I know consarning Judith, you'd find a justification for a little
cussing. Now, the officers sometimes stray over to the lake, from
the forts on the Mohawk, to fish and hunt, and then the creatur'
seems beside herself! You can see in the manner which she wears
her finery, and the airs she gives herself with the gallants."

"That is unseemly in a poor man's darter," returned Deerslayer
gravely, "the officers are all gentry, and can only look on such
as Judith with evil intentions."

"There's the unsartainty, and the damper! I have my misgivings
about a particular captain, and Jude has no one to blame but her
own folly, if I'm right. On the whole, I wish to look upon her
as modest and becoming, and yet the clouds that drive among these
hills are not more unsartain. Not a dozen white men have ever
laid eyes upon her since she was a child, and yet her airs,
with two or three of these officers, are extinguishers!"

"I would think no more of such a woman, but turn my mind altogether
to the forest; that will not deceive you, being ordered and ruled
by a hand that never wavers."

"If you know'd Judith, you would see how much easier it is to say
this than it would be to do it. Could I bring my mind to be easy
about the officers, I would carry the gal off to the Mohawk by
force, make her marry me in spite of her whiffling, and leave old
Tom to the care of Hetty, his other child, who, if she be not as
handsome or as quick-witted as her sister, is much the most dutiful."

"Is there another bird in the same nest!" asked Deerslayer,