Now, my co-mates and partners in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam.
_As You Like It._
Sergeant Dunham made no empty vaunt when he gave the promise
conveyed in the closing words of the last chapter. Notwithstanding
the remote frontier position of the post they who lived at it
enjoyed a table that, in many respects, kings and princes might
have envied. At the Period of our tale, and, indeed, for half a
century later, the whole of that vast region which has been called
the West, or the new countries since the war of the revolution,
lay a comparatively unpeopled desert, teeming with all the living
productions of nature that properly belonged to the climate, man
and the domestic animals excepted. The few Indians that roamed
its forests then could produce no visible effects on the abundance
of the game; and the scattered garrisons, or occasional hunters,
that here and there were to be met with on that vast surface, had
no other influence than the bee on the buckwheat field, or the
humming-bird on the flower.
The marvels that have descended to our own times, in the way of
tradition, concerning the quantities of beasts, birds, and fishes
that were then to be met with, on the shores of the great lakes in
particular, are known to be sustained by the experience of living
men, else might we hesitate about relating them; but having been
eye-witnesses of some of these prodigies, our office shall be
discharged with the confidence that certainty can impart. Oswego
was particularly well placed to keep the larder of an epicure
amply supplied. Fish of various sorts abounded in its river, and
the sportsman had only to cast his line to haul in a bass or some
other member of the finny tribe, which then peopled the waters, as
the air above the swamps of this fruitful latitude are known to be
filled with insects. Among others was the salmon of the lakes, a
variety of that well-known species, that is scarcely inferior to
the delicious salmon of northern Europe. Of the different migratory
birds that frequent forests and waters, there was the same affluence,
hundreds of acres of geese and ducks being often seen at a time in
the great bays that indent the shores of the lake. Deer, bears,
rabbits, and squirrels, with divers other quadrupeds, among which
was sometimes included the elk, or moose, helped to complete the
sum of the natural supplies on which all the posts depended, more
or less, to relieve the unavoidable privations of their remote
frontier positions.
In a place where viands that would elsewhere be deemed great luxuries
were so abundant, no one was excluded from their enjoyment. The
meanest individual at Oswego habitually feasted on game that would
have formed the boast of a Parisian table; and it was no more
than a healthful commentary on the caprices of taste, and of the
waywardness of human desires, that the very diet which in other
scenes would have been deemed the subject of envy and repinings got
to pall on the appetite. The coarse and regular food of the army,
which it became necessary to husband on account of the difficulty
of transportation, rose in the estimation of the common soldier;
and at any time he would cheerfully desert his venison, and ducks,
and pigeons, and salmon, to banquet on the sweets of pickled pork,
stringy turnips, and half-cooked cabbage.
The table of Sergeant Dunham, as a matter of course, partook
of the abundance and luxuries of the frontier, as well as of its
privations. A delicious broiled salmon smoked on a homely platter,
hot venison steaks sent up their appetizing odors, and several
dishes of cold meats, all of which were composed of game, had been
set before the guests, in honor of the newly arrived visitors, and
in vindication of the old soldier's hospitality.
"You do not seem to be on short allowance in this quarter of the
world, Sergeant," said Cap, after he had got fairly initiated into
the mysteries of the different dishes; "your salmon might satisfy
a Scotsman."
"It fails to do it, notwithstanding, brother Cap; for among two or
three hundred of the fellows that we have in this garrison there
are not half a dozen who will not swear that the fish is unfit to
be eaten. Even some of the lads, who never tasted venison except
as poachers at home, turn up their noses at the fattest haunches
that we get here."
"Ay, that is Christian natur'," put in Pathfinder; "and I must say
it is none to its credit. Now, a red-skin never repines, but is
always thankful for the food he gets, whether it be fat or lean,
venison or bear, wild turkey's breast or wild goose's wing. To
the shame of us white men be it said, that we look upon blessings
without satisfaction, and consider trifling evils as matters of
great account."
