"Father would have relished this fish," she exclaimed; "he says the
salmon of the lakes is almost as good as the salmon of the sea."
"Your father has been acquainted with the sea, they tell me, Judith,"
returned the young man, who could not forbear throwing a glance of
inquiry at the girl; for in common with all who knew Hutter, he had
some curiosity on the subject of his early history. "Hurry Harry
tells me he was once a sailor."
Judith first looked perplexed; then, influenced by feelings that
were novel to her, in more ways than one, she became suddenly
communicative, and seemingly much interested in the discourse.
"If Hurry knows anything of father's history, I would he had told
it to me!" she cried. "Sometimes I think, too, he was once a sailor,
and then again I think he was not. If that chest were open, or if
it could speak, it might let us into his whole history. But its
fastenings are too strong to be broken like pack thread."
Deerslayer turned to the chest in question, and for the first time
examined it closely. Although discolored, and bearing proofs of
having received much ill-treatment, he saw that it was of materials
and workmanship altogether superior to anything of the same sort
he had ever before beheld.
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