"'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 in-dulged in a hearty laugh, though in his always silent man-ner; 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 my-self, 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 disobedi-ent 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, ex-amine 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," ob-served Pathfinder, with a view to preserve the peace, which was evidently in some danger of being broken by the ob-stinate 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 daeesay 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 alto-gether 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 re-marked, --
"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.
