"It shall be a cunning Iroquois who hurts a hair of your head, pretty
one; for all here are bound to the Sergeant, and most, I think, to
yourself, to see you safe from harm. Ha, Eau-douce! what is that
in the river, at the lower turn, yonder, beneath the bushes, -- I
mean standing on the rock?"

"'Tis the Big Serpent, Pathfinder; he is making signs to us in a
way I don't understand."

"'Tis the Sarpent, as sure as I'm a white man, and he wishes us to
drop in nearer to his shore. Mischief is brewing, or one of his
deliberation and steadiness would never take this trouble. Courage,
all! We are men, and must meet devilry as becomes our color and
our callings. Ah, I never knew good come of boasting! And here,
just as I was vaunting of our safety, comes danger to give me the
lie."



CHAPTER IV

Art, stryving to compare
With nature, did an arber greene dispred,
Fram'd of wanton yvie flowing fayre,
Through which the fragrant eglantines did spred.
SPENSER.


The Oswego, below the falls, is a more rapid, unequal stream than