 Pathfinder, you would not think of choosing one as
ignorant, as frivolous, as vain, and as inexperienced as I, for your wife!«
Mabel would have added, »and as young,« but an instinctive feeling of delicacy
repressed the words.
    »And why not, Mabel? If you are ignorant of frontier usages, you know more
than all of us, of pleasant anecdotes and town customs; as for frivolous, I know
not what it means, but if it signifies beauty, Ah's! me; I fear it is no fault
in my eyes. Vain you are not, as is seen by the kind manner in which you listen
to all my idle tales about scoutings and trails, and, as for experience, that
will come with years. Besides, Mabel, I fear men think little of these matters,
when they are about to take wives, I do.«
    »Pathfinder - your words - your looks - surely all this is meant in trifling
- you speak in pleasantry!«
    »To me it is always agreeable to be near you, Mabel, and I should sleep
sounder this blessed night, than I have done for a week past, could I think that
you find such discourse as pleasant as I do.«
    We shall not say that Mabel Dunham had not believed herself a favorite with
the guide. This her quick, feminine, sagacity had early discovered, and perhaps
she had occasionally thought there had mingled with his regard and friendship,
some of that manly tenderness which the ruder sex must be coarse indeed not to
show, on occasions, to the gentler; but, the idea that he seriously sought her
for his wife had never before crossed the mind of the spirited and ingenuous
girl. Now, however, a gleam of something like the truth broke in upon her
imagination, less induced by the words of her companion, perhaps, than by his
manner. Looking earnestly into the rugged, honest countenance of the scout,
Mabel's own features became concerned and grave, and when she spoke again, it
was with a gentleness of manner that attracted him to her, even more powerfully
than the words themselves were calculated to repel.
    »You and I should understand each other, Pathfinder,« she said, with an
earnest sincerity, »nor should there be any cloud between us. You are too
upright and frank to meet with any thing but sincerity and frankness in return.
Surely - surely, all this means nothing - has no other connection with your
feelings, than such a friendship as one of your wisdom and character
