Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/301

 make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his antlers."

"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you, for some such thing occurred!"

"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree conscious of having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; "and a very different matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingoes would push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its waters."

"Is it then so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining with a more curious eye the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded, as it was, by earth of a deep dingy brown.

"Few red skins who travel south and east of the great lakes but have heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?"

Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water, threw it aside with violent grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his silent, but heart-felt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction, as he continued—

"Ah! you want the flavour that one gets by habit: the time was when I liked