"Aye from the sultry heat,
We to our cave retreat,
O'er canopied by huge roots, intertwined,
Of wildest texture, blackened o'er with age."
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?"
"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 hole 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 cautious 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 River, that I am as familiar with
the idea of a boat as if I had been born in one. Only think now," 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 hunt the peccary, which is, as you
know, a kind of wild boar, and whose flesh is very good eating."
"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 whiled
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
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 wagon 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 gray 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 gray old oak or pine, whilst 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 the
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 blaze, as it is
called, on he trees, by cutting away pieces of the outer bark 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, as there were some striking peculiarities to mark it, and
they had learned to be very minute in the marks 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--namely, 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; they would be
warmly 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 was 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 ironwood, 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 frame-work 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 in spring 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. 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 moccasins, 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 moccasins 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 dead-falls, 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
the fur 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 calico 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 tea of the leaves of the sweet fern,--a graceful
woody fern, with a fine aromatic scent, like nutmegs. [Footnote:
Comptoma asplenifolia, a small shrub of the sweet gale family.] This
shrub 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 might 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 hot
embers. 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; 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 their happy days spent in the home which they
now feared they were destined never again to behold. 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
smooth 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.
"Holloa, Louis! is it a 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. One made for the mouth of the
creek, and ran ashore among the thick bushes, while the others kept
further along the shore. 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. After closely examining what I suppose was one
of our footmarks, 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 household
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, 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 favourite covert, on the low sheltered plain, where,
being quite open, and almost, in parts, free from trees, the grass and
herbage was sweeter and more abundant, and the springs of water were
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 chitmunks
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 a
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
been 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 grape-vines 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 of the clear spring; and after they had said
their evening prayers, they lay 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-stricken, 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 fast 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 the clay walls with a stout staff, to ascertain
that all was secure, before they again ventured to sleep beneath this
rugged canopy.