The guide laughed, promised to have a care of Mabel, and in a few
minutes the father had ascended a steep acclivity and disappeared in the
forest. The others took another direction, which, after a few minutes
of a sharp ascent also, brought them to a small naked point on the
promontory, where the eye overlooked an extensive and very peculiar
panorama. Here Mabel seated herself on a fragment of fallen rock to
recover her breath and strength, while her companion, on whose sinews
no personal exertion seemed to make any impression, stood at her side,
leaning in his own and not ungraceful manner on his long rifle. Several
minutes passed, and neither spoke; Mabel, in particular, being lost in
admiration of the view.

The position the two had obtained was sufficiently elevated to command a
wide reach of the lake, which stretched away towards the north-east in a
boundless sheet, glittering beneath the rays of an afternoon's sun, and
yet betraying the remains of that agitation which it had endured while
tossed by the late tempest. The land set bounds to its limits in a huge
crescent, disappearing in distance towards the south-east and the north.
Far as the eye could reach, nothing but forest was visible, not even
a solitary sign of civilization breaking in upon the uniform and grand
magnificence of nature. The gale had driven the _Scud_ beyond the line
of those forts with which the French were then endeavoring to gird
the English North American possessions; for, following the channels of
communication between the great lakes, their posts were on the banks
of the Niagara, while our adventurers had reached a point many leagues
westward of that celebrated strait. The cutter rode at single
anchor, without the breakers, resembling some well-imagined and
accurately-executed toy, intended rather for a glass case than for
struggles with the elements which she had so lately gone through, while
the canoe lay on the narrow beach, just out of reach of the waves that
came booming upon the land, a speck upon the shingles.

"We are very far here from human habitations!" exclaimed Mabel, when,
after a long survey of the scene, its principal peculiarities forced
themselves on her active and ever brilliant imagination; "this is indeed
being on a frontier."

"Have they more sightly scenes than this nearer the sea and around
their large towns?" demanded Pathfinder, with an interest he was apt to
discover in such a subject.

"I will not say t