see the virtue of a smile."

Deerslayer laughed, in his own manner, as he concluded, and then he
intimated to the patient-looking, but really impatient Chingachgook,
his readiness to proceed. As the young man entered the canoe, the
girl stood immovable as stone, lost in the musings that the language
and manner of the other were likely to produce. The simplicity
of the hunter had completely put her at fault; for, in her narrow
sphere, Judith was an expert manager of the other sex; though in
the present instance she was far more actuated by impulses, in all
she had said and done, than by calculation. We shall not deny that
some of Judith's reflections were bitter, though the sequel of the
tale must be referred to, in order to explain how merited, or how
keen were her sufferings.

Chingachgook and his pale-face friend set forth on their hazardous
and delicate enterprise, with a coolness and method that would have
done credit to men who were on their twentieth, instead of being
on their first, war-path. As suited his relation to the pretty
fugitive, in whose service they were engaged, the Indian took his
place in the head of the canoe; while Deerslayer guided its movements
in the stern. By this arrangement, the former would be the first
to land, and of course, the first to meet his mistress. The latter
had taken his post without comment, but in secret influenced by the
reflection that one who had so much at stake as the Indian, might
not possibly guide the canoe with the same steadiness and intelligence,
as another who had more command of his feelings. From the instant
they left the side of the ark, the movements of the two adventurers
were like the manoeuvres of highly-drilled soldiers, who, for the
first time were called on to meet the enemy in the field. As yet,