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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8382-0.txt b/8382-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b04d76 --- /dev/null +++ b/8382-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8389 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + A Tale of The Rice Lake Plains + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8382] +Posting Date: August 4, 2009 +Last Updated: November 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + +A TALE OF THE RICE LAKE PLAINS + + +By Catharine Parr Traill + +Authoress Of “The Backwoods Of Canada, Etc.” + +Edited By Agnes Strickland + +Illustrated By Harvey + + + + London: + + Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co. + + 25, Paternoster Row. + + 1852. + + + Dedicated + + To The Children Of The Settlers + + On + + The Rice Lake Plains, + + By Their + + Faithful Friend And Well-Wisher + + THE AUTHORESS. + + OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE, + + 15th Oct 1850 + + + + +PREFACE + +IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any +narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the +struggles of isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. +The distinctions of pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind +is engaged in the contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the +assaults of the gaunt enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances +have usually given sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the +most fortunate, to make them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the +chances of shipwreck, war, wandering, or revolutions have cut off from +home and hearth, and the requisite supplies; not only from the +thousand artificial comforts which civilized society classes among the +necessaries of life, but actually from a sufficiency of “daily bread.” + +Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor +seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of +Defoe as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means +uncommon in middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous +for all who build and plant in a wilderness, “cut off from humanity’s +reach?” Our insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the +inhabitants of Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations +of individuals wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means +generally known that scarcely a summer passes over the colonists +in Canada, without losses of children from the families of settlers +occurring in the vast forests of the backwoods, similar to that on which +the narrative of the Canadian Crusoes is founded. Many persons thus lost +have perished in the wilderness; and it is to impress on the memory +the natural resources of this country, by the aid of interesting the +imagination, that the author of the well-known and popular work, “The +Backwoods of Canada,” has written the following pages. + +She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical +solution _[FN: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.]_ of that provoking +enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, +namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day’s toilsome march, +close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this +cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain +O’Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in +his lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity +of the forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is +recorded in the narrative of the “Escape of a young French Officer from +the depôt near Peterborough during the Napoleon European war.” He found +himself thrice at night within sight of the walls of the prison from +which he had fled in the morning, after taking fruitless circular walks +of twenty miles. I do not recollect the cause of such lost labour being +explained in either narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of +the disaster in the boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced +knowledge, dearly bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons +who wander without knowing the features and landmarks of a country, +instinctively turn their faces to the sun, and for that reason always +travel in a circle, infallibly finding themselves at night in the very +spot from which they started in the morning. The resources and natural +productions of the noble colony of Canada are but superficially known. +An intimate acquaintance with its rich vegetable and animal productions +is most effectually made under the high pressure of difficulty and +necessity. Our writer has striven to interest children, or rather young +people approaching the age of adolescence, in the natural history of +this country, simply by showing them how it is possible for children to +make the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution as forlorn +as the wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who would +not care for the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and +classified technically in books of science, might remember their uses +and properties when thus brought practically before their notice as the +aliments of the famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive +feelings must perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home +comforts and all the ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their +rising families, in order to place them in a more independent position, +it is well if those young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what +they are to find in the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the +fruits, and even the minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has +poured forth over that wide land. + +The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, “The Backwoods of Canada, +by the Wife of an Emigrant Officer,” published some years since by Mr. +C. Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many +editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity +as a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say +that the present is written in the same _naïve_, charming style, with +the same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet +and gentle--author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who +ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her +further years of experience as a settler to the information of the +younger class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in +the productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the +mightiest adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest +colony, unstained with the corruption of convict population; where +families of gentle blood need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; +where no one need beg, and where any one may dig without being ashamed. + + + + +LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. + +LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE + +FIRST BREAKFAST, THE + +CATHARINE FOUND BY THE OLD DOG + +WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE + +HECTOR BRINGING THE INDIAN GIRL + +KILLING WILD FOWL + +INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + +CATHARINE CARRIED OFF + +INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE + +INDIANA AT THE STAKE + +ATTACK ON THE DEER + +RETURN HOME THE + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + “The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O’er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash’d on the shore.” + _Jacobite Song._ + +THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile +valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which +were clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of +the hills and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber +trees of various kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This +beautiful and highly picturesque valley is watered by many clear +streams of pure refreshing water, from whence the spot has derived its +appropriate appellation of “Cold Springs.” At the time my little +history commences, this now highly cultivated spot was an unbroken +wilderness,--all tut two small farms, where dwelt the only occupiers of +the soil,--which owned no other possessors than the wandering hunting +tribes of wild Indians, to whom the right of the hunting grounds north +of Rice Lake appertained, according to their forest laws. + +To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among +cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds +of cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I +speak of the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now +an important port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo--if it +contained even a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and +the wild and picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village +of Port Hope is situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe +of the settler. No gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant +produce of grain and Canadian stores along the waters of that noble +sheet of water; no steamer had then furrowed its bosom with her iron +wheels, bearing the stream of emigration towards the wilds of our +Northern and Western forests, there to render a lonely trackless desert +a fruitful garden. What will not time and the industry of man, assisted +by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? To him be the glory and +honour; for we are taught, that “without the Lord build the city, their +labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord keep the city, the +watchman waketh but in vain.” + +But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the +acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement +at Cold Springs. + +Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the +famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the +praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle +Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick +and disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian +widow in the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he +received much kind attention from his excellent hostess and her +family, which consisted of a young man about his own age, and a pretty +black-eyed lass not more than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much +occupied with other-lodgers--for she kept a sort of boarding-house--that +she had not much time to give to Duncan, so that he was left a great +deal to her son Pierre, and a little to Catharine, her daughter. + +Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the +regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of +country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady +and increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the +children of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep +regret that they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan +belonged was ordered for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far +convalescent as to be pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas +for poor Catharine! she now found that parting with her patient was a +source of the deepest sorrow to her young and guileless heart; nor was +Duncan less moved at the separation from his gentle nurse. It might be +for years, and it might be for ever, he could not tell; but he could not +tear himself away without telling the object of his affections how dear +she was to him, and to whisper a hope that he might yet return one day +to claim her as his bride; and Catharine, weeping and blushing, promised +to wait for that happy day, or to remain single for his sake, while +Pierre promised to watch over his friend’s interests and keep alive +Catharine’s love; for, said he, artlessly, “la belle Catrine is pretty +and lively, and may have many suitors before she sees you again, mon +ami.” + +They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the +exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of +our young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, +for absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on +gratitude and esteem. + +Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet +distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his +country, enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return +to Quebec to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during +that short period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, +lively-hearted Pierre, was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and +Catharine, who had no relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with +her brother and his wife, and was living in some little settlement above +Montreal with them. + +Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly +afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had +never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a +good deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been +hunting with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice +Lake, and he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds +to a quiet life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill +pass between the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan +was of the same opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare +like his own Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned +for the hill country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking +possession of any tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore +Duncan agreed with his brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a +dwelling put up and some ground prepared and “seeded down,” and then to, +return for their wives and settle themselves down at once as farmers. +Others had succeeded, had formed little colonies, and become the heads +of villages in due time; why should not they? And now behold our two +backwoodsmen fairly commencing their arduous life; but it was nothing, +after all, to Pierre, by previous occupation a hardy lumberer, or the +Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave all sorts of hardships in a wild +country, himself a mountaineer, inured to a stormy climate, and scanty +fare, from his earliest youth. But it is not my intention to dwell upon +the trials and difficulties courageously met and battled with by our +settlers and their young wives. + +There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers +on the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with +now. The spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her +comforts are felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly +come emigrant feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were +endured by the older inhabitants. + +The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, +was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little +skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous +Pierre, and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders +of himself and Duncan to their homestead:--a day of great labour but +great joy it was when they deposited their precious freight in safety +on the shanty floor. They were obliged to make two journeys for the +contents of the little craft. What toil, what privation they endured for +the first two years! and now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. +No two creatures could be more unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The +Highlander, stern, steady, persevering, cautious, always giving ample +reasons for his doing or his not doing. The Canadian, hopeful, lively, +fertile in expedients, and gay as a lark; if one scheme failed another +was sure to present itself. Pierre and Duncan were admirably suited to +be friends and neighbours. The steady perseverance of the Scot helped +to temper the volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They generally +contrived to compass the same end by different means, as two streams +descending from opposite hills will meet in one broad river in the same +valley. + +Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its +increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. +Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four +healthy children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these +welcome contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the +children of Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; +they grew up as one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. +Though different in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest +son of the Scottish soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were +greatly attached; they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed +a little coterie of inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, +occupations, all blended and harmonized delightfully; there were none +of those little envyings and bickerings among them that pave the way to +strife and disunion in after life. + +Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister +than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and +formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and +Catharine. + +Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy, +both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is +not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads +and Catharine. With the gaiety and naïveté of the Frenchwoman, Catharine +possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care +of mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a +little reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father’s +teaching. It was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, +having been taught by his colonel’s son, a lad of twelve years of age, +who had taken a great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a +few of his school-books, among which was a Testament, without cover +or title-page. At parting, the young gentleman recommended its daily +perusal to Duncan. Had the gift been a Bible, perhaps the soldier’s +obedience to his priest might have rendered it a dead letter to him, +but as it fortunately happened, he was unconscious of any prohibition +to deter him from becoming acquainted with the truths of the Gospel. He +communicated the power of perusing his books to his children Hector and +Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in succession, with a feeling of intense +reverence; even the labour of teaching was regarded as a holy duty in +itself, and was not undertaken without deeply impressing the obligation +he was conferring upon them whenever they were brought to the task. It +was indeed a precious boon, and the children learned to consider it +as the pearl beyond all price in the trials that awaited them in their +eventful career. To her knowledge of religious truths young Catharine +added an intimate acquaintance with the songs and legends of her +father’s romantic country, which was to her even as fairyland; often +would her plaintive ballads and old tales, related in the hut or the +wigwam to her attentive auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; Louis and +Mathilde, her cousins, sometimes wondered how Catharine had acquired +such a store of ballads and wild tales as she could tell. + +It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not +only doffed that “dazzling white robe” mentioned in the songs of her +Jacobite emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest +season, the last week in May and the first three of June being parallel +to the English May, full of buds and flowers and fair promise of +ripening fruits. The high sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale +of Cold Springs were clothed with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet +enchroma, or painted-cup; the large pure white blossoms of the lily-like +trillium; the delicate and fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful +flowers woo the hand of the flower-gatherer only to fade almost within +his grasp; the golden cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so +lovely in its colour and formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as +the breeze shook the stems; and there, mingling with a thousand various +floral beauties, the azure lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a +heavenly tint upon the earth. Thousands of roses were blooming on the +more level ground, sending forth their rich fragrance, mixed with the +delicate scent of the feathery ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid +greenness of the young leaves of the forest, the tender tint of the +springing corn, were contrasted with the deep dark fringe of waving +pines on the hills, and the yet darker shade of the spruce and balsams +on the borders of the creeks, for so our Canadian forest rills are +universally termed. The bright glancing wings of the summer red-bird, +the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and noisy but splendid +plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air was filled with +beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the shade of the +luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front of the +little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard +mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and +fro guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches +of old mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, +with livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody +of her spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, +unconscious of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements +from among the embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning +sun. + +“Come, ma belle cousine,” for so Louis delighted to call her. “Hector +and I are waiting for you to go with us to the ‘Beaver Meadow.’ The +cattle have strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is +delicious, the very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired +and plucked, and we shall find early strawberries on the old Indian +clearing.” + +Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, “I fear, Louis, I cannot +go to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my +yarn to wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away.” + +“Yes, I left her with mamma.” replied Louis, “and she said she would be +home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take +a basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is +sure he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red.” + As he spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, +gathered up the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker +basket, and the next minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that +hung upon the peg in the porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the +top of Catharine’s head and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling +laugh, which drowned effectually the small lecture that Catharine began +to utter, by way of reproving the light-hearted boy. + +“But where is Mathilde?” + +“Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise’s head on +her lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and +flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her +and petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the +dear children were as happy as queens when I left them.” + +“But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? +We shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to +the Beaver Meadow and back again,” said Catharine, hesitating as Louis +took her hand to lead her out from the porch. + +“Yes, yes, ma belle,” said the giddy boy, quickly; “so come along, for +Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before +we return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a +tin-cup for water.” + +Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little +preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the +little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her +young brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his +shoulder. “What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it +heavy to carry,” said his sister. + +“In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom +for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss +Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of +rock elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I +take the axe with me.” + +The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep +defiles that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung +and chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both +to exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest +shade. What handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and +white, were gathered only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast +aside for others fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills +that flowed, softly murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red +or grey granite, wending their way beneath twisted roots and fallen +trees; and often Catharine lingered to watch the eddying dimples of +the clear water, to note the tiny bright fragments of quartz or +crystallized limestone that formed a shining pavement below the stream; +and often she paused to watch the angry movements of the red squirrel, +as, with feathery tail erect, and sharp scolding note, he crossed +their woodland path, and swiftly darting up the rugged bark of some +neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the intruders on his quiet haunts +defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he scarcely condescended to +ascend beyond their reach. + +The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or +the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, +striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the +soft whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from +one hemlock to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the +bark, were among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the +woods; but to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and +her cousin were not indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector +gravely pursued his onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark +the bright colours of the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest +rill. + +“What makes Hec so grave?” said Catharine to her companion, as they +seated themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they +had giddily chased each other till they had far outrun him. + +“Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or +wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil +or the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, +or the hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as +woodpeckers and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is +not a giddy thing like his cousin Louis, or--” + +“His sister Kate,” interrupted Catharine, merrily; “but when shall we +come to the Beaver Meadow?” + +“Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? +No; Hector whistling.” And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his +axe ringing among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was +cutting it to leave on the path, that he might take it home on their +return; he had also marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe +handles, to bring home at some future time. + +The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down +and rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, +and declared he felt no fatigue. “As soon as we reach the old Indian +clearing, we shall find strawberries,” he said, “and a fresh cold +spring, and then we will have our dinners.” + +“Come, Hector,--come, Louis,” said Catharine, jumping up, “I long to +be gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I +will throw them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit +instead, and we must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear +Mathilde. Ah, how I wish she were here at this minute! But here is the +opening to the Beaver Meadow.” + +And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they +approached the cleared space, which some called the “Indian clearing,” + but is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was +a pleasant spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and +flowering shrubs, of a different growth from those that belong to the +dense forest. Here the children found, on the hilly ground above, fine +ripe strawberries, the earliest they had seen that year, and soon all +weariness was forgotten while pursuing the delightful occupation of +gathering the tempting fruit; and when they had refreshed themselves, +and filled the basket with leaves and fruit, they slaked their thirst +from the stream, which wound its way among the bushes. Catharine +neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of the fragrant white-thorn +and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with nodding umbels of +snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little basket with the +graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered plant, the Linnæa +borealis, which she always said reminded her of the twins, Louise and +Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear away, for they +had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered from the +path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their eagerness to +look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by which they +might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, Louis +noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle hoofs +on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + +“Come, Hector,” said he gaily, “this is lucky; we are on the cattle +path; no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer +track.” + +Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much +towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. “And is +not this our own creek?” he said: “I have often heard my father say it +had its rise somewhere about this old clearing.” + +Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the +path among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, +surprised to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the +stream swept onward. + +“Oh, this dear creek,” cried the delighted Catharine, “how pretty it is! +I shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source +from our own Cold Springs.” + +And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind +the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously +hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony +banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked +poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite +directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the +opening gorge of a deep ravine. + +Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block +of granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by +the ravine, unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled +countenance, stood beside her, looking round with an air of great +perplexity. Louis, seating himself at Catharine’s feet, surveyed the +deep gloomy valley before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had +now forcibly struck him that they had mistaken the path altogether. The +very aspect of the country was different; the growth of the trees, the +flow of the stream, all indicated a change of soil and scene. Darkness +was fast drawing its impenetrable veil around them; a few stars were +stealing out, and gleaming down as if with pitying glance upon the young +wanderers; but they could not light up their pathway, or point their +homeward track. The only sound, save the lulling murmur of the rippling +stream below, was the plaintive note of the whip-poor-will, from a +gnarled oak that grew near them, and the harsh grating scream of the +night hawk, darting about in the higher regions of the air, pursuing +its noisy congeners, or swooping down with that peculiar hollow rushing +sound, as of a person blowing into some empty vessel, when it seizes +with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + +Hector was the first to break the silence. “Cousin Louis, we were wrong +in following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our +way back to-night.” + +Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the +attention of his cousins. “Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to +be cast down by difficulties,” said Hector, as he marked something like +tears glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + +Louis’s heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance +upon the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath +which she sat. + +“It is not,” resumed Hector, “that I mind passing a summer’s night under +such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do +not think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in +the night dews,--and then they will be so anxious at home about our +absence.” + +Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,--“And it is all my doing that +she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much +alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good +cousin Hector, pray forgive me!” But Catharine was weeping too much to +reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from +the truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed +his indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on +the part of Louis. + +The sight of her cousin’s grief and self-abasement touched the tender +heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, +and loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful +consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, +Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she +could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with +deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating +thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid +his cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, +and steeled him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the +penitent Louis, who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder +Catharine, sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing +words and affectionate endeavours to console him. + +“Dear Hector,” she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem +face of her brother, “you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; +remember it was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of +liberty with you and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees +and birds, that he committed this fault.” + +“Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at +the consequences,--we shall have forfeited our parents’ confidence, and +may have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our +home, if we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs,” replied Hector. + +“It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night,” + answered Catharine, “that distresses my mind; but,” she added in more +cheerful tones, “let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able +to retrace our steps.” + +With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word +_to-morrow_,--it is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from +them; sad indeed is the young heart that does not look forward with hope +to the morrow! + +The cloud still hung on Hector’s brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, +“Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think +of providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the +bare ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half +made,” pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had +hurled from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + +“Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them +into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, +and there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to +work, you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own +wigwam,” she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the +feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared +as little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer’s night +under the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; +but her woman’s heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling +the cousins would be by mutually interesting them in the same +object,--and she was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort +of their dear companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector, +while active employment chased away Louis’s melancholy. + +Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, +those of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, +varying in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque +groups, or rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked +poplar or graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately +pine contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender +graceful companions. + +Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, +which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine’s assistance +drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the +upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form +the back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means +a contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with +Louis’s _couteau-de-chasse_, which he always carried in a sheath at his +girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, +for herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and +cousin nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction, +she called the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents, +joined them in the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of +praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward +in imploring help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly +prayed that no dangerous creature might come near to molest them during +the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no +unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels +and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with +the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And the prayer of the +poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in peace, unharmed +in the vast solitude. So passed their first night on the Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +“Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” + +The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, +when the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty +of their situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they +had been under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their +little paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who +neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, +and in fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended +their souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + +While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled +the minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and +sorrow had they passed! + +When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the +two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the +wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud +halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they +check their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the +sighing breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves +caused by the flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the +torches, and the echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that +met their anxious ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, +to their homes, to snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the +drooping hearts of the weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different +directions. But, unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which +Hector and Louis had taken, there being many cattle paths through the +woods. Louis’s want of truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he +had left no intimation of the path he purposed taking when he quitted +his mother’s house: he had merely said he was going with Hector +in search of the cattle, giving no hint of his intention of asking +Catharine to accompany them: he had but told his sick sister, that +he would bring home strawberries and flowers, and that he would soon +return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little did you think of the +web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and all those to whom you +and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, think twice, ere ye +deceive once! Catharine’s absence would have been quite unaccountable +but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had received her +sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and much her +mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful Catharine to +have left her work and forsaken her household duties to go rambling away +with the boys, for she never left the house when her mother was absent +from, it, without her express permission, and now she was gone--lost +to them, perhaps for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, +there hung the untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,--and there +they remained week after week and month after month, untouched, a +melancholy memorial to the hearts of the bereaved parents of their +beloved. + +It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their +vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that +filled their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of +the lost ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the +sorrowing parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome +homes. At the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one +of these three casualties had befallen the lost children:--death, a +lingering death by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or +bears; or yet more terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded +Indians, who occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the +hills about the Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron +as the scene of many bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the +Mohawks and Chippewas: its localities were scarcely ever visited by +our settlers, lest haply they should fall into the hands of the bloody +Mohawks, whose merciless dispositions made them in those days a by-word +even to the less cruel Chippewas and other Indian nations. + +It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his +brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, +among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called +the Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor +wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the +sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, +and mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their +first-born and beloved children.--“There was a voice of woe, and +lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, +and refusing to be comforted, because they were not.” The miserable +uncertainty that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation +to the sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of +the manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; +but, alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + + “Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + ‘Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy’s endless dreams depart.” + +But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see +how it really fared with the young wanderers. + +When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that +arose from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an +indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance +perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear +light of the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in +retracing their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left +no impression on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found +the creek, which was concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic +hawthorns, high-bush cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn +was in blossom, and gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than +the “May” which makes the lanes and hedgerows of “merrie old England” so +sweet and fair in May and June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral +of our olden time; but when our simple Catharine drew down the flowery +branches to wreathe about her hat, she loved the flowers for their own +native sweetness and beauty, not because poets had sung of them;--but +young minds have a natural poetry in themselves, unfettered by rule or +rhyme. + +At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of +cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and _tamarack_ (Indian name +for the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as love +the cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that +they must quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become +entangled in a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing +draughts from the bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they +ascended the grassy bank, and again descending, found themselves in one +of those long valleys, enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed +with shrubs and oaks, with here and there a stately pine. Through this +second valley they pursued their way, till emerging into a wider space, +they came among those singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel +hills, where the Cold Creek once more met their view, winding its way +towards a grove of evergreens, where it was again lost to the eye. + +This lovely spot is now known as Sackville’s Mill-dike. The hand of +man has curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it +subservient to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of +the scene. _[FN: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, +who resided for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to +return to his native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The +old log-house on the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, +though deserted; the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer +protects the enclosure, where the wild rose mingles with that of +Provence,--the Canadian creeper with the hop.]_ + +Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, +winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, +the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the +silver waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of +the wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid +silver just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its +surface, and concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of +dread and doubt and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow +of admiration at a scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which +they now gazed upon from the elevation they had gained. From this ridge +they looked down the lake, and the eye could take in an extent of many +miles, with its verdant wooded islands, which stole into view one by one +as the rays of the morning sun drew up the moving curtain of mist +that enveloped them; and soon both northern and southern shores became +distinctly visible, with all their bays and capes and swelling oak and +pine-crowned hills. + +And now arose the question, “Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be +the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the +Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?” + Hector remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was +like an inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some +remarkable state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally +discerned by the naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects +on the other side, the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of +wild fowl winging their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. +The breadth of the lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, +exceed three or four miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, +seemed far greater beyond--what the eye could take in. _[FN: The +length of the Rice Lake, from its headwaters near Black’s Landing to the +mouth of the Trent, is said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from +north to south varies from three to six.]_ + +They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. +Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of +a beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a +magnificent view down the lake. + +“How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, +overlooking the lake,” said Louis; “only think of the fish we could +take, and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no +very hard matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard +my father say he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river--below, +when he was lumbering.” + +“Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon,” _[FN: +Now the site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman +from Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion +of the ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains +for its natural beauties and extent of prospect.]_ said Hector, “though +I am not quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold +Springs; but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, +and produce plenty of grain, too, if cultivated.” + +“You always look to the main chance, Hec,” said Louis, laughing; “well, +it was worth a few hours’ walking this morning to look upon so lovely a +sheet of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,--would not +you, ma belle?--to enjoy such a sight.” + +“Yes, Louis,” replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; “it is very +pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot +enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been +aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!” + she added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions +and herself would cause at home came over her. “How I wish I had +remained at home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!” + +Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin’s +tears, and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to +soothe and console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the +weeping girl, and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + +“If you cry thus, cousin,” he whispered, “you will break poor Louis’s +heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct.” “Be +not cast down, Catharine,” said her brother, cheeringly: “we may not be +so far from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out +again, and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on +these sunny banks.” + +Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, +proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side +of the high ground where they had been sitting. + +Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, “Come, Hector; come, +Louis: here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:”--for her eye +had caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on +the slope; large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + +“There is indeed, ma belle,” said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather +up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner +shade of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen +tree. Catharine’s voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge +_[FN: The Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than +the English or French partridge. We refer our young readers to the +finely arranged specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) +where they may discover “Louis’s partridge.”]_ from her nest, and the +eggs were soon transferred to Louis’s straw hat, while a stone flung +by the steady hand of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed +exultingly as they displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, +who, in spite of hunger, could not help regretting the death of the +mother bird. Girls and women rarely sympathise with men and boys in +their field sports, and Hector laughed at his sister’s doleful looks as +he handed over the bird to her. + +“It was a lucky chance,” said he, “and the stone was well aimed, but it +is not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so +stupid you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before +the day is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all +events,” he added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin’s hat; +“twelve nice fresh eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit.” + +“But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of +getting a fire made,” said Catharine. + +“As to the eggs,” said Louis, “we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry +wanderers like us to be over nice about our food.” + +“They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the +ashes,” observed Hector. + +“True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble.” + +“But how?” asked Hector. “Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest +would be a flint with the help of my knife.” + +“A flint?” + +“Yes, if we could get one--but I see nothing but granite, which crumbles +and shivers when struck--we could not get a spark. However, I think it’s +very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach yonder may +be found hard enough for the purpose.” + +To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had +been well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, +fringed with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found +themselves beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found +among the water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and +a handful of dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected +without trouble; though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had +coolly proposed to tear a strip from his cousin’s apron as a substitute +for tinder,--a proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the tidy +Catharine, whose ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, +especially as she had no sewing implements to assist in mending the +rent. Louis thought nothing of that; it was a part of his character to +think only of the present, little of the past, and to let the future +provide for itself. Such was Louis’s great failing, which had proved a +fruitful source of trouble both to himself and others. In this respect +he bore a striking contrast to his more cautious companion, who +possessed much of the gravity of his father. Hector was as heedful and +steady in his decisions as Louis was rash and impetuous. + +After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles +through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last +kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then +triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly +to the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently +hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial +than the strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering +them in the morning. + +Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, +under the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were +wreathed together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, +which climbed to a height of fifteen feet _[FN: Solatnum +dulcamara,--Bitter-sweet or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the +red-berried briony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses +powerful properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the +Indians.]_ among the branches _[Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST]_ of +the trees, which it covered as with a mantle. A pure spring of cold, +delicious water welled out from beneath the twisted roots of an old +hoary-barked cedar, and found its way among the shingles on the beach +to the lake, a humble but constant tributary to its waters. Some large +blocks of water-worn stone formed convenient seats and a natural table, +on which the little maiden arranged the forest fare; and never was a +meal made with greater appetite or taken with more thankfulness than +that which our wanderers ate that morning. The eggs (part of which they +reserved for another time) were declared to be better than those that +were daily produced from the little hen-house at Cold Springs. The +strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the shining leaves of +the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with the long spurs +of the hawthorn, _[FN: The long-spurred American hawthorn may be +observed by our young readers among that beautiful collection of the +hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the north side +of Kensington Gardens.]_ were voted delicious, and the pure water most +refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large +mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles +on the beach. + +Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, +lamenting their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless +repining, or, perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the +principal author of their calamity--poor, thoughtless Louis; but such +were not the dispositions of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to +the hardships incidental to the lives of the settlers in the bush, +these young people had learned to bear with patience and cheerfulness +privations that would have crushed the spirits of children more +delicately nurtured. They had known every degree of hunger and +nakedness; during the first few years of their lives they had often +been compelled to subsist for days and weeks upon roots and herbs, wild +fruits, and game which their fathers had learned to entrap, to decoy, +and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early been initiated into the +mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, and pits, and traps, +and snares,--they were as expert as Indians in the use of the bow,--they +could pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart at partridge, hare, and +squirrel, with almost unerring aim; and were as swift of foot as young +fawns. Now it was that they learned to value in its fullest extent +this useful and practical knowledge, which enabled them to face with +fortitude the privations of a life so precarious as that to which they +were now exposed. + +It was one of the elder Maxwell’s maxims,--Never let difficulties +overcome you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the +hand, and the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head +as chief. When his children expressed any doubts of not being able to +accomplish any work they had begun, he would say, “Have you not hands, +have you not a head, have you not eyes to see, and reason to guide +you? As for impossibilities, they do not belong to the trade of a +soldier,--he dare not see them.” Thus were energy and perseverance early +instilled into the minds of his children; they were now called upon +to give practical proofs of the precepts that had been taught them +in childhood. Hector trusted to his axe, and Louis to his +_couteau-de-chasse_ and pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an +old forest friend of his father’s, who had visited them the previous +winter, and which, by good luck, Louis had in his pocket--a capacious +pouch, in which were stored many precious things, such as coils of twine +and string, strips of leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; +nails, bits of iron, leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find +their way most mysteriously into boys’ pockets in general, and Louis +Perron’s in particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small +matters. + +The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few +days abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where +fruits were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning +meal, so providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully +acknowledged the mercy of God in this thing. + +Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the +lake, they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both +to leave the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the +hills and deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so +remarkable a manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look +upon the wild glens and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy +deer found safe retreats, unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,--where +the osprey and white-headed eagle built their nests, unheeding and +unharmed. Twice that day, misled by following the track of the deer, had +they returned to the same spot,--a deep and lovely glen, which had once +been a water-course, but now a green and shady valley. This they named +the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable block of red granite that +occupied a central position in the narrow defile; and here they prepared +to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs cut down and +interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with Hector’s +axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, formed +a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs that +the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and couches, +or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild Scottish +hills. + +While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine +busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having +collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that +grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate +name of the “Birken shaw,” she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it +fine upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This +proved excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the +birch being highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint +that they had used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front +of the rocky stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent +over the coals, served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge +was suspended,--a scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they +knew not how they should breakfast next morning, The children felt they +were pensioners on God’s providence not less than the wild denizens of +the wilderness around them. + +When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or +cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, +Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the +teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, +gently laid her hand upon her brother’s head, which rested on her knees, +as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest +tone, “‘Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they +reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are +ye not much better than they?’ Surely, my brother, God careth for us as +much as for the wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify +his holy name. God cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies +them with knowledge where they shall find food when they hunger and +thirst. So I have heard my father say; and surely our father knows, for +is he not a wise man, Hector?” + +“I remember,” said Louis, thoughtfully, “hearing my mother repeat the +words of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;--‘When you +are in trouble, Mathilde,’ he used to say to her, ‘kneel down, and ask +God’s help, nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the +will to serve you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all +things to pass. It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers +from being heard. And, truly, I think the wise old man was right,” he +added. + +It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy +Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, +looking up with a serious air, replied, “Your mother’s friend was a good +man, Louis. Our want of trust in God’s power must displease Him. And +when we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,--that +blue sky, those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining +down upon us, and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little +creeping plants and flowers that grow at our feet,--it must, indeed, +seem foolish in his eyes that we should doubt his power to help us, who +not only made all these things, but ourselves also.” + +“True,” said Catharine; “but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; +for the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the +good.” + +“Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, +God helps those that help themselves,” said Louis. “Let us consider a +little. There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great.” + +“But how are we to get them out of it?” rejoined Catharine. “I doubt the +fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry.” + +“Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the +holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and +there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of +course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in +abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have +plenty of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in +profusion, and bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as +for raspberries, I see none; but by-and-by there will be +May-apples--I see great quantities of them in the low grounds, grapes, +high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as cherries, and sweet too; +squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and bird-cherries. As +to sweet acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of them for the +roasting, as good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, and +hickory-nuts,--with many other good things.” And here Louis stopped for +want of breath to continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + +“Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat +us for want of better food,” interrupted Hector, slyly. “Nay, Katty, +do not shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. +Neither bear nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis +and thy brother are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence.” + +“Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine,” added Louis, +gallantly, “while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away.” + +“Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider +how we are to obtain them, my dears,” said Catharine. “For fishing, +you know, we must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are +these to be met with?” + +Louis nodded his head sagaciously. “The line I think I can provide; the +hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the +rod, it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma +chere, I could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of +cloth to sew over a hoop.” + +Catharine laughed. “You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, +but where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing +it on?” + +Lords took up the corner of his cousin’s apron with a provoking look. + +“My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem +to covet it for everything.” + +“Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never +could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear +such frightful things.” + +“It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and +scrubbing, and doing all sorts of household duties,” said Catharine. + +“Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean,” + replied the annoying boy; “so there can be little want of the apron. I +could turn it to fifty useful purposes.” + +“Pooh, nonsense,” said Hector, impatiently, “let the child alone, and do +not tease her about her apron.” + +“Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, +water mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, +that, roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and +pepper, they are good eating when nothing better is to be got.” + +“No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured,” said Hector, “but, alas +for the salt and the pepper!” + +“Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces--hunger; and then, +no doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must +not mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them.” + +“To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish,” said Hector. “You and I will +try our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should +break, we can easily cut those long locks from Catharine’s head, and +twist them into lines,”--and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair +hair that hung in shining curls about his sister’s neck. + +“Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis’s proposal of making +tinder and fishing-nets of my apron,” said Catharine, shaking back the +bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in +golden waves over her shoulders. + +“In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that +become her so well,” said Louis. “But we have no scissors, ma belle, so +you need fear no injury to your precious locks.” + +“For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your +_couteau-de-chasse_. I could tell you a story that my father told me, +not long since, of Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in +England. You know he was the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles +Edward, that my father talks of, and loves so much.” + +“I know all about him,” said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; “let us +hear the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my +hair and Louis’s knife can have to do with King Charles.” + +“Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience,” + said her brother. “Well then, you must know, that after some great +battle, the name of which I forget, _[FN: Battle of Worcester.]_ in +which the King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the +forces of the Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the +poor young king was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large +price was set on his head, to be given to any traitor who should slay +him, or bring him prisoner to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to +dress himself in all sorts of queer clothes, and hide in all manner of +strange, out of the way places, and keep company with rude and humble +men, the better to hide his real rank from the cruel enemies that sought +his life. Once he hid along with a gallant gentleman, _[FN: Colonel +Careless.]_ one of his own brave officers, in the branches of a great +oak. Once he was hid in a mill; and another time he was in the house of +one Pendril, a woodman. The soldiers of the Parliament, who were always +prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they suspected the +poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room where he was +standing beside the fire.” + +“Oh!” exclaimed Catharine, “that was frightful. And did they take him +prisoner?” + +“No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers +should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the +long curls that the king’s men all wore in those days, and called +_lovelocks_, begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to +his head.” + +“That was very hard, to lose his nice curls.” + +“I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose +his hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered +them to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough +deal table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large +knife trimmed off the curls.” + +“I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, +who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a +block to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as +hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die.” “Poor king!” + said Catharine, sighing, “I see that it is better to be poor children, +wandering on these plains under God’s own care, than to be kings and +princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men.” + +“Who told your father all these things, Hec?” said Louis. + +“It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about +the history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince +Charles, the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in +Scotland; he loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where +the Prince lost all, and was driven from place to place, and had not +where to lay his head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but +those times did not come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a +while, through the friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the +army that was embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment +to which my father belonged. He was a kind man, and my father loved both +him and his son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him.” + +“Well,” said Catharine, “as you have told me such a nice story, Mister +Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls.” + +“Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we +fail, we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I +fancy we shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should +not we be able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?” + +“True,” said Hector, “the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals +and birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore +should His white children fear?” + +“I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, +when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of +himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, +nay, weeks I believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows +and arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, +for bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled +the inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank +the sap of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted +snow only, which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own +mocassins.” + +“Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish,” said +Catharine. + +“That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself,” + added Hector, “or the deer-skin hunting shirt.” “Well, they might have +been reduced even to that,” said Louis, laughing, “but for the good +fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear.” + +“Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the +forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale.” + +“Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old +Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After +passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than +the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not +very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick +dark swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they +could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of +a deer or a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to +work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they +had none, or maybe they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon +a huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon +piled a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he +could collect, and lighted up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand +old Jacob used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, +if he could not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without. +The wood was dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and +crackled and burnt like a pine-torch. By-and-by they heard a most awful +growling close to them. ‘That’s a big bear, as I live,’ said old Jacob, +looking all about, thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; +but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, for presently a great +black bear burst out from the but-end of the great burning log, and made +towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame outward, and it caught +the bear’s thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in a moment. No doubt +the heat of the fire had penetrated to the hollow of the log, where he +had lain himself snugly up for the winter, and wakened him; but Jacob +seeing the huge black brute all in a flame of fire, began to think it +was Satan’s own self come to carry him off, and he roared with fright, +and the bear roared with pain and rage, and my father roared with +laughing to see Jacob’s terror; but he did not let the bear laugh at +him, for he seized a thick pole that he had used for closing in the +brands and logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was so blinded with +the fire and smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted on roast +bear’s flesh for many days, and got a capital skin to cover them +beside.” + +“What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?” said Catharine. + +“Kate, you are too particular,” said Louis; “a story never loses, you +know.” + +Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the +bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the +levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror +of old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear. + +“You boys are always so unfeeling,” she said, gravely. + +“Indeed, Kate,” said her brother, “the day may come when the sight of a +good piece of roast bear’s flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do +not find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may +be reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine +swamps, on the banks of the St. John.” + +“Ah!” said Catharine, trembling, “that would be too bad to happen.” + +“Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what +to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we +still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and +be thankful; and for grace let us say, ‘Sufficient unto the day is the +evil thereof.’” + +Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites--the hungry +wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally +divided, was soon despatched. + +It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers +in our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a +circle, and usually find themselves at night in the same place from +whence they started in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At +sunset, they found themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big +stone, in which they had rested at noon. They had imagined themselves +miles and miles distant from it; they were grievously disappointed. They +had encouraged each other with the confident hope that they were drawing +near to the end of their bewildering journey; they were as far from +their home as ever, without the slightest clue to guide them to the +right path. Despair is not a feeling which takes deep root in the +youthful breast. The young are always hopeful; so confident in their +own wisdom and skill in averting or conquering danger; so trusting; so +willing to believe that there is a peculiar Providence watching over +them. Poor children! they had indeed need of such a belief to strengthen +their minds and encourage them to fresh exertions, for new trials were +at hand. + +The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with +light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on +tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with +her fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs +which her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for +her accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting +spur of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the +extreme verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most +inviting seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, +which stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the +estuary of the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the +hills, forming a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water +had ceased to flow, the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with +deer-grass and flowers of many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; +while majestic oaks and pines towered above. A sea of glittering foliage +lay beneath Catharine’s feet; in the distance the eye of the young girl +rested on a belt of shining waters, which girt in the shores like a +silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the northward, stretched the +illimitable forest. + +Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the +eye; a holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and +peaceful tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, +scarcely a leaf stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing +on the calm beauty of nature, and communing with her own heart, when +suddenly a stirring rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow +channel on one side of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with +the shrubby dogwood, wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror +which seized the poor girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking +through the covert of the bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the +most deadly fear alone could have inspired, Catharine sprung from the +supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, down the precipitous side of the +ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays of the flexile dogwood--now +to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting to the yielding heads of +the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her hands with sharp thorns +from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, grass, all were alike +clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A loose fragment of +granite on which she had unwittingly placed her foot rolled from +under her; unable to regain her balance she fell forwards, and was +precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, conscious only +of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her ancles, which +rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she had dislodged +in her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector to her side, +and they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid her down +upon her bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When Catharine +was able to speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of her +fright. She was sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long +jaws, and grisly coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her +with terror, he was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon +her--she could tell them no more that happened, she never felt the +ground she was on, so great was her fright. + +Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills +alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for _la belle cousine_, +and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been +fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but +the pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to +their grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the +ground. This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to +pursue their wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their +only remedy, excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as +circumstances would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to +the swollen joint, was the first thing that was suggested; but, +simple as was the lotion, it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient +quantities. They were a full quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and +the cold springs near it were yet further off; and then the only vessel +they had was the tin-pot, which hardly contained a pint; at the same +time the thirst of the fevered sufferer was intolerable, and had also to +be provided for. Poor Catharine, what unexpected misery she now endured! + +The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they +were now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places +with this delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor +sufferer’s burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying +her with them. + +Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied +them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful +by spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; +these he bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, +_[FN: “_Dirca palustris_,”--Moose-wood. American mezereon, +leather-wood. From the Greek, _dirka_, a fountain or wet place, its +usual place of growth.]_ which he had found growing in great abundance +near the entrance of the ravine. Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. +After having collected a good supply of ripe strawberries, he climbed +the hills in search of birds’ eggs and small game. About noon he +returned with the good news of having discovered a spring of fine +water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump of bass-wood and black +cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to kill a woodchuck, +having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly sides of the +hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit and badger; +its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and burrows +like the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip cleft, the +soles of the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on grasses, +grain, fruit, and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the summer, +rank, but is eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the skin is +not much valued. They are easily killed by dogs, though, being expert +climbers, they often baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark beyond +their reach; a stone or stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they often +bite sharply. + +The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his +companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were +plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about +the Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than +on the drier, more open plains. + +“It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from +the spring in,” said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, “one is so apt to +stumble among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our +old bark dishes we could get a good supply at once.” + +“There is a fallen birch not far from this,” said Louis; “I have here +my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel +capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?” + +“How can you sew it together, cousin?” asked Catharine; “you have +neither deer sinews, nor war-tap.” _[The Indian name for the flexible +roots of the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in +manufacturing the birch baskets and canoes.]_ “I have a substitute at +hand, ma belle,” and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he +had collected for binding the dressings on his cousin’s foot. + +When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in +some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of +the ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot +of the “Wolf’s Crag,” for so the children had named the memorable spot +where poor Catharine’s accident had occurred. + +The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, +but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger +and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the +sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he +proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble +managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose +or leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was +but rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a +little at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten +to allow in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and +dishes turns up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied +in his subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis’s +water-jar was looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by +Catharine, who almost forgot her sufferings--while watching her cousin’s +proceedings. + +Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running +off directly to the spring. “Catharine shall now have cold water to +bathe her poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst,” he said, joyfully +springing to his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector +quietly restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of +his not finding the “fountain in the wilderness,” as Louis termed the +spring, or losing himself altogether. + +“Let us both go together, then.” cried Louis. Catharine cast on her +cousin an imploring glance. + +“Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone.” Her +sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + +“Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since +I was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or +in sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother’s arms.” + +Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering +tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + +“But you know, dear cousin,” she said, “I am so helpless, and then the +dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me.” + +After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had +done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to +make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little +time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about +it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more +gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed +with magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the +jutting spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the +trees that lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a +big sea. There were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, +white, and pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled +flower, that was like the “Morning glory,” (_Convolvulus major,_) and +scarlet-cups _[FN: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup]_ in abundance, with +roses in profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with +huge blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened +out into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley +of the Big Stone. _[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the +plough, and waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have +taken place of the wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The +lot belongs to G. Ley, Esq.]_ + +These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both +Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and +the picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father’s +animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the +wild mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in +solitude and uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the +minds or manners of these young people. Simple and untaught they were, +but they were guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they +lacked the knowledge that is learned from books, they possessed much +that was useful and practical, which had been taught by experience and +observation in the school of necessity. + +For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered +any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the “Big Stone” + impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their +immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had +been killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of +hunger. Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed +not a little to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the +yet untried lake, “bright, boundless, and free,” gleaming in silvery +splendour, but in practice they knew nothing of the fisher’s craft, +though, as a matter of report, they were well acquainted with all +the mysteries of it, and had often listened with delight to the feats +performed by their respective fathers in the art of angling, spearing +and netting. + +“I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in +the lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken +by the hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but +that was in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard +him tell of spearing fish by torchlight!” + +“The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake,” said Hector; +“however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore +and try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line +provided.” + +Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub +oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, +which he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of +treasures. “Here.” said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; “here +is the slide of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some +rubbish that my sister had thrown out the other day.” + +“I fear you will make nothing of that,” said Hector, “a bit of bone +would be better. If you had a file now you might do something.” + +“Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?” and Louis +triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, +a few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but +still it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of +our young French Canadian. “I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde +laughed at me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. +Louis, you little knew the use it was to be put to then,” he added +thoughtfully, apostrophising himself; “how little do we know what is to +befall us in our young days!” “God knows it all,” said Hector, gravely, +“we are under His good guidance.” + +“You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good +care of us. Come, let us go to the lake,” Catharine added, and sprung +to her feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her +companions with a piteous look, saying, “I cannot walk one step; alas, +alas! what is to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you +leave me here, I shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot +carry me with you in your search for food.” + +“Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that +Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of +hunger or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you +by turns; the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very +heavy, ma belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are +so light a burden,”--and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his +arms, and with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through +the ravine towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded +knoll, (where Wolf Tower _[FN: See account of the “Wolf Tower,” in +the Appendix.]_ now stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat +stone beneath a big oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself +on the flowery ground at her feet, while he drew a long breath, and +gathered the fruit that grew among the long grass to refresh himself +after his fatigue; and then, while resting on the “Elfin Knowe,” as +Catharine called the hill, he employed himself with manufacturing a rude +sort of fish-hook with the aid of his knife, the bit of tin, and the +rusty file; a bit of twine was next produced,--boys have always a bit +of string in their pockets, and Louis, as I have before hinted, was a +provident hoarder of such small matters. The string was soon attached +to the hook, and Hector was not long in cutting a sapling that answered +well the purpose of a fishing-rod, and thus equipped they proceeded +to the lake shore, Hector and Louis carrying the crippled Catharine by +turns. When there, they selected a sheltered spot beneath a grove of +over-hanging cedars and birches, festooned with wild vines, which, +closely woven, formed a natural bower, quite impervious to the rays of +the sun. A clear spring flowing from the upper part of the bank among +the hanging network of loose fibres and twisted roots, fell tinkling +over a mossy log at her feet, and quietly spread itself among the round +shingly pebbles that formed the beach of the lake. Beneath this pleasant +bower Catharine could repose, and watch her companions at their novel +employment, or bathe her feet and infirm ancle in the cool streamlet +that rippled in tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + +If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued +for pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must +be greatly heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of +hunger. Among the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the +flying grasshopper or field crickets were sporting, and one of these +proved an attractive bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, +than the hook was seized, and many were the brilliant specimens of +sun-fish that our eager fishermen cast at Catharine’s feet, all gleaming +with gold and azure scales. Nor was there any lack of perch, or that +delicate fish commonly known in these waters as the pink roach. + +Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to +the grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did +very expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling +up a fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the +flint, knife, and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian +fashion, on forked sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable +angle towards the glowing embers,--a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + +“Truly,” said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, +“God hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;” so +miraculous did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of +this simple child of nature. + +They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be +caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, +as the streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little +opportunity for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the +rude implements with which they were furnished, the result of their +morning success seemed little short of divine interference in their +behalf. Happy and contented in the belief that they were not forgotten +by their heavenly Father, these poor “children in the wood” looked up +with gratitude to that beneficent Being who suffereth not even a sparrow +to fall unheeded. + +Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and +there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the +flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that +hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, +her young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great +Creator of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her +mind, as with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl +prayed with the guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + +The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods +at the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully +providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded +with their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found +Catharine sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil +slumbers, but her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which +she was exposed, sleeping in the dew by the water side; “Moreover,” he +added, “we have some distance to go, and we have left the precious axe +and the birch-bark vessel in the valley.” + +These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the +sleeper, and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same +path that they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken +the precaution to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and +break the tops of the young trees that they had passed between on their +route to the lake, and by this clue they were enabled with tolerable +certainty to retrace their way, nothing doubting of arriving in time at +the wigwam of boughs by the rock in the valley. + +Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame +girl, and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight +soon clouded the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which +cast a greater degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had +now left the oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter +loneliness of the path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that +stretched in long array across the steep banks on either side, taking, +now this, now that wild and fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings +of dread in the mind of these poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons +bred up in solitude, their imaginations were strongly tinctured with +superstitious fears. Here then, in the lonely wilderness, far from their +beloved parents and social hearth, with no visible arm to protect them +from danger, none to encourage or to cheer them, can it be matter of +surprise if they started with terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful +breeze that rustled the leaves or waved the branches above them? The gay +and lively Louis, blithe as any wild bird in the bright sunlight, was +the most easily oppressed by this strange superstitious fear, when +the shades of evening were closing round, and he would start with +ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that met his ear or eye, +though the next minute he was the first to laugh at his own weakness. In +Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn cast, recalling to his +mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his father was wont to +entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge log-fire of an +evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales possess for the +youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often told; year after +year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with an interest +that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they slowly wandered +along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors those Highland +legends that were as familiar to their ears as household words, and +still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at each +pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might +be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to +proceed,--they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their progress; +the moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet indistinct; so +they sat them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and rested till +the moon should lighten their path. + +Louis was confident they were not far from “the bigstone,” but careful +Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already +conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone +that had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came +in sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its +rugged sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. “Forward +for ‘the big stone’ and the wigwam,” cried Louis. + +“Hush!” said Catharine, “look there,” raising her hand with a warning +gesture. + +“Where? what?” + +“The wolf! the wolf!” gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon +the summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood +the gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound +of which seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of +the tall pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their +hearts, as with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline +of the terrible beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck +stretched outward, and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave +back those dismal sounds; another minute and he was gone, and the +crushing of branches and the rush of many feet on the high bank above, +was followed by the prolonged cry of some poor fugitive animal,--a doe, +or fawn, perhaps,--in the very climax of mortal agony; and then the +lonely recesses of the forest took up that fearful death-cry, the +far-off shores of the lake and the distant islands prolonged it, and the +terrified children clung together in fear and trembling. + +A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the +hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone--not even the +watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with +all its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; +but though around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long +ere confidence was restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and +trembling children. They beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy +shade, and every rustling bough struck fresh terrors into their excited +minds. They might have exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, “How dreadful +is this place!” + +With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of +the bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should +return; sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing +to be the only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet +nature, overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their +eyelids; deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight +breaking through the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound +of waving boughs and twittering birds, once more wakened them to life +and light; recalling them from happy dreams of home and friends, to an +aching sense of loneliness and desolation. This day they did not wander +far from the valley, but took the precaution, as evening drew on, to +light a large fire, the blaze of which they thought would keep away any +beast of prey. They had no want of food, as the fish they had caught the +day before proved an ample supply. The huckle-berries were ripening too, +and soon afforded them a never-failing source of food; there were also +an abundance of bilberries, the sweet rich berries of which proved a +great treat, besides being very nourishing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + “Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!” + +A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from +pain and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all +that Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower +by the lake, where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful +longing to regain their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and +often would the poor sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, +to wring her hands and weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear +father and mother, who would have given worlds had they been at their +command, to have heard but one accent of her beloved voice, to have felt +one loving pressure from that fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered +over the path of the young wanderers, long after she had ceased to +whisper comfort to the desolate hearts of the mournful parents. + +Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied +than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly +which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. “If +Kate had not been with me,” he would say, “we should not have been lost; +for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the +cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and +insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way.” + Louis Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the +flowers, and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the +form of pleasure and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the +thoughtful, till they find the path they have followed is beset with +briers and thorns; and a thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, +unexpected, overwhelm and bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; +and perhaps the punishment of their errors does not fall upon +themselves alone, but upon the innocent, who have unknowingly been made +participators in their fault. + +By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis +endeavoured to alleviate his cousin’s sufferings, and soften her +regrets; nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, +when his own heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. +“If it were not for our dear parents and the dear children at home,” + he would say, “we might spend our time most happily upon these charming +plains; it is much more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; +see how brightly the sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and +cover the earth with fruit and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to +fish and hunt, and trap the game. Yes, if they were all here, we would +build us a nice log-house, and clear up these bushes on the flat near +the lake. This ‘Elfin Knowe,’ as you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot +to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; not one should be cut +down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and voyage across to yonder +islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?” and Catharine, smiling +at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the spirit of the +project, and say,-- + +“Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant.” + +“If we had but my father’s rifle now,” said Hector, “and old Wolfe.” + +“Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges +and black squirrels,” said Louis. + +“I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at +break of day,” said Hector. “The fawn was so little fearful, that if I +had had a stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten +yards of the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one +by making a dead-fall.” _[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the +woods, or on the banks of creeks.]_ + +“If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear +innocent Mignon,” cried Catharine, “I should never feel lonely then.” + +“And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from +time to time, ma belle.” + +“Hec., what are you thinking of?” + +“I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our +lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the +open air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and +the rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter +will have to be provided against.” + +“But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way +back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake,” said Louis. + +“True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever +way we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get +involved in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know +there is neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, +and we might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside +this fine lake, and upon these fruitful plains.” + +“It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home,” said +Hector. “We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find +the use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some +spot where there is a spring of good water, and--” + +“No horrible wolves,” interrupted Catharine: “though I love this pretty +ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to +stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were +asleep.” + +“We must not forget to keep watch-fires.” + +“What shall we do for clothes?” said Catharine, glancing at her +home-spun frock of wool and cotton plaid. + +“A weighty consideration, indeed,” sighed Hector; “clothes must be +provided before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on.” + +“We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels,” suggested +Louis; “and fawns when we catch them.” + +“Yes, and fawns when we get them,” added Hector; “but it is time enough +to think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home.” + +“I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life,” said Catharine. +“My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will +try and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search.” + +Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy +guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, +were thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and +thick bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and +outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain--yet the arms of +thy heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to +sustain thee. + +How often were Catharine’s hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry +home, as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, +how often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them +with her tears,--for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + +When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless +wanderings, they would say to each other: “Perhaps we shall see our +father, he may find us here to-day;” but evening came, and still he came +not, and they were no nearer to their father’s home than they had been +the day previous. + +“If we could but find our way back to the ‘Cold Creek,’ we might, by +following its course, return to Cold Springs,” said Hector. + +“I doubt much the fact of the ‘Cold Creek’ having any connexion with our +Spring,” said Louis; “I think it has its rise in the ‘Beaver-meadow,’ +and following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish +balsam and cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick +recesses of the pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty +miles from Cold Springs.” + +It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their +way in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or +the points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, +which is not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of +forest-trees; they rather measure distance by the time they have been +wandering, than by any other token. + +The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, +wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as +long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun +in his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the +home they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice +of the course they should take each day, and at last determined them to +lose no more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek +for some pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and +provide for their present and future wants. + + “The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.” + +Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since +the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the +conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley +of the “big stone,” and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent +their steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led +the way, loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of +the axe, which he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and +the birch-basket. Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, +likewise some fish to carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + +The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake +shore, but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth +of trees and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and +the fatigue of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to +put aside the bushes or bend them down. + +Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path +through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves +on a fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with +white and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, +which reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur +above its leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept +watch from its dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread +below like a silver zone studded with emeralds. + +In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which +divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows +had once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site +of which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the +valley, filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These +waters with resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, +bearing in their course those blocks of granite and limestone which +are so widely scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form +a rocky pavement at the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of +sublime desolation must that outpouring of the waters have presented, +when those steep banks were riven by the sweeping torrents that were +loosened from their former bounds. The pleased eye rests upon these +tranquil shores, now covered with oaks and pines, or waving with a flood +of golden grain, or varied by neat dwellings and fruitful gardens; and +the gazer on that peaceful scene scarcely pictures to himself what it +must have been when no living eye was there to mark the rushing floods, +when they scooped to themselves the deep bed in which they now repose. + +Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were +doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose +rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried +away the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the +lake, seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some +few are parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable +impediment turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an +outlet through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + +There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a +solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly +called the “upper Race-course,” merely on account of the smoothness of +the surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above +the lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and +covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been +a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and +attractive spot, known as the “lower Race-course;” it lies on a lower +level than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of +distant hills; both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and +may have been the sources from whence its channel was filled. Some +convulsion of nature at a remote period, by raising the waters above +their natural level, might have caused a disruption of the banks, and +drained their beds, as they now appear ready for the ploughshare or the +spade. In the month of June these flats are brilliant with the splendid +blossoms of the _enchroma_, or painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy +_trillium_ roses scent the evening air, and grow as if planted by the +hand of taste. + +A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage _[FN: Saxifraga nivalis.]_ +with its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the +fall, it is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a +species of creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the +leaves are highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable +to the taste and smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage +of martagon lilies take the place of the lupine and trilliums; these +splendid lilies vary from orange to the brightest scarlet; various +species of sunflowers and _coreopsis_ next appear, and elegant white +_pyrolas_ _[FN: Gentiana linearis, G. crenata.]_ scent the air and +charm the eye. The delicate lilac and white shrubby asters next appear, +and these are followed by the large deep blue gentian, and here and +there by the elegant fringed gentian. _[FN: Pyrola rotundifolia, +P. asarifolia.]_ These are the latest and loveliest of the flowers +that adorn this tract of land. It is indeed a garden of nature’s own +planting, but the wild garden is being converted into fields of grain, +and the wild flowers give place to a new race of vegetables, less +ornamental, but more useful to man and the races of domestic animals +that depend upon him for their support. + +Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found +themselves, at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, +_[FN: _Pedophyllnm galmata_,--Mandrake, or May-apple.]_ where they +had the good fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath +some large moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground +was thickly covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many +varieties of flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the +valley and up the steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were +whortleberries, or huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in +abundance; bilberries dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. +The vines that wreathed the low bushes and climbed the trees were +loaded with clusters of grapes, but these were yet hard and green; dwarf +filberts grew on the dry gravelly sides of the hills, yet the rough +prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, filled their fingers with minute +thorns, that irritated the skin like the stings of the nettle; but +as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they did not mind the +consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied by a large bed +of May-apples, _[FN: Kilvert’s Ravine, above Pine-tree Point.]_ the +fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe, August being +the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still green, and +wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great numbers of the +woodchucks’ burrows on the hills, while partridges and quails were seen +under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, _[FN: _Cornus +sericea_. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by the partridge +and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There are several +species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.]_ that here grew in +abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As +this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, +and resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they +should meet with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + +Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded +hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, +somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the +shelter that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through +the opening at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the +distant waters of the lake which terminated the vista, while they were +quite removed from its unwholesome vapours. + +The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, +scarcely modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in +about nine o’clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in +the afternoon. Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while +Catharine busied herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss +and fern, of which there was abundance near the spring. The boys had +promised to cut some fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and +bring them up to form a foundation for their bed, and also to strew +Indian-fashion over the floor of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort +of carpeting reminds one of, the times when the palaces of our English +kings were strewed with rushes, and brings to mind the old song:-- + + “Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew’d with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch----” + +Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients +adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the +luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the +rich. The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn +lightly over the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if +it had been taken from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and +contented were they in their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered +grass and leaves, raised from the earth by a heap of branches carefully +arranged, was to them as pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of +bark and poles, as curtains of silk or damask. + +Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient +for the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of +which lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, +and this done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath +the cooling shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; +pleased with the dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, +and fanned her warm cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like +her cousin Louise, that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, +for it was always dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were +still. + +She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a +deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores +of the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far +away from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup _[FN: +The Dutch word for verandah, which is still in common use among the +Canadians.]_ in front of her father’s house, and in memory’s eye she +beheld it all exactly as she had left it. There stood the big spinning +wheel, just as she had set it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended +from the rafters, the basket filled with the carded wool ready for +her work. She saw in fancy her father, with his fine athletic upright +figure, his sunburnt cheeks and clustering sable hair, his clear +energetic hazel eye ever beaming upon her, his favourite child, with +looks of love and kindness as she moved to and fro at her wheel. +_[FN: Such is the method of working at the large wool wheel, +unknown or obsolete in England.]_ There, too, was her mother, with her +light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as she pursued her daily +avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the cows to be milked, or +chopping firewood. And as these images, like the figures of the magic +lantern, passed in all their living colours before her mental vision, +her head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon her arm, and then +she started, looked round, and slept again, her face deeply buried in +her young bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl slumbered. + +A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting +breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she +dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf--its grisly +paws were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and +suffocation--her languid eyes open. Can it be?--what is it that she +sees? Yes, it is Wolfe; not the fierce creature of her dreams by night +and her fears by day, but her father’s own brave devoted dog. What joy, +what hope rushed to her heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of +the faithful beast, and wept from the fulness of heart. + +“Yes,” she joyfully cried, “I knew that I should see him again. My own +dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are +your children. Come, come quickly!” and she hurried to the head of +the valley, raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now +confidently believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the +well-known sound of her voice. + +Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every +projecting headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, “Come +quickly!” + +Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, +“Father, come quickly, come!” and again the deceitful sounds were +repeated, “Quickly come!” + +The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost +mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her +father’s name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont +to do when he heard his master’s step approaching. Still Catharine could +not but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father +must be very near. + +The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, +fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up +their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They +could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, +their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the +gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their +friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and +shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow +them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties +were in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old +dog refused to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched +himself, and the boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh--he +looked almost starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a +state of great exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with +wishful looks, and she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to +this great relief. + +Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, +in tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, “Lost, lost, +lost!” It was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe +would travel in all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search +till he discovered the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last +night of the father’s wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back +to his melancholy home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and +fro, he involuntarily exclaimed, wringing his hands, “Lost, lost, lost!” + Wolfe heard what to him was an imperative command; he rose, and stood +at the door, and whined; mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, +and again exclaimed in passionate tones those magic words, that sent the +faithful messenger forth into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he +never left it, but with ah instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, +he continued to track the woods, lingering long on spots where the +wanderers had left any signs of their sojourn; he had for some time +been baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and again where they had crossed Cold +Creek, but had regained the scent and traced them to the valley of +the “big stone,” and then with the sagacity of the bloodhound and the +affection of the terrier he had, at last, discovered the objects of his +unwearied, though often baffled search. + +What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe +create! How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with +his head pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it +was foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if +he had been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your +homesick nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those +eloquent waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or +waved from side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute +sorrowful glances, as though he would have said, “Dear mistress, I know +all your troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!” There +is something touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only +the hard-hearted and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once +hearing of a felon, who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous +indifference to the appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that +attended him in prison, whose heart was softened by the sight of a +little dog, that had been his companion in his days of comparative +innocence, forcing its way through the crowd, till it gained the foot of +the gallows; its mute look of anguish and affection unlocked the fount +of human feeling, and the condemned man wept--perhaps the first tears he +had shed since childhood’s happy days. + +The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The +inky darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid +flame, which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off +or near. The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through +the gorge of the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep +narrow defile, shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, +more wild and gloomy, when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + +There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage +remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, +scarcely stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at +rest. The solemn murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been +likened to the moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of +the spot. Seated at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which +their evening fire burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in +silence and in awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near +them, they felt comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which +now burst in terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to +cloud, and the echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered +trunks and brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in +that wild war of elements. + +Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from +their covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might +be heard from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts +with fear. To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they +listened with awe and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were +the voice of Him who “sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty +voice.” And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with +curdled blood from the cry of the _felon wolf._ + +And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down +in a whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey +branches were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they +would not bow down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered +all abroad like chaff before the wind. + +The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for +the safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from +them. And often ‘mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could +distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. “If our father had +not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither.” + +“Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm,” said +Catharine, weeping, “or have been starved to death while seeking for +us!” and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + +But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers +were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and +privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure +they were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had +prevented them from meeting. + +“To-morrow, ma chère, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will +be a joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his +master, and then--oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. +They will have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our +dear mothers and chère petite Louise.” + +The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the +poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars +peep forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful +state, the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their +garments were drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire +with some bark and boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks +in their back log unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a +blaze, with which they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. +The air was now cool almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather +remained unsettled, and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake +presented a leaden hue, crested with white mimic waves. + +They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head +of the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of +bark, which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. +The boys employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the +fish they had caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe +seemed to be mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they +all went up towards the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to +look round in hope of getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, +but though they kept an anxious look out in every direction, they +returned, towards evening, tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red +squirrel, and a partridge which Wolfe “treed,”--that is, stood barking +at the foot of the tree in which it had perched,--and the supply of meat +was a seasonable change. They also noticed, and marked, with the axe, +several trees where there were bees, intending to come in the cold +weather, and cut them down. Louis’s father was a great and successful +bee-hunter; and Louis rather prided himself on having learned something +of his father’s skill in that line. Here, where flowers were so abundant +and water plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be abundant also; besides, +the open space between the trees, admitting the warm sunbeam freely, +was favourable both for the bees and the flowers on which they fed, and +Louis talked joyfully of the fine stores of honey they should collect +in the fell. He had taught little Fanchon, a small French spaniel of his +father’s, to find out the trees where the bees hived, and also the +nests of the ground-bees, and she would bark at the foot of the tree, +or scratch with her feet on the ground, as the other dogs barked at the +squirrels or the woodchucks; but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was +old, and would learn no new tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his +own observation and the axe to depend upon for procuring honey. + +The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither +perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts _[FN: All these fish +are indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.]_ were to be caught. +However, they found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish +among the gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their +fingers very spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want +of salt; but hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared +them very good when well roasted, covered up with hot embers. “The +fish-hawks,” said he, “set us a good example, for they eat them, and so +do the eagles and herons. I watched one the other day with a mussel in +his bill; he flew to a high tree, let his prey fall, and immediately +darted down to secure it; but I drove him off, and, to my great +amusement, perceived the wise fellow had just let it fall on a stone, +which had cracked the shell for him just in the right place. I often see +shells lying at the foot of trees, far up the hills, where these birds +must have left them. There is one large thick-shelled mussel, that I +have found several times with a round hole drilled through the shell, +just as if it had been done with a small auger, doubtless the work of +some bird with a strong beak.” + +“Do you remember,” said Catharine, “the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. +picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of +the shells too; _[FN: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells +of mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been +long known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the +river mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and +stones.]_ and when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by +some large bird, a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the +great lake, as it had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in +our creeks being quite thin-shelled and white.” + +“Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the +eagle’s nest on the top of our hill, Louis?” said Hector. + +“I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; +they were brought from this very lake, I dare say.” + +“If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we +might become great fishermen.” + +“Louis,” said Catharine, “is always thinking about canoes, and boats, +and skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor.” + +Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to +manage her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never +saw difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion +of his own cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed +faster than Hector’s, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one +valuable quality--steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an +opinion, but when once convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered +the subject or overcame the obstacle. + +“Catharine,” said Louis, one day, “the huckleberries age now very +plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store +of them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chère, wherever we turn +our eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are +purple with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest +of our lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no +berries are to be found.” + +“It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for +let me tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless--mere dry +husks.” + +“Why so, ma belle?” + +“I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our +mothers dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the +case, but when they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they +were quite nice.” + +“Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good +hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, +to keep the dried fruit in.” + +They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or +whortleberries). _[FN: From the abundance of this fruit, the +Indians have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the +south shore. During the month of July and the early part of August, +large parties come to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, +which they preserve by drying, for winter use. These berries make a +delicious tart or pudding, mixed with bilberries and red-currants, +requiring little sugar.]_ Catharine and Louis (who fancied nothing could +be contrived without his help) attended to the preparing and making of +the bags of birch bark; but Hector was soon tired of girl’s work, as he +termed it, and, after gathering some berries, would wander away over +the hills in search of game, and to explore the neighbouring hills and +valleys, and sometimes it was sunset before he made his appearance. +Hector had made an excellent strong-bow, like the Indian bow, out of a +tough piece of hickory wood, which he found in one of his rambles, and +he made arrows with wood that he seasoned in the smoke, sharpening the +heads with great care with his knife, and hardening them by exposure to +strong heat, at a certain distance from the fire. The entrails of the +woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable by +rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but +afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used +them, properly dressed for the purpose. + +Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a +true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with +shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even +Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was +now seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned +from his rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which +are plentiful at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass +over in their migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return +thither for the acorns and berries that are to be found in great +abundance. Squirrels, too, are very plentiful at this season. Hector and +Louis remarked that the red and black squirrels never were to be found +very near each other. It is a common belief, that the red squirrels make +common cause with the grey, and beat the larger enemy off the ground. +The black squirrel, for a succession of years, was very rarely to be met +with on the Plains, while there were plenty of the red and grey in the +“oak openings.” _[FN: Within the last three years, however, the +black squirrels have been very numerous, and the red are less frequently +to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is tender, white, and +delicate, like that of a young rabbit.]_ Deer, at the time our young +Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful, and, of +course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears, and +wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here +commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals +are now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or +wolves, and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history +in this part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization +advances, while some others increase and follow man, especially many +species of birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the +rich man’s board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits +and modes of building and feeding, according to the alteration and +improvement in their circumstances. + +While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation +of the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, +while Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, +in unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on +one of the gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself +by looking for flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, +_[FN: _Podophyllum peltatum_-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of +the May-apple, in rich moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum +bonum, or egg-plum, which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes +a delicious preserve, if seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten +uncooked, the outer rind, which is thick and fleshy, and has a rank +taste, should be thrown aside; the fine acid pulp in which the seeds are +imbedded alone should be eaten. The root of the Podophyllum is used as +a cathartic by the Indians. The root of this plant is reticulated, +and when a large body of them are uncovered, they present a singular +appearance, interlacing each other in large meshes, like an extensive +net-work; these roots are white, as thick as a man’s little finger, and +fragrant, and spread horizontally along the surface. The blossom is like +a small white rose.]_ but finding them cumbersome in climbing the steep +wooded hills, she deposited them at the foot of a tree near the boys, +and pursued her search; and it was not long before she perceived some +pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of bright lilac flowers, and on +plucking some pulled up the root also. The root was about the size +and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, she found it far +from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it seemed to be a +favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that it grew about +their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems were bitten, +and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. Therefore, +carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted them +in the embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more +satisfying than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often +roasted in the fire, when they were out working on the fallow, at the +log heaps. Hector and Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended +Catharine for the discovery. Not many days afterwards, Louis +accidentally found a much larger and more valuable root, near the +lake shore. He saw a fine climbing shrub, with close bunches of +dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which scented the air with a +delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great height over the young +trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and tendrils. Pleased with +the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to pull one up, that he +might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed a number of large +tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular oval-shaped; the inside +was quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, only pleasanter, when +in its raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis gathered his pockets +full, and hastened home with his prize, and, on being roasted, these +new roots were decided to be little inferior to potatoes, at all events, +they were a valuable addition to their slender stores, and they procured +as many as they could find, carefully storing them in a hole, which they +dug for that purpose in a corner of their hut. _[FN: This plant +appears to me to be a species of the _Psoralea esculenta_, or Indian +bread-root, which it resembles in description, excepting that the root +of the above is tuberous oval, and connected by long filaments. +The largest tubers are farthest from the stem of the plant.]_ Hector +suggested that these roots would be far better late in the fall, or +early in the spring, than during the time that the plant was in bloom, +for he knew from observation and experience that at the flowering +season the greater part of the nourishment derived from the soil goes to +perfect the flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, there was +a white floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance of the +potato. + +“This flour,” said Catharine, “would make good porridge with milk.” + +“Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper,” said Louis, +laughing, “but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the +porridge-pot to come from?” + +“Indeed,” said Catharine, “I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both.” + +One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, +for the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five +deer were in the water, and making for Long Island. + +“But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the +arrows,” said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of +arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, +which, the young hunter had made for himself. + +“No fear, ma chère; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and +lilies. We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,--here, boy, +here!” + +Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright +eyes of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness +the hunt, ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently +understood that they had some sport in view, trotted along by his +mistress, wagging his great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + +Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The +herd of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and +two young half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of +rice and rushes, not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, +apparently quite unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on +a fallen trunk eagerly eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of +Louis and Catharine, with the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused +the timid creatures to a sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head +and making, as the children thought, a signal for retreat, now struck +boldly out for the nearest point of Long Island. + +“We shall lose them,” cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright +track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + +“Hist, hist, Louis,” said Hector, “all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, +Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!” + +Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + +“Head them! head them!” shouted Hector. + +Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, +he made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. +Twice the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, +taking the time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the +boys saw the herd had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the +island, they separated, Louis making good his ambush to the right among +the cedars, and Hector at the spring to the west, while Catharine was +stationed at the solitary pine-tree, at the point which commanded the +entrance of the ravine. + +“Now, Cathy,” said her brother, “when you see the herd making for the +ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the +ten right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. +We must trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is +well trained, he knows what he is about.” + +Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited +till the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and +clapped her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified +creatures coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of +the thicket where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they +had emerged when they first took to the water; to this place they boldly +steered. Louis, who had watched the direction the herd had taken with +breathless interest, now noiselessly hurried to Hector’s assistance, +taking an advantageous post for aim, in case Hector’s arrow missed, or +only slightly wounded one of the deer. + +Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the +does was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, +that it hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag +now turned again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and +again the noble animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now +shot his arrow, but it swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it +glanced harmlessly along the water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of +Hector sent another arrow between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with +its force, and then, another from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and +staining the water with her blood. + +The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the +shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to +make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal +from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that +as his last arrow had given the _coup de grace_, he was entitled to the +honour of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander +protested against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, +contenting himself with saying, “Ah, well, I will get the first steak +of the venison when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste.” + Moreover, he privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had +had in the exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the +worthy service she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the +herd. Wolfe, too, came in for a large share of the honour and glory of +the chase. + +The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. +This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many +uses were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a +store of wealth in their eyes. + +During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, +there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, +and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the +lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + +From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been +acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good +fruit behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to +future advantage. + +The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews +of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer +for mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws +themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season +the wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the +fish-hooks these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew +that strips of fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails +of animals dried and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws +making baskets of the inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats +of the inner bark of the cedar, with many other ingenious works that +they now found would prove useful to them, after a little practice +had perfected their inexperienced attempts. They also knew how to dry +venison as the Indians and trappers prepare it, by cutting the thick +fleshy portions of the meat into strips, from four to six inches in +breadth, and two or more in thickness. These strips they strung upon +poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them to the drying action +of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed the back and head +bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the sun. + +Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in +their joy they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate +caresses on Wolfe for his good conduct. + +“But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for +dinner to-day,” said Louis; “and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice +piece for your own share.” + +Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; +the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and +the entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs +and back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + +“We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by,” said careful +Hector; “for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn +our attention to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins.” + +“Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will +not do when once the cold weather sets in.” + +“A shanty would soon be put up,” said Hector; “for even Kate, wee bit +lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + +“That I could, indeed,” replied Catherine; “for you may remember, Hec., +that the last journey my father made to the Bay, _[FN: Bay of +Quints.]_ with the pack of furs, that you and I called a _Bee_ + +_[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We +fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all +Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in +the course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, +or shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best +assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable +to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he +has received.]_ + +to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and +I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you +said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help.” + +“Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only +four logs high.” + +“It was not for the fall that I cried,” said Catharine, resentfully, +“but because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, ‘Cats, you +know, have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their +feet,’ and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in +pain. Beside, you called me ‘puss,’ and ‘poor pussie’ all the rest of +the _Bee_.” + +“I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you,” said Louis, +trying to look penitent for the offence. “For my part, I had forgotten +all about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear +aunt made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; +and the shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine +builders, to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no +better help.” + +“After all,” said Hector, thoughtfully; “children can do a great many +things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the +strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we +should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves +in a lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and +hunting.” + +“If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger,” said +Catharine; “but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, +and gave us health and strength to help ourselves.” + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + “Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O’ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken’d o’er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle--pale, + Fann’d by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song.”--COLERIDGE. + +“Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?” said Catharine, +the very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + +“Hollowing out a canoe.” + +“Out of that piece of stick?” said Catharine, laughing. “How many +passengers is it to accommodate, my dear.” + +“Don’t teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made +out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three.” + +“Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?” Louis +nodded assent. + +“I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and +out of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of +partridges, I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them.” + +“And shall we have a sail as well as oars?” + +“Yes; set up your apron for a sail.” + +Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + +“It is worth nothing now,” she said, sighing; “and what am I to do when +my gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been +cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes.” + +“We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough,” said Hector; +“Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the +holes with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be +easily made.” + +“The first rainy day, we will see what we can do,” replied Louis; “but I +am full of my canoe just now.” + +“Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even +if we had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could +manage one,” said cautions Hector. + +“I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first +taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and +streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I +have listened so often to my father’s stories and adventures when he was +out lumbering on the St. John’s river, that I am as familiar with the +idea of a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle,” + he said, turning to Catharine; “just think of the fish--the big ones we +could get if we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those +rush-beds.” + +“It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be +the Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of.” + +“Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he +called Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where +he said there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, +where people could see through the openings among the trees. He said it +was a great hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and +that they came there to gather in the harvest of wild rice.” + +“I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out,” said Catharine, +shuddering; “I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at +the wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?” + +“But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil +enough when they came to the Springs.” “They came, you know, for +food, or shelter, or something that they wanted from us; but it may +be different when they find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon +their hunting grounds.” + +“The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our +friends.” + +“The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together,” observed +Hector. “The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man +do not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary +the one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they +suspect our openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their +own--they do not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we +are taught to forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with +the savage, is a crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be +taught the word of God, he might be kind and true, and gentle as well as +brave.” + +It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away +their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for +self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and +time, that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered +and animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus +severed them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to +which their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from +infancy upwards. + +One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring +expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they +well knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and +venison himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat +near it. + +They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat +_[FN: Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose +pleasant meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the +lake. It is one of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well +for the persevering industry of the settler and his family.]_ along the +lake shore, to the eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult +to force their way through the thick underwood that always impedes the +progress of the traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed +the course of an ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural +causeway between two parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in +many places, not wider than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides +were most gracefully adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers +of various species, wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry +bushes, high-bush cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; +while in the deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest +growth, the heads of which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy +banks, beset with huge boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn +limestone, showed that it had once formed the boundary of the lake, +though now it was almost a quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of +pure water were in abundance, trickling down the steep rugged sides of +this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, delighted with the wild +picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of +moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak +or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest on the lonely but +lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark forest shut all +else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, till it reached +the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled what country +it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to them, indeed, +a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her companions +laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this unknown +shore to the northward being her father’s beloved Highlands. Let not +youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian +girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only +book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor +Highland soldier. + +Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at +last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that +formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far +from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to +the southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant +brae, where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, +they decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount +Ararat: “For here.” said they, “we will build us an ark of refuge and +wander no more.” And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still +bears. Here they sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried +venison, and drank of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the +edge of the bank. Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house +near the birches, and they made a regular blaze on the trees as they +returned home towards the wigwam, that they might not miss the place. +They found less difficulty in retracing their path than they had +formerly, a there were some striking peculiarities to mark it, and +they had learned to be very minute in the remarks they made as they +travelled, so that they now seldom missed the way they came by. A few +days after this, they removed all their household stores, viz. the axe, +the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of dried fruit, the +dried venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they forget the deer +scalp, which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up over the door +of their new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on the shores +of the Rice Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + +The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for +house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and +the oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate +watched the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; +there was something to look forward to from day to day-they were going +to commence housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and +well lodged before the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their +blood. It was a joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were +put up, and the door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did +not cut out the spaces for them; _[FN: Many a shanty is put up in +Canada without windows, and only an open space for a door, with a rude +plank set up to close it in at night.]_ they could do very well without, +as hundreds of Irish and Highland emigrants have done before and since. + +A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes +against the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney +and hearth in this primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with +wedge-shaped pieces of wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, +being chiefly oaks and pines, afforded no moss. This deficiency rather +surprised the boys, for in the thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss +grows in abundance on the north side of the trees, especially on the +cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron wood; but there were few of these, +excepting a chance one or two in the little basin in front of the house. +The roof was next put on, which consisted of split cedars; and when the +little dwelling was thus far habitable, they were all very happy. While +the boys had been putting on the roof, Catharine had collected the +stones for the chimney, and cleared the earthen floor of the chips and +rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, bound together with a leathern +thong. She had swept it all clean, carefully removing all unsightly +objects, and strewing it over with fresh cedar sprigs, which gave out +a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not unseemly carpet for their +little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire blazing up on their own +hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its gladdening light, and chat away +of all they had done and all that they meant to do. Here was to be a set +of split cedar shelves, to hold their provisions and baskets; there a +set of stout pegs were to be inserted between the logs for hanging up +strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, or the skins of the animals +they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be fixed on posts in the +centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden platters and dishes, and +some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of wood, till something +better could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough poles of iron-wood, +supported by posts driven into the ground, and partly upheld by the +projection of the logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing could be more +simple. The framework was of split cedar; and a safe bed was made by +pine boughs being first laid upon the frame, and then thickly covered +with dried grass, moss, and withered leaves. Such were the lowly but +healthy couches on which these children of the forest slept. + +A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded +with disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler’s family +have I seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared +for their reception; and many a gentleman’s son has voluntarily +submitted to privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and +adventure, or to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money +in the lumbering trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty +and ruder society of those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian +lumberers. During the spring and summer months, these men spread +themselves through the trackless forests, and along the shores of +nameless lakes and unknown streams, to cut the pine or oak lumber, such +being the name they give to the felled stems of trees, which are then +hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon the ice, where they are formed +into rafts, and floated down the waters till they reach the great +St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable difficulties and casualties, +finally shipped for England. I have likewise known European gentlemen +voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized home, and associate +themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, leading lives as +wandering and as wild as the uncultivated children of the forest. The +nights and early mornings were already growing sensibly more chilly. The +dews at this season fall heavily, and the mists fill the valleys, till +the sun has risen with sufficient heat to draw up the vapours. It was a +good thing that the shanty was finished so soon, or the exposure to the +damp air might have been productive of ague and fever. Every hour almost +they spent in making little additions to their household comforts, but +some time was necessarily passed in trying to obtain provisions. One +day Hector, who had been out from dawn till moonrise, returned with the +welcome news that he had shot a young deer, and required the assistance +of his cousin to bring it up the steep bank--(it was just at the +entrance of the great ravine)--below the precipitous cliff near the +lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the meantime. They had now +plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was very acceptable, as +they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat that they had. + +This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in +strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she +roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets +of birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, +and the meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild +plums in a beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried +for the winter store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she +also found plenty of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, +on the banks of a charming creek of bright water that flowed between +a range of high pine hills, and finally emptied itself into the +lake._[FN: This little stream flows through the green meadows +of “Glenlynden,” watering the grounds of Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose +picturesque cottage forms a most attractive object to the eye of the +traveller.]_ There were great quantities of water-cresses in this pretty +brook; they grew in bright round cushion-like tufts at the bottom of the +water, and were tender and wholesome. These formed an agreeable addition +to their diet, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to animal food, +for they could not always meet with a supply of the bread-roots, as +they grew chiefly in damp, swampy thickets on the lake shore, which +were sometimes very difficult of access; however, they never missed any +opportunity of increasing their stores, and laying up for the winter +such roots as they could procure. + +As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm +clothes and bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were +beginning to wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the +lake several times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she +was often sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as +time wore on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys +on the important subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to +manufacture the skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, +and the doe-skin and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. +Louis was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They +had taken off the hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling +it up with the hairy side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made +excellent mocassins, piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, +and passing the sinews of the deer through, as he had seen his father +do, by fixing a stout fish-bone to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an +excellent substitute for a needle, and with the aid of the old file he +sharpened the point of the rusty nail, so that he was enabled, with +a little trouble, to drill a hole in a bone needle, for his cousin +Catharine’s use. After several attempts, he succeeded in making some of +tolerable fineness, hardening them by exposure to a slow steady degree +of heat, till she was able to work with them, and even mend her clothes +with tolerable expertness. By degrees, Catharine contrived to cover +the whole outer surface of her homespun woollen frock with squirrel and +mink, musk-rat and woodchuck skins. A curious piece of fur patchwork of +many hues and textures it presented to the eye,--a coat of many colours, +it is true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was not a little +proud of her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was added was +a source of fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis fitted so +nicely to her feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector brought +triumphantly in one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught in +one of his deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the +brush remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine +might have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur +dress and bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + +Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and +stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the +inner part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most +expert in this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist +their fathers in preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur +traders, who visited them from time to time, and gave them various +articles in exchange for their peltries; such as powder and shot, and +cutlery of different kinds, as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with +gay calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs for the women. + +As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving +wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the +larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun +and wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets +too they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, +that they held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some +vessel that would bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small +that it could be made little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had +made an attempt at making tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the +sweet fern,--a graceful woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent like +nutmegs; this plant is highly esteemed among the Canadians as a +beverage, and also as a remedy against the ague; it grows in great +abundance on dry sandy lands and wastes, by waysides. + +“If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat +of the fire,” said Louis, “we could get on nicely with cooking.” But +nothing like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they +were obliged to give up that thought, and content themselves with +roasting or broiling their food. Louis, however, who was fond of +contrivances, made an oven, by hollowing out a place near the hearth, +and lining it with stones, filling up the intervals with wood ashes and +such clay as they could find, beaten into a smooth mortar. Such cement +answered very well, and the oven was heated by filling it with hot +embers; these were removed when it was sufficiently heated, and the meat +or roots placed within, the oven being covered over with a flat stone +previously heated before the fire, and covered with live coals. This +sort of oven had often been described by old Jacob, as one in common +use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower province, in which they +cook small animals, and make excellent meat of them; they could bake +bread also in this oven, if they had had flour to use. _[FN: This +primitive oven is much like what voyagers have described as in use among +the natives of many of the South Sea islands.]_ + +Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people +were more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided +home feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, +to talk of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all +were well, and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall +all their happy days spent in the home which they now feared they +were destined never again to behold. About the same time they lost the +anxious hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every +turn when they went out. Nevertheless they were becoming each day more +cheerful and more active. Ardently attached to each other, they seemed +bound together by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now +all the world to one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar +their happiness. Hector’s habitual gravity and caution were tempered +by Louis’s lively vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved +Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to +which she was exposed, by the most affectionate consideration for her +comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully +enduring all privations, and making light of all their trials, and +taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances. + +Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his +absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. +As he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some +accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he +had for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, +which he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly +finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island +to explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + +Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector +ran off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash +cousin, which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did +not wish to make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his +mind was somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it +had been left the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be +seen, nor the fishing-rod and line. + +“Perhaps,” thought he, “Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the +little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: +or maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point.” + +While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard +steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through +the bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his +disordered air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder +from time to time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + +“Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?” + cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried +onward. “Why, Louis, whither away?” + +Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till +Hector came up to him. + +“Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down +by a pack of wolves?” + +“It is not wolves, or bears either,” said Louis, as soon as he could get +breath to speak, “but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war +council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them.” + +“How came you to see them?” + +“I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going +down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer +path through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the +valley, I crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight +of the creek. While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how +pretty the islands were, rising so green from the blue water, I was +surprised by seeing several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you +may be sure, I thought they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too +far apart, so I sat down on a log to watch, thinking if they turned out +to be deer, I would race off for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, +that we might try our chance for some venison; but as the black specks +came nearer and nearer, I perceived they were canoes with Indians in +them, three in each. They made for the mouth of the creek, and ran +ashore among the thick bushes. I watched them with a beating heart, and +lay down flat, lest they should spy me out; for those fellows have eyes +like catamounts, so keen and wild--they see everything without seeming +to cast a glance on it. Well, I saw them wind up the ridge till they +reached the Bare-hill. _[FN: Supposed to be a council hill. It is +known by the name of Bare-hill, from the singular want of verdure on its +surface. It is one of the steepest on the ridge above the little creek, +being a picturesque object, with its fine pine-trees, seen from Mr. +Hayward’s grounds, and forms, I believe, a part of his property.]_ You +remember that spot; we called it so from its barren appearance. In a few +minutes a column of smoke rose and curled among the pine-trees, and then +another and another, till I counted five fires burning brightly; and, +as I stood on the high ground, I could distinguish the figures of many +naked savages moving about, running to and fro like a parcel of black +ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them raise a yell like a +pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my heart leap up in my +breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got into my wise head, +of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the empty birch canoes, +which you must own would have been a glorious thing for us; but when I +heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted off, and ran as +if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my scalp.” And +Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black curls, as if +to ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping knives of his +Indian enemies. + +“And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the +Indians; they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us.” + +“Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy.” + +“Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and +so three of course must be still better than two.” + +“Why,” said Hector, laughing, “it depends upon the stock of practical +wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form +one rational plan.” + +Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed +pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no +trace of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his +sister would agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so +much labour, and which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not +endure even in idea. + +“Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below +Mount Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold +goods thither.” Such was Louis’s plan. + +“The ravines would be searched directly,” suggested Hector; “besides, +the Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; +they might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a +burrow.” + +“Yes, and burn us,” said Catharine, with a shudder. “I know the path +that leads direct to the ‘Happy Valley,’ (the name she had given to the +low flat, now known as the ‘lower Race-course,’) and it is not far +from here, only ten minutes’ walk in a straight line. We can conceal +ourselves below the steep bank that we descended the other day; and +there are several springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and +berries; and the trees, though few, are so thickly covered with close +spreading branches that touch the very ground, that we might hide +ourselves from a hundred eyes were they ever so cunning and prying.” + +Catharine’s counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys +immediately busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a +prostrate tree such articles as they could not conveniently carry +away, leaving the rest to chance; with the most valuable they loaded +themselves, and guided by Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched +forward along the narrow footpath that had been made by some wild +animals, probably deer, in their passage from the lake to their +feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the low sheltered plain; where, +being quite open, and almost, in parts, free from trees, the grass and +herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the springs of water fresh +and cool. + +Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved +onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily +chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that +were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or +twinberry, _[FN: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely +creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet +berry.]_ as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails +are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad +her bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the +Rice Lake and its flowery shores. + +After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted +at the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely +spot as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like +a silver crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in +front, the long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away +into mist, and blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile +valley lay between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far +ridge of oak hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish +the outline of the Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires +and the smoke wreaths that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the +dark pines that grew upon its crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives +make, though perfectly safe from detection by the distance and their +shaded position, for many a winding vale and wood-crowned height lay +between them and the encampment. + +But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present +instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight +and of motion. A few minutes’ hasty flight brought our travellers to the +brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open +plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they +were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, +and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while +hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow +in the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and +prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by +the earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent +from these roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other +creepers, which formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious +eye could scarcely penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as +if provided for their concealment, and they carefully abstained from +disturbing the pendent foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray +their hiding-place to their enemies. They found plenty of long grass, +and abundance of long soft green moss and ferns near a small grove of +poplars, which surrounded a spring of fine water. They ate some dried +fruit and smoked fish, and drank some of the clear spring; and +after they had said their evening prayers, they laid down to sleep, +Catharine’s head pillowed on the neck of her faithful guardian, Wolfe. +In the middle of the night a startling sound, as of some heavy body +falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The night was so dark +they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat gazing into the +impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to speak to each +other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling bark, and +resumed his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his attention was +near to cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, and prayed +for safety against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector and Louis +listened, till they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the morning, +it seemed as if they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague were +their recollections of the fright they had had, but the cause was soon +perceived. A large stone that had been heaved up with the clay that +adhered to the roots and fibres, had been loosened, and had fallen on +the ground, close to the spot where Catharine lay. So ponderous was the +mass, that had it struck her, death must have been the consequence of +the blow; and Hector and Louis beheld it with fear and amazement, while +Catharine regarded it as a proof of Divine mercy and protection from +Him in whose hand her safety lay. The boys, warned by this accident, +carefully removed several large stones from the roof, and tried the +safety of their clay walls with a stout staff, to ascertain that all was +secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath this rugged canopy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +“The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour +in his eyes.”--_Proverbs_. + +FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke +should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have +effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious +dews, which, even on sultry summer’s evenings, is productive of much +chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, +was much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were +even sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. +These simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the +heated air to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and +denser particles. They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of +the causes that ruled them. + +The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook +them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh +for a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, +came one night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. +They saw several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe +tracked a wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden +spring, where she had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the +haunts of her fellows. The arrow was in her throat; it was of white +flint, and had evidently been sent from an Indian bow. It was almost +with fear and trembling that they availed themselves of the venison thus +providentially thrown in their way, lest the Indians should track the +blood of the doe, and take vengeance on them for appropriating it for +their own use. Not having seen anything of the Indians, who seemed to +confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the lake, after many days had +passed, they began to take courage, and even lighted an evening fire, at +which they cooked as much venison as would last them for several days, +and hung the remaining portions above the smoke to preserve it from +injury. + +One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in +the direction of the Indian camp. “I am tired of remaining shut up in +this dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by +those melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in.” Little +did Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home +of their childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide +it from their sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have +pressed onward in the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + +Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path +beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and +apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment +of our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark +thickets and thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our +Father’s home, where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock +back to the everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + +Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians +imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam +abroad free and uncontrolled. + +“After all,” said he; “we never met with any ill treatment from the +Indians that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old +friends and acquaintances among them.” + +“The thing is possible, but not very likely,” replied Louis. +“Nevertheless, Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. +The Indian has his own notion of things, and might think himself +quite justified in killing us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. +_[FN: George Copway, an intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the +Indian hunting-grounds are parcelled out, and secured by right of law +and custom among themselves, no one being allowed to hunt upon another’s +grounds uninvited. If any one belonging to another family or tribe is +found trespassing, all his goods are taken from him; a handful of powder +and shot, as much as he would need to shoot game for his sustenance in +returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and tomahawk only are left, +but all his game and furs are taken from him: a message is sent to +his chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he is banished and +outlawed.--_Life of G. Copway, Missionary, written by himself._]_ I +have heard my father say,--and he knows a great deal about these +people,--that their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers +that they find killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both +merciless and treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to +them in their own language, to explain by what chance we came here.” + +This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally +rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: +when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an +opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his +intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now +deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the +Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger +was to be apprehended from facing them. + +“Depend upon it,” he added, “cowards are never safer than brave men. +The Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they +found us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if +we openly faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared +for them.” + +“Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!” cried his sister, passionately +weeping. “Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?” + +“Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to +take care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; +they seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine +the camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch +for my return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither.” + +“But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner,” + said Catharine, “what would you do?” “I will tell you what I would do. +Instead of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs +make them understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing +but kindness and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would +tomahawk the defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace +and goodwill.” + +“If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you +have fallen into the hands of the savages,” said Catharine, mournfully +regarding her brother. + +“If it were not for Catharine,” said Louis, “you should not go alone, +but, if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, +who led her out with us, tempting her with false words.” + +“Never mind that now, dearest cousin,” said Catharine, tenderly laying +her hand on his arm. “It is much better that we should have been all +three together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both +Hec and you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been +so well off if I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your +spirits by my songs and stories.” + +“It is true, ma chère; but that is the reason that I am bound to take +care of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to +danger, or leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will +abide by you.” + +Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last +Louis and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon +busied themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in +that morning. + +The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that +Catharine cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her +brother’s return; at last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis +left the shelter of the valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent +their steps to the trysting tree, which commanded all the country within +a wide sweep. + +A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over +the minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, +which cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades +of evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The +full moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that +should break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of +a friend. + +Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy +days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. +At last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her +head upon the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly +paced to and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to +penetrate the surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the +first sound that might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + +It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick +sharp note of the “Whip-poor-will,” as she flew from bough to bough of +an old withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of +these midnight watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of +“Whip-poor-will, Whip-poor-will;” and then came forth, from many a +hollow oak and birch, the spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where +it had lain hushed in silence all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes +their sharp hard wings almost swept his cheek as they wheeled round and +round in circles, first narrow, then wide, and wider extending, till at +last they soared far above the tallest tree-tops and launching out in +the high regions of the air, uttered from time to time a wild shrill +scream, or hollow booming sound, as they suddenly descended to pounce +with wide-extended throat upon some hapless moth or insect, that sported +all unheeding in mid air, happily unconscious of the approach of so +unerring a foe. + +Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and +joyfully he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full +and red, over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + +Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy +forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound +luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed +as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. +Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose +from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under +tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + +It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated +young Louis’s breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, +as he thought, rushed into danger. “It was wilful and almost cruel,” + he thought “to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his +account;” and then the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved +companion took the place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled +his heart. The broad moon now flooded the hills and vales with light, +casting broad checkering shadows of the old oaks’ grey branches and now +reddened foliage across the ground. + +Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry +note: slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from +the form of the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the +moon. It is an open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a +few low shrubs and seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of +the late-flowering pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, +with open bells of azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall +flowers and winter-greens, brighten the ground with wreaths of shining +leaves and red berries. + +Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full +free note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and +half angry in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry +defiance he gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + +Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge +of the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching +steps is now distinctly heard advancing--it may be a deer. Two figures +approach, and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear +shrill whistle meets his ear. It is Hector’s whistle, he knows that, and +assured by its cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at +his side, but starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, +half carries. The moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking +figure of an Indian girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: +her ashy face is concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which +falls like a dark veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, +and she seems ready to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. +Hector, too, seems weary. The first words that’ Hector said were, “Help +me, Louis, to lead this poor girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired +I can hardly walk another step.” + +Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the +pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with +a bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with +him. The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep +so profound it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep +interest soon took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of +the gentle Catharine, and she watched the young stranger’s slumber +as tenderly as though she had been a sister, or beloved friend, while +Hector proceeded to relate in what manner he had encountered the Indian +girl. + +“When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the +_‘birken shaw,’_ I paused to examine if the council-fires were still +burning on Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there +a canoe to be seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their +landing-place at the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still +as if no human footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched +for nearly an hour till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, +which was sailing in wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. +Assured that the Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity +to examine the spot more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries +and cedars and small underwood that fringed the borders of the little +stream, and found myself, after a little pushing and scrambling, among +the bushes at the foot of the hill. + +“I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my +trouble--flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk--but I little +thought of what these cruel savages had left there,--a miserable wounded +captive, bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a small +tree, her hands, tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had bent +down to fasten them to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that +against which her head was fastened; her position was one that must +have been most painful: she had evidently been thus left to perish by +a miserable death, of hunger and thirst; for these savages, with a +fiendish cruelty, had placed within sight of their victim an earthen jar +of water, some dried deers’ flesh, and a cob _[FN: A head of the +Maize, or Indian corn, is called a “cob.”]_ of Indian corn. I have the +corn here,” he added, putting his hand in his breast, and displaying it +to view. + +“Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder,” and he +showed the flint head as he spoke, “and fettered; with food and drink in +sight, the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to +the wolf, and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor +thing’s lips were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her +eyes piteously from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. +This I gave her, and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut +the thongs that bound her, I wondered that she still kept the same +immoveable attitude, and thinking she was stiff and cramped with +remaining so long bound in one position, I took her two hands and tried +to induce her to move. I then for the first time noticed that she was +tied by the hair of her head to the tree against which her back was +placed; I was obliged to cut the hair with my knife, and this I did not +do without giving her pain, as she moaned impatiently. She sunk her head +on her breast, and large tears fell over my hands, as I bathed her face +and neck with the water from the jar; she then seated herself on the +ground, and remained silent and still for the space of an hour, nor +could I prevail upon her to speak, or quit the seat she had taken. +Fearing that the Indians might return, I watched in all directions, and +at last I began to think it would be best to carry her in my arms; but +this I found no easy task, for she seemed greatly distressed at any +attempt I made to lift her, and by her gestures I fancy she thought I +was going to kill her. At last my patience began to be exhausted, but I +did not like to annoy her. I spoke to her as gently and soothingly as I +could. By degrees she seemed to listen with more composure to me, though +she evidently knew not a word of what I said to her. She rose at last, +and taking my hands, placed them above her head, stooping low as she +did so, and this seemed to mean, she was willing at last to submit to +my wishes; I lifted her from the ground, and carried her for some little +way, but she was too heavy for me,--she then suffered me to lead her +along whithersoever I would take her, but her steps were so slow and +feeble, through weakness, that many times I was compelled to rest while +she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued now, and as quiet as a +lamb.” + +Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the +recital of her brother’s adventures. She seemed to think he had been +inspired by God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the +poor forlorn one from so dreadful a death. + +Louis’s sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he +commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + +He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition +to their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their +cave beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their +feet to the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was +despatched for water and venison for supper. + +The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, +and conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while +Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with +the greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the +cool healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ _[FN: Indian balsam.]_ about +it with the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in +water, and gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned +in her veins, and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which +were raised at intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid +hurried glance, as if she longed, yet feared to say, “Who are you that +thus tenderly bathe my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded +limbs, and cool my fevered blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a +being sent by the Great Spirit, from the far-off happy land to which +my fathers have gone, to smooth my path of pain, and lead me to those +blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers where the cruelty of the enemies +of my people will no more have power to torment me?” + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + “Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell.”--COLERIDGE. + +The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought +home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch +for her, with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over +it, and laid her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a +dear sister. This good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion +of her own age and sex. “Now,” said she, “I shall no more be lonely, I +shall have a companion and friend to talk to and assist me;” but when +she turned in the fulness of her heart to address herself to the +young stranger, she felt herself embarrassed in what way to make her +comprehend the words she used to express the kindness that she felt for +her, and her sorrow for her sufferings. + +The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if +striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter +her words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it +was to her as a sealed book. + +She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had +heard from the Indians when they came to her father’s house, but in +vain; not the simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried +with vexation at her own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more +fortunate in attempts at conversing with their guest. + +At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye +grew more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, +leaving it of a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the +swarthy Indian shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on +the ground. + +She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long +tresses of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small +wooden comb that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise +her eyes to her new friend’s face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she +took her hands within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and +lips and forehead in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance +to any words, and would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some +object which seemed unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such +times the face of the young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or +rather it might with more propriety have been said, the absence of all +expression, almost as blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + +How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was +passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, +the offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian +friend, to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention +as she herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the +object that she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young +squaw learned the names of all the familiar household articles about the +shanty, and could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when +she had learned a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would +laugh, and a gleam of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her +fine dark eyes, generally so fixed and sad-looking. + +It was Catharine’s delight to teach her pupil to speak a language +familiar to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and +name to her all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. +And she in her turn made “Indiana” (for so they named the young squaw, +after a negress that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one +of his Colonel’s infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each +object they saw. Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement +arising from instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to +enjoy the blunders they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. +When really interested in anything that was going on, her eyes would +beam out, and her smile gave an inexpressible charm to her face, for her +lips were red and her teeth even and brilliantly white, so purely white +that Catharine thought she had never seen any so beautiful in her life +before; at such times her face was joyous and innocent as a little +child’s, but there were also hours of gloom, that transformed it into an +expression of sullen apathy; then a dull glassy look took possession +of her eye, the full lip drooped and the form seemed rigid and stiff; +obstinate determination neither to move nor speak characterised her in +what Louis used to call the young squaw’s “_dark hour._” Then it was +that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her gentle nurse almost +feared to look at her protegée or approach her. + +“Hector,” said Louis, “you spoke about a jar of water being left at the +camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it.” + Hector assented to the proposal. “And we may possibly pick up a few +grains of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us.” + +“If we are here in the spring,” said Hector, “you and I will prepare a +small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;” and he sat down on +the end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the +cob, and then each corn grain by grain. “Three hundred and ten sound +grains. Now if every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have +a great increase, and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it +is a good year, several bushels to eat.” + +“We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine +flourishing crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne.” + _[FN: Supporne, probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or +porridge, made of Indian meal, a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee +farmer’s house.]_ + +“You forget we have no porridge pot.” + +“I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine +cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, +let us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;” and Louis, who had +now a new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite +on the _qui vive_, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved +a great disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his +cousin’s lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being +cracked, or that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was +not one of the doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the +ardour of his mind by causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted +camp, and though it had been knocked over by some animal, it was sound +and strong, and excited great speculation in the two cousins, as to the +particular material of which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of +pottery they had ever before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured +from some very dark red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, +as it presented the appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard +and ponderous, and the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern +as if punctured and scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed +to have been hardened by fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, +had evidently done good service as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they +learned the way in which it was used:_[FN: Pieces of this rude +pottery are often found along the shores of the inland lakes, but I have +never met with any of the perfect vessels in use with the Indians, who +probably find it now easier to supply themselves with iron pots and +crockery from the towns of the European settlers.]_ the jar being placed +near but not on the fire, was surrounded by hot embers, and the water +made to boil by stones being made red hot and plunged into it: in this +way soup and other food were prepared, and kept stewing, with no further +trouble after once the simmering began, than adding a few fresh embers +at the side furthest from the fir; a hot stone also placed on the top, +facilitated the cooking process. + +Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,--indeed it +was an accomplishment he prided himself on,--was enchanted with the +improvement made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen +jar, or pipkin, and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin +in the use of it. Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with +his bow and arrows, and visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times +oftener than he used to do, just for the sake of proving the admirable +properties of this precious utensil, and finding out some new way of +dressing his game. At all events there was a valuable increase of furs, +for making up into clothing, caps, leggings, mitts, and other articles. + +From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs +and shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, +and many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of +the porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets +and mats. The little creeping winter-green, _[FN: Gualtheria +procumbens,--Spice Winter-green.]_ with its scarlet berries, that grows +on the dry flats, or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, +she showed them was good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw +forth their fine aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their +fragrance with delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it +as a tonic. The inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good +to cure ague and fever. The root of the _dulçamara_, or bitter-sweet, +she scraped down and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other +animal, and made an ointment that possessed very healing qualities, +especially as an immediate application to fresh burns. + +Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the +knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several +times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food +she had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the +trees or bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she +told Catharine this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, +who had given them success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to +appease the malice of the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss +to them, or sickness or death, unless his forbearance was purchased by +some particular mark of attention. _[FN: By the testimony of many +of the Indians themselves, they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism +in their belief. “We believed in one great wise benevolent being, +Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose dwelling was in the sun. We believed also +in many other lesser spirits--gods of the elements, and in one bad +unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to whom we attributed bad +luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This bad spirit has to +be conciliated with meat and drink offerings.”--_Life of George Copway, +Native Missionary_]_ + +Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most +remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She +examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical +minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her +memory was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she +seemed even to single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from +their congeners. Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought +patience and perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly +interested in any work she began, she would toil on untiringly till it +was completed; and then what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times +they became darkly brilliant with the joy that filled her heart. But she +possessed little talent for invention; what she had seen done, after a +few imperfect attempts, she could do again, but she rarely struck out +any new path for herself. + +At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the +kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her +fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little +service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she +displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him +her first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental +plumage of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a +master and protector. He was in her eyes the _“Chief,”_ the head of his +tribe. His bow was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and +devices; his arrows were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made +and ornamented by her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case +for his arrows, of birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and +suspended by thongs to his neck, when he was preparing to go out in +search of game. She gave him the name of the “Young Eagle.” While she +called Louis, “Nee-chee,” or friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical +name of, “Music of the Winds,”--Ma-wah-osh. + +When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her +head in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name +of Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + +But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest +favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate +with a jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to +caress him, but Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual +friendly feeling became established between them, which seemed daily and +hourly to increase, greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She +would seat herself Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the +shanty, with the capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address +herself to this mute companion, in wailing tones, as if she would +unburthen her heart by pouring into his unconscious ear her tale of +desolation and woe. + +Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her +personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for +her to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her +example, till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at +first regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in +dressing her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish +it till it looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn +Catharine with the wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of +the wood-duck, or quill feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which +is called in the Indian tongue the shot-bird, in allusion to the round +spots on its cream-coloured breast: _[FN: The Golden-winged Flicker +belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers; it is very handsome, and is said +to be eatable; it lives on fruits and insects.]_ but it was not in these +things alone she showed her grateful sense of the sisterly kindness that +her young hostess showed to her; she soon learned to lighten her labours +in every household work, and above all, she spent her time most usefully +in manufacturing clothing from the skins of the wild animals, and in +teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them; but these were the +occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +“Go to the ant.”--_Proverbs._ + +IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued +serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, +began to show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach +of the equinox. Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come +sweeping over the lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. +Already the tints of autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the +oaks, and where the islands were visible, the splendid colours of +the maple shone out in gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the +evergreens and light golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now +looked, they had not yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which +a few frosty nights at the close of the month was destined to bring to +perfection--a glow of splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, +before the rushing winds and rains of the following month were to sweep +them away, and scatter them abroad upon the earth. + +One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys +went down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which +Louis had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water +was rough and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to +launch the raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over +the lake and admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to +his cousin a dark speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest +islands. The wind, which blew very strong still from the north-east, +brought the object nearer every minute. At first they thought it might +be a pine-branch that was floating on the surface, when as it came +bounding over the waves, they perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but +impelled by no visible arm. It was a strange sight upon that lonely lake +to see a vessel of any kind afloat, and, on first deciding that it was +a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide themselves among the bushes, for +fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the better of their fears. + +“The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; +for I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to +guide it,” said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the +tempest-driven vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was +the case, they hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the +canoe among the branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way +into the water. + +By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the +projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of +weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some +trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he +contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of +hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set +her afloat again. “Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of +which will gladden your heart,” cried Louis with a joyful look. “Come +quickly, and see my treasures.” + +“Treasures! You may well call them treasures,” exclaimed Hector, as he +helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the +shore, side by side. + +The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at +the discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian +blanket almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark +rope several yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious +than all, an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian +corn. These articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian +hunter or trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and +had drifted from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, +unless by some accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been +drowned; this was of course only a matter of conjecture on which it was +useless to speculate, and the boys joyfully took possession of the good +fortune that had so providentially been wafted, as it were, to their +very feet. + +“It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down +last night just where it was,” said Louis; “for if the canoe had not +been drawn into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have +lost it. I trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it +would founder in the deep water, or go off to Long Island.” + +“I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point,” said Hector, “but +I am glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half +afraid you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to +draw it nearer to the shore.” “Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling +like a wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful +soups, and stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!” and Louis +tossed up his new fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an +entire fox skin, in the air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which +Hector gravely condemned as unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned +of fifteen;) but with the joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and +danced, and laughed, and shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands +and far-off hills returned the unusual sound, and even his more steady +cousin caught the infection, and laughed to see Louis so elated. + +Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch +Catharine to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the +blanket, and the tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana +accompanied them to the lake shore, and long and carefully she examined +the canoe and its contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she +uttered as she surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice +of the broken handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the +vessel; this seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and +by broken words and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly +broken in the hand of the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the +other part, he had lost his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector +a rude figure of a bird engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed +in with a blue colour. This, she said, was the totem or crest of the +chief of the tribe, and was meant to represent a _crow_. The canoe had +belonged to a chief of that name. While they were dividing the contents +of the canoe among them to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up +the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and +adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to the front of her head, she +bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh +porter would his trunks and packages, turning round with a merry glance +and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as she climbed with +apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her companions, to her +great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the parched rice, +Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty very much--it +made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had been so long +deprived. + +Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be +ready on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out +and gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + +This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with +frequent themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was +the most valuable of their acquisitions. “It will insure us a crop, and +bread and seed-corn for many years,” he said; he also highly valued the +tomahawk, as his axe was worn and blunt. + +Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed +to think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the +latter; besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to +make a canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would +make, after thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for +herself and Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they +should be comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, +and was charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she +despise the packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying +burdens from place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft +fur in front of the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. +The mat, she said, was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. +The very next day after this adventure, the two girls set to work, and +with the help of Louis’s large knife, which was called into requisition +as a substitute for scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in +a short time made two comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the +full, short, plaited skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests +bordered with fur completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated +at the ankles by knotted fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned +over with a band of squirrel fur, completed the novel but not very +unbecoming costume; and many a glance of innocent satisfaction did our +young damsels cast upon each other, when they walked forth in the pride +of girlish vanity to display their dresses to Hector and Louis, who, for +their parts, regarded them as most skilful dress-makers, and were never +tired of admiring and commending their ingenuity in the cutting, making +and fitting, considering what rude implements they were obliged to use +in the cutting out and sewing of the garments. + +The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a +golden tinge which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue +waters--looking, when lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of +golden-coloured sand. The ears, heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped +towards the water. The time of the rice-harvest was at hand, and with +light and joyous hearts our young adventurers launched the canoe, and, +guided in their movements by the little squaw, paddled to the extensive +aquatic fields to gather it in, leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch +their proceedings from the raft, which Louis had fastened to a +young tree that projected out over the lake, and which made a good +landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand and fish very +comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account of the +rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself with +fishing from the raft till their return. + +The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the +canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and +another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in +the other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the +stick; the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which +a little practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets +the grass fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + +Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more +delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they +worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their +light bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve +them from starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + +The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were +now able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonjè and +black bass, which they caught in great numbers. + +Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her +own carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over +the water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with +delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke +into smiles and dimples. + +It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how +innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of +healthy exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she +possessed of excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill +which they had yet to acquire by imitating her. + +Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of +the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the +fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in +admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in +his estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + +“Every one to his craft,” said Louis, laughing; “the little squaw has +been brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her +babyhood; perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and +milking of cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she +would prove half as quick as Catharine or Mathilde.” + +“I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour,” said Hector, +thoughtfully. + +“Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;” replied +Louis. + +“I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great +pains to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and +that so far from being stupid, they learn very readily,” said Catharine. + +“We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite +still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel +down, before we go to bed,” observed Hector. + +“She cannot understand what we say,” said Catharine; for she knows so +little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the +prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking +of hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters.” + +“Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach +her; it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught +pagan,” said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort +of uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl’s total want of the rites +of his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with +feelings of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that +offered, of trying to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of +belief in the God who made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and +earnestly they entered into the task as a labour of love, and though for +a long time Indiana seemed to pay little attention to what they said, by +slow degrees the good seed took root and brought forth fruit worthy of +Him whose Spirit poured the beams of spiritual light into her heart: +but my young readers must not imagine these things were the work of a +day--the process was slow, and so were the results, but they were good +in the end. + +And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, +the Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, +and pray to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ +Jesus gave to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy +prayer, so full of humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully +understood by her whose lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship +and the desire to do that which she had been told was right, was, +doubtless, a sacrifice better than the pagan rites which that young +girl had witnessed among her father’s people, who, blindly following the +natural impulse of man in his depraved nature, regarded deeds of blood +and cruelty as among the highest of human virtues, and gloried in those +deeds of vengeance at which the Christian mind revolts with horror. + +Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking +and storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused +several forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the +ground; on these were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which +she then stretched the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked +pegs to the frame on the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and +lighted a fire beneath, taking good care not to let the flame set fire +to the mat, the object being rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by +means of the red embers. She next directed the boys to supply her +with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck in close together, so as +to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes. This was done to +concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with more power; the +rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled, flat shovel. +After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be done was +separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it by +small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle +or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. _[FN: +The Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, +by hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden +pounder.]_ If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have +been substituted in its stead. + +When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat +basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, +roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by +the little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which +was simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting +it on hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored +by for use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, +by the Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various +kinds; crowds of ducks were winging their way across it from morning +till night, floating in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy +groups if an eagle or fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic +circles above them, then settling down with noisy splash upon the calm +water. The shores, too, were covered with these birds, feeding on the +fallen acorns which fell ripe and brown with every passing breeze; the +berries of the dogwood also furnished them with food; but the wild rice +seemed the great attraction, and small shell-fish and the larvæ of +many insects that had been dropped into the waters, there to come to +perfection in due season, or to form a provision for myriads of wild +fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon them, guided by +that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one of our modern +poetesses, “God’s gift to the weak” _[FN: Mrs. Southey.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +“Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye.”--COLERIDGE. + +THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to +the lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee +as she looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its +surface. + +“If I had but my father’s gun, his good old gun, now!” would Hector say, +as he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; “but +these foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can +reach them.” + +Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with +green boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the +little vessel into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; +within this bower she motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small +space for the free use of his bow, while concealed at the prow she +gently and noiselessly paddled the canoe from the shore among the +rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or merely rocking to and fro +with the undulatory motion of the waters. The unsuspecting birds, +deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their pastime or their +prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer to hit many a +black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on the placid +water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the stream. +Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which Wolfe, +cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to land. + +Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great +gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after +the same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, +a dozen or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others +stationed at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the +island, to collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a +great feast. + +The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great +Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed +them to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes +distant tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited +to share the sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not +understand why Hector did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, +and offer the first duck or the best fish to propitiate the Great +Spirit. Hector told her that the God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; +that his holy Son, when he came down from heaven and gave himself as a +sacrifice for the sins of the world, had satisfied his Father, the Great +Spirit, an hundred-fold. + +They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned +from Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making +tippets, and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, +but light and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they +did not require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter +store, smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney +people smoke the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store +of provisions, fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and +bags of dried fruit. + +One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys +that the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding +up her two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. +The tribes had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. +She advised them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to +attract them; but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over +the plains just then, as the camp was lower down on the point _[FN: +This point, commonly known as _Anderson’s Point_, now the seat of the +Indian village, used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous +for the Indians, and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre +that took place about eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the +Indians are often turned up with the plough at this day.]_ east of the +mouth of a big river, which she called “Otonabee.” + +Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event +of meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the +earth in silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + +“If they should prove to be any of your father’s people, or a friendly +tribe, would you go away with them?” he again repeated, to which she +solemnly replied, + +“Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father’s +warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but +Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink +from danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here,” and she laid +her hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but +impassioned tone, “They left not one drop of living blood to flow in +any veins but these,” and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched +upwards towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the +murderers of her father’s house. + +“My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these +hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, +along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the +Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father’s people by hundreds in +cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day +and a bloody deed.” + +Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the +young Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under +the cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked +the lake, to watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no +apprehension if the Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal +themselves, but offer them food to eat and water to drink. “If they come +to the house and find you away, they will take your stores and burn your +roof, suspecting that you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will +not harm you if you meet them with open hand and fearless brow: if they +eat of your bread, they will not harm you; me they would kill by a +cruel death--the war-knife is in their heart against the daughter of the +_brave_.” + +The boys thought Indiana’s advice good, and they felt no fear for +themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the +shanty with Wolfe. + +The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come +to enjoy, seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite +peaceably disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north +side, and the boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the +opposite shore, and now and then in the stillness of the evening their +wild shouts of revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the +breeze over the waters of the lake. + +The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed +in broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of +deep interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many +months after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful +story of the massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, +as I have raised the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so +I must render it in my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences +in which its facts were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes +would be unintelligible to my young friends. _[FN: The facts of +this narrative were gathered from the lips of the eldest son of a Rice +Lake chief. I have preferred giving it in the present form, rather +than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as it is, it is matter of +history.]_ + +There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the +chiefs of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which +like a smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having +burst into a decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and +obtain the advantage over the other by covert means. The tribe of the +Mohawks of which I now speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice +Lake for their hunting grounds, and certain islands and parts of the +lake for fishing, while that of the Ojebwas considered themselves +masters of the northern shores and certain rights of water beside. +Possibly it was about these rights that the quarrel originated, but if +so, it was not openly avowed between the “Black Snake,” (that was the +totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the “Bald Eagle” (the totem of the +Ojebwa). + +These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of +great and rare beauty, called by her people, “The Beam of the Morning;” + she was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the +young men of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. +Among her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the +most enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of +winning the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black +Snake accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his +hunting grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on +the lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot +between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for +peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the +Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of +great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, +but who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial +alliance with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was +closely connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart +of the Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and +forgotten the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting +had been carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald +Eagle was requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go +to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived +the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had +been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring +hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily +anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on +the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans. + +The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his +guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused +to tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief +remained moody and silent. The following day the same scene was +repeated, and on the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in +bodily agony, with great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him +by the importunity of his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which +was, that the Bad Spirit had told him that these bodily tortures could +not cease till the only son of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been +sacrificed to appease his anger--neither could peace long continue +between the two nations until this deed had been done; and not only must +the chief’s son be slain, but he must be pierced by his own father’s +hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the father must +preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and aversion at so +bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his life and the +happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for ever if the +sacrifice was made,--if not, war to the knife was to be ever between the +Mohawks and Ojebwas. + +The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an +occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at +the time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + +“Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the +tribes of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be +sacrificed by my hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the +Black Snake’s body may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires +of their lodges in peace.” + +“The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart,” was the +specious response of the wily Mohawk; “moreover, the Good Spirit also +appeared, and said, ‘Let the Black Snake’s son and the Bald Eagle’s +daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the +lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.’” + +“The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine,” was +the courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the +unmoved brow and passionless lip. + +The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye +that dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged +the weapon into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast +of human flesh was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, +presided over the ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the +sacrifice, and all went off well, as if no such fearful rite had been +enacted: but a fearful retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought +the tent of the Bald Eagle’s daughter that evening, and was received +with all due deference, as a son of so great a chief as the Black Snake +merited; he was regarded now as a successful suitor, and intoxicated +with the beauty of the Beam of the Morning, pressed her to allow the +marriage to take place in a few days. The bride consented, and a day was +named for the wedding feast to be celebrated, and that due honour +might be given to so great an event, invitations were sent out to the +principal families of the Mohawk tribe, and these amounted to several +hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa hunters were despatched up +the river and to different parts of the country, avowedly to collect +venison, beaver, and other delicacies to regale their guests, but in +reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a large war party from the +small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in the deadly revenge that +was preparing for their enemies. + +Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal +ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests +was then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so +artfully contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and +their allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, +armed with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to +spring upon their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the +etiquette always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were +left outside the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and +dancing to the tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several +hundred naked and painted warriors were assembled. The feast was +declared to be ready; a great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre +of the tent. According to the custom of the Indians, the father of the +bridegroom was invited to lift the most important dish from the pot, +whilst the warriors commenced their wardance around him. This dish +was usually a bear’s head, which was fastened to a string left for the +purpose of raising it from the pot. + +“Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head +and set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and +that his wise heart may be glad;” were the scornful words of the Bald +Eagle. + +A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as +he lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the _happy_ +bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + +“Ha!” shouted the Bald Eagle, “is the great chief of the Mohawks a +squaw, that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of +his son, the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave +neither sigh nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his +child. Come, brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the +blood of thy son: the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of +the feast that was prepared from his young warrior’s body.” The wretched +father dashed himself upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent +the air; those cries were answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed +Ojebwas, as they sprang to their feet, and with deafening yells attacked +the guests, who, panic-stricken, naked and defenceless, fell an easy +prey to their infuriated enemies. Not one living foe escaped to tell the +tale of that fearful marriage feast. A second Judith had the Indian +girl proved. It was her plighted hand that had severed the head of her +unsuspecting bridegroom to complete the fearful vengeance that had been +devised in return for the merciless and horrible murder of her brother. + +Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians +seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, +urged by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where +the women and children and such of the aged or young men as were +not included among the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting +security. Panic-stricken, the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell +like sheep appointed for the slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the +grey-head with the infant of days. But while the youths and old men +tamely yielded to their enemies, there was one, whose spirit roused to +fury by the murder of her father, armed herself with the war club and +knife, and boldly withstood the successful warriors. At the door of the +tent of the slaughtered chief the Amazon defended her children: while +the war lightning kindled in her dark eye, she called aloud in scornful +tones to her people to hide themselves in the tents of their women, who +alone were _braves_, and would fight their battles. Fiercely she taunted +the men, but they shrank from the unequal contest, and she alone +was found to deal the death-blow upon the foe, till overpowered with +numbers, and pierced with frightful wounds, she fell singing her own +death-song and raising the wail for the dead who lay around her. Night +closed in, but the work of blood still continued, till not a victim was +found, and again they went forth on their exterminating work. Lower +down they found another encampment, and there also they slew all the +inhabitants of the lodges; they then returned back to the island, to +gather together their dead and collect the spoils of their tents. They +were weary with the fatigue of the slaughter of that fearful day; they +were tired of blood-shedding; the retribution had satisfied even their +love of blood: and when they found, on returning to the spot where the +heroine had stood at bay, one young solitary female sitting beside the +corpse of that dauntless woman, her mother, they led her away, and did +all that their savage nature could suggest to soften her anguish and dry +her tears. They brought her to the tents of their women, and clothed and +fed her, and bade her be comforted; but her young heart burned within +her, and she refused consolation. She could not forget the wrongs of +her people: she was the only living creature left of the Mohawks on that +island. The young girl was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell had +found, wounded and bound, to perish with hunger and thirst on Bare-hill. + +Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she +had stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a +knife at his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the +young men, who had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was +called, and she was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state +already described. + +It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children +listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes +and pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood +had inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade +of the trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that +Catharine, with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those +heavenly lessons of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set +forth by his life, his doctrines, and his death. + +And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour’s face in Heaven, +and dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for +those dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her +home a desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her +heart, and the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could +not become the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. +How hard were these conditions to the young heathen,--how contrary to +her nature, to all that she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, +where revenge was virtue, and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious +thing! + +Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her +Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her +Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and +admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, +unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into +her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake +those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing +her to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a +lamb of his “extended fold?” * + +_[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a +Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an +historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of +the actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down +the legend, and did so in part, but made such confusion between his +imperfect English and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for +copying.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +“The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill” _Irish Song._ + +WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, +shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting +was the amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, +quite forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting +on the brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their +proceedings. Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to +the Indians, by raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre +that excited their unqualified admiration and applause. + +At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north +shore, and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted +up their shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared +sufficiency of food for the following day. The Indians remained for a +fortnight; at the end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on +their movements, told Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and +that the Indians had gone up the river, and would not return again for +some weeks. The departure of the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing +to Catharine, whose dread of these savages had greatly increased since +she had been made acquainted with the fearful deeds which Indiana had +described; and what reliance could she feel in people who regarded deeds +of blood and vengeance as acts of virtuous heroism? + +Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a +short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, +which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they +had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken +it for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never +turned out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, +drawing water from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high +bank above her, that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, +Indiana gave the two boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw +them enter the ravine; and effectually hidden among the thick grey +mossy trunks of the cedars at the lake shore, they remained secure from +molestation, while the Indian girl dropped noiselessly down among the +tangled thicket of wild vines and brushwood, which she drew cautiously +over her, and closed her eyes, lest, as she naively remarked, their +glitter should be seen and betray her to her enemies. + +It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors +were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and +they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + +“Are my white brothers afraid to die?” was the young squaw’s +half-scornful reply. “Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not +to die?” + +The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been +stormy and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the +nights were often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be +seen forming an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the +north and north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, +in ever-varying shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the +stars, which shone with softened radiance through the silvery veil +that dimmed their beauty. Sometimes for many nights together the same +appearance might be seen, and was usually the forerunner of frosty +weather, though occasionally it was the precursor of cold winds, and +heavy rains. + +The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as +an omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected +with her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally +she unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or +misfortunes were revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, +the appearance of strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. +The screeching of the owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the +fox, were evil auguries, while the flight of the eagle and the croaking +of the raven were omens of good. She put faith in dreams, and would +foretel good or evil fortune from them; she could read the morning and +evening clouds, and knew from various appearances of the sky, or +the coming or departing of certain birds or insects, changes in the +atmosphere. Her ear was quick in distinguishing the changes in the +voices of the birds or animals; she knew the times of their coming and +going, and her eye was quick to see as her ear to detect sounds. Her +voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and she delighted in imitating +the little ballads or hymns that Catharine sung; though she knew nothing +of their meaning, she would catch the tunes, and sing the song with +Catharine, touching the hearts of her delighted auditors by the melody +and pathos of her voice. + +The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft +and mild, almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen +through the smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on +the bosom of the glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface +every passing shadow, and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on +shore and island. Sometimes the stillness of the air was relieved by a +soft sighing wind, which rustled the dying foliage as it swept by. + +The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this +season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual +flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then +that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, +and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort +to certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their +customs; as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + +Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was +impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on +that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being +surprised by the Indians. “Some fine day,” said Louis, “we will go out +in the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little +way.” + +Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the +little islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is +level with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name +they had given to it was “Ship Island.” The Indians have some name +for it which I have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, “Witch +Island.” Hector’s plan met with general approbation, and they resolved +to take provisions with them for several days, and visit the islands and +go up the river, passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees +on the shore wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + +The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a +mirror, and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the +lake, first to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; +they then went to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance +of wild vines, now rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,--tart, +but still not to be despised by our young adventurers; and they brought +away a large birch basket heaped up with the fruit. “Ah, if we had but +a good cake of maple sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make +such grape jelly as my mother makes!” said Louis. + +“If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar,” + said Catharine; “there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, +near the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant +spot which we named the Happy Valley, _[FN: A lovely valley to the +east of Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family +of the name of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,--a +cultivated fertile farm.]_ where the bright creek runs, dancing along so +merrily, below the pine-ridge?” + +“Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where +the water-cresses grow.” + +“Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day.” + +“What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!” + said Hector, thoughtfully. + +“Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms,” + said Louis, laughing. “We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I +think he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the +fine flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it +all with wheat, and peas, and Indian corn.” + +“We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we +live,” replied Hector; “that corn that we found in the canoe will be a +treasure.” + +“Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill,” said Catherine. “How lucky +we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn +flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went +to the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable +while you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the +life of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything +has prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is +because we try to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our +endeavours.” + +“We are told,” said Hector, “that there is joy with the angels of God +over one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when +the heathen that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy +name.” + +Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that +she should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; +beside, she said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked +with a suspicious eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of +eating its flesh, though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider +them good meat, baked in Louis’s Indian oven, or roasted on a forked +stick, before the fire. The Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a +very great deal larger than the common British hedgehog; the quills, +however, are longer and stronger, and varied with alternate clouded +marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; they are minutely barbed, so +that if one enters the flesh it is with difficulty extracted, but will +work through of itself in an opposite direction, and can then be easily +pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer great inconvenience from +getting their muzzles filled with the quills of the porcupine, +the former when worrying the poor little animal, and the latter by +accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great inflammation +will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose valuable hounds +from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her companions, there +were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they could collect a +bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the butter-nut +is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it is a +species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and +grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for +passing the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several +of which made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the +water, they agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana +said there was an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, +and where there was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a +comfortable bed for the night. This old log-house she said had been +built, she heard the Indians say, by a French Canadian trapper, who +used to visit the lake some years ago; he was on friendly terms with the +chiefs, who allowed him many privileges, and he bought their furs, and +took them down the lake, through the river Trent, to some station-house +on the great lake. They found they should have time enough to land and +deposit their nuts and grapes and paddle to Long Island before sunset. +Upon the western part of this fine island they had several times landed +and passed some hours, exploring its shores; but Indiana told them, to +reach the old log-house they must enter the low swampy bay to the east, +at an opening which she called Indian Cove. To do this required some +skill in the management of the canoe, which was rather over-loaded for +so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and thick that they had +some difficulty in pushing their way through them without injuring its +frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black elder, high-bush +cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded further, and there +was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp oak, and soft +maple, with silver birch and wild cherries. Long strings of silvery-grey +tree-moss hung dangling over their heads, the bark and roots of the +birch and cedars were covered with a luxuriant growth of green moss, but +there was a dampness and closeness in this place that made it far from +wholesome, and the little band of voyagers were not very sorry when the +water became too shallow to admit of the canoe making its way through +the swampy channel, and they landed on the banks of a small circular +pond, as round as a ring, and nearly surrounded by tall trees, hoary +with moss and lichens; large water-lilies floated on the surface of +this miniature lake, and the brilliant red berries of the high-bush +cranberry, and the purple clusters of grapes, festooned the trees. + +“A famous breeding place this must be for ducks,” observed Louis. + +“And for flowers,” said Catharine, “and for grapes and cranberries. +There is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however +lonely the spot.” + +“A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes,” said Hector, +looking round. “The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his +lodge near this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not +so bad a one either,” and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted +little tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were +the ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by +the old trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles +still occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss +and grass lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of +her silent laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild +duck had sat and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which +she had found and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things +pertaining to the former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, +battered tin pannikin, now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a +broken earthen whisky jar; a rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and +pocketed, or rather pouched,--for he had substituted a fine pouch of +deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and a fishing-line of good stout +cord, which was wound on a splinter of red redar, and carefully stuck +between one of the rafters and the roof of the shanty. A rusty but +efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, who was the finder, +was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so valuable an +addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd worn-out +mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while +Catharine declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and +carefully deposited it in the canoe. + +As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that +there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some +one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining +the incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that +lay mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the +work of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look +upon these simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living +remnant. The young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, +isolated being, with no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to +her; a stranger in the land of her fathers, associating with those whose +ways were not her ways, nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language +was scarcely known to her, whose God was not the God of her fathers. +Yet the dark eyes of the Indian girl were not dimmed with tears as she +thought of these things; she had learned of her people to suffer, and be +still. + +Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the +earth, when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and +then kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,-- + +“Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish +you, because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God +loves you, and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, +and the Friend of the destitute, and to them that have no helper.” + +The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning +is necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the +dumb, the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is +often more eloquent than words--the gentle pressure of the hand, the +half-echoed sigh, the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, +and unlock its hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock +is smitten and the waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to +refresh and fertilize the thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner +was touched; she bowed down her head upon the hand that held her so +kindly in its sisterly grasp, and wept soft sweet human tears full of +grateful love, while she whispered, in her own low plaintive voice, “My +white sister, I kiss you in my heart; I will love the God of my white +brothers, and be his child.” + +The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: +they found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the +desolate hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, +made a serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the +deserted dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were +quickly rolled in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. +The new-found fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and +with very little delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, +was added to their store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, +which they found in abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and +butternuts which Hector cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, +finished their sylvan meal. The boys stretched themselves to sleep on +the ground, with their feet, Indian fashion, to the fire; while the two +girls occupied the mossy couch which they had newly spread with fragrant +cedar and hemlock boughs. + +The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, +_[FN: Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage +of Alfred Hayward, Esq.]_ a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with +steep rocky banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely +wooded to admit of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its +shores. + +The next island they named the Beaver, _[FN: The Beaver, commonly +called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon +it some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, +to which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies +towards the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite +to Gore’s Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and +verandah of Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, +Esq., the Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of +the only residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the +few gentlemen who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract +of country, and to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of +late, have been so fully developed.]_ from its resemblance in shape to +that animal. A fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black +Island, _[FN: Black Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an +oval island, remarkable for its evergreens.]_ from its dark evergreens; +the next was that which seemed most to excite the interest of their +Indian guide, although but a small stony island, scantily clothed +with trees, lower down the lake. This place she called Spooke Island, +_[FN: Appendix H.]_ which means in the Indian tongue, a place for +the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, and here, in times past, +used the Indian people to bury their dead. The island is now often the +resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being grassy and open, find +it more available than those which are densely wooded. The young Mohawk +regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, and would not suffer +Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores. + +“It is a place of spirits,” she said; “the ghosts of my fathers will be +angry if we go there.” Even her young companions felt that, they were +upon sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial +isle. + +Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived +from their Highland origin, Indiana’s respect for the spirits of her +ancestors was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to +disturb the solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after +awhile reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into +two separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with +stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. +Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many +days’ journey up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with +her paddle a long line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some +longer, some smaller, with Bays and inlets, which she gave them to +understand were the chain of lakes that she spoke of. There were +beautiful hunting grounds on the borders of these lakes, and many fine +water-falls and rocky islands; she had been taken up to these waters +during the time of her captivity. The Ojebwas, she said, were a branch +of the great Chippewa nation, who owned much land and great waters +thereabouts. + +Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the +Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration +and curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading +up to an unknown far-off land--a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable +forests,--flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on its +tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,--the pure +ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that flitted +across its surface--so quiet was the onward flow of its waters. + +A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and +crimson-tinted oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the +silent fall of many a sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer +and of winter’s coming reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful +stillness; no breath of wind moved the trees or dimpled the water. +Bright wreaths of scarlet berries and wild grapes hung in festoons among +the faded foliage. The silence of the forest was unbroken, save by the +quick tapping of the little midland wood-pecker, or the shrill scream +of the blue jay; the whirring sound of the large white and grey duck, +(called by the frequenters of these lonely waters the whistle-wing,) as +its wings swept the waters in its flight; or the light dripping of the +paddle;--so still, so quiet was the scene. + +As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either +to encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in +returning. She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some +anxiety. Vast volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the +sun seen through its hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air +unrelieved by a breath of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; +and though the same coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several +successive days, a sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire +in all to return; and after a few minutes’ rest and refreshment, they +turned their little bark towards the lake; and it was well that they did +so: by the time they had reached the middle of the lake, the stillness +of the air was rapidly changing. The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so +long piled upon each other in mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, +at first slowly, then with rapidly accelerated motion. There was a +hollow moaning in the pine tops, and by fits a gusty breeze swept +the surface of the water, raising it into rough, short, white-crested +ridges. + +These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising +hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on +the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl +raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the +crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the +Beaver Island--it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she +wielded the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their +little vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining +every nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of +thunder were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away +flew the light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the +tempest was above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest +trees as they bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding +from shore to shore. And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black +streaming hair from her brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with +renewed vigour plied the paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of +turbulence by the violence of the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, +but no word was spoken--they each felt the greatness of the peril, but +they also knew that they were in the hands of Him who can say to the +tempest-tossed waves, “Peace, be still,” and they obey Him. + +Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland +was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with +difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to +do this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the +old tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper’s shanty. + +The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of +the Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was +vigorously pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter +of the overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions +they had made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the +storm, they threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its +progress--thankful for an escape from such imminent peril. + +Thus ended the Indian summer--so deceitful in its calmness and its +beauty. The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into +stone by a premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting +the shelter of the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their +ark of refuge--the log-house on Mount Ararat. + +The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner +than usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of +April the snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered +with ice, and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet +from shore to shore. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + “Scared by the red and noisy light.”--COLERIDGE. + +Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping +fire-wood, which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, +used from childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, +and snaring hares, were occupations which they pursued more for the +excitement and exercise than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance +of dried, venison, fish, and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. +They now visited those trees that they had marked in the summer, where +they had noticed the bees hiving, and cut them down; in one they got +more than a pailful of rich honey-comb, and others yielded some more, +some less; this afforded them a delicious addition to their boiled +rice, and dried acid fruits. They might have melted the wax, and burned +candles of it; but this was a refinement of luxury that never once +occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry pine knots that are found +in the woods are the settlers’ candles; but Catharine made some very +good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and combs, by pouring water on +it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of the chimney, in one of +the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent substitute for salt as +a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the Indians, they were now +reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + +Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up +to every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she +patiently made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little +shelter of pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear +carved out of hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently +await the rising of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously +plunging it into the unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. +Many a noble fish did the young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet +of him whom she had tacitly elected as her lord and master; to him she +offered the voluntary service of a faithful and devoted servant--I might +almost have said, slave. + +During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, +that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing +log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west +wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, +unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian +blanket with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt +little cold excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind +was high, and then experience taught them to keep at home. And these +cold gloomy days they employed in many useful works. Indiana had +succeeded in dyeing the quills of the porcupine that she had captured on +Grape Island; with these she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and +an arrow case for Hector, besides making a sheath for Louis’s +_couteau-du-chasse_, of which the young hunter was very proud, bestowing +great praise on the workmanship. + +Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was +engaged in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the +no small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, +was remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of +everything he saw. + +Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner +bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and +wide in the middle--not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat +fish; over this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, +wetted to make it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when +dry, it became quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work +such as you see on cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + +“And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in +your ingenious little net,” said Louis, who had watched her proceedings +with great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she +showed all her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second +frame like the first. + +Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, +that was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for +some kind of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring +glance at Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her +silent laughs. + +“Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,”--and snatching up a light +bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the +netted frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on +with her work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage +persevering in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the +other was done: then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: +and he was forced at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of +the work. It was night before the two were completed, and furnished with +straps and loops. When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl +knelt down at Hector’s feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a +joyous laugh, and said, “Snow-shoe--for walk on snow--good!” + +The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now +seemed to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use +of them. The young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own +feet, and soon proved to them that the broad surface prevented those +who wore them from sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector +began to acknowledge the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, +especially on the frozen snow on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well +pleased with the approbation that her manufactures met with, and very +soon manufactured for “Nee-chee,” as they all now called Louis, a +similar present As to Catharine, she declared the snow-shoes made her +ancles ache, and that she preferred the mocassins that her cousin Louis +made for her. During the long bright days of February they made several +excursions on the lake, and likewise explored some of the high hills +to the eastward. On this ridge there were few large trees; but it was +thickly clothed with scrub oaks, slender poplars, and here and there +fine pines, and picturesque free-growing oaks of considerable size and +great age--patriarchs, they might be termed, among the forest growth. +_[FN: One of these hoary monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands +at the head of the lawn at Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr. W. +Falkner, now the residence of the Authoress.]_ Over this romantic range +of hill and dale, free as the air they breathed, roamed many a gallant +herd of deer, unmolested unless during certain seasons when the Indians +came to hunt over these hills. Surprised at the different growth of +the oaks on this side the plains, Hector could not help expressing his +astonishment to Indiana, who told him that it was caused by the custom +that her people had had from time immemorial of setting fire to the +bushes in the early part of spring. This practice, she said, promoted +the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover for the deer themselves, +and effectually prevented the increase of the large timbers. This +circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high ridge of hills when +contrasted with the more wooded portions to the westward. From the lake +these eastern hills look verdant, and as if covered with tall green +fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is cast upon the leaves +of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they present a glowing +unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only variegated in spots by +a dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light waving poplars turned by +the same wizard’s wand to golden yellow. + +There were many lovely spots,--lofty rounded hills, and deep shady +dells, with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole +our young folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded +glens of the western side, where they had fixed their home. + +There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold +bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down +the frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on +small hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped +in their warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what +cared they for the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks +brightened by the delightful exercise, they would remain for hours +enjoying the amusement of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the +ground with myriads of diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening +it till it rivalled the snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out +with the exercise, they returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing +fire, till the smoked rafters glowed in the red light; spread their +simple fare of stewed rice sweetened with honey, or maybe a savoury +soup of hare or other game; and then, when warmed and fed, they kneeled +together, side by side, and offered up a prayer of gratitude to their +Maker, and besought his care over them during the dark and silent hours +of night. + +Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in +their tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of +enjoying many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely +forest home. Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice +of every sort of usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful +fortitude; not, indeed, quietly to sit down and wait for better times, +but vigorously to create those better times by every possible exertion +that could be brought into action to assist and ameliorate their +condition. + +To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that +nerves his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in +the steps of the old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the +exercise of his own energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their +own resources, instead of depending upon his neighbours. + +The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of +civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might +not have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian +Crusoes, because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a +life of such privation as they had known, they could not have brought +so much experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires +courage to yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + +Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made +by Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and +better table than the first rough one that they put together. They also +made a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and +separate sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly +circumscribed their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as +soon as the spring came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better +and larger room to be used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a +complete set of wooden trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of +excellent grain, and less liable to warp or crack than many others. + +Louis’s skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. +He not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a +certain taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his +materials and rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in +mechanism for which the French have always been remarked. With his knife +and a nail he would carve a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with +handle across it, all delicately wrought with flowers and checker-work. +The shell of a butter-nut would be transformed into a boat, with +thwarts, and seats, and rudder; with sails of bass-wood or birch-bark. +Combs he could cut out of wood or bone, so that Catharine could dress +her hair, or confine it in braids or bands at will. This was a source of +great comfort to her; and Louis was always pleased when he could in any +way contribute to his cousin’s happiness. These little arts Louis +had been taught by his father. Indeed, the entire distance that their +little, settlement was from any town or village had necessarily forced +their families depend on their own ingenuity and invention to +supply many of their wants. Once or twice a year they saw a trading +fur-merchant, as I before observed; and those were glorious days for +Hector and Louis, who were always on the alert to render the strangers +any service in their power, as by that means they sometimes received +little gifts from them, and gleaned up valuable information as to their +craft as hunters and trappers. And then there were wonderful tales of +marvellous feats and hair-breadth escapes to listen to, as they sat +with eager looks and open ears round the blazing log-fire in the old +log-house. Now they would in their turns have tales to tell of strange +adventures, and all that had befallen them since the first day of their +wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + +The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The +Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves +chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, +and did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter +end of the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as +they had the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar +and some molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible +place: it had the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready +built for a shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a +good boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need +not be exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two +boys soon cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out +into sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; +and the first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh +with their vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and +tapped the trees they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And +many pleasant days they passed during the sugar-making season. They did +not leave the sugar-bush for good till the commencement of April, when +the sun and wind beginning to unlock the springs that fed the lake, and +to act upon its surface, taught them that it would not long be +prudent to remain on the island. The loud booming sounds that were now +frequently heard of the pent-up air beneath striving to break forth from +its icy prison, were warnings not to be neglected. Openings began +to appear, especially at the entrance of the river, and between the +islands, and opposite to some of the larger creeks; blue streams that +attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and wild geese, that came, guided by +that instinct that never errs, from their abiding-places in far-off +lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild birds coming and going +with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to her simple-minded +companions. + +How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How +joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded +woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and +twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, +that comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the +low, tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines +or in the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of +the little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen +trees, and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his +wings against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds--were +among the early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest +dwellers, and for such they listened with eager ears, for they told +them-- + + “That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last.” + +They watched for the first song of the robin, _[FN: Turdus +miyratorius, or American robin.]_ and the full melody of the red thrush +_[FN: Turdus melodus, or wood-thrush.]_; the rushing sound of the +passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, +sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or +darting down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, +the acorns that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries +of hawthorn and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines +were now putting on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies +were deep blue; nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed +waking into life and light. + +On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access +to the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and +Louis were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for +the addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to +work as soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little +field for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended +to the house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in +plenty of small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned +up the loose boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had +marked out, they proceeded to enclose it with a “brush fence”, which +was done by felling the trees that stood in the line of the field, and +letting them fall so as to form the bottom log of the fence, which +they then made of sufficient height by piling up arms of trees and +brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were too particular, as there +was no fear of “breachy cattle,” or any cattle, intruding on the crop; +but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as much to be guarded +against as oxen and cows. + +The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was +as clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a +log, contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the +grain was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week +in May, as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds +and the blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. +Hector’s eyes had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning +from the lake, soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. +But soon his eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of +the ridge was enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some +mist-wreath hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds +rapidly spread on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, +and nothing but fire,_[FN: Appendix I.]_ that those dark volumes +arose. + +“Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire.” + +“On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!” + +“Nay, but look there!” + +The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on +with fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by +the dry, withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the +flames. + +“It is two miles off, or more,” said Louis; “and the creek will stop its +progress long before it comes near us--and the swamp there, beyond Bare +Hill.” + +“The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, +a burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; +besides, when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on +fire, you know how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when +the forest was on fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and +how fiercely it raged! It was lighted by the ashes of your father’s +pipe, when he was out in the new fallow; the leaves were dry, and +kindled; and before night the woods were burning for miles.” “It was +a grand spectacle, those pine-hills, when the fire got in among them,” + said Louis.. “See, see how fast the fires kindle; that must be some +fallen pine that they have got hold of; now, look at the lighting up of +that hill--is it not grand?” + +“If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!” said +Hector, anxiously. + +“The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as +the fire finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even +against the wind.” + +As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line +of wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour +which hung in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with +inconceivable rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon +of destruction spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery +speed; and soon hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + +“It must have been the work of the Indians,” said Louis. “We had better +make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. +We must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it +may come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent +escape by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + +“It is the Indian burning,” said Indiana; “that is the reason there are +so few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for +the deer.” + +Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having +scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed +to have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site +of the root-house _[FN: Root-houses are built over deep excavations +below the reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.]_ +below the bank, which they had just finished, they had met with charred +wood, at the depth of six feet below the soil, which must have lain +there till the earth had accumulated over it; a period of many years +must necessarily have passed since the wood had been burned, as it was +so much decomposed as to crumble beneath the wooden shovel which they +were digging with. + +All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were +flame--red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, +overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it +formed a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the +splendour of the scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire +better defined; but there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as +it had done in the daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of +evening effectually put a stop to the progress of the fire. The children +could now gaze in security upon the magnificent spectacle before them, +without the excitement produced by its rapid spread during the daytime. +They lay down to sleep in perfect security that night, but with the +consciousness that, as the breeze sprung up in the morning, they must be +on the alert to secure their little dwelling and its contents from the +devastation that threatened it. They knew that they had no power to stop +its onward course, as they possessed no implement better than a rough +wood shovel, which would be found very ineffectual in opening a trench +or turning the ground up, so as to cut off the communication with the +dry grass, leaves, and branches, which are the fuel for supplying the +fires on the Plains. The little clearing on one side the house they +thought would be its safeguard, but the fire was advancing on three +sides of them. + +“Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be +done.” + +“I propose,” said Louis, “retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest +point of Long Island.” “My French cousin has well spoken,” said Hector, +mimicking the Indian mode of speaking; “but listen to the words of the +wise. I propose to take all our household stores that are of the most +value, to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, +first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is +likely to take fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as +to the shanty, it must take its chance to stand or fall.” + +“The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never +mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, +is not yet sown,” said Louis. + +Hector’s advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to +work to secure the property they meant to leave. + +It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as +it formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made +available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys +carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and +also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them +to hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off +to the lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + “I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand.” + IRISH SONG + +The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far +as the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were +leaping among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the +pines, and rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to +heap of the fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes +of black and suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that +Hector and Louis had only time to push off the canoe before the heights +along the shore were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and +noble pine fell crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, +as its burning trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the +suffocating vapour, the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying +the cool, fresh air of the lake. Reposing on the grass beneath the +trees, they passed the day, sheltered from the noonday sun, and watched +the progress of the fires upon the shore. At night the girls slept +securely under the canoe, which they raised on one side by means of +forked sticks stuck in the ground. + +It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on +the water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, +to which the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by +contrast. + +Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty +escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the +safety of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was +already springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken +every precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. +_[FN: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved +by turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been +effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing +up the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry +roots, grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even +could it be got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in +stopping the progress of fire; even women and little children can assist +in such emergencies.]_ + +Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed +by the fire. “We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this +summer,” she said, mournfully; “and the pretty roses and bushes will be +scorched, and the ground black and dreary.” + +“The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the +forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, +leaves more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in,” said +Hector. “I have seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new +and fresh set of plants spring up, and even some that looked withered +recover; the earth is renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so +great a misfortune as it at first appears.” + +“But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!” said +Louis; “I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one +of those burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, +branchless trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance +against those that kindled the fires.” + +“They do, indeed, look ugly,” said Catharine; “yet the girdled ones look +very nearly as ill.” _[FN: The girdled pines are killed by barking +them round, to facilitate the clearing.]_ + +At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim +smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was +still going on. + +As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the +point (Andersen’s Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they +concluded the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual +hunter or trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they +were not very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they +decided on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was +with some feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had +befallen their shanty. + +“The shanty is burned!” was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis +and Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded +a view of its roof. “It is well for us that we secured our things in the +root-house,” said Hector. + +“Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, +larger and better than the old one,” said Louis. “The chief of our fence +is gone, too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if +we get it done a month hence, say I. Come, _ma belle_, do not look so +sorrowful. There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital +wigwam, while the new house is building.” “But the nice table that you +made, Louis, and the benches and shelves!” + +“Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves +too. Never fear, _ma chere_, the same industrious Louis will make things +comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a +famous one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is +planted we shall have nothing else to do but to think about it.” + +The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles +and birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did +not feel the inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been +earlier in the season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house +and pantry; and Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave +certain loose folds between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, +which formed a series of pouches or bags, in which many articles could +be stowed away out of sight. _[FN: In this way the winter wigwams +of the Indians are constructed so as to give plenty of stowing room for +all their little household matters, materials for work, &c.]_ + +While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, +the two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a +succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched +earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had +anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they +raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their +attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been +burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + +The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a +few weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than +the former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian +corn, renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting +partridges and ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. +The fruit season was less abundant this year than the previous one. The +fire had done this mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect +fruits during the summer months. + +It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the +boys, and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for +water, and on her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her +family of three half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. +_[FN: An Indian baby; but “papoose” is not an Indian word. It is +probably derived from the Indian imitation of the word “baines.”]_ +In their turn the strangers seemed equally astonished at Catharine’s +appearance. + +The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon +reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which +she had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To +this Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple +sugar, which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted +the brown baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden +cradle, and fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference +between the colour of her young hostess’s fair skin and her own swarthy +hue; for she often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, +and compared her arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment +and curiosity; possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race +this poor savage had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set +the birchen dish on the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its +cradle prison, she slipped the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and +silently signing to her sons to follow her, she departed. That evening +a pair of ducks were found fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a +silent offering of gratitude for the refreshment that had been afforded +to this Indian woman and her children. + +Indiana thought, from Catharine’s description, that these were Indians +with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake +and the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be +near. The squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother +Snow-storm, from having been lost in the woods, when a little child, +during a heavy storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a +gentle, kind woman, and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt. +Her sons were good hunters; and though so young, helped to support their +mother, and were very good to her and the little one. + +I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a +brief notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved +abundant, and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and +stored, and plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of +honey. + +The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the +lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some +hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter +was unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring +following was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May +before vegetation had made any very decided progress. + +The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both +within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for +the floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats +and a table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering +their only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for +splitting the wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with +great care and patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft +mate, woven by Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut +and dried; but the little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or +deer-skin on the floor before the fire, as she had been accustomed. + +A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and +was now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the +loghouse;--but for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all +they had left and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those +who dwelt beneath its humble roof. + +The season of flowers had again arrived,--the earth, renovated by the +fire of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,--June, with +its fragrant store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,--the +anniversary of that time when they had left their beloved parents’ +roofs, to become sojourners in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much +they felt they had to be grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and +much anxiety they had felt; but they had enjoyed blessings above all +that they could have expected, and they might, like the Psalmist when +recounting the escapes of the people of God, have said,--“Oh that men +would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and the wonders that +he doeth for the children of men.” And now they declared no greater +evil could befal them than to lose one of their little party, for even +Indiana had become as a dear and beloved sister; her gentleness, her +gratitude and faithful trusting love, seemed each day to increase. Now, +indeed, she was bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for she knelt +to the same God, and acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies of her +Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, and +had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own +tongue; so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her +on any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of +social and Christian love. + +Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track +of a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and +showing symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred +staying at home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had +gathered some fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, +Indian meal cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was +weary and warm, for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on +the threshold of the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and +closed her eyes. Perhaps the poor child’s thoughts were wandering back +to her far-off, never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking +of the hunters and their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of +dread stole over her mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she +saw no form; but there was a strange consciousness that she was not +alone--that some unseen being was near, some eye was upon her. I +have heard of sleepers starting from sleep the most profound when the +noiseless hand of the assassin has been raised to destroy them, as if +the power of the human eye could be felt through the closed lid. + +Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was +near her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance +around. No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she +resumed her seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet +which she had tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, +attracted her attention. + +“What aileth thee, wee dearie?” she said, tenderly, as the timid little +creature crept, trembling, to her breast. “Thy mistress has scared thee +by her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor +weasel here to seize thee, silly one;” and as she spoke she raised her +head, and flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded +her eyes. The deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met +her terrified gaze, gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the +door-post, whence the upper part of the face alone was visible, partly +concealed by a mat of tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, +the poor girl neither spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing +her hands tightly across her breast, as if to still the loud beating +of her heart, she sat gazing upon that fearful appearance, while, with +stealthy step, the savage advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, +as he did so, his eyes riveted upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily +serpent is said to fascinate his prey. His hapless victim moved not; +whither could she flee to escape one whose fleet foot could so easily +have overtaken her in the race? where conceal herself from him whose +wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive her of all vital energy? + +Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian +to answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and +taking the girl’s ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong +of deer’s hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path +through the ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch +canoe, rocking gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a +young girl were seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed +no word indicative of curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the +Indian lifted his captive into the canoe, and made signs to the elder +squaw to push from the shore. When all had taken their places, the +woman, catching up a paddle from the bottom of the little vessel, stood +up, and with a few rapid strokes sent it skimming over the lake. + +The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous +situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her +agitated face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror +presented themselves to her bewildered brain--all that Indiana had +described of the cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before +her mind. Poor child, what miserable thoughts were thine during that +brief voyage! + +Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the +victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved +ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no +hope of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated +mind, she raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the +Indian and his companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the +stoical one of an Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no +answering glance of sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look +of pity--not a nerve or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of +the Indians, and the woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy +attitude, burying her face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter +emotions from the heartless strangers. + +She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian’s education to +hide the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and +tender emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + +It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, +which was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the +disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds +of unrighteousness, and to teach man that he is by nature the child of +wrath and victim of sin, and that in his unregenerated nature his whole +mind is at enmity with God and his fellow-men, and that in his flesh +dwelleth no good thing. And the Indian has acknowledged that power,--he +has cast his idols of cruelty and revenge, those virtues on which he +prided himself in the blindness of his heart, to the moles and the bats; +he has bowed and adored at the foot of the Cross;--but it was not so in +the days whereof I have spoken. _[FN: Appendix K.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + “Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?” + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER + +The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian +lifted his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move +forward along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards +higher up the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with +shrubby trees--the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the +paddles and secure the canoe. + +It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, +when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead +for mercy--whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we +ourselves are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, +mute with terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now +found herself surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange +assembly, if by chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, +but she saw not the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright +sparkling eye of her cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive +features of the Indian girl, her adopted sister--she stood alone among +those wild gloomy-looking men; some turned away their eyes as if they +would not meet her woe-stricken countenance, lest they should be moved +to pity her sad condition; no wonder that, overcome by the sense of her +utter friendliness, she hid her face with her fettered hands and wept +in despair. But the Indian’s sympathy is not moved by tears and sighs; +calmness, courage, defiance of danger and contempt of death, are what he +venerates and admires even in an enemy. + +The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed +to be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant +against the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the +stranger; Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, +heard the old man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. +Gladly did she escape from the presence of those pitiless men, from +whose gaze she shrunk with maidenly modesty. And now when alone with +the women she hesitated not to make use of that natural language which +requires not the aid of speech to make itself understood; clasping +her hands imploringly, she knelt at the feet of the Indian woman, her +conductress--kissed her dark hands and bathed them with her fast flowing +tears, while she pointed passionately to the shore where lay the happy +home from which she had been so suddenly torn. + +The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her +imploring gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone +replied in her own language, that she must go with the canoes to the +other shore,--and she pointed to the north as she spoke. She then +motioned to the young girl--the same that had been Catharine’s companion +in the canoe--to bring a hunting knife, which was thrust into one of +the folds of the birch-bark of the wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly +weapon in the hands of the Indian woman with a pang of agony as great as +if its sharp edge was already at her throat. So young--so young, to die +by a cruel bloody death! what had been her crime?--how should she find +words to soften the heart of her murderess? The power of utterance +seemed denied--she cast herself on her knees and held up her hands in +silent prayer; not to the dreaded Indian woman, but to Him who heareth +the prayer of the poor destitute--who alone can order the unruly wills +and affections of men. + +The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the +terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with +a quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists +of the pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her +whole face she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand +upon her young head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise +lifted the flowing tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over +the back of her own swarthy hand; then, as if amused by the striking +contrast, she shook down her own jetty-black hair and twined a tress of +it with one of the fair haired girl’s--then laughed till her teeth shone +like pearls within her red lips. Many were the exclamations of childish +wonder that broke from the other females, as they compared the snowy arm +of the stranger with their own dusky skins; it was plain that they had +no intention of harming her, and by degrees distrust and dread of her +singular companions began in some measure to subside. + +The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her +a handful of parched rice and some deer’s flesh to eat; but Catharine’s +heart was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing +the Indian word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of +birch-bark from the floor of the tent, and gathering the corners +together, ran to the lake, and soon returned with water in this most +primitive drinking vessel, which she held to the lips of her guest, and +she seemed amused by the long deep draught with which Catharine slaked +her thirst; and something like a gleam of hope came over her mind as she +marked the look of kindly feeling with which she caught the young Indian +girl regarding her, and she strove to overcome the choking sensation +that would from time to time rise to her throat, as she fluctuated +between hope and fear. The position of the Indian camp was so placed +that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither could Catharine +see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the mount that her +brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their visits to the +lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them even if she +had seen them on the beach. + +The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while +the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians +were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. +Catharine’s heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the +lake showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted +at a fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek +flowing down through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they +found several tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The +river was here a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many +kinds fringed the edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had +never been pierced by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the +vegetation that even the Indian could hardly have penetrated through +its dark swampy glades: far as the eye could reach, that impenetrable +interminable wall of verdure stretched away into the far off distance. + +On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open +meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the +eminence above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by +a luxuriant orchard and garden, the property of a naval officer, +_[FN: Lt. Rubidge, whose interesting account of his early +settlement may be read in a letter inserted in Captain Basil Hall’s +Letters from Canada.]_ who with the courage and perseverance that mark +brave men of his class, first ventured to break the bush and locate +himself and his infant family in the lonely wilderness, then far from +any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + +But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler +had not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire +scathed it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those +shades, nor sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its +echoes. + +All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a +shady tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and +wondering at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its +dear inmates. Bad as she had thought her separation from her father +and mother and her brothers, when she first left her home to become +a wanderer on the Rice Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her +situation, snatched from the dear companions who had upheld and cheered +her on in all her sorrows! But now she was alone with none to love or +cherish or console her, she felt a desolation of spirit that almost made +her forgetful of that trust that had hitherto always sustained her in +time of trouble or sickness. She looked round, and her eye fell on the +strange unseemly forms of men and women, who cared not for her, and to +whom she was an object of indifference or aversion: she wept when she +thought of the grief that her absence would occasion to Hector and +Louis; the thought of their distress increased her own. + +The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the +little brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots +and stones that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and +long exposure to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. +The last rosy light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a +glowing tint when she awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; +the kingfisher and dragon-fly, and a solitary loon, were the only +busy things abroad on the river; the first darting up and down from +an upturned root near the water’s edge, feeding its youngings; the +dragon-fly hawking with rapid whirring sound for insects, and the loon, +just visible from above the surface of the still stream, sailed quietly +on companionless, like her who watched its movements. + +The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment +roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the +evening meal was now preparing,--and Catharine, chilled by the falling +dew, crept to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at +being recognised by one friendly face--it was the mild and benevolent +countenance of the widow Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to +bid her to share their camp fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, +the beaming smile that was given by this good creature, albeit she was +ugly and ill-featured, cheered the sad captive’s heart. She had given +her a cup of cold water and what food her log-cabin afforded, and in +return the good Indian took her to her wigwam and fed, and warmed, and +cherished her with the loving-kindness of a Christian; and during all +her sojourn in the Indian camp she was as a tender mother over her, +drying her tears and showing her those little acts of attention that +even the untaught Indians know are grateful to the sorrowful and +destitute. Catharine often forgot her own griefs to repay this worthy +creature’s kindness, by attending to her little babe and assisting her +in some of her homely preparations of cookery or household work. She +knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow would do her no good, and after +the lapse of some days she so well disciplined her own heart as to check +her tears at least in the presence of the Indian women, and to assume an +air of comparative cheerfulness. Once she found Indian words enough to +ask the Indian widow to convey her back to the lake, but she shook her +head and bade her not think anything about it; and added, that in the +fall, when the ducks came to the rice-beds, they should all return, and +then if she could obtain leave from the chief, she would restore her to +her lodge on the plains; but signified to her that patience was her only +present remedy, and that submission to the will of the chief was her +wisest plan. Comforted by this vague promise, Catharine strove to be +reconciled to her strange lot, and still stranger companions. She could +not help being surprised at the want of curiosity respecting her that +was shown by the Indians in the wigwam, when she was brought thither; +they appeared to take little notice that a stranger and one so +dissimilar to themselves had been introduced into the camp, for before +her they asked no questions about her, whatever they might do when she +was absent, though they surveyed her with silent attention. Catharine +learned, by long acquaintance with this people, that an outward +manifestation of surprise _[FN: See Appendix L.]_ is considered a +want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of weakness and +childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly less disposed +to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and one of +their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, was +examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, +and holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, +those who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the +island, showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw +was granddaughter to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with +considerable respect by the rest of the women; she was a gay lively +creature, often laughing, and seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund +of good humour. She was inclined to extend her patronage to the young +stranger, making her eat out of her own bark dish, and sit beside her on +her own mat. She wove a chain of the sweet-scented grass with which +the Indians delight in adorning themselves, likewise in perfuming their +lodges with bunches or strewings upon the floor. She took great pains +in teaching her how to acquire the proper attitude of sitting, after the +fashion of the Eastern nations, which position the Indian women assume +when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian name of this little damsel +signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that lively restless bird, always +flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as garrulous and as cheerful too +as that merry little herald of the spring. + +Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine’s dress, which she +examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut +fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border +of the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These +fringes she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old +chief was called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and +mocassins escape their observation. There was something mysterious about +her garments. Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep +guttural exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst +from the lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with +deep attention. These people had recognised in these things the peculiar +fashion and handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to +perish by hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was +excited to know by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress +wrought by the hand of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange +and mysterious did it seem to them, and warily did they watch the +unconscious object of their wonder. + +The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, +enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she +prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose +whole nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously +endeavoured to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she +succeeded in an incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to +express her own wants, and converse a little with the females who were +about her. + +She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood +apart from the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his +granddaughter, or by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some +sick person, or a secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great +Spirit; but one day when the chief of the people had gone up the river +hunting, and the children were asleep, she perceived the curtain of +skins drawn back, and a female of singular and striking beauty appeared +standing in the open space in front. She was habited in a fine tunic of +white dressed doeskin richly embroidered with coloured beads and stained +quills, a full petticoat of dark cloth bound with scarlet descended +to her ancles, leggings fringed with deer-skin knotted with bands of +coloured quills, with richly wrought mocassins on her feet. On her +head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black feathers; her long shining +tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, each thick tress confined +with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and blue; her stature was +tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye wore an expression so +proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own involuntarily fill with +tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She would have approached +nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk back timid and +abashed beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, the Beam of the +Morning, the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose hand had wrought +so fearful a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of her brother. She +stood there, at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal robes, as on the +day when she received her death-doomed victim. And when she recalled her +fearful deed, shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back and shrouded +herself within the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye of that +terrible woman. She remembered how Indiana had told her that since +that fatal marriage-feast she had been kept apart from the rest of the +tribe,--she was regarded by her people as a sacred character, a great +_Medicine_, a female _brave_, a being whom they regarded with mysterious +reverence. She had made this great sacrifice for the good of her nation. +Indiana said it was believed among her own folks that she had loved the +young Mohawk passionately, as a tender woman loves the husband of her +youth; yet she had hesitated not to sacrifice him with her own hand. +Such was the deed of the Indian heroine--and such were the virtues of +the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + “Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash’d o’er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree’s tall shadow sleeps upon its breast.” + COLERIDGE. + +The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, _[FN: +Now known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house +and some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for +the steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore’s Landing on the +Rice Lake and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.]_ and then early one +morning the wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, +proceeded up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to +interest Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between +low shores, thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through +which the eye might pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a +clearing, not a sight or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or +heard; the darting flight of the wild birds as they flitted across from +one side to the other, the tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of +the blue jay, was all that was heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that +monotonous voyage. After many hours a decided change was perceived in +the current, which ran at a considerable increase of swiftness, so that +it required the united energy of both men and women to keep the light +vessels from drifting down the river again. They were in the Rapids, +_[FN: Formerly known as Whitla’s Rapids, now the site of the +Locks.]_ and it was hard work to stem the tide, and keep the upward +course of the waters. At length the rapids were passed, and the weary +Indian voyagers rested for a space on the bosom of a small but tranquil +lake. _[FN: The little lake about a mile below Peterborough and +above the Locks, formerly girt in by woods of pine and beech and maple, +now entirely divested of trees and forming part of the suburbs of the +town. ]_ The rising moon shed her silvery light upon the calm waters, +and heaven’s stars shone down into its quiet depths, as the canoes with +their dusky freight parted the glittering rays with their light paddles. +As they proceeded onward the banks rose on either side, still fringed +with pine, cedar and oaks. At an angle of the lake the banks on either +side ran out into two opposite peninsulas, forming a narrow passage or +gorge, contracting the lake once more into the appearance of a broad +river, much wider from shore to shore than any other part they had +passed through since they had left the entrance at the Rice Lake. + +Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with +delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green +cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the +sound of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken +eddies rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of +the moon; and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those +rapids, at a signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed +to shore on a low flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last +island. _[FN: Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the +island, a noble and substantial bridge has been built.]_ + +Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the +women prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and +birch-bark covering from the encampment below, and soon all was +bustle and business; unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even +Catharine lent a willing hand to assist the females in bringing up the +stores, and sundry baskets containing fruits and other small wares. She +then kindly attended to the Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, +who, bound upon their wooden cradles, were either set up against the +trunks of the trees, or swung to some lowly depending branch, there to +remain helpless and uncomplaining spectators of the scene. + +Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied +as herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, +having from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they +were sure to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers +when the season of refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was +friendless and alone, an orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred +and friends. One Father, one Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even +He--the Father of the fatherless. + +That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole +out of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter +of which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy +plain, studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that +they might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. +It was a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through +which for so many many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed +on monotonously; here it was all wild and free, dashing along like a +restive steed rejoicing in its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + +Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing +river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as +it bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. “Happy, glorious +waters! you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no +canoe can ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, +were free to pursue my onward way--how soon would I flee away and be at +rest!” Such thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the +lonely captive girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked +abroad over those moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming +sense of the utter loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with +faltering step hurried down once more to the wigwams, silently crept +to the mat where her bed was spread, and soon forgot all her woes and +wanderings in deep tranquil sleep. + +Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always +seemed to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes +and rivers in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So +disregardful are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to +sleep where the ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a +temporary flooring of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather +than remove the tent a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always +be found. This either arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from +both, but it is no doubt the cause of much of the sickness that prevails +among, them. With his feet stretched to the fire the Indian cares for +nothing else when reposing in his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the +improvement that might be made in his comfort; he listens with a face of +apathy, and utters his everlasting guttural, which saves him the trouble +of a more rational reply. + +“Snow-bird” informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be +removed for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the +squaws pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the +chief of the laborious part of the work fell to the share of the +females, who were very much more industrious and active than their +husbands; these, when not out hunting or fishing, were to be seen +reposing in easy indolence under the shade of the trees, or before the +tent fires, giving themselves little concern about anything that was +going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, and submissive; they bore +without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and fatigue, and seemed to +perform every task with patience and good humour. They made the canoes, +in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched the tents, converted +the skins of the animals which the men shot into clothes, cooked the +victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove mats, dyed the quills +of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short performed a thousand +tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + +Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, +they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no +floors to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + +Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only +renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish +bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of +furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the +same, their beds mats or skins of animals,--such were the domestic +arrangements of the Indian camp. _[FN: Much improvement has taken +place of late years in the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of +their dwellings are clean and neat even for Europeans.]_ In the tent to +which Catharine belonged, which was that of the widow and her sons, a +greater degree of order and cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for +Catharine’s natural love of neatness and comfort induced her to strew +the floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep +round the front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its +vicinity. She never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her +hair with the comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care +of the little child, which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this +little creature, for it was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a +little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked with kinder eyes +upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which she tended their +children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who cherish +their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that the +exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who +give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew +upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave +Catharine for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and +return to Hector and Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + “Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?” + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening +of the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. +They had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine +half-grown fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding +the fire nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. +There, it is true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she +was not to be seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for +them, and had gone out to gather strawberries, they did not at first +feel very anxious, but ate some of the rice and honey, for they were +hungry with long fasting; and taking some Indian meal cake in their +hands, they went out to call her in, but no trace of her was visible. +They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set off by herself to seek +them, and had missed her way home again. + +They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree +Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked +the lake--no, she was not to be seen; night found them still +unsuccessful in their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had seated +herself beneath some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined the +true cause, having seen nothing of the Indians. + +Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her +not there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting +left them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The +first streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in +vain upon the name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. +Desolation had fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others +they had most feared, had happened to them. + +Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so +easily to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that +she had discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake +shore; she had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had +been woven by Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had +seen the mark of feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the +lake, and the furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. +It was evident that she had been taken away from her home by these +people. Poor Louis gave way to transports of grief and despair; he +knew the wreath, it was such as Catharine often made for herself, and +Mathilde, and petite Louise, and Marie; his mother had taught her to +make them; they were linked together by the stalks, and formed a sort +of leaf chain. The remembrance of many of their joyous days of childhood +made Louis weep sorrowful tears for happy days, never to return again; +he placed the torn relic in his breast, and sadly turned away to hide +his grief from Hector and the Indian girl. + +Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but +advised wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. +The Indians had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats +round Mount Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they +ventured to land on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw +evident traces of a temporary encampment having been made. This was all +they could do, further search was unavailing; as they found no trace of +any violence having been committed, they still cherished hopes that +no personal harm had been done to the poor captive, It was Indiana’s +opinion that, though a prisoner, she was unhurt, as the Indians rarely +killed women and children, unless roused to do so by some signal act +on the part of their enemies, when an exterminating spirit of revenge +induced them to kill and spare not; but where no offence had been +offered, they were not likely to take the life of an helpless, +unoffending female. + +The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify +revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was +difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of +Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores +and the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still +thought the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + +Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis +no longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled +themselves to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great +delight; all now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they +wandered listlessly to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had +departed from their little dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, +each seeming absorbed in his own painful reveries. + +In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; +they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours +alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and +missed their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to +occupy. They called, but there was none to reply--she too was gone. They +hurried to the shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to a +mere speck upon the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; +they called to her in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted +back no sound to their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and +they sat them down disconsolately on the shore. + +“What is she doing?” said Hector; “this is cruel to abandon us thus.” + +“She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings +of Catharine,” said Louis. “How came you to think that such is her +intention?” + +“I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or +die.” + +“What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose +life she attempted to take?” + +“She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she +loves.” + +“Alas!” said Hector, “she will perish miserably and to no avail; they +would not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana’s +life.” + +“How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not +tell us? we would have shared her danger.” + +“She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl +has a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that +made life dear to us,” said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his +knees. + +“Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with +more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana’s leaving us, we left her so +much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we +did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad.” + “I tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old +battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have +an axe and a tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?” + +“True! we will set about it to-morrow.” + +“I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good +pine for the purpose.” + +“As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than +this dread suspense and inaction.” + +The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of +suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, +and the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to +their inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt +proved abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well +in the water. + +Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so +Hector. + +“Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, +and again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, +that is the way to succeed at last.” + +“You have ten times my patience, Hec.” “Yes! but you are more ingenious +than I, and are excellent at starting an idea.” + +“We are a good pair then for partnership.” + +“We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past +blunders.” + +“Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost +Catharine!” + +“I know it, a long, long, weary month,” replied Louis, and he struck his +axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent +for some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested +from their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to +resume their conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector’s arm, and +pointed to a bark canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point +of the island. Hector started to his feet, exclaiming, “It is Indiana +returned!” + +“Nonsense! Indiana!--it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man in +a blanket coat.” + +“The Indians?” asked Hector inquiringly. + +“I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he +doing?” + +“Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass--another--he has great +luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore.” + +“That man does not move like an Indian--hark! he is whistling. I ought +to know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to +sing;” and Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old +French Canadian song, which we will give in the English as we heard it +sung by an old lumberer. + + “Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we’ll wander, and we’ll chase the buffalo. + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + +“Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us,” said Hector. + +“The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that +may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one--so I think he will +not be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is +but one, so he must mind how he affronts us,” replied Louis laughing. + +“I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is +not singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,”--and Louis +raised his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + + “Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo-- + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + +“What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to +listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it +again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!” + +“Come, let us go on with our work,” said Hector, with something like +impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more +in regular succession on the log; but Louis’s eye was still on the +mysterious fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and +smoking his pipe. “I do not think he sees or hears us,” said Louis to +himself, “but I think I’ll manage to bring him over soon”--and he set +himself busily to work to scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and +soon began to strike fire with his knife and flint. + +“What are you about, Louis?” asked Hector. “Lighting a fire.” + +“It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure.” + +“I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome +fisherman.” + +“And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking +in the bushes of the island.” + +“Pooh, pooh! Hec.:--there are no savages. I am weary of this +place--anything is better than this horrible solitude.” And Louis fanned +the flame into a rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till +it soared up among the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, +and rubbed his hands gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the +island, and a few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over +the surface of the calm lake. + +Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel +lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were +chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, +also faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn +mocassins, sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis’s old raft, and gazed +with a keen eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A +few rapid interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois +of the Lower Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and +English by Louis. + +A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried +out--“Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon.” + +“Oui! oui!”--with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw +himself into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father’s friend and +old lumbering comrade. + +“Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,--and Hector, in his turn, +received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + +“Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade +here at the shore of the Rice Lake?--oh! what a joyful meeting!” + +Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they +live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold +Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + +The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped +for want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + +“What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have +outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob +Morelle--hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,--those are the things to +harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish--eh! mes enfans, is +it not so?” + +Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from +their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the +society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down +to the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper +seemed moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and +with one of his national asseverations, declared “That la bonne fille +should not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage +wretches. Yes, he, her father’s old friend, would go up the river and +bring her back in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the +wigwams.” + +“It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today,” said Hector. “Come +home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit.” + +“No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, +and there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still +standing,--the Trapper’s Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will +go off to the island and look for it.” + +“No need for that,” replied Louis, “for though I can tell you the old +place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a +boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own +nearer at hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder +hill. So come with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to lie +upon.” + +“And you have all these, boys!” said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, +as they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green +corn. The old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. “Ha! +here is old Wolfe too,” as the dog roused himself from the hearth and +gave one of his low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and +instead of going out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie +for hours dozing before the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the +loving hand that used to pat his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and +pillow his great head upon her lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws +upon her shoulders, while he licked her hands and face; but she was +gone, and the Indian girl was gone, and the light of the shanty had gone +with them. Old Wolfe seemed dying of sorrow. + +That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short +Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings +over, and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + +“And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?” + +“At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now +since we left home, three summers ago.” + +“Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been +absent,” said the old “Now I know the distance through the woods, for I +have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as +the bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles--no, nor that +either.” + +The boys opened their eyes. “Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet +to us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles +or more.” + +“I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember +when I was out on the St. John’s, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I +was well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we +parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole +eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, +just in a circle, because, d’ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me +astray the whole time.” + +“Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?” asked Louis, with a sly +glance at Hector. + +“Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then.” + And old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to +recount the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis’s edition +of the roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old +Jacob’s long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, +all tagged on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not +sorry when the old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, +at last stretched himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up +from the canoe, and soon was soundly sleeping. + +The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his +slumber, which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up +a good fire, which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour +was not unwelcome, he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on +the coals for his breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis +wakened. + +“Mes enfans,” said Jacob, “I have been turning over in my mind about +your sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river +alone without any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a +suspicious people, they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to +expect treachery in others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the +white men have not always kept good faith with them, which I take to be +the greater shame, as they have God’s laws to guide and teach them to +be true and just in their dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have +not, the more’s the pity. Now, d’ye see, if the Indians see two stout +lads with me, they will say to themselves, there may be more left +behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I go to the camp alone; and, God +willing, I will bring back your sister, or die in the attempt. I shall +not go single-handed; see, I have here scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder +and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a sin and a shame to tempt these +poor wretches to their own destruction; it makes fiends of them at +once.” + +It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old +Jacob to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was +firm, and would not be moved from his purpose. + +“Look you, boys,” he said, “if I do not return by the beginning of the +rice harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; +then I would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they +do not respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. +In such case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out _[FN: Log +canoe.]_ will do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the +rapids; _[FN: Crook’s Rapids.]_ make a portage there; but as your +craft is too weighty to carry far, e’en leave her and chop out another, +and go down to the Falls; _[FN: Heeley’s Falls, on the Trent.]_ +then, if you do not like to be at any further trouble, you may make out +your journey to the Bay _[FN: Bay Quinte.]_ on foot, coasting along +the river; there you will fall in with settlers who know old Jacob +Morelle--aye, and your two fathers--and they will put you in the way of +returning home. If I were to try ever so to put you on the old Indian +trail in the woods, though I know it myself right well, you might be +lost, and maybe never return home again. I leave my traps and my rifle +with you; I shall not need them: if I come back I may claim the things; +if not, they are yours. So now I have said my say, had my _talk_, as the +Indians say. Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who alone can bring +this matter to a safe issue.” And the old man devoutly kneeled down, +and prayed for a blessing on his voyage and on those he was leaving; and +then hastened down to the beach, and the boys, with full hearts, watched +the canoe till it was lost to their sight on the wide waters of the +lake. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + “Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran.” + DRYDEN. + +What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the +Indians roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading +town. Those glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only +of them remains to some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five +years ago, shadowing the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have +disappeared, but the green emerald turf that they once shaded still +remains. The wild rushing river still pours down its resistless spring +floods, but its banks have been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans +its rapid waters. It has seen the destruction of two log-bridges, +but this new, substantial, imposing structure bids fair to stand from +generation to generation. The Indian regards it with stupid wonder: he +is no mechanic; his simple canoe of birch bark is his only notion of +communication from one shore to another. The towns-people and country +settlers view it with pride and satisfaction, as a means of commerce and +agricultural advantage. That lonely hill, from which Catharine viewed +the rapid-flowing river by moonlight, and marvelled at its beauty and +its power, is now the Court-house Hill, the seat of justice for the +district,--a fine, substantial edifice; its shining roof and pillared +portico may be seen from every approach to the town. That grey village +spire, with its groves of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! +those trees that embower it, once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder +scattered groups of neat white cottages, each with its garden of flowers +and fruit, are spread over what was once an open plain, thinly planted +with poplar, oaks, and pine. See, there is another church; and nearer, +towards the west end of the town, on that fine slope, stands another, +and another. That sound that falls upon the ear is not the rapids of the +river, but the dash of mill wheels and mill dams, worked by the waters +of that lovely winding brook which has travelled far through woods and +deep forest dingles to yield its tribute to the Otonabee. There is the +busy post-office, on the velvet carpet of turf; a few years, yes, even +a few years ago, that spot was a grove of trees. The neat log building +that stood then alone there, was inhabited by the Government Agent, now +Colonel Macdonald, and groups of Indians might be seen congregated on +the green, or reposing under the trees, forming meet subjects for the +painter’s pencil, for he knew them well, and was kind to them. + +The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting +lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple +wares of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe +to sell his fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his +intercourse with his white brethren has made him consider necessary +to his comforts, to supply wants which have now become indispensable, +before undreamed of. He traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks +round upon dwellings, and gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which +he can neither obtain nor imitate; and feels his spirit lowered--he is +no more a people--the tide of intellect has borne him down, and swept +his humble wigwam from the earth. He, too, is changing: he now dwells, +for the most part, in villages, in houses that cannot be moved away at +his will or necessity; he has become a tiller of the ground, his +hunting expeditions are prescribed within narrow bounds, the forest is +disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian must also yield to +circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he murmurs in secret; +but his voice is low, it is not heard; he has no representative in the +senate to take interest in his welfare, to plead in his behalf. He is +anxious, too, for the improvement of his race: he gladly listens to the +words of life, and sees with joy his children being brought up in the +fear and nurture of the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own blood +going forth on the mission of love to other distant tribes; he is proud +of being a Christian; and if there be some that still look back to the +freedom of former years, and talk of “the good old times,” when they +wandered free as the winds and waters through those giant woods, they +are fast fading away. A new race is rising up, and the old hunter will +soon become a being unknown in Canada. + +There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy +bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), +looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. +The Indians called it “the white girl’s rest,” for it was there that +Catharine delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to +sing her snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile’s +prayer, unheard and unseen. + +The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart +the waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on +the water, the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the +lodges came softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with +the spoils of a successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and +crackling, sending up their light columns of thin blue smoke among the +trees; and now a goodly portion of venison is roasting on the forked +sticks before the fires. Each lodge has its own cooking utensils. That +jar embedded in the hot embers contains sassafras tea, an aromatic +beverage, in which the squaws delight when they are so fortunate as to +procure a supply. This has been brought from the Credit, far up in the +west, by a family who have come down on a special mission from some +great chief to his brethren on the Otonabee, and the squaws have cooked +some in honour of the guests. That pot that sends up such a savoury +steam is venison pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you choose to +give the Indian mess that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and herbs. +Those tired hounds that lay stretched before the fire have been out, and +now they enjoy the privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, +and receive withal an occasional reproof from the squaws, if they +approach their wishful noses too close to the tempting viands. + +The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls +are playing or rolling on the grass; “The Snow-bird” is seated on +the floor of the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she +confines in links by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine +is working mocassins beside her;--a dark shadow falls across her work +from the open tent door--an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from +one of the women makes Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, +silent, pale, and motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands +Indiana--a gleam of joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. +Amazement and delight at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment +deprives Catharine of the power of speech; then terror for the safety of +her friend takes place of her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of +the angry tones of the Indian woman’s voice, and throws her arms about +Indiana as if to shield her from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome +in her arms. + +“Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?” + +“To free you, and then die,” was the soft low tremulous answer. “Follow +me.” Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the +young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the +design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating +heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; +it was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor +reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + +The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude +of submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the +lodge; but she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who +starting to their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from +danger, and sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for +what purpose. + +“To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father,” was the meek reply. +“May the daughter of the Bald Eagle’s enemy speak to her great father?” + +“Say on,” was the brief reply, “the Bald Eagle’s ears are open.” + +“The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the +father of his people,” replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. +“The Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on.” + +“The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the +eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief +slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them +for the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of +his enemies save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the +grand-daughter of the Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy +that is not afraid to raise the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in +battle. The young girl’s mother was a _brave.”_ She paused, while her +proud eye was fixed on the face of her aged auditor. He nodded assent, +and she resumed, while a flush of emotion kindled her pale cheek and +reddened her lips,-- + +“The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the +hatchet and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her +heart was lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I +will revenge my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her +heart burned within her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, +the Great Spirit was about my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have +fled, for an arrow was in her flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took +her, they brought her down the great river to the council hill, they +bound her with thongs and left her to die. She prayed, and the Great +Spirit heard her prayer and sent her help. The white man came; his heart +was soft; he unbound her, he gave water to cool her hot lips, he led her +to his lodge. The white squaw (and she pointed to Catharine) was there, +she bound up her wounds, she laid her on her own bed, she gave her meat +and drink, and tended her with love. She taught her to pray to the Good +Spirit, and told her to return good for evil, to be true and just, kind +and merciful. The hard heart of the young girl became soft as clay when +moulded for the pots and she loved her white sister and brothers, and +was happy. The Bald Eagle’s people came when my white brothers were at +peace, they found a trembling fawn within the lodge, they led her away, +they left tears and loneliness where joy and peace had been. The Mohawk +squaw could not see the hearth of her white brothers desolate; she took +the canoe, she to the lodge of the great father of his tribe, and she +says to him, ‘Give back the white squaw to her home on the Rice Lake, +and take in her instead the rebellious daughter of the Ojebwa’s enemy, +to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the knife or the +tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of the great +chief.’” She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and bowing +down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + +There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and +said:-- + +“Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken +well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall +be restored to her brother’s lodge--but thou remainest. I have spoken.” + +Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and +remained weeping--how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in +her turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief +turned a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was +weary--he was impatient of further excitement--he coldly motioned to +them to withdraw; and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all +that had taken place since that sad day when Catharine was taken from +her home. While her heart was joyful at the prospect of her own release, +it was clouded with fears for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + +“They will condemn me to a cruel death,” said Indiana, “but I can suffer +and die for my white sister.” + +That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside +Catharine; but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own +heart in the still watches of the night--it seemed as if a new life had +been infused within her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; +the energies of her mind had been awakened, ripened into maturity as +it were, and suddenly expanded. When all the inmates of the lodges were +profoundly sleeping, Catharine arose,--a sudden thought had entered into +her mind, and she hesitated not to put her design into execution. There +was no moon, but a bright arch of light spanned the forest to the north; +it was mild and soft as moonlight, but less bright, and cast no shadow +across her path; it showed her the sacred tent of the widow of the +murdered Mohawk. With noiseless step she lifted aside the curtain of +skins that guarded it, and stood at the entrance. Light as was her step, +it awakened the sleeper; she raised herself on her arm and looked up +with a dreamy and abstracted air as Catharine, stretching forth her hand +in tones low and tremulous, thus addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:-- + +“The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of +thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he +is angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy--the blood of thy +murdered husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words +that he commands.” + +She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless +step, and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat +as though it would burst its way through her bosom. What had she +done?--what dared? She had entered the presence of that terrible woman +alone, at the dead hour of night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous +words to that strange being whom even her own people hardly dared to +approach uncalled-for! Sick with terror at the consequences of her +temerity, Catharine cast her trembling arms about the sleeping Indian +girl, and hiding her head in her bosom, wept and prayed till sleep came +over her wearied spirit. It was late when she awoke. She was alone: the +lodge was empty. A vague fear seized her: she hastily arose to seek her +friend. It was evident that some great event was in preparation. The +Indian men had put on the war-paint, and strange and ferocious eyes +were glancing from beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was driven in the +centre of the cleared space in front of the chief’s lodge: there, bound, +she beheld her devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm unshaken +countenance, she stood. There was no sign of woman’s fear in her fixed +dark eye, which quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men +who stood round her, armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. +Her thoughts seemed far away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, +wandering in that happy land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; +or, inspired with the new hope which had been opened to her, she was +looking to Him who has promised a crown of life to such as believe in +His name. She saw not the look of agony with which Catharine regarded +her; and the poor girl, full of grief, sunk down at the foot of a +neighbouring tree, and burying her face between her knees, wept and +prayed--oh! how fervently! A hope crept to her heart--even while the +doom of Indiana seemed darkest--that some good might yet accrue from +her visit to the wigwam of the Great Medicine squaw. She knew that the +Indians have great belief in omens, and warnings, and spirits, both good +and evil; she knew that her mysterious appearance in the tent of the +Mohawk’s widow would be construed by her into spiritual agency; and her +heart was strengthened by this hope. Yet just now there seems little +reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is given, the war-dance is +begun--first slow, and grave, and measured; now louder, and quicker, and +more wild become both sound and movement. But why is it hushed again? +See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an old weather-beaten +man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and approaches the area +of the lodge. + +The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and +death-song are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance +of the captives. The chief points to Catharine--she is free: his white +brother may take her--she is his. But the Indian law of justice must +take its course; the condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa +chief, must die. In vain were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and +beads for the women, with powder and shot, laid before the chief: the +arrows of six warriors were fitted to the string, and again the dance +and song commenced, as if, like the roll of the drum and clangour of +the trumpet, it were necessary to the excitement of strong and powerful +feelings, and the suppression of all tenderer emotions. + +And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, +rising above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek +became pale: it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the +death-song of the captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she +stands unmoved, with eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart-- + + “In still, but brave despair.” + +Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and +streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of +the Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed +by her sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which +dark stains are visible--it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed by +her on that day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the +name of the Great Spirit she claims the captive girl--the last of that +devoted tribe--to be delivered over to her will. Her right to this +remnant of her murdered husband’s family is acknowledged. A knife is +placed in her hand, while a deafening yell of triumph bursts from the +excited squaws, as this their great high-priestess, as they deemed her, +advanced to the criminal. But it was not to shed the heart’s blood of +the Mohawk girl, but to severe the thongs that bound her to the deadly +stake, for which that glittering blade was drawn, and to bid her depart +in peace whithersoever she would go. + +Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: “At the dead +of night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before +mine eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set +free the last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed +by my hand and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I +did this my path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the +better land and be at rest if I did this good deed.” She then laid +her hands on the head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping +herself in the dark mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent +once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + “Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie.”