board, there being space enough to accommodate treble the number, if necessary.

As soon as Mabel had taken possession of her own really comfortable and pretty cabin, in doing which she could not abstain from indulging in the pleasant reflection that some of Jasper's favor had been especially manifested in her behalf, she went on deck again. Here all was momentarily in motion; the men were roving to and fro, in quest of their knapsacks and other effects; but method and habit soon reduced things to order, when the stillness on board became even imposing, for it was connected with the idea of future adventure, and ominous preparation.

Darkness was now beginning to render objects on shore indistinct, the whole of the land forming one shapeless black outline, of even forest summits, that was to be distinguished from the impending heavens only by the greater light of the sky. The stars, however, soon began to appear in the latter, one after another, in their usual mild, placid lustre, bringing with them that sense of quiet which ordinarily accompanies night. There was something soothing as well as exciting in such a scene; and Mabel, who was seated on the quarter-deck, sensibly felt both influences. The Pathfinder was standing near her, leaning, as usual, on his long rifle, and she fancied that, through the glowing darkness of the hour, she could trace even stronger lines of thought than usual, in his rugged countenance.

"To you, Pathfinder, expeditions like this can be no great novelty," she said, "though I am surprised to find how silent and thoughtful the men appear to be."

"We l'arn this, by making war agin Injins. Your militia are great talkers, and little doers, in ginʼral; but the soger who has often met the Mingos, l'arns to know the value of a prudent tongue. A silent army, in the woods, is doubly strong; and a noisy one, doubly weak. If tongues made sogers, the women of a camp would generally carry the day."

"But we are neither an army, nor in the woods. There can be no danger of Mingos in the Scud."

"Ask Jasper how he got to be master of this cutter, and

you will find yourself answered as to that opinion! No one is safe from a Mingo who doesn't understand his very natur'; and even then he must act up to his own knowledge, and that closely. Ask Jasper how he got command of this very cutter ! "

"And how did he get the command?" inquired Mabel, with an earnestness and interest that delighted her simpleminded and true-hearted companion, who was never better pleased than when he had an opportunity of saying aught in favor of a friend. "It is honorable to him that he has reached this station while yet so young."

"That is it; but he deserved it all, and more. A frigate wouldn't have been too much to pay for so much spirit and coolness, had there been such a thing on Ontario, as there is not, howsever, or likely to be."

"But Jasper -you have not yet told me how he got the command of the schooner?"

"It is a long story, Mabel, and one your father, the sergeant, can tell much better than I, for he was present, while I was off on a distant scoutin'. Jasper is not good at a story, I will own that; I've heard him questioned about this affair, and he never made a good tale of it, although everybody knows it was a good thing. No, no; Jasper is not good at a story, as his best friends must own, The Scud had near fallen into the hands of the French and the Mingos, when Jasper saved her, in a way that none but a quick-witted mind and a bold heart would have attempted. The sergeant will tell the tale better than I can, and I wish you to question him some day, when nothing better offers. As for Jasper himself, there will be no use in worrying the lad, since he will make a bungling matter of it, for he don't know how to give a history at all."

Mabel determined to ask her father to repeat the incidents of the affair that very night, for it struck her young fancy that nothing better could well offer than to listen to the praises of one who was a bad historian of his own exploits.

"Will the Scud remain with us when we reach the island? she asked, after a little hesitation about the propriety of the question, "or shall we be left to ourselves?

"That's as may be. Jasper does not often keep the cutter idle, when anything is to be done, and we may expect activity on his part. My gifts, however, run so little towards the water, and vessels gin'rally, unless it be among rapids and falls, and in canoes, that I pretend to know nothing about it. We shall have all right, under Jasper, I make no doubt, who can find a trail on Ontario as well as a Delaware can find one on the land."

"And our own Delaware, Pathfinder the Big Serpent -why is he not with us to-night?"

"Your question would have been more nat'ral had you said, why are you here, Pathfinder? The Sarpent is in his place, while I am not in mine. He is out with two or three more scouting the lake shores, and will join us down among the islands with the tidings he may gather. The sergeant is too good a soldier to forget his rear, while he is facing the enemy in front! It's a thousand pities, Mabel, your father wasn't born a gin'ral, as some of the English are who come among us, for I feel sartain he wouldn't leave a Frencher in the Canadas a week could he have his own way with them."

asked Mabel,

"Shall we have enemies to face in front? smiling, and for the first time feeling a slight apprehension about the dangers of the expedition. "Are we likely to have an engagement?"

