John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1584"

T. S. Arthur - "Home Lights and Shadows"

Clarence Edward Mulford - "Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round Up (BAR 20)"

Mary W. Shelley - "Notes to The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley"

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




"Farther west, boy; farther west," muttered Pathfinder; "there
where you see the water foam. Bring the top of the dead oak in a
line with the stem of the blasted hemlock."

Eau-douce made no answer; for the canoe was in the centre of the
stream, with its head pointed towards the fall, and it had already
begun to quicken its motion by the increased force of the current.
At that moment Cap would cheerfully have renounced every claim to
glory that could possibly be acquired by the feat, to have been
safe again on shore. He heard the roar of the water, thundering,
as it might be, behind a screen, but becoming more and more
distinct, louder and louder, and before him he saw its line cutting
the forest below, along which the green and angry element seemed
stretched and shining, as if the particles were about to lose their
principle of cohesion.

"Down with your helm, down with your helm, man!" he exclaimed,
unable any longer to suppress his anxiety, as the canoe glided
towards the edge of the fall.

"Ay, ay, down it is sure enough," answered Pathfinder, looking
behind him for a single instant, with his silent, joyous laugh, --
"down we go, of a sartinty! Heave her starn up, boy; farther up
with her starn!"

The rest was like the passage of the viewless wind. Eau-douce
gave the required sweep with his paddle, the canoe glanced into
the channel, and for a few seconds it seemed to Cap that he was
tossing in a caldron. He felt the bow of the canoe tip, saw the
raging, foaming water careering madly by his side, was sensible
that the light fabric in which he floated was tossed about like an
egg-shell, and then, not less to his great joy than to his surprise,
he discovered that it was gliding across the basin of still water
below the fall, under the steady impulse of Jasper's paddle.

The Pathfinder continued to laugh; but he arose from his knees, and,
searching for a tin pot and a horn spoon, he began deliberately to
measure the water that had been taken in the passage.

"Fourteen spoonfuls, Eau-douce; fourteen fairly measured spoonfuls.
I have, you must acknowledge, known you to go down with only ten."

"Master Cap leaned so hard up stream," returned Jasper seriously,
"that I had difficulty in trimming the canoe."

"It may be so; no doubt it _was_ so, since you say it; but I have
known you go over with only ten."

Cap now gave a tremendous hem, felt for his queue as if to ascertain
its safety, and then looked back in order to examine the danger
he had gone through. His safety is easily explained. Most of the
river fell perpendicularly ten or twelve feet; but near its centre
the force of the current had so far worn away the rock as to permit
the water to shoot through a narrow passage, at an angle of about
forty or forty five degrees. Down this ticklish descent the canoe
had glanced, amid fragments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and
furious tossings of the element, which an uninstructed eye would
believe menaced inevitable destruction to an object so fragile.
But the very lightness of the canoe had favored its descent; for,
borne on the crest of the waves, and directed by a steady eye and
an arm full of muscle, it had passed like a feather from one pile
of foam to another, scarcely permitting its glossy side to be wetted.
There were a few rocks to be avoided, the proper direction was to
be rigidly observed, and the fierce current did the rest. (1)

(1) Lest the reader suppose we are dealing purely in fiction, the
writer will add that he has known a long thirty-two pounder carried
over these same falls in perfect safety.

To say that Cap was astonished would not be expressing half his
feelings; he felt awed: for the profound dread of rocks which most
seamen entertain came in aid of his admiration of the boldness of
the exploit. Still he was indisposed to express all he felt, lest
it might be conceding too much in favor of fresh water and inland
navigation; and no sooner had he cleared his throat with the
afore-said hem, than he loosened his tongue in the usual strain
of superiority.

"I do not gainsay your knowledge of the channel, Master Eau-douce,
and, after all, to know the channel in such a place is the main
point. I have had cockswains with me who could come down that
shoot too, if they only knew the channel."

"It isn't enough to know the channel," said Pathfinder; "it needs
narves and skill to keep the canoe straight, and to keep her clear
of the rocks too. There isn't another boatman in all this region
that can shoot the Oswego, but Eau-douce there, with any sartainty;
though, now and then, one has blundered through. I can't do it
myself unless by means of Providence, and it needs Jasper's hand
and eye to make sure of a dry passage. Fourteen spoonfuls, after
all, are no great matter, though I wish it had been but ten, seeing
that the Sergeant's daughter was a looker-on."

