Of wrong, or right, with pain or with reward;
There hung the score of all our debts, the card
Where good, and bad, and life, and death, were painted;
Was never heart of mortal so untainted,
But when the roll was read, with thousand terrors fainted."

Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victory in Heaven, lxv.

"We've done an unthoughtful thing, Sarpent--yes, Judith, we've done an
unthoughtful thing in taking life with an object no better than vanity!"
exclaimed Deerslayer, when the Delaware held up the enormous bird, by
its wings, and exhibited the dying eyes riveted on its enemies with
the gaze that the helpless ever fasten on their destroyers. "Twas more
becomin' two boys to gratify their feelin's in this onthoughtful manner,
than two warriors on a warpath, even though it be their first. Ah's!
me; well, as a punishment I'll quit you at once, and when I find myself
alone with them bloody-minded Mingos, it's more than like I'll have
occasion to remember that life is sweet, even to the beasts of the woods
and the fowls of the air. There, Judith; there's Kildeer; take him back,
ag'in, and keep him for some hand that's more desarving to own such a
piece."

"I know of none as deserving as your own, Deerslayer," answered the girl
in haste; "none but yours shall keep the rifle."

"If it depended on skill, you might be right enough, gal, but we should
know when to use firearms, as well as how to use 'em. I haven't l'arnt
the first duty yet, it seems; so keep the piece till I have. The sight
of a dyin' and distressed creatur', even though it be only a bird,
brings wholesome thoughts to a man who don't know how soon his own time
may come, and who is pretty sartain that it will come afore the sun
sets; I'd give back all my vain feelin's, and rej'icin's in hand and
eye, if that poor eagle was only on its nest ag'in, with its young,
praisin' the Lord for anything that we can know about the matter, for
health and strength!"

The listeners were confounded with this proof of sudden repentance in
the hunter, and that too for an indulgence so very common, that men
seldom stop to weigh its consequences, or the physical suffering it may
bring on the unoffending and helpless. The Delaware understood what was
said, though he scarce understood the feelings which had prompted the
words, and by way of disposing of the difficulty, he drew his keen
knife, and severed the head of the sufferer from its body.

"What a thing is power