I'll take the turkey, and let you have the buzzard; or, _you can take the buzzard_, and I'll keep the turkey.' "The Indian reflected, that in either case the buzzard would fall to his share; but the white man's proposition _seemed_ a just one; and, as he could find no flaw in its fairness, he was constrained, though reluctantly, to accept it.

The white hunter, therefore, shouldered his turkey, and trudged off homewards, leaving the poor Indian supperless in the woods." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Francois, "what a shallow Indian he must have been to be so easily outwitted!" "Ah!" said Lucien, "he was not the only one of his race, who has been similarly deceived by white men.

Many a _pewter_ dollar has been passed upon these simple sons of the forest, in exchange for their furs and peltries.

I have reason to suspect that one very rich fur-trader, now dead, laid the foundation of his immense fortune in this way; but my suspicions do not amount to positive proof, and therefore I do not assert it for a fact.

Perhaps some historian may one day assail even the character of the _good_ Penn; who is said to have purchased from the Indians a territory of three _square miles_, but took care to have it measured off as _three miles square_! I hope the story is not a true one." "Why, that," said Francois, "is almost the same trick as Dido performed with the bull's hide." "Yes," replied his brother; "so you see that dishonesty belongs exclusively to no age or nation.