire Doolittle, yonder be hind the
+      beech sapling, he has invited me to come in and ask you to give up to the
+      law&mdash;that's all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see the varmint! I see his clothes!&rdquo; cried the indignant Natty: &ldquo;and if
+      he'll only show so much flesh as will bury a rifle bullet, thirty to the
+      pound, I'll make him feel me. Go away, Billy, I bid ye; you know my aim,
+      and I bear you no malice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You over-calculate your aim, Natty,&rdquo; said the other, as he stepped behind
+      a pine that stood near him, &ldquo;if you think to shoot a man through a tree
+      with a three-foot butt. I can lay this tree right across you in ten
+      minutes by any man's watch, and in less time, too; so be civil&mdash;I
+      want no more than what's right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a simple seriousness in the countenance of Natty, that showed he
+      was much in earnest; but it was also evident that he was reluctant to shed
+      human blood. He answered the taunt of the wood-chopper, by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you drop a tree where you will, Billy Kirby; but if you show a
+      hand, or an arm, in doing it, there'll be bones to be set, and blood to
+      staunch. If it's only to get into the cave that ye want, wait till a two
+      hours' sun, and you may enter it in welcome; but come in now you shall
+      not. There's one dead body already, lying on the cold rocks, and there's
+      another in which the life can hardly be said to stay. If you will come in,
+      there'll be dead with out as well as within.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wood-chopper stepped out fearlessly from his cover, and cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's fair; and what's fair is right. He wants you to stop till it's two
+      hours to sundown; and I see reason in the thing. A man can give up when
+      he's wrong, if you don't crowd him too hard; but you crowd a man, and he
+      gets to be like a stubborn ox&mdash;the more you beat, the worse he
+      kicks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The sturdy notions of independence maintained by Billy neither suited the
+      emergency nor the impatience of Mr. Jones, who was burning with a desire
+      to examine the hid den mysteries of the cave. He therefore interrupted
+      this amicable dialogue with his own voice;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I command you Nathaniel Bumppo, by my authority, to surrender your person
+      to the law,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;And I command you, gentlemen, to aid me in
+      performing my duty. Benjamin Penguillan I arrest you, and order you to
+      follow me to the jail of the county, by virtue of this warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd follow ye, Squire Dickens,&rdquo; said Benjamin, removing the pipe from his
+      month (for during the whole scene the ex-major-domo had been very
+      composedly smoking); &ldquo;ay! I'd sail in your wake, to the end of the world,
+      if-so&mdash;be that there was such a place, where there isn't, seeing that
+      it's round. Now mayhap, Master Hollister, having lived all your life on
+      shore, you isn't acquainted that the world, d'ye see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surrender!&rdquo; interrupted the veteran, in a voice that startled his
+      hearers, and which actually caused his own forces to recoil several paces;
+      &ldquo;surrender, Benjamin Pengullan, or expect no quarter.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Damn your quarter!&rdquo; said Benjamin, rising from the log on which he was
+      seated, and taking a squint along the barrel of the swivel, which had been
+      brought on the hill during the night, and now formed the means of defence
+      on his side of the works. &ldquo;Look you, master or captain, thof I questions
+      if ye know the name of a rope, except the one that's to hang ye, there's
+      no need of singing out, as if ye was hailing a deaf man on a topgallant
+      yard. May-hap you think you've got my true name in your sheep skin; but
+      what British sailor finds it worth while to sail in these seas, without a
+      sham on his stern, in case of need, d'ye see. If you call me Penguillan,
+      you calls me by the name of the man on whose hand, d'ye see, I hove into
+      daylight; and he was a gentleman; and that's more than my worst enemy will
+      say of any of the family of Benjamin Stubbs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send the warrant round to me, and I'll put in an alias,&rdquo; cried Hiram,
+      from behind his cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put in a jackass, and you'll put in yourself, Mister Doo-but-little,&rdquo;
+       shouted Benjamin, who kept squinting along his little iron tube, with
+      great steadiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I give you but one moment to yield,&rdquo; cried Richard. &ldquo;Benjamin! Benjamin!
+      this is not the gratitude I expected from you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, Richard Jones,&rdquo; said Natty, who dreaded the sheriff's
+      influence over his comrade; &ldquo;though the canister the gal brought be lost,
+      there's powder enough in the cave to lift the rock you stand on. I'll take
+      off my roof if you don't hold your peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it beneath the dignity of my office to parley further with the
+      prisoners,&rdquo; the sheriff observer to his companion, while they both retired
+      with a precipitancy that Captain Hollister mistook for the signal to
+      advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charge baggonet!&rdquo; shouted the veteran; &ldquo;march!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although this signal was certainly expected, it took the assailed a little
+      by surprise, and the veteran approached the works, crying, &ldquo;Courage, my
+      brave lads! give them no quarter unless they surrender;&rdquo; and struck a
+      furious blow upward with his sabre, that would have divided the steward
+      into moieties by subjecting him to the process of decapitation, but for
+      the fortunate interference of the muzzle of the swivel. As it was, the gun
+      was dismounted at the critical moment that Benjamin was applying his pipe
+      to the priming, and in consequence some five or six dozen of rifle bullets
+      were projected into the air, in nearly a perpendicular line. Philosophy
+      teaches us that the atmosphere will not retain lead; and two pounds of the
+      metal, moulded into bullets of thirty to the pound, after describing an
+      ellipsis in their journey, returned to the earth rattling among the
+      branches of the trees directly over the heads of the troops stationed in
+      the rear of their captain. Much of the success of an attack, made by
+      irregular soldiers, depends on the direction in which they are first got
+      in motion. In the present instance it was retrograde, and in less than a
+      minute after the bellowing report of the swivel among the rocks and
+      caverns, the whole weight of the attack from the left rested on the
+      prowess of the single arm of the veteran. Benjamin received a severe
+      contusion from the recoil of his gun, which produced a short stupor,
+      during which period the ex-steward was prostrate on the ground. Captain
+      Hollister availed himself of this circumstance to scramble ever the
+      breastwork and obtain a footing in the bastion&mdash;for such was the
+      nature of the fortress, as connected with the cave. The moment the veteran
+      found himself within the works of his enemy, he rushed to the edge of the
+      fortification, and, waving his sabre over his head, shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Victory! come on, my brave boys, the work's our own!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was perfectly military, and was such an example as a gallant
+      officer was in some measure bound to exhibit to his men but the outcry was
+      the unlucky cause of turning the tide of success. Natty, who had been
+      keeping a vigalent eye on the wood-chopper, and the enemy immediately
+      before him, wheeled at this alarm, and was appalled at beholding his
+      comrade on the ground, and the veteran standing on his own bulwark, giving
+      forth the cry of victory! The muzzle of the long rifle was turned
+      instantly toward the captain. There was a moment when the life of the old
+      soldier was in great jeopardy but the object to shoot at was both too
+      large and too near for the Leather-Stocking, who, instead of pulling his
+      trigger, applied the gun to the rear of his enemy, and by a powerful shove
+      sent him outside of the works with much greater rapidity than he had
+      entered them. The spot on which Captain Hollister alighted was directly in
+      front, where, as his feet touched the ground, so steep and slippery was
+      the side of the mountain, it seemed to recede from under them. His motion
+      was swift, and so irregular as utterly to confuse the faculties of the old
+      soldier. During its continuance, he supposed himself to be mounted, and
+      charging through the ranks of his enemy. At every tree he made a blow, of
+      course, as at a foot-soldier; and just as he was making the cut &ldquo;St.
