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might think a pair of good eyes would find it, dian, gravely, though without taking offence at a

out, for, apparently, every thing within thirty miles is to be seen from this lookout."

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"( 'Look," ," said Arrowhead, stretching an arm before him with quiet grace-" Ontario! "Uncle, you are accustomed to cry 'Land ho!' but not 'Water ho!' and you do not see it," cried the niece, laughing as girls will laugh at their own idle conceits.

"How now, Magnet! dost suppose that I shouldn't know my native element, if it were in sight?"

"But Ontario is not your native element, dear uncle, for you come from the salt water, while this is fresh."

"That might make some difference to your young mariner, but none in the world to the old one. I should know water, child, were I to see it in China."

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Ontario," repeated the Arrowhead, with emphasis, again stretching his hand toward the northwest.

Cap looked at the Tuscarora, for the first time since their acquaintance, with something like an air of contempt, though he did not fail to follow the direction of the chief's eye and arm, both of which were pointing, to all appearance, toward a vacant spot in the heavens, a short distance above the plain of leaves.

(C Ay, ay, this is much as I expected, when I left the coast to come in search of a fresh-water pond," resumed Cap, shrugging his shoulders like one whose mind was made up, and who thought no more need be said. "Ontario may be there, or, for that matter, it may be in my pocket. Well, I suppose there will be room enough, when we reach it, to work our canoe. But, Arrowhead, if there be pale-faces in our neighborhood, I confess I should like to get with in hail of them."

The Tuscarora now gave a quiet inclination of his head, and the whole party descended from the roots of the uptorn tree, in silence. When they had reached the ground, Arrowhead intimated his intention to go toward the fire, and ascertain who had lighted it, while he advised his wife and the two others to proceed to a canoe, which they had left in the adjacent stream, and await his return.

“Why, chief, this might do on soundings, and in an offing where one knew the channel," returned old Cap, “but, in an unknown region like this, I think it unsafe to trust the pilot alone too far from the ship; so, with your leave, we will not part company."

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The Tuscarora assented without difficulty, and again he directed his patient and submissive little wife, who seldom turned her full, rich black eye on him, but to express equally her respect, her dread, and her love, to proceed to the boat. But here Magnet raised a difficulty. Although spirited, and of unusual energy under circumstances of trial, she was but woman, and the idea of being entirely deserted by her two male protectors in the midst of a wilderness, that her senses had just told her was seemingly illimitable, became so keenly painful that she expressed a wish to accompany her uncle.

"The exercise will be a relief, dear sir, after sitting so long in the canoe," she added, as the rich blood slowly returned to a cheek that had paled in spite of her efforts to be calm, "and there may be females with the strangers."

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Come, then, child-it is but a cable's length, and we shall return an hour before the sun sets."

With this permission, the girl, whose real name was Mabel Dunham, prepared to be of the party, while the Dew-of-June, as the wife of Arrowhead was called, passively went her way toward the canoe, too much accustomed to obedience, solitude, and the gloom of the forest, to feel apprehension.

The three who remained in the windrow, now picked their way around its tangled maze and gained the margin of the woods in the necessary direction. A few glances of the eye sufficed for Arrowhead, but old Cap deliberately set the smoke by a pocket-compass before he trusted himself within the shadows of the trees.

"This steering by the nose, Magnet, may do well enough for an Indian, but your thoroughbred knows the virtue of the needle," said the uncle, as he trudged at the heels of the lightstepping Tuscarora. "America would never have been discovered, take my word for it, if Columbus had been nothing but nostrils.-Friend | Arrowhead, didst ever see a machine like this?" The Indian turned, cast a glance at the compass, which Cap held in a way to direct his course, and gravely answered:

"A pale-face eye. The Tuscarora see in his head. The Salt-water" (for so the Indian styled his companion) "all eye now; no tongue."

"He means, uncle, that we had needs be silent; perhaps he distrusts the persons we are

"What my brother want?" asked the In- about to meet."

ARROWHEAD, THE TUSCARORA CHIEF.

