[figure description] Page 253.[end figure description]

It diminished, in no degree, the effect produced
by the conversation which passed between
Judge Temple and the 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 where the
youth was standing, in a musing attitude, leaning
on his rifle, and apparently contemplating the
dead bird that lay 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 the place where stood 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

[figure description] Page 254.[end figure description]

this unexpected address, caused him to pause a
moment in manifest surprise, also. 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 leaves 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 labour, for
some time to come. My doors are open to thee,
my young friend, for in this infant country we harbour
no suspicions; little offering to tempt the
cupidity of the evil disposed. Become my assistant,
for at least a season, and receive such compensation
as thy services will deserve.”

There was nothing in the manner or 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, as if 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 my 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.

[figure description] Page 255.[end figure description]

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, my 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 within 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 the raal thing. I have lived in the woods
for forty long years, and have spent five years at
a time without seeing the light of a clearing, bigger
than a wind-row 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 materials too precious
to be wasted in the forest. I entreat thee to join
my family, if it be but till thy arm be healed. My
daughter here, who is mistress of my dwelling,
will tell thee that thou art welcome.”

“Certainly,” said Elizabeth, whose earnestness
was strongly checked by the assumption of a woman's
dignity. “The unfortunate would be welcome
at any time, but doubly so, when we feel
that we have occasioned the evil ourselves.”

[figure description] Page 256.[end figure description]

“Yes,” said Richard, “and if you relish turkey,
young man, there are plenty in the coops,
and those 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 handsome features, like a dark cloud obscuring
a noon-day 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 fearless and proud
front of an Indian warrior, and moving, with
great dignity, closer to the parties, he spoke in
his turn.

“Listen to your Father,” he said, “for his
words are old. Let the Young Eagle and the
Great Land Chief eat together; let them sleep,
without fear, near to 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

[figure description] Page 257.[end figure description]

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 have Delaware blood, 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 of the spectators
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 endeavoured to remember the
holy mandates of our Redeemer, when he bids us
to `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 be thy presence and visage, Bess.”

“No, no,” said Richard, with great simplicity
in his manner; “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?”

“I heeded not his eyes, sir, returned the

[figure description] Page 258.[end figure description]

maiden, “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 in our
family. Truly, we are much honoured 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 surely 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 every body 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 merchant, in London, or a great country
lawyer.”

“Here is a true American genealogy for you,”
said Marmaduke, laughing. “It does very well,
'till you get across the water, where, as every

[figure description] Page 259.[end figure description]

thing is obscure, it is certain to deal in the superlative.
You are sure that your English progenitor
was great, Dickon, whatever his profession
might be?”

“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 honourable 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 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.”

“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!” said Marmaduke. “But what says
Bess to the new inmate? We must pay a deferrence
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

[figure description] Page 260.[end figure description]

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 great 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,
towards the foot of the mountain, where their 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 am sartain 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 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,

[figure description] Page 261.[end figure description]

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 bondsman—
his slave! Is it not an honourable 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, Chingach-gook,”
returned the Leather-stocking; “but I can
go without a meal now, on occasion. When we
tracked the Iroquois through the `Beech-woods,'
they druv 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 Pennsylvanny line, as you ever laid eyes
on. It would have done your heart raal good to
have seen the Delawares eat,—for I was out
scouting and scrimmaging with their tribe, at the
very 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, 'fore 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 eat of his meat raw.
John was there, and John knows. But then starvation
would be apt to be too much for me now,

[figure description] Page 262.[end figure description]

I will own, though I'm no great eater at any
time.”

“Enough is said, my friends,” cried the youth.
“I feel that every where the sacrifice is required
at my hands, and it shall be made; but say
no more, I entreat you; I cannot bear the 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 another 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, notwithstanding
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

[figure description] Page 263.[end figure description]

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 the long lines of white mounds, that ran
across the valley and up the mountains, peeped
out, in spots, from their light 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 colour of the frozen element, reluctantly
dropped its mask, and the houses exposed their
dark roofs and smoked chimneys. The pines
shook off their covering of snow, and every thing
seemed to be assuming its proper hue, with a rapidity
of transition that bordered on the supernatural.

Previous section

Next section