"If we have, Mabel, there will be men enough ready and willing to stand atween you and harm. But you are a soldier's daughter, and we all know have the spirit of one. Don't let the fear of a battle keep your pretty eyes from sleeping."

"I do feel braver out here in the woods, Pathfinder, than I ever felt before, amid the weaknesses of the towns, although I have always tried to remember what I owe to dear father."

my

66

Aye, your mother was so before you! 'You will find Mabel like her mother, no screamer, or a faint-hearted girl to trouble a man in his need, but one who would encourage her mate, and help to keep his heart up when sorest pressed by danger' said the sergeant to me, before I

1

ever laid eyes on that sweet countenance of yours - he did!"

"And why should my father have told you this, Path· finder?" the girl demanded, a little earnestly. "Perhaps he fancied you would think the better of me, if you did not believe me a silly coward, as so many of my sex love to make themselves appear."

Deception, unless it were at the expense of his enemies in the field, nay, concealment of even a thought, was so little in accordance with the Pathfinder's very nature, that he was not a little embarrassed by this simple question. To own the truth openly, he felt, by a sort of instinct, for which it would have puzzled him to account, would not be proper; and to hide it, agreed with neither his sense of right nor his habits. In such a strait he involuntarily took refuge in the middle course, not revealing that which he fancied ought not to be told, nor yet absolutely concealing it.

"You must know, Mabel," he said, "that the sergeant and I are old friends, and have stood side by side or if not actually side by side, I a little in advance, as became a scout, and your father, with his own men, as better suited a soldier of the king-on many a hard-fought and bloody day. It's the way of us skirmishers to think little of the fight, when the rifle has done cracking; and at night, around our fires, or on our marches, we talk of the things we love, just as you young women convarse about your fancies and opinions, when you get together to laugh over your idees. Now it was natural that the sergeant, having such a daughter as you, should love her better than anything else, and that he should talk of her oftener than of anything else, - while I, having neither daughter, nor sister, nor mother, nor kith nor kin, nor anything but the Delawares to love, I naturally chimed in, as it were, and got to love you, Mabel, before I ever saw you-yes, I did just by talking about

you so much."

"And now you have seen me," returned the smiling girl, whose unmoved and natural manner proved how little she was thinking of anything more than parental or fraternal

regard, "you are beginning to see the folly of forming friendships for people before you know anything about them, except by hearsay."

-

"It wasn't friendship it isn't friendship, Mabel, that I feel for you. I am the friend of the Delawares, and have been so from boyhood; but my feelings for them, or for the best of them, are not the same as them I got from the sergeant for you; and especially now that I begin to know you better. I'm sometimes afeard it isn't wholesome for one who is much occupied in a very manly calling, like that of a guide, or a scout, or a soldier even, to form friendships for women, - young women in particular, as they seem to me to lessen the love of enterprise, and to turn the feelings away from their gifts and natural occupations."

"You surely do not mean, Pathfinder, that a friendship for a girl like me would make you less bold, and more unwilling to meet the French, than you were before?"

"Not so - not so. With you in danger, for instance, I fear I might become foolhardy; but before we became so intimate, as I may say, I loved to think of my scoutin's, and of my marches, and outlyings, and fights, and other adventures; but now my mind cares less about them; I think more of the barracks and of evenings passed in discourse, of feelings in which there are no wranglings and bloodshed, and of young women, and of their laughs, and their cheerful soft voices, their pleasant looks, and their winning ways! I sometimes tell the sergeant, that he and his daughter will be the spoiling of one of the best and most experienced scouts on the lines!"

"Not they, Pathfinder; they will try to make that which is already so excellent, perfect. You do not know us, if you think that either wishes to see you in the least changed. Remain, as at present, the same honest, upright, conscientious, fearless, intelligent, trustworthy guide, that you are, and neither my dear father nor myself can ever think of you differently from what we now do."

It was too dark for Mabel to note the workings of the countenance of her listener, but her own sweet face was