"It is so with the 55th, as I can answer, though I cannot say as
much for their Christianity," returned the Sergeant. "Even the
major himself, old Duncan of Lundie, will sometimes swear that an
oatmeal cake is better fare than the Oswego bass, and sigh for a
swallow of Highland water, when, if so minded, he has the whole of
Ontario to quench his thirst in."
"Has Major Duncan a wife and children?" asked Mabel, whose thoughts
naturally turned towards her own sex in her new situation.
"Not he, girl; though they do say that he has a betrothed at home.
The lady, it seems, is willing to wait, rather than suffer the
hardships of service in this wild region; all of which, brother Cap,
is not according to my notions of a woman's duties. Your sister
thought differently."
"I hope, Sergeant, you do not think of Mabel for a soldier's wife,"
returned Cap gravely. "Our family has done its share in that way
already, and it's high time that the sea was again remembered."
"I do not think of finding a husband for the girl in the 55th, or
any other regiment, I can promise you, brother; though I do think
it getting to be time that the child were respectably married."
"Father!"
"'Tis not their gifts, Sergeant, to talk of these matters in so open
a manner," said the guide; "for I've seen it verified by experience,
that he who would follow the trail of a virgin's good-will must
not go shouting out his thoughts behind her. So, if you please,
we will talk of something else."
"Well, then, brother Cap, I hope that bit of a cold roasted pig is
to your mind; you seem to fancy the food."
"Ay, ay; give me civilized grub if I must eat," returned
the pertinacious seaman. "Venison is well enough for your inland
sailors, but we of the ocean like a little of that which we
understand."
Here Pathfinder laid down his knife and fork, and indulged in a
hearty laugh, though in his always silent manner; then he asked,
with a little curiosity in his manner, --
"Don't, you miss the skin, Master Cap? don't you miss the skin?"
"It would have been better for its jacket, I think myself, Pathfinder;
but I suppose it is a fashion of the woods to serve up shoats in
this style."
"Well, well, a man may go round the 'arth and not know everything.
If you had had the skinning of that pig, Master Cap, it would have
left you sore hands. The cratur' is a hedgehog!"
"Blast me, if I thought it wholesome natural pork either!" returned
Cap. "But then I believed even a pig might lose some of its good
qualities up hereaway in the woods."
"If the skinning of it, brother, does not fall to my duty. Pathfinder,
I hope you didn't find Mabel disobedient on the march?"
"Not she, not she. If Mabel is only half as well satisfied with
Jasper and Pathfinder as the Pathfinder and Jasper are satisfied
with her, Sergeant, we shall be friends for the remainder of our
days."
As the guide spoke, he turned his eyes towards the blushing girl,
with a sort of innocent desire to know her opinion; and then, with
an inborn delicacy, which proved he was far superior to the vulgar
desire to invade the sanctity of feminine feeling, he looked at
his plate, and seemed to regret his own boldness.
"Well, well, we must remember that women are not men, my friend,"
resumed the Sergeant, "and make proper allowances for nature and
education. A recruit is not a veteran. Any man knows that it takes
longer to make a good soldier than it takes to make anything else."
"This is new doctrine, Sergeant," said Cap with some spirit.
"We old seamen are apt to think that six soldiers, ay, and capital
soldiers too, might be made while one sailor is getting his
education."
"Ay, brother Cap, I've seen something of the opinions which seafaring
men have of themselves," returned the brother-in-law, with a smile
as bland as comported with his saturnine features; "for I was many
years one of the garrison in a seaport. You and I have conversed
on the subject before and I'm afraid we shall never agree. But
if you wish to know what the difference is between a real soldier
and man in what I should call a state of nature, you have only to
look at a battalion of the 55th on parade this afternoon, and then,
when you get back to York, examine one of the militia regiments
making its greatest efforts."
