Ella Wheeler Wilcox - "Poems of Experience"

Constant - "Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, V4"

Richard Steele - "Isaac Bickerstaff"

Charles Edward Stowe - "The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe"

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




Pathfinder communicated no more of this intelligence to his companions
than he thought might relieve their apprehensions, intimating, at
the same time, that now was the moment for exertion, the Iroquois
not having yet entirely recovered from the confusion created by
their losses.

"We shall find them at the rift, I make no manner of doubt,"
continued he; "and there it will be our fate to pass them, or to
fall into their hands. The distance to the garrison will then be
so short, that I have been thinking of a plan of landing with Mabel
myself, that I may take her in, by some of the by-ways, and leave
the canoes to their chances in the rapids."

"It will never succeed, Pathfinder," eagerly interrupted Jasper.
"Mabel is not strong enough to tramp the woods in a night like
this. Put her in my skiff, and I will lose my life, or carry her
through the rift safely, dark as it is."

"No doubt you will, lad; no one doubts your willingness to do
anything to serve the Sergeant's daughter; but it must be the eye
of Providence, and not your own, that will take you safely through
the Oswego rift in a night like this."

"And who will lead her safely to the garrison if she land? Is not
the night as dark on shore as on the water? or do you think I know
less of my calling than you know of yours?"

"Spiritedly said, lad; but if I should lose my way in the dark
-- and I believe no man can say truly that such a thing ever yet
happened to me -- but, if I _should_ lose my way, no other harm
would come of it than to pass a night in the forest; whereas a
false turn of the paddle, or a broad sheer of the canoe, would put
you and the young woman into the river, out of which it is more
than probable the Sergeant's daughter would never come alive."

"I will leave it to Mabel herself; I am certain that she will feel
more secure in the canoe."

"I have great confidence in you both," answered the girl; "and have
no doubts that either will do all he can to prove to my father how
much he values him; but I confess I should not like to quit the
canoe, with the certainty we have of there being enemies like those
we have seen in the forest. But my uncle can decide for me in
this matter."

"I have no liking for the woods," said Cap, "while one has a clear
drift like this on the river. Besides, Master Pathfinder, to say
nothing of the savages, you overlook the sharks."

"Sharks! Who ever heard of sharks in the wilderness?"

"Ay! Sharks, or bears, or wolves -- no matter what you call a
thing, so it has the mind and power to bite."

"Lord, lord, man! Do you dread any creatur' that is to be found
in the American forest? A catamount is a skeary animal, I will
allow, but then it is nothing in the hands of a practysed hunter.
Talk of the Mingos and their devilries if you will; but do not
raise a false alarm about bears and wolves."

"Ay, ay, Master Pathfinder, this is all well enough for you,
who probably know the name of every creature you would meet. Use
is everything, and it makes a man bold when he might otherwise be
bashful. I have known seamen in the low latitudes swim for hours
at a time among sharks fifteen or twenty feet long."

"This is extraordinary!" exclaimed Jasper, who had not yet acquired
that material part of his trade, the ability to spin a yarn. "I
have always heard that it was certain death to venture in the water
among sharks."

"I forgot to say, that the lads always took capstan-bars, or gunners'
handspikes, or crows with them, to rap the beasts over the noses
if they got to be troublesome. No, no, I have no liking for bears
and wolves, though a whale, in my eye, is very much the same sort
of fish as a red herring after it is dried and salted. Mabel and
I had better stick to the canoe."

"Mabel would do well to change canoes," added Jasper. "This of
mine is empty, and even Pathfinder will allow that my eye is surer
than his own on the water."

"That I will, cheerfully, boy. The water belongs to your gifts,
and no one will deny that you have improved them to the utmost.
You are right enough in believing that the Sergeant's daughter will
be safer in your canoe than in this; and though I would gladly keep
her near myself, I have her welfare too much at heart not to give
her honest advice. Bring your canoe close alongside, Jasper, and
I will give you what you must consider as a precious treasure."

"I do so consider it," returned the youth, not losing a moment in
complying with the request; when Mabel passed from one canoe to the
other taking her seat on the effects which had hitherto composed
its sole cargo.

