Natty Bumppo

“ There is a point on Otsego Lake, opposite to Natty Bumppo's cave, from which passing boatmen awaken the famous Echo of the Glimmerglass. For more than half of the nineteenth century there lived in the village a negro whose lungs were renowned for their power to call forth the fullness of this strange echo. "Joe Tom," as he was named, was always called upon, as the guide of lake excursions, to perform this peculiar duty. Stationing his scow at the focal point, the negro would shout across the water, "Natty Bumppo! ”

“ The novel is not as heroic as The Spy had been. Indian John, the last of his proud race, is old and broken, corrupted by the settlements; only his death dignifies him. Natty Bumppo, a composite from many Cooperstown memories, is nobler because he has not yielded but carries his virtues, which even in Cooper’s boyhood were becoming archaic along the froniter, into the deeper forest. Natty stands as a protest, on behalf of simplicity and perfect freedom, against encroaching law and order. ”

“ For this work his thoughts turned in love to the home of his childhood, so closely associated with the little "Lake of the Fields." "Green-belted with great forest trees was this 'smile of God'—from Mount Vision dreaming at its feet, to the densely wooded 'sleeping lion' guarding its head, nine miles to the north." Of the new book Cooper frankly said: "'The Pioneers' is written exclusively to please myself." Herein Leatherstocking makes his first appearance, and for all time, as Natty Bumppo, "with his silent footfall stepped from beneath the shadows of the old pines into the winter sunlight." ”

“ Everything is agreeable, when the heart is satisfied. Were Natty Bumppo, Henry March, and Henry March, Natty Bumppo, I might think the name of March better than it is; or were he, you, I should fancy the name of Bumppo horrible!"
"That's just it - yes, that's the reason of the matter. Now, I'm nat'rally avarse to sarpents, and I hate even the word, which, the missionaries tell me, comes from human natur', on account of a sartain sarpent at the creation of the 'arth, that outwitted the first woman ”

“ Representatives of various social units were made to aid in the evolution of the plot. Judge Temple, empire-builder, with his daughter just home from school, and an insurgent young Effingham were given the center of the stage; Natty Bumppo, protagonist of the advancing civilization, his companion Chingachgook, christened John, and various frontier types, were grouped about these.
In this work, Cooper showed a more aggressively American spirit, derived no doubt from the favorable reception accorded The Spy. ”

“ Pigott's library, in 1853, it passed into the possession of the late Lord Londesborough. A writer in Notes and Queries (p. 376, November 7, 1874) says, it "has now been for many years in the British Museum," where he saw it "some eighteen years ago."
This magic speculum is a flat polished mineral, like cannel coal, of a circular form, fitted with a handle.
Deerslayer (The) , the title of a novel by J.F. Cooper, and the nickname of its hero, Natty or Nathaniel Bumppo. He is a model uncivilized man, honorable, truthful, and brave, pure of heart and without reproach. ”

“ Then I'll teach you. Miss Jo, I'll sit beside you. Come along, captain; here Laura, Catty, Val, mother; Miss Rose, won't you join us?"
"Don't, Miss Rose," said Natty, who was playing a waltz. "They're nothing but a noisy set. Come here and sing with me."
Natty sung everything—Italian arias, French chansonettes, German and Scotch ballads; her full, rich soprano voice filling the room with melody, as on Sundays it filled the long cathedral aisles. Natty's voice was superb—Miss Rose listened like one entranced. ”

“ Lady Leroy gravely replied, "I have. There is no one living has so good a right to whatever I possess as Nathalie Marsh. I did wrong to take it from her, but it is not too late yet. Come up here to-morrow morning and draw out another—my last will—she shall have everything I own."
The old lawyer grasped the sick woman's hand delightedly.
"Thank heaven, my dear Mrs. Leroy, that you have been brought to see matters in their true light. Natty's the best girl alive—ain't you, Natty?" ”

“ Natty had cast loose in his boat, the Merry Maid, and hoisted his sail. In a few minutes he was skimming gaily down the bay. The wind was fair and piping and the Merry Maid went like a bird. Natty, at the rudder, steered for Blue Point Island, a reflective frown on his face. He was feeling in no mood for Victoria Day sports. In a very short time he and Ev and Prue must leave Blue Point lighthouse, where they had lived all their lives. To Natty it seemed as if the end of all things would come then. Where would life be worth living away from lonely, windy Blue Point Island? ”

