man to distinguish between good and evil without the aid
of instruction, would have been staggered by the character of this
extraordinary inhabitant of the frontier. His feelings appeared to
possess the freshness and nature of the forest in which he passed so
much of his time; and no casuist could have made clearer decisions in
matters relating to right and wrong; and yet he was not without his
prejudices, which, though few, and colored by the character and usages
of the individual, were deep-rooted, and almost formed a part of his
nature. But the most striking feature about the moral organization of
Pathfinder was his beautiful and unerring sense of justice. This noble
trait--and without it no man can be truly great, with it no man
other than respectable--probably had its unseen influence on all who
associated with him; for the common and unprincipled brawler of the camp
had been known to return from an expedition made in his company rebuked
by his sentiments, softened by his language, and improved by his
example. As might have been expected, with so elevated a quality his
fidelity was like the immovable rock; treachery in him was classed among
the things which are impossible; and as he seldom retired before his
enemies, so was he never known, under any circumstances that admitted of
an alternative, to abandon a friend. The affinities of such a character
were, as a matter of course, those of like for like. His associates and
intimates, though more or less determined by chance, were generally of
the highest order as to moral propensities; for he appeared to possess
a species of instinctive discrimination, which led him, insensibly to
himself, most probably, to cling closest to those whose characters would
best reward his friendship. In short, it was said of the Pathfinder, by
one accustomed to study his fellows, that he was a fair example of
what a just-minded and pure man might be, while untempted by unruly or
ambitious desires, and left to follow the bias of his feelings, amid the
solitary grandeur and ennobling influences of a sublime nature; neither
led aside by the inducements which influence all to do evil amid the
incentives of civilization, nor forgetful of the Almighty Being whose
spirit pervades the wilderness as well as the towns.

Such was the man whom Sergeant Dunham had selected as the husband of
Mabel. In making this choice, he had not been as much governed by a
clear and judicious view of the merits of th