Chapter 26

"Upon two stony tables, spread before her,
She lean'd her bosom, more than stony hard,
There slept th' impartial judge, and strict restorer
Of wrong, or right, with pain or with reward;
There hung the score of all our debts, the card
Where good, and bad, and life, and death, were painted;
Was never heart of mortal so untainted,
But when the roll was read, with thousand terrors fainted."

Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victory in Heaven, lxv.

"We've done an unthoughtful thing, Sarpent - yes, Judith, we've
done an unthoughtful thing in taking life with an object no better
than vanity!" exclaimed Deerslayer, when the Delaware held up the
enormous bird, by its wings, and exhibited the dying eyes riveted
on its enemies with the gaze that the helpless ever fasten on their
destroyers. "Twas more becomin' two boys to gratify their feelin's
in this onthoughtful manner, than two warriors on a warpath, even
though it be their first. Ah's! me; well, as a punishment I'll quit
you at once, and when I find myself alone with them bloody-minded
Mingos, it's more than like I'll have occasion to remember that
life is sweet, even to the beasts of the woods and the fowls of
the air. There, Judith; there's Kildeer; take him back, ag'in, and
keep him for some hand that's more desarving to own such a piece."

"I know of none as deserving as your own, Deerslayer," answered
the girl in haste; "none but yours shall keep the rifle."

"If it depended on skill, you might be right enough, gal, but we
should know when to use firearms, as well as how to use 'em. I
haven't l'arnt the first duty yet, it seems; so keep the piece till
I have. The sight of a dyin' and distressed creatur', even though
it be only a bird, brings wholesome thoughts to a man who don't know
how soon his own time may come, and who is pretty sartain that it
will come afore the sun sets; I'd give back all my vain feelin's,
and rej'icin's in hand and eye, if that poor eagle was only on its
nest ag'in, with its young, praisin' the Lord for anything that we
can know about the matter, for health and strength!"

The listeners were confounded with this proof of sudden repentance
in the hunter, and that too for an indulgence so very common, that
men seldom stop to weigh its consequences, or the physical suffering
it may bring on the unoffending and helpless. The Delaware understood
what was said, though he scarce understood the feelings which had
prompted the words, and by way of disposing of the difficulty, he
drew his keen knife, and severed the head of the sufferer from its
body.

"What a thing is power!" continued the hunter, "and what a thing
it is to have it, and