By the kindest and tenderest attention to all her comforts, Louis endeavoured to alleviate his cousin’s sufferings, and soften her regrets; nay, he would often speak cheerfully and even gaily to her, when his own heart was heavy, and his eyes ready to overflow with tears. “If it were not for our dear parents and the dear children at home,” he would say, “we might spend our time most happily upon these charming plains; it is much more delightful here than in the dark thick woods; see how brightly the sunbeams come down and gladden the ground, and cover the earth with fruit and flowers. It is pleasant to be able to fish and hunt, and trap the game. Yes, if they were all here, we would build us a nice log-house, and clear up these bushes on the flat near the lake. This ‘Elfin Knowe,’ as you call it, Kate, would be a nice spot to build upon. See these glorious old oaks; not one should be cut down, and we would have a boat and a canoe, and voyage across to yonder islands. Would it not be charming, ma belle?” and Catharine, smiling at the picture drawn so eloquently, would enter into the spirit of the project, and say,--
“If we had but my father’s rifle now,” said Hector, “and old Wolfe.”
“Yes, and Fanchette, dear little Fanchette, that trees the partridges and black squirrels,” said Louis.
“I saw a doe and a half-grown fawn beside her this very morning, at break of day,” said Hector. “The fawn was so little fearful, that if I had had a stick in my hand, I could have killed it.--I came within ten yards of the spot where it stood. I know it would be easy to catch one by making a dead-fall.” _[A sort of trap in which game is taken in the woods, or on the banks of creeks.]_
“If we had but a dear fawn to frolic about us, like Mignon, dear innocent Mignon,” cried Catharine, “I should never feel lonely then.”
“And we should never want for meat, if we could catch a fine fawn from time to time, ma belle.”
“I was thinking, Louis, that If we were doomed to remain here all our lives, we must build a house for ourselves; we could not live in the open air without shelter as we have done. The summer will soon pass, and the rainy season will come, and the bitter frosts and snows of winter will have to be provided against.”