“That is according to your hunting notions, Pathfinder; but firearms should sparkle and glitter in the sun, and I never yet could see any beauty in a clouded barrel.”

“Lord Howe thought otherwise, Sergeant; 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 honorable trade.  Had you much discourse with Mabel, Pathfinder, as you came along in the canoe?”

“There was not much opportunity, Sergeant, and then I found myself so much beneath her in idees, 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 sergeant 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.”

“Ah’s me, Sergeant, 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, if Mabel should prove what you told me she was, and if the girl could fancy a rude hunter and guide, that I should 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 Sergeant sternly; “did I not understand you to say that you were pleased? —­ and is Mabel a young woman to disappoint expectation?”

“Ah, Sergeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust, but myself.  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? and am I often deceived?  Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any assurances in this particular.”

“But, Sergeant, we have long been friends; have fi’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 favorably as the father does.”