Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/28

16 his feet as he entered the white birch  and alder thicket, but he forbore to shoot,  since its flesh was not esteemed as food and  the pelt was too soft for use at that season  of the year. For that matter, there was little game worth the taking in May, and David  had brought his gun with him more from  force of habit than aught else. It was enough to be abroad on such a day, for the spring  was waking the world and it seemed that he  could almost see the tender young leaves of  the white birches unfold. Birds chattered and sang as he skirted the marsh and approached the deeper forest beyond. A chestnut stump had been clawed but recently by a bear in search of the fat white worms that  dwelt in the decaying wood, and David  found the prints of the beast’s paws and followed them until they became lost in the  swamp. Turning back, his ears detected the rustling of feet on the dead leaves a few rods  distant, and he paused and peered through  the greening forest. After a moment an Indian came into view, a rather thick-set, middle-aged savage with a round countenance. He wore the English clothes save that his feet were fitted to moccasins instead  of shoes and had no doublet above a frayed