James Fenimore Cooper

“ No, no — Hector is not in fault, as I feared."
"Has the leather been cut?" cried Edwards.
"No, no — I didn’t say it had been cut, lad; but this is a mark that was never made by a jump or a bite."
"Could that rascally carpenter have dared!"
"Ay! he durst do anything when there is no danger," said Natty; "he is a curious body, and loves to be helping other people on with their consarns. ”

“ The creatur’s a fool to tempt a man in this way.
Mohegan threw the fastening of the youth’s boat from the canoe, and with one stroke of his paddle sent the light bark over the water like a meteor.
"Hold!" exclaimed Edwards. " Remember the law, my old friends. You are in plain sight of the village, and I know that Judge Temple is determined to prosecute all, indiscriminately, who kill deer out of season." ”

“ His retreat in this direction was, however, effectually cut off, and, turning a second time, he urged his course obliquely for the centre of the lake, with an intention of landing on the western shore. As the buck swam by the fishermen, raising his nose high into the air, curling the water before his slim neck like the beak of a galley, the Leather-Stocking began to sit very uneasy in his canoe.
"‘Tis a noble creatur’!" he exclaimed; "what a pair of horns! a man might hang up all his garments on the branches. ”