Chapter 23

"The winde is great upon the highest hilles;
The quiet life is in the dale below;
Who tread on ice shall slide against their willes;
They want not cares, that curious arts should know.
Who lives at ease and can content him so,
Is perfect wise, and sets us all to schoole:
Who hates this lore may well be called a foole."

Thomas Churchyard, "Shore's Wife," xlvii.

The meeting between Deerslayer and his friends in the Ark was grave
and anxious. The two Indians, in particular, read in his manner
that he was not a successful fugitive, and a few sententious words
sufficed to let them comprehend the nature of what their friend had
termed his 'furlough.' Chingachgook immediately became thoughtful,
while Hist, as usual, had no better mode of expressing her sympathy
than by those little attentions which mark the affectionate manner
of woman.

In a few minutes, however, something like a general plan for the
proceedings of the night was adopted, and to the eye of an uninstructed
observer things would be thought to move in their ordinary train.
It was now getting to be dark, and it was decided to sweep the
Ark up to the castle, and secure it in its ordinary berth. This
decision was come to, in some measure on account of the fact
that all the canoes were again in the possession of their proper
owners, but principally, from the security that was created by
the representations of Deerslayer. He had examined the state of
things among the Hurons, and felt satisfied that they meditated no
further hostilities during the night, the loss they had met having
indisposed them to further exertions for the moment. Then, he had
a proposition to make; the object of his visit; and, if this were
accepted, the war would at once terminate between the parties; and
it was improbable that the Hurons would anticipate the failure of
a project on which their chiefs had apparently set their hearts,
by having recourse to violence previously to the return of their
messenger. As soon as the Ark was properly secured, the different
members of the party occupied themselves in their several peculiar
manners, haste in council, or in decision, no more characterizing
the proceedings of these border whites, than it did those of their
red neighbors. The women busied themselves in preparations for
the evening meal, sad and silent, but ever attentive to the first
wants of nature. Hurry set about repairing his moccasins, by the
light of a blazing knot; Chingachgook seated himself in gloomy
thought, while Deerslayer proceeded, in a manner equally free from
affectation and concern, to examine 'Killdeer', the rifle of Hutter
that has been already mentioned, and which subsequently became so
celebrated, in the