d answered--

"Wah-ta-Wah says that neither she nor the Great Serpent could ever
laugh again, or ever sleep without dreaming of the Hurons, should the
Deerslayer die under a Mingo tomahawk, and they do nothing to save him.
She would rather go back, and start on her long path alone, than let
such a dark cloud pass before her happiness."

"Good! The husband and the wife will have but one heart; they will see
with the same eyes, and feel with the same feelings."

What further was said need not be related here. That the conversation
was of Deerslayer, and his hopes, has been seen already, but the
decision that was come to will better appear in the course of the
narrative. The youthful pair were yet conversing when the sun appeared
above the tops of the pines, and the light of a brilliant American
day streamed down into the valley, bathing "in deep joy" the lake, the
forests and the mountain sides. Just at this instant Deerslayer came out
of the cabin of the Ark and stepped upon the platform. His first look
was at the cloudless heavens, then his rapid glance took in the entire
panorama of land and water, when he had leisure for a friendly nod at
his friends, and a cheerful smile for Hist.

"Well," he said, in his usual, composed manner, and pleasant voice, "he
that sees the sun set in the west, and wakes 'arly enough in the morning
will be sartain to find him coming back ag'in in the east, like a buck
that is hunted round his ha'nt. I dare say, now, Hist, you've beheld
this, time and ag'in, and yet it never entered into your galish mind to
ask the reason?"

Both Chingachgook and his betrothed looked up at the luminary, with an
air that betokened sudden wonder, and then they gazed at each other,
as if to seek the solution of the difficulty. Familiarity deadens the
sensibilities even as connected with the gravest natural phenomena,
and never before had these simple beings thought of enquiring into a
movement that was of daily occurrence, however puzzling it might appear
on investigation. When the subject was thus suddenly started, it struck
both alike, and at the same instant, with some such force, as any new
and brilliant proposition in the natural sciences would strike the
scholar. Chingachgook alone saw fit to answer.

"The pale-faces know everything," he said; "can they tell us why the sun
hides his face, when he goes back, at night."

"Ay, that is downright red-skin l'arnin'" returned the other, laughing,
through