As soon as this arrangement was made, the canoes separated a short
distance, and the paddles were used, though with great care to
avoid making any noise. The conversation gradually ceased; and
as the dreaded rift was approached, all became impressed with the
gravity of the moment. That their enemies would endeavor to reach
this point before them was almost certain; and it seemed so little
probable any one should attempt to pass it, in the profound obscurity
which reigned, that Pathfinder was confident parties were on both
sides of the river, in the hope of intercepting them when they
might land. He would not have made the proposal he did had he not
felt sure of his own ability to convert this very anticipation of
success into a means of defeating the plans of the Iroquois. As
the arrangement now stood, however, everything depended on the skill
of those who guided the canoes; for should either hit a rock, if
not split asunder, it would almost certainly be upset, and then
would come not only all the hazards of the river itself, but, for
Mabel, the certainty of falling into the hands of her pursuers.
The utmost circumspection consequently became necessary, and each
one was too much engrossed with his own thoughts to feel a disposition
to utter more than was called for by the exigencies of the case.

At the canoes stole silently along, the roar of the rift became
audible, and it required all the fortitude of Cap to keep his seat,
while these boding sounds were approached, amid a darkness which
scarcely permitted a view of the outlines of the wooded shore and
of the gloomy vault above his head. He retained a vivid impression
of the falls, and his imagination was not now idle in swelling the
dangers of the rift to a level with those of the headlong descent
he had that day made, and even to increase them, under the influence
of doubt and uncertainty. In this, however, the old mariner was
mistaken, for the Oswego Rift and the Oswego Falls are very different
in their characters and violence; the former being no more than
a rapid, that glances among shallows and rocks, while the latter
really deserved the name it bore, as has been already shown.

Mabel certainly felt distrust and apprehension; but her entire
situation was so novel, and her reliance on her guide so great,
that she retained a self-command which might not have existed had
she clearer perceptions of the truth, or been better acquainted
with the helplessness of men when placed in opposition to the power
and majesty of Nature.

"Is that the spot you have mentioned?" she said to

Jasper, when the roar of the rift first came distinctly on her
ears.

"It is; and I beg you to have confidence in me. We are not
old acquaintances, Mabel; but we live many days in one, in this
wilderness. I think, already, that I have known you years!"

"And I do not feel as if you were a stranger to me, Jasper. I
have every reliance on your skill, as well as on your disposition
to serve me."

"We shall see, we shall see. Pathfinder is striking the rapids
too near the centre of the river; the bed of the water is closer to
the eastern shore; but I cannot make him hear me now. Hold firmly
to the canoe, Mabel, and fear nothing."

At the next moment the swift current had sucked them into the
rift, and for three or four minutes the awe-struck, rather than the
alarmed, girl saw nothing around her but sheets of glancing foam,
heard nothing but the roar of waters. Twenty times did the canoe
appear about to dash against some curling and bright wave that
showed itself even amid that obscurity; and as often did it glide
away again unharmed, impelled by the vigorous arm of him who
governed its movements. Once, and once only, did Jasper seem to
lose command of his frail bark, during which brief space it fairly
whirled entirely round; but by a desperate effort he brought it again
under control, recovered the lost channel, and was soon rewarded
for all his anxiety by finding himself floating quietly in the
deep water below the rapids, secure from every danger, and without
having taken in enough of the element to serve for a draught.

"All is over, Mabel," the young man cried cheerfully. "The danger
is past, and you may now indeed hope to meet your father this very
night."

"God be praised! Jasper, we shall owe this great happiness to
you."

"The Pathfinder may claim a full share in the merit; but what has
become of the other canoe?"

"I see something near us on the water; is it not the boat of our
friends?"

A few strokes of the paddle brought Jasper to the side of the object
in question: it was the other canoe, empty and bottom upwards. No
sooner did the young man ascertain this fact, than he began to search
for the swimmers, and, to his great joy, Cap was soon discovered
drifting down with the current; the old seaman preferring the
chances of drowning to those of landing among savages. He was
hauled into the canoe, though not without difficulty, and then the
search ended; for Jasper was persuaded that the Pathfinder would wade
to the shore, the water being shallow, in preference to abandoning
his beloved rifle.

