Playful she turn'd that he might see
The passing smile her cheek put on;
But when she marked how mournfully
His eyes met hers, that smile was gone.
_Lalla Rookh._
The occurrences of the last few days had been too exciting, and had
made too many demands on the fortitude of our heroine, to leave
her in the helplessness of grief. She mourned for her father,
and she occasionally shuddered as she recalled the sudden death
of Jennie, and all the horrible scenes she had witnessed; but on
the whole she had aroused herself, and was no longer in the deep
depression which usually accompanies grief. Perhaps the overwhelming,
almost stupefying sorrow that crushed poor June, and left her for
nearly twenty-four hours in a state of stupor, assisted Mabel in
conquering her own feelings, for she had felt called on to administer
consolation to the young Indian woman. This she had done in the
quiet, soothing, insinuating way in which her sex usually exerts
its influence on such occasions.
The morning of the third day was set for that on which the _Scud_
was to sail. Jasper had made all his preparations; the different
effects were embarked, and Mabel had taken leave of June, a painful
and affectionate parting. In a word, all was ready, and every soul
had left the island but the Indian woman, Pathfinder, Jasper, and
our heroine. The former had gone into a thicket to weep, and the
three last were approaching the spot where three canoes lay, one of
which was the property of June, and the other two were in waiting
to carry the others off to the _Scud_. Pathfinder led the way,
but, when he drew near the shore, instead of taking the direction
to the boats, he motioned to his companions to follow, and proceeded
to a fallen tree which lay on the margin of the glade and out
of view of those in the cutter. Seating himself on the trunk, he
signed to Mabel to take her place on one side of him and to Jasper
to occupy the other.
"Sit down here Mabel; sit down there, Eau-douce," he commenced,
as soon as he had taken his own seat. "I've something that lies
heavy on my mind, and now is the time to take it off, if it's ever
to be done. Sit down, Mabel, and let me lighten my heart, if not
my conscience, while I've the strength to do it."
The pause that succeeded lasted two or three minutes, and both the
young people wondered what was to come next; the idea that Pathfinder
could have any weight on his conscience seeming equally improbable
to each.
"Mabel," our hero at length resumed, "we must talk plainly to each
other afore we join your uncle in the cutter, where the Saltwater
has slept every night since the last rally, for he says it's the
only place in which a man can be sure of keeping the hair on his
head, he does. Ah's me! What have I to do with these follies and
sayings now? I try to be pleasant, and to feel light-hearted, but
the power of man can't make water run up stream. Mabel, you know
that the Sergeant, afore he left us, had settled it 'atween us
two that we were to become man and wife, and that we were to live
together and to love one another as long as the Lord was pleased
to keep us both on 'arth; yes, and afterwards too?"
Mabel's cheeks had regained a little of their ancient bloom in the
fresh air of the morning; but at this unlooked-for address they
blanched again, nearly to the pallid hue which grief had imprinted
there. Still, she looked kindly, though seriously, at Pathfinder
and even endeavored to force a smile.
"Very true, my excellent friend," she answered; "this was my poor
father's wish, and I feel certain that a whole life devoted to your
welfare and comforts could scarcely repay you for all you have done
for us."
"I fear me, Mabel, that man and wife needs be bound together by a
stronger tie than such feelings, I do. You have done nothing for
me, or nothing of any account, and yet my very heart yearns towards
you, it does; and therefore it seems likely that these feelings come
from something besides saving scalps and guiding through woods."
Mabel's cheek had begun to glow again; and though she struggled
hard to smile, her voice trembled a little as she answered.
"Had we not better postpone this conversation, Pathfinder?" she
said; "we are not alone; and nothing is so unpleasant to a listener,
they say, as family matters in which he feels no interest."
"It's because we are not alone, Mabel, or rather because Jasper is
with us, that I wish to talk of this matter. The Sergeant believed
I might make a suitable companion for you, and, though I had
misgivings about it, -- yes, I had many misgivings, -- he finally
persuaded me into the idee, and things came round 'atween us, as
you know. But, when you promised your father to marry me, Mabel,
and gave me your hand so modestly, but so prettily, there was one
circumstance, as your uncle called it, that you didn't know; and
I've thought it right to tell you what it is, before matters are
finally settled. I've often taken a poor deer for my dinner when
good venison was not to be found; but it's as nat'ral not to take
up with the worst when the best may be had."
"You speak in a way, Pathfinder, that is difficult to be understood.
If this conversation is really necessary, I trust you will be more
plain."
