and a white natur', but we are not so poorly
off, as to have no name. Bumppo we are called, and I've heard it said -« a touch
of human vanity glowing on his cheek, »that the time has been when the Bumppos
had more standing and note among mankind, than they have just now.«
    »They never deserved them more, Deerslayer, and the name is a good one;
either Hetty, or myself, would a thousand times rather be called Hetty Bumppo,
or Judith Bumppo, than to be called Hetty or Judith Hutter.«
    »That's a moral impossible,« returned the hunter, good-humouredly, »onless
one of you should so far demean herself as to marry me.«
    Judith could not refrain from smiling, when she found how simply and
naturally the conversation had come round to the very point at which she had
aimed to bring it. Although far from unfeminine or forward, either in her
feelings, or her habits, the girl was goaded by a sense of wrongs not altogether
merited, incited by the hopelessness of a future that seemed to contain no
resting place, and still more influenced by feelings that were as novel to her,
as they proved to be active and engrossing. The opening was too good, therefore,
to be neglected, though she came to the subject with much of the indirectness
and perhaps, justifiable, address of a woman.
    »I do not think Hetty will ever marry, Deerslayer,« she said, »and if your
name is to be borne by either of us, it must be borne by me.«
    »There's been handsome women too, they tell me, among the Bumppos, Judith,
afore now, and should you take up with the name, oncommon as you be, in this
particular, them that knows the family won't be altogether surprised.«
    »This is not talking as becomes either of us, Deerslayer, for whatever is
said on such a subject, between man and woman, should be said seriously, and in
sincerity of heart. Forgetting the shame that ought to keep girls silent, until
spoken to, in most cases, I will deal with you as frankly as I know one of your
generous nature will most like to be dealt by. Can you - do you think,
Deerslayer, that you could be happy with such a wife as a woman like myself
would make?«
    »A woman like you, Judith! But where's the sense in trifling about such a
thing? - A woman