and every natur' has its own laws, as well as its own skin. It was many years afore I could master all them higher branches of a forest edication, for redskin knowledge does n't come as easy to whiteskin natur' as what I suppose is intended to be whiteskin knowledge; though I have but little of the latter, having passed most of my time in the wilderness."

"You have been a ready scholar, Master Pathfinder, as is seen by your understanding these things so well. I suppose it would be no great matter, for a man regularly brought up to the sea, to catch these trifles, if he could only bring his mind fairly to bear upon them."

"I don't know that. The white man has his difficulties in getting redskin habits, quite as much as the Injin in getting whiteskin ways. As for the raal natur', it is my opinion that neither can actually get that of the other."

"And yet we sailors, who run about the world so much, say there is but one nature, whether it be in the Chinaman or a Dutchman. For my own part, I am much of that way of thinking too; for I have generally found that all nations like gold and silver, and most men relish tobacco."

"Then you seafaring men know little of the redskins. Have you ever known any of your Chinamen who could sing their death-songs, with their flesh torn with splinters and cut with knives, the fire raging around their naked bodies, and death staring them in the face? Until you

can find me a Chinaman, or a Christian man, that can do all this, you cannot find a man with redskin natur', let him look ever so valiant, or know how to read all the books that was ever printed."

"It is the savages only that play each other such hellish tricks!" said Master Cap, glancing his eyes about him uneasily at the apparently endless arches of the forest. "No white man is ever condemned to undergo these trials."

"Nay, therein you are agin mistaken," returned the Pathfinder, coolly selecting a delicate morsel of the veni

son as his bonne bouche;1 "for though these torments belong only to the redskin natur', in the way of bearing them like braves, whiteskin natur' may be, and often has been, agonized by them."

“Happily,” said Cap, with an effort to clear his throat, "none of his Majesty's allies will be likely to attempt such damnable cruelties on any of his Majesty's loyal subjects. I have not served much in the royal navy, it is true; but I have served and that is something; and, in the way of privateering and worrying the enemy in his ships and cargoes, I've done my full share. But I trust there are no French savages on this side the lake, and I think you said that Ontario is a broad sheet of water?"

"Nay, it is broad in our eyes," returned Pathfinder, not caring to conceal the smile which lighted a face that had been burnt by exposure to a bright red, "though I mistrust that some may think it narrow; and narrow it is, if you wish it to keep off the foe. Ontario has two ends, and the enemy that is afraid to cross it will be sartain to come round it."

"Ah! that comes of your d- -d fresh-water ponds!" growled Cap, hemming so loud as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion. "No man, now, ever heard of a pirate's or a ship's getting round one end of the Atlantic!"

"Mayhap the ocean has no ends?"

"That it has n't; nor sides, nor bottom. The nation that is snugly moored on one of its coasts need fear nothing from the one anchored abeam, let it be ever so 'savage, unless it possesses the art of shipbuilding. No, no; the people who live on the shores of the Atlantic need fear but little for their skins or their scalps. A man may lie down at night, in those regions, in the hope of finding the hair on his head in the morning, unless he wears a wig."

"It is n't so here. I don't wish to flurry the young

1 [Choice mouthful; delicate bit; said especially of a dainty morsel reserved to the end of a repast.]

woman, and therefore I will be no way particular, though she seems pretty much listening to Eau-douce, as we call him; but without the edication I have received, I should think it, at this very moment, a risky journey to go over the very ground that lies atween us and the garrison, in the present state of this frontier. There are about as many Iroquois on this side of Ontario as there be on the other. It is for this very reason, friend Cap, that the sergeant has engaged us to come out and show you the path."

"What! do the knaves dare to cruise so near the guns of one of his Majesty's works?"

"Do not the ravens resort near the carcass of the deer, though the fowler is at hand? They come this-a-way, as it might be, nat' rally. There are more or less whites passing atween the forts and the settlements, and they are sure to be on their trails. The Sarpent has come up on one side of the river, and I have come up the other, in order to scout for the outlying rascals, while Jasper brought up the canoe, like a bold-hearted sailor, as he is.

