inally 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 a