"Listen, Bourdon. Nebber
bess stand too much in Peter's way."
The bee-hunter laughed freely at this remark; for his own success
the previous day, and the impression he had evidently made on that
occasion, emboldened him to take greater liberties with the
mysterious chief than had been his wont.
"I should think that, Peter," cried the young man, gayly--"I should
think all that. For one, I should choose to get out of it. The path
you travel is your own, and all wise men will leave you to journey
along it in your own fashion."
"Yes; dat bess way," answered the great chief, with admirable
simplicity. "Don't like, when he says yes, to hear anudder chief say
no. Dat an't good way to do business."
These were expressions caught from the trading whites, and were
often used by those who got their English from them. "I tell you one
t'ing, Bourdon--dat Bough of Oak very foolish Injin if he put foot
on my path."
"This is plain enough, Peter," rejoined le Bourdon, who was
unconcernedly repairing some of the tools of his ordinary craft. "By
the way, I am greatly in your debt, I learn, for one thing. They
tell me I've got my squaw in my wigwam a good deal sooner, by your
advice, than I might have otherwise done.
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