of a lake, you know my opinion of it already, and I wish to disparage nothing. No real seafarer disparages anything; but de if I regard this here Ontario, ast they call it, as more than so much water in a ship's scuttle-butt. Now, look you here, Mabel, if you wish to understand the difference between the ocean and a lake, I can make you comprehend it with a single look: this is what one may call a calm, seeing that there is no wind; though, to own the truth, I do not think the calms are as calm as them we get outside"

"Uncle, there is not a breath of air! I do not think it possible for the leaves to be more immovably still than those of the entire forest are at this very moment."

"Leaves! what are leaves, child? there are no leaves at sea. If you wish to know whether it is a dead calm or not, try a mould candle - your dips flaring too much and then you may be certain whether there is or is not any wind. If you were in a latitude where the air was so still that you found a difficulty in stirring it to draw it in, in breathing, you might fancy it a calm. People are often on a short allowance of air in the calm latitudes. Here, again, look at that water! It is like milk in a pan, with no more motion now than there is in a full hogshead before the bung is started. On the ocean the water is never still, let the air be as quiet as it may."

"The water of the ocean never still, uncle Cap! not even in a calm?

"Bless your heart, no, child. The ocean breathes like a living being, and its bosom is always heaving, as the poetizers call it, though there be no more air than is to be found in a siphon. No man ever saw the ocean still like this lake; but it heaves and sets as if it had lungs."

"And this lake is not absolutely still for you perceive there is a little ripple on the shore, and you may even hear the surf plunging, at moments, against the rocks."

"All dd poetry! One may call a bubble a ripple, if he will, and washing decks a surf; but Lake Ontario

is no more the Atlantic than a Powles Hook periagua1 is a first-rate. That Jasper, notwithstanding, is a fine lad, and wants instruction only to make a man of him!"

"Do you think him ignorant, uncle?" answered Mabel, prettily adjusting her hair, in order to do which she was obliged, or fancied she was obliged, to turn away her face. "To me, Jasper Eau-douce appears to know more than most of the young men of his class. He has read but little, for books are not plenty in this part of the world, but he has thought much; at least so it seems to me, for one so young."

"He is ignorant — he is ignorant, as all must be who navigate an inland water like this. He can make a flat knot and a timber hitch, it is true; but he has no more notion of crowning a cable, now, or of a carrick bend, than you have of catting an anchor. No, no, Mabel; we both owe something to Jasper and the Pathfinder, and I have been thinking how I can best serve them, for I hold ingratitude to be the vice of a hog. Some people say it is the vice of a king; but I say it is the failing of a hog; for treat the animal to your own dinner, and he would eat you for the dessert."

"Very true, dear uncle, and we ought indeed to do all we can to express our proper sense of the services of both these brave men."

"Spoken like your mother's daughter, girl, and in a way to do credit to the Cap family. Now, I've hit upon a traverse that will just suit all parties, and as soon as we get back from this little expedition down the lake, among them there Thousand Islands,2 and I am ready to return, it is my intention to propose it."

"Dearest uncle! this is so considerate in you, and will be so just! May I ask what your intentions are?"

"I see no reason for keeping them a secret from you, Mabel, though nothing need be said to your father about them, for the sergeant has his prejudices, and might

1 [This name, originally meaning a dug-out canoe, came to be applied to a rude sort of ferry-boat.]

2 See Appendix, Note J.

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throw difficulties in the way. Neither Jasper nor friend Pathfinder can ever make anything hereabouts and I propose to take both with me down to the coast, and get them fairly afloat. Jasper would find his sealegs in a fortnight, and a twelvemonth's v'y'ge would make him a man. Although Pathfinder might take more time, or never get to be rated able, yet one could make something of him, too, particularly as a lookout, for he has unusually good eyes."

"Uncle, do you think either would consent to this?" said Mabel, smiling.

"Do I suppose them simpletons? What rational being would neglect his own advancement? Let Jasper alone. to push his way, and the lad may yet die the master of some square-rigged craft."

"And would he be any the happier for it, dear uncle? How much better is it to be the master of a square-rigged craft, than to be the master of a round-rigged craft?"