The remainder of the passage was short, though made amid darkness
and doubt. After a short pause, a dull roaring sound was heard,
which at times resembled the mutterings of distant thunder, and then
again brought with it the washing of waters. Jasper announced to
his companions that they now heard the surf of the lake. Low curved
spits of land lay before them, into the bay formed by one of which
the canoe glided, and then it shot up noiselessly upon a gravelly
beach. The transition that followed was so hurried and great, that
Mabel scarcely knew what passed. In the course of a few minutes,
however, sentinels had been passed, a gate was opened, and the
agitated girl found herself in the arms of a parent who was almost
a stranger to her.



CHAPTER VIII.

A land of love, and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night:
Where the river swa'd a living stream,
And the light a pure celestial beam:
The land of vision, it would seem
A still, an everlasting dream.
_Queen's Wake._


The rest that succeeds fatigue, and which attends a newly awakened
sense of security, is generally sweet and deep. Such was the fact
with Mabel, who did not rise from her humble pallet -- such a bed
as a sergeant's daughter might claim in a remote frontier post --
until long after the garrison had obeyed the usual summons of the
drums, and had assembled at the morning parade. Sergeant Dunham,
on whose shoulders fell the task of attending to these ordinary
and daily duties, had got through all his morning avocations, and
was beginning to think of his breakfast, before his child left her
room, and came into the fresh air, equally bewildered, delighted,
and grateful, at the novelty and security of her new situation.

At the time of which we are writing, Oswego was one of the extreme
frontier posts of the British possessions on this continent. It
had not been long occupied, and was garrisoned by a battalion of
a regiment which had been originally Scotch, but into which many
Americans had been received since its arrival in this country; all
innovation that had led the way to Mabel's father filling the humble
but responsible situation of the oldest sergeant. A few young
officers also, who were natives of the colonies, were to be found
in the corps. The fort itself, like most works of that character,
was better adapted to resist an attack of savages than to withstand
a regular siege; but the great difficulty of transporting heavy
artillery and other necessaries rendered the occurrence of the latter
a probability so remote as scarcely to enter into the estimate of
the engineers who had planned the defences. There were bastions
of earth and logs, a dry ditch, a stockade, a parade of considerable
extent, and barracks of logs, that answered the double purpose of
dwellings and fortifications. A few light field-pieces stood in
the area of the fort, ready to be conveyed to any point where they
might be wanted, and one or two heavy iron guns looked out from
the summits of the advanced angles, as so many admonitions to the
audacious to respect their power.

When Mabel, quitting the convenient, but comparatively retired hut
where her father had been permitted to place her, issued into the
pure air of the morning, she found herself at the foot of a bastion,
which lay invitingly before her, with a promise of giving a _coup
d'oeil_ of all that had been concealed in the darkness of the
preceding night. Tripping up the grassy ascent, the light-hearted
as well as light-footed girl found herself at once on a point where
the sight, at a few varying glances, could take in all the external
novelties of her new situation.

To the southward lay the forest, through which she had been journeying
so many weary days, and which had proved so full of dangers. It was
separated from the stockade by a belt of open land, that had been
principally cleared of its woods to form the martial constructions
around her. This glacis, for such in fact was its military uses,
might have covered a hundred acres; but with it every sign of civilization
ceased. All beyond was forest; that dense, interminable forest
which Mabel could now picture to herself, through her recollections,
with its hidden glassy lakes, its dark rolling stream, and its
world of nature.

Turning from this view, our heroine felt her cheek fanned by a
fresh and grateful breeze, such as she had not experienced since
quitting the far distant coast. Here a new scene presented itself:
although expected, it was not without a start, and a low exclamation
indicative of pleasure, that the eager eyes of the girl drank in its
beauties. To the north, and east, and west, in every direction,
in short, over one entire half of the novel panorama, lay a field
of rolling waters. The element was neither of that glassy green
which distinguishes the American waters in general, nor yet of the
deep blue of the ocean, the color being of a slightly amber hue,
which scarcely affected its limpidity. No land was to be seen,
with the exception of the adjacent coast, which stretched to the
right and left in an unbroken outline of forest with wide bays and
low headlands or points; still, much of the shore was rocky, and
into its caverns the sluggish waters occasionally rolled, producing
a hollow sound, which resembled the concussions of a distant gun.
No sail whitened the surface, no whale or other fish gambolled on
its bosom, no sign of use or service rewarded the longest and most
minute gaze at its boundless expanse. It was a scene, on one
side, of apparently endless forests, while a waste of seemingly
interminable water spread itself on the other. Nature appeared to
have delighted in producing grand effects, by setting two of her
principal agents in bold relief to each other, neglecting details;
the eye turning from the broad carpet of leaves to the still broader
field of fluid, from the endless but gentle heavings of the lake
to the holy calm and poetical solitude of the forest, with wonder
and delight.