“ But why did the fingers of Natty Bumpo tighten convulsively around his rifle?
The chief held in his hand long tufts of raven hair. The heart of the pioneer sickened as he recognized the clustering curls of Genevra. In a moment his rifle was at his shoulder, and with a sharp “ping” Muck-a-Muck leaped into the air a corpse. To knock out the brains of the remaining savages, tear the tresses from the stiffening hand of Muck-a-Muck, and dash rapidly forward to the cottage of Judge Tompkins, was the work of a moment. ”

“ Dat he hear dem, when de fetish hab no ears to hear, and no way to do dem good.”
“Oh yes, Timbo,” said Natty, “I should like to go with you to those poor savages. It is sad to think that they should be so ignorant. I am sure it is our duty to try to tell them the truth.”
“Yes, Massa Natty, we will go, please God,” cried Timbo, looking at Natty with a glance of approbation.
“Timbo and I must beg your pardon for interrupting you, Captain Hyslop,” said Natty. “Pray go on.”
“Unfortunately, I could not understand their language sufficiently well to enter into such matters,” observed Stanley. ”

“ Whenever he stood by his smithy hearth, his clear tenor voice would roll out its mirthful minstrelsy, while the hot iron flung out its sparks beneath his hammer, defying the ring of the anvil either to drown his voice or spoil his tune.
One fine spring morning, Blithe Natty was busy at his work, and, as usual, his voice and his anvil were keeping time, when old Kasper Crabtree, a miserly old bachelor, who farmed Kesterton Grange, stole on him unobserved. Natty was singing away—
There never was a man. ”

“ And as Giraffe afterwards avowed, the noise that Bumpus created would have given his comrades the one grand scare of their lives, had they not known the origin of it all. Bumpus actually took that as a compliment, too, mind you.
“Keep still, Bumpus, or you’ll upset the boat!” shouted Thad, sternly; and he had to exert himself to be heard above all the row.
“You’re safe enough, silly; he won’t jump at you!” cried Davy Jones, who had all he could manage with the head of the fat scout in his lap, and those legs going like the arms of a windmill in a stiff gale. ”

“ Bumpus, upon being thus deliberately appealed to, nodded his head in the affirmative, and remarked:
“I sure would, and that’s a fact, fellows. Then you kinder look for a visitor in camp to-night, do you? And that means everybody’s just got to sit up and stand guard, don’t it? all right, you’ll find me as willing and ready as ever to sacrifice my comfort for the public welfare. I’m always there with the goods.”
“Hear! hear! Bumpus, we all know you like a book!” declared Step Hen, pretending to clap his hands in enthusiasm, though no sound resulted from the action. ”

“ My appetite’ll fall away, and you’ll see me getting thinner and thinner every day.”
“Well, we can use you for a bread knife then,” remarked Bumpus, composedly; “because if you grew much sharper than you are, that’s about the only thing you’d be good for. But if them onions smell so rank, what’s the use of throwing the same away, when we’ll be apt to know they’re around all night. They ought to be put underground, don’t you think, Thad?”
“That’s a good idea, Bumpus; give me the camp hatchet, and I’ll dig a grave over here, so we can have a regular burial. ”

“ When poor Bumpus tried to escape in such a clumsy fashion that he tripped over the stretched guy rope of a tent, he had let go his beloved bugle. What was music to a fellow when his existence hung in the balance. He could get another horn, but never another life.
Thad had by chance discovered the shining bugle even while on his way to the friendly tree, and had snatched it up; mechanically perhaps, for he could not have entertained any fear lest the bear would swallow such a thing. ”

“ Seems to me we’ll just never get him at that rate.”
“Oh!” replied Thad, not at all dismayed, “we’ll just keep at it, you know. Lots of things are apt to happen to help us. Bumpus will tire out soon. Then he may get discouraged, and just make up his mind to stay in camp till we come.”
“Which would be a mighty sensible thing for him to do,” declared Step Hen.
“But that wouldn’t fetch him his bear,” chuckled Giraffe, “and that’s the one thing worth living for with Bumpus right now.”
“Mebbe he’s got over the fever,” suggested Step Hen. “P’raps a reaction has set in by now.” ”

