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Serjeant Dunham made no empty vaunt, when he gave
the promise conveyed in the closing words of the last chapter.
Notwithstanding the remote frontier position of the post, they
who lived at it enjoyed a table that, in many respects, kings
and princes might have envied. At the period of our tale,
and, indeed, for half a century later, the whole of that vast
region which has been called the west, or the new countries,
since the war of the revolution, lay a comparatively unpeopled
desert, teeming with all the living productions of nature,
that properly belonged to the climate, man and the domestic
animals excepted. The few Indians that roamed its forests
then, could produce no visible effects on the abundance of
the game; the the scattered garrisons, or occasional hunters,
that here and there were to be met with on that vast surface,
had no other influence than the bee on the buckwheat field,
or the humming-bird on the flower.

The marvels that have descended to our own times, in the
way of tradition, concerning the quantities of beasts, birds
and fishes, that were then to be met with, on the shores of
the great lakes in particular, are known to be sustained by
the experience of living men; else might we hesitate about
relating them; but having been eye-witnesses of some of these
prodigies, our office shall be discharged with the confidence
that certainty can impart. Oswego was particularly well
placed to keep the larder of an epicure amply supplied. Fish
of various sorts abounded in its river, and the sportsman had
only to cast his line to haul in a bass or some other member
of the finny tribe, which then peopled the waters, as the air
above the swamps of this fruitful latitude are known to be
filled with insects. Among others, was the salmon of the

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lakes, a variety of that well-known species, that is scarcely
inferior to the delicious salmon of northern Europe. Of the
different migratory birds that frequent forests and waters,
there was the same affluence, hundreds of acres of geese and
ducks being often seen at a time, in the great bays that indent
the shores of the lake. Deer, bears, rabbits, and squirrels,
with divers other quadrupeds, among which was sometimes
included the elk, or moose, helped to complete the sum
of the natural supplies, on which all the posts depended,
more or less, to relieve the unavoidable privations of their
remote frontier positions.

In a place where viands, that would elsewhere be deemed
great luxuries, were so abundant, no one was excluded from
their enjoyment. The meanest individual at Oswego habitually
feasted on game that would have formed the boast of a
Parisian table; and it was no more than a healthful commentary
on the caprices of taste, and of the waywardness
of human desires, that the very diet, which in other scenes
would have been deemed the subject of envy and repinings,
got to pall on the appetite. The coarse and regular food
of the army, which it became necessary to husband on
account of the difficulty of transportation, rose in the estimation
of the common soldier, and, at any time, he would
cheerfully desert his venison, and ducks, and pigeons, and
salmon, to banquet on the sweets of pickled pork, stringy
turnips and half-cooked cabbage.

The table of Serjeant Dunham, as a matter of course, partook
of the abundance and luxuries of the frontier, as well
as of its privations. A delicious broiled salmon smoked on
a homely platter, hot venison steaks sent up their appetizing
odours, and several dishes of cold meats, all of which were
composed of game, had been set before the guests, in honour
of the newly-arrived visiters, and in vindication of the old
soldier's hospitality.

“You do not seem to be on short allowance, in this quarter
of the world, serjeant,” said Cap, after he had got fairly
initiated into the mysteries of the different dishes: “your
salmon might satisfy a Scotsman.”

“It fails to do it, notwithstanding, brother Cap; for among
two or three hundred of the fellows, that we have in this garrison,
there are not half a dozen who will not swear that the

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fish is unfit to be eaten. Even some of the lads, who never
tasted venison except as poachers at home, turn up their
noses at the fattest haunches that we get here.”

“Ay, that is Christian natur',” put in Pathfinder, “and I
must say, it is none to its credit. Now, a red-skin never repines,
but is always thankful for the food he gets, whether it
be fat, or lean, venison, or bear; wild turkey's breast, or
wild goose's wing. To the shame of us white men be it
said, that we look upon blessings without satisfaction, and
consider trifling evils as matters of great account.”