9

"Ay-'tis an Indian's fashion of going to, Magnet, lest the knaves take it into their heads quarters. You perceive he has examined the to fire a broadside without a parley, and I will priming of his rifle, and it may be as well if I soon learn what colors they sail under." look to that of my own pistols."

Without betraying alarm at these preparations, to which she had become accustomed by her long journey in the wilderness, Mabel followed with a step as light and elastic as that of the Indian, keeping close in the rear of her companions. For the first half mile no other caution beyond a rigid silence was observed, but, as the party drew nearer to the spot where the fire was known to be, much greater care became neces

sary.

The forest, as usual, had little to intercept the view below the branches but the tall, straight trunks of trees. Every thing belonging to vegetation had struggled toward the light, and beneath the leafy canopy one walked, as it might be, through a vast natural vault that was upheld by myriads of rustic columns. These columns, or trees, however, often served to conceal the adventurer, the hunter, or the foe; and, as Arrowhead swiftly approached the spot where his practised and unerring senses told him the strangers ought to be, his footsteps gradually became lighter, his eye more vigilant, and his person was more carefully concealed.

"See, Salt-water," he said, exultingly, pointing at the same time through the vista of trees, 'pale-face fire!"

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"By the Lord, the fellow is right!" muttered Cap; "there they are, sure enough, and eating their grub as quietly as if they were in the cabin of a three-decker."

"Arrowhead is but half right," whispered Mabel, "for there are two Indians and only one white man."

"Pale-face," said the Tuscarora, holding up two fingers; "red man," holding up one.

"Well," rejoined Cap, "it is hard to say which is right and which is wrong. One is entirely white, and a fine, comely lad he is, with an air of life and respectability about him; one is a red-skin as plain as paint and Nature can make him; but the third chap is half-rigged, being neither brig nor schooner."

"Pale-face," repeated Arrowhead, again raising two fingers-" red man," showing but

one.

"He must be right, uncle, for his eye seems never to fail. But it is now urgent to know whether we meet as friends or foes. They may be French."

"One hail will soon satisfy us on that head," returned Cap. "Stand you behind this tree,

The uncle had placed his two hands to his mouth to form a trumpet, and was about to give the promised hail, when a rapid movement from Arrowhead defeated the intention by deranging the instrument.

"Red man, Mohican," said the Tuscarora― "good; pale-face, Yengeese."

"These are heavenly tidings," murmured Mabel, who little relished the prospect of a deadly fray in that remote wilderness. "Let us approach at once, dear uncle, and proclaim ourselves friends.”

"Good," said the Tuscarora, "red man cool, and know; pale-face hurried, and fire. Let squaw go."

"What!" said Cap, in astonishment; "send little Magnet ahead as a lookout, while two lubbers, like you and me, lie-to to see what sort of a land-fall she will make! If I do, I—"

"It is wisest, uncle," interrupted the generous girl, "and I have no fear. No Christian, seeing a woman approach alone, would fire upon her, and my presence will be a pledge of peace. Let me go forward, as Arrowhead wishes, and all will be well. We are, as yet, unseen, and the surprise of the strangers will not partake of alarm."

"Good," returned Arrowhead, who did not conceal his approbation of Mabel's spirit.

"It has an unseaman-like look," answered Cap, "but, being in the woods, no one will know it.-If you think, Mabel—”

"Uncle, I know there is no cause to fear for me; and you are always nigh to protect me." "Well, take one of the pistols, then-" "Nay, I had better rely on my youth and feebleness," said the girl, smiling, while her color heightened under her feelings. Among Christian men, a woman's best guard is her claim to their protection. I know nothing of arms, and wish to live in ignorance of them."

