The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [233]
“I expect nothing for the future from them, my good friend, but cannot help remembering what has been. This is idle, however, when half an hour of examination may tell us all, or even more than I want to know.”
Deerslayer, who comprehended the girl’s impatience, now took his seat, and proceeded once more to bring to light the different articles that the chest contained. As a matter of course, all that had been previously examined were found where they had been last deposited; and they excited much less interest or comment than when formerly exposed to view. Even Judith laid aside the rich brocade with an air of indifference, for she had a far higher aim before her than the indulgence of vanity, and was impatient to come at the still hidden, or rather unknown, treasures.
“All these we have seen before,” she said, “and will not stop to open. The bundle under your hand, Deerslayer, is a fresh one; that we will look into. God send it may contain something to tell poor Hetty and myself who we really are.”
“Ay, if some bundles could speak they might tell wonderful secrets,” returned the young man, deliberately undoing the folds of another piece of coarse canvas, in order to come at the contents of the roll that lay on his knees; “though this doesn’t seem to be one of that family, seeing ‘tis neither more nor less than a sort of flag; though of what nation, it passes my l’arnin’ to say.”
“That flag must have some meaning to it,” Judith hurriedly interposed. “Open it wider, Deerslayer, that we may see the colors.”
“Well, I pity the ensign that has to shoulder this cloth, and to parade it about in the field. Why ‘tis large enough, Judith, to make a dozen of them colors the King’s officers set so much store by. These can be no ensign’s colors, but a gin’ral’s!”
“A ship might carry it, Deerslayer; and ships I know do use such things. Have you never heard any fearful stories about Thomas Hutter’s having once been concerned with the people they call buccaneers?”
“Buck-and-near! Not I—not I—I never heard him mentioned as good at a buck far off, or near by. Hurry Harry did tell me something about its being supposed that he had formerly, in some way or other, dealings with sartain sea robbers; but, Lord, Judith, it can’t surely give any satisfaction to make out that ag’in your mother’s own husband, though he isn’t your father?”
“Anything will give me satisfaction that tells me who I am, and helps to explain the dreams of childhood. My mother’s husband! Yes, he must have been that, though why a woman like her should have chosen a man like him, is more than mortal reason can explain. You never saw mother, Deerslayer, and can’t feel the vast, vast difference there was between them!”
“Such things do happen, howsever—yes, they do happen; though why Providence lets them come to pass, is more than I understand. I’ve knew the f’ercest warriors with the gentlest wives of any in the tribe, and awful scolds fall to the lot of Injins fit to be missionaries.”
“That was not it, Deerslayer; that was not it. Oh, if it should prove that—no; I cannot wish she should not have been his wife at all. That no daughter can wish for her own mother! Go on, now, and let us see what the square-looking bundle holds.”
Deerslayer complied, and he found that it contained a small trunk of pretty workmanship, but fastened. The next point was to find a key; but search proving ineffectual, it was determined to force the lock. This Deerslayer soon effected by the aid of an iron instrument, and it was found that the interior was nearly filled with papers. Many were letters; some fragments of manuscripts, memorandums, accounts, and other similar documents. The hawk does not pounce upon the chicken with a more sudden swoop, than Judith sprang forward to seize this mine of hitherto concealed knowledge. Her education, as the reader will have perceived, was far superior to her situation in life, and her eye glanced over page