132 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



zle. Still, the grand conceptions of Richard had sug- 

 gested the importance of such an instruments in 

 hurling death at his nimble enemies. The swivel was 

 dragged by a horse into a part of the .open space that 

 the Sheriff thought most eligible for planting a bat- 

 tery of the kind, and Mr. Pump proceeded to load it. 



'Xeather Stocking was a silent, but uneasy spec- 

 tator of all these proceedings, but was able 'to keep 

 his sentiments to himself until he saw the introduc 

 tion of the swivel into the sports. 



"This comes of settling a country !" he said. ''Here 

 have I known the pigeons to fly for forty long years, 

 and, till you made your clearings, there was nobody 

 to scare or to hurt them. I loved to see them in the 

 woods, for they were company to a body, hurting 

 nothing; being, as it was, as harmless as a garter- 

 snake. But now it gives me sore thoughts when I 

 hear the frighty things whizzing through the air, for 

 I know its only a motion to bring out all the brats of 

 the village. Well! the Lord won't see the waste of 

 his creatures for nothing, and right will be done to 

 the pigeons, as well as others by and by." 



"Thou sayest well, Leather Stocking," cried Mar- 

 maduke, "and I begin to think it time to put an end 

 to this work of destruction. 



"Put an end. Judge, to your clearings. Ain't the 

 woods His work as well as the pigeons? Use, but 

 don't waste. Wasn't the woods made for the beasts 

 and birds to harbor in ? And when man wanted their 

 flesh, their skins, or their feathers, there's the place 



