through awkward handling of the knife and flint, a good fire was at
last kindled, as there was no lack of dry wood on the shore. Catharine
then triumphantly produced her tin pot, and the eggs were boiled,
greatly to the satisfaction of all parties, who were by this time
sufficiently hungry, having eaten nothing since the previous evening
more substantial than the strawberries they had taken during the time
they were gathering them in the morning.

Catharine had selected a pretty, cool, shady recess, a natural bower,
under the overhanging growth of [Illustration: THE FIRST BREAKFAST.]
cedars, poplars, and birch, which were wreathed together by the
flexible branches of the wild grape vine and bitter-sweet, which
climbed to a height of fifteen feet [Footnote: _Celastrus
scandens_,--bitter-sweet or woody nightshade. This plant, like the
red-berried bryony of England, is highly ornamental. It possesses
powerful properties as a medicine, and is in high reputation among the
Indians.] among the branches of the trees, which it covered as with a
mantle. A pure spring of cold, delicious water welled out from beneath
the twisted roots of an old hoary-barked cedar, and found its way
among the shingle on the beach to the lake, a humble but constant
tributary to its waters. Some large blocks of water-worn stone formed
convenient seats and a natural table, on which the little maiden
arranged the forest fare; and never was a meal made with greater
appetite or taken with more thankfulness than that which our wanderers
ate that morning. The eggs (part of which they reserved for another
time) were declared to be better than those that were daily produced
from the little hen-house at Cold Springs. The strawberries, set out
in little pottles made with the shining leaves of the oak, ingeniously
pinned together by Catharine with the long spurs of the hawthorn, were
voted delicious, and the pure water most refreshing, that they drank,