+      George&rdquo; at a half burnt sapling he landed in the highway, and, to his
+      utter amazement, at the feet of his own spouse. When Mrs. Hollister, who
+      was toiling up the hill, followed by at least twenty curious boys, leaning
+      with one hand on the staff with which she ordinarily walked, and bearing
+      in the other an empty bag, witnessed this exploit of her husband,
+      indignation immediately got the better, not only of her religion, but of
+      her philosophy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sargeant! is it flying ye are?&rdquo; she cried&mdash;&ldquo;that I should live
+      to see a husband of mine turn his hack to an inimy! and such a one! Here I
+      have been telling the b'ys, as we come along, all about the saige of
+      Yorrektown, and how ye was hurted; and how ye'd be acting the same agin
+      the day; and I mate ye retraiting jist as the first gun is fired. Och! I
+      may trow away the bag! for if there's plunder, 'twill not be the wife of
+      sich as yerself that will be privileged to be getting the same. They do
+      say, too, there is a power of goold and silver in the place&mdash;the Lord
+      forgive me for setting my heart on woorldly things; but what falls in the
+      battle, there's scriptur' for believing, is the just property of the
+      victor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Retreating!&rdquo; exclaimed the amazed veteran; &ldquo;where's my horse? he has been
+      shot under me&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the man mad?&rdquo; interrupted his wife&mdash;&ldquo;devil the horse do ye own,
+      sargeant, and ye're nothing but a shabby captain of malaishy. Oh! if the
+      ra'al captain was here, tis the other way ye'd be riding, dear, or you
+      would not follow your laider!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While this worthy couple were thus discussing events, the battle began to
+      rage more violently than ever above them. When Leather-Stocking saw his
+      enemy fairly under headway, as Benjamin would express it, he gave his
+      attention to the right wing of the assailants. It would have been easy for
+      Kirby, with his powerful frame, to have seized the moment to scale the
+      bastion, and, with his great strength, to have sent both of its defenders
+      in pursuit of the veteran; but hostility appeared to be the passion that
+      the wood-chopper indulged the least in at that moment, for, in a voice
+      that was heard by the retreating left wing, he shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurrah well done, captain! keep it up! how he handles his bush-hook! he
+      makes nothing of a sapling!&rdquo; and such other encouraging exclamations to
+      the flying veteran, until, overcome by mirth, the good-natured fellow
+      seated himself on the ground, kicking the earth with delight, and giving
+      vent to peal after peal of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty stood all this time in a menacing attitude, with his rifle pointed
+      over the breastwork, watching with a quick and cautions eye the least
+      movement of the assail ants. The outcry unfortunately tempted the
+      ungovernable curiosity of Hiram to take a peep from behind his cover at
+      the state of the battle. Though this evolution was performed with great
+      caution, in protecting his front, he left, like many a better commander,
+      his rear exposed to the attacks of his enemy. Mr. Doolittle belonged
+      physically to a class of his countrymen, to whom Nature has denied, in
+      their formation, the use of curved lines. Every thing about him was either
+      straight or angular. But his tailor was a woman who worked, like a
+      regimental contractor, by a set of rules that gave the same configuration
+      to the whole human species. Consequently, when Mr. Doolittle leaned
+      forward in the manner described, a loose drapery appeared behind the tree,
+      at which the rifle of Natty was pointed with the quickness of lightning. A
+      less experienced man would have aimed at the flowing robe, which hung like
+      a festoon half-way to the earth; but the Leather-Stocking knew both the
+      man and his female tailor better; and when the smart report of the rifle
+      was heard, Kirby, who watched the whole manoeuvre in breath less
+      expectation, saw the bark fly from the beech and the cloth, at some
+      distance above the loose folds, wave at the same instant. No battery was
+      ever unmasked with more promptitiude than Hiram advanced from behind the
+      tree at this summons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made two or three steps, with great precision, to the front and,
+      placing one hand on the afflicted part, stretched forth the other with a
+      menacing air toward Natty, and cried aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gawl darn ye: this shan't he settled so easy; I'll follow it up from the
+      'common pleas' to the 'court of errors.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a shocking imprecation, from the mouth of so orderly a man as Squire
+      Doolittle, with the fearless manner in which he exposed himself, together
+      with, perhaps, the knowledge that Natty's rifle was unloaded, encouraged
+      the troops in the rear, who gave a loud shout, and fired a volley into the
+      tree-tops, after the contents of the swivel. Animated by their own noise,
+      the men now rushed on in earnest; and Billy Kirby, who thought the joke,
+      good as it was, had gone far enough, was in the act of scaling the works,
+      when Judge Temple appeared on the opposite side, exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence and peace! why do I see murder and blood shed attempted? Is not
+      the law sufficient to protect itself, that armed bands must be gathered,
+      as in rebellion and war, to see justice performed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis the posse comitatus,&rdquo; shouted the sheriff, from a distant rock,
+      &ldquo;who-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say rather a posse of demons. I command the peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold shied not blood!&rdquo; cried a voice from the top of the Vision. &ldquo;Hold,
+      for the sake of Heaven, fire no more! all shall be yielded! you shall
+      enter the cave!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amazement produced the desired effect. Natty, who had reloaded his piece,
+      quietly seated himself on the logs, and rested his head on his hands,
+      while the &ldquo;Light Infantry&rdquo; ceased their military movements, and waited the
+      issue in suspense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than a minute Edwards came rushing down the hill, followed by
+      Major Hartman, with a velocity that was surprising for his years. They
+      reached the terrace in an instant, from which the youth led the way, by
+      the hollow in the rock, to the mouth of the cave, into which they both
+      entered, leaving all without silent, and gazing after them with
+      astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XL.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I am dumb. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not?&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Shakespeare.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      During the five or six minutes that elapsed before the youth and Major
+      reappeared. Judge Temple and the sheriff together with most of the
+      volunteers, ascended to the terrace, where the latter began to express
+      their conjectures of the result, and to recount their individual services
+      in the conflict. But the sight of the peace-makers ascending the ravine
+      shut every mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a rude chair, covered with undressed deer-skins, they supported a human
+      being, whom they seated carefully and respectfully in the midst of the
+      assembly. His head was covered by long, smooth locks of the color of snow.
