第73章

"And how _did_ he get command?" inquired Mabel, with an earnestness and interest that quite delighted her simple-minded and true-hearted companion, who was never better pleased than when he had an opportunity of saying aught in favor of a friend."It is honorable to him that he has reached this station while yet so young.""That is it; but he deserved it all, and more.A frigate wouldn't have been too much to pay for so much spirit and coolness, had there been such a thing on Ontario, as there is not, hows'ever, or likely to be.""But Jasper -- you have not yet told me how he got the command of the schooner.""It is a long story, Mabel, and one your father, the Ser-geant, can tell much better than I; for he was present, while I was off on a distant scouting.Jasper is not good at a story, I will own that; I have heard him questioned about this affair, and he never made a good tale of it, al-though every body knows it was a good thing.The _Scud_had near fallen into the hands of the French and the Mingos, when Jasper saved her, in a way which none but a quick-witted mind and a bold heart would have at-tempted.The Sergeant will tell the tale better than Ican, and I wish you to question him some day, when nothing better offers."Mabel determined to ask her father to repeat the inci-dents of the affair that very night; for it struck her young fancy that nothing better could well offer than to listen to the praises of one who was a bad historian of his own ex-ploits.

"Will the _Scud_ remain with us when we reach the island?" she asked, after a little hesitation about the propriety of the question; "or shall we be left to our-selves?"

"That's as may be: Jasper does not often keep the cutter idle when anything is to be done; and we may expect activity on his part.My gifts, however, run so little towards the water and vessels generally, unless it be among rapids and falls and in canoes, that I pretend to know nothing about it.We shall have all right under Jasper, I make no doubt, who can find a trail on Ontario as well as a Delaware can find one on the land.""And our own Delaware, Pathfinder -- the Big Serpent --why is he not with us to-night?"

"Your question would have been more natural had you said, Why are _you_ here, Pathfinder? The Sarpent is in his place, while I am not in mine.He is out, with two or three more, scouting the lake shores, and will join us down among the islands, with the tidings he may gather.The Sergeant is too good a soldier to forget his rear while he is facing the enemy in front.It's a thousand pities, Mabel, your father wasn't born a general, as some of the English are who come among us; for I feel sartain he wouldn't leave a Frencher in the Canadas a week, could he have his own way with them.""Shall we have enemies to face in front?" asked Mabel, smiling, and for the first time feeling a slight apprehen-sion about the dangers of the expedition."Are we likely to have an engagement?""If we have, Mabel, there will be men enough ready and willing to stand between you and harm.But you are a soldier's daughter, and, we all know, have the spirit of one.Don't let the fear of a battle keep your pretty eyes from sleeping.""I do feel braver out here in the woods, Pathfinder, than I ever felt before amid the weaknesses of the towns, although I have always tried to remember what I owe to my dear father.""Ay, your mother was so before you.'You will find Mabel, like her mother, no screamer, or a faint-hearted girl, to trouble a man in his need; but one who would en-courage her mate, and help to keep his heart up when sorest prest by danger,' said the Sergeant to me, before Iever laid eyes on that sweet countenance of yours, -- he did!""And why should my father have told you this, Path-finder?" the girl demanded a little earnestly."Perhaps he fancied you would think the better of me if you did not believe me a silly coward, as so many of my sex love to make themselves appear."Deception, unless it were at the expense of his enemies in the field, -- nay, concealment of even a thought, -- was so little in accordance with the Pathfinder's very nature, that he was not a little embarrassed by this simple ques-tion.In such a strait he involuntarily took refuge in a, middle course, not revealing that which he fancied ought not to be told, nor yet absolutely concealing it.

"You must know, Mabel," said he, "that the Sergeant and I are old friends, and have stood side by side -- or, if not actually side by side, I a little in advance, as became a scout, and your father with his own men, as better suited a soldier of the king -- on many a hard fi't and bloody day.

It's the way of us skirmishers to think little of the fight when the rifle has done cracking; and at night, around our fires, or on our marches, we talk of the things we love, just as you young women convarse about your fancies and opinions when you get together to laugh over your idees.

Now it was natural that the Sergeant, having such a daughter as you, should love her better than anything else, and that he should talk of her oftener than of anything else, -- while I, having neither daughter, nor sister, nor mother, nor kith, nor kin, nor anything but the Delawares to love, I naturally chimed in, as it were, and got to love you, Mabel, before I ever saw you -- yes, I did -- just by talk-ing about you so much."