 exhibiting the buskin he wore.
    »Ay! 'twas judgmatical, and like themselves; though we were too expart to be
thrown from a trail by so common an invention.«
    »To what then are we indebted for our safety?«
    »To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be
ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which I should
know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be true, though my
own eyes tell me it is so.«
    »'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?«
    »Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle ones,«
continued Hawk-eye, glancing his eyes, not without curious interest on the
fillies of the ladies, »planted the legs of one side on the ground at the same
time, which is contrary to the movements of all trotting four-footed animals of
my knowledge, except the bear! And yet here are horses that always journey in
this manner, as my own eyes have seen, and as their trail has shown for twenty
long miles!«
    »'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of Narraganset Bay,
in the small province of Providence Plantations, and are celebrated for their
hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar movement; though other horses are not
unfrequently trained to the same.«
    »It may be - it may be,« said Hawk-eye, who had listened with singular
attention to this explanation; »though I am a man who has the full blood of the
whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts of burthen.
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 honoured with the
burthens 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,
