 Delaware ears!«
    »You make it sound differently from me. But, never mind; I did hear the bird
you speak of sing, Great Serpent.«
    »Will my sister say words of song. What she sing most - how she look - often
she laugh?«
    »She sang Chin-gach-gook oftener than any thing else; and she laughed
heartily, when I told how the Iroquois waded into the water after us, and
could'n't catch us. I hope these logs have'n't ears. Serpent!«
    »No fear logs; fear sister next room - No fear Iroquois; Deerslayer stuff
his eyes and ears, with strange beast.«
    »I understand you, Serpent, and I understood Hist. Sometimes I think I'm not
half as feeble minded as they say I am. Now, do you look up at the roof, and
I'll tell you all. But you frighten me you look so eager, when I speak of Hist.«
    The Indian controlled his looks, and affected to comply with the simple
request of the girl.
    »Hist told me to say, in a very low voice, that you must'n't trust the
Iroquois in any thing. They are more artful than any Indians she knows. Then she
says that there is a large bright star that comes over the hill, about an hour
after dark, - (Hist had pointed out the planet Jupiter, without knowing it) -
and just as that star comes in sight, she will be on the point, where I landed
last night, and that you must come for her, in a canoe.«
    »Good - Chingachgook understand well enough, now; but he understand better
if my sister sing him, ag'in.«
    Hetty repeated her words, more fully explaining what star was meant, and
mentioning the part of the point where he was to venture ashore. She now
proceeded in her own unsophisticated way to relate her intercourse with the
Indian maid, and to repeat several of her expressions and opinions that gave
great delight to the heart of her betrothed. She particularly renewed her
injunctions to be on their guard against treachery, a warning that was scarcely
needed, however, as addressed to men as wary as those to whom it was sent. She
also explained, with sufficient clearness, for on all such subjects the mind of
the girl seldom failed her, the present state of the enemy, and the movements
they had made since morning. Hist had been on the raft with her, until it
