views, that was proportioned to the doubts and misgivings proceeding from his humble distrust of himself. CHAPTER X. "Think not I love him, though I ask for him; ures; though "Mabel Dunham" was soon a toast that even the ensign or the lieutenant did not disdain to give. On At the end of the week, Duncan of Lundie sent for Sergeant Dunham after evening roll-call, on business of a nature that, it was understood, required a personal conference. The old veteran dwelt in a movable hut, which, being placed on trucks, he could order to be wheeled about at pleasure, sometimes living in one part of the area within the fort, and sometimes in another.* the present occasion, he had made a halt near the centre, and there he was found by his subordinate, who was admitted to his presence without any delay, or dancing attendance in an antechamber. In point of fact, there was very little difference in the quality of the accommodations given to the officers and those allowed to the men, the former being merely granted the most room, and Mabel and her father were lodged nearly, if not quite, as well as the commandant of the place himself. A WEEK passed in the usual routine of a garrison. Mabel was becoming used to a situation that, at first, she had found not only novel but a little irksome; and the officers and men, in their turn, gradually familiarized to the presence of a young and blooming girl, whose attire and carriage had that air of modest gentility about them which she had obtained in the family of her patroness, annoyed her less by their ill-concealed admiration, while they gratified her by the respect which, she was fain to think, they paid her on account of her father; but which, in truth, was more to be attributed to her own modest but spirited deportment, than to any deference for said old Lundie, heartily, as his inferior stood in the worthy sergeant. a respectful attitude at the door of a sort of library and bedroom into which he had been ushered-"walk in, and take a seat on that stool. I have sent for you, man, to discuss any thing but rosters and pay-rolls this evening. It is now many years since we have been comrades, and 'auld lang syne' should count for something, even between a major and his orderly, a Scot and a Yankee. Sit ye down, man, and just put yourIt has been a fine day, serself at your ease. Acquaintances made in a forest, or in any circumstances of unusual excitement, soon attain their limits. Mabel found one week's residence at Oswego sufficient to determine her as to those with whom she might be intimate, and those whom she ought to avoid. The sort of neutral position occupied by her father, who was not an officer while he was so much more than a common soldier, by keeping her aloof from the two great classes of military life, lessened the number of those whom she was compelled to know, and made the duty of decision comparatively easy. Still she soon discovered that there were a few, even among those that could aspire to a seat at the commandant's table, who were disposed to overlook the halbert, for the novelty of a wellturned figure, and of a pretty, winning face; and by the end of the first two or three days, she had admirers even among the gentlemen. The quartermaster, in particular, a middle-aged soldier, who had more than once tried the blessings of matrimony, but was now a widower, was evidently disposed to increase his intimacy with the sergeant, though their duties often brought them together; and the youngsters among his messmates did not fail to note that this man of method, who was a Scotsman of the name of Muir, was much more frequent in his visits to the quarters of his subordinate than had formerly been his wont. A laugh, or a joke, in honor of the "sergeant's daughter," however, limited their strict "Walk in, sergeant, walk in, my good friend," THE SERGEANT AND MAJOR DUNCAN. 63 "The king, God bless him, sir, has much good | no more of it. A very little would answer for a service in your honor, yet." "It may be so, Sergeant Dunham, especially if he should happen to have a spare lieutenantcolonelcy left." "The 55th will be honored the day that commission is given to Duncan of Lundie, sir." "And Duncan of Lundie will be honored the day he receives it. But, sergeant, if you have never had a lieutenant-colonelcy, you have had a good wife, and that is the next thing to rank, in making a man happy." "I have been married, Major Duncan; but it is now a long time since I have had no drawback on the love I bear his majesty and my duty." 'What, man, not even the love you bear that active, little, round-limbed, rosy-cheeked daughter, that I have seen in the fort, these last few days? Out upon you, sergeant! old fellow as I am, I could almost love that little lassie myself, and send the lieutenant-colonelcy to the devil." "We all know where Major Duncan's heart is, and that is in Scotland, where a beautiful lady is ready and willing to make him happy as soon as his own sense of duty shall permit." "Ay, hope is ever a far-off thing, sergeant," returned the superior, a shade of melancholy passing over his hard Scottish features as he spoke; "and bonny Scotland is a far-off country. Well, if we have no heather and oatmeal in this region, we have venison for the killing it; and salmon as plenty as at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Is it true, sergeant, that the men complain of having been over-venisoned and over-pigeoned of late?" "Not for some weeks, Major Duncan, for neither deer nor birds are so plenty at this season as they have been. They begin to throw their remarks about concerning the salmon, but I trust we shall get through the summer without any serious disturbance on the score