as if it had lungs.«
    »And this lake is not absolutely still, for you perceive there is a little
ripple on the shore, and you may even hear the surf, plunging, at moments,
against the rocks.«
    »All d--d poetry! One may call a bubble a ripple, if he will, and washing
decks a surf, but Lake Ontario is no more the Atlantic, than a Powles Hook
periagua is a first rate. That Jasper, notwithstanding, is a fine lad, and wants
instruction only to make a man of him!«
    »Do you think him ignorant, uncle,« answered Mabel, prettily adjusting her
hair, in order to do which she was obliged, or fancied she was obliged, to turn
away her face - »To me, Jasper Eau douce appears to know more than most of the
young men of his class. He has read but little, for books are not plenty in this
part of the world, but he has thought much; at least, so it seems to me, for one
so young.«
    »He is ignorant, he is ignorant, as all must be who navigate an inland
water, like this. He can make a flat knot and a timber hitch, it is true, but he
has no more notion of crowning a cable, now, or of a carrick bend, than you have
of catting an anchor. No - no - Mabel; we both owe something to Jasper and the
Pathfinder, and I have been thinking how I can best serve them, for I hold
ingratitude to be the vice of a hog. Some people say it is the vice of a king;
but I say it is the failing of a hog, for treat the animal to your own dinner,
and he would eat you for the dessert.«
    »Very true, dear uncle, and we ought indeed, to do all we can to express our
proper sense of the services of both these brave men.«
    »Spoken like your mother's daughter, girl, and in a way to do credit to the
Cap family. Now, I've hit upon a traverse, that will just suit all parties, and
as soon as we get back from this little expedition down the lake, among them
there thousand islands, and I am ready to return, it is my intention to propose
it.«
    »Dearest uncle! this is so considerate in you, and will be so just! May I
ask what your intentions are?«
    »I see no reason for keeping them