Samuel Johnson - "Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language"

Clarence Young - "The Motor Boys on the Pacific"

(H)erbert (G)eorge Wells - "Little Wars"

Pierre Loti - "Madame Chrysantheme, v2"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Pathfinder

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Pathfinder




Ontario is like a quick-tempered man, sudden to be angered, and as
soon appeased. The sea had already fallen; and though the breakers
bounded the shore, far as the eye could reach, it was merely in
lines of brightness, that appeared and vanished like the returning
waves produced by a stone which had been dropped into a pool. The
cable of the _Scud_ was scarcely seen above the water, and Jasper
had already hoisted his sails, in readiness to depart as soon as
the expected breeze from the shore should fill the canvas.

It was just sunset as the cutter's mainsail flapped and its stem
began to sever the water. The air was light and southerly, and
the head of the vessel was kept looking up along the south shore,
it being the intention to get to the eastward again as fast
as possible. The night that succeeded was quiet; and the rest of
those who slept deep and tranquil.

Some difficulty occurred concerning the command of the vessel, but
the matter had been finally settled by an amicable compromise. As
the distrust of Jasper was far from being appeased, Cap retained
a supervisory power, while the young man was allowed to work the
craft, subject, at all times, to the control and interference of
the old seaman. To this Jasper consented, in preference to exposing
Mabel any longer to the dangers of their present situation; for,
now that the violence of the elements had ceased, he well knew that
the _Montcalm_ would be in search of them. He had the discretion,
however, not to reveal his apprehensions on this head; for it
happened that the very means he deemed the best to escape the enemy
were those which would be most likely to awaken new suspicions of
his honesty in the minds of those who held the power to defeat
his intentions. In other words, Jasper believed that the gallant
young Frenchman, who commanded the ship of the enemy, would quit
his anchorage under the fort at Niagara, and stand up the lake,
as soon as the wind abated, in order to ascertain the fate of the
_Scud_, keeping midway between the two shores as the best means
of commanding a broad view; and that, on his part, it would be
expedient to hug one coast or the other, not only to avoid a meeting,
but as affording a chance of passing without detection by blending
his sails and spars with objects on the land. He preferred the
south because it was the weather shore, and because he thought it
was that which the enemy would the least expect him to take, though
it necessarily led near his settlements, and in front of one of
the strongest posts he held in that part of the world.

Of all this, however, Cap was happily ignorant, and the Sergeant's
mind was too much occupied with the details of his military trust
to enter into these niceties, which so properly belonged to another
profession. No opposition was made, therefore, and before morning
Jasper had apparently dropped quietly into all his former authority,
issuing his orders freely, and meeting with obedience without
hesitation or cavil.

The appearance of day brought all on board on deck again; and,
as is usual with adventurers on the water, the opening horizon
was curiously examined, as objects started out of the obscurity,
and the panorama brightened under the growing light. East, west,
and north nothing was visible but water glittering in the rising
sun; but southward stretched the endless belt of woods that then
held Ontario in a setting of forest verdure. Suddenly an opening
appeared ahead, and then the massive walls of a chateau-looking
house, with outworks, bastions, blockhouses, and palisadoes, frowned
on a headland that bordered the outlet of a broad stream. Just
as the fort became visible, a little cloud rose over it, and the
white ensign of France was seen fluttering from a lofty flagstaff.

Cap gave an ejaculation as he witnessed this ungrateful exhibition,
and he cast a quick suspicious glance at his brother-in-law.

"The dirty tablecloth hung up to air, as my name is Charles Cap!"
he muttered; "and we hugging this d----d shore as if it were our
wife and children met on the return from an India v'y'ge! Hark'e,
Jasper, are you in search of a cargo of frogs, that you keep so
near in to this New France?"

"I hug the land, sir, in the hope of passing the enemy's ship without
being seen, for I think she must be somewhere down here to leeward."

"Ay, ay, this sounds well, and I hope it may turn out as you say.
I trust there is no under-tow here?"

"We are on a weather shore, now," said Jasper, smiling; "and I think
you will admit, Master Cap, that a strong under-tow makes an easy
cable: we owe all our lives to the under-tow of this very lake."

