Page:Elizabeth, or, The exiles of Siberia (2).pdf/5

Rh passed his mornings in the chase every winter: he killed the elks, and sometimes caught the sable, but more frequently, the ermine, which is more plentiful there. He sold the skins of the animals, and bought furniture and books for his daughter, who, seated between her parents, read aloud to them passages from history. Springer did not fail to impress on her soul the beauty and glory of heroism, while her mother, (Phedora) directed her feelings to scenes calculated to produce tenderness of heart, and impressed on her mind the charms of piety and modest goodness. The consequence of such parental assiduity produced a character at once courageous and feeling-combining all that was noble in honour with all that was tender in love.

In the proper season the culture of the garden occupied the family, in the southern part of which he formed a fruit-house, where he cultivated flowers that were strangers to this region, and when their blossoms opened, he would say to his daughter, “Elizabeth, deck thyself with flowers of thy native land, which resemble thee, and are beautiful even in exile!" Frequently would he take her in his arms, and, pressing her to his heart, exclaim, "Take away this child, Phedora, her distress and thine will destroy me!" When the Sabbath came, however, it was the practice of Phedora (who most regretted that she was deprived of participating in the offices of her church), to pass some portion of this holy day in prayer, before an image of St. Bazil, whose character she much venerated. Educated in these savage wilds since her fourth year, Elizabeth knew no other country. She felt amused in ascending the rocks which bordered the lake to search after the eggs of the sparrow hawk and white vulture; sometimes she ensnared the wood-pigeon in her net, or angled for the fish in the lake, whose purple seales had the appearance of fire, covered with liquid silver. Her growth was accelerated by the exercise she took, while every day, on her lovely and innocent face some new charm was developed. At times, when she