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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.

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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




When those who had been left behind had heard the explanations of
Jasper, a profound stillness reigned among them, each listening
intently in the vain hope of catching some clue to the result
of the fearful struggle that had just taken place, if it were not
still going on in the water. Nothing was audible beyond the steady
roar of the rushing river; it being a part of the policy of their
enemies on the opposite shore to observe the most deathlike stillness.

"Take this paddle, Jasper," said Pathfinder calmly, though the
listeners thought his voice sounded more melancholy than usual,
"and follow with your own canoe. It is unsafe for us to remain
here longer."

"But the Serpent?"

"The Great Sarpent is in the hands of his own Deity, and will live
or die, according to the intentions of Providence. We can do him
no good, and may risk too much by remaining here in idleness, like
women talking over their distresses. This darkness is very precious."

A loud, long, piercing yell came from the shore, and cut short the
words of the guide.

"What is the meaning of that uproar, Master Pathfinder?" demanded
Cap. "It sounds more like the outcries of devils than anything
that can come from the throats of Christians and men."

"Christians they are not, and do not pretend to be, and do not
wish to be; and in calling them devils you have scarcely misnamed
them. That yell is one of rejoicing, and it is as conquerors they
have given it. The body of the Sarpent, no doubt, dead or alive,
is in their power.

"And we!" exclaimed Jasper, who felt a pang of generous regret, as
the idea that he might have averted the calamity presented itself
to his mind, had he not deserted his comrade.

"We can do the chief no good, lad, and must quit this spot as fast
as possible."

"Without one attempt to rescue him? -- without even knowing whether
he be dead or living?"

"Jasper is right," said Mabel, who could speak, though her voice
sounded huskily and smothered; "I have no fears, uncle, and will
stay here until we know what has become of our friend."

"This seems reasonable, Pathfinder," put in Cap. "Your true seaman
cannot well desert a messmate; and I am glad to find that motives
so correct exist among those fresh-water people."

"Tut! tut!" returned the impatient guide, forcing the canoe into
the stream as he spoke; "ye know nothing and ye fear nothing. If
ye value your lives, think of reaching the garrison, and leave the
Delaware in the hands of Providence. Ah's me! the deer that goes
too often to the lick meets the hunter at last!"



CHAPTER VII.

And is this -- Yarrow? -- this the stream
Of which my fancy cherish'd
So faithfully a waking dream?
An image that hath perish'd?
Oh that some minstrel's harp were near,
To utter notes of gladness,
And chase this silence from the air,
That fills my heart with sadness.
WORDSWORTH.


THE scene was not without its sublimity, and the ardent, generous-minded
Mabel felt her blood thrill in her veins and her cheeks flush, as
the canoe shot into the strength of the stream, to quit the spot.
The darkness of the night had lessened, by the dispersion of the
clouds; but the overhanging woods rendered the shore so obscure,
that the boats floated down the current in a belt of gloom
that effectually secured them from detection. Still, there was
necessarily a strong feeling of insecurity in all on board them;
and even Jasper, who by this time began to tremble, in behalf of
the girl, at every unusual sound that arose from the forest, kept
casting uneasy glances around him as he drifted on in company.
The paddle was used lightly, and only with exceeding care; for the
slightest sound in the breathing stillness of that hour and place
might apprise the watchful ears of the Iroquois of their position.

All these accessories added to the impressive grandeur of
her situation, and contributed to render the moment much the most
exciting which had ever occurred in the brief existence of Mabel
Dunham. Spirited, accustomed to self-reliance, and sustained by
the pride of considering herself a soldier's daughter, she could
hardly be said to be under the influence of fear, yet her heart
often beat quicker than common, her fine blue eye lighted with an
exhibition of a resolution that was wasted in the darkness, and her
quickened feelings came in aid of the real sublimity that belonged
to the scene and to the incidents of the night.

"Mabel!" said the suppressed voice of Jasper, as the two canoes
floated so near each other that the hand of the young man held
them together, "you have no dread? You trust freely to our care
and willingness to protect you?"

"I am a soldier's daughter, as you know, Jasper Western, and ought
to be ashamed to confess fear."

"Rely on me -- on us all. Your uncle, Pathfinder, the Delaware,
were the poor fellow here, I myself, will risk everything rather
than harm should reach you."

