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 g