“I never heard of one, I will confess; but I am no judge of animals that live in the water, unless it be the fishes of the rivers and the brooks.”

“Nor a grampus, nor a porpoise even? not so much as a poor devil of a shark?”

“I will not take it on myself to say there is either.  My gifts are not in that way, I tell you, Master Cap.”

“Nor herring, nor albatross, nor flying-fish?” continued Cap, who kept his eye fastened on the guide, in order to see how far he might venture.  “No such thing as a fish that can fly, I daresay?”

“A fish that can fly!  Master Cap, Master Cap, do not think, because we are mere borderers, that we have no idees of natur’, and what she has been pleased to do.  I know there are squirrels that can fly —­ "

“A squirrel fly! —­ The devil, Master Pathfinder!  Do you suppose that you have got a boy on his first v’y’ge up here among you?”

“I know nothing of your v’y’ges, Master Cap, though I suppose them to have been many; for as for what belongs to natur’ in the woods, what I have seen I may tell, and not fear the face of man.”

“And do you wish me to understand that you have seen a squirrel fly?”

“If you wish to understand the power of God, Master Cap, you will do well to believe that, and many other things of a like natur’, for you may be quite sartain it is true.”

“And yet, Pathfinder,” said Mabel, looking so prettily and sweetly even while she played with the guide’s infirmity, that he forgave her in his heart, “you, who speak so reverently of the power of the Deity, appear to doubt that a fish can fly.”

“I have not said it, I have not said it; and if Master Cap is ready to testify to the fact, unlikely as it seems, I am willing to try to think it true.  I think it every man’s duty to believe in the power of God, however difficult it may be.”

“And why isn’t my fish as likely to have wings as your squirrel?” demanded Cap, with more logic than was his wont.  “That fishes do and can fly is as true as it is reasonable.”

“Nay, that is the only difficulty in believing the story,” rejoined the guide.  “It seems unreasonable to give an animal that lives in the water wings, which seemingly can be of no use to it.”

“And do you suppose that the fishes are such asses as to fly about under water, when they are once fairly fitted out with wings?”

“Nay, I know nothing of the matter; but that fish should fly in the air seems more contrary to natur’ still, than that they should fly in their own element —­ that in which they were born and brought up, as one might say.”

“So much for contracted ideas, Magnet.  The fish fly out of water to run away from their enemies in the water; and there you see not only the fact, but the reason for it.”

“Then I suppose it must be true,” said the guide quietly.  “How long are their flights?”

“Not quite as far as those of pigeons, perhaps; but far enough to make an offing.  As for those squirrels of yours, we’ll say no more about them, friend Pathfinder, as I suppose they were mentioned just as a make-weight to the fish, in favor of the woods.  But what is this thing anchored here under the hill?”