He was
a kind man, and my father loved both him and his son, and grieved not a
little when he parted from him."
"Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister Hec,
I shall forgive the affront about my curls."
"Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail,
we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we
shall not be over particular as to its of quality. Why should not we be
able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians?"
"True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and
birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should
His white children fear?"
"I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, when
they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of himself
and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, weeks I
believe it was. Like the Indians, they made themselves bows and arrows,
using the sinews of the deer, or fresh thongs of leather, for bow-strings;
and when they could not get game to eat, they boiled the inner bark of the
slippery elm to jelly, or birch bark, and drank the sap of the sugar maple
when they could get no water but melted snow only, which is unwholesome; at
last, they even boiled their own mocassins.
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