"
Each individual of the party now bent curiously over the wound; but the
results of their inquiries went no further than to prove that it was
undeniably the horse of the stranger, that had forfeited its life. To the
fate of its master, however there was not the slightest clue. Abandoning
the investigation, after a long and fruitless examination, they proceeded
to finish the circuit of the clearing. Night had approached ere the
fatiguing task was accomplished. As Ruth stood at the postern waiting
anxiously for their return, she saw by the countenance of her husband,
that while nothing had transpired to give any grounds of additional alarm,
no satisfactory testimony had been obtained to explain the nature of the
painful doubts, with which, as a tender and sensitive mother, she had been
distressed throughout the day.
Chapter VII.
"Is there not milking-time,
When you go to bed, or kiln-hole,
To whistle off these secrets; but you must be
Tattling before all our guests?"
Winter's Tale
Long experience hath shown that the white man, when placed in situations
to acquire such knowledge, readily becomes the master of most of that
peculiar skill for which the North American Indian is so remarkable, and
which enables him, among other things, to detect the signs of a forest
trail, with a quickness and an accuracy of intelligence that amount nearly
to an instinct.
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