of food. The Scotch in the battalion do, indeed, talk more than is prudent of their want of oatmeal, grumbling occasionally of our wheaten bread." "Ah! that is human nature, sergeant; pure unadulterated Scottish human nature. A cake, man, to say the truth, is an agreeable morsel, and I often see the time when I pine for a bite my self." "If the feeling gets to be troublesome, Major Duncan-in the men I mean, sir, for I would not think of saying so disrespectful a thing to your honor-but if the men ever pine seriously for their natural food, I would humbly recommend that some oatmeal be imported, or prepared in this country for them, and I think we shall hear cure, sir." "You are a wag, sergeant; but hang me if I am sure you are not right. There may be sweeter things in this world, after all, than oatmeal. You have a sweet daughter, Dunham, for one." "The girl is like her mother, Major Duncan, and will pass inspection," said the sergeant, proudly. "Neither was brought up on any thing better than good American flour. The girl will pass inspection, sir." "That would she, I'll answer for it. Well, I may as well come to the point at once, man, and bring up my reserve into the front of the battle. Here is Davy Muir, the quartermaster, is disposed to make your daughter his wife, and he has just got me to open the matter to you, being fearful of compromitting his own dignity-and I may as well add, that half the youngsters in the fort toast her, and talk of her from morning till night." "She is much honored, sir," returned the father, stiffly, "but I trust the gentlemen will find something more worthy of them to talk about, ere long. I hope to see her the wife of an honest man, before many weeks, sir." "Yes, Davy is an honest man, and that is more than can be said of all in the quartermaster's department, I'm thinking, sergeant," returned Lundie, with a slight smile. "Well, then, may I tell the Cupid-stricken youth that the matter is as good as settled?" "I thank your honor, but Mabel is betrothed to another." "The devil she is! That will produce a stir in the fort; though I'm not sorry to hear it, either, for to be frank with you, sergeant, I'm no great admirer of unequal matches." "I think with your honor, and have no desire to see my daughter an officer's lady. If she can get as high as her mother was before her, it ought to satisfy any reasonable woman." "And may I ask, sergeant, who is the lucky man that you intend to call son-in-law?" "The Pathfinder, your honor." "Pathfinder!" "The same, Major Duncan; and in naming him to you, I give you his whole history. No one is better known on this frontier than my honest, brave, true-hearted friend." "All that is true enough; but is he, after all, the sort of person to make a girl of twenty happy? "Why not, your honor? the man is at the head of his calling. There is no other guide, or scout, connected with the army, that has half the reputation of Pathfinder, or who deserves to have have the merit of self-denial, which always makes it half as well." "Very true, sergeant; but is the reputation of a scout exactly the sort of renown to captivate a girl's fancy?" "Talking of girls' fancies, sir, is, in my humble opinion, much like talking of a recruit's judgment. If we were to take the movements of the awkward squad, sir, as a guide, we should never form a decent line in battalion, Major Duncan." "But your daughter has nothing awkward about her; for a genteeler girl, of her class, could not be found in old Albin itself. Is she of your way of thinking, in this matter?-though I suppose she must be, as you say she is betrothed." "We have not yet conversed on the subject, your honor, but I consider her mind as good as made up, from several little circumstances that might be named." "And what are these circumstances, sergeant?" asked the major, who began to take more interest than he had at first felt, in the subject. "I confess a little curiosity to learn something about a woman's mind, being, as you know, a bachelor myself." a young woman wiser and better." "And are you not afraid that she may be left a widow while still a young woman? What between wild beasts and wilder savages, Pathfinder may be said to carry his life in his hand." “Every bullet has its billet,' Lundie," for so the major was fond of being called, in his moments of condescension, and when not engaged in military affairs, "and no man in the 55th can call himself beyond, or above, the chances of sudden death. In that particular, Mabel would gain nothing by a change. Besides, sir, if I may speak freely on such a subject, I much doubt if ever Pathfinder dies in battle, or by any of the sudden chances of the wilderness." "And why so, sergeant?" asked the major, looking at his inferior with the sort of reverence which a Scot of his day was more apt than at present to entertain for mysterious agencies. "He is a soldier, so far as danger is concerned, and one that is much more than usually exposed; and, being free of his person, why should he expect to escape, when others do not?" "I do not believe, your honor, that the Path"Why, your honor, when I speak of the Pathfinder considers his own chances better than any finder to the girl, she always looks me full in the one's else, but the man will never die by a bullet. face; chimes in with every thing I say in his favor, I have seen him so often, handling his rifle with and has a frank, open way with her, which says as much composure as if it were a shepherd's as much as if she half considered him, already, as crook, in the midst of the heaviest showers of a husband." bullets, and under so many extraordinary circum "Hum!