"
"Then he was wrong, Hurry; very wrong. A man can enjoy plunder
peaceably nowhere."
"That's much as his turn of mind may happen to be. I've known
them that never could enjoy it at all, unless it was in the midst
of a jollification, and them again that enjoyed it best in a corner.
Some men have no peace if they don't find plunder, and some if they
do. Human nature' is crooked in these matters. Old Tom seems to
belong to neither set, as he enjoys his, if plunder he has really
got, with his darters, in a very quiet and comfortable way, and
wishes for no more."
"Ay, he has darters, too; I've heard the Delawares, who've hunted
this a way, tell their histories of these young women. Is there
no mother, Hurry?"
"There was once, as in reason; but she has now been dead and sunk
these two good years."
"Anan?" said Deerslayer, looking up at his companion in a little
surprise.
"Dead and sunk, I say, and I hope that's good English. The old
fellow lowered his wife into the lake, by way of seeing the last
of her, as I can testify, being an eye-witness of the ceremony;
but whether Tom did it to save digging, which is no easy job among
roots, or out of a consait that water washes away sin sooner than
'arth, is more than I can say.
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