He then set to work to light a good fire, which was a great addition to
their comfort as well as cheerfulness. They did not go back to their cave
beneath the upturned trees, to sleep, preferring lying, with their feet to
the fire, under the shade of the pine. Louis, however, was despatched for
water and venison for supper.
The following morning, by break of day, they collected their stores, and
conveyed them back to the shanty. The boys were thus employed, while
Catharine watched beside the wounded Indian girl, whom she tended with the
greatest care. She bathed the inflamed arm with water, and bound the cool
healing leaves of the _tacamahac_ [Footnote: Indian balsam.] about it with
the last fragment of her apron, she steeped dried berries in water, and
gave the cooling drink to quench the fever-thirst that burned in her veins,
and glittered in her full soft melancholy dark eyes, which were raised at
intervals to the face of her youthful nurse, with a timid hurried glance,
as if she longed, yet feared to say, "Who are you that thus tenderly bathe
my aching head, and strive to soothe my wounded limbs, and cool my fevered
blood? Are you a creature like myself, or a being sent by the Great Spirit,
from the far-off happy land to which my fathers have gone, to smooth my
path of pain, and lead me to those blessed fields of sunbeams and flowers
where the cruelty of the enemies of my people will no more have power to
torment me?"
CHAPTER VI.
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