I've seen grim warriors
listening to the chattering and the laughing of young gals, as if
it was church music, such as is heard in the old Dutch church that
stands in the great street of Albany, where I've been, more than
once, with peltry and game."
"And you, Deerslayer," said Judith quickly, and with more sensibility
than marked her usually light and thoughtless manner, -"have you
never felt how pleasant it is to listen to the laugh of the girl
you love?"
"Lord bless you gal! - Why I've never lived enough among my own
colour to drop into them sort of feelin's, - no never! I dares
to say, they are nat'ral and right, but to me there's no music so
sweet as the sighing of the wind in the tree tops, and the rippling
of a stream from a full, sparkling, natyve fountain of pure forest
water - unless, indeed," he continued, dropping his head for
an instant in a thoughtful manner - "unless indeed it be the open
mouth of a sartain hound, when I'm on the track of a fat buck. As
for unsartain dogs, I care little for their cries, seein' they are
as likely to speak when the deer is not in sight, as when it is."
Judith walked slowly and pensively away, nor was there any of her
ordinary calculating coquetry in the light tremulous sigh that,
unconsciously to herself, arose to her lips.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263