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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"Oak Openings"

Having left the garden, his children have scattered over
the face of the earth."
"So come here to drive off Injin! Well, dat 'e way wid pale-face I
Did ever hear of red man comin' to drive off pale-face?"
"I have heard of your red warriors often coming to take our scalps,
Chippewa. More or less of this has been done every year, since our
people have landed in America. More than that they have not done,
for we are too many to be driven very far in, by a few scattering
tribes of Injins."
"T'ink, den, more pale-face dan Injin, eh?" asked the Chippewa, with
an interest so manifest that he actually stopped in his semi-trot,
in order to put the question. "More pale-face warrior dan red men?"
"More! Aye, a thousand times more, Chippewa. Where you could show
one warrior, we could show a thousand!"
Now, this was not strictly true, perhaps, but it answered the
purpose of deeply impressing the Chippewa with the uselessness of
Peter's plans, and sustained as it was by his early predilections,
it served to keep him on the right side, in the crisis which was
approaching. The discourse continued, much in the same strain, until
the men got in with their bear's meat, having been preceded some
time by the others, with the venison.


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