until the morning; when I returned and passed the night in the cabin
of the hunter.”

Miss Temple was so much struck by the deep attention of young Edwards
during this speech that she forgot to resume her interrogations; but
the youth himself continued the discourse by asking:

“And how did the Leather-Stocking discharge the duties of a host sir?”

“Why, simply but kindly, until late in the evening, when he discovered
my name and object, and the cordiality of his manner very sensibly
diminished, or, I might better say, disappeared. He considered the
introduction of the settlers as an innovation on his rights, I believe
for he expressed much dissatisfaction at the measure, though it was in
his confused and ambiguous manner. I hardly understood his objections
myself, but supposed they referred chiefly to an interruption of the
hunting.”

“Had you then purchased the estate, or were you examining it with an
intent to buy?” asked Edwards, a little abruptly.

“It had been mine for several years. It was with a view to People the
land that I visited the lake. Natty treated me hospitably, but
coldly, I thought, after he learned the nature of my journey. I slept
on his own bear—skin, however, and in the morning joined my surveyors
again.”

“Said he nothing of the Indian rights, sir? The Leather-Stocking is
much given to impeach the justice of the tenure by which the whites
hold the country.”