This proved
excellent tinder, the aromatic oil contained in the bark of the birch being
highly inflammable, Hector had prudently retained the flint that they had
used in the morning, and a fire was now lighted in front of the rocky
stone, and a forked stick, stuck in the ground, and bent over the coals,
served as a spit, on which, gipsy-fashion, the partridge was suspended,--a
scanty meal, but thankfully partaken of, though they knew not how they
should breakfast next morning, The children felt they were pensioners on
God's providence not less than the wild denizens of the wilderness around
them.
When Hector--who by nature was less sanguine than his sister or
cousin--expressed some anxiety for their provisions for the morrow,
Catharine, who had early listened with trusting piety of heart to the
teaching of her father, when he read portions from the holy word of God,
gently laid her hand upon her brother's head, which rested on her knees,
as he sat upon the grass beside her, and said, in a low and earnest tone,
"'Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
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