ing his movements, were led to believe that
his aim was to communicate with them, at or near this spot, and would
hasten in that direction, in order to be in readiness to profit by
circumstances. This artifice was well managed; since the sweep of the
bay, the curvature of the lake, and the low marshy land that intervened,
would probably allow the ark to reach the rock before its pursuers, if
really collected near this point, could have time to make the circuit
that would be required to get there by land. With a view to aid this
deception, Deerslayer stood as near the western shore as was at all
prudent; and then causing Judith and Hetty to enter the house, or cabin,
and crouching himself so as to conceal his person by the frame of the
scow, he suddenly threw the head of the latter round, and began to make
the best of his way towards the outlet. Favored by an increase in
the wind, the progress of the ark was such as to promise the complete
success of this plan, though the crab-like movement of the craft
compelled the helmsman to keep its head looking in a direction very
different from that in which it was actually moving.

Chapter IX.

"Yet art thou prodigal of smiles--
Smiles, sweeter than thy frowns are stern:
Earth sends from all her thousand isles,
A shout at thy return.
The glory that comes down from thee
Bathes, in deep joy, the land and sea."

Bryant, "The Firmament," 11.19-24

It may assist the reader in understanding the events we are about to
record, if he has a rapidly sketched picture of the scene, placed before
his eyes at a single view. It will be remembered that the lake was an
irregularly shaped basin, of an outline that, in the main, was oval, but
with bays and points to relieve its formality and ornament its shores.
The surface of this beautiful sheet of water was now glittering like a
gem, in the last rays of the evening sun, and the setting of the whole,
hills clothed in the richest forest verdure, was lighted up with a sort
of radiant smile, that is best described in the beautiful lines we have
placed at the head of this chapter. As the banks, with few exceptions,
rose abruptly from the water, even where the mountain did not
immediately bound the view, there was a nearly unbroken fringe of leaves
overhanging the placid lake, the trees starting out of the acclivities,
inclining to the light, until, in many instances they extended their
long limbs and straight tr