ppened me; seeing firstly, because I'm not
born a red-skin and have no right to sit in their councillings, and am
much too humble to be called on for opinions from the great of my own
colour; and, secondly, because this is the first war that has befallen
in my time, and no inimy has yet inroaded far enough into the colony, to
be reached by an arm even longer than mine."

"Tell me your names," added Hetty, looking up at him artlessly, "and,
maybe, I'll tell you your character."

"There is some truth in that, I'll not deny, though it often fails. Men
are deceived in other men's characters, and frequently give 'em names
they by no means desarve. You can see the truth of this in the Mingo
names, which, in their own tongue, signify the same things as the
Delaware names,--at least, so they tell me, for I know little of that
tribe, unless it be by report,--and no one can say they are as honest or
as upright a nation. I put no great dependence, therefore, on names."

"Tell me all your names," repeated the girl, earnestly, for her mind
was too simple to separate things from professions, and she did attach
importance to a name; "I want to know what to think of you."

"Well, sartain; I've no objection, and you shall hear them all. In the
first place, then, I'm Christian, and white-born, like yourself, and my
parents had a name that came down from father to son, as is a part of
their gifts. My father was called Bumppo; and I was named after him, of
course, the given name being Nathaniel, or Natty, as most people saw fit
to tarm it."

"Yes, yes--Natty--and Hetty" interrupted the girl quickly, and
looking up from her work again, with a smile: "you are Natty, and I'm
Hetty-though you are Bumppo, and I'm Hutter. Bumppo isn't as pretty as
Hutter, is it?"

"Why, that's as people fancy. Bumppo has no lofty sound, I admit; and
yet men have bumped through the world with it. I did not go by this
name, howsoever, very long; for the Delawares soon found out, or thought
they found out, that I was not given to lying, and they called me,
firstly, 'Straight-tongue.'"

"That's a good name," interrupted Hetty, earnestly, and in a positive
manner; "don't tell me there's no virtue in names!"

"I do not say that, for perhaps I desarved to be so called, lies being
no favorites with me, as they are with some. After a while they found
out I was quick of foot, and then they called me 'The Pigeon'; which,
you know, has a swift wing, and flies in a