Pathfinder's, and giving it a hearty squeeze-" how do you like the girl?"

"You have reason to be proud of her, serjeant; you have reason to be proud at finding yourself the father of so handsome and well-mannered a young woman. I have seen many of her sex, and some that were great and beautiful, but never before did I meet with one, in whom I thought Providence had so well balanced the different gifts."

"And the good opinion, I can tell you, Pathfinder, is mutual. She told me last night all about your coolness, and spirit, and kindness, particularly the last; for kindness counts for more than half with females, my friend, and the first inspection seems to give satisfaction on both sides. Brush up the uniform, and pay a little more attention to the outside, Pathfinder, and you will have the girl heart and hand.”

"Nay, nay, serjeant, I've forgotten nothing that you have told me, and grudge no reasonable pains to make myself as pleasant in the eyes of Mabel, as she is getting to be in mine. I cleaned and brightened up Killdeer, this morning, as soon as the sun rose; and, in my judgment, the piece never looked better than it does at this very moment!"

"That is according to your hunting notions, Pathfinder; but fire-arms should sparkle and glitter in the sun, and I never yet could see any beauty in a clouded barrel."

"Lord Howe thought otherwise, serjeant; and he was accounted a good soldier!"

"Very true his lordship had all the barrels of his regiment darkened, and what good came of it? You can see his 'scutcheon hanging in the English church at Albany! No, no, my worthy friend, a soldier should be a soldier, and at no time ought he to be ashamed or afraid to carry about him the signs and symbols of his honorable trade. Had you much discourse with Mabel, Pathfinder, as you came along in the canoe?"

"There was not much opportunity, serjeant, and then I found myself so much beneath her in idees, that I was afraid to speak of much beyond what belonged to my own gifts."

"Therein you are partly right and partly wrong, my friend. Women love trifling discourse, though they like to have most of it to themselves. Now, you know, I'm a man that do not loosen my tongue at every giddy thought, and yet there were days when I could see that Mabel's mother thought none the worse of me, because I descended a little from my manhood. It is true, I was twenty-two years younger then, than I am to-day; and, moreover, instead of being the oldest serjeant in the regiment, I was the youngest. Dignity is commanding and useful, and there is no getting on without it, as respects the men; but if you would be thoroughly esteemed by a woman, it is necessary to condescend a little, on occasions."

"Ah's me! serjeant; I sometimes fear it will never do!"

66

Why do you think so discouragingly of a matter on which I thought both our minds were made up?"

you

"We did agree that if Mabel should prove what told me she was, if the girl could fancy a rude hunter and guide, that I would quit some of my wandering ways, and try to humanize my mind down to a wife and children. But since I have seen the girl, I will own that many misgivin's have come over me!"

"How's this!" interrupted the serjeant, sternly—" Did I not understand you to say that you were pleased?—And is Mabel a young woman to disappoint expectation ?"

"Ah! serjeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust, but myself. I am but a poor ignorant woodsman, after all, and perhaps I'm not, in truth, as good as even you and I may think me!"

"If you doubt your own judgment of yourself, Pathfinder, I beg you will not doubt mine. Am I not accustomed to judge men's characters? Is it not my especial duty, and am I often deceived? Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any assurances in this particular."

"But, serjeant, we have long been friends; have fou't side by side a dozen times, and have done each other many sarvices. When this is the case, men are apt to think overkindly of each other, and I fear me that the daughter may not

be so likely to view a plain, ignorant hunter as favorably as the father does."

"Tut, tut, Pathfinder; you don't know yourself, man, and may put all faith in my judgment. In the first place, you have experience, and as all girls must want that, no prudent young woman would overlook such a qualification. Then you are not one of the coxcombs that strut about when they first join a regiment, but a man who has seen service, and who carries the marks of it on his person and countenance. I dare say you have been under fire some thirty or forty times, counting all the skirmishes and ambushes that you've seen."

"All of that, serjeant, all of that; but what will it avail in gaining the good-will of a tender-hearted young female ?”

"It will gain the day. Experience in the field is as good in love as in war. But you are as honest-hearted and as loyal a subject as the king can boast of—God bless him!"

