foul tongu'd
trappers and hunters that may come upon the lake. Let Hurry go by himself, and
then I'll find the means to see Deerslayer, when the future shall be soon
settled. Come, girl, the sun has set, and the Ark is drifting away from us; let
us paddle up to the scow, and consult with our friends. This night I shall look
into the chest, and to-morrow shall determine what we are to do. As for the
Hurons, now we can use our stores without fear of Thomas Hutter, they will be
easily bought off. Let me get Deerslayer once out of their hands, and a single
hour shall bring things to an understanding.«
    Judith spoke with decision, and she spoke with authority, a habit she had
long practised towards her feeble-minded sister. But, while thus accustomed to
have her way, by the aid of manner and a readier command of words, Hetty
occasionally checked her impetuous feelings and hasty acts by the aid of those
simple moral truths, that were so deeply engrafted in all her own thoughts and
feelings; shining through both, with a mild and beautiful lustre, that threw a
sort of holy halo around so much of what she both said and did. On the present
occasion, this healthful ascendancy of the girl of weak intellect, over her of a
capacity that, in other situations, might have become brilliant and admired, was
exhibited in the usual simple and earnest manner.
    »You forget, Judith, what has brought us here,« she said reproachfully.
»This is mother's grave, and we have just laid the body of father by her side.
We have done wrong to talk so much of ourselves at such a spot, and ought now to
pray God to forgive us, and ask him to teach us where we are to go, and what we
are to do.«
    Judith involuntarily laid aside her paddle, while Hetty dropped on her
knees, and was soon lost in her devout but simple petitions. Her sister did not
pray. This she had long ceased to do directly, though anguish of spirit
frequently wrung from her mental and hasty appeals to the great source of
benevolence for support, if not for a change of spirit. Still she never beheld
Hetty on her knees, that a feeling of tender recollection, as well as of
profound regret at the deadness of her own heart, did not come over her. Thus
had she herself done in childhood, and even down to the hour of her ill fated
visits to the garrisons, and