“It is so with the 55th, as I can answer, though I cannot
say as much for their Christianity;” returned the serjeant.
“Even the Major himself, old Duncan of Lundie, will sometimes
swear an oat-meal cake is better fare than the Oswego
bass, and sigh for a swallow of Highland water, when, if so
minded, he has the whole of Ontario to quench his thirst in.”

“Has Major Duncan a wife and children?” asked Mabel,
whose thoughts naturally turned towards her own sex, in her
new situation.

“Not he, girl; though they do say that he has a betrothed,
at home. The lady, it seems, is willing to wait, rather than
suffer the hardships of service, in this wild region, all of
which, brother Cap, is not according to my notions of a woman's
duties. Your sister thought differently, and had it
pleased God to spare her, would have been sitting, at this
moment, on the very camp-stool that her daughter so well
becomes.”

“I hope, serjeant, you do not think of Mabel, for a soldier's
wife,” returned Cap, gravely. “Our family has done
its share, in that way, already, and it 's high time that the
sea was again remembered.”

“I do not think of finding a husband for the girl in the
55th, or any other regiment, I can promise you, brother;
though I do think it getting to be time that the child were
respectably married.”

“Father!”

“'T is not their gifts, serjeant, to talk of these matters in
so open a manner,” said the guide; “for I 've seen it verified
by experience, that he who would follow the trail of a virgin's
good-will, must not go shouting out his thoughts behind
her. So, if you please, we will talk of something else.”

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“Well, then, brother Cap, I hope that bit of a cold roasted
pig is to your mind; you seem to fancy the food.”

“Ay, ay, give me civilized grub, if I must eat,” returned
the pertinacious seaman. “Venison is well enough for your
inland sailors, but we of the ocean like a little of that which
we understand.”

Here Pathfinder laid down his knife and fork, and indulged
in a hearty laugh, though always in his silent manner: then
he asked, with a little curiosity in his manner—

“Don't you miss the skin, Master Cap; don't you miss
the skin?”

“It would have been better for its jacket, I think myself,
Pathfinder; but I suppose it is a fashion of the woods to
serve up shoats in this style.”

“Well, well, a man may go round the 'arth and not know
every thing! If you had had the skinning of that pig, Master
Cap, it would have left you sore hands. The creatur' is
a hedge-hog!”

“Blast me, if I thought it wholesome natural pork, either;”
returned Cap. “But then I believed even a pig might lose
some of its good qualities, up hereaway, in the woods. It
seemed no more than reason that a fresh-water hog should
not be altogether so good as a salt-water hog. I suppose,
serjeant, by this time, it is all the same to you?”

“If the skinning of it, brother, does not fall to my duty.
Pathfinder, I hope you didn't find Mabel disobedient on the
march?”

“Not she—not she. If Mabel is only half as well satisfied
with Jasper and the Pathfinder, as the Pathfinder and
Jasper are satisfied with her, serjeant, we shall be friends for
the remainder of our days.”

As the guide spoke, he turned his eyes towards the blushing
girl, with a sort of innocent desire to know her opinion;
and then, with an inborn delicacy that proved he was far superior
to the vulgar desire to invade the sanctity of feminine
feeling, he looked at his plate, and seemed to regret his own
boldness.

“Well, well, we must remember that women are not men,
my friend,” resumed the serjeant, “and make proper allowances
for nature and education. A recruit is not a veteran.
Any man knows that it takes longer to make a good soldier,

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than it takes to make any thing else; and it ought to require
unusual time to make a good soldier's daughter.”

“This is new doctrine, serjeant,” said Cap, with some
spirit. “We old seamen are apt to think that six soldiers,
ay, and capital soldiers too, might be made, while one sailor
is getting his education.”

“Ay, brother Cap, I 've seen something of the opinions
which sea-faring men have of themselves,” returned the brother-in-law,
with a smile as bland as comported with his
saturnine features; “for I was many years one of the garrison
in a sea-port. You and I have conversed on the subject
before, and I 'm afraid we shall never agree. But if
you wish to know what the difference is, between a real soldier,
and man in what I should call a state of nature, you
have only to look at a battalion of the 55th, on parade this
afternoon, and then, when you get back to York, examine
one of the militia regiments making its greatest efforts.”

