Judith will never marry March, Deerslayer."
"That's the p'int, Hetty; that's the very p'int I want to come to.
I suppose you know that it's nat'ral for young people to have kind
feelin's for one another, more especially when one happens to be a
youth and t'other a maiden. Now, one of your years and mind, gal,
that has neither father nor mother, and who lives in a wilderness
frequented by hunters and trappers, needs be on her guard against
evils she little dreams of."
"What harm can it be to think well of a fellow creature," returned
Hetty simply, though the conscious blood was stealing to her cheeks
in spite of a spirit so pure that it scarce knew why it prompted
the blush, "the Bible tells us to 'love them who despitefully use'
us, and why shouldn't we like them that do not."
"Ah! Hetty, the love of the missionaries isn't the sort of likin'
I mean. Answer me one thing, child; do you believe yourself to
have mind enough to become a wife, and a mother?"
"That's not a proper question to ask a young woman, Deerslayer,
and I'll not answer it," returned the girl, in a reproving manner
- much as a parent rebukes a child for an act of indiscretion. "If
you have any thing to say about Hurry, I'll hear that - but you
must not speak evil of him; he is absent, and 'tis unkind to talk
evil of the absent.
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