"And yet you conned the canoe; you told him how to head and how to
sheer."

"Human frailty, master mariner; that was a little of white-skin
natur'. Now, had the Sarpent, yonder, been in the boat, not a word
would he have spoken or thought would he have given to the public.
An Indian knows how to hold his tongue; but we white folk fancy
we are always wiser than our fellows. I'm curing myself fast of
the weakness, but it needs time to root up the tree that has been
growing more than thirty years."

"I think little of this affair, sir; nothing at all to speak my
mind freely. It's a mere wash of spray to shooting London Bridge
which is done every day by hundreds of persons, and often by the
most delicate ladies in the land. The king's majesty has shot the
bridge in his royal person."

"Well, I want no delicate ladies or king's majesties (God bless
'em!) in the canoe, in going over these falls; for a boat's breadth,
either way, may make a drowning matter of it. Eau-douce, we shall
have to carry the Sergeant's brother over Niagara yet, to show
him what may be done in a frontier."

"The devil! Master Pathfinder, you must be joking now! Surely it
is not possible for a bark canoe to go over that mighty cataract?"

"You never were more mistaken, Master Cap, in your life. Nothing
is easier and many is the canoe I have seen go over it with my own
eyes; and if we both live I hope to satisfy you that the feat can
be done. For my part, I think the largest ship that ever sailed on
the ocean might be carried over, could she once get into the rapids."

Cap did not perceive the wink which Pathfinder exchanged with
Eau-douce, and he remained silent for some time; for, sooth to
say, he had never suspected the possibility of going down Niagara,
feasible as the thing must appear to every one on a second thought,
the real difficulty existing in going up it.

By this time the party had reached the place where Jasper had left
his own canoe, concealed in the bushes, and they all re-embarked;
Cap, Jasper, and his niece in one boat and Pathfinder, Arrowhead,
and the wife of the latter in the other. The Mohican had already
passed down the banks of the river by land, looking cautiously and
with the skill of his people for the signs of an enemy.

The cheek of Mabel did not recover all its bloom until the canoe was
again in the current, down which it floated swiftly, occasionally
impelled by the paddle of Jasper. She witnessed the descent of
the falls with a degree of terror which had rendered her mute; but
her fright had not been so great as to prevent admiration of the
steadiness of the youth who directed the movement from blending
with the passing terror. In truth, one much less sensitive might
have had her feelings awakened by the cool and gallant air with
which Eau-douce had accomplished this clever exploit. He had
stood firmly erect, notwithstanding the plunge; and to those on
the shore it was evident that, by a timely application of his skill
and strength, the canoe had received a sheer which alone carried it
clear of a rock over which the boiling water was leaping in _jets
d'eau_, -- now leaving the brown stone visible, and now covering
it with a limpid sheet, as if machinery controlled the play of
the element. The tongue cannot always express what the eyes view;
but Mabel saw enough, even in that moment of fear, to blend for
ever in her mind the pictures presented by the plunging canoe and
the unmoved steersman. She admitted that insidious feeling which
binds woman so strongly to man, by feeling additional security
in finding herself under his care; and, for the first time since
leaving Fort Stanwix, she was entirely at her ease in the frail
bark in which she travelled. As the other canoe kept quite near
her own, however, and the Pathfinder, by floating at her side, was
most in view, the conversation was principally maintained with that
person; Jasper seldom speaking unless addressed, and constantly
exhibiting a wariness in the management of his own boat, which might
have been remarked by one accustomed to his ordinarily confident,
careless manner.

"We know too well a woman's gifts to think of carrying the Sergeant's
daughter over the falls," said Pathfinder, looking at Mabel, while
he addressed her uncle; "though I've been acquainted with some of
her sex that would think but little of doing the thing."

"Mabel is faint-hearted, like her mother," returned Cap; "and you
did well, friend, to humor her weakness. You will remember the
child has never been at sea."

"No, no, it was easy to discover that; by your own fearlessness,
any one might have seen how little you cared about the matter.
I went over once with a raw hand, and he jumped out of the canoe
just as it tipped, and you many judge what a time he had of it."

"What became of the poor fellow?" asked Cap, scarcely knowing
how to take the other's manner, which was so dry, while it was so
simple, that a less obtuse subject than the old sailor might well
have suspected its sincerity. "One who has passed the place knows
how to feel for him."

