Page:Pioneersorsource01cooprich.djvu/122

 hunters. Tey live mit ter gun, and a rifle is petter as ter law."

"A'nt Marmaduke a Judge?" said Richard, indignantly. "Where is the use of being a Judge, or having a Judge, if there is no law? Damn the fellow! I have a great mind to sue him in the morning myself, before Squire Doolittle, for meddling with my leaders. I am not afraid of his rifle. I can shoot too. I have hit a dollar, many a time, at fifty rods."

"Thou hast missed more dollars than ever thou hast hit, Dickon," exclaimed the cheerful voice of the Judge again. "But we will now take our evening's repast, which, I perceive by Remarkable's physiognomy, is in the next room. Monsieur Le Quoi, Miss Temple has a fair hand, at your service. Will you lead the way, my child?"

"Ah! ma chere Mam'selle, but too happy to do so," said the polite Frenchman, while he offered his hand; "it is de consolashong, in my baneesh to meet a smile from the fair ladi."

Mr. Grant and Mohegan, continued in the hall, while the remainder of the party withdrew to an eating parlour, if we except Benjamin, who civilly remained, to close the rear after the divine, and to open the front door, for the exit of the Indian.

"John," said the divine, when the figure of Judge Temple disappeared, the last of the group, "to-morrow is the festival of the nativity of our blessed Redeemer, when the church has appointed prayers and thanksgivings, to be offered up by her children, and when all are invited to partake of the mystical elements. As you have taken up the cross, and become a follower of good, and an eschewer of evil, John, I trust I shall see you before the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek spirit."

"John will come," said the Indian, betraying