that as nat'ral. If we
had darters, it's more than probable we should have some such feelin's;
and I honor the man that owns 'em. As for Judith, old man, I enlist, at
once, as her soldier, and here is Deerslayer to help you to take care of
Hetty."

"Many thanks to you, Master March," returned the beauty, in a full, rich
voice, and with an accuracy of intonation and utterance that she shared
in common with her sister, and which showed that she had been better
taught than her father's life and appearance would give reason to
expect. "Many thanks to you; but Judith Hutter has the spirit and
the experience that will make her depend more on herself than on
good-looking rovers like you. Should there be need to face the savages,
do you land with my father, instead of burrowing in the huts, under the
show of defending us females and-"

"Girl--girl," interrupted the father, "quiet that glib tongue of thine,
and hear the truth. There are savages on the lake shore already, and no
man can say how near to us they may be at this very moment, or when we
may hear more from them!"

"If this be true, Master Hutter," said Hurry, whose change of
countenance denoted how serious he deemed the information, though it did
not denote any unmanly alarm, "if this be true, your ark is in a most
misfortunate position, for, though the cover did deceive Deerslayer and
myself, it would hardly be overlooked by a full-blooded Injin, who was
out seriously in s'arch of scalps!"

"I think as you do, Hurry, and wish, with all my heart, we lay anywhere
else, at this moment, than in this narrow, crooked stream, which has
many advantages to hide in, but which is almost fatal to them that are
discovered. The savages are near us, moreover, and the difficulty is,
to get out of the river without being shot down like deer standing at a
lick!"

"Are you sartain, Master Hutter, that the red-skins you dread are ra'al
Canadas?" asked Deerslayer, in a modest but earnest manner. "Have you
seen any, and can you describe their paint?"

"I have fallen in with the signs of their being in the neighborhood,
but have seen none of 'em. I was down stream a mile or so, looking to my
traps, when I struck a fresh trail, crossing the corner of a swamp, and
moving northward. The man had not passed an hour; and I know'd it for an
Indian footstep, by the size of the foot, and the intoe, even before I
found a worn moccasin, which its owner had dropped as useless. For that
matter,