"Well, to my eye, Sergeant, there is very little difference, not
more than you'll find between a brig and a snow. To me they seem
alike: all scarlet, and feathers, and powder, and pipeclay."
"So much, sir, for the judgment of a sailor," returned the Sergeant
with dignity; "but perhaps you are not aware that it requires a
year to teach a true soldier how to eat?"
"So much the worse for him. The militia know how to eat at starting;
for I have often heard that, on their marches, they commonly eat
all before them, even if they do nothing else."
"They have their gifts, I suppose, like other men," observed
Pathfinder, with a view to preserve the peace, which was evidently
in some danger of being broken by the obstinate predilection of
each of the disputants in favor of his own calling; "and when a
man has his gift from Providence, it is commonly idle to endeavor
to bear up against it. The 55th, Sergeant, is a judicous regiment
in the way of eating, as I know from having been so long in its
company, though I daresay militia corps could be found that would
outdo them in feats of that natur' too."
"Uncle;" said Mabel, "if you have breakfasted, I will thank you to
go out upon the bastion with me again. We have neither of us half
seen the lake, and it would be hardly seemly for a young woman
to be walking about the fort, the first day of her arrival, quite
alone."
Cap understood the motive of Mabel; and having, at the bottom,
a hearty friendship for his brother-in-law, he was willing enough
to defer the argument until they had been longer together, for the
idea of abandoning it altogether never crossed the mind of one so
dogmatical and obstinate. He accordingly accompanied his niece,
leaving Sergeant Dunham and his friend, the Pathfinder, alone together.
As soon as his adversary had beat a retreat, the Sergeant, who did
not quite so well understand the manoeuvre of his daughter, turned
to his companion, and, with a smile which was not without triumph,
he remarked, --
"The army, Pathfinder, has never yet done itself justice in the way
of asserting its rights; and though modesty becomes a man, whether
he is in a red coat or a black one, or, for that matter, in his
shirt-sleeves, I don't like to let a good opportunity slip of saying
a word in its behalf. Well, my friend," laying his own hand on one
of the Pathfinder's, and giving it a hearty squeeze, "how do you
like the girl?"
"You have reason to be proud of her, Sergeant. I have seen many of
her sex, and some that were great and beautiful; but never before
did I meet with one in whom I thought Providence had so well
balanced the different gifts."
"And the good opinion, I can tell you, Pathfinder, is mutual. She
told me last night all about your coolness, and spirit, and kindness,
-- particularly the last, for kindness counts for more than half
with females, my friend, --and the first inspection seems to give
satisfaction on both sides. Brush up the uniform, and pay a little
more attention to the outside, Pathfinder, and you will have the
girl heart and hand."
"Nay, nay, Sergeant, I've forgotten nothing that you have told
me, and grudge no reasonable pains to make myself as pleasant in
the eyes of Mabel as she is getting to be in mine. I cleaned and
brightened up Killdeer this morning as soon as the sun rose; and,
in my judgment, the piece never looked better than it does at this
very moment."
"That is according to your hunting notions, Pathfinder; but firearms
should sparkle and glitter in the sun, and I never yet could see
any beauty in a clouded barrel."
"Lord Howe thought otherwise, Sergeant; and he was accounted a good
soldier."
"Very true; his lordship had all the barrels of his regiment darkened,
and what good came of it? You can see his 'scutcheon hanging in
the English church at Albany. No, no, my worthy friend, a soldier
should be a soldier, and at no time ought he to be ashamed or afraid
to carry about him the signs and symbols of his honorable trade.
Had you much discourse with Mabel, Pathfinder, as you came along
in the canoe?"
"There was not much opportunity, Sergeant, and then I found myself
so much beneath her in idees, that I was afraid to speak of much
beyond what belonged to my own gifts."
