In the Forest | Page 6

journey in the
woods, or on the lakes. I have often eaten nice puddings made of it with
milk. The deer feed upon the green rice. They swim into the water and
eat the green leaves and tops. The Indians go out at night to shoot the
deer on the water; they listen for them, and shoot them in the dark. The
wild ducks and water-fowls come down in great flocks to fatten on the
ripe rice in the fall of the year; also large flocks of rice buntings and red
wings, which make their roosts among the low willows, flags, and lilies,
close to the shallows of the lake."

"It seems very useful to birds as well as to men and beasts," said little
Lady Mary.
"Yes, my lady, and to fishes also, I make no doubt; for the good God
has cast it so abundantly abroad on the waters, that I daresay they also
have their share. When the rice is fully ripe, the sun shining on it gives
it a golden hue, just like a field of ripened grain. Surrounded by the
deep-blue waters, it looks very pretty."
"I am very much obliged to you nurse, for telling me so much about the
Indian rice, and I will ask mamma to let me have some one day for my
dinner, that I may know how it tastes."
Just then Lady Mary's governess came to bid her nurse dress her for a
sleigh-ride, and so for the present we shall leave her; but we will tell
our little readers something more in another chapter about Lady Mary
and her flying squirrel.

CHAPTER II
.
SLEIGHING--SLEIGH ROBES--FUR CAPS--OTTER SKINS--OLD
SNOW-STORM--OTTER HUNTING--OTTER SLIDES--INDIAN
NAMES--REMARKS ON WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR HABITS
Nurse, we have had a very nice sleigh-drive. I like sleighing very much
over the white snow. The trees look so pretty, as if they were covered
with white flowers, and the ground sparkled just like mamma's
diamonds."
"It is pleasant, Lady Mary, to ride through the woods on a bright
sunshiny day, after a fresh fall of snow. The young evergreens,
hemlocks, balsams, and spruce-trees, are loaded with great masses of
the new-fallen snow; while the slender saplings of the beech, birch, and
basswood (the lime or linden) are bent down to the very ground,
making bowers so bright and beautiful, you would be delighted to see
them. Sometimes, as you drive along, great masses of the snow come
showering down upon you; but it is so light and dry, that it shakes off
without wetting you. It is pleasant to be wrapped up in warm blankets,
or buffalo robes, at the bottom of a lumber-sleigh, and to travel through
the forest by moonlight; the merry bells echoing through the silent
woods, and the stars just peeping down through the frosted trees, which

sparkle like diamonds in the moonbeams."
"Nurse, I should like to take a drive through the forest in winter. It is so
nice to hear the sleigh-bells. We used sometimes to go out in the snow
in Scotland, but we were in the carriage, and had no bells."
"No, Lady Mary; the snow seldom lies long enough in the old country
to make it worth while to have sleighs there; but in Russia and Sweden,
and other cold Northern countries, they use sleighs with bells."
Lady Mary ran to the little bookcase where she had a collection of
children's books, and very soon found a picture of Laplanders and
Russians wrapped in furs.
"How long will the winter last, nurse?" said the child, after she had
tired herself with looking at the prints, "a long, long time--a great many
weeks?--a great many months?"
"Yes, my lady; five or six months."
"Oh, that is nice--nearly half a year of white snow, and sleigh-drives
every day, and bells ringing all the time! I tried to make out a tune, but
they only seemed to say, 'Up-hill, up-hill! down-hill, down-hill!' all the
way. Nurse, please tell me what are sleigh-robes made of?"
"Some sleigh-robes, Lady Mary, are made of bear-skins, lined with red
or blue flannel; some are of wolf-skins, lined with bright scarlet cloth;
and some of racoon, the commonest are buffalo-skins; I have seen
some of deer-skins, but these last are not so good, as the hair comes off,
and they are not so warm as the skins of the furred or woolly-coated
animals"
"I sometimes see long tails hanging down over the backs of the sleigh
and cutters--they look very pretty, like the end of mamma's boa."
"The wolf and racoon skin robes are generally made up with the tails,
and sometimes the heads of the animals are also left. I noticed the head
of a wolf, with its sharp ears, and long white teeth, looking very