belonged to the same regiment as her father, had taken the
child in charge at the death of its mother; and under the care of this
lady Mabel had acquired some tastes and many ideas which otherwise might
always have remained strangers to her. Her situation in the family had
been less that of a domestic than of a humble companion, and the results
were quite apparent in her attire, her language, her sentiments, and
even in her feelings, though neither, perhaps, rose to the level of
those which would properly characterize a lady. She had lost the less
refined habits and manners of one in her original position, without
having quite reached a point that disqualified her for the situation in
life that the accidents of birth and fortune would probably compel her
to fill. All else that was distinctive and peculiar in her belonged to
natural character.

With such antecedents it will occasion the reader no wonder if he
learns that Mabel viewed the novel scene before her with a pleasure
far superior to that produced by vulgar surprise. She felt its ordinary
beauties as most would have felt them, but she had also a feeling for
its sublimity--for that softened solitude, that calm grandeur, and
eloquent repose, which ever pervades broad views of natural objects yet
undisturbed by the labors and struggles of man.

"How beautiful!" she exclaimed, unconscious of speaking, as she stood on
the solitary bastion, facing the air from the lake, and experiencing the
genial influence of its freshness pervading both her body and her mind.
"How very beautiful! and yet how singular!"

The words, and the train of her ideas, were interrupted by a touch of
a finger on her shoulder, and turning, in the expectation of seeing her
father, Mabel found Pathfinder at her side. He was leaning quietly
on his long rifle, and laughing in his quiet manner, while, with an
outstretched arm, he swept over the whole panorama of land and water.

"Here you have both our domains," said he,--"Jasper's and mine. The lake
is for him, and the woods are for me. The lad sometimes boasts of the
breadth of his dominions; but I tell him my trees make as broad a plain
on the face of this 'arth as all his water. Well, Mabel, you are fit for
either; for I do not see that fear of the Mingos, or night-marches, can
destroy your pretty looks."

"It is a new character for the Pathfinder to appear in, to compliment a
silly girl."

"Not silly, Mabel; no, not in the least silly. The