"I believe you, Jasper," returned the girl, her hand unconsciously
playing in the water. "I know that my uncle loves me, and
will never think of himself until he has first thought of me; and
I believe you are all my father's friends, and would willingly
assist his child. But I am not so feeble and weak-minded as you
may think; for, though only a girl from the towns, and, like most
of that class, a little disposed to see danger where there is none,
I promise you, Jasper, no foolish fears of mine shall stand in the
way of your doing your duty."

"The Sergeant's daughter is right, and she is worthy of being honest
Thomas Dunham's child," put in the Pathfinder. "Ah's me, pretty
one! many is the time that your father and I have scouted and
marched together on the flanks and rear of the enemy, in nights
darker than this, and that, too, when we did not know but the next
moment would lead us into a bloody ambushment. I was at his side
when he got the wound in his shoulder; and the honest fellow will
tell you, when you meet, the manner in which we contrived to cross
the river which lay in our rear, in order to save his scalp."

"He has told me," said Mabel, with more energy perhaps than her
situation rendered prudent. "I have his letters, in which he has
mentioned all that, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart
for the service. God will remember it, Pathfinder; and there is
no gratitude that you can ask of the daughter which she will not
cheerfully repay for her father's life."

"Ay, that is the way with all your gentle and pure-hearted creatures.
I have seen some of you before, and have heard of others. The
Sergeant himself has talked to me of his own young days, and of
your mother, and of the manner in which he courted her, and of all
the crossings and disappointments, until he succeeded at last."

"My mother did not live long to repay him for what he did to win
her," said Mabel, with a trembling lip.

"So he tells me. The honest Sergeant has kept nothing back; for,
being so many years my senior, he has looked on me, in our many
scoutings together, as a sort of son."

"Perhaps, Pathfinder," observed Jasper, with a huskiness in his
voice that defeated the attempt at pleasantry, "he would be glad
to have you for one in reality."

"And if he did, Eau-douce, where would be the sin of it? He knows
what I am on a trail or a scout, and he has seen me often face to
face with the Frenchers. I have sometimes thought, lad, that we
all ought to seek for wives; for the man that lives altogether in
the woods, and in company with his enemies or his prey, gets to
lose some of the feeling of kind in the end. It is not easy to
dwell always in the presence of God and not feel the power of His
goodness. I have attended church-sarvice in the garrisons, and
tried hard, as becomes a true soldier, to join in the prayers;
for, though no enlisted sarvant of the king, I fight his battles and
sarve his cause, and so I have endeavored to worship garrison-fashion,
but never could raise within me the solemn feelings and true
affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest. There I
seem to stand face to face with my Master; all around me is fresh
and beautiful, as it came from His hand; and there is no nicety
or doctrine to chill the feelings. No no; the woods are the true
temple after all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher
even than the clouds."

"You speak the truth, Master Pathfinder," said Cap, "and a truth
that all who live much in solitude know. What, for instance,
is the reason that seafaring men in general are so religious and
conscientious in all they do, but the fact that they are so often
alone with Providence, and have so little to do with the wickedness
of the land. Many and many is the time that I have stood my watch,
under the equator perhaps, or in the Southern Ocean, when the nights
are lighted up with the fires of heaven; and that is the time, I
can tell you, my hearties, to bring a man to his bearings in the
way of his sins. I have rattled down mine again and again under
such circumstances, until the shrouds and lanyards of conscience
have fairly creaked with the strain. I agree with you, Master
Pathfinder, therefore, in saying, if you want a truly religious
man, go to sea, or go into the woods."

"Uncle, I thought seamen had little credit generally for their
respect for religion?"

"All d----d slander, girl; for all the essentials of Christianity
the seaman beats the landsman hand-over-hand."

"I will not answer for all this, Master Cap," returned Pathfinder;
"but I daresay some of it may be true. I want no thunder and
lightning to remind me of my God, nor am I as apt to bethink on
most of all His goodness in trouble and tribulations as on a calm,
solemn, quiet day in a forest, when His voice is heard in the
creaking of a dead branch or in the song of a bird, as much in my
ears at least as it is ever heard in uproar and gales. How is it
with you, Eau-douce? you face the tempests as well as Master Cap,
and ought to know something of the feelings of storms."

"I fear that I am too young and too inexperienced to be able to
say much on such a subject," modestly answered Jasper.

