is the day that the Sarpent, there, and I have passed happily among the streams, living on venison, salmon and trout, without thought of a Mingo, or a scalp! I sometimes wish that them blessed days might come back, for it is not my real gift to slay my own kind. I'm sartain the serjeant's daughter don't think me a wretch that takes pleasure in preying on human natur'?”

As this remark, a sort of half interrogatory, was made Pathfinder looked behind him; and, though the most partia. friend could scarcely term his sun-burnt and hard features handsome, even Mabel thought his smile attractive, by its simple ingenuousness, and the uprightness that beamed in every lineament of his honest countenance.

"I do not think my father would have sent one like those you mention, to see his daughter through the wilderness," the young woman answered, returning the smile as frankly as it was given, and much more sweetly.

"That he would n't, that he would n't; the serjeant is a man of feeling, and many is the march and the fight that we have had-stood shoulder to shoulder in, as he would call it-though I always keep my limbs free, when near a Frencher, or a Mingo."

"You are then the young friend of whom my father has spoken so often in his letters?"

"His young friend-the serjeant has the advantage of me by thirty years; yes, he is thirty years my senior, and as many my better.”

"Not in the eyes of the daughter, perhaps, friend Pathfinder," put in Cap, whose spirits began to revive, when he found the water once more flowing around him. “The thirty ears that you mention, are not often thought to be an adantage in the eyes of girls of nineteen."

Mabel coloured, and in turning aside her face, to avoid the looks of those in the bow of the canoe, she encountered the admiring gaze of the young man in the stern. As a last resource her spirited, but soft blue eyes, sought refuge in the water. Just at this moment, a dull heavy sound swept up the avenue formed by the trees, borne along by a light air that hardly produced a ripple on the water.

"That sounds pleasantly," said Cap, pricking up his ears

like a dog that hears a distant baying; "it is the surf on the shores of your lake, I suppose?"

"Not so-not so ;" answered the Pathfinder-" it is mere. ly this river tumbling over some rocks, half a mile below us.' "Is there a fall in the stream!" demanded Mabel, a still brighter flush glowing in her face.

"The devil! Master Pathfinder-or you, Mr. Eau-deuce(for so Cap began to style Jasper, by way of entering cor dially into the border usages,) had you not better give the canoe a sheer, and get nearer to the shore? These waterfalls have generally rapids above them, and one might as well get into the Maelstrom, at once, as to run into their suction."

"Trust to us--trust to us, friend Cap," answered Pathfinder; (6 we are but fresh-water sailors, it is true, and I can. not boast of being much even of that; but we understand rifts, and rapids, and cataracts; and, in going down these, we shall do our endeavours not to disgrace our edication.”

"In going down!" exclaimed Cap-" the devil, man! you do not dream of going down a water-fall, in this egg-shell of bark !"

"Sartain; the path lies over the falls, and it is much easier to shoot them, than to unload the canoe, and to carry that and all it contains, around a portage of a mile, by hand.”

Mabel turned her pallid countenance towards the young man in the stern of the canoe, for just at that moment a fresh roar of the fall was borne to her ears, by a new current of the air, and it really sounded terrific, now that the cause was understood.

"We thought, that by landing the females, and the two Indians," Jasper quietly observed, "we three white men all of whom are used to the water, might carry the cano over in safety, for we often shoot these falls."

"And we counted on you, friend mariner, as a mainstay ;" said Pathfinder, winking at Jasper over his shoulder, "for you are accustomed to see waves tumbling about, and without some one to steady the cargo, all the finery of the ser jeant's daughter might be washed into the river, and be lost."

Cap was puzzled. The idea of going over a water-fall was perhaps more serious, in his eyes, than it would have been in those of one totally ignorant of all that pertained to

boats; for he understood the power of the element, and the total feebleness of man when exposed to its fury. Still, his pride revolted at the thought of deserting the boat, while others not only steadily, but coolly, proposed to continue in tt. Notwithstanding the latter feeling, and his innate as well as acquired steadiness in danger, he would probably have deserted his post, had not the images of Indians tearing scalps from the human head taken so strong hold of his fancy, as to induce him to imagine the canoe a sort of sanctuary.

"What is to be done with Magnet?" he demanded, affection for his niece raising another qualm in his conscience. 'We cannot allow Magnet to land if there are enemy's In dians near?"

Nay-no Mingo will be near the portage, for that is a spot too public for their deviltries," answered the Pathfinder, confidently. "Natur' is natur', and it is an Indian's natur’ to be found where he is least expected. No fear of him, on a beaten path, for he wishes to come upon you, when unprepared to meet him, and the fiery villains make it a point to deceive you, one way or another. Sheer in, Eau-douce, and we will land the serjeant's daughter, on the end of that log where she can reach the shore with a dry foot."

