The soldiers of the Parliament, who were always prowling about, and popping in unawares wherever they suspected the poor king to be hidden, were, at one time, in the very room where he was standing beside the fire." "Oh!" exclaimed Catharine, "that was frightful.

And did they take him prisoner ?" "No; for the wise woodman and his brothers, fearing lest the soldiers should discover that he was a cavalier and a gentleman, by the long curls that the king's men all wore in those days, and called _lovelocks_, begged of his majesty to let his hair be cropped close to his head." "That was very hard, to lose his nice curls." "I dare say the voting king thought so too, but it was better to lose his hair than his head.

So, I suppose, the men told him, for he suffered them to cut it all close to his head, laying down his head on a rough deal table, or a chopping-block, while his faithful friends with a large knife trimmed off the curls." "I wonder if the young king thought at that minute of his poor father, who, you know, was forced by wicked men to lay down his head upon a block to have it cut from his shoulders, because Cromwell, and others as hard-hearted as himself, willed that he should die." "Poor king!" said Catharine, sighing, "I see that it is better to be poor children, wandering on these plains under God's own care, than to be kings and princes at the mercy of bad and sinful men." "Who told your father all these things, Hec ?" said Louis.
"It was the son of his brave colonel, who knew a great deal about the history of the Stuart kings, for our colonel had been with Prince Charles, the young chevalier, and fought by his side when he was in Scotland; he loved him dearly, and, after the battle of Culloden, where the Prince lost all, and was driven from place to place, and had not where to lay his head, he went abroad in hopes of better times; (but those times did not come for the poor Prince; and our colonel) after a while, through the friendship of General Wolfe, got a commission in the army that was embarking for Quebec, and, at last, commanded the regiment to which my father belonged.

He was a kind man, and my father loved both him and his son, and grieved not a little when he parted from him." "Well," said Catharine, "as you have told me such a nice story, Mister Hec, I shall forgive the affront about my curls." "Well, then, to-morrow we are to try our luck at fishing, and if we fail, we will make us bows and arrows to kill deer or small game; I fancy we shall not be over particular as to its of quality.

Why should not we be able to find subsistence as well as the wild Indians ?" "True," said Hector, "the wild men of the wilderness, and the animals and birds, all are fed by the things that He provideth; then, wherefore should His white children fear ?" "I have often heard my father tell of the privations of the lumberers, when they have fallen short of provisions, and of the contrivances of himself and old Jacob Morelle, when they were lost for several days, nay, weeks I believe it was.