Look her reproaches
she did, but conquering the desire to retort, she succeeded in
answering in a mild and friendly manner.
"You must keep all your favorable opinions for the Delaware girls,
Deerslayer, if you seriously think thus of those of your own
colour," she said, affecting to laugh. "But try me; if you find
that I regret either ribbon or feather, silk or muslin, then may
you think what you please of my heart, and say what you think."
"That's justice! The rarest thing to find on 'arth is a truly
just man. So says Tamenund, the wisest prophet of the Delawares,
and so all must think that have occasion to see, and talk, and act
among Mankind. I love a just man, Sarpent. His eyes are never
covered with darkness towards his inimies, while they are all
sunshine and brightness towards his fri'nds. He uses the reason
that God has given him, and he uses it with a feelin' of his being
ordered to look at, and to consider things as they are, and not
as he wants them to be. It's easy enough to find men who call
themselves just, but it's wonderful oncommon to find them that are
the very thing, in fact. How often have I seen Indians, gal, who
believed they were lookin' into a matter agreeable to the will of
the Great Spirit, when in truth they were only striving to act up
to their own will and pleasure, and this, half the time, with a
temptation to go wrong that could no more be seen by themselves,
than the stream that runs in the next valley can be seen by us
through yonder mountain', though any looker on might have discovered
it as plainly as we can discover the parch that are swimming around
this hut.
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