upidity; he loved all the world, and would hardly, indeed, hesitate
to sacrifice, if need were, his life for that of an another. What
motive could there be to injure him? He was not in the boundless
forest of the West, roamed by predatory savages, but in a land of law,
and order, and religion. Were he, indeed, in those regions which had
witnessed the fiery trials and perils of his youth, caution would be
necessary; but even then, he would have relied with confidence on his
own resources, controlled and directed by a shaping Providence. It was
not probable that Holden thought at all of Ohquamehud, but if his mind
rested for a moment on the Indian, it could not be with an emotion of
fear. The western pioneers feel their superiority too greatly to
be accessible to such apprehensions, and Holden had been too long a
hunter of savages, to dread either their cunning or their force. Had
he reflected on the subject, he would have seemed to himself to stand
in pretty much the same relation to a red skin that a grown man does
to a child; or, if the Indian were hostile, as the hunter does to the
bears, and wolves, and catamounts, he pursues.

"Peena," said Holden, "I thank thee. It is not in human nature to
be ungrateful for affection, whatever be the color of the skin that
covers the heart which offers it. But dismiss thy fears, and think of
them as unsubstantial as the morning mist. And know that at all times
doubt and fear are in vain. Thou canst not make one hair white and
another black. It is appointed unto all men once to die, but of the
times and seasons, though fixed by the Master of Life with infallible
wisdom, and by a decree that may not be gainsaid, no man knoweth. The
arrow shot by the hand of Jehovah must reach its mark, though thou
seest not its track in the clouds."

Somewhat more effect attended Esther's visit to Pownal, not that,
indeed, she felt the same apprehensions for him as for his father, or
was able to inspire him with fears on his own account. Living in the
village, and with habits so different from those of Holden, he was
vastly less exposed to a danger of the kind she apprehended. The
bullet or the knife of the savage would not be likely to reach him
in the streets of Hillsdale. For it is no part of the tactics of
an American Indian to expose his own life. On the contrary, he is
considered a fool who does so unnecessarily. Stratagem is prized above
force, and he is the greatest warrior who, while infli