"That may be too-that may be too; but I'm afeard I'm too rude, and too old, and too wild like, to suit the fancy of such a young and delicate girl as Mabel, who has been unused to our wilderness ways, and may think the settlements better suited to her gifts and inclinations."

“These are new misgivings for you, my friend, and I wonder they were never paraded before."

"Because I never knew my own worthlessness, perhaps, until I saw Mabel. I have travelled with some as fair, and have guided them through the forest, and seen them in their perils and in their gladness; but they were always too much above me to make me think of them as more than so many feeble ones I was bound to protect and defend. The case is now different. Mabel and I are so nearly alike, that I feel weighed down with a load that is hard to bear, at finding us so unlike. I do wish, serjeant, that I was ten years younger, more comely to look at, and better suited to please a handsome young woman's fancy!"

"Cheer up, my brave friend, and trust to a father's knowledge of womankind. Mabel half loves you already, and a fortnight's

intercourse and kindness, down among the islands yonder, will close ranks with the other half. The girl as much as told me this herself, last night."

"Can this be so, serjeant?" said the guide, whose meek and modest nature shrank from viewing himself in colors so favorable. "Can this be truly so! I am but a poor hunter, and Mabel, I see, is fit to be an officer's lady. Do you think the gal will consent to quit all her beloved settlement usages, and her visitin's, and her church-goin's, to dwell with a plain guide and hunter, up hereaway, in the woods? Will she not, in the end, crave her old ways, and a better man ?”

"A better man, Pathfinder, would be hard to find," returned the father. "As for town usages, they are soon forgotten in the freedom of the forest, and Mabel has just spirit enough to dwell on a frontier. I've not planned this marriage, my friend, without thinking it over, as a general does his campaign. At first, I thought of bringing you into the regiment, that you might succeed me when I retire, which must be sooner or later; but on reflection, Pathfinder, I think you are scarcely fitted for the office. Still, if not a soldier in all the meanings of the word, you are a soldier in its best meaning, and I know that you have the good will of every officer in the corps. As long as I live, Mabel can dwell with me, and you will always have a home, when you return from your scoutings and marches."

serjeant, if the girl can only But, ah's me! it does not

"This is very pleasant to think of, come into our wishes with good will. seem that one like myself can ever be agreeable in her handsome eyes! If I were younger, and more comely, now, as Jasper Western is, for instance; there might be a chance—yes, then, indeed, there might be some chance."

"That, for Jasper Eau-douce, and every younker of them in or about the fort!" returned the serjeant, snapping his fingers. "If not actually a younger, you are a younger looking, ay, and a better looking man than the Scud's master

"Anan !" said Pathfinder, looking up at his companion with an expression of doubt, as if he did not understand his meaning.

"I say, if not actually younger in days and years, you look more hardy and like whip-cord, than Jasper, or any of them; and there will be more of you, thirty years hence, than of all of them put together. A good conscience will keep one like you a mere boy all his life.”

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Jasper has as clear a conscience as any youth I know, serjeant!--and is as likely to wear, on that account, as any young man in the colony."

66

Then you are my friend," squeezing the other's hand- my tried, sworn, and constant friend.”

66

Yes, we have been friends, serjeant, near twenty years― before Mabel was born."

"True enough—before Mabel was born we were well-tried friends, and the hussy would never dream of refusing to marry aman who was her father's friend before she was born!"

"We don't know, serjeant, we don't know. Like loves like. The young prefar the young for companions, and the old

the old."

"Not for wives, Pathfinder! I never knew an old man, now, who had an objection to a young wife. Then you are respected and esteemed by every officer in the fort, as I have said already, and it will please her fancy to like a man that every one else likes."

"I hope I have no enemies but the Mingos," returned the guide, stroking down his hair meekly, and speaking thoughtfully. "I've tried to do right, and that ought to make friends, though it sometimes fails."

66 And you may be said to keep the best company, for even old Duncan of Lundie is glad to see you, and you pass hours in his society. Of all the guides, he confides most in you."

but,

"Aye, even greater than he is have marched by my side for days, and have conversed with me as if I were their brother; serjeant, I have never been puffed up by their company, for I know that the woods often bring men to a level, who would not be so in the settlements."