"Therein you are partly right and partly wrong, my friend. Women
love trifling discourse, though they like to have most of it to
themselves. Now you know I'm a man that do not loosen my tongue at
every giddy thought; and yet there were days when I could see that
Mabel's mother thought none the worse of me because I descended a
little from my manhood. It is true, I was twenty-two years younger
then than I am to-day; and, moreover, instead of being the oldest
sergeant in the regiment, I was the youngest. Dignity is commanding
and useful, and there is no getting on without it, as respects
the men; but if you would be thoroughly esteemed by a woman, it is
necessary to condescend a little on occasions."
"Ah's me, Sergeant, I sometimes fear it will never do."
"Why do you think so discouragingly of a matter on which I thought
both our minds were made up?"
"We did agree, if Mabel should prove what you told me she was, and
if the girl could fancy a rude hunter and guide, that I should quit
some of my wandering ways, and try to humanize my mind down to a
wife and children. But since I have seen the girl, I will own that
many misgivings have come over me."
"How's this?" interrupted the Sergeant sternly; "did I not understand
you to say that you were pleased? -- and is Mabel a young woman to
disappoint expectation?"
"Ah, Sergeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust, but myself. I am
but a poor ignorant woodsman, after all; and perhaps I'm not, in
truth, as good as even you and I may think me."
"If you doubt your own judgment of yourself, Pathfinder, I beg you
will not doubt mine. Am I not accustomed to judge men's character?
and am I often deceived? Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any
assurances in this particular."
"But, Sergeant, we have long been friends; have fi't side by side
a dozen times, and have done each other many services. When this
is the case, men are apt to think over kindly of each other; and
I fear me that the daughter may not be so likely to view a plain
ignorant hunter as favorably as the father does."
"Tut, tut, Pathfinder! You don't know yourself, man, and may put
all faith in my judgment. In the first place you have experience;
and, as all girls must want that, no prudent young woman would
overlook such a qualification. Then you are not one of the coxcombs
that strut about when they first join a regiment; but a man who
has seen service, and who carries the marks of it on his person
and countenance. I daresay you have been under fire some thirty or
forty times, counting all the skirmishes and ambushes that you've
seen."
"All of that, Sergeant, all of that; but what will it avail in
gaining the good-will of a tender-hearted young female?"
"It will gain the day. Experience in the field is as good in love
as in war. But you are as honest-hearted and as loyal a subject
as the king can boast of -- God bless him!"
"That may be too; but I'm afeared I'm too rude and too old and too
wild like to suit the fancy of such a young and delicate girl as
Mabel, who has been unused to our wilderness ways, and may think
the settlements better suited to her gifts and inclinations."
"These are new misgivings for you, my friend; and I wonder they
were never paraded before."
"Because I never knew my own worthlessness, perhaps, until I saw
Mabel. I have travelled with some as fair, and have guided them
through the forest, and seen them in their perils and in their
gladness; but they were always too much above me to make me think
of them as more than so many feeble ones I was bound to protect
and defend. The case is now different. Mabel and I are so nearly
alike, that I feel weighed down with a load that is hard to bear,
at finding us so unlike. I do wish, Sergeant, that I was ten
years younger, more comely to look at, and better suited to please
a handsome young woman's fancy."
"Cheer up, my brave friend, and trust to a father's knowledge
of womankind. Mabel half loves you already, and a fortnight's
intercourse and kindness, down among the islands yonder will close
ranks with the other half. The girl as much as told me this herself
last night."
"Can this be so, Sergeant?" said the guide, whose meek and modest
nature shrank from viewing himself in colors so favorable. "Can
this be truly so? I am but a poor hunter and Mabel, I see, is
fit to be an officer's lady. Do you think the girl will consent
to quit all her beloved settlement usages, and her visitings and
church-goings, to dwell with a plain guide and hunter up hereaway
in the woods? Will she not in the end, crave her old ways, and a
better man?"