“ Then some time or other when we’re camping out with the rest of the boys I’ll spring a big surprise on you all.”
“I think that everything considered,” said Thad, “we have reason to be thankful things are no worse. So far as I can see there’s been no damage done; and here’s the landlord coming to tell us supper is ready.”
“Hold on, Bumpus, you forget that you’ve got a game leg, don’t you?” called out Giraffe, as the fat boy jumped to his feet in readiness for a rush.
“Oh! that’s got well again,” Bumpus assured him blandly. ”

“ Now Bumps lived in a wee hut ’way off in the country, with his mother, who was quite poor. In the mornings he would hustle out to chop wood and gather wild berries for their breakfast, always wishing that he could find a pot of gold to make his mother rich and happy. Finally he decided to start out into the big world to seek his fortune, and while his mother hated to have her little son leave her, she felt sure he would be successful because he had always been such a good boy. ”

“ Thad went about things in a business-like fashion; while even Bumpus fluttered around, and offered to do anything they told him, such was his eagerness to hasten repairs.
“Well, crawl under, and hold up the car while we work,” suggested Giraffe, maliciously; “because I’m a little afraid of that jack we’ve got; it doesn’t look overly strong. What’s the use of having a broad back like yours, Bumpus, if you can’t make good?” ”

“ No matter how difficult the task may have seemed, we have been highly favored by good fortune. And we’ll come through this time with colors flying.”
“I ought to be ashamed to let myself have a single doubt, Thad,” Bumpus frankly admitted, as he turned his eyes upon the leader in whom he had such implicit faith, “when right now I’ve got the backing of the best pards that ever donned the khaki. Yes, I’m going to shut my teeth hard together, and tell myself that we’ve got to get to Paris, no matter if a whole German army corps stands in the way.” ”

“ Love appears in this story also, but Deerslayer, unable to love a girl who has been corrupted by the settlements, even though Judith Hutter seems the most real and desirable of all Cooper's heroines, turns to the forest with his best devotion. He is naïve, friendly, virtuous with the engaging awkwardness of twenty, bound with a boy's affection to his companion and brother-in-arms, the young Chingachgook. The book is the tale of Natty's coming of age. Already a hunter, he here kills his first man and thus enters the long career which lies before him. ”

“ Bumpus evidently imagined that he was in camp somewhere, with some of his chums bent on routing him out at an unearthly early hour. Thad this time gave him so sturdy a shake that Bumpus began to sit up and rub his eyes.
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“Hey! what’s all this, anyway? Where am I at? I was dreaming that——” he commenced, when the impatient Giraffe interrupted him.
“Never mind what you were dreaming, Bumpus; we’re going out to the barn to sleep, and, unless you want to be left alone here on the inn porch the rest of the night, hump yourself and trot along with us. I’ve got a blanket here for you, see?” ”

“ I calculate a short half hour ought to see me wind up in just a blaze of glory. But just yet it’s a toss-up who the ice-cream’s going to be on, Bumpus or me.”
“Oh! I ain’t worrying even a little mite,” asserted the confident Bumpus.
“Well, you wait and see!” declared Giraffe, defiantly. “You don’t all know what I’ve got up my sleeve. The feller that laughs last laughs loudest, they say. And I give you all fair warning that’s going to be me.”
Meanwhile Thad managed to get in close touch with Jim Hasty. ”

“ He had raised his head, and cocked it on side, as though listening to some sound that caught his ear.
“Maybe after all the old moonshiner didn’t get your message, Thad,” suggested Step Hen; and immediately Bumpus ceased trying to stretch his thick neck in the endeavor to see over the heads of those nearest him, and who were more or less interfering with his view; “p’raps right now he’s atrailing after us, and meaning to give us heaps and heaps of trouble?” ”

“ It was not because he was afraid, though Bumpus had often been reckoned a bit timid; but the action appeared to inspire him with confidence. He knew that Thad would be equal to the emergency. And in times of stress it feels good to be in close touch with one who is going to save the day.
Thad understood without being told, what it all meant. Some spy had been secretly observing the movements of the scouts, hidden in that bunch of brushwood; and when his hat caught the eager eye of Giraffe, the latter had supposed of course that it was the missing head-gear. ”