The old woman withdrew, but the hunter well understood
that he was to be the subject of all her means of annoyance, if
not of positive injury, so long as he remained in the power of his
enemies, for nothing rankles so deeply as the consciousness that
an attempt to irritate has been met by contempt, a feeling that
is usually the most passive of any that is harbored in the human
breast. Rivenoak quietly took the seat we have mentioned, and,
after a short pause, he commenced a dialogue, which we translate
as usual, for the benefit of those readers who have not studied
the North American languages.
"My pale-face friend is very welcome," said the Indian, with a
familiar nod, and a smile so covert that it required all Deerslayer's
vigilance to detect, and not a little of his philosophy to detect
unmoved; "he is welcome. The Hurons keep a hot fire to dry the
white man's clothes by."
"I thank you, Huron - or Mingo, as I most like to call you,"
returned the other, "I thank you for the welcome, and I thank you
for the fire. Each is good in its way, and the last is very good,
when one has been in a spring as cold as the Glimmerglass. Even
Huron warmth may be pleasant, at such a time, to a man with a
Delaware heart.
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