"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore.
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal"Childe Harold.
On the human imagination events produce the effects of time. Thus,
he who has travelled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has
lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents
soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity. In no other way can
we account for the venerable air that is already gathering around
American annals. When the mind reverts to the earliest days of
colonial history, the period seems remote and obscure, the thousand
changes that thicken along the links of recollections, throwing
back the origin of the nation to a day so distant as seemingly to
reach the mists of time; and yet four lives of ordinary duration
would suffice to transmit, from mouth to mouth, in the form of
tradition, all that civilized man has achieved within the limits
of the republic. Although New York alone possesses a population
materially exceeding that of either of the four smallest kingdoms
of Europe, or materially exceeding that of the entire Swiss
Confederation, it is little more than two centuries since the Dutch
commenced their settlement, rescuing the region from the savage
state. Thus, what seems venerable by an accumulation of changes
is reduced to familiarity when we come seriously to consider it
solely in connection with time.
This glance into the perspective of the past will prepare the reader
to look at the pictures we are about to sketch, with less surprise
than he might otherwise feel; and a few additional explanations may
carry him back in imagination to the precise condition of society
that we desire to delineate. It is matter of history that the
settlements on the eastern shores of the Hudson, such as Claverack,
Kinderhook, and even Poughkeepsie, were not regarded as safe from
Indian incursions a century since; and there is still standing on
the banks of the same river, and within musket-shot of the wharves
of Albany, a residence of a younger branch of the Van Rensselaers,
that has loopholes constructed for defence against the same crafty
enemy, although it dates from a period scarcely so distant. Other
similar memorials of the infancy of the country are to be found,
scattered through what is now deemed the very centre of American
civilization, affording the plainest proofs that all we possess of
security from invasion and hostile violence is the growth of but
little more than the time that is frequently fulfilled by a single
human life.
The incidents of this tale occurred between the years 1740 and 1745,
when the settled portions of the colony of New York were confined
to the four Atlantic counties, a narrow belt of country on each
side of the Hudson, extending from its mouth to the falls near its
head, and to a few advanced "neighborhoods" on the Mohawk and the
Schoharie. Broad belts of the virgin wilderness not only reached the
shores of the first river, but they even crossed it, stretching away
into New England, and affording forest covers to the noiseless moccasin
of the native warrior, as he trod the secret and bloody war-path.
A bird's-eye view of the whole region east of the Mississippi
must then have offered one vast expanse of woods, relieved by a
comparatively narrow fringe of cultivation along the sea, dotted
by the glittering surfaces of lakes, and intersected by the waving
lines of river. In such a vast picture of solemn solitude, the
district of country we design to paint sinks into insignificance,
though we feel encouraged to proceed by the conviction that, with
slight and immaterial distinctions, he who succeeds in giving an
accurate idea of any portion of this wild region must necessarily
convey a tolerably correct notion of the whole.
Whatever may be the changes produced by man, the eternal round of
the seasons is unbroken. Summer and winter, seed-time and harvest,
return in their stated order with a sublime precision, affording
to man one of the noblest of all the occasions he enjoys of proving
the high powers of his far-reaching mind, in compassing the laws
that control their exact uniformity, and in calculating their
never-ending revolutions.
Centuries of summer suns had warmed the tops of the same noble oaks
and pines, sending their heats even to the tenacious roots, when
voices were heard calling to each other, in the depths of a forest,
of which the leafy surface lay bathed in the brilliant light of a
cloudless day in June, while the trunks of the trees rose in gloomy
grandeur in the shades beneath. The calls were in different tones,
evidently proceeding from two men who had lost their way, and
were searching in different directions for their path. At length
a shout proclaimed success, and presently a man of gigantic mould
broke out of the tangled labyrinth of a small swamp, emerging into
an opening that appeared to have been formed partly by the ravages
of the wind, and partly by those of fire. This little area, which
afforded a good view of the sky, although it was pretty well filled
with dead trees, lay on the side of one of the high hills, or low
mountains, into which nearly the whole surface of the adjacent
country was broken.
"Here is room to breathe in!" exclaimed the liberated forester,
as soon as he found himself under a clear sky, shaking his huge
frame like a mastiff that has just escaped from a snowbank. "Hurrah!
Deerslayer; here is daylight, at last, and yonder is the lake."
These words were scarcely uttered when the second forester dashed
aside the bushes of the swamp, and appeared in the area. After
making a hurried adjustment of his arms and disordered dress, he
joined his companion, who had already begun his disposition for a
halt.
