ings about
that, too; for all persons may not be so disposed to look at me with the
same eyes as you and the Sergeant's daughter."

Jasper Eau-douce started as a man flinches at sudden bodily pain; but
he otherwise maintained his self-command. "And mankind is envious and
ill-natured, more particularly in and about the garrisons. I sometimes
wish, Jasper, that Mabel could have taken a fancy to you,--I do; and
that you had taken a fancy to her; for it often seems to me that one
like you, after all, might make her happier than I ever can."

"We will not talk about this, Pathfinder," interrupted Jasper hoarsely
and impatiently; "you will be Mabel's husband, and it is not right to
speak of any one else in that character. As for me, I shall take Master
Cap's advice, and try and make a man of myself by seeing what is to be
done on the salt water."

"You, Jasper Western!--you quit the lakes, the forests, and the lines;
and this, too, for the towns and wasty ways of the settlements, and a
little difference in the taste of the water. Haven't we the salt-licks,
if salt is necessary to you? and oughtn't man to be satisfied with what
contents the other creatur's of God? I counted on you, Jasper, I counted
on you, I did; and thought, now that Mabel and I intend to dwell in
a cabin of our own, that some day you might be tempted to choose a
companion too, and come and settle in our neighborhood. There is a
beautiful spot, about fifty miles west of the garrison, that I had
chosen in my mind for my own place of abode; and there is an excellent
harbor about ten leagues this side of it where you could run in and out
with the cutter at any leisure minute; and I'd even fancied you and your
wife in possession of the one place, and Mabel and I in possession of
t'other. We should be just a healthy hunt apart; and if the Lord ever
intends any of His creaturs to be happy on 'arth, none could be happier
than we four."

"You forget, my friend," answered Jasper, taking the guide's hand and
forcing a friendly smile, "that I have no fourth person to love and
cherish; and I much doubt if I ever shall love any other as I love you
and Mabel."

"Thank'e, boy; I thank you with all my heart; but what you call love for
Mabel is only friendship like, and a very different thing from what I
feel. Now, instead of sleeping as sound as natur' at midnight, as I used
to could, I dream nightly of Mabel Dunham. The young does sport before
me; and when I raise Ki