iency, having acquired from her, in childhood, an
advantage that no subsequent study or labor can give without a drawback,
if neglected beyond the earlier periods of life. Who that mother was,
or rather had been, no one but Hutter knew. She had now been dead two
summers, and, as was stated by Hurry, she had been buried in the lake;
whether in indulgence of a prejudice, or from a reluctance to take the
trouble to dig her grave, had frequently been a matter of discussion
between the rude beings of that region. Judith had never visited the
spot, but Hetty was present at the interment, and she often paddled a
canoe, about sunset or by the light of the moon, to the place, and gazed
down into the limpid water, in the hope of being able to catch a glimpse
of the form that she had so tenderly loved from infancy to the sad hour
of their parting.

"Must we reach the rock exactly at the moment the sun sets?" Judith
demanded of the young man, as they stood near each other, Deerslayer
holding the steering-oar, and she working with a needle at some ornament
of dress, that much exceeded her station in life, and was altogether a
novelty in the woods. "Will a few minutes, sooner or later, alter the
matter? It will be very hazardous to remain long as near the shore as
that rock!"

"That's it, Judith; that's the very difficulty! The rock's within p'int
blank for a shot-gun, and 'twill never do to hover about it too close
and too long. When you have to deal with an Injin, you must calculate
and manage, for a red natur' dearly likes sarcumvention. Now you see,
Judith, that I do not steer towards the rock at all, but here to
the eastward of it, whereby the savages will be tramping off in that
direction, and get their legs a-wearied, and all for no advantage."

"You think, then, they see us, and watch our movements, Deerslayer? I
was in hopes they might have fallen back into the woods, and left us to
ourselves for a few hours."

"That's altogether a woman's consait. There's no let-up in an Injin's
watchfulness when he's on a war-path, and eyes are on us at this
minute, 'though the lake presarves us. We must draw near the rock on
a calculation, and indivor to get the miscreants on a false scent. The
Mingos have good noses, they tell me; but a white man's reason ought
always to equalize their instinct."

Judith now entered into a desultory discourse with Deerslayer, in which
the girl betrayed her growing interest in the young man; an inter