Dolph felt some degree of awe in approaching him; but was assured by
the frank, hearty welcome with which he was received. As he case his
eyes about, too, he was still further encouraged, by perceiving that
the dead body, which had caused him some alarm, was that of a deer;
and his satisfaction was complete, in discerning, by the savoury
steams which issued from a kettle suspended by a hooked stick over the
fire, that there was a part cooking for the evening's repast.
He now found that he had fallen in with a rambling hunting party, such
as often took place in those days among the settlers along the river.
The hunter is always hospitable; and nothing makes men more social and
unceremonious, than meeting in the wilderness. The commander of the
party poured him out a dram of cheering liquor, which he gave him with
a merry leer, to warm his heart; arid ordered one of his followers to
fetch some garments from a pinnace, which was moored in a cove close
by, while those in which our hero was dripping might be dried before
the fire.
Dolph found, as he had suspected, that the shot from the glen, which
had come so near giving him his quietus when on the precipice, was
from the party before him. He had nearly crushed one of them by the
fragment of rock which he had detached; and the jovial old hunter, in
the broad hat and buck-tail, had fired at the place where he saw the
bushes move, supposing it to be some wild animal.
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