tored to their old situation,
like. This is human natur'."

"I'll warrant it--girl-like, and Dunham-like, too. Anything is better
than an old uncle, and everybody knows more than an old seaman. _This_
is human natur', Master Pathfinder, and d---me if I'm the man to sheer a
fathom, starboard or port, for all the human natur' that can be found
in a minx of twenty--ay, or" (lowering his voice a little) "for all that
can be paraded in his Majesty's 55th regiment of foot. I've not been
at sea forty years, to come up on this bit of fresh water to be taught
human natur'. How this gale holds out! It blows as hard at this moment
as if Boreas had just clapped his hand upon the bellows. And what is
all this to leeward?" (rubbing his eyes)--"land! as sure as my name is
Cap--and high land, too."

The Pathfinder made no immediate answer; but, shaking his head, he
watched the expression of his companion's face, with a look of strong
anxiety in his own.

"Land, as certain as this is the _Scud!_" repeated Cap; "a lee shore,
and that, too, within a league of us, with as pretty a line of breakers
as one could find on the beach of all Long Island!"

"And is that encouraging? or is it disheartening?" inquired the
Pathfinder.

"Ha! encouraging--disheartening!--why, neither. No, no, there is
nothing encouraging about it; and as for disheartening, nothing ought to
dishearten a seaman. You never get disheartened or afraid in the woods,
my friend?"

"I'll not say that, I'll not say that. When the danger is great, it is
my gift to see it, and know it, and to try to avoid it; else would
my scalp long since have been drying in a Mingo wigwam. On this lake,
however, I can see no trail, and I feel it my duty to submit; though
I think we ought to remember there is such a person as Mabel Dunham on
board. But here comes her father, and he will naturally feel for his own
child."

"We are seriously situated, I believe, brother Cap," said the Sergeant,
when he had reached the spot, "by what I can gather from the two hands
on the forecastle? They tell me the cutter cannot carry any more sail,
and her drift is so great we shall go ashore in an hour or two. I hope
their fears have deceived them?"

Cap made no reply; but he gazed at the land with a rueful face, and then
looked to windward with an expression of ferocity, as if he would gladly
have quarrelled with the weather.

"It may be well, brother," the Sergeant continued, "to send for Jasper
a