Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/87

 COOPER S LITERARY OFFENSES

it; but if it was lead, you will find the bullet driving down those of the Quartermaster and Jasper, else is not my name Pathfinder. A shout from the target announced the truth of this as sertion.

Is the miracle sufficient as it stands? Not for Cooper. The Pathfinder speaks again, as he &quot;now slowly advances toward the stage occupied by the females&quot;: ^- * ***-y C * LM - ^ ^+~+

&quot; That s not all, boys, that s not all; if you find the target touched at all, I ll own to a miss. The Quartermaster cut the Wood, but you ll find no wood cut by that last messenger.&quot;

The miracle is at last complete. He knew doubtless saw at the distance of a hundred yards that his bullet had passed into the hole without fraying the edges. There were now three bullets in that one hole three bullets embedded procession- ally in the body of the stump back of the target. Everybody knew this somehow or other and yet nobody had dug any of them out to make sure. Cooper is not a close observer, but he is interesting. He is certainly always that, no matter what happens. And he is more interesting when he is not noticing what he is about than when he is. This is a con siderable merit. J

The conversations in the Cooper books have a curious sound in our modern ears. To believe that such talk really ever came out of people s mouths would be to believe that there was a time when time was of no value to a person who thought he had something to say; when it was the custom to spread a two-minute remark out to ten; when a man s mouth was a rolling-mill, and busied itself all day

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