So, Hetty, if you have any thing to say, I'll carry it to the Hurons as faithfully as if it was spoken by a schoolmaster, or a missionary."
The girl hesitated a moment, and then she answered in her own gentle, soft tones, as earnestly as any who had preceded her.
"The Hurons can't understand the difference between white people and themselves," she said, "or they wouldn't ask Judith and me to go and live in their villages.
God has given one country to the red men and another to us.
He meant us to live apart.
Then mother always said that we should never dwell with any but Christians, if possible, and that is a reason why we can't go.
This lake is ours, and we won't leave it.
Father and mother's graves are in it, and even the worst Indians love to stay near the graves of their fathers.
I will come and see them again, if they wish me to, and read more out of the Bible to them, but I can't quit father's and mother's graves."
"That will do - that will do, Hetty, just as well as if you sent them a message twice as long," interrupted the hunter. "I'll tell 'em all you've said, and all you mean, and I'll answer for it that they'll be easily satisfied.
Now, Judith, your turn comes next, and then this part of my ar'n'd will be tarminated for the night."
Judith manifested a reluctance to give her reply, that had awakened a little curiosity in the messenger.
Judging from her known spirit, he had never supposed the girl would be less true her feelings and principles than Hist, or Hetty, and yet there was a visible wavering of purpose that rendered him slightly uneasy.
Even now when directly required to speak, she seemed to hesitate, nor did she open her lips until the profound silence told her how anxiously her words were expected.
Then, indeed, she spoke, but it was doubtingly and with reluctance.
"Tell me, first - tell us, first, Deerslayer," she commenced, repeating the words merely to change the emphasis - "what effect will our answers have on your fate?
If you are to be the sacrifice of our spirit, it would have been better had we all been more wary as to the language we use.
What, then, are likely to be the consequences to yourself?"
"Lord, Judith, you might as well ask me which way the wind will blow next week, or what will be the age of the next deer that will be shot!
I can only say that their faces look a little dark upon me, but it doesn't thunder every time a black cloud rises, nor does every puff of wind blow up rain.
That's a question, therefore, much more easily put than answered."
"So is this message of the Iroquois to me," answered Judith rising, as if she had determined on her own course for the present. "My answer shall be given, Deerslayer, after you and I have talked together alone, when the others have laid themselves down for the night."
There was a decision in the manner of the girl that disposed Deerslayer to comply, and this he did the more readily as the delay could produce no material consequences one way or the other.
The meeting now broke up, Hurry announcing his resolution to leave them speedily.
During the hour that was suffered to intervene, in order that the darkness might deepen before the frontierman took his departure, the different individuals occupied themselves in their customary modes, the hunter, in particular, passing most of the time in making further enquiries into the perfection of the rifle already mentioned.
The hour of nine soon arrived, however, and then it had been determined that Hurry should commence his journey.
Instead of making his adieus frankly, and in a generous spirit, the little he thought it necessary to say was uttered sullenly and in coldness.
Resentment at what he considered Judith's obstinacy was blended with mortification at the career he had since reaching the lake, and, as is usual with the vulgar and narrow-minded, he was more disposed to reproach others with his failures than to censure himself.
Judith gave him her hand, but it was quite as much in gladness as with regret, while the two Delawares were not sorry to find he was leaving them.
Of the whole party, Hetty alone betrayed any real feeling.
Bashfulness, and the timidity of her sex and character, kept even her aloof, so that Hurry entered the canoe, where Deerslayer was already waiting for him, before she ventured near enough to be observed.
Then, indeed, the girl came into the Ark and approached its end, just as the little bark was turning from it, with a movement so light and steady as to be almost imperceptible.
An impulse of feeling now overcame her timidity, and Hetty spoke.
"Goodbye Hurry -" she called out, in her sweet voice - "goodbye, dear Hurry.
Take care of yourself in the woods, and don't stop once, 'til you reach the garrison.
The leaves on the trees are scarcely plentier than the Hurons round the lake, and they'll not treat a strong man like you as kindly as they treat me."
The ascendency which March had obtained over this feebleminded, but right-thinking, and right-feeling girl, arose from a law of nature.
Her senses had been captivated by his personal advantages, and her moral communications with him had never been sufficiently intimate to counteract an effect that must have been otherwise lessened, even with one whose mind was as obtuse as her own. Hetty's instinct of right, if such a term can be applied to one who seemed taught by some kind spirit how to steer her course with unerring accuracy, between good and evil, would have revolted at Hurry's character on a thousand points, had there been opportunities to enlighten her, but while he conversed and trifled with her sister, at a distance from herself, his perfection of form and feature had been left to produce their influence on her simple imagination and naturally tender feelings, without suffering by the alloy of his opinions and coarseness.
It is true she found him rough and rude; but her father was that, and most of the other men she had seen, and that which she believed to belong to all of the sex struck her less unfavorably in Hurry's character than it might otherwise have done.
Still, it was not absolutely love that Hetty felt for Hurry, nor do we wish so to portray it, but merely that awakening sensibility and admiration, which, under more propitious circumstances, and always supposing no untoward revelations of character on the part of the young man had supervened to prevent it, might soon have ripened into that engrossing feeling.
She felt for him an incipient tenderness, but scarcely any passion.
Perhaps the nearest approach to the latter that Hetty had manifested was to be seen in the sensitiveness which had caused her to detect March's predilection for her sister, for, among Judith's many admirers, this was the only instance in which the dull mind of the girl had been quickened into an observation of the circumstances.
Hurry received so little sympathy at his departure that the gentle tones of Hetty, as she thus called after him, sounded soothingly.
He checked the canoe, and with one sweep of his powerful arm brought it back to the side of the Ark.
This was more than Hetty, whose courage had risen with the departure of her hero, expected, and she now shrunk timidly back at this unexpected return.
"You're a good gal, Hetty, and I can't quit you without shaking hands," said March kindly. "Judith, a'ter all, isn't worth as much as you, though she may be a trifle better looking.
As to wits, if honesty and fair dealing with a young man is a sign of sense in a young woman, you're worth a dozen Judiths; ay, and for that matter, most young women of my acquaintance."
"Don't say any thing against Judith, Harry," returned Hetty imploringly. "Father's gone, and mother's gone, and nobody's left but Judith and me, and it isn't right for sisters to speak evil, or to hear evil of each other.
Father's in the lake, and so is mother, and we should all fear God, for we don't know when we may be in the lake, too." "That sounds reasonable, child, as does most you say.
Well, if we ever meet ag'in, Hetty, you'll find a fri'nd in me, let your sister do what she may.