[FN: A Bee is a practical instance of duty to a neighbour. We fear it is peculiar to Canada, although deserving of imitation in all Christian colonies. When any work which requires many hands is in the course of performance, as the building of log-houses, barns, or shanties, all the neighbours are summoned, and give their best assistance in the construction. Of course the assisted party is liable to be called upon by the community in turn, to repay in kind the help he has received.]
to put up a shed for the new cow that he was to drive back with him, and I am sure Mathilde and I did as much good as you and Louis. You know you said you could not have got on nearly so well without our help.”
“Yes, and you cried because you got a fall off the shed when if was only four logs high.”
“It was not for the fall that I cried,” said Catharine, resentfully, “but because cousin Louis and you laughed at me, and said, ‘Cats, you know, have nine lives, and seldom are hurt, because they light on their feet,’ and I thought it was very cruel to laugh at me when I was in pain. Beside, you called me ‘puss,’ and ‘poor pussie’ all the rest of the Bee.”
“I am sure, ma belle, I am very sorry if I was rude to you,” said Louis, trying to look penitent for the offence. “For my part, I had forgotten all about the fall; I only know that we passed a very merry day. Dear aunt made us a fine Johnny-cake for tea, with lots of maple molasses; and the shed was a capital shed, and the cow must have thought us fine builders, to have made such a comfortable shelter for her, with no better help.”
“After all,” said Hector, thoughtfully; “children can do a great many things if they only resolutely set to work, and use the wits and the strength that God has given them to work with. A few weeks ago, and we should have thought it utterly impossible to have supported ourselves in a lonely wilderness like this by our own exertions in fishing and hunting.”
“If we had been lost in the forest, we must have died with hunger,” said Catharine; “but let us be thankful to the good God who led us hither, and gave us health and strength to help ourselves.”
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.