Cooper's Novels: The deerslayerW. A. Townsend, 1863 |
Common terms and phrases
afore ag'in altogether answer appeared arth atween beauty better camp canoe castle chief Chingachgook color companion consarning countenance creatur darters Deer Deerslayer Delaware enemy eyes father feelin's feeling felt fire forest fri'nds gifts girl hand Hawkeye head hear heard heart Hist hope hour Howsever Hurons Hurry Harry idee Indian inimy Injin instant Iroquois Judith Killdeer knew lake land laugh light listen look manner March matter means mind Mingo minute moccasin mother Muskrat natur never night paddle pale-face party passed poor Hetty prisoner red-skin returned rifle Rivenoak Sarpent sartain savages scalp scene scow seen shore side silence sister slayer smile soon speak spirit spot stood Sumach talk tell there's things Thomas Hutter thought tomahawk trees tribe truth turned twill venison voice Warley warrior watching wigwam wish woman women woods words young
Popular passages
Page 384 - We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed And smoothed down his lonely pillow, That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow! Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him — But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
Page 33 - quivering aspens," and melancholy pines. In a word, the hand of man had never yet defaced or deformed any part of this native scene, which lay bathed in the sunlight, a glorious picture of affluent forest-grandenr, softened by the balminess of June, and relieved by the beautiful variety afforded by the presence of so broad an expanse of water. " This is grand ! — 'tis solemn ! — 'tis an edication of itself, to look upon...
Page 118 - Clear, placid Leman ! thy contrasted lake, With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing To waft me from distraction : once I loved Torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved, That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved.
Page 33 - On all sides, wherever the eye turned, nothing met it but the mirror-like surface of the lake, the placid view of heaven, and the dense setting of woods. So rich and fleecy were the outlines of the forest, that scarce an opening could be seen, the whole visible earth, from the rounded mountain-top to the water's edge, presenting one unvaried hue of unbroken verdure.
Page 48 - God made us all, white, black, and red ; and, no doubt, had his own wise intentions in coloring us differently. Still, he made us, in the main, much the same in feelin's ; though I'll not deny that he gave each race its gifts. A white man's gifts are christianized, while a red-skin's are more for the wilderness. Thus, it would be a great offence for a white man to scalp the dead ; whereas it's a signal vartue in an Indian.
Page ix - It has been objected to these books that they give a more favorable picture of the red man than he deserves. The writer apprehends that much of this objection arises from the habits of those who have made it. One of his critics, on the appearance of the first work in which Indian character was portrayed, objected that its "characters were Indians of the school of...
Page 146 - ... the birds that sing in the woods— the sweet springs where I slake my thirst— and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!" And he preceded that, a little before, with this: "It consarns me as all things that touches a fri'nd consarns a fri'nd.
Page 126 - ... gave back but a single echo. Deerslayer dropped his piece, and stood with head erect, steady as one of the pines in the calm of a June morning, watching the result; while the savage gave the yell that has become historical for its appalling influence, leaped through the bushes, and came bounding across the open ground, flourishing a tomahawk. Still Deerslayer moved not, but stood with his unloaded rifle fallen against his shoulders, while, with a hunter's habits, his hands were mechanically feeling...
Page 13 - There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore. There is society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but nature more...
Page 131 - Deerslayer arose as soon as he had spoken. Then he placed the body of the dead man in a sitting posture, with its back against the little rock, taking the necessary care to prevent it from falling or in any way settling into an attitude that might be thought unseemly by the sensitive, though wild notions of a savage. When this duty was performed, the young man stood gazing at the grim countenance of his fallen foe, in a sort of melancholy abstraction.