"A better man, Pathfinder, would be hard to find," returned
the father. "As for town usages, they are soon forgotten in the
freedom of the forest, and Mabel has just spirit enough to dwell
on a frontier. I've not planned this marriage, my friend, without
thinking it over, as a general does his campaign. At first, I
thought of bringing you into the regiment, that you might succeed
me when I retire, which must be sooner or later; but on reflection,
Pathfinder, I think you are scarcely fitted for the office. Still,
if not a soldier in all the meanings of the word, you are a soldier
in its best meaning, and I know that you have the good-will of every
officer in the corps. As long as I live, Mabel can dwell with me,
and you will always have a home when you return from your scoutings
and marches."
"This is very pleasant to think of, Sergeant, if the girl can only
come into our wishes with good-will. But, ah's me! It does not
seem that one like myself can ever be agreeable in her handsome
eyes. If I were younger, and more comely, now, as Jasper Western
is, for instance, there might be a chance -- yes, then, indeed,
there might be some chance."
"That for Jasper Eau-douce, and every younker of them in or
about the fort!" returned the Sergeant, snapping his fingers. "If
not actually a younger, you are a younger-looking, ay, and
a better-looking man than the _Scud's_ master - "
"Anan?" said Pathfinder, looking up at his companion with an
expression of doubt, as if he did not understand his meaning.
"I say if not actually younger in days and years, you look more
hardy and like whipcord than Jasper, or any of them; and there
will be more of you, thirty years hence, than of all of them put
together. A good conscience will keep one like you a mere boy all
his life."
"Jasper has as clear a conscience as any youth I know, Sergeant,
and is as likely to wear on that account as any in the colony."
"Then you are my friend," squeezing the other's hand, "my tried,
sworn, and constant friend."
"Yes, we have been friends, Sergeant, near twenty years before
Mabel was born."
"True enough; before Mabel was born, we were well-tried friends;
and the hussy would never dream of refusing to marry a man who
was her father's friend before she was born."
"We don't know, Sergeant, we don't know. Like loves like. The
young prefer the young for companions, and the old the old."
"Not for wives, Pathfinder; I never knew an old man, now, who had
an objection to a young wife. Then you are respected and esteemed
by every officer in the fort, as I have said already, and it will
please her fancy to like a man that every one else likes."
"I hope I have no enemies but the Mingos," returned the guide,
stroking down his hair meekly and speaking thoughtfully. "I've tried
to do right, and that ought to make friends, though it sometimes
fails."
"And you may be said to keep the best company; for even old Duncan
of Lundie is glad to see you, and you pass hours in his society.
Of all the guides, he confides most in you."
"Ay, even greater than he is have marched by my side for days, and
have conversed with me as if I were their brother; but, Sergeant,
I have never been puffed up by their company, for I know that
the woods often bring men to a level who would not be so in the
settlements."
"And you are known to be the greatest rifle shot that ever pulled
trigger in all this region."
"If Mabel could fancy a man for that, I might have no great reason
to despair; and yet, Sergeant, I sometimes think that it is all as
much owing to Killdeer as to any skill of my own. It is sartainly
a wonderful piece, and might do as much in the hands of another."
"That is your own humble opinion of yourself, Pathfinder; but we
have seen too many fail with the same weapon, and you succeed too
often with the rifles of other men, to allow me to agree with you.
We will get up a shooting match in a day or two, when you can show
your skill, and when Mabel will form some judgment concerning your
true character."
"Will that be fair, Sergeant? Everybody knows that Killdeer seldom
misses; and ought we to make a trial of this sort when we all know
what must be the result?"
"Tut, tut, man! I foresee I must do half this courting for you.
For one who is always inside of the smoke in a skirmish, you are
the faintest-hearted suitor I ever met with. Remember, Mabel comes
of a bold stock; and the girl will be as likely to admire a man as
her mother was before her."
Here the Sergeant arose, and proceeded to attend to his never-ceasing
duties, without apology; the terms on which the guide stood with
all in the garrison rendering this freedom quite a matter of course.
