, was the time to try to
get a little comfort in the close of my days. Woods! indeed! I
doesn't call these woods, Madam Effingham, where I lose myself every
day of my life in the clearings."

"If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it,
Leather-Stocking; if it be attainable it is yours."

"You mean all for the best, lad; I know it; and so does Madam, too:
but your ways isn't my ways. 'Tis like the dead there, who thought,
when the breath was in them, that one went east, and one went west to
find their heavens; but they'll meet at last; and so shall we,
children. Yes, ind as you've begun, and we shall meet in the land of
the just at last."

"This is so new! so unexpected!" said Elizabeth, in almost breathless
excitement; "I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us,
Natty."

"Words are of no avail," exclaimed her husband; "the habits of forty
years are not to be dispossest by the ties of a day. I know you too
well to urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a
hut on one of the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and
know that you are comfortable."

"Don't fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his
days be provided for, and his ind happy. I know you mean all for the
best, but our ways doesn't agree. I love the woods, and ye relish the
face of man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep
stated hours and rules: nay, nay, you even overfeed the dogs, lad,
from pure kindness; and hounds should be gaunty to run well. The
meanest of God's creatures be made for some use, and I'm formed for
the wilderness; if ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be
ag'in!"

The appeal was decisive; and not another word of entreaty for him to
remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and
wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with
hands that almost refused to perform their office, he produced his
pocket-book, and extended a parcel of banknotes to the hunter.

"Take these," he said, "at least take these; secure them about your
person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service."

The old man took the notes, and examined them with a curious eye.

"This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they've been
making at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that
hasn't l'arning! No, no, lad--take back the stuff; it will do me no
sarvice. I took kear to get all the Frenc