"Do you know this spot!" demanded the one called Deerslayer,"
or do you shout at the sight of the sun?"
"Both, lad, both; I know the spot, and am not sorry to see
so useful a fri'nd as the sun. Now we have got the p'ints of the
compass in our minds once more, and 't will be our own faults if
we let anything turn them topsy-turvy ag'in, as has just happened.
My name is not Hurry Harry, if this be not the very spot where
the land-hunters camped the last summer, and passed a week. See
I yonder are the dead bushes of their bower, and here is the spring.
Much as I like the sun, boy, I've no occasion for it to tell me it
is noon; this stomach of mine is as good a time-piece as is to be
found in the colony, and it already p'ints to half-past twelve.
So open the wallet, and let us wind up for another six hours' run."
At this suggestion, both set themselves about making the preparations
necessary for their usual frugal but hearty meal. We will profit
by this pause in the discourse to give the reader some idea of
the appearance of the men, each of whom is destined to enact no
insignificant part in our legend.
It would not have been easy to find a more noble specimen of
vigorous manhood than was offered in the person of him who called
himself Hurry Harry. His real name was Henry March but the
frontiersmen having caught the practice of giving sobriquets from
the Indians, the appellation of Hurry was far oftener applied to
him than his proper designation, and not unfrequently he was termed
Hurry Skurry, a nickname he had obtained from a dashing, reckless
offhand manner, and a physical restlessness that kept him
so constantly on the move, as to cause him to be known along the
whole line of scattered habitations that lay between the province
and the Canadas. The stature of Hurry Harry exceeded six feet four,
and being unusually well proportioned, his strength fully realized
the idea created by his gigantic frame. The face did no discredit
to the rest of the man, for it was both good-humored and handsome.
His air was free, and though his manner necessarily partook of the
rudeness of a border life, the grandeur that pervaded so noble a
physique prevented it from becoming altogether vulgar.
Deerslayer, as Hurry called his companion, was a very different
person in appearance, as well as in character. In stature he stood
about six feet in his moccasins, but his frame was comparatively
light and slender, showing muscles, however, that promised unusual
agility, if not unusual strength. His face would have had little
to recommend it except youth, were it not for an expression that
seldom failed to win upon those who had leisure to examine it, and
to yield to the feeling of confidence it created. This expression
was simply that of guileless truth, sustained by an earnestness of
purpose, and a sincerity of feeling, that rendered it remarkable.
At times this air of integrity seemed to be so simple as to awaken
the suspicion of a want of the usual means to discriminate between
artifice and truth; but few came in serious contact with the man,
without losing this distrust in respect for his opinions and motives.
Both these frontiersmen were still young, Hurry having reached the
age of six or eight and twenty, while Deerslayer was several years
his junior. Their attire needs no particular description, though
it may be well to add that it was composed in no small degree of
dressed deer-skins, and had the usual signs of belonging to those
who pass their time between the skirts of civilized society and the
boundless forests. There was, notwithstanding, some attention to
smartness and the picturesque in the arrangements of Deerslayer's
dress, more particularly in the part connected with his arms and
accoutrements. His rifle was in perfect condition, the handle of
his hunting-knife was neatly carved, his powder-horn was ornamented
with suitable devices lightly cut into the material, and his
shot-pouch was decorated with wampum.
On the other hand, Hurry Harry, either from constitutional recklessness,
or from a secret consciousness how little his appearance required
artificial aids, wore everything in a careless, slovenly manner,
as if he felt a noble scorn for the trifling accessories of dress
and ornaments. Perhaps the peculiar effect of his fine form and
great stature was increased rather than lessened, by this unstudied
and disdainful air of indifference.
"Come, Deerslayer, fall to, and prove that you have a Delaware
stomach, as you say you have had a Delaware edication," cried
Hurry, setting the example by opening his mouth to receive a slice
of cold venison steak that would have made an entire meal for
a European peasant; "fall to, lad, and prove your manhood on this
poor devil of a doe with your teeth, as you've already done with
your rifle."
"Nay, nay, Hurry, there's little manhood in killing a doe, and that
too out of season; though there might be some in bringing down a
painter or a catamount," returned the other, disposing himself to
comply. "The Delawares have given me my name, not so much on account
of a bold heart, as on account of a quick eye, and an actyve foot.
There may not be any cowardyce in overcoming a deer, but sartain
it is, there's no great valor."