+      His dress, which was studiously neat and clean, was composed of such
+      fabrics as none but the wealthiest classes wear, but was threadbare and
+      patched; and on his feet were placed a pair of moccasins, ornamented in
+      the best manner of Indian ingenuity. The outlines of his face were grave
+      and dignified, though his vacant eye, which opened and turned slowly to
+      the faces of those around him in unmeaning looks, too surely' announced
+      that the period had arrived when age brings the mental imbecility of
+      childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Natty had followed the supporters of this unexpected object to the top of
+      the cave, and took his station at a little distance behind him, leaning on
+      his rifle, in the midst of his pursuers, with a fearlessness that showed
+      that heavier interests than those which affected himself were to be
+      decided. Major Hartmann placed himself beside the aged man, uncovered,
+      with his whole soul beaming through those eyes which so commonly danced
+      with frolic and humor. Edwards rested with one hand familiarly but
+      affectionately on the chair, though his heart was swelling with emotions
+      that denied him utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All eyes were gazing intently, but each tongue continued mute. At length
+      the decrepit stranger, turning his vacant looks from face to face, made a
+      feeble attempt to rise, while a faint smile crossed his wasted face, like
+      an habitual effort at courtesy, as he said, in a hollow, tremulous voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be pleased to be seated, gentlemen. The council will open immediately.
+      Each one who loves a good and virtuous king will wish to see these
+      colonies continue loyal. Be seated&mdash;I pray you, be seated, gentlemen.
+      The troops shall halt for the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the wandering of insanity!&rdquo; said Marmaduke: &ldquo;who will explain
+      this scene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; said Edwards firmly, &ldquo;'tis only the decay of nature; who is
+      answerable for its pitiful condition, remains to be shown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will the gentlemen dine with us, my son?&rdquo; said the old stranger, turning
+      to a voice that he both knew and loved. &ldquo;Order a repast suitable for his
+      Majesty's officers. You know we have the best of game always at command.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is this man?&rdquo; asked Marmaduke, in a hurried voice, in which the
+      dawnings of conjecture united with interest to put the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This man,&rdquo; returned Edwards calmly, his voice, how ever, gradually rising
+      as he proceeded; &ldquo;this man, sir, whom you behold hid in caverns, and
+      deprived of every-thing that can make life desirable, was once the
+      companion and counsellor of those who ruled your country. This man, whom
+      you see helpless and feeble, was once a warrior, so brave and fearless,
+      that even the intrepid natives gave him the name of the Fire-eater. This
+      man, whom you now see destitute of even the ordinary comfort of a cabin,
+      in which to shelter his head, was once the owner of great riches&mdash;and,
+      Judge Temple, he was the rightful proprietor of this very soil on which we
+      stand. This man was the father of&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, then,&rdquo; cried Marmaduke, with a powerful emotion, &ldquo;this, then, is
+      the lost Major Effingham!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lost indeed,&rdquo; said the youth, fixing a piercing eye on the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you! and you!&rdquo; continued the Judge, articulating with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am his grandson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute passed in profound silence. All eyes were fixed on the speakers,
+      and even the old German appeared to wait the issue in deep anxiety. But
+      the moment of agitation soon passed. Marmaduke raised his head from his
+      bosom, where it had sunk, not in shame, but in devout mental
+      thanksgivings, and, as large tears fell over his fine, manly face, he
+      grasped the hand of the youth warmly, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver, I forgive all thy harshness&mdash;all thy suspicions. I now see
+      it all. I forgive thee everything, but suffering this aged man to dwell in
+      such a place, when not only my habitation, but my fortune, were at his and
+      thy command.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's true as ter steel!&rdquo; shouted Major Hartmann; &ldquo;titn't I tell you, lat,
+      dat Marmatuke Temple vas a friend dat woult never fail in ter dime as of
+      neet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true, Judge Temple, that my opinions of your conduct have been
+      staggered by what this worthy gentle man has told me. When I found it
+      impossible to convey my grandfather back whence the enduring love of this
+      old man brought him, without detection and exposure, I went to the Mohawk
+      in quest of one of his former comrades, in whose justice I had dependence.
+      He is your friend, Judge Temple, but, if what he says be true, both my
+      father and myself may have judged you harshly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You name your father!&rdquo; said Marmaduke tenderly&mdash;&ldquo;was he, indeed,
+      lost in the packet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was. He had left me, after several years of fruit less application and
+      comparative poverty, in Nova Scotia, to obtain the compensation for his
+      losses which the British commissioners had at length awarded. After
+      spending a year in England, he was returning to Halifax, on his way to a
+      government to which he had been appointed, in the West Indies, intending
+      to go to the place where my grandfather had sojourned during and since
+      the war, and take him with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But thou!&rdquo; said Marmaduke, with powerful interest; &ldquo;I had thought that
+      thou hadst perished with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A flush passed over the cheeks of the young man, who gazed about him at
+      the wondering faces of the volunteers, and continued silent. Marmaduke
+      turned to the veteran captain, who just then rejoined his command, and
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;March thy soldiers back again, and dismiss them, the zeal of the sheriff
+      has much mistaken his duty.&mdash;Dr. Todd, I will thank you to attend to
+      the injury which Hiram Doolittle has received in this untoward affair,&mdash;Richard,
+      you will oblige me by sending up the carriage to the top of the hill.&mdash;Benjamin,
+      return to your duty in my family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Unwelcome as these orders were to most of the auditors, the suspicion that
+      they had somewhat exceeded the whole some restraints of the law, and the
+      habitual respect with which all the commands of the Judge were received,
+      induced a prompt compliance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were gone, and the rock was left to the parties most interested
+      in an explanation, Marmaduke, pointing to the aged Major Effingham, said
+      to his grand son:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had we not better remove thy parent from this open place until my
+      carriage can arrive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me, sir, the air does him good, and he has taken it whenever there
+      was no dread of a discovery. I know not how to act, Judge Temple; ought I,
+      can I suffer Major Effingham to become an inmate of your family?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou shalt be thyself the judge,&rdquo; said Marmaduke. &ldquo;Thy father was my
+      early friend. He intrusted his fortune to my care. When we separated he
+      had such confidence in me that he wished on security, no evidence of the
+      trust, even had there been time or convenience for exacting it. This thou
+      hast heard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most truly, sir,&rdquo; said Edwards, or rather Effingham as we must now call
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We differed in politics. If the cause of this country was successful, the
+      trust was sacred with me, for none knew of thy father's interest, if the
+      crown still held its sway, it would be easy to restore the property of so