"He was a _poor_ fellow, as you say; and a poor frontierman too,
though he came out to show his skill among us ignoranters. What
became of him? Why, he went down the falls topsy-turvey like, as
would have happened to a court-house or a fort."

"If it should jump out of at canoe," interrupted Jasper, smiling,
thought he was evidently more disposed than his friend to let the
passage of the falls be forgotten.

"The boy is right," rejoined Pathfinder, laughing in Mabel's face,
the canoes being now so near that they almost touched; "he is
sartainly right. But you have not told us what you think of the
leap we took?"

"It was perilous and bold," said Mabel; "while looking at it, I
could have wished that it had not been attempted, though, now it
is over, I can admire its boldness and the steadiness with which
it was made."

"Now, do not think that we did this thing to set ourselves off in
female eyes. It may be pleasant to the young to win each other's
good opinions by doing things which may seem praiseworthy and bold;
but neither Eau-douce nor myself is of that race. My natur' has
few turns in it, and is a straight natur'; nor would it be likely
to lead me into a vanity of this sort while out on duty. As
for Jasper, he would sooner go over the Oswego Falls, without a
looker-on, than do it before a hundred pair of eyes. I know the
lad well from much consorting, and I am sure he is not boastful or
vainglorious."

Mabel rewarded the scout with a smile, which served to keep the
canoes together for some time longer; for the sight of youth and
beauty was so rare on that remote frontier, that even the rebuked
and self-mortified feelings of this wanderer of the forest were
sensibly touched by the blooming loveliness of the girl.

"We did it for the best," Pathfinder continued; "'twas all for the
best. Had we waited to carry the canoe across the portage, time
would have been lost, and nothing is so precious as time when you
are mistrustful of Mingos."

"But we have little to fear now. The canoes move swiftly, and two
hours, you have said, will carry us down to the fort."

"It shall be a cunning Iroquois who hurts a hair of your head, pretty
one; for all here are bound to the Sergeant, and most, I think, to
yourself, to see you safe from harm. Ha, Eau-douce! what is that
in the river, at the lower turn, yonder, beneath the bushes, -- I
mean standing on the rock?"

"'Tis the Big Serpent, Pathfinder; he is making signs to us in a
way I don't understand."

"'Tis the Sarpent, as sure as I'm a white man, and he wishes us to
drop in nearer to his shore. Mischief is brewing, or one of his
deliberation and steadiness would never take this trouble. Courage,
all! We are men, and must meet devilry as becomes our color and
our callings. Ah, I never knew good come of boasting! And here,
just as I was vaunting of our safety, comes danger to give me the
lie."



CHAPTER IV

Art, stryving to compare
With nature, did an arber greene dispred,
Fram'd of wanton yvie flowing fayre,
Through which the fragrant eglantines did spred.
SPENSER.


The Oswego, below the falls, is a more rapid, unequal stream than
it is above them. There are places where the river flows in the
quiet stillness of deep water, but many shoals and rapids occur;
and at that distant day, when everything was in its natural state,
some of the passes were not altogether without hazard. Very little
exertion was required on the part of those who managed the canoes,
except in those places where the swiftness of the current and the
presence of the rocks required care; then, indeed, not only vigilance,
but great coolness, readiness, and strength of arm became necessary,
in order to avoid the dangers. Of all this the Mohican was aware,
and he had judiciously selected a spot where the river flowed
tranquilly to intercept the canoes, in order to make his communication
without hazard to those he wished to speak.

The Pathfinder had no sooner recognized the form of his red friend,
than, with a strong sweep of his paddle, he threw the head of his
own canoe towards the shore, motioning for Jasper to follow. In a
minute both boats were silently drifting down the stream, within
reach of the bushes that overhung the water, all observing a profound
silence; some from alarm, and others from habitual caution. As
the travellers drew nearer the Indian, he made a sign for them to
stop; and then he and Pathfinder had a short but earnest conference.

"The Chief is not apt to see enemies in a dead log," observed the
white man to his red associate; "why does he tell us to stop?"

"Mingos are in the woods."

"That we have believed these two days: does the chief know it?"

The Mohican quietly held up the head of a pipe formed of stone.

"It lay on a fresh trail that led towards the garrison," - for so
it was the usage of that frontier to term a military work, whether
it was occupied or not.

"That may be the bowl of a pipe belonging to a soldier. Many use
the red-skin pipes."

