rn with gifts no better than such as lie in the
tongue. I was carried into one of the lawless holes myself once, and it
was all about a thing of no more value than the skin of a deer. The Lord
forgive them!--the Lord forgive them!--they knew no better, and they did
according to their weak judgments, and therefore the more are they to be
pitied; and yet it was a solemn sight to see an aged man, who had always
lived in the air, laid neck and heels by the law, and held up as a
spectacle for the women and boys of a wasteful settlement to point their
fingers at!"

"If such be your opinions of confinement, honest friend, you had better
manifest the same, by putting us at liberty with as little delay as
possible," said Middleton, who, like his companion, began to find the
tardiness of his often-tried companion quite as extraordinary as it was
disagreeable.

"I should greatly like to do the same; especially in your behalf,
Captain, who, being a soldier, might find not only pleasure but profit
in examining, more at your ease, into the circumventions and cunning of
an Indian fight. As to our friend, here, it is of but little matter, how
much of this affair he examines, or how little, seeing that a bee is not
to be overcome in the same manner as an Indian."

"Old man, this trifling with our misery is inconsiderate, to give it a
name no harsher--"

"Ay, your grand'ther was of a hot and hurrying mind, and one must not
expect, that the young of a panther will crawl the 'arth like the litter
of a porcupine. Now keep you both silent, and what I say shall have the
appearance of being spoken concerning the movements that are going on
in the bottom; all of which will serve to put jealousy to sleep, and to
shut the eyes of such as rarely close them on wickedness and cruelty. In
the first place, then, you must know that I have reason to think yonder
treacherous Teton has left an order to put us all to death, so soon as
he thinks the deed may be done secretly, and without tumult."

"Great Heaven! will you suffer us to be butchered like unresisting
sheep?"

"Hist, Captain, hist; a hot temper is none of the best, when cunning is
more needed than blows. Ah, the Pawnee is a noble boy! it would do your
heart good to see how he draws off from the river, in order to invite
his enemies to cross; and yet, according to my failing sight, they count
two warriors to his one! But as I was saying, little good comes of haste
and thoughtlessness. The