--_Scotch Ballad._ + +Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so +full of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa +chief, and besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before +him, and this time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing +the beads and cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the +grand-daughter of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old +man was not insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by +the devoted Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault +by graciously offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in +marriage to one of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but +the young girl modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her +heart yearned for those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who +had taught her to look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and +a better state of being. She said, “She would go with her white sister, +and pray to God to bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her +to do.” + +It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the +exercise of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social +happiness. The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of +violence, seemed disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge +was now filled with mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and +dancing. A covenant of peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob +and the chief, who bade Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth +they should be free to hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of +the lake, whenever they desired to do so, “he the Bald Eagle had said +so.” + +On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; +the canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A +supply of parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian +chief for the voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might +not suffer, from want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to +the lodge of the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. “The +Snow-bird” was sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with +tears at parting with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft +and playful as the tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her +arm. She did not let Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, +the work of her own hands,--bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine +pieces and strung in fanciful patterns, _[FN: Appendix M]_ mocassins +richly wrought, and tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have +graced a lady’s work-table, so rare was their workmanship. + +Just as they were about to step into the canoe “the Snow-bird” + reappeared, bearing a richly worked bark box, “From the Great Medicine,” + she said in a low voice, “To the daughter of the Mohawk _brave._” The +box contained a fine tunic, soft as a lady’s glove, embroidered and +fringed, and a fillet of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings +and breast of the war-bird, as shoulder ornaments. It was a token of +reconciliation and good-will worthy of a generous heart. + +The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips +reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said +in her native tongue, “Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, +and pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the +spirit-land.” + +With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in +being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the +events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she +longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to +that kind old man’s plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the +arms of their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that +I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!--in +the shelter of that dear mother’s arms whom she now pined for with a +painful yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. +But in spite of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt +for the night some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern +bank of the Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild +cherries, hawthorns and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by +alder and cranberry bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the +little eminence; this creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, +through which the hunters sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut +to the lower part of the lake near Crook’s Rapids. To this creek old +Jacob steered his light craft, and bidding the girls collect a few dry +sticks and branches for an evening fire on the sheltered side of the +little bank, he soon lighted the pile into a cheerful blaze by the aid +of birch bark, the hunter’s tinder--a sort of fungus that is found in +the rotten oak and maple-trees--and a knife and flint; he then lifted +the canoe, and having raised it on its side, by means of two small +stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then spread down his buffalo +robe on the dry grass. “There is a tent fit for a queen to sleep under, +mes chères filles,” he said, eyeing his arrangements for their night +shelter with great satisfaction. + +He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of +splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block +of limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob +opened his wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush +table with large basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed +was unusual on a hunter’s table. He was too old a forester to care how +his food was dished, so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + +Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away +the time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue +heavens were studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless +hosts deep deep down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of +fireflies lighted up the dark recesses of the forest’s gloom. High +in the upper air the hollow booming of the night-hawk was heard at +intervals, and the wild cry of the night-owl from a dead branch, +shouting to its fellow, woke the silence of that lonely river scene. + +The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe +or hummed some French voyageur’s song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe +soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed +on the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair +mingling with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a +lovely pair--one fair as morning, the other dark as night. + +How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early +song of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes +upon the river, like a flock of sheep at rest--the tinkling sound of +the heavy dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red +squirrel, how lightly he runs along that fallen trunk--how furtively he +glances with his sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan haunts! +Hark! there is a rustling among the leaves--what strange creature works +its way to the shore? A mud turtle--it turns, and now is trotting along +the little sandy ridge to some sunny spot, where, half buried, it may +lie unseen near the edge of the river. See that musk-rat, how boldly he +plunges into the stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems the current +till he gains in safety the sedges on the other side. + +What gurgling sound is that?--it attracts the practised ear of the old +hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle +of the stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?--it is a noble +stag. Look at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so +gallantly; see how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear +in those lonely solitudes--he has never heard the crack of the hunter’s +rifle--he heeds not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow +rankles in his neck, and the crimson flood dyes the water around him--he +turns, but it is only to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old +hunter’s bow; and now the noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is +rapidly launched by the hand of the Indian girl--her eye flashes with +the excitement--her whole soul is in the chase--she stands up in the +canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded buck, while a shower of blows +are dealt upon his head and neck with the paddle. Catharine buries her +face in her hands--she cannot bear to look upon the sufferings of the +noble animal. She will never make a huntress--her heart is cast in too +soft a mould. See they have towed the deer ashore, and Jacob is in +all his glory,--the little squaw is an Indian at heart--see with +what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great business +is completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the +canoe--they wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine’s +summons to eat her breakfast. + +The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is +also rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those +glorious rays--the whole earth seems wakening into new life--the dew +has brightened every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup--the pines and +balsams give out their resinous fragrance--the aspens flutter and dance +in the morning breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the +stream--the shores become lower and flatter--the trees less lofty and +more mossy--the stream expands and wide beds of rushes spread out on +either side--what beds of snowy water-lilies--how splendid the rose +tint of those perseicarias that glow so brightly in the morning sun--the +rushes look like a green meadow, but the treacherous water lies deep +below their grassy leaves--the deer delights in these verdant aquatic +fields, and see what flocks of red-wings rise from among them as the +canoe passes near--their bright shoulder-knots glance like flashes of +lightning in the sun-beams. + +This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, +half choked and killed with grey moss and lichens--those straggling +alders and black ash look melancholy--they are like premature old age, +grey-headed youths. That island divides the channel of the river--the +old man takes the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the +broad Rice Lake, and Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the +shanty rising among the trees--one after another the islands steal out +into view--the capes, and bays, and shores of the northern side are +growing less distinct, Yon hollow bay, where the beaver has hidden till +now, backed by that bold sweep of hills that look in the distance as if +only covered with green ferns, with here and there a tall tree, stately +as a pine or oak--that is the spot where Louis saw the landing of the +Indians--now a rising village--Gores’ Landing. On yon lofty hill now +stands the village church, its white tower rising amongst the trees +forms a charming object from the lake, and there a little higher up, not +far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural cottages--one of these +belong to the spirited proprietor of the village that bears his name. +That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the right, is Colonel +Brown’s, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; but silence +and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + +Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of +churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. _[FN: Appendix N.]_ The +Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, +and Catharine’s eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to +herself the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her +gladness she seizes the old man’s rugged hand and kisses it, and flings +her arms about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the +canoe has touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds +herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such +moments--how few we have in life--they are created from our very +sorrows--without our cares our joys would be less lively; but we have +no time to moralize--Catharine flies with the speed of a young fawn, to +climb the steep cliff-like shoulder of that steep bank, and now, out of +breath, stands at the threshold of her log-house--how neat and nice +it looks compared with the Indians’ tents--the little field of corn is +green and flourishing--there is Hector’s axe in a newly-cut log--it is +high noon--the boys ought to have been there taking their mid-day +meal, but the door is shut. Catharine lifts the wooden latch, and steps +in--the embers are nearly burned out, to a handful of grey ashes--old +Wolfe is not there--all is silent--and Catharine sits down to still the +beating of her heart and await the coming up of her slower companions, +and gladdens her mind with the hope that her brother and Louis will soon +be home--her eye wanders over every old familiar object--all things +seem much as she had left them, only the maize is in the ear and the top +feather waves gracefully with the summer breeze--it promises an abundant +crop; but that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the young +planters--it was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the +field--to those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather +into barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls +busied themselves in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked +away over the hills to search for the boys, and it was not long before +he returned with Hector and Louis. + +I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled +with the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved +cousin; or I might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky +cheek of the young Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black +eyes, owed its origin to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by +her white brother. Nor will we say whose hand held hers so long in his +while Catharine related the noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the +perils encountered by the devoted Indiana--whose eyes were moistened +with tears as the horrors of that fearful trial were described--or who +stole out alone over the hills, and sat him down in the hush and silence +of the summer night to think of the acts of heroism displayed by that +untaught Indian girl, and to dream a dream of youthful love; but with +these things, my young readers, we have nothing to do. + +“And now, my children,” said old Jacob, looking round the little +dwelling, “have you made up your minds to live and die here on the +shores of this lake, or do you desire again to behold your father’s +home? Do your young hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?” + “After our fathers’ home!” was Louis’s emphatic reply. “After the home +of our childhood!” was Catharine’s earnest answer. Hector’s lips echoed +his sister’s words, while a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan +stranger; but her timid eye was raised to his young face with a trusting +look, as she would have said. “Thy home shall be my home, thy God my +God.” + +“Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike +the Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine +hills. It will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way.” + +“For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret,” said +Hector. “It would be a glorious place for a settlement--all that one +could desire--hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I +will try and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come +and settle hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, +especially now we are friends with the Indians.” + +With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young +folks laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, +packed up such portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with +full hearts sat down to take their last meal in their home--in that home +which sheltered them so long--and then, with one accord, they knelt down +upon its hearth, so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer +to Him who had preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and +then they journeyed forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, +however, of their little band they left behind: this was the faithful +old dog Wolfe. He had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only +a few days before Catharine’s return he had crept to the seat she was +wont to occupy, and there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without +great regret, beneath the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope +near the corn-field. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + “I will arise, and go to my father.”--_New Testament_. + +It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is +heard, as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads +to Maxwell and Louis Perron’s little clearing; the dark shadows are +lengthening that those wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an +oasis in the vast forest desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, +has hewed for himself in the wilderness. The little flock are feeding +among the blackened stumps of the uncleared chopping; those timbers have +lain thus untouched for two long years; the hand was wanting that should +have given help in logging and burning them up. The wheat is ripe for +the sickle, and the silken beard of the corn is waving like a fair +girl’s tresses in the evening breeze. The tinkling fall of the cold +spring in yonder bank falls soothingly on the ear. Who comes from +that low-roofed log cabin to bring in the pitcher of water, that pale, +careworn, shadowy figure that slowly moves along the green pasture, as +one without hope or joy; her black hair is shared with silver, her cheek +is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, it looks as though the +light might be seen through if she held it towards the sun? It is the +heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. Her heart has been +pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the children of her +love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, and with +cheerful voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be lingering +on that pale cheek,--yet the premature furrows on that broad, sunburnt, +manly brow speak, too, of inward care? It is the father of Hector and +Catharine. Those two fine, healthy boys, in homespun blouses, that are +talking so earnestly, as they lean across the rail fence of the little +wheat field, are Kenneth and Donald; their sickles are on their arms; +they have been reaping. They hear the sudden barking of Bruce and +Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see what causes the agitation they +display. + +An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he +casts down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old +French ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, +but starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. +“Ha, Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this +way.” The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + +“How is ma chère mère, and the young ones?” asked the old man, in a +husky voice--his kind heart was full. “Can you receive me, and those I +have with me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we +travellers in the bush are no wise nice.” + +“The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see +you, Jacob. How many are ye in all?” + +“There are just four, beside myself,--young people; I found them where +they had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to +come with me.” + +The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew +his faded blue bonnet over his eyes. “Jacob, did ye ken that we lost +our eldest bairns, some three summers since?” he faltered, in a broken +voice. + +“The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand,” + said the trapper. + +“Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the +glory,” ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from +his head; “and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not +to have seen this day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill +you.” + +In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken +idea that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, +have seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded +cheek of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright +sparkle, you would have said that joy does not kill. + +“But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?” + +Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old +Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his +cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his +father’s cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and +sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector +and Catharine to their father. + +“But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart +upon that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het +knees, her long raven hair shading her features as with a veil,” + asked the Highlander Maxwell, pointing as he spoke’ to the spot where, +unnoticed and unsharing in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian +girl. There was no paternal embrace for her, no tender mother’s kiss +imprinted on that dusky cheek and pensive brow--she was alone and +desolate, in the midst of that scene of gladness. + +“It is my Indian sister,” said Catharine, “she also must be your child;” + and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the +reluctant girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and +cherish the young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + +I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble +dwelling, or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of +their lost brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + +Time passes on--years, long years have gone by since the return of +the lost children to their homes, and many changes have those years +effected. The log-houses have fallen to decay--a growth of young pines, +a waste of emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part +of the enclosure, now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement--no +trace or record remains of the first breakers of the bush, another +race occupy the ground. The traveller as he passes along on that smooth +turnpike road that leads from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence +to Gore’s Landing, may notice a green waste by the road-side on either +hand, and fancy that thereabouts our Canadian Crusoes’ home once +stood--he sees the lofty wood-crowned hill, and sees in spring-time, +for in summer it is hidden by the luxuriant foliage, the little forest +creek, and he may if thirsty, taste of the pure fresh icy water, as it +still wells out from a spring in the steep bank, rippling through the +little cedar-trough that Louis Perron placed there for the better speed +of his mother when filling her water jug. All else is gone. And what +wrought the change?--a few words will suffice to tell. Some travelling +fur merchants brought the news to Donald Maxwell, that a party of +Highlanders had made a settlement above Montreal, and among them were +some of his kindred. The old soldier resolved to join them, and it was +not hard to prevail upon his brother-in-law to accompany him, for they +were all now weary of living so far from their fellow-men; and bidding +farewell to the little log-houses at Cold Springs, they now journeyed +downwards to the new settlement, where they were gladly received, their +long experience of the country making their company a most valuable +acquisition to the new colonists. + +Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and +cleared and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, +now a fine industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a +candidate for baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the +altar his newly baptized bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not +sufficiently skilled in the laws of their church to tell how the +difficulty of nearness of kin was obviated, but they were married on the +same day as Hector and Indiana, and lived a happy and prosperous life; +and often by their fireside would delight their children by recounting +the history of their wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +APPENDIX A.--_Preface._ + +Page vii. + +Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of +August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent +twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her +wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from +which we condense the following statements:-- + +It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, +she went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on +attempting to return she became separated from her companions, who +returned to her mother’s, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her +at home. Several of her neighbours searched for her during the night, +without success. The search was continued during Sunday, Monday, and +Tuesday, by some fifty or sixty individuals, and although her tracks, +and those of a dog which accompanied her, were discovered, no tidings of +the girl were obtained. A general sympathy for the afflicted widow and +her lost daughter was excited, and notwithstanding the busy season of +the year, great numbers from Windsor and the neighbouring townships of +Brompton, Shipton, Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, +Stoke, and Dudswell, turned out with provisions and implements for +camping in the woods, in search of the girl, which was kept up without +intermission for about fourteen days, when it was generally given up, +under the impression that she must have died, either from starvation, or +the inclemency of the weather, it having rained almost incessantly for +nearly a week of the time. On the 3lst her brother returned home from +Massachusetts, and with two or three others renewed the search, but +returned the second day, and learned to their great joy that the lost +one had found her way home the evening previous. + +On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow +Campbell, to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was +found, as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but +quite rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her +absence. From her story the following particulars were gathered:-- + +When first lost she went directly from home down “Open Brooke,” to a +meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, +which she mistook for what is called the “_Oxias_ opening,” a mile +distant in the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she +was lost, and having heard that lost persons might be guided by the +sun, she undertook to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she +directed her steps towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking +it for “Open Brooke,” and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east +direction (her way home was due north) seven or eight miles till she +came to the great Hay-meadow in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, +and on Monday morning directed her course to, and thence down, the South +Branch in the great Meadow. + +After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was +searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over +the meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, +occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the +junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight +miles from home. + +For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a +circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the +morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties +of men, and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of +people were in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no +sound of trumpet, or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay +by a brook, early on Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. +Thinking the gun to have been fired not more than half a mile distant, +she said she “screamed and run” to the place from whence she supposed +the noise came, but found nothing. Early in the day, however, she came +to the camp where this gun was fired, but not until after its occupants +had left to renew their search for her. This camp was about four miles +from the great meadow, where she spent the Sabbath previous. There she +found a fire, dried her clothes, and found a partridge’s gizzard, which +she cooked and ate, and laid down and slept, remaining about twenty-four +hours. + +In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she +visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon +trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or +four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes +making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the +drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered +much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The +last week she said she had got “toughened,” and did not shiver. When +first lost she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, +except choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her +dog, which remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, +which she ate greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her +health; and for the last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood +sorrel. While the dog remained with her, she constantly shared her food +with him, but said she was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble +to find him food. + +On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction +with the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could +not ford the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a +little above its junction with the south branch, and following down +the stream, she found herself in the clearing, near Moor’s Mill. Thence +directing her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale’s, about a +mile from her mother’s, at six o’clock, having walked five miles in two +hours, and probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the +next day, when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost +as one raised from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen +and lacerated; but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with +the exception of two small rents. + +Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she +was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she +felt disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not +discovering any new tracks, that the people had given over searching +for her, she was greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she +was strongly inclined to give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of +seeing her mother stimulated her to make one more effort to reach home, +which proved successful. When visited, she was in a state of feverish +excitement and general derangement of the system, and greatly emaciated, +with a feeble voice, but perfectly sane and collected. + +It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly +clad, could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such +severe storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very +strange that she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those +in search of her, sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow +their tracks home, and not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or +been seen by any of the hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + +A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, +is the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American +papers, the “Wild Man of the far West.” From time to time, these details +approach the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in +a state of destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this +one, who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, +and then either forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of +the beholder’s brain. But it appears that he was, in March, 1850, +encountered by Mr. Hamilton, of Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. +The wild man was, likewise, chasing his prey. A herd of cattle fled past +Mr. Hamilton and his party, in an agony of terror, pursued by a giant, +bearing a dreadful semblance to humanity. His face and shoulders were +enveloped with long streaming hair, his body was entirely hirsute, his +progression was by great jumps of twelve or thirteen feet at a leap. The +creature turned and gazed earnestly on the hunters, and fled into the +depths of the forest, where he was lost to view. His foot-prints were +thirteen inches long. Mr. Hamilton published the description of the +savage man in the _Memphis Inquirer_. Afterwards several planters +deposed to having, at times, for many years, seen this appearance. All +persons generally agreed that it was a child that had been lost in the +woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now grown to meridian strength, in a +solitary state. Thus the possibility of an European child living, even +unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar to the inhabitants of the +vast American continent. Although we doubt that any human creature would +progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar to the human instinct. +It is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas is, in reality, some +species of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Page 72.--_“where Wolf Tower now stands.”_ + +The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to +purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a +_belle vue,_ or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his mind +from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him to +the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another +house in the district. + + +APPENDIX C. + +Page 113.--_”... as civilization advances.”_ + +Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, +wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, +and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the +ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is +a thing of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, +so changed is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow +cornfields now meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to +the less frequented depths of the forest. + +From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep +valleys, and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the +Rice Lake Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be +marred by the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; +and many of those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste +and refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature +had left so fair. + +APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_. + +“I will now,” says our Indian historian, “narrate a single circumstance +which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were +often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had +to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we +left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as +Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father +on his ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen +over, we left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour +and pork; and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from +the white settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for +five days in succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to +shoot or trap anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no +means of procuring any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet +deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of the trees falling all about us, +and cracking with the weight of the snow. + +“Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have +been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, +that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak +they could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They +could only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and +old mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad +except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without +food, the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my +grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see +the starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager +looks!--the children would cry for something to eat! My poor mother +would heave bitter sighs, of despair, the tears falling profusely +from her cheeks as she kissed us! Wood, though in plenty, could not be +obtained on account of the feebleness of our limbs. My father would +at times draw near the fire and rehearse some prayer to the gods. It +appeared to him that there was no way of escape; the men, women, and +children, dying; some of them were speechless, the wigwam was cold and +dark, and covered with snow! + +“On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; +he soon awoke, and said to me: ‘My son, the good Spirit is about to +bless us this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east +walking on the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two +beavers about nine o’clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me +to the river, and we will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.’ I +saw that his countenance beamed with delight and hope; he was full of +confidence. I put on my mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering +along behind him about half a mile. Having made a fire near the river, +where there was an air-hole through which the beaver had come up during +the night, my father tied a gun to a stump with the muzzle towards the +air-hole; he also tied a string to the trigger, and said, ‘Should you +see the beaver rise pull the string, and you will kill it.’ I stood by +the fire, with the string in my hand; I soon heard the noise occasioned +by the blow of his tomahawk; he had killed a beaver and brought it to +me. As he laid it down, he said, ‘Then the great Spirit will not let +us die here;’ adding, as before, ‘if you see the beaver rise, pull +the string;’ and he left me. I soon saw the nose of one, but I did not +shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the trigger, and off the +gun went. I could not see for some moments for the smoke. My father +ran towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side by side; then, +pointing to the sun,--‘Do you see the sun?’ he said; ‘the great Spirit +informed me that we should kill these two about this time in the +morning. We will yet see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let us go home, +and see if our people are yet alive.’ We arrived just in time to save +them from death. Since which we have visited the same spot the year the +missionaries came among us. + +“My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot +where we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who +have perished in this way far up in the woods.”--_Life of George Copway, +written by himself_, p. 44. + +APPENDIX E. + +Page 184.--“_... on first deciding that it was a canoe._” + +The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel +in common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was +hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; +but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its +excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, +and its launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by +feasting and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. +Possibly the birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily +constructed, and needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; +but it was too frail to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable +to injuries. + +The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland +waters, were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their +arrow-heads were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and +inserted in a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; +and blunt wooden ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and +small game. + +APPENDIX F. + +Page 195.--_”... the Christian mind revolts with horror.”_ + +There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong +feeling in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a +concentration of all the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and +wide along the northern banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, +to be called by one name, and united in one purpose--their general +improvement. To this end, one of the most influential of their chiefs, +John Jones, of Dover Sound, offered to give up to his Indian brethren, +free of all cost, a large tract of unceded land, that they might be +gathered together as one nation. + +In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from +lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it +was proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys +could be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for +aid in establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general +feeling of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at +Owen’s Sound. At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + +There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of +the oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers +some idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:-- + +“Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from +the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your +children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that +require you here. + +“Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our +present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of +ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at +a true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and +our descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of +peace, health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas +and Ottawas are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often +passed sleepless nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These +nations, I am proud to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my +bone; and for them, if needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. +Brothers, you see my heart.” _[Here he held out a piece of white paper, +emblematical of a pure heart.]_ + +“Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout +Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place +_[query, too hot to hold you]_. The whites are kindling fires all round +you _[i.e. clearing land]_. + +“One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some +plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that +our dying fires may not go out, _i.e._ our people become extinct, but +may be kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any +portion of the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe +of peace, and live and die together, and see our children play and +be reared on the same spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and +because we love you, and feel for you, we propose this. + +“My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning” _[the speaker now pointed +with his finger towards the heavens]_, “look up and see the blue sky: +there are no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, +that when the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon +them. May he now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and +straight path for our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but +this morning I shake hands with you all, in my heart. + +“Brothers, this is all I have to say.” + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX G. + +Page 213.--_”... and aimed a knife at his throat”_ + +The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some +sixty or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my +informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as +those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men. +My Indian narrator replied--“Indians, no Christians in those days, do +worse than that very few years ago,--do as bad now in far-west.” + +The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together +in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. +The conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from +the Wesleyan Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of +Captain Anderson, whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore +on and about Anderson’s Point, the renowned site of the great battle. +The war-weapon and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be +found in this vicinity. + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX H. + +Page 232.--_“This place she called Spooke Island”_ + +Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh +from the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury +their dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached +with reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, +rhus toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in +landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. + + +APPENDIX I. + +Page 253.--_“and nothing but fire.”_ + +The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with +which fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. +Certainly, there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the +Indian names, approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of +the language of the East; such is “Mad-wa-osh,” the music of the winds. + + +APPENDIX K. + +Page 272.--_“but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken.”_ + +_From George Copway’s Life._ + +Converted Indians are thus described in the “Life” of their literary +countryman, George Copway:-- + +_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a +tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and +Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for +an annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the +River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first +tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were +wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, +the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to +Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, +became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state +of heathenism and spiritual destitution. They collected a considerable +number together, and by rote and frequent repetitions, taught the first +principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and +with the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed +to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils +attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to +work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage +of cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been +greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians. + +J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + +The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering +pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, +commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quintè; they resided on +Grape Island, in the Bay of Quintè, six miles from Belleville. +They resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and +agriculture. Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by +the Wesleyan Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, +a commodious chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, +shoemaker’s shop and joiner’s. There are upwards of 300 of these +Indians. + +The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary +interpreter. + +_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and +Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These +Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled +in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. +_[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling +of the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year +1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson’s Point was built +and cultivated.]_ The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve +miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, +subdivided in 50-acre lots. + +Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow. + +Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The +Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of +them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, +enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + + +APPENDIX L. + +Page 282.--_”... that an outward manifestation of surprise.”_ + +A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent +intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their +apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he +wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where +several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and +narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of +surprise by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired +to an adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and +was amused at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free +from his surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious +toy like a parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture +and amazement, but they did not choose to be entrapped into showing +surprise. This perfect command over the muscles of the face, and +the glance of the eye, is one of the remarkable traits in the +Indian character. The expression of the Indian face, if I may use so +paradoxical a term, consists in a want of expression--like the stillness +of dark deep water, beneath which no object is visible. APPENDIX M. + +Page 332.--_“bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung +in fanciful patterns.”_ + +The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply +scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian +thorn, a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then +pierced with parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the +porcupine quills are inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the +surface of the bark. + +The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the +effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; +their attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and +angular; and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or +natural than those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect +produced is rich and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety +of dyes they contrive to give to this simple material, the porcupine +quills. The sinew of the deer, and some other animals, furnish the +Indian women with thread, of any degree of fineness or strength. The +wants of these simple folk are few, and those easily supplied by the +adaptation of such materials as they can command with ease, in their +savage state. + + +APPENDIX N. + +Page 339.--_“is Mount Ararat.”_ + +Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly +two years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +***** This file should be named 8382-0.txt or 8382-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8382/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + A Tale of The Rice Lake Plains + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8382] +Posting Date: August 4, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + +A TALE OF THE RICE LAKE PLAINS + + +By Catharine Parr Traill + +Authoress Of "The Backwoods Of Canada, Etc." + +Edited By Agnes Strickland + +Illustrated By Harvey + + + + London: + + Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co. + + 25, Paternoster Row. + + 1852. + + + Dedicated + + To The Children Of The Settlers + + On + + The Rice Lake Plains, + + By Their + + Faithful Friend And Well-Wisher + + THE AUTHORESS. + + OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE, + + 15th Oct 1850 + + + + +PREFACE + +IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any +narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the +struggles of isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. +The distinctions of pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind +is engaged in the contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the +assaults of the gaunt enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances +have usually given sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the +most fortunate, to make them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the +chances of shipwreck, war, wandering, or revolutions have cut off from +home and hearth, and the requisite supplies; not only from the +thousand artificial comforts which civilized society classes among the +necessaries of life, but actually from a sufficiency of "daily bread." + +Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor +seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of +Defoe as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means +uncommon in middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous +for all who build and plant in a wilderness, "cut off from humanity's +reach?" Our insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the +inhabitants of Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations +of individuals wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means +generally known that scarcely a summer passes over the colonists +in Canada, without losses of children from the families of settlers +occurring in the vast forests of the backwoods, similar to that on which +the narrative of the Canadian Crusoes is founded. Many persons thus lost +have perished in the wilderness; and it is to impress on the memory +the natural resources of this country, by the aid of interesting the +imagination, that the author of the well-known and popular work, "The +Backwoods of Canada," has written the following pages. + +She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical +solution _[FN: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.]_ of that provoking +enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, +namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day's toilsome march, +close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this +cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain +O'Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in +his lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity +of the forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is +recorded in the narrative of the "Escape of a young French Officer from +the dept near Peterborough during the Napoleon European war." He found +himself thrice at night within sight of the walls of the prison from +which he had fled in the morning, after taking fruitless circular walks +of twenty miles. I do not recollect the cause of such lost labour being +explained in either narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of +the disaster in the boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced +knowledge, dearly bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons +who wander without knowing the features and landmarks of a country, +instinctively turn their faces to the sun, and for that reason always +travel in a circle, infallibly finding themselves at night in the very +spot from which they started in the morning. The resources and natural +productions of the noble colony of Canada are but superficially known. +An intimate acquaintance with its rich vegetable and animal productions +is most effectually made under the high pressure of difficulty and +necessity. Our writer has striven to interest children, or rather young +people approaching the age of adolescence, in the natural history of +this country, simply by showing them how it is possible for children to +make the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution as forlorn +as the wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who would +not care for the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and +classified technically in books of science, might remember their uses +and properties when thus brought practically before their notice as the +aliments of the famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive +feelings must perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home +comforts and all the ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their +rising families, in order to place them in a more independent position, +it is well if those young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what +they are to find in the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the +fruits, and even the minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has +poured forth over that wide land. + +The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, "The Backwoods of Canada, +by the Wife of an Emigrant Officer," published some years since by Mr. +C. Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many +editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity +as a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say +that the present is written in the same _nave_, charming style, with +the same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet +and gentle--author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who +ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her +further years of experience as a settler to the information of the +younger class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in +the productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the +mightiest adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest +colony, unstained with the corruption of convict population; where +families of gentle blood need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; +where no one need beg, and where any one may dig without being ashamed. + + + + +LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. + +LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE + +FIRST BREAKFAST, THE + +CATHARINE FOUND BY THE OLD DOG + +WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE + +HECTOR BRINGING THE INDIAN GIRL + +KILLING WILD FOWL + +INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + +CATHARINE CARRIED OFF + +INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE + +INDIANA AT THE STAKE + +ATTACK ON THE DEER + +RETURN HOME THE + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O'er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash'd on the shore." + _Jacobite Song._ + +THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile +valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which +were clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of +the hills and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber +trees of various kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This +beautiful and highly picturesque valley is watered by many clear +streams of pure refreshing water, from whence the spot has derived its +appropriate appellation of "Cold Springs." At the time my little +history commences, this now highly cultivated spot was an unbroken +wilderness,--all tut two small farms, where dwelt the only occupiers of +the soil,--which owned no other possessors than the wandering hunting +tribes of wild Indians, to whom the right of the hunting grounds north +of Rice Lake appertained, according to their forest laws. + +To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among +cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds +of cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I +speak of the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now +an important port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo--if it +contained even a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and +the wild and picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village +of Port Hope is situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe +of the settler. No gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant +produce of grain and Canadian stores along the waters of that noble +sheet of water; no steamer had then furrowed its bosom with her iron +wheels, bearing the stream of emigration towards the wilds of our +Northern and Western forests, there to render a lonely trackless desert +a fruitful garden. What will not time and the industry of man, assisted +by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? To him be the glory and +honour; for we are taught, that "without the Lord build the city, their +labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord keep the city, the +watchman waketh but in vain." + +But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the +acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement +at Cold Springs. + +Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the +famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the +praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle +Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick +and disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian +widow in the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he +received much kind attention from his excellent hostess and her +family, which consisted of a young man about his own age, and a pretty +black-eyed lass not more than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much +occupied with other-lodgers--for she kept a sort of boarding-house--that +she had not much time to give to Duncan, so that he was left a great +deal to her son Pierre, and a little to Catharine, her daughter. + +Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the +regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of +country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady +and increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the +children of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep +regret that they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan +belonged was ordered for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far +convalescent as to be pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas +for poor Catharine! she now found that parting with her patient was a +source of the deepest sorrow to her young and guileless heart; nor was +Duncan less moved at the separation from his gentle nurse. It might be +for years, and it might be for ever, he could not tell; but he could not +tear himself away without telling the object of his affections how dear +she was to him, and to whisper a hope that he might yet return one day +to claim her as his bride; and Catharine, weeping and blushing, promised +to wait for that happy day, or to remain single for his sake, while +Pierre promised to watch over his friend's interests and keep alive +Catharine's love; for, said he, artlessly, "la belle Catrine is pretty +and lively, and may have many suitors before she sees you again, mon +ami." + +They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the +exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of +our young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, +for absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on +gratitude and esteem. + +Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet +distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his +country, enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return +to Quebec to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during +that short period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, +lively-hearted Pierre, was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and +Catharine, who had no relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with +her brother and his wife, and was living in some little settlement above +Montreal with them. + +Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly +afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had +never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a +good deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been +hunting with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice +Lake, and he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds +to a quiet life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill +pass between the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan +was of the same opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare +like his own Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned +for the hill country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking +possession of any tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore +Duncan agreed with his brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a +dwelling put up and some ground prepared and "seeded down," and then to, +return for their wives and settle themselves down at once as farmers. +Others had succeeded, had formed little colonies, and become the heads +of villages in due time; why should not they? And now behold our two +backwoodsmen fairly commencing their arduous life; but it was nothing, +after all, to Pierre, by previous occupation a hardy lumberer, or the +Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave all sorts of hardships in a wild +country, himself a mountaineer, inured to a stormy climate, and scanty +fare, from his earliest youth. But it is not my intention to dwell upon +the trials and difficulties courageously met and battled with by our +settlers and their young wives. + +There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers +on the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with +now. The spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her +comforts are felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly +come emigrant feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were +endured by the older inhabitants. + +The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, +was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little +skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous +Pierre, and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders +of himself and Duncan to their homestead:--a day of great labour but +great joy it was when they deposited their precious freight in safety +on the shanty floor. They were obliged to make two journeys for the +contents of the little craft. What toil, what privation they endured for +the first two years! and now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. +No two creatures could be more unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The +Highlander, stern, steady, persevering, cautious, always giving ample +reasons for his doing or his not doing. The Canadian, hopeful, lively, +fertile in expedients, and gay as a lark; if one scheme failed another +was sure to present itself. Pierre and Duncan were admirably suited to +be friends and neighbours. The steady perseverance of the Scot helped +to temper the volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They generally +contrived to compass the same end by different means, as two streams +descending from opposite hills will meet in one broad river in the same +valley. + +Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its +increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. +Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four +healthy children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these +welcome contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the +children of Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; +they grew up as one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. +Though different in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest +son of the Scottish soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were +greatly attached; they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed +a little coterie of inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, +occupations, all blended and harmonized delightfully; there were none +of those little envyings and bickerings among them that pave the way to +strife and disunion in after life. + +Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister +than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and +formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and +Catharine. + +Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy, +both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is +not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads +and Catharine. With the gaiety and navet of the Frenchwoman, Catharine +possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care +of mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a +little reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father's +teaching. It was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, +having been taught by his colonel's son, a lad of twelve years of age, +who had taken a great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a +few of his school-books, among which was a Testament, without cover +or title-page. At parting, the young gentleman recommended its daily +perusal to Duncan. Had the gift been a Bible, perhaps the soldier's +obedience to his priest might have rendered it a dead letter to him, +but as it fortunately happened, he was unconscious of any prohibition +to deter him from becoming acquainted with the truths of the Gospel. He +communicated the power of perusing his books to his children Hector and +Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in succession, with a feeling of intense +reverence; even the labour of teaching was regarded as a holy duty in +itself, and was not undertaken without deeply impressing the obligation +he was conferring upon them whenever they were brought to the task. It +was indeed a precious boon, and the children learned to consider it +as the pearl beyond all price in the trials that awaited them in their +eventful career. To her knowledge of religious truths young Catharine +added an intimate acquaintance with the songs and legends of her +father's romantic country, which was to her even as fairyland; often +would her plaintive ballads and old tales, related in the hut or the +wigwam to her attentive auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; Louis and +Mathilde, her cousins, sometimes wondered how Catharine had acquired +such a store of ballads and wild tales as she could tell. + +It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not +only doffed that "dazzling white robe" mentioned in the songs of her +Jacobite emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest +season, the last week in May and the first three of June being parallel +to the English May, full of buds and flowers and fair promise of +ripening fruits. The high sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale +of Cold Springs were clothed with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet +enchroma, or painted-cup; the large pure white blossoms of the lily-like +trillium; the delicate and fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful +flowers woo the hand of the flower-gatherer only to fade almost within +his grasp; the golden cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so +lovely in its colour and formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as +the breeze shook the stems; and there, mingling with a thousand various +floral beauties, the azure lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a +heavenly tint upon the earth. Thousands of roses were blooming on the +more level ground, sending forth their rich fragrance, mixed with the +delicate scent of the feathery ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid +greenness of the young leaves of the forest, the tender tint of the +springing corn, were contrasted with the deep dark fringe of waving +pines on the hills, and the yet darker shade of the spruce and balsams +on the borders of the creeks, for so our Canadian forest rills are +universally termed. The bright glancing wings of the summer red-bird, +the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and noisy but splendid +plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air was filled with +beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the shade of the +luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front of the +little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard +mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and +fro guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches +of old mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, +with livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody +of her spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, +unconscious of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements +from among the embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning +sun. + +"Come, ma belle cousine," for so Louis delighted to call her. "Hector +and I are waiting for you to go with us to the 'Beaver Meadow.' The +cattle have strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is +delicious, the very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired +and plucked, and we shall find early strawberries on the old Indian +clearing." + +Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, "I fear, Louis, I cannot +go to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my +yarn to wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away." + +"Yes, I left her with mamma." replied Louis, "and she said she would be +home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take +a basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is +sure he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red." +As he spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, +gathered up the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker +basket, and the next minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that +hung upon the peg in the porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the +top of Catharine's head and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling +laugh, which drowned effectually the small lecture that Catharine began +to utter, by way of reproving the light-hearted boy. + +"But where is Mathilde?" + +"Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise's head on +her lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and +flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her +and petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the +dear children were as happy as queens when I left them." + +"But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? +We shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to +the Beaver Meadow and back again," said Catharine, hesitating as Louis +took her hand to lead her out from the porch. + +"Yes, yes, ma belle," said the giddy boy, quickly; "so come along, for +Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before +we return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a +tin-cup for water." + +Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little +preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the +little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her +young brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his +shoulder. "What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it +heavy to carry," said his sister. + +"In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom +for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss +Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of +rock elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I +take the axe with me." + +The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep +defiles that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung +and chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both +to exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest +shade. What handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and +white, were gathered only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast +aside for others fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills +that flowed, softly murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red +or grey granite, wending their way beneath twisted roots and fallen +trees; and often Catharine lingered to watch the eddying dimples of +the clear water, to note the tiny bright fragments of quartz or +crystallized limestone that formed a shining pavement below the stream; +and often she paused to watch the angry movements of the red squirrel, +as, with feathery tail erect, and sharp scolding note, he crossed +their woodland path, and swiftly darting up the rugged bark of some +neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the intruders on his quiet haunts +defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he scarcely condescended to +ascend beyond their reach. + +The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or +the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, +striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the +soft whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from +one hemlock to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the +bark, were among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the +woods; but to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and +her cousin were not indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector +gravely pursued his onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark +the bright colours of the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest +rill. + +"What makes Hec so grave?" said Catharine to her companion, as they +seated themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they +had giddily chased each other till they had far outrun him. + +"Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or +wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil +or the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, +or the hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as +woodpeckers and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is +not a giddy thing like his cousin Louis, or--" + +"His sister Kate," interrupted Catharine, merrily; "but when shall we +come to the Beaver Meadow?" + +"Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? +No; Hector whistling." And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his +axe ringing among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was +cutting it to leave on the path, that he might take it home on their +return; he had also marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe +handles, to bring home at some future time. + +The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down +and rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, +and declared he felt no fatigue. "As soon as we reach the old Indian +clearing, we shall find strawberries," he said, "and a fresh cold +spring, and then we will have our dinners." + +"Come, Hector,--come, Louis," said Catharine, jumping up, "I long to +be gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I +will throw them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit +instead, and we must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear +Mathilde. Ah, how I wish she were here at this minute! But here is the +opening to the Beaver Meadow." + +And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they +approached the cleared space, which some called the "Indian clearing," +but is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was +a pleasant spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and +flowering shrubs, of a different growth from those that belong to the +dense forest. Here the children found, on the hilly ground above, fine +ripe strawberries, the earliest they had seen that year, and soon all +weariness was forgotten while pursuing the delightful occupation of +gathering the tempting fruit; and when they had refreshed themselves, +and filled the basket with leaves and fruit, they slaked their thirst +from the stream, which wound its way among the bushes. Catharine +neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of the fragrant white-thorn +and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with nodding umbels of +snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little basket with the +graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered plant, the Linna +borealis, which she always said reminded her of the twins, Louise and +Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear away, for they +had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered from the +path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their eagerness to +look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by which they +might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, Louis +noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle hoofs +on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + +"Come, Hector," said he gaily, "this is lucky; we are on the cattle +path; no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer +track." + +Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much +towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. "And is +not this our own creek?" he said: "I have often heard my father say it +had its rise somewhere about this old clearing." + +Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the +path among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, +surprised to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the +stream swept onward. + +"Oh, this dear creek," cried the delighted Catharine, "how pretty it is! +I shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source +from our own Cold Springs." + +And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind +the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously +hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony +banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked +poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite +directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the +opening gorge of a deep ravine. + +Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block +of granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by +the ravine, unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled +countenance, stood beside her, looking round with an air of great +perplexity. Louis, seating himself at Catharine's feet, surveyed the +deep gloomy valley before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had +now forcibly struck him that they had mistaken the path altogether. The +very aspect of the country was different; the growth of the trees, the +flow of the stream, all indicated a change of soil and scene. Darkness +was fast drawing its impenetrable veil around them; a few stars were +stealing out, and gleaming down as if with pitying glance upon the young +wanderers; but they could not light up their pathway, or point their +homeward track. The only sound, save the lulling murmur of the rippling +stream below, was the plaintive note of the whip-poor-will, from a +gnarled oak that grew near them, and the harsh grating scream of the +night hawk, darting about in the higher regions of the air, pursuing +its noisy congeners, or swooping down with that peculiar hollow rushing +sound, as of a person blowing into some empty vessel, when it seizes +with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + +Hector was the first to break the silence. "Cousin Louis, we were wrong +in following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our +way back to-night." + +Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the +attention of his cousins. "Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to +be cast down by difficulties," said Hector, as he marked something like +tears glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + +Louis's heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance +upon the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath +which she sat. + +"It is not," resumed Hector, "that I mind passing a summer's night under +such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do +not think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in +the night dews,--and then they will be so anxious at home about our +absence." + +Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,--"And it is all my doing that +she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much +alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good +cousin Hector, pray forgive me!" But Catharine was weeping too much to +reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from +the truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed +his indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on +the part of Louis. + +The sight of her cousin's grief and self-abasement touched the tender +heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, +and loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful +consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, +Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she +could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with +deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating +thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid +his cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, +and steeled him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the +penitent Louis, who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder +Catharine, sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing +words and affectionate endeavours to console him. + +"Dear Hector," she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem +face of her brother, "you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; +remember it was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of +liberty with you and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees +and birds, that he committed this fault." + +"Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at +the consequences,--we shall have forfeited our parents' confidence, and +may have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our +home, if we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs," replied Hector. + +"It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night," +answered Catharine, "that distresses my mind; but," she added in more +cheerful tones, "let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able +to retrace our steps." + +With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word +_to-morrow_,--it is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from +them; sad indeed is the young heart that does not look forward with hope +to the morrow! + +The cloud still hung on Hector's brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, +"Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think +of providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the +bare ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half +made," pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had +hurled from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + +"Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them +into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, +and there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to +work, you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own +wigwam," she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the +feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared +as little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night +under the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; +but her woman's heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling +the cousins would be by mutually interesting them in the same +object,--and she was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort +of their dear companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector, +while active employment chased away Louis's melancholy. + +Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, +those of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, +varying in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque +groups, or rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked +poplar or graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately +pine contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender +graceful companions. + +Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, +which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance +drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the +upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form +the back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means +a contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with +Louis's _couteau-de-chasse_, which he always carried in a sheath at his +girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, +for herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and +cousin nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction, +she called the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents, +joined them in the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of +praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward +in imploring help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly +prayed that no dangerous creature might come near to molest them during +the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no +unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels +and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with +the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And the prayer of the +poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in peace, unharmed +in the vast solitude. So passed their first night on the Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." + +The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, +when the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty +of their situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they +had been under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their +little paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who +neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, +and in fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended +their souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + +While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled +the minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and +sorrow had they passed! + +When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the +two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the +wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud +halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they +check their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the +sighing breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves +caused by the flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the +torches, and the echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that +met their anxious ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, +to their homes, to snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the +drooping hearts of the weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different +directions. But, unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which +Hector and Louis had taken, there being many cattle paths through the +woods. Louis's want of truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he +had left no intimation of the path he purposed taking when he quitted +his mother's house: he had merely said he was going with Hector +in search of the cattle, giving no hint of his intention of asking +Catharine to accompany them: he had but told his sick sister, that +he would bring home strawberries and flowers, and that he would soon +return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little did you think of the +web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and all those to whom you +and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, think twice, ere ye +deceive once! Catharine's absence would have been quite unaccountable +but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had received her +sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and much her +mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful Catharine to +have left her work and forsaken her household duties to go rambling away +with the boys, for she never left the house when her mother was absent +from, it, without her express permission, and now she was gone--lost +to them, perhaps for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, +there hung the untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,--and there +they remained week after week and month after month, untouched, a +melancholy memorial to the hearts of the bereaved parents of their +beloved. + +It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their +vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that +filled their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of +the lost ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the +sorrowing parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome +homes. At the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one +of these three casualties had befallen the lost children:--death, a +lingering death by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or +bears; or yet more terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded +Indians, who occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the +hills about the Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron +as the scene of many bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the +Mohawks and Chippewas: its localities were scarcely ever visited by +our settlers, lest haply they should fall into the hands of the bloody +Mohawks, whose merciless dispositions made them in those days a by-word +even to the less cruel Chippewas and other Indian nations. + +It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his +brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, +among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called +the Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor +wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the +sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, +and mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their +first-born and beloved children.--"There was a voice of woe, and +lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, +and refusing to be comforted, because they were not." The miserable +uncertainty that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation +to the sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of +the manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; +but, alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + + "Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + 'Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy's endless dreams depart." + +But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see +how it really fared with the young wanderers. + +When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that +arose from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an +indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance +perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear +light of the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in +retracing their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left +no impression on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found +the creek, which was concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic +hawthorns, high-bush cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn +was in blossom, and gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than +the "May" which makes the lanes and hedgerows of "merrie old England" so +sweet and fair in May and June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral +of our olden time; but when our simple Catharine drew down the flowery +branches to wreathe about her hat, she loved the flowers for their own +native sweetness and beauty, not because poets had sung of them;--but +young minds have a natural poetry in themselves, unfettered by rule or +rhyme. + +At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of +cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and _tamarack_ (Indian name +for the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as love +the cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that +they must quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become +entangled in a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing +draughts from the bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they +ascended the grassy bank, and again descending, found themselves in one +of those long valleys, enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed +with shrubs and oaks, with here and there a stately pine. Through this +second valley they pursued their way, till emerging into a wider space, +they came among those singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel +hills, where the Cold Creek once more met their view, winding its way +towards a grove of evergreens, where it was again lost to the eye. + +This lovely spot is now known as Sackville's Mill-dike. The hand of +man has curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it +subservient to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of +the scene. _[FN: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, +who resided for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to +return to his native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The +old log-house on the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, +though deserted; the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer +protects the enclosure, where the wild rose mingles with that of +Provence,--the Canadian creeper with the hop.]_ + +Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, +winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, +the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the +silver waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of +the wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid +silver just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its +surface, and concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of +dread and doubt and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow +of admiration at a scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which +they now gazed upon from the elevation they had gained. From this ridge +they looked down the lake, and the eye could take in an extent of many +miles, with its verdant wooded islands, which stole into view one by one +as the rays of the morning sun drew up the moving curtain of mist +that enveloped them; and soon both northern and southern shores became +distinctly visible, with all their bays and capes and swelling oak and +pine-crowned hills. + +And now arose the question, "Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be +the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the +Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?" +Hector remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was +like an inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some +remarkable state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally +discerned by the naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects +on the other side, the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of +wild fowl winging their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. +The breadth of the lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, +exceed three or four miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, +seemed far greater beyond--what the eye could take in. _[FN: The +length of the Rice Lake, from its headwaters near Black's Landing to the +mouth of the Trent, is said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from +north to south varies from three to six.]_ + +They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. +Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of +a beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a +magnificent view down the lake. + +"How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, +overlooking the lake," said Louis; "only think of the fish we could +take, and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no +very hard matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard +my father say he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river--below, +when he was lumbering." + +"Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon," _[FN: +Now the site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman +from Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion +of the ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains +for its natural beauties and extent of prospect.]_ said Hector, "though +I am not quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold +Springs; but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, +and produce plenty of grain, too, if cultivated." + +"You always look to the main chance, Hec," said Louis, laughing; "well, +it was worth a few hours' walking this morning to look upon so lovely a +sheet of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,--would not +you, ma belle?--to enjoy such a sight." + +"Yes, Louis," replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; "it is very +pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot +enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been +aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!" +she added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions +and herself would cause at home came over her. "How I wish I had +remained at home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!" + +Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin's +tears, and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to +soothe and console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the +weeping girl, and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + +"If you cry thus, cousin," he whispered, "you will break poor Louis's +heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct." "Be +not cast down, Catharine," said her brother, cheeringly: "we may not be +so far from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out +again, and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on +these sunny banks." + +Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, +proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side +of the high ground where they had been sitting. + +Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, "Come, Hector; come, +Louis: here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:"--for her eye +had caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on +the slope; large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + +"There is indeed, ma belle," said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather +up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner +shade of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen +tree. Catharine's voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge +_[FN: The Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than +the English or French partridge. We refer our young readers to the +finely arranged specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) +where they may discover "Louis's partridge."]_ from her nest, and the +eggs were soon transferred to Louis's straw hat, while a stone flung +by the steady hand of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed +exultingly as they displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, +who, in spite of hunger, could not help regretting the death of the +mother bird. Girls and women rarely sympathise with men and boys in +their field sports, and Hector laughed at his sister's doleful looks as +he handed over the bird to her. + +"It was a lucky chance," said he, "and the stone was well aimed, but it +is not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so +stupid you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before +the day is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all +events," he added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin's hat; +"twelve nice fresh eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit." + +"But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of +getting a fire made," said Catharine. + +"As to the eggs," said Louis, "we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry +wanderers like us to be over nice about our food." + +"They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the +ashes," observed Hector. + +"True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble." + +"But how?" asked Hector. "Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest +would be a flint with the help of my knife." + +"A flint?" + +"Yes, if we could get one--but I see nothing but granite, which crumbles +and shivers when struck--we could not get a spark. However, I think it's +very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach yonder may +be found hard enough for the purpose." + +To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had +been well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, +fringed with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found +themselves beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found +among the water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and +a handful of dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected +without trouble; though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had +coolly proposed to tear a strip from his cousin's apron as a substitute +for tinder,--a proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the tidy +Catharine, whose ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, +especially as she had no sewing implements to assist in mending the +rent. Louis thought nothing of that; it was a part of his character to +think only of the present, little of the past, and to let the future +provide for itself. Such was Louis's great failing, which had proved a +fruitful source of trouble both to himself and others. In this respect +he bore a striking contrast to his more cautious companion, who +possessed much of the gravity of his father. Hector was as heedful and +steady in his decisions as Louis was rash and impetuous. + +After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles +through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last +kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then +triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly +to the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently +hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial +than the strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering +them in the morning. + +Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, +under the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were +wreathed together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, +which climbed to a height of fifteen feet _[FN: Solatnum +dulcamara,--Bitter-sweet or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the +red-berried briony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses +powerful properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the +Indians.]_ among the branches _[Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST]_ of +the trees, which it covered as with a mantle. A pure spring of cold, +delicious water welled out from beneath the twisted roots of an old +hoary-barked cedar, and found its way among the shingles on the beach +to the lake, a humble but constant tributary to its waters. Some large +blocks of water-worn stone formed convenient seats and a natural table, +on which the little maiden arranged the forest fare; and never was a +meal made with greater appetite or taken with more thankfulness than +that which our wanderers ate that morning. The eggs (part of which they +reserved for another time) were declared to be better than those that +were daily produced from the little hen-house at Cold Springs. The +strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the shining leaves of +the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with the long spurs +of the hawthorn, _[FN: The long-spurred American hawthorn may be +observed by our young readers among that beautiful collection of the +hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the north side +of Kensington Gardens.]_ were voted delicious, and the pure water most +refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large +mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles +on the beach. + +Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, +lamenting their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless +repining, or, perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the +principal author of their calamity--poor, thoughtless Louis; but such +were not the dispositions of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to +the hardships incidental to the lives of the settlers in the bush, +these young people had learned to bear with patience and cheerfulness +privations that would have crushed the spirits of children more +delicately nurtured. They had known every degree of hunger and +nakedness; during the first few years of their lives they had often +been compelled to subsist for days and weeks upon roots and herbs, wild +fruits, and game which their fathers had learned to entrap, to decoy, +and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early been initiated into the +mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, and pits, and traps, +and snares,--they were as expert as Indians in the use of the bow,--they +could pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart at partridge, hare, and +squirrel, with almost unerring aim; and were as swift of foot as young +fawns. Now it was that they learned to value in its fullest extent +this useful and practical knowledge, which enabled them to face with +fortitude the privations of a life so precarious as that to which they +were now exposed. + +It was one of the elder Maxwell's maxims,--Never let difficulties +overcome you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the +hand, and the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head +as chief. When his children expressed any doubts of not being able to +accomplish any work they had begun, he would say, "Have you not hands, +have you not a head, have you not eyes to see, and reason to guide +you? As for impossibilities, they do not belong to the trade of a +soldier,--he dare not see them." Thus were energy and perseverance early +instilled into the minds of his children; they were now called upon +to give practical proofs of the precepts that had been taught them +in childhood. Hector trusted to his axe, and Louis to his +_couteau-de-chasse_ and pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an +old forest friend of his father's, who had visited them the previous +winter, and which, by good luck, Louis had in his pocket--a capacious +pouch, in which were stored many precious things, such as coils of twine +and string, strips of leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; +nails, bits of iron, leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find +their way most mysteriously into boys' pockets in general, and Louis +Perron's in particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small +matters. + +The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few +days abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where +fruits were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning +meal, so providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully +acknowledged the mercy of God in this thing. + +Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the +lake, they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both +to leave the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the +hills and deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so +remarkable a manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look +upon the wild glens and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy +deer found safe retreats, unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,--where +the osprey and white-headed eagle built their nests, unheeding and +unharmed. Twice that day, misled by following the track of the deer, had +they returned to the same spot,--a deep and lovely glen, which had once +been a water-course, but now a green and shady valley. This they named +the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable block of red granite that +occupied a central position in the narrow defile; and here they prepared +to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs cut down and +interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with Hector's +axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, formed +a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs that +the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and couches, +or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild Scottish +hills. + +While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine +busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having +collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that +grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate +name of the "Birken shaw," she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it +fine upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This +proved excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the +birch being highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint +that they had used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front +of the rocky stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent +over the coals, served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge +was suspended,--a scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they +knew not how they should breakfast next morning, The children felt they +were pensioners on God's providence not less than the wild denizens of +the wilderness around them. + +When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or +cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, +Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the +teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, +gently laid her hand upon her brother's head, which rested on her knees, +as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest +tone, "'Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they +reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are +ye not much better than they?' Surely, my brother, God careth for us as +much as for the wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify +his holy name. God cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies +them with knowledge where they shall find food when they hunger and +thirst. So I have heard my father say; and surely our father knows, for +is he not a wise man, Hector?" + +"I remember," said Louis, thoughtfully, "hearing my mother repeat the +words of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;--'When you +are in trouble, Mathilde,' he used to say to her, 'kneel down, and ask +God's help, nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the +will to serve you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all +things to pass. It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers +from being heard. And, truly, I think the wise old man was right," he +added. + +It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy +Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, +looking up with a serious air, replied, "Your mother's friend was a good +man, Louis. Our want of trust in God's power must displease Him. And +when we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,--that +blue sky, those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining +down upon us, and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little +creeping plants and flowers that grow at our feet,--it must, indeed, +seem foolish in his eyes that we should doubt his power to help us, who +not only made all these things, but ourselves also." + +"True," said Catharine; "but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; +for the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the +good." + +"Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, +God helps those that help themselves," said Louis. "Let us consider a +little. There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great." + +"But how are we to get them out of it?" rejoined Catharine. "I doubt the +fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry." + +"Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the +holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and +there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of +course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in +abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have +plenty of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in +profusion, and bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as +for raspberries, I see none; but by-and-by there will be +May-apples--I see great quantities of them in the low grounds, grapes, +high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as cherries, and sweet too; +squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and bird-cherries. As +to sweet acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of them for the +roasting, as good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, and +hickory-nuts,--with many other good things." And here Louis stopped for +want of breath to continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + +"Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat +us for want of better food," interrupted Hector, slyly. "Nay, Katty, +do not shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. +Neither bear nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis +and thy brother are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence." + +"Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine," added Louis, +gallantly, "while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away." + +"Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider +how we are to obtain them, my dears," said Catharine. "For fishing, +you know, we must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are +these to be met with?" + +Louis nodded his head sagaciously. "The line I think I can provide; the +hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the +rod, it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma +chere, I could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of +cloth to sew over a hoop." + +Catharine laughed. "You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, +but where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing +it on?" + +Lords took up the corner of his cousin's apron with a provoking look. + +"My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem +to covet it for everything." + +"Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never +could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear +such frightful things." + +"It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and +scrubbing, and doing all sorts of household duties," said Catharine. + +"Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean," +replied the annoying boy; "so there can be little want of the apron. I +could turn it to fifty useful purposes." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said Hector, impatiently, "let the child alone, and do +not tease her about her apron." + +"Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, +water mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, +that, roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and +pepper, they are good eating when nothing better is to be got." + +"No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured," said Hector, "but, alas +for the salt and the pepper!" + +"Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces--hunger; and then, +no doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must +not mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them." + +"To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish," said Hector. "You and I will +try our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should +break, we can easily cut those long locks from Catharine's head, and +twist them into lines,"--and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair +hair that hung in shining curls about his sister's neck. + +"Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis's proposal of making +tinder and fishing-nets of my apron," said Catharine, shaking back the +bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in +golden waves over her shoulders. + +"In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that +become her so well," said Louis. "But we have no scissors, ma belle, so +you need fear no injury to your precious locks." + +"For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your +_couteau-de-chasse_. I could tell you a story that my father told me, +not long since, of Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in +England. You know he was the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles +Edward, that my father talks of, and loves so much." + +"I know all about him," said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; "let us +hear the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my +hair and Louis's knife can have to do with King Charles." + +"Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience," +said her brother. "Well then, you must know, that after some great +battle, the name of which I forget, _[FN: Battle of Worcester.]_ in +which the King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the +forces of the Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the +poor young king was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large +price was set on his head, to be given to any traitor who should slay +him, or bring him prisoner to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to +dress himself in all sorts of queer clothes, and hide in all manner of +strange, out of the way places, and keep company with rude and humble +men, the better to hide his real rank from the cruel enemies that sought +his life. Once he hid along with a gallant gentleman, _[FN: Colonel +Careless.]_ one of his own brave officers, in the branches of a great +oak. Once he was hid in a mill; and another time he was in the house of +one Pendril, a woodman. The soldiers of the Parliament, who were always +prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they suspected the +poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room where he was +standing beside the fire." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Catharine, "that was frightful. And did they take him +prisoner?" + +"No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers +should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the +long curls that the king's men all wore in those days, and called +_lovelocks_, begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to +his head." + +"That was very hard, to lose his nice curls." + +"I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose +his hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered +them to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough +deal table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large +knife trimmed off the curls." + +"I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, +who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a +block to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as +hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die." "Poor king!" +said Catharine, sighing, "I see that it is better to be poor children, +wandering on these plains under God's own care, than to be kings and +princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men." + +"Who told your father all these things, Hec?" said Louis. + +"It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about +the history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince +Charles, the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in +Scotland; he loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where +the Prince lost all, and was driven from place to place, and had not +where to lay his head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but +those times did not come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a +while, through the friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the +army that was embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment +to which my father belonged. He was a kind man, and my father loved both +him and his son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him." + +"Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister +Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls." + +"Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we +fail, we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I +fancy we shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should +not we be able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?" + +"True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals +and birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore +should His white children fear?" + +"I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, +when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of +himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, +nay, weeks I believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows +and arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, +for bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled +the inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank +the sap of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted +snow only, which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own +mocassins." + +"Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish," said +Catharine. + +"That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself," +added Hector, "or the deer-skin hunting shirt." "Well, they might have +been reduced even to that," said Louis, laughing, "but for the good +fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear." + +"Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the +forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale." + +"Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old +Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After +passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than +the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not +very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick +dark swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they +could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of +a deer or a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to +work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they +had none, or maybe they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon +a huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon +piled a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he +could collect, and lighted up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand +old Jacob used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, +if he could not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without. +The wood was dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and +crackled and burnt like a pine-torch. By-and-by they heard a most awful +growling close to them. 'That's a big bear, as I live,' said old Jacob, +looking all about, thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; +but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, for presently a great +black bear burst out from the but-end of the great burning log, and made +towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame outward, and it caught +the bear's thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in a moment. No doubt +the heat of the fire had penetrated to the hollow of the log, where he +had lain himself snugly up for the winter, and wakened him; but Jacob +seeing the huge black brute all in a flame of fire, began to think it +was Satan's own self come to carry him off, and he roared with fright, +and the bear roared with pain and rage, and my father roared with +laughing to see Jacob's terror; but he did not let the bear laugh at +him, for he seized a thick pole that he had used for closing in the +brands and logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was so blinded with +the fire and smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted on roast +bear's flesh for many days, and got a capital skin to cover them +beside." + +"What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?" said Catharine. + +"Kate, you are too particular," said Louis; "a story never loses, you +know." + +Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the +bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the +levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror +of old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear. + +"You boys are always so unfeeling," she said, gravely. + +"Indeed, Kate," said her brother, "the day may come when the sight of a +good piece of roast bear's flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do +not find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may +be reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine +swamps, on the banks of the St. John." + +"Ah!" said Catharine, trembling, "that would be too bad to happen." + +"Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what +to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we +still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and +be thankful; and for grace let us say, 'Sufficient unto the day is the +evil thereof.'" + +Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites--the hungry +wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally +divided, was soon despatched. + +It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers +in our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a +circle, and usually find themselves at night in the same place from +whence they started in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At +sunset, they found themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big +stone, in which they had rested at noon. They had imagined themselves +miles and miles distant from it; they were grievously disappointed. They +had encouraged each other with the confident hope that they were drawing +near to the end of their bewildering journey; they were as far from +their home as ever, without the slightest clue to guide them to the +right path. Despair is not a feeling which takes deep root in the +youthful breast. The young are always hopeful; so confident in their +own wisdom and skill in averting or conquering danger; so trusting; so +willing to believe that there is a peculiar Providence watching over +them. Poor children! they had indeed need of such a belief to strengthen +their minds and encourage them to fresh exertions, for new trials were +at hand. + +The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with +light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on +tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with +her fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs +which her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for +her accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting +spur of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the +extreme verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most +inviting seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, +which stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the +estuary of the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the +hills, forming a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water +had ceased to flow, the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with +deer-grass and flowers of many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; +while majestic oaks and pines towered above. A sea of glittering foliage +lay beneath Catharine's feet; in the distance the eye of the young girl +rested on a belt of shining waters, which girt in the shores like a +silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the northward, stretched the +illimitable forest. + +Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the +eye; a holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and +peaceful tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, +scarcely a leaf stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing +on the calm beauty of nature, and communing with her own heart, when +suddenly a stirring rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow +channel on one side of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with +the shrubby dogwood, wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror +which seized the poor girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking +through the covert of the bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the +most deadly fear alone could have inspired, Catharine sprung from the +supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, down the precipitous side of the +ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays of the flexile dogwood--now +to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting to the yielding heads of +the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her hands with sharp thorns +from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, grass, all were alike +clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A loose fragment of +granite on which she had unwittingly placed her foot rolled from +under her; unable to regain her balance she fell forwards, and was +precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, conscious only +of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her ancles, which +rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she had dislodged +in her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector to her side, +and they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid her down +upon her bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When Catharine +was able to speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of her +fright. She was sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long +jaws, and grisly coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her +with terror, he was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon +her--she could tell them no more that happened, she never felt the +ground she was on, so great was her fright. + +Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills +alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for _la belle cousine_, +and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been +fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but +the pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to +their grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the +ground. This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to +pursue their wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their +only remedy, excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as +circumstances would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to +the swollen joint, was the first thing that was suggested; but, +simple as was the lotion, it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient +quantities. They were a full quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and +the cold springs near it were yet further off; and then the only vessel +they had was the tin-pot, which hardly contained a pint; at the same +time the thirst of the fevered sufferer was intolerable, and had also to +be provided for. Poor Catharine, what unexpected misery she now endured! + +The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they +were now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places +with this delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor +sufferer's burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying +her with them. + +Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied +them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful +by spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; +these he bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, +_[FN: "_Dirca palustris_,"--Moose-wood. American mezereon, +leather-wood. From the Greek, _dirka_, a fountain or wet place, its +usual place of growth.]_ which he had found growing in great abundance +near the entrance of the ravine. Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. +After having collected a good supply of ripe strawberries, he climbed +the hills in search of birds' eggs and small game. About noon he +returned with the good news of having discovered a spring of fine +water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump of bass-wood and black +cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to kill a woodchuck, +having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly sides of the +hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit and badger; +its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and burrows +like the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip cleft, the +soles of the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on grasses, +grain, fruit, and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the summer, +rank, but is eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the skin is +not much valued. They are easily killed by dogs, though, being expert +climbers, they often baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark beyond +their reach; a stone or stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they often +bite sharply. + +The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his +companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were +plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about +the Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than +on the drier, more open plains. + +"It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from +the spring in," said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, "one is so apt to +stumble among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our +old bark dishes we could get a good supply at once." + +"There is a fallen birch not far from this," said Louis; "I have here +my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel +capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?" + +"How can you sew it together, cousin?" asked Catharine; "you have +neither deer sinews, nor war-tap." _[The Indian name for the flexible +roots of the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in +manufacturing the birch baskets and canoes.]_ "I have a substitute at +hand, ma belle," and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he +had collected for binding the dressings on his cousin's foot. + +When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in +some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of +the ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot +of the "Wolf's Crag," for so the children had named the memorable spot +where poor Catharine's accident had occurred. + +The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, +but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger +and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the +sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he +proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble +managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose +or leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was +but rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a +little at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten +to allow in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and +dishes turns up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied +in his subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis's +water-jar was looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by +Catharine, who almost forgot her sufferings--while watching her cousin's +proceedings. + +Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running +off directly to the spring. "Catharine shall now have cold water to +bathe her poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst," he said, joyfully +springing to his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector +quietly restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of +his not finding the "fountain in the wilderness," as Louis termed the +spring, or losing himself altogether. + +"Let us both go together, then." cried Louis. Catharine cast on her +cousin an imploring glance. + +"Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone." Her +sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + +"Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since +I was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or +in sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother's arms." + +Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering +tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + +"But you know, dear cousin," she said, "I am so helpless, and then the +dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me." + +After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had +done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to +make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little +time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about +it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more +gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed +with magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the +jutting spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the +trees that lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a +big sea. There were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, +white, and pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled +flower, that was like the "Morning glory," (_Convolvulus major,_) and +scarlet-cups _[FN: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup]_ in abundance, with +roses in profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with +huge blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened +out into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley +of the Big Stone. _[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the +plough, and waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have +taken place of the wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The +lot belongs to G. Ley, Esq.]_ + +These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both +Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and +the picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father's +animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the +wild mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in +solitude and uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the +minds or manners of these young people. Simple and untaught they were, +but they were guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they +lacked the knowledge that is learned from books, they possessed much +that was useful and practical, which had been taught by experience and +observation in the school of necessity. + +For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered +any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the "Big Stone" +impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their +immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had +been killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of +hunger. Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed +not a little to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the +yet untried lake, "bright, boundless, and free," gleaming in silvery +splendour, but in practice they knew nothing of the fisher's craft, +though, as a matter of report, they were well acquainted with all +the mysteries of it, and had often listened with delight to the feats +performed by their respective fathers in the art of angling, spearing +and netting. + +"I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in +the lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken +by the hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but +that was in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard +him tell of spearing fish by torchlight!" + +"The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake," said Hector; +"however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore +and try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line +provided." + +Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub +oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, +which he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of +treasures. "Here." said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; "here +is the slide of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some +rubbish that my sister had thrown out the other day." + +"I fear you will make nothing of that," said Hector, "a bit of bone +would be better. If you had a file now you might do something." + +"Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?" and Louis +triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, +a few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but +still it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of +our young French Canadian. "I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde +laughed at me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. +Louis, you little knew the use it was to be put to then," he added +thoughtfully, apostrophising himself; "how little do we know what is to +befall us in our young days!" "God knows it all," said Hector, gravely, +"we are under His good guidance." + +"You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good +care of us. Come, let us go to the lake," Catharine added, and sprung +to her feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her +companions with a piteous look, saying, "I cannot walk one step; alas, +alas! what is to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you +leave me here, I shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot +carry me with you in your search for food." + +"Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that +Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of +hunger or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you +by turns; the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very +heavy, ma belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are +so light a burden,"--and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his +arms, and with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through +the ravine towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded +knoll, (where Wolf Tower _[FN: See account of the "Wolf Tower," in +the Appendix.]_ now stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat +stone beneath a big oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself +on the flowery ground at her feet, while he drew a long breath, and +gathered the fruit that grew among the long grass to refresh himself +after his fatigue; and then, while resting on the "Elfin Knowe," as +Catharine called the hill, he employed himself with manufacturing a rude +sort of fish-hook with the aid of his knife, the bit of tin, and the +rusty file; a bit of twine was next produced,--boys have always a bit +of string in their pockets, and Louis, as I have before hinted, was a +provident hoarder of such small matters. The string was soon attached +to the hook, and Hector was not long in cutting a sapling that answered +well the purpose of a fishing-rod, and thus equipped they proceeded +to the lake shore, Hector and Louis carrying the crippled Catharine by +turns. When there, they selected a sheltered spot beneath a grove of +over-hanging cedars and birches, festooned with wild vines, which, +closely woven, formed a natural bower, quite impervious to the rays of +the sun. A clear spring flowing from the upper part of the bank among +the hanging network of loose fibres and twisted roots, fell tinkling +over a mossy log at her feet, and quietly spread itself among the round +shingly pebbles that formed the beach of the lake. Beneath this pleasant +bower Catharine could repose, and watch her companions at their novel +employment, or bathe her feet and infirm ancle in the cool streamlet +that rippled in tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + +If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued +for pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must +be greatly heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of +hunger. Among the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the +flying grasshopper or field crickets were sporting, and one of these +proved an attractive bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, +than the hook was seized, and many were the brilliant specimens of +sun-fish that our eager fishermen cast at Catharine's feet, all gleaming +with gold and azure scales. Nor was there any lack of perch, or that +delicate fish commonly known in these waters as the pink roach. + +Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to +the grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did +very expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling +up a fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the +flint, knife, and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian +fashion, on forked sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable +angle towards the glowing embers,--a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + +"Truly," said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, +"God hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;" so +miraculous did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of +this simple child of nature. + +They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be +caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, +as the streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little +opportunity for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the +rude implements with which they were furnished, the result of their +morning success seemed little short of divine interference in their +behalf. Happy and contented in the belief that they were not forgotten +by their heavenly Father, these poor "children in the wood" looked up +with gratitude to that beneficent Being who suffereth not even a sparrow +to fall unheeded. + +Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and +there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the +flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that +hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, +her young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great +Creator of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her +mind, as with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl +prayed with the guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + +The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods +at the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully +providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded +with their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found +Catharine sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil +slumbers, but her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which +she was exposed, sleeping in the dew by the water side; "Moreover," he +added, "we have some distance to go, and we have left the precious axe +and the birch-bark vessel in the valley." + +These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the +sleeper, and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same +path that they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken +the precaution to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and +break the tops of the young trees that they had passed between on their +route to the lake, and by this clue they were enabled with tolerable +certainty to retrace their way, nothing doubting of arriving in time at +the wigwam of boughs by the rock in the valley. + +Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame +girl, and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight +soon clouded the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which +cast a greater degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had +now left the oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter +loneliness of the path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that +stretched in long array across the steep banks on either side, taking, +now this, now that wild and fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings +of dread in the mind of these poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons +bred up in solitude, their imaginations were strongly tinctured with +superstitious fears. Here then, in the lonely wilderness, far from their +beloved parents and social hearth, with no visible arm to protect them +from danger, none to encourage or to cheer them, can it be matter of +surprise if they started with terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful +breeze that rustled the leaves or waved the branches above them? The gay +and lively Louis, blithe as any wild bird in the bright sunlight, was +the most easily oppressed by this strange superstitious fear, when +the shades of evening were closing round, and he would start with +ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that met his ear or eye, +though the next minute he was the first to laugh at his own weakness. In +Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn cast, recalling to his +mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his father was wont to +entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge log-fire of an +evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales possess for the +youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often told; year after +year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with an interest +that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they slowly wandered +along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors those Highland +legends that were as familiar to their ears as household words, and +still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at each +pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might +be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to +proceed,--they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their progress; +the moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet indistinct; so +they sat them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and rested till +the moon should lighten their path. + +Louis was confident they were not far from "the bigstone," but careful +Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already +conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone +that had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came +in sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its +rugged sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. "Forward +for 'the big stone' and the wigwam," cried Louis. + +"Hush!" said Catharine, "look there," raising her hand with a warning +gesture. + +"Where? what?" + +"The wolf! the wolf!" gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon +the summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood +the gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound +of which seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of +the tall pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their +hearts, as with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline +of the terrible beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck +stretched outward, and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave +back those dismal sounds; another minute and he was gone, and the +crushing of branches and the rush of many feet on the high bank above, +was followed by the prolonged cry of some poor fugitive animal,--a doe, +or fawn, perhaps,--in the very climax of mortal agony; and then the +lonely recesses of the forest took up that fearful death-cry, the +far-off shores of the lake and the distant islands prolonged it, and the +terrified children clung together in fear and trembling. + +A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the +hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone--not even the +watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with +all its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; +but though around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long +ere confidence was restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and +trembling children. They beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy +shade, and every rustling bough struck fresh terrors into their excited +minds. They might have exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, "How dreadful +is this place!" + +With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of +the bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should +return; sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing +to be the only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet +nature, overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their +eyelids; deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight +breaking through the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound +of waving boughs and twittering birds, once more wakened them to life +and light; recalling them from happy dreams of home and friends, to an +aching sense of loneliness and desolation. This day they did not wander +far from the valley, but took the precaution, as evening drew on, to +light a large fire, the blaze of which they thought would keep away any +beast of prey. They had no want of food, as the fish they had caught the +day before proved an ample supply. The huckle-berries were ripening too, +and soon afforded them a never-failing source of food; there were also +an abundance of bilberries, the sweet rich berries of which proved a +great treat, besides being very nourishing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!" + +A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from +pain and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all +that Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower +by the lake, where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful +longing to regain their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and +often would the poor sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, +to wring her hands and weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear +father and mother, who would have given worlds had they been at their +command, to have heard but one accent of her beloved voice, to have felt +one loving pressure from that fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered +over the path of the young wanderers, long after she had ceased to +whisper comfort to the desolate hearts of the mournful parents. + +Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied +than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly +which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. "If +Kate had not been with me," he would say, "we should not have been lost; +for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the +cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and +insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way." +Louis Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the +flowers, and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the +form of pleasure and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the +thoughtful, till they find the path they have followed is beset with +briers and thorns; and a thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, +unexpected, overwhelm and bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; +and perhaps the punishment of their errors does not fall upon +themselves alone, but upon the innocent, who have unknowingly been made +participators in their fault. + +By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis +endeavoured to alleviate his cousin's sufferings, and soften her +regrets; nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, +when his own heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. +"If it were not for our dear parents and the dear children at home," +he would say, "we might spend our time most happily upon these charming +plains; it is much more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; +see how brightly the sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and +cover the earth with fruit and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to +fish and hunt, and trap the game. Yes, if they were all here, we would +build us a nice log-house, and clear up these bushes on the flat near +the lake. This 'Elfin Knowe,' as you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot +to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; not one should be cut +down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and voyage across to yonder +islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?" and Catharine, smiling +at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the spirit of the +project, and say,-- + +"Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant." + +"If we had but my father's rifle now," said Hector, "and old Wolfe." + +"Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges +and black squirrels," said Louis. + +"I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at +break of day," said Hector. "The fawn was so little fearful, that if I +had had a stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten +yards of the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one +by making a dead-fall." _[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the +woods, or on the banks of creeks.]_ + +"If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear +innocent Mignon," cried Catharine, "I should never feel lonely then." + +"And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from +time to time, ma belle." + +"Hec., what are you thinking of?" + +"I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our +lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the +open air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and +the rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter +will have to be provided against." + +"But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way +back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake," said Louis. + +"True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever +way we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get +involved in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know +there is neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, +and we might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside +this fine lake, and upon these fruitful plains." + +"It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home," said +Hector. "We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find +the use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some +spot where there is a spring of good water, and--" + +"No horrible wolves," interrupted Catharine: "though I love this pretty +ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to +stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were +asleep." + +"We must not forget to keep watch-fires." + +"What shall we do for clothes?" said Catharine, glancing at her +home-spun frock of wool and cotton plaid. + +"A weighty consideration, indeed," sighed Hector; "clothes must be +provided before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on." + +"We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels," suggested +Louis; "and fawns when we catch them." + +"Yes, and fawns when we get them," added Hector; "but it is time enough +to think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home." + +"I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life," said Catharine. +"My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will +try and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search." + +Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy +guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, +were thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and +thick bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and +outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain--yet the arms of +thy heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to +sustain thee. + +How often were Catharine's hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry +home, as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, +how often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them +with her tears,--for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + +When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless +wanderings, they would say to each other: "Perhaps we shall see our +father, he may find us here to-day;" but evening came, and still he came +not, and they were no nearer to their father's home than they had been +the day previous. + +"If we could but find our way back to the 'Cold Creek,' we might, by +following its course, return to Cold Springs," said Hector. + +"I doubt much the fact of the 'Cold Creek' having any connexion with our +Spring," said Louis; "I think it has its rise in the 'Beaver-meadow,' +and following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish +balsam and cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick +recesses of the pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty +miles from Cold Springs." + +It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their +way in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or +the points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, +which is not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of +forest-trees; they rather measure distance by the time they have been +wandering, than by any other token. + +The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, +wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as +long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun +in his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the +home they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice +of the course they should take each day, and at last determined them to +lose no more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek +for some pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and +provide for their present and future wants. + + "The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." + +Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since +the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the +conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley +of the "big stone," and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent +their steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led +the way, loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of +the axe, which he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and +the birch-basket. Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, +likewise some fish to carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + +The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake +shore, but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth +of trees and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and +the fatigue of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to +put aside the bushes or bend them down. + +Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path +through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves +on a fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with +white and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, +which reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur +above its leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept +watch from its dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread +below like a silver zone studded with emeralds. + +In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which +divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows +had once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site +of which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the +valley, filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These +waters with resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, +bearing in their course those blocks of granite and limestone which +are so widely scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form +a rocky pavement at the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of +sublime desolation must that outpouring of the waters have presented, +when those steep banks were riven by the sweeping torrents that were +loosened from their former bounds. The pleased eye rests upon these +tranquil shores, now covered with oaks and pines, or waving with a flood +of golden grain, or varied by neat dwellings and fruitful gardens; and +the gazer on that peaceful scene scarcely pictures to himself what it +must have been when no living eye was there to mark the rushing floods, +when they scooped to themselves the deep bed in which they now repose. + +Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were +doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose +rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried +away the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the +lake, seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some +few are parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable +impediment turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an +outlet through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + +There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a +solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly +called the "upper Race-course," merely on account of the smoothness of +the surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above +the lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and +covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been +a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and +attractive spot, known as the "lower Race-course;" it lies on a lower +level than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of +distant hills; both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and +may have been the sources from whence its channel was filled. Some +convulsion of nature at a remote period, by raising the waters above +their natural level, might have caused a disruption of the banks, and +drained their beds, as they now appear ready for the ploughshare or the +spade. In the month of June these flats are brilliant with the splendid +blossoms of the _enchroma_, or painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy +_trillium_ roses scent the evening air, and grow as if planted by the +hand of taste. + +A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage _[FN: Saxifraga nivalis.]_ +with its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the +fall, it is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a +species of creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the +leaves are highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable +to the taste and smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage +of martagon lilies take the place of the lupine and trilliums; these +splendid lilies vary from orange to the brightest scarlet; various +species of sunflowers and _coreopsis_ next appear, and elegant white +_pyrolas_ _[FN: Gentiana linearis, G. crenata.]_ scent the air and +charm the eye. The delicate lilac and white shrubby asters next appear, +and these are followed by the large deep blue gentian, and here and +there by the elegant fringed gentian. _[FN: Pyrola rotundifolia, +P. asarifolia.]_ These are the latest and loveliest of the flowers +that adorn this tract of land. It is indeed a garden of nature's own +planting, but the wild garden is being converted into fields of grain, +and the wild flowers give place to a new race of vegetables, less +ornamental, but more useful to man and the races of domestic animals +that depend upon him for their support. + +Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found +themselves, at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, +_[FN: _Pedophyllnm galmata_,--Mandrake, or May-apple.]_ where they +had the good fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath +some large moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground +was thickly covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many +varieties of flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the +valley and up the steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were +whortleberries, or huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in +abundance; bilberries dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. +The vines that wreathed the low bushes and climbed the trees were +loaded with clusters of grapes, but these were yet hard and green; dwarf +filberts grew on the dry gravelly sides of the hills, yet the rough +prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, filled their fingers with minute +thorns, that irritated the skin like the stings of the nettle; but +as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they did not mind the +consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied by a large bed +of May-apples, _[FN: Kilvert's Ravine, above Pine-tree Point.]_ the +fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe, August being +the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still green, and +wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great numbers of the +woodchucks' burrows on the hills, while partridges and quails were seen +under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, _[FN: _Cornus +sericea_. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by the partridge +and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There are several +species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.]_ that here grew in +abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As +this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, +and resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they +should meet with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + +Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded +hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, +somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the +shelter that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through +the opening at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the +distant waters of the lake which terminated the vista, while they were +quite removed from its unwholesome vapours. + +The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, +scarcely modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in +about nine o'clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in +the afternoon. Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while +Catharine busied herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss +and fern, of which there was abundance near the spring. The boys had +promised to cut some fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and +bring them up to form a foundation for their bed, and also to strew +Indian-fashion over the floor of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort +of carpeting reminds one of, the times when the palaces of our English +kings were strewed with rushes, and brings to mind the old song:-- + + "Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew'd with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch----" + +Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients +adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the +luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the +rich. The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn +lightly over the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if +it had been taken from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and +contented were they in their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered +grass and leaves, raised from the earth by a heap of branches carefully +arranged, was to them as pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of +bark and poles, as curtains of silk or damask. + +Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient +for the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of +which lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, +and this done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath +the cooling shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; +pleased with the dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, +and fanned her warm cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like +her cousin Louise, that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, +for it was always dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were +still. + +She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a +deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores +of the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far +away from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup _[FN: +The Dutch word for verandah, which is still in common use among the +Canadians.]_ in front of her father's house, and in memory's eye she +beheld it all exactly as she had left it. There stood the big spinning +wheel, just as she had set it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended +from the rafters, the basket filled with the carded wool ready for +her work. She saw in fancy her father, with his fine athletic upright +figure, his sunburnt cheeks and clustering sable hair, his clear +energetic hazel eye ever beaming upon her, his favourite child, with +looks of love and kindness as she moved to and fro at her wheel. +_[FN: Such is the method of working at the large wool wheel, +unknown or obsolete in England.]_ There, too, was her mother, with her +light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as she pursued her daily +avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the cows to be milked, or +chopping firewood. And as these images, like the figures of the magic +lantern, passed in all their living colours before her mental vision, +her head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon her arm, and then +she started, looked round, and slept again, her face deeply buried in +her young bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl slumbered. + +A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting +breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she +dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf--its grisly +paws were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and +suffocation--her languid eyes open. Can it be?--what is it that she +sees? Yes, it is Wolfe; not the fierce creature of her dreams by night +and her fears by day, but her father's own brave devoted dog. What joy, +what hope rushed to her heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of +the faithful beast, and wept from the fulness of heart. + +"Yes," she joyfully cried, "I knew that I should see him again. My own +dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are +your children. Come, come quickly!" and she hurried to the head of +the valley, raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now +confidently believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the +well-known sound of her voice. + +Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every +projecting headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, "Come +quickly!" + +Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, +"Father, come quickly, come!" and again the deceitful sounds were +repeated, "Quickly come!" + +The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost +mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her +father's name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont +to do when he heard his master's step approaching. Still Catharine could +not but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father +must be very near. + +The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, +fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up +their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They +could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, +their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the +gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their +friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and +shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow +them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties +were in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old +dog refused to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched +himself, and the boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh--he +looked almost starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a +state of great exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with +wishful looks, and she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to +this great relief. + +Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, +in tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, "Lost, lost, +lost!" It was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe +would travel in all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search +till he discovered the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last +night of the father's wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back +to his melancholy home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and +fro, he involuntarily exclaimed, wringing his hands, "Lost, lost, lost!" +Wolfe heard what to him was an imperative command; he rose, and stood +at the door, and whined; mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, +and again exclaimed in passionate tones those magic words, that sent the +faithful messenger forth into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he +never left it, but with ah instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, +he continued to track the woods, lingering long on spots where the +wanderers had left any signs of their sojourn; he had for some time +been baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and again where they had crossed Cold +Creek, but had regained the scent and traced them to the valley of +the "big stone," and then with the sagacity of the bloodhound and the +affection of the terrier he had, at last, discovered the objects of his +unwearied, though often baffled search. + +What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe +create! How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with +his head pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it +was foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if +he had been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your +homesick nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those +eloquent waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or +waved from side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute +sorrowful glances, as though he would have said, "Dear mistress, I know +all your troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!" There +is something touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only +the hard-hearted and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once +hearing of a felon, who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous +indifference to the appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that +attended him in prison, whose heart was softened by the sight of a +little dog, that had been his companion in his days of comparative +innocence, forcing its way through the crowd, till it gained the foot of +the gallows; its mute look of anguish and affection unlocked the fount +of human feeling, and the condemned man wept--perhaps the first tears he +had shed since childhood's happy days. + +The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The +inky darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid +flame, which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off +or near. The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through +the gorge of the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep +narrow defile, shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, +more wild and gloomy, when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + +There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage +remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, +scarcely stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at +rest. The solemn murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been +likened to the moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of +the spot. Seated at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which +their evening fire burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in +silence and in awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near +them, they felt comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which +now burst in terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to +cloud, and the echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered +trunks and brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in +that wild war of elements. + +Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from +their covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might +be heard from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts +with fear. To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they +listened with awe and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were +the voice of Him who "sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty +voice." And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with +curdled blood from the cry of the _felon wolf._ + +And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down +in a whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey +branches were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they +would not bow down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered +all abroad like chaff before the wind. + +The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for +the safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from +them. And often 'mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could +distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. "If our father had +not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither." + +"Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm," said +Catharine, weeping, "or have been starved to death while seeking for +us!" and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + +But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers +were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and +privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure +they were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had +prevented them from meeting. + +"To-morrow, ma chre, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will +be a joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his +master, and then--oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. +They will have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our +dear mothers and chre petite Louise." + +The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the +poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars +peep forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful +state, the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their +garments were drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire +with some bark and boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks +in their back log unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a +blaze, with which they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. +The air was now cool almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather +remained unsettled, and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake +presented a leaden hue, crested with white mimic waves. + +They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head +of the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of +bark, which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. +The boys employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the +fish they had caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe +seemed to be mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they +all went up towards the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to +look round in hope of getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, +but though they kept an anxious look out in every direction, they +returned, towards evening, tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red +squirrel, and a partridge which Wolfe "treed,"--that is, stood barking +at the foot of the tree in which it had perched,--and the supply of meat +was a seasonable change. They also noticed, and marked, with the axe, +several trees where there were bees, intending to come in the cold +weather, and cut them down. Louis's father was a great and successful +bee-hunter; and Louis rather prided himself on having learned something +of his father's skill in that line. Here, where flowers were so abundant +and water plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be abundant also; besides, +the open space between the trees, admitting the warm sunbeam freely, +was favourable both for the bees and the flowers on which they fed, and +Louis talked joyfully of the fine stores of honey they should collect +in the fell. He had taught little Fanchon, a small French spaniel of his +father's, to find out the trees where the bees hived, and also the +nests of the ground-bees, and she would bark at the foot of the tree, +or scratch with her feet on the ground, as the other dogs barked at the +squirrels or the woodchucks; but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was +old, and would learn no new tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his +own observation and the axe to depend upon for procuring honey. + +The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither +perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts _[FN: All these fish +are indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.]_ were to be caught. +However, they found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish +among the gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their +fingers very spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want +of salt; but hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared +them very good when well roasted, covered up with hot embers. "The +fish-hawks," said he, "set us a good example, for they eat them, and so +do the eagles and herons. I watched one the other day with a mussel in +his bill; he flew to a high tree, let his prey fall, and immediately +darted down to secure it; but I drove him off, and, to my great +amusement, perceived the wise fellow had just let it fall on a stone, +which had cracked the shell for him just in the right place. I often see +shells lying at the foot of trees, far up the hills, where these birds +must have left them. There is one large thick-shelled mussel, that I +have found several times with a round hole drilled through the shell, +just as if it had been done with a small auger, doubtless the work of +some bird with a strong beak." + +"Do you remember," said Catharine, "the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. +picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of +the shells too; _[FN: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells +of mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been +long known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the +river mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and +stones.]_ and when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by +some large bird, a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the +great lake, as it had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in +our creeks being quite thin-shelled and white." + +"Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the +eagle's nest on the top of our hill, Louis?" said Hector. + +"I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; +they were brought from this very lake, I dare say." + +"If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we +might become great fishermen." + +"Louis," said Catharine, "is always thinking about canoes, and boats, +and skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor." + +Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to +manage her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never +saw difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion +of his own cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed +faster than Hector's, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one +valuable quality--steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an +opinion, but when once convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered +the subject or overcame the obstacle. + +"Catharine," said Louis, one day, "the huckleberries age now very +plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store +of them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chre, wherever we turn +our eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are +purple with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest +of our lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no +berries are to be found." + +"It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for +let me tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless--mere dry +husks." + +"Why so, ma belle?" + +"I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our +mothers dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the +case, but when they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they +were quite nice." + +"Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good +hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, +to keep the dried fruit in." + +They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or +whortleberries). _[FN: From the abundance of this fruit, the +Indians have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the +south shore. During the month of July and the early part of August, +large parties come to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, +which they preserve by drying, for winter use. These berries make a +delicious tart or pudding, mixed with bilberries and red-currants, +requiring little sugar.]_ Catharine and Louis (who fancied nothing could +be contrived without his help) attended to the preparing and making of +the bags of birch bark; but Hector was soon tired of girl's work, as he +termed it, and, after gathering some berries, would wander away over +the hills in search of game, and to explore the neighbouring hills and +valleys, and sometimes it was sunset before he made his appearance. +Hector had made an excellent strong-bow, like the Indian bow, out of a +tough piece of hickory wood, which he found in one of his rambles, and +he made arrows with wood that he seasoned in the smoke, sharpening the +heads with great care with his knife, and hardening them by exposure to +strong heat, at a certain distance from the fire. The entrails of the +woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable by +rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but +afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used +them, properly dressed for the purpose. + +Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a +true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with +shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even +Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was +now seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned +from his rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which +are plentiful at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass +over in their migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return +thither for the acorns and berries that are to be found in great +abundance. Squirrels, too, are very plentiful at this season. Hector and +Louis remarked that the red and black squirrels never were to be found +very near each other. It is a common belief, that the red squirrels make +common cause with the grey, and beat the larger enemy off the ground. +The black squirrel, for a succession of years, was very rarely to be met +with on the Plains, while there were plenty of the red and grey in the +"oak openings." _[FN: Within the last three years, however, the +black squirrels have been very numerous, and the red are less frequently +to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is tender, white, and +delicate, like that of a young rabbit.]_ Deer, at the time our young +Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful, and, of +course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears, and +wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here +commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals +are now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or +wolves, and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history +in this part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization +advances, while some others increase and follow man, especially many +species of birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the +rich man's board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits +and modes of building and feeding, according to the alteration and +improvement in their circumstances. + +While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation +of the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, +while Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, +in unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on +one of the gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself +by looking for flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, +_[FN: _Podophyllum peltatum_-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of +the May-apple, in rich moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum +bonum, or egg-plum, which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes +a delicious preserve, if seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten +uncooked, the outer rind, which is thick and fleshy, and has a rank +taste, should be thrown aside; the fine acid pulp in which the seeds are +imbedded alone should be eaten. The root of the Podophyllum is used as +a cathartic by the Indians. The root of this plant is reticulated, +and when a large body of them are uncovered, they present a singular +appearance, interlacing each other in large meshes, like an extensive +net-work; these roots are white, as thick as a man's little finger, and +fragrant, and spread horizontally along the surface. The blossom is like +a small white rose.]_ but finding them cumbersome in climbing the steep +wooded hills, she deposited them at the foot of a tree near the boys, +and pursued her search; and it was not long before she perceived some +pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of bright lilac flowers, and on +plucking some pulled up the root also. The root was about the size +and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, she found it far +from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it seemed to be a +favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that it grew about +their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems were bitten, +and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. Therefore, +carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted them +in the embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more +satisfying than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often +roasted in the fire, when they were out working on the fallow, at the +log heaps. Hector and Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended +Catharine for the discovery. Not many days afterwards, Louis +accidentally found a much larger and more valuable root, near the +lake shore. He saw a fine climbing shrub, with close bunches of +dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which scented the air with a +delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great height over the young +trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and tendrils. Pleased with +the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to pull one up, that he +might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed a number of large +tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular oval-shaped; the inside +was quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, only pleasanter, when +in its raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis gathered his pockets +full, and hastened home with his prize, and, on being roasted, these +new roots were decided to be little inferior to potatoes, at all events, +they were a valuable addition to their slender stores, and they procured +as many as they could find, carefully storing them in a hole, which they +dug for that purpose in a corner of their hut. _[FN: This plant +appears to me to be a species of the _Psoralea esculenta_, or Indian +bread-root, which it resembles in description, excepting that the root +of the above is tuberous oval, and connected by long filaments. +The largest tubers are farthest from the stem of the plant.]_ Hector +suggested that these roots would be far better late in the fall, or +early in the spring, than during the time that the plant was in bloom, +for he knew from observation and experience that at the flowering +season the greater part of the nourishment derived from the soil goes to +perfect the flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, there was +a white floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance of the +potato. + +"This flour," said Catharine, "would make good porridge with milk." + +"Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper," said Louis, +laughing, "but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the +porridge-pot to come from?" + +"Indeed," said Catharine, "I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both." + +One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, +for the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five +deer were in the water, and making for Long Island. + +"But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the +arrows," said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of +arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, +which, the young hunter had made for himself. + +"No fear, ma chre; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and +lilies. We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,--here, boy, +here!" + +Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright +eyes of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness +the hunt, ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently +understood that they had some sport in view, trotted along by his +mistress, wagging his great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + +Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The +herd of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and +two young half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of +rice and rushes, not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, +apparently quite unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on +a fallen trunk eagerly eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of +Louis and Catharine, with the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused +the timid creatures to a sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head +and making, as the children thought, a signal for retreat, now struck +boldly out for the nearest point of Long Island. + +"We shall lose them," cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright +track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + +"Hist, hist, Louis," said Hector, "all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, +Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!" + +Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + +"Head them! head them!" shouted Hector. + +Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, +he made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. +Twice the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, +taking the time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the +boys saw the herd had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the +island, they separated, Louis making good his ambush to the right among +the cedars, and Hector at the spring to the west, while Catharine was +stationed at the solitary pine-tree, at the point which commanded the +entrance of the ravine. + +"Now, Cathy," said her brother, "when you see the herd making for the +ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the +ten right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. +We must trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is +well trained, he knows what he is about." + +Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited +till the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and +clapped her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified +creatures coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of +the thicket where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they +had emerged when they first took to the water; to this place they boldly +steered. Louis, who had watched the direction the herd had taken with +breathless interest, now noiselessly hurried to Hector's assistance, +taking an advantageous post for aim, in case Hector's arrow missed, or +only slightly wounded one of the deer. + +Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the +does was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, +that it hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag +now turned again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and +again the noble animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now +shot his arrow, but it swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it +glanced harmlessly along the water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of +Hector sent another arrow between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with +its force, and then, another from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and +staining the water with her blood. + +The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the +shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to +make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal +from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that +as his last arrow had given the _coup de grace_, he was entitled to the +honour of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander +protested against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, +contenting himself with saying, "Ah, well, I will get the first steak +of the venison when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste." +Moreover, he privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had +had in the exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the +worthy service she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the +herd. Wolfe, too, came in for a large share of the honour and glory of +the chase. + +The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. +This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many +uses were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a +store of wealth in their eyes. + +During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, +there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, +and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the +lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + +From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been +acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good +fruit behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to +future advantage. + +The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews +of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer +for mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws +themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season +the wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the +fish-hooks these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew +that strips of fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails +of animals dried and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws +making baskets of the inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats +of the inner bark of the cedar, with many other ingenious works that +they now found would prove useful to them, after a little practice +had perfected their inexperienced attempts. They also knew how to dry +venison as the Indians and trappers prepare it, by cutting the thick +fleshy portions of the meat into strips, from four to six inches in +breadth, and two or more in thickness. These strips they strung upon +poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them to the drying action +of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed the back and head +bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the sun. + +Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in +their joy they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate +caresses on Wolfe for his good conduct. + +"But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for +dinner to-day," said Louis; "and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice +piece for your own share." + +Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; +the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and +the entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs +and back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + +"We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by," said careful +Hector; "for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn +our attention to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins." + +"Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will +not do when once the cold weather sets in." + +"A shanty would soon be put up," said Hector; "for even Kate, wee bit +lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + +"That I could, indeed," replied Catherine; "for you may remember, Hec., +that the last journey my father made to the Bay, _[FN: Bay of +Quints.]_ with the pack of furs, that you and I called a _Bee_ + +_[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We +fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all +Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in +the course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, +or shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best +assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable +to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he +has received.]_ + +to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and +I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you +said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help." + +"Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only +four logs high." + +"It was not for the fall that I cried," said Catharine, resentfully, +"but because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, 'Cats, you +know, have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their +feet,' and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in +pain. Beside, you called me 'puss,' and 'poor pussie' all the rest of +the _Bee_." + +"I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you," said Louis, +trying to look penitent for the offence. "For my part, I had forgotten +all about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear +aunt made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; +and the shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine +builders, to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no +better help." + +"After all," said Hector, thoughtfully; "children can do a great many +things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the +strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we +should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves +in a lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and +hunting." + +"If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger," said +Catharine; "but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, +and gave us health and strength to help ourselves." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O'ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken'd o'er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle--pale, + Fann'd by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song."--COLERIDGE. + +"Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?" said Catharine, +the very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + +"Hollowing out a canoe." + +"Out of that piece of stick?" said Catharine, laughing. "How many +passengers is it to accommodate, my dear." + +"Don't teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made +out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three." + +"Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?" Louis +nodded assent. + +"I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and +out of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of +partridges, I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them." + +"And shall we have a sail as well as oars?" + +"Yes; set up your apron for a sail." + +Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + +"It is worth nothing now," she said, sighing; "and what am I to do when +my gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been +cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes." + +"We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough," said Hector; +"Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the +holes with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be +easily made." + +"The first rainy day, we will see what we can do," replied Louis; "but I +am full of my canoe just now." + +"Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even +if we had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could +manage one," said cautions Hector. + +"I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first +taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and +streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I +have listened so often to my father's stories and adventures when he was +out lumbering on the St. John's river, that I am as familiar with the +idea of a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle," +he said, turning to Catharine; "just think of the fish--the big ones we +could get if we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those +rush-beds." + +"It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be +the Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of." + +"Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he +called Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where +he said there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, +where people could see through the openings among the trees. He said it +was a great hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and +that they came there to gather in the harvest of wild rice." + +"I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out," said Catharine, +shuddering; "I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at +the wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?" + +"But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil +enough when they came to the Springs." "They came, you know, for +food, or shelter, or something that they wanted from us; but it may +be different when they find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon +their hunting grounds." + +"The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our +friends." + +"The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together," observed +Hector. "The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man +do not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary +the one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they +suspect our openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their +own--they do not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we +are taught to forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with +the savage, is a crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be +taught the word of God, he might be kind and true, and gentle as well as +brave." + +It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away +their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for +self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and +time, that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered +and animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus +severed them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to +which their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from +infancy upwards. + +One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring +expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they +well knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and +venison himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat +near it. + +They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat +_[FN: Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose +pleasant meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the +lake. It is one of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well +for the persevering industry of the settler and his family.]_ along the +lake shore, to the eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult +to force their way through the thick underwood that always impedes the +progress of the traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed +the course of an ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural +causeway between two parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in +many places, not wider than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides +were most gracefully adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers +of various species, wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry +bushes, high-bush cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; +while in the deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest +growth, the heads of which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy +banks, beset with huge boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn +limestone, showed that it had once formed the boundary of the lake, +though now it was almost a quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of +pure water were in abundance, trickling down the steep rugged sides of +this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, delighted with the wild +picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of +moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak +or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest on the lonely but +lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark forest shut all +else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, till it reached +the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled what country +it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to them, indeed, +a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her companions +laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this unknown +shore to the northward being her father's beloved Highlands. Let not +youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian +girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only +book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor +Highland soldier. + +Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at +last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that +formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far +from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to +the southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant +brae, where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, +they decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount +Ararat: "For here." said they, "we will build us an ark of refuge and +wander no more." And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still +bears. Here they sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried +venison, and drank of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the +edge of the bank. Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house +near the birches, and they made a regular blaze on the trees as they +returned home towards the wigwam, that they might not miss the place. +They found less difficulty in retracing their path than they had +formerly, a there were some striking peculiarities to mark it, and +they had learned to be very minute in the remarks they made as they +travelled, so that they now seldom missed the way they came by. A few +days after this, they removed all their household stores, viz. the axe, +the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of dried fruit, the +dried venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they forget the deer +scalp, which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up over the door +of their new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on the shores +of the Rice Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + +The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for +house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and +the oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate +watched the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; +there was something to look forward to from day to day-they were going +to commence housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and +well lodged before the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their +blood. It was a joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were +put up, and the door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did +not cut out the spaces for them; _[FN: Many a shanty is put up in +Canada without windows, and only an open space for a door, with a rude +plank set up to close it in at night.]_ they could do very well without, +as hundreds of Irish and Highland emigrants have done before and since. + +A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes +against the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney +and hearth in this primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with +wedge-shaped pieces of wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, +being chiefly oaks and pines, afforded no moss. This deficiency rather +surprised the boys, for in the thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss +grows in abundance on the north side of the trees, especially on the +cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron wood; but there were few of these, +excepting a chance one or two in the little basin in front of the house. +The roof was next put on, which consisted of split cedars; and when the +little dwelling was thus far habitable, they were all very happy. While +the boys had been putting on the roof, Catharine had collected the +stones for the chimney, and cleared the earthen floor of the chips and +rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, bound together with a leathern +thong. She had swept it all clean, carefully removing all unsightly +objects, and strewing it over with fresh cedar sprigs, which gave out +a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not unseemly carpet for their +little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire blazing up on their own +hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its gladdening light, and chat away +of all they had done and all that they meant to do. Here was to be a set +of split cedar shelves, to hold their provisions and baskets; there a +set of stout pegs were to be inserted between the logs for hanging up +strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, or the skins of the animals +they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be fixed on posts in the +centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden platters and dishes, and +some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of wood, till something +better could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough poles of iron-wood, +supported by posts driven into the ground, and partly upheld by the +projection of the logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing could be more +simple. The framework was of split cedar; and a safe bed was made by +pine boughs being first laid upon the frame, and then thickly covered +with dried grass, moss, and withered leaves. Such were the lowly but +healthy couches on which these children of the forest slept. + +A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded +with disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler's family +have I seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared +for their reception; and many a gentleman's son has voluntarily +submitted to privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and +adventure, or to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money +in the lumbering trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty +and ruder society of those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian +lumberers. During the spring and summer months, these men spread +themselves through the trackless forests, and along the shores of +nameless lakes and unknown streams, to cut the pine or oak lumber, such +being the name they give to the felled stems of trees, which are then +hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon the ice, where they are formed +into rafts, and floated down the waters till they reach the great +St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable difficulties and casualties, +finally shipped for England. I have likewise known European gentlemen +voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized home, and associate +themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, leading lives as +wandering and as wild as the uncultivated children of the forest. The +nights and early mornings were already growing sensibly more chilly. The +dews at this season fall heavily, and the mists fill the valleys, till +the sun has risen with sufficient heat to draw up the vapours. It was a +good thing that the shanty was finished so soon, or the exposure to the +damp air might have been productive of ague and fever. Every hour almost +they spent in making little additions to their household comforts, but +some time was necessarily passed in trying to obtain provisions. One +day Hector, who had been out from dawn till moonrise, returned with the +welcome news that he had shot a young deer, and required the assistance +of his cousin to bring it up the steep bank--(it was just at the +entrance of the great ravine)--below the precipitous cliff near the +lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the meantime. They had now +plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was very acceptable, as +they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat that they had. + +This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in +strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she +roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets +of birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, +and the meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild +plums in a beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried +for the winter store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she +also found plenty of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, +on the banks of a charming creek of bright water that flowed between +a range of high pine hills, and finally emptied itself into the +lake._[FN: This little stream flows through the green meadows +of "Glenlynden," watering the grounds of Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose +picturesque cottage forms a most attractive object to the eye of the +traveller.]_ There were great quantities of water-cresses in this pretty +brook; they grew in bright round cushion-like tufts at the bottom of the +water, and were tender and wholesome. These formed an agreeable addition +to their diet, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to animal food, +for they could not always meet with a supply of the bread-roots, as +they grew chiefly in damp, swampy thickets on the lake shore, which +were sometimes very difficult of access; however, they never missed any +opportunity of increasing their stores, and laying up for the winter +such roots as they could procure. + +As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm +clothes and bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were +beginning to wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the +lake several times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she +was often sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as +time wore on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys +on the important subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to +manufacture the skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, +and the doe-skin and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. +Louis was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They +had taken off the hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling +it up with the hairy side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made +excellent mocassins, piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, +and passing the sinews of the deer through, as he had seen his father +do, by fixing a stout fish-bone to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an +excellent substitute for a needle, and with the aid of the old file he +sharpened the point of the rusty nail, so that he was enabled, with +a little trouble, to drill a hole in a bone needle, for his cousin +Catharine's use. After several attempts, he succeeded in making some of +tolerable fineness, hardening them by exposure to a slow steady degree +of heat, till she was able to work with them, and even mend her clothes +with tolerable expertness. By degrees, Catharine contrived to cover +the whole outer surface of her homespun woollen frock with squirrel and +mink, musk-rat and woodchuck skins. A curious piece of fur patchwork of +many hues and textures it presented to the eye,--a coat of many colours, +it is true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was not a little +proud of her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was added was +a source of fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis fitted so +nicely to her feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector brought +triumphantly in one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught in +one of his deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the +brush remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine +might have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur +dress and bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + +Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and +stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the +inner part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most +expert in this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist +their fathers in preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur +traders, who visited them from time to time, and gave them various +articles in exchange for their peltries; such as powder and shot, and +cutlery of different kinds, as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with +gay calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs for the women. + +As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving +wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the +larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun +and wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets +too they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, +that they held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some +vessel that would bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small +that it could be made little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had +made an attempt at making tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the +sweet fern,--a graceful woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent like +nutmegs; this plant is highly esteemed among the Canadians as a +beverage, and also as a remedy against the ague; it grows in great +abundance on dry sandy lands and wastes, by waysides. + +"If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat +of the fire," said Louis, "we could get on nicely with cooking." But +nothing like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they +were obliged to give up that thought, and content themselves with +roasting or broiling their food. Louis, however, who was fond of +contrivances, made an oven, by hollowing out a place near the hearth, +and lining it with stones, filling up the intervals with wood ashes and +such clay as they could find, beaten into a smooth mortar. Such cement +answered very well, and the oven was heated by filling it with hot +embers; these were removed when it was sufficiently heated, and the meat +or roots placed within, the oven being covered over with a flat stone +previously heated before the fire, and covered with live coals. This +sort of oven had often been described by old Jacob, as one in common +use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower province, in which they +cook small animals, and make excellent meat of them; they could bake +bread also in this oven, if they had had flour to use. _[FN: This +primitive oven is much like what voyagers have described as in use among +the natives of many of the South Sea islands.]_ + +Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people +were more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided +home feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, +to talk of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all +were well, and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall +all their happy days spent in the home which they now feared they +were destined never again to behold. About the same time they lost the +anxious hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every +turn when they went out. Nevertheless they were becoming each day more +cheerful and more active. Ardently attached to each other, they seemed +bound together by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now +all the world to one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar +their happiness. Hector's habitual gravity and caution were tempered +by Louis's lively vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved +Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to +which she was exposed, by the most affectionate consideration for her +comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully +enduring all privations, and making light of all their trials, and +taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances. + +Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his +absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. +As he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some +accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he +had for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, +which he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly +finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island +to explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + +Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector +ran off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash +cousin, which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did +not wish to make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his +mind was somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it +had been left the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be +seen, nor the fishing-rod and line. + +"Perhaps," thought he, "Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the +little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: +or maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point." + +While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard +steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through +the bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his +disordered air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder +from time to time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + +"Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?" +cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried +onward. "Why, Louis, whither away?" + +Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till +Hector came up to him. + +"Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down +by a pack of wolves?" + +"It is not wolves, or bears either," said Louis, as soon as he could get +breath to speak, "but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war +council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them." + +"How came you to see them?" + +"I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going +down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer +path through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the +valley, I crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight +of the creek. While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how +pretty the islands were, rising so green from the blue water, I was +surprised by seeing several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you +may be sure, I thought they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too +far apart, so I sat down on a log to watch, thinking if they turned out +to be deer, I would race off for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, +that we might try our chance for some venison; but as the black specks +came nearer and nearer, I perceived they were canoes with Indians in +them, three in each. They made for the mouth of the creek, and ran +ashore among the thick bushes. I watched them with a beating heart, and +lay down flat, lest they should spy me out; for those fellows have eyes +like catamounts, so keen and wild--they see everything without seeming +to cast a glance on it. Well, I saw them wind up the ridge till they +reached the Bare-hill. _[FN: Supposed to be a council hill. It is +known by the name of Bare-hill, from the singular want of verdure on its +surface. It is one of the steepest on the ridge above the little creek, +being a picturesque object, with its fine pine-trees, seen from Mr. +Hayward's grounds, and forms, I believe, a part of his property.]_ You +remember that spot; we called it so from its barren appearance. In a few +minutes a column of smoke rose and curled among the pine-trees, and then +another and another, till I counted five fires burning brightly; and, +as I stood on the high ground, I could distinguish the figures of many +naked savages moving about, running to and fro like a parcel of black +ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them raise a yell like a +pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my heart leap up in my +breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got into my wise head, +of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the empty birch canoes, +which you must own would have been a glorious thing for us; but when I +heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted off, and ran as +if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my scalp." And +Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black curls, as if +to ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping knives of his +Indian enemies. + +"And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the +Indians; they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us." + +"Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy." + +"Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and +so three of course must be still better than two." + +"Why," said Hector, laughing, "it depends upon the stock of practical +wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form +one rational plan." + +Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed +pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no +trace of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his +sister would agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so +much labour, and which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not +endure even in idea. + +"Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below +Mount Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold +goods thither." Such was Louis's plan. + +"The ravines would be searched directly," suggested Hector; "besides, +the Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; +they might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a +burrow." + +"Yes, and burn us," said Catharine, with a shudder. "I know the path +that leads direct to the 'Happy Valley,' (the name she had given to the +low flat, now known as the 'lower Race-course,') and it is not far +from here, only ten minutes' walk in a straight line. We can conceal +ourselves below the steep bank that we descended the other day; and +there are several springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and +berries; and the trees, though few, are so thickly covered with close +spreading branches that touch the very ground, that we might hide +ourselves from a hundred eyes were they ever so cunning and prying." + +Catharine's counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys +immediately busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a +prostrate tree such articles as they could not conveniently carry +away, leaving the rest to chance; with the most valuable they loaded +themselves, and guided by Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched +forward along the narrow footpath that had been made by some wild +animals, probably deer, in their passage from the lake to their +feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the low sheltered plain; where, +being quite open, and almost, in parts, free from trees, the grass and +herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the springs of water fresh +and cool. + +Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved +onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily +chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that +were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or +twinberry, _[FN: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely +creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet +berry.]_ as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails +are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad +her bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the +Rice Lake and its flowery shores. + +After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted +at the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely +spot as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like +a silver crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in +front, the long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away +into mist, and blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile +valley lay between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far +ridge of oak hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish +the outline of the Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires +and the smoke wreaths that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the +dark pines that grew upon its crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives +make, though perfectly safe from detection by the distance and their +shaded position, for many a winding vale and wood-crowned height lay +between them and the encampment. + +But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present +instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight +and of motion. A few minutes' hasty flight brought our travellers to the +brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open +plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they +were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, +and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while +hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow +in the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and +prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by +the earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent +from these roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other +creepers, which formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious +eye could scarcely penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as +if provided for their concealment, and they carefully abstained from +disturbing the pendent foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray +their hiding-place to their enemies. They found plenty of long grass, +and abundance of long soft green moss and ferns near a small grove of +poplars, which surrounded a spring of fine water. They ate some dried +fruit and smoked fish, and drank some of the clear spring; and +after they had said their evening prayers, they laid down to sleep, +Catharine's head pillowed on the neck of her faithful guardian, Wolfe. +In the middle of the night a startling sound, as of some heavy body +falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The night was so dark +they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat gazing into the +impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to speak to each +other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling bark, and +resumed his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his attention was +near to cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, and prayed +for safety against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector and Louis +listened, till they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the morning, +it seemed as if they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague were +their recollections of the fright they had had, but the cause was soon +perceived. A large stone that had been heaved up with the clay that +adhered to the roots and fibres, had been loosened, and had fallen on +the ground, close to the spot where Catharine lay. So ponderous was the +mass, that had it struck her, death must have been the consequence of +the blow; and Hector and Louis beheld it with fear and amazement, while +Catharine regarded it as a proof of Divine mercy and protection from +Him in whose hand her safety lay. The boys, warned by this accident, +carefully removed several large stones from the roof, and tried the +safety of their clay walls with a stout staff, to ascertain that all was +secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath this rugged canopy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour +in his eyes."--_Proverbs_. + +FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke +should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have +effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious +dews, which, even on sultry summer's evenings, is productive of much +chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, +was much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were +even sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. +These simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the +heated air to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and +denser particles. They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of +the causes that ruled them. + +The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook +them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh +for a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, +came one night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. +They saw several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe +tracked a wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden +spring, where she had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the +haunts of her fellows. The arrow was in her throat; it was of white +flint, and had evidently been sent from an Indian bow. It was almost +with fear and trembling that they availed themselves of the venison thus +providentially thrown in their way, lest the Indians should track the +blood of the doe, and take vengeance on them for appropriating it for +their own use. Not having seen anything of the Indians, who seemed to +confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the lake, after many days had +passed, they began to take courage, and even lighted an evening fire, at +which they cooked as much venison as would last them for several days, +and hung the remaining portions above the smoke to preserve it from +injury. + +One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in +the direction of the Indian camp. "I am tired of remaining shut up in +this dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by +those melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in." Little +did Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home +of their childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide +it from their sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have +pressed onward in the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + +Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path +beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and +apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment +of our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark +thickets and thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our +Father's home, where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock +back to the everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + +Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians +imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam +abroad free and uncontrolled. + +"After all," said he; "we never met with any ill treatment from the +Indians that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old +friends and acquaintances among them." + +"The thing is possible, but not very likely," replied Louis. +"Nevertheless, Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. +The Indian has his own notion of things, and might think himself +quite justified in killing us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. +_[FN: George Copway, an intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the +Indian hunting-grounds are parcelled out, and secured by right of law +and custom among themselves, no one being allowed to hunt upon another's +grounds uninvited. If any one belonging to another family or tribe is +found trespassing, all his goods are taken from him; a handful of powder +and shot, as much as he would need to shoot game for his sustenance in +returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and tomahawk only are left, +but all his game and furs are taken from him: a message is sent to +his chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he is banished and +outlawed.--_Life of G. Copway, Missionary, written by himself._]_ I +have heard my father say,--and he knows a great deal about these +people,--that their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers +that they find killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both +merciless and treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to +them in their own language, to explain by what chance we came here." + +This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally +rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: +when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an +opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his +intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now +deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the +Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger +was to be apprehended from facing them. + +"Depend upon it," he added, "cowards are never safer than brave men. +The Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they +found us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if +we openly faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared +for them." + +"Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!" cried his sister, passionately +weeping. "Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?" + +"Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to +take care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; +they seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine +the camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch +for my return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither." + +"But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner," +said Catharine, "what would you do?" "I will tell you what I would do. +Instead of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs +make them understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing +but kindness and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would +tomahawk the defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace +and goodwill." + +"If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you +have fallen into the hands of the savages," said Catharine, mournfully +regarding her brother. + +"If it were not for Catharine," said Louis, "you should not go alone, +but, if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, +who led her out with us, tempting her with false words." + +"Never mind that now, dearest cousin," said Catharine, tenderly laying +her hand on his arm. "It is much better that we should have been all +three together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both +Hec and you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been +so well off if I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your +spirits by my songs and stories." + +"It is true, ma chre; but that is the reason that I am bound to take +care of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to +danger, or leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will +abide by you." + +Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last +Louis and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon +busied themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in +that morning. + +The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that +Catharine cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her +brother's return; at last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis +left the shelter of the valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent +their steps to the trysting tree, which commanded all the country within +a wide sweep. + +A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over +the minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, +which cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades +of evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The +full moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that +should break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of +a friend. + +Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy +days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. +At last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her +head upon the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly +paced to and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to +penetrate the surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the +first sound that might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + +It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick +sharp note of the "Whip-poor-will," as she flew from bough to bough of +an old withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of +these midnight watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of +"Whip-poor-will, Whip-poor-will;" and then came forth, from many a +hollow oak and birch, the spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where +it had lain hushed in silence all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes +their sharp hard wings almost swept his cheek as they wheeled round and +round in circles, first narrow, then wide, and wider extending, till at +last they soared far above the tallest tree-tops and launching out in +the high regions of the air, uttered from time to time a wild shrill +scream, or hollow booming sound, as they suddenly descended to pounce +with wide-extended throat upon some hapless moth or insect, that sported +all unheeding in mid air, happily unconscious of the approach of so +unerring a foe. + +Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and +joyfully he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full +and red, over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + +Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy +forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound +luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed +as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. +Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose +from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under +tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + +It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated +young Louis's breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, +as he thought, rushed into danger. "It was wilful and almost cruel," +he thought "to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his +account;" and then the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved +companion took the place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled +his heart. The broad moon now flooded the hills and vales with light, +casting broad checkering shadows of the old oaks' grey branches and now +reddened foliage across the ground. + +Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry +note: slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from +the form of the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the +moon. It is an open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a +few low shrubs and seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of +the late-flowering pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, +with open bells of azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall +flowers and winter-greens, brighten the ground with wreaths of shining +leaves and red berries. + +Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full +free note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and +half angry in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry +defiance he gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + +Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge +of the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching +steps is now distinctly heard advancing--it may be a deer. Two figures +approach, and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear +shrill whistle meets his ear. It is Hector's whistle, he knows that, and +assured by its cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at +his side, but starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, +half carries. The moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking +figure of an Indian girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: +her ashy face is concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which +falls like a dark veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, +and she seems ready to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. +Hector, too, seems weary. The first words that' Hector said were, "Help +me, Louis, to lead this poor girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired +I can hardly walk another step." + +Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the +pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with +a bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with +him. The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep +so profound it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep +interest soon took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of +the gentle Catharine, and she watched the young stranger's slumber +as tenderly as though she had been a sister, or beloved friend, while +Hector proceeded to relate in what manner he had encountered the Indian +girl. + +"When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the +_'birken shaw,'_ I paused to examine if the council-fires were still +burning on Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there +a canoe to be seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their +landing-place at the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still +as if no human footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched +for nearly an hour till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, +which was sailing in wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. +Assured that the Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity +to examine the spot more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries +and cedars and small underwood that fringed the borders of the little +stream, and found myself, after a little pushing and scrambling, among +the bushes at the foot of the hill. + +"I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my +trouble--flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk--but I little +thought of what these cruel savages had left there,--a miserable wounded +captive, bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a small +tree, her hands, tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had bent +down to fasten them to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that +against which her head was fastened; her position was one that must +have been most painful: she had evidently been thus left to perish by +a miserable death, of hunger and thirst; for these savages, with a +fiendish cruelty, had placed within sight of their victim an earthen jar +of water, some dried deers' flesh, and a cob _[FN: A head of the +Maize, or Indian corn, is called a "cob."]_ of Indian corn. I have the +corn here," he added, putting his hand in his breast, and displaying it +to view. + +"Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder," and he +showed the flint head as he spoke, "and fettered; with food and drink in +sight, the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to +the wolf, and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor +thing's lips were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her +eyes piteously from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. +This I gave her, and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut +the thongs that bound her, I wondered that she still kept the same +immoveable attitude, and thinking she was stiff and cramped with +remaining so long bound in one position, I took her two hands and tried +to induce her to move. I then for the first time noticed that she was +tied by the hair of her head to the tree against which her back was +placed; I was obliged to cut the hair with my knife, and this I did not +do without giving her pain, as she moaned impatiently. She sunk her head +on her breast, and large tears fell over my hands, as I bathed her face +and neck with the water from the jar; she then seated herself on the +ground, and remained silent and still for the space of an hour, nor +could I prevail upon her to speak, or quit the seat she had taken. +Fearing that the Indians might return, I watched in all directions, and +at last I began to think it would be best to carry her in my arms; but +this I found no easy task, for she seemed greatly distressed at any +attempt I made to lift her, and by her gestures I fancy she thought I +was going to kill her. At last my patience began to be exhausted, but I +did not like to annoy her. I spoke to her as gently and soothingly as I +could. By degrees she seemed to listen with more composure to me, though +she evidently knew not a word of what I said to her. She rose at last, +and taking my hands, placed them above her head, stooping low as she +did so, and this seemed to mean, she was willing at last to submit to +my wishes; I lifted her from the ground, and carried her for some little +way, but she was too heavy for me,--she then suffered me to lead her +along whithersoever I would take her, but her steps were so slow and +feeble, through weakness, that many times I was compelled to rest while +she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued now, and as quiet as a +lamb." + +Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the +recital of her brother's adventures. She seemed to think he had been +inspired by God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the +poor forlorn one from so dreadful a death. + +Louis's sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he +commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + +He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition +to their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their +cave beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their +feet to the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was +despatched for water and venison for supper. + +The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, +and conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while +Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with +the greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the +cool healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ _[FN: Indian balsam.]_ about +it with the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in +water, and gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned +in her veins, and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which +were raised at intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid +hurried glance, as if she longed, yet feared to say, "Who are you that +thus tenderly bathe my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded +limbs, and cool my fevered blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a +being sent by the Great Spirit, from the far-off happy land to which +my fathers have gone, to smooth my path of pain, and lead me to those +blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers where the cruelty of the enemies +of my people will no more have power to torment me?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell."--COLERIDGE. + +The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought +home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch +for her, with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over +it, and laid her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a +dear sister. This good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion +of her own age and sex. "Now," said she, "I shall no more be lonely, I +shall have a companion and friend to talk to and assist me;" but when +she turned in the fulness of her heart to address herself to the +young stranger, she felt herself embarrassed in what way to make her +comprehend the words she used to express the kindness that she felt for +her, and her sorrow for her sufferings. + +The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if +striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter +her words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it +was to her as a sealed book. + +She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had +heard from the Indians when they came to her father's house, but in +vain; not the simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried +with vexation at her own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more +fortunate in attempts at conversing with their guest. + +At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye +grew more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, +leaving it of a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the +swarthy Indian shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on +the ground. + +She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long +tresses of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small +wooden comb that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise +her eyes to her new friend's face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she +took her hands within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and +lips and forehead in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance +to any words, and would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some +object which seemed unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such +times the face of the young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or +rather it might with more propriety have been said, the absence of all +expression, almost as blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + +How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was +passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, +the offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian +friend, to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention +as she herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the +object that she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young +squaw learned the names of all the familiar household articles about the +shanty, and could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when +she had learned a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would +laugh, and a gleam of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her +fine dark eyes, generally so fixed and sad-looking. + +It was Catharine's delight to teach her pupil to speak a language +familiar to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and +name to her all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. +And she in her turn made "Indiana" (for so they named the young squaw, +after a negress that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one +of his Colonel's infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each +object they saw. Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement +arising from instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to +enjoy the blunders they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. +When really interested in anything that was going on, her eyes would +beam out, and her smile gave an inexpressible charm to her face, for her +lips were red and her teeth even and brilliantly white, so purely white +that Catharine thought she had never seen any so beautiful in her life +before; at such times her face was joyous and innocent as a little +child's, but there were also hours of gloom, that transformed it into an +expression of sullen apathy; then a dull glassy look took possession +of her eye, the full lip drooped and the form seemed rigid and stiff; +obstinate determination neither to move nor speak characterised her in +what Louis used to call the young squaw's "_dark hour._" Then it was +that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her gentle nurse almost +feared to look at her protege or approach her. + +"Hector," said Louis, "you spoke about a jar of water being left at the +camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it." +Hector assented to the proposal. "And we may possibly pick up a few +grains of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us." + +"If we are here in the spring," said Hector, "you and I will prepare a +small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;" and he sat down on +the end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the +cob, and then each corn grain by grain. "Three hundred and ten sound +grains. Now if every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have +a great increase, and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it +is a good year, several bushels to eat." + +"We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine +flourishing crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne." +_[FN: Supporne, probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or +porridge, made of Indian meal, a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee +farmer's house.]_ + +"You forget we have no porridge pot." + +"I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine +cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, +let us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;" and Louis, who had +now a new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite +on the _qui vive_, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved +a great disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his +cousin's lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being +cracked, or that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was +not one of the doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the +ardour of his mind by causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted +camp, and though it had been knocked over by some animal, it was sound +and strong, and excited great speculation in the two cousins, as to the +particular material of which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of +pottery they had ever before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured +from some very dark red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, +as it presented the appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard +and ponderous, and the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern +as if punctured and scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed +to have been hardened by fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, +had evidently done good service as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they +learned the way in which it was used:_[FN: Pieces of this rude +pottery are often found along the shores of the inland lakes, but I have +never met with any of the perfect vessels in use with the Indians, who +probably find it now easier to supply themselves with iron pots and +crockery from the towns of the European settlers.]_ the jar being placed +near but not on the fire, was surrounded by hot embers, and the water +made to boil by stones being made red hot and plunged into it: in this +way soup and other food were prepared, and kept stewing, with no further +trouble after once the simmering began, than adding a few fresh embers +at the side furthest from the fir; a hot stone also placed on the top, +facilitated the cooking process. + +Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,--indeed it +was an accomplishment he prided himself on,--was enchanted with the +improvement made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen +jar, or pipkin, and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin +in the use of it. Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with +his bow and arrows, and visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times +oftener than he used to do, just for the sake of proving the admirable +properties of this precious utensil, and finding out some new way of +dressing his game. At all events there was a valuable increase of furs, +for making up into clothing, caps, leggings, mitts, and other articles. + +From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs +and shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, +and many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of +the porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets +and mats. The little creeping winter-green, _[FN: Gualtheria +procumbens,--Spice Winter-green.]_ with its scarlet berries, that grows +on the dry flats, or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, +she showed them was good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw +forth their fine aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their +fragrance with delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it +as a tonic. The inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good +to cure ague and fever. The root of the _dulamara_, or bitter-sweet, +she scraped down and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other +animal, and made an ointment that possessed very healing qualities, +especially as an immediate application to fresh burns. + +Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the +knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several +times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food +she had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the +trees or bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she +told Catharine this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, +who had given them success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to +appease the malice of the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss +to them, or sickness or death, unless his forbearance was purchased by +some particular mark of attention. _[FN: By the testimony of many +of the Indians themselves, they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism +in their belief. "We believed in one great wise benevolent being, +Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose dwelling was in the sun. We believed also +in many other lesser spirits--gods of the elements, and in one bad +unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to whom we attributed bad +luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This bad spirit has to +be conciliated with meat and drink offerings."--_Life of George Copway, +Native Missionary_]_ + +Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most +remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She +examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical +minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her +memory was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she +seemed even to single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from +their congeners. Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought +patience and perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly +interested in any work she began, she would toil on untiringly till it +was completed; and then what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times +they became darkly brilliant with the joy that filled her heart. But she +possessed little talent for invention; what she had seen done, after a +few imperfect attempts, she could do again, but she rarely struck out +any new path for herself. + +At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the +kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her +fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little +service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she +displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him +her first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental +plumage of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a +master and protector. He was in her eyes the _"Chief,"_ the head of his +tribe. His bow was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and +devices; his arrows were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made +and ornamented by her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case +for his arrows, of birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and +suspended by thongs to his neck, when he was preparing to go out in +search of game. She gave him the name of the "Young Eagle." While she +called Louis, "Nee-chee," or friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical +name of, "Music of the Winds,"--Ma-wah-osh. + +When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her +head in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name +of Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + +But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest +favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate +with a jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to +caress him, but Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual +friendly feeling became established between them, which seemed daily and +hourly to increase, greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She +would seat herself Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the +shanty, with the capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address +herself to this mute companion, in wailing tones, as if she would +unburthen her heart by pouring into his unconscious ear her tale of +desolation and woe. + +Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her +personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for +her to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her +example, till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at +first regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in +dressing her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish +it till it looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn +Catharine with the wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of +the wood-duck, or quill feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which +is called in the Indian tongue the shot-bird, in allusion to the round +spots on its cream-coloured breast: _[FN: The Golden-winged Flicker +belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers; it is very handsome, and is said +to be eatable; it lives on fruits and insects.]_ but it was not in these +things alone she showed her grateful sense of the sisterly kindness that +her young hostess showed to her; she soon learned to lighten her labours +in every household work, and above all, she spent her time most usefully +in manufacturing clothing from the skins of the wild animals, and in +teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them; but these were the +occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Go to the ant."--_Proverbs._ + +IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued +serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, +began to show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach +of the equinox. Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come +sweeping over the lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. +Already the tints of autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the +oaks, and where the islands were visible, the splendid colours of +the maple shone out in gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the +evergreens and light golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now +looked, they had not yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which +a few frosty nights at the close of the month was destined to bring to +perfection--a glow of splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, +before the rushing winds and rains of the following month were to sweep +them away, and scatter them abroad upon the earth. + +One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys +went down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which +Louis had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water +was rough and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to +launch the raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over +the lake and admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to +his cousin a dark speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest +islands. The wind, which blew very strong still from the north-east, +brought the object nearer every minute. At first they thought it might +be a pine-branch that was floating on the surface, when as it came +bounding over the waves, they perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but +impelled by no visible arm. It was a strange sight upon that lonely lake +to see a vessel of any kind afloat, and, on first deciding that it was +a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide themselves among the bushes, for +fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the better of their fears. + +"The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; +for I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to +guide it," said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the +tempest-driven vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was +the case, they hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the +canoe among the branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way +into the water. + +By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the +projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of +weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some +trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he +contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of +hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set +her afloat again. "Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of +which will gladden your heart," cried Louis with a joyful look. "Come +quickly, and see my treasures." + +"Treasures! You may well call them treasures," exclaimed Hector, as he +helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the +shore, side by side. + +The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at +the discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian +blanket almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark +rope several yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious +than all, an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian +corn. These articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian +hunter or trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and +had drifted from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, +unless by some accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been +drowned; this was of course only a matter of conjecture on which it was +useless to speculate, and the boys joyfully took possession of the good +fortune that had so providentially been wafted, as it were, to their +very feet. + +"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down +last night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not +been drawn into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have +lost it. I trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it +would founder in the deep water, or go off to Long Island." + +"I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point," said Hector, "but +I am glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half +afraid you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to +draw it nearer to the shore." "Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling +like a wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful +soups, and stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!" and Louis +tossed up his new fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an +entire fox skin, in the air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which +Hector gravely condemned as unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned +of fifteen;) but with the joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and +danced, and laughed, and shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands +and far-off hills returned the unusual sound, and even his more steady +cousin caught the infection, and laughed to see Louis so elated. + +Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch +Catharine to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the +blanket, and the tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana +accompanied them to the lake shore, and long and carefully she examined +the canoe and its contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she +uttered as she surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice +of the broken handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the +vessel; this seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and +by broken words and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly +broken in the hand of the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the +other part, he had lost his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector +a rude figure of a bird engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed +in with a blue colour. This, she said, was the totem or crest of the +chief of the tribe, and was meant to represent a _crow_. The canoe had +belonged to a chief of that name. While they were dividing the contents +of the canoe among them to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up +the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and +adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to the front of her head, she +bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh +porter would his trunks and packages, turning round with a merry glance +and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as she climbed with +apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her companions, to her +great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the parched rice, +Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty very much--it +made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had been so long +deprived. + +Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be +ready on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out +and gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + +This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with +frequent themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was +the most valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and +bread and seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the +tomahawk, as his axe was worn and blunt. + +Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed +to think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the +latter; besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to +make a canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would +make, after thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for +herself and Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they +should be comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, +and was charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she +despise the packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying +burdens from place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft +fur in front of the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. +The mat, she said, was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. +The very next day after this adventure, the two girls set to work, and +with the help of Louis's large knife, which was called into requisition +as a substitute for scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in +a short time made two comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the +full, short, plaited skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests +bordered with fur completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated +at the ankles by knotted fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned +over with a band of squirrel fur, completed the novel but not very +unbecoming costume; and many a glance of innocent satisfaction did our +young damsels cast upon each other, when they walked forth in the pride +of girlish vanity to display their dresses to Hector and Louis, who, for +their parts, regarded them as most skilful dress-makers, and were never +tired of admiring and commending their ingenuity in the cutting, making +and fitting, considering what rude implements they were obliged to use +in the cutting out and sewing of the garments. + +The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a +golden tinge which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue +waters--looking, when lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of +golden-coloured sand. The ears, heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped +towards the water. The time of the rice-harvest was at hand, and with +light and joyous hearts our young adventurers launched the canoe, and, +guided in their movements by the little squaw, paddled to the extensive +aquatic fields to gather it in, leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch +their proceedings from the raft, which Louis had fastened to a +young tree that projected out over the lake, and which made a good +landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand and fish very +comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account of the +rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself with +fishing from the raft till their return. + +The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the +canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and +another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in +the other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the +stick; the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which +a little practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets +the grass fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + +Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more +delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they +worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their +light bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve +them from starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + +The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were +now able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonj and +black bass, which they caught in great numbers. + +Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her +own carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over +the water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with +delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke +into smiles and dimples. + +It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how +innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of +healthy exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she +possessed of excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill +which they had yet to acquire by imitating her. + +Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of +the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the +fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in +admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in +his estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + +"Every one to his craft," said Louis, laughing; "the little squaw has +been brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her +babyhood; perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and +milking of cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she +would prove half as quick as Catharine or Mathilde." + +"I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour," said Hector, +thoughtfully. + +"Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;" replied +Louis. + +"I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great +pains to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and +that so far from being stupid, they learn very readily," said Catharine. + +"We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite +still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel +down, before we go to bed," observed Hector. + +"She cannot understand what we say," said Catharine; for she knows so +little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the +prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking +of hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters." + +"Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach +her; it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught +pagan," said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort +of uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl's total want of the rites +of his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with +feelings of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that +offered, of trying to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of +belief in the God who made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and +earnestly they entered into the task as a labour of love, and though for +a long time Indiana seemed to pay little attention to what they said, by +slow degrees the good seed took root and brought forth fruit worthy of +Him whose Spirit poured the beams of spiritual light into her heart: +but my young readers must not imagine these things were the work of a +day--the process was slow, and so were the results, but they were good +in the end. + +And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, +the Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, +and pray to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ +Jesus gave to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy +prayer, so full of humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully +understood by her whose lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship +and the desire to do that which she had been told was right, was, +doubtless, a sacrifice better than the pagan rites which that young +girl had witnessed among her father's people, who, blindly following the +natural impulse of man in his depraved nature, regarded deeds of blood +and cruelty as among the highest of human virtues, and gloried in those +deeds of vengeance at which the Christian mind revolts with horror. + +Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking +and storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused +several forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the +ground; on these were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which +she then stretched the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked +pegs to the frame on the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and +lighted a fire beneath, taking good care not to let the flame set fire +to the mat, the object being rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by +means of the red embers. She next directed the boys to supply her +with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck in close together, so as +to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes. This was done to +concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with more power; the +rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled, flat shovel. +After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be done was +separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it by +small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle +or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. _[FN: +The Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, +by hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden +pounder.]_ If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have +been substituted in its stead. + +When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat +basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, +roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by +the little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which +was simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting +it on hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored +by for use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, +by the Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various +kinds; crowds of ducks were winging their way across it from morning +till night, floating in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy +groups if an eagle or fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic +circles above them, then settling down with noisy splash upon the calm +water. The shores, too, were covered with these birds, feeding on the +fallen acorns which fell ripe and brown with every passing breeze; the +berries of the dogwood also furnished them with food; but the wild rice +seemed the great attraction, and small shell-fish and the larv of +many insects that had been dropped into the waters, there to come to +perfection in due season, or to form a provision for myriads of wild +fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon them, guided by +that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one of our modern +poetesses, "God's gift to the weak" _[FN: Mrs. Southey.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye."--COLERIDGE. + +THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to +the lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee +as she looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its +surface. + +"If I had but my father's gun, his good old gun, now!" would Hector say, +as he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; "but +these foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can +reach them." + +Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with +green boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the +little vessel into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; +within this bower she motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small +space for the free use of his bow, while concealed at the prow she +gently and noiselessly paddled the canoe from the shore among the +rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or merely rocking to and fro +with the undulatory motion of the waters. The unsuspecting birds, +deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their pastime or their +prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer to hit many a +black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on the placid +water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the stream. +Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which Wolfe, +cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to land. + +Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great +gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after +the same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, +a dozen or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others +stationed at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the +island, to collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a +great feast. + +The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great +Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed +them to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes +distant tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited +to share the sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not +understand why Hector did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, +and offer the first duck or the best fish to propitiate the Great +Spirit. Hector told her that the God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; +that his holy Son, when he came down from heaven and gave himself as a +sacrifice for the sins of the world, had satisfied his Father, the Great +Spirit, an hundred-fold. + +They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned +from Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making +tippets, and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, +but light and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they +did not require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter +store, smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney +people smoke the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store +of provisions, fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and +bags of dried fruit. + +One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys +that the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding +up her two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. +The tribes had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. +She advised them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to +attract them; but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over +the plains just then, as the camp was lower down on the point _[FN: +This point, commonly known as _Anderson's Point_, now the seat of the +Indian village, used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous +for the Indians, and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre +that took place about eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the +Indians are often turned up with the plough at this day.]_ east of the +mouth of a big river, which she called "Otonabee." + +Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event +of meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the +earth in silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + +"If they should prove to be any of your father's people, or a friendly +tribe, would you go away with them?" he again repeated, to which she +solemnly replied, + +"Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father's +warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but +Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink +from danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here," and she laid +her hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but +impassioned tone, "They left not one drop of living blood to flow in +any veins but these," and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched +upwards towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the +murderers of her father's house. + +"My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these +hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, +along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the +Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father's people by hundreds in +cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day +and a bloody deed." + +Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the +young Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under +the cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked +the lake, to watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no +apprehension if the Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal +themselves, but offer them food to eat and water to drink. "If they come +to the house and find you away, they will take your stores and burn your +roof, suspecting that you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will +not harm you if you meet them with open hand and fearless brow: if they +eat of your bread, they will not harm you; me they would kill by a +cruel death--the war-knife is in their heart against the daughter of the +_brave_." + +The boys thought Indiana's advice good, and they felt no fear for +themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the +shanty with Wolfe. + +The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come +to enjoy, seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite +peaceably disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north +side, and the boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the +opposite shore, and now and then in the stillness of the evening their +wild shouts of revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the +breeze over the waters of the lake. + +The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed +in broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of +deep interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many +months after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful +story of the massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, +as I have raised the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so +I must render it in my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences +in which its facts were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes +would be unintelligible to my young friends. _[FN: The facts of +this narrative were gathered from the lips of the eldest son of a Rice +Lake chief. I have preferred giving it in the present form, rather +than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as it is, it is matter of +history.]_ + +There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the +chiefs of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which +like a smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having +burst into a decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and +obtain the advantage over the other by covert means. The tribe of the +Mohawks of which I now speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice +Lake for their hunting grounds, and certain islands and parts of the +lake for fishing, while that of the Ojebwas considered themselves +masters of the northern shores and certain rights of water beside. +Possibly it was about these rights that the quarrel originated, but if +so, it was not openly avowed between the "Black Snake," (that was the +totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the "Bald Eagle" (the totem of the +Ojebwa). + +These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of +great and rare beauty, called by her people, "The Beam of the Morning;" +she was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the +young men of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. +Among her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the +most enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of +winning the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black +Snake accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his +hunting grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on +the lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot +between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for +peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the +Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of +great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, +but who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial +alliance with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was +closely connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart +of the Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and +forgotten the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting +had been carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald +Eagle was requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go +to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived +the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had +been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring +hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily +anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on +the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans. + +The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his +guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused +to tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief +remained moody and silent. The following day the same scene was +repeated, and on the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in +bodily agony, with great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him +by the importunity of his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which +was, that the Bad Spirit had told him that these bodily tortures could +not cease till the only son of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been +sacrificed to appease his anger--neither could peace long continue +between the two nations until this deed had been done; and not only must +the chief's son be slain, but he must be pierced by his own father's +hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the father must +preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and aversion at so +bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his life and the +happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for ever if the +sacrifice was made,--if not, war to the knife was to be ever between the +Mohawks and Ojebwas. + +The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an +occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at +the time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + +"Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the +tribes of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be +sacrificed by my hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the +Black Snake's body may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires +of their lodges in peace." + +"The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart," was the +specious response of the wily Mohawk; "moreover, the Good Spirit also +appeared, and said, 'Let the Black Snake's son and the Bald Eagle's +daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the +lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.'" + +"The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine," was +the courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the +unmoved brow and passionless lip. + +The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye +that dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged +the weapon into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast +of human flesh was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, +presided over the ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the +sacrifice, and all went off well, as if no such fearful rite had been +enacted: but a fearful retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought +the tent of the Bald Eagle's daughter that evening, and was received +with all due deference, as a son of so great a chief as the Black Snake +merited; he was regarded now as a successful suitor, and intoxicated +with the beauty of the Beam of the Morning, pressed her to allow the +marriage to take place in a few days. The bride consented, and a day was +named for the wedding feast to be celebrated, and that due honour +might be given to so great an event, invitations were sent out to the +principal families of the Mohawk tribe, and these amounted to several +hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa hunters were despatched up +the river and to different parts of the country, avowedly to collect +venison, beaver, and other delicacies to regale their guests, but in +reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a large war party from the +small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in the deadly revenge that +was preparing for their enemies. + +Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal +ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests +was then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so +artfully contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and +their allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, +armed with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to +spring upon their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the +etiquette always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were +left outside the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and +dancing to the tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several +hundred naked and painted warriors were assembled. The feast was +declared to be ready; a great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre +of the tent. According to the custom of the Indians, the father of the +bridegroom was invited to lift the most important dish from the pot, +whilst the warriors commenced their wardance around him. This dish +was usually a bear's head, which was fastened to a string left for the +purpose of raising it from the pot. + +"Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head +and set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and +that his wise heart may be glad;" were the scornful words of the Bald +Eagle. + +A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as +he lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the _happy_ +bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + +"Ha!" shouted the Bald Eagle, "is the great chief of the Mohawks a +squaw, that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of +his son, the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave +neither sigh nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his +child. Come, brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the +blood of thy son: the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of +the feast that was prepared from his young warrior's body." The wretched +father dashed himself upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent +the air; those cries were answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed +Ojebwas, as they sprang to their feet, and with deafening yells attacked +the guests, who, panic-stricken, naked and defenceless, fell an easy +prey to their infuriated enemies. Not one living foe escaped to tell the +tale of that fearful marriage feast. A second Judith had the Indian +girl proved. It was her plighted hand that had severed the head of her +unsuspecting bridegroom to complete the fearful vengeance that had been +devised in return for the merciless and horrible murder of her brother. + +Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians +seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, +urged by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where +the women and children and such of the aged or young men as were +not included among the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting +security. Panic-stricken, the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell +like sheep appointed for the slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the +grey-head with the infant of days. But while the youths and old men +tamely yielded to their enemies, there was one, whose spirit roused to +fury by the murder of her father, armed herself with the war club and +knife, and boldly withstood the successful warriors. At the door of the +tent of the slaughtered chief the Amazon defended her children: while +the war lightning kindled in her dark eye, she called aloud in scornful +tones to her people to hide themselves in the tents of their women, who +alone were _braves_, and would fight their battles. Fiercely she taunted +the men, but they shrank from the unequal contest, and she alone +was found to deal the death-blow upon the foe, till overpowered with +numbers, and pierced with frightful wounds, she fell singing her own +death-song and raising the wail for the dead who lay around her. Night +closed in, but the work of blood still continued, till not a victim was +found, and again they went forth on their exterminating work. Lower +down they found another encampment, and there also they slew all the +inhabitants of the lodges; they then returned back to the island, to +gather together their dead and collect the spoils of their tents. They +were weary with the fatigue of the slaughter of that fearful day; they +were tired of blood-shedding; the retribution had satisfied even their +love of blood: and when they found, on returning to the spot where the +heroine had stood at bay, one young solitary female sitting beside the +corpse of that dauntless woman, her mother, they led her away, and did +all that their savage nature could suggest to soften her anguish and dry +her tears. They brought her to the tents of their women, and clothed and +fed her, and bade her be comforted; but her young heart burned within +her, and she refused consolation. She could not forget the wrongs of +her people: she was the only living creature left of the Mohawks on that +island. The young girl was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell had +found, wounded and bound, to perish with hunger and thirst on Bare-hill. + +Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she +had stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a +knife at his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the +young men, who had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was +called, and she was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state +already described. + +It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children +listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes +and pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood +had inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade +of the trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that +Catharine, with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those +heavenly lessons of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set +forth by his life, his doctrines, and his death. + +And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour's face in Heaven, +and dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for +those dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her +home a desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her +heart, and the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could +not become the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. +How hard were these conditions to the young heathen,--how contrary to +her nature, to all that she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, +where revenge was virtue, and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious +thing! + +Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her +Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her +Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and +admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, +unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into +her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake +those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing +her to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a +lamb of his "extended fold?"* + +_[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a +Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an +historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of +the actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down +the legend, and did so in part, but made such confusion between his +imperfect English and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for +copying.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill" _Irish Song._ + +WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, +shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting +was the amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, +quite forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting +on the brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their +proceedings. Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to +the Indians, by raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre +that excited their unqualified admiration and applause. + +At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north +shore, and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted +up their shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared +sufficiency of food for the following day. The Indians remained for a +fortnight; at the end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on +their movements, told Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and +that the Indians had gone up the river, and would not return again for +some weeks. The departure of the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing +to Catharine, whose dread of these savages had greatly increased since +she had been made acquainted with the fearful deeds which Indiana had +described; and what reliance could she feel in people who regarded deeds +of blood and vengeance as acts of virtuous heroism? + +Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a +short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, +which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they +had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken +it for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never +turned out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, +drawing water from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high +bank above her, that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, +Indiana gave the two boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw +them enter the ravine; and effectually hidden among the thick grey +mossy trunks of the cedars at the lake shore, they remained secure from +molestation, while the Indian girl dropped noiselessly down among the +tangled thicket of wild vines and brushwood, which she drew cautiously +over her, and closed her eyes, lest, as she naively remarked, their +glitter should be seen and betray her to her enemies. + +It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors +were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and +they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + +"Are my white brothers afraid to die?" was the young squaw's +half-scornful reply. "Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not +to die?" + +The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been +stormy and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the +nights were often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be +seen forming an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the +north and north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, +in ever-varying shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the +stars, which shone with softened radiance through the silvery veil +that dimmed their beauty. Sometimes for many nights together the same +appearance might be seen, and was usually the forerunner of frosty +weather, though occasionally it was the precursor of cold winds, and +heavy rains. + +The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as +an omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected +with her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally +she unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or +misfortunes were revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, +the appearance of strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. +The screeching of the owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the +fox, were evil auguries, while the flight of the eagle and the croaking +of the raven were omens of good. She put faith in dreams, and would +foretel good or evil fortune from them; she could read the morning and +evening clouds, and knew from various appearances of the sky, or +the coming or departing of certain birds or insects, changes in the +atmosphere. Her ear was quick in distinguishing the changes in the +voices of the birds or animals; she knew the times of their coming and +going, and her eye was quick to see as her ear to detect sounds. Her +voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and she delighted in imitating +the little ballads or hymns that Catharine sung; though she knew nothing +of their meaning, she would catch the tunes, and sing the song with +Catharine, touching the hearts of her delighted auditors by the melody +and pathos of her voice. + +The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft +and mild, almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen +through the smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on +the bosom of the glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface +every passing shadow, and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on +shore and island. Sometimes the stillness of the air was relieved by a +soft sighing wind, which rustled the dying foliage as it swept by. + +The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this +season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual +flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then +that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, +and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort +to certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their +customs; as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + +Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was +impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on +that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being +surprised by the Indians. "Some fine day," said Louis, "we will go out +in the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little +way." + +Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the +little islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is +level with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name +they had given to it was "Ship Island." The Indians have some name +for it which I have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, "Witch +Island." Hector's plan met with general approbation, and they resolved +to take provisions with them for several days, and visit the islands and +go up the river, passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees +on the shore wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + +The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a +mirror, and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the +lake, first to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; +they then went to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance +of wild vines, now rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,--tart, +but still not to be despised by our young adventurers; and they brought +away a large birch basket heaped up with the fruit. "Ah, if we had but +a good cake of maple sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make +such grape jelly as my mother makes!" said Louis. + +"If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar," +said Catharine; "there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, +near the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant +spot which we named the Happy Valley, _[FN: A lovely valley to the +east of Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family +of the name of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,--a +cultivated fertile farm.]_ where the bright creek runs, dancing along so +merrily, below the pine-ridge?" + +"Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where +the water-cresses grow." + +"Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day." + +"What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!" +said Hector, thoughtfully. + +"Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms," +said Louis, laughing. "We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I +think he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the +fine flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it +all with wheat, and peas, and Indian corn." + +"We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we +live," replied Hector; "that corn that we found in the canoe will be a +treasure." + +"Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill," said Catherine. "How lucky +we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn +flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went +to the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable +while you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the +life of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything +has prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is +because we try to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our +endeavours." + +"We are told," said Hector, "that there is joy with the angels of God +over one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when +the heathen that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy +name." + +Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that +she should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; +beside, she said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked +with a suspicious eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of +eating its flesh, though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider +them good meat, baked in Louis's Indian oven, or roasted on a forked +stick, before the fire. The Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a +very great deal larger than the common British hedgehog; the quills, +however, are longer and stronger, and varied with alternate clouded +marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; they are minutely barbed, so +that if one enters the flesh it is with difficulty extracted, but will +work through of itself in an opposite direction, and can then be easily +pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer great inconvenience from +getting their muzzles filled with the quills of the porcupine, +the former when worrying the poor little animal, and the latter by +accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great inflammation +will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose valuable hounds +from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her companions, there +were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they could collect a +bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the butter-nut +is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it is a +species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and +grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for +passing the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several +of which made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the +water, they agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana +said there was an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, +and where there was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a +comfortable bed for the night. This old log-house she said had been +built, she heard the Indians say, by a French Canadian trapper, who +used to visit the lake some years ago; he was on friendly terms with the +chiefs, who allowed him many privileges, and he bought their furs, and +took them down the lake, through the river Trent, to some station-house +on the great lake. They found they should have time enough to land and +deposit their nuts and grapes and paddle to Long Island before sunset. +Upon the western part of this fine island they had several times landed +and passed some hours, exploring its shores; but Indiana told them, to +reach the old log-house they must enter the low swampy bay to the east, +at an opening which she called Indian Cove. To do this required some +skill in the management of the canoe, which was rather over-loaded for +so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and thick that they had +some difficulty in pushing their way through them without injuring its +frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black elder, high-bush +cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded further, and there +was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp oak, and soft +maple, with silver birch and wild cherries. Long strings of silvery-grey +tree-moss hung dangling over their heads, the bark and roots of the +birch and cedars were covered with a luxuriant growth of green moss, but +there was a dampness and closeness in this place that made it far from +wholesome, and the little band of voyagers were not very sorry when the +water became too shallow to admit of the canoe making its way through +the swampy channel, and they landed on the banks of a small circular +pond, as round as a ring, and nearly surrounded by tall trees, hoary +with moss and lichens; large water-lilies floated on the surface of +this miniature lake, and the brilliant red berries of the high-bush +cranberry, and the purple clusters of grapes, festooned the trees. + +"A famous breeding place this must be for ducks," observed Louis. + +"And for flowers," said Catharine, "and for grapes and cranberries. +There is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however +lonely the spot." + +"A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes," said Hector, +looking round. "The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his +lodge near this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not +so bad a one either," and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted +little tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were +the ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by +the old trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles +still occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss +and grass lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of +her silent laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild +duck had sat and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which +she had found and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things +pertaining to the former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, +battered tin pannikin, now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a +broken earthen whisky jar; a rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and +pocketed, or rather pouched,--for he had substituted a fine pouch of +deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and a fishing-line of good stout +cord, which was wound on a splinter of red redar, and carefully stuck +between one of the rafters and the roof of the shanty. A rusty but +efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, who was the finder, +was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so valuable an +addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd worn-out +mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while +Catharine declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and +carefully deposited it in the canoe. + +As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that +there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some +one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining +the incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that +lay mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the +work of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look +upon these simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living +remnant. The young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, +isolated being, with no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to +her; a stranger in the land of her fathers, associating with those whose +ways were not her ways, nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language +was scarcely known to her, whose God was not the God of her fathers. +Yet the dark eyes of the Indian girl were not dimmed with tears as she +thought of these things; she had learned of her people to suffer, and be +still. + +Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the +earth, when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and +then kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,-- + +"Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish +you, because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God +loves you, and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, +and the Friend of the destitute, and to them that have no helper." + +The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning +is necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the +dumb, the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is +often more eloquent than words--the gentle pressure of the hand, the +half-echoed sigh, the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, +and unlock its hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock +is smitten and the waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to +refresh and fertilize the thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner +was touched; she bowed down her head upon the hand that held her so +kindly in its sisterly grasp, and wept soft sweet human tears full of +grateful love, while she whispered, in her own low plaintive voice, "My +white sister, I kiss you in my heart; I will love the God of my white +brothers, and be his child." + +The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: +they found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the +desolate hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, +made a serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the +deserted dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were +quickly rolled in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. +The new-found fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and +with very little delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, +was added to their store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, +which they found in abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and +butternuts which Hector cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, +finished their sylvan meal. The boys stretched themselves to sleep on +the ground, with their feet, Indian fashion, to the fire; while the two +girls occupied the mossy couch which they had newly spread with fragrant +cedar and hemlock boughs. + +The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, +_[FN: Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage +of Alfred Hayward, Esq.]_ a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with +steep rocky banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely +wooded to admit of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its +shores. + +The next island they named the Beaver, _[FN: The Beaver, commonly +called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon +it some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, +to which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies +towards the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite +to Gore's Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and +verandah of Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, +Esq., the Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of +the only residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the +few gentlemen who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract +of country, and to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of +late, have been so fully developed.]_ from its resemblance in shape to +that animal. A fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black +Island, _[FN: Black Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an +oval island, remarkable for its evergreens.]_ from its dark evergreens; +the next was that which seemed most to excite the interest of their +Indian guide, although but a small stony island, scantily clothed +with trees, lower down the lake. This place she called Spooke Island, +_[FN: Appendix H.]_ which means in the Indian tongue, a place for +the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, and here, in times past, +used the Indian people to bury their dead. The island is now often the +resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being grassy and open, find +it more available than those which are densely wooded. The young Mohawk +regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, and would not suffer +Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores. + +"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be +angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were +upon sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial +isle. + +Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived +from their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her +ancestors was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to +disturb the solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after +awhile reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into +two separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with +stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. +Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many +days' journey up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with +her paddle a long line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some +longer, some smaller, with Bays and inlets, which she gave them to +understand were the chain of lakes that she spoke of. There were +beautiful hunting grounds on the borders of these lakes, and many fine +water-falls and rocky islands; she had been taken up to these waters +during the time of her captivity. The Ojebwas, she said, were a branch +of the great Chippewa nation, who owned much land and great waters +thereabouts. + +Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the +Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration +and curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading +up to an unknown far-off land--a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable +forests,--flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on its +tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,--the pure +ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that flitted +across its surface--so quiet was the onward flow of its waters. + +A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and +crimson-tinted oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the +silent fall of many a sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer +and of winter's coming reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful +stillness; no breath of wind moved the trees or dimpled the water. +Bright wreaths of scarlet berries and wild grapes hung in festoons among +the faded foliage. The silence of the forest was unbroken, save by the +quick tapping of the little midland wood-pecker, or the shrill scream +of the blue jay; the whirring sound of the large white and grey duck, +(called by the frequenters of these lonely waters the whistle-wing,) as +its wings swept the waters in its flight; or the light dripping of the +paddle;--so still, so quiet was the scene. + +As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either +to encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in +returning. She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some +anxiety. Vast volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the +sun seen through its hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air +unrelieved by a breath of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; +and though the same coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several +successive days, a sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire +in all to return; and after a few minutes' rest and refreshment, they +turned their little bark towards the lake; and it was well that they did +so: by the time they had reached the middle of the lake, the stillness +of the air was rapidly changing. The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so +long piled upon each other in mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, +at first slowly, then with rapidly accelerated motion. There was a +hollow moaning in the pine tops, and by fits a gusty breeze swept +the surface of the water, raising it into rough, short, white-crested +ridges. + +These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising +hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on +the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl +raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the +crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the +Beaver Island--it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she +wielded the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their +little vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining +every nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of +thunder were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away +flew the light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the +tempest was above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest +trees as they bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding +from shore to shore. And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black +streaming hair from her brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with +renewed vigour plied the paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of +turbulence by the violence of the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, +but no word was spoken--they each felt the greatness of the peril, but +they also knew that they were in the hands of Him who can say to the +tempest-tossed waves, "Peace, be still," and they obey Him. + +Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland +was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with +difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to +do this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the +old tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper's shanty. + +The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of +the Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was +vigorously pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter +of the overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions +they had made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the +storm, they threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its +progress--thankful for an escape from such imminent peril. + +Thus ended the Indian summer--so deceitful in its calmness and its +beauty. The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into +stone by a premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting +the shelter of the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their +ark of refuge--the log-house on Mount Ararat. + +The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner +than usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of +April the snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered +with ice, and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet +from shore to shore. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Scared by the red and noisy light."--COLERIDGE. + +Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping +fire-wood, which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, +used from childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, +and snaring hares, were occupations which they pursued more for the +excitement and exercise than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance +of dried, venison, fish, and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. +They now visited those trees that they had marked in the summer, where +they had noticed the bees hiving, and cut them down; in one they got +more than a pailful of rich honey-comb, and others yielded some more, +some less; this afforded them a delicious addition to their boiled +rice, and dried acid fruits. They might have melted the wax, and burned +candles of it; but this was a refinement of luxury that never once +occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry pine knots that are found +in the woods are the settlers' candles; but Catharine made some very +good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and combs, by pouring water on +it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of the chimney, in one of +the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent substitute for salt as +a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the Indians, they were now +reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + +Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up +to every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she +patiently made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little +shelter of pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear +carved out of hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently +await the rising of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously +plunging it into the unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. +Many a noble fish did the young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet +of him whom she had tacitly elected as her lord and master; to him she +offered the voluntary service of a faithful and devoted servant--I might +almost have said, slave. + +During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, +that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing +log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west +wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, +unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian +blanket with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt +little cold excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind +was high, and then experience taught them to keep at home. And these +cold gloomy days they employed in many useful works. Indiana had +succeeded in dyeing the quills of the porcupine that she had captured on +Grape Island; with these she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and +an arrow case for Hector, besides making a sheath for Louis's +_couteau-du-chasse_, of which the young hunter was very proud, bestowing +great praise on the workmanship. + +Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was +engaged in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the +no small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, +was remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of +everything he saw. + +Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner +bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and +wide in the middle--not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat +fish; over this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, +wetted to make it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when +dry, it became quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work +such as you see on cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + +"And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in +your ingenious little net," said Louis, who had watched her proceedings +with great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she +showed all her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second +frame like the first. + +Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, +that was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for +some kind of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring +glance at Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her +silent laughs. + +"Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,"--and snatching up a light +bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the +netted frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on +with her work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage +persevering in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the +other was done: then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: +and he was forced at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of +the work. It was night before the two were completed, and furnished with +straps and loops. When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl +knelt down at Hector's feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a +joyous laugh, and said, "Snow-shoe--for walk on snow--good!" + +The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now +seemed to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use +of them. The young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own +feet, and soon proved to them that the broad surface prevented those +who wore them from sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector +began to acknowledge the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, +especially on the frozen snow on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well +pleased with the approbation that her manufactures met with, and very +soon manufactured for "Nee-chee," as they all now called Louis, a +similar present As to Catharine, she declared the snow-shoes made her +ancles ache, and that she preferred the mocassins that her cousin Louis +made for her. During the long bright days of February they made several +excursions on the lake, and likewise explored some of the high hills +to the eastward. On this ridge there were few large trees; but it was +thickly clothed with scrub oaks, slender poplars, and here and there +fine pines, and picturesque free-growing oaks of considerable size and +great age--patriarchs, they might be termed, among the forest growth. +_[FN: One of these hoary monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands +at the head of the lawn at Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr. W. +Falkner, now the residence of the Authoress.]_ Over this romantic range +of hill and dale, free as the air they breathed, roamed many a gallant +herd of deer, unmolested unless during certain seasons when the Indians +came to hunt over these hills. Surprised at the different growth of +the oaks on this side the plains, Hector could not help expressing his +astonishment to Indiana, who told him that it was caused by the custom +that her people had had from time immemorial of setting fire to the +bushes in the early part of spring. This practice, she said, promoted +the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover for the deer themselves, +and effectually prevented the increase of the large timbers. This +circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high ridge of hills when +contrasted with the more wooded portions to the westward. From the lake +these eastern hills look verdant, and as if covered with tall green +fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is cast upon the leaves +of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they present a glowing +unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only variegated in spots by +a dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light waving poplars turned by +the same wizard's wand to golden yellow. + +There were many lovely spots,--lofty rounded hills, and deep shady +dells, with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole +our young folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded +glens of the western side, where they had fixed their home. + +There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold +bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down +the frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on +small hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped +in their warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what +cared they for the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks +brightened by the delightful exercise, they would remain for hours +enjoying the amusement of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the +ground with myriads of diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening +it till it rivalled the snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out +with the exercise, they returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing +fire, till the smoked rafters glowed in the red light; spread their +simple fare of stewed rice sweetened with honey, or maybe a savoury +soup of hare or other game; and then, when warmed and fed, they kneeled +together, side by side, and offered up a prayer of gratitude to their +Maker, and besought his care over them during the dark and silent hours +of night. + +Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in +their tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of +enjoying many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely +forest home. Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice +of every sort of usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful +fortitude; not, indeed, quietly to sit down and wait for better times, +but vigorously to create those better times by every possible exertion +that could be brought into action to assist and ameliorate their +condition. + +To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that +nerves his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in +the steps of the old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the +exercise of his own energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their +own resources, instead of depending upon his neighbours. + +The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of +civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might +not have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian +Crusoes, because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a +life of such privation as they had known, they could not have brought +so much experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires +courage to yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + +Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made +by Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and +better table than the first rough one that they put together. They also +made a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and +separate sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly +circumscribed their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as +soon as the spring came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better +and larger room to be used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a +complete set of wooden trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of +excellent grain, and less liable to warp or crack than many others. + +Louis's skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. +He not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a +certain taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his +materials and rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in +mechanism for which the French have always been remarked. With his knife +and a nail he would carve a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with +handle across it, all delicately wrought with flowers and checker-work. +The shell of a butter-nut would be transformed into a boat, with +thwarts, and seats, and rudder; with sails of bass-wood or birch-bark. +Combs he could cut out of wood or bone, so that Catharine could dress +her hair, or confine it in braids or bands at will. This was a source of +great comfort to her; and Louis was always pleased when he could in any +way contribute to his cousin's happiness. These little arts Louis +had been taught by his father. Indeed, the entire distance that their +little, settlement was from any town or village had necessarily forced +their families depend on their own ingenuity and invention to +supply many of their wants. Once or twice a year they saw a trading +fur-merchant, as I before observed; and those were glorious days for +Hector and Louis, who were always on the alert to render the strangers +any service in their power, as by that means they sometimes received +little gifts from them, and gleaned up valuable information as to their +craft as hunters and trappers. And then there were wonderful tales of +marvellous feats and hair-breadth escapes to listen to, as they sat +with eager looks and open ears round the blazing log-fire in the old +log-house. Now they would in their turns have tales to tell of strange +adventures, and all that had befallen them since the first day of their +wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + +The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The +Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves +chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, +and did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter +end of the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as +they had the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar +and some molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible +place: it had the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready +built for a shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a +good boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need +not be exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two +boys soon cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out +into sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; +and the first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh +with their vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and +tapped the trees they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And +many pleasant days they passed during the sugar-making season. They did +not leave the sugar-bush for good till the commencement of April, when +the sun and wind beginning to unlock the springs that fed the lake, and +to act upon its surface, taught them that it would not long be +prudent to remain on the island. The loud booming sounds that were now +frequently heard of the pent-up air beneath striving to break forth from +its icy prison, were warnings not to be neglected. Openings began +to appear, especially at the entrance of the river, and between the +islands, and opposite to some of the larger creeks; blue streams that +attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and wild geese, that came, guided by +that instinct that never errs, from their abiding-places in far-off +lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild birds coming and going +with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to her simple-minded +companions. + +How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How +joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded +woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and +twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, +that comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the +low, tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines +or in the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of +the little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen +trees, and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his +wings against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds--were +among the early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest +dwellers, and for such they listened with eager ears, for they told +them-- + + "That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last." + +They watched for the first song of the robin, _[FN: Turdus +miyratorius, or American robin.]_ and the full melody of the red thrush +_[FN: Turdus melodus, or wood-thrush.]_; the rushing sound of the +passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, +sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or +darting down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, +the acorns that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries +of hawthorn and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines +were now putting on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies +were deep blue; nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed +waking into life and light. + +On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access +to the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and +Louis were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for +the addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to +work as soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little +field for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended +to the house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in +plenty of small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned +up the loose boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had +marked out, they proceeded to enclose it with a "brush fence", which +was done by felling the trees that stood in the line of the field, and +letting them fall so as to form the bottom log of the fence, which +they then made of sufficient height by piling up arms of trees and +brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were too particular, as there +was no fear of "breachy cattle," or any cattle, intruding on the crop; +but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as much to be guarded +against as oxen and cows. + +The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was +as clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a +log, contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the +grain was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week +in May, as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds +and the blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. +Hector's eyes had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning +from the lake, soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. +But soon his eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of +the ridge was enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some +mist-wreath hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds +rapidly spread on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, +and nothing but fire,_[FN: Appendix I.]_ that those dark volumes +arose. + +"Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire." + +"On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!" + +"Nay, but look there!" + +The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on +with fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by +the dry, withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the +flames. + +"It is two miles off, or more," said Louis; "and the creek will stop its +progress long before it comes near us--and the swamp there, beyond Bare +Hill." + +"The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, +a burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; +besides, when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on +fire, you know how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when +the forest was on fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and +how fiercely it raged! It was lighted by the ashes of your father's +pipe, when he was out in the new fallow; the leaves were dry, and +kindled; and before night the woods were burning for miles." "It was +a grand spectacle, those pine-hills, when the fire got in among them," +said Louis.. "See, see how fast the fires kindle; that must be some +fallen pine that they have got hold of; now, look at the lighting up of +that hill--is it not grand?" + +"If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!" said +Hector, anxiously. + +"The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as +the fire finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even +against the wind." + +As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line +of wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour +which hung in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with +inconceivable rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon +of destruction spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery +speed; and soon hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + +"It must have been the work of the Indians," said Louis. "We had better +make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. +We must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it +may come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent +escape by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + +"It is the Indian burning," said Indiana; "that is the reason there are +so few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for +the deer." + +Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having +scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed +to have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site +of the root-house _[FN: Root-houses are built over deep excavations +below the reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.]_ +below the bank, which they had just finished, they had met with charred +wood, at the depth of six feet below the soil, which must have lain +there till the earth had accumulated over it; a period of many years +must necessarily have passed since the wood had been burned, as it was +so much decomposed as to crumble beneath the wooden shovel which they +were digging with. + +All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were +flame--red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, +overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it +formed a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the +splendour of the scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire +better defined; but there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as +it had done in the daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of +evening effectually put a stop to the progress of the fire. The children +could now gaze in security upon the magnificent spectacle before them, +without the excitement produced by its rapid spread during the daytime. +They lay down to sleep in perfect security that night, but with the +consciousness that, as the breeze sprung up in the morning, they must be +on the alert to secure their little dwelling and its contents from the +devastation that threatened it. They knew that they had no power to stop +its onward course, as they possessed no implement better than a rough +wood shovel, which would be found very ineffectual in opening a trench +or turning the ground up, so as to cut off the communication with the +dry grass, leaves, and branches, which are the fuel for supplying the +fires on the Plains. The little clearing on one side the house they +thought would be its safeguard, but the fire was advancing on three +sides of them. + +"Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be +done." + +"I propose," said Louis, "retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest +point of Long Island." "My French cousin has well spoken," said Hector, +mimicking the Indian mode of speaking; "but listen to the words of the +wise. I propose to take all our household stores that are of the most +value, to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, +first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is +likely to take fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as +to the shanty, it must take its chance to stand or fall." + +"The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never +mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, +is not yet sown," said Louis. + +Hector's advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to +work to secure the property they meant to leave. + +It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as +it formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made +available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys +carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and +also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them +to hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off +to the lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand." + IRISH SONG + +The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far +as the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were +leaping among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the +pines, and rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to +heap of the fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes +of black and suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that +Hector and Louis had only time to push off the canoe before the heights +along the shore were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and +noble pine fell crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, +as its burning trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the +suffocating vapour, the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying +the cool, fresh air of the lake. Reposing on the grass beneath the +trees, they passed the day, sheltered from the noonday sun, and watched +the progress of the fires upon the shore. At night the girls slept +securely under the canoe, which they raised on one side by means of +forked sticks stuck in the ground. + +It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on +the water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, +to which the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by +contrast. + +Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty +escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the +safety of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was +already springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken +every precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. +_[FN: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved +by turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been +effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing +up the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry +roots, grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even +could it be got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in +stopping the progress of fire; even women and little children can assist +in such emergencies.]_ + +Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed +by the fire. "We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this +summer," she said, mournfully; "and the pretty roses and bushes will be +scorched, and the ground black and dreary." + +"The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the +forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, +leaves more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in," said +Hector. "I have seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new +and fresh set of plants spring up, and even some that looked withered +recover; the earth is renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so +great a misfortune as it at first appears." + +"But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!" said +Louis; "I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one +of those burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, +branchless trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance +against those that kindled the fires." + +"They do, indeed, look ugly," said Catharine; "yet the girdled ones look +very nearly as ill." _[FN: The girdled pines are killed by barking +them round, to facilitate the clearing.]_ + +At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim +smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was +still going on. + +As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the +point (Andersen's Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they +concluded the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual +hunter or trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they +were not very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they +decided on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was +with some feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had +befallen their shanty. + +"The shanty is burned!" was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis +and Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded +a view of its roof. "It is well for us that we secured our things in the +root-house," said Hector. + +"Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, +larger and better than the old one," said Louis. "The chief of our fence +is gone, too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if +we get it done a month hence, say I. Come, _ma belle_, do not look so +sorrowful. There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital +wigwam, while the new house is building." "But the nice table that you +made, Louis, and the benches and shelves!" + +"Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves +too. Never fear, _ma chere_, the same industrious Louis will make things +comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a +famous one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is +planted we shall have nothing else to do but to think about it." + +The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles +and birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did +not feel the inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been +earlier in the season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house +and pantry; and Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave +certain loose folds between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, +which formed a series of pouches or bags, in which many articles could +be stowed away out of sight. _[FN: In this way the winter wigwams +of the Indians are constructed so as to give plenty of stowing room for +all their little household matters, materials for work, &c.]_ + +While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, +the two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a +succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched +earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had +anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they +raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their +attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been +burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + +The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a +few weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than +the former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian +corn, renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting +partridges and ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. +The fruit season was less abundant this year than the previous one. The +fire had done this mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect +fruits during the summer months. + +It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the +boys, and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for +water, and on her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her +family of three half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. +_[FN: An Indian baby; but "papoose" is not an Indian word. It is +probably derived from the Indian imitation of the word "baines."]_ +In their turn the strangers seemed equally astonished at Catharine's +appearance. + +The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon +reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which +she had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To +this Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple +sugar, which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted +the brown baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden +cradle, and fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference +between the colour of her young hostess's fair skin and her own swarthy +hue; for she often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, +and compared her arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment +and curiosity; possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race +this poor savage had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set +the birchen dish on the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its +cradle prison, she slipped the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and +silently signing to her sons to follow her, she departed. That evening +a pair of ducks were found fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a +silent offering of gratitude for the refreshment that had been afforded +to this Indian woman and her children. + +Indiana thought, from Catharine's description, that these were Indians +with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake +and the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be +near. The squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother +Snow-storm, from having been lost in the woods, when a little child, +during a heavy storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a +gentle, kind woman, and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt. +Her sons were good hunters; and though so young, helped to support their +mother, and were very good to her and the little one. + +I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a +brief notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved +abundant, and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and +stored, and plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of +honey. + +The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the +lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some +hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter +was unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring +following was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May +before vegetation had made any very decided progress. + +The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both +within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for +the floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats +and a table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering +their only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for +splitting the wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with +great care and patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft +mate, woven by Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut +and dried; but the little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or +deer-skin on the floor before the fire, as she had been accustomed. + +A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and +was now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the +loghouse;--but for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all +they had left and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those +who dwelt beneath its humble roof. + +The season of flowers had again arrived,--the earth, renovated by the +fire of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,--June, with +its fragrant store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,--the +anniversary of that time when they had left their beloved parents' +roofs, to become sojourners in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much +they felt they had to be grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and +much anxiety they had felt; but they had enjoyed blessings above all +that they could have expected, and they might, like the Psalmist when +recounting the escapes of the people of God, have said,--"Oh that men +would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and the wonders that +he doeth for the children of men." And now they declared no greater +evil could befal them than to lose one of their little party, for even +Indiana had become as a dear and beloved sister; her gentleness, her +gratitude and faithful trusting love, seemed each day to increase. Now, +indeed, she was bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for she knelt +to the same God, and acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies of her +Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, and +had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own +tongue; so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her +on any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of +social and Christian love. + +Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track +of a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and +showing symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred +staying at home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had +gathered some fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, +Indian meal cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was +weary and warm, for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on +the threshold of the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and +closed her eyes. Perhaps the poor child's thoughts were wandering back +to her far-off, never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking +of the hunters and their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of +dread stole over her mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she +saw no form; but there was a strange consciousness that she was not +alone--that some unseen being was near, some eye was upon her. I +have heard of sleepers starting from sleep the most profound when the +noiseless hand of the assassin has been raised to destroy them, as if +the power of the human eye could be felt through the closed lid. + +Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was +near her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance +around. No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she +resumed her seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet +which she had tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, +attracted her attention. + +"What aileth thee, wee dearie?" she said, tenderly, as the timid little +creature crept, trembling, to her breast. "Thy mistress has scared thee +by her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor +weasel here to seize thee, silly one;" and as she spoke she raised her +head, and flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded +her eyes. The deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met +her terrified gaze, gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the +door-post, whence the upper part of the face alone was visible, partly +concealed by a mat of tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, +the poor girl neither spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing +her hands tightly across her breast, as if to still the loud beating +of her heart, she sat gazing upon that fearful appearance, while, with +stealthy step, the savage advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, +as he did so, his eyes riveted upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily +serpent is said to fascinate his prey. His hapless victim moved not; +whither could she flee to escape one whose fleet foot could so easily +have overtaken her in the race? where conceal herself from him whose +wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive her of all vital energy? + +Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian +to answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and +taking the girl's ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong +of deer's hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path +through the ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch +canoe, rocking gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a +young girl were seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed +no word indicative of curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the +Indian lifted his captive into the canoe, and made signs to the elder +squaw to push from the shore. When all had taken their places, the +woman, catching up a paddle from the bottom of the little vessel, stood +up, and with a few rapid strokes sent it skimming over the lake. + +The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous +situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her +agitated face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror +presented themselves to her bewildered brain--all that Indiana had +described of the cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before +her mind. Poor child, what miserable thoughts were thine during that +brief voyage! + +Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the +victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved +ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no +hope of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated +mind, she raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the +Indian and his companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the +stoical one of an Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no +answering glance of sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look +of pity--not a nerve or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of +the Indians, and the woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy +attitude, burying her face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter +emotions from the heartless strangers. + +She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian's education to +hide the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and +tender emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + +It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, +which was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the +disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds +of unrighteousness, and to teach man that he is by nature the child of +wrath and victim of sin, and that in his unregenerated nature his whole +mind is at enmity with God and his fellow-men, and that in his flesh +dwelleth no good thing. And the Indian has acknowledged that power,--he +has cast his idols of cruelty and revenge, those virtues on which he +prided himself in the blindness of his heart, to the moles and the bats; +he has bowed and adored at the foot of the Cross;--but it was not so in +the days whereof I have spoken. _[FN: Appendix K.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?" + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER + +The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian +lifted his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move +forward along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards +higher up the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with +shrubby trees--the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the +paddles and secure the canoe. + +It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, +when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead +for mercy--whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we +ourselves are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, +mute with terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now +found herself surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange +assembly, if by chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, +but she saw not the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright +sparkling eye of her cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive +features of the Indian girl, her adopted sister--she stood alone among +those wild gloomy-looking men; some turned away their eyes as if they +would not meet her woe-stricken countenance, lest they should be moved +to pity her sad condition; no wonder that, overcome by the sense of her +utter friendliness, she hid her face with her fettered hands and wept +in despair. But the Indian's sympathy is not moved by tears and sighs; +calmness, courage, defiance of danger and contempt of death, are what he +venerates and admires even in an enemy. + +The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed +to be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant +against the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the +stranger; Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, +heard the old man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. +Gladly did she escape from the presence of those pitiless men, from +whose gaze she shrunk with maidenly modesty. And now when alone with +the women she hesitated not to make use of that natural language which +requires not the aid of speech to make itself understood; clasping +her hands imploringly, she knelt at the feet of the Indian woman, her +conductress--kissed her dark hands and bathed them with her fast flowing +tears, while she pointed passionately to the shore where lay the happy +home from which she had been so suddenly torn. + +The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her +imploring gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone +replied in her own language, that she must go with the canoes to the +other shore,--and she pointed to the north as she spoke. She then +motioned to the young girl--the same that had been Catharine's companion +in the canoe--to bring a hunting knife, which was thrust into one of +the folds of the birch-bark of the wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly +weapon in the hands of the Indian woman with a pang of agony as great as +if its sharp edge was already at her throat. So young--so young, to die +by a cruel bloody death! what had been her crime?--how should she find +words to soften the heart of her murderess? The power of utterance +seemed denied--she cast herself on her knees and held up her hands in +silent prayer; not to the dreaded Indian woman, but to Him who heareth +the prayer of the poor destitute--who alone can order the unruly wills +and affections of men. + +The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the +terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with +a quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists +of the pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her +whole face she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand +upon her young head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise +lifted the flowing tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over +the back of her own swarthy hand; then, as if amused by the striking +contrast, she shook down her own jetty-black hair and twined a tress of +it with one of the fair haired girl's--then laughed till her teeth shone +like pearls within her red lips. Many were the exclamations of childish +wonder that broke from the other females, as they compared the snowy arm +of the stranger with their own dusky skins; it was plain that they had +no intention of harming her, and by degrees distrust and dread of her +singular companions began in some measure to subside. + +The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her +a handful of parched rice and some deer's flesh to eat; but Catharine's +heart was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing +the Indian word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of +birch-bark from the floor of the tent, and gathering the corners +together, ran to the lake, and soon returned with water in this most +primitive drinking vessel, which she held to the lips of her guest, and +she seemed amused by the long deep draught with which Catharine slaked +her thirst; and something like a gleam of hope came over her mind as she +marked the look of kindly feeling with which she caught the young Indian +girl regarding her, and she strove to overcome the choking sensation +that would from time to time rise to her throat, as she fluctuated +between hope and fear. The position of the Indian camp was so placed +that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither could Catharine +see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the mount that her +brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their visits to the +lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them even if she +had seen them on the beach. + +The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while +the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians +were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. +Catharine's heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the +lake showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted +at a fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek +flowing down through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they +found several tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The +river was here a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many +kinds fringed the edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had +never been pierced by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the +vegetation that even the Indian could hardly have penetrated through +its dark swampy glades: far as the eye could reach, that impenetrable +interminable wall of verdure stretched away into the far off distance. + +On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open +meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the +eminence above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by +a luxuriant orchard and garden, the property of a naval officer, +_[FN: Lt. Rubidge, whose interesting account of his early +settlement may be read in a letter inserted in Captain Basil Hall's +Letters from Canada.]_ who with the courage and perseverance that mark +brave men of his class, first ventured to break the bush and locate +himself and his infant family in the lonely wilderness, then far from +any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + +But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler +had not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire +scathed it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those +shades, nor sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its +echoes. + +All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a +shady tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and +wondering at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its +dear inmates. Bad as she had thought her separation from her father +and mother and her brothers, when she first left her home to become +a wanderer on the Rice Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her +situation, snatched from the dear companions who had upheld and cheered +her on in all her sorrows! But now she was alone with none to love or +cherish or console her, she felt a desolation of spirit that almost made +her forgetful of that trust that had hitherto always sustained her in +time of trouble or sickness. She looked round, and her eye fell on the +strange unseemly forms of men and women, who cared not for her, and to +whom she was an object of indifference or aversion: she wept when she +thought of the grief that her absence would occasion to Hector and +Louis; the thought of their distress increased her own. + +The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the +little brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots +and stones that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and +long exposure to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. +The last rosy light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a +glowing tint when she awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; +the kingfisher and dragon-fly, and a solitary loon, were the only +busy things abroad on the river; the first darting up and down from +an upturned root near the water's edge, feeding its youngings; the +dragon-fly hawking with rapid whirring sound for insects, and the loon, +just visible from above the surface of the still stream, sailed quietly +on companionless, like her who watched its movements. + +The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment +roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the +evening meal was now preparing,--and Catharine, chilled by the falling +dew, crept to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at +being recognised by one friendly face--it was the mild and benevolent +countenance of the widow Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to +bid her to share their camp fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, +the beaming smile that was given by this good creature, albeit she was +ugly and ill-featured, cheered the sad captive's heart. She had given +her a cup of cold water and what food her log-cabin afforded, and in +return the good Indian took her to her wigwam and fed, and warmed, and +cherished her with the loving-kindness of a Christian; and during all +her sojourn in the Indian camp she was as a tender mother over her, +drying her tears and showing her those little acts of attention that +even the untaught Indians know are grateful to the sorrowful and +destitute. Catharine often forgot her own griefs to repay this worthy +creature's kindness, by attending to her little babe and assisting her +in some of her homely preparations of cookery or household work. She +knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow would do her no good, and after +the lapse of some days she so well disciplined her own heart as to check +her tears at least in the presence of the Indian women, and to assume an +air of comparative cheerfulness. Once she found Indian words enough to +ask the Indian widow to convey her back to the lake, but she shook her +head and bade her not think anything about it; and added, that in the +fall, when the ducks came to the rice-beds, they should all return, and +then if she could obtain leave from the chief, she would restore her to +her lodge on the plains; but signified to her that patience was her only +present remedy, and that submission to the will of the chief was her +wisest plan. Comforted by this vague promise, Catharine strove to be +reconciled to her strange lot, and still stranger companions. She could +not help being surprised at the want of curiosity respecting her that +was shown by the Indians in the wigwam, when she was brought thither; +they appeared to take little notice that a stranger and one so +dissimilar to themselves had been introduced into the camp, for before +her they asked no questions about her, whatever they might do when she +was absent, though they surveyed her with silent attention. Catharine +learned, by long acquaintance with this people, that an outward +manifestation of surprise _[FN: See Appendix L.]