longing to learn their neighbor's
secrets."

"Yes, and sometimes to fancy them, when they couldn't find 'em out!
That's the difference atween an Indian gentleman and a white gentleman.
The Sarpent, here, would turn his head aside if he found himself
onknowingly lookin' into another chief's wigwam, whereas in the
settlements while all pretend to be great people, most prove they've
got betters, by the manner in which they talk of their consarns. I'll be
bound, Judith, you wouldn't get the Sarpent, there, to confess there
was another in the tribe so much greater than himself, as to become the
subject of his idees, and to empl'y his tongue in conversations about
his movements, and ways, and food, and all the other little matters that
occupy a man when he's not empl'y'd in his greater duties. He who does
this is but little better than a blackguard, in the grain, and them that
encourages him is pretty much of the same kidney, let them wear coats as
fine as they may, or of what dye they please."

"But this is not another man's wigwam; it belongs to my father, these
are his things, and they are wanted in his service."

"That's true, gal; that's true, and it carries weight with it. Well,
when all is before us we may, indeed, best judge which to offer for the
ransom, and which to withhold."

Judith was not altogether as disinterested in her feelings as she
affected to be. She remembered that the curiosity of Hetty had
been indulged in connection with this chest, while her own had been
disregarded, and she was not sorry to possess an opportunity of being
placed on a level with her less gifted sister in this one particular. It
appearing to be admitted all round that the enquiry into the contents of
the chest ought to be renewed, Deerslayer proceeded to remove the second
covering of canvass.

The articles that lay uppermost, when the curtain was again raised on
the secrets of the chest, were a pair of pistols, curiously inlaid with
silver. Their value would have been considerable in one of the towns,
though as weapons in the woods they were a species of arms seldom
employed; never, indeed, unless it might be by some officer from
Europe, who visited the colonies, as many were then wont to do, so much
impressed with the superiority of the usages of London as to fancy they
were not to be laid aside on the frontiers of America. What occurred on
the discovery of these weapons will appear in the succeeding chapter.

Chapter XII