"The Delawares themselves are no heroes," muttered Hurry through
his teeth, the mouth being too full to permit it to be fairly
opened, "or they would never have allowed them loping vagabonds,
the Mingos, to make them women."
"That matter is not rightly understood--has never been rightly
explained," said Deerslayer earnestly, for he was as zealous a
friend as his companion was dangerous as an enemy; "the Mengwe fill
the woods with their lies, and misconstruct words and treaties. I
have now lived ten years with the Delawares, and know them to be as
manful as any other nation, when the proper time to strike comes."
"Harkee, Master Deerslayer, since we are on the subject, we may as
well open our minds to each other in a man-to-man way; answer me
one question; you have had so much luck among the game as to have
gotten a title, it would seem, but did you ever hit anything human
or intelligible: did you ever pull trigger on an inimy that was
capable of pulling one upon you?"
This question produced a singular collision between mortification
and correct feeling, in the bosom of the youth, that was easily
to be traced in the workings of his ingenuous countenance. The
struggle was short, however; uprightness of heart soon getting the
better of false pride and frontier boastfulness.
"To own the truth, I never did," answered Deerslayer; "seeing that
a fitting occasion never offered. The Delawares have been peaceable
since my sojourn with 'em, and I hold it to be onlawful to take
the life of man, except in open and generous warfare."
"What! did you never find a fellow thieving among your traps and
skins, and do the law on him with your own hands, by way of saving
the magistrates trouble in the settlements, and the rogue himself
the cost of the suit!"
"I am no trapper, Hurry," returned the young man proudly: "I live
by the rifle, a we'pon at which I will not turn my back on any
man of my years, atween the Hudson and the St. Lawrence. I never
offer a skin that has not a hole in its head besides them which
natur' made to see with or to breathe through."
"Ay, ay, this is all very well, in the animal way, though it makes
but a poor figure alongside of scalps and ambushes. Shooting an
Indian from an ambush is acting up to his own principles, and now
we have what you call a lawful war on our hands, the sooner you wipe
that disgrace off your character, the sounder will be your sleep;
if it only come from knowing there is one inimy the less prowling in
the woods. I shall not frequent your society long, friend Natty,
unless you look higher than four-footed beasts to practice your
rifle on."
"Our journey is nearly ended, you say, Master March, and we can
part to-night, if you see occasion. I have a fri'nd waiting for
me, who will think it no disgrace to consort with a fellow-creatur'
that has never yet slain his kind."
"I wish I knew what has brought that skulking Delaware into this
part of the country so early in the season," muttered Hurry to
himself, in a way to show equally distrust and a recklessness of
its betrayal. "Where did you say the young chief was to give you
the meeting!"
"At a small round rock, near the foot of the lake, where they tell
me, the tribes are given to resorting to make their treaties, and
to bury their hatchets. This rock have I often heard the Delawares
mention, though lake and rock are equally strangers to me. The
country is claimed by both Mingos and Mohicans, and is a sort
of common territory to fish and hunt through, in time of peace,
though what it may become in war-time, the Lord only knows!"
"Common territory" exclaimed Hurry, laughing aloud. "I should like
to know what Floating Tom Hutter would say to that! He claims the
lake as his own property, in vartue of fifteen years' possession,
and will not be likely to give it up to either Mingo or Delaware
without a battle for it!"
"And what will the colony say to such a quarrel! All this country
must have some owner, the gentry pushing their cravings into the
wilderness, even where they never dare to ventur', in their own
persons, to look at the land they own."
"That may do in other quarters of the colony, Deerslayer, but
it will not do here. Not a human being, the Lord excepted, owns
a foot of sile in this part of the country. Pen was never put to
paper consarning either hill or valley hereaway, as I've heard
old Tom say time and ag'in, and so he claims the best right to it
of any man breathing; and what Tom claims, he'll be very likely to
maintain."
"By what I've heard you say, Hurry, this Floating Tom must be
an oncommon mortal; neither Mingo, Delaware, nor pale-face. His
possession, too, has been long, by your tell, and altogether beyond
frontier endurance. What's the man's history and natur'?"
"Why, as to old Tom's human natur', it is not much like other men's
human natur', but more like a muskrat's human natar', seeing that
he takes more to the ways of that animal than to the ways of any
other fellow-creatur'. Some think he was a free liver on the salt
water, in his youth, and a companion of a sartain Kidd, who was
hanged for piracy, long afore you and I were born or acquainted,
and that he came up into these regions, thinking that the king's
cruisers could never cross the mountains, and that he might enjoy
the plunder peaceably in the woods."
