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.