ild her own
wigwam," she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the
feathery pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared
as little as her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night
under the shade of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy;
but her woman's heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling
the cousins would be by mutually interesting them in the same
object,--and she was right. In endeavouring to provide for the comfort
of their dear companion, all angry feelings were forgotten by Hector,
while active employment chased away Louis's melancholy.

Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest,
those of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground,
varying in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque
groups, or rising singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked
poplar or graceful birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately
pine contrasting finely with the light waving foliage of its slender
graceful companions.

Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines,
which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance
drove into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the
upturned oak, with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form
the back part of the hut, which, when completed, formed by no means
a contemptible shelter. Catharine then cut fern and deer grass with
Louis's _couteau-de-chasse_, which he always carried in a sheath at his
girdle, and spread two beds, one, parted off by dry boughs and bark,
for herself in the interior of the wigwam, and one for her brother and
cousin nearer the entrance. When all was finished to her satisfaction,
she called the two boys, and, according to the custom of her parents,
joined them in the lifting up of their hands as an evening sacrifice of
praise and thanksgiving. Nor were these simple-hearted children backward
in imploring help and protection from the Most High. They earnestly
prayed that no dangerous creature might come near to molest them during
the hours of darkness and helplessness, no evil spirit visit them, no
unholy or wicked thoughts intrude into their minds; but that holy angels
and heavenly thoughts might hover over them, and fill their hearts with
the peace of God which passeth all understanding.--And the prayer of the
poor wanderers was heard, for they slept that night