el and I are so nearly alike, that I feel weighed down
with a load that is hard to bear, at finding us so unlike. I do wish,
Sergeant, that I was ten years younger, more comely to look at, and
better suited to please a handsome young woman's fancy."

"Cheer up, my brave friend, and trust to a father's knowledge of
womankind. Mabel half loves you already, and a fortnight's intercourse
and kindness, down among the islands yonder will close ranks with the
other half. The girl as much as told me this herself last night."

"Can this be so, Sergeant?" said the guide, whose meek and modest nature
shrank from viewing himself in colors so favorable. "Can this be truly
so? I am but a poor hunter and Mabel, I see, is fit to be an officer's
lady. Do you think the girl will consent to quit all her beloved
settlement usages, and her visitings and church-goings, to dwell with
a plain guide and hunter up hereaway in the woods? Will she not in the
end, crave her old ways, and a better man?"

"A better man, Pathfinder, would be hard to find," returned the father.
"As for town usages, they are soon forgotten in the freedom of the
forest, and Mabel has just spirit enough to dwell on a frontier. I've
not planned this marriage, my friend, without thinking it over, as a
general does his campaign. At first, I thought of bringing you into the
regiment, that you might succeed me when I retire, which must be sooner
or later; but on reflection, Pathfinder, I think you are scarcely fitted
for the office. Still, if not a soldier in all the meanings of the word,
you are a soldier in its best meaning, and I know that you have the
good-will of every officer in the corps. As long as I live, Mabel can
dwell with me, and you will always have a home when you return from your
scoutings and marches."

"This is very pleasant to think of, Sergeant, if the girl can only come
into our wishes with good-will. But, ah's me! It does not seem that
one like myself can ever be agreeable in her handsome eyes. If I were
younger, and more comely, now, as Jasper Western is, for instance, there
might be a chance--yes, then, indeed, there might be some chance."

"That for Jasper Eau-douce, and every younker of them in or about the
fort!" returned the Sergeant, snapping his fingers. "If not actually a
younger, you are a younger-looking, ay, and a better-looking man than
the _Scud's_ master--"

"Anan?" said Pathfinder, looking up at his companion with an expression
of do