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Delaware in the hands of Providence. Ah's me! The deer that goes too often to the lick meets the hunter at last!"

CHAPTER VII.

"And is this-Yarrow?-this the stream

Of which my fancy cherished

So faithfully a waking dream?

An image that hath perished?

O that some minstrel's harp were near,

To utter notes of gladness,

And chase this silence from the air,
That fills my heart with sadness."

WORDSWORTH.

THE Scene was not without its sublimity, and the ardent, generousminded Mabel felt her blood thrill in her veins, and her cheeks flush, as the canoe shot into the strength of the stream to quit the spot. The darkness of the night had lessened, by the dispersion of the clouds, but the overhanging woods rendered the shores so obscure, that the boats floated down the current in a belt of gloom that effectually secured them from detection. Still, there was necessarily a strong feeling of insecurity in all on board them; and even Jasper, who by this time began to tremble in behalf of the girl, at every unusual sound that arose from the forest, kept casting uneasy glances around him, as he drifted on, in company. The paddle was used lightly, and only with exceeding care, for the slightest sound in the breathing stillness of that hour and place, might apprise the watchful ears of the Iroquois of their position.

All these accessaries added to the impressive grandeur of her situation, and contributed, to render the moment much the most exciting that had ever occurred in the brief existence of Mabel Dunham. Spirited, accustomed to self-reliance, and sustained by the pride of considering herself a soldier's daughter, she could hardly be said to be under the influence of fear, yet her heart often beat quicker than common, her fine blue eye lighted with an exhibition of a resolution that was wasted in the darkness, and her quickened feelings came in aid of the real sublimity that belonged to the scene, and to the incidents of the night.

"Mabel!" said the suppressed voice of Jasper, as the two canoes floated so near each other that the hand of the young man held them together, "you have no dread, you trust freely to our care, and willingness to protect you?"

"I am a soldier's daughter, as you know, Jasper Western, and ought to be ashamed to confess fear."

"Rely on me-on us all. Your uncle, Pathfinder, the Delaware, were the poor fellow here, I myself, will risk everything rather than harm should reach you."

"I believe you, Jasper," returned the girl, her hand unconsciously playing in the water. "I know that my uncle loves me, and will never think of himself until he has first thought of me; and I believe you are all my father's friends, and would willingly assist his child. But I am not so feeble and weak-minded as you may think, for though only a girl from the towns, and like most of that class, a little disposed to see danger where there is none, I promise you, Jasper, no foolish fears of mine shall stand in the way of your doing your duty."

"The serjeant's daughter is right, and she is worthy of being honest Thomas Dunham's child," put in the Pathfinder. "Ah's me! pretty one, many is the time that your father and I have scouted and marched together on the flanks and rear of the enemy, in nights darker than this, and that too, when we did not know but the next moment would lead us into a bloody ambushment. I was at his side when he got the wound in his shoulder, and the honest fellow will tell you when you meet, the manner in which we contrived to cross the river that lay in our rear, in order to save his scalp."

"He has told me," said Mabel, with more energy perhaps than her situation rendered prudent. "I have his letters, in which he has mentioned all that, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the service. God will remember it, Pathfinder; and there is no gratitude that you can ask of the daughter, which she will not cheerfully repay for her father's life."

"Ay, that is the way with all your gentle and pure-hearted creatur's! I have seen some of you before, and have heard of others! The serjeant, himself, has talked to me of his own young days; and of your mother, and of the manner in which he courted her, and of all the crossings and disappointments, until he succeeded at last."

"My mother did not live long to repay him for what he did to win her," said Mabel, with a trembling lip.

"So he tells me. The honest serjeant has kept nothing back, for being so many years my senior, he has looked on me, in our many scoutings together, as a sort of son.'

"Perhaps, Pathfinder," observed Jasper, with a huskiness in his voice that defeated the attempt at pleasantry, "he would be glad to have you for one, in reality.'

