quite
forty myself, your honor, when I married her mother."

"But will your daughter be as likely to admire a green hunting-shirt,
such as that our worthy guide wears, with a fox-skin cap, as the smart
uniform of the 55th?"

"Perhaps not, sir; and therefore she will have the merit of self-denial,
which always makes a young woman wiser and better."

"And are you not afraid that she may be left a widow while still a young
woman? what between wild beasts, and wilder savages, Pathfinder may be
said to carry his life in his hand."

"'Every bullet has its billet,' Lundie," for so the Major was fond of
being called in his moments of condescension, and when not engaged in
military affairs; "and no man in the 55th can call himself beyond or
above the chances of sudden death. In that particular, Mabel would
gain nothing by a change. Besides, sir, if I may speak freely on such
a subject, I much doubt if ever Pathfinder dies in battle, or by any of
the sudden chances of the wilderness."

"And why so, Sergeant?" asked the Major. "He is a soldier, so far as
danger is concerned, and one that is much more than usually exposed;
and, being free of his person, why should he expect to escape when
others do not?"

"I do not believe, your honor, that the Pathfinder considers his own
chances better than any one's else, but the man will never die by
a bullet. I have seen him so often handling his rifle with as much
composure as if it were a shepherd's crook, in the midst of the heaviest
showers of bullets, and under so many extraordinary circumstances, that
I do not think Providence means he should ever fall in that manner. And
yet, if there be a man in his Majesty's dominions who really deserves
such a death, it is Pathfinder."

"We never know, Sergeant," returned Lundie, with a countenance grave
with thought; "and the less we say about it, perhaps, the better. But
will your daughter--Mabel, I think, you call her--will Mabel be as
willing to accept one who, after all, is a mere hanger-on of the army,
as to take one from the service itself? There is no hope of promotion
for the guide, Sergeant."

"He is at the head of his corps already, your honor. In short, Mabel
has made up her mind on this subject; and, as your honor has had the
condescension to speak to me about Mr. Muir, I trust you will be kind
enough to say that the girl is as good as billeted for life."

"Well, well, this is your own matter, and, now--Sergeant Dunham!"

"