LEATHERSTOCKING TALES – Complete Collection. Джеймс Фенимор Купер

Deerslayer, with his silent, joyous laugh. “Sarpent, this garment was made for a man of your size, and I should like to see it on your shoulders.”

      Chingachgook, nothing loath, submitted to the trial, throwing aside the coarse and thread bare jacket of Hutter, to deck his person in a coat that was originally intended for a gentleman. The transformation was ludicrous, but as men are seldom struck with incongruities in their own appearance, any more than in their own conduct, the Delaware studied this change in a common glass, by which Hutter was in the habit of shaving, with grave interest. At that moment he thought of Hist, and we owe it to truth, to say, though it may militate a little against the stern character of a warrior to avow it, that he wished he could be seen by her in his present improved aspect.

      “Off with it, Sarpent — off with it,” resumed the inflexible Deerslayer. “Such garments as little become you as they would become me. Your gifts are for paint, and hawk’s feathers, and blankets, and wampum, and mine are for doublets of skins, tough leggings, and sarviceable moccasins. I say moccasins, Judith, for though white, living as I do in the woods it’s necessary to take to some of the practyces of the woods, for comfort’s sake and cheapness.”

      “I see no reason, Deerslayer, why one man may not wear a scarlet coat, as well as another,” returned the girl. “I wish I could see you in this handsome garment.”

      “See me in a coat fit for a Lord!— Well, Judith, if you wait till that day, you’ll wait until you see me beyond reason and memory. No — no — gal, my gifts are my gifts, and I’ll live and die in ’em, though I never bring down another deer, or spear another salmon. What have I done that you should wish to see me in such a flaunting coat, Judith?”

      “Because I think, Deerslayer, that the false-tongued and false-hearted young gallants of the garrisons, ought not alone to appear in fine feathers, but that truth and honesty have their claims to be honored and exalted.”

      “And what exaltification”— the reader will have remarked that Deerslayer had not very critically studied his dictionary —“and what exaltification would it be to me, Judith, to be bedizened and bescarleted like a Mingo chief that has just got his presents up from Quebec? No — no — I’m well as I am; and if not, I can be no better. Lay the coat down on the blanket, Sarpent, and let us look farther into the chist.”

      The tempting garment, one surely that was never intended for Hutter, was laid aside, and the examination proceeded. The male attire, all of which corresponded with the coat in quality, was soon exhausted, and then succeeded female. A beautiful dress of brocade, a little the worse from negligent treatment, followed, and this time open exclamations of delight escaped the lips of Judith. Much as the girl had been addicted to dress, and favorable as had been her opportunities of seeing some little pretension in that way among the wives of the different commandants, and other ladies of the forts, never before had she beheld a tissue, or tints, to equal those that were now so unexpectedly placed before her eyes. Her rapture was almost childish, nor would she allow the inquiry to proceed, until she had attired her person in a robe so unsuited to her habits and her abode. With this end, she withdrew into her own room, where with hands practised in such offices, she soon got rid of her own neat gown of linen, and stood forth in the gay tints of the brocade. The dress happened to fit the fine, full person of Judith, and certainly it had never adorned a being better qualified by natural gifts to do credit to its really rich hues and fine texture. When she returned, both Deerslayer and Chingachgook, who had passed the brief time of her absence in taking a second look at the male garments, arose in surprise, each permitting exclamations of wonder and pleasure to escape him, in a way so unequivocal as to add new lustre to the eyes of Judith, by flushing her cheeks with a glow of triumph. Affecting, however, not to notice the impression she had made, the girl seated herself with the stateliness of a queen, desiring that the chest might be looked into, further.

      “I don’t know a better way to treat with the Mingos, gal,” cried Deerslayer, “than to send you ashore as you be, and to tell ’em that a queen has arrived among ’em! They’ll give up old Hutter, and Hurry, and Hetty, too, at such a spectacle!”

      “I thought your tongue too honest to flatter, Deerslayer,” returned the girl, gratified at this admiration more than she would have cared to own. “One of the chief reasons of my respect for you, was your love for truth.”

      “And ’tis truth, and solemn truth, Judith, and nothing else. Never did eyes of mine gaze on as glorious a lookin’ creatur’ as you be yourself, at this very moment! I’ve seen beauties in my time, too, both white and red; and them that was renowned and talk’d of, far and near; but never have I beheld one that could hold any comparison with what you are at this blessed instant, Judith; never.”

      The glance of delight which the girl bestowed on the frank-speaking hunter in no degree lessened the effect of her charms, and as the humid eyes blended with it a look of sensibility, perhaps Judith never appeared more truly lovely, than at what the young man had called that “blessed instant.” He shook his head, held it suspended a moment over the open chest, like one in doubt, and then proceeded with the examination.

      Several of the minor articles of female dress came next, all of a quality to correspond with the gown. These were laid at Judith’s feet, in silence, as if she had a natural claim to their possession. One or two, such as gloves, and lace, the girl caught up, and appended to her already rich attire in affected playfulness, but with the real design of decorating her person as far as circumstances would allow. When these two remarkable suits, male and female they might be termed, were removed, another canvas covering separated the remainder of the articles from the part of the chest which they had occupied. As soon as Deerslayer perceived this arrangement he paused, doubtful of the propriety of proceeding any further.

      “Every man has his secrets, I suppose,” he said, “and all men have a right to their enj’yment. We’ve got low enough in this chist in my judgment to answer our wants, and it seems to me we should do well by going no farther; and by letting Master Hutter have to himself, and his own feelin’s, all that’s beneath this cover.

      “Do you mean, Deerslayer, to offer these clothes to the Iroquois as ransom?” demanded Judith, quickly.

      “Sartain. What are we prying into another man’s chist for, but to sarve its owner in the best way we can. This coat, alone, would be very apt to gain over the head chief of the riptyles, and if his wife or darter should happen to be out with him, that there gownd would soften the heart of any woman that is to be found atween Albany and Montreal. I do not see that we want a larger stock in trade than them two articles.”

      “To you it may seem so, Deerslayer,” returned the disappointed girl, “but of what use could a dress like this be to any Indian woman? She could not wear it among the branches of the trees, the dirt and smoke of the wigwam would soon soil it, and how would a pair of red arms appear, thrust through these short, laced sleeves!”

      “All very true, gal, and you might go on and say it is altogether out of time, and place and season, in this region at all. What is it to us how the finery is treated, so long as it answers our wishes? I do not see that your father can make any use of such clothes, and it’s lucky he has things that are of no valie to himself, that will bear a high price with others. We can make no better trade for him, than to offer these duds for his liberty. We’ll throw in the light frivol’ties, and get Hurry off in the bargain.”

      “Then you think, Deerslayer, that Thomas Hutter has no one in his family — no child — no daughter, to whom this dress may be thought becoming, and whom you could wish to see in it, once and awhile, even though it should be at long intervals, and only in playfulness?”

      “I understand you, Judith — yes, I now understand your meaning, and I think I can say, your wishes. That you are as glorious in that dress as the sun when it rises or sets in a soft October day, I’m ready to allow, and that you greatly become it is a good deal more sartain than that it becomes you. There’s gifts in clothes, as well as in other things. Now I do not think that a warrior on his first path ought to lay on the same awful paints as a chief that has had his virtue tried, and knows from exper’ence he will not disgrace his pretensions. So it is with all of us, red or white. You