+      loyal a subject as Colonel Effingham. Is not this plain?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The premises are good, sir,&rdquo; continued the youth, with the same
+      incredulous look as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen&mdash;listen, poy,&rdquo; said the German, &ldquo;Dere is not a hair as of ter
+      rogue in ter het of Herr Tchooge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We all know the issue of the struggle,&rdquo; continued Marmaduke, disregarding
+      both. &ldquo;Thy grandfather was left in Connecticut, regularly supplied by thy
+      father with the means of such a subsistence as suited his wants. This I
+      well knew, though I never had intercourse with him, even in our happiest
+      days. Thy father retired with the troops to prosecute his claims on
+      England. At all events, his losses must be great, for his real estates
+      were sold, and I became the lawful purchaser. It was not unnatural to wish
+      that he might have no bar to its just recovery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was none, but the difficulty of providing for so many claimants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there would have been one, and an insuperable one, and I announced to
+      the world that I held these estates, multiplied by the times and my
+      industry, a hundredfold in value, only as his trustee. Thou knowest that I
+      supplied him with considerable sums immediately after the war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did, until&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My letters were returned unopened. Thy father had much of thy own spirit,
+      Oliver; he was sometimes hasty and rash.&rdquo; The Judge continued, in a
+      self-condemning manner; &ldquo;Perhaps my fault lies the other way: I may
+      possibly look too far ahead, and calculate too deeply. It certainly was a
+      severe trial to allow the man whom I most loved, to think ill of me for
+      seven years, in order that he might honestly apply for his just
+      remunerations. But, had he opened my last letters, thou wouldst have
+      learned the whole truth. Those I sent him to England, by what my agent
+      writes me, he did read. He died, Oliver, knowing all, he died my friend,
+      and I thought thou hadst died with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our poverty would not permit us to pay for two passages,&rdquo; said the youth,
+      with the extraordinary emotion with which he ever alluded to the degraded
+      state of his family; &ldquo;I was left in the Province to wait for his return,
+      and, when the sad news of his loss reached me, I was nearly penniless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what didst thou, boy?&rdquo; asked Marmaduke in a faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I took my passage here in search of my grandfather; for I well knew that
+      his resources were gone, with the half pay of my father. On reaching his
+      abode, I learned that he had left it in secret; though the reluctant
+      hireling, who had deserted him in his poverty, owned to my urgent en
+      treaties, that he believed he had been carried away by an old man who had
+      formerly been his servant. I knew at once it was Natty, for my father
+      often&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was Natty a servant of thy grandfather?&rdquo; exclaimed the Judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of that too were you ignorant?&rdquo; said the youth in evident surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I know it? I never met the Major, nor was the name of Bumppo
+      ever mentioned to me. I knew him only as a man of the woods, and one who
+      lived by hunting. Such men are too common to excite surprise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was reared in the family of my grandfather; served him for many years
+      during their campaigns at the West, where he became attached to the woods;
+      and he was left here as a kind of locum tenens on the lands that old
+      Mohegan (whose life my grandfather once saved) induced the Delawares to
+      grant to him when they admitted him as an honorary member of their tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, then, is thy Indian blood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no other,&rdquo; said Edwards, smiling&mdash;&ldquo;Major Effingham was
+      adopted as the son of Mohegan, who at that time was the greatest man in
+      his nation; and my father, who visited those people when a boy, received
+      the name of the Eagle from them, on account of the shape of his face, as I
+      understand. They have extended his title to me, I have no other Indian
+      blood or breeding; though I have seen the hour, Judge Temple, when I could
+      wish that such had been my lineage and education.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proceed with thy tale,&rdquo; said Marmaduke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have but little more to say, sir, I followed to the lake where I had so
+      often been told that Natty dwelt, and found him maintaining his old master
+      in secret; for even he could not bear to exhibit to the world, in his
+      poverty and dotage, a man whom a whole people once looked up to with
+      respect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did I? I spent my last money in purchasing a rifle, clad myself in a
+      coarse garb, and learned to be a hunter by the side of Leather-Stocking.
+      You know the rest, Judge Temple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ant vere vas olt Fritz Hartmann?&rdquo; said the German, reproachfully; &ldquo;didst
+      never hear a name as of olt Fritz Hartmann from ter mout of ter fader,
+      lat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may have been mistaken, gentlemen,&rdquo; returned the youth, &ldquo;but I had
+      pride, and could not submit to such an exposure as this day even has
+      reluctantly brought to light. I had plans that might have been visionary;
+      but, should my parent survive till autumn, I purposed taking him with me
+      to the city, where we have distant relatives, who must have learned to
+      forget the Tory by this time. He decays rapidly,&rdquo; he continued mournfully,
+      &ldquo;and must soon lie by the side of old Mohegan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The air being pure, and the day fine, the party continued conversing on
+      the rock, until the wheels of Judge Temple's carriage were heard
+      clattering up the side of the mountain, during which time the conversation
+      was maintained with deep interest, each moment clearing up some doubtful
+      action, and lessening the antipathy of the youth to Marmaduke. He no
+      longer objected to the removal of his grandfather, who displayed a
+      childish pleasure when he found himself seated once more in a carriage.
+      When placed in the ample hall of the mansion-house, the eyes of the aged
+      veteran turned slowly to the objects in the apartment, and a look like the
+      dawn of intellect would, for moments flit across his features, when he
+      invariably offered some use less courtesies to those near him, wandering
+      painfully in his subjects. The exercise and the change soon produced an
+      exhaustion that caused them to remove him to his bed, where he lay for
+      hours, evidently sensible of the change in his comforts, and exhibiting
+      that mortifying picture of human nature, which too plainly shows that the
+      propensities of the animal continue even after the nobler part of the
+      creature appears to have vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until his parent was placed comfortably in bed, with Natty seated at his
+      side, Effingham did not quit him. He then obeyed a summons to the library
+      of the Judge, where he found the latter, with Major Hartmann, waiting for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read this paper, Oliver,&rdquo; said Marmaduke to him, as he entered, &ldquo;and thou
+      wilt find that, so far from intending thy family wrong during life, it has
+      been my care to see that justice should be done at even a later day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth took the paper, which his first glance told him was the will of
+      the Judge. Hurried and agitated as he was, he discovered that the date
+      corresponded with the time of the unusual depression of Marmaduke. As he
+      proceeded, his eyes began to moisten, and the hand which held the
+      instrument shook violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The will commenced with the usual forms, spun out by the ingenuity of Mr.
