CHAPTER IV.
"Aye from the sultry heat, We to our cave retreat, O'ercanopied by huge roots, intertwined, Of wildest texture, blacken'd o'er with age, Bound them their mantle green the climbers twine.
Beneath whose mantle--pale, Fann'd by the breathing gale, We shield us from the fervid mid-day rage, Thither, while the murmuring throng Of wild bees hum their drowsy song."-- COLERIDGE.
"Louis, what are you cutting out of that bit of wood ?" said Catharine, the very next day after the first ideas of the shanty had been started.
"Hollowing out a canoe." "Out of that piece of stick ?" said Catharine, laughing.

"How many passengers is it to accommodate, my dear." "Don't teaze, ma belle.

I am only making a model.

My canoe will be made out of a big pine log, and large enough to hold three." "Is it to be like the big sap-trough in the sugar-bush at home ?" Louis nodded assent.
"I long to go over to the island; I see lots of ducks popping in and out of the little bays beneath the cedars, and there are plenty of partridges, I am sure, and squirrels,--it is the very place for them." "And shall we have a sail as well as oars ?" "Yes; set up your apron for a sail." Catharine cast a rueful look upon the tattered remnant of the apron.
"It is worth nothing now," she said, sighing; "and what am I to do when my gown is worn out?
It is a good thing it is so strong; if it had been cotton, now, it would have been torn to bits among the bushes." "We must make clothes of skins as soon as we get enough," said Hector; "Louis, I think you can manufacture a bone needle; we can pierce the holes with the strong thorns, or a little round bone bodkin, that can be easily made." "The first rainy day, we will see what we can do," replied Louis; "but I am full of my canoe just now." "Indeed, Louis, I believe you never think of anything else; but even if we had a canoe to-morrow, I do not think that either you or I could manage one," said cautions Hector.
"I could soon learn, as others have done before me.

I wonder who first taught the Indians to make canoes, and venture out on the lakes and streams.