h thee
teeth; for, truly, I will forgive thee, even if thee bites me to the
bone. Faster, Peter, faster! Does thee boggle at the skin, because of its
hardness? Truly, I have seen thee a hungered, Peter, when thee would have
cracked it like a marrow-bone! Fast, Peter, fast; and thee shall see
me again in freedom!"

With such expressions Nathan inflamed the zeal of his familiar, who
continued to gnaw for the space of five minutes or more, and with such
effect, that Nathan, who ever and anon tested the brute's progress by a
violent jerk at the rope, found, at the fourth or fifth effort, that it
yielded a little, and cracked, as if its fibres were already giving way.

"Now, Peter! tug, if thee ever tugged!" he cried, his hopes rising almost
to ecstacy: "A little longer, one bite more, a little, but a little
longer, Peter, if thee loves thee master! Yea, Peter, and we will walk
the woods again in freedom! Now, Peter, now for the last bite!"

But the last bite Peter, on the sudden, betrayed a disinclination to
make. He ceased his toil, jostled against his master's side, and uttered
a whine, the lowest that could be made audible.

"Hah!" cried Nathan, as, at the same instant, he heard the sound of
footsteps approaching the wigwam, "thee speaks the truth, and the
accursed villains is upon us! Away with thee, dog--thee shall finish thee
work by and by!"

Faithful to his master's orders, or perhaps to his own sense of what
was fitting and proper in such a case, little Peter leaped hastily
among the skins and other litter that covered half the floor and the
sleeping-berths of the lodge, and was immediately out of sight, having
left the apartment, or concealed himself in its darkest corner. The steps
approached; they reached the door: Nathan threw himself back, reclining
against his pile of furs, and fixed his eye upon the mats at the
entrance. They were presently parted; and the old chief Wenonga came
halting into the apartment,--halting, yet with a step that was designed
to indicate all the pride and dignity of a warrior. And this attempt at
state was the more natural and proper, as he was armed and painted as if
for war, his grim-countenance hideously bedaubed on one side with
vermillion, and the other with black; a long scalping-knife, without
sheath or cover, swinging from his wampum belt; while a hatchet, the
blade and handle both of steel, was grasped in his hand. In this guise,
and with a wild and demoniacal glitter of