e circle of his regular duties, as "a circumstance."

While this matter was thus discussed near the taffrail, Mabel sat
silently by the companion-way, Mr. Muir having gone below to look after
his personal comforts, and Jasper standing a little aloof, with his arms
crossed, and his eyes wandering from the sails to the clouds, from the
clouds to the dusky outline of the shore, from the shore to the lake,
and from the lake back again to the sails. Our heroine, too, began to
commune with her own thoughts. The excitement of the late journey, the
incidents which marked the day of her arrival at the fort, the meeting
with a father who was virtually a stranger to her, the novelty of her
late situation in the garrison, and her present voyage, formed a vista
for the mind's eye to look back through, which seemed lengthened into
months. She could with difficulty believe that she had so recently left
the town, with all the usages of civilized life; and she wondered in
particular that the incidents which had occurred during the descent of
the Oswego had made so little impression on her mind. Too inexperienced
to know that events, when crowded, have the effect of time, or that the
quick succession of novelties that pass before us in travelling elevates
objects, in a measure, to the dignity of events, she drew upon her
memory for days and dates, in order to make certain that she had known
Jasper, and the Pathfinder, and her own father, but little more than a
fortnight. Mabel was a girl of heart rather than of imagination, though
by no means deficient in the last, and she could not easily account for
the strength of her feelings in connection with those who were so lately
strangers to her; for she was not sufficiently accustomed to analyze
her sensations to understand the nature of the influences that have just
been mentioned. As yet, however, her pure mind was free from the blight
of distrust, and she had no suspicion of the views of either of her
suitors; and one of the last thoughts that could have voluntarily
disturbed her confidence would have been to suppose it possible either
of her companions was a traitor to his king and country.

America, at the time of which we are writing, was remarkable for its
attachment to the German family that then sat on the British throne;
for, as is the fact with all provinces, the virtues and qualities that
are proclaimed near the centre of power, as incense and policy, get
to be a part of political