 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 varments 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 Mingoes 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 red-skins, 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 flavour 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 high spiced wines are not better liked than a
red-skin relishes this water; especially when his natur is ailing. But Uncas has
made his fire, and it is time we think of eating, for our journey is long, and
all before us.«
    Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had instant
recourse to the fragments of food, which had escaped the voracity of the Hurons.
A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when he and the Mohicans
commenced their humble meal, with the silence and characteristic diligence of
men, who ate in order to enable themselves to endure great and unremitting toil.
    When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed, each of
the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught, at
