It was pleasant merely to sit and breathe at such a time.
"I've always claimed," said Robert, as he passed a beautifully broiled trout to Tayoga and another to the hunter, "that I can cook fish better than either of you.

Dave, I freely admit, can surpass me in the matter of venison and Tayoga is a finer hand with bear than I am, but I'm a specialist with fish, be it salmon, or trout, or salmon trout, or perch or pickerel or what not." "Your boast is justified, in very truth, Robert," said Willet.

"I've known none other who can prepare a fish with as much tenderness and perfection as you.

I suppose 'tis born in you, but you have a way of preserving the juices and savors which defies description and which is beyond praise.

'Tis worth going hungry a long while to put one's tooth into so delicate a morsel as this salmon trout, and 'tis a great pity, too, that our guest, Monsieur Achille Garay, will not join us, when we've an abundance so great and a variety so rich." The wretched spy and intermediary could hear every word they said, and Robert fell silent, but the hunter and the Onondaga talked freely and with abounding zest.
"'Tis a painful thing," said Willet, "to offer hospitality and to have it refused.