"But you have your feelings!" said Mabel quickly. "You cannot --
no one can live among such scenes without feeling how much they
ought to trust in God!"

"I shall not belie my training so much as to say I do not sometimes
think of these things, but I fear it is not so often or so much as
I ought."

"Fresh water," resumed Cap pithily; "you are not to expect too
much of the young man, Mabel. I think they call you sometimes by
a name which would insinuate all this: Eau-de-vie, is it not?"

"Eau-douce," quietly replied Jasper, who from sailing on the
lake had acquired a knowledge of French, as well as of several of
the Indian dialects. "It is a name the Iroquois have given me to
distinguish me from some of my companions who once sailed upon the
sea, and are fond of filling the ears of the natives with stories
of their great salt-water lakes."

"And why shouldn't they? I daresay they do the savages no harm.
Ay, ay, Eau-deuce; that must mean the white brandy, which may well
enough be called the deuce, for deuced stuff it is!"

"The signification of Eau-douce is sweet-water, and it is the
manner in which the French express fresh-water," rejoined Jasper,
a little nettled.

"And how the devil do they make water out of Eau-in-deuce, when
it means brandy in Eau-de-vie? Besides, among seamen, Eau always
means brandy; and Eau-de-vie, brandy of a high proof. I think
nothing of your ignorance, young man; for it is natural to your
situation, and cannot be helped. If you will return with me, and
make a v'y'ge or two on the Atlantic, it will serve you a good
turn the remainder of your days; and Mabel there, and all the other
young women near the coast, will think all the better of you should
you live to be as old as one of the trees in this forest."

"Nay, nay," interrupted the single-hearted and generous guide;
"Jasper wants not for friends in this region, I can assure you; and
though seeing the world, according to his habits, may do him good
as well as another, we shall think none the worse of him if he never
quits us. Eau-douce or Eau-de-vie, he is a brave, true-hearted
youth, and I always sleep as soundly when he is on the watch as
if I was up and stirring myself; ay, and for that matter, sounder
too. The Sergeant's daughter here doesn't believe it necessary for
the lad to go to sea in order to make a man of him, or one who is
worthy to be respected and esteemed."

Mabel made no reply to this appeal, and she even looked towards the
western shore, although the darkness rendered the natural movements
unnecessary to conceal her face. But Jasper felt that there was a
necessity for his saying something, the pride of youth and manhood
revolting at the idea of his being in a condition not to command the
respect of his fellows or the smiles of his equals of the other
sex. Still he was unwilling to utter aught that might be considered
harsh to the uncle of Mabel; and his self-command was perhaps more
creditable than his modesty and spirit.

"I pretend not to things I don't possess," he said, "and lay no
claim to any knowledge of the ocean or of navigation. We steer by
the stars and the compass on these lakes, running from headland
to headland; and having little need of figures and calculations,
make no use of them. But we have our claims notwithstanding, as
I have often heard from those who have passed years on the ocean.
In the first place, we have always the land aboard, and much of the
time on a lee-shore, and that I have frequently heard makes hardy
sailors. Our gales are sudden and severe, and we are compelled
to run for our ports at all hours."

"You have your leads," interrupted Cap.

"They are of little use, and are seldom cast."

"The deep-seas."

"I have heard of such things, but confess I never saw one."

"Oh! deuce, with a vengeance. A trader, and no deep-sea! Why,
boy, you cannot pretend to be anything of a mariner. Who the
devil ever heard of a seaman without his deep-sea?"

"I do not pretend to any particular skill, Master Cap."

"Except in shooting falls, Jasper, except in shooting falls and
rifts," said Pathfinder, coming to the rescue; "in which business
even you, Master Cap, must allow he has some handiness. In my
judgment, every man is to be esteemed or condemned according to his
gifts; and if Master Cap is useless in running the Oswego Falls,
I try to remember that he is useful when out of sight of land; and
if Jasper be useless when out of sight of land, I do not forget
that he has a true eye and steady hand when running the falls."

"But Jasper is not useless -- would not be useless when out of
sight of land," said Mabel, with a spirit and energy that caused
her clear sweet voice to be startling amid the solemn stillness of
that extraordinary scene. "No one can be useless there who can do
so much here, is what I mean; though, I daresay, he is not as well
acquainted with ships as my uncle."

