uld not restore our dear sister, even at the sacrifice of Indiana's
life."

"How can she, unprotected and alone, dare such perils? Why did she not
tell us? we would have shared her danger."

"She feared for our lives more than for her own; that poor Indian girl
has a noble heart. I care not now what befals us, we have lost all that
made life dear to us," said Louis gloomily, sinking his head between his
knees.

"Hush, Louis, you are older than I, and ought to bear these trials with
more courage. It was our own fault, Indiana's leaving us, we left her so
much alone to pine after her lost companion; she seemed to think that we
did not care for her. Poor Indiana, she must have felt lonely and sad."
"I tell you what we will do, Hec.--make a log canoe. I found an old
battered one lying on the shore, not far from Pine-tree Point; we have
an axe and a tomahawk,--what should hinder us from making one like it?"

"True! we will set about it to-morrow."

"I wish it were morning, that we might set to work to cut down a good
pine for the purpose."

"As soon as it is done, we will go up the river; anything is better than
this dread suspense and inaction."

The early dawn saw the two cousins busily engaged chopping at a tree of
suitable dimensions, and they worked hard all that day, and the next,
and the next, before the canoe was hollowed out, and then, owing to
their inexperience and the bluntness of their tools, their first attempt
proved abortive; it was too heavy at one end, and did not balance well
in the water.

Louis, who had been quite sure of success, was disheartened; not so
Hector.

"Do not let us give it up; my maxim is perseverance; let us try again,
and again--aye! and a third and a fourth time. I say, never give it up,
that is the way to succeed at last."

"You have ten times my patience, Hec." "Yes! but you are more ingenious
than I, and are excellent at starting an idea."

"We are a good pair then for partnership."

"We will begin anew; and this time I hope we shall profit by our past
blunders."

"Who would imagine that it is now more than a month since we lost
Catharine!"

"I know it, a long, long, weary month," replied Louis, and he struck his
axe sharply into the bark of the pine as he spoke, and remained silent
for some minutes. The boys, wearied by chopping down the tree, rested
from their work, and sat down on the side of the condemned canoe to
resume their conversation. Suddenly Louis graspe