f neatness and comfort induced her to strew
the floor with fresh cedar or hemlock every day or two, and to sweep
round the front of the lodge, removing all unseemly objects from its
vicinity. She never failed to wash herself in the river, and arrange her
hair with the comb that Louis had made for her; and took great care
of the little child, which she kept clean and well fed. She loved this
little creature, for it was soft and gentle, meek and playful as a
little squirrel, and the Indian mothers all looked with kinder eyes
upon the white maiden, for the loving manner in which she tended their
children. The heart of woman is seldom cold to those who cherish
their offspring, and Catharine began to experience the truth, that the
exercise of those human charities is equally beneficial to those who
give and those that receive; these things fall upon the heart as dew
upon a thirsty soil, giving and creating a blessing. But we will leave
Catharine for a short season, among the lodges of the Indians, and
return to Hector and Louis.

CHAPTER XIV.

"Cold and forsaken, destitute of friends,
And all good comforts else, unless some tree
Whose speechless chanty doth better ours,
With which the bitter east-winds made their sport
And sang through hourly, hath invited thee
To shelter half a day. Shall she be thus,
And I draw in soft slumbers?"
BRAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

It was near sunset before Hector and his cousin returned on the evening
of the eventful day that had found Catharine a prisoner on Long Island.
They had met with good success in hunting, and brought home a fine
half-grown fawn, fat and in good order. They were surprised at finding
the fire nearly extinguished, and no Catharine awaiting their return.
There, it is true, was the food that she had prepared for them, but she
was not to be seen; supposing that she had been tired of waiting for
them, and had gone out to gather strawberries, they did not at first
feel very anxious, but ate some of the rice and honey, for they were
hungry with long fasting; and taking some Indian meal cake in their
hands, they went out to call her in, but no trace of her was visible.
They now became alarmed, fearing that she had set off by herself to seek
them, and had missed her way home again.

They hurried back to the happy valley--she was not there; to Pine-tree
Point--no trace of her there; to the edge of the mount that overlooked
the lake--no, she was not to be see