a finger impressively on the arm of
Middleton, "would have spared those words. He had some reason to think
that, in the prime of my days, when my eye was quicker than the hawk's,
and my limbs were as active as the legs of the fallow-deer, I never
clung too eagerly and fondly to life: then why should I now feel such a
childish affection for a thing that I know to be vain, and the companion
of pain and sorrow. Let the Tetons do their worst; they will not find
a miserable and worn out trapper the loudest in his complaints, or his
prayers."

"Pardon me, my worthy, my inestimable friend," exclaimed the repentant
young man, warmly grasping the hand, which the other was in the act of
withdrawing; "I knew not what I said--or rather I thought only of those
whose tenderness we are most bound to consider."

"Enough. It is natur', and it is right. Therein your grand'ther would
have done the very same. Ah's me! what a number of seasons, hot and
cold, wet and dry, have rolled over my poor head, since the time we
worried it out together, among the Red Hurons of the Lakes, back in
those rugged mountains of Old York! and many a noble buck has since that
day fallen by my hand; ay, and many a thieving Mingo, too! Tell me, lad,
did the general, for general I know he got to be, did he ever tell you
of the deer we took, that night the outlyers of the accursed tribe
drove us to the caves, on the island, and how we feasted and drunk in
security?"

"I have often heard him mention the smallest circumstance of the night
you mean; but--"

"And the singer; and his open throat; and his shoutings in the fights!"
continued the old man, laughing joyously at the strength of his own
recollections.

"All--all--he forgot nothing, even to the most trifling incident. Do you
not--"

"What! did he tell you of the imp behind the log and of the miserable
devil who went over the fall--or of the wretch in the tree?"

"Of each and all, with every thing that concerned them.[*] I should
think--"

[*] They who have read the preceding books, in which, the trapper
appears as a hunter and a scout, will readily understand the
allusions.

"Ay," continued the old man, in a voice, which betrayed how powerfully
his own faculties retained the impression of the spectacle, "I have
been a dweller in forests, and in the wilderness for three-score and ten
years, and if any can pretend to know the world, or to have seen scary
sights, it is myself! But never,