+      Van der School: but, after this subject was fairly exhausted, the pen of
+      Marmaduke became plainly visible. In clear, distinct, manly, and even
+      eloquent language, he recounted his obligations to Colonel Effingham, the
+      nature of their connection, and the circumstances in which they separated.
+      He then proceeded to relate the motives of his silence, mentioning,
+      however, large sums that he had forwarded to his friend, which had been
+      returned with the letters unopened. After this, he spoke of his search for
+      the grandfather who unaccountably disappeared, and his fears that the
+      direct heir of the trust was buried in the ocean with his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After, in short, recounting in a clear narrative, the events which our
+      readers must now be able to connect, he proceeded to make a fair and exact
+      statement of the sums left in his care by Colonel Effingham. A devise of
+      his whole estate to certain responsible trustees followed; to hold the
+      same for the benefit, in equal moieties, of his daughter, on one part, and
+      of Oliver Effingham, formerly a major in the army of Great Britain, and of
+      his son Ed ward Effingham, and of his son Edward Oliver Effingham, or to
+      the survivor of them, and the descendants of such survivor, forever, on
+      the other part. The trust was to endure until 1810, when, if no person
+      appeared, or could be found, after sufficient notice, to claim the moiety
+      so devised, then a certain sum, calculating the principal and interest of
+      his debt to Colonel Effingham, was to be paid to the heirs-at-law of the
+      Effingham family, and the bulk of his estate was to be conveyed in fee to
+      his daughter, or her heirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tears fell from the eyes of the young man, as he read this undeniable
+      testimony of the good faith of Marmaduke, and his bewildered gaze was
+      still fastened on the paper, when a voice, that thrilled on every nerve,
+      spoke near him, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you yet doubt us, Oliver?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never doubted you!&rdquo; cried the youth, recovering his recollection
+      and his voice, as he sprang to seize the hand of Elizabeth; &ldquo;no, not one
+      moment has my faith in you wavered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my father&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God bless him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank thee, my son,&rdquo; said the Judge, exchanging a warm pressure of the
+      hand with the youth; &ldquo;but we have both erred: thou hast been too hasty,
+      and I have been too slow. One-half of my estates shall be thine as soon as
+      they can be conveyed to thee; and, if what my suspicions tell me be true,
+      I suppose the other must follow speedily.&rdquo; He took the hand which he held,
+      and united it with that of his daughter, and motioned toward the door to
+      the Major.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I telt you vat, gal!&rdquo; said the old German, good-humoredly; &ldquo;if I vas as I
+      vas ven I servit mit his grand-fader on ter lakes, ter lazy tog shouldn't
+      vin ter prize as for nottin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, come, old Fritz,&rdquo; said the Judge; &ldquo;you are seventy, not seventeen;
+      Richard waits for you with a bowl of eggnog, in the hall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richart! ter duyvel!&rdquo; exclaimed the other, hastening out of the room; &ldquo;he
+      makes ter nog as for ter horse vilt show ter sheriff mit my own hants! Ter
+      duyvel! I pelieve he sweetens mit ter Yankee melasses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmaduke smiled and nodded affectionately at the young couple, and closed
+      the door after them. If any of our readers expect that we are going to
+      open it again, for their gratification, they are mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tete-a-tete continued for a very unreasonable time&mdash;how long we
+      shall not say; but it was ended by six o'clock in the evening, for at that
+      hour Monsieur Le Quoi made his appearance agreeably to the appointment of
+      the preceding day, and claimed the ear of Miss Temple. He was admitted;
+      when he made an offer of his hand, with much suavity, together with his
+      &ldquo;amis beeg and leet', his père, his mere and his sucreboosh.&rdquo; Elizabeth
+      might, possibly, have previously entered into some embarrassing and
+      binding engagements with Oliver, for she declined the tender of all, in
+      terms as polite, though perhaps a little more decided, than those in which
+      they were made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frenchman soon joined the German and the sheriff in the hall, who
+      compelled him to take a seat with them at the table, where, by the aid of
+      punch, wine, and egg nog, they soon extracted from the complaisant
+      Monsieur Le Quoi the nature of his visit, it was evident that he had made
+      the offer, as a duty which a well-bred man owed to a lady in such a
+      retired place, before he had left the country, and that his feelings were
+      but very little, if at all, interested in the matter. After a few
+      potations, the waggish pair persuaded the exhilarated Frenchman that there
+      was an inexcusable partiality in offering to one lady, and not extending a
+      similar courtesy to another. Consequently, about nine, Monsieur Le Quoi
+      sallied forth to the rectory, on a similar mission to Miss Grant, which
+      proved as successful as his first effort in love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he returned to the mansion-house, at ten, Richard and the Major were
+      still seated at the table. They at tempted to persuade the Gaul, as the
+      sheriff called him, that he should next try Remarkable Pettibone. But,
+      though stimulated by mental excitement and wine, two hours of abstruse
+      logic were thrown away on this subject; for he declined their advice, with
+      a pertinacity truly astonishing in so polite a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Benjamin lighted Monsieur Le Quoi from the door, he said, at parting:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If-so-be, Mounsheer, you'd run alongside Mistress Pettybones, as the
+      Squire Dickens was bidding ye, 'tis my notion you'd have been grappled; in
+      which case, d'ye see, you mought have been troubled in swinging clear agin
+      in a handsome manner; for thof Miss Lizzy and the parson's young 'un be
+      tidy little vessels, that shoot by a body on a wind, Mistress Remarkable
+      is summat of a galliot fashion: when you once takes 'em in tow, they
+      doesn't like to be cast off agin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XLI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Yes, sweep ye on!&mdash;
+     We will not leave,
+     For them who triumph those who grieve.
