was breathed into its nostrils has departed. That Iroquois will never harm any one more; but yonder sculking savage is bent on taking the scalp of my best and most tried friend."

The Pathfinder suddenly interrupted himself, by raising his rifle, a weapon of unusual length, with admirable precision, and firing the instant it had got its level. The Iroquois on the opposite shore, was in the act of aiming when the fatal messenger from killdeer arrived. His rifle was discharged, it is true, but it was with the muzzle in the air, while the man himself plunged into the bushes, quite evidently hurt, if not slain.

"The sculking reptyle brought it on himself," muttered Pathfinder, sternly, as dropping the but of his rifle, he carefully commenced reloading it. "Chingachgook and I have consorted together since we were boys, and have fi't in company, on the Horican, the Mohawk, the Ontario, and all the other bloody passes between the country of the Frenchers and our own; and did the foolish knave believe that I would stand by and see my best friend cut off in an ambushment ? "

"We have served the Serpent as good a turn as he served us. Those rascals are troubled, Pathfinder, and are falling back into their covers, since they find we can reach them across the river."

"The shot is no great matter, Jasper; no great matter. Ask any of the 60th, and they can tell you what killdeer can do, and has done, and that too when the bullets were flying about our heads like hailstones. No, no! this is no great matter, and the unthoughtful vagabond drew it down on himself."

“Is that a dog, or a deer, swimming towards this shore ?

Pathfinder started, for sure enough an object was crossing the stream, above the rift, towards which, however, it was gradually setting by the force of the current. A second look satisfied both the observers that it was a man, and an Indian, though so concealed as, at first, to render it doubtful. Some stratagem was apprehended, and the closest attention was given to the movements of the stranger.

"He is pushing something before him, as he swimś, and his head resembles a drifting bush," said Jasper.

" 'Tis Indian devilry, boy; but Christian honesty shall sarcumvent their arts."

As the man slowly approached, the observers began to doubt the accuracy of their first impressions, and it was only when two thirds of the stream were passed, that the truth was really known.

"The Big Sarpent, as I live!" exclaimed Pathfinder, looking at his companion, and laughing until the tears came into his eyes, with pure delight at the success of the artifice. "He has tied bushes to his head, so as to hide it, put the horn on top, lashed the rifle to that bit of log he is pushing before him, and has come over to join his friends. Ah's me! The times and times that he and I have cut such pranks, right in the teeth of Mingos raging for our blood, in the great thoroughfare round and about Ty!"

"It may not be the Serpent, after all, Pathfinder; I can see no feature that I remember."

"Feature! Who looks for features in an Indian ? No, no, boy; 'tis the paint that speaks, and none but a Delaware would wear that paint: them are his colours, Jasper, just as your craft on the lake wears St. George's Cross, and the Frenchers set their table-cloths to fluttering in the wind, with all the stains of fish-bones and venison steaks upon them. Now, you see the eye, lad, and it is the eye of a chief. But, Eau-douce, fierce as it is in battle, and glassy as it looks from among the leaves,"—here the Pathfinder laid his finger lightly but impressively on his companion's arm,- "I have seen it shed tears like rain. There is a soul and a heart under that red skin, rely on it ; although they are a soul and a heart with gifts different from our own.

"No one who is acquainted with the chief ever doubted that."

"I know it," returned the other, proudly, " for I have consorted with him in sorrow and in joy in one I have -found him a man, however stricken; in the other, a chief who knows that the women of his tribe are the most seemly

in light merriment. But, hist! It is too much like the people of the settlements to pour soft speeches into another's ear; and the Sarpent has keen senses. He knows I love him, and that I speak well of him behind his back but a Delaware has modesty in his inmost natur', though he will brag like a sinner when tied to a stake."

;

The Serpent now reached the shore, directly in the front of his two comrades, with whose precise position he must have been acquainted before leaving the eastern side of the river, and rising from the water he shook himself like a dog, and made the usual exclamation—“ Hugh!”

CHAPTER VI.

These, as they change, Almighty Father, these,
Are but the varied God.

THOMSON.