"French flummery!" growled Cap, though he did not care to be heard
by Jasper. "Give me a fair, honest, English-Yankee-American tow,
above board, and above water too, if I must have a tow at all, and
none of your sneaking drift that is below the surface, where one
can neither see nor feel. I daresay, if the truth could be come
at, that this late escape of ours was all a contrived affair."

"We have now a good opportunity, at least, to reconnoitre the enemy's
post at Niagara, brother, for such I take this fort to be," put
in the Sergeant. "Let us be all eyes in passing, and remember that
we are almost in face of the enemy."

This advice of the Sergeant needed nothing to enforce it; for the
interest and novelty of passing a spot occupied by human beings
were of themselves sufficient to attract deep attention in that
scene of a vast but deserted nature. The wind was now fresh enough
to urge the _Scud_ through the water with considerable velocity,
and Jasper eased her helm as she opened the river, and luffed nearly
into the mouth of that noble strait, or river, as it is termed.
A dull, distant, heavy roar came down through the opening in the
banks, swelling on the currents of the air, like the deeper notes
of some immense organ, and occasionally seeming to cause the earth
itself to tremble.

"That sounds like surf on some long unbroken coast!" exclaimed Cap,
as a swell, deeper than common, came to his ears.

"Ay, that is such surf as we have in this quarter of the world,"
Pathfinder answered. "There is no under-tow there, Master Cap; but
all the water that strikes the rocks stays there, so far as going
back again is consarned. That is old Niagara that you hear, or
this noble stream tumbling down a mountain."

"No one will have the impudence to pretend that this fine broad
river falls over yonder hills?"

"It does, Master Cap, it does; and all for the want of stairs, or
a road to come down by. This is natur', as we have it up hereaway,
though I daresay you beat us down on the ocean. Ah's me, Mabel!
a pleasant hour it would be if we could walk on the shore some ten
or fifteen miles up this stream, and gaze on all that God has done
there."

"You have, then, seen these renowned falls, Pathfinder?" the girl
eagerly inquired.

"I have -- yes, I have; and an awful sight I witnessed at that
same time. The Sarpent and I were out scouting about the garrison
there, when he told me that the traditions of his people gave an
account of a mighty cataract in this neighborhood, and he asked
me to vary from the line of march a little to look at the wonder.
I had heard some marvels consarning the spot from the soldiers of
the 60th, which is my nat'ral corps like, and not the 55th, with
which I have sojourned so much of late; but there are so many
terrible liars in all rijiments that I hardly believed half they
had told me. Well, we went; and though we expected to be led by our
ears, and to hear some of that awful roaring that we hear to-day,
we were disappointed, for natur' was not then speaking in thunder,
as she is this morning. Thus it is in the forest, Master Cap;
there being moments when God seems to be walking abroad in power,
and then, again, there is a calm over all, as if His spirit lay in
quiet along the 'arth. Well, we came suddenly upon the stream, a
short distance above the fall, and a young Delaware, who was in
our company, found a bark canoe, and he would push into the current
to reach an island that lies in the very centre of the confusion
and strife. We told him of his folly, we did; and we reasoned
with him on the wickedness of tempting Providence by seeking danger
that led to no ind; but the youth among the Delawares are very much
the same as the youth among the soldiers, risky and vain. All we
could say did not change his mind, and the lad had his way. To me
it seems, Mabel, that whenever a thing is really grand and potent,
it has a quiet majesty about it, altogether unlike the frothy
and flustering manner of smaller matters, and so it was with them
rapids. The canoe was no sooner fairly in them, than down it went,
as it might be, as one sails through the air on the 'arth, and no
skill of the young Delaware could resist the stream. And yet he
struggled manfully for life, using the paddle to the last, like the
deer that is swimming to cast the hounds. At first he shot across
the current so swiftly, that we thought he would prevail; but he
had miscalculated his distance, and when the truth really struck
him, he turned the head upstream, and struggled in a way that
was fearful to look at. I could have pitied him even had he been
a Mingo. For a few moments his efforts were so frantic that he
actually prevailed over the power of the cataract; but natur' has
its limits, and one faltering stroke of the paddle set him back,
and then he lost ground, foot by foot, inch by inch, until he got
near the spot where the river looked even and green, and as if it
were made of millions of threads of water, all bent over some huge
rock, when he shot backwards like an arrow and disappeared, the bow
of the canoe tipping just enough to let us see what had become of
him. I met a Mohawk some years later who had witnessed the whole
affair from the bed of the stream below, and he told me that the
Delaware continued to paddle in the air until he was lost in the
mists of the falls."

