him, for it felt
disposed to listen to the often-repeated cries of the black, to "gib a
nigger fair play."

Finding it impossible to make out a title to the bird, Kirby turned
fiercely to the black, and said--

"Shut your oven, you crow! Where is the man that can hit a turkey's head
at a hundred yards? I was a fool for trying. You needn't make an uproar
like a falling pine-tree about it. Show me the man who can do it."

"Look this a-way, Billy Kirby," said Leather-Stocking, "and let them
clear the mark, and I'll show you a man who's made better shots afore
now, and that when he's been hard pressed by the savages and wild
beasts."

* * * * *

Although Natty Bumppo[69] had certainly made hundreds of more momentous
shots, at his enemies or his game, yet he never exerted himself more to
excel. He raised his piece three several times; once to get his range;
once to calculate his distance; and once because the bird, alarmed by
the deathlike stillness that prevailed, turned its head quickly to
examine its foes. But the fourth time he fired. The smoke, the report,
and the momentary shock, prevented most of the spectators from instantly
knowing the result; but Elizabeth, when she saw her champion drop the
end of his rifle in the snow, and open his mouth in one of its silent
laughs, and then proceed very coolly to recharge his piece, knew that he
had been successful. The boys rushed to the mark, and lifted the turkey
on high, lifeless, and with nothing but the remnant of a head.

"Bring in the critter," said Leather-Stocking, "and put it at the
feet of the lady. I was her deputy in the matter, and the bird is
her property." ... Elizabeth handed the black a piece of silver as a
remuneration for his loss, which had some effect in again unbending his
muscles, and then expressed to her companion her readiness to return
homeward.

[Footnote 69: Another name of Leather-Stocking.]

* * * * *

From "The Pilot."

=_283._= LONG TOM COFFIN.

The seaman who was addressed by this dire appellation arose slowly from
the place where he was stationed as cockswain of the boat, and seemed to
ascend high in air by the gradual evolution of numberless folds in his
body. When erect, he stood nearly six feet and as many inches in his
shoes, though, when elevated in his most perpendicular attitude, there
was a forward inclination about his head and shoulders, that appeared to
b