"See," said the Big Serpent, again holding the thing he had found
up to the view of his friend.

The bowl of the pipe was of soap-stone, and was carved with great
care and with a very respectable degree of skill; in its centre
was a small Latin cross, made with an accuracy which permitted no
doubt of its meaning.

"That does foretell devilry and wickedness," said the Pathfinder,
who had all the provincial horror of the holy symbol in question
which then pervaded the country, and which became so incorporated
with its prejudices, by confounding men with things, as to have
left its traces strong enough on the moral feeling of the community
to be discovered even at the present hour; "no Indian who had not
been parvarted by the cunning priests of the Canadas would dream
of carving a thing like that on his pipe. I'll warrant ye, the
knave prays to the image every time he wishes to sarcumvent the
innocent, and work his fearful wickedness. It looks fresh, too,
Chingachgook?"

"The tobacco was burning when I found it."

"That is close work, chief. Where was the trail?"

The Mohican pointed to a spot not a hundred yards from that where
they stood.

The matter now began to look very serious, and the two principal
guides conferred apart for several minutes, when both ascended the
bank, approached the indicated spot, and examined the trail with
the utmost care. After this investigation had lasted a quarter
of an hour, the white man returned alone, his red friend having
disappeared in the forest.

The ordinary expression of the countenance of the Pathfinder was
that of simplicity, integrity, and sincerity, blended in an air
of self-reliance which usually gave great confidence to those who
found themselves under his care; but now a look of concern cast a
shade over his honest face, that struck the whole party.

"What cheer, Master Pathfinder?" demanded Cap, permitting a voice
that was usually deep, loud, and confident to sink into the cautious
tones that better suited the dangers of the wilderness. "Has the
enemy got between us and our port?"

"Anan?"

"Have any of these painted scaramouches anchored off the harbor
towards which we are running, with the hope of cutting us off in
entering?"

"It may be all as you say, friend Cap, but I am none the wiser
for your words; and in ticklish times the plainer a man makes his
English the easier he is understood. I know nothing of ports and
anchors; but there is a direful Mingo trail within a hundred yards
of this very spot, and as fresh as venison without salt. If one of
the fiery devils has passed, so have a dozen; and, what is worse,
they have gone down towards the garrison, and not a soul crosses
the clearing around it that some of their piercing eyes will not
discover, when sartain bullets will follow."

"Cannot this said fort deliver a broadside, and clear everything
within the sweep of its hawse?"

"Nay, the forts this-a-way are not like forts in the settlements,
and two or three light cannon are all they have down at the mouth
of the river; and then, broadsides fired at a dozen outlying Mingoes,
lying behind logs and in a forest, would be powder spent in vain.
We have but one course, and that is a very nice one. We are
judgmatically placed here, both canoes being hid by the high bank
and the bushes, from all eyes, except those of any lurker directly
opposite. Here, then, we may stay without much present fear; but
how to get the bloodthirsty devils up the stream again? Ha! I
have it, I have it! if it does no good, it can do no harm. Do you
see the wide-topped chestnut here, Jasper, at the last turn in the
river -- on our own side of the stream, I mean?"

"That near the fallen pine?"

"The very same. Take the flint and tinderbox, creep along the bank,
and light a fire at that spot; maybe the smoke will draw them above
us. In the meanwhile, we will drop the canoes carefully down beyond
the point below, and find another shelter. Bushes are plenty, and
covers are easily to be had in this region, as witness the many
ambushments."

"I will do it, Pathfinder," said Jasper, springing to the shore.
"In ten minutes the fire shall be lighted."

"And, Eau-douce, use plenty of damp wood this time," half whispered
the other, laughing heartily, in his own peculiar manner; "when
smoke is wanted, water helps to thicken it."

The young man was soon off, making his way rapidly towards the
desired point. A slight attempt of Mabel to object to the risk
was disregarded, and the party immediately prepared to change its
position, as it could be seen from the place where Jasper intended
to light his fire. The movement did not require haste, and it
was made leisurely and with care. The canoes were got clear of
the bushes, then suffered to drop down with the stream until they
reached the spot where the chestnut, at the foot of which Jasper
was to light the fire, was almost shut out from view, when they
stopped, and every eye was turned in the direction of the adventurer.

"There goes the smoke!" exclaimed the Pathfinder, as a current of
air whirled a little column of the vapor from the land, allowing
it to rise spirally above the bed of the river. "A good flint, a
small bit of steel, and plenty of dry leaves makes a quick fire.
I hope Eau-douce will have the wit to bethink him of the damp wood
now when it may serve us all a good turn."

