Armed with a sharp spear carved out of
hardened wood, she would lie upon the ice and patiently await the rising
of some large fish to the air-hole, when dexterously plunging it into the
unwary creature, she dragged it to the surface. Many a noble fish did the
young squaw bring home, and lay at the feet of him whom she had tacitly
elected as her lord and master; to him she offered the voluntary service of
a faithful and devoted servant--I might almost have said, slave.
During the middle of December there were some days of such intense cold,
that even our young Crusoes, hardy as they were, preferred the blazing
log-fire and warm ingle nook, to the frozen lake and cutting north-west
wind which blew the loose snow in blinding drifts over its bleak,
unsheltered surface. Clad in the warm tunic and petticoat of Indian blanket
with fur-lined mocassins, Catharine and her Indian friend felt little cold
excepting to the face when they went abroad, unless the wind was high, and
then experience taught them to keep at home. And these cold gloomy days
they employed in many useful works.
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