a convenient lodge, and it is most cunningly placed, though
it doesn't seem overstock'd with riches that will be likely to buy his
ransom. There's the piece he calls Killdeer, might count for something,
and I understand there's a keg of powder about, which might be a
make-weight, sartain; and yet two able bodied men are not to be bought
off for a trifle--besides--"

"Besides what?" demanded Judith impatiently, observing that the other
hesitated to proceed, probably from a reluctance to distress her.

"Why, Judith, the Frenchers offer bounties as well as our own side, and
the price of two scalps would purchase a keg of powder, and a rifle;
though I'll not say one of the latter altogether as good as Killdeer,
there, which your father va'nts as uncommon, and unequalled, like. But
fair powder, and a pretty sartain rifle; then the red men are not the
expartest in fire arms, and don't always know the difference atwixt that
which is ra'al, and that which is seeming."

"This is horrible!" muttered the girl, struck by the homely manner in
which her companion was accustomed to state his facts. "But you overlook
my own clothes, Deerslayer, and they, I think, might go far with the
women of the Iroquois."

"No doubt they would; no doubt they would, Judith," returned the other,
looking at her keenly, as if he would ascertain whether she were really
capable of making such a sacrifice. "But, are you sartain, gal, you
could find it in your heart to part with your own finery for such a
purpose? Many is the man who has thought he was valiant till danger
stared him in the face; I've known them, too, that consaited they were
kind and ready to give away all they had to the poor, when they've
been listening to other people's hard heartedness; but whose fists
have clench'd as tight as the riven hickory when it came to downright
offerings of their own. Besides, Judith, you're handsome--uncommon in
that way, one might observe and do no harm to the truth--and they that
have beauty, like to have that which will adorn it. Are you sartain you
could find it in your heart to part with your own finery?"

The soothing allusion to the personal charms of the girl was well timed,
to counteract the effect produced by the distrust that the young man
expressed of Judith's devotion to her filial duties. Had another said
as much as Deerslayer, the compliment would most probably have been
overlooked in the indignation awakened by the doubts, but even the
u