CHAPTER XII

The Pioneers

by James F. Cooper

CHAPTER XII, THE PIONEERS by James F. Cooper
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“Your creeds and dogmas of a learned church
May build a fabric, fair with moral beauty;
But it would seem that the strong hand of God
Can, only, 'rase the devil from the heart.”—Duo.

While the congregation was separating, Mr. Grant approached the place
where Elizabeth and her father were seated, leading the youthful
female whom we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, and presented
her as his daughter. Her reception was as cordial and frank as the
manners of the country and the value of good society could render it;
the two young women feeling, instantly, that they were necessary to
the comfort of each other, The Judge, to whom the clergyman’s daughter
was also a stranger, was pleased to find one who, from habits, sex,
and years, could probably contribute largely to the pleasures of his
own child, during her first privations on her removal from the
associations of a city to the solitude of Templeton; while Elizabeth,
who had been forcibly struck with the sweetness and devotion of the
youthful suppliant, removed the slight embarrassment of the timid
stranger by the ease of her own manners. They were at once
acquainted; and, during the ten minutes that the “academy” was
clearing, engagements were made between the young people, not only for
the succeeding day, but they would probably have embraced in their
arrangements half of the winter, had not the divine interrupted them
by saying:

“Gently, gently, my dear Miss Temple, or you will make my girl too
dissipated. You forget that she is my housekeeper, and that my
domestic affairs must remain unattended to, should Louisa accept of
half the kind offers you are so good as to make her.”

“And why should they not be neglected entirely, sir?” interrupted
Elizabeth. “There are but two of you; and certain I am that my
father’s house will not only contain you both, but will open its doors
spontaneously to receive such guests. Society is a good not to he
rejected on account of cold forms, in this wilderness, sir; and I have
often heard my father say, that hospitality is not a virtue in a new
country, the favor being conferred by the guest.”

“The manner in which Judge Temple exercises its rites would confirm
this opinion; but we must not trespass too freely. Doubt not that you
will see us often, my child, particularly during the frequent visits
that I shall be compelled to make to the distant parts of the country.
But to obtain an influence with such a people,” he continued, glancing
his eyes toward the few who were still lingering, curious observers of
the interview, “a clergyman most not awaken envy or distrust by
dwelling under so splendid a roof as that of Judge Temple.”

“You like the roof, then, Mr. Grant,” cried Richard, who had been
directing the extinguishment of the fires and other little necessary
duties, and who approached in time to hear the close of the divine’s
speech. “I am glad to find one man of taste at last. Here’s ‘Duke.
now, pretends to call it by every abusive name he can invent; but
though ‘Duke is a tolerable judge, he is a very poor carpenter, let me
tell him. Well, sir, well, I think we may say, without boasting, that
the service was as well per formed this evening as you often see; I
think, quite as well as I ever knew it to be done in old Trinity—that
is, if we except the organ. But there is the school-master leads the
psalm with a very good air. I used to lead myself, but latterly I
have sung nothing but bass. There is a good deal of science to be
shown in the bass, and it affords a fine opportunity to show off a
full, deep voice. Benjamin, too, sings a good bass, though he is
often out in the words. Did you ever hear Benjamin sing the ‘Bay of
Biscay, 0?”

“I believe he gave us part of it this evening,” said Marmaduke,
laughing. “There was, now and then, a fearful quaver in his voice,
and it seems that Mr. Penguillian is like most others who do one thing
particularly well; he knows nothing else. He has, certainly, a
wonderful partiality to one tune, and he has a prodigious self-
confidence in that one, for he delivers himself like a northwester
sweeping across the lake. But come, gentlemen, our way is clear, and
the sleigh waits. Good-evening, Mr. Grant. Good-night, young lady—
remember you dine beneath the Corinthian roof, to-morrow, with
Elizabeth.”

The parties separated, Richard holding a close dissertation with Mr.
Le Quoi, as they descended the stairs, on the subject of psalmody,
which he closed by a violent eulogium on the air of the “Bay of
Biscay, 0,” as particularly connected with his friend Benjamin’s
execution.