"Then he was wrong, Hurry; very wrong. A man can enjoy plunder
peaceably nowhere."
"That's much as his turn of mind may happen to be. I've known
them that never could enjoy it at all, unless it was in the midst
of a jollification, and them again that enjoyed it best in a corner.
Some men have no peace if they don't find plunder, and some if they
do. Human nature' is crooked in these matters. Old Tom seems to
belong to neither set, as he enjoys his, if plunder he has really
got, with his darters, in a very quiet and comfortable way, and
wishes for no more."
"Ay, he has darters, too; I've heard the Delawares, who've hunted
this a way, tell their histories of these young women. Is there
no mother, Hurry?"
"There was once, as in reason; but she has now been dead and sunk
these two good years."
"Anan?" said Deerslayer, looking up at his companion in a little
surprise.
"Dead and sunk, I say, and I hope that's good English. The old
fellow lowered his wife into the lake, by way of seeing the last
of her, as I can testify, being an eye-witness of the ceremony;
but whether Tom did it to save digging, which is no easy job among
roots, or out of a consait that water washes away sin sooner than
'arth, is more than I can say."
"Was the poor woman oncommon wicked, that her husband
should take so much pains with her body ?"
"Not onreasonable; though she had her faults. I consider Judith
Hutter to have been as graceful, and about as likely to make a good
ind as any woman who had lived so long beyond the sound of church
bells; and I conclude old Tom sunk her as much by way of saving
pains, as by way of taking it. There was a little steel in her
temper, it's true, and, as old Hutter is pretty much flint, they
struck out sparks once-and-a-while; but, on the whole, they might
be said to live amicable like. When they did kindle, the listeners
got some such insights into their past lives, as one gets into the
darker parts of the woods, when a stray gleam of sunshine finds
its way down to the roots of the trees. But Judith I shall always
esteem, as it's recommend enough to one woman to be the
mother of such a creatur' as her darter, Judith Hutter!"
"Ay, Judith was the name the Delawares mentioned, though it was
pronounced after a fashion of their own. From their discourse, I
do not think the girl would much please my fancy."
"Thy fancy!" exclaimed March, taking fire equally at the indifference
and at the presumption of his companion, "what the devil have you
to do with a fancy, and that, too, consarning one like Judith? You
are but a boy--a sapling, that has scarce got root. Judith has
had men among her suitors, ever since she was fifteen; which is now
near five years; and will not be apt even to cast a look
upon a half-grown creatur' like you!"
"It is June, and there is not a cloud atween us and the sun, Hurry,
so all this heat is not wanted," answered the other, altogether
undisturbed; "any one may have a fancy, and a squirrel has a right
to make up his mind touching a catamount."
"Ay, but it might not be wise, always, to let the catamount
know it," growled March. "But you're young and thoughtless, and
I'll overlook your ignorance. Come, Deerslayer," he added, with
a good-natured laugh, after pausing a moment to reflect, "come,
Deerslayer, we are sworn friends, and will not quarrel about a
light-minded, jilting jade, just because she happens to be handsome;
more especially as you have never seen her. Judith is only for a
man whose teeth show the full marks, and it's foolish to be afeard
of a boy. What did the Delawares say of the hussy? for an Indian,
after all, has his notions of woman-kind, as well as a white man."
"They said she was fair to look on, and pleasant of speech; but
over-given to admirers, and light-minded."
"They are devils incarnate! After all, what schoolmaster is a
match for an Indian, in looking into natur'! Some people think
they are only good on a trail or the war-path, but I say that they
are philosophers, and understand a man as well as they understand
a beaver, and a woman as well as they understand either. Now
that's Judith's character to a ribbon! To own the truth to you,
Deerslayer, I should have married the gal two years since, if it
had not been for two particular things, one of which was this very
lightmindedness."
"And what may have been the other?" demanded the hunter, who
continued to eat like one that took very little interest in the
subject.
"T'other was an insartainty about her having me. The hussy
is handsome, and she knows it. Boy, not a tree that is growing
in these hills is straighter, or waves in the wind with an easier
bend, nor did you ever see the doe that bounded with a more nat'ral
motion. If that was all, every tongue would sound her praises;
but she has such failings that I find it hard to overlook them,
and sometimes I swear I'll never visit the lake again."
"Which is the reason that you always come back? Nothing is ever
made more sure by swearing about it."
