curls, as if he would loosen his tangled ideas by the process.
"I've not done so onhandy a thing since I was fifteen."

"Never lament it, as the creatur's death could have done neither
of us any good, and might have done us harm. Them echoes are more
awful in my ears, than your mistake, Hurry, for they sound like the
voice of natur' calling out ag'in a wasteful and onthinking action."

"You'll hear plenty of such calls, if you tarry long in this quarter
of the world, lad," returned the other laughing. "The echoes repeat
pretty much all that is said or done on the Glimmerglass, in this
calm summer weather. If a paddle falls you hear of it sometimes,
ag'in and ag'in, as if the hills were mocking your clumsiness, and
a laugh, or a whistle, comes out of them pines, when they're in
the humour to speak, in a way to make you believe they can r'ally
convarse."

"So much the more reason for being prudent and silent. I do not
think the inimy can have found their way into these hills yet, for
I don't know what they are to gain by it, but all the Delawares
tell me that, as courage is a warrior's first vartue, so is prudence
his second. One such call from the mountains, is enough to let a
whole tribe into the secret of our arrival."

"If it does no other good, it will warn old Tom to put the pot
over, and let him know visiters are at hand. Come, lad; get into
the canoe, and we will hunt the ark up, while there is yet day."

Deerslayer complied, and the canoe left the spot. Its head was
turned diagonally across the lake, pointing towards the south-eastern