During the preceding dialogue, Mohegan retained his seat, with his
head shrouded in his blanket, as seemingly inattentive to surrounding
objects as the departing congregation was itself to the presence of
the aged chief, Natty, also, continued on the log where he had first
placed himself, with his head resting on one of his hands, while the
other held the rifle, which was thrown carelessly across his lap. His
countenance expressed uneasiness, and the occasional unquiet glances
that he had thrown around him during the service plainly indicated
some unusual causes for unhappiness. His continuing seated was, how
ever, out of respect to the Indian chief. to whom he paid the utmost
deference on all occasions, although it was mingled with the rough
manner of a hunter.

The young companion of these two ancient inhabitants of the forest
remained also standing before the extinguished brands, probably from
an unwillingness to depart without his comrades. The room was now
deserted by all but this group, the divine, and his daughter. As the
party from the mansion-house disappeared, John arose, and, dropping
the blanket from his head, he shook back the mass of black hair from
his face, and, approaching Mr. Grant, he extended his hand, and said
solemnly:

“Father, I thank you. The words that have been said, since the rising
moon, have gone upward, and the Great Spirit is glad. What you have
told your children, they will remember, and be good.” He paused a
moment, and then, elevating himself with the grandeur of an Indian
chief, he added: “If Chingachgook lives to travel toward the setting
sun, after his tribe, and the Great Spirit carries him over the lakes
and mountains with the breath of his body, he will tell his people the
good talk he has heard; and they will believe him; for who can say
that Mohegan has ever lied?”

“Let him place his dependence on the goodness of Divine mercy,” said
Mr. Grant, to whom the proud consciousness of the Indian sounded a
little heterodox, “and it never will desert him. When the heart is
filled with love to God, there is no room for sin. But, young man, to
you I owe not only an obligation, in common with those you saved this
evening on the mountain, but my thanks for your respectable and pious
manner in assisting in the service at a most embarrassing moment. I
should be happy to see you sometimes at my dwelling, when, perhaps, my
conversation may strengthen you in the path which you appear to have
chosen. It is so unusual to find one of your age and appearance, in
these woods, at all acquainted with our holy liturgy, that it lessens
at once the distance between us, and I feel that we are no longer
strangers. You seem quite at home in the service; I did not perceive
that you had even a book, although good Mr. Jones. had laid several
in different parts of the room.”

“It would be strange if I were ignorant of the service of our church,
sir,” returned the youth modestly; “for I was baptized in its
communion and I have never yet attended public worship elsewhere. For
me to use the forms of any other denomination would be as singular as
our own have proved to the people here this evening.”

“You give me great pleasure, my dear sir,” cried the divine, seizing
the other by the hand, and shaking it cordially. “You will go home
with me now—indeed you must—my child has yet to thank you for saving
my life. I will-listen to no apologies. This worthy Indian, and your
friend, there, will accompany us. Bless me! to think that’ he has
arrived at manhood in this country, without entering a dissenting *
meeting-house!”

* The divines of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States
commonly call other denominations Dissenters, though there never was
an established church in their own country!

“No, no,” interrupted the Leather-Stocking, “I must away to the
wigwam; there’s work there that mustn’t be forgotten for all your
churchings and merry-makings. Let the lad go with you in welcome; he
is used to keeping company with ministers, and talking of such
matters; so is old John, who was christianized by the Moravians abouts
the time of the old war. But I am a plain unlarned man, that has
sarved both the king and his country, in his day, agin’ the French and
savages, but never so much as looked into a book, or larnt a letter of
scholarship, in my born days. I’ve never seen the use of much in-door
work, though I have lived to be partly bald, and in my time have
killed two hundred beaver in a season, and that without counting thc
other game. If you mistrust what I am telling you, you can ask
Chingachgook there, for I did it in the heart of the Delaware country,
and the old man is knowing to the truth of every word I say.”

“I doubt not, my friend, that you have been both a valiant soldier and
skilful hunter in your day,” said the divine; “but more is wanting to
prepare you for that end which approaches. You may have heard the
maxim, that ‘young men may die, but that old men must’”

“I’m sure I never was so great a fool as to expect to live forever,”
said Natty, giving one of his silent laughs; “no man need do that who
trails the savages through the woods, as I have done, and lives, for
the hot months, on the lake streams. I’ve a strong constitution, I
must say that for myself, as is plain to be seen; for I’ve drunk the
Onondaga water a hundred times, while I’ve been watching the deer-
licks, when the fever-an’-agy seeds was to be seen in it as plain and
as plenty as you can see the rattle snakes on old Crumhorn. But then
I never expected to hold out forever; though there’s them living who
have seen the German flats a wilderness; ay! and them that’s larned,
and acquainted with religion, too; though you might look a week, now,
and not find even the stump of a pine on them; and that’s a wood that
lasts in the ground the better part of a hundred years after the tree
is dead.”

