James Fenimore Cooper: The Deerslayer

10. Chapter X. (continued)

"No t'ink more of him - no say more of scalp -" interrupted Hist, soothingly -"You pale-face, I red-skin; we bring up different fashion. Deerslayer and Chingachgook great friend, and no the same colour, Hist and - what your name, pretty pale-face?"

"I am called Hetty, though when they spell the name in the bible, they always spell it Esther."

"What that make? - no good, no harm. No need to spell name at all -Moravian try to make Wah-ta-Wah spell, but no won't let him. No good for Delaware girl to know too much- know more than warrior some time; that great shame. My name Wah-ta-Wah that say Hist in your tongue; you call him, Hist - I call him, Hetty."

These preliminaries settled to their mutual satisfaction, the two girls began to discourse of their several hopes and projects. Hetty made her new friend more fully acquainted with her intentions in behalf of her father, and, to one in the least addicted to prying into the affairs, Hist would have betrayed her own feelings and expectations in connection with the young warrior of her own tribe. Enough was revealed on both sides, however, to let each party get a tolerable insight into the views of the other, though enough still remained in mental reservation, to give rise to the following questions and answers, with which the interview in effect closed. As the quickest witted, Hist was the first with her interrogatories. Folding an arm about the waist of Hetty, she bent her head so as to look up playfully into the face of the other, and, laughing, as if her meaning were to be extracted from her looks, she spoke more plainly.

"Hetty got broder, as well as fader? -" she said - "Why no talk of broder, as well as fader?"

"I have no brother, Hist. I had one once, they say, but he is dead many a year, and lies buried in the lake, by the side of my mother."

"No got broder - got a young warrior - Love him, almost as much as fader, eh? Very handsome, and brave-looking; fit to be chief, if he good as he seem to be."