Though brought up in solitude and
uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the minds or manners of
these young people. Simple and untaught they were, but they were guileless,
earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they lacked the knowledge that is
learned from books, they possessed much that was useful and practical,
which had been taught by experience and observation in the school of
necessity.
For several days the pain and fever arising from her sprain rendered
any attempt at removing Catharine from the valley of the "Big Stone"
impracticable. The ripe fruit began to grow less abundant in their
immediate vicinity, and neither woodchuck, partridge, nor squirrel had been
killed; and our poor wanderers now endured the agonising pains of hunger.
Continual exposure to the air by night and by day contributed not a little
to increase the desire for food. It is true, there was the yet untried
lake, "bright, boundless, and free," gleaming in silvery splendour, but in
practice they knew nothing of the fisher's craft, though, as a matter of
report, they were well acquainted with all the mysteries of it, and had
often listened with delight to the feats performed by their respective
fathers in the art of angling, spearing and netting.
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