!" continued the hunter, "and what a thing it is
to have it, and not to know how to use it. It's no wonder, Judith, that
the great so often fail of their duties, when even the little and the
humble find it so hard to do what's right, and not to do what's wrong.
Then, how one evil act brings others a'ter it! Now, wasn't it for this
furlough of mine, which must soon take me back to the Mingos, I'd find
this creatur's nest, if I travelled the woods a fortnight--though
an eagle's nest is soon found by them that understands the bird's
natur',--but I'd travel a fortnight rather than not find it, just to put
the young, too, out of their pain."

"I'm glad to hear you say this, Deerslayer," observed Hetty, "and God
will be more apt to remember your sorrow for what you've done, than the
wickedness itself. I thought how wicked it was to kill harmless birds,
while you were shooting, and meant to tell you so; but, I don't know how
it happened,--I was so curious to see if you could hit an eagle at so
great a height, that I forgot altogether to speak, 'till the mischief
was done."

"That's it; that's just it, my good Hetty. We can all see our faults and
mistakes when it's too late to help them! Howsever I'm glad you didn't
speak, for I don't think a word or two would have stopped me, just at
that moment, and so the sin stands in its nakedness, and not aggravated
by any unheeded calls to forbear. Well, well, bitter thoughts are hard
to be borne at all times, but there's times when they're harder than at
others."

Little did Deerslayer know, while thus indulging in feelings that
were natural to the man, and so strictly in accordance with his
own unsophisticated and just principles, that, in the course of the
inscrutable providence, which so uniformly and yet so mysteriously
covers all events with its mantle, the very fault he was disposed so
severely to censure was to be made the means of determining his own
earthly fate. The mode and the moment in which he was to feel the
influence of this interference, it would be premature to relate, but
both will appear in the course of the succeeding chapters. As for
the young man, he now slowly left the Ark, like one sorrowing for his
misdeeds, and seated himself in silence on the platform. By this time
the sun had ascended to some height, and its appearance, taken in
connection with his present feelings, induced him to prepare to depart.
The Delaware got the canoe ready for his friend, as soon