The woodchuck proved a providential supply, and Hector cheered his companions with the assurance that they could not starve, as there were plenty of these creatures to be found. They had seen one or two about the Cold Springs, but they are less common in the deep forest lands than on the drier, more open plains.
“It is a great pity we have no larger vessel to bring our water from the spring in,” said Hector, looking at the tin-pot, “one is so apt to stumble among stones and tangled underwood. If we had only one of our old bark dishes we could get a good supply at once.”
“There is a fallen birch not far from this,” said Louis; “I have here my trusty knife; what is there to hinder us from manufacturing a vessel capable of holding water, a gallon if you like?”
“How can you sew it together, cousin?” asked Catharine; “you have neither deer sinews, nor war-tap.” _[The Indian name for the flexible roots of the tamarack, or swamp larch, which they make use of in manufacturing the birch baskets and canoes.]_ “I have a substitute at hand, ma belle,” and Louis pointed to the strips of leatherwood that he had collected for binding the dressings on his cousin’s foot.
When an idea once struck Louis, he never rested till he worked it out in some way. In a few minutes he was busily employed, stripping sheets of the ever-useful birch-bark from the trunk that had fallen at the foot of the “Wolf’s Crag,” for so the children had named the memorable spot where poor Catharine’s accident had occurred.
The rough outside coatings of the bark, which are of silvery whiteness, but are ragged from exposure to the action of the weather in the larger and older trees, he peeled off, and then cutting the bark so that the sides lapped well over, and the corners were secured from cracks, he proceeded to pierce holes opposite to each other, and with some trouble managed to stitch them tightly together, by drawing strips of the moose or leather-wood through and through. The first attempt, of course, was but rude and ill-shaped, but it answered the purpose, and only leaked a little at the corners for want of a sort of flap, which he had forgotten to allow in cutting out the bark; this flap in the Indian baskets and dishes turns up, and keeps all tight and close. The defect he remedied in his subsequent attempts. In spite of its deficiencies, Louis’s water-jar was looked upon with great admiration, and highly commended by Catharine, who almost forgot her sufferings--while watching her cousin’s proceedings.