+     With that armada gay
+     Be laughter loud, and jocund shout&mdash;
+     But with that skill Abides the minstrel tale.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;Lord of the Isles.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The events of our tale carry us through the summer; and after making
+      nearly the circle of the year, we must conclude our labors in the
+      delightful month of October. Many important incidents had, however,
+      occurred in the intervening period; a few of which it may be necessary to
+      recount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two principal were the marriage of Oliver and Elizabeth, and the death
+      of Major Effingham. They both took place early in September; and the
+      former preceded the latter only a few days. The old man passed away like
+      the last glimmering of a taper; and, though his death cast a melancholy
+      over the family, grief could not follow such an end. One of the chief
+      concerns of Marmaduke was to reconcile the even conduct of a magistrate
+      with the course that his feelings dictated to the criminals. The day
+      succeeding the discovery at the cave, however, Natty and Benjamin
+      re-entered the jail peaceably, where they continued, well fed and
+      comfortable, until the return of an express to Albany, who brought the
+      governor's pardon to the Leather-Stocking. In the mean time, proper means
+      were employed to satisfy Hiram for the assaults on his person; and on the
+      same day the two comrades issued together into society again, with their
+      characters not at all affected by the imprisonment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Doolittle began to discover that neither architecture nor his law was
+      quite suitable to the growing wealth and intelligence of the settlement;
+      and after exacting the last cent that was attainable in his compromise, to
+      use the language of the country he &ldquo;pulled up stakes,&rdquo; and proceeded
+      farther west, scattering his professional science and legal learning
+      through the land; vestiges of both of which are to be discovered there
+      even to the present hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Jotham, whose life paid the forfeiture of his folly, acknowledged,
+      before he died, that his reasons for believing in a mine were extracted
+      from the lips of a sibyl, who, by looking in a magic glass, was enabled to
+      discover the hidden treasures of the earth. Such superstition was frequent
+      in the new settlements; and, after the first surprise was over, the better
+      part of the community forgot the subject. But, at the same time that it
+      removed from the breast of Richard a lingering suspicion of the acts of
+      the three hunter, it conveyed a mortifying lesson to him, which brought
+      many quiet hours, in future, to his cousin Marmaduke. It may be remembered
+      that the sheriff confidently pronounced this to be no &ldquo;visionary&rdquo; scheme,
+      and that word was enough to shut his lips, at any time within the next ten
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Le Quoi, who has been introduced to our readers because no
+      picture of that country would be faithful without some such character,
+      found the island of Martinique, and his &ldquo;sucreboosh,&rdquo; in possession of the
+      English but Marmaduke and his family were much gratified in soon hearing
+      that he had returned to his bureau, in Paris; where he afterward issued
+      yearly bulletins of his happiness, and of his gratitude to his friends in
+      America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this brief explanation, we must return to our narrative. Let the
+      American reader imagine one of our mildest October mornings, when the sun
+      seems a ball of silvery fire, and the elasticity of the air is felt while
+      it is inhaled, imparting vigor and life to the whole system; the weather,
+      neither too warm nor too cold, but of that happy temperature which stirs
+      the blood, without bringing the lassitude of spring. It was on such a
+      morning, about the middle of the month, that Oliver entered the hall where
+      Elizabeth was issuing her usual orders for the day, and requesting her to
+      join him in a short excursion to the lakeside. The tender melancholy in
+      the manner of her husband caught the attention of Elizabeth, who instantly
+      abandoned her concerns, threw a light shawl across her shoulders, and,
+      concealing her raven hair under a gypsy hat, and took his arm, and
+      submitted herself, without a question, to his guidance. They crossed the
+      bridge, and had turned from the highway, along the margin of the lake,
+      before a word was exchanged. Elizabeth well knew, by the direction, the
+      object of the walk, and respected the feelings of her companion too much
+      to indulge in untimely conversation. But when they gained the open fields,
+      and her eye roamed over the placid lake, covered with wild fowl already
+      journeying from the great northern waters to seek a warmer sun, but
+      lingering to play in the limpid sheet of the Otsego, and to the sides of
+      the mountain, which were gay with the thousand dyes of autumn, as if to
+      grace their bridal, the swelling heart of the young wife burst out in
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not a time for silence, Oliver!&rdquo; she said, clinging more fondly
+      to his arm; &ldquo;everything in Nature seems to speak the praises of the
+      Creator; why should we, who have so much to be grateful for, be silent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak on!&rdquo; said her husband, smiling; &ldquo;I love the sounds of your voice.
+      You must anticipate our errand hither: I have told you my plans: how do
+      you like them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must first see them,&rdquo; returned his wife. &ldquo;But I have had my plans, too;
+      it is time I should begin to divulge them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You! It is something for the comfort of my old friend, Natty, I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly of Natty; but we have other friends besides the
+      Leather-Stocking to serve. Do you forget Louisa and her father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, surely; have I not given one of the best farms in the county to the
+      good divine? As for Louisa, I should wish you to keep her always near us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do!&rdquo; said Elizabeth, slightly compressing her lips; &ldquo;but poor Louisa
+      may have other views for herself; she may wish to follow my example, and
+      marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think it,&rdquo; said Effingham, musing a moment, &ldquo;really don't know
+      any one hereabouts good enough for her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not her; but there are other places besides Templeton, and other
+      churches besides 'New St. Paul's.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Churches, Elizabeth! you would not wish to lose Mr. Grant, surely! Though
+      simple, he is an excellent man I shall never find another who has half the
+      veneration for my orthodoxy. You would humble me from a saint to a very
+      common sinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be done, sir,&rdquo; returned the lady, with a half-concealed smile,
+      &ldquo;though it degrades you from an angel to a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you forget the farm?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can lease it, as others do. Besides, would you have a clergyman toil
+      in the fields?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where can he go? You forget Louisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I do not forget Louisa,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, again compressing her
+      beautiful lips. &ldquo;You know, Effingham, that my father has told you that I
+      ruled him, and that I should rule you. I am now about to exert my power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything, anything, dear Elizabeth, but not at the expense of us all: not
+      at the expense of your friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know, sir, that it will be so much at the expense of my
+      friend?&rdquo; said the lady, fixing her eyes with a searching look on his
+      countenance, where they met only the unsuspecting expression of manly
+      regret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do I know it? Why, it is natural that she should regret us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is our duty to struggle with our natural feelings,&rdquo; returned the lady;
+      &ldquo;and there is but little cause to fear that such a spirit as Louisa's will
+      not effect it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is your plan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, and you shall know. My father has procured a call for Mr. Grant,
+      to one of the towns on the Hudson where he can live more at his ease than
+      in journeying through these woods; where he can spend the evening of his