_ is considered a +want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of weakness and +childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly less disposed +to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and one of +their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, was +examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, +and holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, +those who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the +island, showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw +was granddaughter to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with +considerable respect by the rest of the women; she was a gay lively +creature, often laughing, and seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund +of good humour. She was inclined to extend her patronage to the young +stranger, making her eat out of her own bark dish, and sit beside her on +her own mat. She wove a chain of the sweet-scented grass with which +the Indians delight in adorning themselves, likewise in perfuming their +lodges with bunches or strewings upon the floor. She took great pains +in teaching her how to acquire the proper attitude of sitting, after the +fashion of the Eastern nations, which position the Indian women assume +when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian name of this little damsel +signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that lively restless bird, always +flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as garrulous and as cheerful too +as that merry little herald of the spring. + +Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine's dress, which she +examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut +fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border +of the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These +fringes she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old +chief was called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and +mocassins escape their observation. There was something mysterious about +her garments. Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep +guttural exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst +from the lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with +deep attention. These people had recognised in these things the peculiar +fashion and handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to +perish by hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was +excited to know by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress +wrought by the hand of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange +and mysterious did it seem to them, and warily did they watch the +unconscious object of their wonder. + +The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, +enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she +prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose +whole nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously +endeavoured to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she +succeeded in an incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to +express her own wants, and converse a little with the females who were +about her. + +She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood +apart from the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his +granddaughter, or by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some +sick person, or a secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great +Spirit; but one day when the chief of the people had gone up the river +hunting, and the children were asleep, she perceived the curtain of +skins drawn back, and a female of singular and striking beauty appeared +standing in the open space in front. She was habited in a fine tunic of +white dressed doeskin richly embroidered with coloured beads and stained +quills, a full petticoat of dark cloth bound with scarlet descended +to her ancles, leggings fringed with deer-skin knotted with bands of +coloured quills, with richly wrought mocassins on her feet. On her +head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black feathers; her long shining +tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, each thick tress confined +with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and blue; her stature was +tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye wore an expression so +proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own involuntarily fill with +tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She would have approached +nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk back timid and +abashed beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, the Beam of the +Morning, the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose hand had wrought +so fearful a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of her brother. She +stood there, at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal robes, as on the +day when she received her death-doomed victim. And when she recalled her +fearful deed, shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back and shrouded +herself within the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye of that +terrible woman. She remembered how Indiana had told her that since +that fatal marriage-feast she had been kept apart from the rest of the +tribe,--she was regarded by her people as a sacred character, a great +_Medicine_, a female _brave_, a being whom they regarded with mysterious +reverence. She had made this great sacrifice for the good of her nation. +Indiana said it was believed among her own folks that she had loved the +young Mohawk passionately, as a tender woman loves the husband of her +youth; yet she had hesitated not to sacrifice him with her own hand. +Such was the deed of the Indian heroine--and such were the virtues of +the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash'd o'er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree's tall shadow sleeps upon its breast." + COLERIDGE. + +The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, _[FN: +Now known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house +and some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for +the steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore's Landing on the +Rice Lake and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.]_ and then early one +morning the wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, +proceeded up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to +interest Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between +low shores, thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through +which the eye might pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a +clearing, not a sight or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or +heard; the darting flight of the wild birds as they flitted across from +one side to the other, the tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of +the blue jay, was all that was heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that +monotonous voyage. After many hours a decided change was perceived in +the current, which ran at a considerable increase of swiftness, so that +it required the united energy of both men and women to keep the light +vessels from drifting down the river again. They were in the Rapids, +_[FN: Formerly known as Whitla's Rapids, now the site of the +Locks.]_ and it was hard work to stem the tide, and keep the upward +course of the waters. At length the rapids were passed, and the weary +Indian voyagers rested for a space on the bosom of a small but tranquil +lake. _[FN: The little lake about a mile below Peterborough and +above the Locks, formerly girt in by woods of pine and beech and maple, +now entirely divested of trees and forming part of the suburbs of the +town. ]_ The rising moon shed her silvery light upon the calm waters, +and heaven's stars shone down into its quiet depths, as the canoes with +their dusky freight parted the glittering rays with their light paddles. +As they proceeded onward the banks rose on either side, still fringed +with pine, cedar and oaks. At an angle of the lake the banks on either +side ran out into two opposite peninsulas, forming a narrow passage or +gorge, contracting the lake once more into the appearance of a broad +river, much wider from shore to shore than any other part they had +passed through since they had left the entrance at the Rice Lake. + +Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with +delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green +cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the +sound of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken +eddies rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of +the moon; and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those +rapids, at a signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed +to shore on a low flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last +island. _[FN: Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the +island, a noble and substantial bridge has been built.]_ + +Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the +women prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and +birch-bark covering from the encampment below, and soon all was +bustle and business; unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even +Catharine lent a willing hand to assist the females in bringing up the +stores, and sundry baskets containing fruits and other small wares. She +then kindly attended to the Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, +who, bound upon their wooden cradles, were either set up against the +trunks of the trees, or swung to some lowly depending branch, there to +remain helpless and uncomplaining spectators of the scene. + +Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied +as herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, +having from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they +were sure to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers +when the season of refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was +friendless and alone, an orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred +and friends. One Father, one Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even +He--the Father of the fatherless. + +That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole +out of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter +of which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy +plain, studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that +they might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. +It was a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through +which for so many many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed +on monotonously; here it was all wild and free, dashing along like a +restive steed rejoicing in its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + +Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing +river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as +it bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. "Happy, glorious +waters! you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no +canoe can ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, +were free to pursue my onward way--how soon would I flee away and be at +rest!" Such thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the +lonely captive girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked +abroad over those moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming +sense of the utter loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with +faltering step hurried down once more to the wigwams, silently crept +to the mat where her bed was spread, and soon forgot all her woes and +wanderings in deep tranquil sleep. + +Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always +seemed to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes +and rivers in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So +disregardful are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to +sleep where the ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a +temporary flooring of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather +than remove the tent a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always +be found. This either arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from +both, but it is no doubt the cause of much of the sickness that prevails +among, them. With his feet stretched to the fire the Indian cares for +nothing else when reposing in his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the +improvement that might be made in his comfort; he listens with a face of +apathy, and utters his everlasting guttural, which saves him the trouble +of a more rational reply. + +"Snow-bird" informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be +removed for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the +squaws pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the +chief of the laborious part of the work fell to the share of the +females, who were very much more industrious and active than their +husbands; these, when not out hunting or fishing, were to be seen +reposing in easy indolence under the shade of the trees, or before the +tent fires, giving themselves little concern about anything that was +going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, and submissive; they bore +without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and fatigue, and seemed to +perform every task with patience and good humour. They made the canoes, +in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched the tents, converted +the skins of the animals which the men shot into clothes, cooked the +victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove mats, dyed the quills +of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short performed a thousand +tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + +Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, +they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no +floors to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + +Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only +renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish +bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of +furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the +same, their beds mats or skins of animals,--such were the domestic +arrangements of the Indian camp. _[FN: Much improvement has taken +place of late years in the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of +their dwellings are clean and neat even for Europeans.]_ In the tent to +which Catharine belonged, which was that of the widow and her sons, a +greater degree of order and cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for +Catharine's natural love of neatness and comfort induced her to strew +the floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep +round the front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its +vicinity. She never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her +hair with the comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care +of the little child, which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this +little creature, for it was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a +little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked with kinder eyes +upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which she tended their +children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who cherish +their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that the +exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who +give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew +upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave +Catharine for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and +return to Hector and Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?" + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening +of the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. +They had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine +half-grown fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding +the fire nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. +There, it is true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she +was not to be seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for +them, and had gone out to gather strawberries, they did not at first +feel very anxious, but ate some of the rice and honey, for they were +hungry with long fasting; and taking some Indian meal cake in their +hands, they went out to call her in, but no trace of her was visible. +They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set off by herself to seek +them, and had missed her way home again. + +They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree +Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked +the lake--no, she was not to be seen; night found them still +unsuccessful in their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had seated +herself beneath some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined the +true cause, having seen nothing of the Indians. + +Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her +not there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting +left them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The +first streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in +vain upon the name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. +Desolation had fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others +they had most feared, had happened to them. + +Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so +easily to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that +she had discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake +shore; she had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had +been woven by Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had +seen the mark of feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the +lake, and the furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. +It was evident that she had been taken away from her home by these +people. Poor Louis gave way to transports of grief and despair; he +knew the wreath, it was such as Catharine often made for herself, and +Mathilde, and petite Louise, and Marie; his mother had taught her to +make them; they were linked together by the stalks, and formed a sort +of leaf chain. The remembrance of many of their joyous days of childhood +made Louis weep sorrowful tears for happy days, never to return again; +he placed the torn relic in his breast, and sadly turned away to hide +his grief from Hector and the Indian girl. + +Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but +advised wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. +The Indians had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats +round Mount Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they +ventured to land on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw +evident traces of a temporary encampment having been made. This was all +they could do, further search was unavailing; as they found no trace of +any violence having been committed, they still cherished hopes that +no personal harm had been done to the poor captive, It was Indiana's +opinion that, though a prisoner, she was unhurt, as the Indians rarely +killed women and children, unless roused to do so by some signal act +on the part of their enemies, when an exterminating spirit of revenge +induced them to kill and spare not; but where no offence had been +offered, they were not likely to take the life of an helpless, +unoffending female. + +The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify +revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was +difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of +Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores +and the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still +thought the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + +Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis +no longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled +themselves to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great +delight; all now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they +wandered listlessly to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had +departed from their little dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, +each seeming absorbed in his own painful reveries. + +In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; +they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours +alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and +missed their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to +occupy. They called, but there was none to reply--she too was gone. They +hurried to the shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to a +mere speck upon the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; +they called to her in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted +back no sound to their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and +they sat them down disconsolately on the shore. + +"What is she doing?" said Hector; "this is cruel to abandon us thus." + +"She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings +of Catharine," said Louis. "How came you to think that such is her +intention?" + +"I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or +die." + +"What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose +life she attempted to take?" + +"She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she +loves." + +"Alas!" said Hector, "she will perish miserably and to no avail; they +would not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana's +life." + +"How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not +tell us? we would have shared her danger." + +"She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl +has a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that +made life dear to us," said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his +knees. + +"Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with +more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana's leaving us, we left her so +much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we +did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad." +"I tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old +battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have +an axe and a tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?" + +"True! we will set about it to-morrow." + +"I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good +pine for the purpose." + +"As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than +this dread suspense and inaction." + +The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of +suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, +and the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to +their inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt +proved abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well +in the water. + +Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so +Hector. + +"Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, +and again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, +that is the way to succeed at last." + +"You have ten times my patience, Hec." "Yes! but you are more ingenious +than I, and are excellent at starting an idea." + +"We are a good pair then for partnership." + +"We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past +blunders." + +"Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost +Catharine!" + +"I know it, a long, long, weary month," replied Louis, and he struck his +axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent +for some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested +from their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to +resume their conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector's arm, and +pointed to a bark canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point +of the island. Hector started to his feet, exclaiming, "It is Indiana +returned!" + +"Nonsense! Indiana!--it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man in +a blanket coat." + +"The Indians?" asked Hector inquiringly. + +"I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he +doing?" + +"Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass--another--he has great +luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore." + +"That man does not move like an Indian--hark! he is whistling. I ought +to know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to +sing;" and Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old +French Canadian song, which we will give in the English as we heard it +sung by an old lumberer. + + "Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we'll wander, and we'll chase the buffalo. + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us," said Hector. + +"The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that +may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one--so I think he will +not be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is +but one, so he must mind how he affronts us," replied Louis laughing. + +"I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is +not singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,"--and Louis +raised his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + + "Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo-- + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to +listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it +again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!" + +"Come, let us go on with our work," said Hector, with something like +impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more +in regular succession on the log; but Louis's eye was still on the +mysterious fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and +smoking his pipe. "I do not think he sees or hears us," said Louis to +himself, "but I think I'll manage to bring him over soon"--and he set +himself busily to work to scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and +soon began to strike fire with his knife and flint. + +"What are you about, Louis?" asked Hector. "Lighting a fire." + +"It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure." + +"I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome +fisherman." + +"And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking +in the bushes of the island." + +"Pooh, pooh! Hec.:--there are no savages. I am weary of this +place--anything is better than this horrible solitude." And Louis fanned +the flame into a rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till +it soared up among the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, +and rubbed his hands gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the +island, and a few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over +the surface of the calm lake. + +Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel +lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were +chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, +also faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn +mocassins, sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis's old raft, and gazed +with a keen eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A +few rapid interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois +of the Lower Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and +English by Louis. + +A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried +out--"Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon." + +"Oui! oui!"--with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw +himself into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father's friend and +old lumbering comrade. + +"Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,--and Hector, in his turn, +received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + +"Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade +here at the shore of the Rice Lake?--oh! what a joyful meeting!" + +Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they +live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold +Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + +The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped +for want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + +"What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have +outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob +Morelle--hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,--those are the things to +harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish--eh! mes enfans, is +it not so?" + +Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from +their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the +society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down +to the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper +seemed moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and +with one of his national asseverations, declared "That la bonne fille +should not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage +wretches. Yes, he, her father's old friend, would go up the river and +bring her back in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the +wigwams." + +"It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today," said Hector. "Come +home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit." + +"No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, +and there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still +standing,--the Trapper's Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will +go off to the island and look for it." + +"No need for that," replied Louis, "for though I can tell you the old +place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a +boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own +nearer at hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder +hill. So come with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to lie +upon." + +"And you have all these, boys!" said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, +as they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green +corn. The old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. "Ha! +here is old Wolfe too," as the dog roused himself from the hearth and +gave one of his low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and +instead of going out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie +for hours dozing before the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the +loving hand that used to pat his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and +pillow his great head upon her lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws +upon her shoulders, while he licked her hands and face; but she was +gone, and the Indian girl was gone, and the light of the shanty had gone +with them. Old Wolfe seemed dying of sorrow. + +That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short +Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings +over, and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + +"And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?" + +"At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now +since we left home, three summers ago." + +"Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been +absent," said the old "Now I know the distance through the woods, for I +have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as +the bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles--no, nor that +either." + +The boys opened their eyes. "Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet +to us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles +or more." + +"I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember +when I was out on the St. John's, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I +was well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we +parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole +eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, +just in a circle, because, d'ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me +astray the whole time." + +"Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?" asked Louis, with a sly +glance at Hector. + +"Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then." +And old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to +recount the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis's edition +of the roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old +Jacob's long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, +all tagged on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not +sorry when the old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, +at last stretched himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up +from the canoe, and soon was soundly sleeping. + +The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his +slumber, which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up +a good fire, which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour +was not unwelcome, he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on +the coals for his breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis +wakened. + +"Mes enfans," said Jacob, "I have been turning over in my mind about +your sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river +alone without any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a +suspicious people, they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to +expect treachery in others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the +white men have not always kept good faith with them, which I take to be +the greater shame, as they have God's laws to guide and teach them to +be true and just in their dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have +not, the more's the pity. Now, d'ye see, if the Indians see two stout +lads with me, they will say to themselves, there may be more left +behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I go to the camp alone; and, God +willing, I will bring back your sister, or die in the attempt. I shall +not go single-handed; see, I have here scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder +and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a sin and a shame to tempt these +poor wretches to their own destruction; it makes fiends of them at +once." + +It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old +Jacob to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was +firm, and would not be moved from his purpose. + +"Look you, boys," he said, "if I do not return by the beginning of the +rice harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; +then I would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they +do not respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. +In such case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out _[FN: Log +canoe.]_ will do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the +rapids; _[FN: Crook's Rapids.]_ make a portage there; but as your +craft is too weighty to carry far, e'en leave her and chop out another, +and go down to the Falls; _[FN: Heeley's Falls, on the Trent.]_ +then, if you do not like to be at any further trouble, you may make out +your journey to the Bay _[FN: Bay Quinte.]_ on foot, coasting along +the river; there you will fall in with settlers who know old Jacob +Morelle--aye, and your two fathers--and they will put you in the way of +returning home. If I were to try ever so to put you on the old Indian +trail in the woods, though I know it myself right well, you might be +lost, and maybe never return home again. I leave my traps and my rifle +with you; I shall not need them: if I come back I may claim the things; +if not, they are yours. So now I have said my say, had my _talk_, as the +Indians say. Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who alone can bring +this matter to a safe issue." And the old man devoutly kneeled down, +and prayed for a blessing on his voyage and on those he was leaving; and +then hastened down to the beach, and the boys, with full hearts, watched +the canoe till it was lost to their sight on the wide waters of the +lake. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran." + DRYDEN. + +What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the +Indians roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading +town. Those glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only +of them remains to some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five +years ago, shadowing the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have +disappeared, but the green emerald turf that they once shaded still +remains. The wild rushing river still pours down its resistless spring +floods, but its banks have been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans +its rapid waters. It has seen the destruction of two log-bridges, +but this new, substantial, imposing structure bids fair to stand from +generation to generation. The Indian regards it with stupid wonder: he +is no mechanic; his simple canoe of birch bark is his only notion of +communication from one shore to another. The towns-people and country +settlers view it with pride and satisfaction, as a means of commerce and +agricultural advantage. That lonely hill, from which Catharine viewed +the rapid-flowing river by moonlight, and marvelled at its beauty and +its power, is now the Court-house Hill, the seat of justice for the +district,--a fine, substantial edifice; its shining roof and pillared +portico may be seen from every approach to the town. That grey village +spire, with its groves of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! +those trees that embower it, once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder +scattered groups of neat white cottages, each with its garden of flowers +and fruit, are spread over what was once an open plain, thinly planted +with poplar, oaks, and pine. See, there is another church; and nearer, +towards the west end of the town, on that fine slope, stands another, +and another. That sound that falls upon the ear is not the rapids of the +river, but the dash of mill wheels and mill dams, worked by the waters +of that lovely winding brook which has travelled far through woods and +deep forest dingles to yield its tribute to the Otonabee. There is the +busy post-office, on the velvet carpet of turf; a few years, yes, even +a few years ago, that spot was a grove of trees. The neat log building +that stood then alone there, was inhabited by the Government Agent, now +Colonel Macdonald, and groups of Indians might be seen congregated on +the green, or reposing under the trees, forming meet subjects for the +painter's pencil, for he knew them well, and was kind to them. + +The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting +lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple +wares of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe +to sell his fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his +intercourse with his white brethren has made him consider necessary +to his comforts, to supply wants which have now become indispensable, +before undreamed of. He traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks +round upon dwellings, and gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which +he can neither obtain nor imitate; and feels his spirit lowered--he is +no more a people--the tide of intellect has borne him down, and swept +his humble wigwam from the earth. He, too, is changing: he now dwells, +for the most part, in villages, in houses that cannot be moved away at +his will or necessity; he has become a tiller of the ground, his +hunting expeditions are prescribed within narrow bounds, the forest is +disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian must also yield to +circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he murmurs in secret; +but his voice is low, it is not heard; he has no representative in the +senate to take interest in his welfare, to plead in his behalf. He is +anxious, too, for the improvement of his race: he gladly listens to the +words of life, and sees with joy his children being brought up in the +fear and nurture of the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own blood +going forth on the mission of love to other distant tribes; he is proud +of being a Christian; and if there be some that still look back to the +freedom of former years, and talk of "the good old times," when they +wandered free as the winds and waters through those giant woods, they +are fast fading away. A new race is rising up, and the old hunter will +soon become a being unknown in Canada. + +There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy +bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), +looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. +The Indians called it "the white girl's rest," for it was there that +Catharine delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to +sing her snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile's +prayer, unheard and unseen. + +The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart +the waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on +the water, the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the +lodges came softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with +the spoils of a successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and +crackling, sending up their light columns of thin blue smoke among the +trees; and now a goodly portion of venison is roasting on the forked +sticks before the fires. Each lodge has its own cooking utensils. That +jar embedded in the hot embers contains sassafras tea, an aromatic +beverage, in which the squaws delight when they are so fortunate as to +procure a supply. This has been brought from the Credit, far up in the +west, by a family who have come down on a special mission from some +great chief to his brethren on the Otonabee, and the squaws have cooked +some in honour of the guests. That pot that sends up such a savoury +steam is venison pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you choose to +give the Indian mess that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and herbs. +Those tired hounds that lay stretched before the fire have been out, and +now they enjoy the privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, +and receive withal an occasional reproof from the squaws, if they +approach their wishful noses too close to the tempting viands. + +The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls +are playing or rolling on the grass; "The Snow-bird" is seated on +the floor of the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she +confines in links by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine +is working mocassins beside her;--a dark shadow falls across her work +from the open tent door--an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from +one of the women makes Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, +silent, pale, and motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands +Indiana--a gleam of joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. +Amazement and delight at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment +deprives Catharine of the power of speech; then terror for the safety of +her friend takes place of her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of +the angry tones of the Indian woman's voice, and throws her arms about +Indiana as if to shield her from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome +in her arms. + +"Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?" + +"To free you, and then die," was the soft low tremulous answer. "Follow +me." Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the +young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the +design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating +heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; +it was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor +reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + +The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude +of submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the +lodge; but she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who +starting to their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from +danger, and sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for +what purpose. + +"To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father," was the meek reply. +"May the daughter of the Bald Eagle's enemy speak to her great father?" + +"Say on," was the brief reply, "the Bald Eagle's ears are open." + +"The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the +father of his people," replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. +"The Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on." + +"The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the +eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief +slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them +for the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of +his enemies save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the +grand-daughter of the Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy +that is not afraid to raise the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in +battle. The young girl's mother was a _brave."_ She paused, while her +proud eye was fixed on the face of her aged auditor. He nodded assent, +and she resumed, while a flush of emotion kindled her pale cheek and +reddened her lips,-- + +"The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the +hatchet and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her +heart was lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I +will revenge my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her +heart burned within her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, +the Great Spirit was about my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have +fled, for an arrow was in her flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took +her, they brought her down the great river to the council hill, they +bound her with thongs and left her to die. She prayed, and the Great +Spirit heard her prayer and sent her help. The white man came; his heart +was soft; he unbound her, he gave water to cool her hot lips, he led her +to his lodge. The white squaw (and she pointed to Catharine) was there, +she bound up her wounds, she laid her on her own bed, she gave her meat +and drink, and tended her with love. She taught her to pray to the Good +Spirit, and told her to return good for evil, to be true and just, kind +and merciful. The hard heart of the young girl became soft as clay when +moulded for the pots and she loved her white sister and brothers, and +was happy. The Bald Eagle's people came when my white brothers were at +peace, they found a trembling fawn within the lodge, they led her away, +they left tears and loneliness where joy and peace had been. The Mohawk +squaw could not see the hearth of her white brothers desolate; she took +the canoe, she to the lodge of the great father of his tribe, and she +says to him, 'Give back the white squaw to her home on the Rice Lake, +and take in her instead the rebellious daughter of the Ojebwa's enemy, +to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the knife or the +tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of the great +chief.'" She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and bowing +down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + +There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and +said:-- + +"Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken +well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall +be restored to her brother's lodge--but thou remainest. I have spoken." + +Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and +remained weeping--how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in +her turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief +turned a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was +weary--he was impatient of further excitement--he coldly motioned to +them to withdraw; and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all +that had taken place since that sad day when Catharine was taken from +her home. While her heart was joyful at the prospect of her own release, +it was clouded with fears for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + +"They will condemn me to a cruel death," said Indiana, "but I can suffer +and die for my white sister." + +That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside +Catharine; but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own +heart in the still watches of the night--it seemed as if a new life had +been infused within her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; +the energies of her mind had been awakened, ripened into maturity as +it were, and suddenly expanded. When all the inmates of the lodges were +profoundly sleeping, Catharine arose,--a sudden thought had entered into +her mind, and she hesitated not to put her design into execution. There +was no moon, but a bright arch of light spanned the forest to the north; +it was mild and soft as moonlight, but less bright, and cast no shadow +across her path; it showed her the sacred tent of the widow of the +murdered Mohawk. With noiseless step she lifted aside the curtain of +skins that guarded it, and stood at the entrance. Light as was her step, +it awakened the sleeper; she raised herself on her arm and looked up +with a dreamy and abstracted air as Catharine, stretching forth her hand +in tones low and tremulous, thus addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:-- + +"The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of +thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he +is angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy--the blood of thy +murdered husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words +that he commands." + +She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless +step, and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat +as though it would burst its way through her bosom. What had she +done?--what dared? She had entered the presence of that terrible woman +alone, at the dead hour of night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous +words to that strange being whom even her own people hardly dared to +approach uncalled-for! Sick with terror at the consequences of her +temerity, Catharine cast her trembling arms about the sleeping Indian +girl, and hiding her head in her bosom, wept and prayed till sleep came +over her wearied spirit. It was late when she awoke. She was alone: the +lodge was empty. A vague fear seized her: she hastily arose to seek her +friend. It was evident that some great event was in preparation. The +Indian men had put on the war-paint, and strange and ferocious eyes +were glancing from beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was driven in the +centre of the cleared space in front of the chief's lodge: there, bound, +she beheld her devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm unshaken +countenance, she stood. There was no sign of woman's fear in her fixed +dark eye, which quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men +who stood round her, armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. +Her thoughts seemed far away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, +wandering in that happy land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; +or, inspired with the new hope which had been opened to her, she was +looking to Him who has promised a crown of life to such as believe in +His name. She saw not the look of agony with which Catharine regarded +her; and the poor girl, full of grief, sunk down at the foot of a +neighbouring tree, and burying her face between her knees, wept and +prayed--oh! how fervently! A hope crept to her heart--even while the +doom of Indiana seemed darkest--that some good might yet accrue from +her visit to the wigwam of the Great Medicine squaw. She knew that the +Indians have great belief in omens, and warnings, and spirits, both good +and evil; she knew that her mysterious appearance in the tent of the +Mohawk's widow would be construed by her into spiritual agency; and her +heart was strengthened by this hope. Yet just now there seems little +reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is given, the war-dance is +begun--first slow, and grave, and measured; now louder, and quicker, and +more wild become both sound and movement. But why is it hushed again? +See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an old weather-beaten +man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and approaches the area +of the lodge. + +The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and +death-song are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance +of the captives. The chief points to Catharine--she is free: his white +brother may take her--she is his. But the Indian law of justice must +take its course; the condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa +chief, must die. In vain were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and +beads for the women, with powder and shot, laid before the chief: the +arrows of six warriors were fitted to the string, and again the dance +and song commenced, as if, like the roll of the drum and clangour of +the trumpet, it were necessary to the excitement of strong and powerful +feelings, and the suppression of all tenderer emotions. + +And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, +rising above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek +became pale: it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the +death-song of the captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she +stands unmoved, with eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart-- + + "In still, but brave despair." + +Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and +streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of +the Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed +by her sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which +dark stains are visible--it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed by +her on that day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the +name of the Great Spirit she claims the captive girl--the last of that +devoted tribe--to be delivered over to her will. Her right to this +remnant of her murdered husband's family is acknowledged. A knife is +placed in her hand, while a deafening yell of triumph bursts from the +excited squaws, as this their great high-priestess, as they deemed her, +advanced to the criminal. But it was not to shed the heart's blood of +the Mohawk girl, but to severe the thongs that bound her to the deadly +stake, for which that glittering blade was drawn, and to bid her depart +in peace whithersoever she would go. + +Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: "At the dead +of night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before +mine eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set +free the last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed +by my hand and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I +did this my path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the +better land and be at rest if I did this good deed." She then laid +her hands on the head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping +herself in the dark mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent +once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie."--_Scotch Ballad._ + +Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so +full of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa +chief, and besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before +him, and this time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing +the beads and cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the +grand-daughter of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old +man was not insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by +the devoted Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault +by graciously offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in +marriage to one of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but +the young girl modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her +heart yearned for those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who +had taught her to look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and +a better state of being. She said, "She would go with her white sister, +and pray to God to bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her +to do." + +It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the +exercise of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social +happiness. The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of +violence, seemed disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge +was now filled with mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and +dancing. A covenant of peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob +and the chief, who bade Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth +they should be free to hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of +the lake, whenever they desired to do so, "he the Bald Eagle had said +so." + +On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; +the canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A +supply of parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian +chief for the voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might +not suffer, from want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to +the lodge of the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. "The +Snow-bird" was sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with +tears at parting with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft +and playful as the tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her +arm. She did not let Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, +the work of her own hands,--bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine +pieces and strung in fanciful patterns, _[FN: Appendix M]_ mocassins +richly wrought, and tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have +graced a lady's work-table, so rare was their workmanship. + +Just as they were about to step into the canoe "the Snow-bird" +reappeared, bearing a richly worked bark box, "From the Great Medicine," +she said in a low voice, "To the daughter of the Mohawk _brave._" The +box contained a fine tunic, soft as a lady's glove, embroidered and +fringed, and a fillet of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings +and breast of the war-bird, as shoulder ornaments. It was a token of +reconciliation and good-will worthy of a generous heart. + +The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips +reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said +in her native tongue, "Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, +and pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the +spirit-land." + +With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in +being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the +events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she +longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to +that kind old man's plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the +arms of their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that +I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!--in +the shelter of that dear mother's arms whom she now pined for with a +painful yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. +But in spite of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt +for the night some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern +bank of the Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild +cherries, hawthorns and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by +alder and cranberry bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the +little eminence; this creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, +through which the hunters sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut +to the lower part of the lake near Crook's Rapids. To this creek old +Jacob steered his light craft, and bidding the girls collect a few dry +sticks and branches for an evening fire on the sheltered side of the +little bank, he soon lighted the pile into a cheerful blaze by the aid +of birch bark, the hunter's tinder--a sort of fungus that is found in +the rotten oak and maple-trees--and a knife and flint; he then lifted +the canoe, and having raised it on its side, by means of two small +stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then spread down his buffalo +robe on the dry grass. "There is a tent fit for a queen to sleep under, +mes chres filles," he said, eyeing his arrangements for their night +shelter with great satisfaction. + +He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of +splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block +of limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob +opened his wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush +table with large basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed +was unusual on a hunter's table. He was too old a forester to care how +his food was dished, so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + +Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away +the time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue +heavens were studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless +hosts deep deep down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of +fireflies lighted up the dark recesses of the forest's gloom. High +in the upper air the hollow booming of the night-hawk was heard at +intervals, and the wild cry of the night-owl from a dead branch, +shouting to its fellow, woke the silence of that lonely river scene. + +The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe +or hummed some French voyageur's song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe +soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed +on the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair +mingling with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a +lovely pair--one fair as morning, the other dark as night. + +How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early +song of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes +upon the river, like a flock of sheep at rest--the tinkling sound of +the heavy dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red +squirrel, how lightly he runs along that fallen trunk--how furtively he +glances with his sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan haunts! +Hark! there is a rustling among the leaves--what strange creature works +its way to the shore? A mud turtle--it turns, and now is trotting along +the little sandy ridge to some sunny spot, where, half buried, it may +lie unseen near the edge of the river. See that musk-rat, how boldly he +plunges into the stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems the current +till he gains in safety the sedges on the other side. + +What gurgling sound is that?--it attracts the practised ear of the old +hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle +of the stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?--it is a noble +stag. Look at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so +gallantly; see how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear +in those lonely solitudes--he has never heard the crack of the hunter's +rifle--he heeds not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow +rankles in his neck, and the crimson flood dyes the water around him--he +turns, but it is only to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old +hunter's bow; and now the noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is +rapidly launched by the hand of the Indian girl--her eye flashes with +the excitement--her whole soul is in the chase--she stands up in the +canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded buck, while a shower of blows +are dealt upon his head and neck with the paddle. Catharine buries her +face in her hands--she cannot bear to look upon the sufferings of the +noble animal. She will never make a huntress--her heart is cast in too +soft a mould. See they have towed the deer ashore, and Jacob is in +all his glory,--the little squaw is an Indian at heart--see with +what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great business +is completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the +canoe--they wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine's +summons to eat her breakfast. + +The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is +also rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those +glorious rays--the whole earth seems wakening into new life--the dew +has brightened every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup--the pines and +balsams give out their resinous fragrance--the aspens flutter and dance +in the morning breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the +stream--the shores become lower and flatter--the trees less lofty and +more mossy--the stream expands and wide beds of rushes spread out on +either side--what beds of snowy water-lilies--how splendid the rose +tint of those perseicarias that glow so brightly in the morning sun--the +rushes look like a green meadow, but the treacherous water lies deep +below their grassy leaves--the deer delights in these verdant aquatic +fields, and see what flocks of red-wings rise from among them as the +canoe passes near--their bright shoulder-knots glance like flashes of +lightning in the sun-beams. + +This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, +half choked and killed with grey moss and lichens--those straggling +alders and black ash look melancholy--they are like premature old age, +grey-headed youths. That island divides the channel of the river--the +old man takes the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the +broad Rice Lake, and Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the +shanty rising among the trees--one after another the islands steal out +into view--the capes, and bays, and shores of the northern side are +growing less distinct, Yon hollow bay, where the beaver has hidden till +now, backed by that bold sweep of hills that look in the distance as if +only covered with green ferns, with here and there a tall tree, stately +as a pine or oak--that is the spot where Louis saw the landing of the +Indians--now a rising village--Gores' Landing. On yon lofty hill now +stands the village church, its white tower rising amongst the trees +forms a charming object from the lake, and there a little higher up, not +far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural cottages--one of these +belong to the spirited proprietor of the village that bears his name. +That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the right, is Colonel +Brown's, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; but silence +and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + +Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of +churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. _[FN: Appendix N.]_ The +Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, +and Catharine's eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to +herself the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her +gladness she seizes the old man's rugged hand and kisses it, and flings +her arms about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the +canoe has touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds +herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such +moments--how few we have in life--they are created from our very +sorrows--without our cares our joys would be less lively; but we have +no time to moralize--Catharine flies with the speed of a young fawn, to +climb the steep cliff-like shoulder of that steep bank, and now, out of +breath, stands at the threshold of her log-house--how neat and nice +it looks compared with the Indians' tents--the little field of corn is +green and flourishing--there is Hector's axe in a newly-cut log--it is +high noon--the boys ought to have been there taking their mid-day +meal, but the door is shut. Catharine lifts the wooden latch, and steps +in--the embers are nearly burned out, to a handful of grey ashes--old +Wolfe is not there--all is silent--and Catharine sits down to still the +beating of her heart and await the coming up of her slower companions, +and gladdens her mind with the hope that her brother and Louis will soon +be home--her eye wanders over every old familiar object--all things +seem much as she had left them, only the maize is in the ear and the top +feather waves gracefully with the summer breeze--it promises an abundant +crop; but that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the young +planters--it was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the +field--to those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather +into barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls +busied themselves in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked +away over the hills to search for the boys, and it was not long before +he returned with Hector and Louis. + +I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled +with the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved +cousin; or I might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky +cheek of the young Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black +eyes, owed its origin to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by +her white brother. Nor will we say whose hand held hers so long in his +while Catharine related the noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the +perils encountered by the devoted Indiana--whose eyes were moistened +with tears as the horrors of that fearful trial were described--or who +stole out alone over the hills, and sat him down in the hush and silence +of the summer night to think of the acts of heroism displayed by that +untaught Indian girl, and to dream a dream of youthful love; but with +these things, my young readers, we have nothing to do. + +"And now, my children," said old Jacob, looking round the little +dwelling, "have you made up your minds to live and die here on the +shores of this lake, or do you desire again to behold your father's +home? Do your young hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?" +"After our fathers' home!" was Louis's emphatic reply. "After the home +of our childhood!" was Catharine's earnest answer. Hector's lips echoed +his sister's words, while a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan +stranger; but her timid eye was raised to his young face with a trusting +look, as she would have said. "Thy home shall be my home, thy God my +God." + +"Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike +the Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine +hills. It will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way." + +"For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret," said +Hector. "It would be a glorious place for a settlement--all that one +could desire--hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I +will try and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come +and settle hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, +especially now we are friends with the Indians." + +With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young +folks laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, +packed up such portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with +full hearts sat down to take their last meal in their home--in that home +which sheltered them so long--and then, with one accord, they knelt down +upon its hearth, so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer +to Him who had preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and +then they journeyed forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, +however, of their little band they left behind: this was the faithful +old dog Wolfe. He had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only +a few days before Catharine's return he had crept to the seat she was +wont to occupy, and there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without +great regret, beneath the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope +near the corn-field. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "I will arise, and go to my father."--_New Testament_. + +It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is +heard, as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads +to Maxwell and Louis Perron's little clearing; the dark shadows are +lengthening that those wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an +oasis in the vast forest desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, +has hewed for himself in the wilderness. The little flock are feeding +among the blackened stumps of the uncleared chopping; those timbers have +lain thus untouched for two long years; the hand was wanting that should +have given help in logging and burning them up. The wheat is ripe for +the sickle, and the silken beard of the corn is waving like a fair +girl's tresses in the evening breeze. The tinkling fall of the cold +spring in yonder bank falls soothingly on the ear. Who comes from +that low-roofed log cabin to bring in the pitcher of water, that pale, +careworn, shadowy figure that slowly moves along the green pasture, as +one without hope or joy; her black hair is shared with silver, her cheek +is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, it looks as though the +light might be seen through if she held it towards the sun? It is the +heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. Her heart has been +pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the children of her +love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, and with +cheerful voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be lingering +on that pale cheek,--yet the premature furrows on that broad, sunburnt, +manly brow speak, too, of inward care? It is the father of Hector and +Catharine. Those two fine, healthy boys, in homespun blouses, that are +talking so earnestly, as they lean across the rail fence of the little +wheat field, are Kenneth and Donald; their sickles are on their arms; +they have been reaping. They hear the sudden barking of Bruce and +Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see what causes the agitation they +display. + +An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he +casts down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old +French ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, +but starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. +"Ha, Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this +way." The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + +"How is ma chre mre, and the young ones?" asked the old man, in a +husky voice--his kind heart was full. "Can you receive me, and those I +have with me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we +travellers in the bush are no wise nice." + +"The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see +you, Jacob. How many are ye in all?" + +"There are just four, beside myself,--young people; I found them where +they had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to +come with me." + +The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew +his faded blue bonnet over his eyes. "Jacob, did ye ken that we lost +our eldest bairns, some three summers since?" he faltered, in a broken +voice. + +"The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand," +said the trapper. + +"Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the +glory," ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from +his head; "and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not +to have seen this day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill +you." + +In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken +idea that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, +have seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded +cheek of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright +sparkle, you would have said that joy does not kill. + +"But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?" + +Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old +Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his +cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his +father's cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and +sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector +and Catharine to their father. + +"But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart +upon that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het +knees, her long raven hair shading her features as with a veil," +asked the Highlander Maxwell, pointing as he spoke' to the spot where, +unnoticed and unsharing in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian +girl. There was no paternal embrace for her, no tender mother's kiss +imprinted on that dusky cheek and pensive brow--she was alone and +desolate, in the midst of that scene of gladness. + +"It is my Indian sister," said Catharine, "she also must be your child;" +and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the +reluctant girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and +cherish the young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + +I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble +dwelling, or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of +their lost brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + +Time passes on--years, long years have gone by since the return of +the lost children to their homes, and many changes have those years +effected. The log-houses have fallen to decay--a growth of young pines, +a waste of emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part +of the enclosure, now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement--no +trace or record remains of the first breakers of the bush, another +race occupy the ground. The traveller as he passes along on that smooth +turnpike road that leads from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence +to Gore's Landing, may notice a green waste by the road-side on either +hand, and fancy that thereabouts our Canadian Crusoes' home once +stood--he sees the lofty wood-crowned hill, and sees in spring-time, +for in summer it is hidden by the luxuriant foliage, the little forest +creek, and he may if thirsty, taste of the pure fresh icy water, as it +still wells out from a spring in the steep bank, rippling through the +little cedar-trough that Louis Perron placed there for the better speed +of his mother when filling her water jug. All else is gone. And what +wrought the change?--a few words will suffice to tell. Some travelling +fur merchants brought the news to Donald Maxwell, that a party of +Highlanders had made a settlement above Montreal, and among them were +some of his kindred. The old soldier resolved to join them, and it was +not hard to prevail upon his brother-in-law to accompany him, for they +were all now weary of living so far from their fellow-men; and bidding +farewell to the little log-houses at Cold Springs, they now journeyed +downwards to the new settlement, where they were gladly received, their +long experience of the country making their company a most valuable +acquisition to the new colonists. + +Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and +cleared and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, +now a fine industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a +candidate for baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the +altar his newly baptized bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not +sufficiently skilled in the laws of their church to tell how the +difficulty of nearness of kin was obviated, but they were married on the +same day as Hector and Indiana, and lived a happy and prosperous life; +and often by their fireside would delight their children by recounting +the history of their wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +APPENDIX A.--_Preface._ + +Page vii. + +Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of +August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent +twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her +wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from +which we condense the following statements:-- + +It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, +she went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on +attempting to return she became separated from her companions, who +returned to her mother's, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her +at home. Several of her neighbours searched for her during the night, +without success. The search was continued during Sunday, Monday, and +Tuesday, by some fifty or sixty individuals, and although her tracks, +and those of a dog which accompanied her, were discovered, no tidings of +the girl were obtained. A general sympathy for the afflicted widow and +her lost daughter was excited, and notwithstanding the busy season of +the year, great numbers from Windsor and the neighbouring townships of +Brompton, Shipton, Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, +Stoke, and Dudswell, turned out with provisions and implements for +camping in the woods, in search of the girl, which was kept up without +intermission for about fourteen days, when it was generally given up, +under the impression that she must have died, either from starvation, or +the inclemency of the weather, it having rained almost incessantly for +nearly a week of the time. On the 3lst her brother returned home from +Massachusetts, and with two or three others renewed the search, but +returned the second day, and learned to their great joy that the lost +one had found her way home the evening previous. + +On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow +Campbell, to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was +found, as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but +quite rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her +absence. From her story the following particulars were gathered:-- + +When first lost she went directly from home down "Open Brooke," to a +meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, +which she mistook for what is called the "_Oxias_ opening," a mile +distant in the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she +was lost, and having heard that lost persons might be guided by the +sun, she undertook to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she +directed her steps towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking +it for "Open Brooke," and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east +direction (her way home was due north) seven or eight miles till she +came to the great Hay-meadow in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, +and on Monday morning directed her course to, and thence down, the South +Branch in the great Meadow. + +After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was +searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over +the meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, +occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the +junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight +miles from home. + +For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a +circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the +morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties +of men, and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of +people were in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no +sound of trumpet, or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay +by a brook, early on Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. +Thinking the gun to have been fired not more than half a mile distant, +she said she "screamed and run" to the place from whence she supposed +the noise came, but found nothing. Early in the day, however, she came +to the camp where this gun was fired, but not until after its occupants +had left to renew their search for her. This camp was about four miles +from the great meadow, where she spent the Sabbath previous. There she +found a fire, dried her clothes, and found a partridge's gizzard, which +she cooked and ate, and laid down and slept, remaining about twenty-four +hours. + +In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she +visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon +trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or +four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes +making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the +drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered +much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The +last week she said she had got "toughened," and did not shiver. When +first lost she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, +except choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her +dog, which remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, +which she ate greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her +health; and for the last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood +sorrel. While the dog remained with her, she constantly shared her food +with him, but said she was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble +to find him food. + +On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction +with the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could +not ford the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a +little above its junction with the south branch, and following down +the stream, she found herself in the clearing, near Moor's Mill. Thence +directing her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale's, about a +mile from her mother's, at six o'clock, having walked five miles in two +hours, and probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the +next day, when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost +as one raised from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen +and lacerated; but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with +the exception of two small rents. + +Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she +was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she +felt disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not +discovering any new tracks, that the people had given over searching +for her, she was greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she +was strongly inclined to give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of +seeing her mother stimulated her to make one more effort to reach home, +which proved successful. When visited, she was in a state of feverish +excitement and general derangement of the system, and greatly emaciated, +with a feeble voice, but perfectly sane and collected. + +It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly +clad, could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such +severe storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very +strange that she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those +in search of her, sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow +their tracks home, and not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or +been seen by any of the hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + +A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, +is the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American +papers, the "Wild Man of the far West." From time to time, these details +approach the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in +a state of destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this +one, who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, +and then either forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of +the beholder's brain. But it appears that he was, in March, 1850, +encountered by Mr. Hamilton, of Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. +The wild man was, likewise, chasing his prey. A herd of cattle fled past +Mr. Hamilton and his party, in an agony of terror, pursued by a giant, +bearing a dreadful semblance to humanity. His face and shoulders were +enveloped with long streaming hair, his body was entirely hirsute, his +progression was by great jumps of twelve or thirteen feet at a leap. The +creature turned and gazed earnestly on the hunters, and fled into the +depths of the forest, where he was lost to view. His foot-prints were +thirteen inches long. Mr. Hamilton published the description of the +savage man in the _Memphis Inquirer_. Afterwards several planters +deposed to having, at times, for many years, seen this appearance. All +persons generally agreed that it was a child that had been lost in the +woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now grown to meridian strength, in a +solitary state. Thus the possibility of an European child living, even +unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar to the inhabitants of the +vast American continent. Although we doubt that any human creature would +progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar to the human instinct. +It is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas is, in reality, some +species of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Page 72.--_"where Wolf Tower now stands."_ + +The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to +purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a +_belle vue,_ or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his mind +from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him to +the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another +house in the district. + + +APPENDIX C. + +Page 113.--_"... as civilization advances."_ + +Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, +wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, +and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the +ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is +a thing of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, +so changed is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow +cornfields now meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to +the less frequented depths of the forest. + +From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep +valleys, and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the +Rice Lake Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be +marred by the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; +and many of those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste +and refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature +had left so fair. + +APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_. + +"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance +which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were +often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had +to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we +left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as +Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father +on his ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen +over, we left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour +and pork; and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from +the white settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for +five days in succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to +shoot or trap anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no +means of procuring any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet +deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of the trees falling all about us, +and cracking with the weight of the snow. + +"Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have +been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, +that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak +they could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They +could only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and +old mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad +except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without +food, the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my +grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see +the starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager +looks!--the children would cry for something to eat! My poor mother +would heave bitter sighs, of despair, the tears falling profusely +from her cheeks as she kissed us! Wood, though in plenty, could not be +obtained on account of the feebleness of our limbs. My father would +at times draw near the fire and rehearse some prayer to the gods. It +appeared to him that there was no way of escape; the men, women, and +children, dying; some of them were speechless, the wigwam was cold and +dark, and covered with snow! + +"On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; +he soon awoke, and said to me: 'My son, the good Spirit is about to +bless us this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east +walking on the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two +beavers about nine o'clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me +to the river, and we will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.' I +saw that his countenance beamed with delight and hope; he was full of +confidence. I put on my mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering +along behind him about half a mile. Having made a fire near the river, +where there was an air-hole through which the beaver had come up during +the night, my father tied a gun to a stump with the muzzle towards the +air-hole; he also tied a string to the trigger, and said, 'Should you +see the beaver rise pull the string, and you will kill it.' I stood by +the fire, with the string in my hand; I soon heard the noise occasioned +by the blow of his tomahawk; he had killed a beaver and brought it to +me. As he laid it down, he said, 'Then the great Spirit will not let +us die here;' adding, as before, 'if you see the beaver rise, pull +the string;' and he left me. I soon saw the nose of one, but I did not +shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the trigger, and off the +gun went. I could not see for some moments for the smoke. My father +ran towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side by side; then, +pointing to the sun,--'Do you see the sun?' he said; 'the great Spirit +informed me that we should kill these two about this time in the +morning. We will yet see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let us go home, +and see if our people are yet alive.' We arrived just in time to save +them from death. Since which we have visited the same spot the year the +missionaries came among us. + +"My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot +where we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who +have perished in this way far up in the woods."--_Life of George Copway, +written by himself_, p. 44. + +APPENDIX E. + +Page 184.--"_... on first deciding that it was a canoe._" + +The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel +in common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was +hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; +but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its +excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, +and its launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by +feasting and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. +Possibly the birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily +constructed, and needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; +but it was too frail to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable +to injuries. + +The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland +waters, were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their +arrow-heads were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and +inserted in a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; +and blunt wooden ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and +small game. + +APPENDIX F. + +Page 195.--_"... the Christian mind revolts with horror."_ + +There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong +feeling in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a +concentration of all the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and +wide along the northern banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, +to be called by one name, and united in one purpose--their general +improvement. To this end, one of the most influential of their chiefs, +John Jones, of Dover Sound, offered to give up to his Indian brethren, +free of all cost, a large tract of unceded land, that they might be +gathered together as one nation. + +In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from +lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it +was proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys +could be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for +aid in establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general +feeling of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at +Owen's Sound. At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + +There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of +the oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers +some idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:-- + +"Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from +the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your +children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that +require you here. + +"Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our +present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of +ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at +a true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and +our descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of +peace, health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas +and Ottawas are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often +passed sleepless nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These +nations, I am proud to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my +bone; and for them, if needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. +Brothers, you see my heart." _[Here he held out a piece of white paper, +emblematical of a pure heart.]_ + +"Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout +Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place +_[query, too hot to hold you]_. The whites are kindling fires all round +you _[i.e. clearing land]_. + +"One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some +plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that +our dying fires may not go out, _i.e._ our people become extinct, but +may be kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any +portion of the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe +of peace, and live and die together, and see our children play and +be reared on the same spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and +because we love you, and feel for you, we propose this. + +"My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning" _[the speaker now pointed +with his finger towards the heavens]_, "look up and see the blue sky: +there are no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, +that when the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon +them. May he now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and +straight path for our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but +this morning I shake hands with you all, in my heart. + +"Brothers, this is all I have to say." + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX G. + +Page 213.--_"... and aimed a knife at his throat"_ + +The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some +sixty or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my +informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as +those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men. +My Indian narrator replied--"Indians, no Christians in those days, do +worse than that very few years ago,--do as bad now in far-west." + +The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together +in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. +The conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from +the Wesleyan Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of +Captain Anderson, whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore +on and about Anderson's Point, the renowned site of the great battle. +The war-weapon and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be +found in this vicinity. + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX H. + +Page 232.--_"This place she called Spooke Island"_ + +Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh +from the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury +their dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached +with reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, +rhus toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in +landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. + + +APPENDIX I. + +Page 253.--_"and nothing but fire."_ + +The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with +which fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. +Certainly, there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the +Indian names, approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of +the language of the East; such is "Mad-wa-osh," the music of the winds. + + +APPENDIX K. + +Page 272.--_"but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken."_ + +_From George Copway's Life._ + +Converted Indians are thus described in the "Life" of their literary +countryman, George Copway:-- + +_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a +tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and +Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for +an annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the +River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first +tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were +wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, +the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to +Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, +became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state +of heathenism and spiritual destitution. They collected a considerable +number together, and by rote and frequent repetitions, taught the first +principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and +with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed +to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils +attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to +work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage +of cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been +greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians. + +J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + +The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering +pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, +commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quint; they resided on +Grape Island, in the Bay of Quint, six miles from Belleville. +They resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and +agriculture. Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by +the Wesleyan Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, +a commodious chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, +shoemaker's shop and joiner's. There are upwards of 300 of these +Indians. + +The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary +interpreter. + +_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and +Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These +Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled +in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. +_[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling +of the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year +1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson's Point was built +and cultivated.]_ The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve +miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, +subdivided in 50-acre lots. + +Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow. + +Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The +Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of +them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, +enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + + +APPENDIX L. + +Page 282.--_"... that an outward manifestation of surprise."_ + +A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent +intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their +apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he +wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where +several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and +narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of +surprise by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired +to an adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and +was amused at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free +from his surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious +toy like a parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture +and amazement, but they did not choose to be entrapped into showing +surprise. This perfect command over the muscles of the face, and +the glance of the eye, is one of the remarkable traits in the +Indian character. The expression of the Indian face, if I may use so +paradoxical a term, consists in a want of expression--like the stillness +of dark deep water, beneath which no object is visible. APPENDIX M. + +Page 332.--_"bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung +in fanciful patterns."_ + +The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply +scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian +thorn, a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then +pierced with parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the +porcupine quills are inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the +surface of the bark. + +The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the +effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; +their attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and +angular; and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or +natural than those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect +produced is rich and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety +of dyes they contrive to give to this simple material, the porcupine +quills. The sinew of the deer, and some other animals, furnish the +Indian women with thread, of any degree of fineness or strength. The +wants of these simple folk are few, and those easily supplied by the +adaptation of such materials as they can command with ease, in their +savage state. + + +APPENDIX N. + +Page 339.--_"is Mount Ararat."_ + +Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly +two years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +***** This file should be named 8382-8.txt or 8382-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8382/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + A Tale of The Rice Lake Plains + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: August 4, 2009 [EBook #8382] +Last Updated: November 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + CANADIAN CRUSOES. + </h1> + <h2> + A TALE OF THE RICE LAKE PLAINS + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Catharine Parr Traill + </h2> + <h4> + Authoress Of “The Backwoods Of Canada, Etc.” + </h4> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Edited By Agnes Strickland + </h3> + <h4> + Illustrated By Harvey + </h4> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h5> + London:<br /> Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co.<br /> 25, Paternoster Row.<br /> + 1852. <br /> <br /> <br /> Dedicated<br /> To The Children Of The Settlers<br /> + On<br /> The Rice Lake Plains,<br /> By Their<br /> Faithful Friend And + Well-Wisher<br /><br /> THE AUTHORESS.<br /><br /> OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE,<br /><br /> + 15th Oct 1850 + </h5> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_LIST"> LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. </a><br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEa"> APPENDIX A.—<i>Preface.</i> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEb"> APPENDIX B. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEc"> APPENDIX C. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEd"> APPENDIX D. Page 157, <i>note</i>. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEe"> APPENDIX E. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEf"> APPENDIX F. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEg"> APPENDIX G. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEh"> APPENDIX H. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEi"> APPENDIX I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEk"> APPENDIX K. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEl"> APPENDIX L. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEm"> APPENDIX N. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any + narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the struggles of + isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. The distinctions of + pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind is engaged in the + contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the assaults of the gaunt + enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances have usually given + sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the most fortunate, to make + them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the chances of shipwreck, war, + wandering, or revolutions have cut off from home and hearth, and the + requisite supplies; not only from the thousand artificial comforts which + civilized society classes among the necessaries of life, but actually from + a sufficiency of “daily bread.” + </p> + <p> + Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor + seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of Defoe + as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means uncommon in + middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous for all who + build and plant in a wilderness, “cut off from humanity’s reach?” Our + insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the inhabitants of + Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations of individuals + wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means generally known that + scarcely a summer passes over the colonists in Canada, without losses of + children from the families of settlers occurring in the vast forests of + the backwoods, similar to that on which the narrative of the Canadian + Crusoes is founded. Many persons thus lost have perished in the + wilderness; and it is to impress on the memory the natural resources of + this country, by the aid of interesting the imagination, that the author + of the well-known and popular work, “The Backwoods of Canada,” has written + the following pages. + </p> + <p> + She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical + solution <i>[FN: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.]</i> of that provoking + enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, + namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day’s toilsome march, + close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this + cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain + O’Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in his + lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity of + the forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is + recorded in the narrative of the “Escape of a young French Officer from + the depôt near Peterborough during the Napoleon European war.” He found + himself thrice at night within sight of the walls of the prison from which + he had fled in the morning, after taking fruitless circular walks of + twenty miles. I do not recollect the cause of such lost labour being + explained in either narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of the + disaster in the boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced + knowledge, dearly bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons who + wander without knowing the features and landmarks of a country, + instinctively turn their faces to the sun, and for that reason always + travel in a circle, infallibly finding themselves at night in the very + spot from which they started in the morning. The resources and natural + productions of the noble colony of Canada are but superficially known. An + intimate acquaintance with its rich vegetable and animal productions is + most effectually made under the high pressure of difficulty and necessity. + Our writer has striven to interest children, or rather young people + approaching the age of adolescence, in the natural history of this + country, simply by showing them how it is possible for children to make + the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution as forlorn as the + wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who would not care for + the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and classified + technically in books of science, might remember their uses and properties + when thus brought practically before their notice as the aliments of the + famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive feelings must + perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home comforts and all the + ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their rising families, in + order to place them in a more independent position, it is well if those + young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what they are to find in + the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the fruits, and even the + minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has poured forth over that + wide land. + </p> + <p> + The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, “The Backwoods of Canada, by + the Wife of an Emigrant Officer,” published some years since by Mr. C. + Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many + editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity as + a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say that + the present is written in the same <i>naïve</i>, charming style, with the + same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet and + gentle—author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who + ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her + further years of experience as a settler to the information of the younger + class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in the + productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the mightiest + adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest colony, unstained + with the corruption of convict population; where families of gentle blood + need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; where no one need beg, and + where any one may dig without being ashamed. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_LIST" id="link2H_LIST"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + LIST OF ENGRAVINGS (Not included) + </h2> + <p> + LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE FIRST BREAKFAST, THE CATHARINE + FOUND BY THE OLD DOG WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE HECTOR BRINGING THE + INDIAN GIRL KILLING WILD FOWL INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + CATHARINE CARRIED OFF INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE INDIANA AT THE STAKE + ATTACK ON THE DEER RETURN HOME THE CANADIAN CRUSOES. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O’er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash’d on the shore.” + <i>Jacobite Song.</i> +</pre> + <p> + THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile + valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which were + clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of the hills + and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber trees of various + kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This beautiful and highly + picturesque valley is watered by many clear streams of pure refreshing + water, from whence the spot has derived its appropriate appellation of + “Cold Springs.” At the time my little history commences, this now highly + cultivated spot was an unbroken wilderness,—all tut two small farms, + where dwelt the only occupiers of the soil,—which owned no other + possessors than the wandering hunting tribes of wild Indians, to whom the + right of the hunting grounds north of Rice Lake appertained, according to + their forest laws. + </p> + <p> + To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among + cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds of + cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I speak of + the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now an important + port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo—if it contained + even a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and the wild and + picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village of Port Hope is + situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe of the settler. No + gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant produce of grain and + Canadian stores along the waters of that noble sheet of water; no steamer + had then furrowed its bosom with her iron wheels, bearing the stream of + emigration towards the wilds of our Northern and Western forests, there to + render a lonely trackless desert a fruitful garden. What will not time and + the industry of man, assisted by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? + To him be the glory and honour; for we are taught, that “without the Lord + build the city, their labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord + keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” + </p> + <p> + But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the + acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement at + Cold Springs. + </p> + <p> + Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the + famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the + praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle + Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick and + disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian widow + in the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he received + much kind attention from his excellent hostess and her family, which + consisted of a young man about his own age, and a pretty black-eyed lass + not more than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much occupied with + other-lodgers—for she kept a sort of boarding-house—that she + had not much time to give to Duncan, so that he was left a great deal to + her son Pierre, and a little to Catharine, her daughter. + </p> + <p> + Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the + regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of + country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady and + increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the + children of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep + regret that they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan belonged + was ordered for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far convalescent + as to be pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas for poor + Catharine! she now found that parting with her patient was a source of the + deepest sorrow to her young and guileless heart; nor was Duncan less moved + at the separation from his gentle nurse. It might be for years, and it + might be for ever, he could not tell; but he could not tear himself away + without telling the object of his affections how dear she was to him, and + to whisper a hope that he might yet return one day to claim her as his + bride; and Catharine, weeping and blushing, promised to wait for that + happy day, or to remain single for his sake, while Pierre promised to + watch over his friend’s interests and keep alive Catharine’s love; for, + said he, artlessly, “la belle Catrine is pretty and lively, and may have + many suitors before she sees you again, mon ami.” + </p> + <p> + They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the + exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of our + young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, for + absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on + gratitude and esteem. + </p> + <p> + Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet + distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his country, + enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return to Quebec + to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during that short + period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, lively-hearted Pierre, + was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and Catharine, who had no + relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with her brother and his + wife, and was living in some little settlement above Montreal with them. + </p> + <p> + Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly + afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had + never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a good + deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been hunting + with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice Lake, and + he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds to a quiet + life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill pass between + the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan was of the same + opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare like his own + Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned for the hill + country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking possession of any + tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore Duncan agreed with his + brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a dwelling put up and some + ground prepared and “seeded down,” and then to, return for their wives and + settle themselves down at once as farmers. Others had succeeded, had + formed little colonies, and become the heads of villages in due time; why + should not they? And now behold our two backwoodsmen fairly commencing + their arduous life; but it was nothing, after all, to Pierre, by previous + occupation a hardy lumberer, or the Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave + all sorts of hardships in a wild country, himself a mountaineer, inured to + a stormy climate, and scanty fare, from his earliest youth. But it is not + my intention to dwell upon the trials and difficulties courageously met + and battled with by our settlers and their young wives. + </p> + <p> + There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers on + the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with now. The + spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her comforts are + felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly come emigrant + feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were endured by the + older inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, + was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little + skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous + Pierre, and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders of + himself and Duncan to their homestead:—a day of great labour but + great joy it was when they deposited their precious freight in safety on + the shanty floor. They were obliged to make two journeys for the contents + of the little craft. What toil, what privation they endured for the first + two years! and now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. No two + creatures could be more unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The Highlander, + stern, steady, persevering, cautious, always giving ample reasons for his + doing or his not doing. The Canadian, hopeful, lively, fertile in + expedients, and gay as a lark; if one scheme failed another was sure to + present itself. Pierre and Duncan were admirably suited to be friends and + neighbours. The steady perseverance of the Scot helped to temper the + volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They generally contrived to compass + the same end by different means, as two streams descending from opposite + hills will meet in one broad river in the same valley. + </p> + <p> + Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its + increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. + Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four healthy + children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these welcome + contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the children of + Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; they grew up as + one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. Though different + in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest son of the + Scottish soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were greatly + attached; they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed a little + coterie of inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, occupations, + all blended and harmonized delightfully; there were none of those little + envyings and bickerings among them that pave the way to strife and + disunion in after life. + </p> + <p> + Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister + than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and + formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and + Catharine. + </p> + <p> + Hector and Louis were fourteen—strong, vigorous, industrious and + hardy, both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. + It is not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads + and Catharine. With the gaiety and naïveté of the Frenchwoman, Catharine + possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and + well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care of + mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a little + reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father’s teaching. It + was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, having been + taught by his colonel’s son, a lad of twelve years of age, who had taken a + great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a few of his + school-books, among which was a Testament, without cover or title-page. At + parting, the young gentleman recommended its daily perusal to Duncan. Had + the gift been a Bible, perhaps the soldier’s obedience to his priest might + have rendered it a dead letter to him, but as it fortunately happened, he + was unconscious of any prohibition to deter him from becoming acquainted + with the truths of the Gospel. He communicated the power of perusing his + books to his children Hector and Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in + succession, with a feeling of intense reverence; even the labour of + teaching was regarded as a holy duty in itself, and was not undertaken + without deeply impressing the obligation he was conferring upon them + whenever they were brought to the task. It was indeed a precious boon, and + the children learned to consider it as the pearl beyond all price in the + trials that awaited them in their eventful career. To her knowledge of + religious truths young Catharine added an intimate acquaintance with the + songs and legends of her father’s romantic country, which was to her even + as fairyland; often would her plaintive ballads and old tales, related in + the hut or the wigwam to her attentive auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; + Louis and Mathilde, her cousins, sometimes wondered how Catharine had + acquired such a store of ballads and wild tales as she could tell. + </p> + <p> + It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not + only doffed that “dazzling white robe” mentioned in the songs of her + Jacobite emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest season, + the last week in May and the first three of June being parallel to the + English May, full of buds and flowers and fair promise of ripening fruits. + The high sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale of Cold Springs were + clothed with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet enchroma, or + painted-cup; the large pure white blossoms of the lily-like trillium; the + delicate and fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful flowers woo the hand + of the flower-gatherer only to fade almost within his grasp; the golden + cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so lovely in its colour and + formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as the breeze shook the + stems; and there, mingling with a thousand various floral beauties, the + azure lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a heavenly tint upon the + earth. Thousands of roses were blooming on the more level ground, sending + forth their rich fragrance, mixed with the delicate scent of the feathery + ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid greenness of the young leaves of + the forest, the tender tint of the springing corn, were contrasted with + the deep dark fringe of waving pines on the hills, and the yet darker + shade of the spruce and balsams on the borders of the creeks, for so our + Canadian forest rills are universally termed. The bright glancing wings of + the summer red-bird, the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and + noisy but splendid plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air + was filled with beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the + shade of the luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front + of the little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard + mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and fro + guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches of old + mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, with + livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody of her + spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, unconscious + of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements from among the + embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning sun. + </p> + <p> + “Come, ma belle cousine,” for so Louis delighted to call her. “Hector and + I are waiting for you to go with us to the ‘Beaver Meadow.’ The cattle + have strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is delicious, + the very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired and plucked, and we + shall find early strawberries on the old Indian clearing.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, “I fear, Louis, I cannot + go to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my yarn + to wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I left her with mamma.” replied Louis, “and she said she would be + home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take a + basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is sure + he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red.” As he + spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, gathered + up the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker basket, and the + next minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that hung upon the peg + in the porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the top of Catharine’s head + and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling laugh, which drowned + effectually the small lecture that Catharine began to utter, by way of + reproving the light-hearted boy. + </p> + <p> + “But where is Mathilde?” + </p> + <p> + “Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise’s head on her + lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and + flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her and + petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the dear + children were as happy as queens when I left them.” + </p> + <p> + “But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? We + shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to the + Beaver Meadow and back again,” said Catharine, hesitating as Louis took + her hand to lead her out from the porch. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes, ma belle,” said the giddy boy, quickly; “so come along, for + Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before we + return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a tin-cup + for water.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little + preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the + little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her + young brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his + shoulder. “What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it heavy + to carry,” said his sister. + </p> + <p> + “In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom + for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss + Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of rock + elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I take the + axe with me.” + </p> + <p> + The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep + defiles that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung + and chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both to + exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest shade. + What handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and white, were + gathered only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast aside for + others fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills that flowed, + softly murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red or grey granite, + wending their way beneath twisted roots and fallen trees; and often + Catharine lingered to watch the eddying dimples of the clear water, to + note the tiny bright fragments of quartz or crystallized limestone that + formed a shining pavement below the stream; and often she paused to watch + the angry movements of the red squirrel, as, with feathery tail erect, and + sharp scolding note, he crossed their woodland path, and swiftly darting + up the rugged bark of some neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the + intruders on his quiet haunts defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he + scarcely condescended to ascend beyond their reach. + </p> + <p> + The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or + the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, + striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the soft + whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from one hemlock + to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the bark, were + among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the woods; but + to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and her cousin were not + indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector gravely pursued his + onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark the bright colours of + the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest rill. + </p> + <p> + “What makes Hec so grave?” said Catharine to her companion, as they seated + themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they had + giddily chased each other till they had far outrun him. + </p> + <p> + “Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or + wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil or + the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, or + the hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as + woodpeckers and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is + not a giddy thing like his cousin Louis, or—” + </p> + <p> + “His sister Kate,” interrupted Catharine, merrily; “but when shall we come + to the Beaver Meadow?” + </p> + <p> + “Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? No; + Hector whistling.” And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his axe ringing + among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was cutting it to + leave on the path, that he might take it home on their return; he had also + marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe handles, to bring home at + some future time. + </p> + <p> + The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down and + rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, and + declared he felt no fatigue. “As soon as we reach the old Indian clearing, + we shall find strawberries,” he said, “and a fresh cold spring, and then + we will have our dinners.” + </p> + <p> + “Come, Hector,—come, Louis,” said Catharine, jumping up, “I long to + be gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I will + throw them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit instead, + and we must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear Mathilde. Ah, + how I wish she were here at this minute! But here is the opening to the + Beaver Meadow.” + </p> + <p> + And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they + approached the cleared space, which some called the “Indian clearing,” but + is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was a pleasant + spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and flowering shrubs, + of a different growth from those that belong to the dense forest. Here the + children found, on the hilly ground above, fine ripe strawberries, the + earliest they had seen that year, and soon all weariness was forgotten + while pursuing the delightful occupation of gathering the tempting fruit; + and when they had refreshed themselves, and filled the basket with leaves + and fruit, they slaked their thirst from the stream, which wound its way + among the bushes. Catharine neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of + the fragrant white-thorn and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with + nodding umbels of snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little + basket with the graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered + plant, the Linnæa borealis, which she always said reminded her of the + twins, Louise and Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear + away, for they had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered + from the path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their + eagerness to look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by + which they might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, + Louis noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle + hoofs on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + </p> + <p> + “Come, Hector,” said he gaily, “this is lucky; we are on the cattle path; + no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer track.” + </p> + <p> + Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much + towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. “And is + not this our own creek?” he said: “I have often heard my father say it had + its rise somewhere about this old clearing.” + </p> + <p> + Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the path + among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, surprised + to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the stream + swept onward. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, this dear creek,” cried the delighted Catharine, “how pretty it is! I + shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source from + our own Cold Springs.” + </p> + <p> + And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind the + range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously + hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony + banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked + poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite + directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the + opening gorge of a deep ravine. + </p> + <p> + Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block of + granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by the ravine, + unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled countenance, + stood beside her, looking round with an air of great perplexity. Louis, + seating himself at Catharine’s feet, surveyed the deep gloomy valley + before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had now forcibly struck + him that they had mistaken the path altogether. The very aspect of the + country was different; the growth of the trees, the flow of the stream, + all indicated a change of soil and scene. Darkness was fast drawing its + impenetrable veil around them; a few stars were stealing out, and gleaming + down as if with pitying glance upon the young wanderers; but they could + not light up their pathway, or point their homeward track. The only sound, + save the lulling murmur of the rippling stream below, was the plaintive + note of the whip-poor-will, from a gnarled oak that grew near them, and + the harsh grating scream of the night hawk, darting about in the higher + regions of the air, pursuing its noisy congeners, or swooping down with + that peculiar hollow rushing sound, as of a person blowing into some empty + vessel, when it seizes with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + </p> + <p> + Hector was the first to break the silence. “Cousin Louis, we were wrong in + following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our way + back to-night.” + </p> + <p> + Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the + attention of his cousins. “Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to be + cast down by difficulties,” said Hector, as he marked something like tears + glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance upon + the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath which she + sat. + </p> + <p> + “It is not,” resumed Hector, “that I mind passing a summer’s night under + such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do not + think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in the night + dews,—and then they will be so anxious at home about our absence.” + </p> + <p> + Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,—“And it is all my doing that + she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much + alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good + cousin Hector, pray forgive me!” But Catharine was weeping too much to + reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from the + truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed his + indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on the + part of Louis. + </p> + <p> + The sight of her cousin’s grief and self-abasement touched the tender + heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, and + loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful + consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, + Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she + could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with + deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating + thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid + his cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, and + steeled him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the penitent + Louis, who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder Catharine, + sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing words and + affectionate endeavours to console him. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Hector,” she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem face + of her brother, “you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; remember + it was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of liberty with + you and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees and birds, that + he committed this fault.” + </p> + <p> + “Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at the + consequences,—we shall have forfeited our parents’ confidence, and + may have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our + home, if we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs,” replied Hector. + </p> + <p> + “It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night,” + answered Catharine, “that distresses my mind; but,” she added in more + cheerful tones, “let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able + to retrace our steps.” + </p> + <p> + With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word <i>to-morrow</i>,—it + is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from them; sad indeed + is the young heart that does not look forward with hope to the morrow! + </p> + <p> + The cloud still hung on Hector’s brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, + “Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think + of providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the + bare ground exposed to the night dews.—See, here is a nice hut, half + made,” pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had + hurled from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + </p> + <p> + “Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them + into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, and + there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to work, + you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own + wigwam,” she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the + feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared as + little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer’s night under + the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; but her + woman’s heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling the cousins + would be by mutually interesting them in the same object,—and she + was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort of their dear + companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector, while active + employment chased away Louis’s melancholy. + </p> + <p> + Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, those + of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, varying + in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque groups, or + rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked poplar or + graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately pine + contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender graceful + companions. + </p> + <p> + Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, + which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine’s assistance + drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the + upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form the + back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means a + contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with Louis’s + <i>couteau-de-chasse</i>, which he always carried in a sheath at his + girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, for + herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and cousin + nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction, she called + the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents, joined them in + the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of praise and + thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward in imploring + help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly prayed that no + dangerous creature might come near to molest them during the hours of + darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no unholy or wicked + thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels and heavenly + thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with the peace of + God which passeth all understanding.—And the prayer of the poor + wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in peace, unharmed in the + vast solitude. So passed their first night on the Plains. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. + </h2> + <h3> + “Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” + </h3> + <p> + The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, when + the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty of their + situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they had been + under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their little + paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who neither + slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, and in + fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended their + souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + </p> + <p> + While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled the + minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and sorrow had + they passed! + </p> + <p> + When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the + two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the + wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud + halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they check + their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the sighing + breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves caused by the + flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the torches, and the + echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that met their anxious + ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, to their homes, to + snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the drooping hearts of the + weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different directions. But, + unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which Hector and Louis + had taken, there being many cattle paths through the woods. Louis’s want + of truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he had left no intimation + of the path he purposed taking when he quitted his mother’s house: he had + merely said he was going with Hector in search of the cattle, giving no + hint of his intention of asking Catharine to accompany them: he had but + told his sick sister, that he would bring home strawberries and flowers, + and that he would soon return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little + did you think of the web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and + all those to whom you and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, + think twice, ere ye deceive once! Catharine’s absence would have been + quite unaccountable but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had + received her sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and + much her mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful + Catharine to have left her work and forsaken her household duties to go + rambling away with the boys, for she never left the house when her mother + was absent from, it, without her express permission, and now she was gone—lost + to them, perhaps for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, + there hung the untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,—and there + they remained week after week and month after month, untouched, a + melancholy memorial to the hearts of the bereaved parents of their + beloved. + </p> + <p> + It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their + vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that filled + their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of the lost + ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the sorrowing + parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome homes. At + the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one of these three + casualties had befallen the lost children:—death, a lingering death + by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or bears; or yet more + terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded Indians, who + occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the hills about + the Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron as the scene of + many bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the Mohawks and + Chippewas: its localities were scarcely ever visited by our settlers, lest + haply they should fall into the hands of the bloody Mohawks, whose + merciless dispositions made them in those days a by-word even to the less + cruel Chippewas and other Indian nations. + </p> + <p> + It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his + brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, + among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called the + Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor + wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the + sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, and + mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their + first-born and beloved children.—“There was a voice of woe, and + lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and + refusing to be comforted, because they were not.” The miserable + uncertainty that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation to + the sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of the + manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; but, + alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + ‘Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy’s endless dreams depart.” + </pre> + <p> + But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see + how it really fared with the young wanderers. + </p> + <p> + When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that arose + from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an + indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance + perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear light + of the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in + retracing their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left no + impression on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found the + creek, which was concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic + hawthorns, high-bush cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn + was in blossom, and gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than the + “May” which makes the lanes and hedgerows of “merrie old England” so sweet + and fair in May and June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral of our + olden time; but when our simple Catharine drew down the flowery branches + to wreathe about her hat, she loved the flowers for their own native + sweetness and beauty, not because poets had sung of them;—but young + minds have a natural poetry in themselves, unfettered by rule or rhyme. + </p> + <p> + At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of + cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and <i>tamarack</i> (Indian + name for the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as + love the cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that they + must quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become entangled + in a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing draughts from + the bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they ascended the + grassy bank, and again descending, found themselves in one of those long + valleys, enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed with shrubs and + oaks, with here and there a stately pine. Through this second valley they + pursued their way, till emerging into a wider space, they came among those + singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel hills, where the Cold + Creek once more met their view, winding its way towards a grove of + evergreens, where it was again lost to the eye. + </p> + <p> + This lovely spot is now known as Sackville’s Mill-dike. The hand of man + has curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it + subservient to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of the + scene. <i>[FN: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, who + resided for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to return + to his native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The old + log-house on the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, + though deserted; the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer + protects the enclosure, where the wild rose mingles with that of Provence,—the + Canadian creeper with the hop.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, + winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, + the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the silver + waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of the + wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid silver + just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its surface, and + concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of dread and doubt + and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow of admiration at + a scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which they now gazed upon + from the elevation they had gained. From this ridge they looked down the + lake, and the eye could take in an extent of many miles, with its verdant + wooded islands, which stole into view one by one as the rays of the + morning sun drew up the moving curtain of mist that enveloped them; and + soon both northern and southern shores became distinctly visible, with all + their bays and capes and swelling oak and pine-crowned hills. + </p> + <p> + And now arose the question, “Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be + the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the + Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?” Hector + remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was like an + inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some remarkable + state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally discerned by the + naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects on the other side, + the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of wild fowl winging + their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. The breadth of the + lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, exceed three or four + miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, seemed far greater + beyond—what the eye could take in. <i>[FN: The length of the Rice + Lake, from its headwaters near Black’s Landing to the mouth of the Trent, + is said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from north to south varies + from three to six.]</i> + </p> + <p> + They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. + Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of a + beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a magnificent + view down the lake. + </p> + <p> + “How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, + overlooking the lake,” said Louis; “only think of the fish we could take, + and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no very hard + matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard my father say + he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river—below, when he + was lumbering.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon,” <i>[FN: Now the + site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman from + Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion of the + ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains for its + natural beauties and extent of prospect.]</i> said Hector, “though I am + not quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold + Springs; but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, + and produce plenty of grain, too, if cultivated.” + </p> + <p> + “You always look to the main chance, Hec,” said Louis, laughing; “well, it + was worth a few hours’ walking this morning to look upon so lovely a sheet + of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,—would not + you, ma belle?—to enjoy such a sight.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Louis,” replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; “it is very + pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot + enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been + aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!” she + added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions and + herself would cause at home came over her. “How I wish I had remained at + home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!” + </p> + <p> + Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin’s tears, + and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to soothe and + console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the weeping girl, + and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + </p> + <p> + “If you cry thus, cousin,” he whispered, “you will break poor Louis’s + heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct.” “Be not + cast down, Catharine,” said her brother, cheeringly: “we may not be so far + from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out again, + and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on these + sunny banks.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, + proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side of + the high ground where they had been sitting. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, “Come, Hector; come, Louis: + here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:”—for her eye had + caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on the + slope; large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + </p> + <p> + “There is indeed, ma belle,” said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather + up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner shade + of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen tree. + Catharine’s voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge <i>[FN: + The Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than the English or + French partridge. We refer our young readers to the finely arranged + specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) where they may + discover “Louis’s partridge.”]</i> from her nest, and the eggs were soon + transferred to Louis’s straw hat, while a stone flung by the steady hand + of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed exultingly as they + displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, who, in spite of + hunger, could not help regretting the death of the mother bird. Girls and + women rarely sympathise with men and boys in their field sports, and + Hector laughed at his sister’s doleful looks as he handed over the bird to + her. + </p> + <p> + “It was a lucky chance,” said he, “and the stone was well aimed, but it is + not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so stupid + you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before the day + is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all events,” he + added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin’s hat; “twelve nice + fresh eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit.” + </p> + <p> + “But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of getting + a fire made,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “As to the eggs,” said Louis, “we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry + wanderers like us to be over nice about our food.” + </p> + <p> + “They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the + ashes,” observed Hector. + </p> + <p> + “True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble.” + </p> + <p> + “But how?” asked Hector. “Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest would + be a flint with the help of my knife.” + </p> + <p> + “A flint?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, if we could get one—but I see nothing but granite, which + crumbles and shivers when struck—we could not get a spark. However, + I think it’s very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach + yonder may be found hard enough for the purpose.” + </p> + <p> + To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had been + well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, + fringed with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found + themselves beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found + among the water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and a + handful of dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected + without trouble; though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had + coolly proposed to tear a strip from his cousin’s apron as a substitute + for tinder,—a proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the + tidy Catharine, whose ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, + especially as she had no sewing implements to assist in mending the rent. + Louis thought nothing of that; it was a part of his character to think + only of the present, little of the past, and to let the future provide for + itself. Such was Louis’s great failing, which had proved a fruitful source + of trouble both to himself and others. In this respect he bore a striking + contrast to his more cautious companion, who possessed much of the gravity + of his father. Hector was as heedful and steady in his decisions as Louis + was rash and impetuous. + </p> + <p> + After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles + through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last + kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then + triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly to + the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently + hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial + than the strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering + them in the morning. + </p> + <p> + Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, + under the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were + wreathed together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, + which climbed to a height of fifteen feet <i>[FN: Solatnum dulcamara,—Bitter-sweet + or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the red-berried briony of England, + is highly ornamental. It possesses powerful properties as a medicine, and + is in high reputation among the Indians.]</i> among the branches <i>[Illustration: + THE FIRST BREAKFAST]</i> of the trees, which it covered as with a mantle. + A pure spring of cold, delicious water welled out from beneath the twisted + roots of an old hoary-barked cedar, and found its way among the shingles + on the beach to the lake, a humble but constant tributary to its waters. + Some large blocks of water-worn stone formed convenient seats and a + natural table, on which the little maiden arranged the forest fare; and + never was a meal made with greater appetite or taken with more + thankfulness than that which our wanderers ate that morning. The eggs + (part of which they reserved for another time) were declared to be better + than those that were daily produced from the little hen-house at Cold + Springs. The strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the shining + leaves of the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with the long + spurs of the hawthorn, <i>[FN: The long-spurred American hawthorn may be + observed by our young readers among that beautiful collection of the + hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the north side of + Kensington Gardens.]</i> were voted delicious, and the pure water most + refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large + mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles on + the beach. + </p> + <p> + Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, + lamenting their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless repining, + or, perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the principal author + of their calamity—poor, thoughtless Louis; but such were not the + dispositions of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to the hardships + incidental to the lives of the settlers in the bush, these young people + had learned to bear with patience and cheerfulness privations that would + have crushed the spirits of children more delicately nurtured. They had + known every degree of hunger and nakedness; during the first few years of + their lives they had often been compelled to subsist for days and weeks + upon roots and herbs, wild fruits, and game which their fathers had + learned to entrap, to decoy, and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early + been initiated into the mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, + and pits, and traps, and snares,—they were as expert as Indians in + the use of the bow,—they could pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart + at partridge, hare, and squirrel, with almost unerring aim; and were as + swift of foot as young fawns. Now it was that they learned to value in its + fullest extent this useful and practical knowledge, which enabled them to + face with fortitude the privations of a life so precarious as that to + which they were now exposed. + </p> + <p> + It was one of the elder Maxwell’s maxims,—Never let difficulties + overcome you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the + hand, and the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head as + chief. When his children expressed any doubts of not being able to + accomplish any work they had begun, he would say, “Have you not hands, + have you not a head, have you not eyes to see, and reason to guide you? As + for impossibilities, they do not belong to the trade of a soldier,—he + dare not see them.” Thus were energy and perseverance early instilled into + the minds of his children; they were now called upon to give practical + proofs of the precepts that had been taught them in childhood. Hector + trusted to his axe, and Louis to his <i>couteau-de-chasse</i> and + pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an old forest friend of his + father’s, who had visited them the previous winter, and which, by good + luck, Louis had in his pocket—a capacious pouch, in which were + stored many precious things, such as coils of twine and string, strips of + leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; nails, bits of iron, + leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find their way most + mysteriously into boys’ pockets in general, and Louis Perron’s in + particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small matters. + </p> + <p> + The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few days + abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where fruits + were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning meal, so + providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully acknowledged the + mercy of God in this thing. + </p> + <p> + Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the lake, + they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both to leave + the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the hills and + deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so remarkable a + manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look upon the wild + glens and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy deer found safe + retreats, unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,—where the osprey and + white-headed eagle built their nests, unheeding and unharmed. Twice that + day, misled by following the track of the deer, had they returned to the + same spot,—a deep and lovely glen, which had once been a + water-course, but now a green and shady valley. This they named the Valley + of the Rock, from a remarkable block of red granite that occupied a + central position in the narrow defile; and here they prepared to pass the + second night on the Plains. A few boughs cut down and interlaced with the + shrubs round a small space cleared with Hector’s axe, formed shelter, and + leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, formed a bed, though not so + smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs that the Indians spread + within their summer wigwams for carpets and couches, or the fresh heather + that the Highlanders gather on the wild Scottish hills. + </p> + <p> + While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine + busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having + collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that + grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate name + of the “Birken shaw,” she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it fine + upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This proved + excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the birch + being highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint that + they had used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front of the + rocky stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent over the + coals, served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge was + suspended,—a scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they + knew not how they should breakfast next morning, The children felt they + were pensioners on God’s providence not less than the wild denizens of the + wilderness around them. + </p> + <p> + When Hector—who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or + cousin—expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, + Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the + teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, + gently laid her hand upon her brother’s head, which rested on her knees, + as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest tone, + “‘Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor + gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much + better than they?’ Surely, my brother, God careth for us as much as for + the wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify his holy + name. God cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies them with + knowledge where they shall find food when they hunger and thirst. So I + have heard my father say; and surely our father knows, for is he not a + wise man, Hector?” + </p> + <p> + “I remember,” said Louis, thoughtfully, “hearing my mother repeat the + words of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;—‘When you + are in trouble, Mathilde,’ he used to say to her, ‘kneel down, and ask + God’s help, nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the will + to serve you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all things + to pass. It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers from being + heard. And, truly, I think the wise old man was right,” he added. + </p> + <p> + It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy + Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, + looking up with a serious air, replied, “Your mother’s friend was a good + man, Louis. Our want of trust in God’s power must displease Him. And when + we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,—that blue + sky, those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining down + upon us, and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little creeping + plants and flowers that grow at our feet,—it must, indeed, seem + foolish in his eyes that we should doubt his power to help us, who not + only made all these things, but ourselves also.” + </p> + <p> + “True,” said Catharine; “but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; for + the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the good.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, God + helps those that help themselves,” said Louis. “Let us consider a little. + There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great.” + </p> + <p> + “But how are we to get them out of it?” rejoined Catharine. “I doubt the + fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry.” + </p> + <p> + “Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the + holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and + there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of + course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in + abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have + plenty of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in + profusion, and bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as for + raspberries, I see none; but by-and-by there will be May-apples—I + see great quantities of them in the low grounds, grapes, + high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as cherries, and sweet too; + squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and bird-cherries. As to sweet + acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of them for the roasting, as + good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, and hickory-nuts,—with + many other good things.” And here Louis stopped for want of breath to + continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat us + for want of better food,” interrupted Hector, slyly. “Nay, Katty, do not + shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. Neither + bear nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis and thy + brother are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine,” added Louis, + gallantly, “while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider how + we are to obtain them, my dears,” said Catharine. “For fishing, you know, + we must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are these to be + met with?” + </p> + <p> + Louis nodded his head sagaciously. “The line I think I can provide; the + hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the rod, + it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma chere, I + could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of cloth to sew + over a hoop.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine laughed. “You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, but + where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing it + on?” + </p> + <p> + Lords took up the corner of his cousin’s apron with a provoking look. + </p> + <p> + “My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem + to covet it for everything.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never + could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear such + frightful things.” + </p> + <p> + “It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and scrubbing, + and doing all sorts of household duties,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean,” + replied the annoying boy; “so there can be little want of the apron. I + could turn it to fifty useful purposes.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh, nonsense,” said Hector, impatiently, “let the child alone, and do + not tease her about her apron.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, water + mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, that, + roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, + they are good eating when nothing better is to be got.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured,” said Hector, “but, alas for + the salt and the pepper!” + </p> + <p> + “Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces—hunger; and then, + no doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must + not mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them.” + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish,” said Hector. “You and I will + try our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should + break, we can easily cut those long locks from Catharine’s head, and twist + them into lines,”—and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair hair + that hung in shining curls about his sister’s neck. + </p> + <p> + “Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis’s proposal of making + tinder and fishing-nets of my apron,” said Catharine, shaking back the + bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in + golden waves over her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that + become her so well,” said Louis. “But we have no scissors, ma belle, so + you need fear no injury to your precious locks.” + </p> + <p> + “For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your <i>couteau-de-chasse</i>. + I could tell you a story that my father told me, not long since, of + Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in England. You know he was + the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles Edward, that my father + talks of, and loves so much.” + </p> + <p> + “I know all about him,” said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; “let us hear + the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my hair and + Louis’s knife can have to do with King Charles.” + </p> + <p> + “Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience,” + said her brother. “Well then, you must know, that after some great battle, + the name of which I forget, <i>[FN: Battle of Worcester.]</i> in which the + King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the forces of the + Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the poor young king was + hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large price was set on his + head, to be given to any traitor who should slay him, or bring him + prisoner to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to dress himself in all sorts + of queer clothes, and hide in all manner of strange, out of the way + places, and keep company with rude and humble men, the better to hide his + real rank from the cruel enemies that sought his life. Once he hid along + with a gallant gentleman, <i>[FN: Colonel Careless.]</i> one of his own + brave officers, in the branches of a great oak. Once he was hid in a mill; + and another time he was in the house of one Pendril, a woodman. The + soldiers of the Parliament, who were always prowling about, and popping in + unawares wherever they suspected the poor king to be hidden, were, at one + time, in the very room where he was standing beside the fire.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” exclaimed Catharine, “that was frightful. And did they take him + prisoner?” + </p> + <p> + “No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers + should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the long curls + that the king’s men all wore in those days, and called <i>lovelocks</i>, + begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to his head.” + </p> + <p> + “That was very hard, to lose his nice curls.” + </p> + <p> + “I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose his + hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered them + to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough deal + table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large knife + trimmed off the curls.” + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, + who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a block + to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as + hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die.” “Poor king!” said + Catharine, sighing, “I see that it is better to be poor children, + wandering on these plains under God’s own care, than to be kings and + princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men.” + </p> + <p> + “Who told your father all these things, Hec?” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about the + history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince Charles, + the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in Scotland; he + loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where the Prince lost + all, and was driven from place to place, and had not where to lay his + head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but those times did not + come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a while, through the + friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the army that was + embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment to which my + father belonged. He was a kind man, and my father loved both him and his + son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Catharine, “as you have told me such a nice story, Mister + Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail, + we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we + shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should not we be + able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?” + </p> + <p> + “True,” said Hector, “the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and + birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should + His white children fear?” + </p> + <p> + “I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, + when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of + himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, + weeks I believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and + arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for + bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the + inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap + of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted snow only, + which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own mocassins.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish,” said + Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself,” + added Hector, “or the deer-skin hunting shirt.” “Well, they might have + been reduced even to that,” said Louis, laughing, “but for the good + fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the + forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale.” + </p> + <p> + “Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old + Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After + passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than + the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not + very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick dark + swamp,—not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they + could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of a + deer or a moose,—and night came upon them unawares, so they set to + work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they had + none, or maybe they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon a + huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon piled + a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he could + collect, and lighted up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand old Jacob + used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, if he could + not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without. The wood was + dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and crackled and burnt + like a pine-torch. By-and-by they heard a most awful growling close to + them. ‘That’s a big bear, as I live,’ said old Jacob, looking all about, + thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; but Bruin was nearer to + him than he thought, for presently a great black bear burst out from the + but-end of the great burning log, and made towards Jacob; just then the + wind blew the flame outward, and it caught the bear’s thick coat, and he + was all in a blaze in a moment. No doubt the heat of the fire had + penetrated to the hollow of the log, where he had lain himself snugly up + for the winter, and wakened him; but Jacob seeing the huge black brute all + in a flame of fire, began to think it was Satan’s own self come to carry + him off, and he roared with fright, and the bear roared with pain and + rage, and my father roared with laughing to see Jacob’s terror; but he did + not let the bear laugh at him, for he seized a thick pole that he had used + for closing in the brands and logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was + so blinded with the fire and smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted + on roast bear’s flesh for many days, and got a capital skin to cover them + beside.” + </p> + <p> + “What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “Kate, you are too particular,” said Louis; “a story never loses, you + know.” + </p> + <p> + Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the + bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the + levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror of + old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear. + </p> + <p> + “You boys are always so unfeeling,” she said, gravely. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Kate,” said her brother, “the day may come when the sight of a + good piece of roast bear’s flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do not + find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may be + reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine + swamps, on the banks of the St. John.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” said Catharine, trembling, “that would be too bad to happen.” + </p> + <p> + “Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what + to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we + still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and be + thankful; and for grace let us say, ‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil + thereof.’” + </p> + <p> + Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites—the hungry + wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally divided, + was soon despatched. + </p> + <p> + It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers in + our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a circle, and + usually find themselves at night in the same place from whence they + started in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At sunset, they + found themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big stone, in which + they had rested at noon. They had imagined themselves miles and miles + distant from it; they were grievously disappointed. They had encouraged + each other with the confident hope that they were drawing near to the end + of their bewildering journey; they were as far from their home as ever, + without the slightest clue to guide them to the right path. Despair is not + a feeling which takes deep root in the youthful breast. The young are + always hopeful; so confident in their own wisdom and skill in averting or + conquering danger; so trusting; so willing to believe that there is a + peculiar Providence watching over them. Poor children! they had indeed + need of such a belief to strengthen their minds and encourage them to + fresh exertions, for new trials were at hand. + </p> + <p> + The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with + light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on tree + and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with her + fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs which + her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for her + accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting spur + of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the extreme + verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most inviting + seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, which + stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the estuary of + the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the hills, forming + a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water had ceased to flow, + the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with deer-grass and flowers of + many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; while majestic oaks and pines + towered above. A sea of glittering foliage lay beneath Catharine’s feet; + in the distance the eye of the young girl rested on a belt of shining + waters, which girt in the shores like a silver zone; beyond, yet more + remote to the northward, stretched the illimitable forest. + </p> + <p> + Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the eye; a + holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and peaceful + tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, scarcely a leaf + stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing on the calm beauty + of nature, and communing with her own heart, when suddenly a stirring + rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow channel on one side + of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with the shrubby dogwood, + wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror which seized the poor + girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking through the covert of the + bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the most deadly fear alone could + have inspired, Catharine sprung from the supporting trunk of the oak, + dashed, down the precipitous side of the ravine; now clinging to the + bending sprays of the flexile dogwood—now to some fragile birch or + poplar—now trusting to the yielding heads of the sweet-scented <i>ceanothus</i>, + or filling her hands with sharp thorns from the roses that clothed the + bank; flowers, grass, all were alike clutched at in her rapid and fearful + descent. A loose fragment of granite on which she had unwittingly placed + her foot rolled from under her; unable to regain her balance she fell + forwards, and was precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, + conscious only of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her + ancles, which rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she + had dislodged in her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector + to her side, and they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid + her down upon her bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When + Catharine was able to speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of + her fright. She was sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long + jaws, and grisly coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her + with terror, he was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon her—she + could tell them no more that happened, she never felt the ground she was + on, so great was her fright. + </p> + <p> + Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills + alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for <i>la belle cousine</i>, + and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been + fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but the + pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to their + grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the ground. + This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to pursue their + wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their only remedy, + excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as circumstances + would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to the swollen + joint, was the first thing that was suggested; but, simple as was the + lotion, it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient quantities. They were a + full quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and the cold springs near it + were yet further off; and then the only vessel they had was the tin-pot, + which hardly contained a pint; at the same time the thirst of the fevered + sufferer was intolerable, and had also to be provided for. Poor Catharine, + what unexpected misery she now endured! + </p> + <p> + The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they were + now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places with this + delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor sufferer’s + burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying her with + them. + </p> + <p> + Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied + them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful + by spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; these + he bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, <i>[FN: “</i>Dirca + palustris<i>,”—Moose-wood. American mezereon, leather-wood. From the + Greek, </i>dirka<i>, a fountain or wet place, its usual place of growth.]</i> + which he had found growing in great abundance near the entrance of the + ravine. Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. After having collected a + good supply of ripe strawberries, he climbed the hills in search of birds’ + eggs and small game. About noon he returned with the good news of having + discovered a spring of fine water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump + of bass-wood and black cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to + kill a woodchuck, having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly + sides of the hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit + and badger; its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and + burrows like the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip + cleft, the soles of the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on + grasses, grain, fruit, and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the + summer, rank, but is eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the + skin is not much valued. They are easily killed by dogs, though, being + expert climbers, they often baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark + beyond their reach; a stone or stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they + often bite sharply. + </p> + <p> + The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his + companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were + plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about the + Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than on + the drier, more open plains. + </p> + <p> + “It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from the + spring in,” said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, “one is so apt to stumble + among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our old bark + dishes we could get a good supply at once.” + </p> + <p> + “There is a fallen birch not far from this,” said Louis; “I have here my + trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel + capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?” + </p> + <p> + “How can you sew it together, cousin?” asked Catharine; “you have neither + deer sinews, nor war-tap.” <i>[The Indian name for the flexible roots of + the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in manufacturing the + birch baskets and canoes.]</i> “I have a substitute at hand, ma belle,” + and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he had collected for + binding the dressings on his cousin’s foot. + </p> + <p> + When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in + some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of the + ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot of the + “Wolf’s Crag,” for so the children had named the memorable spot where poor + Catharine’s accident had occurred. + </p> + <p> + The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, + but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger + and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the + sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he + proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble + managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose or + leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was but + rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a little + at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten to allow + in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and dishes turns + up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied in his + subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis’s water-jar was + looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by Catharine, who + almost forgot her sufferings—while watching her cousin’s + proceedings. + </p> + <p> + Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running off + directly to the spring. “Catharine shall now have cold water to bathe her + poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst,” he said, joyfully springing to + his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector quietly + restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of his not + finding the “fountain in the wilderness,” as Louis termed the spring, or + losing himself altogether. + </p> + <p> + “Let us both go together, then.” cried Louis. Catharine cast on her cousin + an imploring glance. + </p> + <p> + “Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone.” Her + sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + </p> + <p> + “Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since I + was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or in + sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother’s arms.” + </p> + <p> + Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering + tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + </p> + <p> + “But you know, dear cousin,” she said, “I am so helpless, and then the + dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me.” + </p> + <p> + After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had + done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to + make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little + time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about + it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more + gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed with + magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the jutting + spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the trees that + lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a big sea. There + were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, white, and + pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled flower, that + was like the “Morning glory,” (<i>Convolvulus major,</i>) and scarlet-cups + <i>[FN: </i>Erichroma,<i> or painted cup]</i> in abundance, with roses in + profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with huge + blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened out + into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley of the Big + Stone. <i>[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the plough, and + waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have taken place of the + wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The lot belongs to G. + Ley, Esq.]</i> + </p> + <p> + These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both + Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and the + picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father’s + animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the wild + mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in solitude and + uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the minds or manners + of these young people. Simple and untaught they were, but they were + guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they lacked the knowledge + that is learned from books, they possessed much that was useful and + practical, which had been taught by experience and observation in the + school of necessity. + </p> + <p> + For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered any + attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the “Big Stone” + impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their + immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had + been killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of + hunger. Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed not + a little to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the yet + untried lake, “bright, boundless, and free,” gleaming in silvery + splendour, but in practice they knew nothing of the fisher’s craft, + though, as a matter of report, they were well acquainted with all the + mysteries of it, and had often listened with delight to the feats + performed by their respective fathers in the art of angling, spearing and + netting. + </p> + <p> + “I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in + the lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken by + the hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but that + was in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard him + tell of spearing fish by torchlight!” + </p> + <p> + “The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake,” said Hector; + “however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore and + try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line provided.” + </p> + <p> + Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub + oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, which + he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of treasures. + “Here.” said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; “here is the slide + of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some rubbish that my + sister had thrown out the other day.” + </p> + <p> + “I fear you will make nothing of that,” said Hector, “a bit of bone would + be better. If you had a file now you might do something.” + </p> + <p> + “Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?” and Louis + triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, a + few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but still + it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of our young + French Canadian. “I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde laughed at + me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. Louis, you + little knew the use it was to be put to then,” he added thoughtfully, + apostrophising himself; “how little do we know what is to befall us in our + young days!” “God knows it all,” said Hector, gravely, “we are under His + good guidance.” + </p> + <p> + “You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good care + of us. Come, let us go to the lake,” Catharine added, and sprung to her + feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her companions + with a piteous look, saying, “I cannot walk one step; alas, alas! what is + to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you leave me here, + I shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot carry me with you + in your search for food.” + </p> + <p> + “Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that + Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of hunger + or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you by turns; + the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very heavy, ma + belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are so light a + burden,”—and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his arms, + and with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through the + ravine towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded knoll, + (where Wolf Tower <i>[FN: See account of the “Wolf Tower,” in the + Appendix.]</i> now stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat + stone beneath a big oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself on + the flowery ground at her feet, while he drew a long breath, and gathered + the fruit that grew among the long grass to refresh himself after his + fatigue; and then, while resting on the “Elfin Knowe,” as Catharine called + the hill, he employed himself with manufacturing a rude sort of fish-hook + with the aid of his knife, the bit of tin, and the rusty file; a bit of + twine was next produced,—boys have always a bit of string in their + pockets, and Louis, as I have before hinted, was a provident hoarder of + such small matters. The string was soon attached to the hook, and Hector + was not long in cutting a sapling that answered well the purpose of a + fishing-rod, and thus equipped they proceeded to the lake shore, Hector + and Louis carrying the crippled Catharine by turns. When there, they + selected a sheltered spot beneath a grove of over-hanging cedars and + birches, festooned with wild vines, which, closely woven, formed a natural + bower, quite impervious to the rays of the sun. A clear spring flowing + from the upper part of the bank among the hanging network of loose fibres + and twisted roots, fell tinkling over a mossy log at her feet, and quietly + spread itself among the round shingly pebbles that formed the beach of the + lake. Beneath this pleasant bower Catharine could repose, and watch her + companions at their novel employment, or bathe her feet and infirm ancle + in the cool streamlet that rippled in tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + </p> + <p> + If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued for + pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must be + greatly heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of + hunger. Among the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the + flying grasshopper or field crickets were sporting, and one of these + proved an attractive bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, + than the hook was seized, and many were the brilliant specimens of + sun-fish that our eager fishermen cast at Catharine’s feet, all gleaming + with gold and azure scales. Nor was there any lack of perch, or that + delicate fish commonly known in these waters as the pink roach. + </p> + <p> + Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to the + grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did very + expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling up a + fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the flint, + knife, and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian fashion, on + forked sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable angle towards + the glowing embers,—a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + </p> + <p> + “Truly,” said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, + “God hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;” so + miraculous did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of + this simple child of nature. + </p> + <p> + They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be + caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, as the + streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little opportunity + for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the rude implements + with which they were furnished, the result of their morning success seemed + little short of divine interference in their behalf. Happy and contented + in the belief that they were not forgotten by their heavenly Father, these + poor “children in the wood” looked up with gratitude to that beneficent + Being who suffereth not even a sparrow to fall unheeded. + </p> + <p> + Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and + there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the + flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that + hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, her + young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great Creator + of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her mind, as + with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl prayed with the + guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + </p> + <p> + The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods at + the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully + providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded with + their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found Catharine + sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil slumbers, but + her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which she was exposed, + sleeping in the dew by the water side; “Moreover,” he added, “we have some + distance to go, and we have left the precious axe and the birch-bark + vessel in the valley.” + </p> + <p> + These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the sleeper, + and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same path that + they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken the precaution + to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and break the tops of the + young trees that they had passed between on their route to the lake, and + by this clue they were enabled with tolerable certainty to retrace their + way, nothing doubting of arriving in time at the wigwam of boughs by the + rock in the valley. + </p> + <p> + Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame + girl, and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight soon + clouded the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which cast a + greater degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had now left + the oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter loneliness of + the path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that stretched in long array + across the steep banks on either side, taking, now this, now that wild and + fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings of dread in the mind of these + poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons bred up in solitude, their + imaginations were strongly tinctured with superstitious fears. Here then, + in the lonely wilderness, far from their beloved parents and social + hearth, with no visible arm to protect them from danger, none to encourage + or to cheer them, can it be matter of surprise if they started with + terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful breeze that rustled the leaves or + waved the branches above them? The gay and lively Louis, blithe as any + wild bird in the bright sunlight, was the most easily oppressed by this + strange superstitious fear, when the shades of evening were closing round, + and he would start with ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that + met his ear or eye, though the next minute he was the first to laugh at + his own weakness. In Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn + cast, recalling to his mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his + father was wont to entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge + log-fire of an evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales + possess for the youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often + told; year after year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with + an interest that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they + slowly wandered along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors + those Highland legends that were as familiar to their ears as household + words, and still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at + each pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might + be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to + proceed,—they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their + progress; the moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet + indistinct; so they sat them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and + rested till the moon should lighten their path. + </p> + <p> + Louis was confident they were not far from “the bigstone,” but careful + Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already + conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone that + had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came in + sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its rugged + sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. “Forward for ‘the + big stone’ and the wigwam,” cried Louis. + </p> + <p> + “Hush!” said Catharine, “look there,” raising her hand with a warning + gesture. + </p> + <p> + “Where? what?” + </p> + <p> + “The wolf! the wolf!” gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon + the summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood + the gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound of + which seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of the + tall pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their hearts, + as with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline of the terrible + beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck stretched outward, + and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave back those dismal + sounds; another minute and he was gone, and the crushing of branches and + the rush of many feet on the high bank above, was followed by the + prolonged cry of some poor fugitive animal,—a doe, or fawn, perhaps,—in + the very climax of mortal agony; and then the lonely recesses of the + forest took up that fearful death-cry, the far-off shores of the lake and + the distant islands prolonged it, and the terrified children clung + together in fear and trembling. + </p> + <p> + A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the + hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone—not even the + watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with all + its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; but though + around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long ere confidence was + restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and trembling children. They + beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy shade, and every rustling + bough struck fresh terrors into their excited minds. They might have + exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, “How dreadful is this place!” + </p> + <p> + With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of + the bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should + return; sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing to + be the only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet + nature, overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their + eyelids; deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight + breaking through the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound of + waving boughs and twittering birds, once more wakened them to life and + light; recalling them from happy dreams of home and friends, to an aching + sense of loneliness and desolation. This day they did not wander far from + the valley, but took the precaution, as evening drew on, to light a large + fire, the blaze of which they thought would keep away any beast of prey. + They had no want of food, as the fish they had caught the day before + proved an ample supply. The huckle-berries were ripening too, and soon + afforded them a never-failing source of food; there were also an abundance + of bilberries, the sweet rich berries of which proved a great treat, + besides being very nourishing. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!” + </pre> + <p> + A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from pain + and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all that + Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower by the lake, + where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful longing to regain + their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and often would the + poor sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, to wring her hands + and weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear father and mother, who + would have given worlds had they been at their command, to have heard but + one accent of her beloved voice, to have felt one loving pressure from + that fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered over the path of the young + wanderers, long after she had ceased to whisper comfort to the desolate + hearts of the mournful parents. + </p> + <p> + Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied + than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly + which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. “If + Kate had not been with me,” he would say, “we should not have been lost; + for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the + cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and + insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way.” Louis + Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the flowers, + and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the form of + pleasure and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the thoughtful, + till they find the path they have followed is beset with briers and + thorns; and a thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, unexpected, + overwhelm and bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; and perhaps + the punishment of their errors does not fall upon themselves alone, but + upon the innocent, who have unknowingly been made participators in their + fault. + </p> + <p> + By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis + endeavoured to alleviate his cousin’s sufferings, and soften her regrets; + nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, when his own + heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. “If it were + not for our dear parents and the dear children at home,” he would say, “we + might spend our time most happily upon these charming plains; it is much + more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; see how brightly the + sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and cover the earth with fruit + and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to fish and hunt, and trap the + game. Yes, if they were all here, we would build us a nice log-house, and + clear up these bushes on the flat near the lake. This ‘Elfin Knowe,’ as + you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot to build upon. See these glorious + old oaks; not one should be cut down, and we would have a boat and a + canoe, and voyage across to yonder islands. Would it not be charming, ma + belle?” and Catharine, smiling at the picture drawn so eloquently, would + enter into the spirit of the project, and say,— + </p> + <p> + “Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had but my father’s rifle now,” said Hector, “and old Wolfe.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges and + black squirrels,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at break + of day,” said Hector. “The fawn was so little fearful, that if I had had a + stick in my hand, I could have killed it.—I came within ten yards of + the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one by making a + dead-fall.” <i>[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the woods, or on + the banks of creeks.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear innocent + Mignon,” cried Catharine, “I should never feel lonely then.” + </p> + <p> + “And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from + time to time, ma belle.” + </p> + <p> + “Hec., what are you thinking of?” + </p> + <p> + “I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our + lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the open + air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and the + rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter will + have to be provided against.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way + back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever way + we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get + involved in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know + there is neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, + and we might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside this + fine lake, and upon these fruitful plains.” + </p> + <p> + “It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home,” said + Hector. “We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find the + use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some spot + where there is a spring of good water, and—” + </p> + <p> + “No horrible wolves,” interrupted Catharine: “though I love this pretty + ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to + stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were + asleep.” + </p> + <p> + “We must not forget to keep watch-fires.” + </p> + <p> + “What shall we do for clothes?” said Catharine, glancing at her home-spun + frock of wool and cotton plaid. + </p> + <p> + “A weighty consideration, indeed,” sighed Hector; “clothes must be + provided before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on.” + </p> + <p> + “We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels,” suggested + Louis; “and fawns when we catch them.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and fawns when we get them,” added Hector; “but it is time enough to + think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home.” + </p> + <p> + “I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life,” said Catharine. + “My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will try + and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search.” + </p> + <p> + Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy + guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, were + thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and thick + bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and + outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain—yet the arms + of thy heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to + sustain thee. + </p> + <p> + How often were Catharine’s hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry home, + as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, how + often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them with + her tears,—for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + </p> + <p> + When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless + wanderings, they would say to each other: “Perhaps we shall see our + father, he may find us here to-day;” but evening came, and still he came + not, and they were no nearer to their father’s home than they had been the + day previous. + </p> + <p> + “If we could but find our way back to the ‘Cold Creek,’ we might, by + following its course, return to Cold Springs,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I doubt much the fact of the ‘Cold Creek’ having any connexion with our + Spring,” said Louis; “I think it has its rise in the ‘Beaver-meadow,’ and + following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish balsam and + cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick recesses of the + pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty miles from Cold + Springs.” + </p> + <p> + It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their way + in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or the + points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, which is + not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of forest-trees; + they rather measure distance by the time they have been wandering, than by + any other token. + </p> + <p> + The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, + wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as + long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun + in his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the + home they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice of + the course they should take each day, and at last determined them to lose + no more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek for + some pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and provide + for their present and future wants. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.” + </pre> + <p> + Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since + the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the + conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley + of the “big stone,” and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent their + steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led the way, + loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of the axe, + which he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and the + birch-basket. Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, likewise + some fish to carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + </p> + <p> + The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake shore, + but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth of trees + and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and the + fatigue of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to put + aside the bushes or bend them down. + </p> + <p> + Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path + through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves on a + fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with white + and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, which + reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur above its + leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept watch from + its dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread below like a + silver zone studded with emeralds. + </p> + <p> + In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which + divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows had + once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site of + which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the valley, + filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These waters with + resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, bearing in + their course those blocks of granite and limestone which are so widely + scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form a rocky pavement + at the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of sublime desolation + must that outpouring of the waters have presented, when those steep banks + were riven by the sweeping torrents that were loosened from their former + bounds. The pleased eye rests upon these tranquil shores, now covered with + oaks and pines, or waving with a flood of golden grain, or varied by neat + dwellings and fruitful gardens; and the gazer on that peaceful scene + scarcely pictures to himself what it must have been when no living eye was + there to mark the rushing floods, when they scooped to themselves the deep + bed in which they now repose. + </p> + <p> + Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were + doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose + rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried away + the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the lake, + seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some few are + parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable impediment + turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an outlet + through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + </p> + <p> + There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a + solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly + called the “upper Race-course,” merely on account of the smoothness of the + surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above the + lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and + covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been a + broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and + attractive spot, known as the “lower Race-course;” it lies on a lower + level than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of distant + hills; both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and may have been + the sources from whence its channel was filled. Some convulsion of nature + at a remote period, by raising the waters above their natural level, might + have caused a disruption of the banks, and drained their beds, as they now + appear ready for the ploughshare or the spade. In the month of June these + flats are brilliant with the splendid blossoms of the <i>enchroma</i>, or + painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy <i>trillium</i> roses scent the + evening air, and grow as if planted by the hand of taste. + </p> + <p> + A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage <i>[FN: Saxifraga nivalis.]</i> + with its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the + fall, it is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a + species of creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the + leaves are highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable to + the taste and smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage of + martagon lilies take the place of the lupine and trilliums; these splendid + lilies vary from orange to the brightest scarlet; various species of + sunflowers and <i>coreopsis</i> next appear, and elegant white <i>pyrolas</i> + <i>[FN: Gentiana linearis, G. crenata.]</i> scent the air and charm the + eye. The delicate lilac and white shrubby asters next appear, and these + are followed by the large deep blue gentian, and here and there by the + elegant fringed gentian. <i>[FN: Pyrola rotundifolia, P. asarifolia.]</i> + These are the latest and loveliest of the flowers that adorn this tract of + land. It is indeed a garden of nature’s own planting, but the wild garden + is being converted into fields of grain, and the wild flowers give place + to a new race of vegetables, less ornamental, but more useful to man and + the races of domestic animals that depend upon him for their support. + </p> + <p> + Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found themselves, + at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, <i>[FN: </i>Pedophyllnm + galmata<i>,—Mandrake, or May-apple.]</i> where they had the good + fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath some large + moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground was thickly + covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many varieties of + flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the valley and up the + steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were whortleberries, or + huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in abundance; bilberries + dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. The vines that wreathed + the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes, + but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly + sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, + filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the + stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they + did not mind the consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied + by a large bed of May-apples, <i>[FN: Kilvert’s Ravine, above Pine-tree + Point.]</i> the fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not + ripe, August being the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums + still green, and wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great + numbers of the woodchucks’ burrows on the hills, while partridges and + quails were seen under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, <i>[FN: + </i>Cornus sericea<i>. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by the + partridge and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There are + several species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.]</i> that here grew + in abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As + this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, + and resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they should + meet with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded + hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, + somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the shelter + that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through the opening + at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the distant waters of + the lake which terminated the vista, while they were quite removed from + its unwholesome vapours. + </p> + <p> + The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, scarcely + modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in about nine + o’clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in the afternoon. + Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while Catharine busied + herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss and fern, of which + there was abundance near the spring. The boys had promised to cut some + fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and bring them up to form a + foundation for their bed, and also to strew Indian-fashion over the floor + of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort of carpeting reminds one of, the + times when the palaces of our English kings were strewed with rushes, and + brings to mind the old song:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew’d with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch——” + </pre> + <p> + Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients + adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the + luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the rich. + The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn lightly over + the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if it had been taken + from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and contented were they in + their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered grass and leaves, raised + from the earth by a heap of branches carefully arranged, was to them as + pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of bark and poles, as curtains + of silk or damask. + </p> + <p> + Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient for + the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of which + lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, and this + done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath the + cooling shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; pleased + with the dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, and fanned + her warm cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like her cousin + Louise, that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, for it was + always dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were still. + </p> + <p> + She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a + deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores + of the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far + away from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup <i>[FN: The Dutch + word for verandah, which is still in common use among the Canadians.]</i> + in front of her father’s house, and in memory’s eye she beheld it all + exactly as she had left it. There stood the big spinning wheel, just as + she had set it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended from the rafters, + the basket filled with the carded wool ready for her work. She saw in + fancy her father, with his fine athletic upright figure, his sunburnt + cheeks and clustering sable hair, his clear energetic hazel eye ever + beaming upon her, his favourite child, with looks of love and kindness as + she moved to and fro at her wheel. <i>[FN: Such is the method of working + at the large wool wheel, unknown or obsolete in England.]</i> There, too, + was her mother, with her light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as + she pursued her daily avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the + cows to be milked, or chopping firewood. And as these images, like the + figures of the magic lantern, passed in all their living colours before + her mental vision, her head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon + her arm, and then she started, looked round, and slept again, her face + deeply buried in her young bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl + slumbered. + </p> + <p> + A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting + breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she + dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf—its grisly + paws were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and suffocation—her + languid eyes open. Can it be?—what is it that she sees? Yes, it is + Wolfe; not the fierce creature of her dreams by night and her fears by + day, but her father’s own brave devoted dog. What joy, what hope rushed to + her heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of the faithful beast, + and wept from the fulness of heart. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she joyfully cried, “I knew that I should see him again. My own + dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are + your children. Come, come quickly!” and she hurried to the head of the + valley, raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now + confidently believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the + well-known sound of her voice. + </p> + <p> + Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every projecting + headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, “Come quickly!” + </p> + <p> + Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, + “Father, come quickly, come!” and again the deceitful sounds were + repeated, “Quickly come!” + </p> + <p> + The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost + mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her + father’s name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont to + do when he heard his master’s step approaching. Still Catharine could not + but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father must + be very near. + </p> + <p> + The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, + fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up + their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They + could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, + their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the + gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their + friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and + shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow + them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties were + in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old dog refused + to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched himself, and the + boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh—he looked almost + starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a state of great + exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with wishful looks, and + she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to this great relief. + </p> + <p> + Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, in + tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, “Lost, lost, lost!” It + was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe would travel in + all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search till he + discovered the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last night of the + father’s wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back to his + melancholy home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and fro, he + involuntarily exclaimed, wringing his hands, “Lost, lost, lost!” Wolfe + heard what to him was an imperative command; he rose, and stood at the + door, and whined; mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, and + again exclaimed in passionate tones those magic words, that sent the + faithful messenger forth into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he + never left it, but with ah instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, + he continued to track the woods, lingering long on spots where the + wanderers had left any signs of their sojourn; he had for some time been + baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and again where they had crossed Cold Creek, + but had regained the scent and traced them to the valley of the “big + stone,” and then with the sagacity of the bloodhound and the affection of + the terrier he had, at last, discovered the objects of his unwearied, + though often baffled search. + </p> + <p> + What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe create! + How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with his head + pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it was + foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if he had + been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your homesick + nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those eloquent + waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or waved from + side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute sorrowful + glances, as though he would have said, “Dear mistress, I know all your + troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!” There is something + touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only the hard-hearted + and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once hearing of a felon, + who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous indifference to the + appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that attended him in prison, + whose heart was softened by the sight of a little dog, that had been his + companion in his days of comparative innocence, forcing its way through + the crowd, till it gained the foot of the gallows; its mute look of + anguish and affection unlocked the fount of human feeling, and the + condemned man wept—perhaps the first tears he had shed since + childhood’s happy days. + </p> + <p> + The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The inky + darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid flame, + which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off or near. + The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through the gorge of + the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep narrow defile, + shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, more wild and + gloomy, when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + </p> + <p> + There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage + remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, scarcely + stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at rest. The + solemn murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been likened to + the moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of the spot. + Seated at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which their + evening fire burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in silence + and in awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near them, they + felt comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which now burst in + terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to cloud, and the + echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered trunks and + brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in that wild war + of elements. + </p> + <p> + Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from their + covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might be heard + from time to time,—a sound that always thrilled their hearts with + fear. To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they + listened with awe and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were the + voice of Him who “sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice.” + And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with curdled blood + from the cry of the <i>felon wolf.</i> + </p> + <p> + And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down in a + whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey branches + were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they would not bow + down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered all abroad like + chaff before the wind. + </p> + <p> + The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for the + safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from them. + And often ‘mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could + distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. “If our father had + not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm,” said + Catharine, weeping, “or have been starved to death while seeking for us!” + and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + </p> + <p> + But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers + were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and + privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure + they were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had + prevented them from meeting. + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow, ma chère, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will be a + joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his master, + and then—oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. They + will have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our dear + mothers and chère petite Louise.” + </p> + <p> + The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the + poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars peep + forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful state, + the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their garments were + drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire with some bark and + boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks in their back log + unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a blaze, with which + they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. The air was now cool + almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather remained unsettled, + and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake presented a leaden hue, + crested with white mimic waves. + </p> + <p> + They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head of + the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of bark, + which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. The boys + employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the fish they had + caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe seemed to be + mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they all went up + towards the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to look round in + hope of getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, but though they + kept an anxious look out in every direction, they returned, towards + evening, tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red squirrel, and a + partridge which Wolfe “treed,”—that is, stood barking at the foot of + the tree in which it had perched,—and the supply of meat was a + seasonable change. They also noticed, and marked, with the axe, several + trees where there were bees, intending to come in the cold weather, and + cut them down. Louis’s father was a great and successful bee-hunter; and + Louis rather prided himself on having learned something of his father’s + skill in that line. Here, where flowers were so abundant and water + plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be abundant also; besides, the open + space between the trees, admitting the warm sunbeam freely, was favourable + both for the bees and the flowers on which they fed, and Louis talked + joyfully of the fine stores of honey they should collect in the fell. He + had taught little Fanchon, a small French spaniel of his father’s, to find + out the trees where the bees hived, and also the nests of the ground-bees, + and she would bark at the foot of the tree, or scratch with her feet on + the ground, as the other dogs barked at the squirrels or the woodchucks; + but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was old, and would learn no new + tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his own observation and the axe + to depend upon for procuring honey. + </p> + <p> + The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither + perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts <i>[FN: All these fish are + indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.]</i> were to be caught. However, + they found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish among the + gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their fingers very + spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want of salt; but + hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared them very good when + well roasted, covered up with hot embers. “The fish-hawks,” said he, “set + us a good example, for they eat them, and so do the eagles and herons. I + watched one the other day with a mussel in his bill; he flew to a high + tree, let his prey fall, and immediately darted down to secure it; but I + drove him off, and, to my great amusement, perceived the wise fellow had + just let it fall on a stone, which had cracked the shell for him just in + the right place. I often see shells lying at the foot of trees, far up the + hills, where these birds must have left them. There is one large + thick-shelled mussel, that I have found several times with a round hole + drilled through the shell, just as if it had been done with a small auger, + doubtless the work of some bird with a strong beak.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you remember,” said Catharine, “the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. + picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of the + shells too; <i>[FN: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells of mussels + is common to many birds. The crow (</i>Corvus corone<i>) has been long + known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the river + mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and stones.]</i> + and when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by some large + bird, a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the great lake, + as it had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in our creeks + being quite thin-shelled and white.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the + eagle’s nest on the top of our hill, Louis?” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; they + were brought from this very lake, I dare say.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we + might become great fishermen.” + </p> + <p> + “Louis,” said Catharine, “is always thinking about canoes, and boats, and + skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor.” + </p> + <p> + Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to manage + her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never saw + difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion of his + own cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed faster + than Hector’s, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one valuable + quality—steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an opinion, but + when once convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered the subject or + overcame the obstacle. + </p> + <p> + “Catharine,” said Louis, one day, “the huckleberries age now very + plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store of + them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chère, wherever we turn our + eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are purple + with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest of our + lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no berries are + to be found.” + </p> + <p> + “It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for let me + tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless—mere dry + husks.” + </p> + <p> + “Why so, ma belle?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our mothers + dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the case, but when + they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they were quite + nice.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good + hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, + to keep the dried fruit in.” + </p> + <p> + They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or + whortleberries). <i>[FN: From the abundance of this fruit, the Indians + have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the south shore. + During the month of July and the early part of August, large parties come + to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, which they preserve by + drying, for winter use. These berries make a delicious tart or pudding, + mixed with bilberries and red-currants, requiring little sugar.]</i> + Catharine and Louis (who fancied nothing could be contrived without his + help) attended to the preparing and making of the bags of birch bark; but + Hector was soon tired of girl’s work, as he termed it, and, after + gathering some berries, would wander away over the hills in search of + game, and to explore the neighbouring hills and valleys, and sometimes it + was sunset before he made his appearance. Hector had made an excellent + strong-bow, like the Indian bow, out of a tough piece of hickory wood, + which he found in one of his rambles, and he made arrows with wood that he + seasoned in the smoke, sharpening the heads with great care with his + knife, and hardening them by exposure to strong heat, at a certain + distance from the fire. The entrails of the woodchucks, stretched, and + scraped and dried, and rendered pliable by rubbing and drawing through the + hands, answered for a bowstring; but afterwards, when they got the sinews + and hide of the deer, they used them, properly dressed for the purpose. + </p> + <p> + Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a + true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with + shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even + Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was now + seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned from his + rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which are plentiful + at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass over in their + migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return thither for the + acorns and berries that are to be found in great abundance. Squirrels, + too, are very plentiful at this season. Hector and Louis remarked that the + red and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other. It is + a common belief, that the red squirrels make common cause with the grey, + and beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a + succession of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while + there were plenty of the red and grey in the “oak openings.” <i>[FN: + Within the last three years, however, the black squirrels have been very + numerous, and the red are less frequently to be seen. The flesh of the + black squirrel is tender, white, and delicate, like that of a young + rabbit.]</i> Deer, at the time our young Crusoes were living on the Rice + Lake Plains, were plentiful, and, of course, so were those beasts that + prey upon them,—wolves, bears, and wolverines, besides the Canadian + lynx, or catamount, as it is here commonly called, a species of wild-cat + or panther. These wild animals are now no longer to be seen; it is a rare + thing to hear of bears or wolves, and the wolverine and lynx are known + only as matters of history in this part of the country; these animals + disappear as civilization advances, while some others increase and follow + man, especially many species of birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs + that fall from the rich man’s board, and multiply about his dwelling; some + adopt new habits and modes of building and feeding, according to the + alteration and improvement in their circumstances. + </p> + <p> + While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation of + the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, while + Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, in + unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on one of the + gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself by looking for + flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, <i>[FN: </i>Podophyllum + peltatum<i>-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of the May-apple, in rich + moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum bonum, or egg-plum, + which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes a delicious preserve, if + seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten uncooked, the outer rind, which + is thick and fleshy, and has a rank taste, should be thrown aside; the + fine acid pulp in which the seeds are imbedded alone should be eaten. The + root of the Podophyllum is used as a cathartic by the Indians. The root of + this plant is reticulated, and when a large body of them are uncovered, + they present a singular appearance, interlacing each other in large + meshes, like an extensive net-work; these roots are white, as thick as a + man’s little finger, and fragrant, and spread horizontally along the + surface. The blossom is like a small white rose.]</i> but finding them + cumbersome in climbing the steep wooded hills, she deposited them at the + foot of a tree near the boys, and pursued her search; and it was not long + before she perceived some pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of + bright lilac flowers, and on plucking some pulled up the root also. The + root was about the size and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, + she found it far from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it + seemed to be a favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that + it grew about their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems + were bitten, and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. + Therefore, carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted + them in the embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more + satisfying than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often roasted + in the fire, when they were out working on the fallow, at the log heaps. + Hector and Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended Catharine for + the discovery. Not many days afterwards, Louis accidentally found a much + larger and more valuable root, near the lake shore. He saw a fine climbing + shrub, with close bunches of dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which + scented the air with a delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great + height over the young trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and + tendrils. Pleased with the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to + pull one up, that he might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed + a number of large tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular + oval-shaped; the inside was quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, + only pleasanter, when in its raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis + gathered his pockets full, and hastened home with his prize, and, on being + roasted, these new roots were decided to be little inferior to potatoes, + at all events, they were a valuable addition to their slender stores, and + they procured as many as they could find, carefully storing them in a + hole, which they dug for that purpose in a corner of their hut. <i>[FN: + This plant appears to me to be a species of the </i>Psoralea esculenta<i>, + or Indian bread-root, which it resembles in description, excepting that + the root of the above is tuberous oval, and connected by long filaments. + The largest tubers are farthest from the stem of the plant.]</i> Hector + suggested that these roots would be far better late in the fall, or early + in the spring, than during the time that the plant was in bloom, for he + knew from observation and experience that at the flowering season the + greater part of the nourishment derived from the soil goes to perfect the + flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, there was a white + floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance of the potato. + </p> + <p> + “This flour,” said Catharine, “would make good porridge with milk.” + </p> + <p> + “Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper,” said Louis, + laughing, “but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the + porridge-pot to come from?” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed,” said Catharine, “I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both.” + </p> + <p> + One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, for + the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five deer + were in the water, and making for Long Island. + </p> + <p> + “But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the + arrows,” said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of + arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, + which, the young hunter had made for himself. + </p> + <p> + “No fear, ma chère; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and lilies. + We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,—here, boy, here!” + </p> + <p> + Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright + eyes of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness the + hunt, ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently + understood that they had some sport in view, trotted along by his + mistress, wagging his great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + </p> + <p> + Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The herd + of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and two young + half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of rice and rushes, + not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, apparently quite + unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on a fallen trunk eagerly + eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of Louis and Catharine, with + the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused the timid creatures to a + sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head and making, as the + children thought, a signal for retreat, now struck boldly out for the + nearest point of Long Island. + </p> + <p> + “We shall lose them,” cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright + track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + </p> + <p> + “Hist, hist, Louis,” said Hector, “all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, + Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!” + </p> + <p> + Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + </p> + <p> + “Head them! head them!” shouted Hector. + </p> + <p> + Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, he + made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. Twice + the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, taking the + time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the boys saw the + herd had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the island, they + separated, Louis making good his ambush to the right among the cedars, and + Hector at the spring to the west, while Catharine was stationed at the + solitary pine-tree, at the point which commanded the entrance of the + ravine. + </p> + <p> + “Now, Cathy,” said her brother, “when you see the herd making for the + ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the + ten right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. We + must trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is well + trained, he knows what he is about.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited till + the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and + clapped her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified + creatures coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of the + thicket where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they had + emerged when they first took to the water; to this place they boldly + steered. Louis, who had watched the direction the herd had taken with + breathless interest, now noiselessly hurried to Hector’s assistance, + taking an advantageous post for aim, in case Hector’s arrow missed, or + only slightly wounded one of the deer. + </p> + <p> + Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the does + was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, that it + hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag now turned + again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and again the noble + animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now shot his arrow, but + it swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it glanced harmlessly along + the water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of Hector sent another arrow + between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with its force, and then, + another from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and staining the water + with her blood. + </p> + <p> + The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the + shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to + make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal + from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that as + his last arrow had given the <i>coup de grace</i>, he was entitled to the + honour of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander + protested against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, + contenting himself with saying, “Ah, well, I will get the first steak of + the venison when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste.” + Moreover, he privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had + had in the exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the + worthy service she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the herd. + Wolfe, too, came in for a large share of the honour and glory of the + chase. + </p> + <p> + The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. + This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many + uses were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a store + of wealth in their eyes. + </p> + <p> + During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, + there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, + and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the + lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + </p> + <p> + From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been + acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good + fruit behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to + future advantage. + </p> + <p> + The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews + of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer for + mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws + themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season + the wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the + fish-hooks these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew + that strips of fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails of + animals dried and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws making + baskets of the inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats of the + inner bark of the cedar, with many other ingenious works that they now + found would prove useful to them, after a little practice had perfected + their inexperienced attempts. They also knew how to dry venison as the + Indians and trappers prepare it, by cutting the thick fleshy portions of + the meat into strips, from four to six inches in breadth, and two or more + in thickness. These strips they strung upon poles supported on forked + sticks, and exposed them to the drying action of the sun and wind. Fish + they split open, and removed the back and head bones, and smoked them + slightly, or dried them in the sun. + </p> + <p> + Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in their + joy they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate caresses + on Wolfe for his good conduct. + </p> + <p> + “But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for + dinner to-day,” said Louis; “and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice piece + for your own share.” + </p> + <p> + Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; + the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and + the entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs + and back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + </p> + <p> + “We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by,” said careful Hector; + “for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn our + attention to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will not + do when once the cold weather sets in.” + </p> + <p> + “A shanty would soon be put up,” said Hector; “for even Kate, wee bit + lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + </p> + <p> + “That I could, indeed,” replied Catherine; “for you may remember, Hec., + that the last journey my father made to the Bay, <i>[FN: Bay of Quints.]</i> + with the pack of furs, that you and I called a <i>Bee</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We fear it + is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all Christian + colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in the course of + performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, or shanties, all the + neighbours are summoned, and give their best assistance in the + construction. Of course the assisted party is liable to be called upon by + the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he has received.]</i> + </p> + <p> + to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and I + am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you + said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only + four logs high.” + </p> + <p> + “It was not for the fall that I cried,” said Catharine, resentfully, “but + because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, ‘Cats, you know, + have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their feet,’ + and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in pain. Beside, + you called me ‘puss,’ and ‘poor pussie’ all the rest of the <i>Bee</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you,” said Louis, + trying to look penitent for the offence. “For my part, I had forgotten all + about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear aunt + made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; and the + shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine builders, + to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no better help.” + </p> + <p> + “After all,” said Hector, thoughtfully; “children can do a great many + things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the + strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we + should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves in a + lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and hunting.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger,” said + Catharine; “but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, and + gave us health and strength to help ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O’ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken’d o’er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle—pale, + Fann’d by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + “Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?” said Catharine, the + very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + </p> + <p> + “Hollowing out a canoe.” + </p> + <p> + “Out of that piece of stick?” said Catharine, laughing. “How many + passengers is it to accommodate, my dear.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made + out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?” Louis + nodded assent. + </p> + <p> + “I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and out + of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of partridges, + I am sure, and squirrels,—it is the very place for them.” + </p> + <p> + “And shall we have a sail as well as oars?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; set up your apron for a sail.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + </p> + <p> + “It is worth nothing now,” she said, sighing; “and what am I to do when my + gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been + cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes.” + </p> + <p> + “We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough,” said Hector; + “Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the holes + with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be easily + made.” + </p> + <p> + “The first rainy day, we will see what we can do,” replied Louis; “but I + am full of my canoe just now.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even if we + had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could manage + one,” said cautions Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first + taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and + streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I have + listened so often to my father’s stories and adventures when he was out + lumbering on the St. John’s river, that I am as familiar with the idea of + a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle,” he said, + turning to Catharine; “just think of the fish—the big ones we could + get if we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those + rush-beds.” + </p> + <p> + “It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be the + Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he + called Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where he + said there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, where + people could see through the openings among the trees. He said it was a + great hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and that they + came there to gather in the harvest of wild rice.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out,” said Catharine, + shuddering; “I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at + the wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?” + </p> + <p> + “But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil enough + when they came to the Springs.” “They came, you know, for food, or + shelter, or something that they wanted from us; but it may be different + when they find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon their hunting + grounds.” + </p> + <p> + “The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our + friends.” + </p> + <p> + “The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together,” observed + Hector. “The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man do + not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary the + one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they suspect our + openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their own—they + do not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we are taught + to forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with the savage, + is a crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be taught the word of + God, he might be kind and true, and gentle as well as brave.” + </p> + <p> + It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away + their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for + self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and time, + that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered and + animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus severed + them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to which + their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from infancy + upwards. + </p> + <p> + One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring + expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they well + knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and venison + himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat near it. + </p> + <p> + They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat <i>[FN: + Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose pleasant + meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the lake. It is one + of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well for the persevering + industry of the settler and his family.]</i> along the lake shore, to the + eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult to force their way + through the thick underwood that always impedes the progress of the + traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed the course of an + ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural causeway between + two parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in many places, not + wider than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides were most + gracefully adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers of various + species, wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry bushes, + high-bush cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; while in the + deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest growth, the heads of + which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy banks, beset with huge + boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn limestone, showed that it + had once formed the boundary of the lake, though now it was almost a + quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of pure water were in abundance, + trickling down the steep rugged sides of this wooded glen. The children + wandered onwards, delighted with the wild picturesque path they had + chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of moss-covered stone, or on the + twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak or pine, while they gazed with + curiosity and interest on the lonely but lovely landscape before them. + Across the lake, the dark forest shut all else from their view, rising in + gradual far-off slopes, till it reached the utmost boundary of sight. Much + the children marvelled what country it might be that lay in the dim, blue, + hazy distance,—to them, indeed, a <i>terra incognita</i>—a + land of mystery; but neither of her companions laughed when Catharine + gravely suggested the probability of this unknown shore to the northward + being her father’s beloved Highlands. Let not youthful and more learned + reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian girl; she knew nothing of + maps, and globes, and hemispheres,—her only book of study had been + the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor Highland soldier. + </p> + <p> + Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at + last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that + formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far + from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to the + southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant brae, + where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, they + decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount Ararat: + “For here.” said they, “we will build us an ark of refuge and wander no + more.” And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still bears. Here they + sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried venison, and drank + of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the edge of the bank. + Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house near the birches, and + they made a regular blaze on the trees as they returned home towards the + wigwam, that they might not miss the place. They found less difficulty in + retracing their path than they had formerly, a there were some striking + peculiarities to mark it, and they had learned to be very minute in the + remarks they made as they travelled, so that they now seldom missed the + way they came by. A few days after this, they removed all their household + stores, viz. the axe, the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of + dried fruit, the dried venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they + forget the deer scalp, which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up + over the door of their new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on + the shores of the Rice Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + </p> + <p> + The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for + house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and + the oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate + watched the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; + there was something to look forward to from day to day-they were going to + commence housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and well + lodged before the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their blood. + It was a joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were put up, + and the door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did not cut out the + spaces for them; <i>[FN: Many a shanty is put up in Canada without + windows, and only an open space for a door, with a rude plank set up to + close it in at night.]</i> they could do very well without, as hundreds of + Irish and Highland emigrants have done before and since. + </p> + <p> + A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes against + the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney and hearth in + this primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with wedge-shaped pieces + of wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, being chiefly oaks and pines, + afforded no moss. This deficiency rather surprised the boys, for in the + thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss grows in abundance on the north + side of the trees, especially on the cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron + wood; but there were few of these, excepting a chance one or two in the + little basin in front of the house. The roof was next put on, which + consisted of split cedars; and when the little dwelling was thus far + habitable, they were all very happy. While the boys had been putting on + the roof, Catharine had collected the stones for the chimney, and cleared + the earthen floor of the chips and rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, + bound together with a leathern thong. She had swept it all clean, + carefully removing all unsightly objects, and strewing it over with fresh + cedar sprigs, which gave out a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not + unseemly carpet for their little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire + blazing up on their own hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its + gladdening light, and chat away of all they had done and all that they + meant to do. Here was to be a set of split cedar shelves, to hold their + provisions and baskets; there a set of stout pegs were to be inserted + between the logs for hanging up strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, + or the skins of the animals they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be + fixed on posts in the centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden + platters and dishes, and some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of + wood, till something better could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough + poles of iron-wood, supported by posts driven into the ground, and partly + upheld by the projection of the logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing + could be more simple. The framework was of split cedar; and a safe bed was + made by pine boughs being first laid upon the frame, and then thickly + covered with dried grass, moss, and withered leaves. Such were the lowly + but healthy couches on which these children of the forest slept. + </p> + <p> + A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded with + disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler’s family have I + seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared for their + reception; and many a gentleman’s son has voluntarily submitted to + privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and adventure, or + to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money in the lumbering + trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty and ruder society of + those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian lumberers. During the spring + and summer months, these men spread themselves through the trackless + forests, and along the shores of nameless lakes and unknown streams, to + cut the pine or oak lumber, such being the name they give to the felled + stems of trees, which are then hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon + the ice, where they are formed into rafts, and floated down the waters + till they reach the great St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable + difficulties and casualties, finally shipped for England. I have likewise + known European gentlemen voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized + home, and associate themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, + leading lives as wandering and as wild as the uncultivated children of the + forest. The nights and early mornings were already growing sensibly more + chilly. The dews at this season fall heavily, and the mists fill the + valleys, till the sun has risen with sufficient heat to draw up the + vapours. It was a good thing that the shanty was finished so soon, or the + exposure to the damp air might have been productive of ague and fever. + Every hour almost they spent in making little additions to their household + comforts, but some time was necessarily passed in trying to obtain + provisions. One day Hector, who had been out from dawn till moonrise, + returned with the welcome news that he had shot a young deer, and required + the assistance of his cousin to bring it up the steep bank—(it was + just at the entrance of the great ravine)—below the precipitous + cliff near the lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the meantime. + They had now plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was very + acceptable, as they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat that + they had. + </p> + <p> + This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in + strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she + roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets of + birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, and the + meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild plums in a + beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried for the winter + store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she also found + plenty of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, on the banks of + a charming creek of bright water that flowed between a range of high pine + hills, and finally emptied itself into the lake.<i>[FN: This little stream + flows through the green meadows of “Glenlynden,” watering the grounds of + Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose picturesque cottage forms a most attractive + object to the eye of the traveller.]</i> There were great quantities of + water-cresses in this pretty brook; they grew in bright round cushion-like + tufts at the bottom of the water, and were tender and wholesome. These + formed an agreeable addition to their diet, which had hitherto been + chiefly confined to animal food, for they could not always meet with a + supply of the bread-roots, as they grew chiefly in damp, swampy thickets + on the lake shore, which were sometimes very difficult of access; however, + they never missed any opportunity of increasing their stores, and laying + up for the winter such roots as they could procure. + </p> + <p> + As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm clothes + and bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were beginning + to wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the lake several + times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she was often + sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as time wore + on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys on the + important subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to + manufacture the skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, and + the doe-skin and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. Louis + was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They had + taken off the hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling it up + with the hairy side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made excellent + mocassins, piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, and passing + the sinews of the deer through, as he had seen his father do, by fixing a + stout fish-bone to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an excellent + substitute for a needle, and with the aid of the old file he sharpened the + point of the rusty nail, so that he was enabled, with a little trouble, to + drill a hole in a bone needle, for his cousin Catharine’s use. After + several attempts, he succeeded in making some of tolerable fineness, + hardening them by exposure to a slow steady degree of heat, till she was + able to work with them, and even mend her clothes with tolerable + expertness. By degrees, Catharine contrived to cover the whole outer + surface of her homespun woollen frock with squirrel and mink, musk-rat and + woodchuck skins. A curious piece of fur patchwork of many hues and + textures it presented to the eye,—a coat of many colours, it is + true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was not a little proud of + her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was added was a source of + fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis fitted so nicely to her + feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector brought triumphantly in + one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught in one of his + deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the brush + remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine might + have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur dress and + bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + </p> + <p> + Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and + stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the inner + part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most expert + in this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist their + fathers in preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur traders, + who visited them from time to time, and gave them various articles in + exchange for their peltries; such as powder and shot, and cutlery of + different kinds, as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with gay + calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs for the women. + </p> + <p> + As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving + wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the + larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun and + wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets too + they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, that + they held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some vessel that + would bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small that it could be + made little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had made an attempt at + making tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the sweet fern,—a + graceful woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent like nutmegs; this plant + is highly esteemed among the Canadians as a beverage, and also as a remedy + against the ague; it grows in great abundance on dry sandy lands and + wastes, by waysides. + </p> + <p> + “If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat + of the fire,” said Louis, “we could get on nicely with cooking.” But + nothing like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they were + obliged to give up that thought, and content themselves with roasting or + broiling their food. Louis, however, who was fond of contrivances, made an + oven, by hollowing out a place near the hearth, and lining it with stones, + filling up the intervals with wood ashes and such clay as they could find, + beaten into a smooth mortar. Such cement answered very well, and the oven + was heated by filling it with hot embers; these were removed when it was + sufficiently heated, and the meat or roots placed within, the oven being + covered over with a flat stone previously heated before the fire, and + covered with live coals. This sort of oven had often been described by old + Jacob, as one in common use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower + province, in which they cook small animals, and make excellent meat of + them; they could bake bread also in this oven, if they had had flour to + use. <i>[FN: This primitive oven is much like what voyagers have described + as in use among the natives of many of the South Sea islands.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people were + more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided home + feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, to + talk of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all were + well, and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall all + their happy days spent in the home which they now feared they were + destined never again to behold. About the same time they lost the anxious + hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every turn when + they went out. Nevertheless they were becoming each day more cheerful and + more active. Ardently attached to each other, they seemed bound together + by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now all the world to + one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar their happiness. + Hector’s habitual gravity and caution were tempered by Louis’s lively + vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved Catharine, and strove + to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to which she was exposed, + by the most affectionate consideration for her comfort, and she in return + endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully enduring all privations, and + making light of all their trials, and taking a lively interest in all + their plans and contrivances. + </p> + <p> + Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his + absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. As + he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some + accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he had + for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, which + he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly + finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island + to explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + </p> + <p> + Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector ran + off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash cousin, + which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did not wish to + make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his mind was + somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it had been + left the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be seen, nor + the fishing-rod and line. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps,” thought he, “Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the + little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: or + maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point.” + </p> + <p> + While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard + steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through + the bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his + disordered air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder + from time to time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + </p> + <p> + “Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?” + cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried + onward. “Why, Louis, whither away?” + </p> + <p> + Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till + Hector came up to him. + </p> + <p> + “Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down by + a pack of wolves?” + </p> + <p> + “It is not wolves, or bears either,” said Louis, as soon as he could get + breath to speak, “but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war + council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them.” + </p> + <p> + “How came you to see them?” + </p> + <p> + “I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going + down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer + path through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the valley, + I crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight of the + creek. While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how pretty the + islands were, rising so green from the blue water, I was surprised by + seeing several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you may be sure, I + thought they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too far apart, so I + sat down on a log to watch, thinking if they turned out to be deer, I + would race off for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, that we might + try our chance for some venison; but as the black specks came nearer and + nearer, I perceived they were canoes with Indians in them, three in each. + They made for the mouth of the creek, and ran ashore among the thick + bushes. I watched them with a beating heart, and lay down flat, lest they + should spy me out; for those fellows have eyes like catamounts, so keen + and wild—they see everything without seeming to cast a glance on it. + Well, I saw them wind up the ridge till they reached the Bare-hill. <i>[FN: + Supposed to be a council hill. It is known by the name of Bare-hill, from + the singular want of verdure on its surface. It is one of the steepest on + the ridge above the little creek, being a picturesque object, with its + fine pine-trees, seen from Mr. Hayward’s grounds, and forms, I believe, a + part of his property.]</i> You remember that spot; we called it so from + its barren appearance. In a few minutes a column of smoke rose and curled + among the pine-trees, and then another and another, till I counted five + fires burning brightly; and, as I stood on the high ground, I could + distinguish the figures of many naked savages moving about, running to and + fro like a parcel of black ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them + raise a yell like a pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my + heart leap up in my breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got + into my wise head, of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the + empty birch canoes, which you must own would have been a glorious thing + for us; but when I heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted + off, and ran as if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my + scalp.” And Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black + curls, as if to ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping + knives of his Indian enemies. + </p> + <p> + “And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the + Indians; they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and so + three of course must be still better than two.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” said Hector, laughing, “it depends upon the stock of practical + wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form one + rational plan.” + </p> + <p> + Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed + pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no trace + of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his sister + would agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so much labour, + and which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not endure even in + idea. + </p> + <p> + “Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below Mount + Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold goods + thither.” Such was Louis’s plan. + </p> + <p> + “The ravines would be searched directly,” suggested Hector; “besides, the + Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; they + might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a burrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and burn us,” said Catharine, with a shudder. “I know the path that + leads direct to the ‘Happy Valley,’ (the name she had given to the low + flat, now known as the ‘lower Race-course,’) and it is not far from here, + only ten minutes’ walk in a straight line. We can conceal ourselves below + the steep bank that we descended the other day; and there are several + springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and berries; and the trees, + though few, are so thickly covered with close spreading branches that + touch the very ground, that we might hide ourselves from a hundred eyes + were they ever so cunning and prying.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine’s counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys immediately + busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a prostrate + tree such articles as they could not conveniently carry away, leaving the + rest to chance; with the most valuable they loaded themselves, and guided + by Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched forward along the narrow + footpath that had been made by some wild animals, probably deer, in their + passage from the lake to their feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the + low sheltered plain; where, being quite open, and almost, in parts, free + from trees, the grass and herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the + springs of water fresh and cool. + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved + onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily + chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that were + feeding quietly on the red berries of the <i>Mitchella repens,</i> or + twinberry, <i>[FN: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely + creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet + berry.]</i> as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails + are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad her + bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the Rice + Lake and its flowery shores. + </p> + <p> + After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted + at the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely + spot as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like a + silver crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in front, + the long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away into mist, + and blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile valley lay + between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far ridge of oak + hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish the outline of + the Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires and the smoke + wreaths that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the dark pines that grew + upon its crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives make, though perfectly + safe from detection by the distance and their shaded position, for many a + winding vale and wood-crowned height lay between them and the encampment. + </p> + <p> + But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present + instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight + and of motion. A few minutes’ hasty flight brought our travellers to the + brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open + plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they + were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, + and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while + hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow in + the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and + prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by the + earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent from these + roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other creepers, + which formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious eye could + scarcely penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as if provided for + their concealment, and they carefully abstained from disturbing the + pendent foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray their hiding-place + to their enemies. They found plenty of long grass, and abundance of long + soft green moss and ferns near a small grove of poplars, which surrounded + a spring of fine water. They ate some dried fruit and smoked fish, and + drank some of the clear spring; and after they had said their evening + prayers, they laid down to sleep, Catharine’s head pillowed on the neck of + her faithful guardian, Wolfe. In the middle of the night a startling + sound, as of some heavy body falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The + night was so dark they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat + gazing into the impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to + speak to each other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling + bark, and resumed his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his + attention was near to cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, + and prayed for safety against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector + and Louis listened, till they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the + morning, it seemed as if they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague + were their recollections of the fright they had had, but the cause was + soon perceived. A large stone that had been heaved up with the clay that + adhered to the roots and fibres, had been loosened, and had fallen on the + ground, close to the spot where Catharine lay. So ponderous was the mass, + that had it struck her, death must have been the consequence of the blow; + and Hector and Louis beheld it with fear and amazement, while Catharine + regarded it as a proof of Divine mercy and protection from Him in whose + hand her safety lay. The boys, warned by this accident, carefully removed + several large stones from the roof, and tried the safety of their clay + walls with a stout staff, to ascertain that all was secure, before they + again ventured to sleep beneath this rugged canopy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. + </h2> + <p> + “The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour in + his eyes.”—<i>Proverbs</i>. + </p> + <p> + FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke + should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have + effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious + dews, which, even on sultry summer’s evenings, is productive of much + chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, was + much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were even + sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. These + simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the heated + air to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and denser + particles. They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of the causes + that ruled them. + </p> + <p> + The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook + them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh for + a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, came + one night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. They + saw several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe tracked a + wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden spring, where she + had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the haunts of her fellows. + The arrow was in her throat; it was of white flint, and had evidently been + sent from an Indian bow. It was almost with fear and trembling that they + availed themselves of the venison thus providentially thrown in their way, + lest the Indians should track the blood of the doe, and take vengeance on + them for appropriating it for their own use. Not having seen anything of + the Indians, who seemed to confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the + lake, after many days had passed, they began to take courage, and even + lighted an evening fire, at which they cooked as much venison as would + last them for several days, and hung the remaining portions above the + smoke to preserve it from injury. + </p> + <p> + One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in + the direction of the Indian camp. “I am tired of remaining shut up in this + dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by those + melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in.” Little did + Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home of + their childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide it from + their sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have pressed + onward in the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + </p> + <p> + Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path + beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and + apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment of + our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark thickets and + thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our Father’s home, + where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock back to the + everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + </p> + <p> + Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians + imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam + abroad free and uncontrolled. + </p> + <p> + “After all,” said he; “we never met with any ill treatment from the + Indians that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old + friends and acquaintances among them.” + </p> + <p> + “The thing is possible, but not very likely,” replied Louis. + “Nevertheless, Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. + The Indian has his own notion of things, and might think himself quite + justified in killing us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. <i>[FN: + George Copway, an intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the Indian + hunting-grounds are parcelled out, and secured by right of law and custom + among themselves, no one being allowed to hunt upon another’s grounds + uninvited. If any one belonging to another family or tribe is found + trespassing, all his goods are taken from him; a handful of powder and + shot, as much as he would need to shoot game for his sustenance in + returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and tomahawk only are left, + but all his game and furs are taken from him: a message is sent to his + chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he is banished and outlawed.—</i>Life + of G. Copway, Missionary, written by himself.<i>]</i> I have heard my + father say,—and he knows a great deal about these people,—that + their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers that they find + killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both merciless and + treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to them in their own + language, to explain by what chance we came here.” + </p> + <p> + This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally + rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: + when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an + opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his + intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now + deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the + Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger was + to be apprehended from facing them. + </p> + <p> + “Depend upon it,” he added, “cowards are never safer than brave men. The + Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they found + us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if we + openly faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared for + them.” + </p> + <p> + “Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!” cried his sister, passionately + weeping. “Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?” + </p> + <p> + “Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to take + care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; they + seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine the + camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch for my + return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner,” said + Catharine, “what would you do?” “I will tell you what I would do. Instead + of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs make them + understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing but + kindness and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would + tomahawk the defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace and + goodwill.” + </p> + <p> + “If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you have + fallen into the hands of the savages,” said Catharine, mournfully + regarding her brother. + </p> + <p> + “If it were not for Catharine,” said Louis, “you should not go alone, but, + if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, who led + her out with us, tempting her with false words.” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind that now, dearest cousin,” said Catharine, tenderly laying her + hand on his arm. “It is much better that we should have been all three + together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both Hec and + you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been so well off if + I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your spirits by my songs + and stories.” + </p> + <p> + “It is true, ma chère; but that is the reason that I am bound to take care + of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to danger, or + leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will abide by you.” + </p> + <p> + Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last + Louis and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon + busied themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in + that morning. + </p> + <p> + The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that Catharine + cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her brother’s return; at + last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis left the shelter of + the valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent their steps to the + trysting tree, which commanded all the country within a wide sweep. + </p> + <p> + A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over the + minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, which + cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades of + evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The full + moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that should + break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of a + friend. + </p> + <p> + Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy + days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. At + last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her head + upon the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly paced + to and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to penetrate the + surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the first sound that + might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + </p> + <p> + It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick sharp + note of the “Whip-poor-will,” as she flew from bough to bough of an old + withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of these midnight + watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of “Whip-poor-will, + Whip-poor-will;” and then came forth, from many a hollow oak and birch, + the spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where it had lain hushed in + silence all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes their sharp hard wings + almost swept his cheek as they wheeled round and round in circles, first + narrow, then wide, and wider extending, till at last they soared far above + the tallest tree-tops and launching out in the high regions of the air, + uttered from time to time a wild shrill scream, or hollow booming sound, + as they suddenly descended to pounce with wide-extended throat upon some + hapless moth or insect, that sported all unheeding in mid air, happily + unconscious of the approach of so unerring a foe. + </p> + <p> + Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and + joyfully he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full + and red, over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + </p> + <p> + Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy + forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound + luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed as + if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. + Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose + from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under + tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + </p> + <p> + It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated young + Louis’s breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, as he + thought, rushed into danger. “It was wilful and almost cruel,” he thought + “to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his account;” and then + the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved companion took the + place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled his heart. The broad moon + now flooded the hills and vales with light, casting broad checkering + shadows of the old oaks’ grey branches and now reddened foliage across the + ground. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry note: + slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from the form of + the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the moon. It is + an open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a few low shrubs + and seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of the late-flowering + pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, with open bells of + azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall flowers and winter-greens, + brighten the ground with wreaths of shining leaves and red berries. + </p> + <p> + Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full + free note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and half + angry in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry defiance + he gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + </p> + <p> + Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge of + the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching steps + is now distinctly heard advancing—it may be a deer. Two figures + approach, and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear + shrill whistle meets his ear. It is Hector’s whistle, he knows that, and + assured by its cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at + his side, but starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, half + carries. The moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking figure + of an Indian girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: her ashy + face is concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which falls like + a dark veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, and she + seems ready to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. Hector, too, + seems weary. The first words that’ Hector said were, “Help me, Louis, to + lead this poor girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired I can hardly + walk another step.” + </p> + <p> + Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the + pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with a + bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with him. + The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep so profound + it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep interest soon + took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of the gentle + Catharine, and she watched the young stranger’s slumber as tenderly as + though she had been a sister, or beloved friend, while Hector proceeded to + relate in what manner he had encountered the Indian girl. + </p> + <p> + “When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the <i>‘birken + shaw,’’</i> I paused to examine if the council-fires were still burning on + Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there a canoe to be + seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their landing-place at + the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still as if no human + footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched for nearly an hour + till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, which was sailing in + wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. Assured that the + Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity to examine the spot + more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries and cedars and small + underwood that fringed the borders of the little stream, and found myself, + after a little pushing and scrambling, among the bushes at the foot of the + hill. + </p> + <p> + “I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my + trouble—flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk—but I little + thought of what these cruel savages had left there,—a miserable + wounded captive, bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a + small tree, her hands, tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had + bent down to fasten them to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that + against which her head was fastened; her position was one that must have + been most painful: she had evidently been thus left to perish by a + miserable death, of hunger and thirst; for these savages, with a fiendish + cruelty, had placed within sight of their victim an earthen jar of water, + some dried deers’ flesh, and a cob <i>[FN: A head of the Maize, or Indian + corn, is called a “cob.”]</i> of Indian corn. I have the corn here,” he + added, putting his hand in his breast, and displaying it to view. + </p> + <p> + “Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder,” and he showed + the flint head as he spoke, “and fettered; with food and drink in sight, + the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to the wolf, + and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor thing’s + lips were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her eyes + piteously from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. This I + gave her, and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut the thongs + that bound her, I wondered that she still kept the same immoveable + attitude, and thinking she was stiff and cramped with remaining so long + bound in one position, I took her two hands and tried to induce her to + move. I then for the first time noticed that she was tied by the hair of + her head to the tree against which her back was placed; I was obliged to + cut the hair with my knife, and this I did not do without giving her pain, + as she moaned impatiently. She sunk her head on her breast, and large + tears fell over my hands, as I bathed her face and neck with the water + from the jar; she then seated herself on the ground, and remained silent + and still for the space of an hour, nor could I prevail upon her to speak, + or quit the seat she had taken. Fearing that the Indians might return, I + watched in all directions, and at last I began to think it would be best + to carry her in my arms; but this I found no easy task, for she seemed + greatly distressed at any attempt I made to lift her, and by her gestures + I fancy she thought I was going to kill her. At last my patience began to + be exhausted, but I did not like to annoy her. I spoke to her as gently + and soothingly as I could. By degrees she seemed to listen with more + composure to me, though she evidently knew not a word of what I said to + her. She rose at last, and taking my hands, placed them above her head, + stooping low as she did so, and this seemed to mean, she was willing at + last to submit to my wishes; I lifted her from the ground, and carried her + for some little way, but she was too heavy for me,—she then suffered + me to lead her along whithersoever I would take her, but her steps were so + slow and feeble, through weakness, that many times I was compelled to rest + while she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued now, and as quiet as + a lamb.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the recital + of her brother’s adventures. She seemed to think he had been inspired by + God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the poor forlorn + one from so dreadful a death. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he + commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + </p> + <p> + He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition to + their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their cave + beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their feet to + the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was despatched for + water and venison for supper. + </p> + <p> + The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, and + conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while + Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with the + greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the cool + healing leaves of the <i>tacamahac</i> <i>[FN: Indian balsam.]</i> about + it with the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in + water, and gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned + in her veins, and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which + were raised at intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid + hurried glance, as if she longed, yet feared to say, “Who are you that + thus tenderly bathe my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded limbs, + and cool my fevered blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a being sent + by the Great Spirit, from the far-off happy land to which my fathers have + gone, to smooth my path of pain, and lead me to those blessed fields of + sunbeams and flowers where the cruelty of the enemies of my people will no + more have power to torment me?” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought + home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch + for her, with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over it, + and laid her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a dear + sister. This good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion of her + own age and sex. “Now,” said she, “I shall no more be lonely, I shall have + a companion and friend to talk to and assist me;” but when she turned in + the fulness of her heart to address herself to the young stranger, she + felt herself embarrassed in what way to make her comprehend the words she + used to express the kindness that she felt for her, and her sorrow for her + sufferings. + </p> + <p> + The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if + striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter her + words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it was to + her as a sealed book. + </p> + <p> + She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had + heard from the Indians when they came to her father’s house, but in vain; + not the simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried with + vexation at her own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more fortunate + in attempts at conversing with their guest. + </p> + <p> + At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye grew + more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, leaving it + of a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the swarthy + Indian shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on the ground. + </p> + <p> + She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long tresses + of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small wooden comb + that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise her eyes to her + new friend’s face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she took her hands + within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and lips and + forehead in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance to any + words, and would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some object which + seemed unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such times the face of + the young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or rather it might + with more propriety have been said, the absence of all expression, almost + as blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + </p> + <p> + How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was + passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, the + offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian friend, + to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention as she + herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the object + that she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young squaw + learned the names of all the familiar household articles about the shanty, + and could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when she had + learned a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would laugh, + and a gleam of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her fine dark + eyes, generally so fixed and sad-looking. + </p> + <p> + It was Catharine’s delight to teach her pupil to speak a language familiar + to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and name to her + all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. And she in her + turn made “Indiana” (for so they named the young squaw, after a negress + that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one of his Colonel’s + infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each object they saw. + Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement arising from + instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to enjoy the blunders + they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. When really interested + in anything that was going on, her eyes would beam out, and her smile gave + an inexpressible charm to her face, for her lips were red and her teeth + even and brilliantly white, so purely white that Catharine thought she had + never seen any so beautiful in her life before; at such times her face was + joyous and innocent as a little child’s, but there were also hours of + gloom, that transformed it into an expression of sullen apathy; then a + dull glassy look took possession of her eye, the full lip drooped and the + form seemed rigid and stiff; obstinate determination neither to move nor + speak characterised her in what Louis used to call the young squaw’s “<i>dark + hour.</i>” Then it was that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her + gentle nurse almost feared to look at her protegée or approach her. + </p> + <p> + “Hector,” said Louis, “you spoke about a jar of water being left at the + camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it.” + Hector assented to the proposal. “And we may possibly pick up a few grains + of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us.” + </p> + <p> + “If we are here in the spring,” said Hector, “you and I will prepare a + small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;” and he sat down on the + end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the cob, + and then each corn grain by grain. “Three hundred and ten sound grains. + Now if every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have a great + increase, and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it is a good + year, several bushels to eat.” + </p> + <p> + “We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine + flourishing crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne.” <i>[FN: + Supporne, probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or porridge, made of + Indian meal, a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee farmer’s house.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “You forget we have no porridge pot.” + </p> + <p> + “I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine + cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, let + us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;” and Louis, who had now a + new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite on the + <i>qui vive</i>, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved a + great disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his + cousin’s lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being + cracked, or that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was not + one of the doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the ardour of + his mind by causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted camp, and + though it had been knocked over by some animal, it was sound and strong, + and excited great speculation in the two cousins, as to the particular + material of which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of pottery they + had ever before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured from some very + dark red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, as it presented the + appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard and ponderous, and + the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern as if punctured and + scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed to have been hardened by + fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, had evidently done good + service as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they learned the way in which + it was used:<i>[FN: Pieces of this rude pottery are often found along the + shores of the inland lakes, but I have never met with any of the perfect + vessels in use with the Indians, who probably find it now easier to supply + themselves with iron pots and crockery from the towns of the European + settlers.]</i> the jar being placed near but not on the fire, was + surrounded by hot embers, and the water made to boil by stones being made + red hot and plunged into it: in this way soup and other food were + prepared, and kept stewing, with no further trouble after once the + simmering began, than adding a few fresh embers at the side furthest from + the fir; a hot stone also placed on the top, facilitated the cooking + process. + </p> + <p> + Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,—indeed it + was an accomplishment he prided himself on,—was enchanted with the + improvement made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen jar, + or pipkin, and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin in the + use of it. Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with his bow and + arrows, and visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times oftener than he + used to do, just for the sake of proving the admirable properties of this + precious utensil, and finding out some new way of dressing his game. At + all events there was a valuable increase of furs, for making up into + clothing, caps, leggings, mitts, and other articles. + </p> + <p> + From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs and + shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, and + many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of the + porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets and mats. + The little creeping winter-green, <i>[FN: Gualtheria procumbens,—Spice + Winter-green.]</i> with its scarlet berries, that grows on the dry flats, + or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, she showed them was + good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw forth their fine + aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their fragrance with + delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it as a tonic. The + inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good to cure ague and + fever. The root of the <i>dulçamara</i>, or bitter-sweet, she scraped down + and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other animal, and made an + ointment that possessed very healing qualities, especially as an immediate + application to fresh burns. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the + knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several + times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food she + had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the trees or + bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she told Catharine + this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, who had given them + success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to appease the malice of + the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss to them, or sickness or + death, unless his forbearance was purchased by some particular mark of + attention. <i>[FN: By the testimony of many of the Indians themselves, + they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism in their belief. “We + believed in one great wise benevolent being, Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose + dwelling was in the sun. We believed also in many other lesser spirits—gods + of the elements, and in one bad unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to + whom we attributed bad luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This + bad spirit has to be conciliated with meat and drink offerings.”—</i>Life + of George Copway, Native Missionary<i>]</i> + </p> + <p> + Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most + remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She + examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical + minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her memory + was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she seemed even + to single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from their + congeners. Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought patience + and perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly interested in any + work she began, she would toil on untiringly till it was completed; and + then what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times they became darkly + brilliant with the joy that filled her heart. But she possessed little + talent for invention; what she had seen done, after a few imperfect + attempts, she could do again, but she rarely struck out any new path for + herself. + </p> + <p> + At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the + kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her + fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little + service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she + displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him her + first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental plumage + of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a master and + protector. He was in her eyes the <i>“Chief,”</i> the head of his tribe. + His bow was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and devices; + his arrows were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made and + ornamented by her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case for + his arrows, of birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and + suspended by thongs to his neck, when he was preparing to go out in search + of game. She gave him the name of the “Young Eagle.” While she called + Louis, “Nee-chee,” or friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical name of, + “Music of the Winds,”—Ma-wah-osh. + </p> + <p> + When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her + head in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name + of Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + </p> + <p> + But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest + favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate with + a jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to caress him, + but Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual friendly + feeling became established between them, which seemed daily and hourly to + increase, greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She would seat + herself Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the shanty, with the + capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address herself to this mute + companion, in wailing tones, as if she would unburthen her heart by + pouring into his unconscious ear her tale of desolation and woe. + </p> + <p> + Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her + personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for her + to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her example, + till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at first + regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in + dressing her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish it + till it looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn Catharine + with the wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of the wood-duck, + or quill feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which is called in the + Indian tongue the shot-bird, in allusion to the round spots on its + cream-coloured breast: <i>[FN: The Golden-winged Flicker belongs to a + sub-genus of woodpeckers; it is very handsome, and is said to be eatable; + it lives on fruits and insects.]</i> but it was not in these things alone + she showed her grateful sense of the sisterly kindness that her young + hostess showed to her; she soon learned to lighten her labours in every + household work, and above all, she spent her time most usefully in + manufacturing clothing from the skins of the wild animals, and in teaching + Catharine how to fit and prepare them; but these were the occupation of + the winter months. I must not forestall my narrative. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. + </h2> + <h3> + “Go to the ant.”—<i>Proverbs.</i> + </h3> + <p> + IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued + serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, + began to show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach of + the equinox. Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come + sweeping over the lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. + Already the tints of autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the + oaks, and where the islands were visible, the splendid colours of the + maple shone out in gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the + evergreens and light golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now + looked, they had not yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which a few + frosty nights at the close of the month was destined to bring to + perfection—a glow of splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, + before the rushing winds and rains of the following month were to sweep + them away, and scatter them abroad upon the earth. + </p> + <p> + One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys went + down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which Louis + had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water was rough + and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to launch the + raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over the lake and + admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to his cousin a + dark speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest islands. The + wind, which blew very strong still from the north-east, brought the object + nearer every minute. At first they thought it might be a pine-branch that + was floating on the surface, when as it came bounding over the waves, they + perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but impelled by no visible arm. It + was a strange sight upon that lonely lake to see a vessel of any kind + afloat, and, on first deciding that it was a canoe, the boys were inclined + to hide themselves among the bushes, for fear of the Indians, but + curiosity got the better of their fears. + </p> + <p> + “The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; for + I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to guide + it,” said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the + tempest-driven vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was the + case, they hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the canoe + among the branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way into the + water. + </p> + <p> + By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the + projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of + weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some + trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he + contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of + hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set her + afloat again. “Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of which + will gladden your heart,” cried Louis with a joyful look. “Come quickly, + and see my treasures.” + </p> + <p> + “Treasures! You may well call them treasures,” exclaimed Hector, as he + helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the + shore, side by side. + </p> + <p> + The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the + discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket + almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several + yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all, an + iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These + articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or + trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted + from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some + accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of + course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate, + and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so + providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet. + </p> + <p> + “It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down + last night just where it was,” said Louis; “for if the canoe had not been + drawn into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it. I + trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it would + founder in the deep water, or go off to Long Island.” + </p> + <p> + “I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point,” said Hector, “but I am + glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half afraid + you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to draw it + nearer to the shore.” “Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling like a + wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful soups, and + stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!” and Louis tossed up his + new fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an entire fox skin, in + the air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which Hector gravely condemned as + unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned of fifteen;) but with the + joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and danced, and laughed, and + shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands and far-off hills returned + the unusual sound, and even his more steady cousin caught the infection, + and laughed to see Louis so elated. + </p> + <p> + Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch Catharine + to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the blanket, and the + tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana accompanied them to the + lake shore, and long and carefully she examined the canoe and its + contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she uttered as she + surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice of the broken + handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the vessel; this + seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and by broken words + and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly broken in the hand of + the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the other part, he had lost + his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector a rude figure of a bird + engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed in with a blue colour. + This, she said, was the totem or crest of the chief of the tribe, and was + meant to represent a <i>crow</i>. The canoe had belonged to a chief of + that name. While they were dividing the contents of the canoe among them + to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up the bass-rope and the + blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and adjusting the broad thick + part of the rope to the front of her head, she bore off the burden with + great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh porter would his trunks and + packages, turning round with a merry glance and repeating some Indian + words with a lively air as she climbed with apparent ease the steep bank, + and soon distanced her companions, to her great enjoyment. That night, + Indiana cooked some of the parched rice, Indian fashion, with venison, and + they enjoyed the novelty very much—it made an excellent substitute + for bread, of which they had been so long deprived. + </p> + <p> + Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be ready + on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out and + gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + </p> + <p> + This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with frequent + themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was the most + valuable of their acquisitions. “It will insure us a crop, and bread and + seed-corn for many years,” he said; he also highly valued the tomahawk, as + his axe was worn and blunt. + </p> + <p> + Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed to + think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the latter; + besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to make a + canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would make, + after thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for herself + and Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be + comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was + charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the + packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from + place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of + the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said, + was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after + this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis’s + large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for + scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two + comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited + skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur + completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by + knotted fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of + squirrel fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and + many a glance of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon + each other, when they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to + display their dresses to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded + them as most skilful dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and + commending their ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering + what rude implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and + sewing of the garments. + </p> + <p> + The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge + which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters—looking, + when lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The + ears, heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time + of the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our + young adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by + the little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in, + leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, + which Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, + and which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could + stand and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on + account of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ + herself with fishing from the raft till their return. + </p> + <p> + The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the + canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and + another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the + other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick; + the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little + practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass + fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + </p> + <p> + Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more + delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they + worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their light + bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve them from + starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + </p> + <p> + The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were + now able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonjè and + black bass, which they caught in great numbers. + </p> + <p> + Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her own + carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over the + water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with + delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke into + smiles and dimples. + </p> + <p> + It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how + innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of healthy + exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she possessed of + excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill which they had yet + to acquire by imitating her. + </p> + <p> + Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of the + management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the + fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in + admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in + his estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + </p> + <p> + “Every one to his craft,” said Louis, laughing; “the little squaw has been + brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her + babyhood; perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and + milking of cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she + would prove half as quick as Catharine or Mathilde.” + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour,” said Hector, + thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;” replied + Louis. + </p> + <p> + “I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great pains + to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and that so + far from being stupid, they learn very readily,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite + still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel + down, before we go to bed,” observed Hector. + </p> + <p> + “She cannot understand what we say,” said Catharine; for she knows so + little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the + prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking of + hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach her; + it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught pagan,” + said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort of + uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl’s total want of the rites of + his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with feelings + of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that offered, of trying + to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of belief in the God who + made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and earnestly they entered into + the task as a labour of love, and though for a long time Indiana seemed to + pay little attention to what they said, by slow degrees the good seed took + root and brought forth fruit worthy of Him whose Spirit poured the beams + of spiritual light into her heart: but my young readers must not imagine + these things were the work of a day—the process was slow, and so + were the results, but they were good in the end. + </p> + <p> + And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, the + Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, and pray + to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ Jesus gave + to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy prayer, so full of + humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully understood by her + whose lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship and the desire to do + that which she had been told was right, was, doubtless, a sacrifice better + than the pagan rites which that young girl had witnessed among her + father’s people, who, blindly following the natural impulse of man in his + depraved nature, regarded deeds of blood and cruelty as among the highest + of human virtues, and gloried in those deeds of vengeance at which the + Christian mind revolts with horror. + </p> + <p> + Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking and + storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused several + forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the ground; on these + were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which she then stretched + the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked pegs to the frame on + the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and lighted a fire beneath, + taking good care not to let the flame set fire to the mat, the object + being rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by means of the red embers. + She next directed the boys to supply her with pine or cedar boughs, which + she stuck in close together, so as to enclose the fire within the area of + the stakes. This was done to concentrate the heat and cause it to bear + upwards with more power; the rice being frequently stirred with a sort of + long-handled, flat shovel. After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next + thing to be done was separating it from the husk, and this was effected by + putting it by small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of + wooden pestle or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. <i>[FN: + The Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, by + hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden + pounder.]</i> If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have + been substituted in its stead. + </p> + <p> + When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat + basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, + roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by + the little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which + was simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting it + on hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored by for + use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, by the + Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various kinds; crowds + of ducks were winging their way across it from morning till night, + floating in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy groups if an + eagle or fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic circles above + them, then settling down with noisy splash upon the calm water. The + shores, too, were covered with these birds, feeding on the fallen acorns + which fell ripe and brown with every passing breeze; the berries of the + dogwood also furnished them with food; but the wild rice seemed the great + attraction, and small shell-fish and the larvæ of many insects that had + been dropped into the waters, there to come to perfection in due season, + or to form a provision for myriads of wild fowl that had come from the far + north-west to feed upon them, guided by that instinct which has so + beautifully been termed by one of our modern poetesses, “God’s gift to the + weak” <i>[FN: Mrs. Southey.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. + </h2> + <h3> + “Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye.”—COLERIDGE. + </h3> + <p> + THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the + lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she + looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its surface. + </p> + <p> + “If I had but my father’s gun, his good old gun, now!” would Hector say, + as he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; “but + these foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can + reach them.” + </p> + <p> + Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with green + boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the little vessel + into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; within this bower + she motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small space for the free use + of his bow, while concealed at the prow she gently and noiselessly paddled + the canoe from the shore among the rice-beds, letting it remain stationary + or merely rocking to and fro with the undulatory motion of the waters. The + unsuspecting birds, deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their + pastime or their prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden + archer to hit many a black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated + securely on the placid water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or + down the stream. Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, + which Wolfe, cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought + to land. + </p> + <p> + Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great + gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after + the same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, a + dozen or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others + stationed at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the + island, to collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a great + feast. + </p> + <p> + The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great + Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed them + to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes distant + tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited to share + the sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not understand why + Hector did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, and offer the + first duck or the best fish to propitiate the Great Spirit. Hector told + her that the God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; that his holy Son, + when he came down from heaven and gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins + of the world, had satisfied his Father, the Great Spirit, an hundred-fold. + </p> + <p> + They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned + from Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making + tippets, and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, + but light and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they + did not require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter + store, smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney + people smoke the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store of + provisions, fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and bags + of dried fruit. + </p> + <p> + One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys that + the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding up her + two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. The + tribes had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. She + advised them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to + attract them; but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over the + plains just then, as the camp was lower down on the point <i>[FN: This + point, commonly known as </i>Anderson’s Point<i>, now the seat of the + Indian village, used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous for + the Indians, and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre that took + place about eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the Indians are + often turned up with the plough at this day.]</i> east of the mouth of a + big river, which she called “Otonabee.” + </p> + <p> + Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event of + meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the earth in + silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + </p> + <p> + “If they should prove to be any of your father’s people, or a friendly + tribe, would you go away with them?” he again repeated, to which she + solemnly replied, + </p> + <p> + “Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father’s + warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but + Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink from + danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here,” and she laid her + hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but + impassioned tone, “They left not one drop of living blood to flow in any + veins but these,” and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched upwards + towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the murderers of her + father’s house. + </p> + <p> + “My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these + hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, + along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the + Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father’s people by hundreds in + cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day + and a bloody deed.” + </p> + <p> + Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the young + Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under the + cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked the lake, to + watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no apprehension if the + Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal themselves, but offer + them food to eat and water to drink. “If they come to the house and find + you away, they will take your stores and burn your roof, suspecting that + you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will not harm you if you meet + them with open hand and fearless brow: if they eat of your bread, they + will not harm you; me they would kill by a cruel death—the war-knife + is in their heart against the daughter of the <i>brave</i>.” + </p> + <p> + The boys thought Indiana’s advice good, and they felt no fear for + themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the + shanty with Wolfe. + </p> + <p> + The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come to enjoy, + seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite peaceably + disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north side, and the + boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the opposite shore, + and now and then in the stillness of the evening their wild shouts of + revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the breeze over the + waters of the lake. + </p> + <p> + The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed in + broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of deep + interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many months after + this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful story of the + massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, as I have raised + the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so I must render it in + my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences in which its facts + were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes would be unintelligible + to my young friends. <i>[FN: The facts of this narrative were gathered + from the lips of the eldest son of a Rice Lake chief. I have preferred + giving it in the present form, rather than as the story of the Indian + girl. Simple as it is, it is matter of history.]</i> + </p> + <p> + There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the chiefs + of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which like a + smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having burst into a + decided blaze—for each strove to compass his ends and obtain the + advantage over the other by covert means. The tribe of the Mohawks of + which I now speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice Lake for their + hunting grounds, and certain islands and parts of the lake for fishing, + while that of the Ojebwas considered themselves masters of the northern + shores and certain rights of water beside. Possibly it was about these + rights that the quarrel originated, but if so, it was not openly avowed + between the “Black Snake,” (that was the totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) + and the “Bald Eagle” (the totem of the Ojebwa). + </p> + <p> + These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of + great and rare beauty, called by her people, “The Beam of the Morning;” + she was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the + young men of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. + Among her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the + most enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of + winning the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black + Snake accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his + hunting grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on the + lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot + between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for + peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the + Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of + great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, but + who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial alliance + with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was closely + connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart of the + Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and forgotten + the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting had been + carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald Eagle was + requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go to the wigwam + of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived the Mohawk + strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had been sleeping, + with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring hideously, his + whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily anguish, and + casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on the earth, + uttering frightful yells and groans. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his + guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused to + tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief remained + moody and silent. The following day the same scene was repeated, and on + the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in bodily agony, with + great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him by the importunity of + his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which was, that the Bad Spirit + had told him that these bodily tortures could not cease till the only son + of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been sacrificed to appease his anger—neither + could peace long continue between the two nations until this deed had been + done; and not only must the chief’s son be slain, but he must be pierced + by his own father’s hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the + father must preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and + aversion at so bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his + life and the happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for + ever if the sacrifice was made,—if not, war to the knife was to be + ever between the Mohawks and Ojebwas. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an + occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at + the time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + </p> + <p> + “Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the + tribes of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be + sacrificed by my hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the + Black Snake’s body may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires of + their lodges in peace.” + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart,” was the + specious response of the wily Mohawk; “moreover, the Good Spirit also + appeared, and said, ‘Let the Black Snake’s son and the Bald Eagle’s + daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the + lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.’” + </p> + <p> + “The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine,” was the + courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the unmoved + brow and passionless lip. + </p> + <p> + The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye that + dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged the + weapon into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast of + human flesh was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, presided + over the ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the sacrifice, and all + went off well, as if no such fearful rite had been enacted: but a fearful + retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought the tent of the Bald + Eagle’s daughter that evening, and was received with all due deference, as + a son of so great a chief as the Black Snake merited; he was regarded now + as a successful suitor, and intoxicated with the beauty of the Beam of the + Morning, pressed her to allow the marriage to take place in a few days. + The bride consented, and a day was named for the wedding feast to be + celebrated, and that due honour might be given to so great an event, + invitations were sent out to the principal families of the Mohawk tribe, + and these amounted to several hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa + hunters were despatched up the river and to different parts of the + country, avowedly to collect venison, beaver, and other delicacies to + regale their guests, but in reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a + large war party from the small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in + the deadly revenge that was preparing for their enemies. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal + ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests + was then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so + artfully contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and + their allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, + armed with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to spring + upon their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the etiquette + always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were left outside + the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and dancing to the + tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several hundred naked and + painted warriors were assembled. The feast was declared to be ready; a + great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre of the tent. According to the + custom of the Indians, the father of the bridegroom was invited to lift + the most important dish from the pot, whilst the warriors commenced their + wardance around him. This dish was usually a bear’s head, which was + fastened to a string left for the purpose of raising it from the pot. + </p> + <p> + “Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head and + set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and that his + wise heart may be glad;” were the scornful words of the Bald Eagle. + </p> + <p> + A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as he + lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the <i>happy</i> + bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + </p> + <p> + “Ha!” shouted the Bald Eagle, “is the great chief of the Mohawks a squaw, + that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of his son, + the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave neither + sigh nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his child. + Come, brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the blood of thy + son: the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of the feast that + was prepared from his young warrior’s body.” The wretched father dashed + himself upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent the air; those + cries were answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed Ojebwas, as they + sprang to their feet, and with deafening yells attacked the guests, who, + panic-stricken, naked and defenceless, fell an easy prey to their + infuriated enemies. Not one living foe escaped to tell the tale of that + fearful marriage feast. A second Judith had the Indian girl proved. It was + her plighted hand that had severed the head of her unsuspecting bridegroom + to complete the fearful vengeance that had been devised in return for the + merciless and horrible murder of her brother. + </p> + <p> + Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians + seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, urged + by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where the women + and children and such of the aged or young men as were not included among + the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting security. + Panic-stricken, the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell like sheep + appointed for the slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the grey-head with the + infant of days. But while the youths and old men tamely yielded to their + enemies, there was one, whose spirit roused to fury by the murder of her + father, armed herself with the war club and knife, and boldly withstood + the successful warriors. At the door of the tent of the slaughtered chief + the Amazon defended her children: while the war lightning kindled in her + dark eye, she called aloud in scornful tones to her people to hide + themselves in the tents of their women, who alone were <i>braves</i>, and + would fight their battles. Fiercely she taunted the men, but they shrank + from the unequal contest, and she alone was found to deal the death-blow + upon the foe, till overpowered with numbers, and pierced with frightful + wounds, she fell singing her own death-song and raising the wail for the + dead who lay around her. Night closed in, but the work of blood still + continued, till not a victim was found, and again they went forth on their + exterminating work. Lower down they found another encampment, and there + also they slew all the inhabitants of the lodges; they then returned back + to the island, to gather together their dead and collect the spoils of + their tents. They were weary with the fatigue of the slaughter of that + fearful day; they were tired of blood-shedding; the retribution had + satisfied even their love of blood: and when they found, on returning to + the spot where the heroine had stood at bay, one young solitary female + sitting beside the corpse of that dauntless woman, her mother, they led + her away, and did all that their savage nature could suggest to soften her + anguish and dry her tears. They brought her to the tents of their women, + and clothed and fed her, and bade her be comforted; but her young heart + burned within her, and she refused consolation. She could not forget the + wrongs of her people: she was the only living creature left of the Mohawks + on that island. The young girl was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell + had found, wounded and bound, to perish with hunger and thirst on + Bare-hill. + </p> + <p> + Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she had + stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a knife at + his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the young men, who + had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was called, and she + was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state already + described. + </p> + <p> + It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children + listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes and + pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood had + inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade of the + trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that Catharine, + with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those heavenly lessons + of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set forth by his life, his + doctrines, and his death. + </p> + <p> + And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour’s face in Heaven, and + dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for those + dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her home a + desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her heart, + and the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could not become + the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. How hard were + these conditions to the young heathen,—how contrary to her nature, + to all that she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, where revenge + was virtue, and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious thing! + </p> + <p> + Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her + Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her + Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and + admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, + unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into + her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake + those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing her + to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a lamb of + his “extended fold?” * + </p> + <p> + <i>[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a + Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an + historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of + the actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down the + legend, and did so in part, but made such confusion between his imperfect + English and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for copying.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. + </h2> + <h3> + “The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill” <i>Irish Song.</i> + </h3> + <p> + WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, + shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting + was the amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, + quite forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting on + the brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their + proceedings. Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to the + Indians, by raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre that + excited their unqualified admiration and applause. + </p> + <p> + At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north shore, + and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted up their + shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared sufficiency of + food for the following day. The Indians remained for a fortnight; at the + end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on their movements, told + Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and that the Indians had + gone up the river, and would not return again for some weeks. The + departure of the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing to Catharine, + whose dread of these savages had greatly increased since she had been made + acquainted with the fearful deeds which Indiana had described; and what + reliance could she feel in people who regarded deeds of blood and + vengeance as acts of virtuous heroism? + </p> + <p> + Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a + short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, + which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they + had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken it + for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never turned + out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, drawing water + from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high bank above her, + that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, Indiana gave the two + boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw them enter the ravine; + and effectually hidden among the thick grey mossy trunks of the cedars at + the lake shore, they remained secure from molestation, while the Indian + girl dropped noiselessly down among the tangled thicket of wild vines and + brushwood, which she drew cautiously over her, and closed her eyes, lest, + as she naively remarked, their glitter should be seen and betray her to + her enemies. + </p> + <p> + It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors + were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and + they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + </p> + <p> + “Are my white brothers afraid to die?” was the young squaw’s half-scornful + reply. “Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not to die?” + </p> + <p> + The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been + stormy and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the nights + were often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be seen forming + an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the north and + north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, in + ever-varying shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the + stars, which shone with softened radiance through the silvery veil that + dimmed their beauty. Sometimes for many nights together the same + appearance might be seen, and was usually the forerunner of frosty + weather, though occasionally it was the precursor of cold winds, and heavy + rains. + </p> + <p> + The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as an + omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected with + her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally she + unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or misfortunes + were revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, the + appearance of strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. The + screeching of the owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the fox, + were evil auguries, while the flight of the eagle and the croaking of the + raven were omens of good. She put faith in dreams, and would foretel good + or evil fortune from them; she could read the morning and evening clouds, + and knew from various appearances of the sky, or the coming or departing + of certain birds or insects, changes in the atmosphere. Her ear was quick + in distinguishing the changes in the voices of the birds or animals; she + knew the times of their coming and going, and her eye was quick to see as + her ear to detect sounds. Her voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and + she delighted in imitating the little ballads or hymns that Catharine + sung; though she knew nothing of their meaning, she would catch the tunes, + and sing the song with Catharine, touching the hearts of her delighted + auditors by the melody and pathos of her voice. + </p> + <p> + The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft and + mild, almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen through + the smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on the bosom of + the glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface every passing + shadow, and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on shore and island. + Sometimes the stillness of the air was relieved by a soft sighing wind, + which rustled the dying foliage as it swept by. + </p> + <p> + The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this + season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual + flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then + that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, + and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort to + certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their + customs; as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + </p> + <p> + Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was + impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on + that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being + surprised by the Indians. “Some fine day,” said Louis, “we will go out in + the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little way.” + </p> + <p> + Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the little + islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is level + with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name they + had given to it was “Ship Island.” The Indians have some name for it which + I have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, “Witch Island.” Hector’s + plan met with general approbation, and they resolved to take provisions + with them for several days, and visit the islands and go up the river, + passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees on the shore + wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + </p> + <p> + The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a mirror, + and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the lake, + first to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; they then + went to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance of wild + vines, now rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,—tart, but + still not to be despised by our young adventurers; and they brought away a + large birch basket heaped up with the fruit. “Ah, if we had but a good + cake of maple sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make such grape + jelly as my mother makes!” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar,” said + Catharine; “there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, near + the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant spot + which we named the Happy Valley, <i>[FN: A lovely valley to the east of + Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family of the name + of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,—a cultivated + fertile farm.]</i> where the bright creek runs, dancing along so merrily, + below the pine-ridge?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where the + water-cresses grow.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day.” + </p> + <p> + “What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!” said + Hector, thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms,” said + Louis, laughing. “We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I think + he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the fine + flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it all with + wheat, and peas, and Indian corn.” + </p> + <p> + “We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we live,” + replied Hector; “that corn that we found in the canoe will be a treasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill,” said Catherine. “How lucky + we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn + flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went to + the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable + while you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the + life of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything + has prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is because we + try to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our endeavours.” + </p> + <p> + “We are told,” said Hector, “that there is joy with the angels of God over + one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when the + heathen that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy + name.” + </p> + <p> + Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that she + should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; beside, she + said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked with a suspicious + eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of eating its flesh, + though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider them good meat, baked + in Louis’s Indian oven, or roasted on a forked stick, before the fire. The + Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a very great deal larger than the + common British hedgehog; the quills, however, are longer and stronger, and + varied with alternate clouded marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; + they are minutely barbed, so that if one enters the flesh it is with + difficulty extracted, but will work through of itself in an opposite + direction, and can then be easily pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer + great inconvenience from getting their muzzles filled with the quills of + the porcupine, the former when worrying the poor little animal, and the + latter by accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great + inflammation will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose + valuable hounds from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her + companions, there were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they + could collect a bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the + butter-nut is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it + is a species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and + grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for + passing the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several of + which made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the water, + they agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana said + there was an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, and + where there was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a comfortable + bed for the night. This old log-house she said had been built, she heard + the Indians say, by a French Canadian trapper, who used to visit the lake + some years ago; he was on friendly terms with the chiefs, who allowed him + many privileges, and he bought their furs, and took them down the lake, + through the river Trent, to some station-house on the great lake. They + found they should have time enough to land and deposit their nuts and + grapes and paddle to Long Island before sunset. Upon the western part of + this fine island they had several times landed and passed some hours, + exploring its shores; but Indiana told them, to reach the old log-house + they must enter the low swampy bay to the east, at an opening which she + called Indian Cove. To do this required some skill in the management of + the canoe, which was rather over-loaded for so light a vessel; and the + trees grew so close and thick that they had some difficulty in pushing + their way through them without injuring its frail sides. These trees or + bushes were chiefly black elder, high-bush cranberries, dogwood, willows, + and, as they proceeded further, and there was ground of a more solid + nature, cedar, poplar, swamp oak, and soft maple, with silver birch and + wild cherries. Long strings of silvery-grey tree-moss hung dangling over + their heads, the bark and roots of the birch and cedars were covered with + a luxuriant growth of green moss, but there was a dampness and closeness + in this place that made it far from wholesome, and the little band of + voyagers were not very sorry when the water became too shallow to admit of + the canoe making its way through the swampy channel, and they landed on + the banks of a small circular pond, as round as a ring, and nearly + surrounded by tall trees, hoary with moss and lichens; large water-lilies + floated on the surface of this miniature lake, and the brilliant red + berries of the high-bush cranberry, and the purple clusters of grapes, + festooned the trees. + </p> + <p> + “A famous breeding place this must be for ducks,” observed Louis. + </p> + <p> + “And for flowers,” said Catharine, “and for grapes and cranberries. There + is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however lonely the + spot.” + </p> + <p> + “A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes,” said Hector, looking + round. “The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his lodge near + this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not so bad a one + either,” and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted little + tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were the + ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by the old + trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles still + occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss and grass + lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of her silent + laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild duck had sat + and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which she had found + and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things pertaining to the + former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, battered tin pannikin, + now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a broken earthen whisky jar; + a rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and pocketed, or rather pouched,—for + he had substituted a fine pouch of deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and + a fishing-line of good stout cord, which was wound on a splinter of red + redar, and carefully stuck between one of the rafters and the roof of the + shanty. A rusty but efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, + who was the finder, was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so + valuable an addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd + worn-out mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while + Catharine declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and + carefully deposited it in the canoe. + </p> + <p> + As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that + there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some + one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining + the incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that + lay mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the + work of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look upon + these simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living remnant. + The young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, isolated being, + with no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to her; a stranger in + the land of her fathers, associating with those whose ways were not her + ways, nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language was scarcely known + to her, whose God was not the God of her fathers. Yet the dark eyes of the + Indian girl were not dimmed with tears as she thought of these things; she + had learned of her people to suffer, and be still. + </p> + <p> + Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the earth, + when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and then + kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,— + </p> + <p> + “Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish you, + because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God loves you, + and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, and the Friend + of the destitute, and to them that have no helper.” + </p> + <p> + The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning is + necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the dumb, + the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is often + more eloquent than words—the gentle pressure of the hand, the + half-echoed sigh, the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, + and unlock its hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock is + smitten and the waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to refresh + and fertilize the thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner was touched; + she bowed down her head upon the hand that held her so kindly in its + sisterly grasp, and wept soft sweet human tears full of grateful love, + while she whispered, in her own low plaintive voice, “My white sister, I + kiss you in my heart; I will love the God of my white brothers, and be his + child.” + </p> + <p> + The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: they + found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the desolate + hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, made a + serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the deserted + dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were quickly + rolled in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. The + new-found fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and with + very little delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, was + added to their store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, which they + found in abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and butternuts + which Hector cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, finished their + sylvan meal. The boys stretched themselves to sleep on the ground, with + their feet, Indian fashion, to the fire; while the two girls occupied the + mossy couch which they had newly spread with fragrant cedar and hemlock + boughs. + </p> + <p> + The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, <i>[FN: + Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage of Alfred + Hayward, Esq.]</i> a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with steep rocky + banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely wooded to admit + of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its shores. + </p> + <p> + The next island they named the Beaver, <i>[FN: The Beaver, commonly called + Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon it some + few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, to which + it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies towards the + west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite to Gore’s + Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and verandah of + Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, Esq., the + Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of the only + residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the few gentlemen + who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract of country, and + to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of late, have been so + fully developed.]</i> from its resemblance in shape to that animal. A + fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black Island, <i>[FN: Black + Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an oval island, remarkable + for its evergreens.]</i> from its dark evergreens; the next was that which + seemed most to excite the interest of their Indian guide, although but a + small stony island, scantily clothed with trees, lower down the lake. This + place she called Spooke Island, <i>[FN: Appendix H.]