第167章

"You know me, Eau-douce, and I know you," said he, "and this news has not changed my opinion of you in any manner.I never believed their tales, though it looked solemn at one minute, I will own; yes, it did look solemn, and it made me feel solemn too.I never suspected you for a minute, for I know your gifts don't lie that-a-way;but, I must own, I didn't suspect the Quartermaster neither.""And he holding his Majesty's commission, Pathfinder!""It isn't so much that, Jasper Western, it isn't so much that.He held a commission from God to act right, and to deal fairly with his fellow-creaturs, and he has failed awfully in his duty.""To think of his pretending love for one like Mabel, too, when he felt none.""That was bad, sartainly; the fellow must have had Mingo blood in his veins.The man that deals unfairly by a woman can be but a mongrel, lad; for the Lord has made them helpless on purpose that we may gain their love by kindness and sarvices.Here is the Sergeant, poor man, on his dying bed; he has given me his daughter for a wife, and Mabel, dear girl, she has consented to it; and it makes me feel that I have two welfares to look after, two naturs to care for, and two hearts to gladden.Ah's me, Jasper! I sometimes feel that I'm not good enough for that sweet child!"Eau-douce had nearly gasped for breath when he first heard this intelligence; and, though he succeeded in sup-pressing any other outward signs of agitation, his cheek was blanched nearly to the paleness of death.Still he found means to answer not only with firmness, but with energy, --"Say not so, Pathfinder; you are good enough for a queen.""Ay, ay, boy, according to your idees of my goodness;that is to say, I can kill a deer, or even a Mingo at need, with any man on the lines; or I can follow a forest-path with as true an eye, or read the stars, when others do not understand them.No doubt, no doubt, Mabel will have venison enough, and fish enough, and pigeons enough;but will she have knowledge enough, and will she have idees enough, and pleasant conversation enough, when life comes to drag a little, and each of us begins to pass for our true value?""If you pass for your value, Pathfinder, the greatest lady in the land would be happy with you.On that head you have no reason to feel afraid.""Now, Jasper, I dare to say _you_ think so, nay, I _know_you do; for it is nat'ral, and according to friendship, for people to look over-favorably at them they love.Yes, yes;if I had to marry you, boy, I should give myself no con-sarn about my being well looked upon, for you have always shown a disposition to see me and all I do with friendly eyes.But a young gal, after all, must wish to marry a man that is nearer to her own age and fancies, than to have one old enough to be her father, and rude enough to frighten her.I wonder, Jasper, that Mabel never took a fancy to you, now, rather than setting her mind on me.""Take, a fancy to me, Pathfinder!" returned the young man, endeavoring to clear his voice without betraying himself; "what is there about me to please such a girl as Mabel Dunham? I have all that you find fault with in yourself, with none of that excellence that makes even the generals respect you.""Well, well, it's all chance, say what we will about it.

Here have I journeyed and guided through the woods fe-male after female, and consorted with them in the garri-sons, and never have I even felt an inclination for any, until I saw Mabel Dunham.It's true the poor Sergeant first set me to thinking about his daughter; but after we got a little acquainted like, I'd no need of being spoken to, to think of her night and day.I'm tough, Jasper; yes, I'm very tough; and I'm risolute enough, as you all know;and yet I do think it would quite break me down, now, to lose Mabel Dunham!""We will talk no more of it, Pathfinder," said Jasper, returning his friend's squeeze of the hand, and moving back towards the fire, though slowly, and in the manner of one who cared little where he went; "we will talk no more of it.You are worthy of Mabel, and Mabel is worthy of you -- you like Mabel, and Mabel likes you -- her father has chosen you for her husband, and no one has a right to interfere.As for the Quartermaster, his feigning love for Mabel is worse even than his treason to the king."By this time they were so near the fire that it was neces-sary to change the conversation.Luckily, at that instant, Cap, who had been in the block in company with his dy-ing brother-in-law, and who knew nothing of what had passed since the capitulation, now appeared, walking with a meditative and melancholy air towards the group.Much of that hearty dogmatism, that imparted even to his ordi-nary air and demeanor an appearance of something like contempt for all around him, had disappeared, and he seemed thoughtful, if not meek.

"This death, gentlemen," said he, when ho had got suffi-ciently near, "is a melancholy business, make the best of it.Now, here is Sergeant Dunham, a very good soldier, Imake no question, about to slip his cable; and yet he holds on to the better end of it, as if he was determined it should never run out of the hawse-hole; and all because he loves his daughter, it seems to me.For my part, when a friend is really under the necessity of making a long journey, Ialways wish him well and happily off."

"You wouldn't kill the Sergeant before his time?" Path-finder reproachfully answered."Life is sweet, even to the aged; and, for that matter, I've known some that seemed to set much store by it when it got to be of the least value."Nothing had been further from Cap's real thoughts than the wish to hasten his brother-in-law's end.He had found himself embarrassed with the duties of smoothing a death-bed, and all he had meant was to express a sincere desire that the Sergeant were happily rid of doubt and suffering.