tance--" Deerslayer selected this example
simply from the circumstance that he was the only young man known to
both--"and that he had fallen on a war path, would you wish to take to
your bosom, for a husband, the man that slew him?"

"Oh! no, no, no--" returned the girl shuddering--"That would be wicked
as well as heartless! No Christian girl could, or would do that! I never
shall be the wife of Hurry, I know, but were he my husband no man should
ever be it, again, after his death!"

"I thought it would get to this, Hetty, when you come to understand
sarcumstances. 'Tis a moral impossibility that I should ever marry
Sumach, and, though Injin weddin's have no priests and not much
religion, a white man who knows his gifts and duties can't profit by
that, and so make his escape at the fitting time. I do think death would
be more nat'ral like, and welcome, than wedlock with this woman."

"Don't say it too loud," interrupted Hetty impatiently; "I suppose she
will not like to hear it. I'm sure Hurry would rather marry even me than
suffer torments, though I am feeble minded; and I am sure it would kill
me to think he'd prefer death to being my husband."

"Ay, gal, you ain't Sumach, but a comely young Christian, with a good
heart, pleasant smile, and kind eye. Hurry might be proud to get you,
and that, too, not in misery and sorrow, but in his best and happiest
days. Howsever, take my advice, and never talk to Hurry about these
things; he's only a borderer, at the best."

"I wouldn't tell him, for the world!" exclaimed the girl, looking about
her like one affrighted, and blushing, she knew not why. "Mother always
said young women shouldn't be forward, and speak their minds before
they're asked; Oh! I never forget what mother told me. Tis a pity Hurry
is so handsome, Deerslayer; I do think fewer girls would like him then,
and he would sooner know his own mind."

"Poor gal, poor gal, it's plain enough how it is, but the Lord will bear
in mind one of your simple heart and kind feelin's! We'll talk no more
of these things; if you had reason, you'd be sorrowful at having let
others so much into your secret. Tell me, Hetty, what has become of all
the Hurons, and why they let you roam about the p'int as if you, too,
was a prisoner?"

"I'm no prisoner, Deerslayer, but a free girl, and go when and where I
please. Nobody dare hurt me! If they did, God would be angry, as I can
show them in the Bible. No--no--Hetty Hutter is not afr