friends he has on earth."

"Torment you! yes, now I remember all about it. I am glad you used that
word, Judith, for it brings it all back to my mind. Well, he said
he might be tormented by the savages, but he would try to bear it as
becomes a Christian white man, and that no one need be afeard--why does
Deerslayer call it afeard, when mother always taught us to say afraid?"

"Never mind, dear Hetty, never mind that, now," cried the other, almost
gasping for breath. "Did Deerslayer really tell you that he thought the
savages would put him to the torture? Recollect now, well, Hetty, for
this is a most awful and serious thing."

"Yes he did; and I remember it by your speaking about my tormenting you.
Oh! I felt very sorry for him, and Deerslayer took all so quietly and
without noise! Deerslayer is not as handsome as Hurry Harry, Judith, but
he is more quiet."

"He's worth a million Hurrys! yes, he's worth all the young men who
ever came upon the lake put together," said Judith, with an energy and
positiveness that caused her sister to wonder. "He is true. There is no
lie about Deerslayer. You, Hetty, may not know what a merit it is in a
man to have truth, but when you get--no--I hope you will never know
it. Why should one like you be ever made to learn the hard lesson to
distrust and hate!"

Judith bowed her face, dark as it was, and unseen as she must have been
by any eye but that of Omniscience, between her hands, and groaned. This
sudden paroxysm of feeling, however, lasted but for a moment, and she
continued more calmly, still speaking frankly to her sister, whose
intelligence, and whose discretion in any thing that related to herself,
she did not in the least distrust. Her voice, however, was low and
husky, instead of having its former clearness and animation.

"It is a hard thing to fear truth, Hetty," she said, "and yet do I more
dread Deerslayer's truth, than any enemy! One cannot tamper with such
truth--so much honesty--such obstinate uprightness! But we are not
altogether unequal, sister--Deerslayer and I? He is not altogether my
superior?"

It was not usual for Judith so far to demean herself as to appeal to
Hetty's judgment. Nor did she often address her by the title of sister,
a distinction that is commonly given by the junior to the senior, even
where there is perfect equality in all other respects. As trifling
departures from habitual deportment oftener strike the imagination than
more important cha