The Pathfinder: Or the Inland Sea

Yarrow? — th

my fancy

ully a wa

that hath

minstrel’s ha

notes of

is silence f

my heart wi

DSW

endered the shore 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 unus

ustomed 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 fi

near each other that the hand of the young man held them together, “you h

ou know, Jasper Western, and oug

Delaware, were the poor fellow here, I myself, will

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 to

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

h he has mentioned all that, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the service. God will remember it, Pathfind

ve heard of others. The Sergeant himself has talked to me of his own young days, and of your mother, and of

pay him for what he did to win her

ack; for, being so many years my senior, he has looked

ess in his voice that defeated the attempt at pleasan

not easy to dwell always in the presence of God and not feel the power of His goodness. I have attended church-sarvice 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

ttle 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 lighted 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 t

little credit generally for

e essentials of Christianity the seam

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 i

xperienced to be able to say much on su

“You cannot — no one can live among such scenes wi

I do not sometimes think of these things, but I

much of the young man, Mabel. I think they call you sometimes b

eral of the Indian dialects. “It is a name the Iroquois have given me to distinguish me from some of my companions who

m. Ay, ay, Eau-deuce; that must mean the white brandy, which

and it is the manner in which the French express

othing 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 t

nother, 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 soundly when he is on the watch as if I was up and stirring

ere 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 eq

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 ha

r leads,” int

ttle use, and a

deep-

ch things, but conf

hy, boy, you cannot pretend to be anything of a mariner. W

to any particular

e 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 tha

caused her clear sweet voice to be startling amid the solemn stillness of that extraordinary scene. “No one can be usele

are so much out-numbered when ashore that it is seldom we get our dues; but when yo

come to attack our coasts; so

enemies that have landed in this country,

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,

ittle remarkable for a man who lives by the rifle; seldom snuffing the air but

and powerless hunter and scout and guide. My real calling is to hunt for the army, on its marches and in times of peace; although I am more especially engaged in the service of one officer, who is now absent in the settlements, where I never follow him. No

. There is my brother-in-law, now; he has been a soldier since he was sixteen, and he looks upon his trade as

it is honorable to carry arms,” said Mabel,

he barrel of his musket. One of his notions, now, is to prefer a king’s piece to a regular, double-sighted, long-barrelled

the Pathfinder had agreed on the expediency of suffering the canoes to float of themselves for a time, or at least until they had passed the first dangers of their new movement. The dialogue had been carried on in voices, too, guardedly low; for though the quiet of deep solitude reigned in that vast and nearly boundless forest, nature was speaking with her thousand tongues in the eloquent language of night in a wilderness. The air sighed through ten thousand trees, the water rippled, and at places even roared along the shores; and now and then was heard the creaking of a branch or a trunk, as it rubbed against some object similar to itself, under the vibrations of a nicely balanced bod

either a whisper nor yet in a voice loud enough to be heard at any distance. “Can the

e down this bank, and would know where to look for us

paddle, and on no account vent

h an impetuosity that rendered her inc

the tones of men; but it must not be heard too much, or too freely, just now. Your father, the honest Sergeant, will tell you

dangerous. During this time, the party continued to float with the current, no one speaking, and, it might almost be said, no one breathing, so strong was the general desire to catch the minutest sound that should come from the shore. But the same solemn, we might, indeed, say sublime, quiet reigned as before; th

s often fancy what the heart wishes; but these

he savages ever w

d-skin finishes with the ‘arth, after the breath quits the body. It is n

se eye had not ceased to dwell on the body of gloom, w

greatly relieved. “All must be safe,

the form of Jasper was recognized at the stern of his own boat. The figure of a second man was seated in the bow; and, as the young sailor so wi

is voice that betrayed the strength of his feelings. “Chief of the Mohicans! My heart is very glad.

know how to strike the Great Serpent of the Delawares. Their hearts have no blood

ef? and what has become of the

eels! Let his brothers bait their hooks for him. Pathfinde

sky fellow has been in the midst of them, and has brought us back their whole hi

wever, he swam to the eastern shore, landed with caution, and wound his way in amongst the Iroquois, concealed by the darkness, undetected, and, in the main, even unsuspected. Once, indeed, he had been questioned; but answering that he was Arrowhead, no further inquiries were made. By the passing remarks, he soon ascertained that t

relieve their apprehensions, intimating, at the same time, that now was the moment for exerti

to fall into their hands. The distance to the garrison will then be so short, that I have been thinking of a plan of land

t strong enough to tramp the woods in a night like this. Put her in my skiff,

ve the Sergeant’s daughter; but it must be the eye of Providence, and not you

Is not the night as dark on shore as on the water? or do

if I should lose my way, no other harm would come of it than to pass a night in the forest; whereas a false turn of the paddle, or a broad sheer of

lf; I am certain that she will

ove to my father how much he values him; but I confess I should not like to quit the canoe, with the certainty we

clear drift like this on the river. Besides, Master Pathfin

heard of sharks

no matter what you call a thing, so

is a skeary animal, I will allow, but then it is nothing in the hands of a practysed hunter. Talk of

re you would meet. Use is everything, and it makes a man bold when he might otherwise be bashful. I hav

t material part of his trade, the ability to spin a yarn. “I have alway

ver the noses if they got to be troublesome. No, no, I have no liking for bears and wolves, though a whale, in my eye, is

. “This of mine is empty, and even Pathfinder will a

believing that the Sergeant’s daughter will be safer in your canoe than in this; and though I would gladly keep her near myself, I have her welfare too

ying with the request; when Mabel passed from one canoe to the other ta

the profound obscurity which reigned, that Pathfinder was confident parties were on both sides of the river, in the hope of intercepting them when they might land. He would not have made the proposal he did had he not felt sure of his own ability to convert this very anticipation of success into a means of defeating the plans of the Iroquois. As the arrangement now stood, however, everything depended on the skill of those who guided

ove 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, how

e so great, that she retained a self-command which might not have existed had she clearer perceptions of the truth,

t you have menti

of the rift first came

ld acquaintances, Mabel; but we live many days in one, in th

me, Jasper. I have every reliance on your skil

ntre of the river; the bed of the water is closer to the eastern shore; but I

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

rfully. “The danger is past, and you may now i

r, we shall owe this g

l share in the merit; but what

on the water; is it not

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

nounced 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 s