tly from
their threats ag'in myself, and their other discourse. Well, life is
unsartain at the best, and we all depend on the breath of our nostrils
for it, from day to day. If you've lost a staunch fri'nd, as I make
no doubt you have, Providence will raise up new ones in his stead, and
since our acquaintance has begun in this oncommon manner, I shall take
it as a hint that it will be a part of my duty in futur', should the
occasion offer, to see you don't suffer for want of food in the wigwam.
I can't bring the dead to life, but as to feeding the living, there's
few on all this frontier can outdo me, though I say it in the way
of pity and consolation, like, and in no particular, in the way of
boasting."

"We understand you, Deerslayer," returned Judith, hastily, "and take all
that falls from your lips, as it is meant, in kindness and friendship.
Would to Heaven all men had tongues as true, and hearts as honest!"

"In that respect men do differ, of a sartainty, Judith. I've known them
that wasn't to be trusted any farther than you can see them; and others
ag'in whose messages, sent with a small piece of wampum, perhaps, might
just as much be depended on, as if the whole business was finished afore
your face. Yes, Judith, you never said truer word, than when you said
some men might be depended on, and other some might not."

"You are an unaccountable being, Deerslayer," returned the girl, not a
little puzzled with the childish simplicity of character that the hunter
so often betrayed--a simplicity so striking that it frequently appeared
to place him nearly on a level with the fatuity of poor Hetty, though
always relieved by the beautiful moral truth that shone through all that
this unfortunate girl both said and did--"You are a most unaccountable
man, and I often do not know how to understand you. But never mind, just
now; you have forgotten to tell us by what means you are here."

"I!--Oh! That's not very onaccountable, if I am myself, Judith. I'm out
on furlough."

"Furlough!--That word has a meaning among the soldiers that I
understand; but I cannot tell what it signifies when used by a
prisoner."

"It means just the same. You're right enough; the soldiers do use it,
and just in the same way as I use it. A furlough is when a man has leave
to quit a camp or a garrison for a sartain specified time; at the end
of which he is to come back and shoulder his musket, or submit to his
torments, just as he may happen to