"And if he did, Eau-douce, where would be the sin of it? He knows what I am on a trail, or a scout, and he has seen me often, face to face, with the Frenchers. I have sometimes thought, lad, that we all ought to seek for wives; for the man that lives altogether in the woods, and in company with his enemies, or his prey, gets to lose some of the feeling of kind, in the end."

"From the specimen I have seen," observed Mabel, "I should say that they who live much in the forest, forget to learn many of the deceits and vices of the towns."

"It is not easy, Mabel, to dwell always in the presence of God, and not feel the power of his goodness. I have attended churchsarvice in the garrisons, and tried hard, as becomes a true soldier,

to join in the prayers; for though no enlisted sarvant of the king, I fight his battles and sarve his cause, and so I have endeavored to worship garrison-fashion, but never could raise within me the solemn feelings and true affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest. There I seem to stand face to face with my Master; all around me is fresh and beautiful, as it came from his hand; and there is no nicety, or doctrine, to chill the feelings. No, no; the woods are the true temple, after all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher even than the clouds."

"You speak the truth, Master Pathfinder," said Cap, "and a truth that all who live much in solitude know. What, for instance, is the reason that sea-faring men, in general, are so religious and conscientious in all they do, but the fact that they are so often alone with Providence, and have so little to do with the wickedness of the land. Many and many is the time, that I have stood my watch, under the equator perhaps, or in the Southern Ocean, when the nights are ligthed up with the fires of heaven; and that is the time, I can tell you, my hearties, to bring a man to his bearings, in the way of his sins. I have rattled down mine, again and again, under such circumstances, until the shrouds and lanyards of conscience have fairly creaked with the strain. I agree with you, Master Pathfinder, therefore, in saying if you want a truly religious man, go to sea, or go into the woods."

"Uncle, I thought seamen had little credit, generally, for their respect for religion."

"All dd slander, girl! Ask your sea-faring man what his real, private opinion is of your landsmen, parsons and all, and you will hear the other side of the question. I know no class of men who have been so belied as sea-faring men, in this particular; and it is all because they do not stay at home to defend themselves, and pay the clergy. They haven't as much doctrine, perhaps, as some ashore, but as for all the essentials of Christianity, the seaman beats the landsman hand-over-hand.

"I will not answer for all this, Master Cap," returned Pathfinder. "but I dare say some of it may be true. I want no thunder and lightning to remind me of my God, nor am I as apt to bethink on most of all his goodness, in trouble and tribulations, as on a calm, solemn, quiet day, in a forest, when his voice is heard in the creaking of a dead branch, or in the song of a bird, as much in my ears at least as it is ever heard in uproar and gales. How is it with you, Eau-douce; you face the tempests as well as Master Cap, and ought to know something of the feelings of storms?"

"I fear that I am too young and to inexperienced, to be able to much on such a subject," answered Jasper.

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"But you have your feelings!" said Mabel, quickly. "You cannot --no one can live among such scenes without feeling how much they ought to trust in God!"

"I shall not belie my training so much as to say I do not sometimes think of these things, but I fear it is not as often, or as much as I ought."

"Fresh water!" resumed Cap, pithily; "you are not to expect too much of the young man, Mabel. I think they call you, sometimes, by a name which would insinuate all this. Eau-de-vie, is it not?" "Eau-dou ce," quietly replied Jasper, who from sailing on the lake had acquired a knowledge of French, as well as of several of the Indian dialects. "It is a name the Iroquois have given me to distinguish me from some of my companions who once sailed upon the sea, and are fond of filling the ears of the natives, with stories of their great salt-water lakes.'

"And why shouldn't they! I dare say they do the savages no harm. They may not civilize them, but they will not make them greater barbarians than they are. Ay-ay- Eau-deuce, that must mean the white brandy, which is no great matter after all, and may well enough be called the deuce, for deuced stuff it is!"

"The signification of Eau-douce is sweet-water, or water that can be drunk, and it is the manner in which the French express freshwater," rejoined Jasper, a little nettled at the distinction made by Cap, although the latter was the uncle of Mabel.

