e have
now an hour or two to spare, and to get acquainted. Do you not perceive,
brother, a strong likeness on the girl to her we have so long lost?"

"Mabel is the image of her mother, Sergeant, as I have always said, with
a little of your firmer figure; though, for that matter, the Caps were
never wanting in spring and activity."

Mabel cast a timid glance at the stern, rigid countenance of her father,
of whom she had ever thought, as the warm-hearted dwell on the affection
of their absent parents; and, as she saw that the muscles of his face
were working, notwithstanding the stiffness and method of his manner,
her very heart yearned to throw herself on his bosom and to weep at
will. But he was so much colder in externals, so much more formal and
distant than she had expected to find him, that she would not have dared
to hazard the freedom, even had they been alone.

"You have taken a long and troublesome journey, brother, on my account;
and we will try to make you comfortable while you stay among us."

"I hear you are likely to receive orders to lift your anchor, Sergeant,
and to shift your berth into a part of the world where they say there
are a thousand islands."

"Pathfinder, this is some of your forgetfulness?"

"Nay, nay, Sergeant, I forgot nothing; but it did not seem to me
necessary to hide your intentions so very closely from your own flesh
and blood."

"All military movements ought to be made with as little conversation
as possible," returned the Sergeant, tapping the guide's shoulder in a
friendly, but reproachful manner. "You have passed too much of your life
in front of the French not to know the value of silence. But no matter;
the thing must soon be known, and there is no great use in trying now
to conceal it. We shall embark a relief party shortly for a post on the
lake, though I do not say it is for the Thousand Islands, and I may have
to go with it; in which case I intend to take Mabel to make my broth
for me; and I hope, brother, you will not despise a soldier's fare for a
month or so."

"That will depend on the manner of marching. I have no love for woods
and swamps."

"We shall sail in the _Scud_; and, indeed, the whole service, which
is no stranger to us, is likely enough to please one accustomed to the
water."

"Ay, to salt-water if you will, but not to lake-water. If you have no
person to handle that bit of a cutter for you, I have no objection to
ship for the v'y'ge, notwithstandi