soothe and console her, his own tears fell upon the fair locks of the
weeping girl, and dropped on the hand he held between his own.

"If you cry thus, cousin," he whispered, "you will break poor Louis's
heart, already sore enough with thinking of his foolish conduct."

"Be not cast down, Catharine," said her brother cheeringly; "we may
not be so far from home as you think. As soon as you are rested, we
will set out again, and we may find something to eat; there must be
strawberries on these sunny banks."

Catharine soon yielded to the voice of her brother, and drying her
eyes, proceeded to descend the sides of the steep valley that lay to
one side of the high ground where they had been sitting.

Suddenly darting down the bank, she exclaimed, "Come, Hector! come,
Louis! here indeed is provision to keep us from starving;" for her eye
had caught the bright red strawberries among the flowers and herbage
on the slope--large ripe strawberries, the very finest she had ever
seen.

"There is, indeed, ma belle," said Louis, stooping as he spoke to
gather up, not the fruit, but a dozen fresh partridge's eggs from the
inner shade of a thick tuft of grass and herbs that grew beside a
fallen tree. Catharine's voice and sudden movements had startled the
ruffed grouse [Footnote: The Canadian partridge is a species of
grouse, larger than the English or French partridge. We refer our
young readers to the finely arranged specimens in the British Museum
(open to the public), where they may discover "Louis's partridge."]
from her nest, and the eggs were soon transferred to Louis's straw