erous. Name them, indeed! Why, my pretty
niece, Miss Magnet, what do you think of that main-boom now? To my
ignorant eyes, it is topped at least a foot too high; and then the
pennant is foul; and--and--ay, d---me, if there isn't a topsail gasket
adrift; and it wouldn't surprise me at all if there should be a round
turn in that hawser, if the kedge were to be let go this instant. Faults
indeed! No seaman could look at her a moment without seeing that she is
as full of faults as a servant who has asked for his discharge."

"This may be very true, uncle, though I much question if Jasper knows of
them. I do not think he would suffer these things, Pathfinder, if they
were once pointed out to him."

"Let Jasper manage his own cutter, Mabel. His gift lies that-a-way, and
I'll answer for it, no one can teach him how to keep the _Scud_ out
of the hands of the Frontenackers or their devilish Mingo friends. Who
cares for round turns in kedges, and for hawsers that are topped too
high, Master Cap, so long as the craft sails well, and keeps clear of
the Frenchers? I will trust Jasper against all the seafarers of the
coast, up here on the lakes; but I do not say he has any gift for the
ocean, for there he has never been tried."

Cap smiled condescendingly, but he did not think it necessary to push
his criticisms any further just as that moment. By this time the cutter
had begun to drift at the mercy of the currents of the lake, her head
turning in all directions, though slowly, and not in a way to attract
particular attention. Just at this moment the jib was loosened and
hoisted, and presently the canvas swelled towards the land, though
no evidences of air were yet to be seen on the surface of the water.
Slight, however, as was the impulsion, the light hull yielded; and in
another minute the _Scud_ was seen standing across the current of
the river with a movement so easy and moderate as to be scarcely
perceptible. When out of the stream, she struck an eddy and shot up
towards the land, under the eminence where the fort stood, when Jasper
dropped his kedge.

"Not lubberly done," muttered Cap in a sort of soliloquy,--"not over
lubberly, though he should have put his helm a-starboard instead of
a-port; for a vessel ought always to come-to with her head off shore,
whether she is a league from the land or only a cable's length, since it
has a careful look, and looks are something in this world."

"Jasper is a handy lad," suddenly obs