• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1043 0

on board, the sweeps were manned, and the ark moved in its sluggish manner towards the distant point. Deerslayer and Chingachgook now lifted two of the canoes from the water, and placed them in the castle. The windows and door were then barred, and the house was left, by means of the trap, in the manner already described. On quitting the palisades, Hist was seen in the remaining canoe, where the Delaware immediately joined her, and paddled away, leaving Judith standing alone on the platform. Owing to this prompt proceeding Deerslayer found himself alone with the beautiful, and still weeping mourner. Too simple to suspect anything, the young man swept the light boat round, and received its mistress in it, when he followed the course already taken by his friend.

The direction to the point led diagonally past, and at no great distance from, the graves of the dead. As the canoe glided by, Judith, for the first time that morning, spoke to her companion. She said but little, merely uttering a simple request to stop for a minute or two, ere she left the place.

“I may never see this spot again, Deerslayer,” she said, “and it contains the bodies of my mother and sister! Is it not possible, think you, that the innocence of one of these beings may answer, in the eyes of God, for the salvation of both?”

“I don’t understand it so, Judith; though I’m no missionary, and am but poorly taught. Each spirit answers for its own backslidings; though a hearty repentance will satisfy God’s laws.”

“Then must my poor, poor mother be in heaven! Bitterly—bitterly has she repented of her sins; and surely her sufferings in this life ought to count as something against her sufferings in the next!”

“All this goes beyond me, Judith. I strive to do right, here, as the surest means of keeping all right, hereafter. Hetty was oncommon, as all that know’d her must allow; and her soul was as fit to consort with angels, the hour it left its body, as that of any saint in the Bible!”

“I do believe you only do her justice! Alas! alas!—that there should be so great differences between those who were nursed at the same breast, slept in the same bed, and dwelt under the same roof! But, no matter—move the canoe a little farther east, Deerslayer; the sun so dazzles my eyes that I cannot see the graves. This is Hetty’s, on the right of mother’s?”

“Sartain—you asked that of us; and all are glad to do as you wish, Judith, when you do that which is right.”

The girl gazed at him near a minute, in silent attention; then she turned her eyes backward, at the castle.

“This lake will soon be entirely deserted,” she said, “and this, too, at a moment when it will be a more secure dwelling place than ever. What has so lately happened will prevent the Iroquois from venturing again to visit it, for a long time to come.”

“That it will!—yes, that may be set down as settled. I do not mean to pass thisaway, ag’in, so long as the war lasts; for, to my mind, no Huron moccasin will leave its print on the leaves of this forest, until their traditions have forgotten to tell their young men of their disgrace and rout.”

“And do you so delight in violence and bloodshed? I had thought better of you, Deerslayer—believed you one who could find his happiness in a quiet domestic home, with an attached and loving wife, ready to study your wishes, and healthy and dutiful children, anxious to follow in your footsteps, and to become as honest and just as yourself.”

“Lord, Judith, what a tongue you’re mistress of! Speech and looks go hand in hand, like; and what one can’t do, the other is pretty sartain to perform! Such a gal, in a month, might spoil the stoutest warrior in the colony”

“And am I then so mistaken? Do you really love war, Deerslayer, better than the hearth and the affections?”1

“I understand your meaning, gal; yes, I do understand what you mean, I believe, though I don’t think you altogether understand me. Warrior I may now call myself, I suppose, for I’ve both fou’t and conquered, which is sufficient for the name; neither will I deny that I’ve feelin’s for the callin‘, which