providing some shelter for the night; it is not good to rest upon the bare
ground exposed to the night dews.--See, here is a nice hut, half made,"
pointing to a large upturned root which some fierce whirlwind had hurled
from the lofty bank into the gorge of the dark glen.

"Now you must make haste, and lop off a few pine boughs, and stick them
into the ground, or even lean them against the roots of this old oak, and
there, you see, will be a capital house to shelter us. To work, to work,
you idle boys, or poor wee Katty must turn squaw and build her own wigwam,"
she playfully added, taking up the axe which rested against the feathery
pine beneath which Hector was leaning. Now, Catharine cared as little as
her brother and cousin about passing a warm summer's night under the shade
of the forest trees, for she was both hardy and healthy; but her woman's
heart taught her that the surest means of reconciling the cousins would be
by mutually interesting them in the same object,--and she was right. In
endeavouring to provide for the comfort of their dear companion, all angry
feelings were forgotten by Hector, while active employment chased away
Louis's melancholy.

Unlike the tall, straight, naked trunks of the pines of the forest, those
of the plains are adorned with branches often to the very ground, varying
in form and height, and often presenting most picturesque groups, or rising
singly among scattered groves of the silver-barked poplar or graceful
birch-trees; the dark, mossy greenness of the stately pine contrasting
finely with the light waving foliage of its slender graceful companions.

Hector, with his axe, soon lopped boughs from one of the adjacent pines,
which Louis sharpened with his knife, and with Catharine's assistance drove
into the ground, arranging them in such a way as to make the upturned oak,
with its roots and the earth which adhered to them, form the back part of