If such was the intention of the Senecas, it appeared that they did not intend to put it in execution immediately; for after this consultation was finished, Panther directed the Indians to follow along down the shore, while he examined it from the canoe.
Panther returned to his canoe; while Deersfoot with his party, passing around the cove, proceeded diligently to search for the enemy whom they were leaving in security, at least for the present, behind them.
As soon as they had passed out of sight, Ichabod insisted that Eagle's-Wing should accompany him to the cottage. The Indian at first refused, from the idea that his presence there would bring danger upon the family of Barton; but as Ichabod assured him of the certainty of holding out the cottage against any attack which the Senecas might make upon it, and also of the joy with which Barton and his daughter would welcome him, he finally yielded; and leaving the canoe in its shelter, they rapidly proceeded thitherward through the forest.
CHAPTER VIII.
"But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be
smiled at, their offences being so capital?"
WINTER'S TALE.
When Ichabod and the Tuscarora reached the cottage, they found the inmates much alarmed, owing to the long absence of the former; and Ralph was just about setting out in pursuit of him. Ichabod had perfectly succeeded, without any effort on his part, in ingratiating himself into the favor of all. There was something in his frank, hearty manner, that at once gave him a place in the affections of those who were capable of being moved by such qualities. The simplicity and earnestness with which he pursued his schemes of pecuniary speculation, if they excited the smiles or ridicule of those who saw their groundlessness, did not detract from his reputation as a man of excellent judgment, on all matters out of the range of that one idea.
In a life such as we are now depicting, which was essentially new—where men were not living on the labors of others, or eating up the substance which others had gained, but where each relied upon his own effort to procure the necessaries of life—there was a general simplicity of manners, which is seldom to be found in these latter days. Although, as in comparison with the history of population in Europe, we are immediately connected in point of age, with the times of which we are writing, yet in the rapidity of our own history, the seventy years which have intervened have a much greater signification, and seem to extend over a length of time sufficient to give the broadest play to the imagination. We, who are now in the prime of life, and witness a broad, fine country, thoroughly subdued to the uses of the farmer—cities and villages connected by the ties of commerce—splendid mansions, which already begin to wear the venerable appearance of age, can scarcely realize that our fathers and grandfathers were the pioneers before whose vigorous efforts the forests disappeared, and the wilderness gave place to spacious fields, teeming with harvests, and homes where happiness asked no aid from wealth, and virtuous simplicity paid no tribute to overreaching avarice.
Ichabod, there, was welcomed with a degree of warmth which he had no reason to expect; but the excited state of mind which had been produced by the events of the day before, and the probability of future troubles, served to magnify the dangers which it was supposed he was likely to encounter in his morning adventure.
The Tuscarora, too, was heartily welcomed; and the morning meal, which had been left waiting for Ichabod, was at once served. The Tuscarora ate but little; for, however so much disposed an Indian may be to give way to a gluttonous disposition in "piping times of peace," when on the war-path, he is always abstemious to a degree; and he holds in great contempt the man who suffers his appetite to overcome his necessary care and watchfulness. Ichabod, however, had no such scruples; and he did as ample justice to the "good things" which were set before him, as if such an animal as a Seneca had never existed.