"Well then, Mabel, I've been thinking it was quite likely, when you
gave in to the Sergeant's wishes, that you did not know the natur'
of Jasper Western's feelings towards you?"
"Pathfinder!" and Mabel's cheek now paled to the livid hue of
death; then it flushed to the tint of crimson; and her whole frame
shuddered. Pathfinder, however, was too intent on his own object
to notice this agitation; and Eau-douce had hidden his face in his
hands in time to shut out its view.
"I've been talking with the lad; and, on comparing his dreams with
my dreams, his feelings with my feelings, and his wishes with my
wishes, I fear we think too much alike consarning you for both of
us to be very happy."
"Pathfinder, you forget; you should remember that we are betrothed!"
said Mabel hastily, and in a voice so low that it required acute
attention in the listeners to catch the syllables. Indeed the last
word was not quite intelligible to the guide, and he confessed his
ignorance by the usual, --
"Anan?"
"You forget that we are to be married; and such allusions are
improper as well as painful."
"Everything is proper that is right, Mabel; and everything is right
that leads to justice and fair dealing; though it _is painful_
enough, as you say, as I find on trial, I do. Now, Mabel, had you
known that Eau-douce thinks of you in this way, maybe you never
would have consented to be married to one as old and as uncomely
as I am."
"Why this cruel trial, Pathfinder? To what can all this lead? Jasper
Western thinks no such thing: he says nothing, he feels nothing."
"Mabel!" burst from out of the young man's lips, in a way to betray
the uncontrollable nature of his emotions, though he uttered not
another syllable.
Mabel buried her face in both her hands; and the two sat like a
pair of guilty beings, suddenly detected in the commission of some
crime which involved the happiness of a common patron. At that
instant, perhaps, Jasper himself was inclined to deny his passion,
through an extreme unwillingness to grieve his friend; while Mabel,
on whom this positive announcement of a fact that she had rather
unconsciously hoped than believed, came so unexpectedly, felt her
mind momentarily bewildered; and she scarcely knew whether to weep
or to rejoice. Still she was the first to speak; since Eau-douce
could utter naught that would be disingenuous, or that would pain
his friend.
"Pathfinder," said she, "you talk wildly. Why mention this at
all?"
"Well, Mabel, if I talk wildly, I _am_ half wild, you know, by natur',
I fear, as well as by habit." As he said this, he endeavored to
laugh in his usual noiseless way, but the effect produced a strange
and discordant sound; and it appeared nearly to choke him. "Yes,
I _must_ be wild; I'll not attempt to deny it."
"Dearest Pathfinder! my best, almost my only friend! You _cannot,
do not_ think I intended to say that!" interrupted Mabel, almost
breathless in her haste to relieve his mortification. "If courage,
truth, nobleness of soul and conduct, unyielding principles, and a
hundred other excellent qualities can render any man respectable,
esteemed, or beloved, your claims are inferior to those of no other
human being."
"What tender and bewitching voices they have, Jasper!" resumed the
guide, now laughing freely and naturally. "Yes, natur' seems to
have made them on purpose to sing in our ears, when the music of
the woods is silent. But we must come to a right understanding,
we must. I ask you again, Mabel, if you had known that Jasper
Western loves you as well as I do, or better perhaps, though that
is scarcely possible; that in his dreams he sees your face in the
water of the lake; that he talks to you, and of you, in his sleep;
fancies all that is beautiful like Mabel Dunham, and all that is
good and virtuous; believes he never knowed happiness until he knowed
you; could kiss the ground on which you have trod, and forgets all
the joys of his calling to think of you and the delight of gazing
at your beauty and in listening to your voice, would you then have
consented to marry me?"
Mabel could not have answered this question if she would; but,
though her face was buried in her hands, the tint of the rushing
blood was visible between the openings, and the suffusion seemed
to impart itself to her very fingers. Still nature asserted her
power, for there was a single instant when the astonished, almost
terrified girl stole a glance at Jasper, as if distrusting Pathfinder's
history of his feelings, read the truth of all he said in that
furtive look, and instantly concealed her face again, as if she
would hide it from observation for ever.
"Take time to think, Mabel," the guide continued, "for it is
a solemn thing to accept one man for a husband while the thoughts
and wishes lead to another. Jasper and I have talked this matter
over, freely and like old friends, and, though I always knowed that
we viewed most things pretty much alike, I couldn't have thought
that we regarded any particular object with the very same eyes,
as it might be, until we opened our minds to each other about you.
