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 colors, Jasper, just as your craft on the lake
wears St. George's Cross, and the Frenchers set their tablecloths
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 fingers 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