e deer; and He has given to man,
red-skin and white, the delicious spring at which to slake his thirst.
It is unreasonable to think that He may not have given lakes of pure
water to the west, and lakes of impure water to the east."

Cap was awed, in spite of his overweening dogmatism, by the earnest
simplicity of the Pathfinder, though he did not relish the idea of
believing a fact which, for many years, he had pertinaciously insisted
could not be true. Unwilling to give up the point and, at the same time,
unable to maintain it against a reasoning to which he was unaccustomed,
and which possessed equally the force of truth, faith, and probability,
he was glad to get rid of the subject by evasion.

"Well, well, friend Pathfinder," said he, "we will leave the argument
where it is; and we can try the water when we once reach it. Only mark
my words--I do not say that it may not be fresh on the surface; the
Atlantic is sometimes fresh on the surface, near the mouths of great
rivers; but, rely on it, I shall show you a way of tasting the water
many fathoms deep, of which you never dreamed; and then we shall know
more about it."

The guide seemed content to let the matter rest, and the conversation
changed.

"We are not over-conceited consarning our gifts," observed the
Pathfinder, after a short pause, "and well know that such as live in the
towns, and near the sea--"

"On the sea," interrupted Cap.

"On the sea, if you wish it, friend--have opportunities which do not
befall us of the wilderness. Still, we know our own callings, and they
are what I consider natural callings, and are not parvarted by vanity
and wantonness. Now, my gifts are with the rifle, and on a trail, and
in the way of game and scouting; for, though I can use the spear and the
paddle, I pride not myself on either. The youth Jasper, there, who is
discoursing with the Sergeant's daughter, is a different cratur'; for
he may be said to breathe the water, as it might be, like a fish. The
Indians and Frenchers of the north shore call him Eau-douce, on account
of his gifts in this particular. He is better at the oar, and the rope
too, than in making fires on a trail."

"There must be something about these gifts of which you speak, after
all," said Cap. "Now this fire, I will acknowledge, has overlaid all
my seamanship. Arrowhead, there, said the smoke came from a pale-face's
fire, and that is a piece of philosophy which I hold to be equal to
steering in a