cleared
of leaves, and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing
its waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then
roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate,
and piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves were laid beneath it for the
sisters to repose on.

While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and
Alice partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than
inclination prompted them to accept. They then retired within the
walls, and first offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and
petitioning for a continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming
night, they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite
of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which
nature so imperiously demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes
for the morrow. Duncan had prepared himself to pass the night in
watchfulness near them, just without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving
his intention, pointed toward Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his
own person on the grass, and said:

"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as
this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep."

"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night," said
Heyward, "and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit
to the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then,
while I hold the guard."

"If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in front of an
enemy like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman," returned
the scout; "but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness
your judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance
thrown away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in
safety."

Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form
on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought
to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had
been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with
the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march.
Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to
comply, by posting his back against the logs of the blockhouse, in a
half recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind,
not to close an eye until he had delivered his prec