nge;
and to those on the shore it was evident that, by a timely application
of his skill and strength, the canoe had received a sheer which alone
carried it clear of a rock over which the boiling water was leaping in
_jets d'eau_,--now leaving the brown stone visible, and now covering it
with a limpid sheet, as if machinery controlled the play of the element.
The tongue cannot always express what the eyes view; but Mabel saw
enough, even in that moment of fear, to blend for ever in her mind the
pictures presented by the plunging canoe and the unmoved steersman. She
admitted that insidious feeling which binds woman so strongly to man, by
feeling additional security in finding herself under his care; and, for
the first time since leaving Fort Stanwix, she was entirely at her ease
in the frail bark in which she travelled. As the other canoe kept quite
near her own, however, and the Pathfinder, by floating at her side,
was most in view, the conversation was principally maintained with
that person; Jasper seldom speaking unless addressed, and constantly
exhibiting a wariness in the management of his own boat, which might
have been remarked by one accustomed to his ordinarily confident,
careless manner.

"We know too well a woman's gifts to think of carrying the Sergeant's
daughter over the falls," said Pathfinder, looking at Mabel, while he
addressed her uncle; "though I've been acquainted with some of her sex
that would think but little of doing the thing."

"Mabel is faint-hearted, like her mother," returned Cap; "and you did
well, friend, to humor her weakness. You will remember the child has
never been at sea."

"No, no, it was easy to discover that; by your own fearlessness, any one
might have seen how little you cared about the matter. I went over once
with a raw hand, and he jumped out of the canoe just as it tipped, and
you many judge what a time he had of it."

"What became of the poor fellow?" asked Cap, scarcely knowing how to
take the other's manner, which was so dry, while it was so simple, that
a less obtuse subject than the old sailor might well have suspected its
sincerity. "One who has passed the place knows how to feel for him."

"He was a _poor_ fellow, as you say; and a poor frontierman too, though
he came out to show his skill among us ignoranters. What became of him?
Why, he went down the falls topsy-turvey like, as would have happened to
a court-house or a fort."

"If it should jump out of at ca