gently to her to stay, and not to be afraid; and then he hurried over the
log bridge, and asked her who she was, and where she lived. And she said
'she did not live anywhere, for she was lost.' She could not tell how many
days, but she thought she had been seven nights out in the woods. She had
been sent to take some dinner to her father, who was at work in the
forest; but had missed the path, and gone on a cattle track, and did not
find her mistake until it was too late; when she became frightened, and
tried to get back, but only lost herself deeper in the woods. The first
night she wrapped her frock about her head, and lay down beneath the
shelter of a great upturned root. She had eaten but little of the food she
had in the basket that day, for it lasted her nearly two; after it was
gone, she chewed some leaves, till she came to the raspberry clearing, and
got berries of several kinds, and plenty of water to drink from the creek.
One night, she said, she was awakened by a heavy tramping near her, and
looking up in the moonlight, saw two great black beasts, which she thought
were her father's oxen, and so she sat up and called, 'Buck,' 'Bright,'--
for these were their names,--but they had no bells, and looked like two
great shaggy black dogs; they stood on their hind legs upright, and looked
at her, but went away. These animals were bears, but the child did not
know that, and she said she felt no fear--for she said her prayers every
night before she lay down to sleep, and she knew that God would take care
of her, both sleeping and waking." [Footnote: The facts of this story I
met with, many years ago, in a provincial paper. They afterwards appeared
in a Canadian sketch, in Chambers' Journal, contributed by me in 1838.]

"And did the hunter take her home?" asked Lady Mary, who was much
interested in the story.

"Yes, my dear, he did. Finding that the poor little girl was very weak,
the young man took her on his back,--fortunately he happened to have a