Now Jasper owns that the very first time he beheld you, he thought
you the sweetest and winningestest creatur' he had ever met; that
your voice sounded like murmuring water in his ears; that he
fancied his sails were your garments fluttering in the wind; that
your laugh haunted him in his sleep; and that ag'in and ag'in has
he started up affrighted, because he has fancied some one wanted
to force you out of the _Scud_, where he imagined you had taken
up your abode. Nay, the lad has even acknowledged that he often
weeps at the thought that you are likely to spend your days with
another, and not with him."
"Jasper!"
"It's solemn truth, Mabel, and it's right you should know it. Now
stand up, and choose 'atween us. I do believe Eau-douce loves you
as well as I do myself; he has tried to persuade me that he loves
you better, but that I will not allow, for I do not think it
possible; but I will own the boy loves you, heart and soul, and he
has a good right to be heard. The Sergeant left me your protector,
and not your tyrant. I told him that I would be a father to you
as well as a husband, and it seems to me no feeling father would
deny his child this small privilege. Stand up, Mabel, therefore,
and speak your thoughts as freely as if I were the Sergeant himself,
seeking your good, and nothing else."
Mabel dropped her hands, arose, and stood face to face with her
two suitors, though the flush that was on her cheeks was feverish,
the evidence of excitement rather than of shame.
"What would you have, Pathfinder?" she asked; "Have I not already
promised my poor father to do all you desire?"
"Then I desire this. Here I stand, a man of the forest and of
little larning, though I fear with an ambition beyond my desarts,
and I'll do my endivors to do justice to both sides. In the first
place, it is allowed that, so far as feelings in your behalf are
consarned, we love you just the same; Jasper thinks his feelings
_must_ be the strongest, but this I cannot say in honesty, for it
doesn't seem to me that it _can_ be true, else I would frankly and
freely confess it, I would. So in this particular, Mabel, we are
here before you on equal tarms. As for myself, being the oldest,
I'll first say what little can be produced in my favor, as well as
ag'in it. As a hunter, I do think there is no man near the lines
that can outdo me. If venison, or bear's meat, or even birds and
fish, should ever be scarce in our cabin, it would be more likely
to be owing to natur' and Providence than to any fault of mine. In
short, it does seem to me that the woman who depended on me would
never be likely to want for food. But I'm fearful ignorant! It's
true I speak several tongues, such as they be, while I'm very far
from being expart at my own. Then, my years are greater than your
own, Mabel; and the circumstance that I was so long the Sergeant's
comrade can be no great merit in your eyes. I wish, too, I was
more comely, I do; but we are all as natur' made us, and the last
thing that a man ought to lament, except on very special occasions,
is his looks. When all is remembered, age, looks, learning, and
habits, Mabel, conscience tells me I ought to confess that I'm
altogether unfit for you, if not downright unworthy; and I would
give up the hope this minute, I would, if I didn't feel something
pulling at my heart-strings which seems hard to undo."
"Pathfinder! Noble, generous Pathfinder!" cried our heroine,
seizing his hand and kissing it with a species of holy reverence;
"You do yourself injustice -- you forget my poor father and your
promise -- you do not know _me_!"
"Now, here's Jasper," continued the guide, without allowing the
girl's caresses to win him from his purpose, "with _him_ the case
is different. In the way of providing, as in that of loving, there's
not much to choose 'atween us; for the lad is frugal, industrious,
and careful. Then he is quite a scholar, knows the tongue of the
Frenchers, reads many books, and some, I know, that you like to
read yourself, can understand you at all times, which, perhaps, is
more than I can say for myself."
"What of all this?" interrupted Mabel impatiently; "Why speak of
it now -- why speak of it at all?"
"Then the lad has a manner of letting his thoughts be known, that
I fear I can never equal. If there's anything on 'arth that would
make my tongue bold and persuading, Mabel, I do think it's yourself;
and yet in our late conversations Jasper has outdone me, even on
this point, in a way to make me ashamed of myself. He has told
me how simple you were, and how true-hearted, and kind-hearted; and
how you looked down upon vanities, for though you might be the wife
of more than one officer, as he thinks, that you cling to feeling,
and would rather be true to yourself and natur' than a colonel's
lady. He fairly made my blood warm, he did, when he spoke of your
having beauty without seeming ever to have looked upon it, and
the manner in which you moved about like a young fa'n, so nat'ral
and graceful like, without knowing it; and the truth and justice
of your idees, and the warmth and generosity of your heart -- "
"Jasper!" interrupted Mabel, giving way to feelings that had
gathered an ungovernable force by being so long pent, and falling
into the young man's willing arms, weeping like a child, and almost
as helpless. "Jasper! Jasper! Why have you kept this from me?"