"And what became of the poor wretch?" demanded Mabel, who had been
strongly interested by the natural eloquence of the speaker.

"He went to the happy hunting-grounds of his people, no doubt; for
though he was risky and vain, he was also just and brave. Yes, he
died foolishly, but the Manitou of the red-skins has compassion on
his creatur's as well as the God of a Christian."

A gun at this moment was discharged from a blockhouse near the
fort; and the shot, one of light weight, came whistling over the
cutter's mast, an admonition to approach no nearer. Jasper was at
the helm, and he kept away, smiling at the same time as if he felt
no anger at the rudeness of the salutation. The _Scud_ was now
in the current, and her outward set soon carried her far enough to
leeward to avoid the danger of a repetition of the shot, and then
she quietly continued her course along the land. As soon as the
river was fairly opened, Jasper ascertained that the _Montcalm_
was not at anchor in it; and a man sent aloft came down with the
report that the horizon showed no sail. The hope was now strong
that the artifice of Jasper had succeeded, and that the French
commander had missed them by keeping the middle of the lake as he
steered towards its head.

All that day the wind hung to the southward, and the cutter continued
her course about a league from the land, running six or eight
knots the hour in perfectly smooth water. Although the scene had
one feature of monotony, the outline of unbroken forest, it was not
without its interest and pleasures. Various headlands presented
themselves, and the cutter, in running from one to another, stretched
across bays so deep as almost to deserve the name of gulfs. But
nowhere did the eye meet with the evidences of civilization;
rivers occasionally poured their tribute into the great reservoir
of the lake, but their banks could be traced inland for miles by
the same outlines of trees; and even large bays, that lay embosomed
in woods, communicating with Ontario only by narrow outlets, appeared
and disappeared, without bringing with them a single trace of a
human habitation.

Of all on board, the Pathfinder viewed the scene with the most
unmingled delight. His eyes feasted on the endless line of forest,
and more than once that day, notwithstanding he found it so grateful
to be near Mabel, listening to her pleasant voice, and echoing,
in feelings at least, her joyous laugh, did his soul pine to be
wandering beneath the high arches of the maples, oaks, and lindens,
where his habits had induced him to fancy lasting and true joys
were only to be found. Cap viewed the prospect differently; more
than once he expressed his disgust at there being no lighthouses,
church-towers, beacons, or roadsteads with their shipping. Such
another coast, he protested, the world did not contain; and, taking
the Sergeant aside, he gravely assured him that the region could
never come to anything, as the havens were neglected, the rivers
had a deserted and useless look, and that even the breeze had a
smell of the forest about it, which spoke ill of its properties.

But the humors of the different individuals in her did not stay
the speed of the _Scud_: when the sun was setting, she was already
a hundred miles on her route towards Oswego, into which river
Sergeant Dunham now thought it his duty to go, in order to receive
any communications that Major Duncan might please to make. With
a view to effect this purpose, Jasper continued to hug the shore
all night; and though the wind began to fail him towards morning,
it lasted long enough to carry the cutter up to a point that was
known to be but a league or two from the fort. Here the breeze
came out light at the northward, and the cutter hauled a little
from the land, in order to obtain a safe offing should it come on
to blow, or should the weather again get to be easterly.

When the day dawned, the cutter had the mouth of the Oswego well
under the lee, distant about two miles; and just as the morning
gun from the fort was fired, Jasper gave the order to ease off the
sheets, and to bear up for his port. At that moment a cry from
the forecastle drew all eyes towards the point on the eastern side
of the outlet, and there, just without the range of shot from the
light guns of the works, with her canvas reduced to barely enough
to keep her stationary, lay the _Montcalm_, evidently in waiting
for their appearance.

To pass her was impossible, for by filling her sails the French ship
could have intercepted them in a few minutes; and the circumstances
called for a prompt decision. After a short consultation, the
Sergeant again changed his plan, determining to make the best of his
way towards the station for which he had been originally destined,
trusting to the speed of the _Scud_ to throw the enemy so far astern
as to leave no clue to her movements.

