f all you have suffered; I will abide by you in joy or
in sorrow till I see you once more safe in your own dear mother's arms."

Comforted by this assurance, Catharine quickly dashed away the gathering
tears from her checks, and chid her own foolish fears.

"But you know, dear cousin," she said, "I am so helpless, and then the
dread of that horrible wolf makes a coward of me."

After some little time had elapsed, Hector returned; the bark vessel had
done its duty to admiration, it only wanted a very little improvement to
make it complete. The water was cold and pure. Hector had spent a little
time in deepening the mouth of the spring, and placing some stones about
it. He described the ravine as being much deeper and wider, and more
gloomy than the one they occupied. The sides and bottom were clothed
with magnificent oaks. It was a grand sight, he said, to stand on the
jutting spurs of this great ravine, and look down upon the tops of the
trees that lay below, tossing their rounded heads like the waves of a
big sea. There were many lovely flowers, vetches of several kinds, blue,
white, and pencilled, twining among the grass. A beautiful white-belled
flower, that was like the "Morning glory," (_Convolvulus major,_) and
scarlet-cups _[FN: _Erichroma,_ or painted cup]_ in abundance, with
roses in profusion. The bottom of this ravine was strewed in places with
huge blocks of black granite, cushioned with thick green moss; it opened
out into a wide flat, similar to the one at the mouth of the valley
of the Big Stone. _[FN: The mouth of this ravine is now under the
plough, and waving fields of golden grain and verdant pastures have
taken place of the wild shrubs and flowers that formerly adorned it. The
lot belongs to G. Ley, Esq.]_

These children were not insensible to the beauties of nature, and both
Hector and his sister had insensibly imbibed a love of the grand and
the picturesque, by listening with untiring interest to their father's
animated and enthusiastic descriptions of his Highland home, and the
wild mountainous scenery that surrounded it. Though brought up in
solitude and uneducated, yet there was nothing vulgar or rude in the
minds or manners of these young people. Simple and untaught they were,
but they were guileless, earnest, and unsophisticated; and if they
lacked the knowledge that is learned from books, they possessed much
that was useful and practical, which had been taught by experience and
observatio