Hist is a kind, gentle, laughing,
pleasant creatur', but she loves honor, as well as any Delaware
gal I ever know'd. She's to meet the Sarpent an hour hence, on the
p'int where Hetty landed, and no doubt she has her anxiety about
it, like any other woman; but she'd be all the happier did she know
that her lover was at this moment waylaying a Mingo for his scalp."
"If you really believe this, Deerslayer, no wonder you lay so
much stress on gifts. Certain am I, that no white girl could feel
anything but misery while she believed her betrothed in danger of
his life! Nor do I suppose even you, unmoved and calm as you ever
seem to be, could be at peace if you believed your Hist in danger."
"That's a different matter - 'tis altogether a different matter,
Judith. Woman is too weak and gentle to be intended to run such
risks, and man must feel for her. Yes, I rather think that's as
much red natur' as it's white. But I have no Hist, nor am I like
to have; for I hold it wrong to mix colours, any way except in
friendship and sarvices."
"In that you are and feel as a white man should! As for Hurry
Harry, I do think it would be all the same to him whether his wife
were a squaw or a governor's daughter, provided she was a little
comely, and could help to keep his craving stomach full.
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