Her'n may sarve you just as good a turn."
"I do not know it. I've look'd through those papers, Deerslayer,
in the hope of finding some hint by which I might discover who my
mother was, but there is no more trace of the past, in that respect,
than the bird leaves in the air."
"That's both oncommon, and onreasonable. Parents are bound to give
their offspring a name, even though they give 'em nothing else. Now
I come of a humble stock, though we have white gifts and a white
natur', but we are not so poorly off as to have no name. Bumppo
we are called, and I've heard it said --" a touch of human vanity
glowing on his cheek, "that the time has been when the Bumppos had
more standing and note among mankind than they have just now."
"They never deserved them more, Deerslayer, and the name is a good
one; either Hetty, or myself, would a thousand times rather be
called Hetty Bumppo, or Judith Bumppo, than to be called Hetty or
Judith Hutter."
"That's a moral impossible," returned the hunter, good humouredly,
"onless one of you should so far demean herself as to marry me."
Judith could not refrain from smiling, when she found how simply
and naturally the conversation had come round to the very point
at which she had aimed to bring it.
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