kept sacred by a large portion of the settlers. Accordingly, all further
proceedings were suspended for six-and-thirty hours.
 

                                  Chapter XXXI

 »And dar'st thou, then,
 To beard the lion in his den,
 The Douglass in his hall?«
                                                   Scott, Marmion, VI.xiv.23-25.
 
The commotion was just subsiding, and the inhabitants of the village had begun
to disperse from the little groups they had formed, each retiring to his own
home, and closing his door after him, with the grave air of a man who consulted
public feeling in his exterior deportment, when Oliver Edwards, on his return
from the dwelling of Mr. Grant, encountered the young lawyer, who is known to
the reader as Mr. Lippet. There was very little similarity in the manners or
opinions of the two; but as they both belonged to the more intelligent class of
a very small community, they were, of course, known to each other; and, as their
meeting was at a point where silence would have been rudeness, the following
conversation was the result of their interview: -
    »A fine evening, Mr. Edwards,« commenced the lawyer, whose disinclination to
the dialogue was, to say the least, very doubtful; »we want rain sadly; - that's
the worst of this climate of ours, it's either a drought or a deluge. It's
likely you've been used to a more equal temperatoore?«
    »I am a native of this state,« returned Edwards, coldly.
    »Well, I've often heerd that point disputed; but it's so easy to get a man
naturalized, that it's of little consequence where he was born. I wonder what
course the Judge means to take in this business of Natty Bumppo?«
    »Of Natty Bumppo!« echoed Edwards; »to what do you allude, sir?«
    »Haven't you heerd!« exclaimed the other, with a look of surprise, so
naturally assumed as completely to deceive his auditor; »it may turn out an ugly
business. It seems that the old man has been out in the hills, and has shot a
buck, this morning, and that, you know, is a criminal matter in the eyes of
Judge Temple.«
    »Oh! he has, has he!« said Edwards, averting his face to conceal the colour
that collected in his sun-burnt cheek. »Well, if that be all, he must even pay
the fine.«
    »It