"Ay, bolster each other up in your ignorance," returned Cap with
a sneer. "We seamen are so much out-numbered when ashore that it
is seldom we get our dues; but when you want to be defended, or
trade is to be carried on, there is outcry enough for us."

"But, uncle, landsmen do not come to attack our coasts; so that
seamen only meet seamen."

"So much for ignorance! Where are all the enemies that have landed
in this country, French and English, let me inquire, niece?"

"Sure enough, where are they?" ejaculated Pathfinder. "None can
tell better than we who dwell in the woods, Master Cap. I have
often followed their line of march by bones bleaching in the rain,
and have found their trail by graves, years after they and their
pride had vanished together. Generals and privates, they lay
scattered throughout the land, so many proofs of what men are when
led on by their love of great names and the wish to be more than
their fellows."

"I must say, Master Pathfinder, that you sometimes utter opinions
that are a little remarkable for a man who lives by the rifle;
seldom snuffing the air but he smells gunpowder, or turning out of
his berth but to bear down on an enemy."

"If you think I pass my days in warfare against my kind, you know
neither me nor my history. The man that lives in the woods and on
the frontiers must take the chances of the things among which he
dwells. For this I am not accountable, being but an humble and
powerless hunter and scout and guide. My real calling is to hunt
for the army, on its marches and in times of peace; although I
am more especially engaged in the service of one officer, who is
now absent in the settlements, where I never follow him. No, no;
bloodshed and warfare are not my real gifts, but peace and mercy.
Still, I must face the enemy as well as another; and as for a
Mingo, I look upon him as man looks on a snake, a creatur' to be
put beneath the heel whenever a fitting occasion offers."

"Well, well; I have mistaken your calling, which I had thought
as regularly warlike as that of a ship's gunner. There is my
brother-in-law, now; he has been a soldier since he was sixteen,
and he looks upon his trade as every way as respectable as that of
a seafaring man, a point I hardly think it worth while to dispute
with him."

"My father has been taught to believe that it is honorable to carry
arms," said Mabel, "for his father was a soldier before him."

"Yes, yes," resumed the guide; "most of the Sergeant's gifts are
martial, and he looks at most things in this world over the barrel
of his musket. One of his notions, now, is to prefer a king's piece
to a regular, double-sighted, long-barrelled rifle. Such conceits
will come over men from long habit; and prejudice is, perhaps, the
commonest failing of human natur'."

While the desultory conversation just related had been carried on
in subdued voices, the canoes were dropping slowly down with the
current within the deep shadows of the western shore, the paddles
being used merely to preserve the desired direction and proper
positions. The strength of the stream varied materially, the water
being seemingly still in places, while in other reaches it flowed
at a rate exceeding two or even three miles in the hour. On the
rifts it even dashed forward with a velocity that was appalling to
the unpractised eye. Jasper was of opinion that they might drift
down with the current to the mouth of the river in two hours from
the time they left the shore, and he and the Pathfinder had agreed
on the expediency of suffering the canoes to float of themselves
for a time, or at least until they had passed the first dangers
of their new movement. The dialogue had been carried on in voices,
too, guardedly low; for though the quiet of deep solitude reigned
in that vast and nearly boundless forest, nature was speaking
with her thousand tongues in the eloquent language of night in a
wilderness. The air sighed through ten thousand trees, the water
rippled, and at places even roared along the shores; and now and
then was heard the creaking of a branch or a trunk, as it rubbed
against some object similar to itself, under the vibrations of a
nicely balanced body. All living sounds had ceased. Once, it is
true, the Pathfinder fancied he heard the howl of a distant wolf,
of which a few prowled through these woods; but it was a transient
and doubtful cry, that might possibly have been attributed to the
imagination. When he desired his companions, however, to cease
talking, his vigilant ear had caught the peculiar sound which is
made by the parting of a dried branch of a tree and which, if his
senses did not deceive him, came from the western shore. All who
are accustomed to that particular sound will understand how readily
the ear receives it, and how easy it is to distinguish the tread
which breaks the branch from every other noise of the forest.

"There is the footstep of a man on the bank," said Pathfinder
to Jasper, speaking in neither a whisper nor yet in a voice loud
enough to be heard at any distance. "Can the accursed Iroquois have
crossed the river already, with their arms, and without a boat?"

