[The Prairie by J. Fenimore Cooper]@TWC D-Link bookThe Prairie CHAPTER X 3/15
His body was enveloped in a hunting-shirt of dark green, trimmed with the yellow fringes and ornaments that were sometimes seen among the border-troops of the Confederacy.
Beneath this, however, were visible the collar and lapels of a jacket, similar in colour and cloth to the cap.
His lower limbs were protected by buckskin leggings, and his feet by the ordinary Indian moccasins.
A richly ornamented, and exceedingly dangerous straight dirk was stuck in a sash of red silk net-work; another girdle, or rather belt, of uncoloured leather contained a pair of the smallest sized pistols, in holsters nicely made to fit, and across his shoulder was thrown a short, heavy, military rifle; its horn and pouch occupying the usual places beneath his arms. At his back he bore a knapsack, marked by the well known initials that have since gained for the government of the United States the good-humoured and quaint appellation of Uncle Sam. "I come in amity," the stranger said, like one too much accustomed to the sight of arms to be startled at the ludicrously belligerent attitude which Dr.Battius had seen fit to assume.
"I come as a friend; and am one whose pursuits and wishes will not at all interfere with your own." "Harkee, stranger," said Paul Hover, bluntly; "do you understand lining a bee from this open place into a wood, distant, perhaps, a dozen miles ?" "The bee is a bird I have never been compelled to seek," returned the other, laughing; "though I have, too, been something of a fowler in my time." "I thought as much," exclaimed Paul, thrusting forth his hand frankly, and with the true freedom of manner that marks an American borderer. "Let us cross fingers.
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