Bumppo isn't
as pretty as Hutter, is it?"
"Why, that's as people fancy. Bumppo has no lofty sound, I admit;
and yet men have bumped through the world with it. I did not go
by this name, howsoever, very long; for the Delawares soon found
out, or thought they found out, that I was not given to lying, and
they called me, firstly, 'Straight-tongue.'"
"That's a good name," interrupted Hetty, earnestly, and in a
positive manner; "don't tell me there's no virtue in names!"
"I do not say that, for perhaps I desarved to be so called, lies
being no favorites with me, as they are with some. After a while
they found out I was quick of foot, and then they called me 'The
Pigeon'; which, you know, has a swift wing, and flies in a straight
line."
"That was a pretty name!" exclaimed Hetty; "pigeons are pretty
birds!"
"Most things that God created are pretty in their way, my good gal,
though they get to be deformed by mankind, so as to change their
natur's, as well as their appearance. From carrying messages, and
striking blind trails, I got at last to following the hunters, when
it was thought I was quicker and surer at finding the game than
most lads, and then they called me the 'Lap-ear'; as, they said,
I partook of the sagacity of the hound.
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