
sooner ye go back, the sooner them will be likely to come that a warrior can
talk with.«
    »Hugh!« exclaimed the elder of the two on the raft, rolling his glowing eyes
over the different objects that were visible in and about the Castle, with a
keenness that showed how little escaped him. »My brother is very proud, but
Rivenoak (we use the literal translation of the term, writing as we do in
English) is a name to make a Delaware turn pale.«
    »That's true, or it's a lie, Rivenoak, as it may be; but I am not likely to
turn pale, seeing that I was born pale. What's your ar'n'd, and why do you come
among light bark canoes, on logs that are not even dug out?«
    »The Iroquois are not ducks, to walk on water! Let the pale faces give them
a canoe, and they'll come in a canoe.«
    »That's more rational, than likely to come to pass. We have but four canoes,
and being four persons that's only one for each of us. We thank you for the
offer, howsever, though we ask leave not to accept it. You are welcome,
Iroquois, on your logs.«
    »Thanks - My young pale face warrior - he has got a name - how do the chiefs
call him?«
    Deerslayer hesitated a moment, and a gleam of pride and human weakness came
over him. He smiled, muttered between his teeth, and then looking up proudly, he
said -
    »Mingo, like all who are young and actyve, I've been known by different
names, at different times. One of your warriors whose spirit started for the
Happy Grounds of your people, as lately as yesterday morning, thought I desarved
to be known by the name of Hawkeye, and this because my sight happened to be
quicker than his own, when it got to be life or death, atween us.«
    Chingachgook, who was attentively listening to all that passed, heard and
understood this proof of passing weakness in his friend, and on a future
occasion he questioned him more closely concerning the transaction on the point,
where Deerslayer had first taken human life. When he had got the whole truth, he
did not fail to communicate it to the tribe, from which time the young hunter
was universally known among the Delawares, by an appellation so honorably
earned. As this, however, was a period posterior to all the incidents of
