I raised no small part of the weight of them uprights with my own
shoulders, and the axes flew, I can inform you, Master Natty, while
we were bee-ing it among the trees ashore. The old devil is no way
stingy about food, and as we had often eat at his hearth, we thought
we would just house him comfortably, afore we went to Albany with
our skins. Yes, many is the meal I've swallowed in Tom Hutter's
cabins; and Hetty, though so weak in the way of wits, has
a wonderful particular way about a frying-pan or a gridiron!
"While the parties were thus discoursing, the canoe had been
gradually drawing nearer to the "castle," and was now so close as
to require but a single stroke of a paddle to reach the landing.
This was at a floored platform in front of the entrance, that might
have been some twenty feet square.
"Old Tom calls this sort of a wharf his door-yard," observed Hurry,
as he fastened the canoe, after he and his Companion had left it:
"and the gallants from the forts have named it the castle court
though what a 'court' can have to do here is more than I can tell
you, seeing that there is no law. 'Tis as I supposed; not a soul
within, but the whole family is off on a v'y'ge of discovery!"
While Hurry was bustling about the "door-yard," examining the
fishing-spears, rods, nets, and other similar appliances of a frontier
cabin, Deerslayer, whose manner was altogether more rebuked and
quiet, entered the building with a curiosity that was not usually
exhibited by one so long trained in Indian habits.
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