The uncle desisted: and, after receiving a few cautious instructions from the Tuscarora, Mabel rallied all her spirit, and advanced alone toward the group seated near the fire. Although the heart of the girl beat quick, her step was firm, and her movements, seemingly, were without reluctance. A death-like silence reigned in the forest, for they, toward whom she approached, were too much occupied in appeasing that great natural appetite, hunger, to avert their looks, for an instant, from the important business in which they were all engaged. When Ma

bel, however, had got within a hundred feet of
the fire, she trod upon a dried stick, and the
trifling noise that was produced by her light foot-
step caused the Mohican, as Arrowhead had pro-
nounced the Indian to be, and his companion
whose character had been thought so equivocal,
to rise to their feet as quick as thought. Both
glanced at the rifles that leaned against a tree,
and then each stood, without stretching out an
arm, as his eyes fell on the form of the girl. The
Indian uttered a few words to his companion,
and resumed his seat and his meal as calmly as if
no interruption had occurred.
On the contrary,
the white man left the fire, and came forward to
meet Mabel.

myself in finding my way where there is no path than in finding it where there is. But the regular troops be by no means particular, and half the time they don't know the difference atween a trail and a path, though one is a matter for the eye, while the other is little more than scent."

"Then you are the friend my father promised to send to meet us!"

"If you are Sergeant Dunham's daughter, the great Prophet of the Delawares never uttered a plainer truth."

"I am Mabel, and yonder, hid by the trees, are my uncle, whose name is Cap, and a Tuscarora, called Arrowhead. We did not hope to meet you until we had nearly reached the shores of the lake."

"I wish a juster-minded Indian had been your

The latter saw, as the stranger approached, that she was about to be addressed by one of her own color, though his dress was so strange a mix-guide," said Pathfinder, "for I am no lover of ture of the habits of the two races that it re- the Tuscaroras, who have travelled too far from quired a near look to be certain of the fact. He the graves of their fathers always to remember was of middle age, but there was an open hon- the Great Spirit: and Arrowhead is an ambitious esty, a total absence of guile, in his face, which chief. Is Dew-of-June with him?" otherwise would not have been thought handsome, that at once assured Magnet she was in no danger. Still she paused, in obedience to a law of her habits if not of Nature, which rendered her averse to the appearance of advancing too freely to meet one of the other sex, under the circumstances in which she was placed.

"Fear nothing, young woman," said the hunter, for such his attire would indicate him to be, "you have met Christian men in the wilderness, and such as know how to treat all kindly that are disposed to peace and justice. I'm a man well known in all these parts, and perhaps one of my names may have reached your ears. By the Frenchers, and the red-skins on the other side of the Big Lakes, I am called la Longue Carabine; by the Mohicans, a just-minded and upright tribe, what is left of them, Hawkeye; while the troops and rangers along this side of the water call me Pathfinder, inasmuch as I have never been known to miss one end of the trail, when there was a Mingo or a friend who stood in need of me, at the other."

This was not uttered boastfully, but with the honest confidence of one who well knew that by whatever name others might have heard of him, he had no reason to blush at the reports. The effect on Mabel was instantaneous. The moment she heard the last sobriquet, she clasped her hands eagerly and repeated the word—

"Pathfinder!"

"So they call me, young woman, and many a great lord has got a title that he did not half so well merit; though, if truth be said, I rather pride

"His wife accompanies us, and an humble and mild creature she is."

"Ay, and true-hearted; which is more than any who know him will say of Arrowhead. Well, we must take the fare that Providence bestows, while we follow the trail of life. I suppose worse guides might have been found than the Tuscarora ; though he has too much Mingo blood for one who consorts altogether with the Delawares."

"It is then, perhaps, fortunate we have met," said Mabel.

"It is not misfortinate at any rate, for I promised the sergeant I would see his child safe to the garrison, though I died for it. We expected to meet you before you reached the falls, where we have left our own canoe; while we thought it might do no harm to come up a few miles, in order to be of sarvice if wanted. It's lucky we did, for I doubt if Arrowhead be the man to shoot the current."

"Here come my uncle and the Tuscarora, and our parties can now join."

As Mabel concluded, Cap and Arrowhead, who saw that the conference was amicable, drew nigh, and a few words sufficed to let them know as much as the girl herself had learned from the strangers. As soon as this was done, the party proceeded toward the two who still remained near the fire.