</i> which means in + the Indian tongue, a place for the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit + Island, and here, in times past, used the Indian people to bury their + dead. The island is now often the resort of parties of pleasure, who, from + its being grassy and open, find it more available than those which are + densely wooded. The young Mohawk regarded it with feelings of + superstitious awe, and would not suffer Hector to land the canoe on its + rocky shores. + </p> + <p> + “It is a place of spirits,” she said; “the ghosts of my fathers will be + angry if we go there.” Even her young companions felt that, they were upon + sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial isle. + </p> + <p> + Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived from + their Highland origin, Indiana’s respect for the spirits of her ancestors + was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to disturb the + solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after awhile + reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into two + separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with + stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. + Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many + days’ journey up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with her + paddle a long line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some longer, + some smaller, with Bays and inlets, which she gave them to understand were + the chain of lakes that she spoke of. There were beautiful hunting grounds + on the borders of these lakes, and many fine water-falls and rocky + islands; she had been taken up to these waters during the time of her + captivity. The Ojebwas, she said, were a branch of the great Chippewa + nation, who owned much land and great waters thereabouts. + </p> + <p> + Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the + Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration and + curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading up to + an unknown far-off land—a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable + forests,—flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on + its tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,—the + pure ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that + flitted across its surface—so quiet was the onward flow of its + waters. + </p> + <p> + A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and crimson-tinted + oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the silent fall of many a + sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer and of winter’s coming + reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful stillness; no breath of wind + moved the trees or dimpled the water. Bright wreaths of scarlet berries + and wild grapes hung in festoons among the faded foliage. The silence of + the forest was unbroken, save by the quick tapping of the little midland + wood-pecker, or the shrill scream of the blue jay; the whirring sound of + the large white and grey duck, (called by the frequenters of these lonely + waters the whistle-wing,) as its wings swept the waters in its flight; or + the light dripping of the paddle;—so still, so quiet was the scene. + </p> + <p> + As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either to + encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in returning. + She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some anxiety. Vast + volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the sun seen through + its hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air unrelieved by a + breath of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; and though the + same coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several successive days, + a sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire in all to return; and + after a few minutes’ rest and refreshment, they turned their little bark + towards the lake; and it was well that they did so: by the time they had + reached the middle of the lake, the stillness of the air was rapidly + changing. The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so long piled upon each + other in mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, at first slowly, then + with rapidly accelerated motion. There was a hollow moaning in the pine + tops, and by fits a gusty breeze swept the surface of the water, raising + it into rough, short, white-crested ridges. + </p> + <p> + These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising + hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on + the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl + raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the + crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the Beaver + Island—it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she + wielded the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their + little vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining + every nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of + thunder were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away flew + the light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the tempest + was above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest trees as + they bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding from shore to + shore. And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black streaming hair + from her brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with renewed vigour + plied the paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of turbulence by the + violence of the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, but no word was + spoken—they each felt the greatness of the peril, but they also knew + that they were in the hands of Him who can say to the tempest-tossed + waves, “Peace, be still,” and they obey Him. + </p> + <p> + Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland + was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with + difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to + do this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the + old tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper’s shanty. + </p> + <p> + The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of the + Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was vigorously + pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter of the + overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions they had + made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the storm, they + threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its progress—thankful + for an escape from such imminent peril. + </p> + <p> + Thus ended the Indian summer—so deceitful in its calmness and its + beauty. The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into + stone by a premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting + the shelter of the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their ark + of refuge—the log-house on Mount Ararat. + </p> + <p> + The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner than + usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of April the + snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered with ice, + and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet from shore to + shore. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Scared by the red and noisy light.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping fire-wood, + which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, used from + childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, and snaring hares, + were occupations which they pursued more for the excitement and exercise + than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance of dried, venison, fish, + and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. They now visited those trees + that they had marked in the summer, where they had noticed the bees + hiving, and cut them down; in one they got more than a pailful of rich + honey-comb, and others yielded some more, some less; this afforded them a + delicious addition to their boiled rice, and dried acid fruits. They might + have melted the wax, and burned candles of it; but this was a refinement + of luxury that never once occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry + pine knots that are found in the woods are the settlers’ candles; but + Catharine made some very good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and + combs, by pouring water on it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of + the chimney, in one of the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent + substitute for salt as a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the + Indians, they were now reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + </p> + <p> + Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up to + every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she + patiently made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little + shelter of pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear carved + out of hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently await the + rising of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously plunging it + into the unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. Many a noble fish + did the young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet of him whom she had + tacitly elected as her lord and master; to him she offered the voluntary + service of a faithful and devoted servant—I might almost have said, + slave. + </p> + <p> + During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, + that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing + log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west + wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, + unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian + blanket with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt + little cold excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind + was high, and then experience taught them to keep at home. And these cold + gloomy days they employed in many useful works. Indiana had succeeded in + dyeing the quills of the porcupine that she had captured on Grape Island; + with these she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and an arrow case for + Hector, besides making a sheath for Louis’s <i>couteau-du-chasse</i>, of + which the young hunter was very proud, bestowing great praise on the + workmanship. + </p> + <p> + Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was + engaged in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the + no small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, was + remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of + everything he saw. + </p> + <p> + Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner + bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and + wide in the middle—not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat + fish; over this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, + wetted to make it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when + dry, it became quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work + such as you see on cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + </p> + <p> + “And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in + your ingenious little net,” said Louis, who had watched her proceedings + with great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she showed + all her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second frame like + the first. + </p> + <p> + Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, that + was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for some kind + of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring glance at + Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her silent + laughs. + </p> + <p> + “Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,”—and snatching up a + light bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the + netted frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on with + her work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage + persevering in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the + other was done: then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: + and he was forced at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of + the work. It was night before the two were completed, and furnished with + straps and loops. When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl + knelt down at Hector’s feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a + joyous laugh, and said, “Snow-shoe—for walk on snow—good!” + </p> + <p> + The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now seemed + to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use of them. + The young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own feet, and + soon proved to them that the broad surface prevented those who wore them + from sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector began to + acknowledge the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, especially on + the frozen snow on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well pleased with the + approbation that her manufactures met with, and very soon manufactured for + “Nee-chee,” as they all now called Louis, a similar present As to + Catharine, she declared the snow-shoes made her ancles ache, and that she + preferred the mocassins that her cousin Louis made for her. During the + long bright days of February they made several excursions on the lake, and + likewise explored some of the high hills to the eastward. On this ridge + there were few large trees; but it was thickly clothed with scrub oaks, + slender poplars, and here and there fine pines, and picturesque + free-growing oaks of considerable size and great age—patriarchs, + they might be termed, among the forest growth. <i>[FN: One of these hoary + monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands at the head of the lawn at + Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr. W. Falkner, now the residence of + the Authoress.]</i> Over this romantic range of hill and dale, free as the + air they breathed, roamed many a gallant herd of deer, unmolested unless + during certain seasons when the Indians came to hunt over these hills. + Surprised at the different growth of the oaks on this side the plains, + Hector could not help expressing his astonishment to Indiana, who told him + that it was caused by the custom that her people had had from time + immemorial of setting fire to the bushes in the early part of spring. This + practice, she said, promoted the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover + for the deer themselves, and effectually prevented the increase of the + large timbers. This circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high + ridge of hills when contrasted with the more wooded portions to the + westward. From the lake these eastern hills look verdant, and as if + covered with tall green fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is + cast upon the leaves of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they + present a glowing unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only + variegated in spots by a dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light + waving poplars turned by the same wizard’s wand to golden yellow. + </p> + <p> + There were many lovely spots,—lofty rounded hills, and deep shady + dells, with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole our + young folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded glens of + the western side, where they had fixed their home. + </p> + <p> + There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold + bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down the + frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on small + hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped in + their warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what cared + they for the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks + brightened by the delightful exercise, they would remain for hours + enjoying the amusement of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the + ground with myriads of diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening it + till it rivalled the snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out with + the exercise, they returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing fire, till + the smoked rafters glowed in the red light; spread their simple fare of + stewed rice sweetened with honey, or maybe a savoury soup of hare or other + game; and then, when warmed and fed, they kneeled together, side by side, + and offered up a prayer of gratitude to their Maker, and besought his care + over them during the dark and silent hours of night. + </p> + <p> + Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in their + tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of enjoying + many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely forest + home. Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice of every + sort of usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful fortitude; + not, indeed, quietly to sit down and wait for better times, but vigorously + to create those better times by every possible exertion that could be + brought into action to assist and ameliorate their condition. + </p> + <p> + To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that nerves + his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in the steps of + the old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the exercise of his + own energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their own resources, + instead of depending upon his neighbours. + </p> + <p> + The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of + civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might not + have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian + Crusoes, because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a life + of such privation as they had known, they could not have brought so much + experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires courage to + yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + </p> + <p> + Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made + by Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and + better table than the first rough one that they put together. They also + made a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and separate + sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly + circumscribed their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as soon + as the spring came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better and + larger room to be used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a + complete set of wooden trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of + excellent grain, and less liable to warp or crack than many others. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. He + not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a certain + taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his materials and + rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in mechanism for which the + French have always been remarked. With his knife and a nail he would carve + a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with handle across it, all + delicately wrought with flowers and checker-work. The shell of a + butter-nut would be transformed into a boat, with thwarts, and seats, and + rudder; with sails of bass-wood or birch-bark. Combs he could cut out of + wood or bone, so that Catharine could dress her hair, or confine it in + braids or bands at will. This was a source of great comfort to her; and + Louis was always pleased when he could in any way contribute to his + cousin’s happiness. These little arts Louis had been taught by his father. + Indeed, the entire distance that their little, settlement was from any + town or village had necessarily forced their families depend on their own + ingenuity and invention to supply many of their wants. Once or twice a + year they saw a trading fur-merchant, as I before observed; and those were + glorious days for Hector and Louis, who were always on the alert to render + the strangers any service in their power, as by that means they sometimes + received little gifts from them, and gleaned up valuable information as to + their craft as hunters and trappers. And then there were wonderful tales + of marvellous feats and hair-breadth escapes to listen to, as they sat + with eager looks and open ears round the blazing log-fire in the old + log-house. Now they would in their turns have tales to tell of strange + adventures, and all that had befallen them since the first day of their + wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + </p> + <p> + The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The + Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves + chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, and + did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter end of + the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as they had + the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar and some + molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible place: it had + the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready built for a + shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a good + boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need not be + exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two boys soon + cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out into + sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; and + the first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh with + their vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and tapped + the trees they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And many + pleasant days they passed during the sugar-making season. They did not + leave the sugar-bush for good till the commencement of April, when the sun + and wind beginning to unlock the springs that fed the lake, and to act + upon its surface, taught them that it would not long be prudent to remain + on the island. The loud booming sounds that were now frequently heard of + the pent-up air beneath striving to break forth from its icy prison, were + warnings not to be neglected. Openings began to appear, especially at the + entrance of the river, and between the islands, and opposite to some of + the larger creeks; blue streams that attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and + wild geese, that came, guided by that instinct that never errs, from their + abiding-places in far-off lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild + birds coming and going with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to + her simple-minded companions. + </p> + <p> + How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How + joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded + woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and + twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, + that comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the + low, tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines or + in the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of the + little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen trees, + and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his wings + against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds—were + among the early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest + dwellers, and for such they listened with eager ears, for they told them— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last.” + </pre> + <p> + They watched for the first song of the robin, <i>[FN: Turdus miyratorius, + or American robin.]</i> and the full melody of the red thrush <i>[FN: + Turdus melodus, or wood-thrush.]</i>; the rushing sound of the + passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, + sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or darting + down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, the + acorns that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries of + hawthorn and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines were + now putting on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies were + deep blue; nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed waking into + life and light. + </p> + <p> + On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access to + the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and + Louis were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for + the addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to + work as soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little + field for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended + to the house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in plenty + of small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned up the + loose boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had marked + out, they proceeded to enclose it with a “brush fence”, which was done by + felling the trees that stood in the line of the field, and letting them + fall so as to form the bottom log of the fence, which they then made of + sufficient height by piling up arms of trees and brush-wood. Perhaps in + this matter they were too particular, as there was no fear of “breachy + cattle,” or any cattle, intruding on the crop; but Hector maintained that + deer and bears were as much to be guarded against as oxen and cows. + </p> + <p> + The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was as + clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a log, + contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the grain + was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week in May, as + near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds and the + blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. Hector’s + eyes had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning from the + lake, soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. But soon his + eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of the ridge was + enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some mist-wreath + hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds rapidly spread + on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, and nothing but + fire,<i>[FN: Appendix I.]</i> that those dark volumes arose. + </p> + <p> + “Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire.” + </p> + <p> + “On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, but look there!” + </p> + <p> + The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on with + fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by the dry, + withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the flames. + </p> + <p> + “It is two miles off, or more,” said Louis; “and the creek will stop its + progress long before it comes near us—and the swamp there, beyond + Bare Hill.” + </p> + <p> + “The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, a + burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; besides, + when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on fire, you know + how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when the forest was + on fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and how fiercely it + raged! It was lighted by the ashes of your father’s pipe, when he was out + in the new fallow; the leaves were dry, and kindled; and before night the + woods were burning for miles.” “It was a grand spectacle, those + pine-hills, when the fire got in among them,” said Louis.. “See, see how + fast the fires kindle; that must be some fallen pine that they have got + hold of; now, look at the lighting up of that hill—is it not grand?” + </p> + <p> + “If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!” said + Hector, anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as the + fire finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even against + the wind.” + </p> + <p> + As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line + of wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour which + hung in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with + inconceivable rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon of + destruction spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery + speed; and soon hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + </p> + <p> + “It must have been the work of the Indians,” said Louis. “We had better + make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. We + must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it may + come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent escape + by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + </p> + <p> + “It is the Indian burning,” said Indiana; “that is the reason there are so + few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for the + deer.” + </p> + <p> + Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having + scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed to + have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site of the + root-house <i>[FN: Root-houses are built over deep excavations below the + reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.]</i> below the + bank, which they had just finished, they had met with charred wood, at the + depth of six feet below the soil, which must have lain there till the + earth had accumulated over it; a period of many years must necessarily + have passed since the wood had been burned, as it was so much decomposed + as to crumble beneath the wooden shovel which they were digging with. + </p> + <p> + All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were + flame—red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, + overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it formed + a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the splendour of + the scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire better defined; + but there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as it had done in the + daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of evening effectually + put a stop to the progress of the fire. The children could now gaze in + security upon the magnificent spectacle before them, without the + excitement produced by its rapid spread during the daytime. They lay down + to sleep in perfect security that night, but with the consciousness that, + as the breeze sprung up in the morning, they must be on the alert to + secure their little dwelling and its contents from the devastation that + threatened it. They knew that they had no power to stop its onward course, + as they possessed no implement better than a rough wood shovel, which + would be found very ineffectual in opening a trench or turning the ground + up, so as to cut off the communication with the dry grass, leaves, and + branches, which are the fuel for supplying the fires on the Plains. The + little clearing on one side the house they thought would be its safeguard, + but the fire was advancing on three sides of them. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be + done.” + </p> + <p> + “I propose,” said Louis, “retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest + point of Long Island.” “My French cousin has well spoken,” said Hector, + mimicking the Indian mode of speaking; “but listen to the words of the + wise. I propose to take all our household stores that are of the most + value, to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, + first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is + likely to take fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as to + the shanty, it must take its chance to stand or fall.” + </p> + <p> + “The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never + mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, is + not yet sown,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + Hector’s advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to work + to secure the property they meant to leave. + </p> + <p> + It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as it + formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made + available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys + carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and + also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them to + hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off to the + lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand.” + IRISH SONG +</pre> + <p> + The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far as + the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were + leaping among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the pines, + and rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to heap of the + fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes of black and + suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that Hector and Louis + had only time to push off the canoe before the heights along the shore + were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and noble pine fell + crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, as its burning + trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the suffocating vapour, + the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying the cool, fresh air + of the lake. Reposing on the grass beneath the trees, they passed the day, + sheltered from the noonday sun, and watched the progress of the fires upon + the shore. At night the girls slept securely under the canoe, which they + raised on one side by means of forked sticks stuck in the ground. + </p> + <p> + It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on the + water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, to + which the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by + contrast. + </p> + <p> + Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty + escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the + safety of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was + already springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken + every precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. + <i>[FN: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved by + turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been + effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing up + the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry roots, + grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even could it be + got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in stopping the + progress of fire; even women and little children can assist in such + emergencies.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed + by the fire. “We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this + summer,” she said, mournfully; “and the pretty roses and bushes will be + scorched, and the ground black and dreary.” + </p> + <p> + “The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the + forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, leaves + more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in,” said Hector. “I + have seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new and fresh set + of plants spring up, and even some that looked withered recover; the earth + is renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so great a misfortune + as it at first appears.” + </p> + <p> + “But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!” said + Louis; “I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one + of those burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, + branchless trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance + against those that kindled the fires.” + </p> + <p> + “They do, indeed, look ugly,” said Catharine; “yet the girdled ones look + very nearly as ill.” <i>[FN: The girdled pines are killed by barking them + round, to facilitate the clearing.]</i> + </p> + <p> + At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim + smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was + still going on. + </p> + <p> + As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the + point (Andersen’s Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they + concluded the fires had possibly originated by accident,—some casual + hunter or trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they + were not very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they + decided on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was with + some feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had befallen + their shanty. + </p> + <p> + “The shanty is burned!” was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis and + Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded a + view of its roof. “It is well for us that we secured our things in the + root-house,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, + larger and better than the old one,” said Louis. “The chief of our fence + is gone, too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if we + get it done a month hence, say I. Come, <i>ma belle</i>, do not look so + sorrowful. There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital + wigwam, while the new house is building.” “But the nice table that you + made, Louis, and the benches and shelves!” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves + too. Never fear, <i>ma chere</i>, the same industrious Louis will make + things comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a + famous one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is + planted we shall have nothing else to do but to think about it.” + </p> + <p> + The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles and + birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did not feel + the inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been earlier in + the season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house and pantry; and + Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave certain loose folds + between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, which formed a series of + pouches or bags, in which many articles could be stowed away out of sight. + <i>[FN: In this way the winter wigwams of the Indians are constructed so + as to give plenty of stowing room for all their little household matters, + materials for work, &c.]</i> + </p> + <p> + While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, the + two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a + succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched + earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had + anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they + raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their + attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been + burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + </p> + <p> + The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a few + weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than the + former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian corn, + renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting partridges and + ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. The fruit season + was less abundant this year than the previous one. The fire had done this + mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect fruits during the + summer months. + </p> + <p> + It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the boys, + and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for water, and on + her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her family of three + half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. <i>[FN: An Indian + baby; but “papoose” is not an Indian word. It is probably derived from the + Indian imitation of the word “baines.”]</i> In their turn the strangers + seemed equally astonished at Catharine’s appearance. + </p> + <p> + The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon + reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which she + had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To this + Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple sugar, + which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted the brown + baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden cradle, and + fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference between the + colour of her young hostess’s fair skin and her own swarthy hue; for she + often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, and compared her + arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment and curiosity; + possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race this poor savage + had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set the birchen dish on + the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its cradle prison, she slipped + the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and silently signing to her sons + to follow her, she departed. That evening a pair of ducks were found + fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a silent offering of gratitude + for the refreshment that had been afforded to this Indian woman and her + children. + </p> + <p> + Indiana thought, from Catharine’s description, that these were Indians + with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake and + the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be near. The + squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother Snow-storm, + from having been lost in the woods, when a little child, during a heavy + storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a gentle, kind woman, + and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt. Her sons were good + hunters; and though so young, helped to support their mother, and were + very good to her and the little one. + </p> + <p> + I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a brief + notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved abundant, + and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and stored, and + plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of honey. + </p> + <p> + The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the + lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some + hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter was + unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring following + was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May before + vegetation had made any very decided progress. + </p> + <p> + The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both + within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for the + floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats and a + table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering their + only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for splitting the + wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with great care and + patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft mate, woven by + Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut and dried; but the + little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or deer-skin on the floor + before the fire, as she had been accustomed. + </p> + <p> + A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and was + now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the loghouse;—but + for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all they had left + and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those who dwelt + beneath its humble roof. + </p> + <p> + The season of flowers had again arrived,—the earth, renovated by the + fire of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,—June, with its + fragrant store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,—the + anniversary of that time when they had left their beloved parents’ roofs, + to become sojourners in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much they + felt they had to be grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and much + anxiety they had felt; but they had enjoyed blessings above all that they + could have expected, and they might, like the Psalmist when recounting the + escapes of the people of God, have said,—“Oh that men would + therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and the wonders that he doeth + for the children of men.” And now they declared no greater evil could + befal them than to lose one of their little party, for even Indiana had + become as a dear and beloved sister; her gentleness, her gratitude and + faithful trusting love, seemed each day to increase. Now, indeed, she was + bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for she knelt to the same God, and + acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies of her Redeemer. She had made + great progress in learning their language, and had also taught her friends + to speak and understand much of her own tongue; so that they were now no + longer at a loss to converse with her on any subject. Thus was this Indian + girl united to them in bonds of social and Christian love. + </p> + <p> + Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track of + a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and showing + symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred staying at + home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had gathered some + fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, Indian meal + cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was weary and warm, + for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on the threshold of + the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and closed her eyes. + Perhaps the poor child’s thoughts were wandering back to her far-off, + never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking of the hunters and + their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of dread stole over her + mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she saw no form; but there + was a strange consciousness that she was not alone—that some unseen + being was near, some eye was upon her. I have heard of sleepers starting + from sleep the most profound when the noiseless hand of the assassin has + been raised to destroy them, as if the power of the human eye could be + felt through the closed lid. + </p> + <p> + Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was near + her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance around. + No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she resumed + her seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet which she + had tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, attracted her + attention. + </p> + <p> + “What aileth thee, wee dearie?” she said, tenderly, as the timid little + creature crept, trembling, to her breast. “Thy mistress has scared thee by + her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor weasel + here to seize thee, silly one;” and as she spoke she raised her head, and + flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded her eyes. The + deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met her terrified gaze, + gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the door-post, whence the + upper part of the face alone was visible, partly concealed by a mat of + tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, the poor girl neither + spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing her hands tightly across + her breast, as if to still the loud beating of her heart, she sat gazing + upon that fearful appearance, while, with stealthy step, the savage + advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, as he did so, his eyes riveted + upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily serpent is said to fascinate his + prey. His hapless victim moved not; whither could she flee to escape one + whose fleet foot could so easily have overtaken her in the race? where + conceal herself from him whose wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive + her of all vital energy? + </p> + <p> + Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian to + answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and taking the + girl’s ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong of deer’s + hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path through the + ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch canoe, + rocking gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a young + girl were seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed no word + indicative of curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the Indian + lifted his captive into the canoe, and made signs to the elder squaw to + push from the shore. When all had taken their places, the woman, catching + up a paddle from the bottom of the little vessel, stood up, and with a few + rapid strokes sent it skimming over the lake. + </p> + <p> + The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous + situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her agitated + face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror presented + themselves to her bewildered brain—all that Indiana had described of + the cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before her mind. Poor + child, what miserable thoughts were thine during that brief voyage! + </p> + <p> + Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the + victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved + ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no hope + of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated mind, + she raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the Indian + and his companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the stoical + one of an Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no answering + glance of sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look of pity—not + a nerve or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of the Indians, and + the woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy attitude, burying her + face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter emotions from the heartless + strangers. + </p> + <p> + She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian’s education to hide + the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and tender + emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + </p> + <p> + It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, which + was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the disobedient to + the wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds of unrighteousness, + and to teach man that he is by nature the child of wrath and victim of + sin, and that in his unregenerated nature his whole mind is at enmity with + God and his fellow-men, and that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. And + the Indian has acknowledged that power,—he has cast his idols of + cruelty and revenge, those virtues on which he prided himself in the + blindness of his heart, to the moles and the bats; he has bowed and adored + at the foot of the Cross;—but it was not so in the days whereof I + have spoken. <i>[FN: Appendix K.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?” + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER +</pre> + <p> + The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian lifted + his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move forward + along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards higher up + the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with shrubby + trees—the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the paddles + and secure the canoe. + </p> + <p> + It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, + when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead for + mercy—whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we + ourselves are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, + mute with terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now found + herself surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange assembly, + if by chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, but she saw + not the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright sparkling eye of + her cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive features of the Indian + girl, her adopted sister—she stood alone among those wild + gloomy-looking men; some turned away their eyes as if they would not meet + her woe-stricken countenance, lest they should be moved to pity her sad + condition; no wonder that, overcome by the sense of her utter + friendliness, she hid her face with her fettered hands and wept in + despair. But the Indian’s sympathy is not moved by tears and sighs; + calmness, courage, defiance of danger and contempt of death, are what he + venerates and admires even in an enemy. + </p> + <p> + The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed to + be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant against + the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the stranger; + Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, heard the old + man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. Gladly did she + escape from the presence of those pitiless men, from whose gaze she shrunk + with maidenly modesty. And now when alone with the women she hesitated not + to make use of that natural language which requires not the aid of speech + to make itself understood; clasping her hands imploringly, she knelt at + the feet of the Indian woman, her conductress—kissed her dark hands + and bathed them with her fast flowing tears, while she pointed + passionately to the shore where lay the happy home from which she had been + so suddenly torn. + </p> + <p> + The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her imploring + gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone replied in her own + language, that she must go with the canoes to the other shore,—and + she pointed to the north as she spoke. She then motioned to the young girl—the + same that had been Catharine’s companion in the canoe—to bring a + hunting knife, which was thrust into one of the folds of the birch-bark of + the wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly weapon in the hands of the Indian + woman with a pang of agony as great as if its sharp edge was already at + her throat. So young—so young, to die by a cruel bloody death! what + had been her crime?—how should she find words to soften the heart of + her murderess? The power of utterance seemed denied—she cast herself + on her knees and held up her hands in silent prayer; not to the dreaded + Indian woman, but to Him who heareth the prayer of the poor destitute—who + alone can order the unruly wills and affections of men. + </p> + <p> + The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the + terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with a + quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists of + the pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her whole + face she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand upon her + young head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise lifted the + flowing tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over the back of her own + swarthy hand; then, as if amused by the striking contrast, she shook down + her own jetty-black hair and twined a tress of it with one of the fair + haired girl’s—then laughed till her teeth shone like pearls within + her red lips. Many were the exclamations of childish wonder that broke + from the other females, as they compared the snowy arm of the stranger + with their own dusky skins; it was plain that they had no intention of + harming her, and by degrees distrust and dread of her singular companions + began in some measure to subside. + </p> + <p> + The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her a + handful of parched rice and some deer’s flesh to eat; but Catharine’s + heart was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing the + Indian word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of birch-bark + from the floor of the tent, and gathering the corners together, ran to the + lake, and soon returned with water in this most primitive drinking vessel, + which she held to the lips of her guest, and she seemed amused by the long + deep draught with which Catharine slaked her thirst; and something like a + gleam of hope came over her mind as she marked the look of kindly feeling + with which she caught the young Indian girl regarding her, and she strove + to overcome the choking sensation that would from time to time rise to her + throat, as she fluctuated between hope and fear. The position of the + Indian camp was so placed that it was quite hidden from the shore, and + neither could Catharine see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of + the mount that her brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their + visits to the lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them + even if she had seen them on the beach. + </p> + <p> + The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while + the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians were + launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. + Catharine’s heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the lake + showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted at a + fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek flowing down + through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they found several + tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The river was here + a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many kinds fringed the + edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had never been pierced + by the step of man—so thick and luxuriant was the vegetation that + even the Indian could hardly have penetrated through its dark swampy + glades: far as the eye could reach, that impenetrable interminable wall of + verdure stretched away into the far off distance. + </p> + <p> + On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open + meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the eminence + above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by a luxuriant + orchard and garden, the property of a naval officer, <i>[FN: Lt. Rubidge, + whose interesting account of his early settlement may be read in a letter + inserted in Captain Basil Hall’s Letters from Canada.]</i> who with the + courage and perseverance that mark brave men of his class, first ventured + to break the bush and locate himself and his infant family in the lonely + wilderness, then far from any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + </p> + <p> + But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler had + not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire scathed + it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those shades, nor + sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its echoes. + </p> + <p> + All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a + shady tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and + wondering at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its + dear inmates. Bad as she had thought her separation from her father and + mother and her brothers, when she first left her home to become a wanderer + on the Rice Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her situation, + snatched from the dear companions who had upheld and cheered her on in all + her sorrows! But now she was alone with none to love or cherish or console + her, she felt a desolation of spirit that almost made her forgetful of + that trust that had hitherto always sustained her in time of trouble or + sickness. She looked round, and her eye fell on the strange unseemly forms + of men and women, who cared not for her, and to whom she was an object of + indifference or aversion: she wept when she thought of the grief that her + absence would occasion to Hector and Louis; the thought of their distress + increased her own. + </p> + <p> + The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the little + brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots and stones + that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and long + exposure to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. The last + rosy light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a glowing tint + when she awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; the kingfisher and + dragon-fly, and a solitary loon, were the only busy things abroad on the + river; the first darting up and down from an upturned root near the + water’s edge, feeding its youngings; the dragon-fly hawking with rapid + whirring sound for insects, and the loon, just visible from above the + surface of the still stream, sailed quietly on companionless, like her who + watched its movements. + </p> + <p> + The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment + roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the + evening meal was now preparing,—and Catharine, chilled by the + falling dew, crept to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at + being recognised by one friendly face—it was the mild and benevolent + countenance of the widow Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to bid + her to share their camp fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, the + beaming smile that was given by this good creature, albeit she was ugly + and ill-featured, cheered the sad captive’s heart. She had given her a cup + of cold water and what food her log-cabin afforded, and in return the good + Indian took her to her wigwam and fed, and warmed, and cherished her with + the loving-kindness of a Christian; and during all her sojourn in the + Indian camp she was as a tender mother over her, drying her tears and + showing her those little acts of attention that even the untaught Indians + know are grateful to the sorrowful and destitute. Catharine often forgot + her own griefs to repay this worthy creature’s kindness, by attending to + her little babe and assisting her in some of her homely preparations of + cookery or household work. She knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow + would do her no good, and after the lapse of some days she so well + disciplined her own heart as to check her tears at least in the presence + of the Indian women, and to assume an air of comparative cheerfulness. + Once she found Indian words enough to ask the Indian widow to convey her + back to the lake, but she shook her head and bade her not think anything + about it; and added, that in the fall, when the ducks came to the + rice-beds, they should all return, and then if she could obtain leave from + the chief, she would restore her to her lodge on the plains; but signified + to her that patience was her only present remedy, and that submission to + the will of the chief was her wisest plan. Comforted by this vague + promise, Catharine strove to be reconciled to her strange lot, and still + stranger companions. She could not help being surprised at the want of + curiosity respecting her that was shown by the Indians in the wigwam, when + she was brought thither; they appeared to take little notice that a + stranger and one so dissimilar to themselves had been introduced into the + camp, for before her they asked no questions about her, whatever they + might do when she was absent, though they surveyed her with silent + attention. Catharine learned, by long acquaintance with this people, that + an outward manifestation of surprise <i>[FN: See Appendix L.]</i> is + considered a want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of + weakness and childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly + less disposed to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and + one of their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, + was examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, + and holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, + those who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the + island, showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw was + granddaughter to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with + considerable respect by the rest of the women; she was a gay lively + creature, often laughing, and seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund of + good humour. She was inclined to extend her patronage to the young + stranger, making her eat out of her own bark dish, and sit beside her on + her own mat. She wove a chain of the sweet-scented grass with which the + Indians delight in adorning themselves, likewise in perfuming their lodges + with bunches or strewings upon the floor. She took great pains in teaching + her how to acquire the proper attitude of sitting, after the fashion of + the Eastern nations, which position the Indian women assume when at rest + in their wigwams. The Indian name of this little damsel signified the + Snow-bird. She was, like that lively restless bird, always flitting to and + fro from tent to tent, as garrulous and as cheerful too as that merry + little herald of the spring. + </p> + <p> + Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine’s dress, which she + examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut + fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border of + the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These fringes + she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old chief was + called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and mocassins escape + their observation. There was something mysterious about her garments. + Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep guttural + exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst from the + lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with deep attention. + These people had recognised in these things the peculiar fashion and + handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to perish by + hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was excited to + know by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress wrought by + the hand of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange and + mysterious did it seem to them, and warily did they watch the unconscious + object of their wonder. + </p> + <p> + The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, + enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she + prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose whole + nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously endeavoured + to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she succeeded in an + incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to express her own wants, + and converse a little with the females who were about her. + </p> + <p> + She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood apart from + the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his granddaughter, or + by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some sick person, or a + secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great Spirit; but one day + when the chief of the people had gone up the river hunting, and the + children were asleep, she perceived the curtain of skins drawn back, and a + female of singular and striking beauty appeared standing in the open space + in front. She was habited in a fine tunic of white dressed doeskin richly + embroidered with coloured beads and stained quills, a full petticoat of + dark cloth bound with scarlet descended to her ancles, leggings fringed + with deer-skin knotted with bands of coloured quills, with richly wrought + mocassins on her feet. On her head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black + feathers; her long shining tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, + each thick tress confined with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and + blue; her stature was tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye + wore an expression so proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own + involuntarily fill with tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She + would have approached nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk + back timid and abashed beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, + the Beam of the Morning, the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose + hand had wrought so fearful a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of + her brother. She stood there, at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal + robes, as on the day when she received her death-doomed victim. And when + she recalled her fearful deed, shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back + and shrouded herself within the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye + of that terrible woman. She remembered how Indiana had told her that since + that fatal marriage-feast she had been kept apart from the rest of the + tribe,—she was regarded by her people as a sacred character, a great + <i>Medicine</i>, a female <i>brave</i>, a being whom they regarded with + mysterious reverence. She had made this great sacrifice for the good of + her nation. Indiana said it was believed among her own folks that she had + loved the young Mohawk passionately, as a tender woman loves the husband + of her youth; yet she had hesitated not to sacrifice him with her own + hand. Such was the deed of the Indian heroine—and such were the + virtues of the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash’d o’er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree’s tall shadow sleeps upon its breast.” + COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, <i>[FN: Now + known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house and + some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for the + steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore’s Landing on the Rice + Lake and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.]</i> and then early one + morning the wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, + proceeded up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to + interest Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between + low shores, thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through which + the eye might pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a + clearing, not a sight or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or + heard; the darting flight of the wild birds as they flitted across from + one side to the other, the tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of the + blue jay, was all that was heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that + monotonous voyage. After many hours a decided change was perceived in the + current, which ran at a considerable increase of swiftness, so that it + required the united energy of both men and women to keep the light vessels + from drifting down the river again. They were in the Rapids, <i>[FN: + Formerly known as Whitla’s Rapids, now the site of the Locks.]</i> and it + was hard work to stem the tide, and keep the upward course of the waters. + At length the rapids were passed, and the weary Indian voyagers rested for + a space on the bosom of a small but tranquil lake. <i>[FN: The little lake + about a mile below Peterborough and above the Locks, formerly girt in by + woods of pine and beech and maple, now entirely divested of trees and + forming part of the suburbs of the town. ]</i> The rising moon shed her + silvery light upon the calm waters, and heaven’s stars shone down into its + quiet depths, as the canoes with their dusky freight parted the glittering + rays with their light paddles. As they proceeded onward the banks rose on + either side, still fringed with pine, cedar and oaks. At an angle of the + lake the banks on either side ran out into two opposite peninsulas, + forming a narrow passage or gorge, contracting the lake once more into the + appearance of a broad river, much wider from shore to shore than any other + part they had passed through since they had left the entrance at the Rice + Lake. + </p> + <p> + Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with + delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green + cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the + sound of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken + eddies rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of the + moon; and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those rapids, + at a signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed to shore on a + low flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last island. <i>[FN: + Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the island, a noble and + substantial bridge has been built.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the women + prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and + birch-bark covering from the encampment below, and soon all was bustle and + business; unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even Catharine lent + a willing hand to assist the females in bringing up the stores, and sundry + baskets containing fruits and other small wares. She then kindly attended + to the Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, who, bound upon their + wooden cradles, were either set up against the trunks of the trees, or + swung to some lowly depending branch, there to remain helpless and + uncomplaining spectators of the scene. + </p> + <p> + Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied as + herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, having + from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they were sure + to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers when the season of + refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was friendless and alone, an + orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred and friends. One Father, one + Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even He—the Father of the + fatherless. + </p> + <p> + That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole out + of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter of + which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy plain, + studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that they + might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. It was + a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through which for so + many many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed on monotonously; + here it was all wild and free, dashing along like a restive steed + rejoicing in its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + </p> + <p> + Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing + river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as it + bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. “Happy, glorious + waters! you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no canoe + can ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, were free + to pursue my onward way—how soon would I flee away and be at rest!” + Such thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the lonely + captive girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked abroad + over those moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming sense of + the utter loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with faltering step + hurried down once more to the wigwams, silently crept to the mat where her + bed was spread, and soon forgot all her woes and wanderings in deep + tranquil sleep. + </p> + <p> + Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always seemed + to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes and rivers + in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So disregardful + are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to sleep where + the ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a temporary + flooring of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather than remove + the tent a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always be found. + This either arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from both, but it + is no doubt the cause of much of the sickness that prevails among, them. + With his feet stretched to the fire the Indian cares for nothing else when + reposing in his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the improvement that + might be made in his comfort; he listens with a face of apathy, and utters + his everlasting guttural, which saves him the trouble of a more rational + reply. + </p> + <p> + “Snow-bird” informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be removed + for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the squaws + pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the chief of the + laborious part of the work fell to the share of the females, who were very + much more industrious and active than their husbands; these, when not out + hunting or fishing, were to be seen reposing in easy indolence under the + shade of the trees, or before the tent fires, giving themselves little + concern about anything that was going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, + and submissive; they bore without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and + fatigue, and seemed to perform every task with patience and good humour. + They made the canoes, in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched + the tents, converted the skins of the animals which the men shot into + clothes, cooked the victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove + mats, dyed the quills of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short + performed a thousand tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + </p> + <p> + Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, + they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no floors + to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + </p> + <p> + Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only + renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish + bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of + furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the same, + their beds mats or skins of animals,—such were the domestic + arrangements of the Indian camp. <i>[FN: Much improvement has taken place + of late years in the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of their + dwellings are clean and neat even for Europeans.]</i> In the tent to which + Catharine belonged, which was that of the widow and her sons, a greater + degree of order and cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for + Catharine’s natural love of neatness and comfort induced her to strew the + floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep round the + front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its vicinity. She + never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her hair with the + comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care of the little child, + which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this little creature, for it + was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a little squirrel, and the Indian + mothers all looked with kinder eyes upon the white maiden, for the loving + manner in which she tended their children. The heart of woman is seldom + cold to those who cherish their offspring, and Catharine began to + experience the truth, that the exercise of those human charities is + equally beneficial to those who give and those that receive; these things + fall upon the heart as dew upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a + blessing. But we will leave Catharine for a short season, among the lodges + of the Indians, and return to Hector and Louis. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?” + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. +</pre> + <p> + It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening of + the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. They + had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine half-grown + fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding the fire + nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. There, it is + true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she was not to be + seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for them, and had gone + out to gather strawberries, they did not at first feel very anxious, but + ate some of the rice and honey, for they were hungry with long fasting; + and taking some Indian meal cake in their hands, they went out to call her + in, but no trace of her was visible. They now became alarmed, fearing that + she had set off by herself to seek them, and had missed her way home + again. + </p> + <p> + They hurried back to the happy valley—she was not there; to + Pine-tree Point—no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that + overlooked the lake—no, she was not to be seen; night found them + still unsuccessful in their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had + seated herself beneath some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined + the true cause, having seen nothing of the Indians. + </p> + <p> + Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her not + there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting left + them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The first + streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in vain upon + the name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. Desolation + had fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others they had + most feared, had happened to them. + </p> + <p> + Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so easily + to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that she had + discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake shore; she + had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had been woven by + Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had seen the mark of + feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the lake, and the + furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. It was evident + that she had been taken away from her home by these people. Poor Louis + gave way to transports of grief and despair; he knew the wreath, it was + such as Catharine often made for herself, and Mathilde, and petite Louise, + and Marie; his mother had taught her to make them; they were linked + together by the stalks, and formed a sort of leaf chain. The remembrance + of many of their joyous days of childhood made Louis weep sorrowful tears + for happy days, never to return again; he placed the torn relic in his + breast, and sadly turned away to hide his grief from Hector and the Indian + girl. + </p> + <p> + Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but advised + wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. The Indians + had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats round Mount + Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they ventured to + land on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw evident traces of + a temporary encampment having been made. This was all they could do, + further search was unavailing; as they found no trace of any violence + having been committed, they still cherished hopes that no personal harm + had been done to the poor captive, It was Indiana’s opinion that, though a + prisoner, she was unhurt, as the Indians rarely killed women and children, + unless roused to do so by some signal act on the part of their enemies, + when an exterminating spirit of revenge induced them to kill and spare + not; but where no offence had been offered, they were not likely to take + the life of an helpless, unoffending female. + </p> + <p> + The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify + revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was + difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of + Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores + and the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still + thought the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + </p> + <p> + Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis no + longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled themselves + to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great delight; all + now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they wandered listlessly + to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had departed from their little + dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, each seeming absorbed in his + own painful reveries. + </p> + <p> + In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; + they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours + alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and + missed their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to + occupy. They called, but there was none to reply—she too was gone. + They hurried to the shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to + a mere speck upon the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; + they called to her in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted + back no sound to their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and they + sat them down disconsolately on the shore. + </p> + <p> + “What is she doing?” said Hector; “this is cruel to abandon us thus.” + </p> + <p> + “She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings of + Catharine,” said Louis. “How came you to think that such is her + intention?” + </p> + <p> + “I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or + die.” + </p> + <p> + “What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose + life she attempted to take?” + </p> + <p> + “She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she + loves.” + </p> + <p> + “Alas!” said Hector, “she will perish miserably and to no avail; they + would not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana’s + life.” + </p> + <p> + “How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not + tell us? we would have shared her danger.” + </p> + <p> + “She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl has + a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that made + life dear to us,” said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his knees. + </p> + <p> + “Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with + more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana’s leaving us, we left her so + much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we + did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad.” “I + tell you what we will do, Hec.—make a log canoe. I found an old + battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have an + axe and a tomahawk,—what should hinder us from making one like it?” + </p> + <p> + “True! we will set about it to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good pine + for the purpose.” + </p> + <p> + “As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than + this dread suspense and inaction.” + </p> + <p> + The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of + suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, and + the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to their + inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt proved + abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well in the + water. + </p> + <p> + Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so + Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, and + again—aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, + that is the way to succeed at last.” + </p> + <p> + “You have ten times my patience, Hec.” “Yes! but you are more ingenious + than I, and are excellent at starting an idea.” + </p> + <p> + “We are a good pair then for partnership.” + </p> + <p> + “We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past + blunders.” + </p> + <p> + “Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost + Catharine!” + </p> + <p> + “I know it, a long, long, weary month,” replied Louis, and he struck his + axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent for + some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested from + their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to resume + their conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector’s arm, and pointed to a + bark canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point of the island. + Hector started to his feet, exclaiming, “It is Indiana returned!” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense! Indiana!—it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man + in a blanket coat.” + </p> + <p> + “The Indians?” asked Hector inquiringly. + </p> + <p> + “I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he + doing?” + </p> + <p> + “Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass—another—he + has great luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore.” + </p> + <p> + “That man does not move like an Indian—hark! he is whistling. I + ought to know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to + sing;” and Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old + French Canadian song, which we will give in the English as we heard it + sung by an old lumberer. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we’ll wander, and we’ll chase the buffalo. + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + </pre> + <p> + “Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that + may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one—so I think he will + not be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is + but one, so he must mind how he affronts us,” replied Louis laughing. + </p> + <p> + “I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is not + singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,”—and Louis + raised his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo— + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + </pre> + <p> + “What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to + listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it + again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!” + </p> + <p> + “Come, let us go on with our work,” said Hector, with something like + impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more in + regular succession on the log; but Louis’s eye was still on the mysterious + fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and smoking his pipe. + “I do not think he sees or hears us,” said Louis to himself, “but I think + I’ll manage to bring him over soon”—and he set himself busily to + work to scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and soon began to strike + fire with his knife and flint. + </p> + <p> + “What are you about, Louis?” asked Hector. “Lighting a fire.” + </p> + <p> + “It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure.” + </p> + <p> + “I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome + fisherman.” + </p> + <p> + “And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking in + the bushes of the island.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh, pooh! Hec.:—there are no savages. I am weary of this place—anything + is better than this horrible solitude.” And Louis fanned the flame into a + rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till it soared up among + the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, and rubbed his hands + gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the island, and a few + vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over the surface of the + calm lake. + </p> + <p> + Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel + lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were + chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, also + faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn mocassins, + sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis’s old raft, and gazed with a keen + eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A few rapid + interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois of the Lower + Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and English by + Louis. + </p> + <p> + A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried + out—“Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon.” + </p> + <p> + “Oui! oui!”—with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw + himself into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father’s friend and + old lumbering comrade. + </p> + <p> + “Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,—and Hector, in his turn, + received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + </p> + <p> + “Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade + here at the shore of the Rice Lake?—oh! what a joyful meeting!” + </p> + <p> + Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they + live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold + Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + </p> + <p> + The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped for + want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + </p> + <p> + “What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have + outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob + Morelle—hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,—those are the + things to harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish—eh! mes + enfans, is it not so?” + </p> + <p> + Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from + their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the + society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down to + the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper seemed + moved—he started from the log on which they were sitting, and with + one of his national asseverations, declared “That la bonne fille should + not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage wretches. + Yes, he, her father’s old friend, would go up the river and bring her back + in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the wigwams.” + </p> + <p> + “It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today,” said Hector. “Come + home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit.” + </p> + <p> + “No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, and + there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still standing,—the + Trapper’s Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will go off to the + island and look for it.” + </p> + <p> + “No need for that,” replied Louis, “for though I can tell you the old + place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a + boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own + nearer at hand—just two or three hundred yards over the brow of + yonder hill. So come with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to + lie upon.” + </p> + <p> + “And you have all these, boys!” said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, + as they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green corn. + The old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. “Ha! here is + old Wolfe too,” as the dog roused himself from the hearth and gave one of + his low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and instead of + going out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie for hours dozing + before the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the loving hand that + used to pat his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and pillow his great + head upon her lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws upon her shoulders, + while he licked her hands and face; but she was gone, and the Indian girl + was gone, and the light of the shanty had gone with them. Old Wolfe seemed + dying of sorrow. + </p> + <p> + That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short + Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings over, + and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + </p> + <p> + “And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?” + </p> + <p> + “At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now + since we left home, three summers ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been + absent,” said the old “Now I know the distance through the woods, for I + have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as the + bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles—no, nor that + either.” + </p> + <p> + The boys opened their eyes. “Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet to + us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles or + more.” + </p> + <p> + “I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember when + I was out on the St. John’s, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I was + well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we + parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole + eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, + just in a circle, because, d’ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me + astray the whole time.” + </p> + <p> + “Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?” asked Louis, with a sly + glance at Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then.” And + old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to recount + the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis’s edition of the + roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old Jacob’s + long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, all + tagged on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not sorry + when the old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, at last + stretched himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up from the + canoe, and soon was soundly sleeping. + </p> + <p> + The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his slumber, + which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up a good fire, + which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour was not unwelcome, + he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on the coals for his + breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis wakened. + </p> + <p> + “Mes enfans,” said Jacob, “I have been turning over in my mind about your + sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river alone + without any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a suspicious + people, they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to expect treachery + in others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the white men have not + always kept good faith with them, which I take to be the greater shame, as + they have God’s laws to guide and teach them to be true and just in their + dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have not, the more’s the pity. + Now, d’ye see, if the Indians see two stout lads with me, they will say to + themselves, there may be more left behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I + go to the camp alone; and, God willing, I will bring back your sister, or + die in the attempt. I shall not go single-handed; see, I have here + scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a + sin and a shame to tempt these poor wretches to their own destruction; it + makes fiends of them at once.” + </p> + <p> + It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old Jacob + to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was firm, and + would not be moved from his purpose. + </p> + <p> + “Look you, boys,” he said, “if I do not return by the beginning of the + rice harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; then + I would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they do not + respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. In such + case, make yourselves a good canoe—a dug-out <i>[FN: Log canoe.]</i> + will do—and go down the lake till you are stopped by the rapids; <i>[FN: + Crook’s Rapids.]</i> make a portage there; but as your craft is too + weighty to carry far, e’en leave her and chop out another, and go down to + the Falls; <i>[FN: Heeley’s Falls, on the Trent.]</i> then, if you do not + like to be at any further trouble, you may make out your journey to the + Bay <i>[FN: Bay Quinte.]</i> on foot, coasting along the river; there you + will fall in with settlers who know old Jacob Morelle—aye, and your + two fathers—and they will put you in the way of returning home. If I + were to try ever so to put you on the old Indian trail in the woods, + though I know it myself right well, you might be lost, and maybe never + return home again. I leave my traps and my rifle with you; I shall not + need them: if I come back I may claim the things; if not, they are yours. + So now I have said my say, had my <i>talk</i>, as the Indians say. + Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who alone can bring this matter to + a safe issue.” And the old man devoutly kneeled down, and prayed for a + blessing on his voyage and on those he was leaving; and then hastened down + to the beach, and the boys, with full hearts, watched the canoe till it + was lost to their sight on the wide waters of the lake. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran.” + DRYDEN. +</pre> + <p> + What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the Indians + roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading town. Those + glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only of them remains + to some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five years ago, + shadowing the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have disappeared, + but the green emerald turf that they once shaded still remains. The wild + rushing river still pours down its resistless spring floods, but its banks + have been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans its rapid waters. It has + seen the destruction of two log-bridges, but this new, substantial, + imposing structure bids fair to stand from generation to generation. The + Indian regards it with stupid wonder: he is no mechanic; his simple canoe + of birch bark is his only notion of communication from one shore to + another. The towns-people and country settlers view it with pride and + satisfaction, as a means of commerce and agricultural advantage. That + lonely hill, from which Catharine viewed the rapid-flowing river by + moonlight, and marvelled at its beauty and its power, is now the + Court-house Hill, the seat of justice for the district,—a fine, + substantial edifice; its shining roof and pillared portico may be seen + from every approach to the town. That grey village spire, with its groves + of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! those trees that embower it, + once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder scattered groups of neat white + cottages, each with its garden of flowers and fruit, are spread over what + was once an open plain, thinly planted with poplar, oaks, and pine. See, + there is another church; and nearer, towards the west end of the town, on + that fine slope, stands another, and another. That sound that falls upon + the ear is not the rapids of the river, but the dash of mill wheels and + mill dams, worked by the waters of that lovely winding brook which has + travelled far through woods and deep forest dingles to yield its tribute + to the Otonabee. There is the busy post-office, on the velvet carpet of + turf; a few years, yes, even a few years ago, that spot was a grove of + trees. The neat log building that stood then alone there, was inhabited by + the Government Agent, now Colonel Macdonald, and groups of Indians might + be seen congregated on the green, or reposing under the trees, forming + meet subjects for the painter’s pencil, for he knew them well, and was + kind to them. + </p> + <p> + The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting + lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple + wares of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe to + sell his fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his + intercourse with his white brethren has made him consider necessary to his + comforts, to supply wants which have now become indispensable, before + undreamed of. He traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks round + upon dwellings, and gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which he can + neither obtain nor imitate; and feels his spirit lowered—he is no + more a people—the tide of intellect has borne him down, and swept + his humble wigwam from the earth. He, too, is changing: he now dwells, for + the most part, in villages, in houses that cannot be moved away at his + will or necessity; he has become a tiller of the ground, his hunting + expeditions are prescribed within narrow bounds, the forest is + disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian must also yield to + circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he murmurs in secret; but his + voice is low, it is not heard; he has no representative in the senate to + take interest in his welfare, to plead in his behalf. He is anxious, too, + for the improvement of his race: he gladly listens to the words of life, + and sees with joy his children being brought up in the fear and nurture of + the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own blood going forth on the + mission of love to other distant tribes; he is proud of being a Christian; + and if there be some that still look back to the freedom of former years, + and talk of “the good old times,” when they wandered free as the winds and + waters through those giant woods, they are fast fading away. A new race is + rising up, and the old hunter will soon become a being unknown in Canada. + </p> + <p> + There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy + bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), + looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. The + Indians called it “the white girl’s rest,” for it was there that Catharine + delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to sing her + snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile’s prayer, + unheard and unseen. + </p> + <p> + The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart + the waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on the + water, the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the lodges + came softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with the + spoils of a successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and + crackling, sending up their light columns of thin blue smoke among the + trees; and now a goodly portion of venison is roasting on the forked + sticks before the fires. Each lodge has its own cooking utensils. That jar + embedded in the hot embers contains sassafras tea, an aromatic beverage, + in which the squaws delight when they are so fortunate as to procure a + supply. This has been brought from the Credit, far up in the west, by a + family who have come down on a special mission from some great chief to + his brethren on the Otonabee, and the squaws have cooked some in honour of + the guests. That pot that sends up such a savoury steam is venison + pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you choose to give the Indian mess + that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and herbs. Those tired hounds + that lay stretched before the fire have been out, and now they enjoy the + privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, and receive withal an + occasional reproof from the squaws, if they approach their wishful noses + too close to the tempting viands. + </p> + <p> + The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls are + playing or rolling on the grass; “The Snow-bird” is seated on the floor of + the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she confines in links + by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine is working + mocassins beside her;—a dark shadow falls across her work from the + open tent door—an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from one + of the women makes Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, silent, + pale, and motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands Indiana—a + gleam of joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. Amazement and + delight at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment deprives Catharine + of the power of speech; then terror for the safety of her friend takes + place of her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of the angry tones of + the Indian woman’s voice, and throws her arms about Indiana as if to + shield her from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome in her arms. + </p> + <p> + “Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?” + </p> + <p> + “To free you, and then die,” was the soft low tremulous answer. “Follow + me.” Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the + young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the + design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating + heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; it + was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor + reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + </p> + <p> + The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude of + submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the lodge; but + she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who starting to + their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from danger, and + sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for what purpose. + </p> + <p> + “To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father,” was the meek reply. + “May the daughter of the Bald Eagle’s enemy speak to her great father?” + </p> + <p> + “Say on,” was the brief reply, “the Bald Eagle’s ears are open.” + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the + father of his people,” replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. “The + Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on.” + </p> + <p> + “The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the + eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief + slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them for + the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of his enemies + save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the grand-daughter of the + Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy that is not afraid to + raise the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in battle. The young girl’s + mother was a <i>brave.”</i> She paused, while her proud eye was fixed on + the face of her aged auditor. He nodded assent, and she resumed, while a + flush of emotion kindled her pale cheek and reddened her lips,— + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the hatchet + and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her heart was + lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I will revenge + my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her heart burned + within her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, the Great Spirit + was about my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have fled, for an arrow + was in her flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took her, they brought her + down the great river to the council hill, they bound her with thongs and + left her to die. She prayed, and the Great Spirit heard her prayer and + sent her help. The white man came; his heart was soft; he unbound her, he + gave water to cool her hot lips, he led her to his lodge. The white squaw + (and she pointed to Catharine) was there, she bound up her wounds, she + laid her on her own bed, she gave her meat and drink, and tended her with + love. She taught her to pray to the Good Spirit, and told her to return + good for evil, to be true and just, kind and merciful. The hard heart of + the young girl became soft as clay when moulded for the pots and she loved + her white sister and brothers, and was happy. The Bald Eagle’s people came + when my white brothers were at peace, they found a trembling fawn within + the lodge, they led her away, they left tears and loneliness where joy and + peace had been. The Mohawk squaw could not see the hearth of her white + brothers desolate; she took the canoe, she to the lodge of the great + father of his tribe, and she says to him, ‘Give back the white squaw to + her home on the Rice Lake, and take in her instead the rebellious daughter + of the Ojebwa’s enemy, to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the + knife or the tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of + the great chief.’” She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and + bowing down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + </p> + <p> + There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken + well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall be + restored to her brother’s lodge—but thou remainest. I have spoken.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and + remained weeping—how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in + her turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief + turned a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was weary—he + was impatient of further excitement—he coldly motioned to them to + withdraw; and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all that had + taken place since that sad day when Catharine was taken from her home. + While her heart was joyful at the prospect of her own release, it was + clouded with fears for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + </p> + <p> + “They will condemn me to a cruel death,” said Indiana, “but I can suffer + and die for my white sister.” + </p> + <p> + That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside Catharine; + but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own heart in the + still watches of the night—it seemed as if a new life had been + infused within her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; the + energies of her mind had been awakened, ripened into maturity as it were, + and suddenly expanded. When all the inmates of the lodges were profoundly + sleeping, Catharine arose,—a sudden thought had entered into her + mind, and she hesitated not to put her design into execution. There was no + moon, but a bright arch of light spanned the forest to the north; it was + mild and soft as moonlight, but less bright, and cast no shadow across her + path; it showed her the sacred tent of the widow of the murdered Mohawk. + With noiseless step she lifted aside the curtain of skins that guarded it, + and stood at the entrance. Light as was her step, it awakened the sleeper; + she raised herself on her arm and looked up with a dreamy and abstracted + air as Catharine, stretching forth her hand in tones low and tremulous, + thus addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:— + </p> + <p> + “The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of + thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he is + angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy—the blood of thy + murdered husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words + that he commands.” + </p> + <p> + She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless step, + and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat as though it + would burst its way through her bosom. What had she done?—what + dared? She had entered the presence of that terrible woman alone, at the + dead hour of night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous words to that + strange being whom even her own people hardly dared to approach + uncalled-for! Sick with terror at the consequences of her temerity, + Catharine cast her trembling arms about the sleeping Indian girl, and + hiding her head in her bosom, wept and prayed till sleep came over her + wearied spirit. It was late when she awoke. She was alone: the lodge was + empty. A vague fear seized her: she hastily arose to seek her friend. It + was evident that some great event was in preparation. The Indian men had + put on the war-paint, and strange and ferocious eyes were glancing from + beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was driven in the centre of the + cleared space in front of the chief’s lodge: there, bound, she beheld her + devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm unshaken countenance, she + stood. There was no sign of woman’s fear in her fixed dark eye, which + quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men who stood round her, + armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. Her thoughts seemed far + away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, wandering in that happy + land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; or, inspired with the new + hope which had been opened to her, she was looking to Him who has promised + a crown of life to such as believe in His name. She saw not the look of + agony with which Catharine regarded her; and the poor girl, full of grief, + sunk down at the foot of a neighbouring tree, and burying her face between + her knees, wept and prayed—oh! how fervently! A hope crept to her + heart—even while the doom of Indiana seemed darkest—that some + good might yet accrue from her visit to the wigwam of the Great Medicine + squaw. She knew that the Indians have great belief in omens, and warnings, + and spirits, both good and evil; she knew that her mysterious appearance + in the tent of the Mohawk’s widow would be construed by her into spiritual + agency; and her heart was strengthened by this hope. Yet just now there + seems little reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is given, the + war-dance is begun—first slow, and grave, and measured; now louder, + and quicker, and more wild become both sound and movement. But why is it + hushed again? See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an old + weather-beaten man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and + approaches the area of the lodge. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and death-song + are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance of the captives. + The chief points to Catharine—she is free: his white brother may + take her—she is his. But the Indian law of justice must take its + course; the condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa chief, must + die. In vain were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and beads for the + women, with powder and shot, laid before the chief: the arrows of six + warriors were fitted to the string, and again the dance and song + commenced, as if, like the roll of the drum and clangour of the trumpet, + it were necessary to the excitement of strong and powerful feelings, and + the suppression of all tenderer emotions. + </p> + <p> + And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, rising + above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek became + pale: it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the death-song + of the captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she stands + unmoved, with eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “In still, but brave despair.” + </pre> + <p> + Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and + streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of + the Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed + by her sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which + dark stains are visible—it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed + by her on that day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the + name of the Great Spirit she claims the captive girl—the last of + that devoted tribe—to be delivered over to her will. Her right to + this remnant of her murdered husband’s family is acknowledged. A knife is + placed in her hand, while a deafening yell of triumph bursts from the + excited squaws, as this their great high-priestess, as they deemed her, + advanced to the criminal. But it was not to shed the heart’s blood of the + Mohawk girl, but to severe the thongs that bound her to the deadly stake, + for which that glittering blade was drawn, and to bid her depart in peace + whithersoever she would go. + </p> + <p> + Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: “At the dead of + night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before mine + eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set free the + last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed by my hand + and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I did this my + path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the better land + and be at rest if I did this good deed.” She then laid her hands on the + head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping herself in the dark + mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent once more. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie.”—<i>Scotch Ballad.</i> +</pre> + <p> + Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so full + of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa chief, and + besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before him, and + this time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing the beads + and cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the + grand-daughter of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old + man was not insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by the + devoted Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault by + graciously offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in marriage + to one of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but the young + girl modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her heart + yearned for those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who had + taught her to look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and a + better state of being. She said, “She would go with her white sister, and + pray to God to bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her to + do.” + </p> + <p> + It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the exercise + of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social happiness. + The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of violence, + seemed disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge was now + filled with mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and dancing. A + covenant of peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob and the + chief, who bade Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth they + should be free to hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of the lake, + whenever they desired to do so, “he the Bald Eagle had said so.” + </p> + <p> + On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; the + canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A supply + of parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian chief for + the voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might not suffer, + from want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to the lodge of + the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. “The Snow-bird” was + sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with tears at parting + with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft and playful as the + tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her arm. She did not let + Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, the work of her own + hands,—bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung + in fanciful patterns, <i>[FN: Appendix M]</i> mocassins richly wrought, + and tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have graced a lady’s + work-table, so rare was their workmanship. + </p> + <p> + Just as they were about to step into the canoe “the Snow-bird” reappeared, + bearing a richly worked bark box, “From the Great Medicine,” she said in a + low voice, “To the daughter of the Mohawk <i>brave.</i>” The box contained + a fine tunic, soft as a lady’s glove, embroidered and fringed, and a + fillet of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings and breast of the + war-bird, as shoulder ornaments. It was a token of reconciliation and + good-will worthy of a generous heart. + </p> + <p> + The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips + reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said in + her native tongue, “Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, and + pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the + spirit-land.” + </p> + <p> + With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in + being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the + events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she + longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to that + kind old man’s plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the arms of + their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that I had + wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!—in the + shelter of that dear mother’s arms whom she now pined for with a painful + yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. But in + spite of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt for the + night some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern bank of the + Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild cherries, hawthorns + and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by alder and cranberry + bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the little eminence; this + creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, through which the hunters + sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut to the lower part of the + lake near Crook’s Rapids. To this creek old Jacob steered his light craft, + and bidding the girls collect a few dry sticks and branches for an evening + fire on the sheltered side of the little bank, he soon lighted the pile + into a cheerful blaze by the aid of birch bark, the hunter’s tinder—a + sort of fungus that is found in the rotten oak and maple-trees—and a + knife and flint; he then lifted the canoe, and having raised it on its + side, by means of two small stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then + spread down his buffalo robe on the dry grass. “There is a tent fit for a + queen to sleep under, mes chères filles,” he said, eyeing his arrangements + for their night shelter with great satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of + splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block + of limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob opened + his wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush table with + large basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed was unusual + on a hunter’s table. He was too old a forester to care how his food was + dished, so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + </p> + <p> + Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away the + time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue heavens were + studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless hosts deep + deep down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of fireflies + lighted up the dark recesses of the forest’s gloom. High in the upper air + the hollow booming of the night-hawk was heard at intervals, and the wild + cry of the night-owl from a dead branch, shouting to its fellow, woke the + silence of that lonely river scene. + </p> + <p> + The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe or + hummed some French voyageur’s song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe + soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed on + the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair mingling + with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a lovely pair—one + fair as morning, the other dark as night. + </p> + <p> + How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early song + of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes upon + the river, like a flock of sheep at rest—the tinkling sound of the + heavy dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red + squirrel, how lightly he runs along that fallen trunk—how furtively + he glances with his sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan + haunts! Hark! there is a rustling among the leaves—what strange + creature works its way to the shore? A mud turtle—it turns, and now + is trotting along the little sandy ridge to some sunny spot, where, half + buried, it may lie unseen near the edge of the river. See that musk-rat, + how boldly he plunges into the stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems + the current till he gains in safety the sedges on the other side. + </p> + <p> + What gurgling sound is that?—it attracts the practised ear of the + old hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle + of the stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?—it is a + noble stag. Look at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so + gallantly; see how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear in + those lonely solitudes—he has never heard the crack of the hunter’s + rifle—he heeds not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow + rankles in his neck, and the crimson flood dyes the water around him—he + turns, but it is only to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old + hunter’s bow; and now the noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is + rapidly launched by the hand of the Indian girl—her eye flashes with + the excitement—her whole soul is in the chase—she stands up in + the canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded buck, while a shower of + blows are dealt upon his head and neck with the paddle. Catharine buries + her face in her hands—she cannot bear to look upon the sufferings of + the noble animal. She will never make a huntress—her heart is cast + in too soft a mould. See they have towed the deer ashore, and Jacob is in + all his glory,—the little squaw is an Indian at heart—see with + what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great business is + completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the canoe—they + wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine’s summons to eat her + breakfast. + </p> + <p> + The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is also + rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those glorious + rays—the whole earth seems wakening into new life—the dew has + brightened every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup—the pines and + balsams give out their resinous fragrance—the aspens flutter and + dance in the morning breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the + stream—the shores become lower and flatter—the trees less + lofty and more mossy—the stream expands and wide beds of rushes + spread out on either side—what beds of snowy water-lilies—how + splendid the rose tint of those perseicarias that glow so brightly in the + morning sun—the rushes look like a green meadow, but the treacherous + water lies deep below their grassy leaves—the deer delights in these + verdant aquatic fields, and see what flocks of red-wings rise from among + them as the canoe passes near—their bright shoulder-knots glance + like flashes of lightning in the sun-beams. + </p> + <p> + This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, + half choked and killed with grey moss and lichens—those straggling + alders and black ash look melancholy—they are like premature old + age, grey-headed youths. That island divides the channel of the river—the + old man takes the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the broad + Rice Lake, and Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the shanty + rising among the trees—one after another the islands steal out into + view—the capes, and bays, and shores of the northern side are + growing less distinct, Yon hollow bay, where the beaver has hidden till + now, backed by that bold sweep of hills that look in the distance as if + only covered with green ferns, with here and there a tall tree, stately as + a pine or oak—that is the spot where Louis saw the landing of the + Indians—now a rising village—Gores’ Landing. On yon lofty hill + now stands the village church, its white tower rising amongst the trees + forms a charming object from the lake, and there a little higher up, not + far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural cottages—one of + these belong to the spirited proprietor of the village that bears his + name. That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the right, is + Colonel Brown’s, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; but + silence and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + </p> + <p> + Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of + churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. <i>[FN: Appendix N.]</i> The + Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, + and Catharine’s eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to + herself the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her + gladness she seizes the old man’s rugged hand and kisses it, and flings + her arms about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the + canoe has touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds + herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such moments—how + few we have in life—they are created from our very sorrows—without + our cares our joys would be less lively; but we have no time to moralize—Catharine + flies with the speed of a young fawn, to climb the steep cliff-like + shoulder of that steep bank, and now, out of breath, stands at the + threshold of her log-house—how neat and nice it looks compared with + the Indians’ tents—the little field of corn is green and flourishing—there + is Hector’s axe in a newly-cut log—it is high noon—the boys + ought to have been there taking their mid-day meal, but the door is shut. + Catharine lifts the wooden latch, and steps in—the embers are nearly + burned out, to a handful of grey ashes—old Wolfe is not there—all + is silent—and Catharine sits down to still the beating of her heart + and await the coming up of her slower companions, and gladdens her mind + with the hope that her brother and Louis will soon be home—her eye + wanders over every old familiar object—all things seem much as she + had left them, only the maize is in the ear and the top feather waves + gracefully with the summer breeze—it promises an abundant crop; but + that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the young planters—it + was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field—to + those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather into barns, for + their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls busied themselves + in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked away over the hills + to search for the boys, and it was not long before he returned with Hector + and Louis. + </p> + <p> + I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled with + the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved cousin; or I + might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky cheek of the young + Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black eyes, owed its origin + to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by her white brother. Nor + will we say whose hand held hers so long in his while Catharine related + the noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the perils encountered by the + devoted Indiana—whose eyes were moistened with tears as the horrors + of that fearful trial were described—or who stole out alone over the + hills, and sat him down in the hush and silence of the summer night to + think of the acts of heroism displayed by that untaught Indian girl, and + to dream a dream of youthful love; but with these things, my young + readers, we have nothing to do. + </p> + <p> + “And now, my children,” said old Jacob, looking round the little dwelling, + “have you made up your minds to live and die here on the shores of this + lake, or do you desire again to behold your father’s home? Do your young + hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?” “After our fathers’ + home!” was Louis’s emphatic reply. “After the home of our childhood!” was + Catharine’s earnest answer. Hector’s lips echoed his sister’s words, while + a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan stranger; but her timid eye + was raised to his young face with a trusting look, as she would have said. + “Thy home shall be my home, thy God my God.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike the + Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine hills. It + will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way.” + </p> + <p> + “For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret,” said + Hector. “It would be a glorious place for a settlement—all that one + could desire—hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I + will try and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come and + settle hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, + especially now we are friends with the Indians.” + </p> + <p> + With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young folks + laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, packed up + such portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with full hearts + sat down to take their last meal in their home—in that home which + sheltered them so long—and then, with one accord, they knelt down + upon its hearth, so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer + to Him who had preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and then + they journeyed forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, + however, of their little band they left behind: this was the faithful old + dog Wolfe. He had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only a few + days before Catharine’s return he had crept to the seat she was wont to + occupy, and there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without great + regret, beneath the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope near the + corn-field. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I will arise, and go to my father.”—<i>New Testament</i>. +</pre> + <p> + It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is heard, + as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads to Maxwell and + Louis Perron’s little clearing; the dark shadows are lengthening that + those wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an oasis in the vast + forest desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, has hewed for himself + in the wilderness. The little flock are feeding among the blackened stumps + of the uncleared chopping; those timbers have lain thus untouched for two + long years; the hand was wanting that should have given help in logging + and burning them up. The wheat is ripe for the sickle, and the silken + beard of the corn is waving like a fair girl’s tresses in the evening + breeze. The tinkling fall of the cold spring in yonder bank falls + soothingly on the ear. Who comes from that low-roofed log cabin to bring + in the pitcher of water, that pale, careworn, shadowy figure that slowly + moves along the green pasture, as one without hope or joy; her black hair + is shared with silver, her cheek is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, + it looks as though the light might be seen through if she held it towards + the sun? It is the heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. + Her heart has been pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the + children of her love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, + and with cheerful voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be + lingering on that pale cheek,—yet the premature furrows on that + broad, sunburnt, manly brow speak, too, of inward care? It is the father + of Hector and Catharine. Those two fine, healthy boys, in homespun + blouses, that are talking so earnestly, as they lean across the rail fence + of the little wheat field, are Kenneth and Donald; their sickles are on + their arms; they have been reaping. They hear the sudden barking of Bruce + and Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see what causes the agitation they + display. + </p> + <p> + An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he casts + down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old French + ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, but + starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. “Ha, + Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this way.” + The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “How is ma chère mère, and the young ones?” asked the old man, in a husky + voice—his kind heart was full. “Can you receive me, and those I have + with me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we + travellers in the bush are no wise nice.” + </p> + <p> + “The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see you, + Jacob. How many are ye in all?” + </p> + <p> + “There are just four, beside myself,—young people; I found them + where they had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to + come with me.” + </p> + <p> + The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew his + faded blue bonnet over his eyes. “Jacob, did ye ken that we lost our + eldest bairns, some three summers since?” he faltered, in a broken voice. + </p> + <p> + “The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand,” + said the trapper. + </p> + <p> + “Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the glory,” + ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from his head; + “and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not to have seen + this day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill you.” + </p> + <p> + In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken idea + that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, have + seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded cheek + of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright + sparkle, you would have said that joy does not kill. + </p> + <p> + “But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?” + </p> + <p> + Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old + Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his + cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his + father’s cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and + sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector and + Catharine to their father. + </p> + <p> + “But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart upon + that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het knees, her + long raven hair shading her features as with a veil,” asked the Highlander + Maxwell, pointing as he spoke’ to the spot where, unnoticed and unsharing + in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian girl. There was no paternal + embrace for her, no tender mother’s kiss imprinted on that dusky cheek and + pensive brow—she was alone and desolate, in the midst of that scene + of gladness. + </p> + <p> + “It is my Indian sister,” said Catharine, “she also must be your child;” + and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the + reluctant girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and + cherish the young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + </p> + <p> + I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble dwelling, + or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of their lost + brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + </p> + <p> + Time passes on—years, long years have gone by since the return of + the lost children to their homes, and many changes have those years + effected. The log-houses have fallen to decay—a growth of young + pines, a waste of emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part + of the enclosure, now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement—no + trace or record remains of the first breakers of the bush, another race + occupy the ground. The traveller as he passes along on that smooth + turnpike road that leads from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence to + Gore’s Landing, may notice a green waste by the road-side on either hand, + and fancy that thereabouts our Canadian Crusoes’ home once stood—he + sees the lofty wood-crowned hill, and sees in spring-time, for in summer + it is hidden by the luxuriant foliage, the little forest creek, and he may + if thirsty, taste of the pure fresh icy water, as it still wells out from + a spring in the steep bank, rippling through the little cedar-trough that + Louis Perron placed there for the better speed of his mother when filling + her water jug. All else is gone. And what wrought the change?—a few + words will suffice to tell. Some travelling fur merchants brought the news + to Donald Maxwell, that a party of Highlanders had made a settlement above + Montreal, and among them were some of his kindred. The old soldier + resolved to join them, and it was not hard to prevail upon his + brother-in-law to accompany him, for they were all now weary of living so + far from their fellow-men; and bidding farewell to the little log-houses + at Cold Springs, they now journeyed downwards to the new settlement, where + they were gladly received, their long experience of the country making + their company a most valuable acquisition to the new colonists. + </p> + <p> + Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and + cleared and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, now a + fine industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a candidate + for baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the altar his newly + baptized bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not sufficiently skilled + in the laws of their church to tell how the difficulty of nearness of kin + was obviated, but they were married on the same day as Hector and Indiana, + and lived a happy and prosperous life; and often by their fireside would + delight their children by recounting the history of their wanderings on + the Rice Lake Plains. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEa" id="link2H_APPEa"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX A.—<i>Preface.</i> + </h2> + <h3> + Page vii. + </h3> + <p> + Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of + August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent + twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her + wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from + which we condense the following statements:— + </p> + <p> + It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, she + went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on attempting + to return she became separated from her companions, who returned to her + mother’s, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her at home. Several of + her neighbours searched for her during the night, without success. The + search was continued during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, by some fifty or + sixty individuals, and although her tracks, and those of a dog which + accompanied her, were discovered, no tidings of the girl were obtained. A + general sympathy for the afflicted widow and her lost daughter was + excited, and notwithstanding the busy season of the year, great numbers + from Windsor and the neighbouring townships of Brompton, Shipton, + Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Stoke, and Dudswell, + turned out with provisions and implements for camping in the woods, in + search of the girl, which was kept up without intermission for about + fourteen days, when it was generally given up, under the impression that + she must have died, either from starvation, or the inclemency of the + weather, it having rained almost incessantly for nearly a week of the + time. On the 3lst her brother returned home from Massachusetts, and with + two or three others renewed the search, but returned the second day, and + learned to their great joy that the lost one had found her way home the + evening previous. + </p> + <p> + On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow + Campbell, to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was + found, as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but + quite rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her + absence. From her story the following particulars were gathered:— + </p> + <p> + When first lost she went directly from home down “Open Brooke,” to a + meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, which + she mistook for what is called the “<i>Oxias</i> opening,” a mile distant + in the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she was lost, + and having heard that lost persons might be guided by the sun, she + undertook to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she directed + her steps towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking it for + “Open Brooke,” and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east + direction (her way home was due north) seven or eight miles till she came + to the great Hay-meadow in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, and on + Monday morning directed her course to, and thence down, the South Branch + in the great Meadow. + </p> + <p> + After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was + searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over the + meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, + occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the + junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight + miles from home. + </p> + <p> + For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a + circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the + morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties of + men, and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of people + were in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no sound of + trumpet, or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay by a + brook, early on Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. + Thinking the gun to have been fired not more than half a mile distant, she + said she “screamed and run” to the place from whence she supposed the + noise came, but found nothing. Early in the day, however, she came to the + camp where this gun was fired, but not until after its occupants had left + to renew their search for her. This camp was about four miles from the + great meadow, where she spent the Sabbath previous. There she found a + fire, dried her clothes, and found a partridge’s gizzard, which she cooked + and ate, and laid down and slept, remaining about twenty-four hours. + </p> + <p> + In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she + visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon + trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or + four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes + making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the + drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered + much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The last + week she said she had got “toughened,” and did not shiver. When first lost + she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, except + choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her dog, which + remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, which she ate + greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her health; and for the + last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood sorrel. While the dog + remained with her, she constantly shared her food with him, but said she + was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble to find him food. + </p> + <p> + On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction with + the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could not + ford the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a + little above its junction with the south branch, and following down the + stream, she found herself in the clearing, near Moor’s Mill. Thence + directing her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale’s, about a mile + from her mother’s, at six o’clock, having walked five miles in two hours, + and probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the next + day, when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost as one + raised from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen and + lacerated; but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with the + exception of two small rents. + </p> + <p> + Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she + was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she felt + disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not discovering + any new tracks, that the people had given over searching for her, she was + greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she was strongly inclined + to give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of seeing her mother + stimulated her to make one more effort to reach home, which proved + successful. When visited, she was in a state of feverish excitement and + general derangement of the system, and greatly emaciated, with a feeble + voice, but perfectly sane and collected. + </p> + <p> + It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly clad, + could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such severe + storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very strange that + she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those in search of + her, sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow their tracks home, + and not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or been seen by any of + the hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + </p> + <p> + A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, is + the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American + papers, the “Wild Man of the far West.” From time to time, these details + approach the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in a + state of destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this one, + who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, and + then either forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of the + beholder’s brain. But it appears that he was, in March, 1850, encountered + by Mr. Hamilton, of Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. The wild man + was, likewise, chasing his prey. A herd of cattle fled past Mr. Hamilton + and his party, in an agony of terror, pursued by a giant, bearing a + dreadful semblance to humanity. His face and shoulders were enveloped with + long streaming hair, his body was entirely hirsute, his progression was by + great jumps of twelve or thirteen feet at a leap. The creature turned and + gazed earnestly on the hunters, and fled into the depths of the forest, + where he was lost to view. His foot-prints were thirteen inches long. Mr. + Hamilton published the description of the savage man in the <i>Memphis + Inquirer</i>. Afterwards several planters deposed to having, at times, for + many years, seen this appearance. All persons generally agreed that it was + a child that had been lost in the woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now + grown to meridian strength, in a solitary state. Thus the possibility of + an European child living, even unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar + to the inhabitants of the vast American continent. Although we doubt that + any human creature would progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar + to the human instinct. It is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas + is, in reality, some species of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEb" id="link2H_APPEb"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX B. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 72.—<i>“where Wolf Tower now stands.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to + purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a + <i>belle vue,</i> or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his + mind from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him + to the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another + house in the district. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEc" id="link2H_APPEc"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX C. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 113.—<i>“... as civilization advances.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, + wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, + and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the + ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is a + thing of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, so changed + is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow cornfields now + meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to the less + frequented depths of the forest. + </p> + <p> + From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep valleys, + and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the Rice Lake + Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be marred by + the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; and many of + those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste and + refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature had + left so fair. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEd" id="link2H_APPEd"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX D. Page 157, <i>note</i>. + </h2> + <p> + “I will now,” says our Indian historian, “narrate a single circumstance + which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were + often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had + to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we + left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as + Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father on his + ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen over, we + left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour and pork; + and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from the white + settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for five days in + succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to shoot or trap + anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no means of procuring + any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet deep, our wigwam buried, + the branches of the trees falling all about us, and cracking with the + weight of the snow. + </p> + <p> + “Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have + been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, + that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak they + could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They could + only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and old + mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad + except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without food, + the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my + grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see the + starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager looks!—the + children would cry for something to eat! My poor mother would heave bitter + sighs, of despair, the tears falling profusely from her cheeks as she + kissed us! Wood, though in plenty, could not be obtained on account of the + feebleness of our limbs. My father would at times draw near the fire and + rehearse some prayer to the gods. It appeared to him that there was no way + of escape; the men, women, and children, dying; some of them were + speechless, the wigwam was cold and dark, and covered with snow! + </p> + <p> + “On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; + he soon awoke, and said to me: ‘My son, the good Spirit is about to bless + us this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east walking on + the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two beavers about nine + o’clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me to the river, and we + will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.’ I saw that his countenance + beamed with delight and hope; he was full of confidence. I put on my + mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering along behind him about + half a mile. Having made a fire near the river, where there was an + air-hole through which the beaver had come up during the night, my father + tied a gun to a stump with the muzzle towards the air-hole; he also tied a + string to the trigger, and said, ‘Should you see the beaver rise pull the + string, and you will kill it.’ I stood by the fire, with the string in my + hand; I soon heard the noise occasioned by the blow of his tomahawk; he + had killed a beaver and brought it to me. As he laid it down, he said, + ‘Then the great Spirit will not let us die here;’ adding, as before, ‘if + you see the beaver rise, pull the string;’ and he left me. I soon saw the + nose of one, but I did not shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the + trigger, and off the gun went. I could not see for some moments for the + smoke. My father ran towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side + by side; then, pointing to the sun,—‘Do you see the sun?’ he said; + ‘the great Spirit informed me that we should kill these two about this + time in the morning. We will yet see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let + us go home, and see if our people are yet alive.’ We arrived just in time + to save them from death. Since which we have visited the same spot the + year the missionaries came among us. + </p> + <p> + “My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot where + we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who have + perished in this way far up in the woods.”—<i>Life of George Copway, + written by himself</i>, p. 44. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEe" id="link2H_APPEe"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX E. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 184.—“<i>... on first deciding that it was a canoe.</i>” + </h3> + <p> + The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel in + common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was + hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; + but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its + excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, and + its launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by + feasting and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. + Possibly the birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily + constructed, and needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; but + it was too frail to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable to + injuries. + </p> + <p> + The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland + waters, were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their + arrow-heads were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and + inserted in a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; and + blunt wooden ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and small + game. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEf" id="link2H_APPEf"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX F. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 195.—<i>“... the Christian mind revolts with horror.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong feeling + in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a concentration of all + the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and wide along the northern + banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, to be called by one name, + and united in one purpose—their general improvement. To this end, + one of the most influential of their chiefs, John Jones, of Dover Sound, + offered to give up to his Indian brethren, free of all cost, a large tract + of unceded land, that they might be gathered together as one nation. + </p> + <p> + In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from + lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it was + proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys could + be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for aid in + establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general feeling + of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at Owen’s Sound. + At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + </p> + <p> + There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of the + oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers some + idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:— + </p> + <p> + “Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from + the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your + children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that + require you here. + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our + present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of + ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at a + true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and our + descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of peace, + health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas and + Ottawas are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often passed + sleepless nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These nations, + I am proud to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my bone; and for + them, if needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. Brothers, you see + my heart.” <i>[Here he held out a piece of white paper, emblematical of a + pure heart.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout + Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place <i>[query, + too hot to hold you]</i>. The whites are kindling fires all round you <i>[i.e. + clearing land]</i>. + </p> + <p> + “One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some + plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that our + dying fires may not go out, <i>i.e.</i> our people become extinct, but may + be kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any portion + of the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe of peace, + and live and die together, and see our children play and be reared on the + same spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and because we love you, + and feel for you, we propose this. + </p> + <p> + “My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning” <i>[the speaker now pointed + with his finger towards the heavens]</i>, “look up and see the blue sky: + there are no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, + that when the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon + them. May he now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and + straight path for our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but this + morning I shake hands with you all, in my heart. + </p> + <p> + “Brothers, this is all I have to say.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEg" id="link2H_APPEg"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX G. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 213.—<i>“... and aimed a knife at his throat”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some sixty + or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my + informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as + those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men. My + Indian narrator replied—“Indians, no Christians in those days, do + worse than that very few years ago,—do as bad now in far-west.” + </p> + <p> + The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together + in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. The + conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from the Wesleyan + Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of Captain Anderson, + whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore on and about + Anderson’s Point, the renowned site of the great battle. The war-weapon + and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be found in this + vicinity. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEh" id="link2H_APPEh"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX H. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 232.—<i>“This place she called Spooke Island”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from + the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their + dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with + reverence. Now famous for two things, <i>picnics</i> and <i>poison ivy, + rhus toxicodendron,</i>—many persons having suffered for their + temerity in landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural + festivities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEi" id="link2H_APPEi"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX I. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 253.—<i>“and nothing but fire.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with which + fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. Certainly, + there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the Indian names, + approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of the language of + the East; such is “Mad-wa-osh,” the music of the winds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEk" id="link2H_APPEk"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX K. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 272.—<i>“but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + <i>From George Copway’s Life.</i> + </p> + <p> + Converted Indians are thus described in the “Life” of their literary + countryman, George Copway:— + </p> + <p> + <i>Chippewas of the River Credit.</i>—These Indians are the remnant + of a tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome + and Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part + for an annuity of 532<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> reserving only certain small + tracts at the River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they + were the first tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 + they were wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his + brother, the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted + to Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, + became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state of + heathenism and spiritual destitution. They collected a considerable number + together, and by rote and frequent repetitions, taught the first + principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and + with the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed + to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils + attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to + work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage of + cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been + greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians. + </p> + <p> + J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Chippewas of Alnwick</i> were converted in 1826-7 They were + wandering pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and + Gannoyne, commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quintè; they resided + on Grape Island, in the Bay of Quintè, six miles from Belleville. They + resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. + Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan + Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious + chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker’s shop + and joiner’s. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians. + </p> + <p> + The chiefs are—Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary + interpreter. + </p> + <p> + <i>Rice Lake Chippewas</i>.—In 1818 the greater part of the + Newcastle and Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940<i>l</i>. + These Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and + settled in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. + <i>[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of + the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,—In the year + 1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson’s Point was built + and cultivated.]</i> The settlement is on the north side of the lake, + twelve miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 + acres, subdivided in 50-acre lots. + </p> + <p> + Chiefs—Pondash, Copway, Crow. + </p> + <p> + Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The + Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of + them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, + enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEl" id="link2H_APPEl"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX L. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 282.—<i>“... that an outward manifestation of surprise.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent + intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their + apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he + wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where + several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and + narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of surprise + by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired to an + adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and was amused + at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free from his + surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious toy like a + parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture and amazement, but + they did not choose to be entrapped into showing surprise. This perfect + command over the muscles of the face, and the glance of the eye, is one of + the remarkable traits in the Indian character. The expression of the + Indian face, if I may use so paradoxical a term, consists in a want of + expression—like the stillness of dark deep water, beneath which no + object is visible. + </p> +<p> + <a name="link2H_APPEm" id="link2H_APPEm"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<h2>APPENDIX M.</h2> + + <p> + Page 332.—<i>“bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and + strung in fanciful patterns.”</i> + </p> + <p> + The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply + scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian thorn, + a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then pierced with + parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the porcupine quills are + inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the surface of the bark. + </p> + <p> + The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the + effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; + their attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and + angular; and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or + natural than those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect + produced is rich and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety of + dyes they contrive to give to this simple material, the porcupine quills. + The sinew of the deer, and some other animals, furnish the Indian women + with thread, of any degree of fineness or strength. The wants of these + simple folk are few, and those easily supplied by the adaptation of such + materials as they can command with ease, in their savage state. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEn" id="link2H_APPEn"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX N. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 339.—<i>“is Mount Ararat.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly + two years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +***** This file should be named 8382-h.htm or 8382-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8382/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + A Tale of The Rice Lake Plains + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8382] +Posting Date: August 4, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + +A TALE OF THE RICE LAKE PLAINS + + +By Catharine Parr Traill + +Authoress Of "The Backwoods Of Canada, Etc." + +Edited By Agnes Strickland + +Illustrated By Harvey + + + + London: + + Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co. + + 25, Paternoster Row. + + 1852. + + + Dedicated + + To The Children Of The Settlers + + On + + The Rice Lake Plains, + + By Their + + Faithful Friend And Well-Wisher + + THE AUTHORESS. + + OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE, + + 15th Oct 1850 + + + + +PREFACE + +IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any +narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the +struggles of isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. +The distinctions of pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind +is engaged in the contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the +assaults of the gaunt enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances +have usually given sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the +most fortunate, to make them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the +chances of shipwreck, war, wandering, or revolutions have cut off from +home and hearth, and the requisite supplies; not only from the +thousand artificial comforts which civilized society classes among the +necessaries of life, but actually from a sufficiency of "daily bread." + +Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor +seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of +Defoe as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means +uncommon in middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous +for all who build and plant in a wilderness, "cut off from humanity's +reach?" Our insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the +inhabitants of Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations +of individuals wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means +generally known that scarcely a summer passes over the colonists +in Canada, without losses of children from the families of settlers +occurring in the vast forests of the backwoods, similar to that on which +the narrative of the Canadian Crusoes is founded. Many persons thus lost +have perished in the wilderness; and it is to impress on the memory +the natural resources of this country, by the aid of interesting the +imagination, that the author of the well-known and popular work, "The +Backwoods of Canada," has written the following pages. + +She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical +solution _[FN: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.]_ of that provoking +enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, +namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day's toilsome march, +close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this +cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain +O'Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in +his lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity +of the forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is +recorded in the narrative of the "Escape of a young French Officer from +the depot near Peterborough during the Napoleon European war." He found +himself thrice at night within sight of the walls of the prison from +which he had fled in the morning, after taking fruitless circular walks +of twenty miles. I do not recollect the cause of such lost labour being +explained in either narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of +the disaster in the boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced +knowledge, dearly bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons +who wander without knowing the features and landmarks of a country, +instinctively turn their faces to the sun, and for that reason always +travel in a circle, infallibly finding themselves at night in the very +spot from which they started in the morning. The resources and natural +productions of the noble colony of Canada are but superficially known. +An intimate acquaintance with its rich vegetable and animal productions +is most effectually made under the high pressure of difficulty and +necessity. Our writer has striven to interest children, or rather young +people approaching the age of adolescence, in the natural history of +this country, simply by showing them how it is possible for children to +make the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution as forlorn +as the wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who would +not care for the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and +classified technically in books of science, might remember their uses +and properties when thus brought practically before their notice as the +aliments of the famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive +feelings must perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home +comforts and all the ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their +rising families, in order to place them in a more independent position, +it is well if those young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what +they are to find in the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the +fruits, and even the minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has +poured forth over that wide land. + +The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, "The Backwoods of Canada, +by the Wife of an Emigrant Officer," published some years since by Mr. +C. Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many +editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity +as a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say +that the present is written in the same _naive_, charming style, with +the same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet +and gentle--author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who +ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her +further years of experience as a settler to the information of the +younger class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in +the productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the +mightiest adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest +colony, unstained with the corruption of convict population; where +families of gentle blood need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; +where no one need beg, and where any one may dig without being ashamed. + + + + +LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. + +LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE + +FIRST BREAKFAST, THE + +CATHARINE FOUND BY THE OLD DOG + +WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE + +HECTOR BRINGING THE INDIAN GIRL + +KILLING WILD FOWL + +INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + +CATHARINE CARRIED OFF + +INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE + +INDIANA AT THE STAKE + +ATTACK ON THE DEER + +RETURN HOME THE + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O'er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash'd on the shore." + _Jacobite Song._ + +THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile +valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which +were clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of +the hills and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber +trees of various kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This +beautiful and highly picturesque valley is watered by many clear +streams of pure refreshing water, from whence the spot has derived its +appropriate appellation of "Cold Springs." At the time my little +history commences, this now highly cultivated spot was an unbroken +wilderness,--all tut two small farms, where dwelt the only occupiers of +the soil,--which owned no other possessors than the wandering hunting +tribes of wild Indians, to whom the right of the hunting grounds north +of Rice Lake appertained, according to their forest laws. + +To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among +cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds +of cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I +speak of the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now +an important port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo--if it +contained even a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and +the wild and picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village +of Port Hope is situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe +of the settler. No gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant +produce of grain and Canadian stores along the waters of that noble +sheet of water; no steamer had then furrowed its bosom with her iron +wheels, bearing the stream of emigration towards the wilds of our +Northern and Western forests, there to render a lonely trackless desert +a fruitful garden. What will not time and the industry of man, assisted +by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? To him be the glory and +honour; for we are taught, that "without the Lord build the city, their +labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord keep the city, the +watchman waketh but in vain." + +But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the +acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement +at Cold Springs. + +Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the +famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the +praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle +Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick +and disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian +widow in the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he +received much kind attention from his excellent hostess and her +family, which consisted of a young man about his own age, and a pretty +black-eyed lass not more than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much +occupied with other-lodgers--for she kept a sort of boarding-house--that +she had not much time to give to Duncan, so that he was left a great +deal to her son Pierre, and a little to Catharine, her daughter. + +Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the +regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of +country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady +and increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the +children of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep +regret that they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan +belonged was ordered for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far +convalescent as to be pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas +for poor Catharine! she now found that parting with her patient was a +source of the deepest sorrow to her young and guileless heart; nor was +Duncan less moved at the separation from his gentle nurse. It might be +for years, and it might be for ever, he could not tell; but he could not +tear himself away without telling the object of his affections how dear +she was to him, and to whisper a hope that he might yet return one day +to claim her as his bride; and Catharine, weeping and blushing, promised +to wait for that happy day, or to remain single for his sake, while +Pierre promised to watch over his friend's interests and keep alive +Catharine's love; for, said he, artlessly, "la belle Catrine is pretty +and lively, and may have many suitors before she sees you again, mon +ami." + +They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the +exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of +our young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, +for absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on +gratitude and esteem. + +Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet +distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his +country, enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return +to Quebec to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during +that short period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, +lively-hearted Pierre, was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and +Catharine, who had no relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with +her brother and his wife, and was living in some little settlement above +Montreal with them. + +Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly +afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had +never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a +good deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been +hunting with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice +Lake, and he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds +to a quiet life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill +pass between the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan +was of the same opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare +like his own Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned +for the hill country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking +possession of any tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore +Duncan agreed with his brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a +dwelling put up and some ground prepared and "seeded down," and then to, +return for their wives and settle themselves down at once as farmers. +Others had succeeded, had formed little colonies, and become the heads +of villages in due time; why should not they? And now behold our two +backwoodsmen fairly commencing their arduous life; but it was nothing, +after all, to Pierre, by previous occupation a hardy lumberer, or the +Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave all sorts of hardships in a wild +country, himself a mountaineer, inured to a stormy climate, and scanty +fare, from his earliest youth. But it is not my intention to dwell upon +the trials and difficulties courageously met and battled with by our +settlers and their young wives. + +There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers +on the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with +now. The spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her +comforts are felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly +come emigrant feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were +endured by the older inhabitants. + +The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, +was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little +skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous +Pierre, and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders +of himself and Duncan to their homestead:--a day of great labour but +great joy it was when they deposited their precious freight in safety +on the shanty floor. They were obliged to make two journeys for the +contents of the little craft. What toil, what privation they endured for +the first two years! and now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. +No two creatures could be more unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The +Highlander, stern, steady, persevering, cautious, always giving ample +reasons for his doing or his not doing. The Canadian, hopeful, lively, +fertile in expedients, and gay as a lark; if one scheme failed another +was sure to present itself. Pierre and Duncan were admirably suited to +be friends and neighbours. The steady perseverance of the Scot helped +to temper the volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They generally +contrived to compass the same end by different means, as two streams +descending from opposite hills will meet in one broad river in the same +valley. + +Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its +increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. +Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four +healthy children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these +welcome contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the +children of Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; +they grew up as one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. +Though different in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest +son of the Scottish soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were +greatly attached; they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed +a little coterie of inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, +occupations, all blended and harmonized delightfully; there were none +of those little envyings and bickerings among them that pave the way to +strife and disunion in after life. + +Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister +than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and +formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and +Catharine. + +Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy, +both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is +not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads +and Catharine. With the gaiety and naivete of the Frenchwoman, Catharine +possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care +of mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a +little reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father's +teaching. It was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, +having been taught by his colonel's son, a lad of twelve years of age, +who had taken a great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a +few of his school-books, among which was a Testament, without cover +or title-page. At parting, the young gentleman recommended its daily +perusal to Duncan. Had the gift been a Bible, perhaps the soldier's +obedience to his priest might have rendered it a dead letter to him, +but as it fortunately happened, he was unconscious of any prohibition +to deter him from becoming acquainted with the truths of the Gospel. He +communicated the power of perusing his books to his children Hector and +Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in succession, with a feeling of intense +reverence; even the labour of teaching was regarded as a holy duty in +itself, and was not undertaken without deeply impressing the obligation +he was conferring upon them whenever they were brought to the task. It +was indeed a precious boon, and the children learned to consider it +as the pearl beyond all price in the trials that awaited them in their +eventful career. To her knowledge of religious truths young Catharine +added an intimate acquaintance with the songs and legends of her +father's romantic country, which was to her even as fairyland; often +would her plaintive ballads and old tales, related in the hut or the +wigwam to her attentive auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; Louis and +Mathilde, her cousins, sometimes wondered how Catharine had acquired +such a store of ballads and wild tales as she could tell. + +It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not +only doffed that "dazzling white robe" mentioned in the songs of her +Jacobite emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest +season, the last week in May and the first three of June being parallel +to the English May, full of buds and flowers and fair promise of +ripening fruits. The high sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale +of Cold Springs were clothed with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet +enchroma, or painted-cup; the large pure white blossoms of the lily-like +trillium; the delicate and fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful +flowers woo the hand of the flower-gatherer only to fade almost within +his grasp; the golden cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so +lovely in its colour and formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as +the breeze shook the stems; and there, mingling with a thousand various +floral beauties, the azure lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a +heavenly tint upon the earth. Thousands of roses were blooming on the +more level ground, sending forth their rich fragrance, mixed with the +delicate scent of the feathery ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid +greenness of the young leaves of the forest, the tender tint of the +springing corn, were contrasted with the deep dark fringe of waving +pines on the hills, and the yet darker shade of the spruce and balsams +on the borders of the creeks, for so our Canadian forest rills are +universally termed. The bright glancing wings of the summer red-bird, +the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and noisy but splendid +plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air was filled with +beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the shade of the +luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front of the +little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard +mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and +fro guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches +of old mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, +with livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody +of her spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, +unconscious of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements +from among the embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning +sun. + +"Come, ma belle cousine," for so Louis delighted to call her. "Hector +and I are waiting for you to go with us to the 'Beaver Meadow.' The +cattle have strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is +delicious, the very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired +and plucked, and we shall find early strawberries on the old Indian +clearing." + +Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, "I fear, Louis, I cannot +go to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my +yarn to wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away." + +"Yes, I left her with mamma." replied Louis, "and she said she would be +home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take +a basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is +sure he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red." +As he spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, +gathered up the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker +basket, and the next minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that +hung upon the peg in the porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the +top of Catharine's head and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling +laugh, which drowned effectually the small lecture that Catharine began +to utter, by way of reproving the light-hearted boy. + +"But where is Mathilde?" + +"Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise's head on +her lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and +flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her +and petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the +dear children were as happy as queens when I left them." + +"But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? +We shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to +the Beaver Meadow and back again," said Catharine, hesitating as Louis +took her hand to lead her out from the porch. + +"Yes, yes, ma belle," said the giddy boy, quickly; "so come along, for +Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before +we return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a +tin-cup for water." + +Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little +preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the +little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her +young brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his +shoulder. "What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it +heavy to carry," said his sister. + +"In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom +for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss +Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of +rock elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I +take the axe with me." + +The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep +defiles that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung +and chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both +to exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest +shade. What handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and +white, were gathered only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast +aside for others fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills +that flowed, softly murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red +or grey granite, wending their way beneath twisted roots and fallen +trees; and often Catharine lingered to watch the eddying dimples of +the clear water, to note the tiny bright fragments of quartz or +crystallized limestone that formed a shining pavement below the stream; +and often she paused to watch the angry movements of the red squirrel, +as, with feathery tail erect, and sharp scolding note, he crossed +their woodland path, and swiftly darting up the rugged bark of some +neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the intruders on his quiet haunts +defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he scarcely condescended to +ascend beyond their reach. + +The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or +the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, +striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the +soft whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from +one hemlock to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the +bark, were among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the +woods; but to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and +her cousin were not indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector +gravely pursued his onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark +the bright colours of the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest +rill. + +"What makes Hec so grave?" said Catharine to her companion, as they +seated themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they +had giddily chased each other till they had far outrun him. + +"Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or +wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil +or the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, +or the hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as +woodpeckers and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is +not a giddy thing like his cousin Louis, or--" + +"His sister Kate," interrupted Catharine, merrily; "but when shall we +come to the Beaver Meadow?" + +"Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? +No; Hector whistling." And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his +axe ringing among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was +cutting it to leave on the path, that he might take it home on their +return; he had also marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe +handles, to bring home at some future time. + +The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down +and rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, +and declared he felt no fatigue. "As soon as we reach the old Indian +clearing, we shall find strawberries," he said, "and a fresh cold +spring, and then we will have our dinners." + +"Come, Hector,--come, Louis," said Catharine, jumping up, "I long to +be gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I +will throw them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit +instead, and we must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear +Mathilde. Ah, how I wish she were here at this minute! But here is the +opening to the Beaver Meadow." + +And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they +approached the cleared space, which some called the "Indian clearing," +but is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was +a pleasant spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and +flowering shrubs, of a different growth from those that belong to the +dense forest. Here the children found, on the hilly ground above, fine +ripe strawberries, the earliest they had seen that year, and soon all +weariness was forgotten while pursuing the delightful occupation of +gathering the tempting fruit; and when they had refreshed themselves, +and filled the basket with leaves and fruit, they slaked their thirst +from the stream, which wound its way among the bushes. Catharine +neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of the fragrant white-thorn +and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with nodding umbels of +snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little basket with the +graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered plant, the Linnaea +borealis, which she always said reminded her of the twins, Louise and +Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear away, for they +had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered from the +path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their eagerness to +look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by which they +might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, Louis +noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle hoofs +on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + +"Come, Hector," said he gaily, "this is lucky; we are on the cattle +path; no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer +track." + +Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much +towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. "And is +not this our own creek?" he said: "I have often heard my father say it +had its rise somewhere about this old clearing." + +Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the +path among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, +surprised to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the +stream swept onward. + +"Oh, this dear creek," cried the delighted Catharine, "how pretty it is! +I shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source +from our own Cold Springs." + +And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind +the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously +hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony +banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked +poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite +directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the +opening gorge of a deep ravine. + +Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block +of granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by +the ravine, unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled +countenance, stood beside her, looking round with an air of great +perplexity. Louis, seating himself at Catharine's feet, surveyed the +deep gloomy valley before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had +now forcibly struck him that they had mistaken the path altogether. The +very aspect of the country was different; the growth of the trees, the +flow of the stream, all indicated a change of soil and scene. Darkness +was fast drawing its impenetrable veil around them; a few stars were +stealing out, and gleaming down as if with pitying glance upon the young +wanderers; but they could not light up their pathway, or point their +homeward track. The only sound, save the lulling murmur of the rippling +stream below, was the plaintive note of the whip-poor-will, from a +gnarled oak that grew near them, and the harsh grating scream of the +night hawk, darting about in the higher regions of the air, pursuing +its noisy congeners, or swooping down with that peculiar hollow rushing +sound, as of a person blowing into some empty vessel, when it seizes +with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + +Hector was the first to break the silence. "Cousin Louis, we were wrong +in following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our +way back to-night." + +Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the +attention of his cousins. "Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to +be cast down by difficulties," said Hector, as he marked something like +tears glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + +Louis's heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance +upon the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath +which she sat. + +"It is not," resumed Hector, "that I mind passing a summer's night under +such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do +not think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in +the night dews,--and then they will be so anxious at home about our +absence." + +Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,--"And it is all my doing that +she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much +alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good +cousin Hector, pray forgive me!" But Catharine was weeping too much to +reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from +the truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed +his indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on +the part of Louis. + +The sight of her cousin's grief and self-abasement touched the tender +heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, +and loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful +consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, +Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she +could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with +deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating +thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid +his cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, +and steeled him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the +penitent Louis, who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder +Catharine, sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing +words and affectionate endeavours to console him. + +"Dear Hector," she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem +face of her brother, "you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; +remember it was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of +liberty with you and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees +and birds, that he committed this fault." + +"Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at +the consequences,--we shall have forfeited our parents' confidence, and +may have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our +home, if we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs," replied Hector. + +"It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night," +answered Catharine, "that distresses my mind; but," she added in more +cheerful tones, "let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able +to retrace our steps." + +With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word +_to-morrow_,--it is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from +them; sad indeed is the young heart that does not look forward with hope +to the morrow! + +The cloud still hung on Hector's brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, +"Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think +of providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the +bare ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half +made," pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had +hurled from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + +"Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them +into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, +and there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to +work, you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own +wigwam," she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the +feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared +as little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night +under the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; +but her woman's heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling +the cousins would be by mutually interesting them in the same +object,--and she was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort +of their dear companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector, +while active employment chased away Louis's melancholy. + +Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, +those of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, +varying in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque +groups, or rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked +poplar or graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately +pine contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender +graceful companions. + +Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, +which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance +drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the +upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form +the back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means +a contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with +Louis's _couteau-de-chasse_, which he always carried in a sheath at his +girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, +for herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and +cousin nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction, +she called the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents, +joined them in the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of +praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward +in imploring help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly +prayed that no dangerous creature might come near to molest them during +the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no +unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels +and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with +the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And the prayer of the +poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in peace, unharmed +in the vast solitude. So passed their first night on the Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." + +The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, +when the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty +of their situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they +had been under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their +little paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who +neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, +and in fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended +their souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + +While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled +the minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and +sorrow had they passed! + +When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the +two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the +wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud +halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they +check their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the +sighing breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves +caused by the flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the +torches, and the echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that +met their anxious ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, +to their homes, to snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the +drooping hearts of the weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different +directions. But, unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which +Hector and Louis had taken, there being many cattle paths through the +woods. Louis's want of truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he +had left no intimation of the path he purposed taking when he quitted +his mother's house: he had merely said he was going with Hector +in search of the cattle, giving no hint of his intention of asking +Catharine to accompany them: he had but told his sick sister, that +he would bring home strawberries and flowers, and that he would soon +return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little did you think of the +web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and all those to whom you +and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, think twice, ere ye +deceive once! Catharine's absence would have been quite unaccountable +but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had received her +sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and much her +mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful Catharine to +have left her work and forsaken her household duties to go rambling away +with the boys, for she never left the house when her mother was absent +from, it, without her express permission, and now she was gone--lost +to them, perhaps for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, +there hung the untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,--and there +they remained week after week and month after month, untouched, a +melancholy memorial to the hearts of the bereaved parents of their +beloved. + +It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their +vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that +filled their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of +the lost ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the +sorrowing parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome +homes. At the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one +of these three casualties had befallen the lost children:--death, a +lingering death by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or +bears; or yet more terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded +Indians, who occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the +hills about the Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron +as the scene of many bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the +Mohawks and Chippewas: its localities were scarcely ever visited by +our settlers, lest haply they should fall into the hands of the bloody +Mohawks, whose merciless dispositions made them in those days a by-word +even to the less cruel Chippewas and other Indian nations. + +It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his +brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, +among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called +the Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor +wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the +sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, +and mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their +first-born and beloved children.--"There was a voice of woe, and +lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, +and refusing to be comforted, because they were not." The miserable +uncertainty that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation +to the sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of +the manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; +but, alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + + "Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + 'Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy's endless dreams depart." + +But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see +how it really fared with the young wanderers. + +When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that +arose from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an +indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance +perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear +light of the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in +retracing their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left +no impression on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found +the creek, which was concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic +hawthorns, high-bush cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn +was in blossom, and gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than +the "May" which makes the lanes and hedgerows of "merrie old England" so +sweet and fair in May and June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral +of our olden time; but when our simple Catharine drew down the flowery +branches to wreathe about her hat, she loved the flowers for their own +native sweetness and beauty, not because poets had sung of them;--but +young minds have a natural poetry in themselves, unfettered by rule or +rhyme. + +At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of +cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and _tamarack_ (Indian name +for the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as love +the cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that +they must quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become +entangled in a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing +draughts from the bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they +ascended the grassy bank, and again descending, found themselves in one +of those long valleys, enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed +with shrubs and oaks, with here and there a stately pine. Through this +second valley they pursued their way, till emerging into a wider space, +they came among those singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel +hills, where the Cold Creek once more met their view, winding its way +towards a grove of evergreens, where it was again lost to the eye. + +This lovely spot is now known as Sackville's Mill-dike. The hand of +man has curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it +subservient to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of +the scene. _[FN: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, +who resided for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to +return to his native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The +old log-house on the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, +though deserted; the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer +protects the enclosure, where the wild rose mingles with that of +Provence,--the Canadian creeper with the hop.]_ + +Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, +winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, +the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the +silver waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of +the wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid +silver just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its +surface, and concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of +dread and doubt and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow +of admiration at a scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which +they now gazed upon from the elevation they had gained. From this ridge +they looked down the lake, and the eye could take in an extent of many +miles, with its verdant wooded islands, which stole into view one by one +as the rays of the morning sun drew up the moving curtain of mist +that enveloped them; and soon both northern and southern shores became +distinctly visible, with all their bays and capes and swelling oak and +pine-crowned hills. + +And now arose the question, "Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be +the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the +Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?" +Hector remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was +like an inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some +remarkable state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally +discerned by the naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects +on the other side, the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of +wild fowl winging their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. +The breadth of the lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, +exceed three or four miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, +seemed far greater beyond--what the eye could take in. _[FN: The +length of the Rice Lake, from its headwaters near Black's Landing to the +mouth of the Trent, is said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from +north to south varies from three to six.]_ + +They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. +Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of +a beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a +magnificent view down the lake. + +"How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, +overlooking the lake," said Louis; "only think of the fish we could +take, and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no +very hard matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard +my father say he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river--below, +when he was lumbering." + +"Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon," _[FN: +Now the site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman +from Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion +of the ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains +for its natural beauties and extent of prospect.]_ said Hector, "though +I am not quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold +Springs; but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, +and produce plenty of grain, too, if cultivated." + +"You always look to the main chance, Hec," said Louis, laughing; "well, +it was worth a few hours' walking this morning to look upon so lovely a +sheet of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,--would not +you, ma belle?--to enjoy such a sight." + +"Yes, Louis," replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; "it is very +pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot +enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been +aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!" +she added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions +and herself would cause at home came over her. "How I wish I had +remained at home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!" + +Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin's +tears, and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to +soothe and console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the +weeping girl, and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + +"If you cry thus, cousin," he whispered, "you will break poor Louis's +heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct." "Be +not cast down, Catharine," said her brother, cheeringly: "we may not be +so far from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out +again, and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on +these sunny banks." + +Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, +proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side +of the high ground where they had been sitting. + +Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, "Come, Hector; come, +Louis: here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:"--for her eye +had caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on +the slope; large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + +"There is indeed, ma belle," said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather +up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner +shade of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen +tree. Catharine's voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge +_[FN: The Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than +the English or French partridge. We refer our young readers to the +finely arranged specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) +where they may discover "Louis's partridge."]_ from her nest, and the +eggs were soon transferred to Louis's straw hat, while a stone flung +by the steady hand of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed +exultingly as they displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, +who, in spite of hunger, could not help regretting the death of the +mother bird. Girls and women rarely sympathise with men and boys in +their field sports, and Hector laughed at his sister's doleful looks as +he handed over the bird to her. + +"It was a lucky chance," said he, "and the stone was well aimed, but it +is not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so +stupid you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before +the day is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all +events," he added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin's hat; +"twelve nice fresh eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit." + +"But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of +getting a fire made," said Catharine. + +"As to the eggs," said Louis, "we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry +wanderers like us to be over nice about our food." + +"They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the +ashes," observed Hector. + +"True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble." + +"But how?" asked Hector. "Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest +would be a flint with the help of my knife." + +"A flint?" + +"Yes, if we could get one--but I see nothing but granite, which crumbles +and shivers when struck--we could not get a spark. However, I think it's +very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach yonder may +be found hard enough for the purpose." + +To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had +been well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, +fringed with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found +themselves beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found +among the water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and +a handful of dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected +without trouble; though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had +coolly proposed to tear a strip from his cousin's apron as a substitute +for tinder,--a proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the tidy +Catharine, whose ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, +especially as she had no sewing implements to assist in mending the +rent. Louis thought nothing of that; it was a part of his character to +think only of the present, little of the past, and to let the future +provide for itself. Such was Louis's great failing, which had proved a +fruitful source of trouble both to himself and others. In this respect +he bore a striking contrast to his more cautious companion, who +possessed much of the gravity of his father. Hector was as heedful and +steady in his decisions as Louis was rash and impetuous. + +After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles +through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last +kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then +triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly +to the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently +hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial +than the strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering +them in the morning. + +Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, +under the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were +wreathed together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, +which climbed to a height of fifteen feet _[FN: Solatnum +dulcamara,--Bitter-sweet or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the +red-berried briony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses +powerful properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the +Indians.]_ among the branches _[Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST]_ of +the trees, which it covered as with a mantle. A pure spring of cold, +delicious water welled out from beneath the twisted roots of an old +hoary-barked cedar, and found its way among the shingles on the beach +to the lake, a humble but constant tributary to its waters. Some large +blocks of water-worn stone formed convenient seats and a natural table, +on which the little maiden arranged the forest fare; and never was a +meal made with greater appetite or taken with more thankfulness than +that which our wanderers ate that morning. The eggs (part of which they +reserved for another time) were declared to be better than those that +were daily produced from the little hen-house at Cold Springs. The +strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the shining leaves of +the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with the long spurs +of the hawthorn, _[FN: The long-spurred American hawthorn may be +observed by our young readers among that beautiful collection of the +hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the north side +of Kensington Gardens.]_ were voted delicious, and the pure water most +refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large +mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles +on the beach. + +Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, +lamenting their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless +repining, or, perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the +principal author of their calamity--poor, thoughtless Louis; but such +were not the dispositions of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to +the hardships incidental to the lives of the settlers in the bush, +these young people had learned to bear with patience and cheerfulness +privations that would have crushed the spirits of children more +delicately nurtured. They had known every degree of hunger and +nakedness; during the first few years of their lives they had often +been compelled to subsist for days and weeks upon roots and herbs, wild +fruits, and game which their fathers had learned to entrap, to decoy, +and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early been initiated into the +mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, and pits, and traps, +and snares,--they were as expert as Indians in the use of the bow,--they +could pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart at partridge, hare, and +squirrel, with almost unerring aim; and were as swift of foot as young +fawns. Now it was that they learned to value in its fullest extent +this useful and practical knowledge, which enabled them to face with +fortitude the privations of a life so precarious as that to which they +were now exposed. + +It was one of the elder Maxwell's maxims,--Never let difficulties +overcome you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the +hand, and the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head +as chief. When his children expressed any doubts of not being able to +accomplish any work they had begun, he would say, "Have you not hands, +have you not a head, have you not eyes to see, and reason to guide +you? As for impossibilities, they do not belong to the trade of a +soldier,--he dare not see them." Thus were energy and perseverance early +instilled into the minds of his children; they were now called upon +to give practical proofs of the precepts that had been taught them +in childhood. Hector trusted to his axe, and Louis to his +_couteau-de-chasse_ and pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an +old forest friend of his father's, who had visited them the previous +winter, and which, by good luck, Louis had in his pocket--a capacious +pouch, in which were stored many precious things, such as coils of twine +and string, strips of leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; +nails, bits of iron, leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find +their way most mysteriously into boys' pockets in general, and Louis +Perron's in particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small +matters. + +The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few +days abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where +fruits were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning +meal, so providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully +acknowledged the mercy of God in this thing. + +Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the +lake, they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both +to leave the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the +hills and deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so +remarkable a manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look +upon the wild glens and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy +deer found safe retreats, unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,--where +the osprey and white-headed eagle built their nests, unheeding and +unharmed. Twice that day, misled by following the track of the deer, had +they returned to the same spot,--a deep and lovely glen, which had once +been a water-course, but now a green and shady valley. This they named +the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable block of red granite that +occupied a central position in the narrow defile; and here they prepared +to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs cut down and +interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with Hector's +axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, formed +a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs that +the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and couches, +or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild Scottish +hills. + +While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine +busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having +collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that +grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate +name of the "Birken shaw," she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it +fine upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This +proved excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the +birch being highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint +that they had used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front +of the rocky stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent +over the coals, served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge +was suspended,--a scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they +knew not how they should breakfast next morning, The children felt they +were pensioners on God's providence not less than the wild denizens of +the wilderness around them. + +When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or +cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, +Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the +teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, +gently laid her hand upon her brother's head, which rested on her knees, +as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest +tone, "'Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they +reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are +ye not much better than they?' Surely, my brother, God careth for us as +much as for the wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify +his holy name. God cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies +them with knowledge where they shall find food when they hunger and +thirst. So I have heard my father say; and surely our father knows, for +is he not a wise man, Hector?" + +"I remember," said Louis, thoughtfully, "hearing my mother repeat the +words of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;--'When you +are in trouble, Mathilde,' he used to say to her, 'kneel down, and ask +God's help, nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the +will to serve you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all +things to pass. It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers +from being heard. And, truly, I think the wise old man was right," he +added. + +It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy +Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, +looking up with a serious air, replied, "Your mother's friend was a good +man, Louis. Our want of trust in God's power must displease Him. And +when we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,--that +blue sky, those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining +down upon us, and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little +creeping plants and flowers that grow at our feet,--it must, indeed, +seem foolish in his eyes that we should doubt his power to help us, who +not only made all these things, but ourselves also." + +"True," said Catharine; "but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; +for the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the +good." + +"Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, +God helps those that help themselves," said Louis. "Let us consider a +little. There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great." + +"But how are we to get them out of it?" rejoined Catharine. "I doubt the +fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry." + +"Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the +holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and +there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of +course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in +abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have +plenty of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in +profusion, and bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as +for raspberries, I see none; but by-and-by there will be +May-apples--I see great quantities of them in the low grounds, grapes, +high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as cherries, and sweet too; +squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and bird-cherries. As +to sweet acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of them for the +roasting, as good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, and +hickory-nuts,--with many other good things." And here Louis stopped for +want of breath to continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + +"Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat +us for want of better food," interrupted Hector, slyly. "Nay, Katty, +do not shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. +Neither bear nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis +and thy brother are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence." + +"Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine," added Louis, +gallantly, "while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away." + +"Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider +how we are to obtain them, my dears," said Catharine. "For fishing, +you know, we must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are +these to be met with?" + +Louis nodded his head sagaciously. "The line I think I can provide; the +hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the +rod, it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma +chere, I could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of +cloth to sew over a hoop." + +Catharine laughed. "You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, +but where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing +it on?" + +Lords took up the corner of his cousin's apron with a provoking look. + +"My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem +to covet it for everything." + +"Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never +could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear +such frightful things." + +"It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and +scrubbing, and doing all sorts of household duties," said Catharine. + +"Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean," +replied the annoying boy; "so there can be little want of the apron. I +could turn it to fifty useful purposes." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said Hector, impatiently, "let the child alone, and do +not tease her about her apron." + +"Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, +water mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, +that, roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and +pepper, they are good eating when nothing better is to be got." + +"No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured," said Hector, "but, alas +for the salt and the pepper!" + +"Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces--hunger; and then, +no doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must +not mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them." + +"To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish," said Hector. "You and I will +try our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should +break, we can easily cut those long locks from Catharine's head, and +twist them into lines,"--and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair +hair that hung in shining curls about his sister's neck. + +"Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis's proposal of making +tinder and fishing-nets of my apron," said Catharine, shaking back the +bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in +golden waves over her shoulders. + +"In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that +become her so well," said Louis. "But we have no scissors, ma belle, so +you need fear no injury to your precious locks." + +"For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your +_couteau-de-chasse_. I could tell you a story that my father told me, +not long since, of Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in +England. You know he was the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles +Edward, that my father talks of, and loves so much." + +"I know all about him," said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; "let us +hear the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my +hair and Louis's knife can have to do with King Charles." + +"Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience," +said her brother. "Well then, you must know, that after some great +battle, the name of which I forget, _[FN: Battle of Worcester.]_ in +which the King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the +forces of the Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the +poor young king was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large +price was set on his head, to be given to any traitor who should slay +him, or bring him prisoner to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to +dress himself in all sorts of queer clothes, and hide in all manner of +strange, out of the way places, and keep company with rude and humble +men, the better to hide his real rank from the cruel enemies that sought +his life. Once he hid along with a gallant gentleman, _[FN: Colonel +Careless.]_ one of his own brave officers, in the branches of a great +oak. Once he was hid in a mill; and another time he was in the house of +one Pendril, a woodman. The soldiers of the Parliament, who were always +prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they suspected the +poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room where he was +standing beside the fire." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Catharine, "that was frightful. And did they take him +prisoner?" + +"No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers +should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the +long curls that the king's men all wore in those days, and called +_lovelocks_, begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to +his head." + +"That was very hard, to lose his nice curls." + +"I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose +his hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered +them to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough +deal table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large +knife trimmed off the curls." + +"I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, +who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a +block to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as +hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die." "Poor king!" +said Catharine, sighing, "I see that it is better to be poor children, +wandering on these plains under God's own care, than to be kings and +princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men." + +"Who told your father all these things, Hec?" said Louis. + +"It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about +the history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince +Charles, the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in +Scotland; he loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where +the Prince lost all, and was driven from place to place, and had not +where to lay his head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but +those times did not come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a +while, through the friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the +army that was embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment +to which my father belonged. He was a kind man, and my father loved both +him and his son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him." + +"Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister +Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls." + +"Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we +fail, we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I +fancy we shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should +not we be able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?" + +"True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals +and birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore +should His white children fear?" + +"I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, +when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of +himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, +nay, weeks I believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows +and arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, +for bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled +the inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank +the sap of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted +snow only, which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own +mocassins." + +"Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish," said +Catharine. + +"That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself," +added Hector, "or the deer-skin hunting shirt." "Well, they might have +been reduced even to that," said Louis, laughing, "but for the good +fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear." + +"Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the +forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale." + +"Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old +Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After +passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than +the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not +very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick +dark swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they +could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of +a deer or a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to +work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they +had none, or maybe they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon +a huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon +piled a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he +could collect, and lighted up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand +old Jacob used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, +if he could not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without. +The wood was dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and +crackled and burnt like a pine-torch. By-and-by they heard a most awful +growling close to them. 'That's a big bear, as I live,' said old Jacob, +looking all about, thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; +but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, for presently a great +black bear burst out from the but-end of the great burning log, and made +towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame outward, and it caught +the bear's thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in a moment. No doubt +the heat of the fire had penetrated to the hollow of the log, where he +had lain himself snugly up for the winter, and wakened him; but Jacob +seeing the huge black brute all in a flame of fire, began to think it +was Satan's own self come to carry him off, and he roared with fright, +and the bear roared with pain and rage, and my father roared with +laughing to see Jacob's terror; but he did not let the bear laugh at +him, for he seized a thick pole that he had used for closing in the +brands and logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was so blinded with +the fire and smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted on roast +bear's flesh for many days, and got a capital skin to cover them +beside." + +"What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?" said Catharine. + +"Kate, you are too particular," said Louis; "a story never loses, you +know." + +Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the +bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the +levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror +of old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear. + +"You boys are always so unfeeling," she said, gravely. + +"Indeed, Kate," said her brother, "the day may come when the sight of a +good piece of roast bear's flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do +not find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may +be reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine +swamps, on the banks of the St. John." + +"Ah!" said Catharine, trembling, "that would be too bad to happen." + +"Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what +to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we +still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and +be thankful; and for grace let us say, 'Sufficient unto the day is the +evil thereof.'" + +Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites--the hungry +wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally +divided, was soon despatched. + +It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers +in our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a +circle, and usually find themselves at night in the same place from +whence they started in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At +sunset, they found themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big +stone, in which they had rested at noon. They had imagined themselves +miles and miles distant from it; they were grievously disappointed. They +had encouraged each other with the confident hope that they were drawing +near to the end of their bewildering journey; they were as far from +their home as ever, without the slightest clue to guide them to the +right path. Despair is not a feeling which takes deep root in the +youthful breast. The young are always hopeful; so confident in their +own wisdom and skill in averting or conquering danger; so trusting; so +willing to believe that there is a peculiar Providence watching over +them. Poor children! they had indeed need of such a belief to strengthen +their minds and encourage them to fresh exertions, for new trials were +at hand. + +The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with +light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on +tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with +her fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs +which her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for +her accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting +spur of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the +extreme verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most +inviting seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, +which stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the +estuary of the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the +hills, forming a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water +had ceased to flow, the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with +deer-grass and flowers of many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; +while majestic oaks and pines towered above. A sea of glittering foliage +lay beneath Catharine's feet; in the distance the eye of the young girl +rested on a belt of shining waters, which girt in the shores like a +silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the northward, stretched the +illimitable forest. + +Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the +eye; a holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and +peaceful tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, +scarcely a leaf stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing +on the calm beauty of nature, and communing with her own heart, when +suddenly a stirring rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow +channel on one side of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with +the shrubby dogwood, wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror +which seized the poor girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking +through the covert of the bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the +most deadly fear alone could have inspired, Catharine sprung from the +supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, down the precipitous side of the +ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays of the flexile dogwood--now +to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting to the yielding heads of +the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her hands with sharp thorns +from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, grass, all were alike +clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A loose fragment of +granite on which she had unwittingly placed her foot rolled from +under her; unable to regain her balance she fell forwards, and was +precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, conscious only +of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her ancles, which +rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she had dislodged +in her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector to her side, +and they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid her down +upon her bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When Catharine +was able to speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of her +fright. She was sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long +jaws, and grisly coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her +with terror, he was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon +her--she could tell them no more that happened, she never felt the +ground she was on, so great was her fright. + +Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills +alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for _la belle cousine_, +and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been +fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but +the pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to +their grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the +ground. This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to +pursue their wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their +only remedy, excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as +circumstances would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to +the swollen joint, was the first thing that was suggested; but, +simple as was the lotion, it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient +quantities. They were a full quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and +the cold springs near it were yet further off; and then the only vessel +they had was the tin-pot, which hardly contained a pint; at the same +time the thirst of the fevered sufferer was intolerable, and had also to +be provided for. Poor Catharine, what unexpected misery she now endured! + +The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they +were now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places +with this delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor +sufferer's burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying +her with them. + +Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied +them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful +by spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; +these he bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, +_[FN: "_Dirca palustris_,"--Moose-wood. American mezereon, +leather-wood. From the Greek, _dirka_, a fountain or wet place, its +usual place of growth.]_ which he had found growing in great abundance +near the entrance of the ravine. Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. +After having collected a good supply of ripe strawberries, he climbed +the hills in search of birds' eggs and small game. About noon he +returned with the good news of having discovered a spring of fine +water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump of bass-wood and black +cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to kill a woodchuck, +having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly sides of the +hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit and badger; +its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and burrows +like the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip cleft, the +soles of the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on grasses, +grain, fruit, and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the summer, +rank, but is eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the skin is +not much valued. They are easily killed by dogs, though, being expert +climbers, they often baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark beyond +their reach; a stone or stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they often +bite sharply. + +The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his +companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were +plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about +the Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than +on the drier, more open plains. + +"It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from +the spring in," said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, "one is so apt to +stumble among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our +old bark dishes we could get a good supply at once." + +"There is a fallen birch not far from this," said Louis; "I have here +my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel +capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?" + +"How can you sew it together, cousin?" asked Catharine; "you have +neither deer sinews, nor war-tap." _[The Indian name for the flexible +roots of the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in +manufacturing the birch baskets and canoes.]_ "I have a substitute at +hand, ma belle," and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he +had collected for binding the dressings on his cousin's foot. + +When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in +some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of +the ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot +of the "Wolf's Crag," for so the children had named the memorable spot +where poor Catharine's accident had occurred. + +The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, +but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger +and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the +sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he +proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble +managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose +or leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was +but rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a +little at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten +to allow in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and +dishes turns up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied +in his subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis's +water-jar was looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by +Catharine, who almost forgot her sufferings--while watching her cousin's +proceedings. + +Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running +off directly to the spring. "Catharine shall now have cold water to +bathe her poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst," he said, joyfully +springing to his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector +quietly restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of +his not finding the "fountain in the wilderness," as Louis termed the +spring, or losing himself altogether. + +"Let us both go together, then." cried Louis. Catharine cast on her +cousin an imploring glance. + +"Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone." Her +sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + +"Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since +I was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or +in sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother's arms." + +Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering +tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + +"But you know, dear cousin," she said, "I am so helpless, and then the +dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me." + +After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had +done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to +make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little +time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about +it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more +gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed +with magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the +jutting spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the +trees that lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a +big sea. There were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, +white, and pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled +flower, that was like the "Morning glory," (_Convolvulus major,_) and +scarlet-cups _[FN: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup]_ in abundance, with +roses in profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with +huge blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened +out into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley +of the Big Stone. _[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the +plough, and waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have +taken place of the wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The +lot belongs to G. Ley, Esq.]_ + +These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both +Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and +the picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father's +animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the +wild mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in +solitude and uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the +minds or manners of these young people. Simple and untaught they were, +but they were guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they +lacked the knowledge that is learned from books, they possessed much +that was useful and practical, which had been taught by experience and +observation in the school of necessity. + +For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered +any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the "Big Stone" +impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their +immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had +been killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of +hunger. Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed +not a little to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the +yet untried lake, "bright, boundless, and free," gleaming in silvery +splendour, but in practice they knew nothing of the fisher's craft, +though, as a matter of report, they were well acquainted with all +the mysteries of it, and had often listened with delight to the feats +performed by their respective fathers in the art of angling, spearing +and netting. + +"I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in +the lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken +by the hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but +that was in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard +him tell of spearing fish by torchlight!" + +"The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake," said Hector; +"however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore +and try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line +provided." + +Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub +oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, +which he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of +treasures. "Here." said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; "here +is the slide of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some +rubbish that my sister had thrown out the other day." + +"I fear you will make nothing of that," said Hector, "a bit of bone +would be better. If you had a file now you might do something." + +"Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?" and Louis +triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, +a few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but +still it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of +our young French Canadian. "I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde +laughed at me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. +Louis, you little knew the use it was to be put to then," he added +thoughtfully, apostrophising himself; "how little do we know what is to +befall us in our young days!" "God knows it all," said Hector, gravely, +"we are under His good guidance." + +"You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good +care of us. Come, let us go to the lake," Catharine added, and sprung +to her feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her +companions with a piteous look, saying, "I cannot walk one step; alas, +alas! what is to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you +leave me here, I shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot +carry me with you in your search for food." + +"Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that +Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of +hunger or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you +by turns; the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very +heavy, ma belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are +so light a burden,"--and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his +arms, and with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through +the ravine towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded +knoll, (where Wolf Tower _[FN: See account of the "Wolf Tower," in +the Appendix.]_ now stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat +stone beneath a big oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself +on the flowery ground at her feet, while he drew a long breath, and +gathered the fruit that grew among the long grass to refresh himself +after his fatigue; and then, while resting on the "Elfin Knowe," as +Catharine called the hill, he employed himself with manufacturing a rude +sort of fish-hook with the aid of his knife, the bit of tin, and the +rusty file; a bit of twine was next produced,--boys have always a bit +of string in their pockets, and Louis, as I have before hinted, was a +provident hoarder of such small matters. The string was soon attached +to the hook, and Hector was not long in cutting a sapling that answered +well the purpose of a fishing-rod, and thus equipped they proceeded +to the lake shore, Hector and Louis carrying the crippled Catharine by +turns. When there, they selected a sheltered spot beneath a grove of +over-hanging cedars and birches, festooned with wild vines, which, +closely woven, formed a natural bower, quite impervious to the rays of +the sun. A clear spring flowing from the upper part of the bank among +the hanging network of loose fibres and twisted roots, fell tinkling +over a mossy log at her feet, and quietly spread itself among the round +shingly pebbles that formed the beach of the lake. Beneath this pleasant +bower Catharine could repose, and watch her companions at their novel +employment, or bathe her feet and infirm ancle in the cool streamlet +that rippled in tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + +If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued +for pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must +be greatly heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of +hunger. Among the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the +flying grasshopper or field crickets were sporting, and one of these +proved an attractive bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, +than the hook was seized, and many were the brilliant specimens of +sun-fish that our eager fishermen cast at Catharine's feet, all gleaming +with gold and azure scales. Nor was there any lack of perch, or that +delicate fish commonly known in these waters as the pink roach. + +Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to +the grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did +very expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling +up a fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the +flint, knife, and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian +fashion, on forked sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable +angle towards the glowing embers,--a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + +"Truly," said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, +"God hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;" so +miraculous did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of +this simple child of nature. + +They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be +caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, +as the streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little +opportunity for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the +rude implements with which they were furnished, the result of their +morning success seemed little short of divine interference in their +behalf. Happy and contented in the belief that they were not forgotten +by their heavenly Father, these poor "children in the wood" looked up +with gratitude to that beneficent Being who suffereth not even a sparrow +to fall unheeded. + +Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and +there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the +flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that +hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, +her young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great +Creator of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her +mind, as with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl +prayed with the guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + +The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods +at the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully +providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded +with their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found +Catharine sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil +slumbers, but her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which +she was exposed, sleeping in the dew by the water side; "Moreover," he +added, "we have some distance to go, and we have left the precious axe +and the birch-bark vessel in the valley." + +These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the +sleeper, and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same +path that they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken +the precaution to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and +break the tops of the young trees that they had passed between on their +route to the lake, and by this clue they were enabled with tolerable +certainty to retrace their way, nothing doubting of arriving in time at +the wigwam of boughs by the rock in the valley. + +Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame +girl, and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight +soon clouded the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which +cast a greater degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had +now left the oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter +loneliness of the path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that +stretched in long array across the steep banks on either side, taking, +now this, now that wild and fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings +of dread in the mind of these poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons +bred up in solitude, their imaginations were strongly tinctured with +superstitious fears. Here then, in the lonely wilderness, far from their +beloved parents and social hearth, with no visible arm to protect them +from danger, none to encourage or to cheer them, can it be matter of +surprise if they started with terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful +breeze that rustled the leaves or waved the branches above them? The gay +and lively Louis, blithe as any wild bird in the bright sunlight, was +the most easily oppressed by this strange superstitious fear, when +the shades of evening were closing round, and he would start with +ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that met his ear or eye, +though the next minute he was the first to laugh at his own weakness. In +Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn cast, recalling to his +mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his father was wont to +entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge log-fire of an +evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales possess for the +youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often told; year after +year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with an interest +that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they slowly wandered +along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors those Highland +legends that were as familiar to their ears as household words, and +still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at each +pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might +be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to +proceed,--they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their progress; +the moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet indistinct; so +they sat them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and rested till +the moon should lighten their path. + +Louis was confident they were not far from "the bigstone," but careful +Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already +conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone +that had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came +in sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its +rugged sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. "Forward +for 'the big stone' and the wigwam," cried Louis. + +"Hush!" said Catharine, "look there," raising her hand with a warning +gesture. + +"Where? what?" + +"The wolf! the wolf!" gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon +the summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood +the gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound +of which seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of +the tall pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their +hearts, as with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline +of the terrible beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck +stretched outward, and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave +back those dismal sounds; another minute and he was gone, and the +crushing of branches and the rush of many feet on the high bank above, +was followed by the prolonged cry of some poor fugitive animal,--a doe, +or fawn, perhaps,--in the very climax of mortal agony; and then the +lonely recesses of the forest took up that fearful death-cry, the +far-off shores of the lake and the distant islands prolonged it, and the +terrified children clung together in fear and trembling. + +A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the +hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone--not even the +watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with +all its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; +but though around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long +ere confidence was restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and +trembling children. They beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy +shade, and every rustling bough struck fresh terrors into their excited +minds. They might have exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, "How dreadful +is this place!" + +With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of +the bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should +return; sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing +to be the only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet +nature, overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their +eyelids; deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight +breaking through the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound +of waving boughs and twittering birds, once more wakened them to life +and light; recalling them from happy dreams of home and friends, to an +aching sense of loneliness and desolation. This day they did not wander +far from the valley, but took the precaution, as evening drew on, to +light a large fire, the blaze of which they thought would keep away any +beast of prey. They had no want of food, as the fish they had caught the +day before proved an ample supply. The huckle-berries were ripening too, +and soon afforded them a never-failing source of food; there were also +an abundance of bilberries, the sweet rich berries of which proved a +great treat, besides being very nourishing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!" + +A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from +pain and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all +that Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower +by the lake, where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful +longing to regain their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and +often would the poor sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, +to wring her hands and weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear +father and mother, who would have given worlds had they been at their +command, to have heard but one accent of her beloved voice, to have felt +one loving pressure from that fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered +over the path of the young wanderers, long after she had ceased to +whisper comfort to the desolate hearts of the mournful parents. + +Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied +than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly +which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. "If +Kate had not been with me," he would say, "we should not have been lost; +for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the +cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and +insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way." +Louis Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the +flowers, and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the +form of pleasure and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the +thoughtful, till they find the path they have followed is beset with +briers and thorns; and a thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, +unexpected, overwhelm and bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; +and perhaps the punishment of their errors does not fall upon +themselves alone, but upon the innocent, who have unknowingly been made +participators in their fault. + +By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis +endeavoured to alleviate his cousin's sufferings, and soften her +regrets; nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, +when his own heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. +"If it were not for our dear parents and the dear children at home," +he would say, "we might spend our time most happily upon these charming +plains; it is much more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; +see how brightly the sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and +cover the earth with fruit and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to +fish and hunt, and trap the game. Yes, if they were all here, we would +build us a nice log-house, and clear up these bushes on the flat near +the lake. This 'Elfin Knowe,' as you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot +to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; not one should be cut +down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and voyage across to yonder +islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?" and Catharine, smiling +at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the spirit of the +project, and say,-- + +"Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant." + +"If we had but my father's rifle now," said Hector, "and old Wolfe." + +"Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges +and black squirrels," said Louis. + +"I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at +break of day," said Hector. "The fawn was so little fearful, that if I +had had a stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten +yards of the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one +by making a dead-fall." _[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the +woods, or on the banks of creeks.]_ + +"If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear +innocent Mignon," cried Catharine, "I should never feel lonely then." + +"And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from +time to time, ma belle." + +"Hec., what are you thinking of?" + +"I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our +lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the +open air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and +the rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter +will have to be provided against." + +"But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way +back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake," said Louis. + +"True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever +way we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get +involved in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know +there is neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, +and we might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside +this fine lake, and upon these fruitful plains." + +"It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home," said +Hector. "We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find +the use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some +spot where there is a spring of good water, and--" + +"No horrible wolves," interrupted Catharine: "though I love this pretty +ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to +stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were +asleep." + +"We must not forget to keep watch-fires." + +"What shall we do for clothes?" said Catharine, glancing at her +home-spun frock of wool and cotton plaid. + +"A weighty consideration, indeed," sighed Hector; "clothes must be +provided before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on." + +"We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels," suggested +Louis; "and fawns when we catch them." + +"Yes, and fawns when we get them," added Hector; "but it is time enough +to think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home." + +"I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life," said Catharine. +"My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will +try and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search." + +Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy +guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, +were thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and +thick bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and +outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain--yet the arms of +thy heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to +sustain thee. + +How often were Catharine's hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry +home, as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, +how often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them +with her tears,--for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + +When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless +wanderings, they would say to each other: "Perhaps we shall see our +father, he may find us here to-day;" but evening came, and still he came +not, and they were no nearer to their father's home than they had been +the day previous. + +"If we could but find our way back to the 'Cold Creek,' we might, by +following its course, return to Cold Springs," said Hector. + +"I doubt much the fact of the 'Cold Creek' having any connexion with our +Spring," said Louis; "I think it has its rise in the 'Beaver-meadow,' +and following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish +balsam and cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick +recesses of the pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty +miles from Cold Springs." + +It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their +way in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or +the points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, +which is not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of +forest-trees; they rather measure distance by the time they have been +wandering, than by any other token. + +The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, +wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as +long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun +in his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the +home they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice +of the course they should take each day, and at last determined them to +lose no more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek +for some pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and +provide for their present and future wants. + + "The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." + +Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since +the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the +conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley +of the "big stone," and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent +their steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led +the way, loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of +the axe, which he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and +the birch-basket. Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, +likewise some fish to carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + +The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake +shore, but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth +of trees and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and +the fatigue of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to +put aside the bushes or bend them down. + +Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path +through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves +on a fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with +white and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, +which reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur +above its leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept +watch from its dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread +below like a silver zone studded with emeralds. + +In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which +divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows +had once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site +of which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the +valley, filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These +waters with resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, +bearing in their course those blocks of granite and limestone which +are so widely scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form +a rocky pavement at the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of +sublime desolation must that outpouring of the waters have presented, +when those steep banks were riven by the sweeping torrents that were +loosened from their former bounds. The pleased eye rests upon these +tranquil shores, now covered with oaks and pines, or waving with a flood +of golden grain, or varied by neat dwellings and fruitful gardens; and +the gazer on that peaceful scene scarcely pictures to himself what it +must have been when no living eye was there to mark the rushing floods, +when they scooped to themselves the deep bed in which they now repose. + +Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were +doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose +rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried +away the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the +lake, seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some +few are parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable +impediment turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an +outlet through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + +There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a +solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly +called the "upper Race-course," merely on account of the smoothness of +the surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above +the lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and +covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been +a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and +attractive spot, known as the "lower Race-course;" it lies on a lower +level than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of +distant hills; both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and +may have been the sources from whence its channel was filled. Some +convulsion of nature at a remote period, by raising the waters above +their natural level, might have caused a disruption of the banks, and +drained their beds, as they now appear ready for the ploughshare or the +spade. In the month of June these flats are brilliant with the splendid +blossoms of the _enchroma_, or painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy +_trillium_ roses scent the evening air, and grow as if planted by the +hand of taste. + +A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage _[FN: Saxifraga nivalis.]_ +with its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the +fall, it is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a +species of creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the +leaves are highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable +to the taste and smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage +of martagon lilies take the place of the lupine and trilliums; these +splendid lilies vary from orange to the brightest scarlet; various +species of sunflowers and _coreopsis_ next appear, and elegant white +_pyrolas_ _[FN: Gentiana linearis, G. crenata.]_ scent the air and +charm the eye. The delicate lilac and white shrubby asters next appear, +and these are followed by the large deep blue gentian, and here and +there by the elegant fringed gentian. _[FN: Pyrola rotundifolia, +P. asarifolia.]_ These are the latest and loveliest of the flowers +that adorn this tract of land. It is indeed a garden of nature's own +planting, but the wild garden is being converted into fields of grain, +and the wild flowers give place to a new race of vegetables, less +ornamental, but more useful to man and the races of domestic animals +that depend upon him for their support. + +Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found +themselves, at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, +_[FN: _Pedophyllnm galmata_,--Mandrake, or May-apple.]_ where they +had the good fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath +some large moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground +was thickly covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many +varieties of flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the +valley and up the steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were +whortleberries, or huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in +abundance; bilberries dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. +The vines that wreathed the low bushes and climbed the trees were +loaded with clusters of grapes, but these were yet hard and green; dwarf +filberts grew on the dry gravelly sides of the hills, yet the rough +prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, filled their fingers with minute +thorns, that irritated the skin like the stings of the nettle; but +as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they did not mind the +consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied by a large bed +of May-apples, _[FN: Kilvert's Ravine, above Pine-tree Point.]_ the +fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe, August being +the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still green, and +wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great numbers of the +woodchucks' burrows on the hills, while partridges and quails were seen +under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, _[FN: _Cornus +sericea_. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by the partridge +and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There are several +species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.]_ that here grew in +abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As +this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, +and resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they +should meet with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + +Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded +hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, +somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the +shelter that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through +the opening at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the +distant waters of the lake which terminated the vista, while they were +quite removed from its unwholesome vapours. + +The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, +scarcely modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in +about nine o'clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in +the afternoon. Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while +Catharine busied herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss +and fern, of which there was abundance near the spring. The boys had +promised to cut some fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and +bring them up to form a foundation for their bed, and also to strew +Indian-fashion over the floor of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort +of carpeting reminds one of, the times when the palaces of our English +kings were strewed with rushes, and brings to mind the old song:-- + + "Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew'd with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch----" + +Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients +adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the +luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the +rich. The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn +lightly over the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if +it had been taken from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and +contented were they in their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered +grass and leaves, raised from the earth by a heap of branches carefully +arranged, was to them as pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of +bark and poles, as curtains of silk or damask. + +Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient +for the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of +which lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, +and this done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath +the cooling shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; +pleased with the dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, +and fanned her warm cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like +her cousin Louise, that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, +for it was always dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were +still. + +She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a +deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores +of the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far +away from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup _[FN: +The Dutch word for verandah, which is still in common use among the +Canadians.]_ in front of her father's house, and in memory's eye she +beheld it all exactly as she had left it. There stood the big spinning +wheel, just as she had set it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended +from the rafters, the basket filled with the carded wool ready for +her work. She saw in fancy her father, with his fine athletic upright +figure, his sunburnt cheeks and clustering sable hair, his clear +energetic hazel eye ever beaming upon her, his favourite child, with +looks of love and kindness as she moved to and fro at her wheel. +_[FN: Such is the method of working at the large wool wheel, +unknown or obsolete in England.]_ There, too, was her mother, with her +light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as she pursued her daily +avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the cows to be milked, or +chopping firewood. And as these images, like the figures of the magic +lantern, passed in all their living colours before her mental vision, +her head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon her arm, and then +she started, looked round, and slept again, her face deeply buried in +her young bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl slumbered. + +A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting +breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she +dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf--its grisly +paws were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and +suffocation--her languid eyes open. Can it be?--what is it that she +sees? Yes, it is Wolfe; not the fierce creature of her dreams by night +and her fears by day, but her father's own brave devoted dog. What joy, +what hope rushed to her heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of +the faithful beast, and wept from the fulness of heart. + +"Yes," she joyfully cried, "I knew that I should see him again. My own +dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are +your children. Come, come quickly!" and she hurried to the head of +the valley, raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now +confidently believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the +well-known sound of her voice. + +Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every +projecting headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, "Come +quickly!" + +Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, +"Father, come quickly, come!" and again the deceitful sounds were +repeated, "Quickly come!" + +The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost +mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her +father's name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont +to do when he heard his master's step approaching. Still Catharine could +not but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father +must be very near. + +The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, +fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up +their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They +could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, +their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the +gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their +friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and +shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow +them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties +were in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old +dog refused to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched +himself, and the boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh--he +looked almost starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a +state of great exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with +wishful looks, and she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to +this great relief. + +Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, +in tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, "Lost, lost, +lost!" It was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe +would travel in all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search +till he discovered the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last +night of the father's wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back +to his melancholy home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and +fro, he involuntarily exclaimed, wringing his hands, "Lost, lost, lost!" +Wolfe heard what to him was an imperative command; he rose, and stood +at the door, and whined; mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, +and again exclaimed in passionate tones those magic words, that sent the +faithful messenger forth into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he +never left it, but with ah instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, +he continued to track the woods, lingering long on spots where the +wanderers had left any signs of their sojourn; he had for some time +been baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and again where they had crossed Cold +Creek, but had regained the scent and traced them to the valley of +the "big stone," and then with the sagacity of the bloodhound and the +affection of the terrier he had, at last, discovered the objects of his +unwearied, though often baffled search. + +What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe +create! How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with +his head pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it +was foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if +he had been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your +homesick nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those +eloquent waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or +waved from side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute +sorrowful glances, as though he would have said, "Dear mistress, I know +all your troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!" There +is something touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only +the hard-hearted and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once +hearing of a felon, who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous +indifference to the appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that +attended him in prison, whose heart was softened by the sight of a +little dog, that had been his companion in his days of comparative +innocence, forcing its way through the crowd, till it gained the foot of +the gallows; its mute look of anguish and affection unlocked the fount +of human feeling, and the condemned man wept--perhaps the first tears he +had shed since childhood's happy days. + +The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The +inky darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid +flame, which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off +or near. The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through +the gorge of the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep +narrow defile, shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, +more wild and gloomy, when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + +There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage +remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, +scarcely stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at +rest. The solemn murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been +likened to the moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of +the spot. Seated at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which +their evening fire burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in +silence and in awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near +them, they felt comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which +now burst in terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to +cloud, and the echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered +trunks and brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in +that wild war of elements. + +Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from +their covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might +be heard from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts +with fear. To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they +listened with awe and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were +the voice of Him who "sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty +voice." And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with +curdled blood from the cry of the _felon wolf._ + +And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down +in a whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey +branches were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they +would not bow down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered +all abroad like chaff before the wind. + +The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for +the safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from +them. And often 'mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could +distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. "If our father had +not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither." + +"Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm," said +Catharine, weeping, "or have been starved to death while seeking for +us!" and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + +But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers +were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and +privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure +they were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had +prevented them from meeting. + +"To-morrow, ma chere, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will +be a joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his +master, and then--oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. +They will have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our +dear mothers and chere petite Louise." + +The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the +poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars +peep forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful +state, the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their +garments were drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire +with some bark and boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks +in their back log unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a +blaze, with which they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. +The air was now cool almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather +remained unsettled, and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake +presented a leaden hue, crested with white mimic waves. + +They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head +of the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of +bark, which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. +The boys employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the +fish they had caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe +seemed to be mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they +all went up towards the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to +look round in hope of getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, +but though they kept an anxious look out in every direction, they +returned, towards evening, tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red +squirrel, and a partridge which Wolfe "treed,"--that is, stood barking +at the foot of the tree in which it had perched,--and the supply of meat +was a seasonable change. They also noticed, and marked, with the axe, +several trees where there were bees, intending to come in the cold +weather, and cut them down. Louis's father was a great and successful +bee-hunter; and Louis rather prided himself on having learned something +of his father's skill in that line. Here, where flowers were so abundant +and water plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be abundant also; besides, +the open space between the trees, admitting the warm sunbeam freely, +was favourable both for the bees and the flowers on which they fed, and +Louis talked joyfully of the fine stores of honey they should collect +in the fell. He had taught little Fanchon, a small French spaniel of his +father's, to find out the trees where the bees hived, and also the +nests of the ground-bees, and she would bark at the foot of the tree, +or scratch with her feet on the ground, as the other dogs barked at the +squirrels or the woodchucks; but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was +old, and would learn no new tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his +own observation and the axe to depend upon for procuring honey. + +The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither +perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts _[FN: All these fish +are indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.]_ were to be caught. +However, they found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish +among the gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their +fingers very spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want +of salt; but hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared +them very good when well roasted, covered up with hot embers. "The +fish-hawks," said he, "set us a good example, for they eat them, and so +do the eagles and herons. I watched one the other day with a mussel in +his bill; he flew to a high tree, let his prey fall, and immediately +darted down to secure it; but I drove him off, and, to my great +amusement, perceived the wise fellow had just let it fall on a stone, +which had cracked the shell for him just in the right place. I often see +shells lying at the foot of trees, far up the hills, where these birds +must have left them. There is one large thick-shelled mussel, that I +have found several times with a round hole drilled through the shell, +just as if it had been done with a small auger, doubtless the work of +some bird with a strong beak." + +"Do you remember," said Catharine, "the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. +picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of +the shells too; _[FN: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells +of mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been +long known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the +river mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and +stones.]_ and when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by +some large bird, a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the +great lake, as it had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in +our creeks being quite thin-shelled and white." + +"Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the +eagle's nest on the top of our hill, Louis?" said Hector. + +"I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; +they were brought from this very lake, I dare say." + +"If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we +might become great fishermen." + +"Louis," said Catharine, "is always thinking about canoes, and boats, +and skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor." + +Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to +manage her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never +saw difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion +of his own cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed +faster than Hector's, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one +valuable quality--steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an +opinion, but when once convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered +the subject or overcame the obstacle. + +"Catharine," said Louis, one day, "the huckleberries age now very +plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store +of them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chere, wherever we turn +our eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are +purple with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest +of our lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no +berries are to be found." + +"It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for +let me tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless--mere dry +husks." + +"Why so, ma belle?" + +"I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our +mothers dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the +case, but when they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they +were quite nice." + +"Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good +hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, +to keep the dried fruit in." + +They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or +whortleberries). _[FN: From the abundance of this fruit, the +Indians have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the +south shore. During the month of July and the early part of August, +large parties come to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, +which they preserve by drying, for winter use. These berries make a +delicious tart or pudding, mixed with bilberries and red-currants, +requiring little sugar.]_ Catharine and Louis (who fancied nothing could +be contrived without his help) attended to the preparing and making of +the bags of birch bark; but Hector was soon tired of girl's work, as he +termed it, and, after gathering some berries, would wander away over +the hills in search of game, and to explore the neighbouring hills and +valleys, and sometimes it was sunset before he made his appearance. +Hector had made an excellent strong-bow, like the Indian bow, out of a +tough piece of hickory wood, which he found in one of his rambles, and +he made arrows with wood that he seasoned in the smoke, sharpening the +heads with great care with his knife, and hardening them by exposure to +strong heat, at a certain distance from the fire. The entrails of the +woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable by +rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but +afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used +them, properly dressed for the purpose. + +Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a +true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with +shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even +Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was +now seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned +from his rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which +are plentiful at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass +over in their migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return +thither for the acorns and berries that are to be found in great +abundance. Squirrels, too, are very plentiful at this season. Hector and +Louis remarked that the red and black squirrels never were to be found +very near each other. It is a common belief, that the red squirrels make +common cause with the grey, and beat the larger enemy off the ground. +The black squirrel, for a succession of years, was very rarely to be met +with on the Plains, while there were plenty of the red and grey in the +"oak openings." _[FN: Within the last three years, however, the +black squirrels have been very numerous, and the red are less frequently +to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is tender, white, and +delicate, like that of a young rabbit.]_ Deer, at the time our young +Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful, and, of +course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears, and +wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here +commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals +are now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or +wolves, and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history +in this part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization +advances, while some others increase and follow man, especially many +species of birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the +rich man's board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits +and modes of building and feeding, according to the alteration and +improvement in their circumstances. + +While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation +of the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, +while Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, +in unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on +one of the gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself +by looking for flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, +_[FN: _Podophyllum peltatum_-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of +the May-apple, in rich moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum +bonum, or egg-plum, which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes +a delicious preserve, if seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten +uncooked, the outer rind, which is thick and fleshy, and has a rank +taste, should be thrown aside; the fine acid pulp in which the seeds are +imbedded alone should be eaten. The root of the Podophyllum is used as +a cathartic by the Indians. The root of this plant is reticulated, +and when a large body of them are uncovered, they present a singular +appearance, interlacing each other in large meshes, like an extensive +net-work; these roots are white, as thick as a man's little finger, and +fragrant, and spread horizontally along the surface. The blossom is like +a small white rose.]_ but finding them cumbersome in climbing the steep +wooded hills, she deposited them at the foot of a tree near the boys, +and pursued her search; and it was not long before she perceived some +pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of bright lilac flowers, and on +plucking some pulled up the root also. The root was about the size +and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, she found it far +from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it seemed to be a +favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that it grew about +their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems were bitten, +and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. Therefore, +carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted them +in the embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more +satisfying than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often +roasted in the fire, when they were out working on the fallow, at the +log heaps. Hector and Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended +Catharine for the discovery. Not many days afterwards, Louis +accidentally found a much larger and more valuable root, near the +lake shore. He saw a fine climbing shrub, with close bunches of +dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which scented the air with a +delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great height over the young +trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and tendrils. Pleased with +the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to pull one up, that he +might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed a number of large +tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular oval-shaped; the inside +was quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, only pleasanter, when +in its raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis gathered his pockets +full, and hastened home with his prize, and, on being roasted, these +new roots were decided to be little inferior to potatoes, at all events, +they were a valuable addition to their slender stores, and they procured +as many as they could find, carefully storing them in a hole, which they +dug for that purpose in a corner of their hut. _[FN: This plant +appears to me to be a species of the _Psoralea esculenta_, or Indian +bread-root, which it resembles in description, excepting that the root +of the above is tuberous oval, and connected by long filaments. +The largest tubers are farthest from the stem of the plant.]_ Hector +suggested that these roots would be far better late in the fall, or +early in the spring, than during the time that the plant was in bloom, +for he knew from observation and experience that at the flowering +season the greater part of the nourishment derived from the soil goes to +perfect the flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, there was +a white floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance of the +potato. + +"This flour," said Catharine, "would make good porridge with milk." + +"Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper," said Louis, +laughing, "but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the +porridge-pot to come from?" + +"Indeed," said Catharine, "I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both." + +One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, +for the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five +deer were in the water, and making for Long Island. + +"But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the +arrows," said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of +arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, +which, the young hunter had made for himself. + +"No fear, ma chere; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and +lilies. We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,--here, boy, +here!" + +Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright +eyes of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness +the hunt, ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently +understood that they had some sport in view, trotted along by his +mistress, wagging his great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + +Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The +herd of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and +two young half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of +rice and rushes, not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, +apparently quite unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on +a fallen trunk eagerly eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of +Louis and Catharine, with the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused +the timid creatures to a sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head +and making, as the children thought, a signal for retreat, now struck +boldly out for the nearest point of Long Island. + +"We shall lose them," cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright +track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + +"Hist, hist, Louis," said Hector, "all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, +Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!" + +Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + +"Head them! head them!" shouted Hector. + +Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, +he made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. +Twice the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, +taking the time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the +boys saw the herd had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the +island, they separated, Louis making good his ambush to the right among +the cedars, and Hector at the spring to the west, while Catharine was +stationed at the solitary pine-tree, at the point which commanded the +entrance of the ravine. + +"Now, Cathy," said her brother, "when you see the herd making for the +ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the +ten right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. +We must trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is +well trained, he knows what he is about." + +Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited +till the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and +clapped her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified +creatures coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of +the thicket where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they +had emerged when they first took to the water; to this place they boldly +steered. Louis, who had watched the direction the herd had taken with +breathless interest, now noiselessly hurried to Hector's assistance, +taking an advantageous post for aim, in case Hector's arrow missed, or +only slightly wounded one of the deer. + +Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the +does was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, +that it hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag +now turned again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and +again the noble animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now +shot his arrow, but it swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it +glanced harmlessly along the water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of +Hector sent another arrow between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with +its force, and then, another from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and +staining the water with her blood. + +The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the +shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to +make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal +from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that +as his last arrow had given the _coup de grace_, he was entitled to the +honour of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander +protested against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, +contenting himself with saying, "Ah, well, I will get the first steak +of the venison when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste." +Moreover, he privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had +had in the exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the +worthy service she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the +herd. Wolfe, too, came in for a large share of the honour and glory of +the chase. + +The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. +This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many +uses were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a +store of wealth in their eyes. + +During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, +there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, +and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the +lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + +From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been +acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good +fruit behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to +future advantage. + +The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews +of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer +for mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws +themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season +the wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the +fish-hooks these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew +that strips of fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails +of animals dried and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws +making baskets of the inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats +of the inner bark of the cedar, with many other ingenious works that +they now found would prove useful to them, after a little practice +had perfected their inexperienced attempts. They also knew how to dry +venison as the Indians and trappers prepare it, by cutting the thick +fleshy portions of the meat into strips, from four to six inches in +breadth, and two or more in thickness. These strips they strung upon +poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them to the drying action +of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed the back and head +bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the sun. + +Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in +their joy they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate +caresses on Wolfe for his good conduct. + +"But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for +dinner to-day," said Louis; "and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice +piece for your own share." + +Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; +the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and +the entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs +and back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + +"We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by," said careful +Hector; "for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn +our attention to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins." + +"Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will +not do when once the cold weather sets in." + +"A shanty would soon be put up," said Hector; "for even Kate, wee bit +lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + +"That I could, indeed," replied Catherine; "for you may remember, Hec., +that the last journey my father made to the Bay, _[FN: Bay of +Quints.]_ with the pack of furs, that you and I called a _Bee_ + +_[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We +fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all +Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in +the course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, +or shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best +assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable +to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he +has received.]_ + +to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and +I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you +said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help." + +"Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only +four logs high." + +"It was not for the fall that I cried," said Catharine, resentfully, +"but because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, 'Cats, you +know, have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their +feet,' and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in +pain. Beside, you called me 'puss,' and 'poor pussie' all the rest of +the _Bee_." + +"I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you," said Louis, +trying to look penitent for the offence. "For my part, I had forgotten +all about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear +aunt made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; +and the shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine +builders, to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no +better help." + +"After all," said Hector, thoughtfully; "children can do a great many +things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the +strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we +should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves +in a lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and +hunting." + +"If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger," said +Catharine; "but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, +and gave us health and strength to help ourselves." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O'ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken'd o'er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle--pale, + Fann'd by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song."--COLERIDGE. + +"Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?" said Catharine, +the very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + +"Hollowing out a canoe." + +"Out of that piece of stick?" said Catharine, laughing. "How many +passengers is it to accommodate, my dear." + +"Don't teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made +out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three." + +"Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?" Louis +nodded assent. + +"I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and +out of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of +partridges, I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them." + +"And shall we have a sail as well as oars?" + +"Yes; set up your apron for a sail." + +Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + +"It is worth nothing now," she said, sighing; "and what am I to do when +my gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been +cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes." + +"We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough," said Hector; +"Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the +holes with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be +easily made." + +"The first rainy day, we will see what we can do," replied Louis; "but I +am full of my canoe just now." + +"Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even +if we had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could +manage one," said cautions Hector. + +"I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first +taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and +streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I +have listened so often to my father's stories and adventures when he was +out lumbering on the St. John's river, that I am as familiar with the +idea of a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle," +he said, turning to Catharine; "just think of the fish--the big ones we +could get if we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those +rush-beds." + +"It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be +the Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of." + +"Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he +called Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where +he said there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, +where people could see through the openings among the trees. He said it +was a great hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and +that they came there to gather in the harvest of wild rice." + +"I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out," said Catharine, +shuddering; "I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at +the wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?" + +"But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil +enough when they came to the Springs." "They came, you know, for +food, or shelter, or something that they wanted from us; but it may +be different when they find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon +their hunting grounds." + +"The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our +friends." + +"The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together," observed +Hector. "The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man +do not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary +the one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they +suspect our openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their +own--they do not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we +are taught to forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with +the savage, is a crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be +taught the word of God, he might be kind and true, and gentle as well as +brave." + +It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away +their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for +self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and +time, that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered +and animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus +severed them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to +which their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from +infancy upwards. + +One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring +expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they +well knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and +venison himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat +near it. + +They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat +_[FN: Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose +pleasant meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the +lake. It is one of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well +for the persevering industry of the settler and his family.]_ along the +lake shore, to the eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult +to force their way through the thick underwood that always impedes the +progress of the traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed +the course of an ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural +causeway between two parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in +many places, not wider than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides +were most gracefully adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers +of various species, wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry +bushes, high-bush cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; +while in the deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest +growth, the heads of which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy +banks, beset with huge boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn +limestone, showed that it had once formed the boundary of the lake, +though now it was almost a quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of +pure water were in abundance, trickling down the steep rugged sides of +this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, delighted with the wild +picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of +moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak +or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest on the lonely but +lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark forest shut all +else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, till it reached +the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled what country +it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to them, indeed, +a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her companions +laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this unknown +shore to the northward being her father's beloved Highlands. Let not +youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian +girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only +book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor +Highland soldier. + +Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at +last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that +formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far +from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to +the southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant +brae, where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, +they decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount +Ararat: "For here." said they, "we will build us an ark of refuge and +wander no more." And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still +bears. Here they sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried +venison, and drank of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the +edge of the bank. Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house +near the birches, and they made a regular blaze on the trees as they +returned home towards the wigwam, that they might not miss the place. +They found less difficulty in retracing their path than they had +formerly, a there were some striking peculiarities to mark it, and +they had learned to be very minute in the remarks they made as they +travelled, so that they now seldom missed the way they came by. A few +days after this, they removed all their household stores, viz. the axe, +the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of dried fruit, the +dried venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they forget the deer +scalp, which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up over the door +of their new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on the shores +of the Rice Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + +The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for +house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and +the oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate +watched the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; +there was something to look forward to from day to day-they were going +to commence housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and +well lodged before the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their +blood. It was a joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were +put up, and the door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did +not cut out the spaces for them; _[FN: Many a shanty is put up in +Canada without windows, and only an open space for a door, with a rude +plank set up to close it in at night.]_ they could do very well without, +as hundreds of Irish and Highland emigrants have done before and since. + +A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes +against the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney +and hearth in this primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with +wedge-shaped pieces of wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, +being chiefly oaks and pines, afforded no moss. This deficiency rather +surprised the boys, for in the thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss +grows in abundance on the north side of the trees, especially on the +cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron wood; but there were few of these, +excepting a chance one or two in the little basin in front of the house. +The roof was next put on, which consisted of split cedars; and when the +little dwelling was thus far habitable, they were all very happy. While +the boys had been putting on the roof, Catharine had collected the +stones for the chimney, and cleared the earthen floor of the chips and +rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, bound together with a leathern +thong. She had swept it all clean, carefully removing all unsightly +objects, and strewing it over with fresh cedar sprigs, which gave out +a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not unseemly carpet for their +little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire blazing up on their own +hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its gladdening light, and chat away +of all they had done and all that they meant to do. Here was to be a set +of split cedar shelves, to hold their provisions and baskets; there a +set of stout pegs were to be inserted between the logs for hanging up +strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, or the skins of the animals +they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be fixed on posts in the +centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden platters and dishes, and +some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of wood, till something +better could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough poles of iron-wood, +supported by posts driven into the ground, and partly upheld by the +projection of the logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing could be more +simple. The framework was of split cedar; and a safe bed was made by +pine boughs being first laid upon the frame, and then thickly covered +with dried grass, moss, and withered leaves. Such were the lowly but +healthy couches on which these children of the forest slept. + +A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded +with disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler's family +have I seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared +for their reception; and many a gentleman's son has voluntarily +submitted to privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and +adventure, or to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money +in the lumbering trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty +and ruder society of those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian +lumberers. During the spring and summer months, these men spread +themselves through the trackless forests, and along the shores of +nameless lakes and unknown streams, to cut the pine or oak lumber, such +being the name they give to the felled stems of trees, which are then +hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon the ice, where they are formed +into rafts, and floated down the waters till they reach the great +St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable difficulties and casualties, +finally shipped for England. I have likewise known European gentlemen +voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized home, and associate +themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, leading lives as +wandering and as wild as the uncultivated children of the forest. The +nights and early mornings were already growing sensibly more chilly. The +dews at this season fall heavily, and the mists fill the valleys, till +the sun has risen with sufficient heat to draw up the vapours. It was a +good thing that the shanty was finished so soon, or the exposure to the +damp air might have been productive of ague and fever. Every hour almost +they spent in making little additions to their household comforts, but +some time was necessarily passed in trying to obtain provisions. One +day Hector, who had been out from dawn till moonrise, returned with the +welcome news that he had shot a young deer, and required the assistance +of his cousin to bring it up the steep bank--(it was just at the +entrance of the great ravine)--below the precipitous cliff near the +lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the meantime. They had now +plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was very acceptable, as +they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat that they had. + +This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in +strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she +roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets +of birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, +and the meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild +plums in a beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried +for the winter store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she +also found plenty of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, +on the banks of a charming creek of bright water that flowed between +a range of high pine hills, and finally emptied itself into the +lake._[FN: This little stream flows through the green meadows +of "Glenlynden," watering the grounds of Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose +picturesque cottage forms a most attractive object to the eye of the +traveller.]_ There were great quantities of water-cresses in this pretty +brook; they grew in bright round cushion-like tufts at the bottom of the +water, and were tender and wholesome. These formed an agreeable addition +to their diet, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to animal food, +for they could not always meet with a supply of the bread-roots, as +they grew chiefly in damp, swampy thickets on the lake shore, which +were sometimes very difficult of access; however, they never missed any +opportunity of increasing their stores, and laying up for the winter +such roots as they could procure. + +As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm +clothes and bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were +beginning to wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the +lake several times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she +was often sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as +time wore on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys +on the important subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to +manufacture the skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, +and the doe-skin and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. +Louis was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They +had taken off the hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling +it up with the hairy side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made +excellent mocassins, piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, +and passing the sinews of the deer through, as he had seen his father +do, by fixing a stout fish-bone to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an +excellent substitute for a needle, and with the aid of the old file he +sharpened the point of the rusty nail, so that he was enabled, with +a little trouble, to drill a hole in a bone needle, for his cousin +Catharine's use. After several attempts, he succeeded in making some of +tolerable fineness, hardening them by exposure to a slow steady degree +of heat, till she was able to work with them, and even mend her clothes +with tolerable expertness. By degrees, Catharine contrived to cover +the whole outer surface of her homespun woollen frock with squirrel and +mink, musk-rat and woodchuck skins. A curious piece of fur patchwork of +many hues and textures it presented to the eye,--a coat of many colours, +it is true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was not a little +proud of her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was added was +a source of fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis fitted so +nicely to her feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector brought +triumphantly in one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught in +one of his deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the +brush remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine +might have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur +dress and bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + +Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and +stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the +inner part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most +expert in this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist +their fathers in preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur +traders, who visited them from time to time, and gave them various +articles in exchange for their peltries; such as powder and shot, and +cutlery of different kinds, as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with +gay calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs for the women. + +As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving +wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the +larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun +and wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets +too they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, +that they held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some +vessel that would bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small +that it could be made little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had +made an attempt at making tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the +sweet fern,--a graceful woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent like +nutmegs; this plant is highly esteemed among the Canadians as a +beverage, and also as a remedy against the ague; it grows in great +abundance on dry sandy lands and wastes, by waysides. + +"If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat +of the fire," said Louis, "we could get on nicely with cooking." But +nothing like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they +were obliged to give up that thought, and content themselves with +roasting or broiling their food. Louis, however, who was fond of +contrivances, made an oven, by hollowing out a place near the hearth, +and lining it with stones, filling up the intervals with wood ashes and +such clay as they could find, beaten into a smooth mortar. Such cement +answered very well, and the oven was heated by filling it with hot +embers; these were removed when it was sufficiently heated, and the meat +or roots placed within, the oven being covered over with a flat stone +previously heated before the fire, and covered with live coals. This +sort of oven had often been described by old Jacob, as one in common +use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower province, in which they +cook small animals, and make excellent meat of them; they could bake +bread also in this oven, if they had had flour to use. _[FN: This +primitive oven is much like what voyagers have described as in use among +the natives of many of the South Sea islands.]_ + +Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people +were more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided +home feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, +to talk of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all +were well, and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall +all their happy days spent in the home which they now feared they +were destined never again to behold. About the same time they lost the +anxious hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every +turn when they went out. Nevertheless they were becoming each day more +cheerful and more active. Ardently attached to each other, they seemed +bound together by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now +all the world to one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar +their happiness. Hector's habitual gravity and caution were tempered +by Louis's lively vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved +Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to +which she was exposed, by the most affectionate consideration for her +comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully +enduring all privations, and making light of all their trials, and +taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances. + +Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his +absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. +As he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some +accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he +had for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, +which he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly +finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island +to explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + +Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector +ran off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash +cousin, which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did +not wish to make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his +mind was somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it +had been left the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be +seen, nor the fishing-rod and line. + +"Perhaps," thought he, "Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the +little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: +or maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point." + +While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard +steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through +the bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his +disordered air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder +from time to time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + +"Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?" +cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried +onward. "Why, Louis, whither away?" + +Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till +Hector came up to him. + +"Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down +by a pack of wolves?" + +"It is not wolves, or bears either," said Louis, as soon as he could get +breath to speak, "but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war +council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them." + +"How came you to see them?" + +"I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going +down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer +path through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the +valley, I crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight +of the creek. While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how +pretty the islands were, rising so green from the blue water, I was +surprised by seeing several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you +may be sure, I thought they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too +far apart, so I sat down on a log to watch, thinking if they turned out +to be deer, I would race off for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, +that we might try our chance for some venison; but as the black specks +came nearer and nearer, I perceived they were canoes with Indians in +them, three in each. They made for the mouth of the creek, and ran +ashore among the thick bushes. I watched them with a beating heart, and +lay down flat, lest they should spy me out; for those fellows have eyes +like catamounts, so keen and wild--they see everything without seeming +to cast a glance on it. Well, I saw them wind up the ridge till they +reached the Bare-hill. _[FN: Supposed to be a council hill. It is +known by the name of Bare-hill, from the singular want of verdure on its +surface. It is one of the steepest on the ridge above the little creek, +being a picturesque object, with its fine pine-trees, seen from Mr. +Hayward's grounds, and forms, I believe, a part of his property.]_ You +remember that spot; we called it so from its barren appearance. In a few +minutes a column of smoke rose and curled among the pine-trees, and then +another and another, till I counted five fires burning brightly; and, +as I stood on the high ground, I could distinguish the figures of many +naked savages moving about, running to and fro like a parcel of black +ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them raise a yell like a +pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my heart leap up in my +breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got into my wise head, +of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the empty birch canoes, +which you must own would have been a glorious thing for us; but when I +heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted off, and ran as +if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my scalp." And +Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black curls, as if +to ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping knives of his +Indian enemies. + +"And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the +Indians; they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us." + +"Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy." + +"Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and +so three of course must be still better than two." + +"Why," said Hector, laughing, "it depends upon the stock of practical +wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form +one rational plan." + +Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed +pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no +trace of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his +sister would agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so +much labour, and which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not +endure even in idea. + +"Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below +Mount Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold +goods thither." Such was Louis's plan. + +"The ravines would be searched directly," suggested Hector; "besides, +the Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; +they might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a +burrow." + +"Yes, and burn us," said Catharine, with a shudder. "I know the path +that leads direct to the 'Happy Valley,' (the name she had given to the +low flat, now known as the 'lower Race-course,') and it is not far +from here, only ten minutes' walk in a straight line. We can conceal +ourselves below the steep bank that we descended the other day; and +there are several springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and +berries; and the trees, though few, are so thickly covered with close +spreading branches that touch the very ground, that we might hide +ourselves from a hundred eyes were they ever so cunning and prying." + +Catharine's counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys +immediately busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a +prostrate tree such articles as they could not conveniently carry +away, leaving the rest to chance; with the most valuable they loaded +themselves, and guided by Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched +forward along the narrow footpath that had been made by some wild +animals, probably deer, in their passage from the lake to their +feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the low sheltered plain; where, +being quite open, and almost, in parts, free from trees, the grass and +herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the springs of water fresh +and cool. + +Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved +onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily +chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that +were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or +twinberry, _[FN: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely +creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet +berry.]_ as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails +are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad +her bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the +Rice Lake and its flowery shores. + +After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted +at the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely +spot as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like +a silver crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in +front, the long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away +into mist, and blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile +valley lay between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far +ridge of oak hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish +the outline of the Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires +and the smoke wreaths that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the +dark pines that grew upon its crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives +make, though perfectly safe from detection by the distance and their +shaded position, for many a winding vale and wood-crowned height lay +between them and the encampment. + +But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present +instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight +and of motion. A few minutes' hasty flight brought our travellers to the +brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open +plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they +were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, +and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while +hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow +in the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and +prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by +the earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent +from these roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other +creepers, which formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious +eye could scarcely penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as +if provided for their concealment, and they carefully abstained from +disturbing the pendent foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray +their hiding-place to their enemies. They found plenty of long grass, +and abundance of long soft green moss and ferns near a small grove of +poplars, which surrounded a spring of fine water. They ate some dried +fruit and smoked fish, and drank some of the clear spring; and +after they had said their evening prayers, they laid down to sleep, +Catharine's head pillowed on the neck of her faithful guardian, Wolfe. +In the middle of the night a startling sound, as of some heavy body +falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The night was so dark +they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat gazing into the +impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to speak to each +other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling bark, and +resumed his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his attention was +near to cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, and prayed +for safety against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector and Louis +listened, till they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the morning, +it seemed as if they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague were +their recollections of the fright they had had, but the cause was soon +perceived. A large stone that had been heaved up with the clay that +adhered to the roots and fibres, had been loosened, and had fallen on +the ground, close to the spot where Catharine lay. So ponderous was the +mass, that had it struck her, death must have been the consequence of +the blow; and Hector and Louis beheld it with fear and amazement, while +Catharine regarded it as a proof of Divine mercy and protection from +Him in whose hand her safety lay. The boys, warned by this accident, +carefully removed several large stones from the roof, and tried the +safety of their clay walls with a stout staff, to ascertain that all was +secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath this rugged canopy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour +in his eyes."--_Proverbs_. + +FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke +should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have +effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious +dews, which, even on sultry summer's evenings, is productive of much +chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, +was much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were +even sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. +These simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the +heated air to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and +denser particles. They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of +the causes that ruled them. + +The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook +them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh +for a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, +came one night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. +They saw several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe +tracked a wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden +spring, where she had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the +haunts of her fellows. The arrow was in her throat; it was of white +flint, and had evidently been sent from an Indian bow. It was almost +with fear and trembling that they availed themselves of the venison thus +providentially thrown in their way, lest the Indians should track the +blood of the doe, and take vengeance on them for appropriating it for +their own use. Not having seen anything of the Indians, who seemed to +confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the lake, after many days had +passed, they began to take courage, and even lighted an evening fire, at +which they cooked as much venison as would last them for several days, +and hung the remaining portions above the smoke to preserve it from +injury. + +One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in +the direction of the Indian camp. "I am tired of remaining shut up in +this dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by +those melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in." Little +did Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home +of their childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide +it from their sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have +pressed onward in the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + +Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path +beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and +apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment +of our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark +thickets and thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our +Father's home, where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock +back to the everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + +Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians +imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam +abroad free and uncontrolled. + +"After all," said he; "we never met with any ill treatment from the +Indians that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old +friends and acquaintances among them." + +"The thing is possible, but not very likely," replied Louis. +"Nevertheless, Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. +The Indian has his own notion of things, and might think himself +quite justified in killing us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. +_[FN: George Copway, an intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the +Indian hunting-grounds are parcelled out, and secured by right of law +and custom among themselves, no one being allowed to hunt upon another's +grounds uninvited. If any one belonging to another family or tribe is +found trespassing, all his goods are taken from him; a handful of powder +and shot, as much as he would need to shoot game for his sustenance in +returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and tomahawk only are left, +but all his game and furs are taken from him: a message is sent to +his chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he is banished and +outlawed.--_Life of G. Copway, Missionary, written by himself._]_ I +have heard my father say,--and he knows a great deal about these +people,--that their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers +that they find killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both +merciless and treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to +them in their own language, to explain by what chance we came here." + +This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally +rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: +when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an +opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his +intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now +deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the +Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger +was to be apprehended from facing them. + +"Depend upon it," he added, "cowards are never safer than brave men. +The Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they +found us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if +we openly faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared +for them." + +"Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!" cried his sister, passionately +weeping. "Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?" + +"Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to +take care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; +they seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine +the camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch +for my return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither." + +"But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner," +said Catharine, "what would you do?" "I will tell you what I would do. +Instead of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs +make them understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing +but kindness and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would +tomahawk the defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace +and goodwill." + +"If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you +have fallen into the hands of the savages," said Catharine, mournfully +regarding her brother. + +"If it were not for Catharine," said Louis, "you should not go alone, +but, if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, +who led her out with us, tempting her with false words." + +"Never mind that now, dearest cousin," said Catharine, tenderly laying +her hand on his arm. "It is much better that we should have been all +three together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both +Hec and you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been +so well off if I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your +spirits by my songs and stories." + +"It is true, ma chere; but that is the reason that I am bound to take +care of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to +danger, or leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will +abide by you." + +Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last +Louis and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon +busied themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in +that morning. + +The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that +Catharine cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her +brother's return; at last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis +left the shelter of the valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent +their steps to the trysting tree, which commanded all the country within +a wide sweep. + +A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over +the minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, +which cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades +of evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The +full moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that +should break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of +a friend. + +Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy +days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. +At last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her +head upon the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly +paced to and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to +penetrate the surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the +first sound that might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + +It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick +sharp note of the "Whip-poor-will," as she flew from bough to bough of +an old withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of +these midnight watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of +"Whip-poor-will, Whip-poor-will;" and then came forth, from many a +hollow oak and birch, the spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where +it had lain hushed in silence all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes +their sharp hard wings almost swept his cheek as they wheeled round and +round in circles, first narrow, then wide, and wider extending, till at +last they soared far above the tallest tree-tops and launching out in +the high regions of the air, uttered from time to time a wild shrill +scream, or hollow booming sound, as they suddenly descended to pounce +with wide-extended throat upon some hapless moth or insect, that sported +all unheeding in mid air, happily unconscious of the approach of so +unerring a foe. + +Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and +joyfully he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full +and red, over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + +Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy +forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound +luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed +as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. +Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose +from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under +tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + +It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated +young Louis's breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, +as he thought, rushed into danger. "It was wilful and almost cruel," +he thought "to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his +account;" and then the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved +companion took the place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled +his heart. The broad moon now flooded the hills and vales with light, +casting broad checkering shadows of the old oaks' grey branches and now +reddened foliage across the ground. + +Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry +note: slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from +the form of the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the +moon. It is an open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a +few low shrubs and seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of +the late-flowering pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, +with open bells of azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall +flowers and winter-greens, brighten the ground with wreaths of shining +leaves and red berries. + +Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full +free note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and +half angry in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry +defiance he gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + +Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge +of the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching +steps is now distinctly heard advancing--it may be a deer. Two figures +approach, and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear +shrill whistle meets his ear. It is Hector's whistle, he knows that, and +assured by its cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at +his side, but starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, +half carries. The moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking +figure of an Indian girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: +her ashy face is concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which +falls like a dark veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, +and she seems ready to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. +Hector, too, seems weary. The first words that' Hector said were, "Help +me, Louis, to lead this poor girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired +I can hardly walk another step." + +Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the +pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with +a bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with +him. The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep +so profound it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep +interest soon took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of +the gentle Catharine, and she watched the young stranger's slumber +as tenderly as though she had been a sister, or beloved friend, while +Hector proceeded to relate in what manner he had encountered the Indian +girl. + +"When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the +_'birken shaw,'_ I paused to examine if the council-fires were still +burning on Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there +a canoe to be seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their +landing-place at the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still +as if no human footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched +for nearly an hour till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, +which was sailing in wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. +Assured that the Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity +to examine the spot more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries +and cedars and small underwood that fringed the borders of the little +stream, and found myself, after a little pushing and scrambling, among +the bushes at the foot of the hill. + +"I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my +trouble--flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk--but I little +thought of what these cruel savages had left there,--a miserable wounded +captive, bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a small +tree, her hands, tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had bent +down to fasten them to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that +against which her head was fastened; her position was one that must +have been most painful: she had evidently been thus left to perish by +a miserable death, of hunger and thirst; for these savages, with a +fiendish cruelty, had placed within sight of their victim an earthen jar +of water, some dried deers' flesh, and a cob _[FN: A head of the +Maize, or Indian corn, is called a "cob."]_ of Indian corn. I have the +corn here," he added, putting his hand in his breast, and displaying it +to view. + +"Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder," and he +showed the flint head as he spoke, "and fettered; with food and drink in +sight, the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to +the wolf, and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor +thing's lips were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her +eyes piteously from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. +This I gave her, and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut +the thongs that bound her, I wondered that she still kept the same +immoveable attitude, and thinking she was stiff and cramped with +remaining so long bound in one position, I took her two hands and tried +to induce her to move. I then for the first time noticed that she was +tied by the hair of her head to the tree against which her back was +placed; I was obliged to cut the hair with my knife, and this I did not +do without giving her pain, as she moaned impatiently. She sunk her head +on her breast, and large tears fell over my hands, as I bathed her face +and neck with the water from the jar; she then seated herself on the +ground, and remained silent and still for the space of an hour, nor +could I prevail upon her to speak, or quit the seat she had taken. +Fearing that the Indians might return, I watched in all directions, and +at last I began to think it would be best to carry her in my arms; but +this I found no easy task, for she seemed greatly distressed at any +attempt I made to lift her, and by her gestures I fancy she thought I +was going to kill her. At last my patience began to be exhausted, but I +did not like to annoy her. I spoke to her as gently and soothingly as I +could. By degrees she seemed to listen with more composure to me, though +she evidently knew not a word of what I said to her. She rose at last, +and taking my hands, placed them above her head, stooping low as she +did so, and this seemed to mean, she was willing at last to submit to +my wishes; I lifted her from the ground, and carried her for some little +way, but she was too heavy for me,--she then suffered me to lead her +along whithersoever I would take her, but her steps were so slow and +feeble, through weakness, that many times I was compelled to rest while +she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued now, and as quiet as a +lamb." + +Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the +recital of her brother's adventures. She seemed to think he had been +inspired by God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the +poor forlorn one from so dreadful a death. + +Louis's sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he +commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + +He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition +to their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their +cave beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their +feet to the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was +despatched for water and venison for supper. + +The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, +and conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while +Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with +the greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the +cool healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ _[FN: Indian balsam.]_ about +it with the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in +water, and gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned +in her veins, and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which +were raised at intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid +hurried glance, as if she longed, yet feared to say, "Who are you that +thus tenderly bathe my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded +limbs, and cool my fevered blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a +being sent by the Great Spirit, from the far-off happy land to which +my fathers have gone, to smooth my path of pain, and lead me to those +blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers where the cruelty of the enemies +of my people will no more have power to torment me?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell."--COLERIDGE. + +The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought +home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch +for her, with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over +it, and laid her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a +dear sister. This good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion +of her own age and sex. "Now," said she, "I shall no more be lonely, I +shall have a companion and friend to talk to and assist me;" but when +she turned in the fulness of her heart to address herself to the +young stranger, she felt herself embarrassed in what way to make her +comprehend the words she used to express the kindness that she felt for +her, and her sorrow for her sufferings. + +The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if +striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter +her words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it +was to her as a sealed book. + +She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had +heard from the Indians when they came to her father's house, but in +vain; not the simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried +with vexation at her own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more +fortunate in attempts at conversing with their guest. + +At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye +grew more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, +leaving it of a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the +swarthy Indian shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on +the ground. + +She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long +tresses of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small +wooden comb that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise +her eyes to her new friend's face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she +took her hands within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and +lips and forehead in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance +to any words, and would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some +object which seemed unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such +times the face of the young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or +rather it might with more propriety have been said, the absence of all +expression, almost as blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + +How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was +passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, +the offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian +friend, to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention +as she herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the +object that she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young +squaw learned the names of all the familiar household articles about the +shanty, and could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when +she had learned a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would +laugh, and a gleam of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her +fine dark eyes, generally so fixed and sad-looking. + +It was Catharine's delight to teach her pupil to speak a language +familiar to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and +name to her all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. +And she in her turn made "Indiana" (for so they named the young squaw, +after a negress that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one +of his Colonel's infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each +object they saw. Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement +arising from instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to +enjoy the blunders they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. +When really interested in anything that was going on, her eyes would +beam out, and her smile gave an inexpressible charm to her face, for her +lips were red and her teeth even and brilliantly white, so purely white +that Catharine thought she had never seen any so beautiful in her life +before; at such times her face was joyous and innocent as a little +child's, but there were also hours of gloom, that transformed it into an +expression of sullen apathy; then a dull glassy look took possession +of her eye, the full lip drooped and the form seemed rigid and stiff; +obstinate determination neither to move nor speak characterised her in +what Louis used to call the young squaw's "_dark hour._" Then it was +that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her gentle nurse almost +feared to look at her protegee or approach her. + +"Hector," said Louis, "you spoke about a jar of water being left at the +camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it." +Hector assented to the proposal. "And we may possibly pick up a few +grains of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us." + +"If we are here in the spring," said Hector, "you and I will prepare a +small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;" and he sat down on +the end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the +cob, and then each corn grain by grain. "Three hundred and ten sound +grains. Now if every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have +a great increase, and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it +is a good year, several bushels to eat." + +"We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine +flourishing crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne." +_[FN: Supporne, probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or +porridge, made of Indian meal, a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee +farmer's house.]_ + +"You forget we have no porridge pot." + +"I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine +cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, +let us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;" and Louis, who had +now a new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite +on the _qui vive_, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved +a great disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his +cousin's lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being +cracked, or that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was +not one of the doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the +ardour of his mind by causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted +camp, and though it had been knocked over by some animal, it was sound +and strong, and excited great speculation in the two cousins, as to the +particular material of which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of +pottery they had ever before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured +from some very dark red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, +as it presented the appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard +and ponderous, and the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern +as if punctured and scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed +to have been hardened by fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, +had evidently done good service as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they +learned the way in which it was used:_[FN: Pieces of this rude +pottery are often found along the shores of the inland lakes, but I have +never met with any of the perfect vessels in use with the Indians, who +probably find it now easier to supply themselves with iron pots and +crockery from the towns of the European settlers.]_ the jar being placed +near but not on the fire, was surrounded by hot embers, and the water +made to boil by stones being made red hot and plunged into it: in this +way soup and other food were prepared, and kept stewing, with no further +trouble after once the simmering began, than adding a few fresh embers +at the side furthest from the fir; a hot stone also placed on the top, +facilitated the cooking process. + +Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,--indeed it +was an accomplishment he prided himself on,--was enchanted with the +improvement made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen +jar, or pipkin, and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin +in the use of it. Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with +his bow and arrows, and visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times +oftener than he used to do, just for the sake of proving the admirable +properties of this precious utensil, and finding out some new way of +dressing his game. At all events there was a valuable increase of furs, +for making up into clothing, caps, leggings, mitts, and other articles. + +From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs +and shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, +and many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of +the porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets +and mats. The little creeping winter-green, _[FN: Gualtheria +procumbens,--Spice Winter-green.]_ with its scarlet berries, that grows +on the dry flats, or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, +she showed them was good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw +forth their fine aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their +fragrance with delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it +as a tonic. The inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good +to cure ague and fever. The root of the _dulcamara_, or bitter-sweet, +she scraped down and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other +animal, and made an ointment that possessed very healing qualities, +especially as an immediate application to fresh burns. + +Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the +knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several +times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food +she had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the +trees or bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she +told Catharine this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, +who had given them success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to +appease the malice of the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss +to them, or sickness or death, unless his forbearance was purchased by +some particular mark of attention. _[FN: By the testimony of many +of the Indians themselves, they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism +in their belief. "We believed in one great wise benevolent being, +Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose dwelling was in the sun. We believed also +in many other lesser spirits--gods of the elements, and in one bad +unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to whom we attributed bad +luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This bad spirit has to +be conciliated with meat and drink offerings."--_Life of George Copway, +Native Missionary_]_ + +Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most +remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She +examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical +minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her +memory was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she +seemed even to single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from +their congeners. Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought +patience and perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly +interested in any work she began, she would toil on untiringly till it +was completed; and then what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times +they became darkly brilliant with the joy that filled her heart. But she +possessed little talent for invention; what she had seen done, after a +few imperfect attempts, she could do again, but she rarely struck out +any new path for herself. + +At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the +kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her +fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little +service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she +displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him +her first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental +plumage of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a +master and protector. He was in her eyes the _"Chief,"_ the head of his +tribe. His bow was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and +devices; his arrows were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made +and ornamented by her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case +for his arrows, of birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and +suspended by thongs to his neck, when he was preparing to go out in +search of game. She gave him the name of the "Young Eagle." While she +called Louis, "Nee-chee," or friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical +name of, "Music of the Winds,"--Ma-wah-osh. + +When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her +head in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name +of Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + +But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest +favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate +with a jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to +caress him, but Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual +friendly feeling became established between them, which seemed daily and +hourly to increase, greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She +would seat herself Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the +shanty, with the capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address +herself to this mute companion, in wailing tones, as if she would +unburthen her heart by pouring into his unconscious ear her tale of +desolation and woe. + +Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her +personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for +her to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her +example, till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at +first regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in +dressing her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish +it till it looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn +Catharine with the wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of +the wood-duck, or quill feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which +is called in the Indian tongue the shot-bird, in allusion to the round +spots on its cream-coloured breast: _[FN: The Golden-winged Flicker +belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers; it is very handsome, and is said +to be eatable; it lives on fruits and insects.]_ but it was not in these +things alone she showed her grateful sense of the sisterly kindness that +her young hostess showed to her; she soon learned to lighten her labours +in every household work, and above all, she spent her time most usefully +in manufacturing clothing from the skins of the wild animals, and in +teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them; but these were the +occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Go to the ant."--_Proverbs._ + +IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued +serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, +began to show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach +of the equinox. Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come +sweeping over the lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. +Already the tints of autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the +oaks, and where the islands were visible, the splendid colours of +the maple shone out in gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the +evergreens and light golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now +looked, they had not yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which +a few frosty nights at the close of the month was destined to bring to +perfection--a glow of splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, +before the rushing winds and rains of the following month were to sweep +them away, and scatter them abroad upon the earth. + +One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys +went down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which +Louis had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water +was rough and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to +launch the raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over +the lake and admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to +his cousin a dark speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest +islands. The wind, which blew very strong still from the north-east, +brought the object nearer every minute. At first they thought it might +be a pine-branch that was floating on the surface, when as it came +bounding over the waves, they perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but +impelled by no visible arm. It was a strange sight upon that lonely lake +to see a vessel of any kind afloat, and, on first deciding that it was +a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide themselves among the bushes, for +fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the better of their fears. + +"The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; +for I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to +guide it," said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the +tempest-driven vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was +the case, they hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the +canoe among the branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way +into the water. + +By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the +projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of +weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some +trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he +contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of +hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set +her afloat again. "Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of +which will gladden your heart," cried Louis with a joyful look. "Come +quickly, and see my treasures." + +"Treasures! You may well call them treasures," exclaimed Hector, as he +helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the +shore, side by side. + +The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at +the discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian +blanket almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark +rope several yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious +than all, an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian +corn. These articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian +hunter or trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and +had drifted from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, +unless by some accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been +drowned; this was of course only a matter of conjecture on which it was +useless to speculate, and the boys joyfully took possession of the good +fortune that had so providentially been wafted, as it were, to their +very feet. + +"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down +last night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not +been drawn into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have +lost it. I trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it +would founder in the deep water, or go off to Long Island." + +"I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point," said Hector, "but +I am glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half +afraid you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to +draw it nearer to the shore." "Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling +like a wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful +soups, and stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!" and Louis +tossed up his new fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an +entire fox skin, in the air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which +Hector gravely condemned as unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned +of fifteen;) but with the joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and +danced, and laughed, and shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands +and far-off hills returned the unusual sound, and even his more steady +cousin caught the infection, and laughed to see Louis so elated. + +Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch +Catharine to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the +blanket, and the tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana +accompanied them to the lake shore, and long and carefully she examined +the canoe and its contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she +uttered as she surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice +of the broken handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the +vessel; this seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and +by broken words and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly +broken in the hand of the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the +other part, he had lost his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector +a rude figure of a bird engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed +in with a blue colour. This, she said, was the totem or crest of the +chief of the tribe, and was meant to represent a _crow_. The canoe had +belonged to a chief of that name. While they were dividing the contents +of the canoe among them to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up +the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and +adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to the front of her head, she +bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh +porter would his trunks and packages, turning round with a merry glance +and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as she climbed with +apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her companions, to her +great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the parched rice, +Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty very much--it +made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had been so long +deprived. + +Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be +ready on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out +and gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + +This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with +frequent themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was +the most valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and +bread and seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the +tomahawk, as his axe was worn and blunt. + +Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed +to think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the +latter; besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to +make a canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would +make, after thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for +herself and Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they +should be comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, +and was charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she +despise the packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying +burdens from place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft +fur in front of the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. +The mat, she said, was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. +The very next day after this adventure, the two girls set to work, and +with the help of Louis's large knife, which was called into requisition +as a substitute for scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in +a short time made two comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the +full, short, plaited skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests +bordered with fur completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated +at the ankles by knotted fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned +over with a band of squirrel fur, completed the novel but not very +unbecoming costume; and many a glance of innocent satisfaction did our +young damsels cast upon each other, when they walked forth in the pride +of girlish vanity to display their dresses to Hector and Louis, who, for +their parts, regarded them as most skilful dress-makers, and were never +tired of admiring and commending their ingenuity in the cutting, making +and fitting, considering what rude implements they were obliged to use +in the cutting out and sewing of the garments. + +The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a +golden tinge which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue +waters--looking, when lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of +golden-coloured sand. The ears, heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped +towards the water. The time of the rice-harvest was at hand, and with +light and joyous hearts our young adventurers launched the canoe, and, +guided in their movements by the little squaw, paddled to the extensive +aquatic fields to gather it in, leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch +their proceedings from the raft, which Louis had fastened to a +young tree that projected out over the lake, and which made a good +landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand and fish very +comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account of the +rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself with +fishing from the raft till their return. + +The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the +canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and +another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in +the other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the +stick; the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which +a little practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets +the grass fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + +Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more +delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they +worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their +light bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve +them from starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + +The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were +now able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonje and +black bass, which they caught in great numbers. + +Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her +own carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over +the water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with +delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke +into smiles and dimples. + +It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how +innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of +healthy exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she +possessed of excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill +which they had yet to acquire by imitating her. + +Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of +the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the +fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in +admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in +his estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + +"Every one to his craft," said Louis, laughing; "the little squaw has +been brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her +babyhood; perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and +milking of cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she +would prove half as quick as Catharine or Mathilde." + +"I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour," said Hector, +thoughtfully. + +"Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;" replied +Louis. + +"I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great +pains to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and +that so far from being stupid, they learn very readily," said Catharine. + +"We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite +still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel +down, before we go to bed," observed Hector. + +"She cannot understand what we say," said Catharine; for she knows so +little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the +prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking +of hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters." + +"Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach +her; it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught +pagan," said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort +of uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl's total want of the rites +of his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with +feelings of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that +offered, of trying to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of +belief in the God who made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and +earnestly they entered into the task as a labour of love, and though for +a long time Indiana seemed to pay little attention to what they said, by +slow degrees the good seed took root and brought forth fruit worthy of +Him whose Spirit poured the beams of spiritual light into her heart: +but my young readers must not imagine these things were the work of a +day--the process was slow, and so were the results, but they were good +in the end. + +And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, +the Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, +and pray to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ +Jesus gave to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy +prayer, so full of humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully +understood by her whose lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship +and the desire to do that which she had been told was right, was, +doubtless, a sacrifice better than the pagan rites which that young +girl had witnessed among her father's people, who, blindly following the +natural impulse of man in his depraved nature, regarded deeds of blood +and cruelty as among the highest of human virtues, and gloried in those +deeds of vengeance at which the Christian mind revolts with horror. + +Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking +and storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused +several forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the +ground; on these were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which +she then stretched the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked +pegs to the frame on the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and +lighted a fire beneath, taking good care not to let the flame set fire +to the mat, the object being rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by +means of the red embers. She next directed the boys to supply her +with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck in close together, so as +to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes. This was done to +concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with more power; the +rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled, flat shovel. +After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be done was +separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it by +small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle +or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. _[FN: +The Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, +by hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden +pounder.]_ If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have +been substituted in its stead. + +When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat +basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, +roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by +the little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which +was simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting +it on hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored +by for use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, +by the Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various +kinds; crowds of ducks were winging their way across it from morning +till night, floating in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy +groups if an eagle or fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic +circles above them, then settling down with noisy splash upon the calm +water. The shores, too, were covered with these birds, feeding on the +fallen acorns which fell ripe and brown with every passing breeze; the +berries of the dogwood also furnished them with food; but the wild rice +seemed the great attraction, and small shell-fish and the larvae of +many insects that had been dropped into the waters, there to come to +perfection in due season, or to form a provision for myriads of wild +fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon them, guided by +that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one of our modern +poetesses, "God's gift to the weak" _[FN: Mrs. Southey.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye."--COLERIDGE. + +THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to +the lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee +as she looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its +surface. + +"If I had but my father's gun, his good old gun, now!" would Hector say, +as he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; "but +these foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can +reach them." + +Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with +green boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the +little vessel into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; +within this bower she motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small +space for the free use of his bow, while concealed at the prow she +gently and noiselessly paddled the canoe from the shore among the +rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or merely rocking to and fro +with the undulatory motion of the waters. The unsuspecting birds, +deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their pastime or their +prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer to hit many a +black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on the placid +water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the stream. +Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which Wolfe, +cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to land. + +Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great +gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after +the same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, +a dozen or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others +stationed at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the +island, to collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a +great feast. + +The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great +Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed +them to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes +distant tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited +to share the sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not +understand why Hector did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, +and offer the first duck or the best fish to propitiate the Great +Spirit. Hector told her that the God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; +that his holy Son, when he came down from heaven and gave himself as a +sacrifice for the sins of the world, had satisfied his Father, the Great +Spirit, an hundred-fold. + +They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned +from Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making +tippets, and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, +but light and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they +did not require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter +store, smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney +people smoke the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store +of provisions, fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and +bags of dried fruit. + +One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys +that the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding +up her two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. +The tribes had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. +She advised them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to +attract them; but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over +the plains just then, as the camp was lower down on the point _[FN: +This point, commonly known as _Anderson's Point_, now the seat of the +Indian village, used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous +for the Indians, and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre +that took place about eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the +Indians are often turned up with the plough at this day.]_ east of the +mouth of a big river, which she called "Otonabee." + +Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event +of meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the +earth in silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + +"If they should prove to be any of your father's people, or a friendly +tribe, would you go away with them?" he again repeated, to which she +solemnly replied, + +"Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father's +warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but +Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink +from danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here," and she laid +her hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but +impassioned tone, "They left not one drop of living blood to flow in +any veins but these," and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched +upwards towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the +murderers of her father's house. + +"My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these +hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, +along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the +Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father's people by hundreds in +cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day +and a bloody deed." + +Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the +young Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under +the cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked +the lake, to watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no +apprehension if the Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal +themselves, but offer them food to eat and water to drink. "If they come +to the house and find you away, they will take your stores and burn your +roof, suspecting that you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will +not harm you if you meet them with open hand and fearless brow: if they +eat of your bread, they will not harm you; me they would kill by a +cruel death--the war-knife is in their heart against the daughter of the +_brave_." + +The boys thought Indiana's advice good, and they felt no fear for +themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the +shanty with Wolfe. + +The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come +to enjoy, seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite +peaceably disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north +side, and the boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the +opposite shore, and now and then in the stillness of the evening their +wild shouts of revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the +breeze over the waters of the lake. + +The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed +in broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of +deep interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many +months after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful +story of the massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, +as I have raised the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so +I must render it in my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences +in which its facts were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes +would be unintelligible to my young friends. _[FN: The facts of +this narrative were gathered from the lips of the eldest son of a Rice +Lake chief. I have preferred giving it in the present form, rather +than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as it is, it is matter of +history.]_ + +There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the +chiefs of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which +like a smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having +burst into a decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and +obtain the advantage over the other by covert means. The tribe of the +Mohawks of which I now speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice +Lake for their hunting grounds, and certain islands and parts of the +lake for fishing, while that of the Ojebwas considered themselves +masters of the northern shores and certain rights of water beside. +Possibly it was about these rights that the quarrel originated, but if +so, it was not openly avowed between the "Black Snake," (that was the +totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the "Bald Eagle" (the totem of the +Ojebwa). + +These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of +great and rare beauty, called by her people, "The Beam of the Morning;" +she was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the +young men of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. +Among her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the +most enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of +winning the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black +Snake accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his +hunting grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on +the lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot +between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for +peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the +Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of +great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, +but who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial +alliance with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was +closely connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart +of the Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and +forgotten the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting +had been carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald +Eagle was requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go +to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived +the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had +been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring +hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily +anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on +the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans. + +The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his +guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused +to tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief +remained moody and silent. The following day the same scene was +repeated, and on the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in +bodily agony, with great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him +by the importunity of his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which +was, that the Bad Spirit had told him that these bodily tortures could +not cease till the only son of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been +sacrificed to appease his anger--neither could peace long continue +between the two nations until this deed had been done; and not only must +the chief's son be slain, but he must be pierced by his own father's +hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the father must +preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and aversion at so +bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his life and the +happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for ever if the +sacrifice was made,--if not, war to the knife was to be ever between the +Mohawks and Ojebwas. + +The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an +occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at +the time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + +"Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the +tribes of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be +sacrificed by my hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the +Black Snake's body may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires +of their lodges in peace." + +"The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart," was the +specious response of the wily Mohawk; "moreover, the Good Spirit also +appeared, and said, 'Let the Black Snake's son and the Bald Eagle's +daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the +lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.'" + +"The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine," was +the courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the +unmoved brow and passionless lip. + +The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye +that dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged +the weapon into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast +of human flesh was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, +presided over the ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the +sacrifice, and all went off well, as if no such fearful rite had been +enacted: but a fearful retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought +the tent of the Bald Eagle's daughter that evening, and was received +with all due deference, as a son of so great a chief as the Black Snake +merited; he was regarded now as a successful suitor, and intoxicated +with the beauty of the Beam of the Morning, pressed her to allow the +marriage to take place in a few days. The bride consented, and a day was +named for the wedding feast to be celebrated, and that due honour +might be given to so great an event, invitations were sent out to the +principal families of the Mohawk tribe, and these amounted to several +hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa hunters were despatched up +the river and to different parts of the country, avowedly to collect +venison, beaver, and other delicacies to regale their guests, but in +reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a large war party from the +small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in the deadly revenge that +was preparing for their enemies. + +Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal +ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests +was then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so +artfully contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and +their allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, +armed with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to +spring upon their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the +etiquette always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were +left outside the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and +dancing to the tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several +hundred naked and painted warriors were assembled. The feast was +declared to be ready; a great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre +of the tent. According to the custom of the Indians, the father of the +bridegroom was invited to lift the most important dish from the pot, +whilst the warriors commenced their wardance around him. This dish +was usually a bear's head, which was fastened to a string left for the +purpose of raising it from the pot. + +"Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head +and set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and +that his wise heart may be glad;" were the scornful words of the Bald +Eagle. + +A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as +he lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the _happy_ +bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + +"Ha!" shouted the Bald Eagle, "is the great chief of the Mohawks a +squaw, that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of +his son, the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave +neither sigh nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his +child. Come, brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the +blood of thy son: the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of +the feast that was prepared from his young warrior's body." The wretched +father dashed himself upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent +the air; those cries were answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed +Ojebwas, as they sprang to their feet, and with deafening yells attacked +the guests, who, panic-stricken, naked and defenceless, fell an easy +prey to their infuriated enemies. Not one living foe escaped to tell the +tale of that fearful marriage feast. A second Judith had the Indian +girl proved. It was her plighted hand that had severed the head of her +unsuspecting bridegroom to complete the fearful vengeance that had been +devised in return for the merciless and horrible murder of her brother. + +Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians +seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, +urged by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where +the women and children and such of the aged or young men as were +not included among the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting +security. Panic-stricken, the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell +like sheep appointed for the slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the +grey-head with the infant of days. But while the youths and old men +tamely yielded to their enemies, there was one, whose spirit roused to +fury by the murder of her father, armed herself with the war club and +knife, and boldly withstood the successful warriors. At the door of the +tent of the slaughtered chief the Amazon defended her children: while +the war lightning kindled in her dark eye, she called aloud in scornful +tones to her people to hide themselves in the tents of their women, who +alone were _braves_, and would fight their battles. Fiercely she taunted +the men, but they shrank from the unequal contest, and she alone +was found to deal the death-blow upon the foe, till overpowered with +numbers, and pierced with frightful wounds, she fell singing her own +death-song and raising the wail for the dead who lay around her. Night +closed in, but the work of blood still continued, till not a victim was +found, and again they went forth on their exterminating work. Lower +down they found another encampment, and there also they slew all the +inhabitants of the lodges; they then returned back to the island, to +gather together their dead and collect the spoils of their tents. They +were weary with the fatigue of the slaughter of that fearful day; they +were tired of blood-shedding; the retribution had satisfied even their +love of blood: and when they found, on returning to the spot where the +heroine had stood at bay, one young solitary female sitting beside the +corpse of that dauntless woman, her mother, they led her away, and did +all that their savage nature could suggest to soften her anguish and dry +her tears. They brought her to the tents of their women, and clothed and +fed her, and bade her be comforted; but her young heart burned within +her, and she refused consolation. She could not forget the wrongs of +her people: she was the only living creature left of the Mohawks on that +island. The young girl was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell had +found, wounded and bound, to perish with hunger and thirst on Bare-hill. + +Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she +had stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a +knife at his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the +young men, who had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was +called, and she was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state +already described. + +It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children +listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes +and pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood +had inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade +of the trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that +Catharine, with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those +heavenly lessons of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set +forth by his life, his doctrines, and his death. + +And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour's face in Heaven, +and dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for +those dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her +home a desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her +heart, and the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could +not become the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. +How hard were these conditions to the young heathen,--how contrary to +her nature, to all that she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, +where revenge was virtue, and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious +thing! + +Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her +Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her +Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and +admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, +unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into +her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake +those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing +her to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a +lamb of his "extended fold?"* + +_[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a +Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an +historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of +the actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down +the legend, and did so in part, but made such confusion between his +imperfect English and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for +copying.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill" _Irish Song._ + +WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, +shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting +was the amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, +quite forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting +on the brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their +proceedings. Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to +the Indians, by raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre +that excited their unqualified admiration and applause. + +At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north +shore, and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted +up their shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared +sufficiency of food for the following day. The Indians remained for a +fortnight; at the end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on +their movements, told Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and +that the Indians had gone up the river, and would not return again for +some weeks. The departure of the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing +to Catharine, whose dread of these savages had greatly increased since +she had been made acquainted with the fearful deeds which Indiana had +described; and what reliance could she feel in people who regarded deeds +of blood and vengeance as acts of virtuous heroism? + +Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a +short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, +which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they +had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken +it for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never +turned out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, +drawing water from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high +bank above her, that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, +Indiana gave the two boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw +them enter the ravine; and effectually hidden among the thick grey +mossy trunks of the cedars at the lake shore, they remained secure from +molestation, while the Indian girl dropped noiselessly down among the +tangled thicket of wild vines and brushwood, which she drew cautiously +over her, and closed her eyes, lest, as she naively remarked, their +glitter should be seen and betray her to her enemies. + +It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors +were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and +they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + +"Are my white brothers afraid to die?" was the young squaw's +half-scornful reply. "Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not +to die?" + +The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been +stormy and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the +nights were often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be +seen forming an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the +north and north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, +in ever-varying shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the +stars, which shone with softened radiance through the silvery veil +that dimmed their beauty. Sometimes for many nights together the same +appearance might be seen, and was usually the forerunner of frosty +weather, though occasionally it was the precursor of cold winds, and +heavy rains. + +The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as +an omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected +with her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally +she unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or +misfortunes were revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, +the appearance of strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. +The screeching of the owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the +fox, were evil auguries, while the flight of the eagle and the croaking +of the raven were omens of good. She put faith in dreams, and would +foretel good or evil fortune from them; she could read the morning and +evening clouds, and knew from various appearances of the sky, or +the coming or departing of certain birds or insects, changes in the +atmosphere. Her ear was quick in distinguishing the changes in the +voices of the birds or animals; she knew the times of their coming and +going, and her eye was quick to see as her ear to detect sounds. Her +voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and she delighted in imitating +the little ballads or hymns that Catharine sung; though she knew nothing +of their meaning, she would catch the tunes, and sing the song with +Catharine, touching the hearts of her delighted auditors by the melody +and pathos of her voice. + +The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft +and mild, almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen +through the smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on +the bosom of the glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface +every passing shadow, and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on +shore and island. Sometimes the stillness of the air was relieved by a +soft sighing wind, which rustled the dying foliage as it swept by. + +The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this +season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual +flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then +that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, +and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort +to certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their +customs; as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + +Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was +impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on +that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being +surprised by the Indians. "Some fine day," said Louis, "we will go out +in the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little +way." + +Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the +little islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is +level with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name +they had given to it was "Ship Island." The Indians have some name +for it which I have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, "Witch +Island." Hector's plan met with general approbation, and they resolved +to take provisions with them for several days, and visit the islands and +go up the river, passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees +on the shore wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + +The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a +mirror, and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the +lake, first to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; +they then went to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance +of wild vines, now rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,--tart, +but still not to be despised by our young adventurers; and they brought +away a large birch basket heaped up with the fruit. "Ah, if we had but +a good cake of maple sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make +such grape jelly as my mother makes!" said Louis. + +"If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar," +said Catharine; "there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, +near the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant +spot which we named the Happy Valley, _[FN: A lovely valley to the +east of Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family +of the name of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,--a +cultivated fertile farm.]_ where the bright creek runs, dancing along so +merrily, below the pine-ridge?" + +"Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where +the water-cresses grow." + +"Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day." + +"What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!" +said Hector, thoughtfully. + +"Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms," +said Louis, laughing. "We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I +think he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the +fine flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it +all with wheat, and peas, and Indian corn." + +"We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we +live," replied Hector; "that corn that we found in the canoe will be a +treasure." + +"Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill," said Catherine. "How lucky +we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn +flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went +to the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable +while you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the +life of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything +has prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is +because we try to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our +endeavours." + +"We are told," said Hector, "that there is joy with the angels of God +over one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when +the heathen that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy +name." + +Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that +she should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; +beside, she said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked +with a suspicious eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of +eating its flesh, though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider +them good meat, baked in Louis's Indian oven, or roasted on a forked +stick, before the fire. The Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a +very great deal larger than the common British hedgehog; the quills, +however, are longer and stronger, and varied with alternate clouded +marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; they are minutely barbed, so +that if one enters the flesh it is with difficulty extracted, but will +work through of itself in an opposite direction, and can then be easily +pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer great inconvenience from +getting their muzzles filled with the quills of the porcupine, +the former when worrying the poor little animal, and the latter by +accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great inflammation +will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose valuable hounds +from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her companions, there +were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they could collect a +bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the butter-nut +is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it is a +species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and +grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for +passing the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several +of which made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the +water, they agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana +said there was an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, +and where there was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a +comfortable bed for the night. This old log-house she said had been +built, she heard the Indians say, by a French Canadian trapper, who +used to visit the lake some years ago; he was on friendly terms with the +chiefs, who allowed him many privileges, and he bought their furs, and +took them down the lake, through the river Trent, to some station-house +on the great lake. They found they should have time enough to land and +deposit their nuts and grapes and paddle to Long Island before sunset. +Upon the western part of this fine island they had several times landed +and passed some hours, exploring its shores; but Indiana told them, to +reach the old log-house they must enter the low swampy bay to the east, +at an opening which she called Indian Cove. To do this required some +skill in the management of the canoe, which was rather over-loaded for +so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and thick that they had +some difficulty in pushing their way through them without injuring its +frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black elder, high-bush +cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded further, and there +was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp oak, and soft +maple, with silver birch and wild cherries. Long strings of silvery-grey +tree-moss hung dangling over their heads, the bark and roots of the +birch and cedars were covered with a luxuriant growth of green moss, but +there was a dampness and closeness in this place that made it far from +wholesome, and the little band of voyagers were not very sorry when the +water became too shallow to admit of the canoe making its way through +the swampy channel, and they landed on the banks of a small circular +pond, as round as a ring, and nearly surrounded by tall trees, hoary +with moss and lichens; large water-lilies floated on the surface of +this miniature lake, and the brilliant red berries of the high-bush +cranberry, and the purple clusters of grapes, festooned the trees. + +"A famous breeding place this must be for ducks," observed Louis. + +"And for flowers," said Catharine, "and for grapes and cranberries. +There is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however +lonely the spot." + +"A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes," said Hector, +looking round. "The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his +lodge near this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not +so bad a one either," and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted +little tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were +the ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by +the old trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles +still occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss +and grass lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of +her silent laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild +duck had sat and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which +she had found and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things +pertaining to the former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, +battered tin pannikin, now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a +broken earthen whisky jar; a rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and +pocketed, or rather pouched,--for he had substituted a fine pouch of +deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and a fishing-line of good stout +cord, which was wound on a splinter of red redar, and carefully stuck +between one of the rafters and the roof of the shanty. A rusty but +efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, who was the finder, +was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so valuable an +addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd worn-out +mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while +Catharine declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and +carefully deposited it in the canoe. + +As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that +there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some +one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining +the incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that +lay mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the +work of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look +upon these simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living +remnant. The young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, +isolated being, with no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to +her; a stranger in the land of her fathers, associating with those whose +ways were not her ways, nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language +was scarcely known to her, whose God was not the God of her fathers. +Yet the dark eyes of the Indian girl were not dimmed with tears as she +thought of these things; she had learned of her people to suffer, and be +still. + +Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the +earth, when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and +then kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,-- + +"Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish +you, because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God +loves you, and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, +and the Friend of the destitute, and to them that have no helper." + +The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning +is necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the +dumb, the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is +often more eloquent than words--the gentle pressure of the hand, the +half-echoed sigh, the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, +and unlock its hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock +is smitten and the waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to +refresh and fertilize the thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner +was touched; she bowed down her head upon the hand that held her so +kindly in its sisterly grasp, and wept soft sweet human tears full of +grateful love, while she whispered, in her own low plaintive voice, "My +white sister, I kiss you in my heart; I will love the God of my white +brothers, and be his child." + +The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: +they found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the +desolate hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, +made a serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the +deserted dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were +quickly rolled in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. +The new-found fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and +with very little delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, +was added to their store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, +which they found in abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and +butternuts which Hector cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, +finished their sylvan meal. The boys stretched themselves to sleep on +the ground, with their feet, Indian fashion, to the fire; while the two +girls occupied the mossy couch which they had newly spread with fragrant +cedar and hemlock boughs. + +The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, +_[FN: Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage +of Alfred Hayward, Esq.]_ a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with +steep rocky banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely +wooded to admit of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its +shores. + +The next island they named the Beaver, _[FN: The Beaver, commonly +called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon +it some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, +to which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies +towards the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite +to Gore's Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and +verandah of Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, +Esq., the Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of +the only residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the +few gentlemen who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract +of country, and to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of +late, have been so fully developed.]_ from its resemblance in shape to +that animal. A fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black +Island, _[FN: Black Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an +oval island, remarkable for its evergreens.]_ from its dark evergreens; +the next was that which seemed most to excite the interest of their +Indian guide, although but a small stony island, scantily clothed +with trees, lower down the lake. This place she called Spooke Island, +_[FN: Appendix H.]_ which means in the Indian tongue, a place for +the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, and here, in times past, +used the Indian people to bury their dead. The island is now often the +resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being grassy and open, find +it more available than those which are densely wooded. The young Mohawk +regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, and would not suffer +Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores. + +"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be +angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were +upon sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial +isle. + +Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived +from their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her +ancestors was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to +disturb the solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after +awhile reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into +two separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with +stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. +Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many +days' journey up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with +her paddle a long line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some +longer, some smaller, with Bays and inlets, which she gave them to +understand were the chain of lakes that she spoke of. There were +beautiful hunting grounds on the borders of these lakes, and many fine +water-falls and rocky islands; she had been taken up to these waters +during the time of her captivity. The Ojebwas, she said, were a branch +of the great Chippewa nation, who owned much land and great waters +thereabouts. + +Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the +Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration +and curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading +up to an unknown far-off land--a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable +forests,--flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on its +tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,--the pure +ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that flitted +across its surface--so quiet was the onward flow of its waters. + +A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and +crimson-tinted oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the +silent fall of many a sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer +and of winter's coming reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful +stillness; no breath of wind moved the trees or dimpled the water. +Bright wreaths of scarlet berries and wild grapes hung in festoons among +the faded foliage. The silence of the forest was unbroken, save by the +quick tapping of the little midland wood-pecker, or the shrill scream +of the blue jay; the whirring sound of the large white and grey duck, +(called by the frequenters of these lonely waters the whistle-wing,) as +its wings swept the waters in its flight; or the light dripping of the +paddle;--so still, so quiet was the scene. + +As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either +to encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in +returning. She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some +anxiety. Vast volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the +sun seen through its hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air +unrelieved by a breath of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; +and though the same coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several +successive days, a sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire +in all to return; and after a few minutes' rest and refreshment, they +turned their little bark towards the lake; and it was well that they did +so: by the time they had reached the middle of the lake, the stillness +of the air was rapidly changing. The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so +long piled upon each other in mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, +at first slowly, then with rapidly accelerated motion. There was a +hollow moaning in the pine tops, and by fits a gusty breeze swept +the surface of the water, raising it into rough, short, white-crested +ridges. + +These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising +hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on +the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl +raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the +crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the +Beaver Island--it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she +wielded the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their +little vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining +every nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of +thunder were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away +flew the light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the +tempest was above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest +trees as they bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding +from shore to shore. And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black +streaming hair from her brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with +renewed vigour plied the paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of +turbulence by the violence of the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, +but no word was spoken--they each felt the greatness of the peril, but +they also knew that they were in the hands of Him who can say to the +tempest-tossed waves, "Peace, be still," and they obey Him. + +Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland +was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with +difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to +do this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the +old tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper's shanty. + +The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of +the Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was +vigorously pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter +of the overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions +they had made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the +storm, they threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its +progress--thankful for an escape from such imminent peril. + +Thus ended the Indian summer--so deceitful in its calmness and its +beauty. The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into +stone by a premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting +the shelter of the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their +ark of refuge--the log-house on Mount Ararat. + +The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner +than usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of +April the snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered +with ice, and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet +from shore to shore. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Scared by the red and noisy light."--COLERIDGE. + +Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping +fire-wood, which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, +used from childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, +and snaring hares, were occupations which they pursued more for the +excitement and exercise than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance +of dried, venison, fish, and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. +They now visited those trees that they had marked in the summer, where +they had noticed the bees hiving, and cut them down; in one they got +more than a pailful of rich honey-comb, and others yielded some more, +some less; this afforded them a delicious addition to their boiled +rice, and dried acid fruits. They might have melted the wax, and burned +candles of it; but this was a refinement of luxury that never once +occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry pine knots that are found +in the woods are the settlers' candles; but Catharine made some very +good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and combs, by pouring water on +it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of the chimney, in one of +the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent substitute for salt as +a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the Indians, they were now +reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + +Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up +to every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she +patiently made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little +shelter of pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear +carved out of hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently +await the rising of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously +plunging it into the unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. +Many a noble fish did the young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet +of him whom she had tacitly elected as her lord and master; to him she +offered the voluntary service of a faithful and devoted servant--I might +almost have said, slave. + +During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, +that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing +log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west +wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, +unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian +blanket with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt +little cold excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind +was high, and then experience taught them to keep at home. And these +cold gloomy days they employed in many useful works. Indiana had +succeeded in dyeing the quills of the porcupine that she had captured on +Grape Island; with these she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and +an arrow case for Hector, besides making a sheath for Louis's +_couteau-du-chasse_, of which the young hunter was very proud, bestowing +great praise on the workmanship. + +Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was +engaged in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the +no small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, +was remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of +everything he saw. + +Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner +bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and +wide in the middle--not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat +fish; over this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, +wetted to make it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when +dry, it became quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work +such as you see on cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + +"And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in +your ingenious little net," said Louis, who had watched her proceedings +with great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she +showed all her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second +frame like the first. + +Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, +that was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for +some kind of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring +glance at Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her +silent laughs. + +"Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,"--and snatching up a light +bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the +netted frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on +with her work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage +persevering in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the +other was done: then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: +and he was forced at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of +the work. It was night before the two were completed, and furnished with +straps and loops. When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl +knelt down at Hector's feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a +joyous laugh, and said, "Snow-shoe--for walk on snow--good!" + +The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now +seemed to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use +of them. The young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own +feet, and soon proved to them that the broad surface prevented those +who wore them from sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector +began to acknowledge the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, +especially on the frozen snow on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well +pleased with the approbation that her manufactures met with, and very +soon manufactured for "Nee-chee," as they all now called Louis, a +similar present As to Catharine, she declared the snow-shoes made her +ancles ache, and that she preferred the mocassins that her cousin Louis +made for her. During the long bright days of February they made several +excursions on the lake, and likewise explored some of the high hills +to the eastward. On this ridge there were few large trees; but it was +thickly clothed with scrub oaks, slender poplars, and here and there +fine pines, and picturesque free-growing oaks of considerable size and +great age--patriarchs, they might be termed, among the forest growth. +_[FN: One of these hoary monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands +at the head of the lawn at Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr. W. +Falkner, now the residence of the Authoress.]_ Over this romantic range +of hill and dale, free as the air they breathed, roamed many a gallant +herd of deer, unmolested unless during certain seasons when the Indians +came to hunt over these hills. Surprised at the different growth of +the oaks on this side the plains, Hector could not help expressing his +astonishment to Indiana, who told him that it was caused by the custom +that her people had had from time immemorial of setting fire to the +bushes in the early part of spring. This practice, she said, promoted +the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover for the deer themselves, +and effectually prevented the increase of the large timbers. This +circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high ridge of hills when +contrasted with the more wooded portions to the westward. From the lake +these eastern hills look verdant, and as if covered with tall green +fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is cast upon the leaves +of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they present a glowing +unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only variegated in spots by +a dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light waving poplars turned by +the same wizard's wand to golden yellow. + +There were many lovely spots,--lofty rounded hills, and deep shady +dells, with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole +our young folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded +glens of the western side, where they had fixed their home. + +There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold +bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down +the frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on +small hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped +in their warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what +cared they for the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks +brightened by the delightful exercise, they would remain for hours +enjoying the amusement of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the +ground with myriads of diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening +it till it rivalled the snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out +with the exercise, they returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing +fire, till the smoked rafters glowed in the red light; spread their +simple fare of stewed rice sweetened with honey, or maybe a savoury +soup of hare or other game; and then, when warmed and fed, they kneeled +together, side by side, and offered up a prayer of gratitude to their +Maker, and besought his care over them during the dark and silent hours +of night. + +Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in +their tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of +enjoying many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely +forest home. Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice +of every sort of usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful +fortitude; not, indeed, quietly to sit down and wait for better times, +but vigorously to create those better times by every possible exertion +that could be brought into action to assist and ameliorate their +condition. + +To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that +nerves his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in +the steps of the old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the +exercise of his own energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their +own resources, instead of depending upon his neighbours. + +The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of +civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might +not have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian +Crusoes, because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a +life of such privation as they had known, they could not have brought +so much experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires +courage to yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + +Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made +by Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and +better table than the first rough one that they put together. They also +made a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and +separate sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly +circumscribed their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as +soon as the spring came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better +and larger room to be used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a +complete set of wooden trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of +excellent grain, and less liable to warp or crack than many others. + +Louis's skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. +He not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a +certain taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his +materials and rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in +mechanism for which the French have always been remarked. With his knife +and a nail he would carve a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with +handle across it, all delicately wrought with flowers and checker-work. +The shell of a butter-nut would be transformed into a boat, with +thwarts, and seats, and rudder; with sails of bass-wood or birch-bark. +Combs he could cut out of wood or bone, so that Catharine could dress +her hair, or confine it in braids or bands at will. This was a source of +great comfort to her; and Louis was always pleased when he could in any +way contribute to his cousin's happiness. These little arts Louis +had been taught by his father. Indeed, the entire distance that their +little, settlement was from any town or village had necessarily forced +their families depend on their own ingenuity and invention to +supply many of their wants. Once or twice a year they saw a trading +fur-merchant, as I before observed; and those were glorious days for +Hector and Louis, who were always on the alert to render the strangers +any service in their power, as by that means they sometimes received +little gifts from them, and gleaned up valuable information as to their +craft as hunters and trappers. And then there were wonderful tales of +marvellous feats and hair-breadth escapes to listen to, as they sat +with eager looks and open ears round the blazing log-fire in the old +log-house. Now they would in their turns have tales to tell of strange +adventures, and all that had befallen them since the first day of their +wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + +The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The +Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves +chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, +and did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter +end of the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as +they had the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar +and some molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible +place: it had the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready +built for a shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a +good boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need +not be exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two +boys soon cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out +into sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; +and the first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh +with their vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and +tapped the trees they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And +many pleasant days they passed during the sugar-making season. They did +not leave the sugar-bush for good till the commencement of April, when +the sun and wind beginning to unlock the springs that fed the lake, and +to act upon its surface, taught them that it would not long be +prudent to remain on the island. The loud booming sounds that were now +frequently heard of the pent-up air beneath striving to break forth from +its icy prison, were warnings not to be neglected. Openings began +to appear, especially at the entrance of the river, and between the +islands, and opposite to some of the larger creeks; blue streams that +attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and wild geese, that came, guided by +that instinct that never errs, from their abiding-places in far-off +lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild birds coming and going +with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to her simple-minded +companions. + +How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How +joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded +woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and +twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, +that comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the +low, tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines +or in the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of +the little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen +trees, and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his +wings against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds--were +among the early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest +dwellers, and for such they listened with eager ears, for they told +them-- + + "That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last." + +They watched for the first song of the robin, _[FN: Turdus +miyratorius, or American robin.]_ and the full melody of the red thrush +_[FN: Turdus melodus, or wood-thrush.]_; the rushing sound of the +passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, +sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or +darting down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, +the acorns that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries +of hawthorn and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines +were now putting on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies +were deep blue; nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed +waking into life and light. + +On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access +to the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and +Louis were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for +the addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to +work as soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little +field for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended +to the house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in +plenty of small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned +up the loose boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had +marked out, they proceeded to enclose it with a "brush fence", which +was done by felling the trees that stood in the line of the field, and +letting them fall so as to form the bottom log of the fence, which +they then made of sufficient height by piling up arms of trees and +brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were too particular, as there +was no fear of "breachy cattle," or any cattle, intruding on the crop; +but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as much to be guarded +against as oxen and cows. + +The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was +as clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a +log, contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the +grain was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week +in May, as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds +and the blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. +Hector's eyes had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning +from the lake, soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. +But soon his eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of +the ridge was enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some +mist-wreath hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds +rapidly spread on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, +and nothing but fire,_[FN: Appendix I.]_ that those dark volumes +arose. + +"Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire." + +"On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!" + +"Nay, but look there!" + +The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on +with fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by +the dry, withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the +flames. + +"It is two miles off, or more," said Louis; "and the creek will stop its +progress long before it comes near us--and the swamp there, beyond Bare +Hill." + +"The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, +a burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; +besides, when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on +fire, you know how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when +the forest was on fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and +how fiercely it raged! It was lighted by the ashes of your father's +pipe, when he was out in the new fallow; the leaves were dry, and +kindled; and before night the woods were burning for miles." "It was +a grand spectacle, those pine-hills, when the fire got in among them," +said Louis.. "See, see how fast the fires kindle; that must be some +fallen pine that they have got hold of; now, look at the lighting up of +that hill--is it not grand?" + +"If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!" said +Hector, anxiously. + +"The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as +the fire finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even +against the wind." + +As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line +of wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour +which hung in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with +inconceivable rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon +of destruction spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery +speed; and soon hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + +"It must have been the work of the Indians," said Louis. "We had better +make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. +We must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it +may come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent +escape by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + +"It is the Indian burning," said Indiana; "that is the reason there are +so few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for +the deer." + +Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having +scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed +to have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site +of the root-house _[FN: Root-houses are built over deep excavations +below the reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.]_ +below the bank, which they had just finished, they had met with charred +wood, at the depth of six feet below the soil, which must have lain +there till the earth had accumulated over it; a period of many years +must necessarily have passed since the wood had been burned, as it was +so much decomposed as to crumble beneath the wooden shovel which they +were digging with. + +All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were +flame--red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, +overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it +formed a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the +splendour of the scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire +better defined; but there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as +it had done in the daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of +evening effectually put a stop to the progress of the fire. The children +could now gaze in security upon the magnificent spectacle before them, +without the excitement produced by its rapid spread during the daytime. +They lay down to sleep in perfect security that night, but with the +consciousness that, as the breeze sprung up in the morning, they must be +on the alert to secure their little dwelling and its contents from the +devastation that threatened it. They knew that they had no power to stop +its onward course, as they possessed no implement better than a rough +wood shovel, which would be found very ineffectual in opening a trench +or turning the ground up, so as to cut off the communication with the +dry grass, leaves, and branches, which are the fuel for supplying the +fires on the Plains. The little clearing on one side the house they +thought would be its safeguard, but the fire was advancing on three +sides of them. + +"Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be +done." + +"I propose," said Louis, "retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest +point of Long Island." "My French cousin has well spoken," said Hector, +mimicking the Indian mode of speaking; "but listen to the words of the +wise. I propose to take all our household stores that are of the most +value, to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, +first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is +likely to take fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as +to the shanty, it must take its chance to stand or fall." + +"The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never +mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, +is not yet sown," said Louis. + +Hector's advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to +work to secure the property they meant to leave. + +It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as +it formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made +available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys +carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and +also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them +to hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off +to the lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand." + IRISH SONG + +The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far +as the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were +leaping among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the +pines, and rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to +heap of the fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes +of black and suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that +Hector and Louis had only time to push off the canoe before the heights +along the shore were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and +noble pine fell crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, +as its burning trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the +suffocating vapour, the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying +the cool, fresh air of the lake. Reposing on the grass beneath the +trees, they passed the day, sheltered from the noonday sun, and watched +the progress of the fires upon the shore. At night the girls slept +securely under the canoe, which they raised on one side by means of +forked sticks stuck in the ground. + +It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on +the water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, +to which the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by +contrast. + +Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty +escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the +safety of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was +already springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken +every precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. +_[FN: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved +by turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been +effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing +up the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry +roots, grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even +could it be got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in +stopping the progress of fire; even women and little children can assist +in such emergencies.]_ + +Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed +by the fire. "We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this +summer," she said, mournfully; "and the pretty roses and bushes will be +scorched, and the ground black and dreary." + +"The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the +forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, +leaves more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in," said +Hector. "I have seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new +and fresh set of plants spring up, and even some that looked withered +recover; the earth is renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so +great a misfortune as it at first appears." + +"But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!" said +Louis; "I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one +of those burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, +branchless trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance +against those that kindled the fires." + +"They do, indeed, look ugly," said Catharine; "yet the girdled ones look +very nearly as ill." _[FN: The girdled pines are killed by barking +them round, to facilitate the clearing.]_ + +At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim +smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was +still going on. + +As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the +point (Andersen's Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they +concluded the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual +hunter or trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they +were not very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they +decided on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was +with some feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had +befallen their shanty. + +"The shanty is burned!" was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis +and Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded +a view of its roof. "It is well for us that we secured our things in the +root-house," said Hector. + +"Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, +larger and better than the old one," said Louis. "The chief of our fence +is gone, too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if +we get it done a month hence, say I. Come, _ma belle_, do not look so +sorrowful. There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital +wigwam, while the new house is building." "But the nice table that you +made, Louis, and the benches and shelves!" + +"Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves +too. Never fear, _ma chere_, the same industrious Louis will make things +comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a +famous one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is +planted we shall have nothing else to do but to think about it." + +The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles +and birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did +not feel the inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been +earlier in the season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house +and pantry; and Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave +certain loose folds between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, +which formed a series of pouches or bags, in which many articles could +be stowed away out of sight. _[FN: In this way the winter wigwams +of the Indians are constructed so as to give plenty of stowing room for +all their little household matters, materials for work, &c.]_ + +While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, +the two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a +succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched +earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had +anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they +raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their +attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been +burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + +The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a +few weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than +the former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian +corn, renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting +partridges and ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. +The fruit season was less abundant this year than the previous one. The +fire had done this mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect +fruits during the summer months. + +It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the +boys, and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for +water, and on her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her +family of three half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. +_[FN: An Indian baby; but "papoose" is not an Indian word. It is +probably derived from the Indian imitation of the word "baines."]_ +In their turn the strangers seemed equally astonished at Catharine's +appearance. + +The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon +reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which +she had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To +this Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple +sugar, which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted +the brown baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden +cradle, and fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference +between the colour of her young hostess's fair skin and her own swarthy +hue; for she often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, +and compared her arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment +and curiosity; possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race +this poor savage had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set +the birchen dish on the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its +cradle prison, she slipped the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and +silently signing to her sons to follow her, she departed. That evening +a pair of ducks were found fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a +silent offering of gratitude for the refreshment that had been afforded +to this Indian woman and her children. + +Indiana thought, from Catharine's description, that these were Indians +with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake +and the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be +near. The squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother +Snow-storm, from having been lost in the woods, when a little child, +during a heavy storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a +gentle, kind woman, and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt. +Her sons were good hunters; and though so young, helped to support their +mother, and were very good to her and the little one. + +I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a +brief notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved +abundant, and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and +stored, and plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of +honey. + +The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the +lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some +hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter +was unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring +following was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May +before vegetation had made any very decided progress. + +The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both +within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for +the floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats +and a table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering +their only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for +splitting the wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with +great care and patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft +mate, woven by Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut +and dried; but the little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or +deer-skin on the floor before the fire, as she had been accustomed. + +A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and +was now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the +loghouse;--but for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all +they had left and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those +who dwelt beneath its humble roof. + +The season of flowers had again arrived,--the earth, renovated by the +fire of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,--June, with +its fragrant store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,--the +anniversary of that time when they had left their beloved parents' +roofs, to become sojourners in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much +they felt they had to be grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and +much anxiety they had felt; but they had enjoyed blessings above all +that they could have expected, and they might, like the Psalmist when +recounting the escapes of the people of God, have said,--"Oh that men +would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and the wonders that +he doeth for the children of men." And now they declared no greater +evil could befal them than to lose one of their little party, for even +Indiana had become as a dear and beloved sister; her gentleness, her +gratitude and faithful trusting love, seemed each day to increase. Now, +indeed, she was bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for she knelt +to the same God, and acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies of her +Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, and +had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own +tongue; so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her +on any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of +social and Christian love. + +Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track +of a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and +showing symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred +staying at home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had +gathered some fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, +Indian meal cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was +weary and warm, for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on +the threshold of the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and +closed her eyes. Perhaps the poor child's thoughts were wandering back +to her far-off, never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking +of the hunters and their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of +dread stole over her mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she +saw no form; but there was a strange consciousness that she was not +alone--that some unseen being was near, some eye was upon her. I +have heard of sleepers starting from sleep the most profound when the +noiseless hand of the assassin has been raised to destroy them, as if +the power of the human eye could be felt through the closed lid. + +Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was +near her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance +around. No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she +resumed her seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet +which she had tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, +attracted her attention. + +"What aileth thee, wee dearie?" she said, tenderly, as the timid little +creature crept, trembling, to her breast. "Thy mistress has scared thee +by her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor +weasel here to seize thee, silly one;" and as she spoke she raised her +head, and flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded +her eyes. The deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met +her terrified gaze, gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the +door-post, whence the upper part of the face alone was visible, partly +concealed by a mat of tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, +the poor girl neither spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing +her hands tightly across her breast, as if to still the loud beating +of her heart, she sat gazing upon that fearful appearance, while, with +stealthy step, the savage advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, +as he did so, his eyes riveted upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily +serpent is said to fascinate his prey. His hapless victim moved not; +whither could she flee to escape one whose fleet foot could so easily +have overtaken her in the race? where conceal herself from him whose +wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive her of all vital energy? + +Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian +to answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and +taking the girl's ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong +of deer's hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path +through the ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch +canoe, rocking gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a +young girl were seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed +no word indicative of curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the +Indian lifted his captive into the canoe, and made signs to the elder +squaw to push from the shore. When all had taken their places, the +woman, catching up a paddle from the bottom of the little vessel, stood +up, and with a few rapid strokes sent it skimming over the lake. + +The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous +situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her +agitated face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror +presented themselves to her bewildered brain--all that Indiana had +described of the cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before +her mind. Poor child, what miserable thoughts were thine during that +brief voyage! + +Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the +victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved +ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no +hope of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated +mind, she raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the +Indian and his companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the +stoical one of an Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no +answering glance of sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look +of pity--not a nerve or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of +the Indians, and the woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy +attitude, burying her face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter +emotions from the heartless strangers. + +She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian's education to +hide the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and +tender emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + +It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, +which was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the +disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds +of unrighteousness, and to teach man that he is by nature the child of +wrath and victim of sin, and that in his unregenerated nature his whole +mind is at enmity with God and his fellow-men, and that in his flesh +dwelleth no good thing. And the Indian has acknowledged that power,--he +has cast his idols of cruelty and revenge, those virtues on which he +prided himself in the blindness of his heart, to the moles and the bats; +he has bowed and adored at the foot of the Cross;--but it was not so in +the days whereof I have spoken. _[FN: Appendix K.]_ + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?" + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER + +The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian +lifted his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move +forward along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards +higher up the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with +shrubby trees--the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the +paddles and secure the canoe. + +It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, +when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead +for mercy--whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we +ourselves are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, +mute with terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now +found herself surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange +assembly, if by chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, +but she saw not the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright +sparkling eye of her cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive +features of the Indian girl, her adopted sister--she stood alone among +those wild gloomy-looking men; some turned away their eyes as if they +would not meet her woe-stricken countenance, lest they should be moved +to pity her sad condition; no wonder that, overcome by the sense of her +utter friendliness, she hid her face with her fettered hands and wept +in despair. But the Indian's sympathy is not moved by tears and sighs; +calmness, courage, defiance of danger and contempt of death, are what he +venerates and admires even in an enemy. + +The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed +to be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant +against the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the +stranger; Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, +heard the old man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. +Gladly did she escape from the presence of those pitiless men, from +whose gaze she shrunk with maidenly modesty. And now when alone with +the women she hesitated not to make use of that natural language which +requires not the aid of speech to make itself understood; clasping +her hands imploringly, she knelt at the feet of the Indian woman, her +conductress--kissed her dark hands and bathed them with her fast flowing +tears, while she pointed passionately to the shore where lay the happy +home from which she had been so suddenly torn. + +The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her +imploring gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone +replied in her own language, that she must go with the canoes to the +other shore,--and she pointed to the north as she spoke. She then +motioned to the young girl--the same that had been Catharine's companion +in the canoe--to bring a hunting knife, which was thrust into one of +the folds of the birch-bark of the wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly +weapon in the hands of the Indian woman with a pang of agony as great as +if its sharp edge was already at her throat. So young--so young, to die +by a cruel bloody death! what had been her crime?--how should she find +words to soften the heart of her murderess? The power of utterance +seemed denied--she cast herself on her knees and held up her hands in +silent prayer; not to the dreaded Indian woman, but to Him who heareth +the prayer of the poor destitute--who alone can order the unruly wills +and affections of men. + +The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the +terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with +a quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists +of the pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her +whole face she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand +upon her young head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise +lifted the flowing tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over +the back of her own swarthy hand; then, as if amused by the striking +contrast, she shook down her own jetty-black hair and twined a tress of +it with one of the fair haired girl's--then laughed till her teeth shone +like pearls within her red lips. Many were the exclamations of childish +wonder that broke from the other females, as they compared the snowy arm +of the stranger with their own dusky skins; it was plain that they had +no intention of harming her, and by degrees distrust and dread of her +singular companions began in some measure to subside. + +The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her +a handful of parched rice and some deer's flesh to eat; but Catharine's +heart was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing +the Indian word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of +birch-bark from the floor of the tent, and gathering the corners +together, ran to the lake, and soon returned with water in this most +primitive drinking vessel, which she held to the lips of her guest, and +she seemed amused by the long deep draught with which Catharine slaked +her thirst; and something like a gleam of hope came over her mind as she +marked the look of kindly feeling with which she caught the young Indian +girl regarding her, and she strove to overcome the choking sensation +that would from time to time rise to her throat, as she fluctuated +between hope and fear. The position of the Indian camp was so placed +that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither could Catharine +see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the mount that her +brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their visits to the +lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them even if she +had seen them on the beach. + +The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while +the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians +were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. +Catharine's heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the +lake showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted +at a fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek +flowing down through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they +found several tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The +river was here a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many +kinds fringed the edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had +never been pierced by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the +vegetation that even the Indian could hardly have penetrated through +its dark swampy glades: far as the eye could reach, that impenetrable +interminable wall of verdure stretched away into the far off distance. + +On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open +meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the +eminence above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by +a luxuriant orchard and garden, the property of a naval officer, +_[FN: Lt. Rubidge, whose interesting account of his early +settlement may be read in a letter inserted in Captain Basil Hall's +Letters from Canada.]_ who with the courage and perseverance that mark +brave men of his class, first ventured to break the bush and locate +himself and his infant family in the lonely wilderness, then far from +any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + +But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler +had not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire +scathed it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those +shades, nor sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its +echoes. + +All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a +shady tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and +wondering at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its +dear inmates. Bad as she had thought her separation from her father +and mother and her brothers, when she first left her home to become +a wanderer on the Rice Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her +situation, snatched from the dear companions who had upheld and cheered +her on in all her sorrows! But now she was alone with none to love or +cherish or console her, she felt a desolation of spirit that almost made +her forgetful of that trust that had hitherto always sustained her in +time of trouble or sickness. She looked round, and her eye fell on the +strange unseemly forms of men and women, who cared not for her, and to +whom she was an object of indifference or aversion: she wept when she +thought of the grief that her absence would occasion to Hector and +Louis; the thought of their distress increased her own. + +The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the +little brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots +and stones that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and +long exposure to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. +The last rosy light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a +glowing tint when she awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; +the kingfisher and dragon-fly, and a solitary loon, were the only +busy things abroad on the river; the first darting up and down from +an upturned root near the water's edge, feeding its youngings; the +dragon-fly hawking with rapid whirring sound for insects, and the loon, +just visible from above the surface of the still stream, sailed quietly +on companionless, like her who watched its movements. + +The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment +roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the +evening meal was now preparing,--and Catharine, chilled by the falling +dew, crept to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at +being recognised by one friendly face--it was the mild and benevolent +countenance of the widow Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to +bid her to share their camp fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, +the beaming smile that was given by this good creature, albeit she was +ugly and ill-featured, cheered the sad captive's heart. She had given +her a cup of cold water and what food her log-cabin afforded, and in +return the good Indian took her to her wigwam and fed, and warmed, and +cherished her with the loving-kindness of a Christian; and during all +her sojourn in the Indian camp she was as a tender mother over her, +drying her tears and showing her those little acts of attention that +even the untaught Indians know are grateful to the sorrowful and +destitute. Catharine often forgot her own griefs to repay this worthy +creature's kindness, by attending to her little babe and assisting her +in some of her homely preparations of cookery or household work. She +knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow would do her no good, and after +the lapse of some days she so well disciplined her own heart as to check +her tears at least in the presence of the Indian women, and to assume an +air of comparative cheerfulness. Once she found Indian words enough to +ask the Indian widow to convey her back to the lake, but she shook her +head and bade her not think anything about it; and added, that in the +fall, when the ducks came to the rice-beds, they should all return, and +then if she could obtain leave from the chief, she would restore her to +her lodge on the plains; but signified to her that patience was her only +present remedy, and that submission to the will of the chief was her +wisest plan. Comforted by this vague promise, Catharine strove to be +reconciled to her strange lot, and still stranger companions. She could +not help being surprised at the want of curiosity respecting her that +was shown by the Indians in the wigwam, when she was brought thither; +they appeared to take little notice that a stranger and one so +dissimilar to themselves had been introduced into the camp, for before +her they asked no questions about her, whatever they might do when she +was absent, though they surveyed her with silent attention. Catharine +learned, by long acquaintance with this people, that an outward +manifestation of surprise _[FN: See Appendix L.]_ is considered a +want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of weakness and +childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly less disposed +to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and one of +their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, was +examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, +and holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, +those who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the +island, showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw +was granddaughter to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with +considerable respect by the rest of the women; she was a gay lively +creature, often laughing, and seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund +of good humour. She was inclined to extend her patronage to the young +stranger, making her eat out of her own bark dish, and sit beside her on +her own mat. She wove a chain of the sweet-scented grass with which +the Indians delight in adorning themselves, likewise in perfuming their +lodges with bunches or strewings upon the floor. She took great pains +in teaching her how to acquire the proper attitude of sitting, after the +fashion of the Eastern nations, which position the Indian women assume +when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian name of this little damsel +signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that lively restless bird, always +flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as garrulous and as cheerful too +as that merry little herald of the spring. + +Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine's dress, which she +examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut +fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border +of the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These +fringes she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old +chief was called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and +mocassins escape their observation. There was something mysterious about +her garments. Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep +guttural exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst +from the lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with +deep attention. These people had recognised in these things the peculiar +fashion and handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to +perish by hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was +excited to know by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress +wrought by the hand of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange +and mysterious did it seem to them, and warily did they watch the +unconscious object of their wonder. + +The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, +enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she +prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose +whole nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously +endeavoured to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she +succeeded in an incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to +express her own wants, and converse a little with the females who were +about her. + +She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood +apart from the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his +granddaughter, or by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some +sick person, or a secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great +Spirit; but one day when the chief of the people had gone up the river +hunting, and the children were asleep, she perceived the curtain of +skins drawn back, and a female of singular and striking beauty appeared +standing in the open space in front. She was habited in a fine tunic of +white dressed doeskin richly embroidered with coloured beads and stained +quills, a full petticoat of dark cloth bound with scarlet descended +to her ancles, leggings fringed with deer-skin knotted with bands of +coloured quills, with richly wrought mocassins on her feet. On her +head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black feathers; her long shining +tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, each thick tress confined +with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and blue; her stature was +tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye wore an expression so +proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own involuntarily fill with +tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She would have approached +nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk back timid and +abashed beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, the Beam of the +Morning, the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose hand had wrought +so fearful a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of her brother. She +stood there, at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal robes, as on the +day when she received her death-doomed victim. And when she recalled her +fearful deed, shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back and shrouded +herself within the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye of that +terrible woman. She remembered how Indiana had told her that since +that fatal marriage-feast she had been kept apart from the rest of the +tribe,--she was regarded by her people as a sacred character, a great +_Medicine_, a female _brave_, a being whom they regarded with mysterious +reverence. She had made this great sacrifice for the good of her nation. +Indiana said it was believed among her own folks that she had loved the +young Mohawk passionately, as a tender woman loves the husband of her +youth; yet she had hesitated not to sacrifice him with her own hand. +Such was the deed of the Indian heroine--and such were the virtues of +the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash'd o'er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree's tall shadow sleeps upon its breast." + COLERIDGE. + +The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, _[FN: +Now known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house +and some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for +the steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore's Landing on the +Rice Lake and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.]_ and then early one +morning the wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, +proceeded up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to +interest Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between +low shores, thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through +which the eye might pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a +clearing, not a sight or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or +heard; the darting flight of the wild birds as they flitted across from +one side to the other, the tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of +the blue jay, was all that was heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that +monotonous voyage. After many hours a decided change was perceived in +the current, which ran at a considerable increase of swiftness, so that +it required the united energy of both men and women to keep the light +vessels from drifting down the river again. They were in the Rapids, +_[FN: Formerly known as Whitla's Rapids, now the site of the +Locks.]_ and it was hard work to stem the tide, and keep the upward +course of the waters. At length the rapids were passed, and the weary +Indian voyagers rested for a space on the bosom of a small but tranquil +lake. _[FN: The little lake about a mile below Peterborough and +above the Locks, formerly girt in by woods of pine and beech and maple, +now entirely divested of trees and forming part of the suburbs of the +town. ]_ The rising moon shed her silvery light upon the calm waters, +and heaven's stars shone down into its quiet depths, as the canoes with +their dusky freight parted the glittering rays with their light paddles. +As they proceeded onward the banks rose on either side, still fringed +with pine, cedar and oaks. At an angle of the lake the banks on either +side ran out into two opposite peninsulas, forming a narrow passage or +gorge, contracting the lake once more into the appearance of a broad +river, much wider from shore to shore than any other part they had +passed through since they had left the entrance at the Rice Lake. + +Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with +delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green +cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the +sound of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken +eddies rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of +the moon; and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those +rapids, at a signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed +to shore on a low flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last +island. _[FN: Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the +island, a noble and substantial bridge has been built.]_ + +Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the +women prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and +birch-bark covering from the encampment below, and soon all was +bustle and business; unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even +Catharine lent a willing hand to assist the females in bringing up the +stores, and sundry baskets containing fruits and other small wares. She +then kindly attended to the Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, +who, bound upon their wooden cradles, were either set up against the +trunks of the trees, or swung to some lowly depending branch, there to +remain helpless and uncomplaining spectators of the scene. + +Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied +as herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, +having from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they +were sure to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers +when the season of refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was +friendless and alone, an orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred +and friends. One Father, one Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even +He--the Father of the fatherless. + +That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole +out of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter +of which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy +plain, studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that +they might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. +It was a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through +which for so many many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed +on monotonously; here it was all wild and free, dashing along like a +restive steed rejoicing in its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + +Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing +river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as +it bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. "Happy, glorious +waters! you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no +canoe can ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, +were free to pursue my onward way--how soon would I flee away and be at +rest!" Such thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the +lonely captive girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked +abroad over those moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming +sense of the utter loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with +faltering step hurried down once more to the wigwams, silently crept +to the mat where her bed was spread, and soon forgot all her woes and +wanderings in deep tranquil sleep. + +Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always +seemed to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes +and rivers in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So +disregardful are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to +sleep where the ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a +temporary flooring of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather +than remove the tent a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always +be found. This either arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from +both, but it is no doubt the cause of much of the sickness that prevails +among, them. With his feet stretched to the fire the Indian cares for +nothing else when reposing in his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the +improvement that might be made in his comfort; he listens with a face of +apathy, and utters his everlasting guttural, which saves him the trouble +of a more rational reply. + +"Snow-bird" informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be +removed for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the +squaws pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the +chief of the laborious part of the work fell to the share of the +females, who were very much more industrious and active than their +husbands; these, when not out hunting or fishing, were to be seen +reposing in easy indolence under the shade of the trees, or before the +tent fires, giving themselves little concern about anything that was +going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, and submissive; they bore +without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and fatigue, and seemed to +perform every task with patience and good humour. They made the canoes, +in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched the tents, converted +the skins of the animals which the men shot into clothes, cooked the +victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove mats, dyed the quills +of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short performed a thousand +tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + +Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, +they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no +floors to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + +Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only +renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish +bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of +furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the +same, their beds mats or skins of animals,--such were the domestic +arrangements of the Indian camp. _[FN: Much improvement has taken +place of late years in the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of +their dwellings are clean and neat even for Europeans.]_ In the tent to +which Catharine belonged, which was that of the widow and her sons, a +greater degree of order and cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for +Catharine's natural love of neatness and comfort induced her to strew +the floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep +round the front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its +vicinity. She never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her +hair with the comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care +of the little child, which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this +little creature, for it was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a +little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked with kinder eyes +upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which she tended their +children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who cherish +their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that the +exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who +give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew +upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave +Catharine for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and +return to Hector and Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?" + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening +of the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. +They had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine +half-grown fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding +the fire nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. +There, it is true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she +was not to be seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for +them, and had gone out to gather strawberries, they did not at first +feel very anxious, but ate some of the rice and honey, for they were +hungry with long fasting; and taking some Indian meal cake in their +hands, they went out to call her in, but no trace of her was visible. +They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set off by herself to seek +them, and had missed her way home again. + +They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree +Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked +the lake--no, she was not to be seen; night found them still +unsuccessful in their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had seated +herself beneath some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined the +true cause, having seen nothing of the Indians. + +Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her +not there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting +left them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The +first streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in +vain upon the name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. +Desolation had fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others +they had most feared, had happened to them. + +Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so +easily to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that +she had discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake +shore; she had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had +been woven by Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had +seen the mark of feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the +lake, and the furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. +It was evident that she had been taken away from her home by these +people. Poor Louis gave way to transports of grief and despair; he +knew the wreath, it was such as Catharine often made for herself, and +Mathilde, and petite Louise, and Marie; his mother had taught her to +make them; they were linked together by the stalks, and formed a sort +of leaf chain. The remembrance of many of their joyous days of childhood +made Louis weep sorrowful tears for happy days, never to return again; +he placed the torn relic in his breast, and sadly turned away to hide +his grief from Hector and the Indian girl. + +Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but +advised wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. +The Indians had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats +round Mount Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they +ventured to land on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw +evident traces of a temporary encampment having been made. This was all +they could do, further search was unavailing; as they found no trace of +any violence having been committed, they still cherished hopes that +no personal harm had been done to the poor captive, It was Indiana's +opinion that, though a prisoner, she was unhurt, as the Indians rarely +killed women and children, unless roused to do so by some signal act +on the part of their enemies, when an exterminating spirit of revenge +induced them to kill and spare not; but where no offence had been +offered, they were not likely to take the life of an helpless, +unoffending female. + +The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify +revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was +difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of +Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores +and the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still +thought the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + +Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis +no longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled +themselves to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great +delight; all now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they +wandered listlessly to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had +departed from their little dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, +each seeming absorbed in his own painful reveries. + +In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; +they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours +alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and +missed their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to +occupy. They called, but there was none to reply--she too was gone. They +hurried to the shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to a +mere speck upon the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; +they called to her in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted +back no sound to their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and +they sat them down disconsolately on the shore. + +"What is she doing?" said Hector; "this is cruel to abandon us thus." + +"She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings +of Catharine," said Louis. "How came you to think that such is her +intention?" + +"I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or +die." + +"What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose +life she attempted to take?" + +"She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she +loves." + +"Alas!" said Hector, "she will perish miserably and to no avail; they +would not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana's +life." + +"How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not +tell us? we would have shared her danger." + +"She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl +has a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that +made life dear to us," said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his +knees. + +"Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with +more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana's leaving us, we left her so +much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we +did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad." +"I tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old +battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have +an axe and a tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?" + +"True! we will set about it to-morrow." + +"I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good +pine for the purpose." + +"As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than +this dread suspense and inaction." + +The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of +suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, +and the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to +their inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt +proved abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well +in the water. + +Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so +Hector. + +"Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, +and again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, +that is the way to succeed at last." + +"You have ten times my patience, Hec." "Yes! but you are more ingenious +than I, and are excellent at starting an idea." + +"We are a good pair then for partnership." + +"We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past +blunders." + +"Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost +Catharine!" + +"I know it, a long, long, weary month," replied Louis, and he struck his +axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent +for some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested +from their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to +resume their conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector's arm, and +pointed to a bark canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point +of the island. Hector started to his feet, exclaiming, "It is Indiana +returned!" + +"Nonsense! Indiana!--it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man in +a blanket coat." + +"The Indians?" asked Hector inquiringly. + +"I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he +doing?" + +"Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass--another--he has great +luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore." + +"That man does not move like an Indian--hark! he is whistling. I ought +to know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to +sing;" and Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old +French Canadian song, which we will give in the English as we heard it +sung by an old lumberer. + + "Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we'll wander, and we'll chase the buffalo. + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us," said Hector. + +"The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that +may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one--so I think he will +not be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is +but one, so he must mind how he affronts us," replied Louis laughing. + +"I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is +not singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,"--and Louis +raised his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + + "Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo-- + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to +listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it +again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!" + +"Come, let us go on with our work," said Hector, with something like +impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more +in regular succession on the log; but Louis's eye was still on the +mysterious fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and +smoking his pipe. "I do not think he sees or hears us," said Louis to +himself, "but I think I'll manage to bring him over soon"--and he set +himself busily to work to scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and +soon began to strike fire with his knife and flint. + +"What are you about, Louis?" asked Hector. "Lighting a fire." + +"It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure." + +"I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome +fisherman." + +"And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking +in the bushes of the island." + +"Pooh, pooh! Hec.:--there are no savages. I am weary of this +place--anything is better than this horrible solitude." And Louis fanned +the flame into a rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till +it soared up among the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, +and rubbed his hands gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the +island, and a few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over +the surface of the calm lake. + +Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel +lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were +chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, +also faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn +mocassins, sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis's old raft, and gazed +with a keen eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A +few rapid interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois +of the Lower Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and +English by Louis. + +A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried +out--"Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon." + +"Oui! oui!"--with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw +himself into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father's friend and +old lumbering comrade. + +"Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,--and Hector, in his turn, +received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + +"Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade +here at the shore of the Rice Lake?--oh! what a joyful meeting!" + +Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they +live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold +Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + +The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped +for want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + +"What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have +outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob +Morelle--hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,--those are the things to +harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish--eh! mes enfans, is +it not so?" + +Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from +their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the +society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down +to the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper +seemed moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and +with one of his national asseverations, declared "That la bonne fille +should not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage +wretches. Yes, he, her father's old friend, would go up the river and +bring her back in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the +wigwams." + +"It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today," said Hector. "Come +home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit." + +"No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, +and there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still +standing,--the Trapper's Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will +go off to the island and look for it." + +"No need for that," replied Louis, "for though I can tell you the old +place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a +boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own +nearer at hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder +hill. So come with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to lie +upon." + +"And you have all these, boys!" said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, +as they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green +corn. The old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. "Ha! +here is old Wolfe too," as the dog roused himself from the hearth and +gave one of his low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and +instead of going out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie +for hours dozing before the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the +loving hand that used to pat his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and +pillow his great head upon her lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws +upon her shoulders, while he licked her hands and face; but she was +gone, and the Indian girl was gone, and the light of the shanty had gone +with them. Old Wolfe seemed dying of sorrow. + +That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short +Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings +over, and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + +"And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?" + +"At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now +since we left home, three summers ago." + +"Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been +absent," said the old "Now I know the distance through the woods, for I +have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as +the bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles--no, nor that +either." + +The boys opened their eyes. "Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet +to us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles +or more." + +"I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember +when I was out on the St. John's, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I +was well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we +parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole +eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, +just in a circle, because, d'ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me +astray the whole time." + +"Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?" asked Louis, with a sly +glance at Hector. + +"Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then." +And old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to +recount the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis's edition +of the roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old +Jacob's long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, +all tagged on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not +sorry when the old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, +at last stretched himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up +from the canoe, and soon was soundly sleeping. + +The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his +slumber, which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up +a good fire, which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour +was not unwelcome, he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on +the coals for his breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis +wakened. + +"Mes enfans," said Jacob, "I have been turning over in my mind about +your sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river +alone without any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a +suspicious people, they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to +expect treachery in others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the +white men have not always kept good faith with them, which I take to be +the greater shame, as they have God's laws to guide and teach them to +be true and just in their dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have +not, the more's the pity. Now, d'ye see, if the Indians see two stout +lads with me, they will say to themselves, there may be more left +behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I go to the camp alone; and, God +willing, I will bring back your sister, or die in the attempt. I shall +not go single-handed; see, I have here scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder +and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a sin and a shame to tempt these +poor wretches to their own destruction; it makes fiends of them at +once." + +It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old +Jacob to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was +firm, and would not be moved from his purpose. + +"Look you, boys," he said, "if I do not return by the beginning of the +rice harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; +then I would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they +do not respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. +In such case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out _[FN: Log +canoe.]_ will do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the +rapids; _[FN: Crook's Rapids.]_ make a portage there; but as your +craft is too weighty to carry far, e'en leave her and chop out another, +and go down to the Falls; _[FN: Heeley's Falls, on the Trent.]_ +then, if you do not like to be at any further trouble, you may make out +your journey to the Bay _[FN: Bay Quinte.]_ on foot, coasting along +the river; there you will fall in with settlers who know old Jacob +Morelle--aye, and your two fathers--and they will put you in the way of +returning home. If I were to try ever so to put you on the old Indian +trail in the woods, though I know it myself right well, you might be +lost, and maybe never return home again. I leave my traps and my rifle +with you; I shall not need them: if I come back I may claim the things; +if not, they are yours. So now I have said my say, had my _talk_, as the +Indians say. Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who alone can bring +this matter to a safe issue." And the old man devoutly kneeled down, +and prayed for a blessing on his voyage and on those he was leaving; and +then hastened down to the beach, and the boys, with full hearts, watched +the canoe till it was lost to their sight on the wide waters of the +lake. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran." + DRYDEN. + +What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the +Indians roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading +town. Those glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only +of them remains to some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five +years ago, shadowing the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have +disappeared, but the green emerald turf that they once shaded still +remains. The wild rushing river still pours down its resistless spring +floods, but its banks have been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans +its rapid waters. It has seen the destruction of two log-bridges, +but this new, substantial, imposing structure bids fair to stand from +generation to generation. The Indian regards it with stupid wonder: he +is no mechanic; his simple canoe of birch bark is his only notion of +communication from one shore to another. The towns-people and country +settlers view it with pride and satisfaction, as a means of commerce and +agricultural advantage. That lonely hill, from which Catharine viewed +the rapid-flowing river by moonlight, and marvelled at its beauty and +its power, is now the Court-house Hill, the seat of justice for the +district,--a fine, substantial edifice; its shining roof and pillared +portico may be seen from every approach to the town. That grey village +spire, with its groves of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! +those trees that embower it, once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder +scattered groups of neat white cottages, each with its garden of flowers +and fruit, are spread over what was once an open plain, thinly planted +with poplar, oaks, and pine. See, there is another church; and nearer, +towards the west end of the town, on that fine slope, stands another, +and another. That sound that falls upon the ear is not the rapids of the +river, but the dash of mill wheels and mill dams, worked by the waters +of that lovely winding brook which has travelled far through woods and +deep forest dingles to yield its tribute to the Otonabee. There is the +busy post-office, on the velvet carpet of turf; a few years, yes, even +a few years ago, that spot was a grove of trees. The neat log building +that stood then alone there, was inhabited by the Government Agent, now +Colonel Macdonald, and groups of Indians might be seen congregated on +the green, or reposing under the trees, forming meet subjects for the +painter's pencil, for he knew them well, and was kind to them. + +The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting +lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple +wares of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe +to sell his fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his +intercourse with his white brethren has made him consider necessary +to his comforts, to supply wants which have now become indispensable, +before undreamed of. He traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks +round upon dwellings, and gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which +he can neither obtain nor imitate; and feels his spirit lowered--he is +no more a people--the tide of intellect has borne him down, and swept +his humble wigwam from the earth. He, too, is changing: he now dwells, +for the most part, in villages, in houses that cannot be moved away at +his will or necessity; he has become a tiller of the ground, his +hunting expeditions are prescribed within narrow bounds, the forest is +disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian must also yield to +circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he murmurs in secret; +but his voice is low, it is not heard; he has no representative in the +senate to take interest in his welfare, to plead in his behalf. He is +anxious, too, for the improvement of his race: he gladly listens to the +words of life, and sees with joy his children being brought up in the +fear and nurture of the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own blood +going forth on the mission of love to other distant tribes; he is proud +of being a Christian; and if there be some that still look back to the +freedom of former years, and talk of "the good old times," when they +wandered free as the winds and waters through those giant woods, they +are fast fading away. A new race is rising up, and the old hunter will +soon become a being unknown in Canada. + +There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy +bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), +looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. +The Indians called it "the white girl's rest," for it was there that +Catharine delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to +sing her snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile's +prayer, unheard and unseen. + +The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart +the waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on +the water, the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the +lodges came softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with +the spoils of a successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and +crackling, sending up their light columns of thin blue smoke among the +trees; and now a goodly portion of venison is roasting on the forked +sticks before the fires. Each lodge has its own cooking utensils. That +jar embedded in the hot embers contains sassafras tea, an aromatic +beverage, in which the squaws delight when they are so fortunate as to +procure a supply. This has been brought from the Credit, far up in the +west, by a family who have come down on a special mission from some +great chief to his brethren on the Otonabee, and the squaws have cooked +some in honour of the guests. That pot that sends up such a savoury +steam is venison pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you choose to +give the Indian mess that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and herbs. +Those tired hounds that lay stretched before the fire have been out, and +now they enjoy the privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, +and receive withal an occasional reproof from the squaws, if they +approach their wishful noses too close to the tempting viands. + +The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls +are playing or rolling on the grass; "The Snow-bird" is seated on +the floor of the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she +confines in links by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine +is working mocassins beside her;--a dark shadow falls across her work +from the open tent door--an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from +one of the women makes Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, +silent, pale, and motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands +Indiana--a gleam of joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. +Amazement and delight at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment +deprives Catharine of the power of speech; then terror for the safety of +her friend takes place of her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of +the angry tones of the Indian woman's voice, and throws her arms about +Indiana as if to shield her from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome +in her arms. + +"Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?" + +"To free you, and then die," was the soft low tremulous answer. "Follow +me." Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the +young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the +design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating +heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; +it was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor +reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + +The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude +of submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the +lodge; but she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who +starting to their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from +danger, and sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for +what purpose. + +"To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father," was the meek reply. +"May the daughter of the Bald Eagle's enemy speak to her great father?" + +"Say on," was the brief reply, "the Bald Eagle's ears are open." + +"The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the +father of his people," replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. +"The Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on." + +"The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the +eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief +slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them +for the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of +his enemies save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the +grand-daughter of the Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy +that is not afraid to raise the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in +battle. The young girl's mother was a _brave."_ She paused, while her +proud eye was fixed on the face of her aged auditor. He nodded assent, +and she resumed, while a flush of emotion kindled her pale cheek and +reddened her lips,-- + +"The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the +hatchet and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her +heart was lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I +will revenge my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her +heart burned within her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, +the Great Spirit was about my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have +fled, for an arrow was in her flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took +her, they brought her down the great river to the council hill, they +bound her with thongs and left her to die. She prayed, and the Great +Spirit heard her prayer and sent her help. The white man came; his heart +was soft; he unbound her, he gave water to cool her hot lips, he led her +to his lodge. The white squaw (and she pointed to Catharine) was there, +she bound up her wounds, she laid her on her own bed, she gave her meat +and drink, and tended her with love. She taught her to pray to the Good +Spirit, and told her to return good for evil, to be true and just, kind +and merciful. The hard heart of the young girl became soft as clay when +moulded for the pots and she loved her white sister and brothers, and +was happy. The Bald Eagle's people came when my white brothers were at +peace, they found a trembling fawn within the lodge, they led her away, +they left tears and loneliness where joy and peace had been. The Mohawk +squaw could not see the hearth of her white brothers desolate; she took +the canoe, she to the lodge of the great father of his tribe, and she +says to him, 'Give back the white squaw to her home on the Rice Lake, +and take in her instead the rebellious daughter of the Ojebwa's enemy, +to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the knife or the +tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of the great +chief.'" She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and bowing +down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + +There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and +said:-- + +"Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken +well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall +be restored to her brother's lodge--but thou remainest. I have spoken." + +Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and +remained weeping--how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in +her turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief +turned a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was +weary--he was impatient of further excitement--he coldly motioned to +them to withdraw; and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all +that had taken place since that sad day when Catharine was taken from +her home. While her heart was joyful at the prospect of her own release, +it was clouded with fears for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + +"They will condemn me to a cruel death," said Indiana, "but I can suffer +and die for my white sister." + +That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside +Catharine; but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own +heart in the still watches of the night--it seemed as if a new life had +been infused within her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; +the energies of her mind had been awakened, ripened into maturity as +it were, and suddenly expanded. When all the inmates of the lodges were +profoundly sleeping, Catharine arose,--a sudden thought had entered into +her mind, and she hesitated not to put her design into execution. There +was no moon, but a bright arch of light spanned the forest to the north; +it was mild and soft as moonlight, but less bright, and cast no shadow +across her path; it showed her the sacred tent of the widow of the +murdered Mohawk. With noiseless step she lifted aside the curtain of +skins that guarded it, and stood at the entrance. Light as was her step, +it awakened the sleeper; she raised herself on her arm and looked up +with a dreamy and abstracted air as Catharine, stretching forth her hand +in tones low and tremulous, thus addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:-- + +"The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of +thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he +is angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy--the blood of thy +murdered husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words +that he commands." + +She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless +step, and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat +as though it would burst its way through her bosom. What had she +done?--what dared? She had entered the presence of that terrible woman +alone, at the dead hour of night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous +words to that strange being whom even her own people hardly dared to +approach uncalled-for! Sick with terror at the consequences of her +temerity, Catharine cast her trembling arms about the sleeping Indian +girl, and hiding her head in her bosom, wept and prayed till sleep came +over her wearied spirit. It was late when she awoke. She was alone: the +lodge was empty. A vague fear seized her: she hastily arose to seek her +friend. It was evident that some great event was in preparation. The +Indian men had put on the war-paint, and strange and ferocious eyes +were glancing from beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was driven in the +centre of the cleared space in front of the chief's lodge: there, bound, +she beheld her devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm unshaken +countenance, she stood. There was no sign of woman's fear in her fixed +dark eye, which quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men +who stood round her, armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. +Her thoughts seemed far away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, +wandering in that happy land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; +or, inspired with the new hope which had been opened to her, she was +looking to Him who has promised a crown of life to such as believe in +His name. She saw not the look of agony with which Catharine regarded +her; and the poor girl, full of grief, sunk down at the foot of a +neighbouring tree, and burying her face between her knees, wept and +prayed--oh! how fervently! A hope crept to her heart--even while the +doom of Indiana seemed darkest--that some good might yet accrue from +her visit to the wigwam of the Great Medicine squaw. She knew that the +Indians have great belief in omens, and warnings, and spirits, both good +and evil; she knew that her mysterious appearance in the tent of the +Mohawk's widow would be construed by her into spiritual agency; and her +heart was strengthened by this hope. Yet just now there seems little +reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is given, the war-dance is +begun--first slow, and grave, and measured; now louder, and quicker, and +more wild become both sound and movement. But why is it hushed again? +See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an old weather-beaten +man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and approaches the area +of the lodge. + +The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and +death-song are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance +of the captives. The chief points to Catharine--she is free: his white +brother may take her--she is his. But the Indian law of justice must +take its course; the condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa +chief, must die. In vain were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and +beads for the women, with powder and shot, laid before the chief: the +arrows of six warriors were fitted to the string, and again the dance +and song commenced, as if, like the roll of the drum and clangour of +the trumpet, it were necessary to the excitement of strong and powerful +feelings, and the suppression of all tenderer emotions. + +And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, +rising above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek +became pale: it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the +death-song of the captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she +stands unmoved, with eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart-- + + "In still, but brave despair." + +Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and +streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of +the Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed +by her sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which +dark stains are visible--it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed by +her on that day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the +name of the Great Spirit she claims the captive girl--the last of that +devoted tribe--to be delivered over to her will. Her right to this +remnant of her murdered husband's family is acknowledged. A knife is +placed in her hand, while a deafening yell of triumph bursts from the +excited squaws, as this their great high-priestess, as they deemed her, +advanced to the criminal. But it was not to shed the heart's blood of +the Mohawk girl, but to severe the thongs that bound her to the deadly +stake, for which that glittering blade was drawn, and to bid her depart +in peace whithersoever she would go. + +Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: "At the dead +of night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before +mine eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set +free the last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed +by my hand and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I +did this my path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the +better land and be at rest if I did this good deed." She then laid +her hands on the head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping +herself in the dark mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent +once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie."--_Scotch Ballad._ + +Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so +full of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa +chief, and besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before +him, and this time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing +the beads and cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the +grand-daughter of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old +man was not insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by +the devoted Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault +by graciously offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in +marriage to one of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but +the young girl modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her +heart yearned for those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who +had taught her to look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and +a better state of being. She said, "She would go with her white sister, +and pray to God to bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her +to do." + +It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the +exercise of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social +happiness. The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of +violence, seemed disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge +was now filled with mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and +dancing. A covenant of peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob +and the chief, who bade Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth +they should be free to hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of +the lake, whenever they desired to do so, "he the Bald Eagle had said +so." + +On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; +the canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A +supply of parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian +chief for the voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might +not suffer, from want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to +the lodge of the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. "The +Snow-bird" was sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with +tears at parting with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft +and playful as the tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her +arm. She did not let Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, +the work of her own hands,--bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine +pieces and strung in fanciful patterns, _[FN: Appendix M]_ mocassins +richly wrought, and tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have +graced a lady's work-table, so rare was their workmanship. + +Just as they were about to step into the canoe "the Snow-bird" +reappeared, bearing a richly worked bark box, "From the Great Medicine," +she said in a low voice, "To the daughter of the Mohawk _brave._" The +box contained a fine tunic, soft as a lady's glove, embroidered and +fringed, and a fillet of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings +and breast of the war-bird, as shoulder ornaments. It was a token of +reconciliation and good-will worthy of a generous heart. + +The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips +reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said +in her native tongue, "Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, +and pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the +spirit-land." + +With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in +being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the +events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she +longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to +that kind old man's plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the +arms of their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that +I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!--in +the shelter of that dear mother's arms whom she now pined for with a +painful yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. +But in spite of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt +for the night some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern +bank of the Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild +cherries, hawthorns and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by +alder and cranberry bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the +little eminence; this creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, +through which the hunters sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut +to the lower part of the lake near Crook's Rapids. To this creek old +Jacob steered his light craft, and bidding the girls collect a few dry +sticks and branches for an evening fire on the sheltered side of the +little bank, he soon lighted the pile into a cheerful blaze by the aid +of birch bark, the hunter's tinder--a sort of fungus that is found in +the rotten oak and maple-trees--and a knife and flint; he then lifted +the canoe, and having raised it on its side, by means of two small +stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then spread down his buffalo +robe on the dry grass. "There is a tent fit for a queen to sleep under, +mes cheres filles," he said, eyeing his arrangements for their night +shelter with great satisfaction. + +He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of +splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block +of limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob +opened his wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush +table with large basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed +was unusual on a hunter's table. He was too old a forester to care how +his food was dished, so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + +Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away +the time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue +heavens were studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless +hosts deep deep down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of +fireflies lighted up the dark recesses of the forest's gloom. High +in the upper air the hollow booming of the night-hawk was heard at +intervals, and the wild cry of the night-owl from a dead branch, +shouting to its fellow, woke the silence of that lonely river scene. + +The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe +or hummed some French voyageur's song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe +soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed +on the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair +mingling with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a +lovely pair--one fair as morning, the other dark as night. + +How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early +song of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes +upon the river, like a flock of sheep at rest--the tinkling sound of +the heavy dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red +squirrel, how lightly he runs along that fallen trunk--how furtively he +glances with his sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan haunts! +Hark! there is a rustling among the leaves--what strange creature works +its way to the shore? A mud turtle--it turns, and now is trotting along +the little sandy ridge to some sunny spot, where, half buried, it may +lie unseen near the edge of the river. See that musk-rat, how boldly he +plunges into the stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems the current +till he gains in safety the sedges on the other side. + +What gurgling sound is that?--it attracts the practised ear of the old +hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle +of the stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?--it is a noble +stag. Look at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so +gallantly; see how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear +in those lonely solitudes--he has never heard the crack of the hunter's +rifle--he heeds not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow +rankles in his neck, and the crimson flood dyes the water around him--he +turns, but it is only to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old +hunter's bow; and now the noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is +rapidly launched by the hand of the Indian girl--her eye flashes with +the excitement--her whole soul is in the chase--she stands up in the +canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded buck, while a shower of blows +are dealt upon his head and neck with the paddle. Catharine buries her +face in her hands--she cannot bear to look upon the sufferings of the +noble animal. She will never make a huntress--her heart is cast in too +soft a mould. See they have towed the deer ashore, and Jacob is in +all his glory,--the little squaw is an Indian at heart--see with +what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great business +is completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the +canoe--they wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine's +summons to eat her breakfast. + +The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is +also rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those +glorious rays--the whole earth seems wakening into new life--the dew +has brightened every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup--the pines and +balsams give out their resinous fragrance--the aspens flutter and dance +in the morning breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the +stream--the shores become lower and flatter--the trees less lofty and +more mossy--the stream expands and wide beds of rushes spread out on +either side--what beds of snowy water-lilies--how splendid the rose +tint of those perseicarias that glow so brightly in the morning sun--the +rushes look like a green meadow, but the treacherous water lies deep +below their grassy leaves--the deer delights in these verdant aquatic +fields, and see what flocks of red-wings rise from among them as the +canoe passes near--their bright shoulder-knots glance like flashes of +lightning in the sun-beams. + +This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, +half choked and killed with grey moss and lichens--those straggling +alders and black ash look melancholy--they are like premature old age, +grey-headed youths. That island divides the channel of the river--the +old man takes the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the +broad Rice Lake, and Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the +shanty rising among the trees--one after another the islands steal out +into view--the capes, and bays, and shores of the northern side are +growing less distinct, Yon hollow bay, where the beaver has hidden till +now, backed by that bold sweep of hills that look in the distance as if +only covered with green ferns, with here and there a tall tree, stately +as a pine or oak--that is the spot where Louis saw the landing of the +Indians--now a rising village--Gores' Landing. On yon lofty hill now +stands the village church, its white tower rising amongst the trees +forms a charming object from the lake, and there a little higher up, not +far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural cottages--one of these +belong to the spirited proprietor of the village that bears his name. +That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the right, is Colonel +Brown's, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; but silence +and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + +Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of +churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. _[FN: Appendix N.]_ The +Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, +and Catharine's eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to +herself the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her +gladness she seizes the old man's rugged hand and kisses it, and flings +her arms about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the +canoe has touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds +herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such +moments--how few we have in life--they are created from our very +sorrows--without our cares our joys would be less lively; but we have +no time to moralize--Catharine flies with the speed of a young fawn, to +climb the steep cliff-like shoulder of that steep bank, and now, out of +breath, stands at the threshold of her log-house--how neat and nice +it looks compared with the Indians' tents--the little field of corn is +green and flourishing--there is Hector's axe in a newly-cut log--it is +high noon--the boys ought to have been there taking their mid-day +meal, but the door is shut. Catharine lifts the wooden latch, and steps +in--the embers are nearly burned out, to a handful of grey ashes--old +Wolfe is not there--all is silent--and Catharine sits down to still the +beating of her heart and await the coming up of her slower companions, +and gladdens her mind with the hope that her brother and Louis will soon +be home--her eye wanders over every old familiar object--all things +seem much as she had left them, only the maize is in the ear and the top +feather waves gracefully with the summer breeze--it promises an abundant +crop; but that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the young +planters--it was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the +field--to those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather +into barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls +busied themselves in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked +away over the hills to search for the boys, and it was not long before +he returned with Hector and Louis. + +I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled +with the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved +cousin; or I might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky +cheek of the young Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black +eyes, owed its origin to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by +her white brother. Nor will we say whose hand held hers so long in his +while Catharine related the noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the +perils encountered by the devoted Indiana--whose eyes were moistened +with tears as the horrors of that fearful trial were described--or who +stole out alone over the hills, and sat him down in the hush and silence +of the summer night to think of the acts of heroism displayed by that +untaught Indian girl, and to dream a dream of youthful love; but with +these things, my young readers, we have nothing to do. + +"And now, my children," said old Jacob, looking round the little +dwelling, "have you made up your minds to live and die here on the +shores of this lake, or do you desire again to behold your father's +home? Do your young hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?" +"After our fathers' home!" was Louis's emphatic reply. "After the home +of our childhood!" was Catharine's earnest answer. Hector's lips echoed +his sister's words, while a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan +stranger; but her timid eye was raised to his young face with a trusting +look, as she would have said. "Thy home shall be my home, thy God my +God." + +"Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike +the Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine +hills. It will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way." + +"For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret," said +Hector. "It would be a glorious place for a settlement--all that one +could desire--hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I +will try and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come +and settle hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, +especially now we are friends with the Indians." + +With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young +folks laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, +packed up such portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with +full hearts sat down to take their last meal in their home--in that home +which sheltered them so long--and then, with one accord, they knelt down +upon its hearth, so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer +to Him who had preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and +then they journeyed forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, +however, of their little band they left behind: this was the faithful +old dog Wolfe. He had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only +a few days before Catharine's return he had crept to the seat she was +wont to occupy, and there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without +great regret, beneath the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope +near the corn-field. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "I will arise, and go to my father."--_New Testament_. + +It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is +heard, as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads +to Maxwell and Louis Perron's little clearing; the dark shadows are +lengthening that those wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an +oasis in the vast forest desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, +has hewed for himself in the wilderness. The little flock are feeding +among the blackened stumps of the uncleared chopping; those timbers have +lain thus untouched for two long years; the hand was wanting that should +have given help in logging and burning them up. The wheat is ripe for +the sickle, and the silken beard of the corn is waving like a fair +girl's tresses in the evening breeze. The tinkling fall of the cold +spring in yonder bank falls soothingly on the ear. Who comes from +that low-roofed log cabin to bring in the pitcher of water, that pale, +careworn, shadowy figure that slowly moves along the green pasture, as +one without hope or joy; her black hair is shared with silver, her cheek +is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, it looks as though the +light might be seen through if she held it towards the sun? It is the +heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. Her heart has been +pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the children of her +love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, and with +cheerful voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be lingering +on that pale cheek,--yet the premature furrows on that broad, sunburnt, +manly brow speak, too, of inward care? It is the father of Hector and +Catharine. Those two fine, healthy boys, in homespun blouses, that are +talking so earnestly, as they lean across the rail fence of the little +wheat field, are Kenneth and Donald; their sickles are on their arms; +they have been reaping. They hear the sudden barking of Bruce and +Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see what causes the agitation they +display. + +An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he +casts down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old +French ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, +but starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. +"Ha, Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this +way." The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + +"How is ma chere mere, and the young ones?" asked the old man, in a +husky voice--his kind heart was full. "Can you receive me, and those I +have with me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we +travellers in the bush are no wise nice." + +"The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see +you, Jacob. How many are ye in all?" + +"There are just four, beside myself,--young people; I found them where +they had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to +come with me." + +The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew +his faded blue bonnet over his eyes. "Jacob, did ye ken that we lost +our eldest bairns, some three summers since?" he faltered, in a broken +voice. + +"The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand," +said the trapper. + +"Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the +glory," ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from +his head; "and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not +to have seen this day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill +you." + +In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken +idea that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, +have seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded +cheek of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright +sparkle, you would have said that joy does not kill. + +"But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?" + +Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old +Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his +cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his +father's cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and +sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector +and Catharine to their father. + +"But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart +upon that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het +knees, her long raven hair shading her features as with a veil," +asked the Highlander Maxwell, pointing as he spoke' to the spot where, +unnoticed and unsharing in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian +girl. There was no paternal embrace for her, no tender mother's kiss +imprinted on that dusky cheek and pensive brow--she was alone and +desolate, in the midst of that scene of gladness. + +"It is my Indian sister," said Catharine, "she also must be your child;" +and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the +reluctant girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and +cherish the young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + +I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble +dwelling, or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of +their lost brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + +Time passes on--years, long years have gone by since the return of +the lost children to their homes, and many changes have those years +effected. The log-houses have fallen to decay--a growth of young pines, +a waste of emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part +of the enclosure, now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement--no +trace or record remains of the first breakers of the bush, another +race occupy the ground. The traveller as he passes along on that smooth +turnpike road that leads from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence +to Gore's Landing, may notice a green waste by the road-side on either +hand, and fancy that thereabouts our Canadian Crusoes' home once +stood--he sees the lofty wood-crowned hill, and sees in spring-time, +for in summer it is hidden by the luxuriant foliage, the little forest +creek, and he may if thirsty, taste of the pure fresh icy water, as it +still wells out from a spring in the steep bank, rippling through the +little cedar-trough that Louis Perron placed there for the better speed +of his mother when filling her water jug. All else is gone. And what +wrought the change?--a few words will suffice to tell. Some travelling +fur merchants brought the news to Donald Maxwell, that a party of +Highlanders had made a settlement above Montreal, and among them were +some of his kindred. The old soldier resolved to join them, and it was +not hard to prevail upon his brother-in-law to accompany him, for they +were all now weary of living so far from their fellow-men; and bidding +farewell to the little log-houses at Cold Springs, they now journeyed +downwards to the new settlement, where they were gladly received, their +long experience of the country making their company a most valuable +acquisition to the new colonists. + +Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and +cleared and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, +now a fine industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a +candidate for baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the +altar his newly baptized bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not +sufficiently skilled in the laws of their church to tell how the +difficulty of nearness of kin was obviated, but they were married on the +same day as Hector and Indiana, and lived a happy and prosperous life; +and often by their fireside would delight their children by recounting +the history of their wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +APPENDIX A.--_Preface._ + +Page vii. + +Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of +August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent +twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her +wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from +which we condense the following statements:-- + +It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, +she went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on +attempting to return she became separated from her companions, who +returned to her mother's, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her +at home. Several of her neighbours searched for her during the night, +without success. The search was continued during Sunday, Monday, and +Tuesday, by some fifty or sixty individuals, and although her tracks, +and those of a dog which accompanied her, were discovered, no tidings of +the girl were obtained. A general sympathy for the afflicted widow and +her lost daughter was excited, and notwithstanding the busy season of +the year, great numbers from Windsor and the neighbouring townships of +Brompton, Shipton, Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, +Stoke, and Dudswell, turned out with provisions and implements for +camping in the woods, in search of the girl, which was kept up without +intermission for about fourteen days, when it was generally given up, +under the impression that she must have died, either from starvation, or +the inclemency of the weather, it having rained almost incessantly for +nearly a week of the time. On the 3lst her brother returned home from +Massachusetts, and with two or three others renewed the search, but +returned the second day, and learned to their great joy that the lost +one had found her way home the evening previous. + +On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow +Campbell, to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was +found, as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but +quite rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her +absence. From her story the following particulars were gathered:-- + +When first lost she went directly from home down "Open Brooke," to a +meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, +which she mistook for what is called the "_Oxias_ opening," a mile +distant in the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she +was lost, and having heard that lost persons might be guided by the +sun, she undertook to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she +directed her steps towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking +it for "Open Brooke," and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east +direction (her way home was due north) seven or eight miles till she +came to the great Hay-meadow in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, +and on Monday morning directed her course to, and thence down, the South +Branch in the great Meadow. + +After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was +searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over +the meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, +occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the +junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight +miles from home. + +For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a +circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the +morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties +of men, and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of +people were in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no +sound of trumpet, or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay +by a brook, early on Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. +Thinking the gun to have been fired not more than half a mile distant, +she said she "screamed and run" to the place from whence she supposed +the noise came, but found nothing. Early in the day, however, she came +to the camp where this gun was fired, but not until after its occupants +had left to renew their search for her. This camp was about four miles +from the great meadow, where she spent the Sabbath previous. There she +found a fire, dried her clothes, and found a partridge's gizzard, which +she cooked and ate, and laid down and slept, remaining about twenty-four +hours. + +In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she +visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon +trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or +four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes +making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the +drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered +much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The +last week she said she had got "toughened," and did not shiver. When +first lost she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, +except choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her +dog, which remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, +which she ate greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her +health; and for the last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood +sorrel. While the dog remained with her, she constantly shared her food +with him, but said she was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble +to find him food. + +On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction +with the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could +not ford the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a +little above its junction with the south branch, and following down +the stream, she found herself in the clearing, near Moor's Mill. Thence +directing her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale's, about a +mile from her mother's, at six o'clock, having walked five miles in two +hours, and probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the +next day, when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost +as one raised from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen +and lacerated; but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with +the exception of two small rents. + +Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she +was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she +felt disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not +discovering any new tracks, that the people had given over searching +for her, she was greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she +was strongly inclined to give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of +seeing her mother stimulated her to make one more effort to reach home, +which proved successful. When visited, she was in a state of feverish +excitement and general derangement of the system, and greatly emaciated, +with a feeble voice, but perfectly sane and collected. + +It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly +clad, could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such +severe storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very +strange that she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those +in search of her, sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow +their tracks home, and not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or +been seen by any of the hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + +A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, +is the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American +papers, the "Wild Man of the far West." From time to time, these details +approach the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in +a state of destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this +one, who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, +and then either forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of +the beholder's brain. But it appears that he was, in March, 1850, +encountered by Mr. Hamilton, of Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. +The wild man was, likewise, chasing his prey. A herd of cattle fled past +Mr. Hamilton and his party, in an agony of terror, pursued by a giant, +bearing a dreadful semblance to humanity. His face and shoulders were +enveloped with long streaming hair, his body was entirely hirsute, his +progression was by great jumps of twelve or thirteen feet at a leap. The +creature turned and gazed earnestly on the hunters, and fled into the +depths of the forest, where he was lost to view. His foot-prints were +thirteen inches long. Mr. Hamilton published the description of the +savage man in the _Memphis Inquirer_. Afterwards several planters +deposed to having, at times, for many years, seen this appearance. All +persons generally agreed that it was a child that had been lost in the +woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now grown to meridian strength, in a +solitary state. Thus the possibility of an European child living, even +unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar to the inhabitants of the +vast American continent. Although we doubt that any human creature would +progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar to the human instinct. +It is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas is, in reality, some +species of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Page 72.--_"where Wolf Tower now stands."_ + +The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to +purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a +_belle vue,_ or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his mind +from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him to +the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another +house in the district. + + +APPENDIX C. + +Page 113.--_"... as civilization advances."_ + +Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, +wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, +and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the +ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is +a thing of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, +so changed is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow +cornfields now meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to +the less frequented depths of the forest. + +From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep +valleys, and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the +Rice Lake Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be +marred by the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; +and many of those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste +and refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature +had left so fair. + +APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_. + +"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance +which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were +often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had +to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we +left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as +Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father +on his ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen +over, we left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour +and pork; and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from +the white settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for +five days in succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to +shoot or trap anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no +means of procuring any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet +deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of the trees falling all about us, +and cracking with the weight of the snow. + +"Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have +been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, +that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak +they could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They +could only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and +old mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad +except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without +food, the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my +grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see +the starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager +looks!--the children would cry for something to eat! My poor mother +would heave bitter sighs, of despair, the tears falling profusely +from her cheeks as she kissed us! Wood, though in plenty, could not be +obtained on account of the feebleness of our limbs. My father would +at times draw near the fire and rehearse some prayer to the gods. It +appeared to him that there was no way of escape; the men, women, and +children, dying; some of them were speechless, the wigwam was cold and +dark, and covered with snow! + +"On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; +he soon awoke, and said to me: 'My son, the good Spirit is about to +bless us this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east +walking on the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two +beavers about nine o'clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me +to the river, and we will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.' I +saw that his countenance beamed with delight and hope; he was full of +confidence. I put on my mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering +along behind him about half a mile. Having made a fire near the river, +where there was an air-hole through which the beaver had come up during +the night, my father tied a gun to a stump with the muzzle towards the +air-hole; he also tied a string to the trigger, and said, 'Should you +see the beaver rise pull the string, and you will kill it.' I stood by +the fire, with the string in my hand; I soon heard the noise occasioned +by the blow of his tomahawk; he had killed a beaver and brought it to +me. As he laid it down, he said, 'Then the great Spirit will not let +us die here;' adding, as before, 'if you see the beaver rise, pull +the string;' and he left me. I soon saw the nose of one, but I did not +shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the trigger, and off the +gun went. I could not see for some moments for the smoke. My father +ran towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side by side; then, +pointing to the sun,--'Do you see the sun?' he said; 'the great Spirit +informed me that we should kill these two about this time in the +morning. We will yet see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let us go home, +and see if our people are yet alive.' We arrived just in time to save +them from death. Since which we have visited the same spot the year the +missionaries came among us. + +"My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot +where we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who +have perished in this way far up in the woods."--_Life of George Copway, +written by himself_, p. 44. + +APPENDIX E. + +Page 184.--"_... on first deciding that it was a canoe._" + +The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel +in common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was +hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; +but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its +excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, +and its launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by +feasting and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. +Possibly the birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily +constructed, and needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; +but it was too frail to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable +to injuries. + +The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland +waters, were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their +arrow-heads were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and +inserted in a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; +and blunt wooden ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and +small game. + +APPENDIX F. + +Page 195.--_"... the Christian mind revolts with horror."_ + +There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong +feeling in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a +concentration of all the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and +wide along the northern banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, +to be called by one name, and united in one purpose--their general +improvement. To this end, one of the most influential of their chiefs, +John Jones, of Dover Sound, offered to give up to his Indian brethren, +free of all cost, a large tract of unceded land, that they might be +gathered together as one nation. + +In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from +lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it +was proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys +could be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for +aid in establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general +feeling of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at +Owen's Sound. At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + +There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of +the oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers +some idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:-- + +"Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from +the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your +children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that +require you here. + +"Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our +present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of +ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at +a true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and +our descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of +peace, health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas +and Ottawas are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often +passed sleepless nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These +nations, I am proud to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my +bone; and for them, if needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. +Brothers, you see my heart." _[Here he held out a piece of white paper, +emblematical of a pure heart.]_ + +"Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout +Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place +_[query, too hot to hold you]_. The whites are kindling fires all round +you _[i.e. clearing land]_. + +"One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some +plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that +our dying fires may not go out, _i.e._ our people become extinct, but +may be kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any +portion of the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe +of peace, and live and die together, and see our children play and +be reared on the same spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and +because we love you, and feel for you, we propose this. + +"My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning" _[the speaker now pointed +with his finger towards the heavens]_, "look up and see the blue sky: +there are no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, +that when the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon +them. May he now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and +straight path for our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but +this morning I shake hands with you all, in my heart. + +"Brothers, this is all I have to say." + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX G. + +Page 213.--_"... and aimed a knife at his throat"_ + +The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some +sixty or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my +informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as +those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men. +My Indian narrator replied--"Indians, no Christians in those days, do +worse than that very few years ago,--do as bad now in far-west." + +The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together +in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. +The conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from +the Wesleyan Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of +Captain Anderson, whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore +on and about Anderson's Point, the renowned site of the great battle. +The war-weapon and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be +found in this vicinity. + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX H. + +Page 232.--_"This place she called Spooke Island"_ + +Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh +from the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury +their dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached +with reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, +rhus toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in +landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. + + +APPENDIX I. + +Page 253.--_"and nothing but fire."_ + +The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with +which fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. +Certainly, there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the +Indian names, approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of +the language of the East; such is "Mad-wa-osh," the music of the winds. + + +APPENDIX K. + +Page 272.--_"but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken."_ + +_From George Copway's Life._ + +Converted Indians are thus described in the "Life" of their literary +countryman, George Copway:-- + +_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a +tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and +Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for +an annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the +River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first +tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were +wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, +the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to +Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, +became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state +of heathenism and spiritual destitution. They collected a considerable +number together, and by rote and frequent repetitions, taught the first +principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and +with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed +to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils +attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to +work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage +of cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been +greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians. + +J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + +The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering +pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, +commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quinte; they resided on +Grape Island, in the Bay of Quinte, six miles from Belleville. +They resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and +agriculture. Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by +the Wesleyan Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, +a commodious chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, +shoemaker's shop and joiner's. There are upwards of 300 of these +Indians. + +The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary +interpreter. + +_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and +Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These +Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled +in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. +_[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling +of the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year +1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson's Point was built +and cultivated.]_ The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve +miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, +subdivided in 50-acre lots. + +Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow. + +Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The +Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of +them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, +enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + + +APPENDIX L. + +Page 282.--_"... that an outward manifestation of surprise."_ + +A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent +intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their +apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he +wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where +several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and +narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of +surprise by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired +to an adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and +was amused at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free +from his surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious +toy like a parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture +and amazement, but they did not choose to be entrapped into showing +surprise. This perfect command over the muscles of the face, and +the glance of the eye, is one of the remarkable traits in the +Indian character. The expression of the Indian face, if I may use so +paradoxical a term, consists in a want of expression--like the stillness +of dark deep water, beneath which no object is visible. APPENDIX M. + +Page 332.--_"bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung +in fanciful patterns."_ + +The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply +scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian +thorn, a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then +pierced with parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the +porcupine quills are inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the +surface of the bark. + +The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the +effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; +their attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and +angular; and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or +natural than those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect +produced is rich and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety +of dyes they contrive to give to this simple material, the porcupine +quills. The sinew of the deer, and some other animals, furnish the +Indian women with thread, of any degree of fineness or strength. The +wants of these simple folk are few, and those easily supplied by the +adaptation of such materials as they can command with ease, in their +savage state. + + +APPENDIX N. + +Page 339.--_"is Mount Ararat."_ + +Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly +two years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +***** This file should be named 8382.txt or 8382.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8382/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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DEDICATED + +TO THE CHILDREN OF THE SETTLERS + +ON + +THE RICE LAKE PLAINS, + +BY THEIR + +FAITHFUL FRIEND AND WELL-WISHER + +THE AUTHORESS. + +OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE, + +15_th Oct_ 1850 PREFACE + +IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any +narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the struggles of +isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. The distinctions +of pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind is engaged in the +contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the assaults of the gaunt +enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances have usually given +sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the most fortunate, to make +them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the chances of shipwreck, war, +wandering, or revolutions have cut off from home and hearth, and the +requisite supplies; not only from the thousand artificial comforts which +civilized society classes among the necessaries of life, but actually from +a sufficiency of "daily bread." + +Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor +seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of Defoe +as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means uncommon +in middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous for all who +build and plant in a wilderness, "cut off from humanity's reach?" Our +insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the inhabitants of +Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations of individuals +wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means generally known that +scarcely a summer passes over the colonists in Canada, without losses of +children from the families of settlers occurring in the vast forests of the +backwoods, similar to that on which the narrative of the Canadian Crusoes +is founded. Many persons thus lost have perished in the wilderness; and it +is to impress on the memory the natural resources of this country, by the +aid of interesting the imagination, that the author of the well-known and +popular work, "The Backwoods of Canada," has written the following pages. + +She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical +solution [Footnote: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.] of that provoking +enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, +namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day's toilsome march, +close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this +cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain +O'Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in his +lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity of the +forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is recorded in +the narrative of the "Escape of a young French Officer from the depot near +Peterborough during the Napoleon European war." He found himself thrice at +night within sight of the walls of the prison from which he had fled in the +morning, after taking fruitless circular walks of twenty miles. I do +not recollect the cause of such lost labour being explained in either +narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of the disaster in the +boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced knowledge, dearly +bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons who wander without +knowing the features and landmarks of a country, instinctively turn their +faces to the sun, and for that reason always travel in a circle, infallibly +finding themselves at night in the very spot from which they started in +the morning. The resources and natural productions of the noble colony of +Canada are but superficially known. An intimate acquaintance with its rich +vegetable and animal productions is most effectually made under the high +pressure of difficulty and necessity. Our writer has striven to interest +children, or rather young people approaching the age of adolescence, in the +natural history of this country, simply by showing them how it is possible +for children to make the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution +as forlorn as the wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who +would not care for the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and +classified technically in books of science, might remember their uses +and properties when thus brought practically before their notice as the +aliments of the famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive +feelings must perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home comforts +and all the ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their rising +families, in order to place them in a more independent position, it is well +if those young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what they are to +find in the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the fruits, and even +the minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has poured forth over that +wide land. + +The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, "The Backwoods of Canada, by +the Wife of an Emigrant Officer," published some years since by Mr. C. +Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many +editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity as +a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say that +the present is written in the same _naive_, charming style, with the +same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet and +gentle--author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who +ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her +further years of experience as a settler to the information of the +younger class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in the +productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the mightiest +adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest colony, unstained +with the corruption of convict population; where families of gentle blood +need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; where no one need beg, and +where any one may dig without being ashamed. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. + +LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE + +THE FIRST BREAKFAST + +CATHARINE FOUND BY THE OLD DOG + +WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE + +HECTOR BRINGING THE INDIAN GIRL + +KILLING WILD FOWL + +INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + +CATHARINE CARRIED OFF + +INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE + +INDIANA AT THE STAKE + +ATTACK ON THE DEER + +RETURN HOME THE + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O'er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash'd on the shore." + _Jacobite Song._ + +THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile +valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which were +clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of the hills +and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber trees of various +kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This beautiful and highly +picturesque valley is watered by many clear streams of pure refreshing +water, from whence the spot has derived its appropriate appellation of +"Cold Springs." At the time my little history commences, this now highly +cultivated spot was an unbroken wilderness,--all tut two small farms, where +dwelt the only occupiers of the soil,--which owned no other possessors than +the wandering hunting tribes of wild Indians, to whom the right of the +hunting grounds north of Rice Lake appertained, according to their forest +laws. + +To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among +cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds of +cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I speak of +the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now an important +port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo--if it contained even +a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and the wild and +picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village of Port Hope is +situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe of the settler. No +gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant produce of grain and +Canadian stores along the waters of that noble sheet of water; no steamer +had then furrowed its bosom with her iron wheels, bearing the stream of +emigration towards the wilds of our Northern and Western forests, there to +render a lonely trackless desert a fruitful garden. What will not time and +the industry of man, assisted by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? +To him be the glory and honour; for we are taught, that "without the Lord +build the city, their labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord +keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." + +But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the +acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement at +Cold Springs. + +Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the +famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the +praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle +Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick and +disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian widow in +the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he received much +kind attention from his excellent hostess and her family, which consisted +of a young man about his own age, and a pretty black-eyed lass not more +than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much occupied with other-lodgers--for +she kept a sort of boarding-house--that she had not much time to give to +Duncan, so that he was left a great deal to her son Pierre, and a little to +Catharine, her daughter. + +Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the +regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of +country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady and +increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the children +of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep regret that +they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan belonged was ordered +for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far convalescent as to be +pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas for poor Catharine! she now +found that parting with her patient was a source of the deepest sorrow to +her young and guileless heart; nor was Duncan less moved at the separation +from his gentle nurse. It might be for years, and it might be for ever, +he could not tell; but he could not tear himself away without telling the +object of his affections how dear she was to him, and to whisper a hope +that he might yet return one day to claim her as his bride; and Catharine, +weeping and blushing, promised to wait for that happy day, or to remain +single for his sake, while Pierre promised to watch over his friend's +interests and keep alive Catharine's love; for, said he, artlessly, "la +belle Catrine is pretty and lively, and may have many suitors before she +sees you again, mon ami." + +They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the +exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of our +young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, for +absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on +gratitude and esteem. + +Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet +distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his country, +enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return to Quebec +to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during that short +period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, lively-hearted Pierre, +was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and Catharine, who had no +relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with her brother and his wife, +and was living in some little settlement above Montreal with them. + +Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly +afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had +never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a good +deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been hunting +with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice Lake, and +he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds to a quiet +life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill pass between +the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan was of the same +opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare like his own +Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned for the hill +country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking possession of any +tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore Duncan agreed with his +brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a dwelling put up and some +ground prepared and "seeded down," and then to, return for their wives and +settle themselves down at once as farmers. Others had succeeded, had formed +little colonies, and become the heads of villages in due time; why should +not they? And now behold our two backwoodsmen fairly commencing their +arduous life; but it was nothing, after all, to Pierre, by previous +occupation a hardy lumberer, or the Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave +all sorts of hardships in a wild country, himself a mountaineer, inured +to a stormy climate, and scanty fare, from his earliest youth. But it is +not my intention to dwell upon the trials and difficulties courageously met +and battled with by our settlers and their young wives. + +There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers on +the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with now. The +spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her comforts are +felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly come emigrant +feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were endured by the +older inhabitants. + +The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, +was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little +skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous Pierre, +and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders of himself +and Duncan to their homestead:--a day of great labour but great joy it was +when they deposited their precious freight in safety on the shanty floor. +They were obliged to make two journeys for the contents of the little +craft. What toil, what privation they endured for the first two years! and +now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. No two creatures could be more +unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The Highlander, stern, steady, persevering, +cautious, always giving ample reasons for his doing or his not doing. The +Canadian, hopeful, lively, fertile in expedients, and gay as a lark; if one +scheme failed another was sure to present itself. Pierre and Duncan were +admirably suited to be friends and neighbours. The steady perseverance of +the Scot helped to temper the volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They +generally contrived to compass the same end by different means, as two +streams descending from opposite hills will meet in one broad river in the +same valley. + +Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its +increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. +Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four healthy +children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these welcome +contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the children of +Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; they grew up as +one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. Though different +in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest son of the Scottish +soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were greatly attached; +they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed a little coterie of +inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, occupations, all blended +and harmonized delightfully; there were none of those little envyings and +bickerings among them that pave the way to strife and disunion in after +life. + +Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister +than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and +formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and +Catharine. + +Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy, +both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is +not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads and +Catharine. With the gaiety and naivete of the Frenchwoman, Catharine +possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care of +mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a little +reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father's teaching. It +was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, having been +taught by his colonel's son, a lad of twelve years of age, who had taken a +great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a few of his school-books, +among which was a Testament, without cover or title-page. At parting, the +young gentleman recommended its daily perusal to Duncan. Had the gift been +a Bible, perhaps the soldier's obedience to his priest might have rendered +it a dead letter to him, but as it fortunately happened, he was unconscious +of any prohibition to deter him from becoming acquainted with the truths of +the Gospel. He communicated the power of perusing his books to his children +Hector and Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in succession, with a feeling of +intense reverence; even the labour of teaching was regarded as a holy duty +in itself, and was not undertaken without deeply impressing the obligation +he was conferring upon them whenever they were brought to the task. It was +indeed a precious boon, and the children learned to consider it as the +pearl beyond all price in the trials that awaited them in their eventful +career. To her knowledge of religious truths young Catharine added an +intimate acquaintance with the songs and legends of her father's romantic +country, which was to her even as fairyland; often would her plaintive +ballads and old tales, related in the hut or the wigwam to her attentive +auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; Louis and Mathilde, her cousins, +sometimes wondered how Catharine had acquired such a store of ballads and +wild tales as she could tell. + +It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not only +doffed that "dazzling white robe" mentioned in the songs of her Jacobite +emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest season, the last +week in May and the first three of June being parallel to the English May, +full of buds and flowers and fair promise of ripening fruits. The high +sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale of Cold Springs were clothed +with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet enchroma, or painted-cup; the +large pure white blossoms of the lily-like trillium; the delicate and +fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful flowers woo the hand of the +flower-gatherer only to fade almost within his grasp; the golden +cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so lovely in its colour and +formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as the breeze shook the stems; +and there, mingling with a thousand various floral beauties, the azure +lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a heavenly tint upon the earth. +Thousands of roses were blooming on the more level ground, sending forth +their rich fragrance, mixed with the delicate scent of the feathery +ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid greenness of the young leaves of +the forest, the tender tint of the springing corn, were contrasted with the +deep dark fringe of waving pines on the hills, and the yet darker shade of +the spruce and balsams on the borders of the creeks, for so our Canadian +forest rills are universally termed. The bright glancing wings of the +summer red-bird, the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and +noisy but splendid plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air +was filled with beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the +shade of the luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front +of the little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard +mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and fro +guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches of old +mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, with +livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody of her +spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, unconscious +of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements from among the +embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning sun. + +"Come, ma belle cousine," for so Louis delighted to call her. "Hector and I +are waiting for you to go with us to the 'Beaver Meadow.' The cattle have +strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is delicious, the +very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired and plucked, and we shall +find early strawberries on the old Indian clearing." + +Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, "I fear, Louis, I cannot go +to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my yarn to +wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away." + +"Yes, I left her with mamma." replied Louis, "and she said she would be +home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take a +basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is sure +he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red." As he +spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, gathered up +the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker basket, and the next +minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that hung upon the peg in the +porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the top of Catharine's head +and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling laugh, which drowned +effectually the small lecture that Catharine began to utter, by way of +reproving the light-hearted boy. + +"But where is Mathilde?" + +"Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise's head on +her lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and +flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her and +petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the dear +children were as happy as queens when I left them." + +"But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? +We shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to the +Beaver Meadow and back again," said Catharine, hesitating as Louis took her +hand to lead her out from the porch. + +"Yes, yes, ma belle," said the giddy boy, quickly; "so come along, for +Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before we +return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a tin-cup +for water." + +Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little +preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the +little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her young +brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his shoulder. +"What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it heavy to carry," +said his sister. + +"In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom +for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss +Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of rock +elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I take the +axe with me." + +The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep defiles +that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung and +chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both to +exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest shade. What +handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and white, were gathered +only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast aside for others +fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills that flowed, softly +murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red or grey granite, wending +their way beneath twisted roots and fallen trees; and often Catharine +lingered to watch the eddying dimples of the clear water, to note the, tiny +bright fragments of quartz or crystallized limestone that formed a shining +pavement below the stream; and often she paused to watch the angry +movements of the red squirrel, as, with feathery tail erect, and sharp +scolding note, he crossed their woodland path, and swiftly darting up the +rugged bark of some neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the intruders on +his quiet haunts defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he scarcely +condescended to ascend beyond their reach. + +The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or +the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, +striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the soft +whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from one hemlock +to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the bark, were +among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the woods; but +to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and her cousin were +not indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector gravely pursued his +onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark the bright colours of +the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest rill. + +"What makes Hec so grave?" said Catharine to her companion, as they seated +themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they had giddily +chased each other till they had far outrun him. + +"Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or +wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil or +the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, or the +hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as woodpeckers +and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is not a giddy +thing like his cousin Louis, or--" + +"His sister Kate," interrupted Catharine, merrily; "but when shall we come +to the Beaver Meadow?" + +"Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? No; +Hector whistling." And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his axe ringing +among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was cutting it to +leave on the path, that he might take it home on their return; he had also +marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe handles, to bring home +at some future time. + +The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down and +rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, and +declared he felt no fatigue. "As soon as we reach the old Indian clearing, +we shall find strawberries," he said, "and a fresh cold spring, and then we +will have our dinners." + +"Come, Hector,--come, Louis," said Catharine, jumping up, "I long to be +gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I will throw +them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit instead, and we +must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear Mathilde. Ah, how I +wish she were here at this minute! But here is the opening to the Beaver +Meadow." + +And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they +approached the cleared space, which some called the "Indian clearing," but +is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was a pleasant +spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and flowering shrubs, +of a different growth from those that belong to the dense forest. Here the +children found, on the hilly ground above, fine ripe strawberries, the +earliest they had seen that year, and soon all weariness was forgotten +while pursuing the delightful occupation of gathering the tempting fruit; +and when they had refreshed themselves, and filled the basket with leaves +and fruit, they slaked their thirst from the stream, which wound its way +among the bushes. Catharine neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of +the fragrant white-thorn and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with +nodding umbels of snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little +basket with the graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered +plant, the Linnaea borealis, which she always said reminded her of the +twins, Louise and Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear +away, for they had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered +from the path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their +eagerness to look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by +which they might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, +Louis noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle +hoofs on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + +"Come, Hector," said he gaily, "this is lucky; we are on the cattle path; +no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer track." + +Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much +towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. "And is +not this our own creek?" he said: "I have often heard my father say it had +its rise somewhere about this old clearing." + +Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the path +among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, surprised +to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the stream swept +onward. + +"Oh, this dear creek," cried the delighted Catharine, "how pretty it is! I +shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source from +our own Cold Springs." + +And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind +the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously +hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony +banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked +poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite +directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the opening +gorge of a deep ravine. + +Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block of +granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by the ravine, +unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled countenance, +stood beside her, looking round with an air of great perplexity. Louis, +seating himself at Catharine's feet, surveyed the deep gloomy valley before +them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had now forcibly struck him that +they had mistaken the path altogether. The very aspect of the country was +different; the growth of the trees, the flow of the stream, all indicated a +change of soil and scene. Darkness was fast drawing its impenetrable veil +around them; a few stars were stealing out, and gleaming down as if with +pitying glance upon the young wanderers; but they could not light up their +pathway, or point their homeward track. The only sound, save the lulling +murmur of the rippling stream below, was the plaintive note of the +whip-poor-will, from a gnarled oak that grew near them, and the harsh +grating scream of the night hawk, darting about in the higher regions of +the air, pursuing its noisy congeners, or swooping down with that peculiar +hollow rushing sound, as of a person blowing into some empty vessel, when +it seizes with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + +Hector was the first to break the silence. "Cousin Louis, we were wrong in +following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our way back +to-night." + +Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the +attention of his cousins. "Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to be +cast down by difficulties," said Hector, as he marked something like tears +glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + +Louis's heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance upon +the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath which she +sat. + +"It is not," resumed Hector, "that I mind passing a summer's night under +such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do not +think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in the night +dews,--and then they will be so anxious at home about our absence." + +Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,--"And it is all my doing that +she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much +alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good +cousin Hector, pray forgive me!" But Catharine was weeping too much to +reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from the +truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed his +indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on the +part of Louis. + +The sight of her cousin's grief and self-abasement touched the tender +heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, +and loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful +consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, +Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she +could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with +deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating +thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid his +cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, and steeled +him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the penitent Louis, +who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder Catharine, +sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing words and +affectionate endeavours to console him. + +"Dear Hector," she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem face +of her brother, "you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; remember it +was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of liberty with you +and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees and birds, that he +committed this fault." + +"Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at the +consequences,--we shall have forfeited our parents' confidence, and may +have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our home, if +we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs," replied Hector. + +"It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night," +answered Catharine, "that distresses my mind; but," she added in more +cheerful tones, "let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able to +retrace our steps." + +With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word +_to-morrow_,--it is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from +them; sad indeed is the young heart that does not look forward with hope to +the morrow! + +The cloud still hung on Hector's brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, +"Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think of +providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the bare +ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half made," +pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had hurled +from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + +"Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them +into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, and +there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to work, +you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own wigwam," +she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the feathery +pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared as little as +her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night under the shade +of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; but her woman's +heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling the cousins would be +by mutually interesting them in the same object,--and she was right. In +endeavouring to provide for the comfort of their dear companion, all angry +feelings were forgotten by Hector, while active employment chased away +Louis's melancholy. + +Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, those +of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, varying +in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque groups, or rising +singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked poplar or graceful +birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately pine contrasting +finely with the light waving foliage of its slender graceful companions. + +Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, +which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance drove +into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the upturned oak, +with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form the back part of +the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means a contemptible shelter. +Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with Louis's _couteau-de-chasse_, +which he always carried in a sheath at his girdle, and spread two beds, +one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, for herself in the interior of the +wigwam, and one for her brother and cousin nearer the entrance. When all +was finished to her satisfaction, she called the two boys, and, according +to the custom of her parents, joined them in the lifting up of their +hands as an evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these +simple-hearted children backward in imploring help and protection from the +Most High. They earnestly prayed that no dangerous creature might come +near to molest them during the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil +spirit visit them, no unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; +but that holy angels and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill +their hearts with the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And +the prayer of the poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in +peace, unharmed in the vast solitude. So passed their first night on the +Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." + +The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, when +the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty of their +situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they had been +under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their little +paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who neither +slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, and in +fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended their +souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + +While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled the +minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and sorrow had +they passed! + +When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the +two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the +wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud +halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they check +their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the sighing +breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves caused by the +flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the torches, and the +echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that met their anxious +ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, to their homes, to +snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the drooping hearts of +the weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different directions. But, +unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which Hector and Louis had +taken, there being many cattle paths through the woods. Louis's want of +truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he had left no intimation of +the path he purposed taking when he quitted his mother's house: he had +merely said he was going with Hector in search of the cattle, giving no +hint of his intention of asking Catharine to accompany them: he had but +told his sick sister, that he would bring home strawberries and flowers, +and that he would soon return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little did +you think of the web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and all +those to whom you and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, think +twice, ere ye deceive once! Catharine's absence would have been quite +unaccountable but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had received +her sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and much her +mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful Catharine to have +left her work and forsaken her household duties to go rambling away with +the boys, for she never left the house when her mother was absent from, it, +without her express permission, and now she was gone--lost to them, perhaps +for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, there hung the +untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,--and there they remained week +after week and month after month, untouched, a melancholy memorial to the +hearts of the bereaved parents of their beloved. + +It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their +vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that filled +their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of the lost +ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the sorrowing +parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome homes. At +the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one of these three +casualties had befallen the lost children:--death, a lingering death +by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or bears; or yet more +terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded Indians, who +occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the hills about the +Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron as the scene of many +bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the Mohawks and Chippewas: +its localities were scarcely ever visited by our settlers, lest haply +they should fall into the hands of the bloody Mohawks, whose merciless +dispositions made them in those days a by-word even to the less cruel +Chippewas and other Indian nations. + +It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his +brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, +among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called the +Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor +wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the +sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, +and mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their +first-born and beloved children.--"There was a voice of woe, and +lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and +refusing to be comforted, because they were not." The miserable uncertainty +that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation to the +sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of the +manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; but, +alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + + "Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + 'Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy's endless dreams depart." + +But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see +how it really fared with the young wanderers. + +When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that +arose from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an +indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance +perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear light of +the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in retracing +their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left no impression +on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found the creek, which was +concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic hawthorns, high-bush +cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn was in blossom, and +gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than the "May" which makes the +lanes and hedgerows of "merrie old England" so sweet and fair in May and +June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral of our olden time; but when our +simple Catharine drew down the flowery branches to wreathe about her hat, +she loved the flowers for their own native sweetness and beauty, not +because poets had sung of them;--but young minds have a natural poetry in +themselves, unfettered by rule or rhyme. + +At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of +cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and _tamarack_ (Indian name for +the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as love the +cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that they must +quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become entangled in +a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing draughts from the +bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they ascended the grassy +bank, and again descending, found themselves in one of those long valleys, +enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed with shrubs and oaks, with +here and there a stately pine. Through this second valley they pursued +their way, till emerging into a wider space, they came among those +singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel hills, where the Cold Creek +once more met their view, winding its way towards a grove of evergreens, +where it was again lost to the eye. + +This lovely spot is now known as Sackville's Mill-dike. The hand of man has +curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it subservient +to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of the scene. +[Footnote: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, who resided +for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to return to his +native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The old log-house on +the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, though deserted; +the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer protects the enclosure, +where the wild rose mingles with that of Provence,--the Canadian creeper +with the hop.] + +Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, +winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, +the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the silver +waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of the +wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid silver +just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its surface, and +concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of dread and doubt +and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow of admiration at a +scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which they now gazed upon from +the elevation they had gained. From this ridge they looked down the lake, +and the eye could take in an extent of many miles, with its verdant wooded +islands, which stole into view one by one as the rays of the morning sun +drew up the moving curtain of mist that enveloped them; and soon both +northern and southern shores became distinctly visible, with all their bays +and capes and swelling oak and pine-crowned hills. + +And now arose the question, "Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be +the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the +Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?" Hector +remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was like an +inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some remarkable +state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally discerned by the +naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects on the other side, +the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of wild fowl winging +their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. The breadth of the +lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, exceed three or four +miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, seemed far greater +beyond--what the eye could take in. [Footnote: The length of the Rice Lake, +from its headwaters near Black's Landing to the mouth of the Trent, is said +to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from north to south varies from three +to six.] + +They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. +Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of a +beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a magnificent +view down the lake. + +"How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, +overlooking the lake," said Louis; "only think of the fish we could take, +and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no very hard +matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard my father say +he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river--below, when he was +lumbering." + +"Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon," [Footnote: Now +the site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman from +Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion of the +ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains for its +natural beauties and extent of prospect.] said Hector, "though I am not +quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold Springs; +but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, and produce +plenty of grain, too, if cultivated." + +"You always look to the main chance, Hec," said Louis, laughing; "well, it +was worth a few hours' walking this morning to look upon so lovely a sheet +of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,--would not you, ma +belle?--to enjoy such a sight." + +"Yes, Louis," replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; "it is very +pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot +enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been +aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!" she +added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions and +herself would cause at home came over her. "How I wish I had remained at +home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!" + +Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin's tears, +and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to soothe and +console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the weeping girl, +and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + +"If you cry thus, cousin," he whispered, "you will break poor Louis's +heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct." "Be not +cast down, Catharine," said her brother, cheeringly: "we may not be so far +from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out again, +and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on these sunny +banks." + +Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, +proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side of +the high ground where they had been sitting. + +Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, "Come, Hector; come, Louis: +here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:"--for her eye had caught +the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on the slope; +large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + +"There is indeed, ma belle," said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather up, +not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner shade of a +thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen tree. Catharine's +voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge [Footnote: The +Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than the English or +French partridge. We refer our young readers to the finely arranged +specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) where they may +discover "Louis's partridge."] from her nest, and the eggs were soon +transferred to Louis's straw hat, while a stone flung by the steady +hand of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed exultingly as +they displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, who, in spite of +hunger, could not help regretting the death of the mother bird. Girls and +women rarely sympathise with men and boys in their field sports, and Hector +laughed at his sister's doleful looks as he handed over the bird to her. + +"It was a lucky chance," said he, "and the stone was well aimed, but it is +not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so stupid +you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before the day +is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all events," he +added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin's hat; "twelve nice fresh +eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit." + +"But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of getting a +fire made," said Catharine. + +"As to the eggs," said Louis, "we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry +wanderers like us to be over nice about our food." + +"They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the +ashes," observed Hector. + +"True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble." + +"But how?" asked Hector. "Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest would +be a flint with the help of my knife." + +"A flint?" + +"Yes, if we could get one--but I see nothing but granite, which crumbles +and shivers when struck--we could not get a spark. However, I think it's +very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach yonder may be +found hard enough for the purpose." + +To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had been +well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, fringed +with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found themselves +beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found among the +water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and a handful of +dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected without trouble; +though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had coolly proposed +to tear a strip from his cousin's apron as a substitute for tinder,--a +proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the tidy Catharine, whose +ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, especially as she had +no sewing implements to assist in mending the rent. Louis thought nothing +of that; it was a part of his character to think only of the present, +little of the past, and to let the future provide for itself. Such was +Louis's great failing, which had proved a fruitful source of trouble both +to himself and others. In this respect he bore a striking contrast to his +more cautious companion, who possessed much of the gravity of his father. +Hector was as heedful and steady in his decisions as Louis was rash and +impetuous. + +After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles +through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last +kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then +triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly to the +satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently hungry, +having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial than the +strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering them in the +morning. + +Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, under +the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were wreathed +together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, +which climbed to a height of fifteen feet [Footnote: _Solatnum +dulcamara_,--Bitter-sweet or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the +red-berried briony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses powerful +properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the Indians.] +among the branches [Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST] of the trees, which +it covered as with a mantle. A pure spring of cold, delicious water welled +out from beneath the twisted roots of an old hoary-barked cedar, and found +its way among the shingles on the beach to the lake, a humble but constant +tributary to its waters. Some large blocks of water-worn stone formed +convenient seats and a natural table, on which the little maiden arranged +the forest fare; and never was a meal made with greater appetite or taken +with more thankfulness than that which our wanderers ate that morning. The +eggs (part of which they reserved for another time) were declared to be +better than those that were daily produced from the little hen-house at +Cold Springs. The strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the +shining leaves of the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with +the long spurs of the hawthorn, [Footnote: The long-spurred American +hawthorn may be observed by our young readers among that beautiful +collection of the hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the +north side of Kensington Gardens.] were voted delicious, and the pure water +most refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large +mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles on +the beach. + +Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, lamenting +their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless repining, or, +perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the principal author of +their calamity--poor, thoughtless Louis; but such were not the dispositions +of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to the hardships incidental to the +lives of the settlers in the bush, these young people had learned to bear +with patience and cheerfulness privations that would have crushed the +spirits of children more delicately nurtured. They had known every degree +of hunger and nakedness; during the first few years of their lives they had +often been compelled to subsist for days and weeks upon roots and herbs, +wild fruits, and game which their fathers had learned to entrap, to decoy, +and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early been initiated into the +mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, and pits, and traps, and +snares,--they were as expert as Indians in the use of the bow,--they could +pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart at partridge, hare, and squirrel, +with almost unerring aim; and were as swift of foot as young fawns. Now +it was that they learned to value in its fullest extent this useful +and practical knowledge, which enabled them to face with fortitude the +privations of a life so precarious as that to which they were now exposed. + +It was one of the elder Maxwell's maxims,--Never let difficulties overcome +you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the hand, and +the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head as chief. When his +children expressed any doubts of not being able to accomplish any work they +had begun, he would say, "Have you not hands, have you not a head, have you +not eyes to see, and reason to guide you? As for impossibilities, they do +not belong to the trade of a soldier,--he dare not see them." Thus were +energy and perseverance early instilled into the minds of his children; +they were now called upon to give practical proofs of the precepts that had +been taught them in childhood. Hector trusted to his axe, and Louis to his +_couteau-de-chasse_ and pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an old +forest friend of his father's, who had visited them the previous winter, +and which, by good luck, Louis had in his pocket--a capacious pouch, in +which were stored many precious things, such as coils of twine and string, +strips of leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; nails, bits of +iron, leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find their way most +mysteriously into boys' pockets in general, and Louis Perron's in +particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small matters. + +The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few days +abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where fruits +were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning meal, so +providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully acknowledged the +mercy of God in this thing. + +Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the lake, +they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both to leave +the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the hills and +deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so remarkable a +manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look upon the wild glens +and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy deer found safe retreats, +unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,--where the osprey and white-headed +eagle built their nests, unheeding and unharmed. Twice that day, misled by +following the track of the deer, had they returned to the same spot,--a +deep and lovely glen, which had once been a water-course, but now a green +and shady valley. This they named the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable +block of red granite that occupied a central position in the narrow defile; +and here they prepared to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs +cut down and interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with +Hector's axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, +formed a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs +that the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and +couches, or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild +Scottish hills. + +While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine +busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having +collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that +grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate name +of the "Birken shaw," she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it fine +upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This proved +excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the birch being +highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint that they had +used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front of the rocky +stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent over the coals, +served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge was suspended,--a +scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they knew not how they +should breakfast next morning, The children felt they were pensioners on +God's providence not less than the wild denizens of the wilderness around +them. + +When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or +cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, +Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the +teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, +gently laid her hand upon her brother's head, which rested on her knees, +as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest tone, +"'Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor +gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much +better than they?' Surely, my brother, God careth for us as much as for the +wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify his holy name. God +cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies them with knowledge where +they shall find food when they hunger and thirst. So I have heard my father +say; and surely our father knows, for is he not a wise man, Hector?" + +"I remember," said Louis, thoughtfully, "hearing my mother repeat the words +of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;--'When you are in +trouble, Mathilde,' he used to say to her, 'kneel down, and ask God's help, +nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the will to serve +you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all things to pass. +It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers from being heard. +And, truly, I think the wise old man was right," he added. + +It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy +Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, +looking up with a serious air, replied, "Your mother's friend was a good +man, Louis. Our want of trust in God's power must displease Him. And when +we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,--that blue sky, +those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining down upon us, +and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little creeping plants and +flowers that grow at our feet,--it must, indeed, seem foolish in his eyes +that we should doubt his power to help us, who not only made all these +things, but ourselves also." + +"True," said Catharine; "but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; for +the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the good." + +"Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, God +helps those that help themselves," said Louis. "Let us consider a little. +There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great." + +"But how are we to get them out of it?" rejoined Catharine. "I doubt the +fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry." + +"Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the +holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and +there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of +course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in +abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have plenty +of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in profusion, and +bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as for raspberries, I +see none; but by-and-by there will be May-apples--I see great quantities of +them in the low grounds, grapes, high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as +cherries, and sweet too; squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and +bird-cherries. As to sweet acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of +them for the roasting, as good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, +and hickory-nuts,--with many other good things." And here Louis stopped for +want of breath to continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + +"Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat us +for want of better food," interrupted Hector, slyly. "Nay, Katty, do not +shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. Neither bear +nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis and thy brother +are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence." + +"Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine," added Louis, gallantly, +"while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away." + +"Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider how we +are to obtain them, my dears," said Catharine. "For fishing, you know, we +must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are these to be met +with?" + +Louis nodded his head sagaciously. "The line I think I can provide; the +hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the rod, +it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma chere, I +could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of cloth to sew +over a hoop." + +Catharine laughed. "You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, but +where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing it +on?" + +Lords took up the corner of his cousin's apron with a provoking look. + +"My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem to +covet it for everything." + +"Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never +could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear such +frightful things." + +"It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and scrubbing, +and doing all sorts of household duties," said Catharine. + +"Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean," +replied the annoying boy; "so there can be little want of the apron. I +could turn it to fifty useful purposes." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said Hector, impatiently, "let the child alone, and do +not tease her about her apron." + +"Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, water +mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, that, +roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, +they are good eating when nothing better is to be got." + +"No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured," said Hector, "but, alas for +the salt and the pepper!" + +"Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces--hunger; and then, no +doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must not +mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them." + +"To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish," said Hector. "You and I will try +our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should break, we +can easily cut those long locks from Catharine's head, and twist them into +lines,"--and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair hair that hung in +shining curls about his sister's neck. + +"Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis's proposal of making +tinder and fishing-nets of my apron," said Catharine, shaking back the +bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in +golden waves over her shoulders. + +"In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that +become her so well," said Louis. "But we have no scissors, ma belle, so you +need fear no injury to your precious locks." + +"For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your +_couteau-de-chasse_. I could tell you a story that my father told me, not +long since, of Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in England. You +know he was the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles Edward, that my +father talks of, and loves so much." + +"I know all about him," said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; "let us hear +the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my hair and +Louis's knife can have to do with King Charles." + +"Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience," said +her brother. "Well then, you must know, that after some great battle, the +name of which I forget, [Footnote: Battle of Worcester.] in which the +King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the forces of the +Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the poor young king was +hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large price was set on his +head, to be given to any traitor who should slay him, or bring him prisoner +to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to dress himself in all sorts of queer +clothes, and hide in all manner of strange, out of the way places, and keep +company with rude and humble men, the better to hide his real rank from +the cruel enemies that sought his life. Once he hid along with a gallant +gentleman, [Footnote: Colonel Careless.] one of his own brave officers, in +the branches of a great oak. Once he was hid in a mill; and another time he +was in the house of one Pendril, a woodman. The soldiers of the Parliament, +who were always prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they +suspected the poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room +where he was standing beside the fire." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Catharine, "that was frightful. And did they take him +prisoner?" + +"No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers +should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the long curls +that the king's men all wore in those days, and called _lovelocks_, begged +of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to his head." + +"That was very hard, to lose his nice curls." + +"I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose his +hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered them +to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough deal +table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large knife +trimmed off the curls." + +"I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, who, +you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a block +to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as +hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die." "Poor king!" said +Catharine, sighing, "I see that it is better to be poor children, wandering +on these plains under God's own care, than to be kings and princes at the +mercy of bad and sinful men." + +"Who told your father all these things, Hec?" said Louis. + +"It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about the +history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince Charles, +the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in Scotland; he +loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where the Prince lost +all, and was driven from place to place, and had not where to lay his head, +he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but those times did not come for +the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a while, through the friendship of +General Wolfe, got a commission in the army that was embarking for Quebec, +and, at last, commanded the regiment to which my father belonged. He was +a kind man, and my father loved both him and his son, and grieved not a +little when he parted from him." + +"Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister Hec, +I shall forgive the affront about my curls." + +"Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail, +we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we +shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should not we be +able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?" + +"True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and +birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should +His white children fear?" + +"I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, when +they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of himself +and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, weeks I +believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and arrows, +using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for bow-strings; +and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the inner bark of the +slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap of the sugar maple +when they could get no water but melted snow only, which is unwholesome; at +last, they even boiled their own mocassins." + +"Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish," said Catharine. + +"That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself," +added Hector, "or the deer-skin hunting shirt." "Well, they might have been +reduced even to that," said Louis, laughing, "but for the good fortune that +befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear." + +"Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the +forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale." + +"Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old +Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After +passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than the +scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not very +substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick dark +swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they could +not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of a deer or +a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to work to kindle +up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they had none, or maybe +they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon a huge hollow pine, +that lay across their path, against which he soon piled a glorious heap of +boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he could collect, and lighted +up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand old Jacob used to be at making +up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, if he could not have warmth +within, he would have plenty of it without. The wood was dry pine and cedar +and birch, and it blazed away, and crackled and burnt like a pine-torch. +By-and-by they heard a most awful growling close to them. 'That's a big +bear, as I live,' said old Jacob, looking all about, thinking to see one +come out from the thick bush; but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, +for presently a great black bear burst out from the but-end of the great +burning log, and made towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame +outward, and it caught the bear's thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in +a moment. No doubt the heat of the fire had penetrated to the hollow of the +log, where he had lain himself snugly up for the winter, and wakened him; +but Jacob seeing the huge black brute all in a flame of fire, began to +think it was Satan's own self come to carry him off, and he roared with +fright, and the bear roared with pain and rage, and my father roared with +laughing to see Jacob's terror; but he did not let the bear laugh at him, +for he seized a thick pole that he had used for closing in the brands and +logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was so blinded with the fire and +smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted on roast bear's flesh for +many days, and got a capital skin to cover them beside." + +"What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?" said Catharine. + +"Kate, you are too particular," said Louis; "a story never loses, you +know." + +Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the +bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the +levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror of +old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear." + +"You boys are always so unfeeling," she said, gravely. + +"Indeed, Kate," said her brother, "the day may come when the sight of a +good piece of roast bear's flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do not +find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may be +reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine +swamps, on the banks of the St. John." + +"Ah!" said Catharine, trembling, "that would be too bad to happen." + +"Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what +to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we +still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and be +thankful; and for grace let us say, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil +thereof.'" + +Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites--the hungry +wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally divided, +was soon despatched. + +It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers in +our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a circle, and +usually find themselves at night in the same place from whence they started +in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At sunset, they found +themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big stone, in which they had +rested at noon. They had imagined themselves miles and miles distant from +it; they were grievously disappointed. They had encouraged each other +with the confident hope that they were drawing near to the end of their +bewildering journey; they were as far from their home as ever, without the +slightest clue to guide them to the right path. Despair is not a feeling +which takes deep root in the youthful breast. The young are always +hopeful; so confident in their own wisdom and skill in averting or +conquering danger; so trusting; so willing to believe that there is a +peculiar Providence watching over them. Poor children! they had indeed need +of such a belief to strengthen their minds and encourage them to fresh +exertions, for new trials were at hand. + +The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with +light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on +tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with her +fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs which +her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for her +accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting spur +of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the extreme verge +of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most inviting seat, +from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, which stretched +away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the estuary of the +mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the hills, forming a +narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water had ceased to flow, the +granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with deer-grass and flowers of many +hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; while majestic oaks and pines towered +above. A sea of glittering foliage lay beneath Catharine's feet; in the +distance the eye of the young girl rested on a belt of shining waters, +which girt in the shores like a silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the +northward, stretched the illimitable forest. + +Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the eye; a +holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and peaceful +tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, scarcely a leaf +stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing on the calm beauty of +nature, and communing with her own heart, when suddenly a stirring rustling +sound caught her car; it came from a hollow channel on one side of the +promontory, which was thickly overgrown with the shrubby dogwood, wild +roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror which seized the poor girl, +on perceiving a grisly beast breaking through the covert of the bushes. +With a scream and a bound, which the most deadly fear alone could have +inspired, Catharine sprung from the supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, +down the precipitous side of the ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays +of the flexile dogwood--now to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting +to the yielding heads of the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her +hands with sharp thorns from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, +grass, all were alike clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A loose +fragment of granite on which she had unwittingly placed her foot rolled +from under her; unable to regain her balance she fell forwards, and was +precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, conscious only +of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her ancles, which +rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she had dislodged in +her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector to her side, and +they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid her down upon her +bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When Catharine was able to +speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of her fright. She was +sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long jaws, and grisly +coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her with terror, he +was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon her--she could tell +them no more that happened, she never felt the ground she was on, so great +was her fright. + +Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills +alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for _la belle cousine_, +and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been +fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but the +pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to their +grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the ground. +This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to pursue their +wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their only remedy, +excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as circumstances +would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to the swollen joint, +was the first thing that was suggested; but, simple as was the lotion, +it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient quantities. They were a full +quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and the cold springs near it were +yet further off; and then the only vessel they had was the tin-pot, which +hardly contained a pint; at the same time the thirst of the fevered +sufferer was intolerable, and had also to be provided for. Poor Catharine, +what unexpected misery she now endured! + +The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they were +now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places with this +delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor sufferer's +burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying her with them. + +Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied +them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful by +spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; these he +bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, [Footnote: +"_Dirca palustris_,"--Moose-wood. American mezereon, leather-wood. From the +Greek, _dirka_, a fountain or wet place, its usual place of growth.] which +he had found growing in great abundance near the entrance of the ravine. +Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. After having collected a good supply +of ripe strawberries, he climbed the hills in search of birds' eggs and +small game. About noon he returned with the good news of having discovered +a spring of fine water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump of bass-wood +and black cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to kill a +woodchuck, having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly sides of +the hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit and badger; +its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and burrows like +the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip cleft, the soles of +the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on grasses, grain, fruit, +and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the summer, rank, but is +eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the skin is not much valued. +They are easily killed by dogs, though, being expert climbers, they often +baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark beyond their reach; a stone or +stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they often bite sharply. + +The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his +companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were +plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about the +Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than on the +drier, more open plains. + +"It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from the +spring in," said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, "one is so apt to stumble +among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our old bark +dishes we could get a good supply at once." + +"There is a fallen birch not far from this," said Louis; "I have here +my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel +capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?" + +"How can you sew it together, cousin?" asked Catharine; "you have neither +deer sinews, nor war-tap." [The Indian name for the flexible roots of the +_tamarack_, or swamp larch, which they make use of in manufacturing the +birch baskets and canoes.] "I have a substitute at hand, ma belle," and +Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he had collected for +binding the dressings on his cousin's foot. + +When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in +some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of the +ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot of the +"Wolf's Crag," for so the children had named the memorable spot where poor +Catharine's accident had occurred. + +The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, but +are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger and +older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the sides +lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he proceeded +to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble managed +to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose or +leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was but +rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a little +at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten to allow +in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and dishes turns +up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied in his subsequent +attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis's water-jar was looked upon +with great admiration, and highly commended by Catharine, who almost forgot +her sufferings--while watching her cousin's proceedings. + +Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running off +directly to the spring. "Catharine shall now have cold water to bathe her +poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst," he said, joyfully springing +to his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector quietly +restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of his not +finding the "fountain in the wilderness," as Louis termed the spring, or +losing himself altogether. + +"Let us both go together, then." cried Louis. Catharine cast on her cousin +an imploring glance. + +"Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone." Her +sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + +"Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since I +was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or in +sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother's arms." + +Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering +tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + +"But you know, dear cousin," she said, "I am so helpless, and then the +dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me." + +After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had +done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to +make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little +time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about +it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more +gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed with +magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the jutting +spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the trees that +lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a big sea. There +were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, white, and +pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled flower, that +was like the "Morning glory," (_Convolvulus major,_) and scarlet-cups +[Footnote: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup] in abundance, with roses in +profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with huge blocks +of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened out into a +wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley of the Big Stone. +[Footnote: The mouth of this ravine is now under the plough, and waving +fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have taken place of the wild +shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The lot belongs to G. Ley, +Esq.] + +These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both +Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and the +picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father's +animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the wild +mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in solitude and +uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the minds or manners of +these young people. Simple and untaught they were, but they were guileless, +earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they lacked the knowledge that is +learned from books, they possessed much that was useful and practical, +which had been taught by experience and observation in the school of +necessity. + +For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered +any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the "Big Stone" +impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their +immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had been +killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of hunger. +Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed not a little +to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the yet untried +lake, "bright, boundless, and free," gleaming in silvery splendour, but in +practice they knew nothing of the fisher's craft, though, as a matter of +report, they were well acquainted with all the mysteries of it, and had +often listened with delight to the feats performed by their respective +fathers in the art of angling, spearing and netting. + +"I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in the +lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken by the +hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but that was +in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard him tell of +spearing fish by torchlight!" + +"The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake," said Hector; +"however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore and +try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line provided." + +Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub +oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, which +he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of treasures. +"Here." said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; "here is the slide +of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some rubbish that my +sister had thrown out the other day." + +"I fear you will make nothing of that," said Hector. "a bit of bone would +be better. If you had a file now you might do something." + +"Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?" and Louis +triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, a +few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but still +it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of our young +French Canadian. "I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde laughed +at me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. Louis, you +little knew the use it was to be put to then," he added thoughtfully, +apostrophising himself; "how little do we know what is to befall us in our +young days!" "God knows it all," said Hector, gravely, "we are under His +good guidance." + +"You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good care +of us. Come, let us go to the lake," Catharine added, and sprung to her +feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her companions +with a piteous look, saying, "I cannot walk one step; alas, alas! what is +to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you leave me here, I +shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot carry me with you in +your search for food." + +"Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that +Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of hunger +or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you by turns; +the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very heavy, ma +belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are so light a +burden,"--and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his arms, and +with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through the ravine +towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded knoll, (where Wolf +Tower [Footnote: See account of the "Wolf Tower," in the Appendix.] now +stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat stone beneath a big +oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself on the flowery ground at +her feet, while he drew a long breath, and gathered the fruit that grew +among the long grass to refresh himself after his fatigue; and then, while +resting on the "Elfin Knowe," as Catharine called the hill, he employed +himself with manufacturing a rude sort of fish-hook with the aid of +his knife, the bit of tin, and the rusty file; a bit of twine was next +produced,--boys have always a bit of string in their pockets, and Louis, as +I have before hinted, was a provident hoarder of such small matters. The +string was soon attached to the hook, and Hector was not long in cutting a +sapling that answered well the purpose of a fishing-rod, and thus equipped +they proceeded to the lake shore, Hector and Louis carrying the crippled +Catharine by turns. When there, they selected a sheltered spot beneath a +grove of over-hanging cedars and birches, festooned with wild vines, which, +closely woven, formed a natural bower, quite impervious to the rays of +the sun. A clear spring flowing from the upper part of the bank among the +hanging network of loose fibres and twisted roots, fell tinkling over a +mossy log at her feet, and quietly spread itself among the round shingly +pebbles that formed the beach of the lake. Beneath this pleasant bower +Catharine could repose, and watch her companions at their novel employment, +or bathe her feet and infirm ancle in the cool streamlet that rippled in +tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + +If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued for +pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must be greatly +heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of hunger. Among +the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the flying grasshopper +or field crickets were sporting, and one of these proved an attractive +bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, than the hook was seized, +and many were the brilliant specimens of sun-fish that our eager fishermen +cast at Catharine's feet, all gleaming with gold and azure scales. Nor was +there any lack of perch, or that delicate fish commonly known in these +waters as the pink roach. + +Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to the +grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did very +expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling up a +fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the flint, knife, +and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian fashion, on forked +sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable angle towards the +glowing embers,--a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + +"Truly," said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, "God +hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;" so miraculous +did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of this simple +child of nature. + +They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be +caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, as the +streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little opportunity +for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the rude implements +with which they were furnished, the result of their morning success seemed +little short of divine interference in their behalf. Happy and contented +in the belief that they were not forgotten by their heavenly Father, these +poor "children in the wood" looked up with gratitude to that beneficent +Being who suffereth not even a sparrow to fall unheeded. + +Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and +there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the +flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that +hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, her +young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great Creator +of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her mind, as +with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl prayed with the +guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + +The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods +at the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully +providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded with +their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found Catharine +sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil slumbers, but +her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which she was exposed, +sleeping in the dew by the water side; "Moreover," he added, "we have some +distance to go, and we have left the precious axe and the birch-bark vessel +in the valley." + +These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the sleeper, +and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same path that +they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken the precaution +to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and break the tops of the +young trees that they had passed between on their route to the lake, and by +this clue they were enabled with tolerable certainty to retrace their way, +nothing doubting of arriving in time at the wigwam of boughs by the rock in +the valley. + +Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame girl, +and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight soon clouded +the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which cast a greater +degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had now left the +oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter loneliness of the +path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that stretched in long array +across the steep banks on either side, taking, now this, now that wild and +fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings of dread in the mind of these +poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons bred up in solitude, their +imaginations were strongly tinctured with superstitious fears. Here then, +in the lonely wilderness, far from their beloved parents and social hearth, +with no visible arm to protect them from danger, none to encourage or +to cheer them, can it be matter of surprise if they started with +terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful breeze that rustled the leaves or +waved the branches above them? The gay and lively Louis, blithe as any wild +bird in the bright sunlight, was the most easily oppressed by this strange +superstitious fear, when the shades of evening were closing round, and he +would start with ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that met his +ear or eye, though the next minute he was the first to laugh at his own +weakness. In Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn cast, +recalling to his mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his +father was wont to entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge +log-fire of an evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales +possess for the youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often told; +year after year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with an +interest that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they slowly +wandered along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors those +Highland legends that were as familiar to their ears as household words, +and still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at each +pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might +be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to +proceed,--they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their progress; the +moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet indistinct; so they sat +them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and rested till the moon +should lighten their path. + +Louis was confident they were not far from "the bigstone," but careful +Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already +conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone that +had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came in +sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its rugged +sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. "Forward for 'the big +stone' and the wigwam," cried Louis. + +"Hush!" said Catharine, "look there," raising her hand with a warning +gesture. + +"Where? what?" + +"The wolf! the wolf!" gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon the +summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood the +gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound of which +seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of the tall +pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their hearts, as +with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline of the terrible +beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck stretched outward, +and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave back those dismal sounds; +another minute and he was gone, and the crushing of branches and the rush +of many feet on the high bank above, was followed by the prolonged cry of +some poor fugitive animal,--a doe, or fawn, perhaps,--in the very climax +of mortal agony; and then the lonely recesses of the forest took up that +fearful death-cry, the far-off shores of the lake and the distant islands +prolonged it, and the terrified children clung together in fear and +trembling. + +A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the +hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone--not even the +watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with all +its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; but though +around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long ere confidence was +restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and trembling children. They +beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy shade, and every rustling +bough struck fresh terrors into their excited minds. They might have +exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, "How dreadful is this place!" + +With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of the +bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should return; +sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing to be the +only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet nature, +overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their eyelids; +deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight breaking through +the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound of waving boughs and +twittering birds, once more wakened them to life and light; recalling them +from happy dreams of home and friends, to an aching sense of loneliness and +desolation. This day they did not wander far from the valley, but took the +precaution, as evening drew on, to light a large fire, the blaze of which +they thought would keep away any beast of prey. They had no want of food, +as the fish they had caught the day before proved an ample supply. The +huckle-berries were ripening too, and soon afforded them a never-failing +source of food; there were also an abundance of bilberries, the sweet rich +berries of which proved a great treat, besides being very nourishing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!" + +A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from pain +and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all that +Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower by the lake, +where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful longing to regain +their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and often would the poor +sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, to wring her hands and +weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear father and mother, who would +have given worlds had they been at their command, to have heard but one +accent of her beloved voice, to have felt one loving pressure from that +fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered over the path of the young +wanderers, long after she had ceased to whisper comfort to the desolate +hearts of the mournful parents. + +Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied +than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly +which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. "If +Kate had not been with me," he would say, "we should not have been lost; +for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the +cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and +insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way." Louis +Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the flowers, +and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the form of pleasure +and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the thoughtful, till they +find the path they have followed is beset with briers and thorns; and a +thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, unexpected, overwhelm and +bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; and perhaps the punishment of +their errors does not fall upon themselves alone, but upon the innocent, +who have unknowingly been made participators in their fault. + +By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis +endeavoured to alleviate his cousin's sufferings, and soften her regrets; +nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, when his own +heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. "If it were +not for our dear parents and the dear children at home," he would say, "we +might spend our time most happily upon these charming plains; it is much +more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; see how brightly the +sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and cover the earth with fruit +and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to fish and hunt, and trap the game. +Yes, if they were all here, we would build us a nice log-house, and clear +up these bushes on the flat near the lake. This 'Elfin Knowe,' as you call +it, Kate, would be a nice spot to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; +not one should be cut down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and +voyage across to yonder islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?" and +Catharine, smiling at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the +spirit of the project, and say,-- + +"Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant." + +"If we had but my father's rifle now," said Hector, "and old Wolfe." + +"Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges and +black squirrels," said Louis. + +"I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at break +of day," said Hector. "The fawn was so little fearful, that if I had had a +stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten yards of the +spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one by making a +dead-fall." [A sort of trap in which game is taken in the woods, or on the +banks of creeks.] + +"If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear innocent +Mignon," cried Catharine, "I should never feel lonely then." + +"And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from time +to time, ma belle." + +"Hec., what are you thinking of?" + +"I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our +lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the open +air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and the +rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter will have +to be provided against." + +"But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way +back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake," said Louis. + +"True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever way +we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get involved +in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know there is +neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, and we +might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside this fine +lake, and upon these fruitful plains." + +"It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home," said +Hector. "We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find the +use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some spot where +there is a spring of good water, and--" + +"No horrible wolves," interrupted Catharine: "though I love this pretty +ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to +stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were +asleep." + +"We must not forget to keep watch-fires." + +"What shall we do for clothes?" said Catharine, glancing at her home-spun +frock of wool and cotton plaid. + +"A weighty consideration, indeed," sighed Hector; "clothes must be provided +before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on." + +"We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels," suggested +Louis; "and fawns when we catch them." + +"Yes, and fawns when we get them," added Hector; "but it is time enough to +think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home." + +"I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life," said Catharine. +"My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will try +and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search." + +Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy +guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, were +thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and thick +bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and +outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain--yet the arms of thy +heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to sustain +thee. + +How often were Catharine's hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry home, +as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, how +often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them with +her tears,--for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + +When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless +wanderings, they would say to each other: "Perhaps we shall see our father, +he may find us here to-day;" but evening came, and still he came not, and +they were no nearer to their father's home than they had been the day +previous. + +"If we could but find our way back to the 'Cold Creek,' we might, by +following its course, return to Cold Springs," said Hector. + +"I doubt much the fact of the 'Cold Creek' having any connexion with our +Spring," said Louis; "I think it has its rise in the 'Beaver-meadow,' and +following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish balsam and +cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick recesses of the +pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty miles from Cold +Springs." + +It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their way +in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or the +points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, which is +not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of forest-trees; +they rather measure distance by the time they have been wandering, than by +any other token. + +The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, +wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as +long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun in +his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the home +they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice of the +course they should take each day, and at last determined them to lose no +more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek for some +pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and provide for +their present and future wants. + + "The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." + +Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since +the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the +conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley +of the "big stone," and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent their +steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led the way, +loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of the axe, which +he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and the birch-basket. +Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, likewise some fish to +carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + +The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake shore, +but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth of trees +and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and the fatigue +of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to put aside the +bushes or bend them down. + +Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path +through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves on a +fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with white +and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, which +reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur above its +leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept watch from its +dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread below like a silver +zone studded with emeralds. + +In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which +divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows had +once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site of +which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the valley, +filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These waters with +resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, bearing in +their course those blocks of granite and limestone which are so widely +scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form a rocky pavement at +the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of sublime desolation must +that outpouring of the waters have presented, when those steep banks were +riven by the sweeping torrents that were loosened from their former bounds. +The pleased eye rests upon these tranquil shores, now covered with oaks and +pines, or waving with a flood of golden grain, or varied by neat dwellings +and fruitful gardens; and the gazer on that peaceful scene scarcely +pictures to himself what it must have been when no living eye was there to +mark the rushing floods, when they scooped to themselves the deep bed in +which they now repose. + +Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were +doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose +rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried away +the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the lake, +seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some few are +parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable impediment +turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an outlet +through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + +There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a +solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly +called the "upper Race-course," merely on account of the smoothness of the +surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above the +lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and +covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been +a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and +attractive spot, known as the "lower Race-course;" it lies on a lower level +than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of distant hills; +both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and may have been the +sources from whence its channel was filled. Some convulsion of nature at a +remote period, by raising the waters above their natural level, might have +caused a disruption of the banks, and drained their beds, as they now +appear ready for the ploughshare or the spade. In the month of June these +flats are brilliant with the splendid blossoms of the _enchroma_, or +painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy _trillium_ roses scent the evening +air, and grow as if planted by the hand of taste. + +A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage [Footnote: Saxifraga nivalis.] with +its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the fall, it +is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a species of +creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the leaves are +highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable to the taste and +smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage of martagon lilies take +the place of the lupine and trilliums; these splendid lilies vary from +orange to the brightest scarlet; various species of sunflowers and +_coreopsis_ next appear, and elegant white _pyrolas_ [Footnote: Gentiana +linearis, G. crenata.] scent the air and charm the eye. The delicate lilac +and white shrubby asters next appear, and these are followed by the large +deep blue gentian, and here and there by the elegant fringed gentian. +[Footnote: Pyrola rotundifolia, P. asarifolia.] These are the latest and +loveliest of the flowers that adorn this tract of land. It is indeed a +garden of nature's own planting, but the wild garden is being converted +into fields of grain, and the wild flowers give place to a new race of +vegetables, less ornamental, but more useful to man and the races of +domestic animals that depend upon him for their support. + +Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found themselves, +at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, [Footnote: +_Pedophyllnm galmata_,--Mandrake, or May-apple.] where they had the good +fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath some large +moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground was thickly +covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many varieties of +flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the valley and up the +steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were whortleberries, or +huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in abundance; bilberries +dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. The vines that wreathed +the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes, +but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly +sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, +filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the +stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they +did not mind the consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied +by a large bed of May-apples, [Footnote: Kilvert's Ravine, above Pine-tree +Point.] the fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe, +August being the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still +green, and wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great +numbers of the woodchucks' burrows on the hills, while partridges and +quails were seen under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, +[Footnote: _Cornus sericea_. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by +the partridge and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There +are several species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.] that here grew +in abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As +this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, and +resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they should meet +with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + +Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded +hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, +somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the shelter +that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through the opening +at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the distant waters of +the lake which terminated the vista, while they were quite removed from its +unwholesome vapours. + +The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, scarcely +modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in about nine +o'clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in the afternoon. +Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while Catharine busied +herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss and fern, of which +there was abundance near the spring. The boys had promised to cut some +fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and bring them up to form a +foundation for their bed, and also to strew Indian-fashion over the floor +of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort of carpeting reminds one of, the +times when the palaces of our English kings were strewed with rushes, and +brings to mind the old song:-- + + "Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew'd with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch----" + +Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients +adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the +luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the rich. +The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn lightly over +the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if it had been taken +from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and contented were they in +their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered grass and leaves, raised +from the earth by a heap of branches carefully arranged, was to them as +pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of bark and poles, as curtains +of silk or damask. + +Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient for +the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of which +lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, and this +done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath the cooling +shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; pleased with the +dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, and fanned her warm +cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like her cousin Louise, +that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, for it was always +dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were still. + +She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a +deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores of +the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far away +from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup [Footnote: The Dutch +word for verandah, which is still in common use among the Canadians.] in +front of her father's house, and in memory's eye she beheld it all exactly +as she had left it. There stood the big spinning wheel, just as she had set +it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended from the rafters, the basket +filled with the carded wool ready for her work. She saw in fancy her +father, with his fine athletic upright figure, his sunburnt cheeks and +clustering sable hair, his clear energetic hazel eye ever beaming upon her, +his favourite child, with looks of love and kindness as she moved to and +fro at her wheel. [Footnote: Such is the method of working at the large +wool wheel, unknown or obsolete in England.] There, too, was her mother, +with her light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as she pursued her +daily avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the cows to be milked, +or chopping firewood. And as these images, like the figures of the magic +lantern, passed in all their living colours before her mental vision, her +head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon her arm, and then she +started, looked round, and slept again, her face deeply buried in her young +bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl slumbered. + +A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting +breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she +dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf--its grisly paws +were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and suffocation--her +languid eyes open. Can it be?--what is it that she sees? Yes, it is Wolfe; +not the fierce creature of her dreams by night and her fears by day, but +her father's own brave devoted dog. What joy, what hope rushed to her +heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of the faithful beast, and +wept from the fulness of heart. + +"Yes," she joyfully cried, "I knew that I should see him again. My own +dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are your +children. Come, come quickly!" and she hurried to the head of the valley, +raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now confidently +believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the well-known +sound of her voice. + +Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every projecting +headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, "Come quickly!" + +Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, +"Father, come quickly, come!" and again the deceitful sounds were repeated, +"Quickly come!" + +The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost +mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her +father's name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont to +do when he heard his master's step approaching. Still Catharine could not +but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father must +be very near. + +The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, +fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up +their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They +could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, +their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the +gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their +friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and +shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow +them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties were +in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old dog refused +to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched himself, and +the boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh--he looked almost +starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a state of great +exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with wishful looks, and +she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to this great relief. + +Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, in +tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, "Lost, lost, lost!" It +was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe would travel in +all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search till he discovered +the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last night of the father's +wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back to his melancholy +home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and fro, he involuntarily +exclaimed, wringing his hands, "Lost, lost, lost!" Wolfe heard what to him +was an imperative command; he rose, and stood at the door, and whined; +mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, and again exclaimed in +passionate tones those magic words, that sent the faithful messenger forth +into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he never left it, but with ah +instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, he continued to track the +woods, lingering long on spots where the wanderers had left any signs of +their sojourn; he had for some time been baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and +again where they had crossed Cold Creek, but had regained the scent and +traced them to the valley of the "big stone," and then with the sagacity of +the bloodhound and the affection of the terrier he had, at last, discovered +the objects of his unwearied, though often baffled search. + +What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe create! +How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with his head +pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it was +foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if he had +been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your homesick +nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those eloquent +waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or waved from +side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute sorrowful +glances, as though he would have said, "Dear mistress, I know all your +troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!" There is something +touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only the hard-hearted +and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once hearing of a felon, +who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous indifference to the +appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that attended him in prison, +whose heart was softened by the sight of a little dog, that had been his +companion in his days of comparative innocence, forcing its way through the +crowd, till it gained the foot of the gallows; its mute look of anguish +and affection unlocked the fount of human feeling, and the condemned man +wept--perhaps the first tears he had shed since childhood's happy days. + +The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The inky +darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid flame, +which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off or near. +The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through the gorge of +the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep narrow defile, +shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, more wild and gloomy, +when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + +There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage +remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, scarcely +stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at rest. The solemn +murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been likened to the +moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of the spot. Seated +at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which their evening fire +burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in silence and in +awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near them, they felt +comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which now burst in +terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to cloud, and the echoes +of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered trunks and brittle +branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in that wild war of +elements. + +Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from their +covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might be heard +from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts with fear. To +the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they listened with awe +and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were the voice of Him who +"sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice." And they bowed and +adored his majesty; but they shrank with curdled blood from the cry of the +_felon wolf._ + +And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down in a +whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey branches +were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they would not bow +down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered all abroad like +chaff before the wind. + +The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for the +safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from them. +And often 'mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could +distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. "If our father had +not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither." + +"Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm," said +Catharine, weeping, "or have been starved to death while seeking for us!" +and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + +But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers +were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and +privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure they +were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had prevented +them from meeting. + +"To-morrow, ma chere, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will be a +joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his master, +and then--oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. They will +have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our dear mothers +and chere petite Louise." + +The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the +poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars peep +forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful state, +the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their garments were +drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire with some bark +and boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks in their back log +unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a blaze, with which +they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. The air was now cool +almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather remained unsettled, +and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake presented a leaden hue, +crested with white mimic waves. + +They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head of +the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of bark, +which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. The boys +employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the fish they +had caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe seemed to be +mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they all went up towards +the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to look round in hope of +getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, but though they kept an +anxious look out in every direction, they returned, towards evening, +tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red squirrel, and a partridge which +Wolfe "treed,"--that is, stood barking at the foot of the tree in which it +had perched,--and the supply of meat was a seasonable change. They also +noticed, and marked, with the axe, several trees where there were bees, +intending to come in the cold weather, and cut them down. Louis's father +was a great and successful bee-hunter; and Louis rather prided himself on +having learned something of his father's skill in that line. Here, where +flowers were so abundant and water plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be +abundant also; besides, the open space between the trees, admitting the +warm sunbeam freely, was favourable both for the bees and the flowers on +which they fed, and Louis talked joyfully of the fine stores of honey they +should collect in the fell. He had taught little Fanchon, a small French +spaniel of his father's, to find out the trees where the bees hived, and +also the nests of the ground-bees, and she would bark at the foot of the +tree, or scratch with her feet on the ground, as the other dogs barked at +the squirrels or the woodchucks; but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was +old, and would learn no new tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his +own observation and the axe to depend upon for procuring honey. + +The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither +perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts [Footnote: All these fish are +indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.] were to be caught. However, they +found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish among the +gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their fingers very +spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want of salt; but +hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared them very good when +well roasted, covered up with hot embers. "The fish-hawks," said he, "set +us a good example, for they eat them, and so do the eagles and herons. I +watched one the other day with a mussel in his bill; he flew to a high +tree, let his prey fall, and immediately darted down to secure it; but I +drove him off, and, to my great amusement, perceived the wise fellow had +just let it fall on a stone, which had cracked the shell for him just in +the right place. I often see shells lying at the foot of trees, far up +the hills, where these birds must have left them. There is one large +thick-shelled mussel, that I have found several times with a round hole +drilled through the shell, just as if it had been done with a small auger, +doubtless the work of some bird with a strong beak." + +"Do you remember," said Catharine, "the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. +picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of +the shells too; [Footnote: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells of +mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been long +known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the river +mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and stones.] and +when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by some large bird, +a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the great lake, as it +had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in our creeks being +quite thin-shelled and white." + +"Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the +eagle's nest on the top of our hill, Louis?" said Hector. + +"I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; they +were brought from this very lake, I dare say." + +"If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we +might become great fishermen." + +"Louis," said Catharine, "is always thinking about canoes, and boats, and +skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor." + +Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to +manage her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never saw +difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion of his own +cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed faster than +Hector's, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one valuable quality-- +steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an opinion, but when once +convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered the subject or overcame +the obstacle. + +"Catharine," said Louis, one day, "the huckleberries age now very +plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store of +them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chere, wherever we turn our +eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are purple +with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest of our +lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no berries are +to be found." + +"It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for let me +tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless--mere dry husks." + +"Why so, ma belle?" + +"I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our mothers +dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the case, but when +they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they were quite nice." + +"Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good +hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, to +keep the dried fruit in." + +They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or +whortleberries). [Footnote: From the abundance of this fruit, the Indians +have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the south shore. +During the month of July and the early part of August, large parties come +to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, which they preserve by +drying, for winter use. These berries make a delicious tart or pudding, +mixed with bilberries and red-currants, requiring little sugar.] Catharine +and Louis (who fancied nothing could be contrived without his help) +attended to the preparing and making of the bags of birch bark; but Hector +was soon tired of girl's work, as he termed it, and, after gathering some +berries, would wander away over the hills in search of game, and to explore +the neighbouring hills and valleys, and sometimes it was sunset before he +made his appearance. Hector had made an excellent strong-bow, like the +Indian bow, out of a tough piece of hickory wood, which he found in one of +his rambles, and he made arrows with wood that he seasoned in the smoke, +sharpening the heads with great care with his knife, and hardening them by +exposure to strong heat, at a certain distance from the fire. The entrails +of the woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable +by rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but +afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used them, +properly dressed for the purpose. + +Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a +true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with +shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even +Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was now +seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned from his +rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which are plentiful +at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass over in their +migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return thither for the +acorns and berries that are to be found in great abundance. Squirrels, too, +are very plentiful at this season. Hector and Louis remarked that the red +and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other. It is a +common belief, that the red squirrels make common cause with the grey, and +beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a succession +of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while there were +plenty of the red and grey in the "oak openings." [Footnote: Within the +last three years, however, the black squirrels have been very numerous, and +the red are less frequently to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is +tender, white, and delicate, like that of a young rabbit.] Deer, at the +time our young Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful, +and, of course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears, +and wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here +commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals are +now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or wolves, +and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history in this +part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization advances, +while some others increase and follow man, especially many species of +birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the rich man's +board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits and modes of +building and feeding, according to the alteration and improvement in their +circumstances. + +While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation of +the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, while +Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, in +unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on one of the +gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself by looking +for flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, [Footnote: +_Podophyllum peltatum_-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of the May-apple, +in rich moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum bonum, or +egg-plum, which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes a delicious +preserve, if seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten uncooked, the outer +rind, which is thick and fleshy, and has a rank taste, should be thrown +aside; the fine acid pulp in which the seeds are imbedded alone should be +eaten. The root of the Podophyllum is used as a cathartic by the Indians. +The root of this plant is reticulated, and when a large body of them are +uncovered, they present a singular appearance, interlacing each other in +large meshes, like an extensive net-work; these roots are white, as thick +as a man's little finger, and fragrant, and spread horizontally along +the surface. The blossom is like a small white rose.] but finding them +cumbersome in climbing the steep wooded hills, she deposited them at the +foot of a tree near the boys, and pursued her search; and it was not long +before she perceived some pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of +bright lilac flowers, and on plucking some pulled up the root also. The +root was about the size and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, she +found it far from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it seemed +to be a favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that it grew +about their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems were +bitten, and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. Therefore, +carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted them in the +embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more satisfying +than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often roasted in the fire, +when they were out working on the fallow, at the log heaps. Hector and +Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended Catharine for the discovery. +Not many days afterwards, Louis accidentally found a much larger and more +valuable root, near the lake shore. He saw a fine climbing shrub, with +close bunches of dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which scented the +air with a delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great height over the +young trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and tendrils. Pleased +with the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to pull one up, that he +might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed a number of large +tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular oval-shaped; the inside was +quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, only pleasanter, when in its +raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis gathered his pockets full, and +hastened home with his prize, and, on being roasted, these new roots were +decided to be little inferior to potatoes, at all events, they were a +valuable addition to their slender stores, and they procured as many as +they could find, carefully storing them in a hole, which they dug for that +purpose in a corner of their hut. [Footnote: This plant appears to me to +be a species of the _Psoralea esculenta_, or Indian bread-root, which it +resembles in description, excepting that the root of the above is tuberous +oval, and connected by long filaments. The largest tubers are farthest from +the stem of the plant.] Hector suggested that these roots would be far +better late in the fall, or early in the spring, than during the time that +the plant was in bloom, for he knew from observation and experience that at +the flowering season the greater part of the nourishment derived from the +soil goes to perfect the flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, +there was a white floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance +of the potato. + +"This flour," said Catharine, "would make good porridge with milk." + +"Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper," said Louis, +laughing, "but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the +porridge-pot to come from?" + +"Indeed," said Catharine, "I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both." + +One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, for +the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five deer +were in the water, and making for Long Island. + +"But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the +arrows," said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of +arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, +which, the young hunter had made for himself. + +"No fear, ma chere; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and lilies. +We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,--here, boy, here!" + +Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright eyes +of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness the hunt, +ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently understood that +they had some sport in view, trotted along by his mistress, wagging his +great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + +Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The herd +of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and two young +half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of rice and rushes, +not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, apparently quite +unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on a fallen trunk eagerly +eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of Louis and Catharine, with +the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused the timid creatures to a +sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head and making, as the children +thought, a signal for retreat, now struck boldly out for the nearest point +of Long Island. + +"We shall lose them," cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright +track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + +"Hist, hist, Louis," said Hector, "all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, +Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!" + +Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + +"Head them! head them!" shouted Hector. + +Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, he +made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. Twice +the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, taking the +time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the boys saw the herd +had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the island, they separated, +Louis making good his ambush to the right among the cedars, and Hector +at the spring to the west, while Catharine was stationed at the solitary +pine-tree, at the point which commanded the entrance of the ravine. + +"Now, Cathy," said her brother, "when you see the herd making for the +ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the ten +right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. We must +trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is well trained, +he knows what he is about." + +Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited till +the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and clapped +her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified creatures +coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of the thicket +where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they had emerged when +they first took to the water; to this place they boldly steered. Louis, who +had watched the direction the herd had taken with breathless interest, now +noiselessly hurried to Hector's assistance, taking an advantageous post for +aim, in case Hector's arrow missed, or only slightly wounded one of the +deer. + +Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the does +was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, that it +hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag now turned +again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and again the noble +animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now shot his arrow, but it +swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it glanced harmlessly along the +water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of Hector sent another arrow +between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with its force, and then, another +from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and staining the water with her +blood. + +The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the +shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to +make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal +from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that as +his last arrow had given the _coup de grace_, he was entitled to the honour +of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander protested +against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, contenting +himself with saying, "Ah, well, I will get the first steak of the venison +when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste." Moreover, he +privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had had in the +exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the worthy service +she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the herd. Wolfe, too, +came in for a large share of the honour and glory of the chase. + +The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. +This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many uses +were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a store of +wealth in their eyes. + +During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, +there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, +and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the +lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + +From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been +acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good fruit +behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to future +advantage. + +The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews +of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer +for mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws +themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season the +wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the fish-hooks +these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew that strips of +fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails of animals dried +and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws making baskets of the +inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats of the inner bark of +the cedar, with many other ingenious works that they now found would prove +useful to them, after a little practice had perfected their inexperienced +attempts. They also knew how to dry venison as the Indians and trappers +prepare it, by cutting the thick fleshy portions of the meat into strips, +from four to six inches in breadth, and two or more in thickness. These +strips they strung upon poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them +to the drying action of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed +the back and head bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the +sun. + +Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in their joy +they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate caresses on +Wolfe for his good conduct. + +"But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for +dinner to-day," said Louis; "and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice piece +for your own share." + +Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; +the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and the +entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs and +back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + +"We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by," said careful Hector; +"for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn our attention +to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins." + +"Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will not +do when once the cold weather sets in." + +"A shanty would soon be put up," said Hector; "for even Kate, wee bit +lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + +"That I could, indeed," replied Catherine; "for you may remember, Hec., +that the last journey my father made to the Bay, [Footnote: Bay of Quints.] +with the pack of furs, that you and I called a _Bee_ + +[Footnote: A _Bee_ is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We +fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all +Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in the +course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, or +shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best +assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable +to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he +has received.] + +to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and +I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you +said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help." + +"Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only +four logs high." + +"It was not for the fall that I cried," said Catharine, resentfully, "but +because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, 'Cats, you know, have +nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their feet,' and I +thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in pain. Beside, you +called me 'puss,' and 'poor pussie' all the rest of the _Bee_." + +"I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you," said Louis, +trying to look penitent for the offence. "For my part, I had forgotten all +about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear aunt made +us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; and the shed +was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine builders, to have +made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no better help." + +"After all," said Hector, thoughtfully; "children can do a great many +things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the +strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we +should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves in a +lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and hunting." + +"If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger," said +Catharine; "but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, and +gave us health and strength to help ourselves." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O'ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken'd o'er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle--pale, + Fann'd by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song."--COLERIDGE. + +"Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?" said Catharine, the +very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + +"Hollowing out a canoe." + +"Out of that piece of stick?" said Catharine, laughing. "How many +passengers is it to accommodate, my dear." + +"Don't teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made out +of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three." + +"Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?" Louis +nodded assent. + +"I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and out +of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of partridges, +I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them." + +"And shall we have a sail as well as oars?" + +"Yes; set up your apron for a sail." + +Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + +"It is worth nothing now," she said, sighing; "and what am I to do when +my gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been +cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes." + +"We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough," said Hector; +"Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the holes +with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be easily +made." + +"The first rainy day, we will see what we can do," replied Louis; "but I am +full of my canoe just now." + +"Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even if we +had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could manage +one," said cautions Hector. + +"I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first +taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and +streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I have +listened so often to my father's stories and adventures when he was out +lumbering on the St. John's river, that I am as familiar with the idea of +a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle," he said, +turning to Catharine; "just think of the fish--the big ones we could get if +we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those rush-beds." + +"It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be the +Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of." + +"Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he called +Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where he said +there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, where people +could see through the openings among the trees. He said it was a great +hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and that they came +there to gather in the harvest of wild rice." + +"I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out," said Catharine, +shuddering; "I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at the +wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?" + +"But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil enough +when they came to the Springs." "They came, you know, for food, or shelter, +or something that they wanted from us; but it may be different when they +find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon their hunting grounds." + +"The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our +friends." + +"The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together," observed +Hector. "The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man do +not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary the +one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they suspect our +openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their own--they do +not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we are taught to +forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with the savage, is a +crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be taught the word of God, he +might be kind and true, and gentle as well as brave." + +It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away +their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for +self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and time, +that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered and +animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus severed +them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to which +their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from infancy +upwards. + +One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring +expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they well +knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and venison +himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat near it. + +They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat +[Footnote: Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose +pleasant meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the lake. +It is one of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well for the +persevering industry of the settler and his family.] along the lake shore, +to the eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult to force their +way through the thick underwood that always impedes the progress of the +traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed the course of an +ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural causeway between two +parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in many places, not wider +than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides were most gracefully +adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers of various species, +wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry bushes, high-bush +cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; while in the deep +ravines on either side grew trees of the largest growth, the heads of which +lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy banks, beset with huge boulders +of red and grey granite and water-worn limestone, showed that it had once +formed the boundary of the lake, though now it was almost a quarter of a +mile in its rear. Springs of pure water were in abundance, trickling down +the steep rugged sides of this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, +delighted with the wild picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting +on a huge block of moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some +ancient grey old oak or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest +on the lonely but lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark +forest shut all else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, +till it reached the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled +what country it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to +them, indeed, a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her +companions laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this +unknown shore to the northward being her father's beloved Highlands. Let +not youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian +girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only +book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor +Highland soldier. + +Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at +last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that +formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far +from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to the +southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant brae, +where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, they decided +upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount Ararat: "For here." +said they, "we will build us an ark of refuge and wander no more." And +mount Ararat is the name which the spot still bears. Here they sat them +down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried venison, and drank of the +cold spring that welled out from beneath the edge of the bank. Hector +felled a tree to mark the site of their house near the birches, and they +made a regular blaze on the trees as they returned home towards the wigwam, +that they might not miss the place. They found less difficulty in retracing +their path than they had formerly, a there were some striking peculiarities +to mark it, and they had learned to be very minute in the remarks they made +as they travelled, so that they now seldom missed the way they came by. A +few days after this, they removed all their household stores, viz. the axe, +the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of dried fruit, the dried +venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they forget the deer scalp, +which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up over the door of their +new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on the shores of the Rice +Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + +The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for +house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and the +oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate watched +the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; there was +something to look forward to from day to day-they were going to commence +housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and well lodged before +the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their blood. It was a +joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were put up, and the +door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did not cut out the spaces +for them; [Footnote: Many a shanty is put up in Canada without windows, and +only an open space for a door, with a rude plank set up to close it in at +night.] they could do very well without, as hundreds of Irish and Highland +emigrants have done before and since. + +A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes against +the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney and hearth in this +primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with wedge-shaped pieces of +wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, being chiefly oaks and pines, +afforded no moss. This deficiency rather surprised the boys, for in the +thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss grows in abundance on the north +side of the trees, especially on the cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron +wood; but there were few of these, excepting a chance one or two in the +little basin in front of the house. The roof was next put on, which +consisted of split cedars; and when the little dwelling was thus far +habitable, they were all very happy. While the boys had been putting on the +roof, Catharine had collected the stones for the chimney, and cleared the +earthen floor of the chips and rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, bound +together with a leathern thong. She had swept it all clean, carefully +removing all unsightly objects, and strewing it over with fresh cedar +sprigs, which gave out a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not +unseemly carpet for their little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire +blazing up on their own hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its gladdening +light, and chat away of all they had done and all that they meant to do. +Here was to be a set of split cedar shelves, to hold their provisions and +baskets; there a set of stout pegs were to be inserted between the logs for +hanging up strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, or the skins of the +animals they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be fixed on posts in the +centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden platters and dishes, and +some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of wood, till something better +could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough poles of iron-wood, supported +by posts driven into the ground, and partly upheld by the projection of the +logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing could be more simple. The framework +was of split cedar; and a safe bed was made by pine boughs being first +laid upon the frame, and then thickly covered with dried grass, moss, and +withered leaves. Such were the lowly but healthy couches on which these +children of the forest slept. + +A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded with +disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler's family have I +seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared for +their reception; and many a gentleman's son has voluntarily submitted to +privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and adventure, or +to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money in the lumbering +trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty and ruder society of +those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian lumberers. During the spring and +summer months, these men spread themselves through the trackless forests, +and along the shores of nameless lakes and unknown streams, to cut the pine +or oak lumber, such being the name they give to the felled stems of trees, +which are then hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon the ice, where they +are formed into rafts, and floated down the waters till they reach the +great St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable difficulties and casualties, +finally shipped for England. I have likewise known European gentlemen +voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized home, and associate +themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, leading lives as wandering +and as wild as the uncultivated children of the forest. The nights and +early mornings were already growing sensibly more chilly. The dews at this +season fall heavily, and the mists fill the valleys, till the sun has risen +with sufficient heat to draw up the vapours. It was a good thing that the +shanty was finished so soon, or the exposure to the damp air might have +been productive of ague and fever. Every hour almost they spent in making +little additions to their household comforts, but some time was necessarily +passed in trying to obtain provisions. One day Hector, who had been out +from dawn till moonrise, returned with the welcome news that he had shot a +young deer, and required the assistance of his cousin to bring it up the +steep bank--(it was just at the entrance of the great ravine)--below the +precipitous cliff near the lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the +meantime. They had now plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was +very acceptable, as they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat +that they had. + +This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in +strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she +roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets of +birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, and the +meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild plums in a +beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried for the winter +store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she also found plenty +of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, on the banks of a +charming creek of bright water that flowed between a range of high pine +hills, and finally emptied itself into the lake.