scow, he manifested an intention to relieve Deerslayer at the oar,
directing the latter to take his own place aft. By these changes, the
old man and Hurry were again left alone, while the young hunter was
transferred to the other end of the ark.

Hetty had disappeared when Deerslayer reached his new post, and for some
little time he directed the course of the slow-moving craft by himself.
It was not long, however, before Judith came out of the cabin, as if
disposed to do the honors of the place to a stranger engaged in the
service of her family. The starlight was sufficient to permit objects to
be plainly distinguished when near at hand, and the bright eyes of the
girl had an expression of kindness in them, when they met those of the
youth, that the latter was easily enabled to discover. Her rich
hair shaded her spirited and yet soft countenance, even at that hour
rendering it the more beautiful-as the rose is loveliest when reposing
amid the shadows and contrasts of its native foliage. Little ceremony
is used in the intercourse of the woods; and Judith had acquired a
readiness of address, by the admiration that she so generally excited,
which, if it did not amount to forwardness, certainly in no degree lent
to her charms the aid of that retiring modesty on which poets love to
dwell.

"I thought I should have killed myself with laughing, Deerslayer," the
beauty abruptly but coquettishly commenced, "when I saw that Indian
dive into the river! He was a good-looking savage, too," the girl always
dwelt on personal beauty as a sort of merit, "and yet one couldn't stop
to consider whether his paint would stand water!"

"And I thought they would have killed you with their we'pons, Judith,"
returned Deerslayer; "it was an awful risk for a female to run in the
face of a dozen Mingos!"

"Did that make you come out of the cabin, in spite of their rifles,
too?" asked the girl, with more real interest than she would have cared
to betray, though with an indifference of manner that was the result of
a good deal of practice united to native readiness.

"Men ar'n't apt to see females in danger, and not come to their
assistance. Even a Mingo knows that."

This sentiment was uttered with as much simplicity of manner as of
feeling, and Judith rewarded it with a smile so sweet, that even
Deerslayer, who had imbibed a prejudice against the girl in consequence
of Hurry's suspicions of her levity, felt its charm, notwithstanding
half it