CHAPTER II.

JASPER WESTERN.

"Yea! long as Nature's humblest child
Hath kept her temple undefiled

By simple sacrifice,

Earth's fairest scenes are all his own,
He is a monarch, and his throne.

Is built amid the skies!"

WILSON.

11

ters, seeing that he has passed his days on Ontario."

"I am glad to see you, friend," said Cap, giving the young fresh-water sailor a cordial gripe; "though you must have something still to learn, considering the school to which you have been sent. This is my niece, Mabel-I call her Magnet, for a reason she never dreams of, though you may possibly have education enough to guess at it, having some pretensions to understand the compass, I suppose."

"The reason is easily comprehended," said the young man, involuntarily fastening his keen dark eye, at the same time, on the suffused face of the girl; "and I feel sure that the sailor who steers by your Magnet, will never make a bad land-fall."

THE Mohican continued to eat, though the second white man rose, and courteously took off his cap to Mabel Dunham. He was young, healthful, and manly in appearance; and he wore a dress, which, while it was less rigidly professional than that of the uncle, also denoted one accustomed to the water. In that age real seamen were a class entirely apart from the rest of mankind; their ideas, ordinary language, and attire, being as "Ha! you do make use of some of the terms, strongly indicative of their calling, as the opin- I find, and that with propriety and understandions, speech, and dress of a Turk denote a Mus-ing; though, on the whole, I fear you have seen sulman. Although the Pathfinder was scarcely more green than blue water." in the prime of life, Mabel had met him with a steadiness that may have been the consequence of having braced her nerves for the interview; but, when her eyes encountered those of the young man at the fire, they fell before the gaze of admiration with which she saw, or fancied she saw, he greeted her. Each, in truth, felt that interest in the other, which similarity of age, condition, mutual comeliness, and their novel situation, would be likely to inspire in the young and ingenuous.

"Here," said Pathfinder, with an honest smile bestowed on Mabel, "are the friends your worthy father has sent to meet you. This is a great Delaware; and one that has had honors as well as troubles in his day. He has an Injin name fit for a chief, but as the language is not always easy for the inexperienced to pronounce, we nat'rally turn it into English, and call him the Big Sarpent. You are not to suppose, however, that by this name we wish to say that he is treacherous, beyond what is lawful in a red-skin, but that he is wise, and has the cunning that becomes a warrior.-Arrowhead, there, knows what I mean."

While the Pathfinder was delivering this address, the two Indians gazed on each other steadily, and the Tuscarora advanced and spoke to the other in an apparently friendly manner.

"I like to see this," continued Pathfinder; "the salutes of two red-skins in the woods, Master Cap, are like the hailing of friendly vessels on the ocean. But, speaking of water, it reminds me of my young friend, Jasper Western, here, who can claim to know something of these mat

"It is not surprising that we should get some of the phrases that belong to the land, for we are seldom out of sight of it twenty-four hours at a time."

"More's the pity, boy; more's the pity. A very little land ought to go a great way with a seafaring man. Now, if the truth were known, Master Western, I suppose there is more or less land all round your lake."

66 And, uncle, is there not more or less land all round the ocean?" said Magnet, quickly; for she dreaded a premature display of the old seaman's peculiar dogmatism, not to say pedantry.

"No, child, there is more or less ocean all round the land! that's what I tell the people ashore, youngster. They are living, as it might be, in the midst of the sea, without knowing it; by sufferance, as it were, the water being so much the more powerful, and the largest. But there is no end to conceit in this world, for a fellow who never saw salt water often fancies he knows more than one who has gone round the Horn. No-no-this earth is pretty much an island, and all that can be truly said not to be so, is water."

Young Western had a profound deference for a mariner of the ocean, on which he had often pined to sail; but he had, also, a natural regard for the broad sheet on which he had passed his life, and which was not without its beauties in his eyes.

