twenty-four
hours at a time."

"More's the pity, boy, more's the pity! A very little land ought to go
a great way with a seafaring man. Now, if the truth were known, Master
Western, I suppose there is more or less land all round your lake."

"And, uncle, is there not more or less land around the ocean?" said
Magnet quickly; for she dreaded a premature display of the old seaman's
peculiar dogmatism, not to say pedantry.

"No, child, there is more or less ocean all round the land; that's what
I tell the people ashore, youngster. They are living, as it might be, in
the midst of the sea, without knowing it; by sufferance, as it were, the
water being so much the more powerful and the largest. But there is
no end to conceit in this world: for a fellow who never saw salt water
often fancies he knows more than one who has gone round the Horn. No,
no, this earth is pretty much an island; and all that can be truly said
not to be so is water."

Young Western had a profound deference for a mariner of the ocean, on
which he had often pined to sail; but he had also a natural regard
for the broad sheet on which he had passed his life, and which was not
without its beauties in his eyes.

"What you say, sir," he answered modestly, "may be true as to the
Atlantic; but we have a respect for the land up here on Ontario."

"That is because you are always land-locked," returned Cap, laughing
heartily; "but yonder is the Pathfinder, as they call him, with some
smoking platters, inviting us to share in his mess; and I will confess
that one gets no venison at sea. Master Western, civility to girls, at
your time of life, comes as easy as taking in the slack of the ensign
halyards; and if you will just keep an eye to her kid and can, while I
join the mess of the Pathfinder and our Indian friends, I make no doubt
she will remember it."

Master Cap uttered more than he was aware of at the time. Jasper Western
did attend to the wants of Mabel, and she long remembered the kind,
manly attention of the young sailor at this their first interview. He
placed the end of a log for a seat, obtained for her a delicious morsel
of the venison, gave her a draught of pure water from the spring, and as
he sat near her, fast won his way to her esteem by his gentle but frank
manner of manifesting his care; homage that woman always wishes to
receive, but which is never so flattering or so agreeable as when it
comes from the young to those of their own age--f