[Footnote: This little +stream flows through the green meadows of "Glenlynden," watering the +grounds of Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose picturesque cottage forms a most +attractive object to the eye of the traveller.] There were great quantities +of water-cresses in this pretty brook; they grew in bright round +cushion-like tufts at the bottom of the water, and were tender and +wholesome. These formed an agreeable addition to their diet, which had +hitherto been chiefly confined to animal food, for they could not always +meet with a supply of the bread-roots, as they grew chiefly in damp, swampy +thickets on the lake shore, which were sometimes very difficult of access; +however, they never missed any opportunity of increasing their stores, and +laying up for the winter such roots as they could procure. + +As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm clothes and +bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were beginning to +wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the lake several +times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she was often +sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as time wore +on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys on the important +subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to manufacture the +skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, and the doe-skin +and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. Louis was always +suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They had taken off the +hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling it up with the hairy +side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made excellent mocassins, +piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, and passing the sinews of +the deer through, as he had seen his father do, by fixing a stout fish-bone +to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an excellent substitute for a needle, +and with the aid of the old file he sharpened the point of the rusty nail, +so that he was enabled, with a little trouble, to drill a hole in a +bone needle, for his cousin Catharine's use. After several attempts, he +succeeded in making some of tolerable fineness, hardening them by exposure +to a slow steady degree of heat, till she was able to work with them, and +even mend her clothes with tolerable expertness. By degrees, Catharine +contrived to cover the whole outer surface of her homespun woollen frock +with squirrel and mink, musk-rat and woodchuck skins. A curious piece of +fur patchwork of many hues and textures it presented to the eye,--a coat of +many colours, it is true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was +not a little proud of her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was +added was a source of fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis +fitted so nicely to her feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector +brought triumphantly in one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught +in one of his deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the +brush remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine +might have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur dress +and bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + +Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and +stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the inner +part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most expert in +this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist their fathers in +preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur traders, who visited +them from time to time, and gave them various articles in exchange for +their peltries; such as powder and shot, and cutlery of different kinds, +as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with gay calicoes, and cotton +handkerchiefs for the women. + +As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving +wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the +larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun and +wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets too +they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, that they +held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some vessel that would +bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small that it could be made +little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had made an attempt at making +tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the sweet fern,--a graceful woody +fern, with a fine aromatic scent like nutmegs; this plant is highly +esteemed among the Canadians as a beverage, and also as a remedy against +the ague; it grows in great abundance on dry sandy lands and wastes, by +waysides. + +"If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat of +the fire," said Louis, "we could get on nicely with cooking." But nothing +like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they were obliged +to give up that thought, and content themselves with roasting or broiling +their food. Louis, however, who was fond of contrivances, made an oven, by +hollowing out a place near the hearth, and lining it with stones, filling +up the intervals with wood ashes and such clay as they could find, beaten +into a smooth mortar. Such cement answered very well, and the oven was +heated by filling it with hot embers; these were removed when it was +sufficiently heated, and the meat or roots placed within, the oven being +covered over with a flat stone previously heated before the fire, and +covered with live coals. This sort of oven had often been described by old +Jacob, as one in common use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower +province, in which they cook small animals, and make excellent meat of +them; they could bake bread also in this oven, if they had had flour +to use. [Footnote: This primitive oven is much like what voyagers have +described as in use among the natives of many of the South Sea islands.] + +Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people were +more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided home +feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, to talk +of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all were well, +and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall all their happy +days spent in the home which they now feared they were destined never again +to behold. About the same time they lost the anxious hope of meeting +some one from home in search of them at every turn when they went out. +Nevertheless they were becoming each day more cheerful and more active. +Ardently attached to each other, they seemed bound together by a yet more +sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now all the world to one another, and +no cloud of disunion came to mar their happiness. Hector's habitual gravity +and caution were tempered by Louis's lively vivacity and ardour of temper, +and they both loved Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, +the hard life to which she was exposed, by the most affectionate +consideration for her comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay +them by cheerfully enduring all privations, and making light of all their +trials, and taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances. + +Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his +absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. +As he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some +accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he had +for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, +which he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly +finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island to +explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + +Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector ran +off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash cousin, +which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did not wish +to make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his mind was +somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it had been left +the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be seen, nor the +fishing-rod and line. + +"Perhaps," thought he, "Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the +little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: or +maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point." + +While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard +steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through the +bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his disordered +air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder from time to +time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + +"Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?" +cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried +onward. "Why, Louis, whither away?" + +Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till Hector +came up to him. + +"Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down by +a pack of wolves?" + +"It is not wolves, or bears either," said Louis, as soon as he could get +breath to speak, "but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war +council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them." + +"How came you to see them?" + +"I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going +down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer path +through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the valley, I +crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight of the creek. +While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how pretty the islands +were, rising so green from the blue water, I was surprised by seeing +several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you may be sure, I thought +they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too far apart, so I sat down on +a log to watch, thinking if they turned out to be deer, I would race off +for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, that we might try our chance +for some venison; but as the black specks came nearer and nearer, I +perceived they were canoes with Indians in them, three in each. They made +for the mouth of the creek, and ran ashore among the thick bushes. I +watched them with a beating heart, and lay down flat, lest they should spy +me out; for those fellows have eyes like catamounts, so keen and wild--they +see everything without seeming to cast a glance on it. Well, I saw them +wind up the ridge till they reached the Bare-hill. [Footnote: Supposed to +be a council hill. It is known by the name of Bare-hill, from the singular +want of verdure on its surface. It is one of the steepest on the ridge +above the little creek, being a picturesque object, with its fine +pine-trees, seen from Mr. Hayward's grounds, and forms, I believe, a part +of his property.] You remember that spot; we called it so from its barren +appearance. In a few minutes a column of smoke rose and curled among the +pine-trees, and then another and another, till I counted five fires burning +brightly; and, as I stood on the high ground, I could distinguish the +figures of many naked savages moving about, running to and fro like a +parcel of black ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them raise a +yell like a pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my heart leap +up in my breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got into my wise +head, of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the empty birch +canoes, which you must own would have been a glorious thing for us; but +when I heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted off, and ran +as if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my scalp." And +Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black curls, as if to +ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping knives of his Indian +enemies. + +"And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the Indians; +they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us." + +"Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy." + +"Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and so +three of course must be still better than two." + +"Why," said Hector, laughing, "it depends upon the stock of practical +wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form one +rational plan." + +Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed +pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no trace +of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his sister would +agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so much labour, and +which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not endure even in +idea. + +"Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below Mount +Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold goods +thither." Such was Louis's plan. + +"The ravines would be searched directly," suggested Hector; "besides, the +Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; they +might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a burrow." + +"Yes, and burn us," said Catharine, with a shudder. "I know the path that +leads direct to the 'Happy Valley,' (the name she had given to the low +flat, now known as the 'lower Race-course,') and it is not far from here, +only ten minutes' walk in a straight line. We can conceal ourselves below +the steep bank that we descended the other day; and there are several +springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and berries; and the trees, +though few, are so thickly covered with close spreading branches that touch +the very ground, that we might hide ourselves from a hundred eyes were they +ever so cunning and prying." + +Catharine's counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys immediately +busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a prostrate tree +such articles as they could not conveniently carry away, leaving the rest +to chance; with the most valuable they loaded themselves, and guided by +Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched forward along the narrow +footpath that had been made by some wild animals, probably deer, in their +passage from the lake to their feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the +low sheltered plain; where, being quite open, and almost, in parts, free +from trees, the grass and herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the +springs of water fresh and cool. + +Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved +onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily +chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that +were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or +twinberry, [Footnote: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely +creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet +berry.] as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails +are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad her +bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the Rice +Lake and its flowery shores. + +After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted at +the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely spot +as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like a silver +crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in front, the +long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away into mist, and +blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile valley lay +between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far ridge of oak +hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish the outline of the +Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires and the smoke wreaths +that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the dark pines that grew upon its +crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives make, though perfectly safe from +detection by the distance and their shaded position, for many a winding +vale and wood-crowned height lay between them and the encampment. + +But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present +instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight +and of motion. A few minutes' hasty flight brought our travellers to the +brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open +plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they +were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, +and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while +hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow +in the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and +prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by the +earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent from these +roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other creepers, which +formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious eye could scarcely +penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as if provided for their +concealment, and they carefully abstained from disturbing the pendent +foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray their hiding-place to their +enemies. They found plenty of long grass, and abundance of long soft green +moss and ferns near a small grove of poplars, which surrounded a spring of +fine water. They ate some dried fruit and smoked fish, and drank some of +the clear spring; and after they had said their evening prayers, they +laid down to sleep, Catharine's head pillowed on the neck of her faithful +guardian, Wolfe. In the middle of the night a startling sound, as of some +heavy body falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The night was so +dark they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat gazing into the +impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to speak to each +other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling bark, and resumed +his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his attention was near to +cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, and prayed for safety +against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector and Louis listened, till +they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the morning, it seemed as if +they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague were their recollections of +the fright they had had, but the cause was soon perceived. A large stone +that had been heaved up with the clay that adhered to the roots and fibres, +had been loosened, and had fallen on the ground, close to the spot where +Catharine lay. So ponderous was the mass, that had it struck her, death +must have been the consequence of the blow; and Hector and Louis beheld it +with fear and amazement, while Catharine regarded it as a proof of Divine +mercy and protection from Him in whose hand her safety lay. The boys, +warned by this accident, carefully removed several large stones from the +roof, and tried the safety of their clay walls with a stout staff, to +ascertain that all was secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath +this rugged canopy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour in +his eyes."--_Proverbs_. + +FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke +should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have +effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious +dews, which, even on sultry summer's evenings, is productive of much +chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, was +much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were even +sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. These +simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the heated air +to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and denser particles. +They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of the causes that ruled +them. + +The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook +them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh for +a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, came one +night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. They saw +several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe tracked a +wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden spring, where she +had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the haunts of her fellows. +The arrow was in her throat; it was of white flint, and had evidently been +sent from an Indian bow. It was almost with fear and trembling that they +availed themselves of the venison thus providentially thrown in their way, +lest the Indians should track the blood of the doe, and take vengeance on +them for appropriating it for their own use. Not having seen anything of +the Indians, who seemed to confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the +lake, after many days had passed, they began to take courage, and even +lighted an evening fire, at which they cooked as much venison as would last +them for several days, and hung the remaining portions above the smoke to +preserve it from injury. + +One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in the +direction of the Indian camp. "I am tired of remaining shut up in this +dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by those +melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in." Little did +Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home of their +childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide it from their +sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have pressed onward in +the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + +Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path +beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and +apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment of +our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark thickets and +thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our Father's home. +where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock back to the +everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + +Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians +imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam +abroad free and uncontrolled. + +"After all," said he; "we never met with any ill treatment from the Indians +that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old friends and +acquaintances among them." + +"The thing is possible, but not very likely," replied Louis. "Nevertheless, +Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. The Indian has his +own notion of things, and might think himself quite justified in killing +us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. [Footnote: George Copway, an +intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the Indian hunting-grounds are parcelled +out, and secured by right of law and custom among themselves, no one being +allowed to hunt upon another's grounds uninvited. If any one belonging to +another family or tribe is found trespassing, all his goods are taken from +him; a handful of powder and shot, as much as he would need to shoot game +for his sustenance in returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and +tomahawk only are left, but all his game and furs are taken from him: a +message is sent to his chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he +is banished and outlawed.--_Life of G. Copway, Missionary, written by +himself._] I have heard my father say,--and he knows a great deal about +these people,--that their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers +that they find killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both +merciless and treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to them +in their own language, to explain by what chance we came here." + +This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally +rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: +when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an +opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his +intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now +deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the +Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger was +to be apprehended from facing them. + +"Depend upon it," he added, "cowards are never safer than brave men. The +Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they found +us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if we openly +faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared for them." + +"Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!" cried his sister, passionately +weeping. "Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?" + +"Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to take +care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; they +seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine the +camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch for my +return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither." + +"But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner," said +Catharine, "what would you do?" "I will tell you what I would do. Instead +of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs make them +understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing but kindness +and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would tomahawk the +defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace and goodwill." + +"If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you have +fallen into the hands of the savages," said Catharine, mournfully regarding +her brother. + +"If it were not for Catharine," said Louis, "you should not go alone, but, +if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, who led +her out with us, tempting her with false words." + +"Never mind that now, dearest cousin," said Catharine, tenderly laying her +hand on his arm. "It is much better that we should have been all three +together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both Hec and +you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been so well off if +I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your spirits by my songs +and stories." + +"It is true, ma chere; but that is the reason that I am bound to take care +of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to danger, or +leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will abide by you." + +Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last Louis +and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon busied +themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in that +morning. + +The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that Catharine +cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her brother's return; at +last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis left the shelter of the +valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent their steps to the trysting +tree, which commanded all the country within a wide sweep. + +A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over the +minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, which +cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades of +evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The full +moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that should +break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of a friend. + +Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy +days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. At +last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her head upon +the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly paced to +and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to penetrate the +surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the first sound that +might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + +It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick sharp +note of the "Whip-poor-will," as she flew from bough to bough of an old +withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of these midnight +watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of "Whip-poor-will, +Whip-poor-will;" and then came forth, from many a hollow oak and birch, the +spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where it had lain hushed in silence +all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes their sharp hard wings almost +swept his cheek as they wheeled round and round in circles, first narrow, +then wide, and wider extending, till at last they soared far above the +tallest tree-tops and launching out in the high regions of the air, +uttered from time to time a wild shrill scream, or hollow booming sound, +as they suddenly descended to pounce with wide-extended throat upon some +hapless moth or insect, that sported all unheeding in mid air, happily +unconscious of the approach of so unerring a foe. + +Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and joyfully +he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full and red, +over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + +Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy +forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound +luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed +as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. +Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose +from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under +tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + +It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated young +Louis's breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, as he +thought, rushed into danger. "It was wilful and almost cruel," he thought +"to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his account;" and then +the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved companion took the +place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled his heart. The broad +moon now flooded the hills and vales with light, casting broad checkering +shadows of the old oaks' grey branches and now reddened foliage across the +ground. + +Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry note: +slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from the form of +the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the moon. It is an +open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a few low shrubs and +seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of the late-flowering +pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, with open bells of +azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall flowers and winter-greens, +brighten the ground with wreaths of shining leaves and red berries. + +Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full free +note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and half angry +in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry defiance he +gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + +Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge of +the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching steps +is now distinctly heard advancing--it may be a deer. Two figures approach, +and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear shrill whistle +meets his ear. It is Hector's whistle, he knows that, and assured by its +cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at his side, but +starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, half carries. The +moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking figure of an Indian +girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: her ashy face is +concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which falls like a dark +veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, and she seems ready +to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. Hector, too, seems weary. +The first words that' Hector said were, "Help me, Louis, to lead this poor +girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired I can hardly walk another +step." + +Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the +pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with a +bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with him. +The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep so profound +it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep interest soon +took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of the gentle Catharine, +and she watched the young stranger's slumber as tenderly as though she had +been a sister, or beloved friend, while Hector proceeded to relate in what +manner he had encountered the Indian girl. + +"When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the +_'birken shaw,'_ I paused to examine if the council-fires were still +burning on Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there +a canoe to be seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their +landing-place at the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still +as if no human footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched for +nearly an hour till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, which was +sailing in wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. Assured that +the Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity to examine the +spot more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries and cedars and +small underwood that fringed the borders of the little stream, and found +myself, after a little pushing and scrambling, among the bushes at the foot +of the hill. + +"I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my +trouble--flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk--but I little thought +of what these cruel savages had left there,--a miserable wounded captive, +bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a small tree, her hands, +tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had bent down to fasten them +to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that against which her head was +fastened; her position was one that must have been most painful: she had +evidently been thus left to perish by a miserable death, of hunger and +thirst; for these savages, with a fiendish cruelty, had placed within sight +of their victim an earthen jar of water, some dried deers' flesh, and a cob +[Footnote: A head of the Maize, or Indian corn, is called a "cob."] of +Indian corn. I have the corn here," he added, putting his hand in his +breast, and displaying it to view. + +"Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder," and he showed +the flint head as he spoke, "and fettered; with food and drink in sight, +the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to the wolf, +and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor thing's lips +were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her eyes piteously +from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. This I gave her, +and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut the thongs that bound +her, I wondered that she still kept the same immoveable attitude, and +thinking she was stiff and cramped with remaining so long bound in one +position, I took her two hands and tried to induce her to move. I then for +the first time noticed that she was tied by the hair of her head to the +tree against which her back was placed; I was obliged to cut the hair with +my knife, and this I did not do without giving her pain, as she moaned +impatiently. She sunk her head on her breast, and large tears fell over my +hands, as I bathed her face and neck with the water from the jar; she then +seated herself on the ground, and remained silent and still for the space +of an hour, nor could I prevail upon her to speak, or quit the seat she had +taken. Fearing that the Indians might return, I watched in all directions, +and at last I began to think it would be best to carry her in my arms; but +this I found no easy task, for she seemed greatly distressed at any attempt +I made to lift her, and by her gestures I fancy she thought I was going to +kill her. At last my patience began to be exhausted, but I did not like to +annoy her. I spoke to her as gently and soothingly as I could. By degrees +she seemed to listen with more composure to me, though she evidently knew +not a word of what I said to her. She rose at last, and taking my hands, +placed them above her head, stooping low as she did so, and this seemed to +mean, she was willing at last to submit to my wishes; I lifted her from +the ground, and carried her for some little way, but she was too heavy for +me,--she then suffered me to lead her along whithersoever I would take her, +but her steps were so slow and feeble, through weakness, that many times I +was compelled to rest while she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued +now, and as quiet as a lamb." + +Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the recital +of her brother's adventures. She seemed to think he had been inspired by +God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the poor forlorn one +from so dreadful a death. + +Louis's sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he +commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + +He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition to +their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their cave +beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their feet to +the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was despatched for +water and venison for supper. + +The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, and +conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while +Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with the +greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the cool +healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ [Footnote: Indian balsam.] about it with +the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in water, and +gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned in her veins, +and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which were raised at +intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid hurried glance, +as if she longed, yet feared to say, "Who are you that thus tenderly bathe +my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded limbs, and cool my fevered +blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a being sent by the Great Spirit, +from the far-off happy land to which my fathers have gone, to smooth my +path of pain, and lead me to those blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers +where the cruelty of the enemies of my people will no more have power to +torment me?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell."--COLERIDGE. + +The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought home +to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch for her, +with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over it, and laid +her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a dear sister. This +good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion of her own age and sex. +"Now," said she, "I shall no more be lonely, I shall have a companion and +friend to talk to and assist me;" but when she turned in the fulness of +her heart to address herself to the young stranger, she felt herself +embarrassed in what way to make her comprehend the words she used to +express the kindness that she felt for her, and her sorrow for her +sufferings. + +The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if +striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter her +words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it was to +her as a sealed book. + +She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had heard +from the Indians when they came to her father's house, but in vain; not the +simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried with vexation at her +own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more fortunate in attempts at +conversing with their guest. + +At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye grew +more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, leaving it of +a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the swarthy Indian +shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on the ground. + +She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long tresses +of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small wooden comb +that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise her eyes to her +new friend's face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she took her hands +within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and lips and forehead +in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance to any words, and +would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some object which seemed +unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such times the face of the +young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or rather it might with +more propriety have been said, the absence of all expression, almost as +blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + +How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was +passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, the +offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian friend, +to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention as she +herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the object that +she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young squaw learned +the names of all the familiar household articles about the shanty, and +could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when she had learned +a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would laugh, and a gleam +of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her fine dark eyes, generally +so fixed and sad-looking. + +It was Catharine's delight to teach her pupil to speak a language familiar +to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and name to her +all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. And she in her +turn made "Indiana" (for so they named the young squaw, after a negress +that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one of his Colonel's +infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each object they saw. +Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement arising from +instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to enjoy the blunders +they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. When really interested +in anything that was going on, her eyes would beam out, and her smile gave +an inexpressible charm to her face, for her lips were red and her teeth +even and brilliantly white, so purely white that Catharine thought she had +never seen any so beautiful in her life before; at such times her face +was joyous and innocent as a little child's, but there were also hours of +gloom, that transformed it into an expression of sullen apathy; then a dull +glassy look took possession of her eye, the full lip drooped and the form +seemed rigid and stiff; obstinate determination neither to move nor speak +characterised her in what Louis used to call the young squaw's "_dark +hour._" Then it was that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her +gentle nurse almost feared to look at her protegee or approach her. + +"Hector," said Louis, "you spoke about a jar of water being left at the +camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it." +Hector assented to the proposal. "And we may possibly pick up a few grains +of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us." + +"If we are here in the spring," said Hector, "you and I will prepare a +small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;" and he sat down on the +end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the cob, and +then each corn grain by grain. "Three hundred and ten sound grains. Now if +every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have a great increase, +and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it is a good year, +several bushels to eat." + +"We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine flourishing +crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne." [Footnote: Supporne, +probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or porridge, made of Indian meal, +a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee farmer's house.] + +"You forget we have no porridge pot." + +"I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine +cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, let +us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;" and Louis, who had now a +new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite on the +_qui vive_, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved a great +disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his cousin's +lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being cracked, or +that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was not one of the +doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the ardour of his mind by +causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted camp, and though it had +been knocked over by some animal, it was sound and strong, and excited +great speculation in the two cousins, as to the particular material of +which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of pottery they had ever +before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured from some very dark +red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, as it presented the +appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard and ponderous, and +the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern as if punctured and +scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed to have been hardened by +fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, had evidently done good service +as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they learned the way in which it was +used:[Footnote: Pieces of this rude pottery are often found along theshores +of the inland lakes, but I have never met with any of the perfect vessels +in use with the Indians, who probably find it now easier to supply +themselves with iron pots and crockery from the towns of the European +settlers.] the jar being placed near but not on the fire, was surrounded +by hot embers, and the water made to boil by stones being made red hot and +plunged into it: in this way soup and other food were prepared, and kept +stewing, with no further trouble after once the simmering began, than +adding a few fresh embers at the side furthest from the fir; a hot stone +also placed on the top, facilitated the cooking process. + +Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,--indeed it was +an accomplishment he prided himself on,--was enchanted with the improvement +made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen jar, or pipkin, +and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin in the use of it. +Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with his bow and arrows, and +visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times oftener than he used to do, +just for the sake of proving the admirable properties of this precious +utensil, and finding out some new way of dressing his game. At all events +there was a valuable increase of furs, for making up into clothing, caps, +leggings, mitts, and other articles. + +From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs and +shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, and +many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of the +porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets and +mats. The little creeping winter-green, [Footnote: _Gualtheria +procumbens_,--Spice Winter-green.] with its scarlet berries, that grows on +the dry flats, or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, she +showed them was good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw forth +their fine aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their fragrance +with delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it as a tonic. +The inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good to cure ague and +fever. The root of the _dulcamara_, or bitter-sweet, she scraped down +and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other animal, and made an +ointment that possessed very healing qualities, especially as an immediate +application to fresh burns. + +Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the +knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several +times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food she +had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the trees or +bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she told Catharine +this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, who had given them +success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to appease the malice of +the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss to them, or sickness or +death, unless his forbearance was purchased by some particular mark of +attention. [Footnote: By the testimony of many of the Indians themselves, +they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism in their belief. "We believed +in one great wise benevolent being, Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose dwelling was +in the sun. We believed also in many other lesser spirits--gods of the +elements, and in one bad unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to whom +we attributed bad luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This bad +spirit has to be conciliated with meat and drink offerings."--_Life of +George Copway, Native Missionary_] + +Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most +remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She +examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical +minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her memory +was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she seemed even to +single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from their congeners. +Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought patience and +perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly interested in any work +she began, she would toil on untiringly till it was completed; and then +what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times they became darkly brilliant +with the joy that filled her heart. But she possessed little talent for +invention; what she had seen done, after a few imperfect attempts, she +could do again, but she rarely struck out any new path for herself. + +At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the +kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her +fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little +service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she +displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him her +first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental plumage +of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a master and +protector. He was in her eyes the _"Chief,"_ the head of his tribe. His bow +was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and devices; his arrows +were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made and ornamented by +her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case for his arrows, of +birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and suspended by thongs to +his neck, when he was preparing to go out in search of game. She gave him +the name of the "Young Eagle." While she called Louis, "Nee-chee," or +friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical name of, "Music of the Winds,"-- +Ma-wah-osh. + +When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her head +in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name of +Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + +But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest +favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate with a +jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to caress him, but +Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual friendly feeling +became established between them, which seemed daily and hourly to increase, +greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She would seat herself +Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the shanty, with the +capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address herself to this mute +companion, in wailing tones, as if she would unburthen her heart by pouring +into his unconscious ear her tale of desolation and woe. + +Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her +personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for her +to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her example, +till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at first +regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in dressing +her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish it till it +looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn Catharine with the +wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of the wood-duck, or quill +feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which is called in the Indian tongue +the shot-bird, in allusion to the round spots on its cream-coloured breast: +[Footnote: The Golden-winged Flicker belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers; +it is very handsome, and is said to be eatable; it lives on fruits and +insects.] but it was not in these things alone she showed her grateful +sense of the sisterly kindness that her young hostess showed to her; she +soon learned to lighten her labours in every household work, and above all, +she spent her time most usefully in manufacturing clothing from the skins +of the wild animals, and in teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them; +but these were the occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my +narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Go to the ant."--_Proverbs._ + +IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued serene +and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, began to +show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach of the equinox. +Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come sweeping over the +lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. Already the tints of +autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the oaks, and where the +islands were visible, the splendid colours of the maple shone out in +gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the evergreens and light +golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now looked, they had not +yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which a few frosty nights at +the close of the month was destined to bring to perfection--a glow of +splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, before the rushing winds +and rains of the following month were to sweep them away, and scatter them +abroad upon the earth. + +One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys went +down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which Louis +had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water was rough +and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to launch the +raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over the lake and +admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to his cousin a dark +speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest islands. The wind, +which blew very strong still from the north-east, brought the object nearer +every minute. At first they thought it might be a pine-branch that was +floating on the surface, when as it came bounding over the waves, they +perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but impelled by no visible arm. It was +a strange sight upon that lonely lake to see a vessel of any kind afloat, +and, on first deciding that it was a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide +themselves among the bushes, for fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the +better of their fears. + +"The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; for +I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to guide it," +said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the tempest-driven +vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was the case, they +hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the canoe among the +branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way into the water. + +By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the +projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of +weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some +trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he +contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of +hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set her +afloat again. "Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of which +will gladden your heart," cried Louis with a joyful look. "Come quickly, +and see my treasures." + +"Treasures! You may well call them treasures," exclaimed Hector, as he +helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the +shore, side by side. + +The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the +discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket +almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several +yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all, +an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These +articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or +trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted +from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some +accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of +course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate, +and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so +providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet. + +"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down last +night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not been drawn +into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it. I +trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it would founder +in the deep water, or go off to Long Island." + +"I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point," said Hector, "but I am +glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half afraid +you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to draw it +nearer to the shore." "Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling like a +wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful soups, and +stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!" and Louis tossed up his new +fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an entire fox skin, in the +air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which Hector gravely condemned as +unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned of fifteen;) but with the +joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and danced, and laughed, and +shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands and far-off hills returned +the unusual sound, and even his more steady cousin caught the infection, +and laughed to see Louis so elated. + +Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch Catharine +to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the blanket, and the +tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana accompanied them to the +lake shore, and long and carefully she examined the canoe and its contents, +and many were the plaintive exclamations she uttered as she surveyed the +things piece by piece, till she took notice of the broken handle of an +Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the vessel; this seemed to afford +some solution to her of the mystery, and by broken words and signs she +intimated that the paddle had possibly broken in the hand of the Indian, +and that in endeavouring to regain the other part, he had lost his balance +and been drowned. She showed Hector a rude figure of a bird engraved with +some sharp instrument, and rubbed in with a blue colour. This, she said, +was the totem or crest of the chief of the tribe, and was meant to +represent a _crow_. The canoe had belonged to a chief of that name. While +they were dividing the contents of the canoe among them to be carried to +the shanty, Indiana, taking up the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up +the most of the things, and adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to +the front of her head, she bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as +a London or Edinburgh porter would his trunks and packages, turning round +with a merry glance and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as +she climbed with apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her +companions, to her great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the +parched rice, Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty +very much--it made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had +been so long deprived. + +Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be ready +on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out and +gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + +This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with frequent +themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was the most +valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and bread and +seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the tomahawk, as +his axe was worn and blunt. + +Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed to +think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the latter; +besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to make a +canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would make, after +thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for herself and +Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be +comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was +charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the +packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from +place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of +the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said, +was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after +this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis's +large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for +scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two +comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited +skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur +completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by knotted +fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of squirrel +fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and many a glance +of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon each other, when +they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to display their dresses +to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded them as most skilful +dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and commending their +ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering what rude +implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and sewing of the +garments. + +The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge +which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters--looking, when +lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The ears, +heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time of +the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our young +adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by the +little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in, +leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, which +Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, and +which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand +and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account +of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself +with fishing from the raft till their return. + +The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the +canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and +another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the +other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick; +the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little +practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass +fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + +Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more +delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they +worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their light +bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve them from +starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + +The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were now +able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonje and black +bass, which they caught in great numbers. + +Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her own +carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over the +water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with +delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke into +smiles and dimples. + +It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how +innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of healthy +exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she possessed of +excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill which they had yet +to acquire by imitating her. + +Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of +the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the +fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in +admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in his +estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + +"Every one to his craft," said Louis, laughing; "the little squaw has been +brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her babyhood; +perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and milking of +cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she would prove half +as quick as Catharine or Mathilde." + +"I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour," said Hector, +thoughtfully. + +"Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;" replied +Louis. + +"I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great pains +to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and that so +far from being stupid, they learn very readily," said Catharine. + +"We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite +still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel down, +before we go to bed," observed Hector. + +"She cannot understand what we say," said Catharine; for she knows so +little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the +prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking of +hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters." + +"Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach her; +it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught pagan," +said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort of +uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl's total want of the rites of +his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with feelings +of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that offered, of trying +to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of belief in the God who +made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and earnestly they entered into +the task as a labour of love, and though for a long time Indiana seemed to +pay little attention to what they said, by slow degrees the good seed took +root and brought forth fruit worthy of Him whose Spirit poured the beams of +spiritual light into her heart: but my young readers must not imagine +these things were the work of a day--the process was slow, and so were the +results, but they were good in the end. + +And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, the +Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, and pray +to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ Jesus gave +to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy prayer, so full of +humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully understood by her whose +lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship and the desire to do that +which she had been told was right, was, doubtless, a sacrifice better than +the pagan rites which that young girl had witnessed among her father's +people, who, blindly following the natural impulse of man in his depraved +nature, regarded deeds of blood and cruelty as among the highest of human +virtues, and gloried in those deeds of vengeance at which the Christian +mind revolts with horror. + +Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking and +storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused several +forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the ground; on these +were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which she then stretched +the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked pegs to the frame on +the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and lighted a fire beneath, +taking good care not to let the flame set fire to the mat, the object being +rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by means of the red embers. She next +directed the boys to supply her with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck +in close together, so as to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes. +This was done to concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with +more power; the rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled, +flat shovel. After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be +done was separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it +by small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle +or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. [Footnote: The +Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, by +hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden +pounder.] If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have been +substituted in its stead. + +When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat +basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, +roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by the +little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which was +simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting it on +hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored by for +use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, by the +Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various kinds; crowds +of ducks were winging their way across it from morning till night, floating +in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy groups if an eagle or +fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic circles above them, then +settling down with noisy splash upon the calm water. The shores, too, were +covered with these birds, feeding on the fallen acorns which fell ripe and +brown with every passing breeze; the berries of the dogwood also furnished +them with food; but the wild rice seemed the great attraction, and small +shell-fish and the larvae of many insects that had been dropped into the +waters, there to come to perfection in due season, or to form a provision +for myriads of wild fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon +them, guided by that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one +of our modern poetesses, "God's gift to the weak" [Footnote: Mrs. Southey.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye."--COLERIDGE. + +THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the +lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she +looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its surface. + +"If I had but my father's gun, his good old gun, now!" would Hector say, as +he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; "but these +foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can reach +them." + +Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with green +boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the little vessel +into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; within this bower she +motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small space for the free use of +his bow, while concealed at the prow she gently and noiselessly paddled the +canoe from the shore among the rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or +merely rocking to and fro with the undulatory motion of the waters. The +unsuspecting birds, deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their +pastime or their prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer +to hit many a black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on +the placid water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the +stream. Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which +Wolfe, cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to +land. + +Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great +gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after the +same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, a dozen +or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others stationed +at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the island, to +collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a great feast. + +The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great +Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed them +to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes distant +tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited to share the +sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not understand why Hector +did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, and offer the first duck +or the best fish to propitiate the Great Spirit. Hector told her that the +God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; that his holy Son, when he came +down from heaven and gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, +had satisfied his Father, the Great Spirit, an hundred-fold. + +They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned from +Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making tippets, +and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, but light +and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they did not +require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter store, +smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney people smoke +the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store of provisions, +fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and bags of dried +fruit. + +One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys that +the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding up her +two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. The tribes +had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. She advised +them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to attract them; +but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over the plains just +then, as the camp was lower down on the point [Footnote: This point, +commonly known as _Anderson's Point_, now the seat of the Indian village, +used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous for the Indians, +and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre that took place about +eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the Indians are often turned +up with the plough at this day.] east of the mouth of a big river, which +she called "Otonabee." + +Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event of +meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the earth in +silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + +"If they should prove to be any of your father's people, or a friendly +tribe, would you go away with them?" he again repeated, to which she +solemnly replied, + +"Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father's warms +the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but Indiana is +a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink from danger: her +heart is warm; red blood flows warm here," and she laid her hand on her +heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but impassioned tone, +"They left not one drop of living blood to flow in any veins but these," +and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched upwards towards heaven, as +though calling down vengeance on the murderers of her father's house. + +"My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these +hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, +along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the +Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father's people by hundreds in +cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day and +a bloody deed." + +Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the young +Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under the cover +of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked the lake, to watch +their movements. She told Hector to be under no apprehension if the Indians +came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal themselves, but offer them food +to eat and water to drink. "If they come to the house and find you away, +they will take your stores and burn your roof, suspecting that you are +afraid to meet them openly; but they will not harm you if you meet them +with open hand and fearless brow: if they eat of your bread, they will not +harm you; me they would kill by a cruel death--the war-knife is in their +heart against the daughter of the _brave_." + +The boys thought Indiana's advice good, and they felt no fear for +themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the +shanty with Wolfe. + +The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come to enjoy, +seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite peaceably +disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north side, and the +boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the opposite shore, +and now and then in the stillness of the evening their wild shouts of +revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the breeze over the +waters of the lake. + +The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed in +broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of deep +interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many months +after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful story of the +massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, as I have raised +the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so I must render it in +my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences in which its facts +were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes would be unintelligible to +my young friends. [Footnote: The facts of this narrative were gathered from +the lips of the eldest son of a Rice Lake chief. I have preferred giving it +in the present form, rather than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as +it is, it is matter of history.] + +There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the chiefs +of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which like a +smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having burst into a +decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and obtain the advantage +over the other by covert means. The tribe of the Mohawks of which I now +speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice Lake for their hunting +grounds, and certain islands and parts of the lake for fishing, while that +of the Ojebwas considered themselves masters of the northern shores and +certain rights of water beside. Possibly it was about these rights that the +quarrel originated, but if so, it was not openly avowed between the "Black +Snake," (that was the totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the "Bald +Eagle" (the totem of the Ojebwa). + +These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of +great and rare beauty, called by her people, "The Beam of the Morning;" she +was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the young men +of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. Among +her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the most +enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of winning +the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black Snake +accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his hunting +grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on the lake, and +to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot between them; +but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for peace, inwardly +the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the Black Snake against +the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of great promise, renowned +among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, but who had once offended +the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial alliance with one of the +daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was closely connected to him +by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart of the Black Snake, though +outwardly he affected to have forgiven and forgotten the slight that had +been put upon his relative. The hunting had been carried on for some days +very amicably, when one day the Bald Eagle was requested, with all due +attention to Indian etiquette, to go to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On +entering the lodge, he perceived the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose +from his mat, on which he had been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully +distorted, his eyes glaring hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and +writhing as in fearful bodily anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, +he rolled and grovelled on the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans. + +The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his +guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused to +tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief remained +moody and silent. The following day the same scene was repeated, and on the +third, when the fit seemed to have increased in bodily agony, with great +apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him by the importunity of his +host, he consented to reveal the cause, which was, that the Bad Spirit had +told him that these bodily tortures could not cease till the only son of +his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been sacrificed to appease his anger-- +neither could peace long continue between the two nations until this deed +had been done; and not only must the chief's son be slain, but he must be +pierced by his own father's hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at +which the father must preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror +and aversion at so bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his +life and the happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for +ever if the sacrifice was made,--if not, war to the knife was to be ever +between the Mohawks and Ojebwas. + +The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an +occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at the +time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + +"Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the tribes +of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be sacrificed by my +hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the Black Snake's body +may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires of their lodges in +peace." + +"The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart," was the +specious response of the wily Mohawk; "moreover, the Good Spirit also +appeared, and said, 'Let the Black Snake's son and the Bald Eagle's +daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the +lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.'" + +"The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine," was the +courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the unmoved +brow and passionless lip. + +The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye that +dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged the weapon +into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast of human flesh +was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, presided over the +ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the sacrifice, and all went +off well, as if no such fearful rite had been enacted: but a fearful +retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought the tent of the Bald Eagle's +daughter that evening, and was received with all due deference, as a son +of so great a chief as the Black Snake merited; he was regarded now as +a successful suitor, and intoxicated with the beauty of the Beam of the +Morning, pressed her to allow the marriage to take place in a few days. +The bride consented, and a day was named for the wedding feast to be +celebrated, and that due honour might be given to so great an event, +invitations were sent out to the principal families of the Mohawk tribe, +and these amounted to several hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa +hunters were despatched up the river and to different parts of the country, +avowedly to collect venison, beaver, and other delicacies to regale their +guests, but in reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a large war +party from the small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in the deadly +revenge that was preparing for their enemies. + +Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal +ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests was +then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so artfully +contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and their +allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, armed +with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to spring upon +their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the etiquette +always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were left outside +the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and dancing to the +tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several hundred naked and +painted warriors were assembled. The feast was declared to be ready; a +great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre of the tent. According to the +custom of the Indians, the father of the bridegroom was invited to lift +the most important dish from the pot, whilst the warriors commenced their +wardance around him. This dish was usually a bear's head, which was +fastened to a string left for the purpose of raising it from the pot. + +"Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head and +set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and that his +wise heart may be glad;" were the scornful words of the Bald Eagle. + +A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as +he lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the _happy_ +bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + +"Ha!" shouted the Bald Eagle, "is the great chief of the Mohawks a squaw, +that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of his son, +the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave neither sigh +nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his child. Come, +brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the blood of thy son: +the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of the feast that was +prepared from his young warrior's body." The wretched father dashed himself +upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent the air; those cries were +answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed Ojebwas, as they sprang to their +feet, and with deafening yells attacked the guests, who, panic-stricken, +naked and defenceless, fell an easy prey to their infuriated enemies. Not +one living foe escaped to tell the tale of that fearful marriage feast. A +second Judith had the Indian girl proved. It was her plighted hand that had +severed the head of her unsuspecting bridegroom to complete the fearful +vengeance that had been devised in return for the merciless and horrible +murder of her brother. + +Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians +seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, urged +by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where the women +and children and such of the aged or young men as were not included among +the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting security. Panic-stricken, +the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell like sheep appointed for the +slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the grey-head with the infant of days. +But while the youths and old men tamely yielded to their enemies, there was +one, whose spirit roused to fury by the murder of her father, armed herself +with the war club and knife, and boldly withstood the successful warriors. +At the door of the tent of the slaughtered chief the Amazon defended her +children: while the war lightning kindled in her dark eye, she called aloud +in scornful tones to her people to hide themselves in the tents of their +women, who alone were _braves_, and would fight their battles. Fiercely she +taunted the men, but they shrank from the unequal contest, and she alone +was found to deal the death-blow upon the foe, till overpowered with +numbers, and pierced with frightful wounds, she fell singing her own +death-song and raising the wail for the dead who lay around her. Night +closed in, but the work of blood still continued, till not a victim was +found, and again they went forth on their exterminating work. Lower down +they found another encampment, and there also they slew all the inhabitants +of the lodges; they then returned back to the island, to gather together +their dead and collect the spoils of their tents. They were weary with +the fatigue of the slaughter of that fearful day; they were tired of +blood-shedding; the retribution had satisfied even their love of blood: and +when they found, on returning to the spot where the heroine had stood at +bay, one young solitary female sitting beside the corpse of that dauntless +woman, her mother, they led her away, and did all that their savage nature +could suggest to soften her anguish and dry her tears. They brought her +to the tents of their women, and clothed and fed her, and bade her +be comforted; but her young heart burned within her, and she refused +consolation. She could not forget the wrongs of her people: she was the +only living creature left of the Mohawks on that island. The young girl +was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell had found, wounded and bound, to +perish with hunger and thirst on Bare-hill. + +Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she had +stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a knife at +his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the young men, who +had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was called, and she +was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state already described. + +It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children +listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes and +pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood had +inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade of the +trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that Catharine, +with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those heavenly lessons +of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set forth by his life, his +doctrines, and his death. + +And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour's face in Heaven, and +dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for those +dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her home a +desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her heart, and +the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could not become the +child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. How hard were these +conditions to the young heathen,--how contrary to her nature, to all that +she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, where revenge was virtue, +and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious thing! + +Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her +Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her +Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and +admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, +unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into +her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake +those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing her +to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a lamb of +his "extended fold?"* + +[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a +Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an +historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of the +actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down the legend, +and did so in part, but made such confusion between his imperfect English +and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for copying.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill" + _Irish Song._ + +WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, shooting +wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting was the +amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, quite +forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting on the +brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their proceedings. +Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to the Indians, by +raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre that excited their +unqualified admiration and applause. + +At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north shore, +and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted up their +shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared sufficiency of +food for the following day. The Indians remained for a fortnight; at the +end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on their movements, told +Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and that the Indians had gone +up the river, and would not return again for some weeks. The departure of +the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing to Catharine, whose dread of +these savages had greatly increased since she had been made acquainted with +the fearful deeds which Indiana had described; and what reliance could +she feel in people who regarded deeds of blood and vengeance as acts of +virtuous heroism? + +Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a +short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, +which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they +had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken it +for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never turned +out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, drawing water +from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high bank above her, +that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, Indiana gave the two +boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw them enter the ravine; and +effectually hidden among the thick grey mossy trunks of the cedars at the +lake shore, they remained secure from molestation, while the Indian girl +dropped noiselessly down among the tangled thicket of wild vines and +brushwood, which she drew cautiously over her, and closed her eyes, lest, +as she naively remarked, their glitter should be seen and betray her to her +enemies. + +It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors +were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and +they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + +"Are my white brothers afraid to die?" was the young squaw's half-scornful +reply. "Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not to die?" + +The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been stormy +and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the nights were +often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be seen forming +an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the north and +north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, in ever-varying +shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the stars, which shone +with softened radiance through the silvery veil that dimmed their beauty. +Sometimes for many nights together the same appearance might be seen, and +was usually the forerunner of frosty weather, though occasionally it was +the precursor of cold winds, and heavy rains. + +The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as an +omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected with +her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally she +unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or misfortunes were +revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, the appearance of +strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. The screeching of the +owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the fox, were evil auguries, +while the flight of the eagle and the croaking of the raven were omens of +good. She put faith in dreams, and would foretel good or evil fortune from +them; she could read the morning and evening clouds, and knew from various +appearances of the sky, or the coming or departing of certain birds or +insects, changes in the atmosphere. Her ear was quick in distinguishing the +changes in the voices of the birds or animals; she knew the times of their +coming and going, and her eye was quick to see as her ear to detect sounds. +Her voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and she delighted in imitating +the little ballads or hymns that Catharine sung; though she knew nothing of +their meaning, she would catch the tunes, and sing the song with Catharine, +touching the hearts of her delighted auditors by the melody and pathos of +her voice. + +The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft and mild, +almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen through the +smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on the bosom of the +glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface every passing shadow, +and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on shore and island. Sometimes +the stillness of the air was relieved by a soft sighing wind, which rustled +the dying foliage as it swept by. + +The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this +season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual +flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then +that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, +and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort to +certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their customs; +as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + +Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was +impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on +that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being +surprised by the Indians. "Some fine day," said Louis, "we will go out in +the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little way." + +Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the little +islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is level +with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name they had +given to it was "Ship Island." The Indians have some name for it which I +have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, "Witch Island." Hector's +plan met with general approbation, and they resolved to take provisions +with them for several days, and visit the islands and go up the river, +passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees on the shore +wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + +The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a mirror, +and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the lake, first +to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; they then went +to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance of wild vines, now +rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,--tart, but still not to be +despised by our young adventurers; and they brought away a large birch +basket heaped up with the fruit. "Ah, if we had but a good cake of maple +sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make such grape jelly as my +mother makes!" said Louis. + +"If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar," said +Catharine; "there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, near +the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant spot +which we named the Happy Valley, [Footnote: A lovely valley to the east of +Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family of the name +of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,--a cultivated fertile +farm.] where the bright creek runs, dancing along so merrily, below the +pine-ridge?" + +"Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where the +water-cresses grow." + +"Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day." + +"What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!" said +Hector, thoughtfully. + +"Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms," said +Louis, laughing. "We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I think +he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the fine +flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it all with +wheat, and peas, and Indian corn." + +"We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we live," +replied Hector; "that corn that we found in the canoe will be a treasure." + +"Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill," said Catherine. "How lucky +we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn +flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went to +the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable while +you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the life +of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything has +prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is because we try +to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our endeavours." + +"We are told," said Hector, "that there is joy with the angels of God over +one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when the heathen +that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy name." + +Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that she +should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; beside, she +said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked with a suspicious +eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of eating its flesh, +though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider them good meat, baked +in Louis's Indian oven, or roasted on a forked stick, before the fire. The +Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a very great deal larger than the +common British hedgehog; the quills, however, are longer and stronger, and +varied with alternate clouded marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; +they are minutely barbed, so that if one enters the flesh it is with +difficulty extracted, but will work through of itself in an opposite +direction, and can then be easily pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer +great inconvenience from getting their muzzles filled with the quills of +the porcupine, the former when worrying the poor little animal, and +the latter by accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great +inflammation will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose +valuable hounds from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her +companions, there were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they +could collect a bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the +butter-nut is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it +is a species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and +grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for passing +the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several of which +made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the water, they +agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana said there was +an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, and where there +was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a comfortable bed for the +night. This old log-house she said had been built, she heard the Indians +say, by a French Canadian trapper, who used to visit the lake some years +ago; he was on friendly terms with the chiefs, who allowed him many +privileges, and he bought their furs, and took them down the lake, through +the river Trent, to some station-house on the great lake. They found they +should have time enough to land and deposit their nuts and grapes and +paddle to Long Island before sunset. Upon the western part of this fine +island they had several times landed and passed some hours, exploring its +shores; but Indiana told them, to reach the old log-house they must enter +the low swampy bay to the east, at an opening which she called Indian Cove. +To do this required some skill in the management of the canoe, which was +rather over-loaded for so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and +thick that they had some difficulty in pushing their way through them +without injuring its frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black +elder, high-bush cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded +further, and there was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp +oak, and soft maple, with silver birch and wild cherries. Long strings of +silvery-grey tree-moss hung dangling over their heads, the bark and roots +of the birch and cedars were covered with a luxuriant growth of green moss, +but there was a dampness and closeness in this place that made it far from +wholesome, and the little band of voyagers were not very sorry when the +water became too shallow to admit of the canoe making its way through the +swampy channel, and they landed on the banks of a small circular pond, as +round as a ring, and nearly surrounded by tall trees, hoary with moss and +lichens; large water-lilies floated on the surface of this miniature lake, +and the brilliant red berries of the high-bush cranberry, and the purple +clusters of grapes, festooned the trees. + +"A famous breeding place this must be for ducks," observed Louis. + +"And for flowers," said Catharine, "and for grapes and cranberries. There +is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however lonely the +spot." + +"A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes," said Hector, looking +round. "The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his lodge near +this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not so bad a +one either," and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted little +tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were the +ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by the old +trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles still +occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss and grass +lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of her silent +laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild duck had sat +and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which she had found +and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things pertaining to the +former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, battered tin pannikin, +now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a broken earthen whisky jar; a +rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and pocketed, or rather pouched,--for +he had substituted a fine pouch of deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and +a fishing-line of good stout cord, which was wound on a splinter of red +redar, and carefully stuck between one of the rafters and the roof of the +shanty. A rusty but efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, +who was the finder, was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so +valuable an addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd worn-out +mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while Catharine +declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and carefully deposited +it in the canoe. + +As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that +there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some +one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining the +incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that lay +mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the work +of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look upon these +simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living remnant. The +young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, isolated being, with +no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to her; a stranger in the +land of her fathers, associating with those whose ways were not her ways, +nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language was scarcely known to her, +whose God was not the God of her fathers. Yet the dark eyes of the Indian +girl were not dimmed with tears as she thought of these things; she had +learned of her people to suffer, and be still. + +Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the earth, +when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and then +kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,-- + +"Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish you, +because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God loves you, +and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, and the Friend +of the destitute, and to them that have no helper." + +The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning is +necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the dumb, +the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is often more +eloquent than words--the gentle pressure of the hand, the half-echoed sigh, +the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, and unlock its +hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock is smitten and the +waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to refresh and fertilize the +thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner was touched; she bowed down her +head upon the hand that held her so kindly in its sisterly grasp, and wept +soft sweet human tears full of grateful love, while she whispered, in her +own low plaintive voice, "My white sister, I kiss you in my heart; I will +love the God of my white brothers, and be his child." + +The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: they +found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the desolate +hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, made a +serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the deserted +dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were quickly rolled +in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. The new-found +fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and with very little +delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, was added to their +store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, which they found in +abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and butternuts which Hector +cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, finished their sylvan meal. The +boys stretched themselves to sleep on the ground, with their feet, Indian +fashion, to the fire; while the two girls occupied the mossy couch which +they had newly spread with fragrant cedar and hemlock boughs. + +The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, +[Footnote: Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage +of Alfred Hayward, Esq.] a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with steep +rocky banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely wooded to +admit of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its shores. + +The next island they named the Beaver, [Footnote: The Beaver, commonly +called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon it +some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, to +which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies towards +the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite to Gore's +Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and verandah of +Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, Esq., the +Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of the only +residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the few gentlemen +who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract of country, and +to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of late, have been so +fully developed.] from its resemblance in shape to that animal. A fine, +high, oval island beyond this they named Black Island, [Footnote: Black +Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an oval island, remarkable for +its evergreens.] from its dark evergreens; the next was that which seemed +most to excite the interest of their Indian guide, although but a small +stony island, scantily clothed with trees, lower down the lake. This place +she called Spooke Island, [Footnote: Appendix H.] which means in the +Indian tongue, a place for the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, +and here, in times past, used the Indian people to bury their dead. The +island is now often the resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being +grassy and open, find it more available than those which are densely +wooded. The young Mohawk regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, +and would not suffer Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores. + +"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be +angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were upon +sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial isle. + +Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived from +their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her ancestors +was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to disturb the +solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after awhile reached +the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into two separate +channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with stunted, mossy +bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. Indiana told +them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many days' journey +up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with her paddle a long +line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some longer, some smaller, with +Bays and inlets, which she gave them to understand were the chain of lakes +that she spoke of. There were beautiful hunting grounds on the borders of +these lakes, and many fine water-falls and rocky islands; she had been +taken up to these waters during the time of her captivity. The Ojebwas, she +said, were a branch of the great Chippewa nation, who owned much land and +great waters thereabouts. + +Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the +Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration and +curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading up +to an unknown far-off land--a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable +forests,--flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on its +tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,--the pure +ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that flitted +across its surface--so quiet was the onward flow of its waters. + +A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and crimson-tinted +oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the silent fall of many a +sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer and of winter's coming +reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful stillness; no breath of wind +moved the trees or dimpled the water. Bright wreaths of scarlet berries and +wild grapes hung in festoons among the faded foliage. The silence of the +forest was unbroken, save by the quick tapping of the little midland +wood-pecker, or the shrill scream of the blue jay; the whirring sound of +the large white and grey duck, (called by the frequenters of these lonely +waters the whistle-wing,) as its wings swept the waters in its flight; or +the light dripping of the paddle;--so still, so quiet was the scene. + +As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either to +encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in returning. +She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some anxiety. Vast +volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the sun seen through its +hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air unrelieved by a breath +of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; and though the same +coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several successive days, a +sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire in all to return; and after +a few minutes' rest and refreshment, they turned their little bark towards +the lake; and it was well that they did so: by the time they had reached +the middle of the lake, the stillness of the air was rapidly changing. +The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so long piled upon each other in +mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, at first slowly, then with +rapidly accelerated motion. There was a hollow moaning in the pine tops, +and by fits a gusty breeze swept the surface of the water, raising it into +rough, short, white-crested ridges. + +These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising +hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on +the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl +raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the +crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the Beaver +Island--it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she wielded +the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their little +vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining every +nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of thunder +were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away flew the +light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the tempest was +above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest trees as they +bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding from shore to shore. +And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black streaming hair from her +brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with renewed vigour plied the +paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of turbulence by the violence of +the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, but no word was spoken--they each +felt the greatness of the peril, but they also knew that they were in the +hands of Him who can say to the tempest-tossed waves, "Peace, be still," +and they obey Him. + +Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland +was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with +difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to do +this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the old +tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper's shanty. + +The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of the +Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was vigorously +pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter of the +overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions they had +made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the storm, +they threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its +progress--thankful for an escape from such imminent peril. + +Thus ended the Indian summer--so deceitful in its calmness and its beauty. +The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into stone by a +premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting the shelter of +the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their ark of refuge--the +log-house on Mount Ararat. + +The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner than +usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of April the +snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered with ice, +and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet from shore to +shore. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Scared by the red and noisy light."--COLERIDGE. + +Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping fire-wood, +which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, used from +childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, and snaring hares, +were occupations which they pursued more for the excitement and exercise +than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance of dried, venison, fish, +and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. They now visited those trees +that they had marked in the summer, where they had noticed the bees hiving, +and cut them down; in one they got more than a pailful of rich honey-comb, +and others yielded some more, some less; this afforded them a delicious +addition to their boiled rice, and dried acid fruits. They might have +melted the wax, and burned candles of it; but this was a refinement of +luxury that never once occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry pine +knots that are found in the woods are the settlers' candles; but Catharine +made some very good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and combs, by +pouring water on it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of the +chimney, in one of the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent +substitute for salt as a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the +Indians, they were now reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + +Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up to +every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she patiently +made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little shelter of +pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear carved out of +hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently await the rising +of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously plunging it into the +unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. Many a noble fish did the +young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet of him whom she had tacitly +elected as her lord and master; to him she offered the voluntary service of +a faithful and devoted servant--I might almost have said, slave. + +During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, +that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing +log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west +wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, +unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian blanket +with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt little cold +excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind was high, and +then experience taught them to keep at home. And these cold gloomy days +they employed in many useful works. Indiana had succeeded in dyeing the +quills of the porcupine that she had captured on Grape Island; with these +she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and an arrow case for Hector, +besides making a sheath for Louis's _couteau-du-chasse_, of which the young +hunter was very proud, bestowing great praise on the workmanship. + +Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was engaged +in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the no +small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, was +remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of everything +he saw. + +Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner +bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and wide +in the middle--not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat fish; over +this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, wetted to make +it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when dry, it became +quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work such as you see on +cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + +"And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in your +ingenious little net," said Louis, who had watched her proceedings with +great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she showed all +her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second frame like the +first. + +Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, that +was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for some kind +of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring glance at +Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her silent +laughs. + +"Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,"--and snatching up a light +bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the netted +frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on with her +work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage persevering +in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the other was done: +then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: and he was forced +at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of the work. It was +night before the two were completed, and furnished with straps and loops. +When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl knelt down at +Hector's feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a joyous laugh, +and said, "Snow-shoe--for walk on snow--good!" + +The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now seemed +to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use of them. The +young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own feet, and soon +proved to them that the broad surface prevented those who wore them from +sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector began to acknowledge +the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, especially on the frozen snow +on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well pleased with the approbation that +her manufactures met with, and very soon manufactured for "Nee-chee," as +they all now called Louis, a similar present As to Catharine, she declared +the snow-shoes made her ancles ache, and that she preferred the mocassins +that her cousin Louis made for her. During the long bright days of February +they made several excursions on the lake, and likewise explored some of the +high hills to the eastward. On this ridge there were few large trees; but +it was thickly clothed with scrub oaks, slender poplars, and here and there +fine pines, and picturesque free-growing oaks of considerable size and +great age--patriarchs, they might be termed, among the forest growth. +[Footnote: One of these hoary monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands at the +head of the lawn at Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr, W. Falkner, now +the residence of the Authoress.] Over this romantic range of hill and +dale, free as the air they breathed, roamed many a gallant herd of deer, +unmolested unless during certain seasons when the Indians came to hunt over +these hills. Surprised at the different growth of the oaks on this side the +plains, Hector could not help expressing his astonishment to Indiana, who +told him that it was caused by the custom that her people had had from time +immemorial of setting fire to the bushes in the early part of spring. This +practice, she said, promoted the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover +for the deer themselves, and effectually prevented the increase of the +large timbers. This circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high ridge +of hills when contrasted with the more wooded portions to the westward. +From the lake these eastern hills look verdant, and as if covered with +tall green fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is cast upon the +leaves of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they present a glowing +unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only variegated in spots by a +dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light waving poplars turned by the +same wizard's wand to golden yellow. + +There were many lovely spots,--lofty rounded hills, and deep shady dells, +with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole our young +folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded glens of the +western side, where they had fixed their home. + +There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold +bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down the +frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on small +hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped in their +warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what cared they for +the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks brightened by the +delightful exercise, they would remain for hours enjoying the amusement +of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the ground with myriads of +diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening it till it rivalled the +snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out with the exercise, they +returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing fire, till the smoked rafters +glowed in the red light; spread their simple fare of stewed rice sweetened +with honey, or maybe a savoury soup of hare or other game; and then, when +warmed and fed, they kneeled together, side by side, and offered up a +prayer of gratitude to their Maker, and besought his care over them during +the dark and silent hours of night. + +Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in their +tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of enjoying +many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely forest home. +Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice of every sort of +usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful fortitude; not, indeed, +quietly to sit down and wait for better times, but vigorously to create +those better times by every possible exertion that could be brought into +action to assist and ameliorate their condition. + +To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that nerves +his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in the steps of the +old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the exercise of his own +energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their own resources, instead +of depending upon his neighbours. + +The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of +civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might not +have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian Crusoes, +because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a life of +such privation as they had known, they could not have brought so much +experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires courage to +yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + +Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made by +Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and better +table than the first rough one that they put together. They also made +a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and separate +sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly circumscribed +their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as soon as the spring +came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better and larger room to be +used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a complete set of wooden +trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of excellent grain, and less +liable to warp or crack than many others. + +Louis's skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. He +not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a certain +taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his materials and +rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in mechanism for which the +French have always been remarked. With his knife and a nail he would carve +a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with handle across it, all delicately +wrought with flowers and checker-work. The shell of a butter-nut would be +transformed into a boat, with thwarts, and seats, and rudder; with sails of +bass-wood or birch-bark. Combs he could cut out of wood or bone, so that +Catharine could dress her hair, or confine it in braids or bands at will. +This was a source of great comfort to her; and Louis was always pleased +when he could in any way contribute to his cousin's happiness. These little +arts Louis had been taught by his father. Indeed, the entire distance that +their little, settlement was from any town or village had necessarily +forced their families depend on their own ingenuity and invention to supply +many of their wants. Once or twice a year they saw a trading fur-merchant, +as I before observed; and those were glorious days for Hector and Louis, +who were always on the alert to render the strangers any service in their +power, as by that means they sometimes received little gifts from them, and +gleaned up valuable information as to their craft as hunters and trappers. +And then there were wonderful tales of marvellous feats and hair-breadth +escapes to listen to, as they sat with eager looks and open ears round the +blazing log-fire in the old log-house. Now they would in their turns have +tales to tell of strange adventures, and all that had befallen them since +the first day of their wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + +The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The +Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves +chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, and +did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter end of +the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as they had +the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar and some +molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible place: it +had the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready built for +a shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a good +boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need not be +exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two boys soon +cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out into +sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; and the +first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh with their +vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and tapped the trees +they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And many pleasant days they +passed during the sugar-making season. They did not leave the sugar-bush +for good till the commencement of April, when the sun and wind beginning to +unlock the springs that fed the lake, and to act upon its surface, taught +them that it would not long be prudent to remain on the island. The loud +booming sounds that were now frequently heard of the pent-up air beneath +striving to break forth from its icy prison, were warnings not to be +neglected. Openings began to appear, especially at the entrance of the +river, and between the islands, and opposite to some of the larger creeks; +blue streams that attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and wild geese, that +came, guided by that instinct that never errs, from their abiding-places +in far-off lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild birds coming and +going with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to her simple-minded +companions. + +How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How +joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded +woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and +twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, that +comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the low, +tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines or in +the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of the +little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen trees, +and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his wings +against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds--were among the +early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest dwellers, and for +such they listened with eager ears, for they told them-- + + "That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last." + +They watched for the first song of the robin, [Footnote: _Turdus +miyratorius_, or American robin.] and the full melody of the red thrush +[Footnote: _Turdus melodus,_ or wood-thrush.]; the rushing sound of the +passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, +sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or darting +down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, the acorns +that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries of hawthorn +and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines were now putting +on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies were deep blue; +nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed waking into life and +light. + +On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access to +the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and Louis +were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for the +addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to work as +soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little field +for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended to the +house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in plenty of +small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned up the loose +boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had marked out, they +proceeded to enclose it with a "brush fence", which was done by felling the +trees that stood in the line of the field, and letting them fall so as to +form the bottom log of the fence, which they then made of sufficient height +by piling up arms of trees and brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were +too particular, as there was no fear of "breachy cattle," or any cattle, +intruding on the crop; but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as +much to be guarded against as oxen and cows. + +The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was as +clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a log, +contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the grain +was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week in May, +as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds and the +blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. Hector's eyes +had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning from the lake, +soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. But soon his +eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of the ridge was +enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some mist-wreath +hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds rapidly spread +on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, and nothing but +fire,[Footnote: Appendix I.] that those dark volumes arose. + +"Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire." + +"On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!" + +"Nay, but look there!" + +The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on with +fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by the dry, +withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the flames. + +"It is two miles off, or more," said Louis; "and the creek will stop its +progress long before it comes near us--and the swamp there, beyond Bare +Hill." + +"The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, a +burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; besides, +when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on fire, you know +how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when the forest was on +fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and how fiercely it raged! +It was lighted by the ashes of your father's pipe, when he was out in the +new fallow; the leaves were dry, and kindled; and before night the woods +were burning for miles." "It was a grand spectacle, those pine-hills, when +the fire got in among them," said Louis.. "See, see how fast the fires +kindle; that must be some fallen pine that they have got hold of; now, look +at the lighting up of that hill--is it not grand?" + +"If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!" said +Hector, anxiously. + +"The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as the fire +finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even against the +wind." + +As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line of +wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour which hung +in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with inconceivable +rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon of destruction +spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery speed; and soon +hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + +"It must have been the work of the Indians," said Louis. "We had better +make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. We +must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it may +come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent escape +by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + +"It is the Indian burning," said Indiana; "that is the reason there are so +few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for the +deer." + +Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having +scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed to +have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site of the +root-house [Footnote: Root-houses are built over deep excavations below the +reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.] below the bank, +which they had just finished, they had met with charred wood, at the depth +of six feet below the soil, which must have lain there till the earth had +accumulated over it; a period of many years must necessarily have passed +since the wood had been burned, as it was so much decomposed as to crumble +beneath the wooden shovel which they were digging with. + +All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were +flame--red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, +overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it formed +a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the splendour of the +scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire better defined; but +there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as it had done in the +daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of evening effectually put +a stop to the progress of the fire. The children could now gaze in security +upon the magnificent spectacle before them, without the excitement produced +by its rapid spread during the daytime. They lay down to sleep in perfect +security that night, but with the consciousness that, as the breeze sprung +up in the morning, they must be on the alert to secure their little +dwelling and its contents from the devastation that threatened it. They +knew that they had no power to stop its onward course, as they possessed +no implement better than a rough wood shovel, which would be found very +ineffectual in opening a trench or turning the ground up, so as to cut off +the communication with the dry grass, leaves, and branches, which are the +fuel for supplying the fires on the Plains. The little clearing on one side +the house they thought would be its safeguard, but the fire was advancing +on three sides of them. + +"Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be done." + +"I propose," said Louis, "retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest point +of Long Island." "My French cousin has well spoken," said Hector, mimicking +the Indian mode of speaking; "but listen to the words of the wise. I +propose to take all our household stores that are of the most value, to the +island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, first removing +from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is likely to take +fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as to the shanty, it +must take its chance to stand or fall." + +"The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never +mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, is +not yet sown," said Louis. + +Hector's advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to work +to secure the property they meant to leave. + +It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as it +formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made +available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys +carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and +also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them to +hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off to the +lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand." + IRISH SONG + +The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far as +the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were leaping +among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the pines, and +rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to heap of the +fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes of black and +suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that Hector and Louis +had only time to push off the canoe before the heights along the shore were +wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and noble pine fell crashing to +the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, as its burning trunk shivered +in its fall. Glad to escape from the suffocating vapour, the boys quickly +paddled out to the island, enjoying the cool, fresh air of the lake. +Reposing on the grass beneath the trees, they passed the day, sheltered +from the noonday sun, and watched the progress of the fires upon the shore. +At night the girls slept securely under the canoe, which they raised on one +side by means of forked sticks stuck in the ground. + +It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on the +water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, to which +the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by contrast. + +Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty +escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the safety +of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was already +springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken every +precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. +[Footnote: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved +by turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been +effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing +up the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry roots, +grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even could it be +got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in stopping +the progress of fire; even women and little children can assist in such +emergencies.] + +Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed +by the fire. "We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this +summer," she said, mournfully; "and the pretty roses and bushes will be +scorched, and the ground black and dreary." + +"The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the +forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, leaves +more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in," said Hector. "I have +seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new and fresh set of +plants spring up, and even some that looked withered recover; the earth is +renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so great a misfortune as it +at first appears." + +"But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!" said Louis; +"I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one of those +burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, branchless +trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance against those +that kindled the fires." + +"They do, indeed, look ugly," said Catharine; "yet the girdled ones look +very nearly as ill." [Footnote: The girdled pines are killed by barking +them round, to facilitate the clearing.] + +At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim +smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was +still going on. + +As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the point +(Andersen's Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they concluded +the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual hunter or +trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they were not +very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they decided +on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was with some +feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had befallen their +shanty. + +"The shanty is burned!" was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis and +Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded a +view of its roof. "It is well for us that we secured our things in the +root-house," said Hector. + +"Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, larger +and better than the old one," said Louis. "The chief of our fence is gone, +too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if we get it +done a month hence, say I. Come, _ma belle_, do not look so sorrowful. +There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital wigwam, while +the new house is building." "But the nice table that you made, Louis, and +the benches and shelves!" + +"Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves +too. Never fear, _ma chere_, the same industrious Louis will make things +comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a famous +one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is planted we +shall have nothing else to do but to think about it." + +The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles and +birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did not feel the +inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been earlier in the +season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house and pantry; and +Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave certain loose folds +between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, which formed a series of +pouches or bags, in which many articles could be stowed away out of sight. +[Footnote: In this way the winter wigwams of the Indians are constructed so +as to give plenty of stowing room for all their little household matters, +materials for work, &c.] + +While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, +the two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a +succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched +earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had +anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they +raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their +attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been +burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + +The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a few +weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than the +former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian corn, +renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting partridges and +ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. The fruit season +was less abundant this year than the previous one. The fire had done this +mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect fruits during the +summer months. + +It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the boys, +and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for water, and on +her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her family of three +half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. [Footnote: An Indian +baby; but "papoose" is not an Indian word. It is probably derived from the +Indian imitation of the word "baines."] In their turn the strangers seemed +equally astonished at Catharine's appearance. + +The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon +reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which she +had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To this +Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple sugar, +which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted the brown +baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden cradle, and +fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference between the +colour of her young hostess's fair skin and her own swarthy hue; for she +often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, and compared her +arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment and curiosity; +possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race this poor savage +had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set the birchen dish on the +floor, and restrapping the papoose in its cradle prison, she slipped the +basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and silently signing to her sons to +follow her, she departed. That evening a pair of ducks were found fastened +to the wooden latch of the door, a silent offering of gratitude for the +refreshment that had been afforded to this Indian woman and her children. + +Indiana thought, from Catharine's description, that these were Indians with +whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake and the +ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be near. The squaw, +she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother Snow-storm, from +having been lost in the woods, when a little child, during a heavy storm of +snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a gentle, kind woman, and, she +believed, would not do any of them hurt. Her sons were good hunters; and +though so young, helped to support their mother, and were very good to her +and the little one. + +I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a brief +notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved abundant, +and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and stored, and plenty +of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of honey. + +The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the +lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some +hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter was +unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring following +was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May before +vegetation had made any very decided progress. + +The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both +within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for the +floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats and a +table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering their +only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for splitting the +wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with great care and +patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft mate, woven by +Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut and dried; but the little +squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or deer-skin on the floor before the +fire, as she had been accustomed. + +A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and +was now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the +loghouse;--but for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all +they had left and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those +who dwelt beneath its humble roof. + +The season of flowers had again arrived,--the earth, renovated by the fire +of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,--June, with its fragrant +store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,--the anniversary of that +time when they had left their beloved parents' roofs, to become sojourners +in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much they felt they had to be +grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and much anxiety they had felt; +but they had enjoyed blessings above all that they could have expected, and +they might, like the Psalmist when recounting the escapes of the people +of God, have said,--"Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his +goodness, and the wonders that he doeth for the children of men." And now +they declared no greater evil could befal them than to lose one of their +little party, for even Indiana had become as a dear and beloved sister; her +gentleness, her gratitude and faithful trusting love, seemed each day to +increase. Now, indeed, she was bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for +she knelt to the same God, and acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies +of her Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, +and had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own +tongue; so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her on +any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of social +and Christian love. + +Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track of +a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and showing +symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred staying at +home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had gathered some +fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, Indian meal +cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was weary and warm, +for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on the threshold of +the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and closed her eyes. +Perhaps the poor child's thoughts were wandering back to her far-off, +never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking of the hunters and +their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of dread stole over her +mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she saw no form; but there +was a strange consciousness that she was not alone--that some unseen being +was near, some eye was upon her. I have heard of sleepers starting from +sleep the most profound when the noiseless hand of the assassin has been +raised to destroy them, as if the power of the human eye could be felt +through the closed lid. + +Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was near +her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance around. +No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she resumed her +seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet which she had +tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, attracted her +attention. + +"What aileth thee, wee dearie?" she said, tenderly, as the timid little +creature crept, trembling, to her breast. "Thy mistress has scared thee by +her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor weasel +here to seize thee, silly one;" and as she spoke she raised her head, and +flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded her eyes. The +deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met her terrified gaze, +gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the door-post, whence the +upper part of the face alone was visible, partly concealed by a mat of +tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, the poor girl neither +spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing her hands tightly across +her breast, as if to still the loud beating of her heart, she sat gazing +upon that fearful appearance, while, with stealthy step, the savage +advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, as he did so, his eyes riveted +upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily serpent is said to fascinate his +prey. His hapless victim moved not; whither could she flee to escape one +whose fleet foot could so easily have overtaken her in the race? where +conceal herself from him whose wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive +her of all vital energy? + +Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian to +answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and taking the +girl's ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong of deer's +hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path through the +ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch canoe, rocking +gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a young girl were +seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed no word indicative of +curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the Indian lifted his captive +into the canoe, and made signs to the elder squaw to push from the shore. +When all had taken their places, the woman, catching up a paddle from the +bottom of the little vessel, stood up, and with a few rapid strokes sent it +skimming over the lake. + +The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous +situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her agitated +face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror presented +themselves to her bewildered brain--all that Indiana had described of the +cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before her mind. Poor child, +what miserable thoughts were thine during that brief voyage! + +Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the +victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved +ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no hope +of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated mind, she +raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the Indian and his +companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the stoical one of an +Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no answering glance of +sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look of pity--not a nerve +or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of the Indians, and the +woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy attitude, burying her +face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter emotions from the heartless +strangers. + +She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian's education to hide +the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and tender +emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + +It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, which +was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the +wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds of unrighteousness, and +to teach man that he is by nature the child of wrath and victim of sin, and +that in his unregenerated nature his whole mind is at enmity with God and +his fellow-men, and that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. And the +Indian has acknowledged that power,--he has cast his idols of cruelty and +revenge, those virtues on which he prided himself in the blindness of his +heart, to the moles and the bats; he has bowed and adored at the foot of +the Cross;--but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken. [Footnote: +Appendix K.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?" + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER + +The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian lifted +his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move forward +along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards higher up +the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with shrubby +trees--the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the paddles and +secure the canoe. + +It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, +when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead for +mercy--whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we ourselves +are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, mute with +terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now found herself +surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange assembly, if by +chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, but she saw not +the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright sparkling eye of her +cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive features of the Indian girl, +her adopted sister--she stood alone among those wild gloomy-looking men; +some turned away their eyes as if they would not meet her woe-stricken +countenance, lest they should be moved to pity her sad condition; no wonder +that, overcome by the sense of her utter friendliness, she hid her face +with her fettered hands and wept in despair. But the Indian's sympathy is +not moved by tears and sighs; calmness, courage, defiance of danger and +contempt of death, are what he venerates and admires even in an enemy. + +The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed to +be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant against +the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the stranger; +Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, heard the old +man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. Gladly did she escape +from the presence of those pitiless men, from whose gaze she shrunk with +maidenly modesty. And now when alone with the women she hesitated not to +make use of that natural language which requires not the aid of speech to +make itself understood; clasping her hands imploringly, she knelt at the +feet of the Indian woman, her conductress--kissed her dark hands and bathed +them with her fast flowing tears, while she pointed passionately to the +shore where lay the happy home from which she had been so suddenly torn. + +The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her imploring +gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone replied in her own +language, that she must go with the canoes to the other shore,--and she +pointed to the north as she spoke. She then motioned to the young girl--the +same that had been Catharine's companion in the canoe--to bring a hunting +knife, which was thrust into one of the folds of the birch-bark of the +wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly weapon in the hands of the Indian woman +with a pang of agony as great as if its sharp edge was already at her +throat. So young--so young, to die by a cruel bloody death! what had been +her crime?--how should she find words to soften the heart of her murderess? +The power of utterance seemed denied--she cast herself on her knees and +held up her hands in silent prayer; not to the dreaded Indian woman, but to +Him who heareth the prayer of the poor destitute--who alone can order the +unruly wills and affections of men. + +The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the +terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with a +quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists of the +pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her whole face +she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand upon her young +head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise lifted the flowing +tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over the back of her own swarthy +hand; then, as if amused by the striking contrast, she shook down her own +jetty-black hair and twined a tress of it with one of the fair haired +girl's--then laughed till her teeth shone like pearls within her red lips. +Many were the exclamations of childish wonder that broke from the other +females, as they compared the snowy arm of the stranger with their own +dusky skins; it was plain that they had no intention of harming her, and by +degrees distrust and dread of her singular companions began in some measure +to subside. + +The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her a +handful of parched rice and some deer's flesh to eat; but Catharine's heart +was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing the Indian +word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of birch-bark from the +floor of the tent, and gathering the corners together, ran to the lake, and +soon returned with water in this most primitive drinking vessel, which +she held to the lips of her guest, and she seemed amused by the long deep +draught with which Catharine slaked her thirst; and something like a gleam +of hope came over her mind as she marked the look of kindly feeling with +which she caught the young Indian girl regarding her, and she strove to +overcome the choking sensation that would from time to time rise to her +throat, as she fluctuated between hope and fear. The position of the Indian +camp was so placed that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither +could Catharine see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the +mount that her brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their +visits to the lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them +even if she had seen them on the beach. + +The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while +the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians +were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. +Catharine's heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the lake +showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted at a +fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek flowing down +through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they found several +tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The river was here +a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many kinds fringed the +edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had never been pierced +by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the vegetation that even the +Indian could hardly have penetrated through its dark swampy glades: far +as the eye could reach, that impenetrable interminable wall of verdure +stretched away into the far off distance. + +On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open +meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the eminence +above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by a luxuriant orchard +and garden, the property of a naval officer, [Footnote: Lt. Rubidge, +whose interesting account of his early settlement may be read in a letter +inserted in Captain Basil Hall's Letters from Canada.] who with the +courage and perseverance that mark brave men of his class, first ventured +to break the bush and locate himself and his infant family in the lonely +wilderness, then far from any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + +But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler had +not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire scathed +it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those shades, nor +sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its echoes. + +All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a shady +tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and wondering +at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its dear inmates. +Bad as she had thought her separation from her father and mother and her +brothers, when she first left her home to become a wanderer on the Rice +Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her situation, snatched from the +dear companions who had upheld and cheered her on in all her sorrows! But +now she was alone with none to love or cherish or console her, she felt a +desolation of spirit that almost made her forgetful of that trust that had +hitherto always sustained her in time of trouble or sickness. She looked +round, and her eye fell on the strange unseemly forms of men and women, +who cared not for her, and to whom she was an object of indifference or +aversion: she wept when she thought of the grief that her absence would +occasion to Hector and Louis; the thought of their distress increased her +own. + +The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the little +brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots and stones +that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and long exposure +to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. The last rosy +light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a glowing tint when she +awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; the kingfisher and dragon-fly, +and a solitary loon, were the only busy things abroad on the river; the +first darting up and down from an upturned root near the water's edge, +feeding its youngings; the dragon-fly hawking with rapid whirring sound for +insects, and the loon, just visible from above the surface of the still +stream, sailed quietly on companionless, like her who watched its +movements. + +The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment +roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the evening +meal was now preparing,--and Catharine, chilled by the falling dew, crept +to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at being recognised by +one friendly face--it was the mild and benevolent countenance of the widow +Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to bid her to share their camp +fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, the beaming smile that was +given by this good creature, albeit she was ugly and ill-featured, cheered +the sad captive's heart. She had given her a cup of cold water and what +food her log-cabin afforded, and in return the good Indian took her to her +wigwam and fed, and warmed, and cherished her with the loving-kindness of +a Christian; and during all her sojourn in the Indian camp she was as a +tender mother over her, drying her tears and showing her those little +acts of attention that even the untaught Indians know are grateful to the +sorrowful and destitute. Catharine often forgot her own griefs to repay +this worthy creature's kindness, by attending to her little babe and +assisting her in some of her homely preparations of cookery or household +work. She knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow would do her no good, +and after the lapse of some days she so well disciplined her own heart as +to check her tears at least in the presence of the Indian women, and to +assume an air of comparative cheerfulness. Once she found Indian words +enough to ask the Indian widow to convey her back to the lake, but she +shook her head and bade her not think anything about it; and added, that in +the fall, when the ducks came to the rice-beds, they should all return, and +then if she could obtain leave from the chief, she would restore her to +her lodge on the plains; but signified to her that patience was her only +present remedy, and that submission to the will of the chief was her wisest +plan. Comforted by this vague promise, Catharine strove to be reconciled to +her strange lot, and still stranger companions. She could not help being +surprised at the want of curiosity respecting her that was shown by the +Indians in the wigwam, when she was brought thither; they appeared to take +little notice that a stranger and one so dissimilar to themselves had been +introduced into the camp, for before her they asked no questions about her, +whatever they might do when she was absent, though they surveyed her with +silent attention. Catharine learned, by long acquaintance with this people, +that an outward manifestation of surprise [Footnote: See Appendix L.] is +considered a want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of +weakness and childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly +less disposed to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and +one of their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, was +examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, and +holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, those +who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the island, +showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw was granddaughter +to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with considerable respect by +the rest of the women; she was a gay lively creature, often laughing, and +seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund of good humour. She was inclined to +extend her patronage to the young stranger, making her eat out of her own +bark dish, and sit beside her on her own mat. She wove a chain of the +sweet-scented grass with which the Indians delight in adorning themselves, +likewise in perfuming their lodges with bunches or strewings upon the +floor. She took great pains in teaching her how to acquire the proper +attitude of sitting, after the fashion of the Eastern nations, which +position the Indian women assume when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian +name of this little damsel signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that +lively restless bird, always flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as +garrulous and as cheerful too as that merry little herald of the spring. + +Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine's dress, which she +examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut +fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border of +the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These fringes +she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old chief was +called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and mocassins escape +their observation. There was something mysterious about her garments. +Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep guttural +exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst from the +lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with deep attention. +These people had recognised in these things the peculiar fashion and +handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to perish by +hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was excited to know +by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress wrought by the hand +of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange and mysterious did it +seem to them, and warily did they watch the unconscious object of their +wonder. + +The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, +enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she +prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose whole +nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously endeavoured +to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she succeeded in an +incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to express her own wants, +and converse a little with the females who were about her. + +She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood apart from +the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his granddaughter, or +by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some sick person, or a +secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great Spirit; but one day when +the chief of the people had gone up the river hunting, and the children +were asleep, she perceived the curtain of skins drawn back, and a female of +singular and striking beauty appeared standing in the open space in front. +She was habited in a fine tunic of white dressed doeskin richly embroidered +with coloured beads and stained quills, a full petticoat of dark cloth +bound with scarlet descended to her ancles, leggings fringed with deer-skin +knotted with bands of coloured quills, with richly wrought mocassins on her +feet. On her head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black feathers; her +long shining tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, each thick tress +confined with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and blue; her stature +was tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye wore an expression +so proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own involuntarily fill with +tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She would have approached +nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk back timid and abashed +beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, the Beam of the Morning, +the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose hand had wrought so fearful +a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of her brother. She stood there, +at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal robes, as on the day when she +received her death-doomed victim. And when she recalled her fearful deed, +shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back and shrouded herself within +the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye of that terrible woman. She +remembered how Indiana had told her that since that fatal marriage-feast +she had been kept apart from the rest of the tribe,--she was regarded by +her people as a sacred character, a great _Medicine_, a female _brave_, a +being whom they regarded with mysterious reverence. She had made this great +sacrifice for the good of her nation. Indiana said it was believed among +her own folks that she had loved the young Mohawk passionately, as a +tender woman loves the husband of her youth; yet she had hesitated not +to sacrifice him with her own hand. Such was the deed of the Indian +heroine--and such were the virtues of the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash'd o'er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree's tall shadow sleeps upon its breast." + COLERIDGE. + +The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, [Footnote: +Now known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house +and some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for the +steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore's Landing on the Rice Lake +and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.] and then early one morning the +wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, proceeded +up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to interest +Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between low shores, +thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through which the eye might +pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a clearing, not a sight +or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or heard; the darting flight +of the wild birds as they flitted across from one side to the other, the +tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of the blue jay, was all that was +heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that monotonous voyage. After many hours +a decided change was perceived in the current, which ran at a considerable +increase of swiftness, so that it required the united energy of both men +and women to keep the light vessels from drifting down the river again. +They were in the Rapids, [Footnote: Formerly known as Whitla's Rapids, now +the site of the Locks.] and it was hard work to stem the tide, and keep +the upward course of the waters. At length the rapids were passed, and +the weary Indian voyagers rested for a space on the bosom of a small but +tranquil lake. [Footnote: The little lake about a mile below Peterborough +and above the Locks, formerly girt in by woods of pine and beech and maple, +now entirely divested of trees and forming part of the suburbs of the town. +] The rising moon shed her silvery light upon the calm waters, and heaven's +stars shone down into its quiet depths, as the canoes with their dusky +freight parted the glittering rays with their light paddles. As they +proceeded onward the banks rose on either side, still fringed with pine, +cedar and oaks. At an angle of the lake the banks on either side ran +out into two opposite peninsulas, forming a narrow passage or gorge, +contracting the lake once more into the appearance of a broad river, much +wider from shore to shore than any other part they had passed through since +they had left the entrance at the Rice Lake. + +Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with +delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green +cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the sound +of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken eddies +rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of the moon; +and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those rapids, at a +signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed to shore on a low +flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last island. [Footnote: +Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the island, a noble and +substantial bridge has been built.] + +Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the women +prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and birch-bark +covering from the encampment below, and soon all was bustle and business; +unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even Catharine lent a willing +hand to assist the females in bringing up the stores, and sundry baskets +containing fruits and other small wares. She then kindly attended to the +Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, who, bound upon their wooden +cradles, were either set up against the trunks of the trees, or swung to +some lowly depending branch, there to remain helpless and uncomplaining +spectators of the scene. + +Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied as +herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, having +from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they were sure +to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers when the season of +refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was friendless and alone, an +orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred and friends. One Father, one +Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even He--the Father of the fatherless. + +That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole out +of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter of +which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy plain, +studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that they +might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. It was +a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through which for so many +many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed on monotonously; here +it was all wild and free, dashing along like a restive steed rejoicing in +its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + +Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing +river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as it +bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. "Happy, glorious waters! +you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no canoe can +ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, were free to +pursue my onward way--how soon would I flee away and be at rest!" Such +thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the lonely captive +girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked abroad over those +moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming sense of the utter +loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with faltering step hurried down +once more to the wigwams, silently crept to the mat where her bed was +spread, and soon forgot all her woes and wanderings in deep tranquil sleep. + +Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always seemed +to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes and rivers +in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So disregardful +are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to sleep where the +ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a temporary flooring +of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather than remove the tent +a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always be found. This either +arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from both, but it is no doubt +the cause of much of the sickness that prevails among, them. With his feet +stretched to the fire the Indian cares for nothing else when reposing in +his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the improvement that might be made in +his comfort; he listens with a face of apathy, and utters his everlasting +guttural, which saves him the trouble of a more rational reply. + +"Snow-bird" informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be removed +for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the squaws +pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the chief of the +laborious part of the work fell to the share of the females, who were very +much more industrious and active than their husbands; these, when not out +hunting or fishing, were to be seen reposing in easy indolence under the +shade of the trees, or before the tent fires, giving themselves little +concern about anything that was going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, +and submissive; they bore without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and +fatigue, and seemed to perform every task with patience and good humour. +They made the canoes, in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched the +tents, converted the skins of the animals which the men shot into clothes, +cooked the victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove mats, dyed +the quills of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short performed a +thousand tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + +Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, +they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no floors +to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + +Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only +renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish +bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of +furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the same, their +beds mats or skins of animals,--such were the domestic arrangements of the +Indian camp. [Footnote: Much improvement has taken place of late years in +the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of their dwellings are clean +and neat even for Europeans.] In the tent to which Catharine belonged, +which was that of the widow and her sons, a greater degree of order and +cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for Catharine's natural love of +neatness and comfort induced her to strew the floor with fresh cedar or +hemlock every day or two, and to sweep round the front of the lodge, +removing all unseemly objects from its vicinity. She never failed to wash +herself in the river, and arrange her hair with the comb that Louis had +made for her; and took great care of the little child, which she kept clean +and well fed. She loved this little creature, for it was soft and gentle, +meek and playful as a little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked +with kinder eyes upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which +she tended their children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who +cherish their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that +the exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who +give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew upon a +thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave Catharine +for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and return to Hector +and Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?" + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening of +the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. They +had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine half-grown +fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding the fire nearly +extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. There, it is true, +was the food that she had prepared for them, but she was not to be seen; +supposing that she had been tired of waiting for them, and had gone out to +gather strawberries, they did not at first feel very anxious, but ate some +of the rice and honey, for they were hungry with long fasting; and taking +some Indian meal cake in their hands, they went out to call her in, but no +trace of her was visible. They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set +off by herself to seek them, and had missed her way home again. + +They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree +Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked the +lake--no, she was not to be seen; night found them still unsuccessful in +their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had seated herself beneath +some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined the true cause, having +seen nothing of the Indians. + +Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her not +there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting left +them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The first +streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in vain upon the +name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. Desolation had +fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others they had most +feared, had happened to them. + +Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so easily +to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that she had +discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake shore; she +had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had been woven by +Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had seen the mark +of feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the lake, and the +furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. It was evident +that she had been taken away from her home by these people. Poor Louis gave +way to transports of grief and despair; he knew the wreath, it was such +as Catharine often made for herself, and Mathilde, and petite Louise, and +Marie; his mother had taught her to make them; they were linked together +by the stalks, and formed a sort of leaf chain. The remembrance of many of +their joyous days of childhood made Louis weep sorrowful tears for happy +days, never to return again; he placed the torn relic in his breast, and +sadly turned away to hide his grief from Hector and the Indian girl. + +Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but advised +wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. The Indians +had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats round Mount +Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they ventured to land +on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw evident traces of a +temporary encampment having been made. This was all they could do, further +search was unavailing; as they found no trace of any violence having been +committed, they still cherished hopes that no personal harm had been done +to the poor captive, It was Indiana's opinion that, though a prisoner, she +was unhurt, as the Indians rarely killed women and children, unless +roused to do so by some signal act on the part of their enemies, when an +exterminating spirit of revenge induced them to kill and spare not; but +where no offence had been offered, they were not likely to take the life of +an helpless, unoffending female. + +The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify +revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was +difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of +Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores and +the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still thought +the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + +Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis no +longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled themselves +to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great delight; all +now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they wandered listlessly +to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had departed from their little +dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, each seeming absorbed in his +own painful reveries. + +In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; +they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours +alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and missed +their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to occupy. They +called, but there was none to reply--she too was gone. They hurried to the +shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to a mere speck upon +the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; they called to her +in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted back no sound to +their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and they sat them down +disconsolately on the shore. + +"What is she doing?" said Hector; "this is cruel to abandon us thus." + +"She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings of +Catharine," said Louis. "How came you to think that such is her intention?" + +"I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or +die." + +"What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose +life she attempted to take?" + +"She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she +loves." + +"Alas!" said Hector, "she will perish miserably and to no avail; they would +not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana's life." + +"How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not tell +us? we would have shared her danger." + +"She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl has +a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that made +life dear to us," said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his knees. + +"Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with +more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana's leaving us, we left her so +much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we +did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad." "I +tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old battered +one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have an axe and a +tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?" + +"True! we will set about it to-morrow." + +"I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good pine +for the purpose." + +"As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than +this dread suspense and inaction." + +The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of +suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, and +the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to their +inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt proved +abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well in the +water. + +Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so Hector. + +"Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, and +again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, that is +the way to succeed at last." + +"You have ten times my patience, Hec." "Yes! but you are more ingenious +than I, and are excellent at starting an idea." + +"We are a good pair then for partnership." + +"We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past +blunders." + +"Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost +Catharine!" + +"I know it, a long, long, weary month," replied Louis, and he struck his +axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent for +some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested from +their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to resume their +conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector's arm, and pointed to a bark +canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point of the island. Hector +started to his feet, exclaiming, "It is Indiana returned!" + +"Nonsense! Indiana!--it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man in a +blanket coat." + +"The Indians?" asked Hector inquiringly. + +"I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he +doing?" + +"Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass--another--he has great +luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore." + +"That man does not move like an Indian--hark! he is whistling. I ought to +know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to sing;" and +Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old French Canadian +song, which we will give in the English as we heard it sung by an old +lumberer. + + "Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we'll wander, and we'll chase the buffalo. + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us," said Hector. + +"The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that +may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one--so I think he will not +be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is but +one, so he must mind how he affronts us," replied Louis laughing. + +"I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is not +singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,"--and Louis raised +his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + + "Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo-- + And we'll chase the buflalo." + +"What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to +listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it +again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!" + +"Come, let us go on with our work," said Hector, with something like +impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more in +regular succession on the log; but Louis's eye was still on the mysterious +fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and smoking his pipe. +"I do not think he sees or hears us," said Louis to himself, "but I think +I'll manage to bring him over soon"--and he set himself busily to work to +scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and soon began to strike fire with +his knife and flint. + +"What are you about, Louis?" asked Hector. "Lighting a fire." + +"It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure." + +"I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome +fisherman." + +"And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking in +the bushes of the island." + +"Pooh, pooh! Hec.:--there are no savages. I am weary of this +place--anything is better than this horrible solitude." And Louis fanned +the flame into a rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till +it soared up among the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, and +rubbed his hands gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the +island, and a few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over the +surface of the calm lake. + +Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel +lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were +chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, also +faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn mocassins, +sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis's old raft, and gazed with a keen +eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A few rapid +interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois of the Lower +Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and English by Louis. + +A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried +out--"Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon." + +"Oui! oui!"--with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw himself +into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father's friend and old +lumbering comrade. + +"Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,--and Hector, in his turn, +received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + +"Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade here +at the shore of the Rice Lake?--oh! what a joyful meeting!" + +Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they +live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold +Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + +The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped for +want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + +"What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have +outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob +Morelle--hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,--those are the things to +harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish--eh! mes enfans, is it +not so?" + +Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from +their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the +society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down to +the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper seemed +moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and with one of +his national asseverations, declared "That la bonne fille should not remain +an hour longer than he could help among those savage wretches. Yes, he, her +father's old friend, would go up the river and bring her back in safety, or +leave his grey scalp behind him among the wigwams." + +"It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today," said Hector. "Come +home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit." + +"No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, and +there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still standing,--the +Trapper's Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will go off to the +island and look for it." + +"No need for that," replied Louis, "for though I can tell you the old place +is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a boiling +house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own nearer at +hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder hill. So come +with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to lie upon." + +"And you have all these, boys!" said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, as +they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green corn. The +old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. "Ha! here is old +Wolfe too," as the dog roused himself from the hearth and gave one of his +low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and instead of going +out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie for hours dozing before +the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the loving hand that used to pat +his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and pillow his great head upon her +lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws upon her shoulders, while he licked +her hands and face; but she was gone, and the Indian girl was gone, and +the light of the shanty had gone with them. Old Wolfe seemed dying of +sorrow. + +That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short +Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings over, +and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + +"And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?" + +"At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now since +we left home, three summers ago." + +"Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been +absent," said the old "Now I know the distance through the woods, for I +have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as the +bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles--no, nor that +either." + +The boys opened their eyes. "Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet to +us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles or +more." + +"I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember when +I was out on the St. John's, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I was +well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we +parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole +eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, +just in a circle, because, d'ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me +astray the whole time." + +"Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?" asked Louis, with a sly +glance at Hector. + +"Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then." And +old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to recount +the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis's edition of the +roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old Jacob's +long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, all tagged +on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not sorry when the +old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, at last stretched +himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up from the canoe, and +soon was soundly sleeping. + +The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his slumber, +which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up a good fire, +which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour was not unwelcome, +he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on the coals for his +breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis wakened. + +"Mes enfans," said Jacob, "I have been turning over in my mind about your +sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river alone without +any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a suspicious people, +they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to expect treachery in +others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the white men have not +always kept good faith with them, which I take to be the greater shame, as +they have God's laws to guide and teach them to be true and just in their +dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have not, the more's the pity. +Now, d'ye see, if the Indians see two stout lads with me, they will say to +themselves, there may be more left behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I +go to the camp alone; and, God willing, I will bring back your sister, +or die in the attempt. I shall not go single-handed; see, I have here +scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a +sin and a shame to tempt these poor wretches to their own destruction; it +makes fiends of them at once." + +It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old Jacob +to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was firm, and +would not be moved from his purpose. + +"Look you, boys," he said, "if I do not return by the beginning of the rice +harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; then I +would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they do not +respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. In such +case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out [Footnote: Log canoe.] will +do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the rapids; [Footnote: +Crook's Rapids.] make a portage there; but as your craft is too weighty to +carry far, e'en leave her and chop out another, and go down to the Falls; +[Footnote: Heeley's Falls, on the Trent.] then, if you do not like to be +at any further trouble, you may make out your journey to the Bay [Footnote: +Bay Quinte.] on foot, coasting along the river; there you will fall in +with settlers who know old Jacob Morelle--aye, and your two fathers--and +they will put you in the way of returning home. If I were to try ever so to +put you on the old Indian trail in the woods, though I know it myself right +well, you might be lost, and maybe never return home again. I leave my +traps and my rifle with you; I shall not need them: if I come back I may +claim the things; if not, they are yours. So now I have said my say, had +my _talk_, as the Indians say. Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who +alone can bring this matter to a safe issue." And the old man devoutly +kneeled down, and prayed for a blessing on his voyage and on those he was +leaving; and then hastened down to the beach, and the boys, with full +hearts, watched the canoe till it was lost to their sight on the wide +waters of the lake. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran." + DRYDEN. + +What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the Indians +roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading town. Those +glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only of them remains to +some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five years ago, shadowing +the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have disappeared, but the +green emerald turf that they once shaded still remains. The wild rushing +river still pours down its resistless spring floods, but its banks have +been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans its rapid waters. It has seen +the destruction of two log-bridges, but this new, substantial, imposing +structure bids fair to stand from generation to generation. The Indian +regards it with stupid wonder: he is no mechanic; his simple canoe of birch +bark is his only notion of communication from one shore to another. The +towns-people and country settlers view it with pride and satisfaction, +as a means of commerce and agricultural advantage. That lonely hill, from +which Catharine viewed the rapid-flowing river by moonlight, and marvelled +at its beauty and its power, is now the Court-house Hill, the seat of +justice for the district,--a fine, substantial edifice; its shining roof +and pillared portico may be seen from every approach to the town. That grey +village spire, with its groves of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! +those trees that embower it, once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder +scattered groups of neat white cottages, each with its garden of flowers +and fruit, are spread over what was once an open plain, thinly planted with +poplar, oaks, and pine. See, there is another church; and nearer, towards +the west end of the town, on that fine slope, stands another, and another. +That sound that falls upon the ear is not the rapids of the river, but the +dash of mill wheels and mill dams, worked by the waters of that lovely +winding brook which has travelled far through woods and deep forest dingles +to yield its tribute to the Otonabee. There is the busy post-office, on the +velvet carpet of turf; a few years, yes, even a few years ago, that spot +was a grove of trees. The neat log building that stood then alone there, +was inhabited by the Government Agent, now Colonel Macdonald, and groups +of Indians might be seen congregated on the green, or reposing under the +trees, forming meet subjects for the painter's pencil, for he knew them +well, and was kind to them. + +The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting +lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple wares +of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe to sell his +fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his intercourse with his +white brethren has made him consider necessary to his comforts, to supply +wants which have now become indispensable, before undreamed of. He +traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks round upon dwellings, and +gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which he can neither obtain nor +imitate; and feels his spirit lowered--he is no more a people--the tide of +intellect has borne him down, and swept his humble wigwam from the earth. +He, too, is changing: he now dwells, for the most part, in villages, in +houses that cannot be moved away at his will or necessity; he has become a +tiller of the ground, his hunting expeditions are prescribed within narrow +bounds, the forest is disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian +must also yield to circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he +murmurs in secret; but his voice is low, it is not heard; he has no +representative in the senate to take interest in his welfare, to plead in +his behalf. He is anxious, too, for the improvement of his race: he gladly +listens to the words of life, and sees with joy his children being brought +up in the fear and nurture of the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own +blood going forth on the mission of love to other distant tribes; he is +proud of being a Christian; and if there be some that still look back to +the freedom of former years, and talk of "the good old times," when they +wandered free as the winds and waters through those giant woods, they are +fast fading away. A new race is rising up, and the old hunter will soon +become a being unknown in Canada. + +There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy +bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), +looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. The +Indians called it "the white girl's rest," for it was there that Catharine +delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to sing her +snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile's prayer, unheard +and unseen. + +The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart the +waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on the water, +the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the lodges came +softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with the spoils of a +successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and crackling, sending up +their light columns of thin blue smoke among the trees; and now a goodly +portion of venison is roasting on the forked sticks before the fires. Each +lodge has its own cooking utensils. That jar embedded in the hot embers +contains sassafras tea, an aromatic beverage, in which the squaws delight +when they are so fortunate as to procure a supply. This has been brought +from the Credit, far up in the west, by a family who have come down on a +special mission from some great chief to his brethren on the Otonabee, and +the squaws have cooked some in honour of the guests. That pot that sends up +such a savoury steam is venison pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you +choose to give the Indian mess that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and +herbs. Those tired hounds that lay stretched before the fire have been out, +and now they enjoy the privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, +and receive withal an occasional reproof from the squaws, if they approach +their wishful noses too close to the tempting viands. + +The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls are +playing or rolling on the grass; "The Snow-bird" is seated on the floor of +the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she confines in links +by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine is working mocassins +beside her;--a dark shadow falls across her work from the open tent door-- +an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from one of the women makes +Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, silent, pale, and +motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands Indiana--a gleam of +joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. Amazement and delight +at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment deprives Catharine of the +power of speech; then terror for the safety of her friend takes place of +her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of the angry tones of the +Indian woman's voice, and throws her arms about Indiana as if to shield her +from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome in her arms. + +"Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?" + +"To free you, and then die," was the soft low tremulous answer. "Follow +me." Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the +young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the +design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating +heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; it +was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor +reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + +The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude of +submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the lodge; but +she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who starting to +their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from danger, and +sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for what purpose. + +"To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father," was the meek reply. +"May the daughter of the Bald Eagle's enemy speak to her great father?" + +"Say on," was the brief reply, "the Bald Eagle's ears are open." + +"The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the +father of his people," replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. "The +Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on." + +"The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the +eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief +slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them for +the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of his enemies +save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the grand-daughter of the +Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy that is not afraid to raise +the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in battle. The young girl's mother was +a _brave."_ She paused, while her proud eye was fixed on the face of her +aged auditor. He nodded assent, and she resumed, while a flush of emotion +kindled her pale cheek and reddened her lips,-- + +"The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the hatchet +and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her heart was +lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I will revenge my +father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her heart burned within +her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, the Great Spirit was about +my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have fled, for an arrow was in her +flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took her, they brought her down the +great river to the council hill, they bound her with thongs and left her to +die. She prayed, and the Great Spirit heard her prayer and sent her help. +The white man came; his heart was soft; he unbound her, he gave water +to cool her hot lips, he led her to his lodge. The white squaw (and she +pointed to Catharine) was there, she bound up her wounds, she laid her on +her own bed, she gave her meat and drink, and tended her with love. She +taught her to pray to the Good Spirit, and told her to return good for +evil, to be true and just, kind and merciful. The hard heart of the young +girl became soft as clay when moulded for the pots and she loved her white +sister and brothers, and was happy. The Bald Eagle's people came when my +white brothers were at peace, they found a trembling fawn within the lodge, +they led her away, they left tears and loneliness where joy and peace had +been. The Mohawk squaw could not see the hearth of her white brothers +desolate; she took the canoe, she to the lodge of the great father of his +tribe, and she says to him, 'Give back the white squaw to her home on the +Rice Lake, and take in her instead the rebellious daughter of the Ojebwa's +enemy, to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the knife or the +tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of the great +chief.'" She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and bowing +down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + +There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and said:-- + +"Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken +well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall be +restored to her brother's lodge--but thou remainest. I have spoken." + +Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and +remained weeping--how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in her +turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief turned +a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was weary--he was +impatient of further excitement--he coldly motioned to them to withdraw; +and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all that had taken place +since that sad day when Catharine was taken from her home. While her heart +was joyful at the prospect of her own release, it was clouded with fears +for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + +"They will condemn me to a cruel death," said Indiana, "but I can suffer +and die for my white sister." + +That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside Catharine; +but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own heart in the still +watches of the night--it seemed as if a new life had been infused within +her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; the energies of her mind +had been awakened, ripened into maturity as it were, and suddenly expanded. +When all the inmates of the lodges were profoundly sleeping, Catharine +arose,--a sudden thought had entered into her mind, and she hesitated not +to put her design into execution. There was no moon, but a bright arch of +light spanned the forest to the north; it was mild and soft as moonlight, +but less bright, and cast no shadow across her path; it showed her the +sacred tent of the widow of the murdered Mohawk. With noiseless step +she lifted aside the curtain of skins that guarded it, and stood at the +entrance. Light as was her step, it awakened the sleeper; she raised +herself on her arm and looked up with a dreamy and abstracted air as +Catharine, stretching forth her hand in tones low and tremulous, thus +addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:-- + +"The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of +thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he is +angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy--the blood of thy murdered +husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words that he +commands." + +She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless step, +and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat as though it +would burst its way through her bosom. What had she done?--what dared? She +had entered the presence of that terrible woman alone, at the dead hour of +night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous words to that strange being +whom even her own people hardly dared to approach uncalled-for! Sick with +terror at the consequences of her temerity, Catharine cast her trembling +arms about the sleeping Indian girl, and hiding her head in her bosom, wept +and prayed till sleep came over her wearied spirit. It was late when she +awoke. She was alone: the lodge was empty. A vague fear seized her: she +hastily arose to seek her friend. It was evident that some great event was +in preparation. The Indian men had put on the war-paint, and strange and +ferocious eyes were glancing from beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was +driven in the centre of the cleared space in front of the chief's lodge: +there, bound, she beheld her devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm +unshaken countenance, she stood. There was no sign of woman's fear in her +fixed dark eye, which quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men +who stood round her, armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. +Her thoughts seemed far away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, +wandering in that happy land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; +or, inspired with the new hope which had been opened to her, she was +looking to Him who has promised a crown of life to such as believe in His +name. She saw not the look of agony with which Catharine regarded her; and +the poor girl, full of grief, sunk down at the foot of a neighbouring tree, +and burying her face between her knees, wept and prayed--oh! how fervently! +A hope crept to her heart--even while the doom of Indiana seemed +darkest--that some good might yet accrue from her visit to the wigwam of +the Great Medicine squaw. She knew that the Indians have great belief in +omens, and warnings, and spirits, both good and evil; she knew that her +mysterious appearance in the tent of the Mohawk's widow would be construed +by her into spiritual agency; and her heart was strengthened by this hope. +Yet just now there seems little reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is +given, the war-dance is begun--first slow, and grave, and measured; now +louder, and quicker, and more wild become both sound and movement. But why +is it hushed again? See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an +old weather-beaten man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and +approaches the area of the lodge. + +The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and death-song +are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance of the captives. +The chief points to Catharine--she is free: his white brother may take +her--she is his. But the Indian law of justice must take its course; the +condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa chief, must die. In vain +were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and beads for the women, with +powder and shot, laid before the chief: the arrows of six warriors were +fitted to the string, and again the dance and song commenced, as if, like +the roll of the drum and clangour of the trumpet, it were necessary to the +excitement of strong and powerful feelings, and the suppression of all +tenderer emotions. + +And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, rising +above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek became pale: +it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the death-song of the +captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she stands unmoved, with +eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart-- + + "In still, but brave despair." + +Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and +streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of the +Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed by her +sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which dark stains +are visible--it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed by her on that +day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the name of the Great +Spirit she claims the captive girl--the last of that devoted tribe--to +be delivered over to her will. Her right to this remnant of her murdered +husband's family is acknowledged. A knife is placed in her hand, while a +deafening yell of triumph bursts from the excited squaws, as this their +great high-priestess, as they deemed her, advanced to the criminal. But it +was not to shed the heart's blood of the Mohawk girl, but to severe the +thongs that bound her to the deadly stake, for which that glittering blade +was drawn, and to bid her depart in peace whithersoever she would go. + +Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: "At the dead of +night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before mine +eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set free the +last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed by my hand +and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I did this my +path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the better land +and be at rest if I did this good deed." She then laid her hands on the +head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping herself in the dark +mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie."--_Scotch Ballad._ + +Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so full +of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa chief, and +besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before him, and this +time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing the beads and +cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the grand-daughter +of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old man was not +insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by the devoted +Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault by graciously +offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in marriage to one +of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but the young girl +modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her heart yearned for +those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who had taught her to +look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and a better state of +being. She said, "She would go with her white sister, and pray to God to +bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her to do." + +It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the exercise +of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social happiness. +The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of violence, seemed +disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge was now filled with +mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and dancing. A covenant of +peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob and the chief, who bade +Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth they should be free to +hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of the lake, whenever they +desired to do so, "he the Bald Eagle had said so." + +On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; the +canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A supply of +parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian chief for the +voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might not suffer, from +want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to the lodge of the +Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. "The Snow-bird" was +sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with tears at parting +with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft and playful as the +tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her arm. She did not let +Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, the work of her own +hands,--bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung in +fanciful patterns, [Footnote: Appendix M] mocassins richly wrought, and +tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have graced a lady's work-table, +so rare was their workmanship. + +Just as they were about to step into the canoe "the Snow-bird" reappeared, +bearing a richly worked bark box, "From the Great Medicine," she said in +a low voice, "To the daughter of the Mohawk _brave._" The box contained a +fine tunic, soft as a lady's glove, embroidered and fringed, and a fillet +of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings and breast of the war-bird, as +shoulder ornaments. It was a token of reconciliation and good-will worthy +of a generous heart. + +The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips +reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said in +her native tongue, "Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, and +pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the spirit-land." + +With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in +being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the +events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she +longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to that +kind old man's plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the arms +of their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that I had +wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!--in the +shelter of that dear mother's arms whom she now pined for with a painful +yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. But in spite +of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt for the night +some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern bank of the +Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild cherries, hawthorns and +pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by alder and cranberry bushes, +works its way below the shoulder of the little eminence; this creek grows +broader and becomes a little stream, through which the hunters sometimes +paddle their canoes, as a short cut to the lower part of the lake near +Crook's Rapids. To this creek old Jacob steered his light craft, and +bidding the girls collect a few dry sticks and branches for an evening fire +on the sheltered side of the little bank, he soon lighted the pile into a +cheerful blaze by the aid of birch bark, the hunter's tinder--a sort of +fungus that is found in the rotten oak and maple-trees--and a knife and +flint; he then lifted the canoe, and having raised it on its side, by means +of two small stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then spread down his +buffalo robe on the dry grass. "There is a tent fit for a queen to sleep +under, mes cheres filles," he said, eyeing his arrangements for their night +shelter with great satisfaction. + +He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of +splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block of +limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob opened his +wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush table with large +basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed was unusual on a +hunter's table. He was too old a forester to care how his food was dished, +so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + +Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away the +time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue heavens were +studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless hosts deep deep +down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of fireflies lighted up +the dark recesses of the forest's gloom. High in the upper air the hollow +booming of the night-hawk was heard at intervals, and the wild cry of the +night-owl from a dead branch, shouting to its fellow, woke the silence of +that lonely river scene. + +The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe or +hummed some French voyageur's song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe +soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed on +the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair mingling +with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a lovely pair--one +fair as morning, the other dark as night, + +How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early song +of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes upon +the river, like a flock of sheep at rest--the tinkling sound of the heavy +dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red squirrel, how +lightly he runs along that fallen trunk--how furtively he glances with his +sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan haunts! Hark! there is +a rustling among the leaves--what strange creature works its way to the +shore? A mud turtle--it turns, and now is trotting along the little sandy +ridge to some sunny spot, where, half buried, it may lie unseen near the +edge of the river. See that musk-rat, how boldly he plunges into the +stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems the current till he gains in +safety the sedges on the other side. + +What gurgling sound is that?--it attracts the practised ear of the old +hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle of the +stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?--it is a noble stag. Look +at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so gallantly; see +how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear in those lonely +solitudes--he has never heard the crack of the hunter's rifle--he heeds +not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow rankles in his neck, +and the crimson flood dyes the water around him--he turns, but it is only +to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old hunter's bow; and now the +noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is rapidly launched by the hand of +the Indian girl--her eye flashes with the excitement--her whole soul is in +the chase--she stands up in the canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded +buck, while a shower of blows are dealt upon his head and neck with the +paddle. Catharine buries her face in her hands--she cannot bear to +look upon the sufferings of the noble animal. She will never make a +huntress--her heart is cast in too soft a mould. See they have towed the +deer ashore, and Jacob is in all his glory,--the little squaw is an Indian +at heart--see with what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great +business is completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the +canoe--they wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine's summons +to eat her breakfast. + +The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is also +rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those glorious +rays--the whole earth seems wakening into new life--the dew has brightened +every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup--the pines and balsams give +out their resinous fragrance--the aspens flutter and dance in the morning +breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the stream--the shores +become lower and flatter--the trees less lofty and more mossy--the stream +expands and wide beds of rushes spread out on either side--what beds of +snowy water-lilies--how splendid the rose tint of those perseicarias that +glow so brightly in the morning sun--the rushes look like a green meadow, +but the treacherous water lies deep below their grassy leaves--the deer +delights in these verdant aquatic fields, and see what flocks of red-wings +rise from among them as the canoe passes near--their bright shoulder-knots +glance like flashes of lightning in the sun-beams. + +This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, half +choked and killed with grey moss and lichens--those straggling alders and +black ash look melancholy--they are like premature old age, grey-headed +youths. That island divides the channel of the river--the old man takes +the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the broad Rice Lake, and +Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the shanty rising among the +trees--one after another the islands steal out into view--the capes, and +bays, and shores of the northern side are growing less distinct, Yon hollow +bay, where the beaver has hidden till now, backed by that bold sweep of +hills that look in the distance as if only covered with green ferns, with +here and there a tall tree, stately as a pine or oak--that is the spot +where Louis saw the landing of the Indians--now a rising village--Gores' +Landing. On yon lofty hill now stands the village church, its white tower +rising amongst the trees forms a charming object from the lake, and there +a little higher up, not far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural +cottages--one of these belong to the spirited proprietor of the village +that bears his name. That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the +right, is Colonel Brown's, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; +but silence and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + +Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of +churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. [Footnote: Appendix N.] The +Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, and +Catharine's eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to herself +the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her gladness +she seizes the old man's rugged hand and kisses it, and flings her arms +about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the canoe has +touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds herself so +near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such moments--how few we +have in life--they are created from our very sorrows--without our cares our +joys would be less lively; but we have no time to moralize--Catharine flies +with the speed of a young fawn, to climb the steep cliff-like shoulder of +that steep bank, and now, out of breath, stands at the threshold of her +log-house--how neat and nice it looks compared with the Indians' tents--the +little field of corn is green and flourishing--there is Hector's axe in a +newly-cut log--it is high noon--the boys ought to have been there taking +their mid-day meal, but the door is shut. Catharine lifts the wooden latch, +and steps in--the embers are nearly burned out, to a handful of grey +ashes--old Wolfe is not there--all is silent--and Catharine sits down +to still the beating of her heart and await the coming up of her slower +companions, and gladdens her mind with the hope that her brother and Louis +will soon be home--her eye wanders over every old familiar object--all +things seem much as she had left them, only the maize is in the ear and +the top feather waves gracefully with the summer breeze--it promises an +abundant crop; but that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the +young planters--it was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the +field--to those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather into +barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls busied +themselves in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked away over +the hills to search for the boys, and it was not long before he returned +with Hector and Louis. + +I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled with +the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved cousin; or I +might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky cheek of the young +Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black eyes, owed its origin +to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by her white brother. Nor will +we say whose hand held hers so long in his while Catharine related the +noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the perils encountered by the +devoted Indiana--whose eyes were moistened with tears as the horrors of +that fearful trial were described--or who stole out alone over the hills, +and sat him down in the hush and silence of the summer night to think of +the acts of heroism displayed by that untaught Indian girl, and to dream a +dream of youthful love; but with these things, my young readers, we have +nothing to do. + +"And now, my children," said old Jacob, looking round the little dwelling, +"have you made up your minds to live and die here on the shores of this +lake, or do you desire again to behold your father's home? Do your young +hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?" "After our fathers' +home!" was Louis's emphatic reply. "After the home of our childhood!" was +Catharine's earnest answer. Hector's lips echoed his sister's words, while +a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan stranger; but her timid eye +was raised to his young face with a trusting look, as she would have said. +"Thy home shall be my home, thy God my God." + +"Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike the +Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine hills. It +will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way." + +"For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret," said +Hector. "It would be a glorious place for a settlement--all that one could +desire--hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I will try +and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come and settle +hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, especially now +we are friends with the Indians." + +With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young folks +laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, packed up such +portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with full hearts sat +down to take their last meal in their home--in that home which sheltered +them so long--and then, with one accord, they knelt down upon its hearth, +so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer to Him who had +preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and then they journeyed +forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, however, of their +little band they left behind: this was the faithful old dog Wolfe. He +had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only a few days before +Catharine's return he had crept to the seat she was wont to occupy, and +there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without great regret, beneath +the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope near the corn-field. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "I will arise, and go to my father."--_New Testament_. + +It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is heard, +as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads to Maxwell and +Louis Perron's little clearing; the dark shadows are lengthening that those +wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an oasis in the vast forest +desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, has hewed for himself in the +wilderness. The little flock are feeding among the blackened stumps of the +uncleared chopping; those timbers have lain thus untouched for two long +years; the hand was wanting that should have given help in logging and +burning them up. The wheat is ripe for the sickle, and the silken beard of +the corn is waving like a fair girl's tresses in the evening breeze. The +tinkling fall of the cold spring in yonder bank falls soothingly on the +ear. Who comes from that low-roofed log cabin to bring in the pitcher of +water, that pale, careworn, shadowy figure that slowly moves along the +green pasture, as one without hope or joy; her black hair is shared with +silver, her cheek is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, it looks as +though the light might be seen through if she held it towards the sun? It +is the heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. Her heart has +been pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the children of her +love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, and with cheerful +voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be lingering on that pale +cheek,--yet the premature furrows on that broad, sunburnt, manly brow +speak, too, of inward care? It is the father of Hector and Catharine. Those +two fine, healthy boys, in homespun blouses, that are talking so earnestly, +as they lean across the rail fence of the little wheat field, are Kenneth +and Donald; their sickles are on their arms; they have been reaping. They +hear the sudden barking of Bruce and Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see +what causes the agitation they display. + +An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he casts +down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old French +ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, but +starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. "Ha, +Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this way." +The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + +"How is ma chere mere, and the young ones?" asked the old man, in a husky +voice--his kind heart was full. "Can you receive me, and those I have with +me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we travellers in +the bush are no wise nice." + +"The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see you, +Jacob. How many are ye in all?" + +"There are just four, beside myself,--young people; I found them where they +had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to come with +me." + +The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew his +faded blue bonnet over his eyes. "Jacob, did ye ken that we lost our eldest +bairns, some three summers since?" he faltered, in a broken voice. + +"The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand," +said the trapper. + +"Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the glory," +ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from his head; +"and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not to have seen this +day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill you." + +In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken idea +that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, have +seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded cheek +of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright sparkle, +you would have said that joy does not kill. + +"But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?" + +Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old +Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his +cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his +father's cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and +sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector and +Catharine to their father. + +"But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart upon +that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het knees, her +long raven hair shading her features as with a veil," asked the Highlander +Maxwell, pointing as he spoke' to the spot where, unnoticed and unsharing +in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian girl. There was no paternal +embrace for her, no tender mother's kiss imprinted on that dusky cheek and +pensive brow--she was alone and desolate, in the midst of that scene of +gladness. + +"It is my Indian sister," said Catharine, "she also must be your child;" +and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the reluctant +girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and cherish the +young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + +I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble dwelling, +or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of their lost +brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + +Time passes on--years, long years have gone by since the return of the lost +children to their homes, and many changes have those years effected. The +log-houses have fallen to decay--a growth of young pines, a waste of +emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part of the enclosure, +now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement--no trace or record +remains of the first breakers of the bush, another race occupy the ground. +The traveller as he passes along on that smooth turnpike road that leads +from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence to Gore's Landing, may notice +a green waste by the road-side on either hand, and fancy that thereabouts +our Canadian Crusoes' home once stood--he sees the lofty wood-crowned +hill, and sees in spring-time, for in summer it is hidden by the luxuriant +foliage, the little forest creek, and he may if thirsty, taste of the pure +fresh icy water, as it still wells out from a spring in the steep bank, +rippling through the little cedar-trough that Louis Perron placed there +for the better speed of his mother when filling her water jug. All else is +gone. And what wrought the change?--a few words will suffice to tell. Some +travelling fur merchants brought the news to Donald Maxwell, that a party +of Highlanders had made a settlement above Montreal, and among them were +some of his kindred. The old soldier resolved to join them, and it was not +hard to prevail upon his brother-in-law to accompany him, for they were all +now weary of living so far from their fellow-men; and bidding farewell to +the little log-houses at Cold Springs, they now journeyed downwards to the +new settlement, where they were gladly received, their long experience of +the country making their company a most valuable acquisition to the new +colonists. + +Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and cleared +and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, now a fine +industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a candidate for +baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the altar his newly baptized +bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not sufficiently skilled in the laws +of their church to tell how the difficulty of nearness of kin was obviated, +but they were married on the same day as Hector and Indiana, and lived a +happy and prosperous life; and often by their fireside would delight their +children by recounting the history of their wanderings on the Rice Lake +Plains. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +APPENDIX A.--_Preface._ + +Page vii. + +Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of +August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent +twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her +wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from +which we condense the following statements:-- + +It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, she +went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on attempting +to return she became separated from her companions, who returned to her +mother's, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her at home. Several of her +neighbours searched for her during the night, without success. The search +was continued during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, by some fifty or sixty +individuals, and although her tracks, and those of a dog which accompanied +her, were discovered, no tidings of the girl were obtained. A general +sympathy for the afflicted widow and her lost daughter was excited, and +notwithstanding the busy season of the year, great numbers from Windsor and +the neighbouring townships of Brompton, Shipton, Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, +Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Stoke, and Dudswell, turned out with provisions +and implements for camping in the woods, in search of the girl, which was +kept up without intermission for about fourteen days, when it was generally +given up, under the impression that she must have died, either from +starvation, or the inclemency of the weather, it having rained almost +incessantly for nearly a week of the time. On the 3lst her brother returned +home from Massachusetts, and with two or three others renewed the search, +but returned the second day, and learned to their great joy that the lost +one had found her way home the evening previous. + +On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow Campbell, +to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was found, +as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but quite +rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her absence. +From her story the following particulars were gathered:-- + +When first lost she went directly from home down "Open Brooke," to a +meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, which +she mistook for what is called the "_Oxias_ opening," a mile distant in +the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she was lost, and +having heard that lost persons might be guided by the sun, she undertook +to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she directed her steps +towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking it for "Open Brooke," +and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east direction (her way home +was due north) seven or eight miles till she came to the great Hay-meadow +in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, and on Monday morning directed +her course to, and thence down, the South Branch in the great Meadow. + +After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was +searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over +the meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, +occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the +junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight +miles from home. + +For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a +circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the +morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties of men, +and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of people were +in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no sound of trumpet, +or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay by a brook, early on +Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. Thinking the gun to have +been fired not more than half a mile distant, she said she "screamed and +run" to the place from whence she supposed the noise came, but found +nothing. Early in the day, however, she came to the camp where this gun was +fired, but not until after its occupants had left to renew their search for +her. This camp was about four miles from the great meadow, where she spent +the Sabbath previous. There she found a fire, dried her clothes, and found +a partridge's gizzard, which she cooked and ate, and laid down and slept, +remaining about twenty-four hours. + +In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she +visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon +trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or +four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes +making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the +drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered +much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The last +week she said she had got "toughened," and did not shiver. When first +lost she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, except +choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her dog, which +remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, which she ate +greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her health; and for the +last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood sorrel. While the dog +remained with her, she constantly shared her food with him, but said she +was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble to find him food. + +On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction with +the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could not ford +the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a little +above its junction with the south branch, and following down the stream, +she found herself in the clearing, near Moor's Mill. Thence directing +her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale's, about a mile from her +mother's, at six o'clock, having walked five miles in two hours, and +probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the next day, +when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost as one raised +from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen and lacerated; +but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with the exception of +two small rents. + +Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she +was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she felt +disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not discovering +any new tracks, that the people had given over searching for her, she was +greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she was strongly inclined to +give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of seeing her mother stimulated +her to make one more effort to reach home, which proved successful. When +visited, she was in a state of feverish excitement and general derangement +of the system, and greatly emaciated, with a feeble voice, but perfectly +sane and collected. + +It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly clad, +could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such severe +storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very strange that +she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those in search of her, +sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow their tracks home, and +not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or been seen by any of the +hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + +A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, is +the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American papers, +the "Wild Man of the far West." From time to time, these details approach +the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in a state of +destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this one, who, for +nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, and then either +forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of the beholder's brain. But +it appears that he was, in March, 1850, encountered by Mr. Hamilton, of +Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. The wild man was, likewise, chasing +his prey. A herd of cattle fled past Mr. Hamilton and his party, in an +agony of terror, pursued by a giant, bearing a dreadful semblance to +humanity. His face and shoulders were enveloped with long streaming hair, +his body was entirely hirsute, his progression was by great jumps of twelve +or thirteen feet at a leap. The creature turned and gazed earnestly on the +hunters, and fled into the depths of the forest, where he was lost to view. +His foot-prints were thirteen inches long. Mr. Hamilton published the +description of the savage man in the _Memphis Inquirer_. Afterwards several +planters deposed to having, at times, for many years, seen this appearance. +All persons generally agreed that it was a child that had been lost in the +woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now grown to meridian strength, in a +solitary state. Thus the possibility of an European child living, even +unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar to the inhabitants of the +vast American continent. Although we doubt that any human creature would +progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar to the human instinct. It +is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas is, in reality, some species +of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Page 72.--_"where Wolf Tower now stands."_ + +The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to +purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a +_belle vue,_ or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his mind +from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him to +the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another +house in the district. + + +APPENDIX C. + +Page 113.--_"... as civilization advances."_ + +Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, +wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, +and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the +ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is a thing +of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, so changed is +this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow cornfields now meet +the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to the less frequented +depths of the forest. + +From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep valleys, +and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the Rice Lake +Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be marred by the +hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; and many of those +who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste and refinement, who +delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature had left so fair. + +APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_. + +"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance +which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were +often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had to +travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we left +Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as Belmont +Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father on his ground. +The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen over, we left the +canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour and pork; and when we +had gone further north, say about sixty miles from the white settlements, +for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for five days in succession, +to such a depth, that it was impossible to shoot or trap anything; our +provisions were exhausted, and we had no means of procuring any more. Here +we were, the snow about five feet deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of +the trees falling all about us, and cracking with the weight of the snow. + +"Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have +been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, +that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak they +could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They could +only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and old +mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad except +my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without food, the only +ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my grandmother, my +sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see the starving Indians lying +about the wigwam with hungry and eager looks!--the children would cry for +something to eat! My poor mother would heave bitter sighs, of despair, the +tears falling profusely from her cheeks as she kissed us! Wood, though in +plenty, could not be obtained on account of the feebleness of our limbs. My +father would at times draw near the fire and rehearse some prayer to the +gods. It appeared to him that there was no way of escape; the men, women, +and children, dying; some of them were speechless, the wigwam was cold and +dark, and covered with snow! + +"On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; he +soon awoke, and said to me: 'My son, the good Spirit is about to bless us +this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east walking on +the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two beavers about nine +o'clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me to the river, and we +will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.' I saw that his countenance +beamed with delight and hope; he was full of confidence. I put on my +mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering along behind him about half +a mile. Having made a fire near the river, where there was an air-hole +through which the beaver had come up during the night, my father tied a gun +to a stump with the muzzle towards the air-hole; he also tied a string to +the trigger, and said, 'Should you see the beaver rise pull the string, and +you will kill it.' I stood by the fire, with the string in my hand; I soon +heard the noise occasioned by the blow of his tomahawk; he had killed a +beaver and brought it to me. As he laid it down, he said, 'Then the great +Spirit will not let us die here;' adding, as before, 'if you see the beaver +rise, pull the string;' and he left me. I soon saw the nose of one, but I +did not shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the trigger, and off +the gun went. I could not see for some moments for the smoke. My father ran +towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side by side; then, pointing +to the sun,--'Do you see the sun?' he said; 'the great Spirit informed me +that we should kill these two about this time in the morning. We will yet +see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let us go home, and see if our people +are yet alive.' We arrived just in time to save them from death. Since +which we have visited the same spot the year the missionaries came among +us. + +"My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot where +we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who have +perished in this way far up in the woods."--_Life of George Copway, written +by himself_, p. 44. + +APPENDIX E. + +Page 184.--"_... on first deciding that it was a canoe._" + +The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel +in common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was +hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; +but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its +excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, and its +launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by feasting +and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. Possibly the +birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily constructed, and +needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; but it was too frail +to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable to injuries. + +The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland waters, +were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their arrow-heads +were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and inserted in +a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; and blunt wooden +ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and small game. + +APPENDIX F. + +Page 195.--_"... the Christian mind revolts with horror."_ + +There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong feeling +in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a concentration of all +the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and wide along the northern +banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, to be called by one name, +and united in one purpose--their general improvement. To this end, one of +the most influential of their chiefs, John Jones, of Dover Sound, offered +to give up to his Indian brethren, free of all cost, a large tract of +unceded land, that they might be gathered together as one nation. + +In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from +lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it was +proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys could +be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for aid in +establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general feeling +of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at Owen's Sound. +At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + +There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of the +oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers some +idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:-- + +"Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from +the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your +children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that +require you here. + +"Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our +present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of +ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at a +true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and our +descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of peace, +health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas and Ottawas +are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often passed sleepless +nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These nations, I am proud +to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my bone; and for them, if +needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. Brothers, you see my +heart." [Here he held out a piece of white paper, emblematical of a pure +heart.] + +"Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout +Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place +[_query_, too hot to hold you]. The whites are kindling fires all round you +[_i.e._ clearing land]. + +"One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some +plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that our +dying fires may not go out, _i.e._ our people become extinct, but may be +kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any portion of +the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe of peace, and +live and die together, and see our children play and be reared on the same +spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and because we love you, and +feel for you, we propose this. + +"My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning" [the speaker now pointed with +his finger towards the heavens], "look up and see the blue sky: there are +no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, that when +the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon them. May he +now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and straight path for +our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but this morning I shake +hands with you all, in my heart. + +"Brothers, this is all I have to say." + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX G. + +Page 213.--_"... and aimed a knife at his throat"_ + +The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some sixty +or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my informant. +At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as those recorded +could have taken place almost within the memory of men. My Indian narrator +replied--"Indians, no Christians in those days, do worse than that very few +years ago,--do as bad now in far-west." + +The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together +in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. The +conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from the Wesleyan +Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of Captain Anderson, +whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore on and about +Anderson's Point, the renowned site of the great battle. The war-weapon and +bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be found in this vicinity. + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX H. + +Page 232.--_"This place she called Spooke Island"_ + +Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from +the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their +dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with +reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, rhus +toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in landing +upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. + + +APPENDIX I. + +Page 253.--_"and nothing but fire."_ + +The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with which +fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. Certainly, +there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the Indian names, +approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of the language of the +East; such is "Mad-wa-osh," the music of the winds. + + +APPENDIX K. + +Page 272.--_"but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken."_ + +_From George Copway's Life._ + +Converted Indians are thus described in the "Life" of their literary +countryman, George Copway:-- + +_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a tribe +which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and Gore +Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for an +annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the River +Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first tribe +converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were wandering +pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, the sons of a white +by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to Christianity, and admitted +as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, became anxious to redeem +their countrymen from their degraded state of heathenism and spiritual +destitution. They collected a considerable number together, and by rote and +frequent repetitions, taught the first principles of Christianity to such +as were too old to learn to read, and with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, +and Commandments, were thus committed to memory. As soon as the tribes +were converted they perceived the evils attendant on their former state +of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to work, which they had never done +before; they recognised the advantage of cultivating the soil; they gave +up drinking, to which they had been greatly addicted, and became sober, +consistent, industrious Christians. + +J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + +The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering +pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, +commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quinte; they resided on Grape +Island, in the Bay of Quinte, six miles from Belleville. They resided +eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. Their +houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan +Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious chapel +and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker's shop and +joiner's. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians. + +The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary +interpreter. + +_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and +Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These Indians +have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled in their +present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. [Footnote: I think +G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of the village, as it +was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year 1822 the larger part +of the Indian village on Anderson's Point was built and cultivated.] +The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve miles from +Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, subdivided in +50-acre lots. + +Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow. + +Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The +Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of them +have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, enough, for +their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + + +APPENDIX L. + +Page 282.--_"... that an outward manifestation of surprise."_ + +A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent +intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their +apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he +wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where +several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and +narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of surprise +by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired to an +adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and was amused +at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free from his +surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious toy like a +parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture and amazement, but +they did not choose to be entrapped into showing surprise. This perfect +command over the muscles of the face, and the glance of the eye, is one of +the remarkable traits in the Indian character. The expression of the +Indian face, if I may use so paradoxical a term, consists in a want of +expression--like the stillness of dark deep water, beneath which no object +is visible. APPENDIX M. + +Page 332.--_"bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung in +fanciful patterns."_ + +The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply +scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian thorn, +a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then pierced with +parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the porcupine quills are +inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the surface of the bark. + +The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the +effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; their +attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and angular; +and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or natural than +those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect produced is rich +and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety of dyes they contrive +to give to this simple material, the porcupine quills. The sinew of the +deer, and some other animals, furnish the Indian women with thread, of any +degree of fineness or strength. The wants of these simple folk are few, +and those easily supplied by the adaptation of such materials as they can +command with ease, in their savage state. + + +APPENDIX N. + +Page 339.--_"is Mount Ararat."_ + +Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly two +years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +This file should be named 7cacr10.txt or 7cacr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7cacr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7cacr10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/7cacr10.zip b/old/7cacr10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3076ee6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7cacr10.zip diff --git a/old/8382-h.htm.2021-01-26 b/old/8382-h.htm.2021-01-26 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5243d0b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8382-h.htm.2021-01-26 @@ -0,0 +1,9364 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Canadian Crusoes, by Catharine Parr Traill + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + A Tale of The Rice Lake Plains + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: August 4, 2009 [EBook #8382] +Last Updated: November 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + CANADIAN CRUSOES. + </h1> + <h2> + A TALE OF THE RICE LAKE PLAINS + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Catharine Parr Traill + </h2> + <h4> + Authoress Of “The Backwoods Of Canada, Etc.” + </h4> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Edited By Agnes Strickland + </h3> + <h4> + Illustrated By Harvey + </h4> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h5> + London:<br /> Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co.<br /> 25, Paternoster Row.<br /> + 1852. <br /> <br /> <br /> Dedicated<br /> To The Children Of The Settlers<br /> + On<br /> The Rice Lake Plains,<br /> By Their<br /> Faithful Friend And + Well-Wisher<br /><br /> THE AUTHORESS.<br /><br /> OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE,<br /><br /> + 15th Oct 1850 + </h5> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_LIST"> LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. </a><br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEa"> APPENDIX A.—<i>Preface.</i> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEb"> APPENDIX B. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEc"> APPENDIX C. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEd"> APPENDIX D. Page 157, <i>note</i>. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEe"> APPENDIX E. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEf"> APPENDIX F. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEg"> APPENDIX G. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEh"> APPENDIX H. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEi"> APPENDIX I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEk"> APPENDIX K. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEl"> APPENDIX L. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_APPEm"> APPENDIX N. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any + narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the struggles of + isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. The distinctions of + pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind is engaged in the + contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the assaults of the gaunt + enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances have usually given + sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the most fortunate, to make + them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the chances of shipwreck, war, + wandering, or revolutions have cut off from home and hearth, and the + requisite supplies; not only from the thousand artificial comforts which + civilized society classes among the necessaries of life, but actually from + a sufficiency of “daily bread.” + </p> + <p> + Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor + seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of Defoe + as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means uncommon in + middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous for all who + build and plant in a wilderness, “cut off from humanity’s reach?” Our + insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the inhabitants of + Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations of individuals + wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means generally known that + scarcely a summer passes over the colonists in Canada, without losses of + children from the families of settlers occurring in the vast forests of + the backwoods, similar to that on which the narrative of the Canadian + Crusoes is founded. Many persons thus lost have perished in the + wilderness; and it is to impress on the memory the natural resources of + this country, by the aid of interesting the imagination, that the author + of the well-known and popular work, “The Backwoods of Canada,” has written + the following pages. + </p> + <p> + She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical + solution <i>[FN: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.]</i> of that provoking + enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, + namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day’s toilsome march, + close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this + cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain + O’Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in his + lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity of + the forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is + recorded in the narrative of the “Escape of a young French Officer from + the depôt near Peterborough during the Napoleon European war.” He found + himself thrice at night within sight of the walls of the prison from which + he had fled in the morning, after taking fruitless circular walks of + twenty miles. I do not recollect the cause of such lost labour being + explained in either narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of the + disaster in the boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced + knowledge, dearly bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons who + wander without knowing the features and landmarks of a country, + instinctively turn their faces to the sun, and for that reason always + travel in a circle, infallibly finding themselves at night in the very + spot from which they started in the morning. The resources and natural + productions of the noble colony of Canada are but superficially known. An + intimate acquaintance with its rich vegetable and animal productions is + most effectually made under the high pressure of difficulty and necessity. + Our writer has striven to interest children, or rather young people + approaching the age of adolescence, in the natural history of this + country, simply by showing them how it is possible for children to make + the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution as forlorn as the + wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who would not care for + the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and classified + technically in books of science, might remember their uses and properties + when thus brought practically before their notice as the aliments of the + famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive feelings must + perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home comforts and all the + ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their rising families, in + order to place them in a more independent position, it is well if those + young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what they are to find in + the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the fruits, and even the + minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has poured forth over that + wide land. + </p> + <p> + The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, “The Backwoods of Canada, by + the Wife of an Emigrant Officer,” published some years since by Mr. C. + Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many + editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity as + a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say that + the present is written in the same <i>naïve</i>, charming style, with the + same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet and + gentle—author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who + ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her + further years of experience as a settler to the information of the younger + class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in the + productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the mightiest + adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest colony, unstained + with the corruption of convict population; where families of gentle blood + need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; where no one need beg, and + where any one may dig without being ashamed. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_LIST" id="link2H_LIST"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + LIST OF ENGRAVINGS (Not included) + </h2> + <p> + LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE FIRST BREAKFAST, THE CATHARINE + FOUND BY THE OLD DOG WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE HECTOR BRINGING THE + INDIAN GIRL KILLING WILD FOWL INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + CATHARINE CARRIED OFF INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE INDIANA AT THE STAKE + ATTACK ON THE DEER RETURN HOME THE CANADIAN CRUSOES. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O’er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash’d on the shore.” + <i>Jacobite Song.</i> +</pre> + <p> + THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile + valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which were + clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of the hills + and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber trees of various + kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This beautiful and highly + picturesque valley is watered by many clear streams of pure refreshing + water, from whence the spot has derived its appropriate appellation of + “Cold Springs.” At the time my little history commences, this now highly + cultivated spot was an unbroken wilderness,—all tut two small farms, + where dwelt the only occupiers of the soil,—which owned no other + possessors than the wandering hunting tribes of wild Indians, to whom the + right of the hunting grounds north of Rice Lake appertained, according to + their forest laws. + </p> + <p> + To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among + cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds of + cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I speak of + the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now an important + port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo—if it contained + even a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and the wild and + picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village of Port Hope is + situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe of the settler. No + gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant produce of grain and + Canadian stores along the waters of that noble sheet of water; no steamer + had then furrowed its bosom with her iron wheels, bearing the stream of + emigration towards the wilds of our Northern and Western forests, there to + render a lonely trackless desert a fruitful garden. What will not time and + the industry of man, assisted by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? + To him be the glory and honour; for we are taught, that “without the Lord + build the city, their labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord + keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” + </p> + <p> + But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the + acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement at + Cold Springs. + </p> + <p> + Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the + famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the + praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle + Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick and + disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian widow + in the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he received + much kind attention from his excellent hostess and her family, which + consisted of a young man about his own age, and a pretty black-eyed lass + not more than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much occupied with + other-lodgers—for she kept a sort of boarding-house—that she + had not much time to give to Duncan, so that he was left a great deal to + her son Pierre, and a little to Catharine, her daughter. + </p> + <p> + Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the + regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of + country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady and + increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the + children of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep + regret that they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan belonged + was ordered for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far convalescent + as to be pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas for poor + Catharine! she now found that parting with her patient was a source of the + deepest sorrow to her young and guileless heart; nor was Duncan less moved + at the separation from his gentle nurse. It might be for years, and it + might be for ever, he could not tell; but he could not tear himself away + without telling the object of his affections how dear she was to him, and + to whisper a hope that he might yet return one day to claim her as his + bride; and Catharine, weeping and blushing, promised to wait for that + happy day, or to remain single for his sake, while Pierre promised to + watch over his friend’s interests and keep alive Catharine’s love; for, + said he, artlessly, “la belle Catrine is pretty and lively, and may have + many suitors before she sees you again, mon ami.” + </p> + <p> + They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the + exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of our + young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, for + absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on + gratitude and esteem. + </p> + <p> + Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet + distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his country, + enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return to Quebec + to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during that short + period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, lively-hearted Pierre, + was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and Catharine, who had no + relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with her brother and his + wife, and was living in some little settlement above Montreal with them. + </p> + <p> + Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly + afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had + never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a good + deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been hunting + with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice Lake, and + he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds to a quiet + life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill pass between + the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan was of the same + opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare like his own + Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned for the hill + country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking possession of any + tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore Duncan agreed with his + brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a dwelling put up and some + ground prepared and “seeded down,” and then to, return for their wives and + settle themselves down at once as farmers. Others had succeeded, had + formed little colonies, and become the heads of villages in due time; why + should not they? And now behold our two backwoodsmen fairly commencing + their arduous life; but it was nothing, after all, to Pierre, by previous + occupation a hardy lumberer, or the Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave + all sorts of hardships in a wild country, himself a mountaineer, inured to + a stormy climate, and scanty fare, from his earliest youth. But it is not + my intention to dwell upon the trials and difficulties courageously met + and battled with by our settlers and their young wives. + </p> + <p> + There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers on + the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with now. The + spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her comforts are + felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly come emigrant + feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were endured by the + older inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, + was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little + skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous + Pierre, and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders of + himself and Duncan to their homestead:—a day of great labour but + great joy it was when they deposited their precious freight in safety on + the shanty floor. They were obliged to make two journeys for the contents + of the little craft. What toil, what privation they endured for the first + two years! and now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. No two + creatures could be more unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The Highlander, + stern, steady, persevering, cautious, always giving ample reasons for his + doing or his not doing. The Canadian, hopeful, lively, fertile in + expedients, and gay as a lark; if one scheme failed another was sure to + present itself. Pierre and Duncan were admirably suited to be friends and + neighbours. The steady perseverance of the Scot helped to temper the + volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They generally contrived to compass + the same end by different means, as two streams descending from opposite + hills will meet in one broad river in the same valley. + </p> + <p> + Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its + increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. + Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four healthy + children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these welcome + contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the children of + Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; they grew up as + one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. Though different + in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest son of the + Scottish soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were greatly + attached; they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed a little + coterie of inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, occupations, + all blended and harmonized delightfully; there were none of those little + envyings and bickerings among them that pave the way to strife and + disunion in after life. + </p> + <p> + Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister + than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and + formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and + Catharine. + </p> + <p> + Hector and Louis were fourteen—strong, vigorous, industrious and + hardy, both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. + It is not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads + and Catharine. With the gaiety and naïveté of the Frenchwoman, Catharine + possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and + well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care of + mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a little + reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father’s teaching. It + was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, having been + taught by his colonel’s son, a lad of twelve years of age, who had taken a + great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a few of his + school-books, among which was a Testament, without cover or title-page. At + parting, the young gentleman recommended its daily perusal to Duncan. Had + the gift been a Bible, perhaps the soldier’s obedience to his priest might + have rendered it a dead letter to him, but as it fortunately happened, he + was unconscious of any prohibition to deter him from becoming acquainted + with the truths of the Gospel. He communicated the power of perusing his + books to his children Hector and Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in + succession, with a feeling of intense reverence; even the labour of + teaching was regarded as a holy duty in itself, and was not undertaken + without deeply impressing the obligation he was conferring upon them + whenever they were brought to the task. It was indeed a precious boon, and + the children learned to consider it as the pearl beyond all price in the + trials that awaited them in their eventful career. To her knowledge of + religious truths young Catharine added an intimate acquaintance with the + songs and legends of her father’s romantic country, which was to her even + as fairyland; often would her plaintive ballads and old tales, related in + the hut or the wigwam to her attentive auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; + Louis and Mathilde, her cousins, sometimes wondered how Catharine had + acquired such a store of ballads and wild tales as she could tell. + </p> + <p> + It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not + only doffed that “dazzling white robe” mentioned in the songs of her + Jacobite emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest season, + the last week in May and the first three of June being parallel to the + English May, full of buds and flowers and fair promise of ripening fruits. + The high sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale of Cold Springs were + clothed with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet enchroma, or + painted-cup; the large pure white blossoms of the lily-like trillium; the + delicate and fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful flowers woo the hand + of the flower-gatherer only to fade almost within his grasp; the golden + cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so lovely in its colour and + formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as the breeze shook the + stems; and there, mingling with a thousand various floral beauties, the + azure lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a heavenly tint upon the + earth. Thousands of roses were blooming on the more level ground, sending + forth their rich fragrance, mixed with the delicate scent of the feathery + ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid greenness of the young leaves of + the forest, the tender tint of the springing corn, were contrasted with + the deep dark fringe of waving pines on the hills, and the yet darker + shade of the spruce and balsams on the borders of the creeks, for so our + Canadian forest rills are universally termed. The bright glancing wings of + the summer red-bird, the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and + noisy but splendid plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air + was filled with beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the + shade of the luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front + of the little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard + mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and fro + guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches of old + mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, with + livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody of her + spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, unconscious + of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements from among the + embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning sun. + </p> + <p> + “Come, ma belle cousine,” for so Louis delighted to call her. “Hector and + I are waiting for you to go with us to the ‘Beaver Meadow.’ The cattle + have strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is delicious, + the very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired and plucked, and we + shall find early strawberries on the old Indian clearing.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, “I fear, Louis, I cannot + go to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my yarn + to wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I left her with mamma.” replied Louis, “and she said she would be + home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take a + basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is sure + he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red.” As he + spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, gathered + up the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker basket, and the + next minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that hung upon the peg + in the porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the top of Catharine’s head + and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling laugh, which drowned + effectually the small lecture that Catharine began to utter, by way of + reproving the light-hearted boy. + </p> + <p> + “But where is Mathilde?” + </p> + <p> + “Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise’s head on her + lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and + flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her and + petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the dear + children were as happy as queens when I left them.” + </p> + <p> + “But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? We + shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to the + Beaver Meadow and back again,” said Catharine, hesitating as Louis took + her hand to lead her out from the porch. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes, ma belle,” said the giddy boy, quickly; “so come along, for + Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before we + return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a tin-cup + for water.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little + preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the + little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her + young brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his + shoulder. “What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it heavy + to carry,” said his sister. + </p> + <p> + “In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom + for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss + Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of rock + elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I take the + axe with me.” + </p> + <p> + The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep + defiles that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung + and chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both to + exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest shade. + What handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and white, were + gathered only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast aside for + others fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills that flowed, + softly murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red or grey granite, + wending their way beneath twisted roots and fallen trees; and often + Catharine lingered to watch the eddying dimples of the clear water, to + note the tiny bright fragments of quartz or crystallized limestone that + formed a shining pavement below the stream; and often she paused to watch + the angry movements of the red squirrel, as, with feathery tail erect, and + sharp scolding note, he crossed their woodland path, and swiftly darting + up the rugged bark of some neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the + intruders on his quiet haunts defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he + scarcely condescended to ascend beyond their reach. + </p> + <p> + The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or + the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, + striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the soft + whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from one hemlock + to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the bark, were + among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the woods; but + to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and her cousin were not + indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector gravely pursued his + onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark the bright colours of + the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest rill. + </p> + <p> + “What makes Hec so grave?” said Catharine to her companion, as they seated + themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they had + giddily chased each other till they had far outrun him. + </p> + <p> + “Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or + wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil or + the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, or + the hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as + woodpeckers and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is + not a giddy thing like his cousin Louis, or—” + </p> + <p> + “His sister Kate,” interrupted Catharine, merrily; “but when shall we come + to the Beaver Meadow?” + </p> + <p> + “Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? No; + Hector whistling.” And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his axe ringing + among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was cutting it to + leave on the path, that he might take it home on their return; he had also + marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe handles, to bring home at + some future time. + </p> + <p> + The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down and + rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, and + declared he felt no fatigue. “As soon as we reach the old Indian clearing, + we shall find strawberries,” he said, “and a fresh cold spring, and then + we will have our dinners.” + </p> + <p> + “Come, Hector,—come, Louis,” said Catharine, jumping up, “I long to + be gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I will + throw them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit instead, + and we must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear Mathilde. Ah, + how I wish she were here at this minute! But here is the opening to the + Beaver Meadow.” + </p> + <p> + And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they + approached the cleared space, which some called the “Indian clearing,” but + is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was a pleasant + spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and flowering shrubs, + of a different growth from those that belong to the dense forest. Here the + children found, on the hilly ground above, fine ripe strawberries, the + earliest they had seen that year, and soon all weariness was forgotten + while pursuing the delightful occupation of gathering the tempting fruit; + and when they had refreshed themselves, and filled the basket with leaves + and fruit, they slaked their thirst from the stream, which wound its way + among the bushes. Catharine neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of + the fragrant white-thorn and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with + nodding umbels of snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little + basket with the graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered + plant, the Linnæa borealis, which she always said reminded her of the + twins, Louise and Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear + away, for they had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered + from the path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their + eagerness to look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by + which they might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, + Louis noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle + hoofs on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + </p> + <p> + “Come, Hector,” said he gaily, “this is lucky; we are on the cattle path; + no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer track.” + </p> + <p> + Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much + towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. “And is + not this our own creek?” he said: “I have often heard my father say it had + its rise somewhere about this old clearing.” + </p> + <p> + Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the path + among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, surprised + to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the stream + swept onward. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, this dear creek,” cried the delighted Catharine, “how pretty it is! I + shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source from + our own Cold Springs.” + </p> + <p> + And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind the + range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously + hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony + banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked + poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite + directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the + opening gorge of a deep ravine. + </p> + <p> + Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block of + granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by the ravine, + unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled countenance, + stood beside her, looking round with an air of great perplexity. Louis, + seating himself at Catharine’s feet, surveyed the deep gloomy valley + before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had now forcibly struck + him that they had mistaken the path altogether. The very aspect of the + country was different; the growth of the trees, the flow of the stream, + all indicated a change of soil and scene. Darkness was fast drawing its + impenetrable veil around them; a few stars were stealing out, and gleaming + down as if with pitying glance upon the young wanderers; but they could + not light up their pathway, or point their homeward track. The only sound, + save the lulling murmur of the rippling stream below, was the plaintive + note of the whip-poor-will, from a gnarled oak that grew near them, and + the harsh grating scream of the night hawk, darting about in the higher + regions of the air, pursuing its noisy congeners, or swooping down with + that peculiar hollow rushing sound, as of a person blowing into some empty + vessel, when it seizes with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + </p> + <p> + Hector was the first to break the silence. “Cousin Louis, we were wrong in + following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our way + back to-night.” + </p> + <p> + Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the + attention of his cousins. “Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to be + cast down by difficulties,” said Hector, as he marked something like tears + glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance upon + the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath which she + sat. + </p> + <p> + “It is not,” resumed Hector, “that I mind passing a summer’s night under + such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do not + think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in the night + dews,—and then they will be so anxious at home about our absence.” + </p> + <p> + Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,—“And it is all my doing that + she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much + alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good + cousin Hector, pray forgive me!” But Catharine was weeping too much to + reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from the + truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed his + indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on the + part of Louis. + </p> + <p> + The sight of her cousin’s grief and self-abasement touched the tender + heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, and + loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful + consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, + Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she + could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with + deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating + thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid + his cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, and + steeled him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the penitent + Louis, who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder Catharine, + sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing words and + affectionate endeavours to console him. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Hector,” she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem face + of her brother, “you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; remember + it was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of liberty with + you and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees and birds, that + he committed this fault.” + </p> + <p> + “Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at the + consequences,—we shall have forfeited our parents’ confidence, and + may have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our + home, if we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs,” replied Hector. + </p> + <p> + “It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night,” + answered Catharine, “that distresses my mind; but,” she added in more + cheerful tones, “let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able + to retrace our steps.” + </p> + <p> + With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word <i>to-morrow</i>,—it + is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from them; sad indeed + is the young heart that does not look forward with hope to the morrow! + </p> + <p> + The cloud still hung on Hector’s brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, + “Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think + of providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the + bare ground exposed to the night dews.—See, here is a nice hut, half + made,” pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had + hurled from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + </p> + <p> + “Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them + into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, and + there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to work, + you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own + wigwam,” she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the + feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared as + little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer’s night under + the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; but her + woman’s heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling the cousins + would be by mutually interesting them in the same object,—and she + was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort of their dear + companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector, while active + employment chased away Louis’s melancholy. + </p> + <p> + Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, those + of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, varying + in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque groups, or + rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked poplar or + graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately pine + contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender graceful + companions. + </p> + <p> + Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, + which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine’s assistance + drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the + upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form the + back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means a + contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with Louis’s + <i>couteau-de-chasse</i>, which he always carried in a sheath at his + girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, for + herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and cousin + nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction, she called + the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents, joined them in + the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of praise and + thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward in imploring + help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly prayed that no + dangerous creature might come near to molest them during the hours of + darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no unholy or wicked + thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels and heavenly + thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with the peace of + God which passeth all understanding.—And the prayer of the poor + wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in peace, unharmed in the + vast solitude. So passed their first night on the Plains. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. + </h2> + <h3> + “Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” + </h3> + <p> + The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, when + the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty of their + situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they had been + under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their little + paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who neither + slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, and in + fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended their + souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + </p> + <p> + While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled the + minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and sorrow had + they passed! + </p> + <p> + When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the + two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the + wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud + halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they check + their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the sighing + breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves caused by the + flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the torches, and the + echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that met their anxious + ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, to their homes, to + snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the drooping hearts of the + weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different directions. But, + unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which Hector and Louis + had taken, there being many cattle paths through the woods. Louis’s want + of truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he had left no intimation + of the path he purposed taking when he quitted his mother’s house: he had + merely said he was going with Hector in search of the cattle, giving no + hint of his intention of asking Catharine to accompany them: he had but + told his sick sister, that he would bring home strawberries and flowers, + and that he would soon return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little + did you think of the web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and + all those to whom you and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, + think twice, ere ye deceive once! Catharine’s absence would have been + quite unaccountable but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had + received her sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and + much her mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful + Catharine to have left her work and forsaken her household duties to go + rambling away with the boys, for she never left the house when her mother + was absent from, it, without her express permission, and now she was gone—lost + to them, perhaps for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, + there hung the untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,—and there + they remained week after week and month after month, untouched, a + melancholy memorial to the hearts of the bereaved parents of their + beloved. + </p> + <p> + It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their + vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that filled + their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of the lost + ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the sorrowing + parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome homes. At + the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one of these three + casualties had befallen the lost children:—death, a lingering death + by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or bears; or yet more + terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded Indians, who + occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the hills about + the Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron as the scene of + many bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the Mohawks and + Chippewas: its localities were scarcely ever visited by our settlers, lest + haply they should fall into the hands of the bloody Mohawks, whose + merciless dispositions made them in those days a by-word even to the less + cruel Chippewas and other Indian nations. + </p> + <p> + It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his + brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, + among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called the + Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor + wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the + sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, and + mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their + first-born and beloved children.—“There was a voice of woe, and + lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and + refusing to be comforted, because they were not.” The miserable + uncertainty that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation to + the sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of the + manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; but, + alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + ‘Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy’s endless dreams depart.” + </pre> + <p> + But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see + how it really fared with the young wanderers. + </p> + <p> + When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that arose + from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an + indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance + perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear light + of the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in + retracing their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left no + impression on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found the + creek, which was concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic + hawthorns, high-bush cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn + was in blossom, and gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than the + “May” which makes the lanes and hedgerows of “merrie old England” so sweet + and fair in May and June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral of our + olden time; but when our simple Catharine drew down the flowery branches + to wreathe about her hat, she loved the flowers for their own native + sweetness and beauty, not because poets had sung of them;—but young + minds have a natural poetry in themselves, unfettered by rule or rhyme. + </p> + <p> + At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of + cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and <i>tamarack</i> (Indian + name for the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as + love the cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that they + must quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become entangled + in a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing draughts from + the bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they ascended the + grassy bank, and again descending, found themselves in one of those long + valleys, enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed with shrubs and + oaks, with here and there a stately pine. Through this second valley they + pursued their way, till emerging into a wider space, they came among those + singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel hills, where the Cold + Creek once more met their view, winding its way towards a grove of + evergreens, where it was again lost to the eye. + </p> + <p> + This lovely spot is now known as Sackville’s Mill-dike. The hand of man + has curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it + subservient to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of the + scene. <i>[FN: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, who + resided for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to return + to his native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The old + log-house on the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, + though deserted; the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer + protects the enclosure, where the wild rose mingles with that of Provence,—the + Canadian creeper with the hop.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, + winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, + the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the silver + waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of the + wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid silver + just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its surface, and + concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of dread and doubt + and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow of admiration at + a scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which they now gazed upon + from the elevation they had gained. From this ridge they looked down the + lake, and the eye could take in an extent of many miles, with its verdant + wooded islands, which stole into view one by one as the rays of the + morning sun drew up the moving curtain of mist that enveloped them; and + soon both northern and southern shores became distinctly visible, with all + their bays and capes and swelling oak and pine-crowned hills. + </p> + <p> + And now arose the question, “Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be + the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the + Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?” Hector + remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was like an + inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some remarkable + state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally discerned by the + naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects on the other side, + the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of wild fowl winging + their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. The breadth of the + lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, exceed three or four + miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, seemed far greater + beyond—what the eye could take in. <i>[FN: The length of the Rice + Lake, from its headwaters near Black’s Landing to the mouth of the Trent, + is said to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from north to south varies + from three to six.]</i> + </p> + <p> + They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. + Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of a + beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a magnificent + view down the lake. + </p> + <p> + “How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, + overlooking the lake,” said Louis; “only think of the fish we could take, + and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no very hard + matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard my father say + he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river—below, when he + was lumbering.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon,” <i>[FN: Now the + site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman from + Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion of the + ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains for its + natural beauties and extent of prospect.]</i> said Hector, “though I am + not quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold + Springs; but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, + and produce plenty of grain, too, if cultivated.” + </p> + <p> + “You always look to the main chance, Hec,” said Louis, laughing; “well, it + was worth a few hours’ walking this morning to look upon so lovely a sheet + of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,—would not + you, ma belle?—to enjoy such a sight.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Louis,” replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; “it is very + pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot + enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been + aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!” she + added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions and + herself would cause at home came over her. “How I wish I had remained at + home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!” + </p> + <p> + Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin’s tears, + and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to soothe and + console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the weeping girl, + and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + </p> + <p> + “If you cry thus, cousin,” he whispered, “you will break poor Louis’s + heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct.” “Be not + cast down, Catharine,” said her brother, cheeringly: “we may not be so far + from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out again, + and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on these + sunny banks.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, + proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side of + the high ground where they had been sitting. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, “Come, Hector; come, Louis: + here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:”—for her eye had + caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on the + slope; large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + </p> + <p> + “There is indeed, ma belle,” said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather + up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner shade + of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen tree. + Catharine’s voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge <i>[FN: + The Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than the English or + French partridge. We refer our young readers to the finely arranged + specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) where they may + discover “Louis’s partridge.”]</i> from her nest, and the eggs were soon + transferred to Louis’s straw hat, while a stone flung by the steady hand + of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed exultingly as they + displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, who, in spite of + hunger, could not help regretting the death of the mother bird. Girls and + women rarely sympathise with men and boys in their field sports, and + Hector laughed at his sister’s doleful looks as he handed over the bird to + her. + </p> + <p> + “It was a lucky chance,” said he, “and the stone was well aimed, but it is + not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so stupid + you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before the day + is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all events,” he + added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin’s hat; “twelve nice + fresh eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit.” + </p> + <p> + “But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of getting + a fire made,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “As to the eggs,” said Louis, “we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry + wanderers like us to be over nice about our food.” + </p> + <p> + “They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the + ashes,” observed Hector. + </p> + <p> + “True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble.” + </p> + <p> + “But how?” asked Hector. “Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest would + be a flint with the help of my knife.” + </p> + <p> + “A flint?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, if we could get one—but I see nothing but granite, which + crumbles and shivers when struck—we could not get a spark. However, + I think it’s very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach + yonder may be found hard enough for the purpose.” + </p> + <p> + To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had been + well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, + fringed with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found + themselves beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found + among the water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and a + handful of dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected + without trouble; though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had + coolly proposed to tear a strip from his cousin’s apron as a substitute + for tinder,—a proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the + tidy Catharine, whose ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, + especially as she had no sewing implements to assist in mending the rent. + Louis thought nothing of that; it was a part of his character to think + only of the present, little of the past, and to let the future provide for + itself. Such was Louis’s great failing, which had proved a fruitful source + of trouble both to himself and others. In this respect he bore a striking + contrast to his more cautious companion, who possessed much of the gravity + of his father. Hector was as heedful and steady in his decisions as Louis + was rash and impetuous. + </p> + <p> + After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles + through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last + kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then + triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly to + the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently + hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial + than the strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering + them in the morning. + </p> + <p> + Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, + under the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were + wreathed together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, + which climbed to a height of fifteen feet <i>[FN: Solatnum dulcamara,—Bitter-sweet + or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the red-berried briony of England, + is highly ornamental. It possesses powerful properties as a medicine, and + is in high reputation among the Indians.]</i> among the branches <i>[Illustration: + THE FIRST BREAKFAST]</i> of the trees, which it covered as with a mantle. + A pure spring of cold, delicious water welled out from beneath the twisted + roots of an old hoary-barked cedar, and found its way among the shingles + on the beach to the lake, a humble but constant tributary to its waters. + Some large blocks of water-worn stone formed convenient seats and a + natural table, on which the little maiden arranged the forest fare; and + never was a meal made with greater appetite or taken with more + thankfulness than that which our wanderers ate that morning. The eggs + (part of which they reserved for another time) were declared to be better + than those that were daily produced from the little hen-house at Cold + Springs. The strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the shining + leaves of the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with the long + spurs of the hawthorn, <i>[FN: The long-spurred American hawthorn may be + observed by our young readers among that beautiful collection of the + hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the north side of + Kensington Gardens.]</i> were voted delicious, and the pure water most + refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large + mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles on + the beach. + </p> + <p> + Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, + lamenting their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless repining, + or, perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the principal author + of their calamity—poor, thoughtless Louis; but such were not the + dispositions of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to the hardships + incidental to the lives of the settlers in the bush, these young people + had learned to bear with patience and cheerfulness privations that would + have crushed the spirits of children more delicately nurtured. They had + known every degree of hunger and nakedness; during the first few years of + their lives they had often been compelled to subsist for days and weeks + upon roots and herbs, wild fruits, and game which their fathers had + learned to entrap, to decoy, and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early + been initiated into the mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, + and pits, and traps, and snares,—they were as expert as Indians in + the use of the bow,—they could pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart + at partridge, hare, and squirrel, with almost unerring aim; and were as + swift of foot as young fawns. Now it was that they learned to value in its + fullest extent this useful and practical knowledge, which enabled them to + face with fortitude the privations of a life so precarious as that to + which they were now exposed. + </p> + <p> + It was one of the elder Maxwell’s maxims,—Never let difficulties + overcome you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the + hand, and the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head as + chief. When his children expressed any doubts of not being able to + accomplish any work they had begun, he would say, “Have you not hands, + have you not a head, have you not eyes to see, and reason to guide you? As + for impossibilities, they do not belong to the trade of a soldier,—he + dare not see them.” Thus were energy and perseverance early instilled into + the minds of his children; they were now called upon to give practical + proofs of the precepts that had been taught them in childhood. Hector + trusted to his axe, and Louis to his <i>couteau-de-chasse</i> and + pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an old forest friend of his + father’s, who had visited them the previous winter, and which, by good + luck, Louis had in his pocket—a capacious pouch, in which were + stored many precious things, such as coils of twine and string, strips of + leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; nails, bits of iron, + leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find their way most + mysteriously into boys’ pockets in general, and Louis Perron’s in + particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small matters. + </p> + <p> + The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few days + abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where fruits + were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning meal, so + providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully acknowledged the + mercy of God in this thing. + </p> + <p> + Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the lake, + they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both to leave + the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the hills and + deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so remarkable a + manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look upon the wild + glens and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy deer found safe + retreats, unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,—where the osprey and + white-headed eagle built their nests, unheeding and unharmed. Twice that + day, misled by following the track of the deer, had they returned to the + same spot,—a deep and lovely glen, which had once been a + water-course, but now a green and shady valley. This they named the Valley + of the Rock, from a remarkable block of red granite that occupied a + central position in the narrow defile; and here they prepared to pass the + second night on the Plains. A few boughs cut down and interlaced with the + shrubs round a small space cleared with Hector’s axe, formed shelter, and + leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, formed a bed, though not so + smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs that the Indians spread + within their summer wigwams for carpets and couches, or the fresh heather + that the Highlanders gather on the wild Scottish hills. + </p> + <p> + While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine + busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having + collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that + grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate name + of the “Birken shaw,” she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it fine + upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This proved + excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the birch + being highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint that + they had used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front of the + rocky stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent over the + coals, served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge was + suspended,—a scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they + knew not how they should breakfast next morning, The children felt they + were pensioners on God’s providence not less than the wild denizens of the + wilderness around them. + </p> + <p> + When Hector—who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or + cousin—expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, + Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the + teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, + gently laid her hand upon her brother’s head, which rested on her knees, + as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest tone, + “‘Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor + gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much + better than they?’ Surely, my brother, God careth for us as much as for + the wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify his holy + name. God cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies them with + knowledge where they shall find food when they hunger and thirst. So I + have heard my father say; and surely our father knows, for is he not a + wise man, Hector?” + </p> + <p> + “I remember,” said Louis, thoughtfully, “hearing my mother repeat the + words of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;—‘When you + are in trouble, Mathilde,’ he used to say to her, ‘kneel down, and ask + God’s help, nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the will + to serve you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all things + to pass. It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers from being + heard. And, truly, I think the wise old man was right,” he added. + </p> + <p> + It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy + Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, + looking up with a serious air, replied, “Your mother’s friend was a good + man, Louis. Our want of trust in God’s power must displease Him. And when + we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,—that blue + sky, those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining down + upon us, and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little creeping + plants and flowers that grow at our feet,—it must, indeed, seem + foolish in his eyes that we should doubt his power to help us, who not + only made all these things, but ourselves also.” + </p> + <p> + “True,” said Catharine; “but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; for + the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the good.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, God + helps those that help themselves,” said Louis. “Let us consider a little. + There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great.” + </p> + <p> + “But how are we to get them out of it?” rejoined Catharine. “I doubt the + fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry.” + </p> + <p> + “Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the + holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and + there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of + course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in + abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have + plenty of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in + profusion, and bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as for + raspberries, I see none; but by-and-by there will be May-apples—I + see great quantities of them in the low grounds, grapes, + high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as cherries, and sweet too; + squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and bird-cherries. As to sweet + acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of them for the roasting, as + good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, and hickory-nuts,—with + many other good things.” And here Louis stopped for want of breath to + continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat us + for want of better food,” interrupted Hector, slyly. “Nay, Katty, do not + shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. Neither + bear nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis and thy + brother are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine,” added Louis, + gallantly, “while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider how + we are to obtain them, my dears,” said Catharine. “For fishing, you know, + we must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are these to be + met with?” + </p> + <p> + Louis nodded his head sagaciously. “The line I think I can provide; the + hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the rod, + it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma chere, I + could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of cloth to sew + over a hoop.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine laughed. “You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, but + where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing it + on?” + </p> + <p> + Lords took up the corner of his cousin’s apron with a provoking look. + </p> + <p> + “My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem + to covet it for everything.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never + could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear such + frightful things.” + </p> + <p> + “It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and scrubbing, + and doing all sorts of household duties,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean,” + replied the annoying boy; “so there can be little want of the apron. I + could turn it to fifty useful purposes.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh, nonsense,” said Hector, impatiently, “let the child alone, and do + not tease her about her apron.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, water + mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, that, + roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, + they are good eating when nothing better is to be got.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured,” said Hector, “but, alas for + the salt and the pepper!” + </p> + <p> + “Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces—hunger; and then, + no doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must + not mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them.” + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish,” said Hector. “You and I will + try our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should + break, we can easily cut those long locks from Catharine’s head, and twist + them into lines,”—and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair hair + that hung in shining curls about his sister’s neck. + </p> + <p> + “Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis’s proposal of making + tinder and fishing-nets of my apron,” said Catharine, shaking back the + bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in + golden waves over her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that + become her so well,” said Louis. “But we have no scissors, ma belle, so + you need fear no injury to your precious locks.” + </p> + <p> + “For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your <i>couteau-de-chasse</i>. + I could tell you a story that my father told me, not long since, of + Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in England. You know he was + the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles Edward, that my father + talks of, and loves so much.” + </p> + <p> + “I know all about him,” said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; “let us hear + the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my hair and + Louis’s knife can have to do with King Charles.” + </p> + <p> + “Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience,” + said her brother. “Well then, you must know, that after some great battle, + the name of which I forget, <i>[FN: Battle of Worcester.]</i> in which the + King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the forces of the + Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the poor young king was + hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large price was set on his + head, to be given to any traitor who should slay him, or bring him + prisoner to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to dress himself in all sorts + of queer clothes, and hide in all manner of strange, out of the way + places, and keep company with rude and humble men, the better to hide his + real rank from the cruel enemies that sought his life. Once he hid along + with a gallant gentleman, <i>[FN: Colonel Careless.]</i> one of his own + brave officers, in the branches of a great oak. Once he was hid in a mill; + and another time he was in the house of one Pendril, a woodman. The + soldiers of the Parliament, who were always prowling about, and popping in + unawares wherever they suspected the poor king to be hidden, were, at one + time, in the very room where he was standing beside the fire.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” exclaimed Catharine, “that was frightful. And did they take him + prisoner?” + </p> + <p> + “No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers + should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the long curls + that the king’s men all wore in those days, and called <i>lovelocks</i>, + begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to his head.” + </p> + <p> + “That was very hard, to lose his nice curls.” + </p> + <p> + “I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose his + hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered them + to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough deal + table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large knife + trimmed off the curls.” + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, + who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a block + to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as + hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die.” “Poor king!” said + Catharine, sighing, “I see that it is better to be poor children, + wandering on these plains under God’s own care, than to be kings and + princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men.” + </p> + <p> + “Who told your father all these things, Hec?” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about the + history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince Charles, + the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in Scotland; he + loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where the Prince lost + all, and was driven from place to place, and had not where to lay his + head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but those times did not + come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a while, through the + friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the army that was + embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment to which my + father belonged. He was a kind man, and my father loved both him and his + son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Catharine, “as you have told me such a nice story, Mister + Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail, + we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we + shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should not we be + able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?” + </p> + <p> + “True,” said Hector, “the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and + birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should + His white children fear?” + </p> + <p> + “I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, + when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of + himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, + weeks I believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and + arrows, using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for + bow-strings; and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the + inner bark of the slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap + of the sugar maple when they could get no water but melted snow only, + which is unwholesome; at last, they even boiled their own mocassins.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish,” said + Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself,” + added Hector, “or the deer-skin hunting shirt.” “Well, they might have + been reduced even to that,” said Louis, laughing, “but for the good + fortune that befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the + forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale.” + </p> + <p> + “Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old + Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After + passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than + the scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not + very substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick dark + swamp,—not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they + could not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of a + deer or a moose,—and night came upon them unawares, so they set to + work to kindle up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they had + none, or maybe they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon a + huge hollow pine, that lay across their path, against which he soon piled + a glorious heap of boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he could + collect, and lighted up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand old Jacob + used to be at making up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, if he could + not have warmth within, he would have plenty of it without. The wood was + dry pine and cedar and birch, and it blazed away, and crackled and burnt + like a pine-torch. By-and-by they heard a most awful growling close to + them. ‘That’s a big bear, as I live,’ said old Jacob, looking all about, + thinking to see one come out from the thick bush; but Bruin was nearer to + him than he thought, for presently a great black bear burst out from the + but-end of the great burning log, and made towards Jacob; just then the + wind blew the flame outward, and it caught the bear’s thick coat, and he + was all in a blaze in a moment. No doubt the heat of the fire had + penetrated to the hollow of the log, where he had lain himself snugly up + for the winter, and wakened him; but Jacob seeing the huge black brute all + in a flame of fire, began to think it was Satan’s own self come to carry + him off, and he roared with fright, and the bear roared with pain and + rage, and my father roared with laughing to see Jacob’s terror; but he did + not let the bear laugh at him, for he seized a thick pole that he had used + for closing in the brands and logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was + so blinded with the fire and smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted + on roast bear’s flesh for many days, and got a capital skin to cover them + beside.” + </p> + <p> + “What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “Kate, you are too particular,” said Louis; “a story never loses, you + know.” + </p> + <p> + Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the + bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the + levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror of + old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear. + </p> + <p> + “You boys are always so unfeeling,” she said, gravely. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Kate,” said her brother, “the day may come when the sight of a + good piece of roast bear’s flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do not + find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may be + reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine + swamps, on the banks of the St. John.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” said Catharine, trembling, “that would be too bad to happen.” + </p> + <p> + “Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what + to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we + still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and be + thankful; and for grace let us say, ‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil + thereof.’” + </p> + <p> + Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites—the hungry + wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally divided, + was soon despatched. + </p> + <p> + It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers in + our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a circle, and + usually find themselves at night in the same place from whence they + started in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At sunset, they + found themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big stone, in which + they had rested at noon. They had imagined themselves miles and miles + distant from it; they were grievously disappointed. They had encouraged + each other with the confident hope that they were drawing near to the end + of their bewildering journey; they were as far from their home as ever, + without the slightest clue to guide them to the right path. Despair is not + a feeling which takes deep root in the youthful breast. The young are + always hopeful; so confident in their own wisdom and skill in averting or + conquering danger; so trusting; so willing to believe that there is a + peculiar Providence watching over them. Poor children! they had indeed + need of such a belief to strengthen their minds and encourage them to + fresh exertions, for new trials were at hand. + </p> + <p> + The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with + light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on tree + and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with her + fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs which + her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for her + accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting spur + of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the extreme + verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most inviting + seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, which + stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the estuary of + the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the hills, forming + a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water had ceased to flow, + the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with deer-grass and flowers of + many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; while majestic oaks and pines + towered above. A sea of glittering foliage lay beneath Catharine’s feet; + in the distance the eye of the young girl rested on a belt of shining + waters, which girt in the shores like a silver zone; beyond, yet more + remote to the northward, stretched the illimitable forest. + </p> + <p> + Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the eye; a + holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and peaceful + tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, scarcely a leaf + stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing on the calm beauty + of nature, and communing with her own heart, when suddenly a stirring + rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow channel on one side + of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with the shrubby dogwood, + wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror which seized the poor + girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking through the covert of the + bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the most deadly fear alone could + have inspired, Catharine sprung from the supporting trunk of the oak, + dashed, down the precipitous side of the ravine; now clinging to the + bending sprays of the flexile dogwood—now to some fragile birch or + poplar—now trusting to the yielding heads of the sweet-scented <i>ceanothus</i>, + or filling her hands with sharp thorns from the roses that clothed the + bank; flowers, grass, all were alike clutched at in her rapid and fearful + descent. A loose fragment of granite on which she had unwittingly placed + her foot rolled from under her; unable to regain her balance she fell + forwards, and was precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, + conscious only of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her + ancles, which rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she + had dislodged in her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector + to her side, and they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid + her down upon her bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When + Catharine was able to speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of + her fright. She was sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long + jaws, and grisly coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her + with terror, he was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon her—she + could tell them no more that happened, she never felt the ground she was + on, so great was her fright. + </p> + <p> + Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills + alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for <i>la belle cousine</i>, + and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been + fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but the + pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to their + grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the ground. + This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to pursue their + wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their only remedy, + excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as circumstances + would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to the swollen + joint, was the first thing that was suggested; but, simple as was the + lotion, it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient quantities. They were a + full quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and the cold springs near it + were yet further off; and then the only vessel they had was the tin-pot, + which hardly contained a pint; at the same time the thirst of the fevered + sufferer was intolerable, and had also to be provided for. Poor Catharine, + what unexpected misery she now endured! + </p> + <p> + The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they were + now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places with this + delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor sufferer’s + burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying her with + them. + </p> + <p> + Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied + them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful + by spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; these + he bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, <i>[FN: “</i>Dirca + palustris<i>,”—Moose-wood. American mezereon, leather-wood. From the + Greek, </i>dirka<i>, a fountain or wet place, its usual place of growth.]</i> + which he had found growing in great abundance near the entrance of the + ravine. Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. After having collected a + good supply of ripe strawberries, he climbed the hills in search of birds’ + eggs and small game. About noon he returned with the good news of having + discovered a spring of fine water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump + of bass-wood and black cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to + kill a woodchuck, having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly + sides of the hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit + and badger; its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and + burrows like the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip + cleft, the soles of the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on + grasses, grain, fruit, and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the + summer, rank, but is eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the + skin is not much valued. They are easily killed by dogs, though, being + expert climbers, they often baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark + beyond their reach; a stone or stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they + often bite sharply. + </p> + <p> + The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his + companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were + plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about the + Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than on + the drier, more open plains. + </p> + <p> + “It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from the + spring in,” said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, “one is so apt to stumble + among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our old bark + dishes we could get a good supply at once.” + </p> + <p> + “There is a fallen birch not far from this,” said Louis; “I have here my + trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel + capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?” + </p> + <p> + “How can you sew it together, cousin?” asked Catharine; “you have neither + deer sinews, nor war-tap.” <i>[The Indian name for the flexible roots of + the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in manufacturing the + birch baskets and canoes.]</i> “I have a substitute at hand, ma belle,” + and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he had collected for + binding the dressings on his cousin’s foot. + </p> + <p> + When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in + some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of the + ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot of the + “Wolf’s Crag,” for so the children had named the memorable spot where poor + Catharine’s accident had occurred. + </p> + <p> + The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, + but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger + and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the + sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he + proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble + managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose or + leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was but + rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a little + at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten to allow + in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and dishes turns + up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied in his + subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis’s water-jar was + looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by Catharine, who + almost forgot her sufferings—while watching her cousin’s + proceedings. + </p> + <p> + Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running off + directly to the spring. “Catharine shall now have cold water to bathe her + poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst,” he said, joyfully springing to + his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector quietly + restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of his not + finding the “fountain in the wilderness,” as Louis termed the spring, or + losing himself altogether. + </p> + <p> + “Let us both go together, then.” cried Louis. Catharine cast on her cousin + an imploring glance. + </p> + <p> + “Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone.” Her + sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + </p> + <p> + “Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since I + was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or in + sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother’s arms.” + </p> + <p> + Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering + tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + </p> + <p> + “But you know, dear cousin,” she said, “I am so helpless, and then the + dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me.” + </p> + <p> + After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had + done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to + make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little + time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about + it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more + gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed with + magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the jutting + spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the trees that + lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a big sea. There + were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, white, and + pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled flower, that + was like the “Morning glory,” (<i>Convolvulus major,</i>) and scarlet-cups + <i>[FN: </i>Erichroma,<i> or painted cup]</i> in abundance, with roses in + profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with huge + blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened out + into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley of the Big + Stone. <i>[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the plough, and + waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have taken place of the + wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The lot belongs to G. + Ley, Esq.]</i> + </p> + <p> + These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both + Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and the + picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father’s + animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the wild + mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in solitude and + uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the minds or manners + of these young people. Simple and untaught they were, but they were + guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they lacked the knowledge + that is learned from books, they possessed much that was useful and + practical, which had been taught by experience and observation in the + school of necessity. + </p> + <p> + For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered any + attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the “Big Stone” + impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their + immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had + been killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of + hunger. Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed not + a little to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the yet + untried lake, “bright, boundless, and free,” gleaming in silvery + splendour, but in practice they knew nothing of the fisher’s craft, + though, as a matter of report, they were well acquainted with all the + mysteries of it, and had often listened with delight to the feats + performed by their respective fathers in the art of angling, spearing and + netting. + </p> + <p> + “I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in + the lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken by + the hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but that + was in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard him + tell of spearing fish by torchlight!” + </p> + <p> + “The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake,” said Hector; + “however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore and + try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line provided.” + </p> + <p> + Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub + oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, which + he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of treasures. + “Here.” said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; “here is the slide + of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some rubbish that my + sister had thrown out the other day.” + </p> + <p> + “I fear you will make nothing of that,” said Hector, “a bit of bone would + be better. If you had a file now you might do something.” + </p> + <p> + “Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?” and Louis + triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, a + few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but still + it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of our young + French Canadian. “I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde laughed at + me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. Louis, you + little knew the use it was to be put to then,” he added thoughtfully, + apostrophising himself; “how little do we know what is to befall us in our + young days!” “God knows it all,” said Hector, gravely, “we are under His + good guidance.” + </p> + <p> + “You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good care + of us. Come, let us go to the lake,” Catharine added, and sprung to her + feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her companions + with a piteous look, saying, “I cannot walk one step; alas, alas! what is + to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you leave me here, + I shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot carry me with you + in your search for food.” + </p> + <p> + “Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that + Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of hunger + or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you by turns; + the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very heavy, ma + belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are so light a + burden,”—and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his arms, + and with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through the + ravine towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded knoll, + (where Wolf Tower <i>[FN: See account of the “Wolf Tower,” in the + Appendix.]</i> now stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat + stone beneath a big oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself on + the flowery ground at her feet, while he drew a long breath, and gathered + the fruit that grew among the long grass to refresh himself after his + fatigue; and then, while resting on the “Elfin Knowe,” as Catharine called + the hill, he employed himself with manufacturing a rude sort of fish-hook + with the aid of his knife, the bit of tin, and the rusty file; a bit of + twine was next produced,—boys have always a bit of string in their + pockets, and Louis, as I have before hinted, was a provident hoarder of + such small matters. The string was soon attached to the hook, and Hector + was not long in cutting a sapling that answered well the purpose of a + fishing-rod, and thus equipped they proceeded to the lake shore, Hector + and Louis carrying the crippled Catharine by turns. When there, they + selected a sheltered spot beneath a grove of over-hanging cedars and + birches, festooned with wild vines, which, closely woven, formed a natural + bower, quite impervious to the rays of the sun. A clear spring flowing + from the upper part of the bank among the hanging network of loose fibres + and twisted roots, fell tinkling over a mossy log at her feet, and quietly + spread itself among the round shingly pebbles that formed the beach of the + lake. Beneath this pleasant bower Catharine could repose, and watch her + companions at their novel employment, or bathe her feet and infirm ancle + in the cool streamlet that rippled in tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + </p> + <p> + If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued for + pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must be + greatly heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of + hunger. Among the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the + flying grasshopper or field crickets were sporting, and one of these + proved an attractive bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, + than the hook was seized, and many were the brilliant specimens of + sun-fish that our eager fishermen cast at Catharine’s feet, all gleaming + with gold and azure scales. Nor was there any lack of perch, or that + delicate fish commonly known in these waters as the pink roach. + </p> + <p> + Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to the + grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did very + expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling up a + fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the flint, + knife, and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian fashion, on + forked sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable angle towards + the glowing embers,—a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + </p> + <p> + “Truly,” said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, + “God hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;” so + miraculous did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of + this simple child of nature. + </p> + <p> + They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be + caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, as the + streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little opportunity + for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the rude implements + with which they were furnished, the result of their morning success seemed + little short of divine interference in their behalf. Happy and contented + in the belief that they were not forgotten by their heavenly Father, these + poor “children in the wood” looked up with gratitude to that beneficent + Being who suffereth not even a sparrow to fall unheeded. + </p> + <p> + Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and + there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the + flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that + hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, her + young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great Creator + of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her mind, as + with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl prayed with the + guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + </p> + <p> + The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods at + the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully + providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded with + their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found Catharine + sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil slumbers, but + her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which she was exposed, + sleeping in the dew by the water side; “Moreover,” he added, “we have some + distance to go, and we have left the precious axe and the birch-bark + vessel in the valley.” + </p> + <p> + These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the sleeper, + and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same path that + they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken the precaution + to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and break the tops of the + young trees that they had passed between on their route to the lake, and + by this clue they were enabled with tolerable certainty to retrace their + way, nothing doubting of arriving in time at the wigwam of boughs by the + rock in the valley. + </p> + <p> + Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame + girl, and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight soon + clouded the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which cast a + greater degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had now left + the oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter loneliness of + the path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that stretched in long array + across the steep banks on either side, taking, now this, now that wild and + fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings of dread in the mind of these + poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons bred up in solitude, their + imaginations were strongly tinctured with superstitious fears. Here then, + in the lonely wilderness, far from their beloved parents and social + hearth, with no visible arm to protect them from danger, none to encourage + or to cheer them, can it be matter of surprise if they started with + terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful breeze that rustled the leaves or + waved the branches above them? The gay and lively Louis, blithe as any + wild bird in the bright sunlight, was the most easily oppressed by this + strange superstitious fear, when the shades of evening were closing round, + and he would start with ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that + met his ear or eye, though the next minute he was the first to laugh at + his own weakness. In Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn + cast, recalling to his mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his + father was wont to entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge + log-fire of an evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales + possess for the youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often + told; year after year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with + an interest that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they + slowly wandered along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors + those Highland legends that were as familiar to their ears as household + words, and still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at + each pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might + be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to + proceed,—they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their + progress; the moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet + indistinct; so they sat them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and + rested till the moon should lighten their path. + </p> + <p> + Louis was confident they were not far from “the bigstone,” but careful + Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already + conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone that + had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came in + sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its rugged + sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. “Forward for ‘the + big stone’ and the wigwam,” cried Louis. + </p> + <p> + “Hush!” said Catharine, “look there,” raising her hand with a warning + gesture. + </p> + <p> + “Where? what?” + </p> + <p> + “The wolf! the wolf!” gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon + the summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood + the gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound of + which seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of the + tall pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their hearts, + as with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline of the terrible + beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck stretched outward, + and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave back those dismal + sounds; another minute and he was gone, and the crushing of branches and + the rush of many feet on the high bank above, was followed by the + prolonged cry of some poor fugitive animal,—a doe, or fawn, perhaps,—in + the very climax of mortal agony; and then the lonely recesses of the + forest took up that fearful death-cry, the far-off shores of the lake and + the distant islands prolonged it, and the terrified children clung + together in fear and trembling. + </p> + <p> + A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the + hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone—not even the + watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with all + its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; but though + around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long ere confidence was + restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and trembling children. They + beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy shade, and every rustling + bough struck fresh terrors into their excited minds. They might have + exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, “How dreadful is this place!” + </p> + <p> + With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of + the bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should + return; sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing to + be the only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet + nature, overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their + eyelids; deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight + breaking through the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound of + waving boughs and twittering birds, once more wakened them to life and + light; recalling them from happy dreams of home and friends, to an aching + sense of loneliness and desolation. This day they did not wander far from + the valley, but took the precaution, as evening drew on, to light a large + fire, the blaze of which they thought would keep away any beast of prey. + They had no want of food, as the fish they had caught the day before + proved an ample supply. The huckle-berries were ripening too, and soon + afforded them a never-failing source of food; there were also an abundance + of bilberries, the sweet rich berries of which proved a great treat, + besides being very nourishing. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!” + </pre> + <p> + A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from pain + and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all that + Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower by the lake, + where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful longing to regain + their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and often would the + poor sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, to wring her hands + and weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear father and mother, who + would have given worlds had they been at their command, to have heard but + one accent of her beloved voice, to have felt one loving pressure from + that fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered over the path of the young + wanderers, long after she had ceased to whisper comfort to the desolate + hearts of the mournful parents. + </p> + <p> + Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied + than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly + which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. “If + Kate had not been with me,” he would say, “we should not have been lost; + for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the + cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and + insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way.” Louis + Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the flowers, + and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the form of + pleasure and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the thoughtful, + till they find the path they have followed is beset with briers and + thorns; and a thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, unexpected, + overwhelm and bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; and perhaps + the punishment of their errors does not fall upon themselves alone, but + upon the innocent, who have unknowingly been made participators in their + fault. + </p> + <p> + By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis + endeavoured to alleviate his cousin’s sufferings, and soften her regrets; + nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, when his own + heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. “If it were + not for our dear parents and the dear children at home,” he would say, “we + might spend our time most happily upon these charming plains; it is much + more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; see how brightly the + sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and cover the earth with fruit + and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to fish and hunt, and trap the + game. Yes, if they were all here, we would build us a nice log-house, and + clear up these bushes on the flat near the lake. This ‘Elfin Knowe,’ as + you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot to build upon. See these glorious + old oaks; not one should be cut down, and we would have a boat and a + canoe, and voyage across to yonder islands. Would it not be charming, ma + belle?” and Catharine, smiling at the picture drawn so eloquently, would + enter into the spirit of the project, and say,— + </p> + <p> + “Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had but my father’s rifle now,” said Hector, “and old Wolfe.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges and + black squirrels,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at break + of day,” said Hector. “The fawn was so little fearful, that if I had had a + stick in my hand, I could have killed it.—I came within ten yards of + the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one by making a + dead-fall.” <i>[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the woods, or on + the banks of creeks.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear innocent + Mignon,” cried Catharine, “I should never feel lonely then.” + </p> + <p> + “And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from + time to time, ma belle.” + </p> + <p> + “Hec., what are you thinking of?” + </p> + <p> + “I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our + lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the open + air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and the + rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter will + have to be provided against.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way + back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever way + we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get + involved in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know + there is neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, + and we might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside this + fine lake, and upon these fruitful plains.” + </p> + <p> + “It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home,” said + Hector. “We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find the + use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some spot + where there is a spring of good water, and—” + </p> + <p> + “No horrible wolves,” interrupted Catharine: “though I love this pretty + ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to + stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were + asleep.” + </p> + <p> + “We must not forget to keep watch-fires.” + </p> + <p> + “What shall we do for clothes?” said Catharine, glancing at her home-spun + frock of wool and cotton plaid. + </p> + <p> + “A weighty consideration, indeed,” sighed Hector; “clothes must be + provided before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on.” + </p> + <p> + “We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels,” suggested + Louis; “and fawns when we catch them.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and fawns when we get them,” added Hector; “but it is time enough to + think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home.” + </p> + <p> + “I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life,” said Catharine. + “My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will try + and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search.” + </p> + <p> + Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy + guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, were + thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and thick + bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and + outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain—yet the arms + of thy heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to + sustain thee. + </p> + <p> + How often were Catharine’s hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry home, + as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, how + often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them with + her tears,—for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + </p> + <p> + When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless + wanderings, they would say to each other: “Perhaps we shall see our + father, he may find us here to-day;” but evening came, and still he came + not, and they were no nearer to their father’s home than they had been the + day previous. + </p> + <p> + “If we could but find our way back to the ‘Cold Creek,’ we might, by + following its course, return to Cold Springs,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I doubt much the fact of the ‘Cold Creek’ having any connexion with our + Spring,” said Louis; “I think it has its rise in the ‘Beaver-meadow,’ and + following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish balsam and + cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick recesses of the + pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty miles from Cold + Springs.” + </p> + <p> + It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their way + in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or the + points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, which is + not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of forest-trees; + they rather measure distance by the time they have been wandering, than by + any other token. + </p> + <p> + The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, + wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as + long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun + in his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the + home they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice of + the course they should take each day, and at last determined them to lose + no more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek for + some pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and provide + for their present and future wants. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.” + </pre> + <p> + Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since + the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the + conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley + of the “big stone,” and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent their + steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led the way, + loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of the axe, + which he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and the + birch-basket. Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, likewise + some fish to carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + </p> + <p> + The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake shore, + but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth of trees + and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and the + fatigue of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to put + aside the bushes or bend them down. + </p> + <p> + Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path + through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves on a + fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with white + and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, which + reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur above its + leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept watch from + its dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread below like a + silver zone studded with emeralds. + </p> + <p> + In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which + divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows had + once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site of + which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the valley, + filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These waters with + resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, bearing in + their course those blocks of granite and limestone which are so widely + scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form a rocky pavement + at the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of sublime desolation + must that outpouring of the waters have presented, when those steep banks + were riven by the sweeping torrents that were loosened from their former + bounds. The pleased eye rests upon these tranquil shores, now covered with + oaks and pines, or waving with a flood of golden grain, or varied by neat + dwellings and fruitful gardens; and the gazer on that peaceful scene + scarcely pictures to himself what it must have been when no living eye was + there to mark the rushing floods, when they scooped to themselves the deep + bed in which they now repose. + </p> + <p> + Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were + doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose + rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried away + the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the lake, + seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some few are + parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable impediment + turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an outlet + through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + </p> + <p> + There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a + solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly + called the “upper Race-course,” merely on account of the smoothness of the + surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above the + lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and + covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been a + broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and + attractive spot, known as the “lower Race-course;” it lies on a lower + level than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of distant + hills; both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and may have been + the sources from whence its channel was filled. Some convulsion of nature + at a remote period, by raising the waters above their natural level, might + have caused a disruption of the banks, and drained their beds, as they now + appear ready for the ploughshare or the spade. In the month of June these + flats are brilliant with the splendid blossoms of the <i>enchroma</i>, or + painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy <i>trillium</i> roses scent the + evening air, and grow as if planted by the hand of taste. + </p> + <p> + A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage <i>[FN: Saxifraga nivalis.]</i> + with its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the + fall, it is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a + species of creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the + leaves are highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable to + the taste and smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage of + martagon lilies take the place of the lupine and trilliums; these splendid + lilies vary from orange to the brightest scarlet; various species of + sunflowers and <i>coreopsis</i> next appear, and elegant white <i>pyrolas</i> + <i>[FN: Gentiana linearis, G. crenata.]</i> scent the air and charm the + eye. The delicate lilac and white shrubby asters next appear, and these + are followed by the large deep blue gentian, and here and there by the + elegant fringed gentian. <i>[FN: Pyrola rotundifolia, P. asarifolia.]