TONE

“Hawkeye [throws] his rifle heedlessly down andleave[s] it lying on the ground where some hostileIndians would presently be sure to find it – a rifleprized by that person above all things else in theearth.” Twain supports the contrast with the contentionthat the carelessness has no cogent motivation:“Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter ofa minute where the Indians not have found it.”