er Pathfinder, to a yarn. Walking
about streets, going to church of Sundays, and hearing sermons, never
yet made a man of a human being. Send the boy out upon the broad ocean,
if you wish to open his eyes, and let him look upon foreign nations, or
what I call the face of nature, if you wish him to understand his own
character. Now, there is my brother-in-law, the Sergeant: he is as good
a fellow as ever broke a biscuit, in his way; but what is he, after all?
Why, nothing but a soldier. A sergeant, to be sure, but that is a sort
of a soldier, you know. When he wished to marry poor Bridget, my sister,
I told the girl what he was, as in duty bound, and what she might expect
from such a husband; but you know how it is with girls when their minds
are jammed by an inclination. It is true, the Sergeant has risen in his
calling, and they say he is an important man at the fort; but his
poor wife has not lived to see it all, for she has now been dead these
fourteen years."

"A soldier's calling is honorable, provided he has fi't only on the side
of right," returned the Pathfinder; "and as the Frenchers are always
wrong, and his sacred Majesty and these colonies are always right, I
take it the Sergeant has a quiet conscience as well as a good character.
I have never slept more sweetly than when I have fi't the Mingos, though
it is the law with me to fight always like a white man and never like
an Indian. The Sarpent, here, has his fashions, and I have mine; and yet
have we fi't side by side these many years; without either thinking a
hard thought consarning the other's ways. I tell him there is but one
heaven and one hell, notwithstanding his traditions, though there are
many paths to both."

"That is rational; and he is bound to believe you, though, I fancy, most
of the roads to the last are on dry land. The sea is what my poor sister
Bridget used to call a 'purifying place,' and one is out of the way of
temptation when out of sight of land. I doubt if as much can be said in
favor of your lakes up hereaway."

"That towns and settlements lead to sin, I will allow; but our lakes are
bordered by the forests, and one is every day called upon to worship
God in such a temple. That men are not always the same, even in the
wilderness, I must admit for the difference between a Mingo and a
Delaware is as plain to be seen as the difference between the sun and
the moon. I am glad, friend Cap, that we have met, however, if it be
only that