“This is but time, my good friend,” returned Mr. Grant, who began to
take an interest in the welfare of his new acquaintance, “but I would
have you prepare for eternity. It is incumbent on you to attend
places of public worship, as I am pleased to see that you have done
this evening. Would it not he heedless in you to start on a day’s
toil of hard hunting, and leave your ramrod and flint behind?”

“It must be a young hand in the woods,” interrupted Natty, with
another laugh, “that didn’t know how to dress a rod out of an ash
sapling or find a fire-stone in the mountains. No, no, I never
expected to live forever; but I see, times be altering in these
mountains from what they was thirty years ago, or, for that matter,
ten years. But might makes right, and the law is stronger than an old
man, whether he is one that has much laming, or only like me, that is
better now at standing at the passes than in following the hounds, as
I once used to could. Heigh-ho! I never know’d preaching come into a
settlement but it made game scarce, and raised the price of gunpowder;
and that’s a thing that’s not as easily made as a ramrod or an Indian
flint.”

The divine, perceiving that he had given his opponent an argument by
his own unfortunate selection of a comparison, very prudently
relinquished the controversy; although he was fully determined to
resume it at a more happy moment, Repeating his request to the young
hunter with great earnestness, the youth and Indian consented to ac
company him and his daughter to the dwelling that the care of Mr.
Jones had provided for their temporary residence. Leather-Stocking
persevered in his intention of returning to the hut, and at the door
of the building they separated.

After following the course of one of the streets of the village a
short distance. Mr. Grant, who led the way, turned into a field,
through a pair of open bars, and entered a footpath, of but sufficient
width to admit one person to walk in at a time. The moon had gained a
height that enabled her to throw her rays perpendicularly on the
valley; and the distinct shadows of the party flitted along on the
banks of the silver snow, like the presence of aerial figures, gliding
to their appointed place of meeting. The night still continued
intensely cold, although not a breath of wind was felt. The path was
beaten so hard that the gentle female, who made one of the party,
moved with ease along its windings; though the frost emitted a low
creaking at the impression of even her light footsteps.

The clergyman in his dark dress of broadcloth, with his mild,
benevolent countenance occasionally turned toward his companions,
expressing that look of subdued care which was its characteristic,
presented the first object in this singular group. Next to him moved
the Indian, his hair falling about his face, his head uncovered, and
the rest of his form concealed beneath his blanket. As his swarthy
visage, with its muscles fixed in rigid composure, was seen under the
light of the moon, which struck his face obliquely, he seemed a
picture of resigned old age, on whom the storms of winter had beaten
in vain for the greater part of a century; but when, in turning his
head, the rays fell directly on his dark, fiery eyes, they told a tale
of passions unrestrained, and of thoughts free as air. The slight
person of Miss Grant, which followed next, and which was but too
thinly clad for the severity of the season, formed a marked contrast
to thc wild attire and uneasy glances of the Delaware chief; and more
than once during their walk, the young hunter, himself no
insignificant figure in the group, was led to consider the difference
in the human form, as the face of Mohegan and the gentle countenance
of Miss Grant, with eyes that rivalled the soft hue of the sky, met
his view at the instant that each turned to throw a glance at the
splendid orb which lighted their path. Their way, which led through
fields that lay at some distance in the rear of the houses, was
cheered by a conversation that flagged or became animated with the
subject. The first to speak was the divine.

“Really,” he said, “it is so singular a circumstance to meet with one
of your age, that has not been induced by idle curiosity to visit any
other church than the one in which he has been educated, that I feel a
strong curiosity to know the history of a life so fortunately
regulated. Your education must have been excellent; as indeed is
evident from your manners and language. Of which of the States are
you a native, Mr. Edwards? for such, I believe, was the name that you
gave Judge Temple.”

“Of this.”

“Of this! I was at a loss to conjecture, from your dialect, which does
not partake, particularly, of the peculiarities of any country with
which I am acquainted. You have, then, resided much in the cities,
for no other part of this country is so fortunate as to possess the
constant enjoyment of our excellent liturgy.”

The young hunter smiled, as he listened to the divine while he so
clearly betrayed from what part of the country he had come himself;
but, for reasons probably connected with his present situation, he
made no answer.

