again, the Deerslayer.

"Why, what the officers call 'compass meant us,' which I understand
to signify that she means always to go in the right direction, but
sometimes does not know how. 'Compass'for the p'int, and 'meant us' for
the intention. No, poor Hetty is what I call on the verge of ignorance,
and sometimes she stumbles on one side of the line, and sometimes on
t'other."

"Them are beings that the Lord has in his special care," said
Deerslayer, solemnly; "for he looks carefully to all who fall short of
their proper share of reason. The red-skins honor and respect them who
are so gifted, knowing that the Evil Spirit delights more to dwell in an
artful body, than in one that has no cunning to work upon."

"I'll answer for it, then, that he will not remain long with poor Hetty;
for the child is just 'compass meant us,' as I have told you. Old Tom
has a feeling for the gal, and so has Judith, quick-witted and glorious
as she is herself; else would I not answer for her being altogether safe
among the sort of men that sometimes meet on the lake shore."

"I thought this water an unknown and little-frequented sheet," observed
the Deerslayer, evidently uneasy at the idea of being too near the
world.

"It's all that, lad, the eyes of twenty white men never having been laid
on it; still, twenty true-bred frontiersmen--hunters and trappers, and
scouts, and the like,--can do a deal of mischief if they try. 'T would
be an awful thing to me, Deerslayer, did I find Judith married, after an
absence of six months!"

"Have you the gal's faith, to encourage you to hope otherwise?"

"Not at all. I know not how it is: I'm good-looking, boy,--that much I
can see in any spring on which the sun shines,--and yet I could not get
the hussy to a promise, or even a cordial willing smile, though she will
laugh by the hour. If she has dared to marry in my absence, she'd be
like to know the pleasures of widowhood afore she is twenty!"

"You would not harm the man she has chosen, Hurry, simply because she
found him more to her liking than yourself!"

"Why not! If an enemy crosses my path, will I not beat him out of it!
Look at me! am I a man like to let any sneaking, crawling, skin-trader
get the better of me in a matter that touches me as near as the kindness
of Judith Hutter! Besides, when we live beyond law, we must be our own
judges and executioners. And if a man should be found dead in the woods,
who is there to say who slew him,