thoughtful, and even gloomy, though his eyes followed each movement of
the two principal actors, noting every new peculiarity about the pieces
as they were held up to view. Not an exclamation of pleasure, nor a word
of condemnation passed his lips. At length his companions observed
his silence, and then, for the first time since the chessmen had been
discovered, did he speak.

"Judith," he asked earnestly, but with a concern that amounted almost to
tenderness of manner, "did your parents ever talk to you of religion?"

The girl coloured, and the flashes of crimson that passed over her
beautiful countenance were like the wayward tints of a Neapolitan sky in
November. Deerslayer had given her so strong a taste for truth,
however, that she did not waver in her answer, replying simply and with
sincerity.

"My mother did often," she said, "my father never. I thought it made my
mother sorrowful to speak of our prayers and duties, but my father has
never opened his mouth on such matters, before or since her death."

"That I can believe--that I can believe. He has no God--no such God
as it becomes a man of white skin to worship, or even a red-skin. Them
things are idols!"

Judith started, and for a moment she seemed seriously hurt. Then she
reflected, and in the end she laughed. "And you think, Deerslayer, that
these ivory toys are my father's Gods? I have heard of idols, and know
what they are."

"Them are idols!" repeated the other, positively. "Why should your
father keep 'em, if he doesn't worship 'em."

"Would he keep his gods in a bag, and locked up in a chest? No, no,
Deerslayer; my poor father carries his God with him, wherever he goes,
and that is in his own cravings. These things may really be idols--I
think they are myself, from what I have heard and read of idolatry,
but they have come from some distant country, and like all the other
articles, have fallen into Thomas Hutter's hands when he was a sailor."

"I'm glad of it--I am downright glad to hear it, Judith, for I do not
think I could have mustered the resolution to strive to help a white
idolater out of his difficulties! The old man is of my colour and nation
and I wish to sarve him, but as one who denied all his gifts, in the way
of religion, it would have come hard to do so. That animal seems to give
you great satisfaction, Sarpent, though it's an idolatrous beast at the
best."

"It is an elephant," interrupted Judith. "I've often seen pictures of