“Well, to my eye, serjeant, there is very little difference—
not more than you 'll find between a brig and a snow. To
me they seem alike; all scarlet, and feathers, and powder,
and pipe-clay.”

“So much, sir, for the judgment of a sailor,” returned the
serjeant with dignity; “but perhaps you are not aware that
it requires a year to teach a true soldier how to eat.”

“So much the worse for him! The militia know how to
eat at starting; for I have often heard that, on their marches,
they commonly eat all before them, even if they do nothing
else.”

“They have their gifts, I suppose, like other men,” observed
Pathfinder, with a view to preserve the peace, which
was evidently in some danger of being broken, by the obstinate
predilection of each of the disputants in favour of his
own calling; “and when a man has his gift from Providence,
it is commonly idle to endeavour to bear up against it. The
55th, serjeant, is a judicious regiment, in the way of eating,
as I know from having been so long in its company, though
I dare say militia corps could be found that would outdo
them in feats of that natur', too.”

“Uncle,” said Mabel, “if you have breakfasted, I will
thank you to go out upon the bastion with me, again. We
have neither of us half seen the lake, and it would be

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hardly seemly for a young woman to be walking about the fort,
the first day of her arrival, quite alone.”

Cap understood the motive of Mabel, and having, at the
bottom, a hearty friendship for his brother-in-law, he was
willing enough to defer the argument until they had been
longer together, for the idea of abandoning it altogether,
never crossed the mind of one so dogmatical and obstinate.
He accordingly accompanied his niece, leaving Serjeant
Dunham and his friend, the Pathfinder, alone, together. As
soon as his adversary had beat a retreat, the serjeant, who
did not quite so well understand the manœuvre of his
daughter, turned to his companion, and with a smile that was
not without triumph, he remarked—

“The army, Pathfinder, has never yet done itself justice,
in the way of asserting its rights; and, though modesty becomes
a man, whether he is in a red coat or a black one, or,
for that matter, in his shirt-sleeves, I don't like to let a good
opportunity slip of saying a word in its behalf. Well, my
friend,” laying his own hand on one of the Pathfinder's, and
giving it a hearly squeeze—“how do you like the girl?”

“You have reason to be proud of her, serjeant; you have
reason to be proud at finding yourself the father of so handsome
and well-mannered a young woman. I have seen many
of her sex, and some that were great and beautiful, but never
before did I meet with one, in whom I thought Providence
had so well balanced the different gifts.”

“And the good opinion, I can tell you, Pathfinder, is
mutual. She told me last night all about your coolness, and
spirit, and kindness, — particularly the last; for kindness
counts for more than half with females, my friend,—and the
first inspection seems to give satisfaction on both sides.
Brush up the uniform, and pay a little more attention to the
outside, Pathfinder, and you will have the girl, heart and
hand.”

“Nay, nay, serjeant, I 've forgotten nothing that you have
told me, and grudge no reasonable pains to make myself as
pleasant in the eyes of Mabel, as she is getting to be in mine.
I cleaned and brightened up Killdeer, this morning, as soon
as the sun rose; and, in my judgment, the piece never looked
better than it does at this very moment!”

“That is according to your hunting notions, Pathfinder;

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but fire-arms should sparkle and glitter in the sun, and I never
yet could see any beauty in a clouded barrel.”

“Lord Howe thought otherwise, serjeant; and he was accounted
a good soldier!”

“Very true—his lordship had all the barrels of his regiment
darkened, and what good came of it? You can see his
'scutcheon hanging in the English church at Albany! No,
no, my worthy friend, a soldier should be a soldier, and at
no time ought he to be ashamed, or afraid, to carry about
him the signs and symbols of his honourable trade. Had you
much discourse with Mabel, Pathfinder, as you came along
in the canoe?”

“There was not much opportunity, serjeant, and then I
found myself so much beneath her in ideas, that I was afraid
to speak of much beyond what belonged to my own gifts.”

