afters 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 car