She then kindly attended to the
Indian children, certain dark-skinned babes, who, bound upon their wooden
cradles, were either set up against the trunks of the trees, or swung to
some lowly depending branch, there to remain helpless and uncomplaining
spectators of the scene.
Catharine thought these Indian babes were almost as much to be pitied as
herself, only that they were unconscious of their imprisoned state, having
from birth been used to no better treatment, and moreover they were sure
to be rewarded by the tender caresses of living mothers when the season of
refreshment and repose arrived; but she alas! was friendless and alone, an
orphan girl, reft of father, mother, kindred and friends. One Father, one
Friend, poor Catharine, thou hadst, even He--the Father of the fatherless.
That night when the women and children were sleeping, Catharine stole out
of the wigwam, and climbed the precipitous bank beneath the shelter of
which the lodges had been erected. She found herself upon a grassy plain,
studded with majestic oaks and pines, so beautifully grouped that they
might have been planted by the hand of taste upon that velvet turf.
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