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returned Cap, laughing neartily. "But yonder is the Pathfinder, as they call him, with some smoking platters, inviting us to share in his mess; and I will confess that one gets no venison at sea. Master Western, civility to girls, at your time of life, comes as easy as taking in the slack of the ensign halyards; and if you will just keep an eye to her kid and can, while I join the mess of the Pathfinder and our Indian friends, I make no doubt she will remember it."

chances and luck that we seamen like, and if ours is all water, yours is all land."

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Nay, we have water too, in our journeyings and marches," returned his white companion; we border-men handle the paddle and the spear almost as much as the rifle and the hunting-knife." 'Ay; but do you handle the brace and the bowline; the wheel and the lead-line; the reefpoint and the top-rope? The paddle is a good thing, out of doubt, in a canoe, but of what use is it in the ship?"

"Nay, I respect all men in their callings, and I can believe the things you mention have their uses. One, who has lived, like myself, in company with many tribes, understands differences in usages. The paint of a Mingo is not the paint of a Delaware; and he who should expect to see a warrior in the dress of a squaw, might be disapp'inted. I'm not very old, but I have lived in the woods, and have some acquaintance with human natur'. I never believed much in the larning of them that dwell in towns, for I never yet met with one that had an eye for a rifle or a trail."

Master Cap uttered more than he was aware of at the time. Jasper Western did look to the wants of Mabel, and she long remembered the kind, manly attention of the young sailor, at this their first interview. He placed the end of a log for a seat, obtained for her a delicious morsel of the venison, gave her a draught of pure water from the spring, and, as he sat near and opposite to her, fast won his way to her esteem by his gentle but frank manner of manifesting his care; homage that woman always wishes to receive, but which is never so flattering, or so agreeable, as when it comes from the young to those of their own age; from the manly to the gentle. Like most of those who pass their time excluded "That's my manner of reasoning, Master from the society of the softer sex, young Western Pathfinder, to a yarn. Walking about streets, was earnest, sincere, and kind in his attentions, going to church of Sundays, and hearing sarwhich, though they wanted a conventional re- mons, never yet made a man of a human being. finement that perhaps Mabel never missed, had Send the boy out upon the broad ocean, if you those winning qualities that prove very sufficient | wish to open his eyes, and let him look upon foras substitutes. Leaving these two inexperienced eign nations, or what I call the face of Natur', if and unsophisticated young people to become ac- you wish him to understand his own character. quainted through their feelings, rather than their Now, there is my brother-in-law, the sergeant, he expressed thoughts, we will turn to the group, in is as good a fellow as ever broke a biscuit, in his which the uncle, with a facility of taking care own way; but what is he, after all? why, nothing of himself that never deserted him, had already but a soger. A sergeant, to be sure, but that is become a principal actor. a sort of a soger, you know. When he wished to marry poor Bridget, my sister, I told the girl what he was, as in duty bound, and what she might expect from such a husband; but you know how it is with girls, when their minds are jammed by an inclination. It is true, the sergeant has risen in his calling, and they say he is an important man at the fort; but his poor wife has not lived to see it at all, for she has now been dead these fourteen years."

The party had taken their places around a platter of venison-steaks, which served for the common use, and the discourse naturally partook of the characters of the different individuals that composed it. The Indians were silent and industrious, the appetite of the aboriginal Americans for venison being seemingly inappeasable; while the two white men were communicative and discursive, each of the latter being garrulous and opinionated in his way. But, as the dialogue will serve to put the reader in possession of certain facts that may render the succeeding narrative more clear, it will be well to record it.

"There must be satisfaction in this life of yours, no doubt, Mr. Pathfinder," continued Cap, when the hunger of the travellers was so far appeased that they began to pick and choose among the savory morsels; "it has some of the

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"A soldier's calling is an honorable calling, provided he has fi't only on the side of right,' returned the Pathfinder; "and as the Frenchers are always wrong, and his sacred majesty and these colonies are always right, I take it the sergeant has a quiet conscience, as well as a good character. I have never slept more sweetly than when I have fi't the Mingoes, though it is the law with me to fight always like a white man, and never like an Injin. The Sarpent, here, has

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