第54章

"Not for some weeks, Major Duncan, for neither deer nor birds are so plenty at this season as they have been.

They begin to throw their remarks about concerning the salmon, but I trust we shall get through the summer without any serious disturbance on the score of food.The Scotch in the battalion do, indeed, talk more than is pru-dent of their want of oatmeal, grumbling occasionally of our wheaten bread.""Ah, that is human nature, Sergeant! pure, unadul-terated Scotch human nature.A cake, man, to say the truth, is an agreeable morsel, and I often see the time when I pine for a bite myself.""If the feeling gets to be troublesome, Major Duncan, --in the men, I mean, sir, for I would not think of saying so disrespectful a thing to your honor, -- but if the men ever pine seriously for their natural food, I would humbly recommend that some oatmeal be imported, or prepared in this country for them, and I think we shall hear no more of it.A very little would answer for a cure, sir.""You are a wag, Sergeant; but hang me if I am sure you are not right.There may be sweeter things in this world, after all, than oatmeal.You have a sweet daughter, Dunham, for one.""The girl is like her mother, Major Duncan, and will pass inspection," said the Sergeant proudly."Neither was brought up on anything better than good American flour.The girl will pass inspection, sir.""That would she, I'll answer for it.Well, I may as well come to the point at once, man, and bring up my reserve into the front of the battle.Here is Davy Muir, the quartermaster, disposed to make your daughter his wife, and he has just got me to open the matter to you, being fearful of compromising his own dignity; and I may as well add that half the youngsters in the fort toast her, and talk of her from morning till night.""She is much honored, sir," returned the father stiffly;"but I trust the gentlemen will find something more worthy of them to talk about ere long.I hope to see her the wife of an honest man before many weeks, sir.""Yes, Davy is an honest man, and that is more than can be said for all in the quartermaster's department, I'm thinking, Sergeant," returned Lundie, with a slight smile.

"Well, then may I tell the Cupid-stricken youth that the matter is as good as settled?""I thank your honor; but Mabel is betrothed to an-other."

"The devil she is! That will produce a stir in the fort;though I'm not sorry to hear it either, for, to be frank with you, Sergeant, I'm no great admirer of unequal matches.""I think with your honor, and have no desire to see my daughter an officer's lady.If she can get as high as her mother was before her, it ought to satisfy any reasonable woman.""And may I ask, Sergeant, who is the lucky man that you intend to call son-in-law ?""The Pathfinder, your honor."

"Pathfinder!"

"The same, Major Duncan; and in naming him to you, I give you his whole history.No one is better known on this frontier than my honest, brave, true-hearted friend.""All that is true enough; but is he, after all, the sort of person to make a girl of twenty happy?""Why not, your honor? The man is at the head of his calling.There is no other guide or scout connected with the army who has half the reputation of Pathfinder, or who deserves to have it half as well.""Very true, Sergeant; but is the reputation of a scout exactly the sort of renown to captivate a girl's fancy?""Talking of girls' fancies, sir, is in my humble opinion much like talking of a recruit's judgment.If we were to take the movements of the awkward squad, sir, as a guide, we should never form a decent line in battalion, Major Duncan.""But your daughter has nothing awkward about her:

for a genteeler girl of her class could not be found in old Albion itself.Is she of your way of thinking in this matter? -- though I suppose she must be, as you say she is betrothed.""We have not yet conversed on the subject, your honor;but I consider her mind as good as made up, from several little circumstances which might be named.""And what are these circumstances, Sergeant?" asked the Major, who began to take more interest than he had at first felt on the subject."I confess a little curiosity to know something about a woman's mind, being, as you know, a bachelor myself.""Why, your honor, when I speak of the Pathfinder to the girl, she always looks me full in the face; chimes in with everything I say in his favor, and has a frank open way with her, which says as much as if she half considered him already as a husband.""Hum! and these signs, you think, Dunham, are faith-ful tokens of your daughter's feelings?"

"I do, your honor, for they strike me as natural.When I find a man, sir, who looks me full in the face, while he praises an officer, -- for, begging your honor's pardon, the men will sometimes pass their strictures on their betters, - and when I find a man looking me in the eyes as he praises his captain, I always set it down that the fellow is honest, and means what he says.""Is there not some material difference in the age of the intended bridegroom and that of his pretty bride, Ser-geant?"