"Ah, Deerslayer, you are a novelty in these particulars; keeping
as true to education as if you had never left the settlements.
With me the case is different, and I never want to clinch an idee,
that I do not feel a wish to swear about it. If you know'd all that
I know consarning Judith, you'd find a justification for a little
cussing. Now, the officers sometimes stray over to the lake, from
the forts on the Mohawk, to fish and hunt, and then the creatur'
seems beside herself! You can see in the manner which she wears
her finery, and the airs she gives herself with the gallants."
"That is unseemly in a poor man's darter," returned Deerslayer
gravely, "the officers are all gentry, and can only look on such
as Judith with evil intentions."
"There's the unsartainty, and the damper! I have my misgivings
about a particular captain, and Jude has no one to blame but her
own folly, if I'm right. On the whole, I wish to look upon her
as modest and becoming, and yet the clouds that drive among these
hills are not more unsartain. Not a dozen white men have ever
laid eyes upon her since she was a child, and yet her airs,
with two or three of these officers, are extinguishers!"
"I would think no more of such a woman, but turn my mind altogether
to the forest; that will not deceive you, being ordered and ruled
by a hand that never wavers."
"If you know'd Judith, you would see how much easier it is to say
this than it would be to do it. Could I bring my mind to be easy
about the officers, I would carry the gal off to the Mohawk by
force, make her marry me in spite of her whiffling, and leave old
Tom to the care of Hetty, his other child, who, if she be not as
handsome or as quick-witted as her sister, is much the most dutiful."
"Is there another bird in the same nest!" asked Deerslayer,
raising his eyes with a species of half-awakened curiosity, "the
Delawares spoke to me only of one."
That's nat'ral enough, when Judith Hutter and Hetty Hutter are in
question. Hetty is only comely, while her sister, I tell thee,
boy, is such another as is not to be found atween this and the sea:
Judith is as full of wit, and talk, and cunning, as an old Indian
orator, while poor Hetty is at the best but 'compass meant us.'"
"Anan?" inquired, again, the Deerslayer.
"Why, what the officers call 'compass meant us,' which I understand
to signify that she means always to go in the right direction, but
sometimes does not know how. 'Compass'for the p'int, and 'meant
us' for the intention. No, poor Hetty is what I call on the verge
of ignorance, and sometimes she stumbles on one side of the line,
and sometimes on t'other."
"Them are beings that the Lord has in his special care," said
Deerslayer, solemnly; "for he looks carefully to all who fall short
of their proper share of reason. The red-skins honor and respect
them who are so gifted, knowing that the Evil Spirit delights more
to dwell in an artful body, than in one that has no cunning to work
upon."
"I'll answer for it, then, that he will not remain long with poor
Hetty; for the child is just 'compass meant us,' as I have told you.
Old Tom has a feeling for the gal, and so has Judith, quick-witted
and glorious as she is herself; else would I not answer for her
being altogether safe among the sort of men that sometimes meet on
the lake shore."
"I thought this water an unknown and little-frequented sheet,"
observed the Deerslayer, evidently uneasy at the idea of being too
near the world.
"It's all that, lad, the eyes of twenty white men never having
been laid on it; still, twenty true-bred frontiersmen -- hunters
and trappers, and scouts, and the like, -- can do a deal of mischief
if they try. 'T would be an awful thing to me, Deerslayer, did I
find Judith married, after an absence of six months!"
"Have you the gal's faith, to encourage you to hope otherwise?"
"Not at all. I know not how it is: I'm good-looking, boy, -- that
much I can see in any spring on which the sun shines, -- and yet
I could not get the hussy to a promise, or even a cordial willing
smile, though she will laugh by the hour. If she has dared to marry
in my absence, she'd be like to know the pleasures of widowhood
afore she is twenty!"
"You would not harm the man she has chosen, Hurry, simply because
she found him more to her liking than yourself!"
Why not! If an enemy crosses my path, will I not beat him out of
it! Look at me! am I a man like to let any sneaking, crawling,
skin-trader get the better of me in a matter that touches me
as near as the kindness of Judith Hutter! Besides, when we live
beyond law, we must be our own judges and executioners. And if
a man should be found dead in the woods, who is there to say who
slew him, even admitting that the colony took the matter in hand
and made a stir about it?"
"If that man should be Judith Hutter's husband, after what has
passed, I might tell enough, at least, to put the colony on the
trail."
