only had a cup of coffee and a glass of
wine, we might say that we had dined in fashionable style."
"I think," replied Lucien, "we are better without the wine, and as for
the other I cannot give you that, but I fancy I can provide you with a
cup of tea if you only allow me a little time."
"Tea!" screamed Francois; "why, there's not a leaf of tea nearer than
China; and for the sugar, not a grain within hundreds of miles!"
"Come, Frank," said Lucien, "nature has not been so ungenerous here,
even in such luxuries as tea and sugar. Look yonder! You see those large
trees with the dark-coloured trunks. What are they?"
"Sugar-maples," replied Francois.
"Well," said Lucien, "I think even at this late season we might contrive
to extract sap enough from them to sweeten a cup of tea. You may try,
while I go in search of the tea-plant."
"Upon my word, Luce, you are equal to a wholesale grocery. Very well.
Come, Basil, we'll tap the maples; let the captain go with Luce."
The boys, separating into pairs, walked off, in different directions.
Lucien and his companion soon lighted upon the object of their search in
the same wet bottom where they had procured the _Heracleum_. It was a
branching shrub, not over two feet in height, with small leaves of a
deep green colour above, but whitish and woolly underneath. It is a
plant well known throughout most of the Hudson's Bay territory by the
name of "Labrador tea-plant;" and is so called because the Canadian
voyageurs, and other travellers through these northern districts, often
drink it as tea. It is one of the _Ericaceae_, or heath tribe, of the
genus _Ledum_--though it is not a true heath, as, strange to say, no
true heath is found upon the continent of America.
There are two kinds of it known,--the "narrow-leafed" and "broad-leafed"
and the former makes the best tea. But the pretty white flowers of the
plant are better for the purpose than the leaves of either variety; and
these it was that were now gathered by Lucien and Norman. They require
to be dried before the decoction is made; but this can be done in a
short time over a fire; and so in a short time it was done, Norman
having parched them upon heated stones.
Meanwhile Basil and Francois had obtained the sugar-water, and Lucien
having washed his soup-kettle clean, and once more made his boiling
stones red-hot, prepared the beverage; and then it was served out in the
tin cup, and all partook of it. Norman had drunk
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