"These little fellows are the sons of a poor man who came out this
summer, and who has taken up some wild land about a mile back of us,
towards the plains. Clark is busy logging up a small fallow for fall
wheat, on which his family must depend for bread during the ensuing
year; and he is so anxious to get it ready in time, that he will not
allow himself an hour at noon to go home to his dinner, which his
wife generally sends in a basket to the woods by his eldest
daughter.
"Last Wednesday the girl had been sent on an errand by her mother,
who thought, in her absence, that she might venture to trust the two
boys to take the dinner to their father. The boys were from seven
to five years old, and very smart and knowing for their age. They
promised to mind all her directions, and went off quite proud of
the task, carrying the basket between them.
"How they came to ramble away into the woods, the younger child
is too much stupified to tell; and perhaps he is too young to
remember. At night the father returned, and scolded the wife for
not sending his dinner as usual; but the poor woman (who all day
had quieted her fears with the belief that the children had stayed
with their father), instead of paying any regard to his angry
words, demanded, in a tone of agony, what had become of her
children?
"Tired and hungry as Clark was, in a moment he comprehended their
danger, and started off in pursuit of the boys. The shrieks of the
distracted woman soon called the neighbours together, who instantly
joined in the search.
"It was not until this afternoon that any trace could be obtained
of the lost children, when Brian, the hunter, found the youngest
boy, Johnnie, lying fast asleep upon the trunk of a fallen tree,
fifteen miles back in the bush."
"And the other boy?"
"Will never, I fear, be heard of again," said she. "They have
searched for him in all directions and have not discovered him. The
story little Johnnie tells is to this effect. During the first two
days of their absence, the food they had brought in the basket for
their father's dinner, sustained life; but to-day it seems that the
little Johnnie grew very hungry, and cried continually for bread.
William, the elder boy, he says, promised him bread if he would try
and walk further; but his feet were bleeding and sore, and he could
not stir another step. William told him to sit down upon the log on
which he was found, and not stir from the place until he came back,
and he would run on until he found a house and brought him
something to eat.