"You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling! You dare to think of
informing against Hurry Harry in so much as a matter touching
a mink or a woodchuck!"
"I would dare to speak truth, Hurry, consarning you or any man that
ever lived."
March looked at his companion, for a moment, in silent amazement;
then seizing him by the throat with both hands, he shook his comparatively
slight frame with a violence that menaced the dislocation of some
of the bones. Nor was this done jocularly, for anger flashed
from the giant's eyes, and there were certain signs that seemed to
threaten much more earnestness than the occasion would appear to
call for. Whatever might be the real intention of March, and it is
probable there was none settled in his mind, it is certain that he
was unusually aroused; and most men who found themselves throttled
by one of a mould so gigantic, in such a mood, and in a solitude
so deep and helpless, would have felt intimidated, and tempted
to yield even the right. Not so, however, with Deerslayer. His
countenance remained unmoved; his hand did not shake, and his answer
was given in a voice that did not resort to the artifice of louder
tones, even by way of proving its owner's resolution.
"You may shake, Hurry, until you bring down the mountain," he said
quietly, "but nothing beside truth will you shake from me. It is
probable that Judith Hutter has no husband to slay, and you may
never have a chance to waylay one, else would I tell her of your
threat, in the first conversation I held with the gal."
March released his grip, and sat regarding the other in silent
astonishment.
"I thought we had been friends," he at length added; "but you've
got the last secret of mine that will ever enter your ears."
"I want none, if they are to be like this. I know we live in the
woods, Hurry, and are thought to be beyond human laws,--and perhaps
we are so, in fact, whatever it may be in right,--but there is a
law and a law-maker, that rule across the whole continent. He that
flies in the face of either need not call me a friend."
"Damme, Deerslayer, if I do not believe you are at heart a Moravian,
and no fair-minded, plain-dealing hunter, as you've pretended to be!"
"Fair-minded or not, Hurry, you will find me as plaindealing in
deeds as I am in words. But this giving way to sudden anger is
foolish, and proves how little you have sojourned with the red man.
Judith Hutter no doubt is still single, and you spoke but as the
tongue ran, and not as the heart felt. There's my hand, and we
will say and think no more about it."
Hurry seemed more surprised than ever; then he burst forth in a
loud, good-natured laugh, which brought tears to his eyes. After
this he accepted the offered hand, and the parties became friends.
"'T would have been foolish to quarrel about an idee," March cried,
as he resumed his meal, "and more like lawyers in the towns than
like sensible men in the woods. They tell me, Deerslayer, much
ill-blood grows out of idees among the people in the lower counties,
and that they sometimes get to extremities upon them."
"That do they,-that do they; and about other matters that might
better be left to take care of themselves. I have heard the Moravians
say that there are lands in which men quarrel even consarning their
religion; and if they can get their tempers up on such a subject,
Hurry, the Lord have Marcy on 'em. Howsoever, there is no occasion
for our following their example, and more especially about a husband
that this Judith Hutter may never see, or never wish to see. For
my part, I feel more cur'osity about the feeble-witted sister than
about your beauty. There's something that comes close to a man's
feelin's, when he meets with a fellow-creatur' that has all the
outward show of an accountable mortal, and who fails of being what
he seems, only through a lack of reason. This is bad enough in
a man, but when it comes to a woman, and she a young, and maybe
a winning creatur' it touches all the pitiful thoughts his natur'
has. God knows, Hurry, that such poor things be defenceless enough
with all their wits about 'em; but it's a cruel fortun' when that
great protector and guide fails 'em."
"Hark, Deerslayer,--you know what the hunters, and trappers, and
peltry-men in general be; and their best friends will not deny that
they are headstrong and given to having their own way, without much
bethinking 'em of other people's rights or feelin's,--and yet I
don't think the man is to be found, in all this region, who would
harm Hetty Hutter, if he could; no, not even a red-skin."
"Therein, fri'nd Hurry, you do the Delawares, at least, and all
their allied tribes, only justice, for a red-skin looks upon a
being thus struck by God's power as especially under his care. I
rejoice to hear what you say, however, I rejoice to hear it; but
as the sun is beginning to turn towards the afternoon's sky, had
we not better strike the trail again, and make forward, that we
may get an opportunity of seeing these wonderful sisters?"
Harry March giving a cheerful assent, the remnants of the meal were
soon collected; then the travelers shouldered their packs, resumed
their arms, and, quitting the little area of light, they again
plunged into the deep shadows of the forest.