who has the full blood
of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts
of burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never
seen one travel after such a sideling gait."

"True; for he would value the animals for very different properties.
Still is this a breed highly esteemed, and as you witness, much honored
with the burdens it is often destined to bear."

The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire,
to listen; and when Duncan had done, they looked at each other
significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of
surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly acquired
knowledge, and once more stole a curious glance at the horses.

"I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the
settlements!" he said, at length; "natur' is sadly abused by man, when
he once gets the mastery. But, go sideling or go straight, Uncas had
seen the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The
outer branch, near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as
a lady breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and
broken down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I
concluded that the cunning varmints had seen the twig bent, and had torn
the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his
antlers."

"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing
occurred!"

"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree conscious of
having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; "and a very different
matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingos would
push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its
waters!"

"Is it, then, so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining, with a more
curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded,
as it was, by earth of a deep dingy brown.

"Few redskins, who travel south and east of the great lakes, but have
heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?"

Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water,
threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his
silent, but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction.

"Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I
liked it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now
crave it, as a deer does the licks.[17] Your hig