"And how the devil do they make water out of Eau-in-deuce, when it means brandy in Eau-de-vie? This may be the French use hereaway, but it is not that they use in Burdux and other French ports; besides, among seamen Eau always means brandy, and Eaude-vie, brandy of a high proof. I think nothing of your ignorance, young man, for it is natural to your situation, and cannot be helped. If you will return with me, and make a v'y'ge or two, on the Atlantic, it will serve you a good turn the remainder of your days, and Mabel, there, and all the other young women, near the coast, will think all the better of you, should you live to be as old as one of the trees in this forest."

"Nay, nay," interrupted the single-hearted and generous guide, "Jasper wants not for friends in this region, I can assure you: and though seeing the world, according to his habits, may do him good, as well, as another, we shall think none the worse of him if he never quits us. Eau-douce or Eau-de-vie, he is a brave, true-hearted youth, and I always sleep as sound when he is on the watch as if I was up and stirring myself; ay, and for that matter, sounder too. The serjeant's daughter, here, doesn't believe it necessary for the lad to go to sea, in order to make a man of him, or one who is worthy to be respected and esteemed."

Mabel made no reply to this appeal, and she even looked towards the western shore, although the darkness rendered the natural movement unnecessary to conceal her face. But Jasper felt that there was a necessity for his saying something; the pride of youth and manhood revolting at the idea of his being in a condition not to command the respect of his fellows, or the smiles of his equals of the other sex. Still he was unwilling to utter aught that might be considered harsh, to the uncle of Mabel; and his self-command was, perhaps, more creditable than his modesty and spirit.

"I pretend not to things I don't possess," he said, "and lay no

The Pathfinder.

5

claim to any knowledge of the ocean, or of navigation. We steer by the stars and the compass on these lakes, running from headland to head-land, and, having little need of figures and calculations, make no use of them. But, we have our claims, notwithstanding, as I have often heard from those who have passed years on the ocean. In the first place, we have always the land aboard, and much of the time on a lee-shore, and that I have frequently heard makes hardy sailors. Our gales are sudden and severe, and we are compelled to run for our ports at all hours-"

"You have your leads," interrupted Cap.

"They are of little use, and are seldom cast." "The deep-seas

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"I have heard of such things, but confess I never saw one."

“Oh! deuce, with a vengeance. A trader, and no deep-sea! Why, boy, you cannot pretend to be any thing of a mariner. Who the devil ever heard of a seaman without his deep-sea?"

"I do not pretend to any particular skill, Master Cap

"Except in shooting falls, Jasper; except in shooting falls and rifts," said Pathfinder, coming to the rescue; "in which business, even you, Master Cap, must allow he has some handiness. In my judgment, every man is to be esteemed or condemned according to his gifts, and if Master Cap is useless in running the Oswego falls, I try to remember that he is useful when out of sight of land; and if Jasper be useless when out of sight of land, I do not forget that he has a true eye and steady hand when running the falls."

"But Jasper is not useless-would not be useless, when out of sight of land," said Mabel, with a spirit and energy that caused her clear sweet voice to be startling, amid the solemn stillness of that extraordinary scene. "No one can be useless there, who can do so much here, is what I mean: though I dare say, he is not as well acquainted with ships as my uncle.'

"Ay, bolster each other up in your ignorance," returned Cap, with a sneer; "we seamen are so much out-numbered when ashore, that it is seldom we get our dues; but when you want to be defended, or trade is to be carried on, there is outery enough for us."

"But, uncle, landsmen do not come to attack our coasts; so that seamen only meet seamen."

"So much for ignorance! — Where are all the enemies that have landed in this country, French and English; let me inquire, niece?” “Sure enough, where are they!" ejaculated Pathfinder. "None can tell better than we who dwell in the woods, Master Cap. I have often followed their line of march by bones bleaching in the rain, and have found their trail by graves, years after they and their pride had vanished together. Generals and privates, they lay scattered throughout the land, so many proofs of what men are when led on by their love of great names, and the wish to be more than their fellows."

"I must say, Master Pathfinder, that you sometimes utter opinions that are a little remarkable, for a man who lives by the rifle; seldom

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