Friday, October 09, 2015

 

What Have I To Do with Books?

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), The Last of the Mohicans, chapter XII (David Gamut and Natty Bumppo speaking):
"Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy books do you find language to support you?"

"Book!" repeated Hawk-eye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; "do you take me for a whimpering boy, at the apron string of one of your old gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's wing, my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a cross-barred handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I, who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do with books!"
"Without a cross" = with no admixture of Indian blood.



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