—and these signs you think, Dun-stances, that I do not think Providence means he ham, are faithful tokens of your daughter's feelings? "I do, your honor, for they strike me as natural. When I find a man, sir, who looks me full in the face, while he praises an officer-for, begging your honor's pardon, the men will sometimes pass their strictures on their betters-and when I find a man looking me in the eyes as he praises his captain, I always set it down that the fellow is honest, and means what he says." "Is there not some material difference in the age of the intended bridegroom and that of his pretty bride, sergeant?' "You are quite right, sir; Pathfinder is well advanced toward forty, and Mabel has every prospect of happiness that a young woman can derive from the certainty of possessing an experienced husband. I was quite forty myself, your honor, when I married her mother." should ever fall in that manner. And yet, if there be a man in his majesty's dominions who really deserves such a death, it is Pathfinder!" "We never know, sergeant," returned Lundie, with a countenance that was grave with thought, "and the less we say about it, perhaps, the better. But will your daughter-Mabel, I think, you call her-will Mabel be as willing to accept one, who, after all, is a mere hanger-on of the army, as to take one from the service itself? There is no hope of promotion for the guide, sergeant!" "He is at the head of his corps, already, your honor. In short, Mabel has made up her mind on this subject, and, as your honor has had the condescension to speak to me about Mr. Muir, I trust you will be kind enough to say that the girl is as good as billeted for life." "Well, well, this is your own matter, and now "But will your daughter be as likely to admire-Sergeant Dunham!" a green hunting-shirt, such as that our worthy "Your honor," said the other, rising, and giv guide wears, with a foxskin cap, as the smarting the customary salute. uniform of the 55th ?" "You have been told it is my intention to "Perhaps not, sir; and, therefore, she will send you down among the Thousand Islands, for PLANNING FOR MABEL'S MARRIAGE. the next month. All the old subalterns have had their tours of duty in that quarter-all that I like to trust, at least-and it has, at length, come to your turn. Lieutenant Muir, it is true, claims his right, but, being quartermaster, I do not like to break up well-established arrangements. Are the men drafted? "Every thing is ready, your honor. The draft is made, and I understood that the canoe which got in last night, brought a message to say that the party already below is looking out for the relief." "It did, and you must sail the day after to-morrow, if not to-morrow night. It will be wise, perhaps, to sail in the dark.” "So Jasper thinks, Major Dunham, and I know no one more to be depended on, in such an affair, than young Jasper Western." "Young Jasper Eau-douce!" said Lundie, a slight smile gathering around his usually stern mouth. "Will that lad be of your party, sergeant?" 65 turned on his heels as if they had been pivots, and had got the door nearly drawn-to after him, when he was suddenly recalled. "I had forgotten, sergeant, the younger officers have begged for a shooting-match, and tomorrow has been named for the day. All competitors will be admitted, and the prizes will be a silver-mounted powder-horn, a leathern flask-ditto," reading from a piece of paper, as I see by the professional jargon of this bill, and a silk calash for a lady. The latter is to enable the victor to show his gallantry, by making an offering of it to her he best loves." "All very agreeable, your honor, at least to him that succeeds. Is the Pathfinder to be permitted to enter?" "I do not well see how he can be excluded, if he choose to come forward. Latterly, I have observed that he takes no share in these sports, probably from a conviction of his own unequalled skill." "That's it, Major Dunham; the honest fellow "Your honor will remember that the Scud knows there is not a man on the frontier who can never quits port without him." "True, but all general rules have their exceptions. Have I not seen a seafaring person about the fort within the last few days?" "No doubt, your honor; it is Master Cap, a brother-in-law of mine, who brought my daughter from below." "Why not put him in the Scud for this cruise, sergeant, and leave Jasper behind? Your brother-in-law would like the variety of a fresh-water cruise, and you would enjoy more of his company." "I intended to ask your honor's permission to take him along, but he must go as a volunteer. Jasper is too brave a lad to be turned out of his command without a reason, Major Duncan; and I'm afraid brother Cap despises fresh water too much to do duty on it." "Quite right, sergeant, and I leave all this to your own discretion. Eau-douce must retain his command, on second thoughts. You intend that Pathfinder shall also be of the party?" "If your honor approves of it. There will be service for both the guides, the Indian as well as the white man." "I think you are right. Well, sergeant, I wish you good luck in the enterprise; and remember, the post is to be destroyed and abandoned when your command is withdrawn. It will have done its work by that time, or we shall have failed entirely, and it is too ticklish a position to be maintained unnecessarily. You can retire." equal him, and he does not wish to spoil the pleasure of others. I think we may trust to his delicacy in any thing, sir. Perhaps it may be as well to let him have his own way." "In this instance we must, sergeant. Whether he will be as successful in all others, remains to be seen. I wish you good-evening, Dunham." The sergeant now withdrew, leaving Duncan of Lundie to his own thoughts. That they were