. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . SLAXP-nUT. 23 flowed in, tlie tumult and fiiiv of tlip <j;\-p{\t l) waslike a seething chaos. In this wild solitude, remote from all civilization, andhaving no contact with the rest of American society, rosea small rude hut; and in this hut, in 1846, abode ayoung woman oftwenty-two, a mascu-line creatiire, of aniispect severe and yetgentle, and possess-ing a peculiar sympa-thetic voice, which re-minded me of thebabbling of the Ame-lican thrush whenwatching over herbrood. Jessie — for suclwas
. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . SLAXP-nUT. 23 flowed in, tlie tumult and fiiiv of tlip <j;\-p{\t l) waslike a seething chaos. In this wild solitude, remote from all civilization, andhaving no contact with the rest of American society, rosea small rude hut; and in this hut, in 1846, abode ayoung woman oftwenty-two, a mascu-line creatiire, of aniispect severe and yetgentle, and possess-ing a peculiar sympa-thetic voice, which re-minded me of thebabbling of the Ame-lican thrush whenwatching over herbrood. Jessie — for suclwas the name of thf^lonely inhabitant ofthis sea-side hut—hailost her mother; whiliher father, an agedinvalid, diagged outthe last sands of life,crouching before thefire, smoking his pijte, and in a dismal had unsettled his mind ; the strings of the brainwere loosened; he was almost imbecile. Jessie hadbravely taken charge of her four brothers ; and the abundance of fish, to the sea-bii-ds nests, andthe stags which she caught in snaies, good and plentiful. )F AX A SIM 24 A WAIF OF THE SEA-SHOKE. food was never wanting in the hut. The eldest ofthe hxds was about twenty years old, and the youngest,in giving birth to whom his mother had lost her life, wasabout fourteen. This little fellow—he was so little thatyou would have thought him al)0ut eight yeais old—wasthe favoiirite of the family ; and if ever the father smiledupon any one, it was upon him. Ben neither knew howto manage a net, to cultivate the ground, or assist in thehousehold work; his principal occupation consisted inweaving garlands of sea-weeds, in fabricating rush mats,and in gathering shells for his sisters collars and brace-lets. Often they would find him prone on a gi-eatlevel crag, behind which their hut was sheltered; andthere, his eyes fixed upon the ocean, he followed withwistful gaze the white sails of the distant shii)s, orstared into the swift and flashing current which
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectg, booksubjecthunting
