第7章

Yea! long as Nature's humblest child Hath kept her temple undefiled By simple sacrifice, Earth's fairest scenes are all his own, He is a monarch and his throne Is built amid the skies!

WILSON.

The Mohican continued to eat, though the second white man rose, and courteously took off his cap to Mabel Dun-ham.He was young, healthful, and manly in appearance;and he wore a dress which, while it was less rigidly pro-fessional than that of the uncle, also denoted one accus-tomed to the water.In that age, real seamen were a class entirely apart from the rest of mankind, their ideas, or-dinary language, and attire being as strongly indicative of their calling as the opinions, speech, and dress of a Turk denote a Mussulman.Although the Pathfinder was scarcely in the prime of life, Mabel had met him with a steadiness that may have been the consequence of having braced her nerves for the interview; but when her eyes encountered those of the young man at the fire, they fell before the gaze of admiration with which she saw, or fancied she saw, he greeted her.Each, in truth, felt that interest in the other which similarity of age, condition, mutual comeliness, and their novel situation would be likely to inspire in the young and ingenuous.

"Here," said Pathfinder, with an honest smile bestowed on Mabel, "are the friends your worthy father has sent to meet you.This is a great Delaware; and one who has had honors as well as troubles in his day.He has an Indian name fit for a chief, but, as the language is not always easy for the inexperienced to pronounce we naturally turn it into English, and call him the Big Sarpent.You are not to suppose, however, that by this name we wish to say that he is treacherous, beyond what is lawful in a red-skin; but that he is wise, and has the cunning which becomes a war-nor.Arrowhead, there, knows what I mean."While the Pathfinder was delivering this address, the two Indians gazed on each other steadily, and the Tus-carora advanced and spoke to the other in an apparently friendly manner.

"I like to see this," continued Pathfinder; "the salutes of two red-skins in the woods, Master Cap, are like the hailing of friendly vessels on the ocean.But speaking of water, it reminds me of my young friend, Jasper Western here, who can claim to know something of these matters, seeing that he has passed his days on Ontario.""I am glad to see you, friend," said Cap, giving the young fresh-water sailor a cordial grip; "though you must have something still to learn, considering the school to which you have been sent.This is my niece Mabel; I call her Magnet, for a reason she never dreams of, though you may possibly have education enough to guess at it, having some pretentions to understand the compass, I suppose.""The reason is easily comprehended," said the young man, involuntarily fastening his keen dark eye, at the same time, on the suffused face of the girl; "and I feel sure that the sailor who steers by your Magnet will never make a bad land-fall.""Ha! you do make use of some of the terms, I find, and that with propriety; though, on the whole, I fear you have seen more green than blue water.""It is not surprising that we should get some of the phrases which belong to the land; for we are seldom out of sight of it twenty-four hours at a time.""More's the pity, boy, more's the pity! A very little land ought to go a great way with a seafaring man.Now, if the truth were known, Master Western, I suppose there is more or less land all round your lake.""And, uncle, is there not more or less land around the ocean?" said Magnet quickly; for she dreaded a prema-ture display of the old seaman's peculiar dogmatism, not to say pedantry.

"No, child, there is more or less ocean all round the land; that's what I tell the people ashore, youngster.

They are living, as it might be, in the midst of the sea, without knowihg it; by sufferance, as it were, the water being so much the more powerful and the largest.But there is no end to conceit in this world: for a fellow who never saw salt water often fancies he knows more than one who has gone round the Horn.No, no, this earth is pretty much an island; and all that can be truly said not to be so is water."Young Western had a profound deference for a mariner of the ocean, oh which he had often pined to sail; but he had also a natural regard for the broad sheet on which he had passed his life, and which was not without its beauties in his eyes.