"Here, where they cross each other, in sailing about,' he added, cocking and raising his rifle; the two- the two: now look!

Page 177.

"he overlooks his own gifts, and craves them of another!"

The potato was thrown, Jasper fired, and the shout that followed preceded the announcement of the fact, that he had driven his bullet through its centre, or so nearly so as to merit that award.

"Here is a competitor worthy of you, Pathfinder," cried Major Duncan, with delight, as the former took his station, "and we may look to some fine shooting, in the double trial."

"What a thing is mortal man!" repeated the hunter, scarce seeming to notice what was passing around him, so much were his thoughts absorbed in his own reflections. "Toss!"

The potato was tossed, the rifle cracked. it was remarked just as the little black ball seemed stationary in the air, for the marksman evidently took unusual heed to his aim and then a look of disappointment and wonder succeeded among those who caught the falling target. “Two holes in one?" called out the major.

"The skin the skin!" was the answer: "only the skin!"

"How's this, Pathfinder! Is Jasper Eau-douce to carry off the honors of the day!"

"The calash is his," returned the other, shaking his head, and walking quietly away from the stand. "What a creature is a mortal man! Never satisfied with his own gifts, but forever craving that which Providence denies!

As Pathfinder had not buried his bullet in the potato, but had cut through the skin, the prize was immediately adjudged to Jasper. The calash was in the hands of the latter, when the quartermaster approached, and with a politic air of cordiality, he wished his successful rival joy of his victory.

"But now you've got the calash, lad, it's of no use to you," he added; "it will never make a sail, nor even an ensign. I'm thinking, Eau-douce, you'd no be sorry to see its value in good silver of the king?"

"Money cannot buy it, lieutenant," returned Jasper, whose eye lighted up with all the fire of success and joy. "I would rather have won this calash than have obtained fifty new suits of sails for the Scud."

"Hoot, hoot, lad! you are going mad like all the rest of them. I'd even venture to offer half a guinea for the trifle, rather than it should lie kicking about in the cabin of your cutter, and, in the end, become an ornament for the head of a squaw."

Although Jasper did not know that the wary quartermaster had not offered half the actual cost of the prize, he heard the proposition with indifference. Shaking his head in the negative, he advanced towards the stage where his approach excited a little commotion, the officers' ladies, one and all, having determined to accept the present, should the gallantry of the young sailor induce him to offer it. But Jasper's diffidence, no less than admiration for another, would have prevented him from aspiring to the honor of complimenting any whom he thought so much his superiors.

'Mabel," he said, "this prize is for you, unless "

"Unless what, Jasper?" answered the girl, losing her own bashfulness in the natural and generous wish to relieve his embarrassment, though both reddened in a way to betray strong feeling.

"Unless you may think too indifferently of it, because it is offered by one who may have no right to believe his gift will be accepted."

"I do accept it, Jasper; and it shall be a sign of the danger I have passed in your company, and of the gratitude I feel for your care of me the Pathfinder."

your care, and that of

"Never mind me, never mind me, "exclaimed the latter; "this is Jasper's luck and Jasper's gift; give him full credit for both. My turn may come another day; mine and the quartermaster's, who seems to grudge the boy the calash, though what he can want of it, I cannot understand, for he has no wife.”

"And has Jasper Eau-douce a wife?

Or have you a

wife yoursel', Pathfinder? I may want it to help to get a wife, or as a memorial that I have had a wife, or as proof how much I admire the sex, or because it is a female garment, or for some other equally respectable motive. It's not the unreflecting that are the most prized by the thoughtful, and there is no surer sign that a man made a good husband to his first consort, let me tell you all, than to see him speedily looking around for a competent successor. The affections are good gifts from Providence, and they that have loved one faithfully, prove how much of this bounty has been lavished upon them by loving another as soon as possible.”

"It may be so- it may be so. I am no practitioner in such things, and cannot gainsay it. But Mabel, here, the sergeant's daughter, will give you full credit for the words. Come, Jasper, although our hands are out, let us see what the other lads can do with the rifle."

Pathfinder and his companions retired, for the sports were about to proceed. The ladies, however, were not so much engrossed with rifle-shooting as to neglect the calash. It passed from hand to hand; the silk was felt, the fashion criticised, and the work examined, and divers opinions were privately ventured concerning the fitness of so handsome a thing's passing into the possession of a non-commissioned officer's child.

"Perhaps you will be disposed to sell that calash, Mabel, when it has been a short time in your possession?" inquired the captain's lady. "Wear it, I should think, you never can."

"I may not wear it, madam," returned our heroine modestly, "but I should not like to part with it, either.”

"I dare say Sergeant Dunham keeps you above the necessity of selling your clothes, child; but, at the same time, it is money thrown away to keep an article of dress you can never wear."

"I should be unwilling to part with the gift of a friend."

"But the young man himself will think all the better of you, for your prudence, after the triumph of the day