“You have your leads,” interrupted Cap.

“They are of little use, and are seldom cast.”

“The deep-seas.”

“I have heard of such things, but confess I never saw one.”

“Oh! deuce, with a vengeance.  A trader, and no deep-sea!  Why, boy, you cannot pretend to be anything of a mariner.  Who the devil ever heard of a seaman without his deep-sea?”

“I do not pretend to any particular skill, Master Cap.”

“Except in shooting falls, Jasper, except in shooting falls and rifts,” said Pathfinder, coming to the rescue; “in which business even you, Master Cap, must allow he has some handiness.  In my judgment, every man is to be esteemed or condemned according to his gifts; and if Master Cap is useless in running the Oswego Falls, I try to remember that he is useful when out of sight of land; and if Jasper be useless when out of sight of land, I do not forget that he has a true eye and steady hand when running the falls.”

“But Jasper is not useless —­ would not be useless when out of sight of land,” said Mabel, with a spirit and energy that caused her clear sweet voice to be startling amid the solemn stillness of that extraordinary scene.  “No one can be useless there who can do so much here, is what I mean; though, I daresay, he is not as well acquainted with ships as my uncle.”

“Ay, bolster each other up in your ignorance,” returned Cap with a sneer.  “We seamen are so much out-numbered when ashore that it is seldom we get our dues; but when you want to be defended, or trade is to be carried on, there is outcry enough for us.”

“But, uncle, landsmen do not come to attack our coasts; so that seamen only meet seamen.”

“So much for ignorance!  Where are all the enemies that have landed in this country, French and English, let me inquire, niece?”

“Sure enough, where are they?” ejaculated Pathfinder.  “None can tell better than we who dwell in the woods, Master Cap.  I have often followed their line of march by bones bleaching in the rain, and have found their trail by graves, years after they and their pride had vanished together.  Generals and privates, they lay scattered throughout the land, so many proofs of what men are when led on by their love of great names and the wish to be more than their fellows.”

“I must say, Master Pathfinder, that you sometimes utter opinions that are a little remarkable for a man who lives by the rifle; seldom snuffing the air but he smells gunpowder, or turning out of his berth but to bear down on an enemy.”

“If you think I pass my days in warfare against my kind, you know neither me nor my history.  The man that lives in the woods and on the frontiers must take the chances of the things among which he dwells.  For this I am not accountable, being but an humble and powerless hunter and scout and guide.  My real calling is to hunt for the army, on its marches and in times of peace; although I am more especially engaged in the service of one officer, who is now absent in the settlements, where I never follow him.  No, no; bloodshed and warfare are not my real gifts, but peace and mercy.  Still, I must face the enemy as well as another; and as for a Mingo, I look upon him as man looks on a snake, a creatur’ to be put beneath the heel whenever a fitting occasion offers.”