anner.

"'Tis the tooting we'pon of the singer! now we shall have a trail a
priest might travel," he said. "Uncas, look for the marks of a shoe that
is long enough to uphold six feet two of tottering human flesh. I begin
to have some hopes of the fellow, since he has given up squalling to
follow some better trade."

"At least he has been faithful to his trust," said Heyward. "And Cora
and Alice are not without a friend."

"Yes," said Hawkeye, dropping his rifle, and leaning on it with an air
of visible contempt, "he will do their singing. Can he slay a buck for
their dinner; journey by the moss on the beeches, or cut the throat of
a Huron? If not, the first catbird* he meets is the cleverer of the two.
Well, boy, any signs of such a foundation?"

* The powers of the American mocking-bird are generally
known. But the true mocking-bird is not found so far north
as the state of New York, where it has, however, two
substitutes of inferior excellence, the catbird, so often
named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called ground-
thresher. Either of these last two birds is superior to the
nightingale or the lark, though, in general, the American
birds are less musical than those of Europe.

"Here is something like the footstep of one who has worn a shoe; can it
be that of our friend?"

"Touch the leaves lightly or you'll disconsart the formation. That! that
is the print of a foot, but 'tis the dark-hair's; and small it is, too,
for one of such a noble height and grand appearance. The singer would
cover it with his heel."

"Where! let me look on the footsteps of my child," said Munro, shoving
the bushes aside, and bending fondly over the nearly obliterated
impression. Though the tread which had left the mark had been light and
rapid, it was still plainly visible. The aged soldier examined it with
eyes that grew dim as he gazed; nor did he rise from this stooping
posture until Heyward saw that he had watered the trace of his
daughter's passage with a scalding tear. Willing to divert a distress
which threatened each moment to break through the restraint of
appearances, by giving the veteran something to do, the young man said
to the scout:

"As we now possess these infallible signs, let us commence our march. A
moment, at such a time, will appear an age to the captives."

"It is not the swiftest leaping deer that gives the longest chase,"
returned Hawkeye, without moving his ey