of the high-bush cranberry, then radiant with nodding umbels of
snowy blossoms, or to wreath the handle of the little basket with the
graceful trailing runners of the lovely twin-flowered plant, the Linnaea
borealis, which she always said reminded her of the twins, Louise and
Marie, her little cousins. And now the day began to wear away, for they
had lingered long in the little clearing; they had wandered from the
path by which they entered it; and had neglected, in their eagerness to
look for the strawberries, to notice any particular mark by which they
might regain it. Just when they began to think of returning, Louis
noticed a beaten path, where there seemed recent prints of cattle hoofs
on a soft spongy soil beyond the creek.

"Come, Hector," said he gaily, "this is lucky; we are on the cattle
path; no fear but it will lead us directly home, and that by a nearer
track."

Hector was undecided about following it, he fancied it bent too much
towards the setting sun; but his cousin overruled his objection. "And is
not this our own creek?" he said: "I have often heard my father say it
had its rise somewhere about this old clearing."

Hector now thought Louis might be right, and they boldly followed the
path among the poplars and thorns and bushes that clothed its banks,
surprised to see how open the ground became, and how swift and clear the
stream swept onward.

"Oh, this dear creek," cried the delighted Catharine, "how pretty it is!
I shall often follow its course after this; no doubt it has its source
from our own Cold Springs."

And so they cheerfully pursued their way, till the sun, sinking behind
the range of westerly hills, soon left them in gloom; but they anxiously
hurried forward when the stream wound its noisy way among steep stony
banks, clothed scantily with pines and a few scattered silver-barked
poplars. And now they became bewildered by two paths leading in opposite
directions; one upward among the rocky hills, the other through the
opening gorge of a deep ravine.

Here, overcome with fatigue, Catharine seated herself on a large block
of granite, near a great bushy pine that grew beside the path by
the ravine, unable to proceed, and Hector, with a grave and troubled
countenance, stood beside her, looking round with an air of great
perplexity. Louis, seating himself at Catharine's feet, surveyed the
deep gloomy valley before them, and sighed heavily. The conviction had
now forcibly struck him that t