- And is Mabel a young woman to disappoint
expectation?«
    »Ah! sarjeant, it is not Mabel that I distrust, but myself. I am but a poor
ignorant woodsman, after all, and perhaps I'm not, in truth, as good as even you
and I may think me!«
    »If you doubt your own judgment of yourself, Pathfinder, I beg you will not
doubt mine. Am I not accustomed to judge men's characters? - Is it not my
especial duty, and am I often deceived? Ask Major Duncan, sir, if you desire any
assurances in this particular.«
    »But, sarjeant, we have long been friends; have fou't side by side, a dozen
times, and have done each other many sarvices. When this is the case, men are
apt to think overkindly of each other, and I fear me that the daughter may not
be so likely to view a plain, ignorant hunter as favorably as the father does.«
    »Tut - tut - Pathfinder - you do'n't know yourself, man, and may put all
faith in my judgment. In the first place, you have experience, and as all girls
must want that, no prudent young woman would overlook such a qualification. Then
you are not one of the coxcombs that strut about when they first join a
regiment, but a man who has seen service, and who carries the marks of it on his
person and countenance. I dare say you have been under fire, some thirty or
forty times, counting all the skirmishes and ambushes that you've seen.«
    »All of that, sarjeant, all of that, but what will it avail, in gaining the
good will of a tender-hearted young female?«
    »It will gain the day. Experience in the field is as good in love, as in
war. But you are as honest-hearted, and as loyal a subject, as the King can
boast of, God bless him!«
    »That may be too - that may be too; but I'm afeard I'm too rude, and too
old, and too wild like, to suit the fancy of such a young and delicate girl, as
Mabel, who has been unused to our wilderness ways, and may think the settlements
better suited to her gifts and inclinations.«
    »These are new misgivings for you, my friend, and I wonder they were never
paraded before.«
    »Because I never knew my own worthlessness, perhaps, until I saw Mabel