The sergeant told him, with tears in his eyes, all about his child, and how his heart yearned for her, and how gentle and obedient she was, until I think the lad would have dashed into a Mingo camp, single-handed, rather than not a-come."

"We thank him, we thank him; and shall think the better of him for his readiness; though I suppose the boy has run no great risk, after all."

"Only the risk of being shot from a cover, as he forced the canoe up a swift rift, or turned an elbow in the stream, with his eyes fastened on the eddies. Of all the risky journeys, that on an ambushed river is the most risky, in my judgment, and that risk has Jasper run."

"And why the devil has the sergeant sent for me to travel a hundred and fifty miles in this outlandish manner! Give me an offing, and the enemy in sight, and I'll play with him in his own fashion, as long as he pleases, long bowls or close quarters; but to be shot like a turtle asleep is not to my humor. If it were not for

little Magnet there, I would tack ship this instant, make the best of my way back to York, and let Ontario take care of itself, salt water or fresh water."

“That would n't mend the matter much, friend mariner, as the road to return is much longer, and almost as bad as the road to go on. Trust to us, and we will carry you through safe, or lose our scalps."

Cap wore a tight, solid queue, done up in eel-skin, while the top of his head was nearly bald, and he mechanically passed his hand over both, as if to make certain that each was in its right place. He was at the bottom, however, a brave man, and had often faced death with coolness, though never in the frightful forms in which it presented itself under the brief but graphic pictures of his companion. It was too late to retreat; and he determined to put the best face on the matter, though he could not avoid muttering inwardly a few curses on the indifference and indiscretion with which his brotherin-law, the sergeant, had led him into his present dilemma.

"I make no doubt, Master Pathfinder," he answered, when these thoughts had found time to glance through his mind, "that we shall reach port in safety. What distance may we now be from the fort?"

"Little more than fifteen miles; and swift miles, too, as the river runs, if the Mingos let us go clear."

"And I suppose the woods will stretch along, starboard and larboard, as heretofore?"

"Anan?"

"I mean that we shall have to pick our way through these d- -d trees!"

"Nay, nay; you will go in the canoe, and the Oswego has been cleared of its flood-wood by the troops. It will be floating down stream, and that, too, with a swift current."

"And what the devil is to prevent these minks, of which you speak, from shooting us as we double a headland, or are busy in steering clear of the rocks?"

"The Lord! He who has so often helped others in greater difficulties. Many and many is the time that my

head would have been stripped of hair, skin and all, had n't the Lord fit of my side. I never go into a scrimmage, friend mariner, without thinking of this great ally, who can do more in battle than all the battalions of the 60th, were they brought into a single line."

"Aye, aye; this may do well enough for a scouter; but we seamen like our offing, and to go into action with nothing in our minds but the business before us; plain broadside and broadside work, and no trees or rocks to thicken the water."

"And no Lord, too, I dare to say, if the truth was known! Take my word for it, Master Cap, that no battle is the worse fou't for having the Lord on your side. Look at the head of the Big Sarpent, there; you can see the mark of a knife all along by his left ear; now, nothing but a bullet from this long rifle of mine saved his scalp that day, for it had fairly started, and half a minute more would have left him without the warlock. When the Mohican squeezes my hand, and intermates that I befri'nded him in that matter, I tell him, no; it was the Lord, who led me to the only spot where execution could be done, or his necessity be made known, on account of the smoke. Sartain when I got the right position, I finished the affair of my own accord, for a friend under the tomahawk is apt to make a man think quick, and act at once, as was my case, or the Sarpent's spirit would be hunting in the happy land of his people at this very moment."

"Come, come, Pathfinder, this palaver is worse than being skinned from stem to stern; we have but a few hours of sun, and had better be drifting down this said current of yours, while we may. Magnet, dear, are you

not ready to get under way?"

Magnet started, blushed brightly, and made her preparations for an immediate departure. Not a syllable of the discourse just related had she heard, for Eau-douce, as young Jasper was oftener called than anything else, had been filling her ears with a description of the yet distant fort towards which she was journeying, with