Mabel Dunham, though unsophisticated, like most of her countrywomen
of that period, and ingenuous and frank as any warm-hearted and
sincere-minded girl well could be, was not altogether without a
feeling for the poetry of this beautiful earth of ours. Although
she could scarcely be said to be educated at all, for few of her
sex at that day and in this country received much more than the
rudiments of plain English instruction, still she had been taught
much more than was usual for young women in her own station in life;
and, in one sense certainly, she did credit to her teaching. The
widow of a field-officer, who formerly belonged to the same regiment
as her father, had taken the child in charge at the death of its
mother; and under the care of this lady Mabel had acquired some
tastes and many ideas which otherwise might always have remained
strangers to her. Her situation in the family had been less that
of a domestic than of a humble companion, and the results were
quite apparent in her attire, her language, her sentiments, and
even in her feelings, though neither, perhaps, rose to the level
of those which would properly characterize a lady. She had lost
the less refined habits and manners of one in her original position,
without having quite reached a point that disqualified her for the
situation in life that the accidents of birth and fortune would
probably compel her to fill. All else that was distinctive and
peculiar in her belonged to natural character.

With such antecedents it will occasion the reader no wonder if he
learns that Mabel viewed the novel scene before her with a pleasure
far superior to that produced by vulgar surprise. She felt its
ordinary beauties as most would have felt them, but she had also a
feeling for its sublimity -- for that softened solitude, that calm
grandeur, and eloquent repose, which ever pervades broad views of
natural objects yet undisturbed by the labors and struggles of man.

"How beautiful!" she exclaimed, unconscious of speaking, as she
stood on the solitary bastion, facing the air from the lake, and
experiencing the genial influence of its freshness pervading both
her body and her mind. "How very beautiful! and yet how singular!"

The words, and the train of her ideas, were interrupted by a
touch of a finger on her shoulder, and turning, in the expectation
of seeing her father, Mabel found Pathfinder at her side. He was
leaning quietly on his long rifle, and laughing in his quiet manner,
while, with an outstretched arm, he swept over the whole panorama
of land and water.

"Here you have both our domains," said he, -- "Jasper's and mine.
The lake is for him, and the woods are for me. The lad sometimes
boasts of the breadth of his dominions; but I tell him my trees
make as broad a plain on the face of this 'arth as all his water.
Well, Mabel, you are fit for either; for I do not see that fear of
the Mingos, or night-marches, can destroy your pretty looks."

"It is a new character for the Pathfinder to appear in, to compliment
a silly girl."

"Not silly, Mabel; no, not in the least silly. The Sergeant's
daughter would do discredit to her worthy father, were she to do
or say anything that could be called silly."

"Then she must take care and not put too much faith in treacherous,
flattering words. But, Pathfinder, I rejoice to see you among us
again; for, though Jasper did not seem to feel much uneasiness, I
was afraid some accident might have happened to you and your friend
on that frightful rift."

"The lad knows us both, and was sartain that we should not drown,
which is scarcely one of my gifts. It would have been hard swimming
of a sartainty, with a long-barrelled rifle in the hand; and what
between the game, and the savages and the French, Killdeer and
I have gone through too much in company to part very easily. No,
no; we waded ashore, the rift being shallow enough for that with
small exceptions, and we landed with our arms in our hands. We had
to take our time for it, on account of the Iroquois, I will own;
but, as soon as the skulking vagabonds saw the lights that the
Sergeant sent down to your canoe, we well understood they would
decamp, since a visit might have been expected from some of the
garrison. So it was only sitting patiently on the stones for an
hour, and all the danger was over. Patience is the greatest of
virtues in a woodsman."