"Pooh-pooh, Magnet, you are just fit to read lectures about ships before some hysterical society; you. don't know what you are talking about leave these things to me, and they'll be properly managed. Ah! here is the Pathfinder himself, and I may just as well drop him a hint of my benevolent intentions as regards himself. Hope is a great encourager of our exertions."

Cap nodded his head, and then ceased to speak, while the hunter approached, not with his usual frank and easy manner, but in a way to show that he was slightly embarrassed, if not distrustful of his reception.

"Uncle and niece make a family party," said Pathfinder, when near the two, "and a stranger may not prove a welcome companion?"

"You are no stranger, Master Pathfinder," returned Cap, "and no one can be more welcome than yourself. We were talking of you but a moment ago; and when friends speak of an absent man, he can guess what they have said."

66 I ask no secrets I ask no secrets. Every man has his enemies, and I have mine, though I count neither you,

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aster Cap, nor pretty Mabel, here, among the number. As for the Mingos, I will say nothing; though they have no just cause to hate me."

"That I'll answer for, Pathfinder, for you strike my fancy as being well disposed and upright. There is a method, however, of getting away from the enmity of even these Mingos, and if you choose to take it, no one will more willingly point it out than myself, without a charge for my advice either."

"I wish no inimies, Salt-water," for so the Pathfinder had begun to call Cap, having, insensibly to himself, adopted the term by translating the name given him by the Indians in and about the fort, "I wish no inimies. I'm as ready to bury the hatchet with the Mingos as with the French, though you know that it depends on one greater than either of us so to turn the heart as to leave a man without inimies."

"By lifting your anchor, and accompanying me down to the coast, friend Pathfinder, when we get back from this short cruise on which we are bound, you will find yourself beyond the sound of the war-whoop, and safe enough from the Indian bullet.”

"And what should I do on the salt water? Hunt in your towns! Follow the trails of people going and coming from market, and ambush dogs and poultry! You are no friend to my happiness, Master Cap, if you would lead me out of the shade of the woods, to put me in the sun of the clearin's!"

"I did not propose to leave you in the settlements, Pathfinder, but to carry you out to sea, where only a man can be said to breathe freely. Mabel will tell you that such was my intention, before a word was said on the subject."

"And what does Mabel think would come of such a change? She knows that a man has his gifts, and that it is as useless to pretend to others as to withstand them that come from Providence. I am a hunter, and a scout, or a guide, Salt-water, and it is not in me to fly so much in the face of Heaven as to try to become

anything else. Am I right, Mabel, or are you so much of a woman as to wish to see a natur' altered?"

"I would wish to see no change in you, Pathfinder," Mabel answered, with a cordial sincerity and frankness that went directly to the hunter's heart; "and much as my uncle admires the sea, and great as is all the good that he thinks may come of it, I could not wish to see the best and noblest hunter of the woods transformed into an admiral. Remain what you are, my brave friend, and you need fear nothing, short of the anger of God." "Do you hear this, Salt-water? Do you hear what the sergeant's daughter is saying? And she is much too upright, and fair-minded, and pretty, not to think what she says. So long as she is satisfied with me as I am, I shall not fly in the face of the gifts of Providence, by striving to become anything else. I may seem useless here, in a garrison, but when we get down among the Thousand Islands, there may be an opportunity to prove that a sure rifle is sometimes a God-send."

"You are then to be of our party?" said Mabel, smilng so frankly and so sweetly on the guide that he would ave followed her to the end of the earth. "I shall be e only female, with the exception of one soldier's wife, d shall feel none the less secure, Pathfinder, because you 11 be among our protectors."

"The sergeant would do that, Mabel, the sergeant uld do that, though you were not of his kin. No e will overlook you. I should think your uncle, here, uld like an expedition of this sort, where we shall go h sails, and have a look at an inland sea?”

"Your inland sea is no great matter, Master Pathfinder, and I expect nothing from it. I confess, however, I should like to know the object of the cruise, for one does not wish to be idle, and my brother-in-law, the sergeant, is as close-mouthed as a freemason. Do you know, Mabel, what all this means?"

"Not in the least, uncle. I dare not ask my father any questions about his duty, for he thinks it is not a woman's business; and all I can say is, that we are to