being so many years my senior, he has looked on me, in our many
scoutings together, as a sort of son."

"Perhaps, Pathfinder," observed Jasper, with a huskiness in his
voice that defeated the attempt at pleasantry, "he would be glad
to have you for one in reality."

"And if he did, Eau-douce, where would be the sin of it? He knows
what I am on a trail or a scout, and he has seen me often face to
face with the Frenchers. I have sometimes thought, lad, that we
all ought to seek for wives; for the man that lives altogether in
the woods, and in company with his enemies or his prey, gets to
lose some of the feeling of kind in the end. It is not easy to
dwell always in the presence of God and not feel the power of His
goodness. I have attended church-sarvice in the garrisons, and
tried hard, as becomes a true soldier, to join in the prayers;
for, though no enlisted sarvant of the king, I fight his battles and
sarve his cause, and so I have endeavored to worship garrison-fashion,
but never could raise within me the solemn feelings and true
affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest. There I
seem to stand face to face with my Master; all around me is fresh
and beautiful, as it came from His hand; and there is no nicety
or doctrine to chill the feelings. No no; the woods are the true
temple after all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher
even than the clouds."

"You speak the truth, Master Pathfinder," said Cap, "and a truth
that all who live much in solitude know. What, for instance,
is the reason that seafaring men in general are so religious and
conscientious in all they do, but the fact that they are so often