"
"That's modest and suitable, lad," exclaimed Hurry. "You've never
yet heard the crack of an angry rifle; and, let me tell you, 'tis
as different from the persuasion of one of your venison speeches,
as the laugh of Judith Hutter, in her best humor, is from the
scolding of a Dutch house keeper on the Mohawk. I don't expect
you'll prove much of a warrior, Deerslayer, though your equal with
the bucks and the does don't exist in all these parts. As for the
ra'al sarvice, however, you'll turn out rather rearward, according
to my consait."
"We'll see, Hurry, we'll see," returned the other, meekly; so far
as human eye could discover, not at all disturbed by these expressed
doubts concerning his conduct on a point on which men are sensitive,
precisely in the degree that they feel the consciousness of
demerit; "having never been tried, I'll wait to know, before I form
any opinion of myself; and then there'll be sartainty, instead of
bragging. I've heard of them that was valiant afore the fight,
who did little in it; and of them that waited to know their own
tempers, and found that they weren't as bad as some expected, when
put to the proof."
"At any rate, we know you can use a paddle, young man," said Hutter,
"and that's all we shall ask of you tonight.
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