o do nothing independent of each
other. Neither pleasure nor pain ought, therefore, to separate us,
especially from our younger brother, who being but a child, and weakly
withal, is entitled to a double share of our affection. If we follow
our separate gratifications, it will surely make us neglect him, whom
we are bound by vows, both to our father and mother, to support." The
young man received this address in silence. He appeared daily to grow
more restive and moody, and one day, taking his bow and arrows, left
the lodge and never returned.

Affection nerved the sister's arm. She was not so ignorant of the
forest arts as to let her brother want. For a long time she
administered to his necessities, and supplied a mother's cares. At
length, however, she began to be weary of solitude and of her charge.
No one came to be a witness of her assiduity, or to let fall a single
word in her native language. Years, which added to her strength and
capability of directing the affairs of the household, brought with them
the irrepressible desire of society, and made solitude irksome. At this
point, selfishness gained the ascendency of her heart; for, in
meditating a change in her mode of life, she lost sight of her younger
brother, and left him to be provided for by contingencies.

One day, after collecting all the provisions she had been able to save
for emergencies, after bringing a quantity of wood to the door, she
said to her little brother: "My brother, you must not stray from the
lodge. I am going to seek our elder brother. I shall be back soon."
Then, taking her bundle, she set off in search of habitations. She soon
found them, and was so much taken up with the pleasures and amusements
of social life, that the thought of her brother was almost entirely
obliterated. She accepted proposals of marriage; and, after that,
thought still less of her hapless and abandoned relative.

Meantime her elder brother had also married, and lived on the shores of
the same lake whose ample circuit contained the abandoned lodge of his
father and his forsaken brother. The latter was soon brought to the
pinching turn of his fate. As soon as he had eaten all the food left by
his sister, he was obliged to pick berries and dig up roots. These were
finally covered by the snow. Winter came on with all its rigors. He was
obliged to quit the lodge in search of other food. Sometimes he passed
the night in the clefts of old trees or caverns, and ate the r