“I am delighted to meet with you, my young friend, for I think an
ingenuous mind, such as I doubt not yours must be, will exhibit all
the advantages of a settled doctrine and devout liturgy. You perceive
how I was compelled to bend to the humors of my hearers this evening.
Good Mr. Jones wished me to read the communion, and, in fact, all the
morning service; but, happily, the canons do not require this of an
evening. It would have wearied a new congregation; but to-morrow I
purpose administering the sacrament, Do you commune, my young friend?”

“I believe not, sir,” returned the youth, with a little embarrassment,
that was not at all diminished by Miss Grant’s pausing involuntarily,
and turning her eyes on him in surprise; “I fear that I am not
qualified; I have never yet approached the altar; neither would I wish
to do it while I find so much of the world clinging to my heart.”

“Each must judge for himself,” said Mr. Grant; “though I should think
that a youth who had never been blown about by the wind of false
doctrines, and who has enjoyed the advantages of our liturgy for so
many years in its purity, might safely come. Yet, sir, it is a solemn
festival, which none should celebrate until there is reason to hope it
is not mockery. I observed this evening, in your manner to Judge
Temple, a resentment that bordered on one of the worst of human
passions, We will cross this brook on the ice; it must bear us all, I
think, in safety. Be careful not to slip, my child.” While speaking,
he descended a little bank by the path, and crossed one of the small
streams that poured their waters into the lake; and, turning to see
his daughter pass, observed that the youth had advanced, and was
kindly directing her footsteps. When all were safely over, he moved
up the opposite bank, and continued his discourse. “It was wrong, my
dear sir, very wrong, to suffer such feelings to rise, under any
circumstances, and especially in the present, where the evil was not
intended.”

“There is good in the talk of my father,” said Mohegan, stopping
short, and causing those who Were behind him to pause also; “it is the
talk of Miquon. The white man may do as his fathers have told him;
but the ‘Young Eagle’ has the blood of a Delaware chief in his veins;
it is red, and the stain it makes can only be washed out with the
blood of a Mingo.”

Mr. Grant was surprised by the interruption of the Indian, and,
stopping, faced the speaker. His mild features were confronted to the
fierce and determined looks of the chief, and expressed the horror he
felt at hearing such sentiments from one who professed the religion of
his Saviour. Raising his hands to a level with his head, he
exclaimed:

“John, John! is this the religion that you have learned from the
Moravians? But no—I will not be so uncharitable as to suppose it.
They are a pious, a gentle, and a mild people, and could never
tolerate these passions. Listen to the language of the Redeemer: ‘But
I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good
to them that hate you; pray for them that despitefully use you and
persecute you.’ This is the command of God, John, and, without
striving to cultivate such feelings, no man can see Him.”

The Indian heard the divine with attention; the unusual fire of his
eye gradually softened, and his muscles relaxed into their ordinary
composure; but, slightly shaking his head, he motioned with dignity
for Mr. Grant to resume his walk, and followed himself in silence, The
agitation of the divine caused him to move with unusual rapidity along
the deep path, and the Indian, without any apparent exertion, kept an
equal pace; but the young hunter observed the female to linger in her
steps, until a trifling distance intervened between the two former and
the latter. Struck by the circumstance, and not perceiving any new
impediment to retard her footstep, the youth made a tender of his
assistance.

“You are fatigued, Miss Grant,” he said; “the snow yields to the foot,
and you are unequal to the strides of us men. Step on the crust, I
entreat you, and take the help of my arm, Yonder light is, I believe,
the house of your father; but it seems yet at some distance.”

“I am quite equal to the walk,” returned a low, tremulous voice; “but
I am startled by the manner of that Indian, Oh! his eye was horrid, as
he turned to the moon, in speaking to my father. But I forgot, sir;
he is your friend, and by his language may be your relative; and yet
of you I do not feel afraid.”

The young man stepped on the bank of snow, which firmly sustained his
weight, and by a gentle effort induced his companion to follow.
Drawing her arm through his own, he lifted his cap from his head,
allowing the dark locks to flow in rich curls over his open brow, and
walked by her side with an air of conscious pride, as if inviting an
examination of his utmost thoughts. Louisa took but a furtive glance
at his person, and moved quietly along, at a rate that was greatly
quickened by the aid of his arm.

