第103章

"We are very far here from human habitations!" ex-claimed Mabel, when, after a long survey of the scene, its principal peculiarities forced themselves on her active and ever brilliant imagination; "this is indeed being on a frontier.""Have they more sightly scenes than this nearer the sea and around their large towns?" demanded Pathfinder, with an interest he was apt to discover in such a subject.

"I will not say that: there is more to remind one of his fellow-beings there than here; less, perhaps, to remind one of God.""Ay, Mabel, that is what my own feelings say.I am but a poor hunter, I know, untaught and unlarned; but God is as near me, in this my home, as he is near the king in his royal palace.""Who can doubt it?" returned Mabel, looking from the view up into the hard-featured but honest face of her com-panion, though not without surprise at the energy of his manner."One feels nearer to God in such a spot, I think, than when the mind is distracted by the objects of the towns.""You say all I wish to say myself, Mabel, but in so much plainer speech, that you make me ashamed of wishing to let others know what I feel on such matters.I have coasted this lake in search of skins afore the war, and have been here already; not at this very spot, for we landed yonder, where you may see the blasted oak that stands above the cluster of hemlocks -- ""How, Pathfinder, can you remember all these trifles so accurately?""These are our streets and houses, our churches and palaces.Remember them, indeed! I once made an ap-pointment with the Big Sarpent, to meet at twelve o'clock at noon, near the foot of a certain pine, at the end of six months, when neither of us was within three hundred miles of the spot.The tree stood, and stands still, unless the judgment of Providence has lighted on that too, in the midst of the forest, fifty miles from any settlement, but in a most extraordinary neighborhood for beaver.""And did you meet at that very spot and hour?""Does the sun rise and set? When I reached the tree, I found the Sarpent leaning against its trunk with torn leggings and muddied moecassins.The Delaware had got into a swamp, and it worried him not a little to find his way out of it; but as the sun which comes over the eastern hills in the morning goes down behind the western at night, so was he true to time and place.No fear of Chin-gachgook when there is either a friend or an enemy in the case.He is equally sartain with each.""And where is the Delaware now? why is he not with us to-day?""He is scouting on the Mingo trail, where I ought to have been too, but for a great human infirmity.""You seem above, beyond, superior to all infirmity, Path-finder; I never yet met with a man who appeared to be so little liable to the weaknesses of nature.""If you mean in the way of health and strength, Mabel, Providence has been kind to me; though I fancy the open air, long hunts, active scoutings, forest fare, and the sleep of a good conscience, may always keep the doctors at a dis-tance.But I am human after all; yes, I find I'm very human in some of my feelings."Mabel looked surprised, and it would be no more than delineating the character of her sex, if we added that her sweet countenance expressed a good deal of curiosity, too, though her tongue was more discreet.

"There is something bewitching in this wild life of yours, Pathfinder," she exclaimed, a tinge of enthusiasm mantling her cheeks."I find I'm fast getting to be a frontier girl, and am coming to love all this grand silence of the woods.The towns seem tame to me; and, as my father will probably pass the remainder of his days here, where he has already lived so long, I begin to feel that Ishould be happy to continue with him, and not to return to the sea-shore.""The woods are never silent, Mabel, to such as under-stand their meaning.Days at a time have I travelled them alone, without feeling the want of company; and, as for conversation, for such as can comprehend their lan-guage, there is no want of rational and instructive dis-course."