not altogether disagreeable, was to be inferred from the smiles which occasionally covered a countenance that was hard and martial in its usual expression, though there were moments in which all its severe sobriety prevailed. Half an hour might have passed, when a tap at the door was answered by a direction to enter. A middleaged man, in the dress of an officer, but whose uniform wanted the usual smartness of the profession, made his appearance, and was saluted as "Mr. Muir." "I have come, sir, at your bidding, to know my fortune," said the quartermaster, in a strong Scotch accent, as soon as he had taken the seat which was proffered to him. "To say the truth to you, Major Duncan, this girl is making as much havoc in the garrison as the French did before Ty; I never witnessed so general a rout, in so short a time!" Surely, Davy, you don't mean to persuade me that your young and unsophisticated heart is in such a flame, after one week's ignition. Why, man, this is worse than the affair in Scotland, Serjeant Dunham gave the customary salute, where it was said the heat within was so intense that it just burnt a hole through your own precious body, and left a place for all the lassies to peer in at, to see what the combustible material was worth." concerning that future, as it has turned out to be." "Surely, Lundie, ye do not complain of your portion of it. You've risen to be a major, and will soon be a lieutenant-colonel, if letters tell the truth; while I am just one step higher than when your honored father gave me my first com “Ye'll have your own way, Major Duncan, and your father and mother would have theirs before ye, even if the enemy were in the camp. I see nothing so extraordinar' in young people's follow-mission, and a poor deevil of a quartermaster." ing the bent of their inclinations and wishes." "But you've followed yours so often, Davy, that I should think, by this time, it had lost the edge of novelty. Including the informal affair in Scotland, when you were a lad, you've been married four times already." "Only three, major, as I hope to get another wife! I've not yet had my number; no-no— only three." "I'm thinking, Davy, you don't include the first affair I mentioned; that in which there was no parson." "And why should I, major? The courts decided that it was no marriage, and what more could a man want? The woman took advantage of a slight amorous propensity, that may be a weakness in my disposition, perhaps, and inveigled me into a contract that was found to be illegal." "If I remember right, Muir, there were thought to be two sides to that question, in the time of it!" "It would be but an indifferent question, my dear major, that hadn't two sides to it; and I've known many that had three. But the poor woman's dead, and there was no issue, so nothing came of it, after all. Then I was particularly unfortunate with my second wife-I say second, major, out of deference to you, and on the mere supposition that the first was a marriage at all— but, first or second, I was particularly unfortunate with Jeannie Graham, who died in the first lustrum, leaving neither chick nor chiel behind her. I do think if Jeannie had survived, I never should have turned my thoughts toward another wife." "But as she did not, you married twice after her death-and are desirous of doing so a third time." "The truth can never justly be gainsaid, Major Duncan, and I am always ready to avow it. I'm thinking, Lundie, you are melancholar', this fine evening? "No, Muir, not melancholy absolutely, but a little thoughtful, I confess. I was looking back to my boyish days, when I, the laird's son, and you the parson's, roamed about our native hills, happy and careless boys, taking little heed to the future; and then have followed some thoughts that may be a little painful, "And the four wives?" "Three, Lundie; three only that were legal, even under our own liberal and sanctified laws.” "Well, then, let it be three. Ye know, Davy," said Major Duncan, insensibly dropping into the pronunciation and dialect of his youth, as is much the practice with educated Scotchmen as they warm with a subject that comes near the heart-"ye know, Davy, that my own choice has long been made, and in how anxious and hope-wearied a manner I've waited for that happy hour when I can call the woman I've so long loved a wife; and here have you without fortune, name, birth, or merit—I mean particular merit-" "Na, na-dinna say that, Lundie-the Muirs are of gude bluid." "Well, then, without aught but bluid ye've wived four times-" "I tall ye but thrice, Lundie. Ye'll weaken auld friendship if ye call it four." "Put it at ye'r own number, Davy, and it's far more than ye'r share. Our lives have been very different on the score of matrimony, at least; you must allow that, my old friend." "And which do you think has been the gainer, major, speaking as frankly thegither as we did when lads." "Nay, I've nothing to conceal. My days have passed in hope deferred, while yours have passed in-" "Not in hope realized, I give you mine honor, Major Duncan," interrupted the quartermaster. "Each new experiment I have thought might prove an advantage, but disappointment seems the lot of man!-Ah! this is a vain world of ours, Lundie, it must be owned; and in nothing vainer than in matrimony." "And yet you are ready to put your neck into the noose for the fifth time?" "I desire to say it will be but the fourth, Major Duncan," said the quartermaster, positively; then instantly changing the expression of his face to one of boyish rapture, he added: "But this Mabel Dunham is a rara avis! Our Scotch lassies are fair and pleasant, but it must be owned these colonials are of surpassing comeliness." |