returned the chief, gloomily, »that it
blinds our eyes. My young men see that it is all Huron.«
    »No doubt; and more Huron blood would be spilt had I come surrounded with
pale faces. I have heard of Rivenoak, and have thought it would be better to
send him back in peace to his village, that he might leave his women and
children behind him; if he then wished to come for our scalps, we would meet
him. He loves animals made of ivory, and little rifles. See; I have brought some
with me to show him. I am his friend. When he has packed up these things among
his goods, he will start for his village, before any of my young men can
overtake him, and then he will show his people in Canada what riches they can
come to seek, now that our great fathers, across the Salt Lake, have sent each
other the war hatchet. I will lead back with me, this great hunter, of whom I
have need to keep my house in venison.«
    Judith, who was sufficiently familiar with Indian phraseology, endeavored to
express her ideas in the sententious manner common to those people, and she
succeeded even beyond her own expectations. Deerslayer did her full justice in
the translation, and this so much the more readily, since the girl carefully
abstained from uttering any direct untruth; a homage she paid to the young man's
known aversion to falsehood, which he deemed a meanness altogether unworthy of a
white man's gifts. The offering of the two remaining elephants, and of the
pistols already mentioned, one of which was all the worse for the recent
accident, produced a lively sensation among the Hurons, generally, though
Rivenoak received it coldly, notwithstanding the delight with which he had first
discovered the probable existence of a creature with two tails. In a word, this
cool and sagacious savage was not so easily imposed on, as his followers, and
with a sentiment of honor, that half the civilized world would have deemed
supererogatory, he declined the acceptance of a bribe that he felt no
disposition to earn by a compliance with the donor's wishes.
    »Let my daughter keep her two-tailed hog, to eat, when venison is scarce,«
he drily answered, »and the little gun, which has two muzzles. The Hurons will
kill deer when they are hungry, and they have long rifles to fight with. This
hunter cannot quit my young men now; they wish to know if he is as stout
hearted, as he boasts himself