The reader will have gathered from the conversation just related,
one of the plans that Sergeant Dunham had in view in causing his
daughter to be brought to the frontier. Although necessarily much
weaned from the caresses and blandishments that had rendered his
child so dear to him during the first year or two of his widowerhood,
he had still a strong but somewhat latent love for her. Accustomed
to command and to obey, without being questioned himself or
questioning others, concerning the reasonableness of the mandates,
he was perhaps too much disposed to believe that his daughter would
marry the man he might select, while he was far from being disposed
to do violence to her wishes. The fact was; few knew the Pathfinder
intimately without secretly believing him to be one of extraordinary
qualities. Ever the same, simple-minded, faithful, utterly without
fear, and yet prudent, foremost in all warrantable enterprises, or
what the opinion of the day considered as such, and never engaged
in anything to call a blush to his cheek or censure on his acts,
it was not possible to live much with this being and not feel respect
and admiration for him which had no reference to his position in
life. The most surprising peculiarity about the man himself was
the entire indifference with which he regarded all distinctions
which did not depend on personal merit. He was respectful to his
superiors from habit; but had often been known to correct their
mistakes and to reprove their vices with a fearlessness that proved
how essentially he regarded the more material points, and with a
natural discrimination that appeared to set education at defiance. In
short, a disbeliever in the ability of man to distinguish between
good and evil without the aid of instruction, would have been
staggered by the character of this extraordinary inhabitant of
the frontier. His feelings appeared to possess the freshness and
nature of the forest in which he passed so much of his time; and
no casuist could have made clearer decisions in matters relating to
right and wrong; and yet he was not without his prejudices, which,
though few, and colored by the character and usages of the individual,
were deep-rooted, and almost formed a part of his nature. But the
most striking feature about the moral organization of Pathfinder
was his beautiful and unerring sense of justice. This noble trait
-- and without it no man can be truly great, with it no man other
than respectable -- probably had its unseen influence on all who
associated with him; for the common and unprincipled brawler of the
camp had been known to return from an expedition made in his company
rebuked by his sentiments, softened by his language, and improved
by his example. As might have been expected, with so elevated
a quality his fidelity was like the immovable rock; treachery in
him was classed among the things which are impossible; and as he
seldom retired before his enemies, so was he never known, under any
circumstances that admitted of an alternative, to abandon a friend.
The affinities of such a character were, as a matter of course,
those of like for like. His associates and intimates, though more
or less determined by chance, were generally of the highest order
as to moral propensities; for he appeared to possess a species of
instinctive discrimination, which led him, insensibly to himself,
most probably, to cling closest to those whose characters would best
reward his friendship. In short, it was said of the Pathfinder,
by one accustomed to study his fellows, that he was a fair example
of what a just-minded and pure man might be, while untempted by
unruly or ambitious desires, and left to follow the bias of his
feelings, amid the solitary grandeur and ennobling influences of a
sublime nature; neither led aside by the inducements which influence
all to do evil amid the incentives of civilization, nor forgetful
of the Almighty Being whose spirit pervades the wilderness as well
as the towns.
Such was the man whom Sergeant Dunham had selected as the husband
of Mabel. In making this choice, he had not been as much governed
by a clear and judicious view of the merits of the individual,
perhaps, as by his own likings; still no one knew the Pathfinder
so intimately as himself without always conceding to the honest
guide a high place in his esteem on account of these very virtues.
That his daughter could find any serious objections to the match
the old soldier did not apprehend; while, on the other hand, he saw
many advantages to himself in dim perspective, connected with the
decline of his days, and an evening of life passed among descendants
who were equally dear to him through both parents. He had first
made the proposition to his friend, who had listened to it kindly,
but who, the Sergeant was now pleased to find, already betrayed
a willingness to come into his own views that was proportioned to
the doubts and misgivings proceeding from his humble distrust of
himself.