Every hour almost they spent in making
little additions to their household comforts, but some time was necessarily
passed in trying to obtain provisions. One day Hector, who had been out
from dawn till moonrise, returned with the welcome news that he had shot a
young deer, and required the assistance of his cousin to bring it up the
steep bank--(it was just at the entrance of the great ravine)--below the
precipitous cliff near the lake; he had left old Wolfe to guard it in the
meantime. They had now plenty of fresh broiled meat, and this store was
very acceptable, as they were obliged to be very careful of the dried meat
that they had.
This time Catharine adopted a new plan. Instead of cutting the meat in
strips, and drying it, (or jerking it, as the lumberers term it,) she
roasted it before the fire, and hung it up, wrapping it in thin sheets of
birch bark. The juices, instead of being dried up, were preserved, and the
meat was more palatable. Catharine found great store of wild plums in a
beautiful valley, not far from the shanty; these she dried for the winter
store, eating sparingly of them in their fresh state; she also found plenty
of wild black currants, and high-bush cranberries, on the banks of a
charming creek of bright water that flowed between a range of high pine
hills, and finally emptied itself into the lake.
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