God in any thing," returned Pathfinder earnestly. "They that live
in the settlements and the towns have confined and unjust opinions
consarning the might of His hand; but we, who pass our time in His
very presence, as it might be, see things differently -- I mean,
such of us as have white natur's. A red-skin has his notions, and
it is right that it should be so; and if they are not exactly the
same as a Christian white man's, there is no harm in it. Still,
there are matters which belong altogether to the ordering of God's
providence; and these salt and fresh-water lakes are some of them.
I do not pretend to account for these things, but I think it the
duty of all to believe in them."

"Hold on there, Master Pathfinder," interrupted Cap, not without
some heat; "in the way of a proper and manly faith, I will turn
my back on no one, when afloat. Although more accustomed to make
all snug aloft, and to show the proper canvas, than to pray when
the hurricane comes, I know that we are but helpless mortals at
times, and I hope I pay reverence where reverence is due. All I
mean to say is this: that, being accustomed to see water in large
bodies salt, I should like to taste it before I can believe it to
be fresh."

"God has given the salt lick to the deer; and He has given to man,
red-skin and white, the delicious spring at which to slake his
thirst. It is unreasonable to think that He may not have given
lakes of pure water to the west, and lakes of impure water to the
east."

Cap was awed, in spite of his overweening dogmatism, by the earnest
simplicity of the Pathfinder, though he did not relish the idea