The answer of Eau-douce was not very intelligible, nor was the
murmured dialogue that followed remarkable for coherency. But
the language of affection is easily understood. The hour that
succeeded passed like a very few minutes of ordinary life, so far
as a computation of time was concerned; and when Mabel recollected
herself, and bethought her of the existence of others, her uncle
was pacing the cutter's deck in great impatience, and wondering
why Jasper should be losing so much of a favorable wind. Her first
thought was of him, who was so likely to feel the recent betrayal
of her real emotions.
"Oh, Jasper," she exclaimed, like one suddenly self-convicted, "the
Pathfinder!"
Eau-douce fairly trembled, not with unmanly apprehension, but with
the painful conviction of the pang he had given his friend; and he
looked in all directions in the expectation of seeing his person.
But Pathfinder had withdrawn, with a tact and a delicacy that might
have done credit to the sensibility and breeding of a courtier. For
several minutes the two lovers sat, silently waiting his return,
uncertain what propriety required of them under circumstances so
marked and so peculiar. At length they beheld their friend advancing
slowly towards them, with a thoughtful and even pensive air.
"I now understand what you meant, Jasper, by speaking without a
tongue and hearing without an ear," he said when close enough to
the tree to be heard. "Yes, I understand it now, I do; and a very
pleasant sort of discourse it is, when one can hold it with Mabel
Dunham. Ah's me! I told the Sergeant I wasn't fit for her; that
I was too old, too ignorant, and too wild like; but he _would_ have
it otherwise."
Jasper and Mabel sat, resembling Milton's picture of our first
parents, when the consciousness of sin first laid its leaden weight
on their souls. Neither spoke, neither even moved; though both at
that moment fancied they could part with their new-found happiness
in order to restore their friend to his peace of mind. Jasper was
pale as death, but, in Mabel, maiden modesty had caused the blood
to mantle on her cheeks, until their bloom was heightened to a
richness that was scarcely equalled in her hours of light-hearted
buoyancy and joy. As the feeling which, in her sex, always
accompanies the security of love returned, threw its softness and
tenderness over her countenance, she was singularly beautiful.
Pathfinder gazed at her with an intentness he did not endeavor to
conceal, and then he fairly laughed in his own way, and with a sort
of wild exultation, as men that are untutored are wont to express
their delight. This momentary indulgence, however, was expiated
by the pang which followed the sudden consciousness that this
glorious young creature was lost to him for ever. It required a
full minute for this simple-minded being to recover from the shock
of this conviction; and then he recovered his dignity of manner,
speaking with gravity, almost with solemnity.
"I have always known, Mabel Dunham, that men have their gifts,"
said he; "but I'd forgotten that it did not belong to mine to please
the young, the beautiful, and l'arned. I hope the mistake has
been no very heavy sin; and if it was, I've been heavily punished
for it, I have. Nay, Mabel, I know what you'd say, but it's
unnecessary; I _feel_ it all, and that is as good as if I _heard_
it all. I've had a bitter hour, Mabel. I've had a very bitter
hour, lad."
"Hour!" echoed Mabel, as the other first used the word; the
tell-tale blood, which had begun to ebb towards her heart, rushing
again tumultuously to her very temples; "surely not an hour,
Pathfinder?"
"Hour!" exclaimed Jasper at the same instant; "No, no, my worthy
friend, it is not ten minutes since you left us!"
"Well, it may be so; though to me it has seemed to be a day. I
begin to think, however, that the happy count time by minutes, and
the miserable count it by months. But we will talk no more of
this; it is all over now, and many words about it will make you
no happier, while they will only tell me what I've lost; and quite
likely how much I desarved to lose her. No, no, Mabel, 'tis useless
to interrupt me; I admit it all, and your gainsaying it, though
it be so well meant, cannot change my mind. Well, Jasper, she
is yours; and, though it's hard to think it, I do believe you'll
make her happier than I could, for your gifts are better suited to
do so, though I would have strived hard to do as much, if I know
myself, I would. I ought to have known better than to believe the
Sergeant; and I ought to have put faith in what Mabel told me at
the head of the lake, for reason and judgment might have shown me
its truth; but it is so pleasant to think what we wish, and mankind
so easily over-persuade us, when we over-persuade ourselves. But
what's the use in talking of it, as I said afore? It's true,
Mabel seemed to be consenting, though it all came from a wish to
please her father, and from being skeary about the savages -- "
"Pathfinder!"
