“I would wish to see no change in you, Pathfinder,” Mabel answered, with a cordial sincerity and frankness that went directly to the hunter’s heart; “and much as my uncle admires the sea, and great as is all the good that he thinks may come of it, I could not wish to see the best and noblest hunter of the woods transformed into an admiral.  Remain what you are, my brave friend, and you need fear nothing short of the anger of God.”

“Do you hear this, Saltwater? do you hear what the Sergeant’s daughter is saying, and she is much too upright, and fair-minded, and pretty, not to think what she says.  So long as she is satisfied with me as I am, I shall not fly in the face of the gifts of Providence, by striving to become anything else.  I may seem useless here in a garrison; but when we get down among the Thousand Islands, there may be an opportunity to prove that a sure rifle is sometimes a Godsend.”

“You are then to be of our party?” said Mabel, smiling so frankly and so sweetly on the guide that he would have followed her to the end of the earth.  “I shall be the only female, with the exception of one soldier’s wife, and shall feel none the less secure, Pathfinder, because you will be among our protectors.”

“The Sergeant would do that, Mabel, though you were not of his kin.  No one will overlook you.  I should think your uncle here would like an expedition of this sort, where we shall go with sails, and have a look at an inland sea?”

“Your inland sea is no great matter, Master Pathfinder, and I expect nothing from it.  I confess, however, I should like to know the object of the cruise; for one does not wish to be idle, and my brother-in-law, the Sergeant, is as close-mouthed as a freemason.  Do you know, Mabel, what all this means?”

“Not in the least, uncle.  I dare not ask my father any questions about his duty, for he thinks it is not a woman’s business; and all I can say is, that we are to sail as soon as the wind will permit, and that we are to be absent a month.”

“Perhaps Master Pathfinder can give me a useful hint; for a v’y’ge without an object is never pleasant to an old sailor.”

“There is no great secret, Saltwater, concerning our port and object, though it is forbidden to talk much about either in the garrison.  I am no soldier, however, and can use my tongue as I please, though as little given as another to idle conversation, I hope; still, as we sail so soon, and you are both to be of the party, you may as well be told where you are to be carried.  You know that there are such things as the Thousand Islands, I suppose, Master Cap?”

“Ay, what are so called hereaway, though I take it for granted that they are not real islands, such as we fall in with on the ocean; and that the thousand means some such matter as two or three.”

“My eyes are good, and yet have I often been foiled in trying to count them very islands.”