dwell always in the presence of God and not feel the power of His goodness.  I have attended church-sarvice in the garrisons, and tried hard, as becomes a true soldier, to join in the prayers; for, though no enlisted sarvant of the king, I fight his battles and sarve his cause, and so I have endeavored to worship garrison-fashion, but never could raise within me the solemn feelings and true affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest.  There I seem to stand face to face with my Master; all around me is fresh and beautiful, as it came from His hand; and there is no nicety or doctrine to chill the feelings.  No no; the woods are the true temple after all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher even than the clouds.”

“You speak the truth, Master Pathfinder,” said Cap, “and a truth that all who live much in solitude know.  What, for instance, is the reason that seafaring men in general are so religious and conscientious in all they do, but the fact that they are so often alone with Providence, and have so little to do with the wickedness of the land.  Many and many is the time that I have stood my watch, under the equator perhaps, or in the Southern Ocean, when the nights are lighted up with the fires of heaven; and that is the time, I can tell you, my hearties, to bring a man to his bearings in the way of his sins.  I have rattled down mine again and again under such circumstances, until the shrouds and lanyards of conscience have fairly creaked with the strain.  I agree with you, Master Pathfinder, therefore, in saying, if you want a truly religious man, go to sea, or go into the woods.”

“Uncle, I thought seamen had little credit generally for their respect for religion?”

“All d——­d slander, girl; for all the essentials of Christianity the seaman beats the landsman hand-over-hand.”

“I will not answer for all this, Master Cap,” returned Pathfinder; “but I daresay some of it may be true.  I want no thunder and lightning to remind me of my God, nor am I as apt to bethink on most of all His goodness in trouble and tribulations as on a calm, solemn, quiet day in a forest, when His voice is heard in the creaking of a dead branch or in the song of a bird, as much in my ears at least as it is ever heard in uproar and gales.  How is it with you, Eau-douce? you face the tempests as well as Master Cap, and ought to know something of the feelings of storms.”

“I fear that I am too young and too inexperienced to be able to say much on such a subject,” modestly answered Jasper.

“But you have your feelings!” said Mabel quickly.  “You cannot —­ no one can live among such scenes without feeling how much they ought to trust in God!”

“I shall not belie my training so much as to say I do not sometimes think of these things, but I fear it is not so often or so much as I ought.”

“Fresh water,” resumed Cap pithily; “you are not to expect too much of the young man, Mabel.  I think they call you sometimes by a name which would insinuate all this:  Eau-de-vie, is it not?”