+      life in comfort and quiet; and where his daughter may meet with such
+      society, and form such a connection, as may be proper for one of her years
+      and character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess! you amaze me! I did not think you had been such a manager!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I manage more deeply than you imagine, sir,&rdquo; said the wife, archly
+      smiling again; &ldquo;but it is thy will and it is your duty to submit&mdash;for
+      a time at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Effingham laughed; but, as they approached the end of their walk, the
+      subject was changed by common consent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place at which they arrived was the little spot of level ground where
+      the cabin of the Leather-Stocking had so long stood. Elizabeth found it
+      entirely cleared of rubbish, and beautifully laid down in turf, by the
+      removal of sods, which, in common with the surrounding country, had grown
+      gay, under the influence of profuse showers, as if a second spring had
+      passed over the land. This little place was surrounded by a circle of
+      mason-work, and they entered by a small gate, near which, to the surprise
+      of both, the rifle of Natty was leaning against the wall. Hector and the
+      slut reposed on the grass by its side, as if conscious that, however
+      altered, they were lying on the ground and were surrounded by objects with
+      which they were familiar. The hunter himself was stretched on the earth,
+      before a head-stone of white marble, pushing aside with his fingers the
+      long grass that had already sprung up from the luxuriant soil around its
+      base, apparently to lay bare the inscription. By the side of this stone,
+      which was a simple slab at the head of a grave, stood a rich monument,
+      decorated with an urn and ornamented with the chisel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver and Elizabeth approached the graves with a light tread, unheard by
+      the old hunter, whose sunburnt face was working, and whose eyes twinkled
+      as if something impeded their vision. After some little time Natty raised
+      himself slowly from the ground, and said aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well&mdash;I'm bold to say it's all right! There's something that I
+      suppose is reading; but I can't make anything of it; though the pipe and
+      the tomahawk, and the moccasins, be pretty well&mdash;pretty well, for a
+      man that, I dares to say, never seed 'ither of the things. Ah's me! there
+      they lie, side by side, happy enough! Who will there be to put me in the
+      'arth when my time comes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When that unfortunate hour arrives, Natty, friends shall not be wanting
+      to perform the last offices for you,&rdquo; said Oliver, a little touched at the
+      hunter's soliloquy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man turned, without manifesting surprise, for he had got the
+      Indian habits in this particular, and, running his hand under the bottom
+      of his nose, seemed to wipe away his sorrow with the action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You've come out to see the graves, children, have ye?&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;well,
+      well, they're wholesome sights to young as well as old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope they are fitted to your liking,&rdquo; said Effingham, &ldquo;no one has a
+      better right than yourself to be consulted in the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, seeing that I ain't used to fine graves,&rdquo; returned the old man, &ldquo;it
+      is but little matter consarning my taste. Ye laid the Major's head to the
+      west, and Mohegan's to the east, did ye, lad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At your request it was done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's so best,&rdquo; said the hunter; &ldquo;they thought they had to journey
+      different ways, children: though there is One greater than all, who'll
+      bring the just together, at His own time, and who'll whiten the skin of a
+      blackamoor, and place him on a footing with princes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is but little reason to doubt that,&rdquo; said Elizabeth, whose decided
+      tones were changed to a soft, melancholy voice; &ldquo;I trust we shall all meet
+      again, and be happy together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we, child, shall we?&rdquo; exclaimed the hunter, with unusual fervor,
+      &ldquo;there's comfort in that thought too. But before I go, I should like to
+      know what 'tis you tell these people, that be flocking into the country
+      like pigeons in the spring, of the old Delaware, and of the bravest white
+      man that ever trod the hills?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Effingham and Elizabeth were surprised at the manner of the
+      Leather-Stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but,
+      attributing it to the scene, the young man turned to the monument, and
+      read aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham Esquire, formally a Major in his
+      B. Majesty's 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of chivalrous
+      loyalty; and a man of honesty. To these virtues he added the graces of a
+      Christian. The morning of his life was spent in honor, wealth, and power;
+      but its evening was obscured by poverty, neglect, and disease, which were
+      alleviated only by the tender care of his old, faithful, and upright
+      friend and attendant Nathaniel Bumppo. His descendants rest this stone to
+      the virtues of the master, and to the enduring gratitude of the servant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leather-Stocking started at the sound of his own name, and a smile of
+      joy illuminated his wrinkled features, as he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did ye say It, lad? have you then got the old man's name cut in the
+      stone, by the side of his master's! God bless ye, children! 'twas a kind
+      thought, and kindness goes to the heart as Life shortens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers. Effingham made a fruitless
+      effort before he succeeded in saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is there cut in plain marble; but it should have been written in
+      letters of gold!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me the name, boy,&rdquo; said Natty, with simple eagerness; &ldquo;let me see my
+      own name placed in such honor. 'Tis a gin'rous gift to a man who leaves
+      none of his name and family behind him in a country where he has tarried
+      so long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Effingham guided his finger to the spot, and Natty followed the windings
+      of the letters to the end with deep interest, when he raised himself from
+      the tomb, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it's all right; and it's kindly thought, and kindly done! But
+      what have ye put over the red-skin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall hear: This stone is raised to the memory of an Indian Chief of
+      the Delaware tribe, who was known by the several names of John Mohegan
+      Mohican&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mo-hee-can, lad, they call theirselves! 'hecan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mohican; and Chingagook&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gach, boy; 'gach-gook; Chingachgook, which interpreted, means
+      Big-sarpent. The name should be set down right, for an Indian's name has
+      always some meaning in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will see it altered. 'He was the last of his people who continued to
+      inhabit this country; and it may be said of him that his faults were those
+      of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never said truer word, Mr. Oliver; ah's me! if you had knowed him as
+      I did, in his prime, in that very battle where the old gentleman, who
+      sleeps by his side saved his life, when them thieves, the Iroquois, had
+      him at the stake, you'd have said all that, and more too. I cut the thongs
+      with this very hand, and gave him my own tomahawk and knife, seeing that
+      the rifle was always my fav'rite weapon. He did lay about him like a man!
+      I met him as I was coming home from the trail, with eleven Mingo scalps on
+      his pole. You needn't shudder, Madam Effingham, for they was all from
+      shaved heads and warriors. When I look about me, at these hills, where I
+      used to could count sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree-tops,
+      from the Delaware camps, it raises mournful thoughts, to think that not a
+      red-skin is left of them all; unless it be a drunken vagabond from the
+      Oneidas, or them Yankee Indians, who, they say, be moving up from the
+      seashore; and who belong to none of Gods creatures, to my seeming, being,
+      as it were, neither fish nor flesh&mdash;neither white man nor savage.
