Catharine had become, in course of time, the happy mother of four healthy
children; her sister-in-law had even exceeded her in these welcome
contributions to the population of a new colony. Between the children of
Pierre and Catharine the most charming harmony prevailed; they grew up as
one family, a pattern of affection and early friendship. Though different
in tempers and dispositions, Hector Maxwell, the eldest son of the Scottish
soldier, and his cousin, young Louis Perron, were greatly attached;
they, with the young Catharine and Mathilde, formed a little coterie of
inseparables; their amusements, tastes, pursuits, occupations, all blended
and harmonized delightfully; there were none of those little envyings and
bickerings among them that pave the way to strife and disunion in after
life.

Catharine Maxwell and her cousin Louis were more like brother and sister
than Hector and Catharine, but Mathilde was gentle and dove-like, and
formed a contrast to the gravity of Hector and the vivacity of Louis and
Catharine.

Hector and Louis were fourteen--strong, vigorous, industrious and hardy,
both in constitution and habits. The girls were turned of twelve. It is
not with Mathilde that our story is connected, but with the two lads and
Catharine. With the gaiety and naivete of the Frenchwoman, Catharine
possessed, when occasion called it into action, a thoughtful and
well-regulated mind, abilities which would well have repaid the care of
mental cultivation; but of book-learning she knew nothing beyond a little
reading, and that but imperfectly, acquired from her father's teaching. It
was an accomplishment which he had gained when in the army, having been
taught by his colonel's son, a lad of twelve years of age, who had taken a
great fancy to him, and had at parting given him a few of his school-books,
among which was a Testament, without cover or title-page. At parting, the