hat: there is more to remind one of his fellow-beings
there than here; less, perhaps, to remind one of God."

"Ay, Mabel, that is what my own feelings say. I am but a poor hunter, I
know, untaught and unlarned; but God is as near me, in this my home, as
he is near the king in his royal palace."

"Who can doubt it?" returned Mabel, looking from the view up into the
hard-featured but honest face of her companion, though not without
surprise at the energy of his manner. "One feels nearer to God in such
a spot, I think, than when the mind is distracted by the objects of the
towns."

"You say all I wish to say myself, Mabel, but in so much plainer speech,
that you make me ashamed of wishing to let others know what I feel on
such matters. I have coasted this lake in search of skins afore the war,
and have been here already; not at this very spot, for we landed yonder,
where you may see the blasted oak that stands above the cluster of
hemlocks--"

"How, Pathfinder, can you remember all these trifles so accurately?"

"These are our streets and houses, our churches and palaces. Remember
them, indeed! I once made an appointment with the Big Sarpent, to meet
at twelve o'clock at noon, near the foot of a certain pine, at the end
of six months, when neither of us was within three hundred miles of
the spot. The tree stood, and stands still, unless the judgment of
Providence has lighted on that too, in the midst of the forest, fifty
miles from any settlement, but in a most extraordinary neighborhood for
beaver."

"And did you meet at that very spot and hour?"

"Does the sun rise and set? When I reached the tree, I found the Sarpent
leaning against its trunk with torn leggings and muddied moecassins. The
Delaware had got into a swamp, and it worried him not a little to find
his way out of it; but as the sun which comes over the eastern hills
in the morning goes down behind the western at night, so was he true to
time and place. No fear of Chingachgook when there is either a friend or
an enemy in the case. He is equally sartain with each."

"And where is the Delaware now? why is he not with us to-day?"

"He is scouting on the Mingo trail, where I ought to have been too, but
for a great human infirmity."

"You seem above, beyond, superior to all infirmity, Pathfinder; I never
yet met with a man who appeared to be so little liable to the weaknesses
of nature."

"If you mean in the way of health and strength, Mabel, Providence