“Bless your heart, no, child!  The ocean breathes like a living being, and its bosom is always heaving, as the poetizers call it, though there be no more air than is to be found in a siphon.  No man ever saw the ocean still like this lake; but it heaves and sets as if it had lungs.”

“And this lake is not absolutely still, for you perceive there is a little ripple on the shore, and you may even hear the surf plunging at moments against the rocks.”

“All d——­d poetry!  Lake Ontario is no more the Atlantic than a Powles Hook periagila is a first-rate.  That Jasper, notwithstanding, is a fine lad, and wants instruction only to make a man of him.”

“Do you think him ignorant, uncle?” answered Mabel, prettily adjusting her hair, in order to do which she was obliged, or fancied she was obliged, to turn away her face.  “To me Jasper Eau-douce appears to know more than most of the young men of his class.  He has read but little, for books are not plenty in this part of the world; but he has thought much, as least so it seems to me, for one so young.”

“He is ignorant, as all must be who navigate an inland water like this.  No, no, Mabel; we both owe something to Jasper and the Pathfinder, and I have been thinking how I can best serve them, for I hold ingratitude to be the vice of a hog; for treat the animal to your own dinner, and he would eat you for the dessert.”

“Very true, dear uncle; we ought indeed to do all we can to express our proper sense of the services of both these brave men.”

“Spoken like your mother’s daughter, girl, and in a way to do credit to the Cap family.  Now, I’ve hit upon a traverse that will just suit all parties; and, as soon as we get back from this little expedition down the lake among them there Thousand Islands, and I am ready to return, it is my intention to propose it.”

“Dearest uncle! this is so considerate in you, and will be so just!  May I ask what your intentions are?”

“I see no reason for keeping them a secret from you, Mabel, though nothing need be said to your father about them; for the Sergeant has his prejudices, and might throw difficulties in the way.  Neither Jasper nor his friend Pathfinder can ever make anything hereabouts, and I propose to take both with me down to the coast, and get them fairly afloat.  Jasper would find his sea-legs in a fortnight, and a twelvemonth’s v’y’ge would make him a man.  Although Pathfinder might take more time, or never get to be rated able, yet one could make something of him too, particularly as a look-out, for he has unusually good eyes.”

“Uncle, do you think either would consent to this?” said Mabel smiling.

“Do I suppose them simpletons?  What rational being would neglect his own advancement?  Let Jasper alone to push his way, and the lad may yet die the master of some square-rigged craft.”

“And would he be any the happier for it, dear uncle?  How much better is it to be the master of a square-rigged craft than to be master of a round-rigged craft?”