第44章

I knew it would turn out just in this way.""What is the matter-with Ontario, Master Cap? It is large, and fair to look at, and pleasant enough to drink, for those who can't get at the water of the springs.""Do you call this large?" asked Cap, again sweeping the air with the pipe."I will just ask you what there is large about it? Didn't Jasper himself confess that it was only some twenty leagues from shore to shore?""But, uncle," interposed Mabel, "no land is to be seen, except here on our own coast.To me it koks exactly like the ocean.""This bit of a pond look like the ocean! Well, Magnet, that from a girl who has had real seamen in her family is downright nonsense.What is there about it, pray, that has even the outline of a sea on it?""Why, there is water -- water -- water -- nothing but water, for miles on miles -- far as the eye can see.""And isn't there water -- water -- water -- nothing but water for miles on miles in your rivers, that you have been canoeing through, too? -- ay, and 'as far as the eye can see,'

in the bargain?"

"Yes, uncle, but the rivers have their banks, and there are trees along them, and they are narrow.""And isn't this a bank where we stand? don't these soldiers call this the bank of the lake? and aren't there trees in thousands? and aren't twenty leagues narrow enough of all conscience? Who the devil ever heard of the banks of the ocean, unless it might be the banks that are under water?""But, uncle, we cannot see across this lake, as we can see across a river.""There you are out, Magnet.Aren't the Amazon and Oronoco and La Plata rivers, and can you see across them?

Hark'e Pathfinder, I very much doubt if this stripe of water here be even a lake; for to me it appears to be only a river.You are by no means particular about your geography, I find, up here in the woods.""There _you_ are out, Master Cap.There is a river, and a noble one too, at each end of it; but this is old Ontario before you; and, though it is not my gift to live on a lake, to my judgment there are few better than this.""And, uncle, if we stood on the beach at Rockaway, what more should we see than we now behold? There is a shore on one side, or banks there, and trees too, as well as those which are here.""This is perverseness, Magnet, and young girls should steer clear of anything like obstinacy.In the first place, the ocean has coasts, but no banks, except the Grand Banks, as I tell you, which are out of sight of land; and you will not pretend that this bank is out of sight of land, or even under water?"As Mabel could not very plausibly set up this extrava-gant opinion, Cap pursued the subject, his countenance beginning to discover the triumph of a successful dis-putant.

"And then them trees bear no comparison to these trees.The coasts of the ocean have farms and cities and country-seats, and, in some parts of the world, castles and monasteries and lighthouses -- ay, ay -- lighthouses, in particular, on them; not one of all which things is to be seen here.No, no, Master Pathfinder; I never heard of an ocean that hadn't more or less lighthouses on it;whereas, hereaway there is not even a beacon.""There is what is better, there is what is better; a forest and noble trees, a fit temple of God.""Ay, your forest may do for a lake; but of what use would an ocean be if the earth all around it were forest?

Ships would be unnecessary, as timber might be floated in rafts, and there would be an end of trade, and what would a world be without trade? I am of that philosopher's opinion who says human nature was invented for the pur-poses of trade.Magnet, I am astonished that you should think this water even looks like sea-water! Now, I dare-say that there isn't such a thing as a whale in all your lake, Master Pathfinder?""I never heard of one, I will confess; but I am no judge of animals that live in the water, unless it be the fishes of the rivers and the brooks.""Nor a grampus, nor a porpoise even? not so much as a poor devil of a shark?""I will not take it on myself to say there is either.My gifts are not in that way, I tell you, Master Cap.""Nor herring, nor albatross, nor flying-fish?" continued Cap, who kept his eye fastened on the guide, in order to see how far he might venture."No such thing as a fish that can fly, I daresay?""A fish that can fly! Master Cap, Master Cap, do not think, because we are mere borderers, that we have no idees of natur', and what she has been pleased to do.Iknow there are squirrels that can fly -- ""A squirrel fly! -- the devil, Master Pathfinder! Do you suppose that you have got a boy on his first v'y'ge up here among you?""I know nothing of your v'y'ges, Master Cap, though Isuppose them to have been many; for as for what belongs to natur' in the woods, what I have seen I may tell, and not fear the face of man.""And do you wish me to understand that you have seen a squirrel fly?""If you wish to understand the power of God, Master Cap, you will do well to believe that, and many other things of a like natur', for you may be quite sartain it is true.""And yet, Pathfinder," said Mabel, looking so prettily and sweetly even while she played with the guide's in-firmity, that he forgave her in his heart, "you, who speak so reverently of the power of the Deity, appear to doubt that a fish can fly.""I have not said it, I have not said it; and if Master Cap is ready to testify to the fact, unlikely as it seems, Iam willing to try to think it true.I think it every man's duty to believe in the power of God, however difficult it may be.""And why isn't my fish as likely to have wings as your squirrel?" demanded Cap, with more logic than was his wont."That fishes do and can fly is as true as it is rea-sonable."