Part 3 (2/2)

”Because a wisdom greater than all of earth rules it. Are there no schools in Detroit?”

”The English have some and there is the Recollet house and the sisters.

But they make you sit still, and presently you go to Montreal or Quebec and are a nun, and wear a long, black gown, and have your head tied up.

Why, I should smother and I could not hear! That is so you cannot hear wicked talk and the drunken songs, but I love the birds and the wind blowing and the trees rustling and the river rus.h.i.+ng and beating up in a foam. And I am not afraid of the Indians nor the _s.h.i.+l loups_,” but she lowered her tone a trifle.

”Do not put too much trust in the Indians, Mam'selle. And there is the _loup garou_--”

”But I have seen real wolves, Monsieur, and when they bring in the furs there are so many beautiful ones. Madame De Ber says there is no such thing as a _loup garou_, that a person cannot be a man and a wolf at the same time. When the wolves and the panthers and the bears howl at night one's blood runs chilly. But we are safe in the stockade.”

”There is much for thee to learn, little one,” he said, after a pause.

”There must be schools in the new country so that all shall not grow up in ignorance. Where is thy father?”

Jeanne Angelot stared straight before her seeing nothing. Her father?

The De Bers had a father, many children had, she remembered. And her mother was dead.

The address ended and there was a thundering roll of drums, while cheers went up here and there. Cautious French habitans and traders thought it wiser to wait and see how long this standard of stripes and stars would wave over them. They were used to battles and conquering and defeated armies, and this peace they could hardly understand. The English were rather sullen over it. Was this stripling of newfound liberty to possess the very earth?

The crowd surged about. Pani caught the arm of her young charge and drew her aside. She was alarmed at the steady scrutiny the young man had given her, though it was chiefly as to some strange specimen.

”Thou art overbold, Jeanne, smiling up in a young man's face and puckering thy brows like some maid coquetting for a lover.”

”A young man!” Jeanne laughed heartily. ”Why he had a snowy beard like a white bear in winter. Where were your eyes, Pani? And he told me such curious things. Is the world round, Pani? And there are lands and lands and strange people--”

”It is a brave show,” exclaimed Louis Marsac joining them. ”I wonder how long it will last. There are to be some new treaties I hear about the fur trade. That man from the town called New York, a German or some such thing, gets more power every month. A messenger came this morning and I am to return to my father at once. Jeanne, I wish thou and Pani wert going to the upper lakes with me. If thou wert older--”

She turned away suddenly. Marie De Ber had a group of older girls about her and she plunged into them, as if she might be spirited away.

Monsieur St. Armand had looked after his little friend but missed her in the crowd, and a shade of disappointment deepened his blue eyes.

”_Mon pere_,” began the young man beside him, ”evidently thou wert born for a missionary to the young. I dare say you discovered untold possibilities in that saucy child who knows well how to flirt her curls and arch her eyebrows. She amused me. Was that half-breed her brother, I wonder!”

”She was not a half-breed, Laurent. There are curious things in this world, and something about her suggested--or puzzled. She has no Indian eyes, but the rarest dark blue I ever saw. And did Indian blood ever break out in curly hair?”

”I only noticed her swarthy skin. And there is such a mixed-up crew in this town! Come, the grand show is about over and now we are all reborn Americans up to the sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior. But we will presently be due at the Montdesert House. Are we to have no more t.i.tles and French n.o.bility be on a level with the plainest, just Sieur and Madame?” with a little curl of the lips. The elder smiled good naturedly, nay, even indulgently.

”The demoiselles are more to thee than that splendid flag waving over a free country. Thou canst return--”

”But the dinner?”

”Ah, yes, then we will go together,” he a.s.sented.

”If we can pick our way through this crowd. What beggarly narrow streets. Faugh! One can hardly get his breath. Our wilds are to be preferred.”

By much turning in and out they reached the upper end of St. Louis street, which at that period was quite an elevation and overlooked the river.

CHAPTER III.

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