utter more than was called for by the exigencies of the case. As the canoes stole silently along, the roar of the rift became audible, and it required all the fortitude of Cap to keep his seat, while these boding sounds were approached, amid a darkness that scarcely permitted a view of the outlines of the wooded shore and of the gloomy vault above his head. He retained a vivid impression of the falls, and his imagination was not now idle, in swelling the dangers of the rift to a level with those of the headlong descent he had that day made, and even to increase them, under the influence of doubt and uncertainty. In this, however, the old mariner was mistaken, for the Oswego Rift and the Oswego Falls are very different in their characters and violence; the former being no more than a rapid, that glances among shallows and rocks, while the latter really deserved the name it bore, as has been already shown. Mabel certainly felt distrust and apprehension; but her entire situation was so novel, and her reliance on her guide so great, that she retained a self-command that might not have existed had she clearer perceptions of the truth, or been better acquainted with the helplessness of men when placed in opposition to the power and majesty of nature. "That is the spot you have mentioned?" she said to Jasper, when the roar of the rift first came fresh and distinct on her ear. We "It is; and I beg you to have confidence in me. are not old acquaintances, Mabel, but we live many days in one, in this wilderness. I think already that I have known you years!" "And I do not feel as if you were a stranger to me, Jasper. I have every reliance on your skill, as well as on your disposition to serve me. "We shall see — we shall see. Pathfinder is striking the rapids too near the centre of the river. The bed of the water is closer to the eastern shore; but I cannot make him hear me now. Hold firmly to the canoe, Mabel, and fear nothing." At the next moment, the swift current sucked them into the rift, and for three or four minutes the awestruck, rather than the alarmed, girl saw nothing around her but sheets of glancing foam; heard nothing but the roar of waters. Twenty times did their canoe appear about to dash against some curling and bright wave, that showed itself even amid that obscurity, and as often did it glide away again, unharmed, impelled by the vigorous arm of him who governed its movements. Once, and once only, did Jasper seem to lose command of his frail bark, during which brief space it fairly whirled entirely round, but, by a desperate effort, he brought it again under control, recovered the lost channel, and was soon rewarded for all his anxiety by finding himself floating quietly in the deep water below the rapids; secure from every danger, and without having taken in enough of the element to serve for a draught. "All is over, Mabel," the young man cheerfully cried. "The danger is past, and you may now, indeed, hope to meet your father this very night." "God be praised! Jasper, we shall owe this great happiness to you!" "The Pathfinder may claim a full share in the merit; but what has become of the other canoe?" "I see something near us on the water; is it not the boat of our friends?" A few strokes of the paddle brought Jasper to the side of the object in question. It was the other canoe, empty and bottom upwards. No sooner did the young man ascertain this fact, than he began to search for the swimmers, and, to his great joy, Cap was soon discovered drifting down with the current; the old seaman preferring the chances of drowning to those of landing among savages. He was hauled into the canoe, though not without difficulty, and then the search ended; for Jasper was persuaded that the Pathfinder would wade to the shore, the water being shallow, in preference to abandoning his beloved rifle. The remainder of the passage was short, though made amid darkness and doubt. After a short pause, a dull roaring sound was heard, which at times resembled the mutterings of distant thunder, and then again brought with it the washing of waters. Jasper announced to his companions that they now heard the surf of the lake. Low, curved spits of land lay before them, into the bay formed by one of which the canoe glided, and then it shot up noiselessly upon a gravelly beach. The transition that followed was so hurried and great, that Mabel scarce knew what passed. In the course of a few minutes, however, sentinels had been passed, a gate was opened, and the agitated girl found herself in the arms of a parent who was almost a stranger to her. CHAPTER VIII. A land of love, and a land of light, A still, an everlasting dream. JAMES HOGG: The Queen's Wake. THE rest that succeeds fatigue, and which attends a newly awakened sense of security, is generally sweet and deep. Such was the fact with Mabel, who did not rise from her humble pallet, such a bed as a sergeant's daughter might claim in a remote frontier post, until long after the garrison had obeyed the usual summons of the drums, and had assembled at the early parade. Sergeant Dun ham, on whose shoulders fell the task of attending to these ordinary and daily duties, had got through all his morning avocations and was beginning to think of his breakfast, ere his child left her room and came into fresh air, equally bewildered, delighted, and grateful, at the novelty and security of her new situation. At the time of which we are writing, Oswego was one of the extreme frontier posts of the British possessions on this continent. It had not been long occupied and was garrisoned by a battalion of a regiment that had been originally Scotch, but into which many Americans had been received, since its arrival in this country, - an innovation that had led the way to Mabel's father filling the humble, but responsible, situation of the oldest sergeant. A few young officers, also, who were natives of the colonies, were to be found in the corps. The fort itself, like most works of that character, was better adapted to resist an attack of savages than to withstand a regular siege; but the great difficulty of transporting heavy artillery and other necessaries rendered the occurrence of the latter a probability so remote as scarcely to enter into the estimate of the engineers who had planned the defenses. There were bastions of earth and logs, a dry ditch, a stockade, a parade of considerable extent, and barracks of logs, that answered the double purpose of dwellings and fortifications. A few light field-pieces stood in the area of the fort, ready to be conveyed to any point where they might be wanted; and one or two heavy iron guns looked out from the summits of the advanced angles, as so many admonitions to the audacious to respect their power. When Mabel, quitting the convenient but comparatively retired hut where her father had been permitted to place her, issued into the pure air of the morning, she found herself at the foot of a bastion that lay invitingly before her, with a promise of giving a coup d'œil1 of all that had been concealed in the darkness of the preceding night. Tripping up the grassy ascent, the lighthearted as well as light-footed girl found herself at once on a point where the sight, at a few varying glances, could take in all the external novelties of her new situation. To the southward lay the forest through which she had been journeying so many weary days, and which had proved so full of dangers. It was separated from the stockade by a belt of open land, that had been principally cleared of its woods to form the martial construc1 [A rapid, comprehensive glance of the eye.] tions around her. This glacis, for such in fact was its military uses, might have covered a hundred acres, but with it every sign of civilization ceased. All beyond was forest; that dense, interminable forest that Mabel could now picture to herself, through her recollections, with its hidden, glassy lakes, its dark, rolling streams—and its world of nature! in Turning from this view, our heroine felt her cheek fanned by a fresh and grateful breeze, such as she had not experienced since quitting the far distant coast. Here a new scene presented itself; although expected, it was not without a start, and a low exclamation indicative of pleasure, that the eager eyes of the girl drank in its beauties. To the north, and east, and west, every direction, in short, over one entire half of the novel panorama, lay a field of rolling waters. The element was neither of that glassy green which distinguishes the American waters in general, nor yet of the deep-blue of the ocean; the color being of a slightly amber hue, that scarcely affected its limpidity. No land was to be seen, with the exception of the adjacent coast, which stretched to the right and left, in an unbroken outline of forest, with wide bays and low headlands or points; still, much of the shore was rocky, and into its caverns the sluggish waters occasionally rolled, producing a hollow sound, that resembled the concussions of a distant gun. No sail whitened the surface, no whale or other fish gamboled on its bosom, no sign of use or service rewarded the longest and most minute gaze at its boundless expanse. It was a scene, on one side, of apparently endless forests, while a waste of seemingly interminable water spread itself on the other. Nature had appeared to delight in producing grand effects, by setting two of her principal agents in bold relief to each other, neglecting details; the eye turning from the broad carpet of leaves to the still broader field of fluid, from the endless but gentle heavings of the lake, to the holy calm and poetical solitude of the forest, with wonder and delight. Mabel Dunham, though unsophisticated, like most of |