portion of the clean rice in its natural state for sale; for this they get
from a dollar and a half to two dollars a bushel. Some they parch, either
in large pots, or on mats made of the inner bark of cedar or bass wood,
beneath which they light a slow fire, and plant around it a temporary hedge
of green boughs, closely set to prevent the heat from escaping; they also
plant stakes, over which they stretch the matting at a certain height above
the fire. On this they spread the green rice, stirring it about with wooden
paddles, till it is properly parched; this is known by its bursting and
showing the white grain of the flour. When quite cool it is stowed away in
troughs, scooped out of butter-nut wood, or else sewed up in sheets of
birch-bark or bass-mats, or in coarsely made birch-bark baskets."

"And is the rice good to eat, nurse?"

"Some people like it as well as the white rice of Carolina; but it does
not look so well. It is a great blessing to the poor Indians, who boil it
in their soups, or eat it with maple molasses. And they eat it when
parched without any other cooking, when they are on a long journey in the
woods, or on the lakes. I have often eaten nice puddings made of it with
milk. The deer feed upon the green rice. They swim into the water, and eat
the green leaves and tops. The Indians go out at night to shoot the deer
on the water; they listen for them, and shoot them in the dark. The wild
ducks and water-fowls come down in great flocks to fatten on the ripe rice
in the fall of the year; also large flocks of rice buntings and red wings
which make their roosts among the low willows, flags, and lilies close to
the shallows of the lake."

"It seems very useful to birds as well as to men and beasts," said little
Lady Mary.