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By Root 1108 0

to prevent a false impression of his own merit. “No, that proof’s neither for nor ag‘in the rifles, seeing it was all quickness of hand and eye. I took the bird at a disadvantage, or he might have got under ag’in, afore the bullet reached him. But the Sarpent is too wise to mind such tricks, having long been used to them. Do you remember the time, chief, when you thought yourself sartain of the wild goose, and I took him out of your very eyes, as it might be, with a little smoke? Howsever, such things pass for nothing atween fri’nds, and young folk will have their fun, Judith. Ay, here’s just the bird we want, for it’s as good for the fire as it is for the aim, and nothing should be lost that can be turned to just account. There, farther north, Delaware.”

The latter looked in the required direction, and he soon saw a large black duck, floating in stately repose on the water. At that distant day, when so few men were present to derange the harmony of the wilderness, all the smaller lakes with which the interior of New York so abounds, were places of resort for the migratory aquatic birds; and this sheet, like the others, had once been much frequented by all the varieties of the duck, by the goose, the gull, and the loon. On the appearance of Hutter, the spot was comparatively deserted for other sheets, more retired and remote, though some of each species continued to resort thither, as indeed they do to the present hour. At that instant, a hundred birds were visible from the castle, sleeping on the water, or laving their feathers in the limpid element, though no other offered so favorable a mark as that Deerslayer had just pointed out to his friend. Chingachgook, as usual, spared his words, and proceeded to execution. This time his aim was more careful than before, and his success in proportion. The bird had a wing crippled, and fluttered along the water screaming, materially increasing its distance from its enemies.

“That bird must be put out of pain,” exclaimed Deerslayer, the moment the animal endeavored to rise on the wing; “and this is the rifle and the eye to do it.”

The duck was still floundering along, when the fatal bullet overtook it, severing the head from the neck, as neatly as if it had been done with an axe. Hist had indulged in a low cry of delight, at the success of the young Indian; but now she affected to frown and resent the greater skill of his friend. The chief, on the contrary, uttered the usual exclamation of pleasure, and his smile proved how much he admired, and how little he envied.

“Never mind the gal, Sarpent; never mind Hist’s feelin‘s, which will neither choke nor drown, slay nor beautify,” said Deerslayer, laughing. “ ’Tis nat‘ral for women to enter into their husband’s victories and defeats, and you are as good as man and wife, so far as prejudice and fri’ndship go. Here is a bird overhead will put the pieces to the proof; I challenge you to an upward aim, with a flying target. That’s a ra’al proof, and one that needs sartain rifles, as well as sartain eyes.”

The species of eagle that frequents the water, and lives on fish, was also present, and one was hovering at a considerable height above the hut, greedily watching for an opportunity to make a swoop; its hungry young elevating their heads from a nest that was in sight, in the naked summit of a dead pine. Chingachgook silently turned a new piece against this bird, and after carefully watching his time, fired. A wider circuit than common, denoted that the messenger had passed through the air at no great distance from the bird, though it missed its object. Deerslayer, whose aim was not more true than it was quick, fired as soon as it was certain his friend had missed, and the deep swoop that followed left it momentarily doubtful whether the eagle was hit or not. The marksman himself, however, proclaimed his own want of success, calling on his friend to seize another rifle, for he saw signs on the part of the bird of an intention to quit the spot.

“I made him wink, Sarpent; I do think his feathers were ruffled, but no blood has yet been