“You are but little acquainted with this peculiar people, Miss Grant,”
he said, “or you would know that revenge is a virtue with an Indian.
They are taught, from infancy upward, to believe it a duty never to
allow an injury to pass unrevenged; and nothing but the stronger
claims of hospitality can guard one against their resentments where
they have power.”

“Surely, sir,” said Miss Grant, involuntarily withdrawing her arm from
his, “you have not been educated with such unholy sentiments?”

“It might be a sufficient answer to your excellent father to say that
I was educated in the church,” he returned; “but to you I will add
that I have been taught deep and practical lessons of forgiveness. I
believe that, on this subject, I have but little cause to reproach
myself; it shall he my endeavor that there yet be less.”

While speaking, he stopped, and stood with his arm again proffered to
her assistance. As he ended, she quietly accepted his offer, and they
resumed their walk.

Mr. Grant and Mohegan had reached the door of the former's residence,
and stood waiting near its threshold for the arrival of their young
companions. The former was earnestly occupied in endeavoring to
correct, by his precepts, the evil propensities that he had discovered
in the Indian during their conversation; to which the latter listened
in Profound but respectful attention. On the arrival of the young
hunter and the lady, they entered the building. The house stood at
some distance from the village, in the centre of a field, surrounded
by stumps that were peering above the snow, bearing caps of pure
white, nearly two feet in thickness. Not a tree nor a shrub was nigh
it; but the house, externally, exhibited that cheer less, unfurnished
aspect which is so common to the hastily erected dwellings of a new
country. The uninviting character of its outside was, however,
happily relieved by the exquisite neatness and comfortable warmth
within.

They entered an apartment that was fitted as a parlor, though the
large fireplace, with its culinary arrangements, betrayed the domestic
uses to which it was occasionally applied. The bright blaze from the
hearth rendered the light that proceeded from the candle Louisa
produced unnecessary; for the scanty furniture of the room was easily
seen and examined by the former. The floor was covered in the centre
by a carpet made of rags, a species of manufacture that was then, and
yet continues to be, much in use in the interior; while its edges,
that were exposed to view, were of unspotted cleanliness. There was a
trifling air of better life in a tea-table and work-stand, as well as
in an old-fashioned mahogany bookcase; but the chairs, the dining-
table, and the rest of the furniture were of the plainest and cheapest
construction, Against the walls were hung a few specimens of needle-
work and drawing, the former executed with great neatness, though of
somewhat equivocal merit in their designs, while the latter were
strikingly deficient in both,

One of the former represented a tomb, with a youthful female weeping
over it, exhibiting a church with arched windows in the background.
On the tomb were the names, with the dates of the births and deaths,
of several individuals, all of whom bore the name of Grant. An
extremely cursory glance at this record was sufficient to discover to
the young hunter the domestic state of the divine. He there read that
he was a widower; and that the innocent and timid maiden, who had been
his companion, was the only survivor of six children. The knowledge
of the dependence which each of these meek Christians had on the other
for happiness threw an additional charm around the gentle but kind
attentions which the daughter paid to the father.

These observations occurred while the party were seating themselves
before the cheerful fire, during which time there was a suspension of
discourse. But, when each was comfortably arranged, and Louisa, after
laying aside a thin coat of faded silk, and a gypsy hat, that was more
becoming to her modest, ingenuous countenance than appropriate to the
season, had taken a chair between her father and the youth, the former
resumed the conversation.

“I trust, my young friend,” he said, “that the education you have
received has eradicated most of those revengeful principles which you
may have inherited by descent, for I understand from the expressions
of John that you have some of the blood of the Delaware tribe. Do not
mistake me, I beg, for it is not color nor lineage that constitutes
merit; and I know not that he who claims affinity to the proper owners
of this soil has not the best right to tread these hills with the
lightest conscience.”

Mohegan turned solemnly to the speaker, and, with the peculiarly
significant gestures of an Indian, he spoke:

“Father, you are not yet past the summer of life; your limbs are
young. Go to the highest hill, and look around you. All that you
see, from the rising to the setting sun, from the head-waters of the
great spring, to where the ‘crooked river’* is hid by the hills, is
his. He has Delaware blood, and his right is strong.

* The Susquehannah means crooked river; “hannah,” or “hannock,” meant
river in many of the native dialects. Thus we find Rappahannock as
far south as Virginia.