The injunction was obeyed, and in a few minutes the whole party had left the canoe, with the exception of Pathfinder and the two sailors. Notwithstanding his professional pride, Cap would have gladly followed, but he did not like to exhibit so unequivocal a weakness in the presence of a fresh-water sailor.

“I call all hands to witness," he said, as those who had landed moved away, "that I do not look on this affair as any thing more than canoeing in the woods. There is no seamanship in tumbling over a water-fall, which is a feat the greatest lubber can perform as well as the oldest mariner."

"Nay, nay, you needn't despise the Oswego Falls, neither,' put in Pathfinder, " for though they may not be Niagara, nor the Genessee, nor the Cahoos, nor Glenn's, nor those on the Canada, they are narvous enough for a new beginner. Let the serjeant's daughter stand on yonder rock, and she will see the manner in which we ignorant back-woodsmen gei over a difficulty that we can't get under. Now, Eau-douce, a steady hand and a truc eye, for all rests on you, seeing

that we can count Master Cap for no more than a pas

The canoe was leaving the shore, as he concluded, while Mabel went hurriedly and trembling to the rock that had been pointed out, talking to her companion of the danger her uncle so unnecessarily ran, while her eyes were riveted on the agile and vigorous form of Eau-douce, as he stood erect in the stern of the light boat, governing its movements. As soon, however, as she reached a point where she got a view

the fall, she gave an involuntary but suppressed scream, and covered her eyes. At the next instant, the latter were again free, and the entranced girl stood immovable as a statue, a scarcely breathing observer of all that passed. The two Indians seated them passively on a log, hardly looking towards the stream, while the wife of Arrowhead came near Mabel, and appeared to watch the motions of the canoe, with some such interest as a child regards the leaps of a tumbler.

As soon as the boat was in the stream, Pathfinder sunk on his knees, continuing to use the paddle, though it was slowly, and in a manner not to interfere with the efforts of his companion. The latter still stood erect, and, as he kept his eye on some object beyond the fall, it was evident that he was carefully looking for the spot proper for their passage.

"Farther west, boy; farther west-” muttered Pathfinder; "there where you see the water foam. Bring the top of the dead oak in a line with the 'stem of the blasted hemlock.' Eau-douce made no answer, for the canoe was in the centre of the stream, with its head pointed towards the fall, and it had already begun to quicken its motion, by the increased force of the current. At that moment, Cap would cheerfully have renounced every claim to glory that could possibly be acquired by the feat, to have been safe again on shore. He heard the roar of the water, thundering as it might be, behind a screen, but, becoming more and more distinct, louder and louder, and before him he saw its line cutting the fores below, along which the green and angry element seemed stretched and shining, as if the particles were about to lose their principle of cohesion.

"Down with your helm-down with your helm, man!” he exclaimed, unable any longer to suppress his anxiety, as the canoe glided towards the edge of the fall.

Ay-ay-down it is, sure enough," answered Pathfinder looking behind him for a single instant, with his silent joyous laugh-" down we go, of a sartainty! Heave her starn up, boy; further up with her starn !"

Eau

The rest was like the passage of the viewless wind. douce gave the required sweep with his paddle, the canoe glanced into the channel, and for a few seconds it seemed to Cap, that he was tossing in a cauldron. He felt the bow of the canoe tip, saw the raging, foaming water, careering madly by his side, was sensible that the light fabric in which he floated was tossed about like an egg-shell, and then, not less to his great joy than to his surprise, he discovered that it was gliding across the basin of still water, below the fall, under the steady impulse of Jasper's paddle.

The Pathfinder continued to laugh, but he arose from his knees, and, searching for a tin pot and a horn spoon, he began deliberately to measure the water that had been taken in in the passage.

"Fourteen spoonsful, Eau-douce; fourteen fairly measured spoonsful. I have, you must acknowledge, known you to go down with only ten."

"Master Cap leaned so hard up stream," returned Jasper, seriously, "that I had difficulty in trimming the canoe."

"It may be so-it may be so; no doubt it was so, since you say it; but I have known you go over with only ten." Cap now gave a tremendous hem, felt for his cue, as if to ascertain its safety, and then looked back, in order to examine the danger he had gone through. His safety is easily explained. Most of the river fell perpendicularly ten or twelve feet; but near its centre, the force of the current had so far worn away the rock, as to permit the water to shoot through a narrow passage, at an angle of about forty or forty-five degrees. Down this ticklish descent the canoe had glanced, amid frag. ments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and furious tossings of the element, which an uninstructed eye would believe meu. aced inevitable destruction to an object so fragile. But the very lightness of the canoe had favoured its descent; for, borne on the crests of the waves, and directed by a steady eye and an arm full of muscle, it had passed like a feather from one pile of foam to another, scarcely permitting its glossv side to be wetted. There were a few rocks to b