+      Well, well! the time has come at last, and I must go&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go!&rdquo; echoed Edwards, &ldquo;whither do you go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leather-Stocking; who had imbibed unconsciously, many of the Indian
+      qualities, though he always thought of himself as of a civilized being,
+      compared with even the Delawares, averted his face to conceal the workings
+      of his muscles, as he stooped to lift a large pack from behind the tomb,
+      which he placed deliberately on his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go!&rdquo; exclaimed Elizabeth, approaching him with a hurried step; &ldquo;you
+      should not venture so far in the woods alone, at your time of life, Natty;
+      indeed, it Is Imprudent, He is bent, Effingham, on some distant hunting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What Mrs. Effingham tells you is true, Leather-Stocking,&rdquo; said Edwards;
+      &ldquo;there can be no necessity for your submitting to such hardships now. So
+      throw aside your pack, and confine your hunt to the mountains near us, if
+      you will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hardship! 'tis a pleasure, children, and the greatest that is left me on
+      this side the grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; you shall not go to such a distance,&rdquo; cried Elizabeth, laying her
+      white hand on his deer-skin pack&mdash;&ldquo;I am right! I feel his
+      camp-kettle, and a canister of powder! He must not be suffered to wander
+      so far from us, Oliver; remember how suddenly Mohegan dropped away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knowed the parting would come hard, children&mdash;I knowed it would!&rdquo;
+       said Natty, &ldquo;and so I got aside to look at the graves by myself, and
+      thought if I left ye the keep sake which the Major gave me, when we first
+      parted in the woods, ye wouldn't take it unkind, but would know that, let
+      the old man's body go where it might, his feelings stayed behind him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This means something more than common,&rdquo; exclaimed the youth. &ldquo;Where is
+      it, Natty, that you purpose going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunter drew nigh him with a confident, reasoning air, as If what he
+      had to say would silence all objections, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, lad, they tell me that on the big lakes there's the best of hunting,
+      and a great range without a white man on it unless it may be one like
+      myself. I'm weary of living in clearings, and where the hammer is sounding
+      in my ears from sunrise to sundown. And though I'm much bound to ye both,
+      children&mdash;I wouldn't say it if It was not true&mdash;I crave to go
+      into the woods agin&mdash;I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woods!&rdquo; echoed Elizabeth, trembling with her feelings; &ldquo;do you not call
+      these endless forests woods?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! child, these be nothing to a man that's used to the wilderness. I
+      have took but little comfort sin' your father come on with his settlers;
+      but I wouldn't go far, while the life was in the body that lies under the
+      sod there. But now he's gone, and Chingachgook Is gone; and you be both
+      young and happy. Yes! the big house has rung with merriment this month
+      past! And now I thought was the time to get a little comfort in the close
+      of my days. Woods! indeed! I doesn't call these woods, Madam Effingham,
+      where I lose myself every day of my life in the clearings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it, Leather-Stocking;
+      if it be attainable it is yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean all for the best, lad, I know; and so does madam, too; but your
+      ways isn't my ways. 'Tis like the dead there, who thought, when the breath
+      was in them, that one went east, and one went west, to find their heavens;
+      but they'll meet at last, and so shall we, children. Yes, and as you've
+      begun, and we shall meet in the land of the just at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is so new! so unexpected!&rdquo; said Elizabeth, in almost breathless
+      excitement; &ldquo;I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us,
+      Natty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Words are of no avail,&rdquo; exclaimed her husband: &ldquo;the habits of forty years
+      are not to be dispossessed by the ties of a day. I know you too well to
+      urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a hut on one of
+      the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and know that you are
+      comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his days
+      be provided for, and his indian happy. I know you mean all for the best,
+      but our ways doesn't agree. I love the woods, and ye relish the face of
+      man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep stated hours and
+      rules; nay, nay, you even over-feed the dogs, lad, from pure kindness; and
+      hounds should be gaunty to run well. The meanest of God's creatures be
+      made for some use, and I'm formed for the wilderness, If ye love me, let
+      me go where my soul craves to be agin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The appeal was decisive; and not another word of en treaty for him to
+      remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and
+      wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with
+      hands that almost refused to perform their office, he procured his
+      pocket-book, and extended a parcel of bank-notes to the hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take these,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;at least take these; secure them about your
+      person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man took the notes, and examined them with curious eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they've been making
+      at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that hasn't
+      larning! No, no, lad&mdash;&mdash; take back the stuff; it will do me no
+      sarvice, I took kear to get all the Frenchman's powder afore he broke up,
+      and they say lead grows where I'm going, it isn't even fit for wads,
+      seeing that I use none but leather!&mdash;Madam Effingham, let an old man
+      kiss your hand, and wish God's choicest blessings on you and your'n.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once more let me beseech you, stay!&rdquo; cried Elizabeth. &ldquo;Do not,
+      Leather-Stocking, leave me to grieve for the man who has twice rescued me
+      from death, and who has served those I love so faithfully. For my sake, if
+      not for your own, stay. I shall see you in those frightful dreams that
+      still haunt my nights, dying in poverty and age, by the side of those
+      terrific beasts you slew. There will be no evil, that sickness, want, and
+      solitude can inflict, that my fancy will not conjure as your fate. Stay
+      with us, old man, if not for your own sake, at least for ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such thoughts and bitter dreams, Madam Effingham,&rdquo; returned the hunter,
+      solemnly, &ldquo;will never haunt an innocent parson long. They'll pass away
+      with God's pleasure. And if the cat-a-mounts be yet brought to your eyes
+      in sleep, tis not for my sake, but to show you the power of Him that led
+      me there to save you. Trust in God, madam, and your honorable husband, and
+      the thoughts for an old man like me can never be long nor bitter. I pray
+      that the Lord will keep you in mind&mdash;the Lord that lives in clearings
+      as well as in the wilderness&mdash;and bless you, and all that belong to
+      you, from this time till the great day when the whites shall meet the
+      red-skins in judgement, and justice shall be the law, and not power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth raised her head, and offered her colorless cheek to his salute,
+      when he lifted his cap and touched it respectfully. His hand was grasped
+      with convulsive fervor by the youth, who continued silent. The hunter
+      prepared himself for his journey, drawing his belt tighter, and wasting
+      his moments in the little reluctant movements of a sorrowful departure.
+      Once or twice he essayed to speak, but a rising in his throat prevented
+      it. At length he shouldered his rifle, and cried with a clear huntsman's
+      call that echoed through the woods: &ldquo;He-e-e-re, he-e-e-re, pups&mdash;away,
+      dogs, away!&mdash;ye'll be footsore afore ye see the end of the journey!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hounds leaped from the earth at this cry, and scenting around the
+      grave and silent pair, as if conscious of their own destination, they
+      followed humbly at the heels of their master. A short pause succeeded,
+      during which even the youth concealed his face on his grandfather's tomb.
+      When the pride of manhood, however, had suppressed the feelings of
+      nature, he turned to renew his entreaties, but saw that the cemetery was
+      occupied only by himself and his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is gone!&rdquo; cried Effingham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth raised her face, and saw the old hunter standing looking back
+      for a moment, on the verge of the wood. As he caught their glances, he
+      drew his hard hand hastily across his eyes again, waved it on high for an
+      adieu, and, uttering a forced cry to his dogs, who were crouching at his
+      feet, he entered the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the last they ever saw of the Leather-Stocking, whose rapid
+      movements preceded the pursuit which Judge Temple both ordered and
+      conducted. He had gone far toward the setting sun&mdash;the foremost in
+      that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the nation
+      across the continent.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>