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From: Nathaniel Hawthorne (jwinston@ferrum.edu)
Date: 11/19/2002
Time: 11:16:45 AM
Remote Name: 208.27.137.99
Natty Bumppo's or "Leather-stockings," valued a lot of things. However, proabbly his most prized value was his hunting. Above all things, his life basically revolved around hunting and he valued his skillfulness in shooting a great deal. He was a man who stepped up to competition and boasted on his previous hunting success. Bumppo's had a lot of confidence in his ability to shoot his rifle, at one point in the story his gun snapped instead of firing and he was willing to pay another to pay for another shot even though it would cost him another shilling because he was confident that his next shot would be a good one. In my opinon, he didnt value showboating either because after he killed the turkey instead of claiming it as his own and rubbing it in the faces of his opponents, he gave it to Miss Temple. Natty Bumppos also valued the preservation of God's animals. Although he was a hunter himself, he got angry at Billy Kirby for just shooting at a flock of pigeons. Bumppos valued shooting the game that you would use rather than shooting into a group of animals to kill whatever you can. He felt that Billy Kirby was wasting would God had created. Bumppo's used the phrase, "Use but dont waste."