I dare say, now,
Hist, you've beheld this, time and ag'in, and yet it never entered
into your galish mind to ask the reason?"
Both Chingachgook and his betrothed looked up at the luminary, with
an air that betokened sudden wonder, and then they gazed at each
other, as if to seek the solution of the difficulty. Familiarity
deadens the sensibilities even as connected with the gravest natural
phenomena, and never before had these simple beings thought of
enquiring into a movement that was of daily occurrence, however
puzzling it might appear on investigation. When the subject was
thus suddenly started, it struck both alike, and at the same instant,
with some such force, as any new and brilliant proposition in the
natural sciences would strike the scholar. Chingachgook alone saw
fit to answer.
"The pale-faces know everything," he said; "can they tell us why
the sun hides his face, when he goes back, at night."
"Ay, that is downright red-skin l'arnin'" returned the other,
laughing, through he was not altogether insensible to the pleasure
of proving the superiority of his race by solving the difficulty,
which he set about doing in his own peculiar manner. "Harkee, Sarpent,"
he continued more gravely, though too simply for affectation; "this
is easierly explained than an Indian brain may fancy.
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