</i> + These are the latest and loveliest of the flowers that adorn this tract of + land. It is indeed a garden of nature’s own planting, but the wild garden + is being converted into fields of grain, and the wild flowers give place + to a new race of vegetables, less ornamental, but more useful to man and + the races of domestic animals that depend upon him for their support. + </p> + <p> + Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found themselves, + at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, <i>[FN: </i>Pedophyllnm + galmata<i>,—Mandrake, or May-apple.]</i> where they had the good + fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath some large + moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground was thickly + covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many varieties of + flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the valley and up the + steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were whortleberries, or + huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in abundance; bilberries + dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. The vines that wreathed + the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes, + but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly + sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, + filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the + stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they + did not mind the consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied + by a large bed of May-apples, <i>[FN: Kilvert’s Ravine, above Pine-tree + Point.]</i> the fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not + ripe, August being the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums + still green, and wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great + numbers of the woodchucks’ burrows on the hills, while partridges and + quails were seen under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, <i>[FN: + </i>Cornus sericea<i>. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by the + partridge and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There are + several species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.]</i> that here grew + in abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As + this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, + and resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they should + meet with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded + hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, + somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the shelter + that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through the opening + at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the distant waters of + the lake which terminated the vista, while they were quite removed from + its unwholesome vapours. + </p> + <p> + The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, scarcely + modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in about nine + o’clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in the afternoon. + Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while Catharine busied + herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss and fern, of which + there was abundance near the spring. The boys had promised to cut some + fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and bring them up to form a + foundation for their bed, and also to strew Indian-fashion over the floor + of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort of carpeting reminds one of, the + times when the palaces of our English kings were strewed with rushes, and + brings to mind the old song:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew’d with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch——” + </pre> + <p> + Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients + adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the + luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the rich. + The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn lightly over + the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if it had been taken + from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and contented were they in + their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered grass and leaves, raised + from the earth by a heap of branches carefully arranged, was to them as + pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of bark and poles, as curtains + of silk or damask. + </p> + <p> + Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient for + the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of which + lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, and this + done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath the + cooling shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; pleased + with the dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, and fanned + her warm cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like her cousin + Louise, that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, for it was + always dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were still. + </p> + <p> + She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a + deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores + of the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far + away from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup <i>[FN: The Dutch + word for verandah, which is still in common use among the Canadians.]</i> + in front of her father’s house, and in memory’s eye she beheld it all + exactly as she had left it. There stood the big spinning wheel, just as + she had set it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended from the rafters, + the basket filled with the carded wool ready for her work. She saw in + fancy her father, with his fine athletic upright figure, his sunburnt + cheeks and clustering sable hair, his clear energetic hazel eye ever + beaming upon her, his favourite child, with looks of love and kindness as + she moved to and fro at her wheel. <i>[FN: Such is the method of working + at the large wool wheel, unknown or obsolete in England.]</i> There, too, + was her mother, with her light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as + she pursued her daily avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the + cows to be milked, or chopping firewood. And as these images, like the + figures of the magic lantern, passed in all their living colours before + her mental vision, her head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon + her arm, and then she started, looked round, and slept again, her face + deeply buried in her young bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl + slumbered. + </p> + <p> + A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting + breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she + dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf—its grisly + paws were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and suffocation—her + languid eyes open. Can it be?—what is it that she sees? Yes, it is + Wolfe; not the fierce creature of her dreams by night and her fears by + day, but her father’s own brave devoted dog. What joy, what hope rushed to + her heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of the faithful beast, + and wept from the fulness of heart. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she joyfully cried, “I knew that I should see him again. My own + dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are + your children. Come, come quickly!” and she hurried to the head of the + valley, raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now + confidently believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the + well-known sound of her voice. + </p> + <p> + Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every projecting + headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, “Come quickly!” + </p> + <p> + Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, + “Father, come quickly, come!” and again the deceitful sounds were + repeated, “Quickly come!” + </p> + <p> + The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost + mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her + father’s name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont to + do when he heard his master’s step approaching. Still Catharine could not + but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father must + be very near. + </p> + <p> + The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, + fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up + their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They + could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, + their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the + gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their + friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and + shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow + them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties were + in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old dog refused + to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched himself, and the + boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh—he looked almost + starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a state of great + exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with wishful looks, and + she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to this great relief. + </p> + <p> + Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, in + tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, “Lost, lost, lost!” It + was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe would travel in + all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search till he + discovered the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last night of the + father’s wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back to his + melancholy home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and fro, he + involuntarily exclaimed, wringing his hands, “Lost, lost, lost!” Wolfe + heard what to him was an imperative command; he rose, and stood at the + door, and whined; mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, and + again exclaimed in passionate tones those magic words, that sent the + faithful messenger forth into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he + never left it, but with ah instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, + he continued to track the woods, lingering long on spots where the + wanderers had left any signs of their sojourn; he had for some time been + baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and again where they had crossed Cold Creek, + but had regained the scent and traced them to the valley of the “big + stone,” and then with the sagacity of the bloodhound and the affection of + the terrier he had, at last, discovered the objects of his unwearied, + though often baffled search. + </p> + <p> + What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe create! + How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with his head + pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it was + foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if he had + been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your homesick + nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those eloquent + waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or waved from + side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute sorrowful + glances, as though he would have said, “Dear mistress, I know all your + troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!” There is something + touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only the hard-hearted + and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once hearing of a felon, + who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous indifference to the + appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that attended him in prison, + whose heart was softened by the sight of a little dog, that had been his + companion in his days of comparative innocence, forcing its way through + the crowd, till it gained the foot of the gallows; its mute look of + anguish and affection unlocked the fount of human feeling, and the + condemned man wept—perhaps the first tears he had shed since + childhood’s happy days. + </p> + <p> + The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The inky + darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid flame, + which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off or near. + The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through the gorge of + the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep narrow defile, + shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, more wild and + gloomy, when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + </p> + <p> + There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage + remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, scarcely + stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at rest. The + solemn murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been likened to + the moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of the spot. + Seated at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which their + evening fire burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in silence + and in awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near them, they + felt comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which now burst in + terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to cloud, and the + echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered trunks and + brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in that wild war + of elements. + </p> + <p> + Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from their + covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might be heard + from time to time,—a sound that always thrilled their hearts with + fear. To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they + listened with awe and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were the + voice of Him who “sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice.” + And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with curdled blood + from the cry of the <i>felon wolf.</i> + </p> + <p> + And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down in a + whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey branches + were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they would not bow + down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered all abroad like + chaff before the wind. + </p> + <p> + The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for the + safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from them. + And often ‘mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could + distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. “If our father had + not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm,” said + Catharine, weeping, “or have been starved to death while seeking for us!” + and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + </p> + <p> + But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers + were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and + privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure + they were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had + prevented them from meeting. + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow, ma chère, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will be a + joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his master, + and then—oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. They + will have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our dear + mothers and chère petite Louise.” + </p> + <p> + The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the + poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars peep + forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful state, + the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their garments were + drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire with some bark and + boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks in their back log + unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a blaze, with which + they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. The air was now cool + almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather remained unsettled, + and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake presented a leaden hue, + crested with white mimic waves. + </p> + <p> + They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head of + the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of bark, + which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. The boys + employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the fish they had + caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe seemed to be + mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they all went up + towards the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to look round in + hope of getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, but though they + kept an anxious look out in every direction, they returned, towards + evening, tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red squirrel, and a + partridge which Wolfe “treed,”—that is, stood barking at the foot of + the tree in which it had perched,—and the supply of meat was a + seasonable change. They also noticed, and marked, with the axe, several + trees where there were bees, intending to come in the cold weather, and + cut them down. Louis’s father was a great and successful bee-hunter; and + Louis rather prided himself on having learned something of his father’s + skill in that line. Here, where flowers were so abundant and water + plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be abundant also; besides, the open + space between the trees, admitting the warm sunbeam freely, was favourable + both for the bees and the flowers on which they fed, and Louis talked + joyfully of the fine stores of honey they should collect in the fell. He + had taught little Fanchon, a small French spaniel of his father’s, to find + out the trees where the bees hived, and also the nests of the ground-bees, + and she would bark at the foot of the tree, or scratch with her feet on + the ground, as the other dogs barked at the squirrels or the woodchucks; + but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was old, and would learn no new + tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his own observation and the axe + to depend upon for procuring honey. + </p> + <p> + The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither + perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts <i>[FN: All these fish are + indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.]</i> were to be caught. However, + they found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish among the + gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their fingers very + spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want of salt; but + hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared them very good when + well roasted, covered up with hot embers. “The fish-hawks,” said he, “set + us a good example, for they eat them, and so do the eagles and herons. I + watched one the other day with a mussel in his bill; he flew to a high + tree, let his prey fall, and immediately darted down to secure it; but I + drove him off, and, to my great amusement, perceived the wise fellow had + just let it fall on a stone, which had cracked the shell for him just in + the right place. I often see shells lying at the foot of trees, far up the + hills, where these birds must have left them. There is one large + thick-shelled mussel, that I have found several times with a round hole + drilled through the shell, just as if it had been done with a small auger, + doubtless the work of some bird with a strong beak.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you remember,” said Catharine, “the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. + picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of the + shells too; <i>[FN: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells of mussels + is common to many birds. The crow (</i>Corvus corone<i>) has been long + known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the river + mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and stones.]</i> + and when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by some large + bird, a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the great lake, + as it had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in our creeks + being quite thin-shelled and white.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the + eagle’s nest on the top of our hill, Louis?” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; they + were brought from this very lake, I dare say.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we + might become great fishermen.” + </p> + <p> + “Louis,” said Catharine, “is always thinking about canoes, and boats, and + skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor.” + </p> + <p> + Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to manage + her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never saw + difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion of his + own cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed faster + than Hector’s, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one valuable + quality—steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an opinion, but + when once convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered the subject or + overcame the obstacle. + </p> + <p> + “Catharine,” said Louis, one day, “the huckleberries age now very + plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store of + them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chère, wherever we turn our + eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are purple + with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest of our + lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no berries are + to be found.” + </p> + <p> + “It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for let me + tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless—mere dry + husks.” + </p> + <p> + “Why so, ma belle?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our mothers + dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the case, but when + they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they were quite + nice.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good + hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, + to keep the dried fruit in.” + </p> + <p> + They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or + whortleberries). <i>[FN: From the abundance of this fruit, the Indians + have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the south shore. + During the month of July and the early part of August, large parties come + to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, which they preserve by + drying, for winter use. These berries make a delicious tart or pudding, + mixed with bilberries and red-currants, requiring little sugar.]</i> + Catharine and Louis (who fancied nothing could be contrived without his + help) attended to the preparing and making of the bags of birch bark; but + Hector was soon tired of girl’s work, as he termed it, and, after + gathering some berries, would wander away over the hills in search of + game, and to explore the neighbouring hills and valleys, and sometimes it + was sunset before he made his appearance. Hector had made an excellent + strong-bow, like the Indian bow, out of a tough piece of hickory wood, + which he found in one of his rambles, and he made arrows with wood that he + seasoned in the smoke, sharpening the heads with great care with his + knife, and hardening them by exposure to strong heat, at a certain + distance from the fire. The entrails of the woodchucks, stretched, and + scraped and dried, and rendered pliable by rubbing and drawing through the + hands, answered for a bowstring; but afterwards, when they got the sinews + and hide of the deer, they used them, properly dressed for the purpose. + </p> + <p> + Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a + true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with + shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even + Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was now + seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned from his + rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which are plentiful + at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass over in their + migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return thither for the + acorns and berries that are to be found in great abundance. Squirrels, + too, are very plentiful at this season. Hector and Louis remarked that the + red and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other. It is + a common belief, that the red squirrels make common cause with the grey, + and beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a + succession of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while + there were plenty of the red and grey in the “oak openings.” <i>[FN: + Within the last three years, however, the black squirrels have been very + numerous, and the red are less frequently to be seen. The flesh of the + black squirrel is tender, white, and delicate, like that of a young + rabbit.]</i> Deer, at the time our young Crusoes were living on the Rice + Lake Plains, were plentiful, and, of course, so were those beasts that + prey upon them,—wolves, bears, and wolverines, besides the Canadian + lynx, or catamount, as it is here commonly called, a species of wild-cat + or panther. These wild animals are now no longer to be seen; it is a rare + thing to hear of bears or wolves, and the wolverine and lynx are known + only as matters of history in this part of the country; these animals + disappear as civilization advances, while some others increase and follow + man, especially many species of birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs + that fall from the rich man’s board, and multiply about his dwelling; some + adopt new habits and modes of building and feeding, according to the + alteration and improvement in their circumstances. + </p> + <p> + While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation of + the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, while + Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, in + unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on one of the + gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself by looking for + flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, <i>[FN: </i>Podophyllum + peltatum<i>-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of the May-apple, in rich + moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum bonum, or egg-plum, + which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes a delicious preserve, if + seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten uncooked, the outer rind, which + is thick and fleshy, and has a rank taste, should be thrown aside; the + fine acid pulp in which the seeds are imbedded alone should be eaten. The + root of the Podophyllum is used as a cathartic by the Indians. The root of + this plant is reticulated, and when a large body of them are uncovered, + they present a singular appearance, interlacing each other in large + meshes, like an extensive net-work; these roots are white, as thick as a + man’s little finger, and fragrant, and spread horizontally along the + surface. The blossom is like a small white rose.]</i> but finding them + cumbersome in climbing the steep wooded hills, she deposited them at the + foot of a tree near the boys, and pursued her search; and it was not long + before she perceived some pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of + bright lilac flowers, and on plucking some pulled up the root also. The + root was about the size and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, + she found it far from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it + seemed to be a favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that + it grew about their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems + were bitten, and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. + Therefore, carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted + them in the embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more + satisfying than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often roasted + in the fire, when they were out working on the fallow, at the log heaps. + Hector and Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended Catharine for + the discovery. Not many days afterwards, Louis accidentally found a much + larger and more valuable root, near the lake shore. He saw a fine climbing + shrub, with close bunches of dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which + scented the air with a delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great + height over the young trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and + tendrils. Pleased with the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to + pull one up, that he might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed + a number of large tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular + oval-shaped; the inside was quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, + only pleasanter, when in its raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis + gathered his pockets full, and hastened home with his prize, and, on being + roasted, these new roots were decided to be little inferior to potatoes, + at all events, they were a valuable addition to their slender stores, and + they procured as many as they could find, carefully storing them in a + hole, which they dug for that purpose in a corner of their hut. <i>[FN: + This plant appears to me to be a species of the </i>Psoralea esculenta<i>, + or Indian bread-root, which it resembles in description, excepting that + the root of the above is tuberous oval, and connected by long filaments. + The largest tubers are farthest from the stem of the plant.]</i> Hector + suggested that these roots would be far better late in the fall, or early + in the spring, than during the time that the plant was in bloom, for he + knew from observation and experience that at the flowering season the + greater part of the nourishment derived from the soil goes to perfect the + flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, there was a white + floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance of the potato. + </p> + <p> + “This flour,” said Catharine, “would make good porridge with milk.” + </p> + <p> + “Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper,” said Louis, + laughing, “but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the + porridge-pot to come from?” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed,” said Catharine, “I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both.” + </p> + <p> + One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, for + the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five deer + were in the water, and making for Long Island. + </p> + <p> + “But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the + arrows,” said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of + arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, + which, the young hunter had made for himself. + </p> + <p> + “No fear, ma chère; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and lilies. + We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,—here, boy, here!” + </p> + <p> + Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright + eyes of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness the + hunt, ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently + understood that they had some sport in view, trotted along by his + mistress, wagging his great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + </p> + <p> + Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The herd + of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and two young + half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of rice and rushes, + not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, apparently quite + unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on a fallen trunk eagerly + eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of Louis and Catharine, with + the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused the timid creatures to a + sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head and making, as the + children thought, a signal for retreat, now struck boldly out for the + nearest point of Long Island. + </p> + <p> + “We shall lose them,” cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright + track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + </p> + <p> + “Hist, hist, Louis,” said Hector, “all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, + Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!” + </p> + <p> + Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + </p> + <p> + “Head them! head them!” shouted Hector. + </p> + <p> + Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, he + made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. Twice + the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, taking the + time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the boys saw the + herd had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the island, they + separated, Louis making good his ambush to the right among the cedars, and + Hector at the spring to the west, while Catharine was stationed at the + solitary pine-tree, at the point which commanded the entrance of the + ravine. + </p> + <p> + “Now, Cathy,” said her brother, “when you see the herd making for the + ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the + ten right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. We + must trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is well + trained, he knows what he is about.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited till + the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and + clapped her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified + creatures coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of the + thicket where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they had + emerged when they first took to the water; to this place they boldly + steered. Louis, who had watched the direction the herd had taken with + breathless interest, now noiselessly hurried to Hector’s assistance, + taking an advantageous post for aim, in case Hector’s arrow missed, or + only slightly wounded one of the deer. + </p> + <p> + Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the does + was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, that it + hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag now turned + again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and again the noble + animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now shot his arrow, but + it swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it glanced harmlessly along + the water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of Hector sent another arrow + between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with its force, and then, + another from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and staining the water + with her blood. + </p> + <p> + The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the + shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to + make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal + from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that as + his last arrow had given the <i>coup de grace</i>, he was entitled to the + honour of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander + protested against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, + contenting himself with saying, “Ah, well, I will get the first steak of + the venison when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste.” + Moreover, he privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had + had in the exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the + worthy service she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the herd. + Wolfe, too, came in for a large share of the honour and glory of the + chase. + </p> + <p> + The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. + This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many + uses were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a store + of wealth in their eyes. + </p> + <p> + During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, + there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, + and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the + lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + </p> + <p> + From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been + acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good + fruit behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to + future advantage. + </p> + <p> + The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews + of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer for + mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws + themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season + the wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the + fish-hooks these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew + that strips of fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails of + animals dried and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws making + baskets of the inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats of the + inner bark of the cedar, with many other ingenious works that they now + found would prove useful to them, after a little practice had perfected + their inexperienced attempts. They also knew how to dry venison as the + Indians and trappers prepare it, by cutting the thick fleshy portions of + the meat into strips, from four to six inches in breadth, and two or more + in thickness. These strips they strung upon poles supported on forked + sticks, and exposed them to the drying action of the sun and wind. Fish + they split open, and removed the back and head bones, and smoked them + slightly, or dried them in the sun. + </p> + <p> + Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in their + joy they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate caresses + on Wolfe for his good conduct. + </p> + <p> + “But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for + dinner to-day,” said Louis; “and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice piece + for your own share.” + </p> + <p> + Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; + the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and + the entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs + and back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + </p> + <p> + “We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by,” said careful Hector; + “for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn our + attention to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will not + do when once the cold weather sets in.” + </p> + <p> + “A shanty would soon be put up,” said Hector; “for even Kate, wee bit + lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + </p> + <p> + “That I could, indeed,” replied Catherine; “for you may remember, Hec., + that the last journey my father made to the Bay, <i>[FN: Bay of Quints.]</i> + with the pack of furs, that you and I called a <i>Bee</i> + </p> + <p> + <i>[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We fear it + is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all Christian + colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in the course of + performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, or shanties, all the + neighbours are summoned, and give their best assistance in the + construction. Of course the assisted party is liable to be called upon by + the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he has received.]</i> + </p> + <p> + to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and I + am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you + said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only + four logs high.” + </p> + <p> + “It was not for the fall that I cried,” said Catharine, resentfully, “but + because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, ‘Cats, you know, + have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their feet,’ + and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in pain. Beside, + you called me ‘puss,’ and ‘poor pussie’ all the rest of the <i>Bee</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you,” said Louis, + trying to look penitent for the offence. “For my part, I had forgotten all + about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear aunt + made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; and the + shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine builders, + to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no better help.” + </p> + <p> + “After all,” said Hector, thoughtfully; “children can do a great many + things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the + strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we + should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves in a + lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and hunting.” + </p> + <p> + “If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger,” said + Catharine; “but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, and + gave us health and strength to help ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O’ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken’d o’er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle—pale, + Fann’d by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + “Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?” said Catharine, the + very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + </p> + <p> + “Hollowing out a canoe.” + </p> + <p> + “Out of that piece of stick?” said Catharine, laughing. “How many + passengers is it to accommodate, my dear.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made + out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?” Louis + nodded assent. + </p> + <p> + “I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and out + of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of partridges, + I am sure, and squirrels,—it is the very place for them.” + </p> + <p> + “And shall we have a sail as well as oars?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; set up your apron for a sail.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + </p> + <p> + “It is worth nothing now,” she said, sighing; “and what am I to do when my + gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been + cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes.” + </p> + <p> + “We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough,” said Hector; + “Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the holes + with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be easily + made.” + </p> + <p> + “The first rainy day, we will see what we can do,” replied Louis; “but I + am full of my canoe just now.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even if we + had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could manage + one,” said cautions Hector. + </p> + <p> + “I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first + taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and + streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I have + listened so often to my father’s stories and adventures when he was out + lumbering on the St. John’s river, that I am as familiar with the idea of + a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle,” he said, + turning to Catharine; “just think of the fish—the big ones we could + get if we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those + rush-beds.” + </p> + <p> + “It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be the + Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he + called Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where he + said there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, where + people could see through the openings among the trees. He said it was a + great hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and that they + came there to gather in the harvest of wild rice.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out,” said Catharine, + shuddering; “I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at + the wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?” + </p> + <p> + “But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil enough + when they came to the Springs.” “They came, you know, for food, or + shelter, or something that they wanted from us; but it may be different + when they find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon their hunting + grounds.” + </p> + <p> + “The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our + friends.” + </p> + <p> + “The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together,” observed + Hector. “The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man do + not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary the + one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they suspect our + openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their own—they + do not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we are taught + to forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with the savage, + is a crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be taught the word of + God, he might be kind and true, and gentle as well as brave.” + </p> + <p> + It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away + their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for + self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and time, + that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered and + animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus severed + them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to which + their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from infancy + upwards. + </p> + <p> + One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring + expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they well + knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and venison + himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat near it. + </p> + <p> + They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat <i>[FN: + Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose pleasant + meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the lake. It is one + of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well for the persevering + industry of the settler and his family.]</i> along the lake shore, to the + eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult to force their way + through the thick underwood that always impedes the progress of the + traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed the course of an + ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural causeway between + two parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in many places, not + wider than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides were most + gracefully adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers of various + species, wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry bushes, + high-bush cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; while in the + deep ravines on either side grew trees of the largest growth, the heads of + which lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy banks, beset with huge + boulders of red and grey granite and water-worn limestone, showed that it + had once formed the boundary of the lake, though now it was almost a + quarter of a mile in its rear. Springs of pure water were in abundance, + trickling down the steep rugged sides of this wooded glen. The children + wandered onwards, delighted with the wild picturesque path they had + chosen, sometimes resting on a huge block of moss-covered stone, or on the + twisted roots of some ancient grey old oak or pine, while they gazed with + curiosity and interest on the lonely but lovely landscape before them. + Across the lake, the dark forest shut all else from their view, rising in + gradual far-off slopes, till it reached the utmost boundary of sight. Much + the children marvelled what country it might be that lay in the dim, blue, + hazy distance,—to them, indeed, a <i>terra incognita</i>—a + land of mystery; but neither of her companions laughed when Catharine + gravely suggested the probability of this unknown shore to the northward + being her father’s beloved Highlands. Let not youthful and more learned + reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian girl; she knew nothing of + maps, and globes, and hemispheres,—her only book of study had been + the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor Highland soldier. + </p> + <p> + Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at + last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that + formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far + from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to the + southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant brae, + where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, they + decided upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount Ararat: + “For here.” said they, “we will build us an ark of refuge and wander no + more.” And mount Ararat is the name which the spot still bears. Here they + sat them down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried venison, and drank + of the cold spring that welled out from beneath the edge of the bank. + Hector felled a tree to mark the site of their house near the birches, and + they made a regular blaze on the trees as they returned home towards the + wigwam, that they might not miss the place. They found less difficulty in + retracing their path than they had formerly, a there were some striking + peculiarities to mark it, and they had learned to be very minute in the + remarks they made as they travelled, so that they now seldom missed the + way they came by. A few days after this, they removed all their household + stores, viz. the axe, the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of + dried fruit, the dried venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they + forget the deer scalp, which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up + over the door of their new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on + the shores of the Rice Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + </p> + <p> + The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for + house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and + the oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate + watched the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; + there was something to look forward to from day to day-they were going to + commence housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and well + lodged before the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their blood. + It was a joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were put up, + and the door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did not cut out the + spaces for them; <i>[FN: Many a shanty is put up in Canada without + windows, and only an open space for a door, with a rude plank set up to + close it in at night.]</i> they could do very well without, as hundreds of + Irish and Highland emigrants have done before and since. + </p> + <p> + A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes against + the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney and hearth in + this primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with wedge-shaped pieces + of wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, being chiefly oaks and pines, + afforded no moss. This deficiency rather surprised the boys, for in the + thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss grows in abundance on the north + side of the trees, especially on the cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron + wood; but there were few of these, excepting a chance one or two in the + little basin in front of the house. The roof was next put on, which + consisted of split cedars; and when the little dwelling was thus far + habitable, they were all very happy. While the boys had been putting on + the roof, Catharine had collected the stones for the chimney, and cleared + the earthen floor of the chips and rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, + bound together with a leathern thong. She had swept it all clean, + carefully removing all unsightly objects, and strewing it over with fresh + cedar sprigs, which gave out a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not + unseemly carpet for their little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire + blazing up on their own hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its + gladdening light, and chat away of all they had done and all that they + meant to do. Here was to be a set of split cedar shelves, to hold their + provisions and baskets; there a set of stout pegs were to be inserted + between the logs for hanging up strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, + or the skins of the animals they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be + fixed on posts in the centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden + platters and dishes, and some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of + wood, till something better could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough + poles of iron-wood, supported by posts driven into the ground, and partly + upheld by the projection of the logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing + could be more simple. The framework was of split cedar; and a safe bed was + made by pine boughs being first laid upon the frame, and then thickly + covered with dried grass, moss, and withered leaves. Such were the lowly + but healthy couches on which these children of the forest slept. + </p> + <p> + A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded with + disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler’s family have I + seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared for their + reception; and many a gentleman’s son has voluntarily submitted to + privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and adventure, or + to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money in the lumbering + trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty and ruder society of + those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian lumberers. During the spring + and summer months, these men spread themselves through the trackless + forests, and along the shores of nameless lakes and unknown streams, to + cut the pine or oak lumber, such being the name they give to the felled + stems of trees, which are then hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon + the ice, where they are formed into rafts, and floated down the waters + till they reach the great St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable + difficulties and casualties, finally shipped for England. I have likewise + known European gentlemen voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized + home, and associate themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, + leading lives as wandering and as wild as the uncultivated children of the + forest. The nights and early mornings were already growing sensibly more + chilly. The dews at this season fall heavily, and the mists fill the + valleys, till the sun has risen with sufficient heat to draw up the + vapours. It was a good thing that the shanty was finished so soon, or the + exposure to the damp air might have been productive of ague and fever. + Every hour almost they spent in making little additions to their household + comforts, but some time was necessarily passed in trying to obtain + provisions. One day Hector, who had been out from dawn till moonrise, + returned with the welcome news that he had shot a young deer, and required + the assistance of his cousin to bring it up the steep bank—(it was + just at the entrance of the great ravine)—below the precipitous + cliff near the lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the meantime. + They had now plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was very + acceptable, as they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat that + they had. + </p> + <p> + This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in + strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she + roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets of + birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, and the + meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild plums in a + beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried for the winter + store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she also found + plenty of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, on the banks of + a charming creek of bright water that flowed between a range of high pine + hills, and finally emptied itself into the lake.<i>[FN: This little stream + flows through the green meadows of “Glenlynden,” watering the grounds of + Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose picturesque cottage forms a most attractive + object to the eye of the traveller.]</i> There were great quantities of + water-cresses in this pretty brook; they grew in bright round cushion-like + tufts at the bottom of the water, and were tender and wholesome. These + formed an agreeable addition to their diet, which had hitherto been + chiefly confined to animal food, for they could not always meet with a + supply of the bread-roots, as they grew chiefly in damp, swampy thickets + on the lake shore, which were sometimes very difficult of access; however, + they never missed any opportunity of increasing their stores, and laying + up for the winter such roots as they could procure. + </p> + <p> + As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm clothes + and bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were beginning + to wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the lake several + times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she was often + sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as time wore + on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys on the + important subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to + manufacture the skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, and + the doe-skin and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. Louis + was always suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They had + taken off the hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling it up + with the hairy side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made excellent + mocassins, piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, and passing + the sinews of the deer through, as he had seen his father do, by fixing a + stout fish-bone to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an excellent + substitute for a needle, and with the aid of the old file he sharpened the + point of the rusty nail, so that he was enabled, with a little trouble, to + drill a hole in a bone needle, for his cousin Catharine’s use. After + several attempts, he succeeded in making some of tolerable fineness, + hardening them by exposure to a slow steady degree of heat, till she was + able to work with them, and even mend her clothes with tolerable + expertness. By degrees, Catharine contrived to cover the whole outer + surface of her homespun woollen frock with squirrel and mink, musk-rat and + woodchuck skins. A curious piece of fur patchwork of many hues and + textures it presented to the eye,—a coat of many colours, it is + true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was not a little proud of + her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was added was a source of + fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis fitted so nicely to her + feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector brought triumphantly in + one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught in one of his + deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the brush + remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine might + have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur dress and + bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + </p> + <p> + Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and + stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the inner + part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most expert + in this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist their + fathers in preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur traders, + who visited them from time to time, and gave them various articles in + exchange for their peltries; such as powder and shot, and cutlery of + different kinds, as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with gay + calicoes, and cotton handkerchiefs for the women. + </p> + <p> + As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving + wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the + larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun and + wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets too + they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, that + they held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some vessel that + would bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small that it could be + made little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had made an attempt at + making tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the sweet fern,—a + graceful woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent like nutmegs; this plant + is highly esteemed among the Canadians as a beverage, and also as a remedy + against the ague; it grows in great abundance on dry sandy lands and + wastes, by waysides. + </p> + <p> + “If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat + of the fire,” said Louis, “we could get on nicely with cooking.” But + nothing like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they were + obliged to give up that thought, and content themselves with roasting or + broiling their food. Louis, however, who was fond of contrivances, made an + oven, by hollowing out a place near the hearth, and lining it with stones, + filling up the intervals with wood ashes and such clay as they could find, + beaten into a smooth mortar. Such cement answered very well, and the oven + was heated by filling it with hot embers; these were removed when it was + sufficiently heated, and the meat or roots placed within, the oven being + covered over with a flat stone previously heated before the fire, and + covered with live coals. This sort of oven had often been described by old + Jacob, as one in common use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower + province, in which they cook small animals, and make excellent meat of + them; they could bake bread also in this oven, if they had had flour to + use. <i>[FN: This primitive oven is much like what voyagers have described + as in use among the natives of many of the South Sea islands.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people were + more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided home + feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, to + talk of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all were + well, and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall all + their happy days spent in the home which they now feared they were + destined never again to behold. About the same time they lost the anxious + hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every turn when + they went out. Nevertheless they were becoming each day more cheerful and + more active. Ardently attached to each other, they seemed bound together + by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now all the world to + one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar their happiness. + Hector’s habitual gravity and caution were tempered by Louis’s lively + vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved Catharine, and strove + to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to which she was exposed, + by the most affectionate consideration for her comfort, and she in return + endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully enduring all privations, and + making light of all their trials, and taking a lively interest in all + their plans and contrivances. + </p> + <p> + Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his + absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. As + he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some + accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he had + for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, which + he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly + finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island + to explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + </p> + <p> + Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector ran + off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash cousin, + which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did not wish to + make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his mind was + somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it had been + left the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be seen, nor + the fishing-rod and line. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps,” thought he, “Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the + little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: or + maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point.” + </p> + <p> + While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard + steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through + the bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his + disordered air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder + from time to time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + </p> + <p> + “Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?” + cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried + onward. “Why, Louis, whither away?” + </p> + <p> + Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till + Hector came up to him. + </p> + <p> + “Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down by + a pack of wolves?” + </p> + <p> + “It is not wolves, or bears either,” said Louis, as soon as he could get + breath to speak, “but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war + council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them.” + </p> + <p> + “How came you to see them?” + </p> + <p> + “I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going + down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer + path through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the valley, + I crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight of the + creek. While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how pretty the + islands were, rising so green from the blue water, I was surprised by + seeing several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you may be sure, I + thought they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too far apart, so I + sat down on a log to watch, thinking if they turned out to be deer, I + would race off for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, that we might + try our chance for some venison; but as the black specks came nearer and + nearer, I perceived they were canoes with Indians in them, three in each. + They made for the mouth of the creek, and ran ashore among the thick + bushes. I watched them with a beating heart, and lay down flat, lest they + should spy me out; for those fellows have eyes like catamounts, so keen + and wild—they see everything without seeming to cast a glance on it. + Well, I saw them wind up the ridge till they reached the Bare-hill. <i>[FN: + Supposed to be a council hill. It is known by the name of Bare-hill, from + the singular want of verdure on its surface. It is one of the steepest on + the ridge above the little creek, being a picturesque object, with its + fine pine-trees, seen from Mr. Hayward’s grounds, and forms, I believe, a + part of his property.]</i> You remember that spot; we called it so from + its barren appearance. In a few minutes a column of smoke rose and curled + among the pine-trees, and then another and another, till I counted five + fires burning brightly; and, as I stood on the high ground, I could + distinguish the figures of many naked savages moving about, running to and + fro like a parcel of black ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them + raise a yell like a pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my + heart leap up in my breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got + into my wise head, of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the + empty birch canoes, which you must own would have been a glorious thing + for us; but when I heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted + off, and ran as if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my + scalp.” And Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black + curls, as if to ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping + knives of his Indian enemies. + </p> + <p> + “And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the + Indians; they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and so + three of course must be still better than two.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” said Hector, laughing, “it depends upon the stock of practical + wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form one + rational plan.” + </p> + <p> + Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed + pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no trace + of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his sister + would agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so much labour, + and which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not endure even in + idea. + </p> + <p> + “Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below Mount + Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold goods + thither.” Such was Louis’s plan. + </p> + <p> + “The ravines would be searched directly,” suggested Hector; “besides, the + Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; they + might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a burrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and burn us,” said Catharine, with a shudder. “I know the path that + leads direct to the ‘Happy Valley,’ (the name she had given to the low + flat, now known as the ‘lower Race-course,’) and it is not far from here, + only ten minutes’ walk in a straight line. We can conceal ourselves below + the steep bank that we descended the other day; and there are several + springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and berries; and the trees, + though few, are so thickly covered with close spreading branches that + touch the very ground, that we might hide ourselves from a hundred eyes + were they ever so cunning and prying.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine’s counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys immediately + busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a prostrate + tree such articles as they could not conveniently carry away, leaving the + rest to chance; with the most valuable they loaded themselves, and guided + by Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched forward along the narrow + footpath that had been made by some wild animals, probably deer, in their + passage from the lake to their feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the + low sheltered plain; where, being quite open, and almost, in parts, free + from trees, the grass and herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the + springs of water fresh and cool. + </p> + <p> + Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved + onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily + chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that were + feeding quietly on the red berries of the <i>Mitchella repens,</i> or + twinberry, <i>[FN: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely + creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet + berry.]</i> as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails + are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad her + bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the Rice + Lake and its flowery shores. + </p> + <p> + After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted + at the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely + spot as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like a + silver crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in front, + the long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away into mist, + and blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile valley lay + between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far ridge of oak + hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish the outline of + the Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires and the smoke + wreaths that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the dark pines that grew + upon its crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives make, though perfectly + safe from detection by the distance and their shaded position, for many a + winding vale and wood-crowned height lay between them and the encampment. + </p> + <p> + But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present + instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight + and of motion. A few minutes’ hasty flight brought our travellers to the + brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open + plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they + were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, + and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while + hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow in + the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and + prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by the + earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent from these + roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other creepers, + which formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious eye could + scarcely penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as if provided for + their concealment, and they carefully abstained from disturbing the + pendent foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray their hiding-place + to their enemies. They found plenty of long grass, and abundance of long + soft green moss and ferns near a small grove of poplars, which surrounded + a spring of fine water. They ate some dried fruit and smoked fish, and + drank some of the clear spring; and after they had said their evening + prayers, they laid down to sleep, Catharine’s head pillowed on the neck of + her faithful guardian, Wolfe. In the middle of the night a startling + sound, as of some heavy body falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The + night was so dark they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat + gazing into the impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to + speak to each other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling + bark, and resumed his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his + attention was near to cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, + and prayed for safety against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector + and Louis listened, till they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the + morning, it seemed as if they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague + were their recollections of the fright they had had, but the cause was + soon perceived. A large stone that had been heaved up with the clay that + adhered to the roots and fibres, had been loosened, and had fallen on the + ground, close to the spot where Catharine lay. So ponderous was the mass, + that had it struck her, death must have been the consequence of the blow; + and Hector and Louis beheld it with fear and amazement, while Catharine + regarded it as a proof of Divine mercy and protection from Him in whose + hand her safety lay. The boys, warned by this accident, carefully removed + several large stones from the roof, and tried the safety of their clay + walls with a stout staff, to ascertain that all was secure, before they + again ventured to sleep beneath this rugged canopy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. + </h2> + <p> + “The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour in + his eyes.”—<i>Proverbs</i>. + </p> + <p> + FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke + should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have + effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious + dews, which, even on sultry summer’s evenings, is productive of much + chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, was + much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were even + sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. These + simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the heated + air to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and denser + particles. They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of the causes + that ruled them. + </p> + <p> + The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook + them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh for + a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, came + one night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. They + saw several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe tracked a + wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden spring, where she + had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the haunts of her fellows. + The arrow was in her throat; it was of white flint, and had evidently been + sent from an Indian bow. It was almost with fear and trembling that they + availed themselves of the venison thus providentially thrown in their way, + lest the Indians should track the blood of the doe, and take vengeance on + them for appropriating it for their own use. Not having seen anything of + the Indians, who seemed to confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the + lake, after many days had passed, they began to take courage, and even + lighted an evening fire, at which they cooked as much venison as would + last them for several days, and hung the remaining portions above the + smoke to preserve it from injury. + </p> + <p> + One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in + the direction of the Indian camp. “I am tired of remaining shut up in this + dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by those + melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in.” Little did + Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home of + their childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide it from + their sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have pressed + onward in the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + </p> + <p> + Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path + beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and + apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment of + our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark thickets and + thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our Father’s home, + where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock back to the + everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + </p> + <p> + Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians + imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam + abroad free and uncontrolled. + </p> + <p> + “After all,” said he; “we never met with any ill treatment from the + Indians that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old + friends and acquaintances among them.” + </p> + <p> + “The thing is possible, but not very likely,” replied Louis. + “Nevertheless, Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. + The Indian has his own notion of things, and might think himself quite + justified in killing us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. <i>[FN: + George Copway, an intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the Indian + hunting-grounds are parcelled out, and secured by right of law and custom + among themselves, no one being allowed to hunt upon another’s grounds + uninvited. If any one belonging to another family or tribe is found + trespassing, all his goods are taken from him; a handful of powder and + shot, as much as he would need to shoot game for his sustenance in + returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and tomahawk only are left, + but all his game and furs are taken from him: a message is sent to his + chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he is banished and outlawed.—</i>Life + of G. Copway, Missionary, written by himself.<i>]</i> I have heard my + father say,—and he knows a great deal about these people,—that + their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers that they find + killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both merciless and + treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to them in their own + language, to explain by what chance we came here.” + </p> + <p> + This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally + rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: + when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an + opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his + intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now + deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the + Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger was + to be apprehended from facing them. + </p> + <p> + “Depend upon it,” he added, “cowards are never safer than brave men. The + Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they found + us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if we + openly faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared for + them.” + </p> + <p> + “Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!” cried his sister, passionately + weeping. “Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?” + </p> + <p> + “Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to take + care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; they + seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine the + camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch for my + return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner,” said + Catharine, “what would you do?” “I will tell you what I would do. Instead + of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs make them + understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing but + kindness and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would + tomahawk the defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace and + goodwill.” + </p> + <p> + “If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you have + fallen into the hands of the savages,” said Catharine, mournfully + regarding her brother. + </p> + <p> + “If it were not for Catharine,” said Louis, “you should not go alone, but, + if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, who led + her out with us, tempting her with false words.” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind that now, dearest cousin,” said Catharine, tenderly laying her + hand on his arm. “It is much better that we should have been all three + together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both Hec and + you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been so well off if + I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your spirits by my songs + and stories.” + </p> + <p> + “It is true, ma chère; but that is the reason that I am bound to take care + of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to danger, or + leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will abide by you.” + </p> + <p> + Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last + Louis and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon + busied themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in + that morning. + </p> + <p> + The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that Catharine + cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her brother’s return; at + last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis left the shelter of + the valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent their steps to the + trysting tree, which commanded all the country within a wide sweep. + </p> + <p> + A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over the + minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, which + cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades of + evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The full + moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that should + break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of a + friend. + </p> + <p> + Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy + days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. At + last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her head + upon the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly paced + to and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to penetrate the + surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the first sound that + might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + </p> + <p> + It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick sharp + note of the “Whip-poor-will,” as she flew from bough to bough of an old + withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of these midnight + watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of “Whip-poor-will, + Whip-poor-will;” and then came forth, from many a hollow oak and birch, + the spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where it had lain hushed in + silence all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes their sharp hard wings + almost swept his cheek as they wheeled round and round in circles, first + narrow, then wide, and wider extending, till at last they soared far above + the tallest tree-tops and launching out in the high regions of the air, + uttered from time to time a wild shrill scream, or hollow booming sound, + as they suddenly descended to pounce with wide-extended throat upon some + hapless moth or insect, that sported all unheeding in mid air, happily + unconscious of the approach of so unerring a foe. + </p> + <p> + Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and + joyfully he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full + and red, over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + </p> + <p> + Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy + forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound + luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed as + if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. + Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose + from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under + tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + </p> + <p> + It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated young + Louis’s breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, as he + thought, rushed into danger. “It was wilful and almost cruel,” he thought + “to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his account;” and then + the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved companion took the + place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled his heart. The broad moon + now flooded the hills and vales with light, casting broad checkering + shadows of the old oaks’ grey branches and now reddened foliage across the + ground. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry note: + slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from the form of + the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the moon. It is + an open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a few low shrubs + and seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of the late-flowering + pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, with open bells of + azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall flowers and winter-greens, + brighten the ground with wreaths of shining leaves and red berries. + </p> + <p> + Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full + free note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and half + angry in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry defiance + he gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + </p> + <p> + Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge of + the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching steps + is now distinctly heard advancing—it may be a deer. Two figures + approach, and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear + shrill whistle meets his ear. It is Hector’s whistle, he knows that, and + assured by its cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at + his side, but starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, half + carries. The moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking figure + of an Indian girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: her ashy + face is concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which falls like + a dark veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, and she + seems ready to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. Hector, too, + seems weary. The first words that’ Hector said were, “Help me, Louis, to + lead this poor girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired I can hardly + walk another step.” + </p> + <p> + Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the + pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with a + bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with him. + The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep so profound + it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep interest soon + took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of the gentle + Catharine, and she watched the young stranger’s slumber as tenderly as + though she had been a sister, or beloved friend, while Hector proceeded to + relate in what manner he had encountered the Indian girl. + </p> + <p> + “When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the <i>‘birken + shaw,’’</i> I paused to examine if the council-fires were still burning on + Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there a canoe to be + seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their landing-place at + the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still as if no human + footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched for nearly an hour + till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, which was sailing in + wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. Assured that the + Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity to examine the spot + more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries and cedars and small + underwood that fringed the borders of the little stream, and found myself, + after a little pushing and scrambling, among the bushes at the foot of the + hill. + </p> + <p> + “I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my + trouble—flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk—but I little + thought of what these cruel savages had left there,—a miserable + wounded captive, bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a + small tree, her hands, tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had + bent down to fasten them to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that + against which her head was fastened; her position was one that must have + been most painful: she had evidently been thus left to perish by a + miserable death, of hunger and thirst; for these savages, with a fiendish + cruelty, had placed within sight of their victim an earthen jar of water, + some dried deers’ flesh, and a cob <i>[FN: A head of the Maize, or Indian + corn, is called a “cob.”]</i> of Indian corn. I have the corn here,” he + added, putting his hand in his breast, and displaying it to view. + </p> + <p> + “Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder,” and he showed + the flint head as he spoke, “and fettered; with food and drink in sight, + the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to the wolf, + and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor thing’s + lips were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her eyes + piteously from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. This I + gave her, and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut the thongs + that bound her, I wondered that she still kept the same immoveable + attitude, and thinking she was stiff and cramped with remaining so long + bound in one position, I took her two hands and tried to induce her to + move. I then for the first time noticed that she was tied by the hair of + her head to the tree against which her back was placed; I was obliged to + cut the hair with my knife, and this I did not do without giving her pain, + as she moaned impatiently. She sunk her head on her breast, and large + tears fell over my hands, as I bathed her face and neck with the water + from the jar; she then seated herself on the ground, and remained silent + and still for the space of an hour, nor could I prevail upon her to speak, + or quit the seat she had taken. Fearing that the Indians might return, I + watched in all directions, and at last I began to think it would be best + to carry her in my arms; but this I found no easy task, for she seemed + greatly distressed at any attempt I made to lift her, and by her gestures + I fancy she thought I was going to kill her. At last my patience began to + be exhausted, but I did not like to annoy her. I spoke to her as gently + and soothingly as I could. By degrees she seemed to listen with more + composure to me, though she evidently knew not a word of what I said to + her. She rose at last, and taking my hands, placed them above her head, + stooping low as she did so, and this seemed to mean, she was willing at + last to submit to my wishes; I lifted her from the ground, and carried her + for some little way, but she was too heavy for me,—she then suffered + me to lead her along whithersoever I would take her, but her steps were so + slow and feeble, through weakness, that many times I was compelled to rest + while she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued now, and as quiet as + a lamb.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the recital + of her brother’s adventures. She seemed to think he had been inspired by + God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the poor forlorn + one from so dreadful a death. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he + commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + </p> + <p> + He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition to + their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their cave + beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their feet to + the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was despatched for + water and venison for supper. + </p> + <p> + The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, and + conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while + Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with the + greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the cool + healing leaves of the <i>tacamahac</i> <i>[FN: Indian balsam.]</i> about + it with the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in + water, and gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned + in her veins, and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which + were raised at intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid + hurried glance, as if she longed, yet feared to say, “Who are you that + thus tenderly bathe my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded limbs, + and cool my fevered blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a being sent + by the Great Spirit, from the far-off happy land to which my fathers have + gone, to smooth my path of pain, and lead me to those blessed fields of + sunbeams and flowers where the cruelty of the enemies of my people will no + more have power to torment me?” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought + home to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch + for her, with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over it, + and laid her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a dear + sister. This good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion of her + own age and sex. “Now,” said she, “I shall no more be lonely, I shall have + a companion and friend to talk to and assist me;” but when she turned in + the fulness of her heart to address herself to the young stranger, she + felt herself embarrassed in what way to make her comprehend the words she + used to express the kindness that she felt for her, and her sorrow for her + sufferings. + </p> + <p> + The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if + striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter her + words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it was to + her as a sealed book. + </p> + <p> + She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had + heard from the Indians when they came to her father’s house, but in vain; + not the simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried with + vexation at her own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more fortunate + in attempts at conversing with their guest. + </p> + <p> + At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye grew + more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, leaving it + of a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the swarthy + Indian shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on the ground. + </p> + <p> + She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long tresses + of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small wooden comb + that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise her eyes to her + new friend’s face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she took her hands + within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and lips and + forehead in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance to any + words, and would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some object which + seemed unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such times the face of + the young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or rather it might + with more propriety have been said, the absence of all expression, almost + as blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + </p> + <p> + How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was + passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, the + offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian friend, + to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention as she + herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the object + that she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young squaw + learned the names of all the familiar household articles about the shanty, + and could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when she had + learned a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would laugh, + and a gleam of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her fine dark + eyes, generally so fixed and sad-looking. + </p> + <p> + It was Catharine’s delight to teach her pupil to speak a language familiar + to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and name to her + all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. And she in her + turn made “Indiana” (for so they named the young squaw, after a negress + that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one of his Colonel’s + infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each object they saw. + Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement arising from + instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to enjoy the blunders + they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. When really interested + in anything that was going on, her eyes would beam out, and her smile gave + an inexpressible charm to her face, for her lips were red and her teeth + even and brilliantly white, so purely white that Catharine thought she had + never seen any so beautiful in her life before; at such times her face was + joyous and innocent as a little child’s, but there were also hours of + gloom, that transformed it into an expression of sullen apathy; then a + dull glassy look took possession of her eye, the full lip drooped and the + form seemed rigid and stiff; obstinate determination neither to move nor + speak characterised her in what Louis used to call the young squaw’s “<i>dark + hour.</i>” Then it was that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her + gentle nurse almost feared to look at her protegée or approach her. + </p> + <p> + “Hector,” said Louis, “you spoke about a jar of water being left at the + camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it.” + Hector assented to the proposal. “And we may possibly pick up a few grains + of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us.” + </p> + <p> + “If we are here in the spring,” said Hector, “you and I will prepare a + small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;” and he sat down on the + end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the cob, + and then each corn grain by grain. “Three hundred and ten sound grains. + Now if every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have a great + increase, and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it is a good + year, several bushels to eat.” + </p> + <p> + “We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine + flourishing crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne.” <i>[FN: + Supporne, probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or porridge, made of + Indian meal, a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee farmer’s house.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “You forget we have no porridge pot.” + </p> + <p> + “I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine + cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, let + us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;” and Louis, who had now a + new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite on the + <i>qui vive</i>, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved a + great disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his + cousin’s lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being + cracked, or that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was not + one of the doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the ardour of + his mind by causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted camp, and + though it had been knocked over by some animal, it was sound and strong, + and excited great speculation in the two cousins, as to the particular + material of which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of pottery they + had ever before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured from some very + dark red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, as it presented the + appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard and ponderous, and + the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern as if punctured and + scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed to have been hardened by + fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, had evidently done good + service as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they learned the way in which + it was used:<i>[FN: Pieces of this rude pottery are often found along the + shores of the inland lakes, but I have never met with any of the perfect + vessels in use with the Indians, who probably find it now easier to supply + themselves with iron pots and crockery from the towns of the European + settlers.]</i> the jar being placed near but not on the fire, was + surrounded by hot embers, and the water made to boil by stones being made + red hot and plunged into it: in this way soup and other food were + prepared, and kept stewing, with no further trouble after once the + simmering began, than adding a few fresh embers at the side furthest from + the fir; a hot stone also placed on the top, facilitated the cooking + process. + </p> + <p> + Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,—indeed it + was an accomplishment he prided himself on,—was enchanted with the + improvement made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen jar, + or pipkin, and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin in the + use of it. Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with his bow and + arrows, and visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times oftener than he + used to do, just for the sake of proving the admirable properties of this + precious utensil, and finding out some new way of dressing his game. At + all events there was a valuable increase of furs, for making up into + clothing, caps, leggings, mitts, and other articles. + </p> + <p> + From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs and + shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, and + many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of the + porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets and mats. + The little creeping winter-green, <i>[FN: Gualtheria procumbens,—Spice + Winter-green.]</i> with its scarlet berries, that grows on the dry flats, + or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, she showed them was + good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw forth their fine + aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their fragrance with + delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it as a tonic. The + inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good to cure ague and + fever. The root of the <i>dulçamara</i>, or bitter-sweet, she scraped down + and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other animal, and made an + ointment that possessed very healing qualities, especially as an immediate + application to fresh burns. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the + knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several + times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food she + had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the trees or + bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she told Catharine + this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, who had given them + success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to appease the malice of + the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss to them, or sickness or + death, unless his forbearance was purchased by some particular mark of + attention. <i>[FN: By the testimony of many of the Indians themselves, + they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism in their belief. “We + believed in one great wise benevolent being, Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose + dwelling was in the sun. We believed also in many other lesser spirits—gods + of the elements, and in one bad unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to + whom we attributed bad luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This + bad spirit has to be conciliated with meat and drink offerings.”—</i>Life + of George Copway, Native Missionary<i>]</i> + </p> + <p> + Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most + remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She + examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical + minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her memory + was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she seemed even + to single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from their + congeners. Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought patience + and perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly interested in any + work she began, she would toil on untiringly till it was completed; and + then what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times they became darkly + brilliant with the joy that filled her heart. But she possessed little + talent for invention; what she had seen done, after a few imperfect + attempts, she could do again, but she rarely struck out any new path for + herself. + </p> + <p> + At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the + kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her + fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little + service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she + displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him her + first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental plumage + of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a master and + protector. He was in her eyes the <i>“Chief,”</i> the head of his tribe. + His bow was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and devices; + his arrows were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made and + ornamented by her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case for + his arrows, of birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and + suspended by thongs to his neck, when he was preparing to go out in search + of game. She gave him the name of the “Young Eagle.” While she called + Louis, “Nee-chee,” or friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical name of, + “Music of the Winds,”—Ma-wah-osh. + </p> + <p> + When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her + head in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name + of Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + </p> + <p> + But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest + favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate with + a jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to caress him, + but Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual friendly + feeling became established between them, which seemed daily and hourly to + increase, greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She would seat + herself Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the shanty, with the + capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address herself to this mute + companion, in wailing tones, as if she would unburthen her heart by + pouring into his unconscious ear her tale of desolation and woe. + </p> + <p> + Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her + personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for her + to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her example, + till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at first + regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in + dressing her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish it + till it looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn Catharine + with the wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of the wood-duck, + or quill feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which is called in the + Indian tongue the shot-bird, in allusion to the round spots on its + cream-coloured breast: <i>[FN: The Golden-winged Flicker belongs to a + sub-genus of woodpeckers; it is very handsome, and is said to be eatable; + it lives on fruits and insects.]</i> but it was not in these things alone + she showed her grateful sense of the sisterly kindness that her young + hostess showed to her; she soon learned to lighten her labours in every + household work, and above all, she spent her time most usefully in + manufacturing clothing from the skins of the wild animals, and in teaching + Catharine how to fit and prepare them; but these were the occupation of + the winter months. I must not forestall my narrative. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. + </h2> + <h3> + “Go to the ant.”—<i>Proverbs.</i> + </h3> + <p> + IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued + serene and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, + began to show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach of + the equinox. Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come + sweeping over the lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. + Already the tints of autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the + oaks, and where the islands were visible, the splendid colours of the + maple shone out in gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the + evergreens and light golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now + looked, they had not yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which a few + frosty nights at the close of the month was destined to bring to + perfection—a glow of splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, + before the rushing winds and rains of the following month were to sweep + them away, and scatter them abroad upon the earth. + </p> + <p> + One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys went + down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which Louis + had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water was rough + and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to launch the + raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over the lake and + admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to his cousin a + dark speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest islands. The + wind, which blew very strong still from the north-east, brought the object + nearer every minute. At first they thought it might be a pine-branch that + was floating on the surface, when as it came bounding over the waves, they + perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but impelled by no visible arm. It + was a strange sight upon that lonely lake to see a vessel of any kind + afloat, and, on first deciding that it was a canoe, the boys were inclined + to hide themselves among the bushes, for fear of the Indians, but + curiosity got the better of their fears. + </p> + <p> + “The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; for + I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to guide + it,” said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the + tempest-driven vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was the + case, they hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the canoe + among the branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way into the + water. + </p> + <p> + By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the + projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of + weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some + trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he + contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of + hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set her + afloat again. “Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of which + will gladden your heart,” cried Louis with a joyful look. “Come quickly, + and see my treasures.” + </p> + <p> + “Treasures! You may well call them treasures,” exclaimed Hector, as he + helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the + shore, side by side. + </p> + <p> + The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the + discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket + almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several + yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all, an + iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These + articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or + trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted + from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some + accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of + course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate, + and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so + providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet. + </p> + <p> + “It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down + last night just where it was,” said Louis; “for if the canoe had not been + drawn into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it. I + trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it would + founder in the deep water, or go off to Long Island.” + </p> + <p> + “I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point,” said Hector, “but I am + glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half afraid + you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to draw it + nearer to the shore.” “Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling like a + wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful soups, and + stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!” and Louis tossed up his + new fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an entire fox skin, in + the air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which Hector gravely condemned as + unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned of fifteen;) but with the + joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and danced, and laughed, and + shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands and far-off hills returned + the unusual sound, and even his more steady cousin caught the infection, + and laughed to see Louis so elated. + </p> + <p> + Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch Catharine + to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the blanket, and the + tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana accompanied them to the + lake shore, and long and carefully she examined the canoe and its + contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she uttered as she + surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice of the broken + handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the vessel; this + seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and by broken words + and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly broken in the hand of + the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the other part, he had lost + his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector a rude figure of a bird + engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed in with a blue colour. + This, she said, was the totem or crest of the chief of the tribe, and was + meant to represent a <i>crow</i>. The canoe had belonged to a chief of + that name. While they were dividing the contents of the canoe among them + to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up the bass-rope and the + blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and adjusting the broad thick + part of the rope to the front of her head, she bore off the burden with + great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh porter would his trunks and + packages, turning round with a merry glance and repeating some Indian + words with a lively air as she climbed with apparent ease the steep bank, + and soon distanced her companions, to her great enjoyment. That night, + Indiana cooked some of the parched rice, Indian fashion, with venison, and + they enjoyed the novelty very much—it made an excellent substitute + for bread, of which they had been so long deprived. + </p> + <p> + Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be ready + on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out and + gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + </p> + <p> + This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with frequent + themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was the most + valuable of their acquisitions. “It will insure us a crop, and bread and + seed-corn for many years,” he said; he also highly valued the tomahawk, as + his axe was worn and blunt. + </p> + <p> + Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed to + think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the latter; + besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to make a + canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would make, + after thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for herself + and Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be + comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was + charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the + packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from + place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of + the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said, + was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after + this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis’s + large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for + scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two + comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited + skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur + completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by + knotted fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of + squirrel fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and + many a glance of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon + each other, when they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to + display their dresses to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded + them as most skilful dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and + commending their ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering + what rude implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and + sewing of the garments. + </p> + <p> + The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge + which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters—looking, + when lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The + ears, heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time + of the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our + young adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by + the little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in, + leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, + which Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, + and which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could + stand and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on + account of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ + herself with fishing from the raft till their return. + </p> + <p> + The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the + canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and + another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the + other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick; + the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little + practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass + fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + </p> + <p> + Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more + delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they + worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their light + bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve them from + starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + </p> + <p> + The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were + now able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonjè and + black bass, which they caught in great numbers. + </p> + <p> + Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her own + carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over the + water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with + delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke into + smiles and dimples. + </p> + <p> + It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how + innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of healthy + exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she possessed of + excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill which they had yet + to acquire by imitating her. + </p> + <p> + Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of the + management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the + fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in + admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in + his estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + </p> + <p> + “Every one to his craft,” said Louis, laughing; “the little squaw has been + brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her + babyhood; perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and + milking of cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she + would prove half as quick as Catharine or Mathilde.” + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour,” said Hector, + thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;” replied + Louis. + </p> + <p> + “I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great pains + to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and that so + far from being stupid, they learn very readily,” said Catharine. + </p> + <p> + “We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite + still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel + down, before we go to bed,” observed Hector. + </p> + <p> + “She cannot understand what we say,” said Catharine; for she knows so + little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the + prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking of + hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach her; + it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught pagan,” + said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort of + uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl’s total want of the rites of + his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with feelings + of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that offered, of trying + to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of belief in the God who + made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and earnestly they entered into + the task as a labour of love, and though for a long time Indiana seemed to + pay little attention to what they said, by slow degrees the good seed took + root and brought forth fruit worthy of Him whose Spirit poured the beams + of spiritual light into her heart: but my young readers must not imagine + these things were the work of a day—the process was slow, and so + were the results, but they were good in the end. + </p> + <p> + And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, the + Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, and pray + to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ Jesus gave + to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy prayer, so full of + humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully understood by her + whose lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship and the desire to do + that which she had been told was right, was, doubtless, a sacrifice better + than the pagan rites which that young girl had witnessed among her + father’s people, who, blindly following the natural impulse of man in his + depraved nature, regarded deeds of blood and cruelty as among the highest + of human virtues, and gloried in those deeds of vengeance at which the + Christian mind revolts with horror. + </p> + <p> + Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking and + storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused several + forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the ground; on these + were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which she then stretched + the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked pegs to the frame on + the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and lighted a fire beneath, + taking good care not to let the flame set fire to the mat, the object + being rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by means of the red embers. + She next directed the boys to supply her with pine or cedar boughs, which + she stuck in close together, so as to enclose the fire within the area of + the stakes. This was done to concentrate the heat and cause it to bear + upwards with more power; the rice being frequently stirred with a sort of + long-handled, flat shovel. After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next + thing to be done was separating it from the husk, and this was effected by + putting it by small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of + wooden pestle or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. <i>[FN: + The Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, by + hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden + pounder.]</i> If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have + been substituted in its stead. + </p> + <p> + When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat + basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, + roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by + the little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which + was simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting it + on hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored by for + use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, by the + Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various kinds; crowds + of ducks were winging their way across it from morning till night, + floating in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy groups if an + eagle or fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic circles above + them, then settling down with noisy splash upon the calm water. The + shores, too, were covered with these birds, feeding on the fallen acorns + which fell ripe and brown with every passing breeze; the berries of the + dogwood also furnished them with food; but the wild rice seemed the great + attraction, and small shell-fish and the larvæ of many insects that had + been dropped into the waters, there to come to perfection in due season, + or to form a provision for myriads of wild fowl that had come from the far + north-west to feed upon them, guided by that instinct which has so + beautifully been termed by one of our modern poetesses, “God’s gift to the + weak” <i>[FN: Mrs. Southey.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. + </h2> + <h3> + “Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye.”—COLERIDGE. + </h3> + <p> + THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the + lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she + looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its surface. + </p> + <p> + “If I had but my father’s gun, his good old gun, now!” would Hector say, + as he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; “but + these foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can + reach them.” + </p> + <p> + Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with green + boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the little vessel + into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; within this bower + she motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small space for the free use + of his bow, while concealed at the prow she gently and noiselessly paddled + the canoe from the shore among the rice-beds, letting it remain stationary + or merely rocking to and fro with the undulatory motion of the waters. The + unsuspecting birds, deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their + pastime or their prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden + archer to hit many a black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated + securely on the placid water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or + down the stream. Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, + which Wolfe, cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought + to land. + </p> + <p> + Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great + gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after + the same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, a + dozen or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others + stationed at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the + island, to collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a great + feast. + </p> + <p> + The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great + Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed them + to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes distant + tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited to share + the sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not understand why + Hector did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, and offer the + first duck or the best fish to propitiate the Great Spirit. Hector told + her that the God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; that his holy Son, + when he came down from heaven and gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins + of the world, had satisfied his Father, the Great Spirit, an hundred-fold. + </p> + <p> + They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned + from Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making + tippets, and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, + but light and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they + did not require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter + store, smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney + people smoke the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store of + provisions, fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and bags + of dried fruit. + </p> + <p> + One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys that + the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding up her + two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. The + tribes had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. She + advised them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to + attract them; but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over the + plains just then, as the camp was lower down on the point <i>[FN: This + point, commonly known as </i>Anderson’s Point<i>, now the seat of the + Indian village, used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous for + the Indians, and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre that took + place about eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the Indians are + often turned up with the plough at this day.]</i> east of the mouth of a + big river, which she called “Otonabee.” + </p> + <p> + Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event of + meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the earth in + silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + </p> + <p> + “If they should prove to be any of your father’s people, or a friendly + tribe, would you go away with them?” he again repeated, to which she + solemnly replied, + </p> + <p> + “Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father’s + warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but + Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink from + danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here,” and she laid her + hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but + impassioned tone, “They left not one drop of living blood to flow in any + veins but these,” and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched upwards + towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the murderers of her + father’s house. + </p> + <p> + “My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these + hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, + along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the + Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father’s people by hundreds in + cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day + and a bloody deed.” + </p> + <p> + Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the young + Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under the + cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked the lake, to + watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no apprehension if the + Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal themselves, but offer + them food to eat and water to drink. “If they come to the house and find + you away, they will take your stores and burn your roof, suspecting that + you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will not harm you if you meet + them with open hand and fearless brow: if they eat of your bread, they + will not harm you; me they would kill by a cruel death—the war-knife + is in their heart against the daughter of the <i>brave</i>.” + </p> + <p> + The boys thought Indiana’s advice good, and they felt no fear for + themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the + shanty with Wolfe. + </p> + <p> + The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come to enjoy, + seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite peaceably + disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north side, and the + boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the opposite shore, + and now and then in the stillness of the evening their wild shouts of + revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the breeze over the + waters of the lake. + </p> + <p> + The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed in + broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of deep + interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many months after + this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful story of the + massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, as I have raised + the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so I must render it in + my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences in which its facts + were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes would be unintelligible + to my young friends. <i>[FN: The facts of this narrative were gathered + from the lips of the eldest son of a Rice Lake chief. I have preferred + giving it in the present form, rather than as the story of the Indian + girl. Simple as it is, it is matter of history.]</i> + </p> + <p> + There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the chiefs + of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which like a + smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having burst into a + decided blaze—for each strove to compass his ends and obtain the + advantage over the other by covert means. The tribe of the Mohawks of + which I now speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice Lake for their + hunting grounds, and certain islands and parts of the lake for fishing, + while that of the Ojebwas considered themselves masters of the northern + shores and certain rights of water beside. Possibly it was about these + rights that the quarrel originated, but if so, it was not openly avowed + between the “Black Snake,” (that was the totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) + and the “Bald Eagle” (the totem of the Ojebwa). + </p> + <p> + These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of + great and rare beauty, called by her people, “The Beam of the Morning;” + she was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the + young men of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. + Among her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the + most enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of + winning the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black + Snake accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his + hunting grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on the + lake, and to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot + between them; but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for + peace, inwardly the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the + Black Snake against the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of + great promise, renowned among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, but + who had once offended the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial alliance + with one of the daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was closely + connected to him by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart of the + Black Snake, though outwardly he affected to have forgiven and forgotten + the slight that had been put upon his relative. The hunting had been + carried on for some days very amicably, when one day the Bald Eagle was + requested, with all due attention to Indian etiquette, to go to the wigwam + of the Black Snake. On entering the lodge, he perceived the Mohawk + strangely disordered; he rose from his mat, on which he had been sleeping, + with a countenance fearfully distorted, his eyes glaring hideously, his + whole frame convulsed, and writhing as in fearful bodily anguish, and + casting himself upon the ground, he rolled and grovelled on the earth, + uttering frightful yells and groans. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his + guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused to + tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief remained + moody and silent. The following day the same scene was repeated, and on + the third, when the fit seemed to have increased in bodily agony, with + great apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him by the importunity of + his host, he consented to reveal the cause, which was, that the Bad Spirit + had told him that these bodily tortures could not cease till the only son + of his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been sacrificed to appease his anger—neither + could peace long continue between the two nations until this deed had been + done; and not only must the chief’s son be slain, but he must be pierced + by his own father’s hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at which the + father must preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror and + aversion at so bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his + life and the happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for + ever if the sacrifice was made,—if not, war to the knife was to be + ever between the Mohawks and Ojebwas. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an + occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at + the time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + </p> + <p> + “Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the + tribes of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be + sacrificed by my hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the + Black Snake’s body may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires of + their lodges in peace.” + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart,” was the + specious response of the wily Mohawk; “moreover, the Good Spirit also + appeared, and said, ‘Let the Black Snake’s son and the Bald Eagle’s + daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the + lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.’” + </p> + <p> + “The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine,” was the + courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the unmoved + brow and passionless lip. + </p> + <p> + The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye that + dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged the + weapon into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast of + human flesh was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, presided + over the ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the sacrifice, and all + went off well, as if no such fearful rite had been enacted: but a fearful + retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought the tent of the Bald + Eagle’s daughter that evening, and was received with all due deference, as + a son of so great a chief as the Black Snake merited; he was regarded now + as a successful suitor, and intoxicated with the beauty of the Beam of the + Morning, pressed her to allow the marriage to take place in a few days. + The bride consented, and a day was named for the wedding feast to be + celebrated, and that due honour might be given to so great an event, + invitations were sent out to the principal families of the Mohawk tribe, + and these amounted to several hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa + hunters were despatched up the river and to different parts of the + country, avowedly to collect venison, beaver, and other delicacies to + regale their guests, but in reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a + large war party from the small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in + the deadly revenge that was preparing for their enemies. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal + ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests + was then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so + artfully contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and + their allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, + armed with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to spring + upon their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the etiquette + always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were left outside + the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and dancing to the + tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several hundred naked and + painted warriors were assembled. The feast was declared to be ready; a + great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre of the tent. According to the + custom of the Indians, the father of the bridegroom was invited to lift + the most important dish from the pot, whilst the warriors commenced their + wardance around him. This dish was usually a bear’s head, which was + fastened to a string left for the purpose of raising it from the pot. + </p> + <p> + “Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head and + set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and that his + wise heart may be glad;” were the scornful words of the Bald Eagle. + </p> + <p> + A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as he + lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the <i>happy</i> + bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + </p> + <p> + “Ha!” shouted the Bald Eagle, “is the great chief of the Mohawks a squaw, + that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of his son, + the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave neither + sigh nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his child. + Come, brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the blood of thy + son: the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of the feast that + was prepared from his young warrior’s body.” The wretched father dashed + himself upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent the air; those + cries were answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed Ojebwas, as they + sprang to their feet, and with deafening yells attacked the guests, who, + panic-stricken, naked and defenceless, fell an easy prey to their + infuriated enemies. Not one living foe escaped to tell the tale of that + fearful marriage feast. A second Judith had the Indian girl proved. It was + her plighted hand that had severed the head of her unsuspecting bridegroom + to complete the fearful vengeance that had been devised in return for the + merciless and horrible murder of her brother. + </p> + <p> + Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians + seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, urged + by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where the women + and children and such of the aged or young men as were not included among + the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting security. + Panic-stricken, the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell like sheep + appointed for the slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the grey-head with the + infant of days. But while the youths and old men tamely yielded to their + enemies, there was one, whose spirit roused to fury by the murder of her + father, armed herself with the war club and knife, and boldly withstood + the successful warriors. At the door of the tent of the slaughtered chief + the Amazon defended her children: while the war lightning kindled in her + dark eye, she called aloud in scornful tones to her people to hide + themselves in the tents of their women, who alone were <i>braves</i>, and + would fight their battles. Fiercely she taunted the men, but they shrank + from the unequal contest, and she alone was found to deal the death-blow + upon the foe, till overpowered with numbers, and pierced with frightful + wounds, she fell singing her own death-song and raising the wail for the + dead who lay around her. Night closed in, but the work of blood still + continued, till not a victim was found, and again they went forth on their + exterminating work. Lower down they found another encampment, and there + also they slew all the inhabitants of the lodges; they then returned back + to the island, to gather together their dead and collect the spoils of + their tents. They were weary with the fatigue of the slaughter of that + fearful day; they were tired of blood-shedding; the retribution had + satisfied even their love of blood: and when they found, on returning to + the spot where the heroine had stood at bay, one young solitary female + sitting beside the corpse of that dauntless woman, her mother, they led + her away, and did all that their savage nature could suggest to soften her + anguish and dry her tears. They brought her to the tents of their women, + and clothed and fed her, and bade her be comforted; but her young heart + burned within her, and she refused consolation. She could not forget the + wrongs of her people: she was the only living creature left of the Mohawks + on that island. The young girl was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell + had found, wounded and bound, to perish with hunger and thirst on + Bare-hill. + </p> + <p> + Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she had + stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a knife at + his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the young men, who + had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was called, and she + was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state already + described. + </p> + <p> + It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children + listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes and + pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood had + inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade of the + trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that Catharine, + with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those heavenly lessons + of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set forth by his life, his + doctrines, and his death. + </p> + <p> + And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour’s face in Heaven, and + dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for those + dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her home a + desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her heart, + and the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could not become + the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. How hard were + these conditions to the young heathen,—how contrary to her nature, + to all that she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, where revenge + was virtue, and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious thing! + </p> + <p> + Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her + Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her + Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and + admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, + unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into + her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake + those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing her + to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a lamb of + his “extended fold?” * + </p> + <p> + <i>[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a + Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an + historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of + the actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down the + legend, and did so in part, but made such confusion between his imperfect + English and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for copying.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. + </h2> + <h3> + “The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill” <i>Irish Song.</i> + </h3> + <p> + WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, + shooting wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting + was the amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, + quite forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting on + the brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their + proceedings. Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to the + Indians, by raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre that + excited their unqualified admiration and applause. + </p> + <p> + At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north shore, + and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted up their + shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared sufficiency of + food for the following day. The Indians remained for a fortnight; at the + end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on their movements, told + Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and that the Indians had + gone up the river, and would not return again for some weeks. The + departure of the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing to Catharine, + whose dread of these savages had greatly increased since she had been made + acquainted with the fearful deeds which Indiana had described; and what + reliance could she feel in people who regarded deeds of blood and + vengeance as acts of virtuous heroism? + </p> + <p> + Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a + short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, + which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they + had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken it + for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never turned + out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, drawing water + from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high bank above her, + that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, Indiana gave the two + boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw them enter the ravine; + and effectually hidden among the thick grey mossy trunks of the cedars at + the lake shore, they remained secure from molestation, while the Indian + girl dropped noiselessly down among the tangled thicket of wild vines and + brushwood, which she drew cautiously over her, and closed her eyes, lest, + as she naively remarked, their glitter should be seen and betray her to + her enemies. + </p> + <p> + It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors + were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and + they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + </p> + <p> + “Are my white brothers afraid to die?” was the young squaw’s half-scornful + reply. “Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not to die?” + </p> + <p> + The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been + stormy and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the nights + were often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be seen forming + an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the north and + north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, in + ever-varying shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the + stars, which shone with softened radiance through the silvery veil that + dimmed their beauty. Sometimes for many nights together the same + appearance might be seen, and was usually the forerunner of frosty + weather, though occasionally it was the precursor of cold winds, and heavy + rains. + </p> + <p> + The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as an + omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected with + her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally she + unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or misfortunes + were revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, the + appearance of strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. The + screeching of the owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the fox, + were evil auguries, while the flight of the eagle and the croaking of the + raven were omens of good. She put faith in dreams, and would foretel good + or evil fortune from them; she could read the morning and evening clouds, + and knew from various appearances of the sky, or the coming or departing + of certain birds or insects, changes in the atmosphere. Her ear was quick + in distinguishing the changes in the voices of the birds or animals; she + knew the times of their coming and going, and her eye was quick to see as + her ear to detect sounds. Her voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and + she delighted in imitating the little ballads or hymns that Catharine + sung; though she knew nothing of their meaning, she would catch the tunes, + and sing the song with Catharine, touching the hearts of her delighted + auditors by the melody and pathos of her voice. + </p> + <p> + The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft and + mild, almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen through + the smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on the bosom of + the glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface every passing + shadow, and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on shore and island. + Sometimes the stillness of the air was relieved by a soft sighing wind, + which rustled the dying foliage as it swept by. + </p> + <p> + The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this + season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual + flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then + that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, + and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort to + certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their + customs; as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + </p> + <p> + Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was + impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on + that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being + surprised by the Indians. “Some fine day,” said Louis, “we will go out in + the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little way.” + </p> + <p> + Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the little + islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is level + with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name they + had given to it was “Ship Island.” The Indians have some name for it which + I have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, “Witch Island.” Hector’s + plan met with general approbation, and they resolved to take provisions + with them for several days, and visit the islands and go up the river, + passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees on the shore + wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + </p> + <p> + The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a mirror, + and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the lake, + first to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; they then + went to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance of wild + vines, now rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,—tart, but + still not to be despised by our young adventurers; and they brought away a + large birch basket heaped up with the fruit. “Ah, if we had but a good + cake of maple sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make such grape + jelly as my mother makes!” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + “If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar,” said + Catharine; “there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, near + the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant spot + which we named the Happy Valley, <i>[FN: A lovely valley to the east of + Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family of the name + of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,—a cultivated + fertile farm.]</i> where the bright creek runs, dancing along so merrily, + below the pine-ridge?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where the + water-cresses grow.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day.” + </p> + <p> + “What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!” said + Hector, thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms,” said + Louis, laughing. “We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I think + he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the fine + flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it all with + wheat, and peas, and Indian corn.” + </p> + <p> + “We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we live,” + replied Hector; “that corn that we found in the canoe will be a treasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill,” said Catherine. “How lucky + we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn + flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went to + the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable + while you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the + life of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything + has prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is because we + try to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our endeavours.” + </p> + <p> + “We are told,” said Hector, “that there is joy with the angels of God over + one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when the + heathen that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy + name.” + </p> + <p> + Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that she + should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; beside, she + said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked with a suspicious + eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of eating its flesh, + though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider them good meat, baked + in Louis’s Indian oven, or roasted on a forked stick, before the fire. The + Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a very great deal larger than the + common British hedgehog; the quills, however, are longer and stronger, and + varied with alternate clouded marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; + they are minutely barbed, so that if one enters the flesh it is with + difficulty extracted, but will work through of itself in an opposite + direction, and can then be easily pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer + great inconvenience from getting their muzzles filled with the quills of + the porcupine, the former when worrying the poor little animal, and the + latter by accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great + inflammation will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose + valuable hounds from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her + companions, there were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they + could collect a bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the + butter-nut is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it + is a species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and + grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for + passing the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several of + which made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the water, + they agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana said + there was an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, and + where there was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a comfortable + bed for the night. This old log-house she said had been built, she heard + the Indians say, by a French Canadian trapper, who used to visit the lake + some years ago; he was on friendly terms with the chiefs, who allowed him + many privileges, and he bought their furs, and took them down the lake, + through the river Trent, to some station-house on the great lake. They + found they should have time enough to land and deposit their nuts and + grapes and paddle to Long Island before sunset. Upon the western part of + this fine island they had several times landed and passed some hours, + exploring its shores; but Indiana told them, to reach the old log-house + they must enter the low swampy bay to the east, at an opening which she + called Indian Cove. To do this required some skill in the management of + the canoe, which was rather over-loaded for so light a vessel; and the + trees grew so close and thick that they had some difficulty in pushing + their way through them without injuring its frail sides. These trees or + bushes were chiefly black elder, high-bush cranberries, dogwood, willows, + and, as they proceeded further, and there was ground of a more solid + nature, cedar, poplar, swamp oak, and soft maple, with silver birch and + wild cherries. Long strings of silvery-grey tree-moss hung dangling over + their heads, the bark and roots of the birch and cedars were covered with + a luxuriant growth of green moss, but there was a dampness and closeness + in this place that made it far from wholesome, and the little band of + voyagers were not very sorry when the water became too shallow to admit of + the canoe making its way through the swampy channel, and they landed on + the banks of a small circular pond, as round as a ring, and nearly + surrounded by tall trees, hoary with moss and lichens; large water-lilies + floated on the surface of this miniature lake, and the brilliant red + berries of the high-bush cranberry, and the purple clusters of grapes, + festooned the trees. + </p> + <p> + “A famous breeding place this must be for ducks,” observed Louis. + </p> + <p> + “And for flowers,” said Catharine, “and for grapes and cranberries. There + is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however lonely the + spot.” + </p> + <p> + “A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes,” said Hector, looking + round. “The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his lodge near + this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not so bad a one + either,” and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted little + tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were the + ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by the old + trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles still + occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss and grass + lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of her silent + laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild duck had sat + and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which she had found + and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things pertaining to the + former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, battered tin pannikin, + now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a broken earthen whisky jar; + a rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and pocketed, or rather pouched,—for + he had substituted a fine pouch of deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and + a fishing-line of good stout cord, which was wound on a splinter of red + redar, and carefully stuck between one of the rafters and the roof of the + shanty. A rusty but efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, + who was the finder, was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so + valuable an addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd + worn-out mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while + Catharine declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and + carefully deposited it in the canoe. + </p> + <p> + As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that + there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some + one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining + the incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that + lay mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the + work of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look upon + these simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living remnant. + The young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, isolated being, + with no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to her; a stranger in + the land of her fathers, associating with those whose ways were not her + ways, nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language was scarcely known + to her, whose God was not the God of her fathers. Yet the dark eyes of the + Indian girl were not dimmed with tears as she thought of these things; she + had learned of her people to suffer, and be still. + </p> + <p> + Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the earth, + when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and then + kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,— + </p> + <p> + “Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish you, + because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God loves you, + and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, and the Friend + of the destitute, and to them that have no helper.” + </p> + <p> + The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning is + necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the dumb, + the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is often + more eloquent than words—the gentle pressure of the hand, the + half-echoed sigh, the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, + and unlock its hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock is + smitten and the waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to refresh + and fertilize the thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner was touched; + she bowed down her head upon the hand that held her so kindly in its + sisterly grasp, and wept soft sweet human tears full of grateful love, + while she whispered, in her own low plaintive voice, “My white sister, I + kiss you in my heart; I will love the God of my white brothers, and be his + child.” + </p> + <p> + The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: they + found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the desolate + hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, made a + serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the deserted + dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were quickly + rolled in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. The + new-found fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and with + very little delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, was + added to their store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, which they + found in abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and butternuts + which Hector cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, finished their + sylvan meal. The boys stretched themselves to sleep on the ground, with + their feet, Indian fashion, to the fire; while the two girls occupied the + mossy couch which they had newly spread with fragrant cedar and hemlock + boughs. + </p> + <p> + The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, <i>[FN: + Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage of Alfred + Hayward, Esq.]</i> a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with steep rocky + banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely wooded to admit + of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its shores. + </p> + <p> + The next island they named the Beaver, <i>[FN: The Beaver, commonly called + Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon it some + few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, to which + it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies towards the + west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite to Gore’s + Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and verandah of + Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, Esq., the + Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of the only + residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the few gentlemen + who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract of country, and + to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of late, have been so + fully developed.]</i> from its resemblance in shape to that animal. A + fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black Island, <i>[FN: Black + Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an oval island, remarkable + for its evergreens.]</i> from its dark evergreens; the next was that which + seemed most to excite the interest of their Indian guide, although but a + small stony island, scantily clothed with trees, lower down the lake. This + place she called Spooke Island, <i>[FN: Appendix H.]</i> which means in + the Indian tongue, a place for the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit + Island, and here, in times past, used the Indian people to bury their + dead. The island is now often the resort of parties of pleasure, who, from + its being grassy and open, find it more available than those which are + densely wooded. The young Mohawk regarded it with feelings of + superstitious awe, and would not suffer Hector to land the canoe on its + rocky shores. + </p> + <p> + “It is a place of spirits,” she said; “the ghosts of my fathers will be + angry if we go there.” Even her young companions felt that, they were upon + sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial isle. + </p> + <p> + Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived from + their Highland origin, Indiana’s respect for the spirits of her ancestors + was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to disturb the + solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after awhile + reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into two + separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with + stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. + Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many + days’ journey up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with her + paddle a long line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some longer, + some smaller, with Bays and inlets, which she gave them to understand were + the chain of lakes that she spoke of. There were beautiful hunting grounds + on the borders of these lakes, and many fine water-falls and rocky + islands; she had been taken up to these waters during the time of her + captivity. The Ojebwas, she said, were a branch of the great Chippewa + nation, who owned much land and great waters thereabouts. + </p> + <p> + Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the + Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration and + curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading up to + an unknown far-off land—a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable + forests,—flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on + its tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,—the + pure ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that + flitted across its surface—so quiet was the onward flow of its + waters. + </p> + <p> + A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and crimson-tinted + oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the silent fall of many a + sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer and of winter’s coming + reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful stillness; no breath of wind + moved the trees or dimpled the water. Bright wreaths of scarlet berries + and wild grapes hung in festoons among the faded foliage. The silence of + the forest was unbroken, save by the quick tapping of the little midland + wood-pecker, or the shrill scream of the blue jay; the whirring sound of + the large white and grey duck, (called by the frequenters of these lonely + waters the whistle-wing,) as its wings swept the waters in its flight; or + the light dripping of the paddle;—so still, so quiet was the scene. + </p> + <p> + As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either to + encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in returning. + She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some anxiety. Vast + volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the sun seen through + its hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air unrelieved by a + breath of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; and though the + same coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several successive days, + a sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire in all to return; and + after a few minutes’ rest and refreshment, they turned their little bark + towards the lake; and it was well that they did so: by the time they had + reached the middle of the lake, the stillness of the air was rapidly + changing. The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so long piled upon each + other in mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, at first slowly, then + with rapidly accelerated motion. There was a hollow moaning in the pine + tops, and by fits a gusty breeze swept the surface of the water, raising + it into rough, short, white-crested ridges. + </p> + <p> + These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising + hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on + the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl + raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the + crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the Beaver + Island—it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she + wielded the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their + little vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining + every nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of + thunder were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away flew + the light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the tempest + was above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest trees as + they bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding from shore to + shore. And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black streaming hair + from her brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with renewed vigour + plied the paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of turbulence by the + violence of the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, but no word was + spoken—they each felt the greatness of the peril, but they also knew + that they were in the hands of Him who can say to the tempest-tossed + waves, “Peace, be still,” and they obey Him. + </p> + <p> + Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland + was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with + difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to + do this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the + old tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper’s shanty. + </p> + <p> + The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of the + Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was vigorously + pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter of the + overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions they had + made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the storm, they + threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its progress—thankful + for an escape from such imminent peril. + </p> + <p> + Thus ended the Indian summer—so deceitful in its calmness and its + beauty. The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into + stone by a premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting + the shelter of the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their ark + of refuge—the log-house on Mount Ararat. + </p> + <p> + The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner than + usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of April the + snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered with ice, + and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet from shore to + shore. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Scared by the red and noisy light.”—COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping fire-wood, + which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, used from + childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, and snaring hares, + were occupations which they pursued more for the excitement and exercise + than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance of dried, venison, fish, + and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. They now visited those trees + that they had marked in the summer, where they had noticed the bees + hiving, and cut them down; in one they got more than a pailful of rich + honey-comb, and others yielded some more, some less; this afforded them a + delicious addition to their boiled rice, and dried acid fruits. They might + have melted the wax, and burned candles of it; but this was a refinement + of luxury that never once occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry + pine knots that are found in the woods are the settlers’ candles; but + Catharine made some very good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and + combs, by pouring water on it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of + the chimney, in one of the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent + substitute for salt as a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the + Indians, they were now reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + </p> + <p> + Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up to + every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she + patiently made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little + shelter of pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear carved + out of hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently await the + rising of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously plunging it + into the unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. Many a noble fish + did the young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet of him whom she had + tacitly elected as her lord and master; to him she offered the voluntary + service of a faithful and devoted servant—I might almost have said, + slave. + </p> + <p> + During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, + that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing + log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west + wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, + unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian + blanket with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt + little cold excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind + was high, and then experience taught them to keep at home. And these cold + gloomy days they employed in many useful works. Indiana had succeeded in + dyeing the quills of the porcupine that she had captured on Grape Island; + with these she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and an arrow case for + Hector, besides making a sheath for Louis’s <i>couteau-du-chasse</i>, of + which the young hunter was very proud, bestowing great praise on the + workmanship. + </p> + <p> + Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was + engaged in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the + no small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, was + remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of + everything he saw. + </p> + <p> + Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner + bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and + wide in the middle—not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat + fish; over this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, + wetted to make it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when + dry, it became quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work + such as you see on cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + </p> + <p> + “And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in + your ingenious little net,” said Louis, who had watched her proceedings + with great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she showed + all her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second frame like + the first. + </p> + <p> + Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, that + was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for some kind + of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring glance at + Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her silent + laughs. + </p> + <p> + “Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,”—and snatching up a + light bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the + netted frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on with + her work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage + persevering in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the + other was done: then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: + and he was forced at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of + the work. It was night before the two were completed, and furnished with + straps and loops. When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl + knelt down at Hector’s feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a + joyous laugh, and said, “Snow-shoe—for walk on snow—good!” + </p> + <p> + The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now seemed + to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use of them. + The young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own feet, and + soon proved to them that the broad surface prevented those who wore them + from sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector began to + acknowledge the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, especially on + the frozen snow on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well pleased with the + approbation that her manufactures met with, and very soon manufactured for + “Nee-chee,” as they all now called Louis, a similar present As to + Catharine, she declared the snow-shoes made her ancles ache, and that she + preferred the mocassins that her cousin Louis made for her. During the + long bright days of February they made several excursions on the lake, and + likewise explored some of the high hills to the eastward. On this ridge + there were few large trees; but it was thickly clothed with scrub oaks, + slender poplars, and here and there fine pines, and picturesque + free-growing oaks of considerable size and great age—patriarchs, + they might be termed, among the forest growth. <i>[FN: One of these hoary + monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands at the head of the lawn at + Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr. W. Falkner, now the residence of + the Authoress.]</i> Over this romantic range of hill and dale, free as the + air they breathed, roamed many a gallant herd of deer, unmolested unless + during certain seasons when the Indians came to hunt over these hills. + Surprised at the different growth of the oaks on this side the plains, + Hector could not help expressing his astonishment to Indiana, who told him + that it was caused by the custom that her people had had from time + immemorial of setting fire to the bushes in the early part of spring. This + practice, she said, promoted the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover + for the deer themselves, and effectually prevented the increase of the + large timbers. This circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high + ridge of hills when contrasted with the more wooded portions to the + westward. From the lake these eastern hills look verdant, and as if + covered with tall green fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is + cast upon the leaves of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they + present a glowing unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only + variegated in spots by a dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light + waving poplars turned by the same wizard’s wand to golden yellow. + </p> + <p> + There were many lovely spots,—lofty rounded hills, and deep shady + dells, with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole our + young folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded glens of + the western side, where they had fixed their home. + </p> + <p> + There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold + bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down the + frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on small + hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped in + their warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what cared + they for the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks + brightened by the delightful exercise, they would remain for hours + enjoying the amusement of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the + ground with myriads of diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening it + till it rivalled the snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out with + the exercise, they returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing fire, till + the smoked rafters glowed in the red light; spread their simple fare of + stewed rice sweetened with honey, or maybe a savoury soup of hare or other + game; and then, when warmed and fed, they kneeled together, side by side, + and offered up a prayer of gratitude to their Maker, and besought his care + over them during the dark and silent hours of night. + </p> + <p> + Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in their + tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of enjoying + many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely forest + home. Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice of every + sort of usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful fortitude; + not, indeed, quietly to sit down and wait for better times, but vigorously + to create those better times by every possible exertion that could be + brought into action to assist and ameliorate their condition. + </p> + <p> + To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that nerves + his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in the steps of + the old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the exercise of his + own energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their own resources, + instead of depending upon his neighbours. + </p> + <p> + The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of + civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might not + have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian + Crusoes, because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a life + of such privation as they had known, they could not have brought so much + experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires courage to + yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + </p> + <p> + Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made + by Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and + better table than the first rough one that they put together. They also + made a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and separate + sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly + circumscribed their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as soon + as the spring came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better and + larger room to be used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a + complete set of wooden trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of + excellent grain, and less liable to warp or crack than many others. + </p> + <p> + Louis’s skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. He + not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a certain + taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his materials and + rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in mechanism for which the + French have always been remarked. With his knife and a nail he would carve + a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with handle across it, all + delicately wrought with flowers and checker-work. The shell of a + butter-nut would be transformed into a boat, with thwarts, and seats, and + rudder; with sails of bass-wood or birch-bark. Combs he could cut out of + wood or bone, so that Catharine could dress her hair, or confine it in + braids or bands at will. This was a source of great comfort to her; and + Louis was always pleased when he could in any way contribute to his + cousin’s happiness. These little arts Louis had been taught by his father. + Indeed, the entire distance that their little, settlement was from any + town or village had necessarily forced their families depend on their own + ingenuity and invention to supply many of their wants. Once or twice a + year they saw a trading fur-merchant, as I before observed; and those were + glorious days for Hector and Louis, who were always on the alert to render + the strangers any service in their power, as by that means they sometimes + received little gifts from them, and gleaned up valuable information as to + their craft as hunters and trappers. And then there were wonderful tales + of marvellous feats and hair-breadth escapes to listen to, as they sat + with eager looks and open ears round the blazing log-fire in the old + log-house. Now they would in their turns have tales to tell of strange + adventures, and all that had befallen them since the first day of their + wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + </p> + <p> + The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The + Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves + chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, and + did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter end of + the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as they had + the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar and some + molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible place: it had + the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready built for a + shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a good + boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need not be + exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two boys soon + cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out into + sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; and + the first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh with + their vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and tapped + the trees they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And many + pleasant days they passed during the sugar-making season. They did not + leave the sugar-bush for good till the commencement of April, when the sun + and wind beginning to unlock the springs that fed the lake, and to act + upon its surface, taught them that it would not long be prudent to remain + on the island. The loud booming sounds that were now frequently heard of + the pent-up air beneath striving to break forth from its icy prison, were + warnings not to be neglected. Openings began to appear, especially at the + entrance of the river, and between the islands, and opposite to some of + the larger creeks; blue streams that attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and + wild geese, that came, guided by that instinct that never errs, from their + abiding-places in far-off lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild + birds coming and going with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to + her simple-minded companions. + </p> + <p> + How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How + joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded + woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and + twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, + that comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the + low, tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines or + in the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of the + little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen trees, + and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his wings + against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds—were + among the early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest + dwellers, and for such they listened with eager ears, for they told them— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last.” + </pre> + <p> + They watched for the first song of the robin, <i>[FN: Turdus miyratorius, + or American robin.]</i> and the full melody of the red thrush <i>[FN: + Turdus melodus, or wood-thrush.]</i>; the rushing sound of the + passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, + sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or darting + down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, the + acorns that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries of + hawthorn and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines were + now putting on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies were + deep blue; nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed waking into + life and light. + </p> + <p> + On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access to + the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and + Louis were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for + the addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to + work as soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little + field for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended + to the house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in plenty + of small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned up the + loose boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had marked + out, they proceeded to enclose it with a “brush fence”, which was done by + felling the trees that stood in the line of the field, and letting them + fall so as to form the bottom log of the fence, which they then made of + sufficient height by piling up arms of trees and brush-wood. Perhaps in + this matter they were too particular, as there was no fear of “breachy + cattle,” or any cattle, intruding on the crop; but Hector maintained that + deer and bears were as much to be guarded against as oxen and cows. + </p> + <p> + The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was as + clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a log, + contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the grain + was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week in May, as + near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds and the + blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. Hector’s + eyes had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning from the + lake, soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. But soon his + eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of the ridge was + enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some mist-wreath + hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds rapidly spread + on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, and nothing but + fire,<i>[FN: Appendix I.]</i> that those dark volumes arose. + </p> + <p> + “Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire.” + </p> + <p> + “On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, but look there!” + </p> + <p> + The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on with + fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by the dry, + withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the flames. + </p> + <p> + “It is two miles off, or more,” said Louis; “and the creek will stop its + progress long before it comes near us—and the swamp there, beyond + Bare Hill.” + </p> + <p> + “The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, a + burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; besides, + when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on fire, you know + how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when the forest was + on fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and how fiercely it + raged! It was lighted by the ashes of your father’s pipe, when he was out + in the new fallow; the leaves were dry, and kindled; and before night the + woods were burning for miles.” “It was a grand spectacle, those + pine-hills, when the fire got in among them,” said Louis.. “See, see how + fast the fires kindle; that must be some fallen pine that they have got + hold of; now, look at the lighting up of that hill—is it not grand?” + </p> + <p> + “If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!” said + Hector, anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as the + fire finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even against + the wind.” + </p> + <p> + As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line + of wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour which + hung in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with + inconceivable rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon of + destruction spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery + speed; and soon hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + </p> + <p> + “It must have been the work of the Indians,” said Louis. “We had better + make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. We + must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it may + come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent escape + by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + </p> + <p> + “It is the Indian burning,” said Indiana; “that is the reason there are so + few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for the + deer.” + </p> + <p> + Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having + scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed to + have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site of the + root-house <i>[FN: Root-houses are built over deep excavations below the + reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.]</i> below the + bank, which they had just finished, they had met with charred wood, at the + depth of six feet below the soil, which must have lain there till the + earth had accumulated over it; a period of many years must necessarily + have passed since the wood had been burned, as it was so much decomposed + as to crumble beneath the wooden shovel which they were digging with. + </p> + <p> + All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were + flame—red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, + overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it formed + a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the splendour of + the scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire better defined; + but there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as it had done in the + daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of evening effectually + put a stop to the progress of the fire. The children could now gaze in + security upon the magnificent spectacle before them, without the + excitement produced by its rapid spread during the daytime. They lay down + to sleep in perfect security that night, but with the consciousness that, + as the breeze sprung up in the morning, they must be on the alert to + secure their little dwelling and its contents from the devastation that + threatened it. They knew that they had no power to stop its onward course, + as they possessed no implement better than a rough wood shovel, which + would be found very ineffectual in opening a trench or turning the ground + up, so as to cut off the communication with the dry grass, leaves, and + branches, which are the fuel for supplying the fires on the Plains. The + little clearing on one side the house they thought would be its safeguard, + but the fire was advancing on three sides of them. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be + done.” + </p> + <p> + “I propose,” said Louis, “retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest + point of Long Island.” “My French cousin has well spoken,” said Hector, + mimicking the Indian mode of speaking; “but listen to the words of the + wise. I propose to take all our household stores that are of the most + value, to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, + first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is + likely to take fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as to + the shanty, it must take its chance to stand or fall.” + </p> + <p> + “The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never + mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, is + not yet sown,” said Louis. + </p> + <p> + Hector’s advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to work + to secure the property they meant to leave. + </p> + <p> + It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as it + formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made + available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys + carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and + also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them to + hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off to the + lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand.” + IRISH SONG +</pre> + <p> + The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far as + the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were + leaping among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the pines, + and rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to heap of the + fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes of black and + suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that Hector and Louis + had only time to push off the canoe before the heights along the shore + were wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and noble pine fell + crashing to the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, as its burning + trunk shivered in its fall. Glad to escape from the suffocating vapour, + the boys quickly paddled out to the island, enjoying the cool, fresh air + of the lake. Reposing on the grass beneath the trees, they passed the day, + sheltered from the noonday sun, and watched the progress of the fires upon + the shore. At night the girls slept securely under the canoe, which they + raised on one side by means of forked sticks stuck in the ground. + </p> + <p> + It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on the + water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, to + which the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by + contrast. + </p> + <p> + Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty + escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the + safety of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was + already springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken + every precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. + <i>[FN: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved by + turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been + effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing up + the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry roots, + grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even could it be + got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in stopping the + progress of fire; even women and little children can assist in such + emergencies.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed + by the fire. “We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this + summer,” she said, mournfully; “and the pretty roses and bushes will be + scorched, and the ground black and dreary.” + </p> + <p> + “The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the + forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, leaves + more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in,” said Hector. “I + have seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new and fresh set + of plants spring up, and even some that looked withered recover; the earth + is renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so great a misfortune + as it at first appears.” + </p> + <p> + “But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!” said + Louis; “I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one + of those burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, + branchless trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance + against those that kindled the fires.” + </p> + <p> + “They do, indeed, look ugly,” said Catharine; “yet the girdled ones look + very nearly as ill.” <i>[FN: The girdled pines are killed by barking them + round, to facilitate the clearing.]</i> + </p> + <p> + At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim + smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was + still going on. + </p> + <p> + As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the + point (Andersen’s Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they + concluded the fires had possibly originated by accident,—some casual + hunter or trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they + were not very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they + decided on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was with + some feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had befallen + their shanty. + </p> + <p> + “The shanty is burned!” was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis and + Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded a + view of its roof. “It is well for us that we secured our things in the + root-house,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, + larger and better than the old one,” said Louis. “The chief of our fence + is gone, too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if we + get it done a month hence, say I. Come, <i>ma belle</i>, do not look so + sorrowful. There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital + wigwam, while the new house is building.” “But the nice table that you + made, Louis, and the benches and shelves!” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves + too. Never fear, <i>ma chere</i>, the same industrious Louis will make + things comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a + famous one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is + planted we shall have nothing else to do but to think about it.” + </p> + <p> + The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles and + birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did not feel + the inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been earlier in + the season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house and pantry; and + Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave certain loose folds + between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, which formed a series of + pouches or bags, in which many articles could be stowed away out of sight. + <i>[FN: In this way the winter wigwams of the Indians are constructed so + as to give plenty of stowing room for all their little household matters, + materials for work, &c.]</i> + </p> + <p> + While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, the + two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a + succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched + earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had + anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they + raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their + attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been + burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + </p> + <p> + The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a few + weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than the + former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian corn, + renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting partridges and + ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. The fruit season + was less abundant this year than the previous one. The fire had done this + mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect fruits during the + summer months. + </p> + <p> + It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the boys, + and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for water, and on + her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her family of three + half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. <i>[FN: An Indian + baby; but “papoose” is not an Indian word. It is probably derived from the + Indian imitation of the word “baines.”]</i> In their turn the strangers + seemed equally astonished at Catharine’s appearance. + </p> + <p> + The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon + reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which she + had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To this + Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple sugar, + which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted the brown + baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden cradle, and + fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference between the + colour of her young hostess’s fair skin and her own swarthy hue; for she + often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, and compared her + arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment and curiosity; + possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race this poor savage + had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set the birchen dish on + the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its cradle prison, she slipped + the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and silently signing to her sons + to follow her, she departed. That evening a pair of ducks were found + fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a silent offering of gratitude + for the refreshment that had been afforded to this Indian woman and her + children. + </p> + <p> + Indiana thought, from Catharine’s description, that these were Indians + with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake and + the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be near. The + squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother Snow-storm, + from having been lost in the woods, when a little child, during a heavy + storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a gentle, kind woman, + and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt. Her sons were good + hunters; and though so young, helped to support their mother, and were + very good to her and the little one. + </p> + <p> + I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a brief + notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved abundant, + and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and stored, and + plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of honey. + </p> + <p> + The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the + lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some + hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter was + unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring following + was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May before + vegetation had made any very decided progress. + </p> + <p> + The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both + within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for the + floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats and a + table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering their + only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for splitting the + wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with great care and + patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft mate, woven by + Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut and dried; but the + little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or deer-skin on the floor + before the fire, as she had been accustomed. + </p> + <p> + A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and was + now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the loghouse;—but + for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all they had left + and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those who dwelt + beneath its humble roof. + </p> + <p> + The season of flowers had again arrived,—the earth, renovated by the + fire of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,—June, with its + fragrant store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,—the + anniversary of that time when they had left their beloved parents’ roofs, + to become sojourners in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much they + felt they had to be grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and much + anxiety they had felt; but they had enjoyed blessings above all that they + could have expected, and they might, like the Psalmist when recounting the + escapes of the people of God, have said,—“Oh that men would + therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and the wonders that he doeth + for the children of men.” And now they declared no greater evil could + befal them than to lose one of their little party, for even Indiana had + become as a dear and beloved sister; her gentleness, her gratitude and + faithful trusting love, seemed each day to increase. Now, indeed, she was + bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for she knelt to the same God, and + acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies of her Redeemer. She had made + great progress in learning their language, and had also taught her friends + to speak and understand much of her own tongue; so that they were now no + longer at a loss to converse with her on any subject. Thus was this Indian + girl united to them in bonds of social and Christian love. + </p> + <p> + Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track of + a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and showing + symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred staying at + home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had gathered some + fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, Indian meal + cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was weary and warm, + for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on the threshold of + the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and closed her eyes. + Perhaps the poor child’s thoughts were wandering back to her far-off, + never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking of the hunters and + their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of dread stole over her + mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she saw no form; but there + was a strange consciousness that she was not alone—that some unseen + being was near, some eye was upon her. I have heard of sleepers starting + from sleep the most profound when the noiseless hand of the assassin has + been raised to destroy them, as if the power of the human eye could be + felt through the closed lid. + </p> + <p> + Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was near + her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance around. + No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she resumed + her seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet which she + had tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, attracted her + attention. + </p> + <p> + “What aileth thee, wee dearie?” she said, tenderly, as the timid little + creature crept, trembling, to her breast. “Thy mistress has scared thee by + her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor weasel + here to seize thee, silly one;” and as she spoke she raised her head, and + flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded her eyes. The + deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met her terrified gaze, + gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the door-post, whence the + upper part of the face alone was visible, partly concealed by a mat of + tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, the poor girl neither + spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing her hands tightly across + her breast, as if to still the loud beating of her heart, she sat gazing + upon that fearful appearance, while, with stealthy step, the savage + advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, as he did so, his eyes riveted + upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily serpent is said to fascinate his + prey. His hapless victim moved not; whither could she flee to escape one + whose fleet foot could so easily have overtaken her in the race? where + conceal herself from him whose wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive + her of all vital energy? + </p> + <p> + Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian to + answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and taking the + girl’s ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong of deer’s + hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path through the + ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch canoe, + rocking gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a young + girl were seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed no word + indicative of curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the Indian + lifted his captive into the canoe, and made signs to the elder squaw to + push from the shore. When all had taken their places, the woman, catching + up a paddle from the bottom of the little vessel, stood up, and with a few + rapid strokes sent it skimming over the lake. + </p> + <p> + The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous + situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her agitated + face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror presented + themselves to her bewildered brain—all that Indiana had described of + the cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before her mind. Poor + child, what miserable thoughts were thine during that brief voyage! + </p> + <p> + Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the + victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved + ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no hope + of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated mind, + she raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the Indian + and his companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the stoical + one of an Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no answering + glance of sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look of pity—not + a nerve or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of the Indians, and + the woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy attitude, burying her + face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter emotions from the heartless + strangers. + </p> + <p> + She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian’s education to hide + the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and tender + emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + </p> + <p> + It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, which + was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the disobedient to + the wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds of unrighteousness, + and to teach man that he is by nature the child of wrath and victim of + sin, and that in his unregenerated nature his whole mind is at enmity with + God and his fellow-men, and that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. And + the Indian has acknowledged that power,—he has cast his idols of + cruelty and revenge, those virtues on which he prided himself in the + blindness of his heart, to the moles and the bats; he has bowed and adored + at the foot of the Cross;—but it was not so in the days whereof I + have spoken. <i>[FN: Appendix K.]</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?” + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER +</pre> + <p> + The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian lifted + his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move forward + along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards higher up + the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with shrubby + trees—the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the paddles + and secure the canoe. + </p> + <p> + It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, + when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead for + mercy—whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we + ourselves are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, + mute with terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now found + herself surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange assembly, + if by chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, but she saw + not the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright sparkling eye of + her cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive features of the Indian + girl, her adopted sister—she stood alone among those wild + gloomy-looking men; some turned away their eyes as if they would not meet + her woe-stricken countenance, lest they should be moved to pity her sad + condition; no wonder that, overcome by the sense of her utter + friendliness, she hid her face with her fettered hands and wept in + despair. But the Indian’s sympathy is not moved by tears and sighs; + calmness, courage, defiance of danger and contempt of death, are what he + venerates and admires even in an enemy. + </p> + <p> + The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed to + be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant against + the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the stranger; + Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, heard the old + man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. Gladly did she + escape from the presence of those pitiless men, from whose gaze she shrunk + with maidenly modesty. And now when alone with the women she hesitated not + to make use of that natural language which requires not the aid of speech + to make itself understood; clasping her hands imploringly, she knelt at + the feet of the Indian woman, her conductress—kissed her dark hands + and bathed them with her fast flowing tears, while she pointed + passionately to the shore where lay the happy home from which she had been + so suddenly torn. + </p> + <p> + The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her imploring + gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone replied in her own + language, that she must go with the canoes to the other shore,—and + she pointed to the north as she spoke. She then motioned to the young girl—the + same that had been Catharine’s companion in the canoe—to bring a + hunting knife, which was thrust into one of the folds of the birch-bark of + the wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly weapon in the hands of the Indian + woman with a pang of agony as great as if its sharp edge was already at + her throat. So young—so young, to die by a cruel bloody death! what + had been her crime?—how should she find words to soften the heart of + her murderess? The power of utterance seemed denied—she cast herself + on her knees and held up her hands in silent prayer; not to the dreaded + Indian woman, but to Him who heareth the prayer of the poor destitute—who + alone can order the unruly wills and affections of men. + </p> + <p> + The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the + terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with a + quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists of + the pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her whole + face she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand upon her + young head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise lifted the + flowing tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over the back of her own + swarthy hand; then, as if amused by the striking contrast, she shook down + her own jetty-black hair and twined a tress of it with one of the fair + haired girl’s—then laughed till her teeth shone like pearls within + her red lips. Many were the exclamations of childish wonder that broke + from the other females, as they compared the snowy arm of the stranger + with their own dusky skins; it was plain that they had no intention of + harming her, and by degrees distrust and dread of her singular companions + began in some measure to subside. + </p> + <p> + The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her a + handful of parched rice and some deer’s flesh to eat; but Catharine’s + heart was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing the + Indian word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of birch-bark + from the floor of the tent, and gathering the corners together, ran to the + lake, and soon returned with water in this most primitive drinking vessel, + which she held to the lips of her guest, and she seemed amused by the long + deep draught with which Catharine slaked her thirst; and something like a + gleam of hope came over her mind as she marked the look of kindly feeling + with which she caught the young Indian girl regarding her, and she strove + to overcome the choking sensation that would from time to time rise to her + throat, as she fluctuated between hope and fear. The position of the + Indian camp was so placed that it was quite hidden from the shore, and + neither could Catharine see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of + the mount that her brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their + visits to the lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them + even if she had seen them on the beach. + </p> + <p> + The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while + the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians were + launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. + Catharine’s heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the lake + showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted at a + fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek flowing down + through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they found several + tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The river was here + a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many kinds fringed the + edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had never been pierced + by the step of man—so thick and luxuriant was the vegetation that + even the Indian could hardly have penetrated through its dark swampy + glades: far as the eye could reach, that impenetrable interminable wall of + verdure stretched away into the far off distance. + </p> + <p> + On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open + meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the eminence + above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by a luxuriant + orchard and garden, the property of a naval officer, <i>[FN: Lt. Rubidge, + whose interesting account of his early settlement may be read in a letter + inserted in Captain Basil Hall’s Letters from Canada.]</i> who with the + courage and perseverance that mark brave men of his class, first ventured + to break the bush and locate himself and his infant family in the lonely + wilderness, then far from any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + </p> + <p> + But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler had + not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire scathed + it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those shades, nor + sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its echoes. + </p> + <p> + All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a + shady tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and + wondering at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its + dear inmates. Bad as she had thought her separation from her father and + mother and her brothers, when she first left her home to become a wanderer + on the Rice Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her situation, + snatched from the dear companions who had upheld and cheered her on in all + her sorrows! But now she was alone with none to love or cherish or console + her, she felt a desolation of spirit that almost made her forgetful of + that trust that had hitherto always sustained her in time of trouble or + sickness. She looked round, and her eye fell on the strange unseemly forms + of men and women, who cared not for her, and to whom she was an object of + indifference or aversion: she wept when she thought of the grief that her + absence would occasion to Hector and Louis; the thought of their distress + increased her own. + </p> + <p> + The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the little + brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots and stones + that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and long + exposure to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. The last + rosy light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a glowing tint + when she awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; the kingfisher and + dragon-fly, and a solitary loon, were the only busy things abroad on the + river; the first darting up and down from an upturned root near the + water’s edge, feeding its youngings; the dragon-fly hawking with rapid + whirring sound for insects, and the loon, just visible from above the + surface of the still stream, sailed quietly on companionless, like her who + watched its movements. + </p> + <p> + The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment + roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the + evening meal was now preparing,—and Catharine, chilled by the + falling dew, crept to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at + being recognised by one friendly face—it was the mild and benevolent + countenance of the widow Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to bid + her to share their camp fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, the + beaming smile that was given by this good creature, albeit she was ugly + and ill-featured, cheered the sad captive’s heart. She had given her a cup + of cold water and what food her log-cabin afforded, and in return the good + Indian took her to her wigwam and fed, and warmed, and cherished her with + the loving-kindness of a Christian; and during all her sojourn in the + Indian camp she was as a tender mother over her, drying her tears and + showing her those little acts of attention that even the untaught Indians + know are grateful to the sorrowful and destitute. Catharine often forgot + her own griefs to repay this worthy creature’s kindness, by attending to + her little babe and assisting her in some of her homely preparations of + cookery or household work. She knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow + would do her no good, and after the lapse of some days she so well + disciplined her own heart as to check her tears at least in the presence + of the Indian women, and to assume an air of comparative cheerfulness. + Once she found Indian words enough to ask the Indian widow to convey her + back to the lake, but she shook her head and bade her not think anything + about it; and added, that in the fall, when the ducks came to the + rice-beds, they should all return, and then if she could obtain leave from + the chief, she would restore her to her lodge on the plains; but signified + to her that patience was her only present remedy, and that submission to + the will of the chief was her wisest plan. Comforted by this vague + promise, Catharine strove to be reconciled to her strange lot, and still + stranger companions. She could not help being surprised at the want of + curiosity respecting her that was shown by the Indians in the wigwam, when + she was brought thither; they appeared to take little notice that a + stranger and one so dissimilar to themselves had been introduced into the + camp, for before her they asked no questions about her, whatever they + might do when she was absent, though they surveyed her with silent + attention. Catharine learned, by long acquaintance with this people, that + an outward manifestation of surprise <i>[FN: See Appendix L.]</i> is + considered a want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of + weakness and childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly + less disposed to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and + one of their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, + was examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, + and holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, + those who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the + island, showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw was + granddaughter to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with + considerable respect by the rest of the women; she was a gay lively + creature, often laughing, and seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund of + good humour. She was inclined to extend her patronage to the young + stranger, making her eat out of her own bark dish, and sit beside her on + her own mat. She wove a chain of the sweet-scented grass with which the + Indians delight in adorning themselves, likewise in perfuming their lodges + with bunches or strewings upon the floor. She took great pains in teaching + her how to acquire the proper attitude of sitting, after the fashion of + the Eastern nations, which position the Indian women assume when at rest + in their wigwams. The Indian name of this little damsel signified the + Snow-bird. She was, like that lively restless bird, always flitting to and + fro from tent to tent, as garrulous and as cheerful too as that merry + little herald of the spring. + </p> + <p> + Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine’s dress, which she + examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut + fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border of + the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These fringes + she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old chief was + called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and mocassins escape + their observation. There was something mysterious about her garments. + Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep guttural + exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst from the + lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with deep attention. + These people had recognised in these things the peculiar fashion and + handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to perish by + hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was excited to + know by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress wrought by + the hand of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange and + mysterious did it seem to them, and warily did they watch the unconscious + object of their wonder. + </p> + <p> + The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, + enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she + prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose whole + nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously endeavoured + to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she succeeded in an + incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to express her own wants, + and converse a little with the females who were about her. + </p> + <p> + She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood apart from + the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his granddaughter, or + by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some sick person, or a + secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great Spirit; but one day + when the chief of the people had gone up the river hunting, and the + children were asleep, she perceived the curtain of skins drawn back, and a + female of singular and striking beauty appeared standing in the open space + in front. She was habited in a fine tunic of white dressed doeskin richly + embroidered with coloured beads and stained quills, a full petticoat of + dark cloth bound with scarlet descended to her ancles, leggings fringed + with deer-skin knotted with bands of coloured quills, with richly wrought + mocassins on her feet. On her head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black + feathers; her long shining tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, + each thick tress confined with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and + blue; her stature was tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye + wore an expression so proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own + involuntarily fill with tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She + would have approached nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk + back timid and abashed beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, + the Beam of the Morning, the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose + hand had wrought so fearful a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of + her brother. She stood there, at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal + robes, as on the day when she received her death-doomed victim. And when + she recalled her fearful deed, shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back + and shrouded herself within the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye + of that terrible woman. She remembered how Indiana had told her that since + that fatal marriage-feast she had been kept apart from the rest of the + tribe,—she was regarded by her people as a sacred character, a great + <i>Medicine</i>, a female <i>brave</i>, a being whom they regarded with + mysterious reverence. She had made this great sacrifice for the good of + her nation. Indiana said it was believed among her own folks that she had + loved the young Mohawk passionately, as a tender woman loves the husband + of her youth; yet she had hesitated not to sacrifice him with her own + hand. Such was the deed of the Indian heroine—and such were the + virtues of the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash’d o’er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree’s tall shadow sleeps upon its breast.” + COLERIDGE. +</pre> + <p> + The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, <i>[FN: Now + known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house and + some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for the + steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore’s Landing on the Rice + Lake and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.]</i> and then early one + morning the wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, + proceeded up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to + interest Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between + low shores, thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through which + the eye might pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a + clearing, not a sight or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or + heard; the darting flight of the wild birds as they flitted across from + one side to the other, the tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of the + blue jay, was all that was heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that + monotonous voyage. After many hours a decided change was perceived in the + current, which ran at a considerable increase of swiftness, so that it + required the united energy of both men and women to keep the light vessels + from drifting down the river again. They were in the Rapids, <i>[FN: + Formerly known as Whitla’s Rapids, now the site of the Locks.]</i> and it + was hard work to stem the tide, and keep the upward course of the waters. + At length the rapids were passed, and the weary Indian voyagers rested for + a space on the bosom of a small but tranquil lake. <i>[FN: The little lake + about a mile below Peterborough and above the Locks, formerly girt in by + woods of pine and beech and maple, now entirely divested of trees and + forming part of the suburbs of the town. ]</i> The rising moon shed her + silvery light upon the calm waters, and heaven’s stars shone down into its + quiet depths, as the canoes with their dusky freight parted the glittering + rays with their light paddles. As they proceeded onward the banks rose on + either side, still fringed with pine, cedar and oaks. At an angle of the + lake the banks on either side ran out into two opposite peninsulas, + forming a narrow passage or gorge, contracting the lake once more into the + appearance of a broad river, much wider from shore to shore than any other + part they had passed through since they had left the entrance at the Rice + Lake. + </p> + <p> + Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with + delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green + cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the + sound of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken + eddies rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of the + moon; and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those rapids, + at a signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed to shore on a + low flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last island. <i>[FN: + Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the island, a noble and + substantial bridge has been built.]</i> + </p> + <p> + Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the women + prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and + birch-bark covering from the encampment below, and soon all was bustle and + business; unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even Catharine lent + a willing hand to assist the females in bringing up the stores, and sundry + baskets containing fruits and other small wares. She then kindly attended + to the Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, who, bound upon their + wooden cradles, were either set up against the trunks of the trees, or + swung to some lowly depending branch, there to remain helpless and + uncomplaining spectators of the scene. + </p> + <p> + Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied as + herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, having + from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they were sure + to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers when the season of + refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was friendless and alone, an + orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred and friends. One Father, one + Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even He—the Father of the + fatherless. + </p> + <p> + That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole out + of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter of + which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy plain, + studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that they + might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. It was + a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through which for so + many many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed on monotonously; + here it was all wild and free, dashing along like a restive steed + rejoicing in its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + </p> + <p> + Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing + river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as it + bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. “Happy, glorious + waters! you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no canoe + can ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, were free + to pursue my onward way—how soon would I flee away and be at rest!” + Such thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the lonely + captive girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked abroad + over those moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming sense of + the utter loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with faltering step + hurried down once more to the wigwams, silently crept to the mat where her + bed was spread, and soon forgot all her woes and wanderings in deep + tranquil sleep. + </p> + <p> + Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always seemed + to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes and rivers + in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So disregardful + are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to sleep where + the ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a temporary + flooring of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather than remove + the tent a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always be found. + This either arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from both, but it + is no doubt the cause of much of the sickness that prevails among, them. + With his feet stretched to the fire the Indian cares for nothing else when + reposing in his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the improvement that + might be made in his comfort; he listens with a face of apathy, and utters + his everlasting guttural, which saves him the trouble of a more rational + reply. + </p> + <p> + “Snow-bird” informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be removed + for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the squaws + pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the chief of the + laborious part of the work fell to the share of the females, who were very + much more industrious and active than their husbands; these, when not out + hunting or fishing, were to be seen reposing in easy indolence under the + shade of the trees, or before the tent fires, giving themselves little + concern about anything that was going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, + and submissive; they bore without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and + fatigue, and seemed to perform every task with patience and good humour. + They made the canoes, in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched + the tents, converted the skins of the animals which the men shot into + clothes, cooked the victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove + mats, dyed the quills of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short + performed a thousand tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + </p> + <p> + Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, + they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no floors + to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + </p> + <p> + Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only + renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish + bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of + furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the same, + their beds mats or skins of animals,—such were the domestic + arrangements of the Indian camp. <i>[FN: Much improvement has taken place + of late years in the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of their + dwellings are clean and neat even for Europeans.]</i> In the tent to which + Catharine belonged, which was that of the widow and her sons, a greater + degree of order and cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for + Catharine’s natural love of neatness and comfort induced her to strew the + floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep round the + front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its vicinity. She + never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her hair with the + comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care of the little child, + which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this little creature, for it + was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a little squirrel, and the Indian + mothers all looked with kinder eyes upon the white maiden, for the loving + manner in which she tended their children. The heart of woman is seldom + cold to those who cherish their offspring, and Catharine began to + experience the truth, that the exercise of those human charities is + equally beneficial to those who give and those that receive; these things + fall upon the heart as dew upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a + blessing. But we will leave Catharine for a short season, among the lodges + of the Indians, and return to Hector and Louis. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?” + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. +</pre> + <p> + It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening of + the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. They + had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine half-grown + fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding the fire + nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. There, it is + true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she was not to be + seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for them, and had gone + out to gather strawberries, they did not at first feel very anxious, but + ate some of the rice and honey, for they were hungry with long fasting; + and taking some Indian meal cake in their hands, they went out to call her + in, but no trace of her was visible. They now became alarmed, fearing that + she had set off by herself to seek them, and had missed her way home + again. + </p> + <p> + They hurried back to the happy valley—she was not there; to + Pine-tree Point—no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that + overlooked the lake—no, she was not to be seen; night found them + still unsuccessful in their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had + seated herself beneath some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined + the true cause, having seen nothing of the Indians. + </p> + <p> + Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her not + there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting left + them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The first + streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in vain upon + the name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. Desolation + had fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others they had + most feared, had happened to them. + </p> + <p> + Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so easily + to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that she had + discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake shore; she + had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had been woven by + Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had seen the mark of + feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the lake, and the + furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. It was evident + that she had been taken away from her home by these people. Poor Louis + gave way to transports of grief and despair; he knew the wreath, it was + such as Catharine often made for herself, and Mathilde, and petite Louise, + and Marie; his mother had taught her to make them; they were linked + together by the stalks, and formed a sort of leaf chain. The remembrance + of many of their joyous days of childhood made Louis weep sorrowful tears + for happy days, never to return again; he placed the torn relic in his + breast, and sadly turned away to hide his grief from Hector and the Indian + girl. + </p> + <p> + Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but advised + wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. The Indians + had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats round Mount + Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they ventured to + land on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw evident traces of + a temporary encampment having been made. This was all they could do, + further search was unavailing; as they found no trace of any violence + having been committed, they still cherished hopes that no personal harm + had been done to the poor captive, It was Indiana’s opinion that, though a + prisoner, she was unhurt, as the Indians rarely killed women and children, + unless roused to do so by some signal act on the part of their enemies, + when an exterminating spirit of revenge induced them to kill and spare + not; but where no offence had been offered, they were not likely to take + the life of an helpless, unoffending female. + </p> + <p> + The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify + revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was + difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of + Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores + and the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still + thought the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + </p> + <p> + Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis no + longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled themselves + to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great delight; all + now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they wandered listlessly + to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had departed from their little + dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, each seeming absorbed in his + own painful reveries. + </p> + <p> + In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; + they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours + alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and + missed their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to + occupy. They called, but there was none to reply—she too was gone. + They hurried to the shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to + a mere speck upon the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; + they called to her in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted + back no sound to their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and they + sat them down disconsolately on the shore. + </p> + <p> + “What is she doing?” said Hector; “this is cruel to abandon us thus.” + </p> + <p> + “She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings of + Catharine,” said Louis. “How came you to think that such is her + intention?” + </p> + <p> + “I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or + die.” + </p> + <p> + “What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose + life she attempted to take?” + </p> + <p> + “She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she + loves.” + </p> + <p> + “Alas!” said Hector, “she will perish miserably and to no avail; they + would not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana’s + life.” + </p> + <p> + “How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not + tell us? we would have shared her danger.” + </p> + <p> + “She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl has + a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that made + life dear to us,” said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his knees. + </p> + <p> + “Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with + more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana’s leaving us, we left her so + much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we + did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad.” “I + tell you what we will do, Hec.—make a log canoe. I found an old + battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have an + axe and a tomahawk,—what should hinder us from making one like it?” + </p> + <p> + “True! we will set about it to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good pine + for the purpose.” + </p> + <p> + “As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than + this dread suspense and inaction.” + </p> + <p> + The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of + suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, and + the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to their + inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt proved + abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well in the + water. + </p> + <p> + Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so + Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, and + again—aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, + that is the way to succeed at last.” + </p> + <p> + “You have ten times my patience, Hec.” “Yes! but you are more ingenious + than I, and are excellent at starting an idea.” + </p> + <p> + “We are a good pair then for partnership.” + </p> + <p> + “We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past + blunders.” + </p> + <p> + “Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost + Catharine!” + </p> + <p> + “I know it, a long, long, weary month,” replied Louis, and he struck his + axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent for + some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested from + their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to resume + their conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector’s arm, and pointed to a + bark canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point of the island. + Hector started to his feet, exclaiming, “It is Indiana returned!” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense! Indiana!—it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man + in a blanket coat.” + </p> + <p> + “The Indians?” asked Hector inquiringly. + </p> + <p> + “I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he + doing?” + </p> + <p> + “Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass—another—he + has great luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore.” + </p> + <p> + “That man does not move like an Indian—hark! he is whistling. I + ought to know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to + sing;” and Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old + French Canadian song, which we will give in the English as we heard it + sung by an old lumberer. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we’ll wander, and we’ll chase the buffalo. + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + </pre> + <p> + “Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us,” said Hector. + </p> + <p> + “The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that + may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one—so I think he will + not be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is + but one, so he must mind how he affronts us,” replied Louis laughing. + </p> + <p> + “I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is not + singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,”—and Louis + raised his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo— + And we’ll chase the buffalo.” + </pre> + <p> + “What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to + listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it + again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!” + </p> + <p> + “Come, let us go on with our work,” said Hector, with something like + impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more in + regular succession on the log; but Louis’s eye was still on the mysterious + fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and smoking his pipe. + “I do not think he sees or hears us,” said Louis to himself, “but I think + I’ll manage to bring him over soon”—and he set himself busily to + work to scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and soon began to strike + fire with his knife and flint. + </p> + <p> + “What are you about, Louis?” asked Hector. “Lighting a fire.” + </p> + <p> + “It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure.” + </p> + <p> + “I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome + fisherman.” + </p> + <p> + “And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking in + the bushes of the island.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh, pooh! Hec.:—there are no savages. I am weary of this place—anything + is better than this horrible solitude.” And Louis fanned the flame into a + rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till it soared up among + the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, and rubbed his hands + gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the island, and a few + vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over the surface of the + calm lake. + </p> + <p> + Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel + lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were + chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, also + faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn mocassins, + sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis’s old raft, and gazed with a keen + eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A few rapid + interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois of the Lower + Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and English by + Louis. + </p> + <p> + A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried + out—“Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon.” + </p> + <p> + “Oui! oui!”—with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw + himself into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father’s friend and + old lumbering comrade. + </p> + <p> + “Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,—and Hector, in his turn, + received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + </p> + <p> + “Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade + here at the shore of the Rice Lake?—oh! what a joyful meeting!” + </p> + <p> + Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they + live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold + Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + </p> + <p> + The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped for + want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + </p> + <p> + “What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have + outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob + Morelle—hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,—those are the + things to harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish—eh! mes + enfans, is it not so?” + </p> + <p> + Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from + their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the + society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down to + the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper seemed + moved—he started from the log on which they were sitting, and with + one of his national asseverations, declared “That la bonne fille should + not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage wretches. + Yes, he, her father’s old friend, would go up the river and bring her back + in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the wigwams.” + </p> + <p> + “It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today,” said Hector. “Come + home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit.” + </p> + <p> + “No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, and + there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still standing,—the + Trapper’s Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will go off to the + island and look for it.” + </p> + <p> + “No need for that,” replied Louis, “for though I can tell you the old + place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a + boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own + nearer at hand—just two or three hundred yards over the brow of + yonder hill. So come with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to + lie upon.” + </p> + <p> + “And you have all these, boys!” said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, + as they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green corn. + The old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. “Ha! here is + old Wolfe too,” as the dog roused himself from the hearth and gave one of + his low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and instead of + going out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie for hours dozing + before the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the loving hand that + used to pat his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and pillow his great + head upon her lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws upon her shoulders, + while he licked her hands and face; but she was gone, and the Indian girl + was gone, and the light of the shanty had gone with them. Old Wolfe seemed + dying of sorrow. + </p> + <p> + That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short + Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings over, + and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + </p> + <p> + “And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?” + </p> + <p> + “At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now + since we left home, three summers ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been + absent,” said the old “Now I know the distance through the woods, for I + have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as the + bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles—no, nor that + either.” + </p> + <p> + The boys opened their eyes. “Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet to + us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles or + more.” + </p> + <p> + “I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember when + I was out on the St. John’s, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I was + well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we + parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole + eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, + just in a circle, because, d’ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me + astray the whole time.” + </p> + <p> + “Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?” asked Louis, with a sly + glance at Hector. + </p> + <p> + “Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then.” And + old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to recount + the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis’s edition of the + roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old Jacob’s + long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, all + tagged on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not sorry + when the old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, at last + stretched himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up from the + canoe, and soon was soundly sleeping. + </p> + <p> + The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his slumber, + which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up a good fire, + which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour was not unwelcome, + he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on the coals for his + breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis wakened. + </p> + <p> + “Mes enfans,” said Jacob, “I have been turning over in my mind about your + sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river alone + without any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a suspicious + people, they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to expect treachery + in others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the white men have not + always kept good faith with them, which I take to be the greater shame, as + they have God’s laws to guide and teach them to be true and just in their + dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have not, the more’s the pity. + Now, d’ye see, if the Indians see two stout lads with me, they will say to + themselves, there may be more left behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I + go to the camp alone; and, God willing, I will bring back your sister, or + die in the attempt. I shall not go single-handed; see, I have here + scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a + sin and a shame to tempt these poor wretches to their own destruction; it + makes fiends of them at once.” + </p> + <p> + It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old Jacob + to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was firm, and + would not be moved from his purpose. + </p> + <p> + “Look you, boys,” he said, “if I do not return by the beginning of the + rice harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; then + I would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they do not + respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. In such + case, make yourselves a good canoe—a dug-out <i>[FN: Log canoe.]</i> + will do—and go down the lake till you are stopped by the rapids; <i>[FN: + Crook’s Rapids.]</i> make a portage there; but as your craft is too + weighty to carry far, e’en leave her and chop out another, and go down to + the Falls; <i>[FN: Heeley’s Falls, on the Trent.]</i> then, if you do not + like to be at any further trouble, you may make out your journey to the + Bay <i>[FN: Bay Quinte.]</i> on foot, coasting along the river; there you + will fall in with settlers who know old Jacob Morelle—aye, and your + two fathers—and they will put you in the way of returning home. If I + were to try ever so to put you on the old Indian trail in the woods, + though I know it myself right well, you might be lost, and maybe never + return home again. I leave my traps and my rifle with you; I shall not + need them: if I come back I may claim the things; if not, they are yours. + So now I have said my say, had my <i>talk</i>, as the Indians say. + Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who alone can bring this matter to + a safe issue.” And the old man devoutly kneeled down, and prayed for a + blessing on his voyage and on those he was leaving; and then hastened down + to the beach, and the boys, with full hearts, watched the canoe till it + was lost to their sight on the wide waters of the lake. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran.” + DRYDEN. +</pre> + <p> + What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the Indians + roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading town. Those + glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only of them remains + to some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five years ago, + shadowing the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have disappeared, + but the green emerald turf that they once shaded still remains. The wild + rushing river still pours down its resistless spring floods, but its banks + have been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans its rapid waters. It has + seen the destruction of two log-bridges, but this new, substantial, + imposing structure bids fair to stand from generation to generation. The + Indian regards it with stupid wonder: he is no mechanic; his simple canoe + of birch bark is his only notion of communication from one shore to + another. The towns-people and country settlers view it with pride and + satisfaction, as a means of commerce and agricultural advantage. That + lonely hill, from which Catharine viewed the rapid-flowing river by + moonlight, and marvelled at its beauty and its power, is now the + Court-house Hill, the seat of justice for the district,—a fine, + substantial edifice; its shining roof and pillared portico may be seen + from every approach to the town. That grey village spire, with its groves + of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! those trees that embower it, + once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder scattered groups of neat white + cottages, each with its garden of flowers and fruit, are spread over what + was once an open plain, thinly planted with poplar, oaks, and pine. See, + there is another church; and nearer, towards the west end of the town, on + that fine slope, stands another, and another. That sound that falls upon + the ear is not the rapids of the river, but the dash of mill wheels and + mill dams, worked by the waters of that lovely winding brook which has + travelled far through woods and deep forest dingles to yield its tribute + to the Otonabee. There is the busy post-office, on the velvet carpet of + turf; a few years, yes, even a few years ago, that spot was a grove of + trees. The neat log building that stood then alone there, was inhabited by + the Government Agent, now Colonel Macdonald, and groups of Indians might + be seen congregated on the green, or reposing under the trees, forming + meet subjects for the painter’s pencil, for he knew them well, and was + kind to them. + </p> + <p> + The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting + lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple + wares of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe to + sell his fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his + intercourse with his white brethren has made him consider necessary to his + comforts, to supply wants which have now become indispensable, before + undreamed of. He traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks round + upon dwellings, and gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which he can + neither obtain nor imitate; and feels his spirit lowered—he is no + more a people—the tide of intellect has borne him down, and swept + his humble wigwam from the earth. He, too, is changing: he now dwells, for + the most part, in villages, in houses that cannot be moved away at his + will or necessity; he has become a tiller of the ground, his hunting + expeditions are prescribed within narrow bounds, the forest is + disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian must also yield to + circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he murmurs in secret; but his + voice is low, it is not heard; he has no representative in the senate to + take interest in his welfare, to plead in his behalf. He is anxious, too, + for the improvement of his race: he gladly listens to the words of life, + and sees with joy his children being brought up in the fear and nurture of + the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own blood going forth on the + mission of love to other distant tribes; he is proud of being a Christian; + and if there be some that still look back to the freedom of former years, + and talk of “the good old times,” when they wandered free as the winds and + waters through those giant woods, they are fast fading away. A new race is + rising up, and the old hunter will soon become a being unknown in Canada. + </p> + <p> + There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy + bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), + looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. The + Indians called it “the white girl’s rest,” for it was there that Catharine + delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to sing her + snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile’s prayer, + unheard and unseen. + </p> + <p> + The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart + the waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on the + water, the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the lodges + came softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with the + spoils of a successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and + crackling, sending up their light columns of thin blue smoke among the + trees; and now a goodly portion of venison is roasting on the forked + sticks before the fires. Each lodge has its own cooking utensils. That jar + embedded in the hot embers contains sassafras tea, an aromatic beverage, + in which the squaws delight when they are so fortunate as to procure a + supply. This has been brought from the Credit, far up in the west, by a + family who have come down on a special mission from some great chief to + his brethren on the Otonabee, and the squaws have cooked some in honour of + the guests. That pot that sends up such a savoury steam is venison + pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you choose to give the Indian mess + that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and herbs. Those tired hounds + that lay stretched before the fire have been out, and now they enjoy the + privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, and receive withal an + occasional reproof from the squaws, if they approach their wishful noses + too close to the tempting viands. + </p> + <p> + The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls are + playing or rolling on the grass; “The Snow-bird” is seated on the floor of + the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she confines in links + by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine is working + mocassins beside her;—a dark shadow falls across her work from the + open tent door—an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from one + of the women makes Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, silent, + pale, and motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands Indiana—a + gleam of joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. Amazement and + delight at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment deprives Catharine + of the power of speech; then terror for the safety of her friend takes + place of her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of the angry tones of + the Indian woman’s voice, and throws her arms about Indiana as if to + shield her from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome in her arms. + </p> + <p> + “Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?” + </p> + <p> + “To free you, and then die,” was the soft low tremulous answer. “Follow + me.” Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the + young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the + design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating + heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; it + was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor + reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + </p> + <p> + The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude of + submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the lodge; but + she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who starting to + their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from danger, and + sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for what purpose. + </p> + <p> + “To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father,” was the meek reply. + “May the daughter of the Bald Eagle’s enemy speak to her great father?” + </p> + <p> + “Say on,” was the brief reply, “the Bald Eagle’s ears are open.” + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the + father of his people,” replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. “The + Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on.” + </p> + <p> + “The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the + eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief + slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them for + the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of his enemies + save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the grand-daughter of the + Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy that is not afraid to + raise the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in battle. The young girl’s + mother was a <i>brave.”</i> She paused, while her proud eye was fixed on + the face of her aged auditor. He nodded assent, and she resumed, while a + flush of emotion kindled her pale cheek and reddened her lips,— + </p> + <p> + “The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the hatchet + and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her heart was + lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I will revenge + my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her heart burned + within her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, the Great Spirit + was about my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have fled, for an arrow + was in her flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took her, they brought her + down the great river to the council hill, they bound her with thongs and + left her to die. She prayed, and the Great Spirit heard her prayer and + sent her help. The white man came; his heart was soft; he unbound her, he + gave water to cool her hot lips, he led her to his lodge. The white squaw + (and she pointed to Catharine) was there, she bound up her wounds, she + laid her on her own bed, she gave her meat and drink, and tended her with + love. She taught her to pray to the Good Spirit, and told her to return + good for evil, to be true and just, kind and merciful. The hard heart of + the young girl became soft as clay when moulded for the pots and she loved + her white sister and brothers, and was happy. The Bald Eagle’s people came + when my white brothers were at peace, they found a trembling fawn within + the lodge, they led her away, they left tears and loneliness where joy and + peace had been. The Mohawk squaw could not see the hearth of her white + brothers desolate; she took the canoe, she to the lodge of the great + father of his tribe, and she says to him, ‘Give back the white squaw to + her home on the Rice Lake, and take in her instead the rebellious daughter + of the Ojebwa’s enemy, to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the + knife or the tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of + the great chief.’” She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and + bowing down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + </p> + <p> + There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken + well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall be + restored to her brother’s lodge—but thou remainest. I have spoken.” + </p> + <p> + Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and + remained weeping—how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in + her turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief + turned a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was weary—he + was impatient of further excitement—he coldly motioned to them to + withdraw; and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all that had + taken place since that sad day when Catharine was taken from her home. + While her heart was joyful at the prospect of her own release, it was + clouded with fears for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + </p> + <p> + “They will condemn me to a cruel death,” said Indiana, “but I can suffer + and die for my white sister.” + </p> + <p> + That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside Catharine; + but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own heart in the + still watches of the night—it seemed as if a new life had been + infused within her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; the + energies of her mind had been awakened, ripened into maturity as it were, + and suddenly expanded. When all the inmates of the lodges were profoundly + sleeping, Catharine arose,—a sudden thought had entered into her + mind, and she hesitated not to put her design into execution. There was no + moon, but a bright arch of light spanned the forest to the north; it was + mild and soft as moonlight, but less bright, and cast no shadow across her + path; it showed her the sacred tent of the widow of the murdered Mohawk. + With noiseless step she lifted aside the curtain of skins that guarded it, + and stood at the entrance. Light as was her step, it awakened the sleeper; + she raised herself on her arm and looked up with a dreamy and abstracted + air as Catharine, stretching forth her hand in tones low and tremulous, + thus addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:— + </p> + <p> + “The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of + thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he is + angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy—the blood of thy + murdered husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words + that he commands.” + </p> + <p> + She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless step, + and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat as though it + would burst its way through her bosom. What had she done?—what + dared? She had entered the presence of that terrible woman alone, at the + dead hour of night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous words to that + strange being whom even her own people hardly dared to approach + uncalled-for! Sick with terror at the consequences of her temerity, + Catharine cast her trembling arms about the sleeping Indian girl, and + hiding her head in her bosom, wept and prayed till sleep came over her + wearied spirit. It was late when she awoke. She was alone: the lodge was + empty. A vague fear seized her: she hastily arose to seek her friend. It + was evident that some great event was in preparation. The Indian men had + put on the war-paint, and strange and ferocious eyes were glancing from + beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was driven in the centre of the + cleared space in front of the chief’s lodge: there, bound, she beheld her + devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm unshaken countenance, she + stood. There was no sign of woman’s fear in her fixed dark eye, which + quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men who stood round her, + armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. Her thoughts seemed far + away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, wandering in that happy + land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; or, inspired with the new + hope which had been opened to her, she was looking to Him who has promised + a crown of life to such as believe in His name. She saw not the look of + agony with which Catharine regarded her; and the poor girl, full of grief, + sunk down at the foot of a neighbouring tree, and burying her face between + her knees, wept and prayed—oh! how fervently! A hope crept to her + heart—even while the doom of Indiana seemed darkest—that some + good might yet accrue from her visit to the wigwam of the Great Medicine + squaw. She knew that the Indians have great belief in omens, and warnings, + and spirits, both good and evil; she knew that her mysterious appearance + in the tent of the Mohawk’s widow would be construed by her into spiritual + agency; and her heart was strengthened by this hope. Yet just now there + seems little reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is given, the + war-dance is begun—first slow, and grave, and measured; now louder, + and quicker, and more wild become both sound and movement. But why is it + hushed again? See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an old + weather-beaten man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and + approaches the area of the lodge. + </p> + <p> + The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and death-song + are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance of the captives. + The chief points to Catharine—she is free: his white brother may + take her—she is his. But the Indian law of justice must take its + course; the condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa chief, must + die. In vain were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and beads for the + women, with powder and shot, laid before the chief: the arrows of six + warriors were fitted to the string, and again the dance and song + commenced, as if, like the roll of the drum and clangour of the trumpet, + it were necessary to the excitement of strong and powerful feelings, and + the suppression of all tenderer emotions. + </p> + <p> + And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, rising + above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek became + pale: it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the death-song + of the captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she stands + unmoved, with eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “In still, but brave despair.” + </pre> + <p> + Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and + streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of + the Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed + by her sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which + dark stains are visible—it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed + by her on that day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the + name of the Great Spirit she claims the captive girl—the last of + that devoted tribe—to be delivered over to her will. Her right to + this remnant of her murdered husband’s family is acknowledged. A knife is + placed in her hand, while a deafening yell of triumph bursts from the + excited squaws, as this their great high-priestess, as they deemed her, + advanced to the criminal. But it was not to shed the heart’s blood of the + Mohawk girl, but to severe the thongs that bound her to the deadly stake, + for which that glittering blade was drawn, and to bid her depart in peace + whithersoever she would go. + </p> + <p> + Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: “At the dead of + night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before mine + eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set free the + last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed by my hand + and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I did this my + path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the better land + and be at rest if I did this good deed.” She then laid her hands on the + head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping herself in the dark + mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent once more. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie.”—<i>Scotch Ballad.</i> +</pre> + <p> + Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so full + of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa chief, and + besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before him, and + this time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing the beads + and cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the + grand-daughter of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old + man was not insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by the + devoted Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault by + graciously offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in marriage + to one of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but the young + girl modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her heart + yearned for those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who had + taught her to look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and a + better state of being. She said, “She would go with her white sister, and + pray to God to bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her to + do.” + </p> + <p> + It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the exercise + of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social happiness. + The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of violence, + seemed disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge was now + filled with mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and dancing. A + covenant of peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob and the + chief, who bade Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth they + should be free to hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of the lake, + whenever they desired to do so, “he the Bald Eagle had said so.” + </p> + <p> + On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; the + canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A supply + of parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian chief for + the voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might not suffer, + from want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to the lodge of + the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. “The Snow-bird” was + sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with tears at parting + with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft and playful as the + tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her arm. She did not let + Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, the work of her own + hands,—bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung + in fanciful patterns, <i>[FN: Appendix M]</i> mocassins richly wrought, + and tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have graced a lady’s + work-table, so rare was their workmanship. + </p> + <p> + Just as they were about to step into the canoe “the Snow-bird” reappeared, + bearing a richly worked bark box, “From the Great Medicine,” she said in a + low voice, “To the daughter of the Mohawk <i>brave.</i>” The box contained + a fine tunic, soft as a lady’s glove, embroidered and fringed, and a + fillet of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings and breast of the + war-bird, as shoulder ornaments. It was a token of reconciliation and + good-will worthy of a generous heart. + </p> + <p> + The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips + reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said in + her native tongue, “Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, and + pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the + spirit-land.” + </p> + <p> + With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in + being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the + events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she + longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to that + kind old man’s plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the arms of + their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that I had + wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!—in the + shelter of that dear mother’s arms whom she now pined for with a painful + yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. But in + spite of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt for the + night some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern bank of the + Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild cherries, hawthorns + and pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by alder and cranberry + bushes, works its way below the shoulder of the little eminence; this + creek grows broader and becomes a little stream, through which the hunters + sometimes paddle their canoes, as a short cut to the lower part of the + lake near Crook’s Rapids. To this creek old Jacob steered his light craft, + and bidding the girls collect a few dry sticks and branches for an evening + fire on the sheltered side of the little bank, he soon lighted the pile + into a cheerful blaze by the aid of birch bark, the hunter’s tinder—a + sort of fungus that is found in the rotten oak and maple-trees—and a + knife and flint; he then lifted the canoe, and having raised it on its + side, by means of two small stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then + spread down his buffalo robe on the dry grass. “There is a tent fit for a + queen to sleep under, mes chères filles,” he said, eyeing his arrangements + for their night shelter with great satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of + splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block + of limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob opened + his wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush table with + large basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed was unusual + on a hunter’s table. He was too old a forester to care how his food was + dished, so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + </p> + <p> + Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away the + time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue heavens were + studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless hosts deep + deep down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of fireflies + lighted up the dark recesses of the forest’s gloom. High in the upper air + the hollow booming of the night-hawk was heard at intervals, and the wild + cry of the night-owl from a dead branch, shouting to its fellow, woke the + silence of that lonely river scene. + </p> + <p> + The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe or + hummed some French voyageur’s song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe + soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed on + the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair mingling + with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a lovely pair—one + fair as morning, the other dark as night. + </p> + <p> + How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early song + of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes upon + the river, like a flock of sheep at rest—the tinkling sound of the + heavy dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red + squirrel, how lightly he runs along that fallen trunk—how furtively + he glances with his sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan + haunts! Hark! there is a rustling among the leaves—what strange + creature works its way to the shore? A mud turtle—it turns, and now + is trotting along the little sandy ridge to some sunny spot, where, half + buried, it may lie unseen near the edge of the river. See that musk-rat, + how boldly he plunges into the stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems + the current till he gains in safety the sedges on the other side. + </p> + <p> + What gurgling sound is that?—it attracts the practised ear of the + old hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle + of the stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?—it is a + noble stag. Look at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so + gallantly; see how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear in + those lonely solitudes—he has never heard the crack of the hunter’s + rifle—he heeds not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow + rankles in his neck, and the crimson flood dyes the water around him—he + turns, but it is only to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old + hunter’s bow; and now the noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is + rapidly launched by the hand of the Indian girl—her eye flashes with + the excitement—her whole soul is in the chase—she stands up in + the canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded buck, while a shower of + blows are dealt upon his head and neck with the paddle. Catharine buries + her face in her hands—she cannot bear to look upon the sufferings of + the noble animal. She will never make a huntress—her heart is cast + in too soft a mould. See they have towed the deer ashore, and Jacob is in + all his glory,—the little squaw is an Indian at heart—see with + what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great business is + completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the canoe—they + wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine’s summons to eat her + breakfast. + </p> + <p> + The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is also + rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those glorious + rays—the whole earth seems wakening into new life—the dew has + brightened every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup—the pines and + balsams give out their resinous fragrance—the aspens flutter and + dance in the morning breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the + stream—the shores become lower and flatter—the trees less + lofty and more mossy—the stream expands and wide beds of rushes + spread out on either side—what beds of snowy water-lilies—how + splendid the rose tint of those perseicarias that glow so brightly in the + morning sun—the rushes look like a green meadow, but the treacherous + water lies deep below their grassy leaves—the deer delights in these + verdant aquatic fields, and see what flocks of red-wings rise from among + them as the canoe passes near—their bright shoulder-knots glance + like flashes of lightning in the sun-beams. + </p> + <p> + This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, + half choked and killed with grey moss and lichens—those straggling + alders and black ash look melancholy—they are like premature old + age, grey-headed youths. That island divides the channel of the river—the + old man takes the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the broad + Rice Lake, and Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the shanty + rising among the trees—one after another the islands steal out into + view—the capes, and bays, and shores of the northern side are + growing less distinct, Yon hollow bay, where the beaver has hidden till + now, backed by that bold sweep of hills that look in the distance as if + only covered with green ferns, with here and there a tall tree, stately as + a pine or oak—that is the spot where Louis saw the landing of the + Indians—now a rising village—Gores’ Landing. On yon lofty hill + now stands the village church, its white tower rising amongst the trees + forms a charming object from the lake, and there a little higher up, not + far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural cottages—one of + these belong to the spirited proprietor of the village that bears his + name. That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the right, is + Colonel Brown’s, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; but + silence and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + </p> + <p> + Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of + churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. <i>[FN: Appendix N.]</i> The + Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, + and Catharine’s eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to + herself the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her + gladness she seizes the old man’s rugged hand and kisses it, and flings + her arms about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the + canoe has touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds + herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such moments—how + few we have in life—they are created from our very sorrows—without + our cares our joys would be less lively; but we have no time to moralize—Catharine + flies with the speed of a young fawn, to climb the steep cliff-like + shoulder of that steep bank, and now, out of breath, stands at the + threshold of her log-house—how neat and nice it looks compared with + the Indians’ tents—the little field of corn is green and flourishing—there + is Hector’s axe in a newly-cut log—it is high noon—the boys + ought to have been there taking their mid-day meal, but the door is shut. + Catharine lifts the wooden latch, and steps in—the embers are nearly + burned out, to a handful of grey ashes—old Wolfe is not there—all + is silent—and Catharine sits down to still the beating of her heart + and await the coming up of her slower companions, and gladdens her mind + with the hope that her brother and Louis will soon be home—her eye + wanders over every old familiar object—all things seem much as she + had left them, only the maize is in the ear and the top feather waves + gracefully with the summer breeze—it promises an abundant crop; but + that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the young planters—it + was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field—to + those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather into barns, for + their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls busied themselves + in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked away over the hills + to search for the boys, and it was not long before he returned with Hector + and Louis. + </p> + <p> + I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled with + the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved cousin; or I + might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky cheek of the young + Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black eyes, owed its origin + to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by her white brother. Nor + will we say whose hand held hers so long in his while Catharine related + the noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the perils encountered by the + devoted Indiana—whose eyes were moistened with tears as the horrors + of that fearful trial were described—or who stole out alone over the + hills, and sat him down in the hush and silence of the summer night to + think of the acts of heroism displayed by that untaught Indian girl, and + to dream a dream of youthful love; but with these things, my young + readers, we have nothing to do. + </p> + <p> + “And now, my children,” said old Jacob, looking round the little dwelling, + “have you made up your minds to live and die here on the shores of this + lake, or do you desire again to behold your father’s home? Do your young + hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?” “After our fathers’ + home!” was Louis’s emphatic reply. “After the home of our childhood!” was + Catharine’s earnest answer. Hector’s lips echoed his sister’s words, while + a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan stranger; but her timid eye + was raised to his young face with a trusting look, as she would have said. + “Thy home shall be my home, thy God my God.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike the + Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine hills. It + will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way.” + </p> + <p> + “For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret,” said + Hector. “It would be a glorious place for a settlement—all that one + could desire—hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I + will try and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come and + settle hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, + especially now we are friends with the Indians.” + </p> + <p> + With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young folks + laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, packed up + such portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with full hearts + sat down to take their last meal in their home—in that home which + sheltered them so long—and then, with one accord, they knelt down + upon its hearth, so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer + to Him who had preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and then + they journeyed forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, + however, of their little band they left behind: this was the faithful old + dog Wolfe. He had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only a few + days before Catharine’s return he had crept to the seat she was wont to + occupy, and there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without great + regret, beneath the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope near the + corn-field. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I will arise, and go to my father.”—<i>New Testament</i>. +</pre> + <p> + It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is heard, + as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads to Maxwell and + Louis Perron’s little clearing; the dark shadows are lengthening that + those wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an oasis in the vast + forest desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, has hewed for himself + in the wilderness. The little flock are feeding among the blackened stumps + of the uncleared chopping; those timbers have lain thus untouched for two + long years; the hand was wanting that should have given help in logging + and burning them up. The wheat is ripe for the sickle, and the silken + beard of the corn is waving like a fair girl’s tresses in the evening + breeze. The tinkling fall of the cold spring in yonder bank falls + soothingly on the ear. Who comes from that low-roofed log cabin to bring + in the pitcher of water, that pale, careworn, shadowy figure that slowly + moves along the green pasture, as one without hope or joy; her black hair + is shared with silver, her cheek is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, + it looks as though the light might be seen through if she held it towards + the sun? It is the heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. + Her heart has been pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the + children of her love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, + and with cheerful voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be + lingering on that pale cheek,—yet the premature furrows on that + broad, sunburnt, manly brow speak, too, of inward care? It is the father + of Hector and Catharine. Those two fine, healthy boys, in homespun + blouses, that are talking so earnestly, as they lean across the rail fence + of the little wheat field, are Kenneth and Donald; their sickles are on + their arms; they have been reaping. They hear the sudden barking of Bruce + and Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see what causes the agitation they + display. + </p> + <p> + An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he casts + down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old French + ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, but + starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. “Ha, + Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this way.” + The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “How is ma chère mère, and the young ones?” asked the old man, in a husky + voice—his kind heart was full. “Can you receive me, and those I have + with me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we + travellers in the bush are no wise nice.” + </p> + <p> + “The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see you, + Jacob. How many are ye in all?” + </p> + <p> + “There are just four, beside myself,—young people; I found them + where they had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to + come with me.” + </p> + <p> + The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew his + faded blue bonnet over his eyes. “Jacob, did ye ken that we lost our + eldest bairns, some three summers since?” he faltered, in a broken voice. + </p> + <p> + “The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand,” + said the trapper. + </p> + <p> + “Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the glory,” + ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from his head; + “and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not to have seen + this day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill you.” + </p> + <p> + In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken idea + that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, have + seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded cheek + of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright + sparkle, you would have said that joy does not kill. + </p> + <p> + “But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?” + </p> + <p> + Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old + Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his + cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his + father’s cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and + sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector and + Catharine to their father. + </p> + <p> + “But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart upon + that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het knees, her + long raven hair shading her features as with a veil,” asked the Highlander + Maxwell, pointing as he spoke’ to the spot where, unnoticed and unsharing + in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian girl. There was no paternal + embrace for her, no tender mother’s kiss imprinted on that dusky cheek and + pensive brow—she was alone and desolate, in the midst of that scene + of gladness. + </p> + <p> + “It is my Indian sister,” said Catharine, “she also must be your child;” + and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the + reluctant girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and + cherish the young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + </p> + <p> + I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble dwelling, + or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of their lost + brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + </p> + <p> + Time passes on—years, long years have gone by since the return of + the lost children to their homes, and many changes have those years + effected. The log-houses have fallen to decay—a growth of young + pines, a waste of emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part + of the enclosure, now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement—no + trace or record remains of the first breakers of the bush, another race + occupy the ground. The traveller as he passes along on that smooth + turnpike road that leads from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence to + Gore’s Landing, may notice a green waste by the road-side on either hand, + and fancy that thereabouts our Canadian Crusoes’ home once stood—he + sees the lofty wood-crowned hill, and sees in spring-time, for in summer + it is hidden by the luxuriant foliage, the little forest creek, and he may + if thirsty, taste of the pure fresh icy water, as it still wells out from + a spring in the steep bank, rippling through the little cedar-trough that + Louis Perron placed there for the better speed of his mother when filling + her water jug. All else is gone. And what wrought the change?—a few + words will suffice to tell. Some travelling fur merchants brought the news + to Donald Maxwell, that a party of Highlanders had made a settlement above + Montreal, and among them were some of his kindred. The old soldier + resolved to join them, and it was not hard to prevail upon his + brother-in-law to accompany him, for they were all now weary of living so + far from their fellow-men; and bidding farewell to the little log-houses + at Cold Springs, they now journeyed downwards to the new settlement, where + they were gladly received, their long experience of the country making + their company a most valuable acquisition to the new colonists. + </p> + <p> + Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and + cleared and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, now a + fine industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a candidate + for baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the altar his newly + baptized bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not sufficiently skilled + in the laws of their church to tell how the difficulty of nearness of kin + was obviated, but they were married on the same day as Hector and Indiana, + and lived a happy and prosperous life; and often by their fireside would + delight their children by recounting the history of their wanderings on + the Rice Lake Plains. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEa" id="link2H_APPEa"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX A.—<i>Preface.</i> + </h2> + <h3> + Page vii. + </h3> + <p> + Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of + August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent + twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her + wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from + which we condense the following statements:— + </p> + <p> + It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, she + went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on attempting + to return she became separated from her companions, who returned to her + mother’s, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her at home. Several of + her neighbours searched for her during the night, without success. The + search was continued during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, by some fifty or + sixty individuals, and although her tracks, and those of a dog which + accompanied her, were discovered, no tidings of the girl were obtained. A + general sympathy for the afflicted widow and her lost daughter was + excited, and notwithstanding the busy season of the year, great numbers + from Windsor and the neighbouring townships of Brompton, Shipton, + Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Stoke, and Dudswell, + turned out with provisions and implements for camping in the woods, in + search of the girl, which was kept up without intermission for about + fourteen days, when it was generally given up, under the impression that + she must have died, either from starvation, or the inclemency of the + weather, it having rained almost incessantly for nearly a week of the + time. On the 3lst her brother returned home from Massachusetts, and with + two or three others renewed the search, but returned the second day, and + learned to their great joy that the lost one had found her way home the + evening previous. + </p> + <p> + On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow + Campbell, to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was + found, as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but + quite rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her + absence. From her story the following particulars were gathered:— + </p> + <p> + When first lost she went directly from home down “Open Brooke,” to a + meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, which + she mistook for what is called the “<i>Oxias</i> opening,” a mile distant + in the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she was lost, + and having heard that lost persons might be guided by the sun, she + undertook to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she directed + her steps towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking it for + “Open Brooke,” and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east + direction (her way home was due north) seven or eight miles till she came + to the great Hay-meadow in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, and on + Monday morning directed her course to, and thence down, the South Branch + in the great Meadow. + </p> + <p> + After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was + searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over the + meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, + occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the + junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight + miles from home. + </p> + <p> + For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a + circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the + morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties of + men, and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of people + were in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no sound of + trumpet, or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay by a + brook, early on Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. + Thinking the gun to have been fired not more than half a mile distant, she + said she “screamed and run” to the place from whence she supposed the + noise came, but found nothing. Early in the day, however, she came to the + camp where this gun was fired, but not until after its occupants had left + to renew their search for her. This camp was about four miles from the + great meadow, where she spent the Sabbath previous. There she found a + fire, dried her clothes, and found a partridge’s gizzard, which she cooked + and ate, and laid down and slept, remaining about twenty-four hours. + </p> + <p> + In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she + visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon + trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or + four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes + making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the + drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered + much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The last + week she said she had got “toughened,” and did not shiver. When first lost + she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, except + choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her dog, which + remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, which she ate + greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her health; and for the + last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood sorrel. While the dog + remained with her, she constantly shared her food with him, but said she + was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble to find him food. + </p> + <p> + On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction with + the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could not + ford the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a + little above its junction with the south branch, and following down the + stream, she found herself in the clearing, near Moor’s Mill. Thence + directing her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale’s, about a mile + from her mother’s, at six o’clock, having walked five miles in two hours, + and probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the next + day, when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost as one + raised from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen and + lacerated; but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with the + exception of two small rents. + </p> + <p> + Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she + was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she felt + disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not discovering + any new tracks, that the people had given over searching for her, she was + greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she was strongly inclined + to give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of seeing her mother + stimulated her to make one more effort to reach home, which proved + successful. When visited, she was in a state of feverish excitement and + general derangement of the system, and greatly emaciated, with a feeble + voice, but perfectly sane and collected. + </p> + <p> + It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly clad, + could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such severe + storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very strange that + she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those in search of + her, sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow their tracks home, + and not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or been seen by any of + the hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + </p> + <p> + A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, is + the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American + papers, the “Wild Man of the far West.” From time to time, these details + approach the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in a + state of destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this one, + who, for nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, and + then either forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of the + beholder’s brain. But it appears that he was, in March, 1850, encountered + by Mr. Hamilton, of Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. The wild man + was, likewise, chasing his prey. A herd of cattle fled past Mr. Hamilton + and his party, in an agony of terror, pursued by a giant, bearing a + dreadful semblance to humanity. His face and shoulders were enveloped with + long streaming hair, his body was entirely hirsute, his progression was by + great jumps of twelve or thirteen feet at a leap. The creature turned and + gazed earnestly on the hunters, and fled into the depths of the forest, + where he was lost to view. His foot-prints were thirteen inches long. Mr. + Hamilton published the description of the savage man in the <i>Memphis + Inquirer</i>. Afterwards several planters deposed to having, at times, for + many years, seen this appearance. All persons generally agreed that it was + a child that had been lost in the woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now + grown to meridian strength, in a solitary state. Thus the possibility of + an European child living, even unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar + to the inhabitants of the vast American continent. Although we doubt that + any human creature would progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar + to the human instinct. It is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas + is, in reality, some species of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEb" id="link2H_APPEb"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX B. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 72.—<i>“where Wolf Tower now stands.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to + purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a + <i>belle vue,</i> or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his + mind from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him + to the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another + house in the district. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEc" id="link2H_APPEc"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX C. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 113.—<i>“... as civilization advances.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, + wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, + and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the + ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is a + thing of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, so changed + is this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow cornfields now + meet the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to the less + frequented depths of the forest. + </p> + <p> + From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep valleys, + and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the Rice Lake + Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be marred by + the hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; and many of + those who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste and + refinement, who delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature had + left so fair. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEd" id="link2H_APPEd"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX D. Page 157, <i>note</i>. + </h2> + <p> + “I will now,” says our Indian historian, “narrate a single circumstance + which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were + often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had + to travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we + left Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as + Belmont Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father on his + ground. The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen over, we + left the canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour and pork; + and when we had gone further north, say about sixty miles from the white + settlements, for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for five days in + succession, to such a depth, that it was impossible to shoot or trap + anything; our provisions were exhausted, and we had no means of procuring + any more. Here we were, the snow about five feet deep, our wigwam buried, + the branches of the trees falling all about us, and cracking with the + weight of the snow. + </p> + <p> + “Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have + been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, + that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak they + could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They could + only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and old + mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad + except my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without food, + the only ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my + grandmother, my sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see the + starving Indians lying about the wigwam with hungry and eager looks!—the + children would cry for something to eat! My poor mother would heave bitter + sighs, of despair, the tears falling profusely from her cheeks as she + kissed us! Wood, though in plenty, could not be obtained on account of the + feebleness of our limbs. My father would at times draw near the fire and + rehearse some prayer to the gods. It appeared to him that there was no way + of escape; the men, women, and children, dying; some of them were + speechless, the wigwam was cold and dark, and covered with snow! + </p> + <p> + “On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; + he soon awoke, and said to me: ‘My son, the good Spirit is about to bless + us this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east walking on + the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two beavers about nine + o’clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me to the river, and we + will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.’ I saw that his countenance + beamed with delight and hope; he was full of confidence. I put on my + mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering along behind him about + half a mile. Having made a fire near the river, where there was an + air-hole through which the beaver had come up during the night, my father + tied a gun to a stump with the muzzle towards the air-hole; he also tied a + string to the trigger, and said, ‘Should you see the beaver rise pull the + string, and you will kill it.’ I stood by the fire, with the string in my + hand; I soon heard the noise occasioned by the blow of his tomahawk; he + had killed a beaver and brought it to me. As he laid it down, he said, + ‘Then the great Spirit will not let us die here;’ adding, as before, ‘if + you see the beaver rise, pull the string;’ and he left me. I soon saw the + nose of one, but I did not shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the + trigger, and off the gun went. I could not see for some moments for the + smoke. My father ran towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side + by side; then, pointing to the sun,—‘Do you see the sun?’ he said; + ‘the great Spirit informed me that we should kill these two about this + time in the morning. We will yet see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let + us go home, and see if our people are yet alive.’ We arrived just in time + to save them from death. Since which we have visited the same spot the + year the missionaries came among us. + </p> + <p> + “My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot where + we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who have + perished in this way far up in the woods.”—<i>Life of George Copway, + written by himself</i>, p. 44. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEe" id="link2H_APPEe"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX E. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 184.—“<i>... on first deciding that it was a canoe.</i>” + </h3> + <p> + The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel in + common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was + hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; + but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its + excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, and + its launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by + feasting and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. + Possibly the birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily + constructed, and needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; but + it was too frail to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable to + injuries. + </p> + <p> + The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland + waters, were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their + arrow-heads were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and + inserted in a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; and + blunt wooden ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and small + game. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEf" id="link2H_APPEf"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX F. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 195.—<i>“... the Christian mind revolts with horror.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong feeling + in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a concentration of all + the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and wide along the northern + banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, to be called by one name, + and united in one purpose—their general improvement. To this end, + one of the most influential of their chiefs, John Jones, of Dover Sound, + offered to give up to his Indian brethren, free of all cost, a large tract + of unceded land, that they might be gathered together as one nation. + </p> + <p> + In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from + lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it was + proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys could + be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for aid in + establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general feeling + of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at Owen’s Sound. + At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + </p> + <p> + There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of the + oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers some + idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:— + </p> + <p> + “Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from + the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your + children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that + require you here. + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our + present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of + ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at a + true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and our + descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of peace, + health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas and + Ottawas are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often passed + sleepless nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These nations, + I am proud to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my bone; and for + them, if needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. Brothers, you see + my heart.” <i>[Here he held out a piece of white paper, emblematical of a + pure heart.]</i> + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout + Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place <i>[query, + too hot to hold you]</i>. The whites are kindling fires all round you <i>[i.e. + clearing land]</i>. + </p> + <p> + “One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some + plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that our + dying fires may not go out, <i>i.e.</i> our people become extinct, but may + be kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any portion + of the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe of peace, + and live and die together, and see our children play and be reared on the + same spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and because we love you, + and feel for you, we propose this. + </p> + <p> + “My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning” <i>[the speaker now pointed + with his finger towards the heavens]</i>, “look up and see the blue sky: + there are no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, + that when the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon + them. May he now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and + straight path for our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but this + morning I shake hands with you all, in my heart. + </p> + <p> + “Brothers, this is all I have to say.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEg" id="link2H_APPEg"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX G. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 213.—<i>“... and aimed a knife at his throat”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some sixty + or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my + informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as + those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men. My + Indian narrator replied—“Indians, no Christians in those days, do + worse than that very few years ago,—do as bad now in far-west.” + </p> + <p> + The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together + in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. The + conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from the Wesleyan + Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of Captain Anderson, + whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore on and about + Anderson’s Point, the renowned site of the great battle. The war-weapon + and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be found in this + vicinity. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEh" id="link2H_APPEh"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX H. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 232.—<i>“This place she called Spooke Island”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from + the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their + dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with + reverence. Now famous for two things, <i>picnics</i> and <i>poison ivy, + rhus toxicodendron,</i>—many persons having suffered for their + temerity in landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural + festivities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEi" id="link2H_APPEi"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX I. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 253.—<i>“and nothing but fire.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with which + fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. Certainly, + there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the Indian names, + approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of the language of + the East; such is “Mad-wa-osh,” the music of the winds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEk" id="link2H_APPEk"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX K. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 272.—<i>“but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + <i>From George Copway’s Life.</i> + </p> + <p> + Converted Indians are thus described in the “Life” of their literary + countryman, George Copway:— + </p> + <p> + <i>Chippewas of the River Credit.</i>—These Indians are the remnant + of a tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome + and Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part + for an annuity of 532<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> reserving only certain small + tracts at the River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they + were the first tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 + they were wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his + brother, the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted + to Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, + became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state of + heathenism and spiritual destitution. They collected a considerable number + together, and by rote and frequent repetitions, taught the first + principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and + with the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed + to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils + attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to + work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage of + cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been + greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians. + </p> + <p> + J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Chippewas of Alnwick</i> were converted in 1826-7 They were + wandering pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and + Gannoyne, commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quintè; they resided + on Grape Island, in the Bay of Quintè, six miles from Belleville. They + resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. + Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan + Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious + chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker’s shop + and joiner’s. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians. + </p> + <p> + The chiefs are—Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary + interpreter. + </p> + <p> + <i>Rice Lake Chippewas</i>.—In 1818 the greater part of the + Newcastle and Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940<i>l</i>. + These Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and + settled in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. + <i>[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of + the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,—In the year + 1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson’s Point was built + and cultivated.]</i> The settlement is on the north side of the lake, + twelve miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 + acres, subdivided in 50-acre lots. + </p> + <p> + Chiefs—Pondash, Copway, Crow. + </p> + <p> + Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The + Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of + them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, + enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEl" id="link2H_APPEl"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX L. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 282.—<i>“... that an outward manifestation of surprise.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent + intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their + apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he + wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where + several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and + narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of surprise + by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired to an + adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and was amused + at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free from his + surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious toy like a + parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture and amazement, but + they did not choose to be entrapped into showing surprise. This perfect + command over the muscles of the face, and the glance of the eye, is one of + the remarkable traits in the Indian character. The expression of the + Indian face, if I may use so paradoxical a term, consists in a want of + expression—like the stillness of dark deep water, beneath which no + object is visible. + </p> +<p> + <a name="link2H_APPEm" id="link2H_APPEm"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<h2>APPENDIX M.</h2> + + <p> + Page 332.—<i>“bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and + strung in fanciful patterns.”</i> + </p> + <p> + The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply + scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian thorn, + a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then pierced with + parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the porcupine quills are + inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the surface of the bark. + </p> + <p> + The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the + effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; + their attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and + angular; and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or + natural than those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect + produced is rich and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety of + dyes they contrive to give to this simple material, the porcupine quills. + The sinew of the deer, and some other animals, furnish the Indian women + with thread, of any degree of fineness or strength. The wants of these + simple folk are few, and those easily supplied by the adaptation of such + materials as they can command with ease, in their savage state. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEn" id="link2H_APPEn"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX N. + </h2> + <h3> + Page 339.—<i>“is Mount Ararat.”</i> + </h3> + <p> + Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly + two years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +***** This file should be named 8382-h.htm or 8382-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/3/8/8382/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Canadian Crusoes + +Author: Catherine Parr Traill + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8382] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + +A Tale + +of + +THE RICE LAKE PLAINS. + +CATHARINE PARR TRAIL, + +AUTHORESS OF "THE BACKWOODS OF CANADA, ETC." + +EDITED BY AGNES STRICKLAND. + +ILLUSTRATED BY HARVEY. + +LONDON: + +ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO. + +25, PATERNOSTER ROW. + +1852. DEDICATED + +TO THE CHILDREN OF THE SETTLERS + +ON + +THE RICE LAKE PLAINS, + +BY THEIR + +FAITHFUL FRIEND AND WELL-WISHER + +THE AUTHORESS. + +OAKLANDS, RICE LAKE, + +15_th Oct_ 1850 PREFACE + +IT will be acknowledged that human sympathy irresistibly responds to any +narrative, founded on truth, which graphically describes the struggles of +isolated human beings to obtain the aliments of life. The distinctions +of pride and rank sink into nought, when the mind is engaged in the +contemplation of the inevitable consequences of the assaults of the gaunt +enemies, cold and hunger. Accidental circumstances have usually given +sufficient experience of their pangs, even to the most fortunate, to make +them own a fellow-feeling with those whom the chances of shipwreck, war, +wandering, or revolutions have cut off from home and hearth, and the +requisite supplies; not only from the thousand artificial comforts which +civilized society classes among the necessaries of life, but actually from +a sufficiency of "daily bread." + +Where is the man, woman, or child who has not sympathized with the poor +seaman before the mast, Alexander Selkirk, typified by the genius of Defoe +as his inimitable Crusoe, whose name (although one by no means uncommon +in middle life in the east of England,) has become synonymous for all who +build and plant in a wilderness, "cut off from humanity's reach?" Our +insular situation has chiefly drawn the attention of the inhabitants of +Great Britain to casualties by sea, and the deprivations of individuals +wrecked on some desert coast; but it is by no means generally known that +scarcely a summer passes over the colonists in Canada, without losses of +children from the families of settlers occurring in the vast forests of the +backwoods, similar to that on which the narrative of the Canadian Crusoes +is founded. Many persons thus lost have perished in the wilderness; and it +is to impress on the memory the natural resources of this country, by the +aid of interesting the imagination, that the author of the well-known and +popular work, "The Backwoods of Canada," has written the following pages. + +She has drawn attention, in the course of this volume, to the practical +solution [Footnote: See Appendix A; likewise p. 310.] of that provoking +enigma, which seems to perplex all anxious wanderers in an unknown land, +namely, that finding themselves, at the end of a day's toilsome march, +close to the spot from which they set out in the morning, and that this +cruel accident will occur for days in succession. The escape of Captain +O'Brien from his French prison at Verdun, detailed with such spirit in his +lively autobiography, offers remarkable instances of this propensity of the +forlorn wanderer in a strange land. A corresponding incident is recorded in +the narrative of the "Escape of a young French Officer from the dept near +Peterborough during the Napoleon European war." He found himself thrice at +night within sight of the walls of the prison from which he had fled in the +morning, after taking fruitless circular walks of twenty miles. I do +not recollect the cause of such lost labour being explained in either +narrative; perhaps the more frequent occurrence of the disaster in the +boundless backwoods of the Canadian colonies, forced knowledge, dearly +bought, on the perceptions of the settlers. Persons who wander without +knowing the features and landmarks of a country, instinctively turn their +faces to the sun, and for that reason always travel in a circle, infallibly +finding themselves at night in the very spot from which they started in +the morning. The resources and natural productions of the noble colony of +Canada are but superficially known. An intimate acquaintance with its rich +vegetable and animal productions is most effectually made under the high +pressure of difficulty and necessity. Our writer has striven to interest +children, or rather young people approaching the age of adolescence, in the +natural history of this country, simply by showing them how it is possible +for children to make the best of it when thrown into a state of destitution +as forlorn as the wanderers on the Rice Lake Plains. Perhaps those who +would not care for the berry, the root, and the grain, as delineated and +classified technically in books of science, might remember their uses +and properties when thus brought practically before their notice as the +aliments of the famishing fellow-creature, with whom their instinctive +feelings must perforce sympathies. When parents who have left home comforts +and all the ties of gentle kindred for the dear sakes of their rising +families, in order to place them in a more independent position, it is well +if those young minds are prepared with some knowledge of what they are to +find in the adopted country; the animals, the flowers, the fruits, and even +the minuter blessings which a bountiful Creator has poured forth over that +wide land. + +The previous work of my sister, Mrs. Traill, "The Backwoods of Canada, by +the Wife of an Emigrant Officer," published some years since by Mr. C. +Knight, in his Library of Useful Knowledge, has passed through many +editions, and enjoyed, (anonymous though it was,) too wide a popularity as +a standard work for me to need to dwell on it, further than to say that +the present is written in the same _nave_, charming style, with the +same modesty and uncomplaining spirit, although much has the sweet and +gentle--author endured, as every English lady must expect to do who +ventures to encounter the lot of a colonist. She has now devoted her +further years of experience as a settler to the information of the +younger class of colonists, to open their minds and interest them in the +productions of that rising country, which will one day prove the mightiest +adjunct of the island empire; our nearest, our soundest colony, unstained +with the corruption of convict population; where families of gentle blood +need fear no real disgrace in their alliance; where no one need beg, and +where any one may dig without being ashamed. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. + +LOUIS CONFESSING HIS DECEPTION OF CATHARINE + +THE FIRST BREAKFAST + +CATHARINE FOUND BY THE OLD DOG + +WOLF FINDING THE WOUNDED DOE + +HECTOR BRINGING THE INDIAN GIRL + +KILLING WILD FOWL + +INDIAN WOMAN AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT + +CATHARINE CARRIED OFF + +INDIANA BEFORE THE BALD EAGLE + +INDIANA AT THE STAKE + +ATTACK ON THE DEER + +RETURN HOME THE + +CANADIAN CRUSOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "The morning had shot her bright streamers on high, + O'er Canada, opening all pale to the sky; + + Still dazzling and white was the robe that she wore, + Except where the ocean wave lash'd on the shore." + _Jacobite Song._ + +THERE lies between the Rice Lake and the Ontario, a deep and fertile +valley, surrounded by lofty wood-crowned hills, the heights of which were +clothed chiefly with groves of oak and pine, though the sides of the hills +and the alluvial bottoms gave a variety of noble timber trees of various +kinds, as the maple, beech, hemlock, and others. This beautiful and highly +picturesque valley is watered by many clear streams of pure refreshing +water, from whence the spot has derived its appropriate appellation of +"Cold Springs." At the time my little history commences, this now highly +cultivated spot was an unbroken wilderness,--all tut two small farms, where +dwelt the only occupiers of the soil,--which owned no other possessors than +the wandering hunting tribes of wild Indians, to whom the right of the +hunting grounds north of Rice Lake appertained, according to their forest +laws. + +To those who travel over beaten roads, now partially planted, among +cultivated fields and flowery orchards, and see cleared farms and herds of +cattle and flocks of sheep, the change would be a striking one. I speak of +the time when the neat and flourishing town of Cobourg, now an important +port on the Ontario, was but a village in embryo--if it contained even +a log-house or a block-house it was all that it did, and the wild and +picturesque ground upon which the fast increasing village of Port Hope is +situated, had not yielded one forest tree to the axe of the settler. No +gallant vessel spread her sails to waft the abundant produce of grain and +Canadian stores along the waters of that noble sheet of water; no steamer +had then furrowed its bosom with her iron wheels, bearing the stream of +emigration towards the wilds of our Northern and Western forests, there to +render a lonely trackless desert a fruitful garden. What will not time and +the industry of man, assisted by the blessing of a merciful God, effect? +To him be the glory and honour; for we are taught, that "without the Lord +build the city, their labour is but lost that build it; without the Lord +keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." + +But to my tale. And first it will be necessary to introduce to the +acquaintance of my young readers the founders of our little settlement at +Cold Springs. + +Duncan Maxwell was a young Highland soldier, a youth of eighteen, at the +famous battle of Quebec, where, though only a private, he received the +praise of his colonel for his brave conduct. At the close of the battle +Duncan was wounded, and as the hospital was full at the time with sick and +disabled men, he was lodged in the house of a poor French Canadian widow in +the Quebec suburb; here, though a foreigner and an enemy, he received much +kind attention from his excellent hostess and her family, which consisted +of a young man about his own age, and a pretty black-eyed lass not more +than sixteen. The widow Perron was so much occupied with other-lodgers--for +she kept a sort of boarding-house--that she had not much time to give to +Duncan, so that he was left a great deal to her son Pierre, and a little to +Catharine, her daughter. + +Duncan Maxwell was a fine, open-tempered, frank lad, and he soon won the +regard of Pierre and his little sister. In spite of the prejudices of +country, and the difference of language and national customs, a steady and +increasing friendship grew up between the young Highlander and the children +of his hostess; therefore it was not without feelings of deep regret that +they heard the news, that the corps to which Duncan belonged was ordered +for embarkation to England, and Duncan was so far convalescent as to be +pronounced quite well enough to join them. Alas for poor Catharine! she now +found that parting with her patient was a source of the deepest sorrow to +her young and guileless heart; nor was Duncan less moved at the separation +from his gentle nurse. It might be for years, and it might be for ever, +he could not tell; but he could not tear himself away without telling the +object of his affections how dear she was to him, and to whisper a hope +that he might yet return one day to claim her as his bride; and Catharine, +weeping and blushing, promised to wait for that happy day, or to remain +single for his sake, while Pierre promised to watch over his friend's +interests and keep alive Catharine's love; for, said he, artlessly, "la +belle Catrine is pretty and lively, and may have many suitors before she +sees you again, mon ami." + +They say the course of true love never did run smooth; but, with the +exception of this great sorrow, the sorrow of separation, the love of our +young Highland soldier and his betrothed knew no other interruption, for +absence served only to strengthen the affection which was founded on +gratitude and esteem. + +Two long years passed, however, and the prospect of re-union was yet +distant, when an accident, which disabled Duncan from serving his country, +enabled him to retire with the usual little pension, and return to Quebec +to seek his affianced. Some changes had taken place during that short +period: the widow Perron was dead; Pierre, the gay, lively-hearted Pierre, +was married to the daughter of a lumberer; and Catharine, who had no +relatives in Quebec, had gone up the country with her brother and his wife, +and was living in some little settlement above Montreal with them. + +Thither Duncan, with the constancy of his nature, followed, and shortly +afterwards was married to his faithful Catharine. On one point they had +never differed, both being of the same religion. Pierre had seen a good +deal of the fine country on the shores of the Ontario; he had been hunting +with some friendly Indians between the great waters and the Rice Lake, and +he now thought if Duncan and himself could make up their minds to a quiet +life in the woods, there was not a better spot than the hill pass between +the plains and the big lake to fix themselves upon. Duncan was of the same +opinion when he saw the spot. It was not rugged and bare like his own +Highlands, but softer in character, yet his heart yearned for the hill +country. In those days there was no obstacle to taking possession of any +tract of land in the unsurveyed forests, therefore Duncan agreed with his +brother-in-law to pioneer the way with him, get a dwelling put up and some +ground prepared and "seeded down," and then to, return for their wives and +settle themselves down at once as farmers. Others had succeeded, had formed +little colonies, and become the heads of villages in due time; why should +not they? And now behold our two backwoodsmen fairly commencing their +arduous life; but it was nothing, after all, to Pierre, by previous +occupation a hardy lumberer, or the Scottish soldier, accustomed to brave +all sorts of hardships in a wild country, himself a mountaineer, inured +to a stormy climate, and scanty fare, from his earliest youth. But it is +not my intention to dwell upon the trials and difficulties courageously met +and battled with by our settlers and their young wives. + +There was in those days a spirit of resistance among the first settlers on +the soil, a spirit to do and bear, that is less commonly met with now. The +spirit of civilization is now so widely diffused, that her comforts are +felt even in the depths of the forest, so that the newly come emigrant +feels comparatively few of the physical evils that were endured by the +older inhabitants. + +The first seed-wheat that was cast into the ground by Duncan and Pierre, +was brought with infinite trouble a distance of fifty miles in a little +skiff, navigated along the shores of the Ontario by the adventurous Pierre, +and from the nearest landing-place transported on the shoulders of himself +and Duncan to their homestead:--a day of great labour but great joy it was +when they deposited their precious freight in safety on the shanty floor. +They were obliged to make two journeys for the contents of the little +craft. What toil, what privation they endured for the first two years! and +now the fruits of it began slowly to appear. No two creatures could be more +unlike than Pierre and Duncan. The Highlander, stern, steady, persevering, +cautious, always giving ample reasons for his doing or his not doing. The +Canadian, hopeful, lively, fertile in expedients, and gay as a lark; if one +scheme failed another was sure to present itself. Pierre and Duncan were +admirably suited to be friends and neighbours. The steady perseverance of +the Scot helped to temper the volatile temperament of the Frenchman. They +generally contrived to compass the same end by different means, as two +streams descending from opposite hills will meet in one broad river in the +same valley. + +Years passed on; the farm, carefully cultivated, began to yield its +increase, and food and warm clothing were not wanted in the homesteads. +Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four healthy +children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these welcome +contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the children of +Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; they grew up as +one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. Though different +in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest son of the Scottish +soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were greatly attached; +they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed a little coterie of +inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, occupations, all blended +and harmonized delightfully; there were none of those little envyings and +bickerings among them that pave the way to strife and disunion in after +life. + +Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister +than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and +formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and +Catharine. + +Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy, +both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is +not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads and +Catharine. With the gaiety and navet of the Frenchwoman, Catharine +possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and +well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care of +mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a little +reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father's teaching. It +was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, having been +taught by his colonel's son, a lad of twelve years of age, who had taken a +great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a few of his school-books, +among which was a Testament, without cover or title-page. At parting, the +young gentleman recommended its daily perusal to Duncan. Had the gift been +a Bible, perhaps the soldier's obedience to his priest might have rendered +it a dead letter to him, but as it fortunately happened, he was unconscious +of any prohibition to deter him from becoming acquainted with the truths of +the Gospel. He communicated the power of perusing his books to his children +Hector and Catharine, Duncan and Kenneth, in succession, with a feeling of +intense reverence; even the labour of teaching was regarded as a holy duty +in itself, and was not undertaken without deeply impressing the obligation +he was conferring upon them whenever they were brought to the task. It was +indeed a precious boon, and the children learned to consider it as the +pearl beyond all price in the trials that awaited them in their eventful +career. To her knowledge of religious truths young Catharine added an +intimate acquaintance with the songs and legends of her father's romantic +country, which was to her even as fairyland; often would her plaintive +ballads and old tales, related in the hut or the wigwam to her attentive +auditors, wile away heavy thoughts; Louis and Mathilde, her cousins, +sometimes wondered how Catharine had acquired such a store of ballads and +wild tales as she could tell. + +It was a lovely sunny day in the flowery month of June; Canada had not only +doffed that "dazzling white robe" mentioned in the songs of her Jacobite +emigrants, but had assumed the beauties of her loveliest season, the last +week in May and the first three of June being parallel to the English May, +full of buds and flowers and fair promise of ripening fruits. The high +sloping hills surrounding the fertile vale of Cold Springs were clothed +with the blossoms of the gorgeous scarlet enchroma, or painted-cup; the +large pure white blossoms of the lily-like trillium; the delicate and +fragile lilac geranium, whose graceful flowers woo the hand of the +flower-gatherer only to fade almost within his grasp; the golden +cyprepedium, or mocassin flower, so singular, so lovely in its colour and +formation, waved heavily its yellow blossoms as the breeze shook the stems; +and there, mingling with a thousand various floral beauties, the azure +lupine claimed its place, shedding almost a heavenly tint upon the earth. +Thousands of roses were blooming on the more level ground, sending forth +their rich fragrance, mixed with the delicate scent of the feathery +ceanothus, (New Jersey tea.) The vivid greenness of the young leaves of +the forest, the tender tint of the springing corn, were contrasted with the +deep dark fringe of waving pines on the hills, and the yet darker shade of +the spruce and balsams on the borders of the creeks, for so our Canadian +forest rills are universally termed. The bright glancing wings of the +summer red-bird, the crimson-headed woodpecker, the gay blue-bird, and +noisy but splendid plumed jay, might be seen among the branches; the air +was filled with beauteous sights and soft murmuring melodies. Under the +shade of the luxuriant hop-vines, that covered the rustic porch in front +of the little dwelling, the light step of Catharine Maxwell might be heard +mixed with the drowsy whirring of the big wheel, as she passed to and fro +guiding the thread of yarn in its course: and now she sang snatches of old +mountain songs, such as she had learned from her father; and now, with +livelier air, hummed some gay French tune to the household melody of her +spinning wheel, as she advanced and retreated with her thread, unconscious +of the laughing black eye that was watching her movements from among the +embowering foliage that shielded her from the morning sun. + +"Come, ma belle cousine," for so Louis delighted to call her. "Hector and I +are waiting for you to go with us to the 'Beaver Meadow.' The cattle have +strayed, and we think we shall find them there. The day is delicious, the +very flowers look as if they wanted to be admired and plucked, and we shall +find early strawberries on the old Indian clearing." + +Catharine cast a longing look abroad, but said, "I fear, Louis, I cannot go +to-day, for see, I have all these rolls of wool to spin up, and my yarn to +wind off the reel and twist; and then, my mother is away." + +"Yes, I left her with mamma." replied Louis, "and she said she would be +home shortly, so her absence need not stay you. She said you could take a +basket and try and bring home some berries for sick Louise. Hector is sure +he knows a spot where we shall get some fine ones, ripe and red." As he +spoke Louis whisked away the big wheel to one end of the porch, gathered up +the hanks of yarn and tossed them into the open wicker basket, and the next +minute the large, coarse, flapped straw hat, that hung upon the peg in the +porch, was stuck not very gracefully on the top of Catharine's head +and tied beneath her chin, with a merry rattling laugh, which drowned +effectually the small lecture that Catharine began to utter, by way of +reproving the light-hearted boy. + +"But where is Mathilde?" + +"Sitting like a dear good girl, as she is, with sick Louise's head on +her lap, and would not disturb the poor sick thing for all the fruit and +flowers in Canada. Marie cried sadly to go with us, but I promised her and +petite Louise lots of flowers and berries if we get them, and the dear +children were as happy as queens when I left them." + +"But stay, cousin, you are sure my mother gave her consent to my going? +We shall be away chief part of the day. You know it is a long walk to the +Beaver Meadow and back again," said Catharine, hesitating as Louis took her +hand to lead her out from the porch. + +"Yes, yes, ma belle," said the giddy boy, quickly; "so come along, for +Hector is waiting at the barn; but stay, we shall be hungry before we +return, so let us have some cakes and butter, and do not forget a tin-cup +for water." + +Nothing doubting, Catharine, with buoyant spirits, set about her little +preparations, which were soon completed; but just as she was leaving the +little garden enclosure, she ran back to kiss Kenneth and Duncan, her young +brothers. In the farm yard she found Hector with his axe on his shoulder. +"What are you taking the axe for, Hector? you will find it heavy to carry," +said his sister. + +"In the first place, I have to cut a stick of blue-beech to make a broom +for sweeping the house, sister of mine; and that is for your use, Miss +Kate; and in the next place, I have to find, if possible, a piece of rock +elm or hiccory for axe handles; so now you have the reason why I take the +axe with me." + +The children now left the clearing, and struck into one of the deep defiles +that lay between the hills, and cheerfully they laughed and sung and +chattered, as they sped on their pleasant path; nor were they both to +exchange the glowing sunshine for the sober gloom of the forest shade. What +handfuls of flowers of all hues, red, blue, yellow and white, were gathered +only to be gazed at, carried for a while, then cast aside for others +fresher and fairer. And now they came to cool rills that flowed, softly +murmuring, among mossy limestone, or blocks of red or grey granite, wending +their way beneath twisted roots and fallen trees; and often Catharine +lingered to watch the eddying dimples of the clear water, to note the, tiny +bright fragments of quartz or crystallized limestone that formed a shining +pavement below the stream; and often she paused to watch the angry +movements of the red squirrel, as, with feathery tail erect, and sharp +scolding note, he crossed their woodland path, and swiftly darting up the +rugged bark of some neighbouring pine or hemlock, bade the intruders on +his quiet haunts defiance; yet so bold in his indignation, he scarcely +condescended to ascend beyond their reach. + +The long-continued hollow tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, or +the singular subterranean sound caused by the drumming of the partridge, +striking his wings upon his breast to woo his gentle mate, and the soft +whispering note of the little tree-creeper, as it flitted from one hemlock +to another, collecting its food between the fissures of the bark, were +among the few sounds that broke the noontide stillness of the woods; but +to all such sights and sounds the lively Catharine and her cousin were +not indifferent. And often they wondered, that Hector gravely pursued his +onward way, and seldom lingered as they did to mark the bright colours of +the flowers, or the bright sparkling of the forest rill. + +"What makes Hec so grave?" said Catharine to her companion, as they seated +themselves upon a mossy trunk, to await his coming up, for they had giddily +chased each other till they had far outrun him. + +"Hector, sweet coz, is thinking perhaps of how many bushels of corn or +wheat this land would grow if cleared, or he may be examining the soil or +the trees, or is looking for his stick of blue-beech for your broom, or the +hiccory for his axe handle, and never heeding such nonsense as woodpeckers +and squirrels, and lilies and moss and ferns, for Hector is not a giddy +thing like his cousin Louis, or--" + +"His sister Kate," interrupted Catharine, merrily; "but when shall we come +to the Beaver Meadow?" + +"Patience, ma belle, all in good time. Hark, was not that the ox-bell? No; +Hector whistling." And soon they heard the heavy stroke of his axe ringing +among the trees, for he had found the blue-beech, and was cutting it to +leave on the path, that he might take it home on their return; he had also +marked some hiccory of a nice size for his axe handles, to bring home +at some future time. + +The children had walked several miles, and were not sorry to sit down and +rest till Hector joined them. He was well pleased with his success, and +declared he felt no fatigue. "As soon as we reach the old Indian clearing, +we shall find strawberries," he said, "and a fresh cold spring, and then we +will have our dinners." + +"Come, Hector,--come, Louis," said Catharine, jumping up, "I long to be +gathering the strawberries; and see, my flowers are faded, so I will throw +them away, and the basket shall be filled with fresh fruit instead, and we +must not forget petite Marie and sick Louise, or dear Mathilde. Ah, how I +wish she were here at this minute! But here is the opening to the Beaver +Meadow." + +And the sunlight was seen streaming through the opening trees as they +approached the cleared space, which some called the "Indian clearing," but +is now more generally known as the little Beaver Meadow. It was a pleasant +spot, green, and surrounded with light bowery trees and flowering shrubs, +of a different growth from those that belong to the dense forest. Here the +children found, on the hilly ground above, fine ripe strawberries, the +earliest they had seen that year, and soon all weariness was forgotten +while pursuing the delightful occupation of gathering the tempting fruit; +and when they had refreshed themselves, and filled the basket with leaves +and fruit, they slaked their thirst from the stream, which wound its way +among the bushes. Catharine neglected not to reach down flowery bunches of +the fragrant white-thorn and of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with +nodding umbels of snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little +basket with the graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered +plant, the Linna borealis, which she always said reminded her of the +twins, Louise and Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear +away, for they had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered +from the path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their +eagerness to look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by +which they might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, +Louis noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle +hoofs on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek. + +"Come, Hector," said he gaily, "this is lucky; we are on the cattle path; +no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer track." + +Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much +towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. "And is +not this our own creek?" he said: "I have often heard my father say it had +its rise somewhere about this old clearing." + +Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the path +among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks, surprised +to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the stream swept +onward. + +"Oh, this dear creek," cried the delighted Catharine, "how pretty it is! I +shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source from +our own Cold Springs." + +And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind +the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously +hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony +banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked +poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite +directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the opening +gorge of a deep ravine. + +Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block of +granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by the ravine, +unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled countenance, +stood beside her, looking round with an air of great perplexity. Louis, +seating himself at Catharine's feet, surveyed the deep gloomy valley before +them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had now forcibly struck him that +they had mistaken the path altogether. The very aspect of the country was +different; the growth of the trees, the flow of the stream, all indicated a +change of soil and scene. Darkness was fast drawing its impenetrable veil +around them; a few stars were stealing out, and gleaming down as if with +pitying glance upon the young wanderers; but they could not light up their +pathway, or point their homeward track. The only sound, save the lulling +murmur of the rippling stream below, was the plaintive note of the +whip-poor-will, from a gnarled oak that grew near them, and the harsh +grating scream of the night hawk, darting about in the higher regions of +the air, pursuing its noisy congeners, or swooping down with that peculiar +hollow rushing sound, as of a person blowing into some empty vessel, when +it seizes with wide-extended bill its insect prey. + +Hector was the first to break the silence. "Cousin Louis, we were wrong in +following the course of the stream; I fear we shall never find our way back +to-night." + +Louis made no reply; his sad and subdued air failed not to attract the +attention of his cousins. "Why, Louis, how is this? you are not used to be +cast down by difficulties," said Hector, as he marked something like tears +glistening in the dark eyes of his cousin. + +Louis's heart was full, he did not reply, but cast a troubled glance upon +the weary Catharine, who leaned heavily against the tree beneath which she +sat. + +"It is not," resumed Hector, "that I mind passing a summer's night under +such a sky as this, and with such a dry grassy bed below me; but I do not +think it is good for Catharine to sleep on the bare ground in the night +dews,--and then they will be so anxious at home about our absence." + +Louis burst into tears, and sobbed out,--"And it is all my doing that +she came out with us; I deceived her, and my aunt will be angry and much +alarmed, for she did not know of her going at all. Dear Catharine, good +cousin Hector, pray forgive me!" But Catharine was weeping too much to +reply to his passionate entreaties, and Hector, who never swerved from the +truth, for which he had almost a stern reverence, hardly repressed his +indignation at what appeared to him a most culpable act of deceit on the +part of Louis. + +The sight of her cousin's grief and self-abasement touched the tender +heart of Catharine, for she was kind and dove-like in her disposition, +and loved Louis, with all his faults. Had it not been for the painful +consciousness of the grief their unusual absence would occasion at home, +Catharine would have thought nothing of their present adventure; but she +could not endure the idea of her high-principled father taxing her with +deceiving her kind indulgent mother and him: it was this humiliating +thought which wounded the proud heart of Hector, causing him to upbraid his +cousin in somewhat harsh terms for his want of truthfulness, and steeled +him against the bitter grief that wrung the heart of the penitent Louis, +who, leaning his wet cheek on the shoulder of the kinder Catharine, +sobbed as if his heart would break, heedless of her soothing words and +affectionate endeavours to console him. + +"Dear Hector," she said, turning her soft, pleading eyes on the stem face +of her brother, "you must not be so very angry with poor Louis; remember it +was to please me, and give me the enjoyment of a day of liberty with you +and himself in the woods, among the flowers and trees and birds, that he +committed this fault." + +"Catharine, Louis spoke an untruth and acted deceitfully, and look at the +consequences,--we shall have forfeited our parents' confidence, and may +have some days of painful privation to endure before we regain our home, if +we ever do find our way back to Cold Springs," replied Hector. + +"It is the grief and anxiety our dear parents will endure this night," +answered Catharine, "that distresses my mind; but," she added in more +cheerful tones, "let us not despair, no doubt to-morrow we shall be able to +retrace our steps." + +With the young there is ever a magical spell in that little word +_to-morrow_,--it is a point which they pursue as fast as it recedes from +them; sad indeed is the young heart that does not look forward with hope to +the morrow! + +The cloud still hung on Hector's brow, till Catharine gaily exclaimed, +"Come, Hector! come, Louis! we must not stand idling thus; we must think of +providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the bare +ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half made," +pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had hurled +from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen. + +"Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them +into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, and +there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to work, +you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own wigwam," +she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the feathery +pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared as little as +her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night under the shade +of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; but her woman's +heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling the cousins would be +by mutually interesting them in the same object,--and she was right. In +endeavouring to provide for the comfort of their dear companion, all angry +feelings were forgotten by Hector, while active employment chased away +Louis's melancholy. + +Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, those +of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, varying +in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque groups, or rising +singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked poplar or graceful +birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately pine contrasting +finely with the light waving foliage of its slender graceful companions. + +Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines, +which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance drove +into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the upturned oak, +with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form the back part of +the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means a contemptible shelter. +Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with Louis's _couteau-de-chasse_, +which he always carried in a sheath at his girdle, and spread two beds, +one, parted off by dry boughs and bark, for herself in the interior of the +wigwam, and one for her brother and cousin nearer the entrance. When all +was finished to her satisfaction, she called the two boys, and, according +to the custom of her parents, joined them in the lifting up of their +hands as an evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these +simple-hearted children backward in imploring help and protection from the +Most High. They earnestly prayed that no dangerous creature might come +near to molest them during the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil +spirit visit them, no unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; +but that holy angels and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill +their hearts with the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And +the prayer of the poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night in +peace, unharmed in the vast solitude. So passed their first night on the +Plains. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." + +The sun had risen in all the splendour of a Canadian summer morning, when +the sleepers arose from their leafy beds. In spite of the novelty of their +situation, they had slept as soundly and tranquilly as if they had been +under the protecting care of their beloved parents, on their little +paliasses of corn straw; but they had been cared for by Him who neither +slumbereth nor sleepeth, and they waked full of youthful hope, and in +fulness of faith in His mercy into whose hands they had commended their +souls and bodies before they retired to rest. + +While the children slept in peace and safety, what terrors had filled the +minds of their distracted parents! what a night of anguish and sorrow had +they passed! + +When night had closed in without bringing back the absent children, the +two fathers, lighting torches of fat pine, went forth in search of the +wanderers. How often did they raise their voices in hopes their loud +halloos might reach the hearing of the lost ones! How often did they check +their hurried steps to listen for some replying call! But the sighing +breeze in the pine tops, or sudden rustling of the leaves caused by the +flight of the birds, startled by the unusual glare of the torches, and the +echoes of their own voices, were the only sounds that met their anxious +ears. At daybreak they returned, sad and dispirited, to their homes, to +snatch a morsel of food, endeavour to cheer the drooping hearts of +the weeping mothers, and hurry off, taking different directions. But, +unfortunately, they had little clue to the route which Hector and Louis had +taken, there being many cattle paths through the woods. Louis's want of +truthfulness had caused this uncertainty, as he had left no intimation of +the path he purposed taking when he quitted his mother's house: he had +merely said he was going with Hector in search of the cattle, giving no +hint of his intention of asking Catharine to accompany them: he had but +told his sick sister, that he would bring home strawberries and flowers, +and that he would soon return. Alas, poor thoughtless Louis, how little did +you think of the web of woe you were then weaving for yourself, and all +those to whom you and your giddy companions were so dear! Children, think +twice, ere ye deceive once! Catharine's absence would have been quite +unaccountable but for the testimony of Duncan and Kenneth, who had received +her sisterly caresses before she joined Hector at the barn; and much her +mother marvelled what could have induced her good dutiful Catharine to have +left her work and forsaken her household duties to go rambling away with +the boys, for she never left the house when her mother was absent from, it, +without her express permission, and now she was gone--lost to them, perhaps +for ever. There stood the wheel she had been turning, there hung the +untwisted hanks of yarn, her morning task,--and there they remained week +after week and month after month, untouched, a melancholy memorial to the +hearts of the bereaved parents of their beloved. + +It were indeed a fruitless task to follow the agonized fathers in their +vain search for their children, or to paint the bitter anguish that filled +their hearts as day passed after day, and still no tidings of the lost +ones. As hope faded, a deep and settled gloom stole over the sorrowing +parents, and reigned throughout the once cheerful and gladsome homes. At +the end of a week the only idea that remained was, that one of these three +casualties had befallen the lost children:--death, a lingering death +by famine; death, cruel and horrible, by wolves or bears; or yet more +terrible, with tortures by the hands of the dreaded Indians, who +occasionally held their councils and hunting parties on the hills about the +Rice Lake, which was known only by the elder Perron as the scene of many +bloody encounters between the rival tribes of the Mohawks and Chippewas: +its localities were scarcely ever visited by our settlers, lest haply +they should fall into the hands of the bloody Mohawks, whose merciless +dispositions made them in those days a by-word even to the less cruel +Chippewas and other Indian nations. + +It was not in the direction of the Rice Lake that Maxwell and his +brother-in-law sought their lost children; and even if they had done so, +among the deep glens and hill passes of what is now commonly called the +Plains, they would have stood little chance of discovering the poor +wanderers. After many days of fatigue of body and distress of mind, the +sorrowing parents sadly relinquished the search as utterly hopeless, +and mourned in bitterness of spirit over the disastrous fate of their +first-born and beloved children.--"There was a voice of woe, and +lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and +refusing to be comforted, because they were not." The miserable uncertainty +that involved the fate of the lost ones was an aggravation to the +sufferings of the mourners: could they but have been certified of the +manner of their deaths, they fancied they should be more contented; but, +alas! this fearful satisfaction was withheld. + + "Oh, were their tale of sorrow known, + 'Twere something to the breaking heart, + The pangs of doubt would then be gone, + And fancy's endless dreams depart." + +But let us quit the now mournful settlement of the Cold Springs, and see +how it really fared with the young wanderers. + +When they awoke the valley was filled with a white creamy mist, that +arose from the bed of the stream, (now known as Cold Creek,) and gave an +indistinctness to the whole landscape, investing it with an appearance +perfectly different to that which it had worn by the bright, clear light of +the moon. No trace of their footsteps remained to guide them in retracing +their path; so hard and dry was the stony ground that it left no impression +on its surface. It was with some difficulty they found the creek, which was +concealed from sight by a lofty screen of gigantic hawthorns, high-bush +cranberries, poplars, and birch-trees. The hawthorn was in blossom, and +gave out a sweet perfume, not less fragrant than the "May" which makes the +lanes and hedgerows of "merrie old England" so sweet and fair in May and +June, as chanted in many a genuine pastoral of our olden time; but when our +simple Catharine drew down the flowery branches to wreathe about her hat, +she loved the flowers for their own native sweetness and beauty, not +because poets had sung of them;--but young minds have a natural poetry in +themselves, unfettered by rule or rhyme. + +At length their path began to grow more difficult. A tangled mass of +cedars, balsams, birch, black ash, alders, and _tamarack_ (Indian name for +the larch), with a dense thicket of bushes and shrubs, such as love the +cool, damp soil of marshy ground, warned our travellers that they must +quit the banks of the friendly stream, or they might become entangled in +a trackless swamp. Having taken copious and refreshing draughts from the +bright waters, and bathed their hands and faces, they ascended the grassy +bank, and again descending, found themselves in one of those long valleys, +enclosed between lofty sloping banks, clothed with shrubs and oaks, with +here and there a stately pine. Through this second valley they pursued +their way, till emerging into a wider space, they came among those +singularly picturesque groups of rounded gravel hills, where the Cold Creek +once more met their view, winding its way towards a grove of evergreens, +where it was again lost to the eye. + +This lovely spot is now known as Sackville's Mill-dike. The hand of man has +curbed the free course of the wild forest stream, and made it subservient +to his will, but could not destroy the natural beauties of the scene. +[Footnote: This place was originally owned by a man of taste, who resided +for some time upon the spot, till finding it convenient to return to his +native country, the saw-mill passed into other hands. The old log-house on +the green bank above the mill-stream is still standing, though deserted; +the garden fence, broken and dilapidated, no longer protects the enclosure, +where the wild rose mingles with that of Provence,--the Canadian creeper +with the hop.] + +Fearing to entangle themselves in the swamp, they kept the hilly ground, +winding their way up to the summit of the lofty ridge of the oak hills, +the highest ground they had yet attained; and here it was that the silver +waters of the Rice Lake in all its beauty burst upon the eyes of the +wondering and delighted travellers. There it lay, a sheet of liquid silver +just emerging from the blue veil of mist that hung upon its surface, and +concealed its wooded shores on either side. All feeling of dread and doubt +and danger was lost, for the time, in one rapturous glow of admiration at a +scene so unexpected and so beautiful as that which they now gazed upon from +the elevation they had gained. From this ridge they looked down the lake, +and the eye could take in an extent of many miles, with its verdant wooded +islands, which stole into view one by one as the rays of the morning sun +drew up the moving curtain of mist that enveloped them; and soon both +northern and southern shores became distinctly visible, with all their bays +and capes and swelling oak and pine-crowned hills. + +And now arose the question, "Where are we? What lake is this? Can it be +the Ontario, or is it the Rice Lake? Can yonder shores be those of the +Americans, or are they the hunting-grounds of the dreaded Indians?" Hector +remembered having often heard his father say that the Ontario was like an +inland sea, and the opposite shores not visible unless in some remarkable +state of the atmosphere, when they had been occasionally discerned by the +naked eye, while here they could distinctly see objects on the other side, +the peculiar growth of the trees, and even flights of wild fowl winging +their way among the rice and low bushes on its margin. The breadth of the +lake from shore to shore could not, they thought, exceed three or four +miles; while its length, in an easterly direction, seemed far greater +beyond--what the eye could take in. [Footnote: The length of the Rice Lake, +from its headwaters near Black's Landing to the mouth of the Trent, is said +to be twenty-five miles; its breadth from north to south varies from three +to six.] + +They now quitted the lofty ridge, and bent their steps towards the lake. +Wearied with their walk, they seated themselves beneath the shade of a +beautiful feathery pine, on a high promontory that commanded a magnificent +view down the lake. + +"How pleasant it would be to have a house on this delightful bank, +overlooking the lake," said Louis; "only think of the fish we could take, +and the ducks and wild fowl we could shoot! and it would be no very hard +matter to hollow out a log canoe, such a one as I have heard my father say +he has rowed in across many a lake and broad river--below, when he was +lumbering." + +"Yes, it would, indeed, be a pleasant spot to live upon," [Footnote: Now +the site of a pleasant cottage, erected by an enterprising gentleman from +Devonshire, who has cleared and cultivated a considerable portion of the +ground described above; a spot almost unequalled in the plains for its +natural beauties and extent of prospect.] said Hector, "though I am not +quite sure that the land is as good just here as it is at Cold Springs; +but all these flats and rich valleys would make fine pastures, and produce +plenty of grain, too, if cultivated." + +"You always look to the main chance, Hec," said Louis, laughing; "well, it +was worth a few hours' walking this morning to look upon so lovely a sheet +of water as this. I would spend two nights in a wigwam,--would not you, ma +belle?