“Therein, you are partly right, and partly wrong, my
friend. Women love trifling discourse, though they like to
have most of it to themselves. Now, you know, I 'm a man
that do not loosen my tongue at every giddy thought, and
yet there were days when I could see that Mabel's mother
thought none the worse of me, because I descended a little
from my manhood. It is true, I was twenty-two years
younger then, than I am to-day; and, moreover, instead of
being the oldest serjeant in the regiment, I was the youngest.
Dignity is commanding and useful, and there is no getting
on without it, as respects the men; but if you would be
thoroughly esteemed by a woman, it is necessary to condescend
a little, on occasions.”

“Ahs me! serjeant; I sometimes fear it will never do!”

“Why do you think so discouragingly of a matter on which
I thought both our minds were made up?”

“We did agree that if Mabel should prove what you told
me she was, and if the girl could fancy a rude hunter and
guide, that I would quit some of my wandering ways, and
try to humanize my mind down to a wife and children. But
since I have seen the girl, I will own that many misgivings
have come over me!”

“How 's this!” interrupted the serjeant, sternly—“Did I
not understand you to say that you were pleased?—And is
Mabel a young woman to disappoint expectation?”

“Ah! serjeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust; but myself.

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I am but a poor ignorant woodsman, after all, and perhaps
I'm not, in truth, as good as even you and I may think me!”

“If you doubt your own judgment of yourself, Pathfinder,
I beg you will not doubt mine. Am I not accustomed to
judge men's character?—Is it not my especial duty, and am
I often deceived? Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any
assurances in this particular.”

“But, serjeant, we have long been friends; have fou't side
by side, a dozen times, and have done each other many services.
When this is the case, men are apt to think over-kindly
of each other, and I fear me that the daughter may
not be so likely to view a plain, ignorant hunter as favourably
as the father does.”

“Tut—tut—Pathfinder—you don't know yourself, man,
and may put all faith in my judgment. In the first place,
you have experience, and as all girls must want that, no
prudent young woman would overlook such a qualification.
Then you are not one of the coxcombs that strut about when
they first join a regiment, but a man who has seen service,
and who carries the marks of it on his person and countenance.
I dare say you have been under fire, some thirty
or forty times, counting all the skirmishes and ambushes that
you've seen.”

“All of that, serjeant, all of that; but what will it avail,
in gaining the good-will of a tender-hearted young female?”

“It will gain the day. Experience in the field is as good
in love, as in war. But you are as honest-hearted, and as
loyal a subject, as the king can boast of—God bless him!”

“That may be too—that may be too; but I'm afeard I'm
too rude, and too old, and too wild like, to suit the fancy of
such a young and delicate girl, as Mabel, who has been unused
to our wilderness ways, and may think the settlements
better suited to her gifts and inclinations.”

“These are new misgivings for you, my friend, and I wonder
they were never paraded before.”

“Because I never knew my own worthlessness, perhaps, until
I saw Mabel. I have travelled with some as fair, and have
guided them through the forest, and seen them in their perils
and in their gladness; but they were always too much above
me, to make me think of them, as more than so many feeble
ones I was bound to protect and defend. The case is now

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different. Mabel and I are so nearly alike, that I feel weighed
down with a load that is hard to bear, at finding us so unlike.
I do wish, serjeant, that I was ten years younger, more comely
to look at, and better suited to please a handsome young woman's
fancy!”

“Cheer up, my brave friend, and trust to a father's knowledge
of womankind. Mabel half loves you, already, and a
fortnight's intercourse and kindness, down among the islands
yonder, will close ranks with the other half. The girl as
much as told me this herself, last night.”

“Can this be so, serjeant?” said the guide, whose meek
and modest nature shrunk from viewing himself in colours so
favourable. “Can this be truly so! I am but a poor hunter,
and Mabel, I see, is fit to be an officer's lady. Do you think
the girl will consent to quit all her beloved settlement usages,
and her visitings, and church-goings, to dwell with a plain
guide and hunter, up hereaway, in the woods? Will she
not, in the end, crave her old ways, and a better man?”

