dare to say _you_ think so, nay, I _know_ you do; for
it is nat'ral, and according to friendship, for people to look
over-favorably at them they love. Yes, yes; if I had to marry you, boy,
I should give myself no consarn about my being well looked upon, for
you have always shown a disposition to see me and all I do with friendly
eyes. But a young gal, after all, must wish to marry a man that is
nearer to her own age and fancies, than to have one old enough to be her
father, and rude enough to frighten her. I wonder, Jasper, that Mabel
never took a fancy to you, now, rather than setting her mind on me."

"Take, a fancy to me, Pathfinder!" returned the young man, endeavoring
to clear his voice without betraying himself; "what is there about me to
please such a girl as Mabel Dunham? I have all that you find fault with
in yourself, with none of that excellence that makes even the generals
respect you."

"Well, well, it's all chance, say what we will about it. Here have
I journeyed and guided through the woods female after female, and
consorted with them in the garrisons, and never have I even felt an
inclination for any, until I saw Mabel Dunham. It's true the poor
Sergeant first set me to thinking about his daughter; but after we got a
little acquainted like, I'd no need of being spoken to, to think of her
night and day. I'm tough, Jasper; yes, I'm very tough; and I'm risolute
enough, as you all know; and yet I do think it would quite break me
down, now, to lose Mabel Dunham!"

"We will talk no more of it, Pathfinder," said Jasper, returning his
friend's squeeze of the hand, and moving back towards the fire, though
slowly, and in the manner of one who cared little where he went; "we
will talk no more of it. You are worthy of Mabel, and Mabel is worthy of
you--you like Mabel, and Mabel likes you--her father has chosen you
for her husband, and no one has a right to interfere. As for the
Quartermaster, his feigning love for Mabel is worse even than his
treason to the king."

By this time they were so near the fire that it was necessary to change
the conversation. Luckily, at that instant, Cap, who had been in the
block in company with his dying brother-in-law, and who knew nothing
of what had passed since the capitulation, now appeared, walking with
a meditative and melancholy air towards the group. Much of that hearty
dogmatism, that imparted even to his ordinary air and demeanor
an appearance of something like contempt