"I understand you, Mabel, and have no hard feelings, I haven't. I
sometimes think I should like to live in your neighborhood, that
I might look at your happiness; but, on the whole, it's better
I should quit the 55th altogether, and go back to the 60th, which
is my natyve rigiment, as it might be. It would have been better,
perhaps, had I never left it, though my sarvices were much wanted
in this quarter, and I'd been with some of the 55th years agone;
Sergeant Dunham, for instance, when he was in another corps.
Still, Jasper, I do not regret that I've known you -- "
"And me, Pathfinder!" impetuously interrupted Mabel; "do you regret
having known _me_? Could I think so, I should never be at peace
with myself."
"You, Mabel!" returned the guide, taking the hand of our heroine
and looking up into her countenance with guileless simplicity,
but earnest affection; "How could I be sorry that a ray of the sun
came across the gloom of a cheerless day -- that light has broken
in upon darkness, though it remained so short a time? I do not
flatter myself with being able to march quite so light-hearted as
I once used to could, or to sleep as sound, for some time to come;
but I shall always remember how near I was to being undeservedly
happy, I shall. So far from blaming you, Mabel, I only blame
myself for being so vain as to think it possible I could please such
a creatur'; for sartainly you told me how it was, when we talked
it over on the mountain, and I ought to have believed you then;
for I do suppose it's nat'ral that young women should know their
own minds better than their fathers. Ah's me! It's settled now,
and nothing remains but for me to take leave of you, that you may
depart; I feel that Master Cap must be impatient, and there is
danger of his coming on shore to look for us all."
"To take leave!" exclaimed Mabel.
"Leave!" echoed Jasper; "You do not mean to quit us, my friend?"
"'Tis best, Mabel, 'tis altogether best, Eau-douce; and it's wisest.
I could live and die in your company, if I only followed feeling;
but, if I follow reason, I shall quit you here. You will go back
to Oswego, and become man and wife as soon as you arrive, -- for
all that is determined with Master Cap, who hankers after the sea
again, and who knows what is to happen, -- while I shall return to
the wilderness and my Maker. Come, Mabel," continued Pathfinder,
rising and drawing nearer to our heroine, with grave decorum, "kiss
me; Jasper will not grudge me one kiss; then we'll part."
"Oh, Pathfinder!" exclaimed Mabel, falling into the arms of the
guide, and kissing his cheeks again and again, with a freedom and
warmth she had been far from manifesting while held to the bosom
of Jasper; "God bless you, dearest Pathfinder! You'll come to
us hereafter. We shall see you again. When old, you will come to
our dwelling, and let me be a daughter to you?"
"Yes, that's it," returned the guide, almost gasping for breath;
"I'll try to think of it in that way. You're more befitting to be
my daughter than to be my wife, you are. Farewell, Jasper. Now
we'll go to the canoe; it's time you were on board."
The manner in which Pathfinder led the way to the shore was solemn
and calm. As soon as he reached the canoe, he again took Mabel
by the hands, held her at the length of his own arms, and gazed
wistfully into her face, until the unbidden tears rolled out of the
fountains of feeling and trickled down his rugged cheeks in streams.
"Bless me, Pathfinder," said Mabel, kneeling reverently at his
feet. "Oh, at least bless me before we part!"
That untutored but noble-minded being did as she desired; and,
aiding her to enter the canoe, seemed to tear himself away as one
snaps a strong and obstinate cord. Before he retired, however, he
took Jasper by the arm and led him a little aside, when he spoke
as follows: --
"You're kind of heart and gentle by natur', Jasper; but we are both
rough and wild in comparison with that dear creatur'. Be careful
of her, and never show the roughness of man's natur' to her soft
disposition. You'll get to understand her in time; and the Lord,
who governs the lake and the forest alike, who looks upon virtue
with a smile and upon vice with a frown, keep you happy and worthy
to be so!"
Pathfinder made a sign for his friend to depart, and he stood
leaning on his rifle until the canoe had reached the side of the
_Scud_. Mabel wept as if her heart would break; nor did her eyes
once turn from the open spot in the glade, where the form of the
Pathfinder was to be seen, until the cutter had passed a point
that completely shut out the island. When last in view, the sinewy
frame of this extraordinary man was as motionless as if it were a
statue set up in that solitary place to commemorate the scenes of
which it had so lately been the witness.