The cutter accordingly hauled upon a wind with the least possible
delay, with everything set that would draw. Guns were fired from
the fort, ensigns shown, and the ramparts were again crowded. But
sympathy was all the aid that Lundie could lend to his party; and
the _Montcalm_, also firing four or five guns of defiance, and
throwing abroad several of the banners of France, was soon in chase
under a cloud of canvas.

For several hours the two vessels were pressing through the water
as fast as possible, making short stretches to windward, apparently
with a view to keep the port under their lee, the one to enter it
if possible, and the other to intercept it in the attempt.

At meridian the French ship was hull down, dead to leeward, the
disparity of sailing on a wind being very great, and some islands
were near by, behind which Jasper said it would be possible for
the cutter to conceal her future movements. Although Cap and
the Sergeant, and particularly Lieutenant Muir, to judge by his
language, still felt a good deal of distrust of the young man,
and Frontenac was not distant, this advice was followed; for time
pressed, and the Quartermaster discreetly observed that Jasper
could not well betray them without running openly into the enemy's
harbor, a step they could at any time prevent, since the only
cruiser of force the French possessed at the moment was under their
lee and not in a situation to do them any immediate injury.

Left to himself, Jasper Western soon proved how much was really
in him. He weathered upon the islands, passed them, and on coming
out to the eastward, kept broad away, with nothing in sight in his
wake or to leeward. By sunset again the cutter was up with the
first of the islands that lie in the outlet of the lake; and ere
it was dark she was running through the narrow channels on her way
to the long-sought station. At nine o'clock, however, Cap insisted
that they should anchor; for the maze of islands became so complicated
and obscure, that he feared, at every opening, the party would
find themselves under the guns of a French fort. Jasper consented
cheerfully, it being a part of his standing instructions to approach
the station under such circumstances as would prevent the men from
obtaining any very accurate notions of its position, lest a deserter
might betray the little garrison to the enemy.

The _Scud_ was brought to in a small retired bay, where it would
have been difficult to find her by daylight, and where she was
perfectly concealed at night, when all but a solitary sentinel on
deck sought their rest. Cap had been so harassed during the previous
eight-and-forty hours, that his slumbers were long and deep; nor
did he awake from his first nap until the day was just beginning
to dawn. His eyes were scarcely open, however, when his nautical
instinct told him that the cutter was under way. Springing up, he
found the _Scud_ threading the islands again, with no one on deck
but Jasper and the pilot, unless the sentinel be excepted, who had
not in the least interfered with movements that he had every reason
to believe were as regular as they were necessary.

"How's this, Master Western?" demanded Cap, with sufficient fierceness
for the occasion; "are you running us into Frontenac at last, and
we all asleep below, like so many mariners waiting for the 'sentry
go'?"

"This is according to orders, Master Cap, Major Duncan having
commanded me never to approach the station unless at a moment when
the people were below; for he does not wish there should be more
pilots in those waters than the king has need of."

"Whe-e-e-w! a pretty job I should have made of running down among
these bushes and rocks with no one on deck! Why, a regular York
branch could make nothing of such a channel."

"I always thought, sir," said Jasper, smiling, "you would have done
better had you left the cutter in my hands until she had safely
reached her place of destination."

"We should have done it, Jasper, we should have done it, had it not
been for a circumstance; these circumstances are serious matters,
and no prudent man will overlook them."

"Well, sir, I hope there is now an end of them. We shall arrive in
less than an hour if the wind holds, and then you'll be safe from
any circumstances that I can contrive."

"Humph!"

Cap was obliged to acquiesce; and, as everything around him had the
appearance of Jasper's being sincere, there was not much difficulty
in making up his mind to submit. It would not have been easy indeed
for a person the most sensitive on the subject of circumstances
to fancy that the _Scud_ was anywhere in the vicinity of a port so
long established and so well known on the frontiers as Frontenac.
The islands might not have been literally a thousand in number, but
they were so numerous and small as to baffle calculation, though
occasionally one of larger size than common was passed. Jasper
had quitted what might have been termed the main channel, and was
winding his way, with a good stiff breeze and a favorable current,
through passes that were sometimes so narrow that there appeared
to be barely room sufficient for the _Scud's_ spars to clear the
trees, while at other moments he shot across little bays, and buried
the cutter again amid rocks, forests, and bushes. The water was
so transparent that there was no occasion for the lead, and being
of very equal depth, little risk was actually run, though Cap,
with his maritime habits, was in a constant fever lest they should
strike.