--to enjoy such a sight." + +"Yes, Louis," replied his cousin, hesitating as she spoke; "it is very +pretty, and I did not mind sleeping in the little hut; but then I cannot +enjoy myself as much as I should have done had my father and mother been +aware of my intention of accompanying you. Ah, my dear, dear parents!" she +added, as the thought of the anguish the absence of her companions and +herself would cause at home came over her. "How I wish I had remained at +home! Selfish Catharine! foolish idle girl!" + +Poor Louis was overwhelmed with grief at the sight of his cousin's tears, +and as the kind-hearted but thoughtless boy bent over her to soothe and +console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the weeping girl, +and bedewed the hand he held between his own. + +"If you cry thus, cousin," he whispered, "you will break poor Louis's +heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct." "Be not +cast down, Catharine," said her brother, cheeringly: "we may not be so far +from home as you think. As soon as you are rested we will set out again, +and we may find something to eat; there must be strawberries on these sunny +banks." + +Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her eyes, +proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to one side of +the high ground where they had been sitting. + +Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, "Come, Hector; come, Louis: +here indeed is provision to keep us from starving:"--for her eye had caught +the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage on the slope; +large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever seen. + +"There is indeed, ma belle," said Louis, stooping as he spoke to gather up, +not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge eggs from the inner shade of a +thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a fallen tree. Catharine's +voice and sudden movements had startled the partridge [Footnote: The +Canadian partridge is a species of grouse, larger than the English or +French partridge. We refer our young readers to the finely arranged +specimens in the British Museum, (open to the public,) where they may +discover "Louis's partridge."] from her nest, and the eggs were soon +transferred to Louis's straw hat, while a stone flung by the steady +hand of Hector stunned the parent bird. The boys laughed exultingly as +they displayed their prizes to the astonished Catharine, who, in spite of +hunger, could not help regretting the death of the mother bird. Girls and +women rarely sympathise with men and boys in their field sports, and Hector +laughed at his sister's doleful looks as he handed over the bird to her. + +"It was a lucky chance," said he, "and the stone was well aimed, but it is +not the first partridge that I have killed in this way. They are so stupid +you may even run them down at times; I hope to get another before the day +is over. Well, there is no fear of starving to-day, at all events," he +added, as he inspected the contents of his cousin's hat; "twelve nice fresh +eggs, a bird, and plenty of fruit." + +"But how shall we cook the bird and the eggs? We have no means of getting a +fire made," said Catharine. + +"As to the eggs," said Louis, "we can eat them raw; it is not for hungry +wanderers like us to be over nice about our food." + +"They would satisfy us much better were they boiled, or roasted in the +ashes," observed Hector. + +"True. Well, a fire, I think, can be got with a little trouble." + +"But how?" asked Hector. "Oh, there are many ways, but the readiest would +be a flint with the help of my knife." + +"A flint?" + +"Yes, if we could get one--but I see nothing but granite, which crumbles +and shivers when struck--we could not get a spark. However, I think it's +very likely that one of the round pebbles I see on the beach yonder may be +found hard enough for the purpose." + +To the shore they bent their steps as soon as the little basket had been +well filled with strawberries, and descending the precipitous bank, fringed +with young saplings, birch, ash, and poplars, they quickly found themselves +beside the bright waters of the lake. A flint was soon found among the +water-worn stones that lay thickly strewn upon the shore, and a handful of +dry sedge, almost as inflammable as tinder, was collected without trouble; +though Louis, with the recklessness of his nature, had coolly proposed +to tear a strip from his cousin's apron as a substitute for tinder,--a +proposal that somewhat raised the indignation of the tidy Catharine, whose +ideas of economy and neatness were greatly outraged, especially as she had +no sewing implements to assist in mending the rent. Louis thought nothing +of that; it was a part of his character to think only of the present, +little of the past, and to let the future provide for itself. Such was +Louis's great failing, which had proved a fruitful source of trouble both +to himself and others. In this respect he bore a striking contrast to his +more cautious companion, who possessed much of the gravity of his father. +Hector was as heedful and steady in his decisions as Louis was rash and +impetuous. + +After many futile attempts, and some skin knocked off their knuckles +through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at last +kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore; Catharine then +triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled, greatly to the +satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time sufficiently hungry, +having eaten nothing since the previous evening more substantial than the +strawberries they had taken during the time they were gathering them in the +morning. + +Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower, under +the overhanging growth of cedars, poplars, and birch, which were wreathed +together by the flexile branches of the vine and bitter-sweet, +which climbed to a height of fifteen feet [Footnote: _Solatnum +dulcamara_,--Bitter-sweet or Woody nightshade. This plant, like the +red-berried briony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses powerful +properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the Indians.] +among the branches [Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST] of the trees, which +it covered as with a mantle. A pure spring of cold, delicious water welled +out from beneath the twisted roots of an old hoary-barked cedar, and found +its way among the shingles on the beach to the lake, a humble but constant +tributary to its waters. Some large blocks of water-worn stone formed +convenient seats and a natural table, on which the little maiden arranged +the forest fare; and never was a meal made with greater appetite or taken +with more thankfulness than that which our wanderers ate that morning. The +eggs (part of which they reserved for another time) were declared to be +better than those that were daily produced from the little hen-house at +Cold Springs. The strawberries, set out in little pottles made with the +shining leaves of the oak, ingeniously pinned together by Catharine with +the long spurs of the hawthorn, [Footnote: The long-spurred American +hawthorn may be observed by our young readers among that beautiful +collection of the hawthorn family and its affinities, which flourish on the +north side of Kensington Gardens.] were voted delicious, and the pure water +most refreshing, that they drank, for lack of better cups, from a large +mussel-shell which Catharine had picked up among the weeds and pebbles on +the beach. + +Many children would have wandered about weeping and disconsolate, lamenting +their sad fate, or have embittered the time by useless repining, or, +perhaps, by venting their uneasiness in reviling the principal author of +their calamity--poor, thoughtless Louis; but such were not the dispositions +of our young Canadians. Early accustomed to the hardships incidental to the +lives of the settlers in the bush, these young people had learned to bear +with patience and cheerfulness privations that would have crushed the +spirits of children more delicately nurtured. They had known every degree +of hunger and nakedness; during the first few years of their lives they had +often been compelled to subsist for days and weeks upon roots and herbs, +wild fruits, and game which their fathers had learned to entrap, to decoy, +and to shoot. Thus Louis and Hector had early been initiated into the +mysteries of the chase. They could make deadfalls, and pits, and traps, and +snares,--they were as expert as Indians in the use of the bow,--they could +pitch a stone, or fling a wooden dart at partridge, hare, and squirrel, +with almost unerring aim; and were as swift of foot as young fawns. Now +it was that they learned to value in its fullest extent this useful +and practical knowledge, which enabled them to face with fortitude the +privations of a life so precarious as that to which they were now exposed. + +It was one of the elder Maxwell's maxims,--Never let difficulties overcome +you, but rather strive to conquer them; let the head direct the hand, and +the hand, like a well-disciplined soldier, obey the head as chief. When his +children expressed any doubts of not being able to accomplish any work they +had begun, he would say, "Have you not hands, have you not a head, have you +not eyes to see, and reason to guide you? As for impossibilities, they do +not belong to the trade of a soldier,--he dare not see them." Thus were +energy and perseverance early instilled into the minds of his children; +they were now called upon to give practical proofs of the precepts that had +been taught them in childhood. Hector trusted to his axe, and Louis to his +_couteau-de-chasse_ and pocket-knife; the latter was a present from an old +forest friend of his father's, who had visited them the previous winter, +and which, by good luck, Louis had in his pocket--a capacious pouch, in +which were stored many precious things, such as coils of twine and string, +strips of leather, with odds and ends of various kinds; nails, bits of +iron, leather, and such miscellaneous articles as find their way most +mysteriously into boys' pockets in general, and Louis Perron's in +particular, who was a wonderful collector of such small matters. + +The children were not easily daunted by the prospect of passing a few days +abroad on so charming a spot, and at such a lovely season, where fruits +were so abundant; and when they had finished their morning meal, so +providentially placed within their reach, they gratefully acknowledged the +mercy of God in this thing. + +Having refreshed themselves by bathing their hands and faces in the lake, +they cheerfully renewed their wanderings, though something both to leave +the cool shade and the spring for an untrodden path among the hills and +deep ravines that furrow the shores of the Rice Lake in so remarkable a +manner; and often did our weary wanderers pause to look upon the wild glens +and precipitous hills, where the fawn and the shy deer found safe retreats, +unharmed by the rifle of the hunter,--where the osprey and white-headed +eagle built their nests, unheeding and unharmed. Twice that day, misled by +following the track of the deer, had they returned to the same spot,--a +deep and lovely glen, which had once been a water-course, but now a green +and shady valley. This they named the Valley of the Rock, from a remarkable +block of red granite that occupied a central position in the narrow defile; +and here they prepared to pass the second night on the Plains. A few boughs +cut down and interlaced with the shrubs round a small space cleared with +Hector's axe, formed shelter, and leaves and grass, strewed on the ground, +formed a bed, though not so smooth, perhaps, as the bark and cedar-boughs +that the Indians spread within their summer wigwams for carpets and +couches, or the fresh heather that the Highlanders gather on the wild +Scottish hills. + +While Hector and Louis were preparing the sleeping-chamber, Catharine +busied herself in preparing the partridge for their supper. Having +collected some thin peelings from the ragged bark of a birch-tree, that +grew on the side of the steep bank to which she gave the appropriate name +of the "Birken shaw," she dried it in her bosom, and then beat it fine +upon a big stone, till it resembled the finest white paper. This proved +excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the birch being +highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint that they had +used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front of the rocky +stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent over the coals, +served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge was suspended,--a +scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they knew not how they +should breakfast next morning, The children felt they were pensioners on +God's providence not less than the wild denizens of the wilderness around +them. + +When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or +cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow, +Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the +teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God, +gently laid her hand upon her brother's head, which rested on her knees, +as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest tone, +"'Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor +gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much +better than they?' Surely, my brother, God careth for us as much as for the +wild creatures, that have no sense to praise and glorify his holy name. God +cares for the creatures He has made, and supplies them with knowledge where +they shall find food when they hunger and thirst. So I have heard my father +say; and surely our father knows, for is he not a wise man, Hector?" + +"I remember," said Louis, thoughtfully, "hearing my mother repeat the words +of a good old man she knew when she lived in Quebec;--'When you are in +trouble, Mathilde,' he used to say to her, 'kneel down, and ask God's help, +nothing doubting but that He has the power as well as the will to serve +you, if it be for your good; for He is able to bring all things to pass. +It is our own want of faith that prevents our prayers from being heard. +And, truly, I think the wise old man was right," he added. + +It was strange to hear grave words like these from the lips of the giddy +Louis. Possibly they had the greater weight on that account. And Hector, +looking up with a serious air, replied, "Your mother's friend was a good +man, Louis. Our want of trust in God's power must displease Him. And when +we think of all the great and glorious things He has made,--that blue sky, +those sparkling stars, the beautiful moon that is now shining down upon us, +and the hills and waters, the mighty forest, and little creeping plants and +flowers that grow at our feet,--it must, indeed, seem foolish in his eyes +that we should doubt his power to help us, who not only made all these +things, but ourselves also." + +"True," said Catharine; "but then, Hector, we are not as God made us; for +the wicked one cast bad seed in the field where God had sown the good." + +"Let us, however, consider what we shall do for food; for, you know, God +helps those that help themselves," said Louis. "Let us consider a little. +There must be plenty of fish in the lake, both small and great." + +"But how are we to get them out of it?" rejoined Catharine. "I doubt the +fish will swim at their ease there, while we go hungry." + +"Do not interrupt me, ma chere. Then, we see the track of deer, and the +holes of the wood-chuck; we hear the cry of squirrels and chipmunks, and +there are plenty of partridges, and ducks, and quails, and snipes; of +course, we have to contrive some way to kill them. Fruits there are in +abundance, and plenty of nuts of different kinds. At present we have plenty +of fine strawberries, and huckleberries will be ripe soon in profusion, and +bilberries too, and you know how pleasant they are; as for raspberries, I +see none; but by-and-by there will be May-apples--I see great quantities of +them in the low grounds, grapes, high-bush-cranberries, haws as large as +cherries, and sweet too; squaw-berries, wild plums, choke-cherries, and +bird-cherries. As to sweet acorns, there will be bushels and bushels of +them for the roasting, as good as chestnuts, to my taste; and butter-nuts, +and hickory-nuts,--with many other good things." And here Louis stopped for +want of breath to continue his catalogue of forest dainties. + +"Yes; and there are bears, and wolves, and racoons, too, that will eat us +for want of better food," interrupted Hector, slyly. "Nay, Katty, do not +shudder, as if you were already in the clutches of a big bear. Neither bear +nor wolf shall make mincemeat of thee, my girl, while Louis and thy brother +are near, to wield an axe or a knife in thy defence." + +"Nor catamount spring upon thee, ma belle cousine," added Louis, gallantly, +"while thy bold cousin Louis can scare him away." + +"Well, now that we know our resources, the next thing is to consider how we +are to obtain them, my dears," said Catharine. "For fishing, you know, we +must have a hook and line, a rod, or a net. Now, where are these to be met +with?" + +Louis nodded his head sagaciously. "The line I think I can provide; the +hook is more difficult, but I do not despair even of that. As to the rod, +it can be cut from any slender sapling on the shore. A net, ma chere, I +could make with very little trouble, if I had but a piece of cloth to sew +over a hoop." + +Catharine laughed. "You are very ingenious, no doubt, Monsieur Louis, but +where are you to get the cloth and the hoop, and the means of sewing it +on?" + +Lords took up the corner of his cousin's apron with a provoking look. + +"My apron, sir, is not to be appropriated for any such purpose. You seem to +covet it for everything." + +"Indeed, ma petite, I think it very unbecoming and very ugly, and never +could see any good reason why you and Mamma and Mathilde should wear such +frightful things." + +"It is to keep our gowns clean, Louis, when we are milking and scrubbing, +and doing all sorts of household duties," said Catharine. + +"Well, ma belle, you have neither cows to milk, nor house to clean," +replied the annoying boy; "so there can be little want of the apron. I +could turn it to fifty useful purposes." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said Hector, impatiently, "let the child alone, and do +not tease her about her apron." + +"Well, then, there is another good thing I did not think of before, water +mussels. I have heard my father and old Jacob the lumberer say, that, +roasted in their shells in the ashes, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, +they are good eating when nothing better is to be got." + +"No doubt, if the seasoning can be procured," said Hector, "but, alas for +the salt and the pepper!" + +"Well, we can eat them with the best of all sauces--hunger; and then, no +doubt, there are crayfish in the gravel under the stones, but we must not +mind a pinch to our fingers in taking them." + +"To-morrow then let us breakfast on fish," said Hector. "You and I will try +our luck, while Kate gathers strawberries; and if our line should break, we +can easily cut those long locks from Catharine's head, and twist them into +lines,"--and Hector laid his hands upon the long fair hair that hung in +shining curls about his sister's neck. + +"Cut my curls! This is even worse than cousin Louis's proposal of making +tinder and fishing-nets of my apron," said Catharine, shaking back the +bright tresses, which, escaping from the snood that bound them, fell in +golden waves over her shoulders. + +"In truth, Hec, it were a sin and a shame to cut her pretty curls, that +become her so well," said Louis. "But we have no scissors, ma belle, so you +need fear no injury to your precious locks." + +"For the matter of that, Louis, we could cut them with your +_couteau-de-chasse_. I could tell you a story that my father told me, not +long since, of Charles Stuart, the second king of that name in England. You +know he was the grand-uncle of the young Chevalier Charles Edward, that my +father talks of, and loves so much." + +"I know all about him," said Catharine, nodding sagaciously; "let us hear +the story of his grand-uncle. But I should like to know what my hair and +Louis's knife can have to do with King Charles." + +"Wait a bit, Kate, and you shall hear, that is, if you have patience," said +her brother. "Well then, you must know, that after some great battle, the +name of which I forget, [Footnote: Battle of Worcester.] in which the +King and his handful of brave soldiers were defeated by the forces of the +Parliament, (the Roundheads, as they were called,) the poor young king was +hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; a large price was set on his +head, to be given to any traitor who should slay him, or bring him prisoner +to Oliver Cromwell. He was obliged to dress himself in all sorts of queer +clothes, and hide in all manner of strange, out of the way places, and keep +company with rude and humble men, the better to hide his real rank from +the cruel enemies that sought his life. Once he hid along with a gallant +gentleman, [Footnote: Colonel Careless.] one of his own brave officers, in +the branches of a great oak. Once he was hid in a mill; and another time he +was in the house of one Pendril, a woodman. The soldiers of the Parliament, +who were always prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they +suspected the poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room +where he was standing beside the fire." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Catharine, "that was frightful. And did they take him +prisoner?" + +"No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers +should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the long curls +that the king's men all wore in those days, and called _lovelocks_, begged +of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to his head." + +"That was very hard, to lose his nice curls." + +"I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose his +hair than his head. So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered them +to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough deal +table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large knife +trimmed off the curls." + +"I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, who, +you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a block +to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as +hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die." "Poor king!" said +Catharine, sighing, "I see that it is better to be poor children, wandering +on these plains under God's own care, than to be kings and princes at the +mercy of bad and sinful men." + +"Who told your father all these things, Hec?" said Louis. + +"It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about the +history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince Charles, +the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in Scotland; he +loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where the Prince lost +all, and was driven from place to place, and had not where to lay his head, +he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but those times did not come for +the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a while, through the friendship of +General Wolfe, got a commission in the army that was embarking for Quebec, +and, at last, commanded the regiment to which my father belonged. He was +a kind man, and my father loved both him and his son, and grieved not a +little when he parted from him." + +"Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister Hec, +I shall forgive the affront about my curls." + +"Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail, +we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we +shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should not we be +able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?" + +"True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and +birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should +His white children fear?" + +"I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, when +they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of himself +and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, weeks I +believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and arrows, +using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for bow-strings; +and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the inner bark of the +slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap of the sugar maple +when they could get no water but melted snow only, which is unwholesome; at +last, they even boiled their own mocassins." + +"Indeed, Louis, that must have been a very unsavoury dish," said Catharine. + +"That old buckskin vest would have made a famous pot of soup of itself," +added Hector, "or the deer-skin hunting shirt." "Well, they might have been +reduced even to that," said Louis, laughing, "but for the good fortune that +befel them in the way of a half-roasted bear." + +"Nonsense, cousin Louis, bears do not run about ready roasted in the +forest, like the lambs in the old nursery tale." + +"Well now, Kate, this was a fact; at least, it was told as one by old +Jacob, and my father did not deny it; shall I tell you about it? After +passing several hungry days with no better food to keep them alive than the +scrapings of the inner bark of the poplars and elms, which was not very +substantial for hearty men, they encamped one night in a thick dark +swamp,--not the sort of place they would have chosen, but that they could +not help themselves, having been enticed into it by the tracks of a deer or +a moose,--and night came upon them unawares, so they set to work to kindle +up a fire with spunk, and a flint and knife; rifle they had none, or maybe +they would have had game to eat. Old Jacob fixed upon a huge hollow pine, +that lay across their path, against which he soon piled a glorious heap of +boughs and arms of trees, and whatever wood he could collect, and lighted +up a fine fire. You know what a noble hand old Jacob used to be at making +up a roaring fire; he thought, I suppose, if he could not have warmth +within, he would have plenty of it without. The wood was dry pine and cedar +and birch, and it blazed away, and crackled and burnt like a pine-torch. +By-and-by they heard a most awful growling close to them. 'That's a big +bear, as I live,' said old Jacob, looking all about, thinking to see one +come out from the thick bush; but Bruin was nearer to him than he thought, +for presently a great black bear burst out from the but-end of the great +burning log, and made towards Jacob; just then the wind blew the flame +outward, and it caught the bear's thick coat, and he was all in a blaze in +a moment. No doubt the heat of the fire had penetrated to the hollow of the +log, where he had lain himself snugly up for the winter, and wakened him; +but Jacob seeing the huge black brute all in a flame of fire, began to +think it was Satan's own self come to carry him off, and he roared with +fright, and the bear roared with pain and rage, and my father roared with +laughing to see Jacob's terror; but he did not let the bear laugh at him, +for he seized a thick pole that he had used for closing in the brands and +logs, and soon demolished the bear, who was so blinded with the fire and +smoke that he made no fight; and they feasted on roast bear's flesh for +many days, and got a capital skin to cover them beside." + +"What, Louis, after the fur was all singed?" said Catharine. + +"Kate, you are too particular," said Louis; "a story never loses, you +know." + +Hector laughed heartily at the adventure, and enjoyed the dilemma of the +bear in his winter quarter; but Catharine was somewhat shocked at the +levity displayed by her cousin and brother, when recounting the terror of +old Jacob and the sufferings of the poor bear." + +"You boys are always so unfeeling," she said, gravely. + +"Indeed, Kate," said her brother, "the day may come when the sight of a +good piece of roast bear's flesh, will be no unwelcome sight. If we do not +find our way back to Cold Springs before the winter sets in, we may be +reduced to as bad a state as poor Jacob and my uncle were in the pine +swamps, on the banks of the St. John." + +"Ah!" said Catharine, trembling, "that would be too bad to happen." + +"Courage, ma belle, let us not despair for the morrow. Let us see what +to-morrow will do for us; meantime, we will not neglect the blessings we +still possess; see, our partridge is ready, let us eat our supper, and be +thankful; and for grace let us say, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil +thereof.'" + +Long exposure to the air had sharpened their appetites--the hungry +wanderers needed no further invitation, the scanty meal, equally divided, +was soon despatched. + +It is a common saying, but excellent to be remembered by any wanderers in +our forest wilds, that those who travel by the sun travel in a circle, and +usually find themselves at night in the same place from whence they started +in the morning; so it was with our wanderers. At sunset, they found +themselves once more in the ravine, beside the big stone, in which they had +rested at noon. They had imagined themselves miles and miles distant from +it; they were grievously disappointed. They had encouraged each other +with the confident hope that they were drawing near to the end of their +bewildering journey; they were as far from their home as ever, without the +slightest clue to guide them to the right path. Despair is not a feeling +which takes deep root in the youthful breast. The young are always +hopeful; so confident in their own wisdom and skill in averting or +conquering danger; so trusting; so willing to believe that there is a +peculiar Providence watching over them. Poor children! they had indeed need +of such a belief to strengthen their minds and encourage them to fresh +exertions, for new trials were at hand. + +The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with +light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on +tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with her +fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs which +her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for her +accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting spur +of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the extreme verge +of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most inviting seat, +from whence the traveller looked down into a level track, which stretched +away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the estuary of the +mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the hills, forming a +narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water had ceased to flow, the +granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with deer-grass and flowers of many +hues, wild fruits and bushes, below; while majestic oaks and pines towered +above. A sea of glittering foliage lay beneath Catharine's feet; in the +distance the eye of the young girl rested on a belt of shining waters, +which girt in the shores like a silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the +northward, stretched the illimitable forest. + +Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the eye; a +holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and peaceful +tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad, scarcely a leaf +stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing on the calm beauty of +nature, and communing with her own heart, when suddenly a stirring rustling +sound caught her car; it came from a hollow channel on one side of the +promontory, which was thickly overgrown with the shrubby dogwood, wild +roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror which seized the poor girl, +on perceiving a grisly beast breaking through the covert of the bushes. +With a scream and a bound, which the most deadly fear alone could have +inspired, Catharine sprung from the supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, +down the precipitous side of the ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays +of the flexile dogwood--now to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting +to the yielding heads of the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her +hands with sharp thorns from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, +grass, all were alike clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A loose +fragment of granite on which she had unwittingly placed her foot rolled +from under her; unable to regain her balance she fell forwards, and was +precipitated through the bushes into the ravine below, conscious only +of unspeakable terror and an agonising pain in one of her ancles, which +rendered her quite powerless. The noise of the stones she had dislodged in +her fall and her piteous cries, brought Louis and Hector to her side, and +they bore her in their arms to the hut of boughs and laid her down upon her +bed of leaves and grass and young pine boughs. When Catharine was able to +speak, she related to Louis and Hector the cause of her fright. She was +sure it must have been a wolf by his sharp teeth, long jaws, and grisly +coat. The last glance she had had of him had filled her with terror, he +was standing on a fallen tree with his eyes fixed upon her--she could tell +them no more that happened, she never felt the ground she was on, so great +was her fright. + +Hector was half disposed to scold his sister for rambling over the hills +alone, but Louis was full of tender compassion for _la belle cousine_, +and would not suffer her to be chidden. Fortunately, no bones had been +fractured, though the sinews of her ankle were severely sprained; but the +pain was intense, and after a sleepless night, the boys found to their +grief and dismay, that Catharine was unable to put her foot to the ground. +This was an unlooked-for aggravation of their misfortunes; to pursue their +wandering was for the present impossible; rest was their only remedy, +excepting the application of such cooling medicaments as circumstances +would supply them with. Cold water constantly applied to the swollen joint, +was the first thing that was suggested; but, simple as was the lotion, +it was not easy to obtain it in sufficient quantities. They were a full +quarter of a mile from the lake shore, and the cold springs near it were +yet further off; and then the only vessel they had was the tin-pot, which +hardly contained a pint; at the same time the thirst of the fevered +sufferer was intolerable, and had also to be provided for. Poor Catharine, +what unexpected misery she now endured! + +The valley and its neighbouring hills abounded in strawberries; they were +now ripening in abundance; the ground was scarlet in places with this +delicious fruit; they proved a blessed relief to the poor sufferer's +burning thirst. Hector and Louis were unwearied in supplying her with them. + +Louis, ever fertile in expedients, crushed the cooling fruit and applied +them to the sprained foot; rendering the application still more grateful by +spreading them upon the large smooth leaves of the sapling oak; these he +bound on with strips of the leathery bark of the moose-wood, [Footnote: +"_Dirca palustris_,"--Moose-wood. American mezereon, leather-wood. From the +Greek, _dirka_, a fountain or wet place, its usual place of growth.] which +he had found growing in great abundance near the entrance of the ravine. +Hector, in the meantime, was not idle. After having collected a good supply +of ripe strawberries, he climbed the hills in search of birds' eggs and +small game. About noon he returned with the good news of having discovered +a spring of fine water in an adjoining ravine, beneath a clump of bass-wood +and black cherry-trees; he had also been so fortunate as to kill a +woodchuck, having met with many of their burrows in the gravelly sides of +the hills. The woodchuck seems to be a link between the rabbit and badger; +its colour is that of a leveret; it climbs like the racoon and burrows like +the rabbit; its eyes are large, full, and dark, the lip cleft, the soles of +the feet naked, claws sharp, ears short; it feeds on grasses, grain, fruit, +and berries. The flesh is white, oily, and, in the summer, rank, but is +eaten in the fall by the Indians and woodsmen; the skin is not much valued. +They are easily killed by dogs, though, being expert climbers, they often +baffle their enemies, clinging to the bark beyond their reach; a stone or +stick well-aimed soon kills them, but they often bite sharply. + +The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his +companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were +plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about the +Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than on the +drier, more open plains. + +"It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from the +spring in," said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, "one is so apt to stumble +among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our old bark +dishes we could get a good supply at once." + +"There is a fallen birch not far from this," said Louis; "I have here +my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel +capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?" + +"How can you sew it together, cousin?" asked Catharine; "you have neither +deer sinews, nor war-tap." [The Indian name for the flexible roots of the +_tamarack_, or swamp larch, which they make use of in manufacturing the +birch baskets and canoes.] "I have a substitute at hand, ma belle," and +Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he had collected for +binding the dressings on his cousin's foot. + +When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in +some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of the +ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot of the +"Wolf's Crag," for so the children had named the memorable spot where poor +Catharine's accident had occurred. + +The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, but +are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger and +older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the sides +lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he proceeded +to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble managed +to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose or +leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was but +rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a little +at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten to allow +in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and dishes turns +up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied in his subsequent +attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis's water-jar was looked upon +with great admiration, and highly commended by Catharine, who almost forgot +her sufferings--while watching her cousin's proceedings. + +Louis was elated by his own successful ingenuity, and was for running off +directly to the spring. "Catharine shall now have cold water to bathe her +poor ancle with, and to quench her thirst," he said, joyfully springing +to his feet, ready for a start up the steep bank: but Hector quietly +restrained his lively cousin, by suggesting the possibility of his not +finding the "fountain in the wilderness," as Louis termed the spring, or +losing himself altogether. + +"Let us both go together, then." cried Louis. Catharine cast on her cousin +an imploring glance. + +"Do not leave me, dear Louis; Hector, do not let me be left alone." Her +sorrowful appeal stayed the steps of the volatile Louis. + +"Go you, Hector, as you know the way: I will not leave you, Kate, since I +was the cause of all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or in +sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother's arms." + +Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering +tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears. + +"But you know, dear cousin," she said, "I am so helpless, and then the +dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me." + +After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had +done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to +make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little +time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about +it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more +gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed with +magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the jutting +spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the trees that +lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a big sea. There +were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue, white, and +pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled flower, that +was like the "Morning glory," (_Convolvulus major,_) and scarlet-cups +[Footnote: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup] in abundance, with roses in +profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with huge blocks +of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened out into a +wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley of the Big Stone. +[Footnote: The mouth of this ravine is now under the plough, and waving +fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have taken place of the wild +shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The lot belongs to G. Ley, +Esq.] + +These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both +Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and the +picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father's +animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the wild +mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in solitude and +uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the minds or manners of +these young people. Simple and untaught they were, but they were guileless, +earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they lacked the knowledge that is +learned from books, they possessed much that was useful and practical, +which had been taught by experience and observation in the school of +necessity. + +For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered +any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the "Big Stone" +impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their +immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had been +killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of hunger. +Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed not a little +to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the yet untried +lake, "bright, boundless, and free," gleaming in silvery splendour, but in +practice they knew nothing of the fisher's craft, though, as a matter of +report, they were well acquainted with all the mysteries of it, and had +often listened with delight to the feats performed by their respective +fathers in the art of angling, spearing and netting. + +"I have heard my father say, that so bold and numerous were the fish in the +lakes and rivers he was used to fish in, that they could be taken by the +hand, with a crooked pin and coarse thread, or wooden spear; but that was +in the lower province; and oh, what glorious tales I have heard him tell of +spearing fish by torchlight!" + +"The fish may be wiser or not so numerous in this lake," said Hector; +"however, if Kate can bear to be moved, we will go down to the shore and +try our luck; but what can we do? we have neither hook nor line provided." + +Louis nodded his head, and sitting down on a projecting root of a scrub +oak, produced from the depths of his capacious pocket a bit of tin, which +he carefully selected from among a miscellaneous hoard of treasures. +"Here." said he, holding it up to the view as he spoke; "here is the slide +of an old powder-flask, which I picked up from among some rubbish that my +sister had thrown out the other day." + +"I fear you will make nothing of that," said Hector. "a bit of bone would +be better. If you had a file now you might do something." + +"Stay a moment, Monsieur Hec., what do you call this?" and Louis +triumphantly handed out of his pocket the very instrument in question, a +few inches of a broken, rusty file; very rusty, indeed, it was, but still +it might be made to answer in such ingenious hands as those of our young +French Canadian. "I well remember, Katty, how you and Mathilde laughed +at me for treasuring up this old thing months ago. Ah, Louis. Louis, you +little knew the use it was to be put to then," he added thoughtfully, +apostrophising himself; "how little do we know what is to befall us in our +young days!" "God knows it all," said Hector, gravely, "we are under His +good guidance." + +"You are right, Hec., let us trust in His mercy and He will take good care +of us. Come, let us go to the lake," Catharine added, and sprung to her +feet, but as quickly sunk down upon the grass, and regarded her companions +with a piteous look, saying, "I cannot walk one step; alas, alas! what is +to become of me; I am only a useless burden to you. If you leave me here, I +shall fall a prey to some savage beast, and you cannot carry me with you in +your search for food." + +"Dry your tears, sweet cousin, you shall go with us. Do you think that +Hector or Louis would abandon you in your helpless state, to die of hunger +or thirst, or to be torn by wolves or bears? We will carry you by turns; +the distance to the lake is nothing, and you are not so very heavy, ma +belle cousine; see, I could dance with you in my arms, you are so light a +burden,"--and Louis gaily caught the suffering girl up in his arms, and +with rapid steps struck into the deer path that wound through the ravine +towards the lake, but when they reached a pretty rounded knoll, (where Wolf +Tower [Footnote: See account of the "Wolf Tower," in the Appendix.] now +stands,) Louis was fain to place his cousin on a flat stone beneath a big +oak that grew beside the bank, and fling himself on the flowery ground at +her feet, while he drew a long breath, and gathered the fruit that grew +among the long grass to refresh himself after his fatigue; and then, while +resting on the "Elfin Knowe," as Catharine called the hill, he employed +himself with manufacturing a rude sort of fish-hook with the aid of +his knife, the bit of tin, and the rusty file; a bit of twine was next +produced,--boys have always a bit of string in their pockets, and Louis, as +I have before hinted, was a provident hoarder of such small matters. The +string was soon attached to the hook, and Hector was not long in cutting a +sapling that answered well the purpose of a fishing-rod, and thus equipped +they proceeded to the lake shore, Hector and Louis carrying the crippled +Catharine by turns. When there, they selected a sheltered spot beneath a +grove of over-hanging cedars and birches, festooned with wild vines, which, +closely woven, formed a natural bower, quite impervious to the rays of +the sun. A clear spring flowing from the upper part of the bank among the +hanging network of loose fibres and twisted roots, fell tinkling over a +mossy log at her feet, and quietly spread itself among the round shingly +pebbles that formed the beach of the lake. Beneath this pleasant bower +Catharine could repose, and watch her companions at their novel employment, +or bathe her feet and infirm ancle in the cool streamlet that rippled in +tiny wavelets over its stony bed. + +If the amusement of fishing prove pleasant and exciting when pursued for +pastime only, it may readily be conceived that its interest must be greatly +heightened when its object is satisfying a craving degree of hunger. Among +the sunny spots on the shore, innumerable swarms of the flying grasshopper +or field crickets were sporting, and one of these proved an attractive +bait. The line was no sooner cast into the water, than the hook was seized, +and many were the brilliant specimens of sun-fish that our eager fishermen +cast at Catharine's feet, all gleaming with gold and azure scales. Nor was +there any lack of perch, or that delicate fish commonly known in these +waters as the pink roach. + +Tired at last with their easy sport, the hungry boys next proceeded to the +grateful task of scaling and dressing their fish, and this they did very +expeditiously, as soon as the more difficult part, that of kindling up a +fire on the beach, had been accomplished with the help of the flint, knife, +and dried rushes. The fish were then suspended, Indian fashion, on forked +sticks stuck in the ground and inclined at a suitable angle towards the +glowing embers,--a few minutes sufficed to cook them. + +"Truly," said Catharine, when the plentiful repast was set before her, "God +hath, indeed, spread a table for us here in the wilderness;" so miraculous +did this ample supply of delicious food seem in the eyes of this simple +child of nature. + +They had often heard tell of the facility with which the fish could be +caught, but they had known nothing of it from their own experience, as the +streams and creeks about Cold Springs afforded them but little opportunity +for exercising their skill as anglers; so that, with the rude implements +with which they were furnished, the result of their morning success seemed +little short of divine interference in their behalf. Happy and contented +in the belief that they were not forgotten by their heavenly Father, these +poor "children in the wood" looked up with gratitude to that beneficent +Being who suffereth not even a sparrow to fall unheeded. + +Upon Catharine, in particular, these things made a deep impression, and +there as she sat in the green shade, soothed by the lulling sound of the +flowing waters, and the soft murmuring of the many-coloured insects that +hovered among the fragrant leaves which thatched her sylvan bower, her +young heart was raised in humble and holy aspirations to the great Creator +of all things living. A peaceful calm diffused itself over her mind, as +with hands meekly folded across her breast, the young girl prayed with the +guileless fervour of a trusting and faithful heart. + +The sun was just sinking in a flood of glory behind the dark pine-woods +at the head of the lake, when Hector and Louis, who had been carefully +providing fish for the morrow, (which was the Sabbath,) came loaded with +their finny prey carefully strung upon a willow wand, and found Catharine +sleeping in her bower. Louis was loth to break her tranquil slumbers, but +her careful brother reminded him of the danger to which she was exposed, +sleeping in the dew by the water side; "Moreover," he added, "we have some +distance to go, and we have left the precious axe and the birch-bark vessel +in the valley." + +These things were too valuable to be lost, and so they roused the sleeper, +and slowly recommenced their toilsome way, following the same path that +they had made in the morning. Fortunately, Hector had taken the precaution +to bend down the flexile branches of the dogwood and break the tops of the +young trees that they had passed between on their route to the lake, and by +this clue they were enabled with tolerable certainty to retrace their way, +nothing doubting of arriving in time at the wigwam of boughs by the rock in +the valley. + +Their progress was, however, slow, burdened with the care of the lame girl, +and heavily laden with the fish. The purple shades of twilight soon clouded +the scene, deepened by the heavy masses of foliage, which cast a greater +degree of obscurity upon their narrow path; for they had now left the +oak-flat and entered the gorge of the valley. The utter loneliness of the +path, the grotesque shadows of the trees, that stretched in long array +across the steep banks on either side, taking, now this, now that wild and +fanciful shape, awakened strange feelings of dread in the mind of these +poor forlorn wanderers; like most persons bred up in solitude, their +imaginations were strongly tinctured with superstitious fears. Here then, +in the lonely wilderness, far from their beloved parents and social hearth, +with no visible arm to protect them from danger, none to encourage or +to cheer them, can it be matter of surprise if they started with +terror-blanched cheeks at every fitful breeze that rustled the leaves or +waved the branches above them? The gay and lively Louis, blithe as any wild +bird in the bright sunlight, was the most easily oppressed by this strange +superstitious fear, when the shades of evening were closing round, and he +would start with ill-disguised terror at every sound or shape that met his +ear or eye, though the next minute he was the first to laugh at his own +weakness. In Hector, the feeling was of a graver, more solemn cast, +recalling to his mind all the wild and wondrous tales with which his +father was wont to entertain the children, as they crouched round the huge +log-fire of an evening. It is strange the charm these marvellous tales +possess for the youthful mind, no matter how improbable, or how often told; +year after year they will be listened to with the same ardour, with an +interest that appears to grow with repetition. And still, as they slowly +wandered along, Hector would repeat to his breathless auditors those +Highland legends that were as familiar to their ears as household words, +and still they listened with fear and wonder, and deep awe, till at each +pause he made, the deep-drawn breath and half-repressed shudder might +be heard. And now the little party paused irresolutely, fearing to +proceed,--they had omitted to notice some land-mark in their progress; the +moon had not long been up, and her light was as yet indistinct; so they sat +them down on a little grassy spot on the bank, and rested till the moon +should lighten their path. + +Louis was confident they were not far from "the bigstone," but careful +Hector had his doubts, and Catharine was weary. The children had already +conceived a sort of home feeling for the valley and the mass of stone that +had sheltered them for so many nights, and soon the dark mass came in +sight, as the broad full light of the now risen moon fell upon its rugged +sides; they were nearer to it than they had imagined. "Forward for 'the big +stone' and the wigwam," cried Louis. + +"Hush!" said Catharine, "look there," raising her hand with a warning +gesture. + +"Where? what?" + +"The wolf! the wolf!" gasped out the terrified girl. There indeed, upon the +summit of the block, in the attitude of a sentinel or watcher, stood the +gaunt-figured animal, and as she spoke, a long wild cry, the sound of which +seemed as if it came midway between the earth and the tops of the tall +pines on the lofty ridge above them, struck terror into their hearts, as +with speechless horror they gazed upon the dark outline of the terrible +beast. There it stood, with its head raised, its neck stretched outward, +and ears erect, as if to catch the echo that gave back those dismal sounds; +another minute and he was gone, and the crushing of branches and the rush +of many feet on the high bank above, was followed by the prolonged cry of +some poor fugitive animal,--a doe, or fawn, perhaps,--in the very climax +of mortal agony; and then the lonely recesses of the forest took up that +fearful death-cry, the far-off shores of the lake and the distant islands +prolonged it, and the terrified children clung together in fear and +trembling. + +A few minutes over, and all was still. The chase had turned across the +hills to some distant ravine; the wolves were all gone--not even the +watcher was left, and the little valley lay once more in silence, with all +its dewy roses and sweet blossoms glittering in the moonlight; but though +around them all was peace and loveliness, it was long ere confidence was +restored to the hearts of the panic-stricken and trembling children. They +beheld a savage enemy in every mass of leafy shade, and every rustling +bough struck fresh terrors into their excited minds. They might have +exclaimed with the patriarch Jacob, "How dreadful is this place!" + +With hand clasped in hand, they sat them down among the thick covert of the +bushes, for now they feared to move forward, lest the wolves should return; +sleep was long a stranger to their watchful eyes, each fearing to be the +only one left awake, and long and painful was their vigil. Yet nature, +overtasked, at length gave way, and sleep came down upon their eyelids; +deep, unbroken sleep, which lasted till the broad sunlight breaking through +the leafy curtains of their forest-bed, and the sound of waving boughs and +twittering birds, once more wakened them to life and light; recalling them +from happy dreams of home and friends, to an aching sense of loneliness and +desolation. This day they did not wander far from the valley, but took the +precaution, as evening drew on, to light a large fire, the blaze of which +they thought would keep away any beast of prey. They had no want of food, +as the fish they had caught the day before proved an ample supply. The +huckle-berries were ripening too, and soon afforded them a never-failing +source of food; there were also an abundance of bilberries, the sweet rich +berries of which proved a great treat, besides being very nourishing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Oh for a lodge in the vast wilderness, + The boundless contiguity of shade!" + +A fortnight had now passed, and Catharine still suffered so much from pain +and fever, that they were unable to continue their wanderings; all that +Hector and his cousin could do, was to carry her to the bower by the lake, +where she reclined whilst they caught fish. The painful longing to regain +their lost home had lost nothing of its intensity; and often would the poor +sufferer start from her bed of leaves and boughs, to wring her hands and +weep, and call in piteous tones upon that dear father and mother, who would +have given worlds had they been at their command, to have heard but one +accent of her beloved voice, to have felt one loving pressure from that +fevered hand. Hope, the consoler, hovered over the path of the young +wanderers, long after she had ceased to whisper comfort to the desolate +hearts of the mournful parents. + +Of all that suffered by this sad calamity, no one was more to be pitied +than Louis Perron: deeply did the poor boy lament the thoughtless folly +which had involved his cousin Catharine in so terrible a misfortune. "If +Kate had not been with me," he would say, "we should not have been lost; +for Hector is so cautious and so careful, he would not have left the +cattle-path; but we were so heedless, we thought only of flowers and +insects, of birds, and such trifles, and paid no heed to our way." Louis +Perron, such is life. The young press gaily onward, gathering the flowers, +and following the gay butterflies that attract them in the form of pleasure +and amusement; they forget the grave counsels of the thoughtful, till they +find the path they have followed is beset with briers and thorns; and a +thousand painful difficulties that were unseen, unexpected, overwhelm and +bring them to a sad sense of their own folly; and perhaps the punishment of +their errors does not fall upon themselves alone, but upon the innocent, +who have unknowingly been made participators in their fault. + +By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis +endeavoured to alleviate his cousin's sufferings, and soften her regrets; +nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, when his own +heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. "If it were +not for our dear parents and the dear children at home," he would say, "we +might spend our time most happily upon these charming plains; it is much +more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; see how brightly the +sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and cover the earth with fruit +and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to fish and hunt, and trap the game. +Yes, if they were all here, we would build us a nice log-house, and clear +up these bushes on the flat near the lake. This 'Elfin Knowe,' as you call +it, Kate, would be a nice spot to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; +not one should be cut down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and +voyage across to yonder islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?" and +Catharine, smiling at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the +spirit of the project, and say,-- + +"Ah! Louis, that would be pleasant." + +"If we had but my father's rifle now," said Hector, "and old Wolfe." + +"Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges and +black squirrels," said Louis. + +"I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at break +of day," said Hector. "The fawn was so little fearful, that if I had had a +stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten yards of the +spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one by making a +dead-fall." [A sort of trap in which game is taken in the woods, or on the +banks of creeks.] + +"If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear innocent +Mignon," cried Catharine, "I should never feel lonely then." + +"And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from time +to time, ma belle." + +"Hec., what are you thinking of?" + +"I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our +lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the open +air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and the +rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter will have +to be provided against." + +"But, Hector, do you really think there is no chance of finding our way +back to Cold Springs? We know it must be behind this lake," said Louis. + +"True, but whether east, west, or south, we cannot tell; and whichever way +we take now is but a chance, and if once we leave the lake and get involved +in the mazes of that dark forest, we should perish, for we know there is +neither water nor berries, nor game to be had as there is here, and we +might be soon starved to death. God was good who led us beside this fine +lake, and upon these fruitful plains." + +"It is a good thing that I had my axe when we started from home," said +Hector. "We should not have been so well off without it; we shall find the +use of it if we have to build a house. We must look out for some spot where +there is a spring of good water, and--" + +"No horrible wolves," interrupted Catharine: "though I love this pretty +ravine, and the banks and braes about us, I do not think I shall like to +stay here. I heard the wolves only last night, when you and Louis were +asleep." + +"We must not forget to keep watch-fires." + +"What shall we do for clothes?" said Catharine, glancing at her home-spun +frock of wool and cotton plaid. + +"A weighty consideration, indeed," sighed Hector; "clothes must be provided +before ours are worn out, and the winter comes on." + +"We must save all the skins of the wood-chucks and squirrels," suggested +Louis; "and fawns when we catch them." + +"Yes, and fawns when we get them," added Hector; "but it is time enough to +think of all these things; we must not give up all hope of home." + +"I give up all hope? I shall hope on while I have life," said Catharine. +"My dear, dear father, he will never forget his lost children; he will try +and find us, alive or dead; he will never give up the search." + +Poor child, how long did this hope burn like a living torch in thy +guileless breast. How often, as they roamed those hills and valleys, were +thine eyes sent into the gloomy recesses of the dark ravines and thick +bushes, with the hope that they would meet the advancing form and +outstretched arms of thy earthly parents: all in vain--yet the arms of thy +heavenly Father were extended over thee, to guide, to guard, and to sustain +thee. + +How often were Catharine's hands filled with wild-flowers, to carry home, +as she fondly said, to sick Louise, or her mother. Poor Catharine, how +often did your bouquets fade; how often did the sad exile water them with +her tears,--for hers was the hope that keeps alive despair. + +When they roused them in the morning to recommence their fruitless +wanderings, they would say to each other: "Perhaps we shall see our father, +he may find us here to-day;" but evening came, and still he came not, and +they were no nearer to their father's home than they had been the day +previous. + +"If we could but find our way back to the 'Cold Creek,' we might, by +following its course, return to Cold Springs," said Hector. + +"I doubt much the fact of the 'Cold Creek' having any connexion with our +Spring," said Louis; "I think it has its rise in the 'Beaver-meadow,' and +following its course would only entangle us among those wolfish balsam and +cedar swamps, or lead us yet further astray into the thick recesses of the +pine forest. For my part, I believe we are already fifty miles from Cold +Springs." + +It is one of the bewildering mistakes that all persons who lose their way +in the pathless woods fall into, they have no idea of distance, or the +points of the compass, unless they can see the sun rise and set, which is +not possible to do when surrounded by the dense growth of forest-trees; +they rather measure distance by the time they have been wandering, than by +any other token. + +The children knew that they had been a long time absent from home, +wandering hither and thither, and they fancied their journey had been as +long as it had been weary. They had indeed the comfort of seeing the sun in +his course from east to west, but they knew not in what direction the home +they had lost lay; it was this that troubled them in their choice of the +course they should take each day, and at last determined them to lose no +more time so fruitlessly, where the peril was so great, but seek for some +pleasant spot where they might pass their time in safety, and provide for +their present and future wants. + + "The world was all before them, where to choose + Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." + +Catharine declared her ancle was so much stronger than it had been since +the accident, and her health so much amended, that the day after the +conversation just recorded, the little party bade farewell to the valley +of the "big stone," and ascending the steep sides of the hills, bent their +steps eastward, keeping the lake to their left hand; Hector led the way, +loaded with their household utensils, which consisted only of the axe, which +he would trust to no one but himself, the tin-pot, and the birch-basket. +Louis had his cousin to assist up the steep banks, likewise some fish to +carry, which had been caught early in the morning. + +The wanderers thought at first to explore the ground near the lake shore, +but soon abandoned this resolution, on finding the under-growth of trees +and bushes become so thick, that they made little progress, and the fatigue +of travelling was greatly increased by having continually to put aside the +bushes or bend them down. + +Hector advised trying the higher ground: and after following a deer-path +through a small ravine that crossed the hills, they found themselves on a +fine extent of table-land, richly, but not too densely wooded with white +and black oaks, diversified with here and there a solitary pine, which +reared its straight and pillar-like trunk in stately grandeur above its +leafy companions: a meet eyrie for the bald-eagle, that kept watch from its +dark crest over the silent waters of the lake, spread below like a silver +zone studded with emeralds. + +In their progress, they passed the head of many small ravines, which +divided the hilly shores of the lake into deep furrows; these furrows had +once been channels, by which the waters of some upper lake (the site of +which is now dry land) had at a former period poured down into the valley, +filling the basin of what now is called the Rice Lake. These waters with +resistless course had ploughed their way between the hills, bearing in +their course those blocks of granite and limestone which are so widely +scattered both on the hill-tops and the plains, or form a rocky pavement at +the bottom of the narrow denies. What a sight of sublime desolation must +that outpouring of the waters have presented, when those steep banks were +riven by the sweeping torrents that were loosened from their former bounds. +The pleased eye rests upon these tranquil shores, now covered with oaks and +pines, or waving with a flood of golden grain, or varied by neat dwellings +and fruitful gardens; and the gazer on that peaceful scene scarcely +pictures to himself what it must have been when no living eye was there to +mark the rushing floods, when they scooped to themselves the deep bed in +which they now repose. + +Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were +doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose +rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried away +the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the lake, +seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some few are +parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable impediment +turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an outlet +through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake. + +There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a +solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly +called the "upper Race-course," merely on account of the smoothness of the +surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above the +lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and +covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been +a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and +attractive spot, known as the "lower Race-course;" it lies on a lower level +than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of distant hills; +both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and may have been the +sources from whence its channel was filled. Some convulsion of nature at a +remote period, by raising the waters above their natural level, might have +caused a disruption of the banks, and drained their beds, as they now +appear ready for the ploughshare or the spade. In the month of June these +flats are brilliant with the splendid blossoms of the _enchroma_, or +painted cup, the azure lupine and snowy _trillium_ roses scent the evening +air, and grow as if planted by the hand of taste. + +A carpeting of the small downy saxifrage [Footnote: Saxifraga nivalis.] with +its white silky leaves covers the ground in early spring. In the fall, it +is red with the bright berries and dark box-shaped leaves of a species of +creeping winter-green, that the Indians call spiceberry; the leaves are +highly aromatic, and it is medicinal as well as agreeable to the taste and +smell. In the month of July a gorgeous assemblage of martagon lilies take +the place of the lupine and trilliums; these splendid lilies vary from +orange to the brightest scarlet; various species of sunflowers and +_coreopsis_ next appear, and elegant white _pyrolas_ [Footnote: Gentiana +linearis, G. crenata.] scent the air and charm the eye. The delicate lilac +and white shrubby asters next appear, and these are followed by the large +deep blue gentian, and here and there by the elegant fringed gentian. +[Footnote: Pyrola rotundifolia, P. asarifolia.] These are the latest and +loveliest of the flowers that adorn this tract of land. It is indeed a +garden of nature's own planting, but the wild garden is being converted +into fields of grain, and the wild flowers give place to a new race of +vegetables, less ornamental, but more useful to man and the races of +domestic animals that depend upon him for their support. + +Our travellers, after wandering over this lovely plain, found themselves, +at the close of the day, at the head of a fine ravine, [Footnote: +_Pedophyllnm galmata_,--Mandrake, or May-apple.] where they had the good +fortune to perceive a spring of pure water, oozing beneath some large +moss-covered blocks of black waterworn granite; the ground was thickly +covered with moss about the edges of the spring, and many varieties of +flowering shrubs and fruits were scattered along the valley and up the +steep sides of the surrounding hills. There were whortleberries, or +huckleberries, as they are more usually called, in abundance; bilberries +dead ripe, and falling from the bushes at a touch. The vines that wreathed +the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes, +but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly +sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, +filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the +stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they +did not mind the consequences. The moist part of the valley was occupied +by a large bed of May-apples, [Footnote: Kilvert's Ravine, above Pine-tree +Point.] the fruit of which was of unusual size, but they were not ripe, +August being the month when they ripen; there were also wild plums still +green, and wild cherries and blackberries ripening; there were great +numbers of the woodchucks' burrows on the hills, while partridges and +quails were seen under the thick covert of the blue-berried dog-wood, +[Footnote: _Cornus sericea_. The blue berries of this shrub are eaten by +the partridge and wild-ducks; also by the pigeons and other birds. There +are several species of this shrub common to the Rice Lake.] that here grew +in abundance at the mouth of the ravine where it opened to the lake. As +this spot offered many advantages, our travellers halted for the night, and +resolved to make it their head-quarters for a season, till they should meet +with an eligible situation for building a winter shelter. + +Here, then, at the head of the valley, sheltered by one of the rounded +hills that formed its sides, our young people erected a summer hut, +somewhat after the fashion of an Indian wigwam, which was all the shelter +that was requisite while the weather remained so warm. Through the opening +at the gorge of this ravine they enjoyed a peep at the distant waters of +the lake which terminated the vista, while they were quite removed from its +unwholesome vapours. + +The temperature of the air for some days had been hot and sultry, scarcely +modified by the cool delicious breeze that usually sets in about nine +o'clock, and blows most refreshingly till four or five in the afternoon. +Hector and Louis had gone down to fish for supper, while Catharine busied +herself in collecting leaves and dried deer-grass, moss and fern, of which +there was abundance near the spring. The boys had promised to cut some +fresh cedar boughs near the lake shore, and bring them up to form a +foundation for their bed, and also to strew Indian-fashion over the floor +of the hut by way of a carpet. This sort of carpeting reminds one of, the +times when the palaces of our English kings were strewed with rushes, and +brings to mind the old song:-- + + "Oh! the golden days of good Queen Bess, + When the floors were strew'd with rushes, + And the doors went on the latch----" + +Despise not then, you, my refined young readers, the rude expedients +adopted by these simple children of the forest, who knew nothing of the +luxuries that were to be met with in the houses of the great and the rich. +The fragrant carpet of cedar or hemlock-spruce sprigs strewn lightly over +the earthen floor, was to them a luxury as great as if it had been taken +from the looms of Persia or Turkey, so happy and contented were they in +their ignorance. Their bed of freshly gathered grass and leaves, raised +from the earth by a heap of branches carefully arranged, was to them as +pleasant as beds of down, and the rude hut of bark and poles, as curtains +of silk or damask. + +Having collected as much of these materials as she deemed sufficient for +the purpose, Catharine next gathered up dry oak branches, plenty of which +lay scattered here and there, to make a watch-fire for the night, and this +done, weary and warm, she sat down on a little hillock, beneath the cooling +shade of a grove of young aspens, that grew near the hut; pleased with the +dancing of the leaves, which fluttered above her head, and fanned her warm +cheek with their incessant motion, she thought, like her cousin Louise, +that the aspen was the merriest tree in the forest, for it was always +dancing, dancing, dancing, even when all the rest were still. + +She watched the gathering of the distant thunder-clouds, which cast a +deeper, more sombre shade upon the pines that girded the northern shores of +the lake as with an ebon frame. Insensibly her thoughts wandered far away +from the lonely spot whereon she sat, to the stoup [Footnote: The Dutch +word for verandah, which is still in common use among the Canadians.] in +front of her father's house, and in memory's eye she beheld it all exactly +as she had left it. There stood the big spinning wheel, just as she had set +it aside; the hanks of dyed yarn suspended from the rafters, the basket +filled with the carded wool ready for her work. She saw in fancy her +father, with his fine athletic upright figure, his sunburnt cheeks and +clustering sable hair, his clear energetic hazel eye ever beaming upon her, +his favourite child, with looks of love and kindness as she moved to and +fro at her wheel. [Footnote: Such is the method of working at the large +wool wheel, unknown or obsolete in England.] There, too, was her mother, +with her light step and sweet cheerful voice, singing as she pursued her +daily avocations; and Donald and Kenneth driving up the cows to be milked, +or chopping firewood. And as these images, like the figures of the magic +lantern, passed in all their living colours before her mental vision, her +head drooped heavier and lower till it sunk upon her arm, and then she +started, looked round, and slept again, her face deeply buried in her young +bosom; and long and peacefully the young girl slumbered. + +A sound of hurrying feet approaches, a wild cry is heard and panting +breath, and the sleeper with a startling scream sprang to her feet: she +dreamed that she was struggling in the fangs of a wolf--its grisly paws +were clasped about her throat; the feeling was agony and suffocation--her +languid eyes open. Can it be?--what is it that she sees? Yes, it is Wolfe; +not the fierce creature of her dreams by night and her fears by day, but +her father's own brave devoted dog. What joy, what hope rushed to her +heart! She threw herself upon the shaggy neck of the faithful beast, and +wept from the fulness of heart. + +"Yes," she joyfully cried, "I knew that I should see him again. My own +dear, dear, loving father! Father! father! dear, dear father, here are your +children. Come, come quickly!" and she hurried to the head of the valley, +raising her voice, that the beloved parent, who she now confidently +believed was approaching, might be guided to the spot by the well-known +sound of her voice. + +Poor, child! the echoes of thy eager voice, prolonged by every projecting +headland of the valley, replied in mocking tones, "Come quickly!" + +Bewildered she paused, listened breathlessly and again she called, +"Father, come quickly, come!" and again the deceitful sounds were repeated, +"Quickly come!" + +The faithful dog, who had succeeded in tracking the steps of his lost +mistress, raised his head and erected his ears, as she called on her +father's name; but he gave no joyful bark of recognition as he was wont to +do when he heard his master's step approaching. Still Catharine could not +but think that Wolfe had only hurried on before, and that her father must +be very near. + +The sound of her voice had been heard by her brother and cousin, who, +fearing some evil beast had made its way to the wigwam, hastily wound up +their line, and left the fishing-ground to hurry to her assistance. They +could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Wolfe, faithful old Wolfe, +their earliest friend and playfellow, named by their father after the +gallant hero of Quebec. And they too, like Catharine, thought that their +friends were not far distant, and joyfully they climbed the hills and +shouted aloud, and Wolfe was coaxed and caressed, and besought to follow +them to point out the way they should take: but all their entreaties were +in vain; worn out with fatigue and long fasting, the poor old dog refused +to quit the embers of the fire, before which he stretched himself, and +the boys now noticed his gaunt frame and wasted flesh--he looked almost +starved. The fact now became evident that he was in a state of great +exhaustion. Catharine thought he eyed the spring with wishful looks, and +she soon supplied him with water in the bark dish, to this great relief. + +Wolfe had been out for several days with his master, who would repeat, in +tones of sad earnestness, to the faithful creature, "Lost, lost, lost!" It +was his custom to do so when the cattle strayed, and Wolfe would travel in +all directions till he found them, nor ceased his search till he discovered +the objects he was ordered to bring home. The last night of the father's +wanderings, when, sick and hopeless, he came back to his melancholy +home, as he sat sleeplessly rocking himself to and fro, he involuntarily +exclaimed, wringing his hands, "Lost, lost, lost!" Wolfe heard what to him +was an imperative command; he rose, and stood at the door, and whined; +mechanically his master rose, lifted the latch, and again exclaimed in +passionate tones those magic words, that sent the faithful messenger forth +into the dark forest path. Once on the trail he never left it, but with ah +instinct incomprehensible as it was powerful, he continued to track the +woods, lingering long on spots where the wanderers had left any signs of +their sojourn; he had for some time been baffled at the Beaver Meadow, and +again where they had crossed Cold Creek, but had regained the scent and +traced them to the valley of the "big stone," and then with the sagacity of +the bloodhound and the affection of the terrier he had, at last, discovered +the objects of his unwearied, though often baffled search. + +What a state of excitement did the unexpected arrival of old Wolfe create! +How many questions were put to the poor beast, as he lay with his head +pillowed on the knees of his loving mistress! Catharine knew it was +foolish, but she could not help talking to the dumb animal, as if he had +been conversant with her own language. Ah, old Wolfe, if your homesick +nurse could but have interpreted those expressive looks, those eloquent +waggings of your bushy tail, as it flapped upon the grass, or waved from +side to side; those gentle lickings of the hand, and mute sorrowful +glances, as though he would have said, "Dear mistress, I know all your +troubles. I know all you say, but I cannot answer you!" There is something +touching in the silent sympathy of the dog, to which only the hard-hearted +and depraved can be quite insensible. I remember once hearing of a felon, +who had shown the greatest obstinacy and callous indifference to the +appeals of his relations, and the clergyman that attended him in prison, +whose heart was softened by the sight of a little dog, that had been his +companion in his days of comparative innocence, forcing its way through the +crowd, till it gained the foot of the gallows; its mute look of anguish +and affection unlocked the fount of human feeling, and the condemned man +wept--perhaps the first tears he had shed since childhood's happy days. + +The night closed in with a tempest of almost tropical violence. The inky +darkness of the sky was relieved, at intervals, by sheets of lurid flame, +which revealed, by its intense brightness, every object far off or near. +The distant lake, just seen amid the screen of leaves through the gorge of +the valley, gleamed like a sea of molten sulphur; the deep narrow defile, +shut in by the steep and wooded hills, looked deeper, more wild and gloomy, +when revealed by that vivid glare of light. + +There was no stir among the trees, the heavy rounded masses of foliage +remained unmoved; the very aspen, that tremulous sensitive tree, scarcely +stirred; it seemed as if the very pulses of nature were at rest. The solemn +murmur that preceded the thunder-peal might have been likened to the +moaning of the dying. The children felt the loneliness of the spot. Seated +at the entrance of their sylvan hut, in front of which their evening fire +burned brightly, they looked out upon the storm in silence and in +awe. Screened by the sheltering shrubs that grew near them, they felt +comparatively safe from the dangers of the storm, which now burst in +terrific violence above the valley. Cloud answered to cloud, and the echoes +of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered trunks and brittle +branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in that wild war of +elements. + +Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from their +covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might be heard +from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts with fear. To +the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they listened with awe +and wonder. It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were the voice of Him who +"sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice." And they bowed and +adored his majesty; but they shrank with curdled blood from the cry of the +_felon wolf._ + +And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down in a +whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey branches +were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they would not bow +down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered all abroad like +chaff before the wind. + +The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for the +safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from them. +And often 'mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could +distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names. "If our father had +not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither." + +"Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm," said +Catharine, weeping, "or have been starved to death while seeking for us!" +and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly. + +But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings. Their fathers +were both brave hardy men, accustomed to every sort of danger and +privation; they were able to take care of themselves. Yes, he was sure they +were not far off; it was this unlucky storm coming on that had prevented +them from meeting. + +"To-morrow, ma chre, will be a glorious day after the storm; it will be a +joyful one too, we shall go out with Wolfe, and he will find his master, +and then--oh, yes! I dare say my dear father will be with yours. They will +have taken good heed to the track, and we shall soon see our dear mothers +and chre petite Louise." + +The storm lasted till past midnight, when it gradually subsided, and the +poor wanderers glad to see the murky clouds roll off, and the stars peep +forth among their broken masses; but they were reduced to a pitiful state, +the hurricane having beaten down their little hut, and their garments were +drenched with rain. However, the boys made a good fire with some bark +and boughs they had in store; there were a few sparks in their back log +unextinguished, and this they gladly fanned up into a blaze, with which +they dried their wet clothes, and warmed themselves. The air was now cool +almost to chilliness, and for some days the weather remained unsettled, +and the sky overcast with clouds, while the lake presented a leaden hue, +crested with white mimic waves. + +They soon set to work to make another hut, and found close to the head of +the ravine a great pine uprooted, affording them large pieces of bark, +which proved very serviceable in thatching the sides of the hut. The boys +employed themselves in this work, while Catharine cooked the fish they +had caught the night before, with a share of which old Wolfe seemed to be +mightily well pleased. After they had breakfasted, they all went up towards +the high table-land above the ravine, with Wolfe, to look round in hope of +getting sight of their friends from Cold Springs, but though they kept an +anxious look out in every direction, they returned, towards evening, +tired and hopeless. Hector had killed a red squirrel, and a partridge which +Wolfe "treed,"--that is, stood barking at the foot of the tree in which it +had perched,--and the supply of meat was a seasonable change. They also +noticed, and marked, with the axe, several trees where there were bees, +intending to come in the cold weather, and cut them down. Louis's father +was a great and successful bee-hunter; and Louis rather prided himself on +having learned something of his father's skill in that line. Here, where +flowers were so abundant and water plentiful, the wild bees seemed to be +abundant also; besides, the open space between the trees, admitting the +warm sunbeam freely, was favourable both for the bees and the flowers on +which they fed, and Louis talked joyfully of the fine stores of honey they +should collect in the fell. He had taught little Fanchon, a small French +spaniel of his father's, to find out the trees where the bees hived, and +also the nests of the ground-bees, and she would bark at the foot of the +tree, or scratch with her feet on the ground, as the other dogs barked at +the squirrels or the woodchucks; but Fanchon was far away, and Wolfe was +old, and would learn no new tricks, so Louis knew he had nothing but his +own observation and the axe to depend upon for procuring honey. + +The boys had been unsuccessful for some days past in fishing; neither +perch nor sunfish, pink roach nor mud-pouts [Footnote: All these fish are +indigenous to the fresh waters of Canada.] were to be caught. However, they +found water-mussels by groping in the sand, and cray-fish among the +gravel at the edge of the water only; the last pinched their fingers very +spitefully. The mussels were not very palateable, for want of salt; but +hungry folks must not be dainty, and Louis declared them very good when +well roasted, covered up with hot embers. "The fish-hawks," said he, "set +us a good example, for they eat them, and so do the eagles and herons. I +watched one the other day with a mussel in his bill; he flew to a high +tree, let his prey fall, and immediately darted down to secure it; but I +drove him off, and, to my great amusement, perceived the wise fellow had +just let it fall on a stone, which had cracked the shell for him just in +the right place. I often see shells lying at the foot of trees, far up +the hills, where these birds must have left them. There is one large +thick-shelled mussel, that I have found several times with a round hole +drilled through the shell, just as if it had been done with a small auger, +doubtless the work of some bird with a strong beak." + +"Do you remember," said Catharine, "the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec. +picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of +the shells too; [Footnote: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells of +mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been long +known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the river +mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and stones.] and +when my uncle saw it, he said it must have been dropped by some large bird, +a fish-hawk possibly, or a heron, and brought from the great lake, as it +had been taken out of some deep water, the mussels in our creeks being +quite thin-shelled and white." + +"Do you remember what a quantity of large fish bones we found in the +eagle's nest on the top of our hill, Louis?" said Hector. + +"I do; those fish must have been larger than our perch and sun-fish; they +were brought from this very lake, I dare say." + +"If we had a good canoe now, or a boat, and a strong hook and line, we +might become great fishermen." + +"Louis," said Catharine, "is always thinking about canoes, and boats, and +skiffs; he ought to have been a sailor." + +Louis was confident that if they had a canoe he could soon learn to +manage her; he was an excellent sailor already in theory. Louis never saw +difficulties; he was always hopeful, and had a very good opinion of his own +cleverness; he was quicker in most things, his ideas flowed faster than +Hector's, but Hector was more prudent, and possessed one valuable quality-- +steady perseverance; he was slow in adopting an opinion, but when once +convinced, he pushed on steadily till he mastered the subject or overcame +the obstacle. + +"Catharine," said Louis, one day, "the huckleberries age now very +plentiful, and I think it would be a wise thing to gather a good store of +them, and dry them for the winter. See, ma chre, wherever we turn our +eyes, or place our feet, they are to be found; the hill sides are purple +with them. We may, for aught we know, be obliged to pass the rest of our +lives here; it will be well to prepare for the winter when no berries are +to be found." + +"It will be well, mon ami, but we must not dry them in the sun; for let me +tell you, Mr. Louis, that they will be quite tasteless--mere dry husks." + +"Why so, ma belle?" + +"I do not know the reason, but I only know the fact, for when our mothers +dried the currants and raspberries in the sun, such was the case, but when +they dried them on the oven floor, or on the hearth, they were quite nice." + +"Well, Cath., I think I know of a flat thin stone that will make a good +hearthstone, and we can get sheets of birch bark and sew into flat bags, to +keep the dried fruit in." + +They now turned all their attention to drying huckleberries (or +whortleberries). [Footnote: From the abundance of this fruit, the Indians +have given the name of Whortleberry Plain to the lands on the south shore. +During the month of July and the early part of August, large parties come +to the Rice Lake Plains to gather huckleberries, which they preserve by +drying, for winter use. These berries make a delicious tart or pudding, +mixed with bilberries and red-currants, requiring little sugar.] Catharine +and Louis (who fancied nothing could be contrived without his help) +attended to the preparing and making of the bags of birch bark; but Hector +was soon tired of girl's work, as he termed it, and, after gathering some +berries, would wander away over the hills in search of game, and to explore +the neighbouring hills and valleys, and sometimes it was sunset before he +made his appearance. Hector had made an excellent strong-bow, like the +Indian bow, out of a tough piece of hickory wood, which he found in one of +his rambles, and he made arrows with wood that he seasoned in the smoke, +sharpening the heads with great care with his knife, and hardening them by +exposure to strong heat, at a certain distance from the fire. The entrails +of the woodchucks, stretched, and scraped and dried, and rendered pliable +by rubbing and drawing through the hands, answered for a bowstring; but +afterwards, when they got the sinews and hide of the deer, they used them, +properly dressed for the purpose. + +Hector also made a cross-bow, which he used with great effect, being a +true and steady marksman. Louis and he would often amuse themselves with +shooting at a mark, which they would chip on the bark of a tree; even +Catharine was a tolerable archeress with the longbow, and the hut was now +seldom without game of one kind or other. Hector seldom returned from his +rambles without partridges, quails, or young pigeons, which are plentiful +at this season of the year; many of the old ones that pass over in their +migratory flight in the spring, stay to breed, or return thither for the +acorns and berries that are to be found in great abundance. Squirrels, too, +are very plentiful at this season. Hector and Louis remarked that the red +and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other. It is a +common belief, that the red squirrels make common cause with the grey, and +beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a succession +of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while there were +plenty of the red and grey in the "oak openings." [Footnote: Within the +last three years, however, the black squirrels have been very numerous, and +the red are less frequently to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is +tender, white, and delicate, like that of a young rabbit.] Deer, at the +time our young Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful, +and, of course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears, +and wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here +commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals are +now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or wolves, +and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history in this +part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization advances, +while some others increase and follow man, especially many species of +birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the rich man's +board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits and modes of +building and feeding, according to the alteration and improvement in their +circumstances. + +While our young people seldom wanted for meat, they felt the privation of +the tread to which they had teen accustomed very sensibly. One day, while +Hector and Louis were busily engaged with their assistant, Wolfe, in +unearthing a woodchuck, that had taken refuge in his burrow, on one of the +gravelly hills above the lake, Catharine amused herself by looking +for flowers; she had filled her lap with ripe May-apples, [Footnote: +_Podophyllum peltatum_-May-apple, or Mandrake. The fruit of the May-apple, +in rich moist soil, will attain to the size of the magnum bonum, or +egg-plum, which it resembles in colour and shape. It makes a delicious +preserve, if seasoned with cloves or ginger; when eaten uncooked, the outer +rind, which is thick and fleshy, and has a rank taste, should be thrown +aside; the fine acid pulp in which the seeds are imbedded alone should be +eaten. The root of the Podophyllum is used as a cathartic by the Indians. +The root of this plant is reticulated, and when a large body of them are +uncovered, they present a singular appearance, interlacing each other in +large meshes, like an extensive net-work; these roots are white, as thick +as a man's little finger, and fragrant, and spread horizontally along +the surface. The blossom is like a small white rose.] but finding them +cumbersome in climbing the steep wooded hills, she deposited them at the +foot of a tree near the boys, and pursued her search; and it was not long +before she perceived some pretty grassy-looking plants, with heads of +bright lilac flowers, and on plucking some pulled up the root also. The +root was about the size and shape of a large crocus, and, on biting it, she +found it far from disagreeable, sweet, and slightly astringent; it seemed +to be a favourite root with the wood-chucks, for she noticed that it grew +about their burrows on dry gravelly soil, and many of the stems were +bitten, and the roots eaten, a warrant in full of wholesomeness. Therefore, +carrying home a parcel of the largest of the roots, she roasted them in the +embers, and they proved almost as good as chestnuts, and more satisfying +than the acorns of the white oak, which they had often roasted in the fire, +when they were out working on the fallow, at the log heaps. Hector and +Louis ate heartily of the roots, and commended Catharine for the discovery. +Not many days afterwards, Louis accidentally found a much larger and more +valuable root, near the lake shore. He saw a fine climbing shrub, with +close bunches of dark reddish-purple pea-shaped flowers, which scented the +air with a delicious perfume. The plant climbed to a great height over the +young trees, with a profusion of dark green leaves and tendrils. Pleased +with the bowery appearance of the plant, he tried to pull one up, that he +might show it to his cousin, when the root displayed a number of large +tubers, as big as good-sized potatoes, regular oval-shaped; the inside was +quite white, tasting somewhat like a potato, only pleasanter, when in its +raw state, than an uncooked potato. Louis gathered his pockets full, and +hastened home with his prize, and, on being roasted, these new roots were +decided to be little inferior to potatoes, at all events, they were a +valuable addition to their slender stores, and they procured as many as +they could find, carefully storing them in a hole, which they dug for that +purpose in a corner of their hut. [Footnote: This plant appears to me to +be a species of the _Psoralea esculenta_, or Indian bread-root, which it +resembles in description, excepting that the root of the above is tuberous +oval, and connected by long filaments. The largest tubers are farthest from +the stem of the plant.] Hector suggested that these roots would be far +better late in the fall, or early in the spring, than during the time that +the plant was in bloom, for he knew from observation and experience that at +the flowering season the greater part of the nourishment derived from the +soil goes to perfect the flower and the seeds. Upon scraping the cut tuber, +there was a white floury powder produced resembling the starchy substance +of the potato. + +"This flour," said Catharine, "would make good porridge with milk." + +"Excellent, no doubt, my wise little cook and housekeeper," said Louis, +laughing, "but ma belle cousine, where is the milk, and where is the +porridge-pot to come from?" + +"Indeed," said Catharine, "I fear, Louis, we must wait long for both." + +One fine day, Louis returned home from the lake shore in great haste, for +the bows and arrows, with the interesting news that a herd of five deer +were in the water, and making for Long Island. + +"But, Louis, they will be gone out of sight and beyond the reach of the +arrows," said Catharine, as she handed him down the bows and a sheaf of +arrows, which she quickly slung round his shoulders by the belt of skin, +which, the young hunter had made for himself. + +"No fear, ma chre; they will stop to feed on the beds of rice and lilies. +We must have Wolfe. Here, Wolfe, Wolfe, Wolfe,--here, boy, here!" + +Catharine caught a portion of the excitement that danced in the bright eyes +of her cousin, and declaring that she too would go and witness the hunt, +ran down the ravine by his side, while Wolfe, who evidently understood that +they had some sport in view, trotted along by his mistress, wagging his +great bushy tail, and looking in high good humour. + +Hector was impatiently waiting the arrival of the bows and Wolfe. The herd +of deer, consisting of a noble buck, two full-grown females, and two young +half-grown males, were quietly feeding among the beds of rice and rushes, +not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, apparently quite +unconcerned at the presence of Hector, who stood on a fallen trunk eagerly +eyeing their motions; but the hurried steps of Louis and Catharine, with +the deep sonorous baying of Wolfe, soon roused the timid creatures to a +sense of danger, and the stag, raising his head and making, as the children +thought, a signal for retreat, now struck boldly out for the nearest point +of Long Island. + +"We shall lose them," cried Louis, despairingly, eyeing the long bright +track that cut the silvery waters, as the deer swam gallantly out. + +"Hist, hist, Louis," said Hector, "all depends upon Wolfe. Turn them, +Wolfe; hey, hey, seek them, boy!" + +Wolfe dashed bravely into the lake. + +"Head them! head them!" shouted Hector. + +Wolfe knew what was meant; with the sagacity of a long-trained hunter, he +made a desperate effort to gain the advantage by a circuitous route. Twice +the stag turned irresolute, as if to face his foe, and Wolfe, taking the +time, swam ahead, and then the race began. As soon as the boys saw the herd +had turned, and that Wolfe was between them and the island, they separated, +Louis making good his ambush to the right among the cedars, and Hector +at the spring to the west, while Catharine was stationed at the solitary +pine-tree, at the point which commanded the entrance of the ravine. + +"Now, Cathy," said her brother, "when you see the herd making for the +ravine, shout and and, clap your hands, and they will turn either to the ten +right or to the left. Do not let them land, or we shall lose them. We must +trust to Wolfe for their not escaping to the island. Wolfe is well trained, +he knows what he is about." + +Catharine proved a dutiful ally, she did as she was bid; she waited till +the deer were within a few yards of the shore, then she shouted and clapped +her hands. Frightened at the noise and clamour, the terrified creatures +coasted along for some way, till within a little distance of the thicket +where Hector lay concealed, the very spot from which they had emerged when +they first took to the water; to this place they boldly steered. Louis, who +had watched the direction the herd had taken with breathless interest, now +noiselessly hurried to Hector's assistance, taking an advantageous post for +aim, in case Hector's arrow missed, or only slightly wounded one of the +deer. + +Hector, crouched beneath the trees, waited cautiously till one of the does +was within reach of his arrow, and so good and true was his aim, that it +hit the animal hi the throat a little above the chest; the stag now turned +again, but Wolfe was behind, and pressed him forward, and again the noble +animal strained every nerve for the shore. Louis now shot his arrow, but it +swerved from the mark, he was too eager, it glanced harmlessly along the +water; but the cool, unimpassioned hand of Hector sent another arrow +between the eyes of the doe, stunning her with its force, and then, another +from Louis laid her on her side, dying, and staining the water with her +blood. + +The herd, abandoning their dying companion, dashed frantically to the +shore, and the young hunters, elated by their success, suffered them to +make good their landing without further molestation. Wolfe, at a signal +from his master, ran in the quarry, and Louis declared exultingly, that as +his last arrow had given the _coup de grace_, he was entitled to the honour +of cutting the throat of the doe; but this, the stern Highlander protested +against, and Louis, with a careless laugh, yielded the point, contenting +himself with saying, "Ah, well, I will get the first steak of the venison +when it is roasted, and that is far more to my taste." Moreover, he +privately recounted to Catharine the important share he had had in the +exploit, giving her, at the same time, full credit for the worthy service +she had performed, in withstanding the landing of the herd. Wolfe, too, +came in for a large share of the honour and glory of the chase. + +The boys were soon hard at work, skinning the animal, and cutting it up. +This was the most valuable acquisition they had yet effected, for many uses +were to be made of the deer, besides eating the flesh. It was a store of +wealth in their eyes. + +During the many years that their fathers had sojourned in the country, +there had been occasional intercourse with the fur traders and trappers, +and, sometimes, with friendly disposed Indians, who had called at the +lodges of their white brothers for food and tobacco. + +From all these men, rude as they were, some practical knowledge had been +acquired, and their visits, though few and far between, had left good fruit +behind them; something to think about and talk about, and turn to future +advantage. + +The boys had learned from the Indians how precious were the tough sinews +of the deer for sewing. They knew how to prepare the skins of the deer +for mocassins, which they could cut out and make as neatly as the squaws +themselves. They could fashion arrow-heads, and knew how best to season the +wood for making both the long and cross-bow; they had seen the fish-hooks +these people manufactured from bone and hard wood; they knew that strips of +fresh-cut skins would make bow-strings, or the entrails of animals dried +and rendered pliable. They had watched the squaws making baskets of the +inner bark of the oak, elm, and basswood, and mats of the inner bark of +the cedar, with many other ingenious works that they now found would prove +useful to them, after a little practice had perfected their inexperienced +attempts. They also knew how to dry venison as the Indians and trappers +prepare it, by cutting the thick fleshy portions of the meat into strips, +from four to six inches in breadth, and two or more in thickness. These +strips they strung upon poles supported on forked sticks, and exposed them +to the drying action of the sun and wind. Fish they split open, and removed +the back and head bones, and smoked them slightly, or dried them in the +sun. + +Their success in killing the doe greatly raised their spirits; in their joy +they embraced each other, and bestowed the most affectionate caresses on +Wolfe for his good conduct. + +"But for this dear, wise old fellow, we should have had no venison for +dinner to-day," said Louis; "and so, Wolfe, you shall have a choice piece +for your own share." + +Every part of the deer seemed valuable in the eyes of the young hunters; +the skin they carefully stretched out upon sticks to dry gradually, and the +entrails they also preserved for bow-strings. The sinews of the legs and +back, they drew out, and laid carefully aside for future use. + +"We shall be glad enough of these strings by-and-by," said careful Hector; +"for the summer will soon be at an end, and then we must turn our attention +to making ourselves winter clothes and mocassins." + +"Yes, Hec., and a good warm shanty; these huts of bark and boughs will not +do when once the cold weather sets in." + +"A shanty would soon be put up," said Hector; "for even Kate, wee bit +lassie as she is, could give us some help in trimming up the logs. + +"That I could, indeed," replied Catherine; "for you may remember, Hec., +that the last journey my father made to the Bay, [Footnote: Bay of Quints.] +with the pack of furs, that you and I called a _Bee_ + +[Footnote: A _Bee_ is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We +fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all +Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in the +course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, or +shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best +assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable +to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he +has received.] + +to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and +I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you +said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help." + +"Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only +four logs high." + +"It was not for the fall that I cried," said Catharine, resentfully, "but +because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, 'Cats, you know, have +nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their feet,' and I +thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in pain. Beside, you +called me 'puss,' and 'poor pussie' all the rest of the _Bee_." + +"I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you," said Louis, +trying to look penitent for the offence. "For my part, I had forgotten all +about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear aunt made +us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; and the shed +was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine builders, to have +made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no better help." + +"After all," said Hector, thoughtfully; "children can do a great many +things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the +strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we +should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves in a +lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and hunting." + +"If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger," said +Catharine; "but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, and +gave us health and strength to help ourselves." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Aye from the sultry heat, + We to our cave retreat, + O'ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, + Of wildest texture, blacken'd o'er with age, + Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine. + Beneath whose mantle--pale, + Fann'd by the breathing gale, + We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, + Thither, while the murmuring throng + Of wild bees hum their drowsy song."--COLERIDGE. + +"Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood?" said Catharine, the +very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started. + +"Hollowing out a canoe." + +"Out of that piece of stick?" said Catharine, laughing. "How many +passengers is it to accommodate, my dear." + +"Don't teaze, ma belle. I am only making a model. My canoe will be made out +of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three." + +"Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home?" Louis +nodded assent. + +"I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and out +of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of partridges, +I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them." + +"And shall we have a sail as well as oars?" + +"Yes; set up your apron for a sail." + +Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron. + +"It is worth nothing now," she said, sighing; "and what am I to do when +my gown is worn out? It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been +cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes." + +"We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough," said Hector; +"Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the holes +with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be easily +made." + +"The first rainy day, we will see what we can do," replied Louis; "but I am +full of my canoe just now." + +"Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even if we +had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could manage +one," said cautions Hector. + +"I could soon learn, as others have done before me. I wonder who first +taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and +streams. Why should we be more stupid than these untaught heathens? I have +listened so often to my father's stories and adventures when he was out +lumbering on the St. John's river, that I am as familiar with the idea of +a boat, as if I had been born in one. Only think now, ma belle," he said, +turning to Catharine; "just think of the fish--the big ones we could get if +we had but a canoe to push out from the shore beyond those rush-beds." + +"It strikes me, Louis, that those rush-beds, as you call them, must be the +Indian rice that we have seen the squaws make their soup of." + +"Yes; and you remember old Jacob used to talk of a fine lake that he called +Rice Lake, somewhere to the northward of the Cold Springs, where he said +there was plenty of game of all kinds, and a fine open place, where people +could see through the openings among the trees. He said it was a great +hunting-place for the Indians in the fall of the year, and that they came +there to gather in the harvest of wild rice." + +"I hope the Indians will not come here and find us out," said Catharine, +shuddering; "I think I should be more frightened at the Indians than at the +wolves. Have we not heard fearful tales of their cruelty?" + +"But we have never been harmed by them; they have always been civil enough +when they came to the Springs." "They came, you know, for food, or shelter, +or something that they wanted from us; but it may be different when they +find us alone and unprotected, encroaching upon their hunting grounds." + +"The place is wide enough for us and them; we will try and make them our +friends." + +"The wolf and the lamb do not lie down in the fold together," observed +Hector. "The Indian is treacherous. The wild man and the civilized man do +not live well together, their habits and dispositions are so contrary the +one to the other. We are open, and they are cunning, and they suspect our +openness to be only a greater degree of cunning than their own--they do +not understand us. They are taught to be revengeful, and we are taught to +forgive our enemies. So you see that what is a virtue with the savage, is a +crime with the Christian. If the Indian could be taught the word of God, he +might be kind and true, and gentle as well as brave." + +It was with conversations like this that our poor wanderers wiled away +their weariness. The love of life, and the exertions necessary for +self-preservation, occupied so large a portion of their thoughts and time, +that they had hardly leisure for repining. They mutually cheered and +animated each other to bear up against the sad fate that had thus severed +them from every kindred tie, and shut them out from that home to which +their young hearts were bound by every endearing remembrance from infancy +upwards. + +One bright September morning, our young people set off on an exploring +expedition, leaving the faithful Wolfe to watch the wigwam, for they well +knew he was too honest to touch their store of dried fish and venison +himself, and too trusty and fierce to suffer wolf or wild cat near it. + +They crossed several narrow deep ravines, and the low wooded flat +[Footnote: Now the fertile firm of Joe Harris, a Yankee settler whose +pleasant meadows and fields of grain form a pretty feature from the lake. +It is one of the oldest clearings on the shore, and speaks well for the +persevering industry of the settler and his family.] along the lake shore, +to the eastward of Pine-tree Point. Finding it difficult to force their +way through the thick underwood that always impedes the progress of the +traveller on the low shores of the lake, they followed the course of an +ascending narrow ridge, which formed a sort of natural causeway between two +parallel hollows, the top of this ridge being in many places, not wider +than a cart or waggon could pass along. The sides were most gracefully +adorned with flowering shrubs, wild vines, creepers of various species, +wild cherries of several kinds, hawthorns, bilberry bushes, high-bush +cranberries, silver birch, poplars, oaks and pines; while in the deep +ravines on either side grew trees of the largest growth, the heads of which +lay on a level with their path. Wild cliffy banks, beset with huge boulders +of red and grey granite and water-worn limestone, showed that it had once +formed the boundary of the lake, though now it was almost a quarter of a +mile in its rear. Springs of pure water were in abundance, trickling down +the steep rugged sides of this wooded glen. The children wandered onwards, +delighted with the wild picturesque path they had chosen, sometimes resting +on a huge block of moss-covered stone, or on the twisted roots of some +ancient grey old oak or pine, while they gazed with curiosity and interest +on the lonely but lovely landscape before them. Across the lake, the dark +forest shut all else from their view, rising in gradual far-off slopes, +till it reached the utmost boundary of sight. Much the children marvelled +what country it might be that lay in the dim, blue, hazy distance,--to +them, indeed, a _terra incognita_--a land of mystery; but neither of her +companions laughed when Catharine gravely suggested the probability of this +unknown shore to the northward being her father's beloved Highlands. Let +not youthful and more learned reader smile at the ignorance of the Canadian +girl; she knew nothing of maps, and globes, and hemispheres,--her only +book of study had been the Holy Scriptures, her only teacher a poor +Highland soldier. + +Following the elevated ground above this deep valley, the travellers at +last halted on the extreme, edge of a high and precipitous mound, that +formed an abrupt termination to the deep glen. They found water not far +from this spot fit for drinking, by following a deer-path a little to the +southward. And there, on the borders of a little basin on a pleasant brae, +where the bright silver birch waved gracefully over its sides, they decided +upon building a winter house. They named the spot Mount Ararat: "For here." +said they, "we will build us an ark of refuge and wander no more." And +mount Ararat is the name which the spot still bears. Here they sat them +down on a fallen tree, and ate a meal of dried venison, and drank of the +cold spring that welled out from beneath the edge of the bank. Hector +felled a tree to mark the site of their house near the birches, and they +made a regular blaze on the trees as they returned home towards the wigwam, +that they might not miss the place. They found less difficulty in retracing +their path than they had formerly, a there were some striking peculiarities +to mark it, and they had learned to be very minute in the remarks they made +as they travelled, so that they now seldom missed the way they came by. A +few days after this, they removed all their household stores, viz. the axe, +the tin pot, bows and arrows, baskets, and bags of dried fruit, the dried +venison and fish, and the deerskin; nor did they forget the deer scalp, +which they bore away as a trophy, to be fastened up over the door of their +new dwelling, for a memorial of their first hunt on the shores of the Rice +Lake. The skin was given to Catharine to sleep on. + +The boys were now busy from morning till night chopping down trees for +house-logs. It was a work of time and labour, as the axe was blunt, and the +oaks hard to cut; but they laboured on without grumbling, and Kate watched +the fall of each tree with lively joy. They were no longer dull; there was +something to look forward to from day to day-they were going to commence +housekeeping in good earnest and they should be warm and well lodged before +the bitter frosts of winter could come to chill their blood. It was a +joyful day when the log walls of the little shanty were put up, and the +door hewed out. Windows they had none, so they did not cut out the spaces +for them; [Footnote: Many a shanty is put up in Canada without windows, and +only an open space for a door, with a rude plank set up to close it in at +night.] they could do very well without, as hundreds of Irish and Highland +emigrants have done before and since. + +A pile of stones rudely cemented together with wet clay and ashes against +the logs, and a hole cut in the roof, formed the chimney and hearth in this +primitive dwelling. The chinks were filled with wedge-shaped pieces of +wood, and plastered with clay: the trees, being chiefly oaks and pines, +afforded no moss. This deficiency rather surprised the boys, for in the +thick forest and close cedar swamps, moss grows in abundance on the north +side of the trees, especially on the cedar, maple, beech, bass, and iron +wood; but there were few of these, excepting a chance one or two in the +little basin in front of the house. The roof was next put on, which +consisted of split cedars; and when the little dwelling was thus far +habitable, they were all very happy. While the boys had been putting on the +roof, Catharine had collected the stones for the chimney, and cleared the +earthen floor of the chips and rubbish with a broom of cedar boughs, bound +together with a leathern thong. She had swept it all clean, carefully +removing all unsightly objects, and strewing it over with fresh cedar +sprigs, which gave out a pleasant odour, and formed a smooth and not +unseemly carpet for their little dwelling. How cheerful was the first fire +blazing up on their own hearth! It was so pleasant to sit by its gladdening +light, and chat away of all they had done and all that they meant to do. +Here was to be a set of split cedar shelves, to hold their provisions and +baskets; there a set of stout pegs were to be inserted between the logs for +hanging up strings of dried meat, bags of birch-bark, or the skins of the +animals they were to shoot or trap. A table was to be fixed on posts in the +centre of the floor. Louis was to carve wooden platters and dishes, and +some stools were to be made with hewn blocks of wood, till something better +could be devised. Their bedsteads were rough poles of iron-wood, supported +by posts driven into the ground, and partly upheld by the projection of the +logs at the angles of the wall. Nothing could be more simple. The framework +was of split cedar; and a safe bed was made by pine boughs being first +laid upon the frame, and then thickly covered with dried grass, moss, and +withered leaves. Such were the lowly but healthy couches on which these +children of the forest slept. + +A dwelling so rudely framed and scantily furnished would be regarded with +disdain by the poorest English peasant. Yet many a settler's family have I +seen as roughly lodged, while a better house was being prepared for +their reception; and many a gentleman's son has voluntarily submitted to +privations as great as these, from the love of novelty and adventure, or +to embark in the tempting expectation of realizing money in the lumbering +trade, working hard, and sharing the rude log shanty and ruder society of +those reckless and hardy men, the Canadian lumberers. During the spring and +summer months, these men spread themselves through the trackless forests, +and along the shores of nameless lakes and unknown streams, to cut the pine +or oak lumber, such being the name they give to the felled stems of trees, +which are then hewn, and in the winter dragged out upon the ice, where they +are formed into rafts, and floated down the waters till they reach the +great St. Lawrence, and are, after innumerable difficulties and casualties, +finally shipped for England. I have likewise known European gentlemen +voluntarily leave the comforts of a civilized home, and associate +themselves with the Indian trappers and hunters, leading lives as wandering +and as wild as the uncultivated children of the forest. The nights and +early mornings were already growing sensibly more chilly. The dews at this +season fall heavily, and the mists fill the valleys, till the sun has risen +with sufficient heat to draw up the vapours. It was a good thing that the +shanty was finished so soon, or the exposure to the damp air might have +been productive of ague and fever. Every hour almost they spent in making +little additions to their household comforts, but some time was necessarily +passed in trying to obtain provisions. One day Hector, who had been out +from dawn till moonrise, returned with the welcome news that he had shot a +young deer, and required the assistance of his cousin to bring it up the +steep bank--(it was just at the entrance of the great ravine)--below the +precipitous cliff near the lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the +meantime. They had now plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was +very acceptable, as they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat +that they had. + +This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in +strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she +roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets of +birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, and the +meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild plums in a +beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried for the winter +store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she also found plenty +of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, on the banks of a +charming creek of bright water that flowed between a range of high pine +hills, and finally emptied itself into the lake.[Footnote: This little +stream flows through the green meadows of "Glenlynden," watering the +grounds of Mr. Alfred Hayward, whose picturesque cottage forms a most +attractive object to the eye of the traveller.] There were great quantities +of water-cresses in this pretty brook; they grew in bright round +cushion-like tufts at the bottom of the water, and were tender and +wholesome. These formed an agreeable addition to their diet, which had +hitherto been chiefly confined to animal food, for they could not always +meet with a supply of the bread-roots, as they grew chiefly in damp, swampy +thickets on the lake shore, which were sometimes very difficult of access; +however, they never missed any opportunity of increasing their stores, and +laying up for the winter such roots as they could procure. + +As the cool weather and frosty nights drew on, the want of warm clothes and +bed-covering became more sensibly felt: those they had were beginning to +wear out. Catharine had managed to wash her clothes at the lake several +times, and thus preserved them clean and wholesome; but she was often +sorely puzzled how the want of her dress was to be supplied as time wore +on, and many were the consultations she held with the boys on the important +subject. With the aid of a needle she might be able to manufacture the +skins of the small animals into some sort of jacket, and the doe-skin +and deer-skin could be made into garments for the boys. Louis was always +suppling and rubbing the skins to make them soft. They had taken off the +hair by sprinkling it with wood ashes, and rolling it up with the hairy +side inwards. Out of one of these skins he made excellent mocassins, +piercing the holes with a sharpened bone bodkin, and passing the sinews of +the deer through, as he had seen his father do, by fixing a stout fish-bone +to the deer-sinew thread; thus he had an excellent substitute for a needle, +and with the aid of the old file he sharpened the point of the rusty nail, +so that he was enabled, with a little trouble, to drill a hole in a +bone needle, for his cousin Catharine's use. After several attempts, he +succeeded in making some of tolerable fineness, hardening them by exposure +to a slow steady degree of heat, till she was able to work with them, and +even mend her clothes with tolerable expertness. By degrees, Catharine +contrived to cover the whole outer surface of her homespun woollen frock +with squirrel and mink, musk-rat and woodchuck skins. A curious piece of +fur patchwork of many hues and textures it presented to the eye,--a coat of +many colours, it is true; but it kept the wearer warm, and Catharine was +not a little proud of her ingenuity and industry: every new patch that was +added was a source of fresh satisfaction, and the mocassins, that Louis +fitted so nicely to her feet, were great comforts. A fine skin that Hector +brought triumphantly in one day, the spoil from a fox that had been caught +in one of his deadfalls, was in due time converted into a dashing cap, the +brush remaining as an ornament to hang down on one shoulder. Catharine +might have passed for a small Diana, when she went out with her fur dress +and bow and arrows to hunt with Hector and Louis. + +Whenever game of any kind was killed, it was carefully skinned and +stretched upon bent sticks, being first turned, so as to present the inner +part to the drying action of the air. The young hunters were most expert in +this work, having been accustomed for many years to assist their fathers in +preparing the furs which they disposed of to the fur traders, who visited +them from time to time, and gave them various articles in exchange for +their peltries; such as powder and shot, and cutlery of different kinds, +as knives, scissors, needles, and pins, with gay calicoes, and cotton +handkerchiefs for the women. + +As the evenings lengthened, the boys employed themselves with carving +wooden platters: knives and forks and spoons they fashioned out of the +larger bones of the deer, which they often found bleaching in the sun and +wind, where they had been left by their enemies the wolves; baskets too +they made, and birch dishes, which they could now finish so well, that they +held water, or any liquid; but their great want was some vessel that would +bear the heat of the fire. The tin pot was so small that it could be made +little use of in the cooking way. Catharine had made an attempt at making +tea, on a small scale, of the leaves of the sweet fern,--a graceful woody +fern, with a fine aromatic scent like nutmegs; this plant is highly +esteemed among the Canadians as a beverage, and also as a remedy against +the ague; it grows in great abundance on dry sandy lands and wastes, by +waysides. + +"If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat of +the fire," said Louis, "we could get on nicely with cooking." But nothing +like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they were obliged +to give up that thought, and content themselves with roasting or broiling +their food. Louis, however, who was fond of contrivances, made an oven, by +hollowing out a place near the hearth, and lining it with stones, filling +up the intervals with wood ashes and such clay as they could find, beaten +into a smooth mortar. Such cement answered very well, and the oven was +heated by filling it with hot embers; these were removed when it was +sufficiently heated, and the meat or roots placed within, the oven being +covered over with a flat stone previously heated before the fire, and +covered with live coals. This sort of oven had often been described by old +Jacob, as one in common use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower +province, in which they cook small animals, and make excellent meat of +them; they could bake bread also in this oven, if they had had flour +to use. [Footnote: This primitive oven is much like what voyagers have +described as in use among the natives of many of the South Sea islands.] + +Since the finishing of the house and furnishing it, the young people were +more reconciled to their lonely life, and even entertained decided home +feelings for their little log cabin. They never ceased, it is true, to talk +of their parents, and brothers, and sisters, and wonder if all were well, +and whether they still hoped for their return, and to recall all their happy +days spent in the home which they now feared they were destined never again +to behold. About the same time they lost the anxious hope of meeting +some one from home in search of them at every turn when they went out. +Nevertheless they were becoming each day more cheerful and more active. +Ardently attached to each other, they seemed bound together by a yet more +sacred tie of brotherhood. They were now all the world to one another, and +no cloud of disunion came to mar their happiness. Hector's habitual gravity +and caution were tempered by Louis's lively vivacity and ardour of temper, +and they both loved Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, +the hard life to which she was exposed, by the most affectionate +consideration for her comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay +them by cheerfully enduring all privations, and making light of all their +trials, and taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances. + +Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning. During his +absence, a sudden squall of wind came on, accompanied with heavy rain. +As he stayed longer than usual, Hector began to feel uneasy, lest some +accident had befallen him, knowing his adventurous spirit, and that he had +for some days previous been busy constructing a raft of cedar logs, +which he had fastened together with wooden pins. This raft he had nearly +finished, and was even talking of adventuring over to the nearest island to +explore it, and see what game, and roots, and fruits it afforded. + +Bidding Catharine stay quietly within-doors till his return, Hector ran +off, not without some misgivings of evil having befallen his rash cousin, +which fears he carefully concealed from his sister, as he did not wish +to make her needlessly anxious. When he reached the shore, his mind was +somewhat relieved by seeing the raft on the beach, just as it had been left +the night before, but neither Louis nor the axe was to be seen, nor the +fishing-rod and line. + +"Perhaps," thought he, "Louis has gone further down to the mouth of the +little creek, in the flat east of this, where we caught our last fish: or +maybe he has gone up to the old place at Pine-tree Point." + +While he yet stood hesitating within himself which way to turn, he heard +steps as of some one running, and perceived his cousin hurrying through the +bushes in the direction of the shanty. It was evident by his disordered +air, and the hurried glances that he cast over his shoulder from time to +time, that something unusual had occurred to disturb him. + +"Halloo! Louis, is it bear, wolf, or catamount that is on your trail?" +cried Hector, almost amused by the speed with which his cousin hurried +onward. "Why, Louis, whither away?" + +Louis now turned and held up his hand, as if to enjoin silence, till Hector +came up to him. + +"Why, man, what ails you? what makes you run as if you were hunted down by +a pack of wolves?" + +"It is not wolves, or bears either," said Louis, as soon as he could get +breath to speak, "but the Indians are all on Bare-hill, holding a war +council, I suppose, for there are several canoe-loads of them." + +"How came you to see them?" + +"I must tell you that when I parted from you and Cathy, instead of going +down to my raft, as I thought at first I would do, I followed the deer path +through the little ravine, and then ascending the side of the valley, I +crossed the birch grove, and kept down the slope within sight of the creek. +While I was looking out upon the lake, and thinking how pretty the islands +were, rising so green from the blue water, I was surprised by seeing +several dark spots dotting the lake. At first, you may be sure, I thought +they must be a herd of deer, only they kept too far apart, so I sat down on +a log to watch, thinking if they turned out to be deer, I would race off +for you and Wolfe, and the bows and arrows, that we might try our chance +for some venison; but as the black specks came nearer and nearer, I +perceived they were canoes with Indians in them, three in each. They made +for the mouth of the creek, and ran ashore among the thick bushes. I +watched them with a beating heart, and lay down flat, lest they should spy +me out; for those fellows have eyes like catamounts, so keen and wild--they +see everything without seeming to cast a glance on it. Well, I saw them +wind up the ridge till they reached the Bare-hill. [Footnote: Supposed to +be a council hill. It is known by the name of Bare-hill, from the singular +want of verdure on its surface. It is one of the steepest on the ridge +above the little creek, being a picturesque object, with its fine +pine-trees, seen from Mr. Hayward's grounds, and forms, I believe, a part +of his property.] You remember that spot; we called it so from its barren +appearance. In a few minutes a column of smoke rose and curled among the +pine-trees, and then another and another, till I counted five fires burning +brightly; and, as I stood on the high ground, I could distinguish the +figures of many naked savages moving about, running to and fro like a +parcel of black ants on a cedar log; and by-and-by I heard them raise a +yell like a pack of ravenous wolves on a deer track. It made my heart leap +up in my breast. I forgot all the schemes that had just got into my wise +head, of slipping quietly down, and taking off one of the empty birch +canoes, which you must own would have been a glorious thing for us; but +when I heard the noise these wild wretches raised. I darted off, and ran +as if the whole set were at my heels. I think I just saved my scalp." And +Louis put his hand to his head, and tugged his thick black curls, as if to +ascertain that they were still safe from the scalping knives of his Indian +enemies. + +"And now, Hec, what is to be done? We must hide ourselves from the Indians; +they will kill us, or take us away with them if they find us." + +"Let us go home and talk over our plans with Cathy." + +"Yes; for I have heard my father say two heads are better than one, and so +three of course must be still better than two." + +"Why," said Hector, laughing, "it depends upon the stock of practical +wisdom in the heads, for two fools, you know, Louis, will hardly form one +rational plan." + +Various were the schemes devised for their security. Hector proposed +pulling down the shanty, and dispersing the logs, so as to leave no trace +of the little dwelling; but to this neither his cousin nor his sister would +agree. To pull down the new house that had cost them so much labour, and +which had proved such a comfort to them, they could not endure even in +idea. + +"Let us put out the fire, and hide ourselves in the big ravine below Mount +Ararat, dig a cave in one of the hills, and convey our house-hold goods +thither." Such was Louis's plan. + +"The ravines would be searched directly," suggested Hector; "besides, the +Indians know they are famous coverts for deer and game of all sorts; they +might chance to pop upon us, and catch us like woodchucks in a burrow." + +"Yes, and burn us," said Catharine, with a shudder. "I know the path that +leads direct to the 'Happy Valley,' (the name she had given to the low +flat, now known as the 'lower Race-course,') and it is not far from here, +only ten minutes' walk in a straight line. We can conceal ourselves below +the steep bank that we descended the other day; and there are several +springs of fresh water, and plenty of nuts and berries; and the trees, +though few, are so thickly covered with close spreading branches that touch +the very ground, that we might hide ourselves from a hundred eyes were they +ever so cunning and prying." + +Catharine's counsel was deemed the most prudent, and the boys immediately +busied themselves with hiding under the broken branches of a prostrate tree +such articles as they could not conveniently carry away, leaving the rest +to chance; with the most valuable they loaded themselves, and guided by +Catharine, who, with her dear old dog, marched forward along the narrow +footpath that had been made by some wild animals, probably deer, in their +passage from the lake to their feeding-place, or favorite covert, on the +low sheltered plain; where, being quite open, and almost, in parts, free +from trees, the grass and herbage were sweeter and more abundant, and the +springs of water fresh and cool. + +Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved +onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily +chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that +were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or +twinberry, [Footnote: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely +creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet +berry.] as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails +are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad her +bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the Rice +Lake and its flowery shores. + +After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted at +the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely spot +as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like a silver +crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in front, the +long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away into mist, and +blended with the horizon. To the east, a deep and fertile valley lay +between the high lands, on which they rested, and the far ridge of oak +hills. From their vantage height, they could distinguish the outline of the +Bare-hill, made more distinct by its flickering fires and the smoke wreaths +that hung like a pearly-tinted robe among the dark pines that grew upon its +crest. Not long tarrying did our fugitives make, though perfectly safe from +detection by the distance and their shaded position, for many a winding +vale and wood-crowned height lay between them and the encampment. + +But fear is not subject to the control of reason, and in the present +instance it invested the dreaded Indians with superhuman powers of sight +and of motion. A few minutes' hasty flight brought our travellers to the +brow of a precipitous bank, nearly a hundred feet above the level open +plain which they sought. Here, then, they felt comparatively safe: they +were out of sight of the camp fires, the spot they had chosen was open, +and flight, in case of the approach of the Indians, not difficult, while +hiding-places were easy of access. They found a deep, sheltered hollow +in the bank, where two mighty pines had beep torn up by the roots, and +prostrated headlong down the steep, forming a regular cave, roofed by the +earth and fibres that had been uplifted in their fall. Pendent from these +roots hung a luxuriant curtain of wild grapevines and other creepers, which +formed a leafy screen, through which the most curious eye could scarcely +penetrate. This friendly vegetable veil seemed as if provided for their +concealment, and they carefully abstained from disturbing the pendent +foliage, lest they should, by so doing, betray their hiding-place to their +enemies. They found plenty of long grass, and abundance of long soft green +moss and ferns near a small grove of poplars, which surrounded a spring of +fine water. They ate some dried fruit and smoked fish, and drank some of +the clear spring; and after they had said their evening prayers, they +laid down to sleep, Catharine's head pillowed on the neck of her faithful +guardian, Wolfe. In the middle of the night a startling sound, as of some +heavy body falling, wakened them all simultaneously. The night was so +dark they could see nothing, and terror-struck, they sat gazing into the +impenetrable darkness of their cave, not even daring to speak to each +other, hardly even to breathe. Wolfe gave a low grumbling bark, and resumed +his couchant posture as if nothing worthy of his attention was near to +cause the disturbance. Catharine trembled and wept, and prayed for safety +against the Indians and beasts of prey, and Hector and Louis listened, till +they fell asleep in spite of their fears. In the morning, it seemed as if +they had dreamed some terrible dream, so vague were their recollections of +the fright they had had, but the cause was soon perceived. A large stone +that had been heaved up with the clay that adhered to the roots and fibres, +had been loosened, and had fallen on the ground, close to the spot where +Catharine lay. So ponderous was the mass, that had it struck her, death +must have been the consequence of the blow; and Hector and Louis beheld it +with fear and amazement, while Catharine regarded it as a proof of Divine +mercy and protection from Him in whose hand her safety lay. The boys, +warned by this accident, carefully removed several large stones from the +roof, and tried the safety of their clay walls with a stout staff, to +ascertain that all was secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath +this rugged canopy. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbour findeth no favour in +his eyes."--_Proverbs_. + +FOR several days, they abstained from lighting a fire, lest the smoke +should be seen; but this, the great height of the bank would have +effectually prevented. They suffered much cold at night from the copious +dews, which, even on sultry summer's evenings, is productive of much +chilling. They could not account for the fact that the air, at night, was +much warmer on the high hills than in the low valleys; they were even +sensible of a rush of heat as they ascended to the higher ground. These +simple children had not been taught that it is the nature of the heated air +to ascend, and its place to be supplied by the colder and denser particles. +They noticed the effects, but understood nothing of the causes that ruled +them. + +The following days they procured several partridges, but feared to cook +them; however, they plucked them, split them open, and dried the flesh for +a future day. A fox or racoon attracted by the smell of the birds, came one +night, and carried them off, for in the morning they were gone. They saw +several herd of deer crossing the plain, and one day Wolfe tracked a +wounded doe to a covert under the poplars, near a hidden spring, where she +had lain herself down to die in peace, far from the haunts of her fellows. +The arrow was in her throat; it was of white flint, and had evidently been +sent from an Indian bow. It was almost with fear and trembling that they +availed themselves of the venison thus providentially thrown in their way, +lest the Indians should track the blood of the doe, and take vengeance on +them for appropriating it for their own use. Not having seen anything of +the Indians, who seemed to confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the +lake, after many days had passed, they began to take courage, and even +lighted an evening fire, at which they cooked as much venison as would last +them for several days, and hung the remaining portions above the smoke to +preserve it from injury. + +One morning, Hector proclaimed his intention of ascending the hills, in the +direction of the Indian camp. "I am tired of remaining shut up in this +dull place, where we can see nothing but this dead flat, bounded by those +melancholy pines in the distance that seem to shut us in." Little did +Hector know that beyond that dark ridge of pine hills lay the home of their +childhood, and but a few miles of forest intervened to hide it from their +sight. Had he known it how eagerly would his feet have pressed onward in +the direction of that dark barrier of evergreens! + +Thus is it often in this life: we wander on, sad and perplexed, our path +beset with thorns and briars. We cannot see our way clear; doubts and +apprehensions assail us. We know not how near we are to the fulfilment of +our wishes: we see only the insurmountable barriers, the dark thickets and +thorns of our way; and we know not how near we are to our Father's home. +where he is waiting to welcome the wanderers of the flock back to the +everlasting home, the fold of the Good Shepherd. + +Hector became impatient of the restraint that the dread of the Indians +imposed upon his movements; he wanted to see the lake again and to roam +abroad free and uncontrolled. + +"After all," said he; "we never met with any ill treatment from the Indians +that used to visit us at Cold Springs; we may even find old friends and +acquaintances among them." + +"The thing is possible, but not very likely," replied Louis. "Nevertheless, +Hector, I would not willingly put myself in their power. The Indian has his +own notion of things, and might think himself quite justified in killing +us, if he found us on his hunting-grounds. [Footnote: George Copway, an +intelligent Rice Lake Indian, says the Indian hunting-grounds are parcelled +out, and secured by right of law and custom among themselves, no one being +allowed to hunt upon another's grounds uninvited. If any one belonging to +another family or tribe is found trespassing, all his goods are taken from +him; a handful of powder and shot, as much as he would need to shoot game +for his sustenance in returning straight home, and his gun, knife, and +tomahawk only are left, but all his game and furs are taken from him: a +message is sent to his chief, and if he transgresses a third time, he +is banished and outlawed.--_Life of G. Copway, Missionary, written by +himself._] I have heard my father say,--and he knows a great deal about +these people,--that their chiefs are very strict in punishing any strangers +that they find killing game on their bounds uninvited. They are both +merciless and treacherous when angered, and we could not even speak to them +in their own language, to explain by what chance we came here." + +This was very prudent of Louis, uncommonly so, for one who was naturally +rash and headstrong, but unfortunately Hector was inflexible and wilful: +when once he had made up his mind upon any point, he had too good an +opinion of his own judgment to give it up. At last, he declared his +intention, rather than remain a slave to such cowardly fears as he now +deemed them, to go forth boldly, and endeavour to ascertain what the +Indians were about, how many there were of them, and what real danger was +to be apprehended from facing them. + +"Depend upon it," he added, "cowards are never safer than brave men. The +Indians despise cowards, and would be more likely to kill us if they found +us cowering here in this hole like a parcel of wolf-cubs, than if we openly +faced them and showed that we neither feared them, nor cared for them." + +"Hector, dear Hector, be not so rash!" cried his sister, passionately +weeping. "Ah! if we were to lose you, what would become of us?" + +"Never fear, Kate; I will run into no needless danger. I know how to take +care of myself. I am of opinion, that the Indian camp is broken up; they +seldom stay long in one place. I will go over the hills and examine the +camp at a distance and the lake shore. You and Louis may keep watch for my +return from the big pine that we halted under on our way hither." + +"But, Hector, if the savages should see you and take you prisoner," said +Catharine, "what would you do?" "I will tell you what I would do. Instead +of running away, I would boldly walk up to them, and by signs make them +understand that I am no scout, but a friend in need of nothing but kindness +and friendship. I never yet heard of the Indian that would tomahawk the +defenceless stranger that sought his camp openly in peace and goodwill." + +"If you do not return by sunset, Hector, we shall believe that you have +fallen into the hands of the savages," said Catharine, mournfully regarding +her brother. + +"If it were not for Catharine," said Louis, "you should not go alone, but, +if evil befel this helpless one, her blood would be upon my head, who led +her out with us, tempting her with false words." + +"Never mind that now, dearest cousin," said Catharine, tenderly laying her +hand on his arm. "It is much better that we should have been all three +together; I should never have been happy again if I had lost both Hec and +you. It is better as it is; you and Hec would not have been so well off if +I had not been with you to help you, and keep up your spirits by my songs +and stories." + +"It is true, ma chre; but that is the reason that I am bound to take care +of my little cousin, and I could not consent to exposing you to danger, or +leaving you alone; so, if Hec will be so headstrong, I will abide by you." + +Hector was so confident that he should return in safety, that at last Louis +and Catharine became more reconciled to his leaving them, and soon busied +themselves in preparing some squirrels that Louis had brought in that +morning. + +The day wore away slowly, and many were the anxious glances that Catharine +cast over the crest of the high bank to watch for her brother's return; at +last, unable to endure the suspense, she with Louis left the shelter of the +valley; they ascended the high ground, and bent their steps to the trysting +tree, which commanded all the country within a wide sweep. + +A painful and oppressive sense of loneliness? and desolation came over the +minds of the cousins as they sat together at the foot of the pine, which +cast its lengthened shadow upon the ground before them. The shades of +evening were shrouding them, wrapping the lonely forest in gloom. The full +moon had not yet risen, and they watched for the first gleam that should +break above the eastern hills to cheer them, as for the coming of a friend. + +Sadly these two poor lonely ones sat hand in hand, talking of the happy +days of childhood, or the perplexing present and the uncertain future. At +last, wearied out with watching and anxiety, Catharine leaned her head upon +the neck of old Wolfe and fell asleep, while Louis restlessly paced to +and fro in front of the sleeper; now straining his eye to penetrate the +surrounding gloom, now straining his ear to catch the first sound that +might indicate the approach of his absent cousin. + +It was almost with a feeling of irritability that he heard the quick sharp +note of the "Whip-poor-will," as she flew from bough to bough of an old +withered tree beside him. Another, and again another of these midnight +watchers took up the monotonous never-varying cry of "Whip-poor-will, +Whip-poor-will;" and then came forth, from many a hollow oak and birch, the +spectral night-hawk from hidden dens, where it had lain hushed in silence +all day, from dawn till sunset. Sometimes their sharp hard wings almost +swept his cheek as they wheeled round and round in circles, first narrow, +then wide, and wider extending, till at last they soared far above the +tallest tree-tops and launching out in the high regions of the air, +uttered from time to time a wild shrill scream, or hollow booming sound, +as they suddenly descended to pounce with wide-extended throat upon some +hapless moth or insect, that sported all unheeding in mid air, happily +unconscious of the approach of so unerring a foe. + +Petulantly Louis chid these discordant minstrels of the night, and joyfully +he hailed the first gush of moonlight that rose broad and full and red, +over the Oak-hills to the eastward. + +Louis envied the condition of the unconscious sleeper, who lay in happy +forgetfulness of all her sorrows, her fair curls spread in unbound +luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed +as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. +Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose +from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of under +tone, and dosed again, but watchfully. + +It would be no easy task to tell the painful feelings that agitated young +Louis's breast. He was angry with Hector, for having thus madly, as he +thought, rushed into danger. "It was wilful and almost cruel," he thought +"to leave them the prey of such tormenting fears on his account;" and then +the most painful fears for the safety of his beloved companion took the +place of less kindly thoughts, and sorrow filled his heart. The broad +moon now flooded the hills and vales with light, casting broad checkering +shadows of the old oaks' grey branches and now reddened foliage across the +ground. + +Suddenly the old dog raises his head, and utters a short half angry note: +slowly and carefully he rises, disengaging himself gently from the form of +the sleeping girl, and stands forth in the full light of the moon. It is an +open cleared space, that mound beneath the pine-tree; a few low shrubs and +seedling pines, with the slender waving branches of the late-flowering +pearly tinted asters, the elegant fringed gentian, with open bells of +azure blue, the last and loveliest of the fall flowers and winter-greens, +brighten the ground with wreaths of shining leaves and red berries. + +Louis is on the alert, though as yet he sees nothing. It is not a full free +note of welcome, that Wolfe gives; there is something uneasy and half angry +in his tone. Yet it is not fierce, like the bark of angry defiance he +gives, when wolf, or bear, or wolverine is near. + +Louis steps forward from the shadow of the pine branches, to the edge of +the inclined plane in the foreground. The slow tread of approaching steps +is now distinctly heard advancing--it may be a deer. Two figures approach, +and Louis moves a little, within the shadow again. A clear shrill whistle +meets his ear. It is Hector's whistle, he knows that, and assured by its +cheerful tone, he springs forward and in an instant is at his side, but +starts at the strange, companion that he half leads, half carries. The +moonlight streams broad and bright upon the shrinking figure of an Indian +girl, apparently about the same age as Catharine: her ashy face is +concealed by the long masses of raven black hair, which falls like a dark +veil over her features; her step is weak and unsteady, and she seems ready +to sink to the earth with sickness or fatigue. Hector, too, seems weary. +The first words that' Hector said were, "Help me, Louis, to lead this poor +girl to the foot of the pine; I am so tired I can hardly walk another +step." + +Louis and his cousin together carried the Indian girl to the foot of the +pine. Catharine was just rousing herself from sleep, and she gazed with a +bewildered air on the strange companion that Hector had brought with him. +The stranger lay down, and in a few minutes sank into a sleep so profound +it seemed to resemble that of death itself. Pity and deep interest soon +took the place of curiosity and dread in the heart of the gentle Catharine, +and she watched the young stranger's slumber as tenderly as though she had +been a sister, or beloved friend, while Hector proceeded to relate in what +manner he had encountered the Indian girl. + +"When I struck the high slope near the little birch grove we called the +_'birken shaw,'_ I paused to examine if the council-fires were still +burning on Bare-hill, but there was no smoke visible, neither was there +a canoe to be seen at the lake shore where Louis had described their +landing-place at the mouth of the creek. All seemed as silent and still +as if no human footstep had trodden the shore. I sat down and watched for +nearly an hour till my attention was attracted by a noble eagle, which was +sailing in wide circles over the tall pine-trees on Bare-hill. Assured that +the Indian camp was broken up, and feeling some curiosity to examine the +spot more closely, I crossed the thicket of cranberries and cedars and +small underwood that fringed the borders of the little stream, and found +myself, after a little pushing and scrambling, among the bushes at the foot +of the hill. + +"I thought it not impossible I might find something to repay me for my +trouble--flint arrow-heads, a knife, or a tomahawk--but I little thought +of what these cruel savages had left there,--a miserable wounded captive, +bound by the long locks of her hair to the stem of a small tree, her hands, +tied by thongs of hide to branches which they had bent down to fasten them +to her feet, bound fast to the same tree as that against which her head was +fastened; her position was one that must have been most painful: she had +evidently been thus left to perish by a miserable death, of hunger and +thirst; for these savages, with a fiendish cruelty, had placed within sight +of their victim an earthen jar of water, some dried deers' flesh, and a cob +[Footnote: A head of the Maize, or Indian corn, is called a "cob."] of +Indian corn. I have the corn here," he added, putting his hand in his +breast, and displaying it to view. + +"Wounded she was, for I drew this arrow from her shoulder," and he showed +the flint head as he spoke, "and fettered; with food and drink in sight, +the poor girl was to perish, perhaps to become a living prey to the wolf, +and the eagle that I saw wheeling above the hill top. The poor thing's lips +were black and parched with pain and thirst; she turned her eyes piteously +from my face to the water jar as if to implore a draught. This I gave her, +and then having cooled the festering wound, and cut the thongs that bound +her, I wondered that she still kept the same immoveable attitude, and +thinking she was stiff and cramped with remaining so long bound in one +position, I took her two hands and tried to induce her to move. I then for +the first time noticed that she was tied by the hair of her head to the +tree against which her back was placed; I was obliged to cut the hair with +my knife, and this I did not do without giving her pain, as she moaned +impatiently. She sunk her head on her breast, and large tears fell over my +hands, as I bathed her face and neck with the water from the jar; she then +seated herself on the ground, and remained silent and still for the space +of an hour, nor could I prevail upon her to speak, or quit the seat she had +taken. Fearing that the Indians might return, I watched in all directions, +and at last I began to think it would be best to carry her in my arms; but +this I found no easy task, for she seemed greatly distressed at any attempt +I made to lift her, and by her gestures I fancy she thought I was going to +kill her. At last my patience began to be exhausted, but I did not like to +annoy her. I spoke to her as gently and soothingly as I could. By degrees +she seemed to listen with more composure to me, though she evidently knew +not a word of what I said to her. She rose at last, and taking my hands, +placed them above her head, stooping low as she did so, and this seemed to +mean, she was willing at last to submit to my wishes; I lifted her from +the ground, and carried her for some little way, but she was too heavy for +me,--she then suffered me to lead her along whithersoever I would take her, +but her steps were so slow and feeble, through weakness, that many times I +was compelled to rest while she recovered herself. She seems quite subdued +now, and as quiet as a lamb." + +Catharine listened, not without tears of genuine sympathy, to the recital +of her brother's adventures. She seemed to think he had been inspired by +God to go forth that day to the Indian camp, to rescue the poor forlorn one +from so dreadful a death. + +Louis's sympathy was also warmly aroused for the young savage, and he +commended Hector for his bravery and humanity. + +He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition to +their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their cave +beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their feet to +the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was despatched for +water and venison for supper. + +The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, and +conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while +Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with the +greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the cool +healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ [Footnote: Indian balsam.] about it with +the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in water, and +gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned in her veins, +and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which were raised at +intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid hurried glance, +as if she longed, yet feared to say, "Who are you that thus tenderly bathe +my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded limbs, and cool my fevered +blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a being sent by the Great Spirit, +from the far-off happy land to which my fathers have gone, to smooth my +path of pain, and lead me to those blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers +where the cruelty of the enemies of my people will no more have power to +torment me?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Here the wren of softest note + Builds its nest and warbles well; + Here the blackbird strains his throat; + Welcome, welcome to our cell."--COLERIDGE. + +The day was far advanced, before the sick Indian girl could be brought home +to their sylvan lodge, where Catharine made up a comfortable couch for her, +with boughs and grass, and spread one of the deer-skins over it, and laid +her down as tenderly and carefully as if she had been a dear sister. This +good girl was overjoyed at having found a companion of her own age and sex. +"Now," said she, "I shall no more be lonely, I shall have a companion and +friend to talk to and assist me;" but when she turned in the fulness of +her heart to address herself to the young stranger, she felt herself +embarrassed in what way to make her comprehend the words she used to +express the kindness that she felt for her, and her sorrow for her +sufferings. + +The young stranger would raise her head, look intently at her, as if +striving to interpret her words, then sadly shake her head, and utter her +words in her own plaintive language, but, alas! Catharine felt it was to +her as a sealed book. + +She tried to recall some Indian words of familiar import, that she had heard +from the Indians when they came to her father's house, but in vain; not the +simplest phrase occurred to her, and she almost cried with vexation at her +own stupidity; neither was Hector or Louis more fortunate in attempts at +conversing with their guest. + +At the end of three days, the fever began to abate; the restless eye grew +more steady in its gaze, the dark flush faded from the cheek, leaving it of +a grey ashy tint, not the hue of health, such as even the swarthy Indian +shows, but wan and pallid, her eyes bent mournfully on the ground. + +She would sit quiet and passive while Catharine bound up the long tresses +of her hair, and smoothed them with her hands and the small wooden comb +that Louis had cut for her use. Sometimes she would raise her eyes to her +new friend's face, with a quiet sad smile, and once she took her hands +within her own, and gently pressed them to her breast and lips and forehead +in token of gratitude, but she seldom gave utterance to any words, and +would remain with her eyes fixed vacantly on some object which seemed +unseen or to awaken no idea in her mind. At such times the face of the +young squaw wore a dreamy apathy of expression, or rather it might with +more propriety have been said, the absence of all expression, almost as +blank as that of an infant of a few weeks old. + +How intently did Catharine study that face, and strive to read what was +passing within her mind! how did the lively intelligent Canadian girl, the +offspring of a more intellectual race, long to instruct her Indian friend, +to enlarge her mind by pointing out such things to her attention as she +herself took interest in! She would then repeat the name of the object that +she showed her several times over, and by degrees the young squaw learned +the names of all the familiar household articles about the shanty, and +could repeat them in her own soft plaintive tone; and when she had learned +a new word, and could pronounce it distinctly, she would laugh, and a gleam +of innocent joy and pleasure would lighten up her fine dark eyes, generally +so fixed and sad-looking. + +It was Catharine's delight to teach her pupil to speak a language familiar +to her own ears; she would lead her out among the trees, and name to her +all the natural objects that presented themselves to view. And she in her +turn made "Indiana" (for so they named the young squaw, after a negress +that she had heard her father tell of, a nurse to one of his Colonel's +infant children,) tell her the Indian names for each object they saw. +Indiana soon began to enjoy in her turn the amusement arising from +instructing Catharine and the boys, and often seemed to enjoy the blunders +they made in pronouncing the words she taught them. When really interested +in anything that was going on, her eyes would beam out, and her smile gave +an inexpressible charm to her face, for her lips were red and her teeth +even and brilliantly white, so purely white that Catharine thought she had +never seen any so beautiful in her life before; at such times her face +was joyous and innocent as a little child's, but there were also hours of +gloom, that transformed it into an expression of sullen apathy; then a dull +glassy look took possession of her eye, the full lip drooped and the form +seemed rigid and stiff; obstinate determination neither to move nor speak +characterised her in what Louis used to call the young squaw's "_dark +hour._" Then it was that the savage nature seemed predominant, and her +gentle nurse almost feared to look at her protege or approach her. + +"Hector," said Louis, "you spoke about a jar of water being left at the +camp; the jar would be a great treasure to us, let us go over for it." +Hector assented to the proposal. "And we may possibly pick up a few grains +of Indian corn, to add to what you showed us." + +"If we are here in the spring," said Hector, "you and I will prepare a +small patch of ground and plant it with this corn;" and he sat down on the +end of a log and began carefully to count the rows of grain on the cob, and +then each corn grain by grain. "Three hundred and ten sound grains. Now if +every one of these produces a strong plant, we shall have a great increase, +and beside seed for another year, there will be, if it is a good year, +several bushels to eat." + +"We shall have a glorious summer, mon ami, no doubt, and a fine flourishing +crop, and Kate is a good hand at making supporne." [Footnote: Supporne, +probably an Indian word for a stir-about, or porridge, made of Indian meal, +a common dish in every Canadian or Yankee farmer's house.] + +"You forget we have no porridge pot." + +"I was thinking of that Indian jar all the time. You will see what fine +cookery we will make when we get it, if it will but stand fire. Come, let +us be off, I am impatient till we get it home;" and Louis, who had now a +new crotchet at work in his fertile and vivacious brain, was quite on the +_qui vive_, and walked and danced along at a rate which proved a great +disturbance to his graver companion, who tried to keep down his cousin's +lively spirits, by suggesting the probability of the jar being cracked, or +that the Indians might have returned for it; but Louis was not one of the +doubting sort, and Louis was right in not damping the ardour of his mind by +causeless fears. The jar was there at the deserted camp, and though it had +been knocked over by some animal, it was sound and strong, and excited +great speculation in the two cousins, as to the particular material of +which it was made, as it was unlike any sort of pottery they had ever +before seen. It seemed to have been manufactured from some very dark +red earth, or clay mixed up with pounded granite, as it presented the +appearance of some coarse crystals; it was very hard and ponderous, and +the surface was marked over in a rude sort of pattern as if punctured and +scratched with some pointed instrument. It seemed to have been hardened by +fire, and, from the smoked hue of one side, had evidently done good service +as a cooking utensil. Subsequently they learned the way in which it was +used:[Footnote: Pieces of this rude pottery are often found along theshores +of the inland lakes, but I have never met with any of the perfect vessels +in use with the Indians, who probably find it now easier to supply +themselves with iron pots and crockery from the towns of the European +settlers.] the jar being placed near but not on the fire, was surrounded +by hot embers, and the water made to boil by stones being made red hot and +plunged into it: in this way soup and other food were prepared, and kept +stewing, with no further trouble after once the simmering began, than +adding a few fresh embers at the side furthest from the fir; a hot stone +also placed on the top, facilitated the cooking process. + +Louis, who like all French people was addicted to cookery,--indeed it was +an accomplishment he prided himself on,--was enchanted with the improvement +made in their diet by the acquisition of the said earthen jar, or pipkin, +and gave Indiana some praise for initiating his cousin in the use of it. +Catharine and Hector declared that he went out with his bow and arrows, and +visited his dead-falls and snares, ten times oftener than he used to do, +just for the sake of proving the admirable properties of this precious +utensil, and finding out some new way of dressing his game. At all events +there was a valuable increase of furs, for making up into clothing, caps, +leggings, mitts, and other articles. + +From the Indian girl Catharine learned the value of many of the herbs and +shrubs that grew in her path, the bark and leaves of various trees, and +many dyes she could extract, with which she stained the quills of the +porcupine and the strips of the wood of which she made baskets and +mats. The little creeping winter-green, [Footnote: _Gualtheria +procumbens_,--Spice Winter-green.] with its scarlet berries, that grows on +the dry flats, or sandy hills, which the Canadians call spice-berry, she +showed them was good to eat, and she would crush the leaves, draw forth +their fine aromatic flavour in her hands, and then inhale their fragrance +with delight. She made an infusion of the leaves, and drank it as a tonic. +The inner bark of the wild black cherry, she said was good to cure ague and +fever. The root of the _dulamara_, or bitter-sweet, she scraped down +and boiled in the deer-fat, or the fat of any other animal, and made an +ointment that possessed very healing qualities, especially as an immediate +application to fresh burns. + +Sometimes she showed a disposition to mystery, and would conceal the +knowledge of the particular herbs she made use of; and Catharine several +times noticed that she would go out and sprinkle a portion of the food she +had assisted her in preparing, on the earth, or under some of the trees or +bushes. When she was more familiar with their language, she told Catharine +this was done in token of gratitude to the Good Spirit, who had given them +success in hunting or trapping; or else it was to appease the malice of +the Evil Spirit, who might bring mischief or loss to them, or sickness or +death, unless his forbearance was purchased by some particular mark of +attention. [Footnote: By the testimony of many of the Indians themselves, +they appear to entertain a certain Polytheism in their belief. "We believed +in one great wise benevolent being, Thesha-mon-e-doo, whose dwelling was +in the sun. We believed also in many other lesser spirits--gods of the +elements, and in one bad unappeasable spirit, Mah-je-mah-ne-doo, to whom +we attributed bad luck, evil accidents, and sickness and death. This bad +spirit has to be conciliated with meat and drink offerings."--_Life of +George Copway, Native Missionary_] + +Attention, memory, and imitation, appeared to form the three most +remarkable of the mental faculties developed by the Indian girl. She +examined (when once her attention was roused) any object with critical +minuteness. Any knowledge she had once acquired, she retained; her memory +was great, she never missed a path she had once trodden; she seemed even to +single out particular birds in a flock, to know them from their congeners. +Her powers of imitation were also great; she brought patience and +perseverance to assist her, and when once thoroughly interested in any work +she began, she would toil on untiringly till it was completed; and then +what triumph shone in her eyes! At such times they became darkly brilliant +with the joy that filled her heart. But she possessed little talent for +invention; what she had seen done, after a few imperfect attempts, she +could do again, but she rarely struck out any new path for herself. + +At times she was docile and even playful, and appeared grateful for the +kindness with which she was treated; each day seemed to increase her +fondness for Catharine, and she appeared to delight in doing any little +service to please and gratify her, but it was towards Hector that she +displayed the deepest feeling of affection and respect. It was to him her +first tribute of fruit or flowers, furs, mocassins, or ornamental plumage +of rare birds was offered. She seemed to turn to him as to a master and +protector. He was in her eyes the _"Chief,"_ the head of his tribe. His bow +was strung by her, and stained with quaint figures and devices; his arrows +were carved by her; the sheath of deer-skin was made and ornamented by +her hands, that he carried his knife in; and the case for his arrows, of +birch-bark, was wrought with especial neatness, and suspended by thongs to +his neck, when he was preparing to go out in search of game. She gave him +the name of the "Young Eagle." While she called Louis, "Nee-chee," or +friend; to Catharine she gave the poetical name of, "Music of the Winds,"-- +Ma-wah-osh. + +When they asked her to tell them her own name, she would bend down her head +in sorrow and refuse to pronounce it. She soon answered to the name of +Indiana, and seemed pleased with the sound. + +But of all the household, next to Hector, old Wolfe was her greatest +favourite. At first, it is true, the old dog regarded the new inmate with a +jealous eye, and seemed uneasy when he saw her approach to caress him, but +Indiana soon reconciled him to her person, and a mutual friendly feeling +became established between them, which seemed daily and hourly to increase, +greatly to the delight of the young stranger. She would seat herself +Eastern fashion, cross-legged on the floor of the shanty, with the +capacious head of the old dog in her lap, and address herself to this mute +companion, in wailing tones, as if she would unburthen her heart by pouring +into his unconscious ear her tale of desolation and woe. + +Catharine was always very particular and punctual in performing her +personal ablutions, and she intimated to Indiana that it was good for her +to do the same; but the young girl seemed reluctant to follow her example, +till daily custom had reconciled her to what she evidently at first +regarded as an unnecessary ceremony; but she soon took pleasure in dressing +her dark hair, and suffering Catharine to braid it, and polish it till it +looked glossy and soft. Indiana in her turn would adorn Catharine with the +wings of the blue-bird or red-bird, the crest of the wood-duck, or quill +feathers of the golden-winged flicker, which is called in the Indian tongue +the shot-bird, in allusion to the round spots on its cream-coloured breast: +[Footnote: The Golden-winged Flicker belongs to a sub-genus of woodpeckers; +it is very handsome, and is said to be eatable; it lives on fruits and +insects.] but it was not in these things alone she showed her grateful +sense of the sisterly kindness that her young hostess showed to her; she +soon learned to lighten her labours in every household work, and above all, +she spent her time most usefully in manufacturing clothing from the skins +of the wild animals, and in teaching Catharine how to fit and prepare them; +but these were the occupation of the winter months. I must not forestall my +narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Go to the ant."--_Proverbs._ + +IT was now the middle of September: the weather, which had continued serene +and beautiful for some time, with dewy nights and misty mornings, began to +show symptoms of the change of season usual at the approach of the equinox. +Sudden squalls of wind, with hasty showers, would come sweeping over the +lake; the nights and mornings were damp and chilly. Already the tints of +autumn were beginning to crimson the foliage of the oaks, and where the +islands were visible, the splendid colours of the maple shone out in +gorgeous contrast with the deep verdure of the evergreens and light +golden-yellow of the poplar; but lovely as they now looked, they had not +yet reached the meridian of their beauty, which a few frosty nights at +the close of the month was destined to bring to perfection--a glow of +splendour to gladden the eye for a brief space, before the rushing winds +and rains of the following month were to sweep them away, and scatter them +abroad upon the earth. + +One morning, just after a night of heavy rain and wind, the two boys went +down to see if the lake was calm enough for trying the raft, which Louis +had finished before the coming on of the bad weather. The water was rough +and crested with mimic waves, and they felt not disposed to launch the +raft on so stormy a surface, but they stood looking out over the lake and +admiring the changing foliage, when Hector pointed out to his cousin a dark +speck dancing on the waters, between the two nearest islands. The wind, +which blew very strong still from the north-east, brought the object nearer +every minute. At first they thought it might be a pine-branch that was +floating on the surface, when as it came bounding over the waves, they +perceived that it was a birch-canoe, but impelled by no visible arm. It was +a strange sight upon that lonely lake to see a vessel of any kind afloat, +and, on first deciding that it was a canoe, the boys were inclined to hide +themselves among the bushes, for fear of the Indians, but curiosity got the +better of their fears. + +"The owner of yonder little craft is either asleep or absent from her; for +I see no paddle, and it is evidently drifting without any one to guide it," +said Hector, after intently watching the progress of the tempest-driven +vessel; assured as it approached nearer that such was the case, they +hurried to the beach just as a fresh gust had lodged the canoe among the +branches of a fallen cedar which projected out some way into the water. + +By creeping along the trunk of the tree, and trusting at times to the +projecting boughs, Louis, who was the most active and the lightest of +weight, succeeded in getting within reach of the canoe, and with some +trouble and the help of a stout branch that Hector handed to him, he +contrived to moor her in safety on the shore, taking the precaution of +hauling her well up on the shingle, lest the wind and water should set her +afloat again. "Hec, there is something in this canoe, the sight of which +will gladden your heart," cried Louis with a joyful look. "Come quickly, +and see my treasures." + +"Treasures! You may well call them treasures," exclaimed Hector, as he +helped Louis to examine the contents of the canoe, and place them on the +shore, side by side. + +The boys could hardly find words to express their joy and surprise at the +discovery of a large jar of parched rice, a tomahawk, an Indian blanket +almost as good as new, a large mat rolled up with a bass bark rope several +yards in length wound round it, and what was more precious than all, +an iron three-legged pot in which was a quantity of Indian corn. These +articles had evidently constituted the stores of some Indian hunter or +trapper; possibly the canoe had been imperfectly secured and had drifted +from its moorings during the gale of the previous night, unless by some +accident the owner had fallen into the lake and been drowned; this was of +course only a matter of conjecture on which it was useless to speculate, +and the boys joyfully took possession of the good fortune that had so +providentially been wafted, as it were, to their very feet. + +"It was a capital chance for us, that old cedar having been blown down last +night just where it was," said Louis; "for if the canoe had not been drawn +into the eddy, and stopped by the branches, we might have lost it. I +trembled when I saw the wind driving it on so rapidly that it would founder +in the deep water, or go off to Long Island." + +"I think we should have got it at Pine-tree Point," said Hector, "but I am +glad it was lodged so cleverly among the cedar boughs. I was half afraid +you would have fallen in once or twice, when you were trying to draw it +nearer to the shore." "Never fear for me, my friend; I can cling like a +wild cat when I climb. But what a grand pot! What delightful soups, and +stews, and boils, Catharine will make! Hurrah!" and Louis tossed up his new +fur cap, that he had made with great skill from an entire fox skin, in the +air, and cut sundry fantastic capers which Hector gravely condemned as +unbecoming his mature age; (Louis was turned of fifteen;) but with the +joyous spirit of a little child he sung, and danced, and laughed, and +shouted, till the lonely echoes of the islands and far-off hills returned +the unusual sound, and even his more steady cousin caught the infection, +and laughed to see Louis so elated. + +Leaving Hector to guard the prize, Louis ran gaily off to fetch Catharine +to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the blanket, and the +tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana accompanied them to the +lake shore, and long and carefully she examined the canoe and its contents, +and many were the plaintive exclamations she uttered as she surveyed the +things piece by piece, till she took notice of the broken handle of an +Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the vessel; this seemed to afford +some solution to her of the mystery, and by broken words and signs she +intimated that the paddle had possibly broken in the hand of the Indian, +and that in endeavouring to regain the other part, he had lost his balance +and been drowned. She showed Hector a rude figure of a bird engraved with +some sharp instrument, and rubbed in with a blue colour. This, she said, +was the totem or crest of the chief of the tribe, and was meant to +represent a _crow_. The canoe had belonged to a chief of that name. While +they were dividing the contents of the canoe among them to be carried to +the shanty, Indiana, taking up the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up +the most of the things, and adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to +the front of her head, she bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as +a London or Edinburgh porter would his trunks and packages, turning round +with a merry glance and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as +she climbed with apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her +companions, to her great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the +parched rice, Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty +very much--it made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had +been so long deprived. + +Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be ready +on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out and +gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months. + +This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with frequent +themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was the most +valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and bread and +seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the tomahawk, as +his axe was worn and blunt. + +Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed to +think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the latter; +besides, Indiana had signified her intention of helping him to make a +canoe. Catharine declared in favour of the blanket, as it would make, after +thorough ablutions, warm petticoats with tight bodices for herself and +Indiana. With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be +comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was +charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the +packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from +place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of +the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said, +was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after +this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis's +large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for +scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two +comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited +skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur +completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by knotted +fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of squirrel +fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and many a glance +of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon each other, when +they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to display their dresses +to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded them as most skilful +dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and commending their +ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering what rude +implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and sewing of the +garments. + +The extensive rice beds on the lake had now begun to assume a golden tinge +which contrasted very delightfully with the deep blue waters--looking, when +lighted up by the sunbeams, like islands of golden-coloured sand. The ears, +heavy laden with the ripe grain, drooped towards the water. The time of +the rice-harvest was at hand, and with light and joyous hearts our young +adventurers launched the canoe, and, guided in their movements by the +little squaw, paddled to the extensive aquatic fields to gather it in, +leaving Catharine and Wolfe to watch their proceedings from the raft, which +Louis had fastened to a young tree that projected out over the lake, and +which made a good landing-place, likewise a wharf where they could stand +and fish very comfortably. As the canoe could not be overloaded on account +of the rice-gathering, Catharine very readily consented to employ herself +with fishing from the raft till their return. + +The manner of procuring the rice was very simple. One person steered the +canoe with the aid of the paddle along the edge of the rice beds, and +another with a stick in one hand, and a curved sharp-edged paddle in the +other, struck the heads off as they bent them over the edge of the stick; +the chief art was in letting the heads fall into the canoe, which a little +practice soon enabled them to do as expertly as the mower lets the grass +fall in ridges beneath his scythe. + +Many bushels of wild rice were thus collected. Nothing could he more +delightful than this sort of work to our young people, and merrily they +worked, and laughed, and sung, as they came home each day with their light +bark, laden with a store of grain that they knew would preserve them from +starving through the long, dreary winter that was coming on. + +The canoe was a source of great comfort and pleasure to them; they were now +able to paddle out into the deep water, and fish for masquinonj and black +bass, which they caught in great numbers. + +Indiana seemed quite another creature when, armed with a paddle of her own +carving, she knelt at the head of the canoe and sent it flying over the +water; then her dark eyes, often so vacant and glassy, sparkled with +delight, and her teeth gleamed with ivory whiteness as her face broke into +smiles and dimples. + +It was delightful then to watch this child of nature, and see how +innocently happy she could be when rejoicing in the excitement of healthy +exercise, and elated by a consciousness of the power she possessed of +excelling her companions in feats of strength and skill which they had yet +to acquire by imitating her. + +Even Louis was obliged to confess that the young savage knew more of +the management of a canoe, and the use of the bows and arrows, and the +fishing-line, than either himself or his cousin. Hector was lost in +admiration of her skill in all these things; and Indiana rose highly in his +estimation, the more he saw of her usefulness. + +"Every one to his craft," said Louis, laughing; "the little squaw has been +brought up in the knowledge and practice of such matters from her babyhood; +perhaps if we were to set her to knitting, and spinning, and milking of +cows, and house-work, and learning to read, I doubt if she would prove half +as quick as Catharine or Mathilde." + +"I wonder if she knows anything of God or our Saviour," said Hector, +thoughtfully. + +"Who should have taught her? for the Indians are all heathens;" replied +Louis. + +"I have heard my dear mother say, the Missionaries have taken great pains +to teach the Indian children down about Quebec and Montreal, and that so +far from being stupid, they learn very readily," said Catharine. + +"We must try and make Indiana learn to say her prayers; she sits quite +still, and seems to take no notice of what we are doing when we kneel down, +before we go to bed," observed Hector. + +"She cannot understand what we say," said Catharine; for she knows so +little of our language yet, that of course she cannot comprehend the +prayers, which are in other sort of words than what we use in speaking of +hunting, and fishing, and cooking, and such matters." + +"Well, when she knows more of our way of speaking, then we must teach her; +it is a sad thing for Christian children to live with an untaught pagan," +said Louis, who, being rather bigoted in his creed, felt a sort of +uneasiness in his own mind at the poor girl's total want of the rites of +his church; but Hector and Catharine regarded her ignorance with feelings +of compassionate interest, and lost no opportunity that offered, of trying +to enlighten her darkened mind on the subject of belief in the God who +made, and the Lord who saved them. Simply and earnestly they entered into +the task as a labour of love, and though for a long time Indiana seemed to +pay little attention to what they said, by slow degrees the good seed took +root and brought forth fruit worthy of Him whose Spirit poured the beams of +spiritual light into her heart: but my young readers must not imagine +these things were the work of a day--the process was slow, and so were the +results, but they were good in the end. + +And Catharine was glad when, after many go months of patient teaching, the +Indian girl asked permission to kneel down with her white friend, and pray +to the Great Spirit and His Son in the same words that Christ Jesus gave +to his disciples; and if the full meaning of that holy prayer, so full of +humility and love, and moral justice, was not fully understood by her whose +lips repeated it, yet even the act of worship and the desire to do that +which she had been told was right, was, doubtless, a sacrifice better than +the pagan rites which that young girl had witnessed among her father's +people, who, blindly following the natural impulse of man in his depraved +nature, regarded deeds of blood and cruelty as among the highest of human +virtues, and gloried in those deeds of vengeance at which the Christian +mind revolts with horror. + +Indiana took upon herself the management of the rice, drying, husking and +storing it, the two lads working under her direction. She caused several +forked stakes to be cut and sharpened and driven into the ground; on these +were laid four poles, so as to form a frame, over which she then stretched +the bass-mat, which she secured by means of forked pegs to the frame on +the mat; she then spread out the rice thinly, and lighted a fire beneath, +taking good care not to let the flame set fire to the mat, the object being +rather to keep up a strong, slow heat, by means of the red embers. She next +directed the boys to supply her with pine or cedar boughs, which she stuck +in close together, so as to enclose the fire within the area of the stakes. +This was done to concentrate the heat and cause it to bear upwards with +more power; the rice being frequently stirred with a sort of long-handled, +flat shovel. After the rice was sufficiently dried, the next thing to be +done was separating it from the husk, and this was effected by putting it +by small quantities into the iron pot, and with a sort of wooden pestle +or beetle, rubbing it round and round against the sides. [Footnote: The +Indians often make use of a very rude, primitive sort of mortar, by +hollowing out a bass-wood stump, and rubbing the rice with a wooden +pounder.] If they had not had the iron pot, a wooden trough must have been +substituted in its stead. + +When the rice was husked, the loose chaff was winnowed from it in a flat +basket like a sieve, and it was then put by in coarse birch baskets, +roughly sewed with leather-wood bark, or bags made of matting, woven by the +little squaw from the cedar-bark. A portion was also parched, which was +simply done by putting the rice dry into the iron pot, and setting it on +hot embers, stirring the grain till it burst: it was then stored by for +use. Rice thus prepared is eaten dry, as a substitute for bread, by the +Indians. The lake was now swarming with wild fowl of various kinds; crowds +of ducks were winging their way across it from morning till night, floating +in vast flocks upon its surface, or rising in noisy groups if an eagle or +fish-hawk appeared sailing with slow, majestic circles above them, then +settling down with noisy splash upon the calm water. The shores, too, were +covered with these birds, feeding on the fallen acorns which fell ripe and +brown with every passing breeze; the berries of the dogwood also furnished +them with food; but the wild rice seemed the great attraction, and small +shell-fish and the larv of many insects that had been dropped into the +waters, there to come to perfection in due season, or to form a provision +for myriads of wild fowl that had come from the far north-west to feed upon +them, guided by that instinct which has so beautifully been termed by one +of our modern poetesses, "God's gift to the weak" [Footnote: Mrs. Southey.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"Oh, come and hear what cruel wrongs Befel the Dark Ladye."--COLERIDGE. + +THE Mohawk girl was in high spirits at the coming of the wild fowl to the +lake; she would clap her hands and laugh with almost childish glee as she +looked at them darkening the lake like clouds resting on its surface. + +"If I had but my father's gun, his good old gun, now!" would Hector say, as +he eyed the timorous flocks as they rose and fell upon the lake; "but these +foolish birds are so shy, that they are away before an arrow can reach +them." + +Indiana smiled in her quiet way; she was busy filling the canoe with green +boughs, which she arranged so as completely to transform the little vessel +into the semblance of a floating island of evergreen; within this bower she +motioned Hector to crouch down, leaving a small space for the free use of +his bow, while concealed at the prow she gently and noiselessly paddled the +canoe from the shore among the rice-beds, letting it remain stationary or +merely rocking to and fro with the undulatory motion of the waters. The +unsuspecting birds, deceived into full security, eagerly pursued their +pastime or their prey, and it was no difficult matter for the hidden archer +to hit many a black duck or teal or whistlewing, as it floated securely on +the placid water, or rose to shift its place a few yards up or down the +stream. Soon the lake around was strewed with the feathered game, which +Wolfe, cheered on by Lewis, who was stationed on the shore, brought to +land. + +Indiana told Hector that this was the season when the Indians made great +gatherings on the lake for duck-shooting, which they pursued much after the +same fashion as that which has been described, only instead of one, a dozen +or more canoes would be thus disguised with boughs, with others stationed +at different parts of the lake, or under the shelter of the island, to +collect the birds. This sport was generally finished by a great feast. + +The Indians offered the first of the birds as an oblation to the Great +Spirit, as a grateful acknowledgment of his bounty in having allowed them +to gather food thus plentifully for their families; sometimes distant +tribes with whom they were on terms of friendship were invited to share the +sport and partake of the spoils. Indiana could not understand why Hector +did not follow the custom of her Indian fathers, and offer the first duck +or the best fish to propitiate the Great Spirit. Hector told her that the +God he worshipped desired no sacrifice; that his holy Son, when he came +down from heaven and gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, +had satisfied his Father, the Great Spirit, an hundred-fold. + +They feasted now continually upon the waterfowl, and Catharine learned from +Indiana how to skin them, and so preserve the feathers for making tippets, +and bonnets, and ornamental trimmings, which are not only warm, but light +and very becoming. They split open any of the birds that they did not +require for present consumption, and these they dried for winter store, +smoking some after the manner that the Shetlanders and Orkney people smoke +the solan geese: their shanty displayed an abundant store of provisions, +fish, flesh, and fowl, besides baskets of wild rice, and bags of dried +fruit. + +One day Indiana came in from the brow of the hill, and told the boys that +the lake eastward was covered with canoes; she showed, by holding up her +two hands and then three fingers, that she had counted thirteen. The tribes +had met for the annual duck-feast, and for the rice harvest. She advised +them to put out the fire, so that no smoke might be seen to attract them; +but said they would not leave the lake for hunting over the plains just +then, as the camp was lower down on the point [Footnote: This point, +commonly known as _Anderson's Point_, now the seat of the Indian village, +used in former times to be a great place of rendezvous for the Indians, +and was the site of a murderous carnage or massacre that took place about +eighty years ago; the war-weapons and bones of the Indians are often turned +up with the plough at this day.] east of the mouth of a big river, which +she called "Otonabee." + +Hector asked Indiana if she would go away and leave them, in the event of +meeting with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the earth in +silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face. + +"If they should prove to be any of your father's people, or a friendly +tribe, would you go away with them?" he again repeated, to which she +solemnly replied, + +"Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father's warms +the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but Indiana is +a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink from danger: her +heart is warm; red blood flows warm here," and she laid her hand on her +heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but impassioned tone, +"They left not one drop of living blood to flow in any veins but these," +and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched upwards towards heaven, as +though calling down vengeance on the murderers of her father's house. + +"My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these +hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun, +along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the +Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father's people by hundreds in +cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day and +a bloody deed." + +Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the young +Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under the cover +of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked the lake, to watch +their movements. She told Hector to be under no apprehension if the Indians +came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal themselves, but offer them food +to eat and water to drink. "If they come to the house and find you away, +they will take your stores and burn your roof, suspecting that you are +afraid to meet them openly; but they will not harm you if you meet them +with open hand and fearless brow: if they eat of your bread, they will not +harm you; me they would kill by a cruel death--the war-knife is in their +heart against the daughter of the _brave_." + +The boys thought Indiana's advice good, and they felt no fear for +themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the +shanty with Wolfe. + +The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come to enjoy, +seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite peaceably +disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north side, and the +boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees on the opposite shore, +and now and then in the stillness of the evening their wild shouts of +revelry would come faintly to their ears, borne by the breeze over the +waters of the lake. + +The allusion that Indiana had made to her own history, though conveyed in +broken and hardly intelligible language, had awakened feelings of deep +interest for her in the breasts of her faithful friends. Many months +after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful story of the +massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, as I have raised +the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so I must render it in +my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences in which its facts +were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes would be unintelligible to +my young friends. [Footnote: The facts of this narrative were gathered from +the lips of the eldest son of a Rice Lake chief. I have preferred giving it +in the present form, rather than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as +it is, it is matter of history.] + +There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the chiefs +of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which like a +smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having burst into a +decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and obtain the advantage +over the other by covert means. The tribe of the Mohawks of which I now +speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice Lake for their hunting +grounds, and certain islands and parts of the lake for fishing, while that +of the Ojebwas considered themselves masters of the northern shores and +certain rights of water beside. Possibly it was about these rights that the +quarrel originated, but if so, it was not openly avowed between the "Black +Snake," (that was the totem borne by the Mohawk chief,) and the "Bald +Eagle" (the totem of the Ojebwa). + +These chiefs had each a son, and the Bald Eagle had also a daughter of +great and rare beauty, called by her people, "The Beam of the Morning;" she +was the admiration of Mohawks as well as Ojebwas, and many of the young men +of both the tribes had sought her hand, but hitherto in vain. Among +her numerous suitors, the son of the Black Snake seemed to be the most +enamoured of her beauty; and it was probably with some intention of winning +the favour of the young Ojebwa squaw for his son, that the Black Snake +accepted the formal invitation of the Bald Eagle to come to his hunting +grounds during the rice harvest, and shoot deer and ducks on the lake, and +to ratify a truce which had been for some time set on foot between them; +but while outwardly professing friendship and a desire for peace, inwardly +the fire of hatred burned fiercely in the breast of the Black Snake against +the Ojebwa chief and his only son, a young man of great promise, renowned +among his tribe as a great hunter and warrior, but who had once offended +the Mohawk chief by declining a matrimonial alliance with one of the +daughters of a chief of inferior rank, who was closely connected to him +by marriage. This affront rankled in the heart of the Black Snake, though +outwardly he affected to have forgiven and forgotten the slight that had +been put upon his relative. The hunting had been carried on for some days +very amicably, when one day the Bald Eagle was requested, with all due +attention to Indian etiquette, to go to the wigwam of the Black Snake. On +entering the lodge, he perceived the Mohawk strangely disordered; he rose +from his mat, on which he had been sleeping, with a countenance fearfully +distorted, his eyes glaring hideously, his whole frame convulsed, and +writhing as in fearful bodily anguish, and casting himself upon the ground, +he rolled and grovelled on the earth, uttering frightful yells and groans. + +The Bald Eagle was moved at the distressing state in which he found his +guest, and asked the cause of his disorder, but this the other refused to +tell. After some hours the fit appeared to subside, but the chief remained +moody and silent. The following day the same scene was repeated, and on the +third, when the fit seemed to have increased in bodily agony, with great +apparent reluctance, wrung seemingly from him by the importunity of his +host, he consented to reveal the cause, which was, that the Bad Spirit had +told him that these bodily tortures could not cease till the only son of +his friend, the Ojebwa chief, had been sacrificed to appease his anger-- +neither could peace long continue between the two nations until this deed +had been done; and not only must the chief's son be slain, but he must be +pierced by his own father's hand, and his flesh served up at a feast at +which the father must preside. The Black Snake affected the utmost horror +and aversion at so bloody and unnatural a deed being committed to save his +life and the happiness of his tribe, but the peace was to be ratified for +ever if the sacrifice was made,--if not, war to the knife was to be ever +between the Mohawks and Ojebwas. + +The Bald Eagle seeing that his treacherous guest would make this an +occasion of renewing a deadly warfare, for which possibly he was not at the +time well prepared, assumed a stoical calmness, and replied, + +"Be it so; great is the power of the Bad Spirit to cause evil to the tribes +of the chiefs that rebel against his will. My son shall be sacrificed by my +hand, that the evil one may be appeased, and that the Black Snake's body +may have ease, and his people rest beside the fires of their lodges in +peace." + +"The Bald Eagle has spoken like a chief with a large heart," was the +specious response of the wily Mohawk; "moreover, the Good Spirit also +appeared, and said, 'Let the Black Snake's son and the Bald Eagle's +daughter become man and wife, that peace may be found to dwell among the +lodges, and the war-hatchet be buried for ever.'" + +"The Beam of the Morning shall become the wife of the Young Pine," was the +courteous answer; but stern revenge lay deep hidden beneath the unmoved +brow and passionless lip. + +The fatal day arrived; the Bald Eagle, with unflinching hand and eye that +dropped no human tear of sorrow for the son of his love, plunged the weapon +into his heart with Spartan-like firmness. The fearful feast of human flesh +was prepared, and that old chief, pale but unmoved, presided over the +ceremonies. The war-dance was danced round the sacrifice, and all went +off well, as if no such fearful rite had been enacted: but a fearful +retribution was at hand. The Young Pine sought the tent of the Bald Eagle's +daughter that evening, and was received with all due deference, as a son +of so great a chief as the Black Snake merited; he was regarded now as +a successful suitor, and intoxicated with the beauty of the Beam of the +Morning, pressed her to allow the marriage to take place in a few days. +The bride consented, and a day was named for the wedding feast to be +celebrated, and that due honour might be given to so great an event, +invitations were sent out to the principal families of the Mohawk tribe, +and these amounted to several hundreds of souls, while the young Ojebwa +hunters were despatched up the river and to different parts of the country, +avowedly to collect venison, beaver, and other delicacies to regale their +guests, but in reality to summon by means of trusty scouts a large war +party from the small lakes, to be in readiness to take part in the deadly +revenge that was preparing for their enemies. + +Meantime the squaws pitched the nuptial tent, and prepared the bridal +ornaments. A large wigwam capable of containing all the expected guests was +then constructed, adorned with the thick branches of evergreens so artfully +contrived as to be capable of concealing the armed Ojebwas and their +allies, who in due time were introduced beneath this leafy screen, armed +with the murderous tomahawk and scalping-knife with which to spring upon +their defenceless and unsuspecting guests. According to the etiquette +always observed upon such occasions, all deadly weapons were left outside +the tent. The bridegroom had been conducted with songs and dancing to the +tent of the bride. The guests, to the number of several hundred naked and +painted warriors were assembled. The feast was declared to be ready; a +great iron pot or kettle occupied the centre of the tent. According to the +custom of the Indians, the father of the bridegroom was invited to lift +the most important dish from the pot, whilst the warriors commenced their +wardance around him. This dish was usually a bear's head, which was +fastened to a string left for the purpose of raising it from the pot. + +"Let the Black Snake, the great chief of the Mohawks, draw up the head and +set it on the table, that his people may eat and make merry, and that his +wise heart may be glad;" were the scornful words of the Bald Eagle. + +A yell of horror burst from the lips of the horror-stricken father, as +he lifted to view the fresh and gory head of his only son, the _happy_ +bridegroom of the lovely daughter of the Ojebwa chief. + +"Ha!" shouted the Bald Eagle, "is the great chief of the Mohawks a squaw, +that his blood grows white and his heart trembles at the sight of his son, +the bridegroom of the Beam of the Morning? The Bald Eagle gave neither sigh +nor groan when he plunged the knife into the heart of his child. Come, +brother, take the knife; taste the flesh and drink the blood of thy son: +the Bald Eagle shrank not when you bade him partake of the feast that was +prepared from his young warrior's body." The wretched father dashed himself +upon the earth, while his cries and howlings rent the air; those cries were +answered by the war-whoop of the ambushed Ojebwas, as they sprang to their +feet, and with deafening yells attacked the guests, who, panic-stricken, +naked and defenceless, fell an easy prey to their infuriated enemies. Not +one living foe escaped to tell the tale of that fearful marriage feast. A +second Judith had the Indian girl proved. It was her plighted hand that had +severed the head of her unsuspecting bridegroom to complete the fearful +vengeance that had been devised in return for the merciless and horrible +murder of her brother. + +Nor was the sacrifice yet finished, for with fearful cries the Indians +seized upon the canoes of their enemies, and with the utmost speed, urged +by unsatisfied revenge, hurried down the lake to an island where the women +and children and such of the aged or young men as were not included among +the wedding guests, were encamped in unsuspecting security. Panic-stricken, +the Mohawks offered no resistance, but fell like sheep appointed for the +slaughter: the Ojebwas slew there the grey-head with the infant of days. +But while the youths and old men tamely yielded to their enemies, there was +one, whose spirit roused to fury by the murder of her father, armed herself +with the war club and knife, and boldly withstood the successful warriors. +At the door of the tent of the slaughtered chief the Amazon defended her +children: while the war lightning kindled in her dark eye, she called aloud +in scornful tones to her people to hide themselves in the tents of their +women, who alone were _braves_, and would fight their battles. Fiercely she +taunted the men, but they shrank from the unequal contest, and she alone +was found to deal the death-blow upon the foe, till overpowered with +numbers, and pierced with frightful wounds, she fell singing her own +death-song and raising the wail for the dead who lay around her. Night +closed in, but the work of blood still continued, till not a victim was +found, and again they went forth on their exterminating work. Lower down +they found another encampment, and there also they slew all the inhabitants +of the lodges; they then returned back to the island, to gather together +their dead and collect the spoils of their tents. They were weary with +the fatigue of the slaughter of that fearful day; they were tired of +blood-shedding; the retribution had satisfied even their love of blood: and +when they found, on returning to the spot where the heroine had stood at +bay, one young solitary female sitting beside the corpse of that dauntless +woman, her mother, they led her away, and did all that their savage nature +could suggest to soften her anguish and dry her tears. They brought her +to the tents of their women, and clothed and fed her, and bade her +be comforted; but her young heart burned within her, and she refused +consolation. She could not forget the wrongs of her people: she was the +only living creature left of the Mohawks on that island. The young girl +was Indiana, the same whom Hector Maxwell had found, wounded and bound, to +perish with hunger and thirst on Bare-hill. + +Brooding with revenge in her heart, the young girl told them that she had +stolen unperceived into the tent of the Bald Eagle, and aimed a knife at +his throat, but the fatal blow was arrested by one of the young men, who +had watched her enter the old chiefs tent. A council was called, and she +was taken to Bare-hill, bound, and left in the sad state already described. + +It was with feelings of horror and terror that the Christian children +listened to this fearful tale, and Indiana read in their averted eyes and +pale faces the feelings with which the recital of the tale of blood had +inspired them. And then it was that as they sat beneath the shade of the +trees, in the soft misty light of an Indian summer moon, that Catharine, +with simple earnestness, taught her young disciple those heavenly lessons +of mercy and forgiveness which her Redeemer had set forth by his life, his +doctrines, and his death. + +And she told her, that if she would see that Saviour's face in Heaven, and +dwell with him in joy and peace for ever, she must learn to pray for those +dreadful men who had made her fatherless and motherless, and her home a +desolation; that the fire of revenge must be quenched within her heart, and +the spirit of love alone find place within it, or she could not become the +child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven. How hard were these +conditions to the young heathen,--how contrary to her nature, to all that +she had been taught in the tents of her fathers, where revenge was virtue, +and to take the scalp of an enemy a glorious thing! + +Yet when she contrasted the gentle, kind, and dovelike characters of her +Christian friends, with the fierce bloody people of her tribe and of her +Ojebwa enemies, she could not but own they were more worthy of love and +admiration: had they not found her a poor miserable trembling captive, +unbound her, fed and cherished her, pouring the balm of consolation into +her wounded heart, and leading her in bands of tenderest love to forsake +those wild and fearful passions that warred in her soul, and bringing her +to the feet of the Saviour, to become his meek and holy child, a lamb of +his "extended fold?"* + +[*Footnote: The Indian who related this narrative to me was a son of a +Rice Lake chief, Mosang Poudash by name, who vouched for its truth as an +historic fact remembered by his father, whose grandsire had been one of the +actors in the massacre. Mosang Poudash promised to write down the legend, +and did so in part, but made such confusion between his imperfect English +and Indian language, that the MS. was unavailable for copying.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill" + _Irish Song._ + +WHILE the Indians were actively pursuing their sports on the lake, shooting +wild fowl, and hunting and fishing by torch-light, so exciting was the +amusement of watching them, that the two lads, Hector and Louis, quite +forgot all sense of danger, in the enjoyment of lying or sitting on the +brow of the mount near the great ravine, and looking at their proceedings. +Once or twice the lads were near betraying themselves to the Indians, by +raising a shout of delight, at some skilful manoeuvre that excited their +unqualified admiration and applause. + +At night, when the canoes had all retired to the camp on the north shore, +and all fear of detection had ceased for the time, they lighted up their +shanty fire, and cooked a good supper, and also prepared sufficiency of +food for the following day. The Indians remained for a fortnight; at the +end of that time Indiana, who was a watchful spy on their movements, told +Hector and Louis that the camp was broken up, and that the Indians had gone +up the river, and would not return again for some weeks. The departure of +the Indians was a matter of great rejoicing to Catharine, whose dread of +these savages had greatly increased since she had been made acquainted with +the fearful deeds which Indiana had described; and what reliance could +she feel in people who regarded deeds of blood and vengeance as acts of +virtuous heroism? + +Once, and only once during their stay, the Indians had passed within a +short distance of their dwelling; but they were in full chase of a bear, +which had been seen crossing the deep ravine near Mount Ararat, and they +had been too intent upon their game to notice the shanty, or had taken it +for the shelter of some trapper if it had been seen, for they never turned +out of their path, and Catharine, who was alone at the time, drawing water +from the spring, was so completely concealed by the high bank above her, +that she had quite escaped their notice. Fortunately, Indiana gave the two +boys a signal to conceal themselves when she saw them enter the ravine; and +effectually hidden among the thick grey mossy trunks of the cedars at the +lake shore, they remained secure from molestation, while the Indian girl +dropped noiselessly down among the tangled thicket of wild vines and +brushwood, which she drew cautiously over her, and closed her eyes, lest, +as she naively remarked, their glitter should be seen and betray her to her +enemies. + +It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors +were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and +they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. + +"Are my white brothers afraid to die?" was the young squaw's half-scornful +reply. "Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not to die?" + +The latter end of September, and the first week in October, had been stormy +and even cold. The rainy season, however, was now over; the nights were +often illuminated by the Aurora borealis, which might be seen forming +an arch of soft and lovely brightness over the lake, to the north and +north-eastern portions of the horizon, or shooting upwards, in ever-varying +shafts of greenish light, now hiding, now revealing the stars, which shone +with softened radiance through the silvery veil that dimmed their beauty. +Sometimes for many nights together the same appearance might be seen, and +was usually the forerunner of frosty weather, though occasionally it was +the precursor of cold winds, and heavy rains. + +The Indian girl regarded it with superstitious feelings, but whether as an +omen for good or ill, she would not tell. On all matters connected with +her religions notions she was shy and reserved, though occasionally she +unconsciously revealed them. Thus the warnings of death or misfortunes were +revealed to her by certain ominous sounds in the woods, the appearance of +strange birds or animals, or the meanings of others. The screeching of the +owl, the bleating of the doe, or barking of the fox, were evil auguries, +while the flight of the eagle and the croaking of the raven were omens of +good. She put faith in dreams, and would foretel good or evil fortune from +them; she could read the morning and evening clouds, and knew from various +appearances of the sky, or the coming or departing of certain birds or +insects, changes in the atmosphere. Her ear was quick in distinguishing the +changes in the voices of the birds or animals; she knew the times of their +coming and going, and her eye was quick to see as her ear to detect sounds. +Her voice was soft, and low, and plaintive, and she delighted in imitating +the little ballads or hymns that Catharine sung; though she knew nothing of +their meaning, she would catch the tunes, and sing the song with Catharine, +touching the hearts of her delighted auditors by the melody and pathos of +her voice. + +The season called Indian summer had now arrived: the air was soft and mild, +almost oppressively warm; the sun looked red as though seen through the +smoke clouds of a populous city. A soft blue haze hung on the bosom of the +glassy lake, which reflected on its waveless surface every passing shadow, +and the gorgeous tints of its changing woods on shore and island. Sometimes +the stillness of the air was relieved by a soft sighing wind, which rustled +the dying foliage as it swept by. + +The Indian summer is the harvest of the Indian tribes. It is during this +season that they hunt and shoot the wild fowl that come in their annual +flights to visit the waters of the American lakes and rivers; it is then +that they gather in their rice, and prepare their winter stores of meat, +and fish, and furs. The Indian girl knew the season they would resort to +certain hunting grounds. They were constant, and altered not their customs; +as it was with their fathers, so it was with them. + +Louis had heard so much of the Otonabee river from Indiana, that he was +impatient to go and explore the entrance, and the shores of the lake on +that side, which hitherto they had not ventured to do for fear of being +surprised by the Indians. "Some fine day," said Louis, "we will go out in +the canoe, explore the distant islands, and go up the river a little way." + +Hector advised visiting all the islands by turns, beginning at the little +islet which looks in the distance like a boat in full sail; it is level +with the water, and has only three or four trees upon it. The name they had +given to it was "Ship Island." The Indians have some name for it which I +have forgotten; but it means, I have been told, "Witch Island." Hector's +plan met with general approbation, and they resolved to take provisions +with them for several days, and visit the islands and go up the river, +passing the night under the shelter of the thick trees on the shore +wherever they found a pleasant halting-place. + +The weather was mild and warm, the lake was as clear and calm as a mirror, +and in joyous mood our little party embarked and paddled up the lake, first +to Ship Island, but this did not detain them many minutes; they then went +to Grape Island, which they so named from the abundance of wild vines, now +rich with purple clusters of the ripe grapes,--tart, but still not to be +despised by our young adventurers; and they brought away a large birch +basket heaped up with the fruit. "Ah, if we had but a good cake of maple +sugar, now, to preserve our grapes with, and make such grape jelly as my +mother makes!" said Louis. + +"If we find out a sugar-bush we will manage to make plenty of sugar," said +Catharine; "there are maples not two hundred yards from the shanty, near +the side of the steep bank to the east. You remember the pleasant spot +which we named the Happy Valley, [Footnote: A lovely valley to the east of +Mount Ararat, now belonging to a worthy and industrious family of the name +of Brown. I wish Hector could see it as it now is,--a cultivated fertile +farm.] where the bright creek runs, dancing along so merrily, below the +pine-ridge?" + +"Oh, yes, the same that winds along near the foot of Bare-hill, where the +water-cresses grow." + +"Yes, where I gathered the milk-weed the other day." + +"What a beautiful pasture-field that will make, when it is cleared!" said +Hector, thoughtfully. + +"Hector is always planning about fields, and clearing great farms," said +Louis, laughing. "We shall see Hec a great man one of these days; I think +he has in his own mind brushed, and burned, and logged up all the fine +flats and table-land on the plains before now, ay, and cropped it all with +wheat, and peas, and Indian corn." + +"We will have a clearing and a nice field of corn next year, if we live," +replied Hector; "that corn that we found in the canoe will be a treasure." + +"Yes, and the corn-cob you got on Bare-hill," said Catherine. "How lucky +we have been! We shall be so happy when we see our little field of corn +flourishing round the shanty! It was a good thing, Hec, that you went to +the Indian camp that day, though both Louis and I were very miserable while +you were absent; but you see, God must have directed you, that the life +of this poor girl might be saved, to be a comfort to us. Everything has +prospered well with us since she came to us. Perhaps it is because we try +to make a Christian of her, and so God blesses all our endeavours." + +"We are told," said Hector, "that there is joy with the angels of God over +one sinner that repenteth; doubtless, it is a joyful thing when the heathen +that knew not the name of God are taught to glorify his holy name." + +Indiana, while exploring, had captured a porcupine; she declared that she +should have plenty of quills for edging baskets and mocassins; beside, she +said, the meat was white and good to eat. Hector looked with a suspicious +eye upon the little animal, doubting the propriety of eating its flesh, +though he had learned to eat musk rats, and consider them good meat, baked +in Louis's Indian oven, or roasted on a forked stick, before the fire. The +Indian porcupine is a small animal, not a very great deal larger than the +common British hedgehog; the quills, however, are longer and stronger, and +varied with alternate clouded marks of pure white and dark brownish grey; +they are minutely barbed, so that if one enters the flesh it is with +difficulty extracted, but will work through of itself in an opposite +direction, and can then be easily pulled out. Dogs and cattle often suffer +great inconvenience from getting their muzzles filled with the quills of +the porcupine, the former when worrying the poor little animal, and +the latter by accidentally meeting a dead one among the herbage; great +inflammation will sometimes attend the extraction. Indians often lose +valuable hounds from this cause. Beside porcupines, Indiana told her +companions, there were some fine butter-nut trees on the island, and they +could collect a bag full in a very short time. This was good news, for the +butter-nut is sweet and pleasant, almost equal to the walnut, of which it +is a species. The day was passed pleasantly enough in collecting nuts and +grapes; but as this island did not afford any good cleared spot for passing +the night, and, moreover, was tenanted by black snakes, several of which +made their appearance among the stones near the edge of the water, they +agreed by common council to go to Long Island, where Indiana said there was +an old log-house, the walls of which were still standing, and where there +was dry moss in plenty, which would make them a comfortable bed for the +night. This old log-house she said had been built, she heard the Indians +say, by a French Canadian trapper, who used to visit the lake some years +ago; he was on friendly terms with the chiefs, who allowed him many +privileges, and he bought their furs, and took them down the lake, through +the river Trent, to some station-house on the great lake. They found they +should have time enough to land and deposit their nuts and grapes and +paddle to Long Island before sunset. Upon the western part of this fine +island they had several times landed and passed some hours, exploring its +shores; but Indiana told them, to reach the old log-house they must enter +the low swampy bay to the east, at an opening which she called Indian Cove. +To do this required some skill in the management of the canoe, which was +rather over-loaded for so light a vessel; and the trees grew so close and +thick that they had some difficulty in pushing their way through them +without injuring its frail sides. These trees or bushes were chiefly black +elder, high-bush cranberries, dogwood, willows, and, as they proceeded +further, and there was ground of a more solid nature, cedar, poplar, swamp +oak, and soft maple, with silver birch and wild cherries. Long strings of +silvery-grey tree-moss hung dangling over their heads, the bark and roots +of the birch and cedars were covered with a luxuriant growth of green moss, +but there was a dampness and closeness in this place that made it far from +wholesome, and the little band of voyagers were not very sorry when the +water became too shallow to admit of the canoe making its way through the +swampy channel, and they landed on the banks of a small circular pond, as +round as a ring, and nearly surrounded by tall trees, hoary with moss and +lichens; large water-lilies floated on the surface of this miniature lake, +and the brilliant red berries of the high-bush cranberry, and the purple +clusters of grapes, festooned the trees. + +"A famous breeding place this must be for ducks," observed Louis. + +"And for flowers," said Catharine, "and for grapes and cranberries. There +is always some beauty or some usefulness to be found, however lonely the +spot." + +"A fine place for musk-rats, and minks, and fishes," said Hector, looking +round. "The old trapper knew what he was about when he made his lodge near +this pond. And there, sure enough, is the log-hut, and not so bad a +one either," and scrambling up the bank he entered the deserted little +tenement, well pleased to find it in tolerable repair. There were the +ashes on the stone hearth, just as it had been left years back by the old +trapper; some rough hewn shelves, a rude bedstead of cedar poles still +occupied a corner of the little dwelling; heaps of old dry moss and grass +lay upon the ground; and the little squaw pointed with one of her silent +laughs to a collection of broken egg-shells, where some wild duck had sat +and hatched her downy brood among the soft materials which she had found +and appropriated to her own purpose. The only things pertaining to the +former possessor of the log-hut were an old, rusty, battered tin pannikin, +now, alas! unfit for holding water; a bit of a broken earthen whisky jar; a +rusty nail, which Louis pounced upon, and pocketed, or rather pouched,--for +he had substituted a fine pouch of deer-skin for his worn-out pocket; and +a fishing-line of good stout cord, which was wound on a splinter of red +redar, and carefully stuck between one of the rafters and the roof of the +shanty. A rusty but efficient hook was attached to the line, and Louis, +who was the finder, was quite overjoyed at his good fortune in making so +valuable an addition to his fishing-tackle. Hector got only an odd worn-out +mocassin, which he chucked into the little pond in disdain; while Catharine +declared she would keep the old tin pot as a relic, and carefully deposited +it in the canoe. + +As they made their way into the interior of the island, they found that +there were a great many fine sugar maples which had been tapped by some +one, as the boys thought, by the old trapper; but Indiana, on examining the +incisions in the trees, and the remnants of birch-bark vessels that lay +mouldering on the earth below them, declared them to have been the work +of her own people; and long and sadly did the young girl look upon these +simple memorials of a race of whom she was the last living remnant. The +young girl stood there in melancholy mood, a solitary, isolated being, with +no kindred tie upon the earth to make life dear to her; a stranger in the +land of her fathers, associating with those whose ways were not her ways, +nor their thoughts her thoughts; whose language was scarcely known to her, +whose God was not the God of her fathers. Yet the dark eyes of the Indian +girl were not dimmed with tears as she thought of these things; she had +learned of her people to suffer, and be still. + +Silent and patient she stood, with her melancholy gaze bent on the earth, +when she felt the gentle hand of Catharine laid upon her arm, and then +kindly and lovingly passed round her neck, as she whispered,-- + +"Indiana, I will be to you as a sister, and will love you and cherish you, +because you are an orphan girl, and alone in the world; but God loves you, +and will make you happy. He is a Father to the fatherless, and the Friend +of the destitute, and to them that have no helper." + +The words of kindness and love need no interpretation; no book-learning is +necessary to make them understood. The young, the old, the deaf, the dumb, +the blind, can read this universal language; its very silence is often more +eloquent than words--the gentle pressure of the hand, the half-echoed sigh, +the look of sympathy will penetrate to the very heart, and unlock its +hidden stores of human tenderness and love. The rock is smitten and the +waters gush forth, a bright and living stream, to refresh and fertilize the +thirsty soul. The heart of the poor mourner was touched; she bowed down her +head upon the hand that held her so kindly in its sisterly grasp, and wept +soft sweet human tears full of grateful love, while she whispered, in her +own low plaintive voice, "My white sister, I kiss you in my heart; I will +love the God of my white brothers, and be his child." + +The two friends now busied themselves in preparing the evening meal: they +found Louis and Hector had lighted up a charming blaze on the desolate +hearth. A few branches of cedar twisted together by Catharine, made a +serviceable broom, with which she swept the floor, giving to the deserted +dwelling a neat and comfortable aspect; some big stones were quickly rolled +in, and made to answer for seats in the chimney corner. The new-found +fishing-line was soon put into requisition by Louis, and with very little +delay a fine dish of black bass, broiled on the coals, was added to their +store of dried venison and roasted bread-roots, which they found in +abundance on a low spot on the island. Grapes and butternuts which Hector +cracked with stones by way of nut-crackers, finished their sylvan meal. The +boys stretched themselves to sleep on the ground, with their feet, Indian +fashion, to the fire; while the two girls occupied the mossy couch which +they had newly spread with fragrant cedar and hemlock boughs. + +The next island that claimed their attention was Sugar-Maple Island, +[Footnote: Sugar Island, a charming object from the picturesque cottage +of Alfred Hayward, Esq.] a fine, thickly-wooded island, rising with steep +rocky banks from the water. A beautiful object, but too densely wooded to +admit of our party penetrating beyond a few yards of its shores. + +The next island they named the Beaver, [Footnote: The Beaver, commonly +called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon it +some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, to +which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies towards +the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite to Gore's +Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and verandah of +Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner, Esq., the +Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of the only +residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the few gentlemen +who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract of country, and +to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of late, have been so +fully developed.] from its resemblance in shape to that animal. A fine, +high, oval island beyond this they named Black Island, [Footnote: Black +Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an oval island, remarkable for +its evergreens.] from its dark evergreens; the next was that which seemed +most to excite the interest of their Indian guide, although but a small +stony island, scantily clothed with trees, lower down the lake. This place +she called Spooke Island, [Footnote: Appendix H.] which means in the +Indian tongue, a place for the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, +and here, in times past, used the Indian people to bury their dead. The +island is now often the resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being +grassy and open, find it more available than those which are densely +wooded. The young Mohawk regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, +and would not suffer Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores. + +"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be +angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were upon +sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial isle. + +Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived from +their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her ancestors +was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to disturb the +solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after awhile reached +the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into two separate +channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with stunted, mossy +bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants. Indiana told +them this river flowed from the north, and that it was many days' journey +up to the lakes; to illustrate its course, she drew with her paddle a long +line with sundry curves and broader spaces, some longer, some smaller, with +Bays and inlets, which she gave them to understand were the chain of lakes +that she spoke of. There were beautiful hunting grounds on the borders of +these lakes, and many fine water-falls and rocky islands; she had been +taken up to these waters during the time of her captivity. The Ojebwas, she +said, were a branch of the great Chippewa nation, who owned much land and +great waters thereabouts. + +Compared with the creeks and streams that they had seen hitherto, the +Otonabee appeared a majestic river, and an object of great admiration and +curiosity, for it seemed to them as if it were the high road leading up +to an unknown far-off land--a land of dark, mysterious, impenetrable +forests,--flowing on, flowing on, in lonely majesty, reflecting on its +tranquil bosom the blue sky, the dark pines, and grey cedars,--the pure +ivory water-lily, and every passing shadow of bird or leaf that flitted +across its surface--so quiet was the onward flow of its waters. + +A few brilliant leaves yet lingered on the soft maples and crimson-tinted +oaks, but the glory of the forest had departed; the silent fall of many a +sear and yellow leaf told of the death of summer and of winter's coming +reign. Yet the air was wrapt in a deceitful stillness; no breath of wind +moved the trees or dimpled the water. Bright wreaths of scarlet berries and +wild grapes hung in festoons among the faded foliage. The silence of the +forest was unbroken, save by the quick tapping of the little midland +wood-pecker, or the shrill scream of the blue jay; the whirring sound of +the large white and grey duck, (called by the frequenters of these lonely +waters the whistle-wing,) as its wings swept the waters in its flight; or +the light dripping of the paddle;--so still, so quiet was the scene. + +As the day was now far advanced, the Indian girl advised them either to +encamp for the night on the river bank, or to use all speed in returning. +She seemed to view the aspect of the heavens with some anxiety. Vast +volumes of light copper-tinted clouds were rising, the sun seen through its +hazy veil looked red and dim, and a hot sultry air unrelieved by a breath +of refreshing wind oppressed our young voyagers; and though the same +coppery clouds and red sun had been seen for several successive days, a +sort of instinctive feeling prompted the desire in all to return; and after +a few minutes' rest and refreshment, they turned their little bark towards +the lake; and it was well that they did so: by the time they had reached +the middle of the lake, the stillness of the air was rapidly changing. +The rose-tinted clouds that had lain so long piled upon each other in +mountainous ridges, began to move upwards, at first slowly, then with +rapidly accelerated motion. There was a hollow moaning in the pine tops, +and by fits a gusty breeze swept the surface of the water, raising it into +rough, short, white-crested ridges. + +These signs were pointed out by Indiana as the harbinger of a rising +hurricane; and now a swift spark of light like a falling star glanced on +the water, as if there to quench its fiery light. Again the Indian girl +raised her dark hand and pointed to the rolling storm-clouds, to the +crested, waters and the moving pine tops; then to the head of the Beaver +Island--it was the one nearest to them. With an arm of energy she wielded +the paddle, with an eye of fire she directed the course of their little +vessel, for well she knew their danger and the need for straining every +nerve to reach the nearest point of land. Low muttering peals of thunder +were now heard, the wind was rising with electric speed. Away flew the +light bark, with the swiftness of a bird, over the water; the tempest was +above, around and beneath. The hollow crash of the forest trees as they +bowed to the earth could be heard, sullenly sounding from shore to shore. +And now the Indian girl, flinging back her black streaming hair from her +brow, knelt at the head of the canoe, and with renewed vigour plied the +paddle. The waters, lashed into a state of turbulence by the violence of +the storm, lifted the canoe up and down, but no word was spoken--they each +felt the greatness of the peril, but they also knew that they were in the +hands of Him who can say to the tempest-tossed waves, "Peace, be still," +and they obey Him. + +Every effort was made to gain the nearest island; to reach the mainland +was impossible, for the rain poured down a blinding deluge; it was with +difficulty the little craft was kept afloat, by baling out the water; to do +this, Louis was fain to use his cap, and Catharine assisted with the old +tin-pot which she had fortunately brought from the trapper's shanty. + +The tempest was at its height when they reached the nearest point of the +Beaver, and joyful was the grating sound of the canoe as it was vigorously +pushed up on the shingly beach, beneath the friendly shelter of the +overhanging trees, where, perfectly exhausted by the exertions they had +made, dripping with rain and overpowered by the terrors of the storm, +they threw themselves on the ground, and in safety watched its +progress--thankful for an escape from such imminent peril. + +Thus ended the Indian summer--so deceitful in its calmness and its beauty. +The next day saw the ground white with snow, and hardened into stone by a +premature frost. Our poor voyagers were not long in quitting the shelter of +the Beaver Island, and betaking them once more to their ark of refuge--the +log-house on Mount Ararat. + +The winter, that year, set in with unusual severity some weeks sooner than +usual, so that from the beginning of November to the middle of April the +snow never entirely left the ground. The lake was soon covered with ice, +and by the month of December it was one compact solid sheet from shore to +shore. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "Scared by the red and noisy light."--COLERIDGE. + +Hector and Louis had now little employment, excepting chopping fire-wood, +which was no very arduous task for two stout healthy lads, used from +childhood to handling the axe. Trapping, and hunting, and snaring hares, +were occupations which they pursued more for the excitement and exercise +than from hunger, as they had laid by abundance of dried, venison, fish, +and birds, besides a plentiful store of rice. They now visited those trees +that they had marked in the summer, where they had noticed the bees hiving, +and cut them down; in one they got more than a pailful of rich honey-comb, +and others yielded some more, some less; this afforded them a delicious +addition to their boiled rice, and dried acid fruits. They might have +melted the wax, and burned candles of it; but this was a refinement of +luxury that never once occurred to our young house-keepers: the dry pine +knots that are found in the woods are the settlers' candles; but Catharine +made some very good vinegar with the refuse of the honey and combs, by +pouring water on it, and leaving it to ferment in a warm nook of the +chimney, in one of the birch-bark vessels, and this was an excellent +substitute for salt as a seasoning to the fresh meat and fish. Like the +Indians, they were now reconciled to the want of this seasonable article. + +Indiana seemed to enjoy the cold weather; the lake, though locked up to +every one else, was open to her; with the aid of the tomahawk she patiently +made an opening in the ice, and over this she built a little shelter of +pine boughs stuck into the ice. Armed with a sharp spear carved out of +hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently await the rising +of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously plunging it into the +unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. Many a noble fish did the +young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet of him whom she had tacitly +elected as her lord and master; to him she offered the voluntary service of +a faithful and devoted servant--I might almost have said, slave. + +During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold, +that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing +log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west +wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak, +unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian blanket +with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt little cold +excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind was high, and +then experience taught them to keep at home. And these cold gloomy days +they employed in many useful works. Indiana had succeeded in dyeing the +quills of the porcupine that she had captured on Grape Island; with these +she worked a pair of beautiful mocassins and an arrow case for Hector, +besides making a sheath for Louis's _couteau-du-chasse_, of which the young +hunter was very proud, bestowing great praise on the workmanship. + +Indiana appeared to be deeply engrossed with some work that she was engaged +in, but preserved a provoking degree of mystery about it, to the no +small annoyance of Louis, who, among his other traits of character, was +remarkably inquisitive, wanting to know the why and wherefore of everything +he saw. + +Indiana first prepared a frame of some tough wood, it might be the inner +bark of the oak or elm or hiccory; this was pointed at either end, and wide +in the middle--not very much unlike the form of some broad, flat fish; over +this she wove an open network of narrow thongs of deer-hide, wetted to make +it more pliable, and securely fastened to the frame: when dry, it became +quite tight, and resembled a sort of coarse bamboo-work such as you see on +cane-bottomed chairs and sofas. + +"And now, Indiana, tell us what sort of fish you are going to catch in your +ingenious little net," said Louis, who had watched her proceedings with +great interest. The girl shook her head, and laughed till she showed all +her white teeth, but quietly proceeded to commence a second frame like the +first. + +Louis put it on his head. No: it could not be meant to be worn there, that +was plain. He turned it round and round. It must be intended for some kind +of bird-trap: yes, that must be it; and he cast an inquiring glance at +Indiana. She blushed, shook her head, and gave another of her silent +laughs. + +"Some game like battledore and shuttlecock,"--and snatching up a light +bass-wood chip, he began tossing the chip up and catching it on the netted +frame. The little squaw was highly amused, but rapidly went on with her +work. Louis was now almost angry at the perverse little savage persevering +in keeping him in suspense. She would not tell him till the other was done: +then there were to be a pair of these curious articles: and he was forced +at last to sit quietly down to watch the proceeding of the work. It was +night before the two were completed, and furnished with straps and loops. +When the last stroke was put to them, the Indian girl knelt down at +Hector's feet, and binding them on, pointed to them with a joyous laugh, +and said, "Snow-shoe--for walk on snow--good!" + +The boys had heard of snow-shoes, but had never seen them, and now seemed +to understand little of the benefit to be derived from the use of them. The +young Mohawk quickly transferred the snow-shoes to her own feet, and soon +proved to them that the broad surface prevented those who wore them from +sinking into the deep snow. After many trials Hector began to acknowledge +the advantage of walking with the snow-shoes, especially on the frozen snow +on the ice-covered lake. Indiana was well pleased with the approbation that +her manufactures met with, and very soon manufactured for "Nee-chee," as +they all now called Louis, a similar present As to Catharine, she declared +the snow-shoes made her ancles ache, and that she preferred the mocassins +that her cousin Louis made for her. During the long bright days of February +they made several excursions on the lake, and likewise explored some of the +high hills to the eastward. On this ridge there were few large trees; but +it was thickly clothed with scrub oaks, slender poplars, and here and there +fine pines, and picturesque free-growing oaks of considerable size and +great age--patriarchs, they might be termed, among the forest growth. +[Footnote: One of these hoary monarchs of the Oak-lulls still stands at the +head of the lawn at Oaklands, formerly the property of Mr, W. Falkner, now +the residence of the Authoress.] Over this romantic range of hill and +dale, free as the air they breathed, roamed many a gallant herd of deer, +unmolested unless during certain seasons when the Indians came to hunt over +these hills. Surprised at the different growth of the oaks on this side the +plains, Hector could not help expressing his astonishment to Indiana, who +told him that it was caused by the custom that her people had had from time +immemorial of setting fire to the bushes in the early part of spring. This +practice, she said, promoted the growth of the deer-grass, made good cover +for the deer themselves, and effectually prevented the increase of the +large timbers. This circumstance gives a singular aspect to this high ridge +of hills when contrasted with the more wooded portions to the westward. +From the lake these eastern hills look verdant, and as if covered with +tall green fern. In the month of October a rich rosy tint is cast upon the +leaves of the scrub oaks by the autumnal frosts, and they present a glowing +unvaried crimson of the most glorious hue, only variegated in spots by a +dark feathery evergreen, or a patch of light waving poplars turned by the +same wizard's wand to golden yellow. + +There were many lovely spots,--lofty rounded hills, and deep shady dells, +with extended tableland, and fine lake views; but on the whole our young +folks preferred the oak openings and the beautiful wooded glens of the +western side, where they had fixed their home. + +There was one amusement that they used greatly to enjoy during the cold +bright days and moonlight nights of midwinter. This was gliding down the +frozen snow on the steep side of the dell near the spring, seated on small +hand-sleighs, which carried them down with great velocity. Wrapped in their +warm furs, with caps fastened closely over their ears, what cared they for +the cold? Warm and glowing from head to foot, with cheeks brightened by the +delightful exercise, they would remain for hours enjoying the amusement +of the snow-slide; the bright frost gemming the ground with myriads of +diamonds, sparkling in their hair, or whitening it till it rivalled the +snow beneath their feet. Then, when tired out with the exercise, they +returned to the shanty, stirred up a blazing fire, till the smoked rafters +glowed in the red light; spread their simple fare of stewed rice sweetened +with honey, or maybe a savoury soup of hare or other game; and then, when +warmed and fed, they kneeled together, side by side, and offered up a +prayer of gratitude to their Maker, and besought his care over them during +the dark and silent hours of night. + +Had these young people been idle in their habits and desponding in their +tempers, they must have perished with cold and hunger, instead of enjoying +many necessaries and even some little luxuries in their lonely forest home. +Fortunately they had been brought up in the early practice of every sort of +usefulness, to endure every privation with cheerful fortitude; not, indeed, +quietly to sit down and wait for better times, but vigorously to create +those better times by every possible exertion that could be brought into +action to assist and ameliorate their condition. + +To be up and doing, is the maxim of a Canadian; and it is this that nerves +his arm to do and bear. The Canadian settler, following in the steps of the +old Americans, learns to supply all his wants by the exercise of his own +energy. He brings up his family to rely upon their own resources, instead +of depending upon his neighbours. + +The children of the modern emigrant, though enjoying a higher degree of +civilization and intelligence, arising from a liberal education, might not +have fared so well under similar circumstances as did our Canadian Crusoes, +because, unused to battle with the hardships incidental to a life of +such privation as they had known, they could not have brought so much +experience, or courage, or ingenuity to their aid. It requires courage to +yield to circumstances, as well as to overcome them. + +Many little useful additions to the interior of their dwelling were made by +Hector and Louis during the long winter. They made a smoother and better +table than the first rough one that they put together. They also made +a rough partition of split cedars, to form a distinct and separate +sleeping-room for the two girls; but as this division greatly circumscribed +their sitting and cooking apartment, they resolved, as soon as the spring +came, to cut and draw in logs for putting up a better and larger room to be +used as a summer parlour. Indiana and Louis made a complete set of wooden +trenchers out of butter-nut, a fine hard wood of excellent grain, and less +liable to warp or crack than many others. + +Louis's skill as a carpenter was much greater than that of his cousin. He +not only possessed more judgment and was more handy, but he had a certain +taste and neatness in finishing his work, however rough his materials and +rude his tools. He inherited some of that skill in mechanism for which the +French have always been remarked. With his knife and a nail he would carve +a plum-stone into a miniature basket, with handle across it, all delicately +wrought with flowers and checker-work. The shell of a butter-nut would be +transformed into a boat, with thwarts, and seats, and rudder; with sails of +bass-wood or birch-bark. Combs he could cut out of wood or bone, so that +Catharine could dress her hair, or confine it in braids or bands at will. +This was a source of great comfort to her; and Louis was always pleased +when he could in any way contribute to his cousin's happiness. These little +arts Louis had been taught by his father. Indeed, the entire distance that +their little, settlement was from any town or village had necessarily +forced their families depend on their own ingenuity and invention to supply +many of their wants. Once or twice a year they saw a trading fur-merchant, +as I before observed; and those were glorious days for Hector and Louis, +who were always on the alert to render the strangers any service in their +power, as by that means they sometimes received little gifts from them, and +gleaned up valuable information as to their craft as hunters and trappers. +And then there were wonderful tales of marvellous feats and hair-breadth +escapes to listen to, as they sat with eager looks and open ears round the +blazing log-fire in the old log-house. Now they would in their turns have +tales to tell of strange adventures, and all that had befallen them since +the first day of their wanderings on the Rice Lake Plains. + +The long winter passed away unmarked by any very stirring event. The +Indians had revisited the hunting-grounds; but they confined themselves +chiefly to the eastern side of the plains, the lake, and the islands, and +did not come near their little dwelling to molest them. The latter end of +the month of March presented fine sugar-making weather; and as they had +the use of the big iron pot, they resolved to make maple sugar and some +molasses. Long Island was decided upon as the most eligible place: it +had the advantage over Maple Island of having a shanty ready built for +a shelter during the time they might see fit to remain, and a good +boiling-place, which would be a comfort to the girls, as they need not be +exposed to the weather during the process of sugaring. The two boys soon +cut down some small pines and bass-woods, which they hewed out into +sugar-troughs; Indiana manufactured some rough pails of birch-bark; and the +first favourable day for the work they loaded up a hand-sleigh with their +vessels, and marched forth over the ice to the island, and tapped the trees +they thought could yield sap for their purpose. And many pleasant days they +passed during the sugar-making season. They did not leave the sugar-bush +for good till the commencement of April, when the sun and wind beginning to +unlock the springs that fed the lake, and to act upon its surface, taught +them that it would not long be prudent to remain on the island. The loud +booming sounds that were now frequently heard of the pent-up air beneath +striving to break forth from its icy prison, were warnings not to be +neglected. Openings began to appear, especially at the entrance of the +river, and between the islands, and opposite to some of the larger creeks; +blue streams that attracted the water-fowl, ducks, and wild geese, that +came, guided by that instinct that never errs, from their abiding-places +in far-off lands; and Indiana knew the signs of the wild birds coming and +going with a certainty that seemed almost marvellous to her simple-minded +companions. + +How delightful were the first indications of the coming spring! How +joyously our young Crusoes heard the first tapping of the redheaded +woodpecker, the low, sweet, warbling note of the early song-sparrow, and +twittering chirp of the snow-bird, or that neat quakerly-looking bird, that +comes to cheer us with the news of sunny days and green buds, the low, +tender, whispering note of the chiccadee, flitting among the pines or in +the thick branches of the shore-side trees! The chattering note of the +little striped chitmunk, as it pursued its fellows over the fallen trees, +and the hollow sound of the male partridge heavily striking his wings +against his sides to attract the notice of the female birds--were among the +early spring melodies, for such they seemed to our forest dwellers, and for +such they listened with eager ears, for they told them-- + + "That winter, cold winter, was past, + And that spring, lovely spring, was approaching at last." + +They watched for the first song of the robin, [Footnote: _Turdus +miyratorius_, or American robin.] and the full melody of the red thrush +[Footnote: _Turdus melodus,_ or wood-thrush.]; the rushing sound of the +passenger-pigeon, as flocks of these birds darted above their heads, +sometimes pausing to rest on the dry limb of some withered oak, or darting +down to feed upon the scarlet berries of the spicy winter-green, the acorns +that still lay upon the now uncovered ground, or the berries of hawthorn +and dogwood that still hung on the bare bushes. The pines were now putting +on their rich, mossy, green spring dresses; the skies were deep blue; +nature, weary of her long state of inaction, seemed waking into life and +light. + +On the Plains the snow soon disappears, for the sun and air has access to +the earth much easier than in the close, dense forest; and Hector and Louis +were soon able to move about with axe in hand, to cut the logs for the +addition to the house which they proposed making. They also set to work as +soon as the frost was out of the ground, to prepare their little field +for the Indian corn. This kept them quite busy. Catharine attended to the +house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in plenty of +small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned up the loose +boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had marked out, they +proceeded to enclose it with a "brush fence", which was done by felling the +trees that stood in the line of the field, and letting them fall so as to +form the bottom log of the fence, which they then made of sufficient height +by piling up arms of trees and brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were +too particular, as there was no fear of "breachy cattle," or any cattle, +intruding on the crop; but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as +much to be guarded against as oxen and cows. + +The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was as +clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a log, +contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the grain +was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week in May, +as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds and the +blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with. Hector's eyes +had followed the flight of a large eagle that now, turning from the lake, +soared away majestically towards the east or Oak-hills. But soon his +eye was attracted to another object. The loftiest part of the ridge was +enveloped in smoke. At first he thought it must be some mist-wreath +hovering over its brow; but soon the dense rolling clouds rapidly spread +on each side, and he felt certain that it was from fire, and nothing but +fire,[Footnote: Appendix I.] that those dark volumes arose. + +"Louis, look yonder! the hills to the east are on fire." + +"On fire, Hector? you are dreaming!" + +"Nay, but look there!" + +The hills were now shrouded in one dense, rolling, cloud; it moved on with +fearful rapidity down the shrubby side of the hill, supplied by the dry, +withered foliage and deer-grass, which was like stubble to the flames. + +"It is two miles off, or more," said Louis; "and the creek will stop its +progress long before it comes near us--and the swamp there, beyond Bare +Hill." + +"The cedars are as dry as tinder; and as to the creek, it is so narrow, a +burning tree falling across would convey the fire to this side; besides, +when the wind rises, as it always does when the bush is on fire, you know +how far the burning leaves will fly. Do you remember when the forest was on +fire last spring, how long it continued to burn, and how fiercely it raged! +It was lighted by the ashes of your father's pipe, when he was out in the +new fallow; the leaves were dry, and kindled; and before night the woods +were burning for miles." "It was a grand spectacle, those pine-hills, when +the fire got in among them," said Louis.. "See, see how fast the fires +kindle; that must be some fallen pine that they have got hold of; now, look +at the lighting up of that hill--is it not grand?" + +"If the wind would but change, and blow in the opposite direction!" said +Hector, anxiously. + +"The wind, mon ami, seems to have little influence; for as long as the fire +finds fuel from the dry bushes and grass, it drives on, even against the +wind." + +As they spoke the wind freshened, and they could plainly see a long line of +wicked, bright flames, in advance of the dense mass of vapour which hung +in its rear. On it came, that rolling sea of flame, with inconceivable +rapidity, gathering strength as it advanced. The demon of destruction +spread its red wings to the blast, rushing on with fiery speed; and soon +hill and valley were wrapped in one sheet of flame. + +"It must have been the work of the Indians," said Louis. "We had better +make a retreat to the island, in case of the fire crossing the valley. We +must not neglect the canoe; if the fire sweeps round by the swamp, it may +come upon us unawares, and then the loss of the canoe would prevent escape +by the lake. But here are the girls; let us consult them. + +"It is the Indian burning," said Indiana; "that is the reason there are so +few big trees on that hill; they burn it to make the grass better for the +deer." + +Hector had often pointed out to Louis the appearance of fire having +scorched the bark of the trees, where they were at work, but it seemed to +have been many years back; and when they were digging for the site of the +root-house [Footnote: Root-houses are built over deep excavations below the +reach of the frost, or the roots stored would be spoiled.] below the bank, +which they had just finished, they had met with charred wood, at the depth +of six feet below the soil, which must have lain there till the earth had +accumulated over it; a period of many years must necessarily have passed +since the wood had been burned, as it was so much decomposed as to crumble +beneath the wooden shovel which they were digging with. + +All day they watched the progress of that, fiery sea whose waves were +flame--red, rolling flame. Onward it came, with resistless speed, +overpowering every obstacle, widening its sphere of action, till it formed +a perfect semicircle about them. As the night drew on, the splendour of the +scene became more apparent, and the path of the fire better defined; but +there was no fear of the conflagration spreading as it had done in the +daytime. The wind had sunk, and the copious dews of evening effectually put +a stop to the progress of the fire. The children could now gaze in security +upon the magnificent spectacle before them, without the excitement produced +by its rapid spread during the daytime. They lay down to sleep in perfect +security that night, but with the consciousness that, as the breeze sprung +up in the morning, they must be on the alert to secure their little +dwelling and its contents from the devastation that threatened it. They +knew that they had no power to stop its onward course, as they possessed +no implement better than a rough wood shovel, which would be found very +ineffectual in opening a trench or turning the ground up, so as to cut off +the communication with the dry grass, leaves, and branches, which are the +fuel for supplying the fires on the Plains. The little clearing on one side +the house they thought would be its safeguard, but the fire was advancing +on three sides of them. + +"Let us hold a council, as the Indians do, to consider what is to be done." + +"I propose," said Louis, "retreating, bag and baggage, to the nearest point +of Long Island." "My French cousin has well spoken," said Hector, mimicking +the Indian mode of speaking; "but listen to the words of the wise. I +propose to take all our household stores that are of the most value, to the +island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, first removing +from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is likely to take +fire; the earthen roof will save it from destruction; as to the shanty, it +must take its chance to stand or fall." + +"The fence of the little clearing will be burned, no doubt. Well, never +mind, better that than our precious selves; and the corn, fortunately, is +not yet sown," said Louis. + +Hector's advice met with general applause, and the girls soon set to work +to secure the property they meant to leave. + +It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as it +formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made +available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys +carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and +also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them to +hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off to the +lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "I know a lake where the cool waves break, + And softly fall on the silver sand, + And no stranger intrudes on that solitude, + And no voices but ours disturb the strand." + IRISH SONG + +The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far as +the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were leaping +among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the pines, and +rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to heap of the +fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes of black and +suffocating smoke. So quickly did the flames advance that Hector and Louis +had only time to push off the canoe before the heights along the shore were +wrapped in smoke and fire. Many a giant oak and noble pine fell crashing to +the earth, sending up showers of red sparks, as its burning trunk shivered +in its fall. Glad to escape from the suffocating vapour, the boys quickly +paddled out to the island, enjoying the cool, fresh air of the lake. +Reposing on the grass beneath the trees, they passed the day, sheltered +from the noonday sun, and watched the progress of the fires upon the shore. +At night the girls slept securely under the canoe, which they raised on one +side by means of forked sticks stuck in the ground. + +It was a grand sight to see the burning plains at night, reflected on the +water. A thousand naming torches flickered upon its still surface, to which +the glare of a gas-lighted city would have been dim and dull by contrast. + +Louis and Hector would speculate on the probable chances of the shanty +escaping from the fire, and of the fence remaining untouched. Of the safety +of the root-house they entertained no fear, as the grass was already +springing green on the earthen roof; and below they had taken every +precaution to secure its safely, by scraping up the earth near it. +[Footnote: Many a crop of grain and comfortable homestead has been saved +by turning a furrow round the field; and great conflagrations have been +effectually stopped by men beating the fire out with spades, and hoeing +up the fresh earth so as to cut off all communication with the dry roots, +grass, and leaves that feed its onward progress. Water, even could it be +got, which is often impossible, is not near so effectual in stopping +the progress of fire; even women and little children can assist in such +emergencies.] + +Catharine lamented for the lovely spring-flowers that would be destroyed +by the fire. "We shall have neither huckleberries nor strawberries this +summer," she said, mournfully; "and the pretty roses and bushes will be +scorched, and the ground black and dreary." + +"The fire passes so rapidly over that it does not destroy many of the +forest trees, only the dead ones are destroyed; and that, you know, leaves +more space for the living ones to grow and thrive in," said Hector. "I have +seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new and fresh set of +plants spring up, and even some that looked withered recover; the earth is +renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so great a misfortune as it +at first appears." + +"But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!" said Louis; +"I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one of those +burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, branchless +trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance against those +that kindled the fires." + +"They do, indeed, look ugly," said Catharine; "yet the girdled ones look +very nearly as ill." [Footnote: The girdled pines are killed by barking +them round, to facilitate the clearing.] + +At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim +smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was +still going on. + +As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the point +(Andersen's Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they concluded +the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual hunter or +trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they were not +very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they decided +on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was with some +feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had befallen their +shanty. + +"The shanty is burned!" was the simultaneous exclamation of both Louis and +Hector, as they reached the rising ground that should have commanded a +view of its roof. "It is well for us that we secured our things in the +root-house," said Hector. + +"Well, if that is safe, who cares? we can soon build up a new house, larger +and better than the old one," said Louis. "The chief of our fence is gone, +too, I see; but that we can renew at our leisure; no hurry, if we get it +done a month hence, say I. Come, _ma belle_, do not look so sorrowful. +There is our little squaw will help us to set up a capital wigwam, while +the new house is building." "But the nice table that you made, Louis, and +the benches and shelves!" + +"Never mind, Cathy, we will have better tables, and benches, and shelves +too. Never fear, _ma chere_, the same industrious Louis will make things +comfortable. I am not sorry the old shanty is down; we shall have a famous +one put up, twice as large, for the winter. After the corn is planted we +shall have nothing else to do but to think about it." + +The next two or three days was spent in erecting a wigwam, with poles and +birch bark; and as the weather was warm and pleasant, they did not feel the +inconvenience so much as they would have done had it been earlier in the +season. The root-house formed an excellent store-house and pantry; and +Indiana contrived, in putting up the wigwam, to leave certain loose folds +between the birch-bark lining and outer covering, which formed a series of +pouches or bags, in which many articles could be stowed away out of sight. +[Footnote: In this way the winter wigwams of the Indians are constructed so +as to give plenty of stowing room for all their little household matters, +materials for work, &c.] + +While the girls were busy contriving the arrangements of the wigwam, +the two boys were not idle. The time was come for planting the corn; a +succession of heavy thunder-showers had soaked and softened the scorched +earth, and rendered the labour of moving it much easier than they had +anticipated. They had cut for themselves wooden trowels, with which they +raised the hills for the seed. The corn planted, they next turned their +attention to cutting house-logs; those which they had prepared had been +burned up; so they had their labour to begin again. + +The two girls proved good helps at the raising; and in the course of a few +weeks they had the comfort of seeing a more commodious dwelling than the +former one put up. The finishing of this, with weeding the Indian corn, +renewing the fence, and fishing, and trapping, and shooting partridges and +ducks and pigeons, fully occupied their time this summer. The fruit season +was less abundant this year than the previous one. The fire had done this +mischief, and they had to go far a-field to collect fruits during the +summer months. + +It so happened that Indiana had gone out early one morning with the boys, +and Catharine was alone. She had gone down to the spring for water, and on +her return was surprised at the sight of a squaw and her family of three +half-grown lads, and an innocent little brown papoose. [Footnote: An Indian +baby; but "papoose" is not an Indian word. It is probably derived from the +Indian imitation of the word "baines."] In their turn the strangers seemed +equally astonished at Catharine's appearance. + +The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon +reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which she +had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To this +Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple sugar, +which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted the brown +baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden cradle, and +fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference between the +colour of her young hostess's fair skin and her own swarthy hue; for she +often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, and compared her +arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment and curiosity; +possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race this poor savage +had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set the birchen dish on the +floor, and restrapping the papoose in its cradle prison, she slipped the +basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and silently signing to her sons to +follow her, she departed. That evening a pair of ducks were found fastened +to the wooden latch of the door, a silent offering of gratitude for the +refreshment that had been afforded to this Indian woman and her children. + +Indiana thought, from Catharine's description, that these were Indians with +whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake and the +ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be near. The squaw, +she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother Snow-storm, from +having been lost in the woods, when a little child, during a heavy storm of +snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a gentle, kind woman, and, she +believed, would not do any of them hurt. Her sons were good hunters; and +though so young, helped to support their mother, and were very good to her +and the little one. + +I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a brief +notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved abundant, +and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and stored, and plenty +of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of honey. + +The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the +lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some +hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter was +unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring following +was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May before +vegetation had made any very decided progress. + +The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both +within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for the +floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats and a +table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering their +only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for splitting the +wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with great care and +patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft mate, woven by +Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut and dried; but the little +squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or deer-skin on the floor before the +fire, as she had been accustomed. + +A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted, and +was now green and flourishing. Peace and happiness dwelt within the +loghouse;--but for the regrets that ever attended the remembrance of all +they had left and lost, no cloud would have dimmed the serenity of those +who dwelt beneath its humble roof. + +The season of flowers had again arrived,--the earth, renovated by the fire +of the former year, bloomed with fresh beauty,--June, with its fragrant +store of roses and lilies, was now far advanced,--the anniversary of that +time when they had left their beloved parents' roofs, to become sojourners +in the lonely wilderness, had returned. Much they felt they had to be +grateful for. Many privations, it is true, and much anxiety they had felt; +but they had enjoyed blessings above all that they could have expected, and +they might, like the Psalmist when recounting the escapes of the people +of God, have said,--"Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his +goodness, and the wonders that he doeth for the children of men." And now +they declared no greater evil could befal them than to lose one of their +little party, for even Indiana had become as a dear and beloved sister; her +gentleness, her gratitude and faithful trusting love, seemed each day to +increase. Now, indeed, she was bound to them by a yet more sacred tie, for +she knelt to the same God, and acknowledged, with fervent love, the mercies +of her Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, +and had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own +tongue; so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her on +any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of social +and Christian love. + +Hector, Louis, and Indiana had gone over the hills to follow the track of +a deer which had paid a visit to the young corn, now sprouting and showing +symptoms of shooting up to blossom. Catharine usually preferred staying at +home, and preparing the meals against their return. She had gathered some +fine ripe strawberries, which, with plenty of stewed rice, Indian meal +cake, and maple sugar, was to make their dinner. She was weary and warm, +for the day had been hot and sultry. Seating herself on the threshold of +the door, she leaned her tack against the doorpost, and closed her eyes. +Perhaps the poor child's thoughts were wandering back to her far-off, +never-to-be-forgotten home, or she might be thinking of the hunters and +their game. Suddenly a vague, undefinable feeling of dread stole over her +mind: she heard no steps, she felt no breath, she saw no form; but there +was a strange consciousness that she was not alone--that some unseen being +was near, some eye was upon her. I have heard of sleepers starting from +sleep the most profound when the noiseless hand of the assassin has been +raised to destroy them, as if the power of the human eye could be felt +through the closed lid. + +Thus fared it with Catharine: she felt as if some unseen enemy was near +her; and, springing to her feet, she cast a wild, troubled glance around. +No living being met her eye; and, ashamed of her cowardice, she resumed her +seat. The tremulous cry of her little grey squirrel, a pet which she had +tamed and taught to run to her and nestle in her bosom, attracted her +attention. + +"What aileth thee, wee dearie?" she said, tenderly, as the timid little +creature crept, trembling, to her breast. "Thy mistress has scared thee by +her own foolish fears. See now, there is neither cat-a-mount nor weasel +here to seize thee, silly one;" and as she spoke she raised her head, and +flung back the thick clusters of soft fair hair that shaded her eyes. The +deadly glare of a pair of dark eyes fixed upon her met her terrified gaze, +gleaming with sullen ferocity from the angle of the door-post, whence the +upper part of the face alone was visible, partly concealed by a mat of +tangled, shaggy, black hair. Paralysed with fear, the poor girl neither +spoke nor moved; she uttered no cry; but pressing her hands tightly across +her breast, as if to still the loud beating of her heart, she sat gazing +upon that fearful appearance, while, with stealthy step, the savage +advanced from his lurking-place, keeping, as he did so, his eyes riveted +upon hers, with such a gaze as the wily serpent is said to fascinate his +prey. His hapless victim moved not; whither could she flee to escape one +whose fleet foot could so easily have overtaken her in the race? where +conceal herself from him whose wary eye fixed upon her seemed to deprive +her of all vital energy? + +Uttering that singular, expressive guttural which seems with the Indian to +answer the purpose of every other exclamation, he advanced, and taking the +girl's ice-cold hands in his, tightly bound them with a thong of deer's +hide, and led her unresistingly away. By a circuitous path through the +ravine they reached the foot of the mount, where lay a birch canoe, rocking +gently on the waters, in which a middle-aged female and a young girl were +seated. The females asked no questions, and expressed no word indicative of +curiosity or surprise, as the strong arm of the Indian lifted his captive +into the canoe, and made signs to the elder squaw to push from the shore. +When all had taken their places, the woman, catching up a paddle from the +bottom of the little vessel, stood up, and with a few rapid strokes sent it +skimming over the lake. + +The miserable captive, overpowered with the sense of her calamitous +situation, bowed down her head upon her knees, and concealing her agitated +face in her garments, wept in silent agony. Visions of horror presented +themselves to her bewildered brain--all that Indiana had described of the +cruelty of this vindictive race, came vividly before her mind. Poor child, +what miserable thoughts were thine during that brief voyage! + +Had the Indians also captured her friends? or was she alone to be the +victim of their vengeance? What would be the feelings of those I beloved +ones on returning to their home and finding it desolate! Was there no hope +of release? As these ideas chased each other through her agitated mind, she +raised her eyes all streaming with tears to the faces of the Indian and his +companions with so piteous a look, that any heart but the stoical one of an +Indian would have softened at its sad appeal; but no answering glance of +sympathy met hers, no eye gave back its silent look of pity--not a nerve +or a muscle moved the cold apathetic features of the Indians, and the +woe-stricken girl again resumed her melancholy attitude, burying her +face in her heaving bosom to hide its bitter emotions from the heartless +strangers. + +She was not folly aware that it is part of the Indian's education to hide +the inward feelings of the heart, to check all those soft and tender +emotions which distinguish the civilized man from the savage. + +It does indeed need the softening influence of that powerful Spirit, which +was shed abroad into the world to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the +wisdom of the just, to break down the strongholds of unrighteousness, and +to teach man that he is by nature the child of wrath and victim of sin, and +that in his unregenerated nature his whole mind is at enmity with God and +his fellow-men, and that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. And the +Indian has acknowledged that power,--he has cast his idols of cruelty and +revenge, those virtues on which he prided himself in the blindness of his +heart, to the moles and the bats; he has bowed and adored at the foot of +the Cross;--but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken. [Footnote: +Appendix K.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Must this sweet new-blown rose find such, a winter + Before her spring be past?" + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER + +The little bark touched the stony point of Long Island. The Indian lifted +his weeping prisoner from the canoe, and motioned to her to move forward +along the narrow path that led to the camp, about twenty yards higher up +the bank, where there was a little grassy spot enclosed, with shrubby +trees--the squaws tarried at the lake-shore to bring up the paddles and +secure the canoe. + +It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an enemy, but doubly so, +when that enemy is a stranger to the language in which we would plead for +mercy--whose God is not our God, nor his laws those by which we ourselves +are governed. Thus felt the poor captive as she stood alone, mute with +terror among the half-naked dusky forms with which she now found herself +surrounded. She cast a hurried glance round that strange assembly, if by +chance her eye might rest upon some dear familiar face, but she saw not +the kind but grave face of Hector, nor met the bright sparkling eye of her +cousin Louis, nor the soft, subdued, pensive features of the Indian girl, +her adopted sister--she stood alone among those wild gloomy-looking men; +some turned away their eyes as if they would not meet her woe-stricken +countenance, lest they should be moved to pity her sad condition; no wonder +that, overcome by the sense of her utter friendliness, she hid her face +with her fettered hands and wept in despair. But the Indian's sympathy is +not moved by tears and sighs; calmness, courage, defiance of danger and +contempt of death, are what he venerates and admires even in an enemy. + +The Indians beheld her grief unmoved. At length the old man, who seemed to +be a chief among the rest, motioned to one of the women who leant against +the side of the wigwam, to come forward and lead away the stranger; +Catharine, whose senses were beginning to be more collected, heard the old +man give orders that she was to be fed and cared for. Gladly did she escape +from the presence of those pitiless men, from whose gaze she shrunk with +maidenly modesty. And now when alone with the women she hesitated not to +make use of that natural language which requires not the aid of speech to +make itself understood; clasping her hands imploringly, she knelt at the +feet of the Indian woman, her conductress--kissed her dark hands and bathed +them with her fast flowing tears, while she pointed passionately to the +shore where lay the happy home from which she had been so suddenly torn. + +The squaw, though she evidently comprehended the meaning of her imploring +gestures, shook her head, and in plaintive earnest tone replied in her own +language, that she must go with the canoes to the other shore,--and she +pointed to the north as she spoke. She then motioned to the young girl--the +same that had been Catharine's companion in the canoe--to bring a hunting +knife, which was thrust into one of the folds of the birch-bark of the +wigwam. Catharine beheld the deadly weapon in the hands of the Indian woman +with a pang of agony as great as if its sharp edge was already at her +throat. So young--so young, to die by a cruel bloody death! what had been +her crime?--how should she find words to soften the heart of her murderess? +The power of utterance seemed denied--she cast herself on her knees and +held up her hands in silent prayer; not to the dreaded Indian woman, but to +Him who heareth the prayer of the poor destitute--who alone can order the +unruly wills and affections of men. + +The squaw stretched forth one dark hand and grasped the arm of the +terror-struck girl, while the other held the weapon of destruction; with a +quick movement she severed the thongs that bound the fettered wrists of the +pleading captive, and with a smile that seemed to light up her whole face +she raised her from her prostrate position, laid her hand upon her young +head, and with an expression of good-humoured surprise lifted the flowing +tresses of her sunny hair and spread them over the back of her own swarthy +hand; then, as if amused by the striking contrast, she shook down her own +jetty-black hair and twined a tress of it with one of the fair haired +girl's--then laughed till her teeth shone like pearls within her red lips. +Many were the exclamations of childish wonder that broke from the other +females, as they compared the snowy arm of the stranger with their own +dusky skins; it was plain that they had no intention of harming her, and by +degrees distrust and dread of her singular companions began in some measure +to subside. + +The squaw motioned her to take a seat on a mat beside her, and gave her a +handful of parched rice and some deer's flesh to eat; but Catharine's heart +was too heavy; she was suffering from thirst, and on pronouncing the Indian +word for water, the young girl snatched up a piece of birch-bark from the +floor of the tent, and gathering the corners together, ran to the lake, and +soon returned with water in this most primitive drinking vessel, which +she held to the lips of her guest, and she seemed amused by the long deep +draught with which Catharine slaked her thirst; and something like a gleam +of hope came over her mind as she marked the look of kindly feeling with +which she caught the young Indian girl regarding her, and she strove to +overcome the choking sensation that would from time to time rise to her +throat, as she fluctuated between hope and fear. The position of the Indian +camp was so placed that it was quite hidden from the shore, and neither +could Catharine see the mouth of the ravine, nor the steep side of the +mount that her brothers were accustomed to ascend and descend in their +visits to the lake shore, nor had she any means of making a signal to them +even if she had seen them on the beach. + +The long, anxious, watchful night passed, and soon after sunrise, while +the morning mists still hung over the lake, the canoes of the Indians +were launched, and long before noon they were in the mouth of the river. +Catharine's heart sunk within her as the fast receding shores of the lake +showed each minute fainter in the distance. At midday they halted at a +fine bend in the river, where a small open place and a creek flowing down +through the woods afforded them cool water; and here they found several +tents put up and a larger party awaiting their return. The river was here +a fine, broad, deep and tranquil stream; trees of many kinds fringed the +edge; beyond was the unbroken forest, whose depths had never been pierced +by the step of man--so thick and luxuriant was the vegetation that even the +Indian could hardly have penetrated through its dark swampy glades: far +as the eye could reach, that impenetrable interminable wall of verdure +stretched away into the far off distance. + +On that spot where our Indian camp then stood, are now pleasant open +meadows, with an avenue of fine pines and balsams; showing on the eminence +above, a large substantial dwelling-house surrounded by a luxuriant orchard +and garden, the property of a naval officer, [Footnote: Lt. Rubidge, +whose interesting account of his early settlement may be read in a letter +inserted in Captain Basil Hall's Letters from Canada.] who with the +courage and perseverance that mark brave men of his class, first ventured +to break the bush and locate himself and his infant family in the lonely +wilderness, then far from any beaten road or the haunts of his fellow-men. + +But at the period of which I write, the axe of the adventurous settler had +not levelled one trunk of that vast forest, neither had the fire scathed +it; no voices of happy joyous children had rung through those shades, nor +sound of rural labour nor bleating flock awakened its echoes. + +All the remainder of that sad day, Catharine sat on the grass under a shady +tree, her eyes mournfully fixed on the slow flowing waters, and wondering +at her own hard fate in being thus torn from her home and its dear inmates. +Bad as she had thought her separation from her father and mother and her +brothers, when she first left her home to become a wanderer on the Rice +Lake Plains, how much more dismal now was her situation, snatched from the +dear companions who had upheld and cheered her on in all her sorrows! But +now she was alone with none to love or cherish or console her, she felt a +desolation of spirit that almost made her forgetful of that trust that had +hitherto always sustained her in time of trouble or sickness. She looked +round, and her eye fell on the strange unseemly forms of men and women, +who cared not for her, and to whom she was an object of indifference or +aversion: she wept when she thought of the grief that her absence would +occasion to Hector and Louis; the thought of their distress increased her +own. + +The soothing quiet of the scene, with the low lulling sound of the little +brook as its tiny wavelets fell tinkling over the massy roots and stones +that impeded its course to the river, joined with fatigue and long exposure +to the sun and air, caused her at length to fall asleep. The last rosy +light of the setting sun was dyeing the waters with a glowing tint when she +awoke; a soft blue haze hung upon the trees; the kingfisher and dragon-fly, +and a solitary loon, were the only busy things abroad on the river; the +first darting up and down from an upturned root near the water's edge, +feeding its youngings; the dragon-fly hawking with rapid whirring sound for +insects, and the loon, just visible from above the surface of the still +stream, sailed quietly on companionless, like her who watched its +movements. + +The bustle of the hunters returning with game and fish to the encampment +roused many a sleepy brown papoose, the fires were renewed, and the evening +meal was now preparing,--and Catharine, chilled by the falling dew, crept +to the enlivening warmth. And here she was pleased at being recognised by +one friendly face--it was the mild and benevolent countenance of the widow +Snowstorm, who, with her three sons, came to bid her to share their camp +fire and food. The kindly grasp of the hand, the beaming smile that was +given by this good creature, albeit she was ugly and ill-featured, cheered +the sad captive's heart. She had given her a cup of cold water and what +food her log-cabin afforded, and in return the good Indian took her to her +wigwam and fed, and warmed, and cherished her with the loving-kindness of +a Christian; and during all her sojourn in the Indian camp she was as a +tender mother over her, drying her tears and showing her those little +acts of attention that even the untaught Indians know are grateful to the +sorrowful and destitute. Catharine often forgot her own griefs to repay +this worthy creature's kindness, by attending to her little babe and +assisting her in some of her homely preparations of cookery or household +work. She knew that a selfish indulgence in sorrow would do her no good, +and after the lapse of some days she so well disciplined her own heart as +to check her tears at least in the presence of the Indian women, and to +assume an air of comparative cheerfulness. Once she found Indian words +enough to ask the Indian widow to convey her back to the lake, but she +shook her head and bade her not think anything about it; and added, that in +the fall, when the ducks came to the rice-beds, they should all return, and +then if she could obtain leave from the chief, she would restore her to +her lodge on the plains; but signified to her that patience was her only +present remedy, and that submission to the will of the chief was her wisest +plan. Comforted by this vague promise, Catharine strove to be reconciled to +her strange lot, and still stranger companions. She could not help being +surprised at the want of curiosity respecting her that was shown by the +Indians in the wigwam, when she was brought thither; they appeared to take +little notice that a stranger and one so dissimilar to themselves had been +introduced into the camp, for before her they asked no questions about her, +whatever they might do when she was absent, though they surveyed her with +silent attention. Catharine learned, by long acquaintance with this people, +that an outward manifestation of surprise [Footnote: See Appendix L.] is +considered a want of etiquette and good breeding, or rather a proof of +weakness and childishness. The women, like other females, are certainly +less disposed to repress this feeling of inquisitiveness than the men, and +one of their great sources of amusement, when Catharine was among them, was +examining the difference of texture and colour of her skin and hair, and +holding long consultations over them. The young girl and her mother, those +who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the island, +showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw was granddaughter +to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with considerable respect by +the rest of the women; she was a gay lively creature, often laughing, and +seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund of good humour. She was inclined to +extend her patronage to the young stranger, making her eat out of her own +bark dish, and sit beside her on her own mat. She wove a chain of the +sweet-scented grass with which the Indians delight in adorning themselves, +likewise in perfuming their lodges with bunches or strewings upon the +floor. She took great pains in teaching her how to acquire the proper +attitude of sitting, after the fashion of the Eastern nations, which +position the Indian women assume when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian +name of this little damsel signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that +lively restless bird, always flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as +garrulous and as cheerful too as that merry little herald of the spring. + +Once she seemed particularly attracted by Catharine's dress, which she +examined with critical minuteness, evincing great surprise at the cut +fringes of dressed doeskin with which Indiana had ornamented the border of +the short jacket which she had manufactured for Catharine. These fringes +she pointed out to the notice of the women, and even the old chief was +called in to examine the dress; nor did the leggings and mocassins escape +their observation. There was something mysterious about her garments. +Catharine was at a loss to imagine what caused those deep guttural +exclamations, somewhat between a grunt and a groan, that burst from the +lips of the Indians, as they one by one examined them with deep attention. +These people had recognised in these things the peculiar fashion and +handiwork of the young Mohawk girl whom they had exposed to perish by +hunger and thirst on Bare Hill, and much their interest was excited to know +by what means Catharine had become possessed of a dress wrought by the hand +of one whom they had numbered with the dead. Strange and mysterious did it +seem to them, and warily did they watch the unconscious object of their +wonder. + +The knowledge that she possessed of the language of her friend Indiana, +enabled Catharine to comprehend a great deal of what was said; yet she +prudently refrained from speaking in the tongue of one, to whose whole +nation she knew these people to be hostile, but she sedulously endeavoured +to learn their own peculiar dialect, and in this she succeeded in an +incredibly short time, so that she was soon able to express her own wants, +and converse a little with the females who were about her. + +She had noticed that among the tents there was one which stood apart from +the rest, and was only visited by the old chief and his granddaughter, or +by the elder women. At first she imagined it was some sick person, or a +secret tent set apart for the worship of the Great Spirit; but one day when +the chief of the people had gone up the river hunting, and the children +were asleep, she perceived the curtain of skins drawn back, and a female of +singular and striking beauty appeared standing in the open space in front. +She was habited in a fine tunic of white dressed doeskin richly embroidered +with coloured beads and stained quills, a full petticoat of dark cloth +bound with scarlet descended to her ancles, leggings fringed with deer-skin +knotted with bands of coloured quills, with richly wrought mocassins on her +feet. On her head she wore a coronet of scarlet and black feathers; her +long shining tresses of raven hair descended to her waist, each thick tress +confined with a braided band of quills dyed scarlet and blue; her stature +was tall and well-formed; her large, liquid, dark eye wore an expression +so proud and mournful that Catharine felt her own involuntarily fill with +tears as she gazed upon this singular being. She would have approached +nearer to her, but a spell seemed on her; she shrunk back timid and abashed +beneath that wild melancholy glance. It was she, the Beam of the Morning, +the self-made widow of the young Mohawk, whose hand had wrought so fearful +a vengeance on the treacherous destroyer of her brother. She stood there, +at the tent door, arrayed in her bridal robes, as on the day when she +received her death-doomed victim. And when she recalled her fearful deed, +shuddering with horror, Catharine drew back and shrouded herself within +the tent, fearing again to fall under the eye of that terrible woman. She +remembered how Indiana had told her that since that fatal marriage-feast +she had been kept apart from the rest of the tribe,--she was regarded by +her people as a sacred character, a great _Medicine_, a female _brave_, a +being whom they regarded with mysterious reverence. She had made this great +sacrifice for the good of her nation. Indiana said it was believed among +her own folks that she had loved the young Mohawk passionately, as a +tender woman loves the husband of her youth; yet she had hesitated not +to sacrifice him with her own hand. Such was the deed of the Indian +heroine--and such were the virtues of the unregenerated Greeks and Romans! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "Now where the wave, with loud unquiet song, + Dash'd o'er the rocky channel, froths along, + Or where the silver waters soothed to rest, + The tree's tall shadow sleeps upon its breast." + COLERIDGE. + +The Indian camp remained for nearly three weeks on this spot, [Footnote: +Now known by the name of Cambelltown, though, there is but one log-house +and some pasture fields; it is a spot long used as a calling place for the +steamer that plies on the Otoanbee, between Gore's Landing on the Rice Lake +and Peterborough, to take in fire-wood.] and then early one morning the +wigwams were all taken down, and the canoes, six in number, proceeded +up the river. There was very little variety in the scenery to interest +Catharine; the river still kept its slow flowing course between low shores, +thickly clothed with trees, without an opening through which the eye might +pierce to form an idea of the country beyond; not a clearing, not a sight +or sound of civilized man was there to be seen or heard; the darting flight +of the wild birds as they flitted across from one side to the other, the +tapping of the woodpeckers or shrill cry of the blue jay, was all that was +heard, from sunrise to sunset, on that monotonous voyage. After many hours +a decided change was perceived in the current, which ran at a considerable +increase of swiftness, so that it required the united energy of both men +and women to keep the light vessels from drifting down the river again. +They were in the Rapids, [Footnote: Formerly known as Whitla's Rapids, now +the site of the Locks.] and it was hard work to stem the tide, and keep +the upward course of the waters. At length the rapids were passed, and +the weary Indian voyagers rested for a space on the bosom of a small but +tranquil lake. [Footnote: The little lake about a mile below Peterborough +and above the Locks, formerly girt in by woods of pine and beech and maple, +now entirely divested of trees and forming part of the suburbs of the town. +] The rising moon shed her silvery light upon the calm waters, and heaven's +stars shone down into its quiet depths, as the canoes with their dusky +freight parted the glittering rays with their light paddles. As they +proceeded onward the banks rose on either side, still fringed with pine, +cedar and oaks. At an angle of the lake the banks on either side ran +out into two opposite peninsulas, forming a narrow passage or gorge, +contracting the lake once more into the appearance of a broad river, much +wider from shore to shore than any other part they had passed through since +they had left the entrance at the Rice Lake. + +Catharine became interested in the change of scenery, her eye dwelt with +delight on the forms of glorious spreading oaks and lofty pines, green +cliff-like shores and low wooded islands; while as they proceeded the sound +of rapid flowing waters met her ear, and soon the white and broken eddies +rushing along with impetuous course were seen by the light of the moon; +and while she was wondering if the canoes were to stem those rapids, at a +signal from the old chief, the little fleet was pushed to shore on a low +flat of emerald verdure nearly opposite to the last island. [Footnote: +Over the Otonabee, just between the rapids and the island, a noble and +substantial bridge has been built.] + +Here, under the shelter of some beautiful spreading black oaks, the women +prepared to set up their wigwams. They had brought the poles and birch-bark +covering from the encampment below, and soon all was bustle and business; +unloading the canoes, and raising the tents. Even Catharine lent a willing +hand to assist the females in bringing up the stores, and sundry baskets +containing fruits and other small wares. She then kindly attended to the +Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, who, bound upon their wooden +cradles, were either set up against the trunks of the trees, or swung to +some lowly depending branch, there to remain helpless and uncomplaining +spectators of the scene. + +Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied as +herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, having +from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they were sure +to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers when the season of +refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was friendless and alone, an +orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred and friends. One Father, one +Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even He--the Father of the fatherless. + +That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole out +of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter of +which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy plain, +studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that they +might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf. It was +a delightful contrast to those dense dark forests through which for so many +many miles the waters of the Otonabee had flowed on monotonously; here +it was all wild and free, dashing along like a restive steed rejoicing in +its liberty, uncurbed and tameless. + +Yes, here it was beautiful! Catharine gazed with joy upon the rushing +river, and felt her own heart expand as she marked its rapid course, as it +bounded murmuring and fretting over its rocky bed. "Happy, glorious waters! +you are not subject to the power of any living creature, no canoe can +ascend those surging waves; I would that I too, like thee, were free to +pursue my onward way--how soon would I flee away and be at rest!" Such +thoughts perhaps might have passed through the mind of the lonely captive +girl, as she sat at the foot of one giant oak, and looked abroad over those +moonlit waters, till, oppressed by the overwhelming sense of the utter +loneliness of the scene, the timid girl with faltering step hurried down +once more to the wigwams, silently crept to the mat where her bed was +spread, and soon forgot all her woes and wanderings in deep tranquil sleep. + +Catharine wondered that the Indians in erecting their lodges always seemed +to prefer the low, level, and often swampy grounds by the lakes and rivers +in preference to the higher and more healthy elevations. So disregardful +are they of this circumstance, that they do not hesitate to sleep where the +ground is saturated with moisture. They will then lay a temporary flooring +of cedar or any other bark beneath their feet, rather than remove the tent +a few feet higher up, where a drier soil may always be found. This either +arises from stupidity or indolence, perhaps from both, but it is no doubt +the cause of much of the sickness that prevails among, them. With his feet +stretched to the fire the Indian cares for nothing else when reposing in +his wigwam, and it is useless to urge the improvement that might be made in +his comfort; he listens with a face of apathy, and utters his everlasting +guttural, which saves him the trouble of a more rational reply. + +"Snow-bird" informed Catharine that the lodges would not again be removed +for some time, but that the men would hunt and fish, while the squaws +pursued their domestic labours. Catharine perceived that the chief of the +laborious part of the work fell to the share of the females, who were very +much more industrious and active than their husbands; these, when not out +hunting or fishing, were to be seen reposing in easy indolence under the +shade of the trees, or before the tent fires, giving themselves little +concern about anything that was going on. The squaws were gentle, humble, +and submissive; they bore without a murmur pain, labour, hunger, and +fatigue, and seemed to perform every task with patience and good humour. +They made the canoes, in which the men sometimes assisted them, pitched the +tents, converted the skins of the animals which the men shot into clothes, +cooked the victuals, manufactured baskets of every kind, wove mats, dyed +the quills of the porcupine, sewed the mocassins, and in short performed a +thousand tasks which it would be difficult to enumerate. + +Of the ordinary household work, such as is familiar to European females, +they of course knew nothing; they had no linen to wash or iron, no floors +to clean, no milking of cows, nor churning of butter. + +Their carpets were fresh cedar boughs spread upon the ground, and only +renewed when they became offensively dirty from the accumulation of fish +bones and other offal, which are carelessly flung down during meals. Of +furniture they had none, their seat the ground, their table the same, their +beds mats or skins of animals,--such were the domestic arrangements of the +Indian camp. [Footnote: Much improvement has taken place of late years in +the domestic economy of the Indians, and some of their dwellings are clean +and neat even for Europeans.] In the tent to which Catharine belonged, +which was that of the widow and her sons, a greater degree of order and +cleanliness prevailed than in any other, for Catharine's natural love of +neatness and comfort induced her to strew the floor with fresh cedar or +hemlock every day or two, and to sweep round the front of the lodge, +removing all unseemly objects from its vicinity. She never failed to wash +herself in the river, and arrange her hair with the comb that Louis had +made for her; and took great care of the little child, which she kept clean +and well fed. She loved this little creature, for it was soft and gentle, +meek and playful as a little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked +with kinder eyes upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which +she tended their children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who +cherish their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that +the exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who +give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew upon a +thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave Catharine +for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and return to Hector +and Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends, + And all good comforts else, unless some tree + Whose speechless chanty doth better ours, + With which the bitter east-winds made their sport + And sang through hourly, hath invited thee + To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus, + And I draw in soft slumbers?" + BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening of +the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island. They +had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine half-grown +fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding the fire nearly +extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return. There, it is true, +was the food that she had prepared for them, but she was not to be seen; +supposing that she had been tired of waiting for them, and had gone out to +gather strawberries, they did not at first feel very anxious, but ate some +of the rice and honey, for they were hungry with long fasting; and taking +some Indian meal cake in their hands, they went out to call her in, but no +trace of her was visible. They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set +off by herself to seek them, and had missed her way home again. + +They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree +Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked the +lake--no, she was not to be seen; night found them still unsuccessful in +their search. Sometimes they fancied that she had seated herself beneath +some tree and fallen asleep; but no one imagined the true cause, having +seen nothing of the Indians. + +Again they retraced their steps back to the house; but they found her not +there. They continued their unavailing search till the moon setting left +them in darkness, and they laid down to rest, but not to sleep. The first +streak of dawn saw them again hurrying to and fro, calling in vain upon the +name of the loved and lost companion of their wanderings. Desolation had +fallen upon their house, and the evil which of all others they had most +feared, had happened to them. + +Indiana, whose vigilance was more untiring, for she yielded not so easily +to grief and despair, now returned with the intelligence that she had +discovered the Indian trail, through the big ravine to the lake shore; she +had found the remains of a wreath of oak leaves which had been woven by +Catharine, and probably been about her hair; and she had seen the mark +of feet, Indian feet, on the soft clay, at the edge of the lake, and the +furrowing of the shingles by the pushing off of a canoe. It was evident +that she had been taken away from her home by these people. Poor Louis gave +way to transports of grief and despair; he knew the wreath, it was such +as Catharine often made for herself, and Mathilde, and petite Louise, and +Marie; his mother had taught her to make them; they were linked together +by the stalks, and formed a sort of leaf chain. The remembrance of many of +their joyous days of childhood made Louis weep sorrowful tears for happy +days, never to return again; he placed the torn relic in his breast, and +sadly turned away to hide his grief from Hector and the Indian girl. + +Indiana now proposed searching the island for further traces, but advised +wariness in so doing. They saw, however, no smoke nor canoes. The Indians +had departed while they were searching the ravines and flats round Mount +Ararat, and the lake told no tales, The following day they ventured to land +on Long Island, and on going to the north side saw evident traces of a +temporary encampment having been made. This was all they could do, further +search was unavailing; as they found no trace of any violence having been +committed, they still cherished hopes that no personal harm had been done +to the poor captive, It was Indiana's opinion that, though a prisoner, she +was unhurt, as the Indians rarely killed women and children, unless +roused to do so by some signal act on the part of their enemies, when an +exterminating spirit of revenge induced them to kill and spare not; but +where no offence had been offered, they were not likely to take the life of +an helpless, unoffending female. + +The Indian is not cruel for the wanton love of blood, but to gratify +revenge for some injury done to himself, or to his tribe; but it was +difficult to still the terrible apprehensions that haunted the minds of +Louis and Hector. They spent much time in searching the northern shores and +the distant islands, in the vain hope of finding her, as they still thought +the camp might have been moved to the opposite side of the lake. + +Inconsolable for the loss of their beloved companion, Hector and Louis no +longer took interest in what was going on; they hardly troubled themselves +to weed the Indian corn, in which they had taken such great delight; all +now seemed to them flat, stale, and unprofitable; they wandered listlessly +to and fro, silent and sad; the sunshine had departed from their little +dwelling; they ate little, and talked less, each seeming absorbed in his +own painful reveries. + +In vain the gentle Indian girl strove to revive their drooping spirits; +they seemed insensible to her attentions, and often left her for hours +alone. They returned one evening about the usual hour of sunset, and missed +their meek, uncomplaining guest from the place she was wont to occupy. They +called, but there was none to reply--she too was gone. They hurried to the +shore just time enough to see the canoe diminishing to a mere speck upon +the waters, in the direction of the mouth of the river; they called to her +in accents of despair, to return, but the wind wafted back no sound to +their ears, and soon the bark was lost to sight, and they sat them down +disconsolately on the shore. + +"What is she doing?" said Hector; "this is cruel to abandon us thus." + +"She has gone up the river, with the hope of bringing us some tidings of +Catharine," said Louis. "How came you to think that such is her intention?" + +"I heard her say the other day that she would go and bring her back, or +die." + +"What! do you think she would risk the vengeance of the old chief whose +life she attempted to take?" + +"She is a brave girl; she does not fear pain or death to serve those she +loves." + +"Alas!" said Hector, "she will perish miserably and to no avail; they would +not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana's life." + +"How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not tell +us? we would have shared her danger." + +"She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl has +a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that made +life dear to us," said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his knees. + +"Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with +more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana's leaving us, we left her so +much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we +did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad." "I +tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old battered +one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have an axe and a +tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?" + +"True! we will set about it to-morrow." + +"I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good pine +for the purpose." + +"As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than +this dread suspense and inaction." + +The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of +suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next, and +the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to their +inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt proved +abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well in the +water. + +Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so Hector. + +"Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again, and +again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up, that is +the way to succeed at last." + +"You have ten times my patience, Hec." "Yes! but you are more ingenious +than I, and are excellent at starting an idea." + +"We are a good pair then for partnership." + +"We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past +blunders." + +"Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost +Catharine!" + +"I know it, a long, long, weary month," replied Louis, and he struck his +axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent for +some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested from +their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to resume their +conversation. Suddenly Louis grasped Hector's arm, and pointed to a bark +canoe that appeared making for the westernmost point of the island. Hector +started to his feet, exclaiming, "It is Indiana returned!" + +"Nonsense! Indiana!--it is no such thing. Look you, it is a stout man in a +blanket coat." + +"The Indians?" asked Hector inquiringly. + +"I do not think he looks like an Indian; but let us watch. What is he +doing?" + +"Fishing. See now, he has just caught a fine bass--another--he has great +luck-now he is pushing the canoe ashore." + +"That man does not move like an Indian--hark! he is whistling. I ought to +know that tune. It sounds like the old chanson my father used to sing;" and +Louis, raising his voice, began to sing the words of an old French Canadian +song, which we will give in the English as we heard it sung by an old +lumberer. + + "Down by those banks where the pleasant waters flow, + Through the wild woods we'll wander, and we'll chase the buffalo. + And we'll chase the buffalo." + +"Hush, Louis! you will bring the man over to us," said Hector. + +"The very thing I am trying to do mon ami. This is our country, and that +may be his; but we are lords here, and two to one--so I think he will not +be likely to treat us ill. I am a man now, and so are you, and he is but +one, so he must mind how he affronts us," replied Louis laughing. + +"I wish the old fellow was inclined to be sociable. Hark, if he is not +singing now! aye, and the very chorus of the old song,"--and Louis raised +his voice to its highest pitch as he repeated, + + "Through the wild woods well wander, + And well chase the buffalo-- + And we'll chase the buflalo." + +"What a pity I have forgotten the rest of that dear old song. I used to +listen with open ears to it when I was a boy. I never thought to hear it +again, and to hear it here of all places in the world!" + +"Come, let us go on with our work," said Hector, with something like +impatience in his voice; and the strokes of his axe fell once more in +regular succession on the log; but Louis's eye was still on the mysterious +fisher, whom he could discern lounging on the grass and smoking his pipe. +"I do not think he sees or hears us," said Louis to himself, "but I think +I'll manage to bring him over soon"--and he set himself busily to work to +scrape up the loose chips and shavings, and soon began to strike fire with +his knife and flint. + +"What are you about, Louis?" asked Hector. "Lighting a fire." + +"It is warm enough without a fire, I am sure." + +"I know that, but I want to attract the notice of yonder tiresome +fisherman." + +"And perhaps bring a swarm of savages down upon us, who may be lurking in +the bushes of the island." + +"Pooh, pooh! Hec.:--there are no savages. I am weary of this +place--anything is better than this horrible solitude." And Louis fanned +the flame into a rapid blaze, and heaped up the light dry branches till +it soared up among the bushes. Louis watched the effect of his fire, and +rubbed his hands gleefully as the bark canoe was pushed off from the +island, and a few vigorous strokes of the paddle sent it dancing over the +surface of the calm lake. + +Louis waved his cap above his head with a cheer of welcome as the vessel +lightly glided into the little cove, near the spot where the boys were +chopping, and a stout-framed, weather-beaten man, in a blanket coat, also +faded and weather-beaten, with a red worsted sash and worn mocassins, +sprung upon one of the timbers of Louis's old raft, and gazed with a keen +eye upon the lads. Each party silently regarded the other. A few rapid +interrogations from the stranger, uttered in the broad patois of the Lower +Province, were answered in a mixture of broken French and English by Louis. + +A change like lightning passed over the face of the old man as he cried +out--"Louis Perron, son of my ancient compagnon." + +"Oui! oui!"--with eyes sparkling through tears of joy, Louis threw himself +into the broad breast of Jacob Morelle, his father's friend and old +lumbering comrade. + +"Hector, son of la belle Catharine Perron,--and Hector, in his turn, +received the affectionate embrace of the warm-hearted old man. + +"Who would have thought of meeting with the children of my old comrade here +at the shore of the Rice Lake?--oh! what a joyful meeting!" + +Jacob had a hundred questions to ask: Where were their parents? did they +live on the Plains now? how long was it since they had left the Cold +Springs? were there any more little ones? and so forth. + +The boys looked sorrowfully at each other. At last the old man stopped for +want of breath, and remarked their sad looks. + +"What, mes fils, are your parents dead? Ah well! I did not think to have +outlived them; but they have not led such healthy lives as old Jacob +Morelle--hunting, fishing, lumbering, trapping,--those are the things to +harden a man and make him as tough as a stock-fish--eh! mes enfans, is it +not so?" + +Hector then told the old lumberer how long they had been separated from +their families, and by what sad accident they had been deprived of the +society of their beloved sister. When they brought their narrative down to +the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper seemed +moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and with one of +his national asseverations, declared "That la bonne fille should not remain +an hour longer than he could help among those savage wretches. Yes, he, her +father's old friend, would go up the river and bring her back in safety, or +leave his grey scalp behind him among the wigwams." + +"It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today," said Hector. "Come +home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit." + +"No need of that, my son. I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, and +there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still standing,--the +Trapper's Fort I used to call it some years ago. We will go off to the +island and look for it." + +"No need for that," replied Louis, "for though I can tell you the old place +is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a boiling +house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own nearer at +hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder hill. So come +with us, and you shall have a good supper, and bed to lie upon." + +"And you have all these, boys!" said Jacob opening his merry black eyes, as +they came in sight of the little log-house and the field of green corn. The +old man praised the boys for their industry and energy. "Ha! here is old +Wolfe too," as the dog roused himself from the hearth and gave one of his +low grumbling growls. He had grown dull and dreamy, and instead of going +out as usual with the young hunters, he would lie for hours dozing before +the dying embers of the fire. He pined for the loving hand that used to pat +his sides, and caress his shaggy neck, and pillow his great head upon her +lap, or suffer him to put his huge paws upon her shoulders, while he licked +her hands and face; but she was gone, and the Indian girl was gone, and +the light of the shanty had gone with them. Old Wolfe seemed dying of +sorrow. + +That evening as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool, smoking his short +Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings over, +and the history of all their doings and contrivances. + +"And how far, mes enfans, do you think you are from the Cold Springs?" + +"At least twenty miles, perhaps fifty, for it is a long long time now since +we left home, three summers ago." + +"Well, boys, you must not reckon distance by the time you have been +absent," said the old "Now I know the distance through the woods, for I +have passed through them on the Indian trail, and by my reckoning as the +bee flies, it cannot be more than seven or eight miles--no, nor that +either." + +The boys opened their eyes. "Jacob, is this possible? So near, and yet to +us the distance has been as great as though it were a hundred miles or +more." + +"I tell you what, boys, that is the provoking part of it. I remember when +I was out on the St. John's, lumbering, missing my comrades, and I was +well-nigh starving, when I chanced to come back to the spot where we +parted; and I verily believe I had not been two miles distant the whole +eight days that I was moving round and round, and backward and forward, +just in a circle, because, d'ye see, I followed the sun, and that led me +astray the whole time." + +"Was that when you well-nigh roasted the bear?" asked Louis, with a sly +glance at Hector. + +"Well, no; that was another time; your father was out with me then." And +old Jacob, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, settled himself to recount +the adventure of the bear. Hector, who had heard Louis's edition of the +roast bear, was almost impatient at being forced to listen to old Jacob's +long-winded history, which included about a dozen other stories, all tagged +on to this, like links of a lengthened chain; and was not sorry when the +old lumberer, taking his red nightcap out of his pocket, at last stretched +himself out on a buffalo skin that he had brought up from the canoe, and +soon was soundly sleeping. + +The morning was yet grey when the old man shook himself from his slumber, +which, if not deep, had been loud; and after having roused up a good fire, +which, though the latter end of July, at that dewy hour was not unwelcome, +he lighted his pipe, and began broiling a fish on the coals for his +breakfast; and was thus engaged when Hector and Louis wakened. + +"Mes enfans," said Jacob, "I have been turning over in my mind about your +sister, and have come to the resolution of going up the river alone without +any one to accompany me. I know the Indians; they are a suspicious people, +they deal much in stratagems, and they are apt to expect treachery in +others. Perhaps they have had some reason; for the white men have not +always kept good faith with them, which I take to be the greater shame, as +they have God's laws to guide and teach them to be true and just in their +dealing, which the poor benighted heathen have not, the more's the pity. +Now, d'ye see, if the Indians see two stout lads with me, they will say to +themselves, there may be more left behind, skulking in ambush. So, boys, I +go to the camp alone; and, God willing, I will bring back your sister, +or die in the attempt. I shall not go single-handed; see, I have here +scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a +sin and a shame to tempt these poor wretches to their own destruction; it +makes fiends of them at once." + +It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old Jacob +to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was firm, and +would not be moved from his purpose. + +"Look you, boys," he said, "if I do not return by the beginning of the rice +harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; then I +would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they do not +respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. In such +case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out [Footnote: Log canoe.] will +do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the rapids; [Footnote: +Crook's Rapids.] make a portage there; but as your craft is too weighty to +carry far, e'en leave her and chop out another, and go down to the Falls; +[Footnote: Heeley's Falls, on the Trent.] then, if you do not like to be +at any further trouble, you may make out your journey to the Bay [Footnote: +Bay Quinte.] on foot, coasting along the river; there you will fall in +with settlers who know old Jacob Morelle--aye, and your two fathers--and +they will put you in the way of returning home. If I were to try ever so to +put you on the old Indian trail in the woods, though I know it myself right +well, you might be lost, and maybe never return home again. I leave my +traps and my rifle with you; I shall not need them: if I come back I may +claim the things; if not, they are yours. So now I have said my say, had +my _talk_, as the Indians say. Farewell. But first let us pray to Him who +alone can bring this matter to a safe issue." And the old man devoutly +kneeled down, and prayed for a blessing on his voyage and on those he was +leaving; and then hastened down to the beach, and the boys, with full +hearts, watched the canoe till it was lost to their sight on the wide +waters of the lake. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Where wild in woods the lordly savage ran." + DRYDEN. + +What changes a few years make in places! That spot over which the Indians +roved, free of all control, is now a large and wide-spreading town. Those +glorious old trees are fast fading away, the memory only of them remains to +some of the first settlers, who saw them twenty-five years ago, shadowing +the now open market-place; the fine old oaks have disappeared, but the +green emerald turf that they once shaded still remains. The wild rushing +river still pours down its resistless spring floods, but its banks have +been levelled, and a noble bridge now spans its rapid waters. It has seen +the destruction of two log-bridges, but this new, substantial, imposing +structure bids fair to stand from generation to generation. The Indian +regards it with stupid wonder: he is no mechanic; his simple canoe of birch +bark is his only notion of communication from one shore to another. The +towns-people and country settlers view it with pride and satisfaction, +as a means of commerce and agricultural advantage. That lonely hill, from +which Catharine viewed the rapid-flowing river by moonlight, and marvelled +at its beauty and its power, is now the Court-house Hill, the seat of +justice for the district,--a fine, substantial edifice; its shining roof +and pillared portico may be seen from every approach to the town. That grey +village spire, with its groves of oak and pine, how invitingly it stands! +those trees that embower it, once formed a covert for the deer. Yonder +scattered groups of neat white cottages, each with its garden of flowers +and fruit, are spread over what was once an open plain, thinly planted with +poplar, oaks, and pine. See, there is another church; and nearer, towards +the west end of the town, on that fine slope, stands another, and another. +That sound that falls upon the ear is not the rapids of the river, but the +dash of mill wheels and mill dams, worked by the waters of that lovely +winding brook which has travelled far through woods and deep forest dingles +to yield its tribute to the Otonabee. There is the busy post-office, on the +velvet carpet of turf; a few years, yes, even a few years ago, that spot +was a grove of trees. The neat log building that stood then alone there, +was inhabited by the Government Agent, now Colonel Macdonald, and groups +of Indians might be seen congregated on the green, or reposing under the +trees, forming meet subjects for the painter's pencil, for he knew them +well, and was kind to them. + +The Indian only visits the town, once the favourite site for his hunting +lodge, to receive his annual government presents, to trade his simple wares +of basket and birch-bark work, to bring in his furs, or maybe to sell his +fish or venison, and take back such store goods as his intercourse with his +white brethren has made him consider necessary to his comforts, to supply +wants which have now become indispensable, before undreamed of. He +traverses those populous, busy streets, he looks round upon dwellings, and +gay clothes, and equipages, and luxuries which he can neither obtain nor +imitate; and feels his spirit lowered--he is no more a people--the tide of +intellect has borne him down, and swept his humble wigwam from the earth. +He, too, is changing: he now dwells, for the most part, in villages, in +houses that cannot be moved away at his will or necessity; he has become a +tiller of the ground, his hunting expeditions are prescribed within narrow +bounds, the forest is disappearing, the white man is everywhere. The Indian +must also yield to circumstances; he submits patiently. Perhaps he +murmurs in secret; but his voice is low, it is not heard; he has no +representative in the senate to take interest in his welfare, to plead in +his behalf. He is anxious, too, for the improvement of his race: he gladly +listens to the words of life, and sees with joy his children being brought +up in the fear and nurture of the Lord; he sees with pride some of his own +blood going forth on the mission of love to other distant tribes; he is +proud of being a Christian; and if there be some that still look back to +the freedom of former years, and talk of "the good old times," when they +wandered free as the winds and waters through those giant woods, they are +fast fading away. A new race is rising up, and the old hunter will soon +become a being unknown in Canada. + +There is an old gnarled oak that stands, or lately stood, on the turfy +bank, just behind the old Government-house (as the settlers called it), +looking down the precipitous cliff on the river and the islands. The +Indians called it "the white girl's rest," for it was there that Catharine +delighted to sit, above the noise and bustle of the camp, to sing her +snatches of old Scottish songs, or pray the captive exile's prayer, unheard +and unseen. + +The setting sun was casting long shadows of oak and weeping elm athwart the +waters of the river; the light dip of the paddle had ceased on the water, +the baying of hounds and life-like stirring sounds from the lodges came +softened to the listening ear. The hunters had come in with the spoils of a +successful chase; the wigwam fires are flickering and crackling, sending up +their light columns of thin blue smoke among the trees; and now a goodly +portion of venison is roasting on the forked sticks before the fires. Each +lodge has its own cooking utensils. That jar embedded in the hot embers +contains sassafras tea, an aromatic beverage, in which the squaws delight +when they are so fortunate as to procure a supply. This has been brought +from the Credit, far up in the west, by a family who have come down on a +special mission from some great chief to his brethren on the Otonabee, and +the squaws have cooked some in honour of the guests. That pot that sends up +such a savoury steam is venison pottage, or soup, or stew, or any name you +choose to give the Indian mess that is concocted of venison, wild rice, and +herbs. Those tired hounds that lay stretched before the fire have been out, +and now they enjoy the privilege of the fire, some praise from the hunters, +and receive withal an occasional reproof from the squaws, if they approach +their wishful noses too close to the tempting viands. + +The elder boys are shooting at a mark on yonder birch-tree; the girls are +playing or rolling on the grass; "The Snow-bird" is seated on the floor of +the wigwam braiding a necklace of sweet grass, which she confines in links +by means of little bands of coloured quills; Catharine is working mocassins +beside her;--a dark shadow falls across her work from the open tent door-- +an exclamation of surprise and displeasure from one of the women makes +Catharine raise her eyes to the doorway; there, silent, pale, and +motionless, the mere shadow of her former self, stands Indiana--a gleam of +joy lights for an instant her large lustrous eyes. Amazement and delight +at the sight of her beloved friend for a moment deprives Catharine of the +power of speech; then terror for the safety of her friend takes place of +her joy at seeing her. She rises regardless of the angry tones of the +Indian woman's voice, and throws her arms about Indiana as if to shield her +from threatened anger, and sobs her welcome in her arms. + +"Indiana, dear sister! how came you hither, and for what purpose?" + +"To free you, and then die," was the soft low tremulous answer. "Follow +me." Catharine, wondering at the calm and fearless manner with which the +young Mohawk waved back the dusky matron who approached as if with the +design of laying hands upon her unwelcome guest, followed with beating +heart till they stood in the entrance of the lodge of the Bald Eagle; it +was filled with the hunters, who were stretched on skins on the floor +reposing in quiet after the excitement of the chase. + +The young Mohawk bent her head down and crossed her arms, an attitude of +submission, over her breast as she stood in the opening of the lodge; but +she spoke no word till the old chief waving back the men, who starting to +their feet were gathering round him as if to shield him from danger, and +sternly regarding her, demanded from whence she came and for what purpose. + +"To submit myself to the will of my Ojebwa father," was the meek reply. +"May the daughter of the Bald Eagle's enemy speak to her great father?" + +"Say on," was the brief reply, "the Bald Eagle's ears are open." + +"The Bald Eagle is a mighty chief, the conqueror of his enemies and the +father of his people," replied the Mohawk girl, and again was silent. "The +Mohawk squaw speaks well; let her say on." + +"The heart of the Mohawk is an open flower, it can be looked upon by the +eye of the Great Spirit. She speaks the words of truth. The Ojebwa chief +slew his enemies, they had done his good heart wrong; he punished them for +the wrong they wrought; he left none living in the lodges of his enemies +save one young squaw, the daughter of a brave, the grand-daughter of the +Black Snake. The Bald Eagle loves even an enemy that is not afraid to raise +the war-whoop or fling the tomahawk in battle. The young girl's mother was +a _brave."_ She paused, while her proud eye was fixed on the face of her +aged auditor. He nodded assent, and she resumed, while a flush of emotion +kindled her pale cheek and reddened her lips,-- + +"The Bald Eagle brought the lonely one to his lodge, he buried the hatchet +and the scalping knife, he bade his squaws comfort her; but her heart was +lonely, she pined for the homes of her fathers. She said, I will revenge my +father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and her heart burned within +her: but her hand was not strong to shed blood, the Great Spirit was about +my Ojebwa father; she failed, and would have fled, for an arrow was in her +flesh. The people of the Bald Eagle took her, they brought her down the +great river to the council hill, they bound her with thongs and left her to +die. She prayed, and the Great Spirit heard her prayer and sent her help. +The white man came; his heart was soft; he unbound her, he gave water +to cool her hot lips, he led her to his lodge. The white squaw (and she +pointed to Catharine) was there, she bound up her wounds, she laid her on +her own bed, she gave her meat and drink, and tended her with love. She +taught her to pray to the Good Spirit, and told her to return good for +evil, to be true and just, kind and merciful. The hard heart of the young +girl became soft as clay when moulded for the pots and she loved her white +sister and brothers, and was happy. The Bald Eagle's people came when my +white brothers were at peace, they found a trembling fawn within the lodge, +they led her away, they left tears and loneliness where joy and peace had +been. The Mohawk squaw could not see the hearth of her white brothers +desolate; she took the canoe, she to the lodge of the great father of his +tribe, and she says to him, 'Give back the white squaw to her home on the +Rice Lake, and take in her instead the rebellious daughter of the Ojebwa's +enemy, to die or be his servant; she fears nothing now the knife or the +tomahawk, the arrow or the spear: her life is in the hand of the great +chief.'" She sank on her knees as she spoke these last words and bowing +down her head on her breast remained motionless as a statue. + +There was silence for some minutes, and then the old man rose and said:-- + +"Daughter of a brave woman, thou hast spoken long, and thou hast spoken +well; the ears of the Bald Eagle have been open. The white squaw shall be +restored to her brother's lodge--but thou remainest. I have spoken." + +Catharine in tears cast her arms around her disinterested friend and +remained weeping--how could she accept this great sacrifice? She in her +turn pleaded for the life and liberty of the Mohawk, but the chief turned +a cold ear to her passionate and incoherent pleading. He was weary--he was +impatient of further excitement--he coldly motioned to them to withdraw; +and the friends in sadness retired to talk over all that had taken place +since that sad day when Catharine was taken from her home. While her heart +was joyful at the prospect of her own release, it was clouded with fears +for the uncertain fate of her beloved friend. + +"They will condemn me to a cruel death," said Indiana, "but I can suffer +and die for my white sister." + +That night the Indian girl slept sweetly and tranquilly beside Catharine; +but Catharine could not sleep; she communed with her own heart in the still +watches of the night--it seemed as if a new life had been infused within +her. She no longer thought and felt as a child; the energies of her mind +had been awakened, ripened into maturity as it were, and suddenly expanded. +When all the inmates of the lodges were profoundly sleeping, Catharine +arose,--a sudden thought had entered into her mind, and she hesitated not +to put her design into execution. There was no moon, but a bright arch of +light spanned the forest to the north; it was mild and soft as moonlight, +but less bright, and cast no shadow across her path; it showed her the +sacred tent of the widow of the murdered Mohawk. With noiseless step +she lifted aside the curtain of skins that guarded it, and stood at the +entrance. Light as was her step, it awakened the sleeper; she raised +herself on her arm and looked up with a dreamy and abstracted air as +Catharine, stretching forth her hand in tones low and tremulous, thus +addressed her in the Ojebwa tongue:-- + +"The Great Spirit sends me to thee, O woman of much sorrow; he asks of +thee a great deed of mercy and goodness. Thou hast shed blood, and he is +angry. He bids thee to save the life of an enemy--the blood of thy murdered +husband flows in her veins. See that thou disobey not the words that he +commands." + +She dropped the curtain and retired as she had come, with noiseless step, +and lay down again in the tent beside Indiana. Her heart beat as though it +would burst its way through her bosom. What had she done?--what dared? She +had entered the presence of that terrible woman alone, at the dead hour of +night! she had spoken bold and presumptuous words to that strange being +whom even her own people hardly dared to approach uncalled-for! Sick with +terror at the consequences of her temerity, Catharine cast her trembling +arms about the sleeping Indian girl, and hiding her head in her bosom, wept +and prayed till sleep came over her wearied spirit. It was late when she +awoke. She was alone: the lodge was empty. A vague fear seized her: she +hastily arose to seek her friend. It was evident that some great event was +in preparation. The Indian men had put on the war-paint, and strange and +ferocious eyes were glancing from beneath their shaggy locks. A stake was +driven in the centre of the cleared space in front of the chief's lodge: +there, bound, she beheld her devoted friend; pale as ashes, but with a calm +unshaken countenance, she stood. There was no sign of woman's fear in her +fixed dark eye, which quailed not before the sight of the death-dooming men +who stood round her, armed with their terrible weapons of destruction. +Her thoughts seemed far away: perhaps they were with her dead kindred, +wandering in that happy land to which the Indian hopes to go after life; +or, inspired with the new hope which had been opened to her, she was +looking to Him who has promised a crown of life to such as believe in His +name. She saw not the look of agony with which Catharine regarded her; and +the poor girl, full of grief, sunk down at the foot of a neighbouring tree, +and burying her face between her knees, wept and prayed--oh! how fervently! +A hope crept to her heart--even while the doom of Indiana seemed +darkest--that some good might yet accrue from her visit to the wigwam of +the Great Medicine squaw. She knew that the Indians have great belief in +omens, and warnings, and spirits, both good and evil; she knew that her +mysterious appearance in the tent of the Mohawk's widow would be construed +by her into spiritual agency; and her heart was strengthened by this hope. +Yet just now there seems little reason to encourage hope: the war-whoop is +given, the war-dance is begun--first slow, and grave, and measured; now +louder, and quicker, and more wild become both sound and movement. But why +is it hushed again? See, a strange canoe appears on the river; anon an +old weather-beaten man, with firm step, appears on the greensward and +approaches the area of the lodge. + +The Bald Eagle greets him with friendly courtesy; the dance and death-song +are hushed; a treaty is begun. It is for the deliverance of the captives. +The chief points to Catharine--she is free: his white brother may take +her--she is his. But the Indian law of justice must take its course; the +condemned, who raised her hand against an Ojebwa chief, must die. In vain +were the tempting stores of scarlet cloth and beads for the women, with +powder and shot, laid before the chief: the arrows of six warriors were +fitted to the string, and again the dance and song commenced, as if, like +the roll of the drum and clangour of the trumpet, it were necessary to the +excitement of strong and powerful feelings, and the suppression of all +tenderer emotions. + +And now a wild and solemn voice was heard, unearthly in its tones, rising +above the yells of those savage men. At that sound every cheek became pale: +it struck upon the ear as some funeral wail. Was it the death-song of the +captive girl bound to that fearful stake? No; for she stands unmoved, with +eyes raised heavenward, and lips apart-- + + "In still, but brave despair." + +Shrouded in a mantle of dark cloth, her long black hair unbound and +streaming over her shoulders, appears the Mohawk widow, the daughter of the +Ojebwa chief. The gathering throng fall back as she approaches, awed by her +sudden appearance among them. She stretches out a hand on which dark stains +are visible--it is the blood of her husband, sacrificed by her on that +day of fearful deeds: it has never been effaced. In the name of the Great +Spirit she claims the captive girl--the last of that devoted tribe--to +be delivered over to her will. Her right to this remnant of her murdered +husband's family is acknowledged. A knife is placed in her hand, while a +deafening yell of triumph bursts from the excited squaws, as this their +great high-priestess, as they deemed her, advanced to the criminal. But it +was not to shed the heart's blood of the Mohawk girl, but to severe the +thongs that bound her to the deadly stake, for which that glittering blade +was drawn, and to bid her depart in peace whithersoever she would go. + +Then, turning to the Bald Eagle, she thus addressed him: "At the dead of +night, when the path of light spanned the sky, a vision stood before mine +eyes. It came from the Great and Good Spirit, and bade me to set free the +last of a murdered race whose sun had gone down in blood shed by my hand +and by the hands of my people. The vision told me that if I did this my +path should henceforth be peace, and that I should go to the better land +and be at rest if I did this good deed." She then laid her hands on the +head of the young Mohawk, blessed her, and enveloping herself in the dark +mantle, slowly retired back to her solitary tent once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "Hame, hame, hame, + Hame I soon shall be, + Hame, hame, hame, + In mine own countrie."--_Scotch Ballad._ + +Old Jacob and Catharine, who had been mute spectators of the scene so full +of interest to them, now presented themselves before the Ojebwa chief, and +besought leave to depart. The presents were again laid before him, and this +time were graciously accepted. Catharine in distributing the beads and +cloth took care that the best portion should fall to the grand-daughter +of the chief, the pretty good-humoured Snowbird. The old man was not +insensible to the noble sacrifice which had been made by the devoted +Indiana, and he signified his forgiveness of her fault by graciously +offering to adopt her as his child, and to give her in marriage to one +of his grandsons, an elder brother of the Snowbird; but the young girl +modestly but firmly refused this mark of favour, for her heart yearned for +those whose kindness had saved her from death, and who had taught her to +look beyond the things of this world to a brighter and a better state of +being. She said, "She would go with her white sister, and pray to God to +bless her enemies, as the Great Spirit had taught her to do." + +It seems a lingering principle of good in human nature, that the exercise +of mercy and virtue opens the heart to the enjoyment of social happiness. +The Indians, no longer worked up by excitement to deeds of violence, seemed +disposed to bury the hatchet of hatred, and the lodge was now filled with +mirth, and the voice of gladness, feasting, and dancing. A covenant of +peace and good-will was entered upon by old Jacob and the chief, who bade +Catharine tell her brothers that from henceforth they should be free to +hunt the deer, fish, or shoot the wild fowl of the lake, whenever they +desired to do so, "he the Bald Eagle had said so." + +On the morrow, with the first dawn of day, the old trapper was astir; the +canoe was ready, with fresh cedar boughs strewed at the bottom. A supply of +parched rice and dried fish had been presented by the Indian chief for the +voyage, that his white brother and the young girls might not suffer, from +want. At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to the lodge of the +Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. "The Snow-bird" was +sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with tears at parting +with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft and playful as the +tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her arm. She did not let +Catharine depart without many tokens of her regard, the work of her own +hands,--bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung in +fanciful patterns, [Footnote: Appendix M] mocassins richly wrought, and +tiny bark dishes and boxes, such as might have graced a lady's work-table, +so rare was their workmanship. + +Just as they were about to step into the canoe "the Snow-bird" reappeared, +bearing a richly worked bark box, "From the Great Medicine," she said in +a low voice, "To the daughter of the Mohawk _brave._" The box contained a +fine tunic, soft as a lady's glove, embroidered and fringed, and a fillet +of scarlet and blue feathers, with the wings and breast of the war-bird, as +shoulder ornaments. It was a token of reconciliation and good-will worthy +of a generous heart. + +The young girl pressed the gifts to her bosom and to her lips +reverentially, and the hand that brought them to her heart, as she said in +her native tongue, "Tell the Great Medicine I kiss her in my heart, and +pray that she may have peace and joy till she departs for the spirit-land." + +With joyful heart they bade adieu to the Indian lodges, and rejoiced in +being once more afloat on the bosom of the great river. To Catharine the +events of the past hours seemed like a strange bewildering dream; she +longed for the quiet repose of home; and how gladly did she listen to that +kind old man's plans for restoring her brothers and herself to the arms +of their beloved parents. How often did she say to herself, Oh that I had +wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest!--in the +shelter of that dear mother's arms whom she now pined for with a painful +yearning of the heart that might well be called home sickness. But in spite +of anxious wishes, the little party were compelled to halt for the night +some few miles above the lake. There is on the eastern bank of the +Otonabee, a pretty rounded knoll, clothed with wild cherries, hawthorns and +pine-trees, just where a creek half hidden by alder and cranberry bushes, +works its way below the shoulder of the little eminence; this creek grows +broader and becomes a little stream, through which the hunters sometimes +paddle their canoes, as a short cut to the lower part of the lake near +Crook's Rapids. To this creek old Jacob steered his light craft, and +bidding the girls collect a few dry sticks and branches for an evening fire +on the sheltered side of the little bank, he soon lighted the pile into a +cheerful blaze by the aid of birch bark, the hunter's tinder--a sort of +fungus that is found in the rotten oak and maple-trees--and a knife and +flint; he then lifted the canoe, and having raised it on its side, by means +of two small stakes which he cut from a bush hard by, then spread down his +buffalo robe on the dry grass. "There is a tent fit for a queen to sleep +under, mes chres filles," he said, eyeing his arrangements for their night +shelter with great satisfaction. + +He then proceeded to bait his line, and in a few minutes had a dish of +splendid bass ready for the coals. Catharine selected a large flat block of +limestone on which the fish when broiled was laid; but old Jacob opened his +wide mouth and laughed, when she proceeded to lay her bush table with large +basswood leaves for platters. Such nicety he professed was unusual on a +hunter's table. He was too old a forester to care how his food was dished, +so that he had wherewithal to satisfy his hunger. + +Many were the merry tales he told and the songs he sung, to wile away the +time, till the daylight faded from the sky, and the deep blue heavens were +studded with bright stars, which were mirrored in countless hosts deep deep +down in that calm waveless river, while thousands of fireflies lighted up +the dark recesses of the forest's gloom. High in the upper air the hollow +booming of the night-hawk was heard at intervals, and the wild cry of the +night-owl from a dead branch, shouting to its fellow, woke the silence of +that lonely river scene. + +The old trapper stretched before the crackling fire, smoked his pipe or +hummed some French voyageur's song. Beneath the shelter of the canoe +soundly slept the two girls; the dark cheek of the Indian girl pillowed on +the arm of her fairer companion, her thick tresses of raven hair mingling +with the silken ringlets of the white maiden. They were a lovely pair--one +fair as morning, the other dark as night, + +How lightly did they spring from their low bed, wakened by the early song +of the forest birds! The light curling mist hung in fleecy volumes upon +the river, like a flock of sheep at rest--the tinkling sound of the heavy +dew-drops fell in mimic showers upon the stream. See that red squirrel, how +lightly he runs along that fallen trunk--how furtively he glances with his +sharp bright eye at the intruders on his sylvan haunts! Hark! there is +a rustling among the leaves--what strange creature works its way to the +shore? A mud turtle--it turns, and now is trotting along the little sandy +ridge to some sunny spot, where, half buried, it may lie unseen near the +edge of the river. See that musk-rat, how boldly he plunges into the +stream, and, with his oarlike tail, stems the current till he gains in +safety the sedges on the other side. + +What gurgling sound is that?--it attracts the practised ear of the old +hunter. What is that object which floats so steadily down the middle of the +stream, and leaves so bright a line in its wake?--it is a noble stag. Look +at the broad chest, with which he breasts the water so gallantly; see +how proudly he carries his antlered head; he has no fear in those lonely +solitudes--he has never heard the crack of the hunter's rifle--he heeds +not the sharp twang of that bowstring, till the arrow rankles in his neck, +and the crimson flood dyes the water around him--he turns, but it is only +to present a surer mark for the arrow of the old hunter's bow; and now the +noble beast turns to bay, and the canoe is rapidly launched by the hand of +the Indian girl--her eye flashes with the excitement--her whole soul is in +the chase--she stands up in the canoe, and steers it full upon the wounded +buck, while a shower of blows are dealt upon his head and neck with the +paddle. Catharine buries her face in her hands--she cannot bear to +look upon the sufferings of the noble animal. She will never make a +huntress--her heart is cast in too soft a mould. See they have towed the +deer ashore, and Jacob is in all his glory,--the little squaw is an Indian +at heart--see with what expertness she helps the old man; and now the great +business is completed, and the venison is stowed away at the bottom of the +canoe--they wash their hands in the river and come at Catharine's summons +to eat her breakfast. + +The sun is now rising high above the pine-trees, the morning mist is also +rising and rolling off like a golden veil as it catches those glorious +rays--the whole earth seems wakening into new life--the dew has brightened +every leaf and washed each tiny flower-cup--the pines and balsams give +out their resinous fragrance--the aspens flutter and dance in the morning +breeze and return a mimic shower of dew-drops to the stream--the shores +become lower and flatter--the trees less lofty and more mossy--the stream +expands and wide beds of rushes spread out on either side--what beds of +snowy water-lilies--how splendid the rose tint of those perseicarias that +glow so brightly in the morning sun--the rushes look like a green meadow, +but the treacherous water lies deep below their grassy leaves--the deer +delights in these verdant aquatic fields, and see what flocks of red-wings +rise from among them as the canoe passes near--their bright shoulder-knots +glance like flashes of lightning in the sun-beams. + +This low swampy island, filled with driftwood, these grey hoary trees, half +choked and killed with grey moss and lichens--those straggling alders and +black ash look melancholy--they are like premature old age, grey-headed +youths. That island divides the channel of the river--the old man takes +the nearest, the left hand, and now they are upon the broad Rice Lake, and +Catharine wearies her eye to catch the smoke of the shanty rising among the +trees--one after another the islands steal out into view--the capes, and +bays, and shores of the northern side are growing less distinct, Yon hollow +bay, where the beaver has hidden till now, backed by that bold sweep of +hills that look in the distance as if only covered with green ferns, with +here and there a tall tree, stately as a pine or oak--that is the spot +where Louis saw the landing of the Indians--now a rising village--Gores' +Landing. On yon lofty hill now stands the village church, its white tower +rising amongst the trees forms a charming object from the lake, and there +a little higher up, not far from the plank road, now stand pretty rural +cottages--one of these belong to the spirited proprietor of the village +that bears his name. That tasteful garden before the white cottage, to the +right, is Colonel Brown's, and there are pretty farms and cultivated spots; +but silence and loneliness reigned there at the time of which I write. + +Where those few dark pines rise above the oak groves like the spires of +churches in a crowded city, is Mount Ararat. [Footnote: Appendix N.] The +Indian girl steers straight between the islands for that ark of refuge, and +Catharine's eyes are dimmed with grateful tears as she pictures to herself +the joyful greeting in store for her. In the overflowings of her gladness +she seizes the old man's rugged hand and kisses it, and flings her arms +about the Indian girl and presses her to her heart, when the canoe has +touched the old well-remembered landing place, and she finds herself so +near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such moments--how few we +have in life--they are created from our very sorrows--without our cares our +joys would be less lively; but we have no time to moralize--Catharine flies +with the speed of a young fawn, to climb the steep cliff-like shoulder of +that steep bank, and now, out of breath, stands at the threshold of her +log-house--how neat and nice it looks compared with the Indians' tents--the +little field of corn is green and flourishing--there is Hector's axe in a +newly-cut log--it is high noon--the boys ought to have been there taking +their mid-day meal, but the door is shut. Catharine lifts the wooden latch, +and steps in--the embers are nearly burned out, to a handful of grey +ashes--old Wolfe is not there--all is silent--and Catharine sits down +to still the beating of her heart and await the coming up of her slower +companions, and gladdens her mind with the hope that her brother and Louis +will soon be home--her eye wanders over every old familiar object--all +things seem much as she had left them, only the maize is in the ear and +the top feather waves gracefully with the summer breeze--it promises an +abundant crop; but that harvest is not to be gathered by the hands of the +young planters--it was left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the +field--to those humble reapers who sow not, neither do they gather into +barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them. While the two girls busied +themselves in preparing a fine roast of venison old Jacob stalked away over +the hills to search for the boys, and it was not long before he returned +with Hector and Louis. + +I must not tell tales, or I might say what tears of joy were mingled with +the rapturous greetings with which Louis embraced his beloved cousin; or I +might tell that the bright flush that warmed the dusky cheek of the young +Indian, and the light that danced in her soft black eyes, owed its origin +to the kiss that was pressed on her red lips by her white brother. Nor will +we say whose hand held hers so long in his while Catharine related the +noble sacrifice made for her sake, and the perils encountered by the +devoted Indiana--whose eyes were moistened with tears as the horrors of +that fearful trial were described--or who stole out alone over the hills, +and sat him down in the hush and silence of the summer night to think of +the acts of heroism displayed by that untaught Indian girl, and to dream a +dream of youthful love; but with these things, my young readers, we have +nothing to do. + +"And now, my children," said old Jacob, looking round the little dwelling, +"have you made up your minds to live and die here on the shores of this +lake, or do you desire again to behold your father's home? Do your young +hearts yearn after the hearth of your childhood?" "After our fathers' +home!" was Louis's emphatic reply. "After the home of our childhood!" was +Catharine's earnest answer. Hector's lips echoed his sister's words, while +a furtive troubled glance fell upon the orphan stranger; but her timid eye +was raised to his young face with a trusting look, as she would have said. +"Thy home shall be my home, thy God my God." + +"Well, mon ami, I believe, if my old memory fails me not, I can strike the +Indian trail that used to lead to the Cold Springs over the pine hills. It +will not be difficult for an old trapper to find his way." + +"For my part, I shall not leave this lovely spot without regret," said +Hector. "It would be a glorious place for a settlement--all that one could +desire--hill, and valley, and plain, wood and water. Well, I will try +and persuade my father to leave the Cold Springs, and come and settle +hereabouts. It would be delightful, would it not, Catharine, especially now +we are friends with the Indians." + +With their heads full of pleasant schemes for the future, our young folks +laid them down that night to rest. In the morning they rose, packed up such +portable articles as they could manage to carry, and with full hearts sat +down to take their last meal in their home--in that home which sheltered +them so long--and then, with one accord, they knelt down upon its hearth, +so soon to be left in loneliness, and breathed a prayer to Him who had +preserved them thus far in their eventful lives, and then they journeyed +forth once more into the wilderness. There was one, however, of their +little band they left behind: this was the faithful old dog Wolfe. He +had pined during the absence of his mistress, and only a few days before +Catharine's return he had crept to the seat she was wont to occupy, and +there died. Louis and Hector buried him, not without great regret, beneath +the group of birch-trees on the brow of the slope near the corn-field. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "I will arise, and go to my father."--_New Testament_. + +It is the hour of sunset; the sonorous sound of the cattle bells is heard, +as they slowly emerge from the steep hill path that leads to Maxwell and +Louis Perron's little clearing; the dark shadows are lengthening that those +wood-crowned hills cast over that sunny spot, an oasis in the vast forest +desert that man, adventurous, courageous man, has hewed for himself in the +wilderness. The little flock are feeding among the blackened stumps of the +uncleared chopping; those timbers have lain thus untouched for two long +years; the hand was wanting that should have given help in logging and +burning them up. The wheat is ripe for the sickle, and the silken beard of +the corn is waving like a fair girl's tresses in the evening breeze. The +tinkling fall of the cold spring in yonder bank falls soothingly on the +ear. Who comes from that low-roofed log cabin to bring in the pitcher of +water, that pale, careworn, shadowy figure that slowly moves along the +green pasture, as one without hope or joy; her black hair is shared with +silver, her cheek is pale as wax, and her hand is so thin, it looks as +though the light might be seen through if she held it towards the sun? It +is the heart-broken mother of Catharine and Hector Maxwell. Her heart has +been pierced with many sorrows; she cannot yet forget the children of her +love, her first-born girl and boy. Who comes to meet her, and with cheerful +voice chides her for the tear that seems ever to be lingering on that pale +cheek,--yet the premature furrows on that broad, sunburnt, manly brow +speak, too, of inward care? It is the father of Hector and Catharine. Those +two fine, healthy boys, in homespun blouses, that are talking so earnestly, +as they lean across the rail fence of the little wheat field, are Kenneth +and Donald; their sickles are on their arms; they have been reaping. They +hear the sudden barking of Bruce and Wallace, the hounds, and turn to see +what causes the agitation they display. + +An old man draws near; he has a knapsack on his shoulders, which he casts +down on the corner of the stoup; he is singing a line of an old French +ditty; he raps at the open door. The Highlander bids him welcome, but +starts with glad surprise as his hand is grasped by the old trapper. "Ha, +Jacob Morelle, it is many a weary year since your step turned this way." +The tear stood in the eye of the soldier as he spoke. + +"How is ma chre mre, and the young ones?" asked the old man, in a husky +voice--his kind heart was full. "Can you receive me, and those I have with +me, for the night? A spare corner, a shake-down, will do; we travellers in +the bush are no wise nice." + +"The best we have, and kindly welcome; it is gude for saer een to see you, +Jacob. How many are ye in all?" + +"There are just four, beside myself,--young people; I found them where they +had been long living, on a lonely lake, and I persuaded them to come with +me." + +The strong features of the Highlander worked convulsively, as he drew his +faded blue bonnet over his eyes. "Jacob, did ye ken that we lost our eldest +bairns, some three summers since?" he faltered, in a broken voice. + +"The Lord, in his mercy, has restored them to you, Donald, by my hand," +said the trapper. + +"Let me see, let me see my children. To him be the praise and the glory," +ejaculated the pious father, raising his bonnet reverently from his head; +"and holy and blessed be his name for ever. I thought not to have seen this +day. Oh! Catharine, my dear wife, this joy will kill you." + +In a moment his children were enfolded in his arms. It is a mistaken idea +that joy kills, it is a life restorer. Could you, my young readers, have +seen how quickly the bloom of health began to reappear on the faded cheek +of that pale mother, and how soon that dim eye regained its bright sparkle, +you would have said that joy does not kill. + +"But where is Louis, dear Louis, our nephew, where is he?" + +Louis whose impetuosity was not to be restrained by the caution of old +Jacob, had cleared the log fence at a bound, had hastily embraced his +cousins Kenneth and Donald, and in five minutes more had rushed into his +father's cottage, and wept his joy in the arms of father, mother, and +sisters by turns, before old Jacob had introduced the impatient Hector and +Catharine to their father. + +"But while joy is in our little dwelling, who is this that sits apart upon +that stone by the log fence, her face bent sadly down upon het knees, her +long raven hair shading her features as with a veil," asked the Highlander +Maxwell, pointing as he spoke' to the spot where, unnoticed and unsharing +in the joyful recognition, sat the poor Indian girl. There was no paternal +embrace for her, no tender mother's kiss imprinted on that dusky cheek and +pensive brow--she was alone and desolate, in the midst of that scene of +gladness. + +"It is my Indian sister," said Catharine, "she also must be your child;" +and Hector hurried to Indiana and half leading, half carrying the reluctant +girl, brought her to his parents and bade them be kind to and cherish the +young stranger, to whom they all owed so much. + +I will not dwell upon the universal joy that filled that humble dwelling, +or tell the delight of Kenneth and Donald at the return of their lost +brother and sister, for my story hurries to a close. + +Time passes on--years, long years have gone by since the return of the lost +children to their homes, and many changes have those years effected. The +log-houses have fallen to decay--a growth of young pines, a waste of +emerald turf with the charred logs that once formed part of the enclosure, +now, hardly serve to mark out the old settlement--no trace or record +remains of the first breakers of the bush, another race occupy the ground. +The traveller as he passes along on that smooth turnpike road that leads +from Coburg to Cold Springs, and from thence to Gore's Landing, may notice +a green waste by the road-side on either hand, and fancy that thereabouts +our Canadian Crusoes' home once stood--he sees the lofty wood-crowned +hill, and sees in spring-time, for in summer it is hidden by the luxuriant +foliage, the little forest creek, and he may if thirsty, taste of the pure +fresh icy water, as it still wells out from a spring in the steep bank, +rippling through the little cedar-trough that Louis Perron placed there +for the better speed of his mother when filling her water jug. All else is +gone. And what wrought the change?--a few words will suffice to tell. Some +travelling fur merchants brought the news to Donald Maxwell, that a party +of Highlanders had made a settlement above Montreal, and among them were +some of his kindred. The old soldier resolved to join them, and it was not +hard to prevail upon his brother-in-law to accompany him, for they were all +now weary of living so far from their fellow-men; and bidding farewell to +the little log-houses at Cold Springs, they now journeyed downwards to the +new settlement, where they were gladly received, their long experience of +the country making their company a most valuable acquisition to the new +colonists. + +Not long after the Maxwells took possession of a grant of land, and cleared +and built for themselves and their family. That year Hector, now a fine +industrious young man, presented at the baptismal font as a candidate for +baptism, the Indian girl, and then received at the altar his newly baptized +bride. As to Catharine and Louis, I am not sufficiently skilled in the laws +of their church to tell how the difficulty of nearness of kin was obviated, +but they were married on the same day as Hector and Indiana, and lived a +happy and prosperous life; and often by their fireside would delight their +children by recounting the history of their wanderings on the Rice Lake +Plains. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +APPENDIX A.--_Preface._ + +Page vii. + +Sarah Campbell, of Windsor, who was lost in the woods on the 11th of +August, 1848, returned to her home on the 31st, having been absent +twenty-one days. A friend has sent us a circumstantial account of her +wanderings, of the efforts made in her behalf, and her return home, from +which we condense the following statements:-- + +It appears that on the 11th of August, in company with two friends, she +went fishing on the north branch of Windsor-brook; and that on attempting +to return she became separated from her companions, who returned to her +mother's, the Widow Campbell, expecting to find her at home. Several of her +neighbours searched for her during the night, without success. The search +was continued during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, by some fifty or sixty +individuals, and although her tracks, and those of a dog which accompanied +her, were discovered, no tidings of the girl were obtained. A general +sympathy for the afflicted widow and her lost daughter was excited, and +notwithstanding the busy season of the year, great numbers from Windsor and +the neighbouring townships of Brompton, Shipton, Melbourne, Durham, Oxford, +Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Stoke, and Dudswell, turned out with provisions +and implements for camping in the woods, in search of the girl, which was +kept up without intermission for about fourteen days, when it was generally +given up, under the impression that she must have died, either from +starvation, or the inclemency of the weather, it having rained almost +incessantly for nearly a week of the time. On the 3lst her brother returned +home from Massachusetts, and with two or three others renewed the search, +but returned the second day, and learned to their great joy that the lost +one had found her way home the evening previous. + +On hearing of her return, our correspondent made a visit to Widow Campbell, +to hear from her daughter the story of her wanderings. She was found, +as might be supposed, in a very weak and exhausted condition, but quite +rational, as it seems she had been during the whole period of her absence. +From her story the following particulars were gathered:-- + +When first lost she went directly from home down "Open Brooke," to a +meadow, about a mile distant from where she had left her companions, which +she mistook for what is called the "_Oxias_ opening," a mile distant in +the opposite direction. On Sabbath morning, knowing that she was lost, and +having heard that lost persons might be guided by the sun, she undertook +to follow the sun during the day. In the morning she directed her steps +towards the East, crossed the north Branch, mistaking it for "Open Brooke," +and travelled, frequently running, in a south-east direction (her way home +was due north) seven or eight miles till she came to the great Hay-meadow +in Windsor. There she spent Sabbath night, and on Monday morning directed +her course to, and thence down, the South Branch in the great Meadow. + +After this, she appears to have spent her time, except while she was +searching for food for herself and dog, in walking and running over +the meadow, and up and down the south branch, in search of her home, +occasionally wandering upon the highlands, and far down towards the +junction of the two main streams, never being more than seven or eight +miles from home. + +For several days, by attempting to follow the sun, she travelled in a +circle, finding herself at night near the place where she left in the +morning. Although she often came across the tracks of large parties of men, +and their recently-erected camps, and knew that multitudes of people were +in search of her, she saw no living person, and heard no sound of trumpet, +or other noise, except the report of a gun, as she lay by a brook, early on +Thursday morning, the sixth day of her being lost. Thinking the gun to have +been fired not more than half a mile distant, she said she "screamed and +run" to the place from whence she supposed the noise came, but found +nothing. Early in the day, however, she came to the camp where this gun was +fired, but not until after its occupants had left to renew their search for +her. This camp was about four miles from the great meadow, where she spent +the Sabbath previous. There she found a fire, dried her clothes, and found +a partridge's gizzard, which she cooked and ate, and laid down and slept, +remaining about twenty-four hours. + +In her travels she came across several other camps, some of which she +visited several times, particularly one where she found names cut upon +trees, and another in which was a piece of white paper. Except three or +four nights spent in these camps, she slept upon the ground, sometimes +making a bed of moss, and endeavouring to shelter herself from the +drenching rains with spruce boughs. For the two first weeks she suffered +much from the cold, shivering all night, and sleeping but little. The last +week she said she had got "toughened," and did not shiver. When first +lost she had a large trout, which was the only food she ate, except +choke-berries, the first week, and part of this she gave to her dog, which +remained with her for a week, day and night. The cherries, which she ate +greedily, swallowing the stones, she found injured her health; and for the +last two weeks she lived upon cranberries and wood sorrel. While the dog +remained with her, she constantly shared her food with him, but said she +was glad when he left her, as it was much trouble to find him food. + +On Thursday of last week she followed the south towards the junction with +the north branch, where it appeared she had been before, but could not ford +the stream; and in the afternoon of Friday crossed the north, a little +above its junction with the south branch, and following down the stream, +she found herself in the clearing, near Moor's Mill. Thence directing +her steps towards home, she reached Mr. McDale's, about a mile from her +mother's, at six o'clock, having walked five miles in two hours, and +probably ten miles during the day. Here she remained till the next day, +when she was carried home, and was received by friends almost as one raised +from the dead. Her feet and ankles were very much swollen and lacerated; +but strange to say, her calico gown was kept whole, with the exception of +two small rents. + +Respecting her feelings during her fast in the wilderness, she says she +was never frightened, though sometimes, when the sun disappeared, she felt +disheartened, expecting to perish; but when she found, by not discovering +any new tracks, that the people had given over searching for her, she was +greatly discouraged. On the morning of Friday, she was strongly inclined to +give up, and lie down and die; but the hope of seeing her mother stimulated +her to make one more effort to reach home, which proved successful. When +visited, she was in a state of feverish excitement and general derangement +of the system, and greatly emaciated, with a feeble voice, but perfectly +sane and collected. + +It is somewhat remarkable that a young girl (aged seventeen), thinly clad, +could have survived twenty-one days, exposed as she was to such severe +storms, with no other food but wild berries. It is also very strange that +she should have been so frequently on the tracks of those in search of her, +sleeping in the camps, and endeavouring to follow their tracks home, and +not have heard any of their numerous trumpets, or been seen by any of the +hundreds of persons who were in search for her. + +A more dismal result than the deprivations endured by Sarah Campbell, is +the frightful existence of a human creature, called in the American papers, +the "Wild Man of the far West." From time to time, these details approach +the terrific, of wild men who have grown up from childhood in a state of +destitution in the interminable forests, especially of this one, who, for +nearly a quarter of a century, has occasionally been seen, and then either +forgotten, or supposed to be the mere creation of the beholder's brain. But +it appears that he was, in March, 1850, encountered by Mr. Hamilton, of +Greene County, Arkansas, when hunting. The wild man was, likewise, chasing +his prey. A herd of cattle fled past Mr. Hamilton and his party, in an +agony of terror, pursued by a giant, bearing a dreadful semblance to +humanity. His face and shoulders were enveloped with long streaming hair, +his body was entirely hirsute, his progression was by great jumps of twelve +or thirteen feet at a leap. The creature turned and gazed earnestly on the +hunters, and fled into the depths of the forest, where he was lost to view. +His foot-prints were thirteen inches long. Mr. Hamilton published the +description of the savage man in the _Memphis Inquirer_. Afterwards several +planters deposed to having, at times, for many years, seen this appearance. +All persons generally agreed that it was a child that had been lost in the +woods, at the earthquake in 1811, now grown to meridian strength, in a +solitary state. Thus the possibility of an European child living, even +unassisted, in the wilderness, is familiar to the inhabitants of the +vast American continent. Although we doubt that any human creature would +progress by leaps, instead of the paces familiar to the human instinct. It +is probable that the wild man of the Arkansas is, in reality, some species +of the oran-outang, or chimpanzee. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Page 72.--_"where Wolf Tower now stands."_ + +The Wolf Tower is among the very few structures in Canada not devoted to +purposes of strict utility. It was built by a gentleman of property as a +_belle vue,_ or fanciful prospect residence, in order to divert his mind +from the heavy pressure of family affliction. It was once lent by him to +the author, who dwelt here some time during the preparation of another +house in the district. + + +APPENDIX C. + +Page 113.--_"... as civilization advances."_ + +Formerly the Rice Lake Plains abounded in deer, wolves, bears, raccoons, +wolverines, foxes, and wild animals of many kinds. Even a few years ago, +and bears and wolves were not unfrequent in their depredations; and the +ravines sheltered herds of deer; but now the sight of the former is a thing +of rare occurrence, and the deer are scarcely to be seen, so changed is +this lovely wilderness, that green pastures and yellow cornfields now meet +the eye on every side, and the wild beasts retire to the less frequented +depths of the forest. + +From the undulating surface, the alternations of high hills, deep valleys, +and level table-lands, with the wide prospect they command, the Rice Lake +Plains still retain their picturesque beauty, which cannot be marred by the +hand of the settler even be he ever so devoid of taste; and many of those +who have chosen it as their home are persons of taste and refinement, who +delight in adding to the beauty of that which Nature had left so fair. + +APPENDIX D. Page 157, _note_. + +"I will now," says our Indian historian, "narrate a single circumstance +which will convey a correct idea of the sufferings to which Indians were +often exposed. To obtain furs of different kinds for the traders, we had to +travel far into the woods, and remain there the whole winter. Once we left +Rice Lake in the fall, and ascended the river in canoes as far as Belmont +Lake. There were five families about to hunt with my father on his ground. +The winter began to set in, and the river having frozen over, we left the +canoes, the dried venison, the beaver, and some flour and pork; and when we +had gone further north, say about sixty miles from the white settlements, +for the purpose of hunting, the snow fell for five days in succession, +to such a depth, that it was impossible to shoot or trap anything; our +provisions were exhausted, and we had no means of procuring any more. Here +we were, the snow about five feet deep, our wigwam buried, the branches of +the trees falling all about us, and cracking with the weight of the snow. + +"Our mother (who seems, by-the-bye, from the record of her son, to have +been a most excellent woman) boiled birch-bark for my sister and myself, +that we might not starve. On the seventh day some of us were so weak they +could not guard themselves, and others could not stand alone. They could +only crawl in and out of the wigwam. We parched beaver skins and old +mocassins for food. On the ninth day none of the men could go abroad except +my father and uncle. On the tenth day, still being without food, the only +ones able to walk about the wigwam were my father, my grandmother, my +sister, and myself. Oh, how distressing to see the starving Indians lying +about the wigwam with hungry and eager looks!--the children would cry for +something to eat! My poor mother would heave bitter sighs, of despair, the +tears falling profusely from her cheeks as she kissed us! Wood, though in +plenty, could not be obtained on account of the feebleness of our limbs. My +father would at times draw near the fire and rehearse some prayer to the +gods. It appeared to him that there was no way of escape; the men, women, +and children, dying; some of them were speechless, the wigwam was cold and +dark, and covered with snow! + +"On the eleventh day, just before daylight, my father fell into a sleep; he +soon awoke, and said to me: 'My son, the good Spirit is about to bless us +this night; in my dream I saw a person coming from the east walking on +the tops of the trees; he told me we should obtain two beavers about nine +o'clock. Put on your mocassins, and go along with me to the river, and we +will hunt beaver, perhaps, for the last time.' I saw that his countenance +beamed with delight and hope; he was full of confidence. I put on my +mocassins and carried my snow-shoes, staggering along behind him about half +a mile. Having made a fire near the river, where there was an air-hole +through which the beaver had come up during the night, my father tied a gun +to a stump with the muzzle towards the air-hole; he also tied a string to +the trigger, and said, 'Should you see the beaver rise pull the string, and +you will kill it.' I stood by the fire, with the string in my hand; I soon +heard the noise occasioned by the blow of his tomahawk; he had killed a +beaver and brought it to me. As he laid it down, he said, 'Then the great +Spirit will not let us die here;' adding, as before, 'if you see the beaver +rise, pull the string;' and he left me. I soon saw the nose of one, but I +did not shoot. Presently, another came up; I pulled the trigger, and off +the gun went. I could not see for some moments for the smoke. My father ran +towards me with the two beavers, and laid them side by side; then, pointing +to the sun,--'Do you see the sun?' he said; 'the great Spirit informed me +that we should kill these two about this time in the morning. We will yet +see our relatives at Rice Lake. Now let us go home, and see if our people +are yet alive.' We arrived just in time to save them from death. Since +which we have visited the same spot the year the missionaries came among +us. + +"My father knelt down, with feelings of gratitude, on the very spot where +we had nearly perished. Glory to God! I have heard of many who have +perished in this way far up in the woods."--_Life of George Copway, written +by himself_, p. 44. + +APPENDIX E. + +Page 184.--"_... on first deciding that it was a canoe._" + +The Indians say, that before their fathers had tools of iron and steel +in common use, a war canoe was the labour of three generations. It was +hollowed out by means of fire, cautiously applied, or by stone hatchets; +but so slowly did the work proceed, that years were passed in its +excavation. When completed, it was regarded as a great achievement, and its +launching on the waters of the lake or river was celebrated by feasting +and dancing. The artizans were venerated as great patriots. Possibly the +birch-bark canoe was of older date, as being more easily constructed, and +needing not the assistance of the axe in forming it; but it was too frail +to be used in war, or in long voyages, being liable to injuries. + +The black stone wedges, so often found on the borders of our inland waters, +were used by the Indians in skinning the deer and bear. Their arrow-heads +were of white or black flint, rudely chipped into shape, and inserted in +a cleft stick. A larger sort were used for killing deer; and blunt wooden +ones were used by the children, for shooting birds and small game. + +APPENDIX F. + +Page 195.--_"... the Christian mind revolts with horror."_ + +There is, according to the native author, George Copway, a strong feeling +in the Indians for conversion and civilization, and a concentration of all +the Christianised tribes, now scattered far and wide along the northern +banks of the lakes and rivers, into one nation, to be called by one name, +and united in one purpose--their general improvement. To this end, one of +the most influential of their chiefs, John Jones, of Dover Sound, offered +to give up to his Indian brethren, free of all cost, a large tract of +unceded land, that they might be gathered together as one nation. + +In the council held at Sangeeny, where were convened Indian chiefs from +lakes St. Clare, Samcoe, Huron, Ontario, and Rice, and other lakes, it was +proposed to devise a plan by which the tract owned by the Sangeenys could +be held for the benefit of the Ojebwas, to petition Government for aid in +establishing a manual-labour school, and to ascertain the general feeling +of the chiefs in relation to forming one large settlement at Owen's Sound. +At this meeting forty-eight chiefs were assembled. + +There is much to admire in the simple, earnest, and courteous style of the +oration delivered by Chief John Jones, and will give to my readers some +idea of the intelligence of an educated Indian:-- + +"Brothers, you have been called from all your parts of Canada, even from +the north of Georgian Bay. You are from your homes, your wives, and your +children. We might regret this, were it not for the circumstances that +require you here. + +"Fellow-chiefs and brothers, I have pondered with deep solicitude our +present condition and the future welfare of our children, as well as of +ourselves. I have studied deeply and anxiously, in order to arrive at a +true knowledge of the proper course to be pursued to secure to us and our +descendants, and even to those around us, the greatest amount of peace, +health, happiness, and usefulness. The interests of the Ojebwas and Ottawas +are near and dear to my heart; for them I have often passed sleepless +nights, and have suffered from an agitated mind. These nations, I am proud +to say, are my brothers, many of them bone of my bone; and for them, if +needs be, I would willingly sacrifice anything. Brothers, you see my +heart." [Here he held out a piece of white paper, emblematical of a pure +heart.] + +"Fellow-chiefs and warriors, I have looked over your wigwams throughout +Canada, and have come to the conclusion that you are in a warm place +[_query_, too hot to hold you]. The whites are kindling fires all round you +[_i.e._ clearing land]. + +"One purpose for which you have been called together, is to devise some +plan by which we can live together, and become a happy people; so that our +dying fires may not go out, _i.e._ our people become extinct, but may be +kindled, and burn brightly, in one place. We now offer you any portion of +the land we own in this region, that we may smoke the pipe of peace, and +live and die together, and see our children play and be reared on the same +spot. We ask no money of you. We love you; and because we love you, and +feel for you, we propose this. + +"My chiefs, brothers, warriors. This morning" [the speaker now pointed with +his finger towards the heavens], "look up and see the blue sky: there are +no clouds; the sun is bright and clear. Our fathers taught us, that when +the sky was without clouds, the Great Spirit was smiling upon them. May he +now preside over us, that we may make a long, smooth, and straight path for +our children. It is true I seldom see you all, but this morning I shake +hands with you all, in my heart. + +"Brothers, this is all I have to say." + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX G. + +Page 213.--_"... and aimed a knife at his throat"_ + +The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some sixty +or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my informant. +At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as those recorded +could have taken place almost within the memory of men. My Indian narrator +replied--"Indians, no Christians in those days, do worse than that very few +years ago,--do as bad now in far-west." + +The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together +in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts. The +conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from the Wesleyan +Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of Captain Anderson, +whose descendants inherit much land on the north shore on and about +Anderson's Point, the renowned site of the great battle. The war-weapon and +bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be found in this vicinity. + + * * * * * + +APPENDIX H. + +Page 232.--_"This place she called Spooke Island"_ + +Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from +the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their +dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with +reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, rhus +toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in landing +upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. + + +APPENDIX I. + +Page 253.--_"and nothing but fire."_ + +The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with which +fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains. Certainly, +there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the Indian names, +approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of the language of the +East; such is "Mad-wa-osh," the music of the winds. + + +APPENDIX K. + +Page 272.--_"but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken."_ + +_From George Copway's Life._ + +Converted Indians are thus described in the "Life" of their literary +countryman, George Copway:-- + +_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a tribe +which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and Gore +Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for an +annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the River +Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first tribe +converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were wandering +pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, the sons of a white +by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to Christianity, and admitted +as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, became anxious to redeem +their countrymen from their degraded state of heathenism and spiritual +destitution. They collected a considerable number together, and by rote and +frequent repetitions, taught the first principles of Christianity to such +as were too old to learn to read, and with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, +and Commandments, were thus committed to memory. As soon as the tribes +were converted they perceived the evils attendant on their former state +of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to work, which they had never done +before; they recognised the advantage of cultivating the soil; they gave +up drinking, to which they had been greatly addicted, and became sober, +consistent, industrious Christians. + +J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief. + +The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering +pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, +commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quint; they resided on Grape +Island, in the Bay of Quint, six miles from Belleville. They resided +eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. Their +houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan +Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious chapel +and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker's shop and +joiner's. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians. + +The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary +interpreter. + +_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and +Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These Indians +have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled in their +present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. [Footnote: I think +G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of the village, as it +was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year 1822 the larger part +of the Indian village on Anderson's Point was built and cultivated.] +The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve miles from +Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, subdivided in +50-acre lots. + +Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow. + +Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The +Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of them +have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, enough, for +their own use, but often sell much to the whites. + + +APPENDIX L. + +Page 282.--_"... that an outward manifestation of surprise."_ + +A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent +intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their +apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he +wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where +several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and +narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of surprise +by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired to an +adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and was amused +at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free from his +surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious toy like a +parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture and amazement, but +they did not choose to be entrapped into showing surprise. This perfect +command over the muscles of the face, and the glance of the eye, is one of +the remarkable traits in the Indian character. The expression of the +Indian face, if I may use so paradoxical a term, consists in a want of +expression--like the stillness of dark deep water, beneath which no object +is visible. APPENDIX M. + +Page 332.--_"bracelets of porcupine quills cut in fine pieces and strung in +fanciful patterns."_ + +The Indian method of drawing out patterns on the birch bark, is simply +scratching the outline with some small-pointed instrument, Canadian thorn, +a bodkin of bone, or a sharp nail. These outlines are then pierced with +parallel rows of holes, into which the ends of the porcupine quills are +inserted, forming a rich sort of embroidery on the surface of the bark. + +The Indian artistes have about as much notion of perspective, or the +effects of light and shade, as the Chinese or our own early painters; their +attempts at delineating animals, or birds, are flat, sharp, and angular; +and their groups of flowers and trees not more graceful or natural than +those on a china plate or jar; nevertheless, the effect produced is rich +and striking, from the vivid colours and the variety of dyes they contrive +to give to this simple material, the porcupine quills. The sinew of the +deer, and some other animals, furnish the Indian women with thread, of any +degree of fineness or strength. The wants of these simple folk are few, +and those easily supplied by the adaptation of such materials as they can +command with ease, in their savage state. + + +APPENDIX N. + +Page 339.--_"is Mount Ararat."_ + +Mount Ararat, the highest elevation on the Rice Lake Plains, for nearly two +years the residence of the Authoress and her family. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Canadian Crusoes, by Catherine Parr Traill + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN CRUSOES *** + +This file should be named 8cacr10.txt or 8cacr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8cacr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8cacr10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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