As the chief landed he was met by the Pathfinder, who addressed him in the language of the warrior's people: "Was it well done, Chingachgook," said he, reproachfully, "to ambush a dozen Mingos, alone? Kildeer seldom fails me, it is true; but the Oswego makes a distant mark, and that miscreant showed little more than his head and shoulders above the bushes, and an onpractysed hand and eye might have failed. You should have thought of this, chief; you should have thought of this!"

"The Great Serpent is a Mohican warrior - he sees only his enemies when he is on the war-path, and his fathers have struck the Mingos from behind, since the waters began to run."

"I know your gifts, I know your gifts, and respect them too. No man shall hear me complain that a red-skin obsarved red-skin natur'. But prudence as much becomes a warrior as valour; and had not the Iroquois devils been looking after their friends who were in the water, a hot trail they would have made of your'n."

"What is the Delaware about to do?" exclaimed Jas

per, who observed at that moment that the chief had suddenly left the Pathfinder, and advanced to the water's edge, apparently with an intention of again entering the river. "He will not be so mad as to return to the other shore, for any trifle he may have forgotten?"

"Not he, not he; he is as prudent as he is brave, in the main, though so forgetful of himself in the late ambushment. Hark'e, Jasper," leading the other a little aside, just as they heard the Indian's plunge into the water

"hark'e, lad; Chingachgook is not a Christian white man, like ourselves, but a Mohican chief, who has his gifts and traditions to tell him what he ought to do; and he who consorts with them that are not strictly and altogether of his own kind, had better leave natur' and use to govern his comrades. A king's soldier will swear, and he will drink, and it is of little use to try to prevent him; a gentleman likes his delicacies, and a lady her feathers, and it does not avail much to struggle against either; whereas an Indian's natur' and gifts are much stronger than these, and no doubt were bestowed by the Lord for wise ends, though neither you nor me can follow them in all their windings."

"What does this mean?-See, the Delaware is swimming towards the body that is lodged on the rock? does he risk this?"

Why

"For honour, and glory, and renown, as great gentlemen quit their quiet homes beyond seas, where, as they tell me, heart has nothing left to wish for; that is, such hearts as can be satisfied in a clearing, to come hither to live on game and fight the Frenchers."

"I understand you - your friend has gone to secure the scalp."

"'Tis his gift, and let him enjoy it. We are white men, and cannot mangle a dead enemy; but it is honour in the eyes of a red-skin to do so. It may seem singular to you, Eau-douce, but I've known white men of great name and character manifest as remarkable idees consarning their honour, I have."

"A savage will be a savage, Pathfinder, let him keep what company he may."

"It is well for us to say so, lad; but, as I tell you, white honour will not always conform to reason, or to the will of God. I have passed days thinking of these matters, out in the silent woods, and I have come to the opinion, boy, that, as Providence rules all things, no gift is bestowed without some wise and reasonable end."

"The Serpent greatly exposes himself to the enemy, in order to get his scalp! This may lose us the day.” "Not in his mind, Jasper. That one scalp has more honour in it, according to the Sarpent's notions of warfare, than a field covered with slain, that kept the hair on their heads. Now, there was the fine young captain of the 60th that threw away his life in trying to bring off a threepounder from among the Frenchers in the last skrimmage we had; he thought he was sarving honour; and I have known a young ensign wrap himself up in his colours, and go to sleep in his blood, fancying that he was lying on something softer even than buffalo-skins!"

"Yes, yes; one can understand the merit of not hauling down an ensign."

he will keep

"And these are Chingachgook's colours · them to show his children's children," here the Pathfinder interrupted himself, shook his head in melancholy, and slowly added, "Ah's me! no shoot of the old Mohican stem remains! He has no children to delight with his · trophies; no tribe to honour by his deeds; he is a lone man in this world, and yet he stands true to his training and his gifts! There is something honest and respectable in these, you must allow, Jasper."

Here a great outcry from among the Iroquois was succeeded by the quick reports of their rifles, and so eager did the enemy become, in the desire to drive the Delaware back from his victim, that a dozen rushed into the river, several of whom even advanced near a hundred feet into the foaming current, as if they actually meditated a serious sortie. But Chingachgook continued unmoved, as he remained unhurt by the missiles, accomplishing his task with the dexterity of long habit. Flourishing his reeking trophy, he gave the war-whoop in its most frightful intonations, and for a minute the arches of the silent woods,