But the brother of Miquon is just; he will cut the country in two
parts, as the river cuts the lowlands, and will say to the ‘Young
Eagle,’ ‘Child of the Delawares! take it—keep it; and be a chief in
the land of your fathers.’”

“Never!” exclaimed the young hunter, with a vehemence that destroyed
the rapt attention with which the divine and his daughter were
listening to the Indian. “The wolf of the forest is not more
rapacious for his prey than that man is greedy of gold; and yet his
glidings into wealth are subtle as the movements of a serpent.”

“Forbear, forbear, my son, forbear,” interrupted Mr. Grant. “These
angry passions most be subdued. The accidental injury you have
received from Judge Temple has heightened the sense of your hereditary
wrongs. But remember that the one was unintentional, and that the
other is the effect of political changes, which have, in their course,
greatly lowered the pride of kings, and swept mighty nations from the
face of the earth. Where now are the Philistines, who so often held
the children of Israel in bondage? or that city of Babylon, which
rioted in luxury and vice, and who styled herself the Queen of Nations
in the drunkenness of her pride? Remember the prayer of our holy
litany, where we implore the Divine Power—’that it may please thee to
forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their
hearts. The sin of the wrongs which have been done to the natives is
shared by Judge Temple only in common with a whole people, and your
arm will speedily be restored to its strength.”

“This arm!” repeated the youth, pacing the floor in violent agitation.
“Think you, sir, that I believe the man a murderer? Oh, no! he is too
wily, too cowardly, for such a crime. But let him and his daughter
riot in their wealth—a day of retribution will come. No, no, no,” he
continued, as he trod the floor more calmly—” it is for Mohegan to
suspect him of an intent to injure me; but the trifle is not worth a
second thought.” He seated himself, and hid his face between his
hands, as they rested on his knees.

“It is the hereditary violence of a native’s passion, my child,” said
Mr. Grant in a low tone to his affrighted daughter, who was clinging
in terror to his arm. “He is mixed with the blood of the Indians, you
have heard; and neither the refinements of education nor the
advantages of our excellent liturgy have been able entirely to
eradicate the evil. But care and time will do much for him yet.”

Although the divine spoke in a low tone, yet what he uttered was heard
by the youth, who raised his head, with a smile of indefinite
expression, and spoke more calmly:

“Be not alarmed, Miss Grant, at either the wildness of my manner or
that of my dress. I have been carried away by passions that I should
struggle to repress. I must attribute it, with your father, to the
blood in my veins, although I would not impeach my lineage willingly;
for it is all that is left me to boast of. Yes! I am proud of my
descent from a Delaware chief, who was a warrior that ennobled human
nature. Old Mohegan was his friend, and will vouch for his virtues.”

Mr. Grant here took up the discourse, and, finding the young man more
calm, and the aged chief attentive, he entered into a full and
theological discussion of the duty of forgiveness. The conversation
lasted for more than an hour, when the visitors arose, and, after
exchanging good wishes with their entertainers, they departed. At the
door they separated, Mohegan taking the direct route to the village,
while the youth moved toward the lake. The divine stood at the
entrance of his dwelling, regarding the figure of the aged chief as it
glided, at an astonishing gait for his years, along the deep path; his
black, straight hair just visible over the bundle formed by his
blanket, which was sometimes blended with the snow, under the silvery
light of the moon. From the rear of the house was a window that
overlooked the lake; and here Louisa was found by her father, when he
entered, gazing intently on some object in the direction of the
eastern mountain. He approached the spot, and saw the figure of the
young hunter, at the distance of half a mile, walking with prodigious
steps across the wide fields of frozen snow that covered the ice,
toward the point where he knew the hut inhabited by the Leather-
Stocking was situated on the margin of the lake, under a rock that was
crowned by pines and hemlocks. At the next instant, the wild looking
form entered the shadow cast from the over-hanging trees, and was lost
to view.

“It is marvellous how long the propensities of the savage continue in
that remarkable race,” said the good divine; “but if he perseveres as
he has commenced, his triumph shall yet be complete. Put me in mind,
Louisa, to lend him the homily ‘against peril of idolatry,’ at his
next visit.”

“Surety, father, you do not think him in danger of relapsing into the
worship of his ancestors?”

“No, my child,” returned the clergyman, laying his hand affectionately
on her flaxen locks, and smiling; “his white blood would prevent it;
but there is such a thing as the idolatry of our passions.”