it, as I said afore? It's true, Mabel seemed to be
consenting, though it all came from a wish to please her father, and
from being skeary about the savages--"

"Pathfinder!"

"I understand you, Mabel, and have no hard feelings, I haven't. I
sometimes think I should like to live in your neighborhood, that I might
look at your happiness; but, on the whole, it's better I should quit the
55th altogether, and go back to the 60th, which is my natyve rigiment,
as it might be. It would have been better, perhaps, had I never left it,
though my sarvices were much wanted in this quarter, and I'd been with
some of the 55th years agone; Sergeant Dunham, for instance, when he was
in another corps. Still, Jasper, I do not regret that I've known you--"

"And me, Pathfinder!" impetuously interrupted Mabel; "do you regret
having known _me_? Could I think so, I should never be at peace with
myself."

"You, Mabel!" returned the guide, taking the hand of our heroine and
looking up into her countenance with guileless simplicity, but earnest
affection; "How could I be sorry that a ray of the sun came across the
gloom of a cheerless day--that light has broken in upon darkness, though
it remained so short a time? I do not flatter myself with being able
to march quite so light-hearted as I once used to could, or to sleep as
sound, for some time to come; but I shall always remember how near I was
to being undeservedly happy, I shall. So far from blaming you, Mabel,
I only blame myself for being so vain as to think it possible I could
please such a creatur'; for sartainly you told me how it was, when we
talked it over on the mountain, and I ought to have believed you then;
for I do suppose it's nat'ral that young women should know their own
minds better than their fathers. Ah's me! It's settled now, and nothing
remains but for me to take leave of you, that you may depart; I feel
that Master Cap must be impatient, and there is danger of his coming on
shore to look for us all."

"To take leave!" exclaimed Mabel.

"Leave!" echoed Jasper; "You do not mean to quit us, my friend?"

"'Tis best, Mabel, 'tis altogether best, Eau-douce; and it's wisest. I
could live and die in your company, if I only followed feeling; but, if
I follow reason, I shall quit you here. You will go back to Oswego, and
become man and wife as soon as you arrive,--for all that is determined
with Master Cap, who hankers after the sea again, and who knows what is
to happen,-