When they brought their narrative down to the disappearance of Catharine, the whole soul of the old trapper seemed moved--he started from the log on which they were sitting, and with one of his national asseverations, declared "That la bonne fille should not remain an hour longer than he could help among those savage wretches.

Yes, he, her father's old friend, would go up the river and bring her back in safety, or leave his grey scalp behind him among the wigwams." "It is too late, Jacob, to think of starting today," said Hector.

"Come home with us, and eat some food, and rest a bit." "No need of that, my son.

I have a lot of fish here in the canoe, and there is an old shanty on the island yonder, if it be still standing,--the Trapper's Fort I used to call it some years ago.

We will go off to the island and look for it." "No need for that," replied Louis, "for though I can tell you the old place is still in good repair, for we used it this very spring as a boiling house for our maple sap, yet we have a better place of our own nearer at hand--just two or three hundred yards over the brow of yonder hill.