"It may be the Delaware. He would follow us, of course down this
bank, and would know where to look for us. Let me draw closer into
the shore, and reconnoitre."

"Go boy but be light with the paddle, and on no account venture
ashore on an onsartainty."

"Is this prudent?" demanded Mabel, with an impetuosity that rendered
her incautious in modulating her sweet voice.

"Very imprudent, if you speak so loud, fair one. I like your
voice, which is soft and pleasing, after the listening so long to
the tones of men; but it must not be heard too much, or too freely,
just now. Your father, the honest Sergeant, will tell you, when
you meet him, that silence is a double virtue on a trail. Go,
Jasper, and do justice to your own character for prudence."

Ten anxious minutes succeeded the disappearance of the canoe of
Jasper, which glided away from that of the Pathfinder so noiselessly,
that it had been swallowed up in the gloom before Mabel allowed
herself to believe the young man would really venture alone on
a service which struck her imagination as singularly dangerous.
During this time, the party continued to float with the current,
no one speaking, and, it might almost be said, no one breathing,
so strong was the general desire to catch the minutest sound that
should come from the shore. But the same solemn, we might, indeed,
say sublime, quiet reigned as before; the washing of the water,
as it piled up against some slight obstruction, and the sighing of
the trees, alone interrupting the slumbers of the forest. At the
end of the period mentioned, the snapping of dried branches was
again faintly heard, and the Pathfinder fancied that the sound of
smothered voices reached him.

"I may be mistaken," he said, "for the thoughts often fancy what
the heart wishes; but these were notes like the low tones of the
Delaware."

"Do the dead of the savages ever walk?" demanded Cap.

"Ay, and run too, in their happy hunting-grounds, but nowhere
else. A red-skin finishes with the 'arth, after the breath quits
the body. It is not one of his gifts to linger around his wigwam
when his hour has passed."

"I see some object on the water," whispered Mabel, whose eye had
not ceased to dwell on the body of gloom, with close intensity,
since the disappearance of Jasper.

"It is the canoe," returned the guide, greatly relieved. "All must
be safe, or we should have heard from the lad."

In another minute the two canoes, which became visible to those
they carried only as they drew near each other, again floated side
by side, and the form of Jasper was recognized at the stern of his
own boat. The figure of a second man was seated in the bow; and,
as the young sailor so wielded his paddle as to bring the face of
his companion near the eyes of the Pathfinder and Mabel, they both
recognized the person of the Delaware.

"Chingachgook -- my brother!" said the guide in the dialect of
the other's people, a tremor shaking his voice that betrayed the
strength of his feelings. "Chief of the Mohicans! My heart is very
glad. Often have we passed through blood and strife together, but
I was afraid it was never to be so again."

"Hugh! The Mingos are squaws! Three of their scalps hang at my
girdle. They do not know how to strike the Great Serpent of the
Delawares. Their hearts have no blood; and their thoughts are on
their return path, across the waters of the Great Lake."

"Have you been among them, chief? and what has become of the warrior
who was in the river?"

"He has turned into a fish, and lies at the bottom with the eels!
Let his brothers bait their hooks for him. Pathfinder, I have
counted the enemy, and have touched their rifles."

"Ah, I thought he would be venturesome!" exclaimed the guide in
English. "The risky fellow has been in the midst of them, and has
brought us back their whole history. Speak, Chingachgook, and I
will make our friends as knowing as ourselves."

The Delaware now related in a low earnest manner the substance of
all his discoveries, since he was last seen struggling with his
foe in the river. Of the fate of his antagonist he said no more,
it not being usual for a warrior to boast in his more direct and
useful narratives. As soon as he had conquered in that fearful
strife, however, he swam to the eastern shore, landed with caution,
and wound his way in amongst the Iroquois, concealed by the darkness,
undetected, and, in the main, even unsuspected. Once, indeed, he
had been questioned; but answering that he was Arrowhead, no further
inquiries were made. By the passing remarks, he soon ascertained
that the party was out expressly to intercept Mabel and her uncle,
concerning whose rank, however, they had evidently been deceived.
He also ascertained enough to justify the suspicion that Arrowhead
had betrayed them to their enemies, for some motive that it was
not now easy to reach, as he had not yet received the reward of
his services.