exploits.

"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 ourselves?"

"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 apprehension 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 encourage her mate, and help to keep his heart
up when sorest prest by danger,' said the Sergeant to me, before I ever
laid eyes on that sweet countenance of yours,--he did!"

"And why should my father have told you this, Pathfinder?" 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