“A better man, Pathfinder, would be hard to find,” returned
the father. “As for town usages, they are soon forgotten in
the freedom of the forest, and Mabel has just spirit enough
to dwell on a frontier. I 've not planned this marriage, my
friend, without thinking it over, as a general does his campaign.
At first, I thought of bringing you into the regiment,
that you might succeed me when I retire, which must be
sooner or later; but on reflection, Pathfinder, I think you are
scarcely fitted for the office. Still, if not a soldier, in all the
meanings of the word, you are a soldier in its best meaning,
and I know that you have the good will of every officer in
the corps. As long as I live, Mabel can dwell with me, and
you will always have a home, when you return from your
scoutings and marches.”

“This is very pleasant to think of, serjeant, if the girl can
only come into our wishes with good will. But, ahs me!
it does not seem that one like myself, can ever be agreeable
in her handsome eyes! If I were younger, and more comely,
now, as Jasper Western is, for instance; there might be a
chance—yes, then, indeed, there might be some chance.”

“That, for Jasper Eau-douce, and every younker of them
in, or about the fort!” returned the serjeant, snapping his
fingers. “If not actually a younger, you are a younger

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looking, ay, and a better looking man than the Scud's
master—”

“Anan!” said Pathfinder, looking up at his companion
with an expression of doubt, as if he did not understand his
meaning.

“I say, if not actually younger in days and years, you
look more hardy and like whip-cord, than Jasper, or any of
them; and there will be more of you, thirty years hence,
than of all of them put together. A good conscience will
keep one like you a mere boy, all his life.”

“Jasper has as clear a conscience as any youth, I know,
serjeant!—and is as likely to wear, on that account, as any
young man in the colony.”

“Then you are my friend,” squeezing the other's hand—
“my tried, sworn and constant friend.”

“Yes, we have been friends, serjeant, near twenty years—
before Mabel was born.”

“True enough—before Mabel was born, we were well-tried
friends, and the hussy would never dream of refusing to
marry a man who was her father's friend before she was
born!”

“We don't know, serjeant, we don't know. Like loves
like. The young prefer the young for companions, and the
old the old.”

“Not for wives, Pathfinder; I never knew an old man,
now, who had an objection to a young wife. Then you are
respected and esteemed by every officer in the fort, as I have
said already, and it will please her fancy to like a man that
every one else likes.”

“I hope I have no enemies but the Mingos,” returned the
guide, stroking down his hair meekly, and speaking thoughtfully.
“I 've tried to do right, and that ought to make
friends, though it sometimes fails.”

“And you may be said to keep the best company, for
even old Duncan of Lundie is glad to see you, and you pass
hours in his society. Of all the guides, he confides most
in you.”

“Ay, even greater than he is, have marched by my side
for days, and have conversed with me as if I were their
brother; but, serjeant, I have never been puffed up by their

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company, for I know that the woods often bring men to a
level, who would not be so in the settlements.”

“And you are known to be the greatest rifle-shot that ever
pulled trigger in all this region.”

“If Mabel could fancy a man for that, I might have no
great reason to despair; and yet, serjeant, I sometimes think
that it is all as much owing to Killdeer, as to any skill of my
own. It is sartainly a wonderful piece, and might do as
much in the hands of another!”

“That is your own humble opinion of yourself, Pathfinder,
but we have seen too many fail with the same weapon,
and you succeed too often with the rifles of other men, to allow
me to agree with you. We will get up a shooting match, in
a day or two, when you can show your skill, and then Mabel
will form some judgment concerning your true character.”

“Will that be fair, serjeant? Everybody knows that
Killdeer seldom misses, and ought we to make a trial of
this sort, when we all know what must be the result?”

“Tut—tut, man; I forsee I must do half this courting
for you. For one who is always inside of the smoke, in
a skirmish, you are the faintest-hearted suitor I ever met
with. Remember Mabel comes of a bold stock; and the girl
will be as likely to admire a man, as her mother was before
her.”

Here the serjeant arose, and proceeded to attend to his
never-ceasing duties, without apology; the terms on which
the guide stood with all in the garrison, rendering this freedom
quite a matter of course.

