tells me that some sharp ones have been wheedling the Mohawks for
an Indian deed, in order to get a title out of the colony; but
nothing has come of it, seeing that no one heavy enough for such
a trade has yet meddled with the matter. The hunters have a good
life-lease still of this wilderness."

"So much the better, so much the better, Hurry. If I was King
of England, the man that felled one of these trees without good
occasion for the timber, should be banished to a desarted and forlorn
region, in which no fourfooted animal ever trod. Right glad am I
that Chingachgook app'inted our meeting on this lake, for hitherto
eye of mine never looked on such a glorious spectacle."

"That's because you've kept so much among the Delawares, in whose country
there are no lakes. Now, farther north and farther west these
bits of water abound; and you're young, and may yet live to see
'em. But though there be other lakes, Deerslayer, there's no other
Judith Hutter!"

At this remark his companion smiled, and then he dropped his paddle
into the water, as if in consideration of a lover's haste. Both
now pulled vigorously until they got within a hundred yards of
the "castle," as Hurry familiarly called the house of Hutter, when
they again ceased paddling; the admirer of Judith restraining his
impatience the more readily, as he perceived that the building was
untenanted, at the moment. This new pause was to enable Deerslayer
to survey the singular edifice, which was of a construction so
novel as to merit a particular description.

Muskrat Castle, as the house had been facetiously named by some