"I give it up, I give it up, Pathfinder!" the old seaman at length
exclaimed, when the little vessel emerged in safety from the
twentieth of these narrow inlets through which she had been so
boldly carried; "this is defying the very nature of seamanship,
and sending all its laws and rules to the d---l!"

"Nay, nay, Saltwater, 'tis the perfection of the art. You perceive
that Jasper never falters, but, like a hound with a true nose, he
runs with his head high as if he had a strong scent. My life on
it, the lad brings us out right in the ind, as he would have done
in the beginning had we given him leave."

"No pilot, no lead, no beacons, buoys, or lighthouses, no -- "

"Trail," interrupted Pathfinder; "for that to me is the most
mysterious part of the business. Water leaves no trail, as every
one knows; and yet here is Jasper moving ahead as boldly as if he
had before his eyes the prints of the moccasins on leaves as plainly
as we can see the sun in the heaven."

"D--- me, if I believe there is even any compass!"

"Stand by to haul down the jib," called out Jasper, who merely
smiled at the remarks of his companion. "Haul down -- starboard
your helm -- starboard hard -- so - meet her -- gently there with
the helm -- touch her lightly - now jump ashore with the fast, lad
-- no, heave; there are some of our people ready to take it."

All this passed so quickly as barely to allow the spectator time
to note the different evolutions, ere the _Scud_ had been thrown
into the wind until her mainsail shivered, next cast a little by
the use of the rudder only, and then she set bodily alongside of
a natural rocky quay, where she was immediately secured by good
fasts run to the shore. In a word, the station was reached, and
the men of the 55th were greeted by their expecting comrades, with
the satisfaction which a relief usually brings.

Mabel sprang up on the shore with a delight which she did not care
to express; and her father led his men after her with an alacrity
which proved how wearied he had become of the cutter. The station,
as the place was familiarly termed by the soldiers of the 55th,
was indeed a spot to raise expectations of enjoyment among those who
had been cooped up so long in a vessel of the dimensions of the
_Scud_. None of the islands were high, though all lay at a sufficient
elevation above the water to render them perfectly healthy and
secure. Each had more or less of wood; and the greater number
at that distant day were clothed with the virgin forest. The one
selected by the troops for their purpose was small, containing
about twenty acres of land, and by some of the accidents of the
wilderness it had been partly stripped of its trees, probably
centuries before the period of which we are writing, and a little
grassy glade covered nearly half its surface.

The shores of Station Island were completely fringed with bushes,
and great care had been taken to preserve them, as they answered as
a screen to conceal the persons and things collected within their
circle. Favored by this shelter, as well as by that of several
thickets of trees and different copses, some six or eight low huts
had been erected to be used as quarters for the officer and his men,
to contain stores, and to serve the purposes of kitchen, hospital,
etc. These huts were built of logs in the usual manner, had been
roofed by bark brought from a distance, lest the signs of labor
should attract attention, and, as they had now been inhabited
some months, were as comfortable as dwellings of that description
usually ever get to be.

At the eastern extremity of the island, however, was a small,
densely-wooded peninsula, with a thicket of underbrush so closely
matted as nearly to prevent the possibility of seeing across it,
so long as the leaves remained on the branches. Near the narrow
neck that connected this acre with the rest of the island, a small
blockhouse had been erected, with some attention to its means of
resistance. The logs were bullet-proof, squared and jointed with
a care to leave no defenceless points; the windows were loopholes,
the door massive and small, and the roof, like the rest of the
structure, was framed of hewn timber, covered properly with bark
to exclude the rain. The lower apartment as usual contained stores
and provisions; here indeed the party kept all their supplies;
the second story was intended for a dwelling, as well as for the
citadel, and a low garret was subdivided into two or three rooms,
and could hold the pallets of some ten or fifteen persons. All
the arrangements were exceedingly simple and cheap, but they were
sufficient to protect the soldiers against the effects of a surprise.
As the whole building was considerably less than forty feet high,
its summit was concealed by the tops of the trees, except from the
eyes of those who had reached the interior of the island. On that
side the view was open from the upper loops, though bushes even
there, more or less, concealed the base of the wooden tower.