fiery trials and perils of his youth, caution would be necessary; but even then, he would have relied with confidence on his own resources, controlled and directed by a shaping Providence.  It was not probable that Holden thought at all of Ohquamehud, but if his mind rested for a moment on the Indian, it could not be with an emotion of fear.  The western pioneers feel their superiority too greatly to be accessible to such apprehensions, and Holden had been too long a hunter of savages, to dread either their cunning or their force.  Had he reflected on the subject, he would have seemed to himself to stand in pretty much the same relation to a red skin that a grown man does to a child; or, if the Indian were hostile, as the hunter does to the bears, and wolves, and catamounts, he pursues.

“Peena,” said Holden, “I thank thee.  It is not in human nature to be ungrateful for affection, whatever be the color of the skin that covers the heart which offers it.  But dismiss thy fears, and think of them as unsubstantial as the morning mist.  And know that at all times doubt and fear are in vain.  Thou canst not make one hair white and another black.  It is appointed unto all men once to die, but of the times and seasons, though fixed by the Master of Life with infallible wisdom, and by a decree that may not be gainsaid, no man knoweth.  The arrow shot by the hand of Jehovah must reach its mark, though thou seest not its track in the clouds.”

Somewhat more effect attended Esther’s visit to Pownal, not that, indeed, she felt the same apprehensions for him as for his father, or was able to inspire him with fears on his own account.  Living in the village, and with habits so different from those of Holden, he was vastly less exposed to a danger of the kind she apprehended.  The bullet or the knife of the savage would not be likely to reach him in the streets of Hillsdale.  For it is no part of the tactics of an American Indian to expose his own life.  On the contrary, he is considered a fool who does so unnecessarily.  Stratagem is prized above force, and he is the greatest warrior who, while inflicting an injury, takes care not to expose himself to harm.  Esther knew all this, and for these reasons, perhaps, if with Holden she was vague, with his son she was oracular.  Consequently, Pownal only laughed at her, when she spoke of himself, as well, indeed, he might, but when she referred to his father, the case was altered.  Not that any clear, well-defined danger presented itself, but as in low, monotonous tones the squaw proceeded, darkly hinting at what she would not explain, an oppression fell upon his spirits as strange as it was painful.  We can liken it to nothing with more propriety than to that dim sense of terror and discomfort which is sometimes observed in the inferior animals at the approach of an eclipse or the bursting of a hurricane.  Yielding to the mysterious monitor, and prompt in action as he was rapid in judgment, Pownal proceeded instantly to seek his father.