The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna

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perfection of execution were to be observed as existed in the hall. Of furniture, there were a dozen green, wooden arm-chairs, with cushions of moreen, taken from the same piece as the petticoat of Remarkable. The tables were spread, and their materials and workmanship could not be seen; but the

d, Really, it behooves the owner of woods so extensive as mine, to be cautious what example he sets his people, who are already felling the forest

ish will die for the want of water in the lake, because I intend, when the frost gets out of the ground, to lead one

these precious gifts of nature, these mines of corn, forest and wealth, to the common uses of a fireplace? But

trees than would keep him in fuel for a twelvemonth? Poh! poh! Marmaduke: you should leave the management of these things to me, w

en, we are waiting.-Elizabeth, my child, take the head of the table; Richard,

ve.-Mr. Grant! Where's Mr. Grant? Will you please to say grace, sir? Everything in getting cold. Take a thing from the fire this cold weather, and it will freeze in five m

Her Laughing eyes were glancing at the arrangements of the table, and the quality and selection of th

ble for her skill in housewifery. She has indeed provided a

ional that you'll find the sa'ce over done. I thought, as Elizabeth wa

this moment mistress of my house," said the Judge; "it is

eerd of a young woman's being called Miss? If the Judge had a wife

l observe that style to her, if you pl

made no reply; and, Mr. Grant entering the room, the whole party were seated at the table. As the arrangements of this repast were mu

s meat, and on the other a boiled leg of delicious mutton. Interspersed among this load of meats was every species of vegetables that the season and country afforded. The four corners were garnished with plates of cake. On one was piled certain curiously twisted and complicated figures, called "nut-cakes," On another were heaps of a black-looking sub stance, which, receiving its hue from molasses, was properly termed "sweet-cake;" a wonderful favorite in the coterie of Remarkable, A third was filled, to use the language of the housekeeper, with "cards of gingerbread;" and the last held a "plum-cake," so called from the number of large raisins that were showing their black heads in a substance of suspiciously similar color. At each corner of the table stood saucers, filled with a thick fluid of some what equivocal color and consistence, variegated with sma

a little surprising, was the fact that both the German and Richard had been summoned from another table to meet the Judge; but Major Hartmann both ate and drank without any rule, when on his excursions; and Mr. Jones invariably made it a point to participat

ve seen a man fell a pine, when he has been in want of fencing stuff, and roll his first cuts into the gap, where he left it to rot, thoug

or a bunch of chicker-berries? I should like to see you walking up High Street, with a pine log in each pocket!-Poh! poh! Cousin 'Duke, there are trees enough for us all, and some to spare. Why, I can hardly tel

lor, unless he looked aloft' As for the compass, why, there is no such thing as steering without one. I'm sure I never lose sight of the main-top, as I call the squire's lookout on the roof, but I set my compass, d'ye see, and take the bearings and distance of things

nifested displeasure at the major-domo's familiarity; "but you forget there i

Pettibones; just take the stopper off her tongue, and you'll hear a gabbling worse like than if you should happen

nished, if she had dared; but the Judge looked sternly at her, and unwilling to incur his resentment, yet unable to conta

y with the Leather-Stocking, as if they were of the same family; but there is a manifest difference in their manners. The youth delivers himself in chosen language, such as is seldom heard in these hills, and such as occa

eturned the French man, "he deed c

rst settled on the beaver-dam meadow, he could write almost as good hand as myself, when he was fourteen; though it's true, I helped to teach him a little in the evenings. But this shooting gentle

e," said the Judge; "he uses much discretion in

blushes, but Elizabeth started from the revery into which

prompt, and courageous; but perhaps Cousin Richard

"do you call such chaps gen

t a woman with respect and consideration," retur

k with one eye, while he rolled the other, with an expression of sympathy, toward the young lady. "Well, well, to me he seemed anything but

ess, "ter poy is goot. He savet your life, and my life, and ter life of i'ominie Grant, and ter life of ter Frenchm

dare say the lad never slept in anything better than a bark shanty in his life, unless it was some such hut as the cabin of Leather-Stocking. I prophesy yo

my own, besides the service he has done me through my friends. And yet I anticipate some little trouble in inducing him to

. I thought he might very naturally feel pain from his wound, and therefore pitied him; but"-and as she spoke she glanced her eye, with suppressed curiosity, t

carries a good rifle, too, 'the Leather-Stocking said, in my hearing, before Betty Hollister's bar-room fire, no later than the Tuesday night, that the younger was certain death to the wild beasts. If so be he can kill the wild-cat that has

Bumppo?" asked Marmadu

y turn with him in taking off a scalp; and there's them, in this here village, who say he l'arnt the trade by working on Christian men. If so be that there is truth in the saying, and I commanded along shore here, as your honor

ivelihood in these mountains; and if the idlers in the village take it into their heads to annoy hi

as ter law," said the

w announced, by its incessant ringing, that the hour for the appointed service had arrived. "'For this and every other instance of his goodness-' I beg pardon, Mr. Grant, will you please to return t

and fervently, and the whole party instantly prep