new
the f'ercest warriors with the gentlest wives of any in the tribe, and
awful scolds fall to the lot of Injins fit to be missionaries."

"That was not it, Deerslayer; that was not it. Oh! if it should prove
that--no; I cannot wish she should not have been his wife at all. That
no daughter can wish for her own mother! Go on, now, and let us see what
the square looking bundle holds."

Deerslayer complied, and he found that it contained a small trunk of
pretty workmanship, but fastened. The next point was to find a key; but,
search proving ineffectual, it was determined to force the lock. This
Deerslayer soon effected by the aid of an iron instrument, and it
was found that the interior was nearly filled with papers. Many were
letters; some fragments of manuscripts, memorandums, accounts, and other
similar documents. The hawk does not pounce upon the chicken with a more
sudden swoop than Judith sprang forward to seize this mine of hitherto
concealed knowledge. Her education, as the reader will have perceived,
was far superior to her situation in life, and her eye glanced over page
after page of the letters with a readiness that her schooling supplied,
and with an avidity that found its origin in her feelings. At first it
was evident that the girl was gratified; and we may add with reason, for
the letters written by females, in innocence and affection, were of a
character to cause her to feel proud of those with whom she had every
reason to think she was closely connected by the ties of blood. It does
not come within the scope of our plan to give more of these epistles,
however, than a general idea of their contents, and this will best be
done by describing the effect they produced on the manner, appearance,
and feeling of her who was so eagerly perusing them.

It has been said, already, that Judith was much gratified with the
letters that first met her eye. They contained the correspondence of
an affectionate and inteffigent mother to an absent daughter, with such
allusions to the answers as served in a great measure to fill up the
vacuum left by the replies. They were not without admonitions and
warnings, however, and Judith felt the blood mounting to her temples,
and a cold shudder succeeding, as she read one in which the propriety
of the daughter's indulging in as much intimacy as had evidently been
described in one of the daughter's own letters, with an officer "who
came from Europe, and who could hardly be suppose