Catharine attended to the
house, and Indiana went out fishing and hunting, bringing in plenty of
small game and fish every day. After they had piled and burned up the loose
boughs and trunks that encumbered the space which they had marked out, they
proceeded to enclose it with a "brush fence", which was done by felling the
trees that stood in the line of the field, and letting them fall so as to
form the bottom log of the fence, which they then made of sufficient height
by piling up arms of trees and brush-wood. Perhaps in this matter they were
too particular, as there was no fear of "breachy cattle," or any cattle,
intruding on the crop; but Hector maintained that deer and bears were as
much to be guarded against as oxen and cows.
The little enclosure was made secure from any such depredators, and was as
clean as hands could make it, and the two cousins were sitting on a log,
contentedly surveying their work, and talking of the time when the grain
was to be put in. It was about the beginning of the second week in May,
as near as they could guess from the bursting of the forest buds and the
blooming of such of the flowers as they were acquainted with.
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