"pardon me, Miss Temple, that I do not permit these venerable Charons to take you to the shades, unattended by your genius."
"Is it a good or evil spirit?" asked Elizabeth.
"Good to you."
"And mine," added the maiden, with an air that strangely blended pique with satisfaction. But the motion of the canoe gave rise to new ideas, and fortunately afforded a good excuse to the young man to change the discourse.
It appeared to Elizabeth, that they glided over the water by magic, so easy and graceful was the manner in which Mohegan guided his little bark. A slight gesture with his spear, indicated the way in which the Leather-stocking wished to go, and a profound silence was preserved by the whole party, as a precaution necessary to the success of their fishery. The shore, at that point of the lake, ran gradually off, and the water shoaled regularly, differing, in this particular, altogether, from those parts where the mountains rose, nearly in perpendicular precipices, from the beach. There, the largest vessels could have lain, with their yards locked in the branches of the pines; while here, a scanty growth of rushes lifted their tops above the lake, gently curling the waters, as their bending heads slowly waved with the passing breath of the night air. It was at the shallow points, only, that the bass could be found, or the net cast with success.
Elizabeth saw thousands of these fish, swimming in shoals along the shallow and warm waters of the shore; for the flaring light of their torch exposed all the mysteries of the lake, laying them open to the eye, with a slight variation in colour, as plainly as if the limpid sheet of the Otsego was but another atmosphere. Every instant she expected to see the impending spear of