The reader will have gathered from the conversation just
related, one of the plans that Serjeant Dunham had in view,
in causing his daughter to be brought to the frontier. Although,
necessarily, much weaned from the caresses and
blandishments that had rendered his child so dear to him,
during the first year or two of his widowerhood, he had
still a strong, but somewhat latent, love for her. Accustomed
to command and to obey, without being questioned
himself, or questioning others, concerning the reasonableness
of the mandates, he was, perhaps, too much disposed to believe
that his daughter would marry the man he might select,
while he was far from being disposed to do violence to her
wishes. The fact was, few knew the Pathfinder, intimately,

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without secretly coming to believe him to be one of extraordinary
qualities. Ever the same, simple-minded, faithful,
utterly without fear, and yet prudent, foremost in all warrantable
enterprises, or what the opinion of the day considered
as such, and never engaged in anything to call a blush
to his cheek, or censure on his acts; it was not possible to
live much with this being, who, in his peculiar way, was a
sort of type of what Adam might have been supposed to be
before the fall, though certainly not without sin, and not feel
a respect and admiration for him, that had no reference to
his position in life. It was remarked, that no officer passed
him, without saluting him as if he had been his equal; no
common man, without addressing him with the confidence
and freedom of a comrade. The most surprising peculiarity
about the man himself, was the entire indifference with which
he regarded all distinctions that did not depend on personal
merit. He was respectful to his superiors from habit, but
had often been known to correct their mistakes, and to reprove
their vices, with a fearlessness that proved how essentially
he regarded the more material points, and with a
natural discrimination, that appeared to set education at defiance.
In short, a disbeliever in the ability of man to distinguish
between good and evil, without the aid of instruction,
would have been staggered by the character of this extraordinary
inhabitant of the frontier. His feelings appeared to
possess the freshness and nature of the forest in which he
passed so much of his time; and no casuist could have made
clearer decisions in matters relating to right and wrong; and,
yet, he was not without his prejudices, which, though few,
and coloured by the character and usages of the individual,
were deep-rooted, and had almost got to form a part of his
nature. But the most striking feature about the moral organization
of Pathfinder, was his beautiful and unerring
sense of justice. This noble trait, and without it no man
can be truly great, with it, no man other than respectable,
probably had its unseen influence on all who associated with
him; for the common and unprincipled brawler of the camp
had been known to return from an expedition made in his
company, rebuked by his sentiments, softened by his language,
and improved by his example. As might have been expected,
with so elevated a quality, his fidelity was like the

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immoveable rock. Treachery in him was classed among the things
that are impossible, and as he seldom retired before his enemies,
so was he never known, under any circumstances that
admitted of an alternative, to abandon a friend. The affinities
of such a character were, as a matter of course, those
of like for like. His associates and intimates, though more
or less determined by chance, were generally of the highest
order, as to moral propensities, for he appeared to possess a
species of instinctive discrimination, that led him, insensibly
to himself, most probably, to cling closest to those whose
characters would best reward his friendship. In short, it was
said of the Pathfinder, by one accustomed to study his fellows,
that he was a fair example of what a just-minded and
pure man might be, while untempted by unruly or ambitious
desires, and left to follow the bias of his feelings, amid the
solitary grandeur and ennobling influences of a sublime
nature; neither led aside by the inducements which influence
all to do evil amid the incentives of civilization; nor forgetful
of the Almighty Being, whose spirit pervades the wilderness
as well as the towns.

Such was the man whom Serjeant Dunham had selected
as the husband of Mabel. In making this choice, he had not
been as much governed by a clear and judicious view of the
merits of the individual, perhaps, as by his own likings; still,
no one knew the Pathfinder as intimately as himself, without
always conceding to the honest guide a high place in his esteem,
on account of these very virtues. That his daughter
could find any serious objections to the match, the old soldier
did not apprehend; while, on the other hand, he saw many
advantages to himself, in dim perspective, that were connected
with the decline of his days, and an evening of life passed
among descendants who were equally dear to him through
both parents. He had first made the proposition to his friend,
who had listened to it kindly, but who, the serjeant was now
pleased to find, already betrayed a willingness to come into
his own views, that was proportioned to the doubts and misgivings
proceeding from his humble distrust of himself.

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