"Too much smoke -- too much cunning," said Arrowhead sententiously.

"That is gospel truth, Tuscarora, if the Mingoes didn't know that
they are near soldiers; but soldiers commonly think more of their
dinner at a halt than of their wisdom and danger. No, no; let the
boy pile on his logs, and smoke them well too; it will all be laid
to the stupidity of some Scotch or Irish blunderer, who is thinking
more of his oatmeal or his potatoes than of Indian sarcumventions
or Indian rifles."

"And yet I should think, from all we have heard in the towns, that
the soldiers on this frontier are used to the artifices of their
enemies," said Mabel, "and become almost as wily as the red men
themselves."

"Not they. Experience makes them but little wiser; and they wheel,
and platoon, and battalion it about, here in the forest, just as
they did in their parks at home, of which they are all so fond of
talking. One red-skin has more cunning in his natur' than a whole
regiment from the other side of the water; that is, what I call
cunning of the woods. But there is smoke enough, of all conscience,
and we had better drop into another cover. The lad has thrown
the river on his fire, and there is danger that the Mingoes will
believe a whole regiment is out."

While speaking, the Pathfinder permitted his canoe to drift away
from the bush by which it had been retained, and in a couple of
minutes the bend in the river concealed the smoke and the tree.
Fortunately a small indentation in the shore presented itself,
within a few yards of the point they had just passed; and the two
canoes glided into it, under the impulsion of the paddles.

A better spot could not have been found for the purpose. The bushes
were thick, and overhung the water, forming a complete canopy of
leaves. There was a small gravelly strand at the bottom of the
little bay, where most of the party landed to be more at their ease,
and the only position from which they could possibly be seen was
a point on the river directly opposite. There was little danger,
however, of discovery from that quarter, as the thicket there was
even denser than common, and the land beyond it was so wet and
marshy as to render it difficult to be trodden.

"This is a safe cover," said the Pathfinder, after he had taken a
scrutinizing survey of his position; "but it may be necessary to
make it safer. Master Cap, I ask nothing of you but silence, and
a quieting of such gifts as you may have got at sea, while the
Tuscarora and I make provision for the evil hour."

The guide then went a short distance into the bushes, accompanied
by the Indian, where the two cut off the larger stems of several
alders and other bushes, using the utmost care not to make a noise.
The ends of these little trees were forced into the mud, outside
of the canoes, the depth of the water being very trifling; and in
the course of ten minutes a very effectual screen was interposed
between them and the principal point of danger. Much ingenuity
and readiness were manifested in making this simple arrangement,
in which the two workmen were essentially favored by the natural
formation of the bank, the indentation in the shore, the shallowness
of the water, and the manner in which the tangled bushes dipped
into the stream. The Pathfinder had the address to look for bushes
which had curved stems, things easily found in such a place; and
by cutting them some distance beneath the bend, and permitting the
latter to touch the water, the artificial little thicket had not
the appearance of growing in the stream, which might have excited
suspicion; but one passing it would have thought that the bushes
shot out horizontally from the bank before they inclined upwards
towards the light. In short, none but an unusually distrustful
eye would have been turned for an instant towards the spot in quest
of a hiding-place.

"This is the best cover I ever yet got into," said the Pathfinder,
with his quiet laugh, after having been on the outside to reconnoitre;
"the leaves of our new trees fairly touch those of the bushes over
our heads. Hist! -- yonder comes Eau-douce, wading, like a sensible
boy, as he is, to leave his trail in the water; and we shall soon
see whether our cover is good for anything or not."

Jasper had indeed returned from his duty above; and missing the
canoes, he at once inferred that they had dropped round the next
bend in the river, in order to get out of sight of the fire. His
habits of caution immediately suggested the expediency of stepping
into the water, in order that there might exist no visible
communication between the marks left on the shore by the party
and the place where he believed them to have taken refuge below.
Should the Canadian Indians return on their own trail, and discover
that made by the Pathfinder and the Serpent in their ascent from
and descent to the river, the clue to their movements would cease
at the shore, water leaving no prints of footsteps. The young man
had therefore waded, knee-deep, as far as the point, and was now
seen making his way slowly down the margin of the stream, searching
curiously for the spot in which the canoes were hid.