The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [222]
As soon as the ark was properly secured, the different members of the party occupied themselves in their several peculiar manners; haste in council, or in decision, no more characterizing the proceedings of the border whites, than it did those of their red neighbors. The women busied themselves in preparations for the evening meal, sad and silent, but ever attentive to the first wants of nature.
Hurry set about repairing his moccasins, by the light of a blazing knot; Chingachgook seated himself in gloomy thought; while Deerslayer proceeded, in a manner equally free from affectation and concern, to examine “Killdeer,” the rifle of Hutter, that has been already mentioned, and which subsequently became so celebrated in the hands of the individual who was now making a survey of its merits. The piece was a little longer than usual, and had evidently been turned out from the workshop of some manufacturer of a superior order. It had a few silver ornaments; though, on the whole, it would have been deemed a plain piece by most frontier men; its great merit consisting in the accuracy of its bore, the perfection of the details, and the excellence of the metal. Again and again did the hunter apply the breech to his shoulder, and glance his eye along the sights, and as often did he poise his body, and raise the weapon slowly, as if about to catch an aim at a deer, in order to try the weight, and to ascertain its fitness for quick and accurate firing. All this was done by the aid of Hurry’s torch, simply, but with an earnestness and abstraction that would have been found touching by any spectator who happened to know the real situation of the man.
“ ’Tis a glorious we’pon, Hurry!” Deerslayer at length exclaimed, “and it may be thought a pity that it has fallen into the hands of women. The hunters have told me of its expl‘ites, and by all I have heard, I should set it down as sartain death in exper’enced hands. Hearken to the tick of this lock—a wolftrap hasn’t a livelier spring; pan and cock speak together, like two singing masters undertaking a psalm in meetin’. I never did see so true a bore, Hurry, that’s sartain.”
“Ay, old Tom used to give the piece a character, though he wasn’t the man to particularize the ra‘al natur’ of any sort of firearms, in practice,” returned March, passing the deer’s thongs through the moccasin with the coolness of a cobbler. “He was no marksman, that we must all allow; but he had his good p’ints as well as his bad ones. I have had hopes that Judith might consait the idee of giving Killdeer to me.”
“There’s no saying what young women may do, that’s a truth, Hurry; and I suppose you’re as likely to own the rifle as another. Still, when things are so very near perfection, it’s a pity not to reach it entirely”
“What do you mean by that? Would not that piece look as well on my shoulder as on any man’s?”
“As for looks, I say nothing. You are both good-looking, and might make what is called a good-looking couple. But the true p‘int is as to conduct. More deer would fall in one day, by that piece, in some men’s hands, than would fall in a week in your’n, Hurry! I’ve seen you try; you remember the buck, t’other day?”
“That buck was out of season; and who wishes to kill venison out of season? I was merely trying to frighten the creatur’, and I think you will own that he was pretty well skeared at any rate.”
“Well, well, have it as you say. But this is a lordly piece, and would make a steady hand and quick eye the King of the Woods.”
“Then keep it, Deerslayer, and become King of the Woods,” said Judith, earnestly,