"I rejoice to hear this, for fatigue itself could scarcely make me
sleep, for thinking of what might befall you."

"Lord bless your tender little heart, Mabel! but this is the way
with all you gentle ones. I must say, on my part, however, that
I was right glad to see the lanterns come down to the waterside,
which I knew to be a sure sign of _your_ safety. We hunters and
guides are rude beings; but we have our feelings and our idees,
as well as any general in the army. Both Jasper and I would have
died before you should have come to harm -- we would."

"I thank you for all you did for me, Pathfinder; from the bottom
of my heart, I thank you; and, depend on it, my father shall know
it. I have already told him much, but have still a duty to perform
on this subject."

"Tush, Mabel! The Sergeant knows what the woods be, and what
men -- true red men -- be, too. There is little need to tell him
anything about it. Well, now you have met your father, do you find
the honest old soldier the sort of person you expected to find ?"

"He is my own dear father, and received me as a soldier and a father
should receive a child. Have you known him long, Pathfinder?"

"That is as people count time. I was just twelve when the Sergeant
took me on my first scouting, and that is now more than twenty
years ago. We had a tramping time of it; and, as it was before
your day, you would have had no father, had not the rifle been one
of my natural gifts."

"Explain yourself."

"It is too simple for many words. We were ambushed, and the Sergeant
got a bad hurt, and would have lost his scalp, but for a sort of
inbred turn I took to the weapon. We brought him off, however,
and a handsomer head of hair, for his time of life, is not to be
found in the rijiment than the Sergeant carries about with him this
blessed day."

"You saved my father's life, Pathfinder!" exclaimed Mabel,
unconsciously, though warmly, taking one of his hard, sinewy hands
into both her own. "God bless you for this, too, among your other
good acts!"

"Nay, I did not say that much, though I believe I did save his scalp.
A man might live without a scalp, and so I cannot say I saved his
life. Jasper may say that much consarning you; for without his eye
and arm the canoe would never have passed the rift in safety on a
night like the last. The gifts of the lad are for the water, while
mine are for the hunt and the trail. He is yonder, in the cove
there, looking after the canoes, and keeping his eye on his beloved
little craft. To my eye, there is no likelier youth in these parts
than Jasper Western."

For the first time since she had left her room, Mabel now turned
her eyes beneath her, and got a view of what might be called the
foreground of the remarkable picture she had been studying with
so much pleasure. The Oswego threw its dark waters into the lake,
between banks of some height; that on its eastern side being bolder
and projecting farther north than that on its western. The fort
was on the latter, and immediately beneath it were a few huts of
logs, which, as they could not interfere with the defence of the
place, had been erected along the strand for the purpose of receiving
and containing such stores as were landed, or were intended to
be embarked, in the communications between the different ports on
the shores of Ontario. Two low, curved, gravelly points had been
formed with surprising regularity by the counteracting forces of
the northerly winds and the swift current, and, inclining from the
storms of the lake, formed two coves within the river: that on
the western side was the most deeply indented; and, as it also had
the most water, it formed a sort of picturesque little port for
the post. It was along the narrow strand that lay between the
low height of the fort and the water of this cove, that the rude
buildings just mentioned had been erected.

Several skiffs, bateaux, and canoes were hauled up on the shore, and
in the cove itself lay the little craft from which Jasper obtained
his claim to be considered a sailor. She was cutter-rigged, might
have been of forty tons burthen, was so neatly constructed and
painted as to have something of the air of a vessel of war, though
entirely without quarters, and rigged and sparred with so scrupulous
a regard to proportions and beauty, as well as fitness and judgment,
as to give her an appearance that even Mabel at once distinguished
to be gallant and trim. Her mould was admirable, for a wright
of great skill had sent her drafts from England, at the express
request of the officer who had caused her to be constructed; her
paint dark, warlike, and neat; and the long coach-whip pennant that
she wore at once proclaimed her to be the property of the king.
Her name was the _Scud_.

"That, then, is the vessel of Jasper!" said Mabel, who associated
the master of the little craft very naturally with the cutter
itself. "Are there many others on this lake?"