Part 13 (2/2)

She watched him as he threaded his way through the narrow street and turned the corner. Then she rushed into the house and threw herself on the small pallet, sobbing as if her heart would break. No one for whom she cared had ever gone out of her life before. With Pani there was complete owners.h.i.+p, but Monsieur St. Armand was a new experience.

Neither had she really loved her playmates, she had found them all so different from herself. Next to Pani stood Wenonah and the grave brown-faced babies who tumbled about the floor when they were not fastened to their birch bark canoe cradle with a flat end balancing it against the wall. She sometimes kissed them, they were so quaint and funny.

”_Ma mie, ma mie_, let me take thee to my bosom,” Pani pleaded. ”He will return again as he said, for he keeps his word. And thou wilt be a big girl and know many things, and he will be proud of thee. And M.

Bellestre may come.”

Jeanne's sobs grew less. She had been thrust so suddenly into a new world of tender emotion that she was frightened. She did not want to go out again, and sat watching Pani as she made some delicious broth out of fresh green corn, that was always a great treat to the child.

It was true there was a new stir in the atmosphere of old Detroit. For General Wayne with the prescience of an able and far-sighted patriot had said, ”To make good citizens they must learn the English language and there must be schools. Education will be the corner stone of this new country.”

Governor St. Clair had a wide territory to look after. There were many unsettled questions about land and boundaries and proper laws. New settlements were projected, but Detroit was left to adjust many questions for itself. A school was organized where English and various simple branches should be taught. It was opposed by Father Gilbert, who insisted that all the French Catholics should be sent to the Recollet house, and trained in Church lore exclusively. But the wider knowledge was necessary since there were so many who could not read, and the laws and courts would be English.

The school session was half a day. The better cla.s.s people had a few select schools, and sometimes several families joined and had their children taught at the house of some parent and shared expenses.

Jeanne felt like a wild thing caught and thrust into a cage. There were disputes and quarrels, but she soon established a standing for herself.

The boys called her Indian, and a name that had been flung at her more than once--tiger cat.

”You will see that I can scratch,” she rejoined, threateningly.

”I will learn English, Pani, and no one shall interfere. M. Loisel said if I went to the sisters on Wednesday and Friday afternoons that Father Rameau would be satisfied. He is nice and kindly, but I hate Father Gilbert. And,” laughingly, ”I think they are all afraid of M. Bellestre.

Do you suppose he will take me home with him when he comes? I do not want to leave Detroit.”

Pani sighed. She liked the old town as well.

Jeanne flew to the woods when school was over. She did envy the Indian girls their freedom for they were not trained in useful arts as were the French girls. Oh, the frolics in the woods, the hunting of berries and grapes, the loads of beautiful birch and ash bark, the wild flowers that bloomed until frost came! and the fields turning golden with the ripening corn, secure from Indian raids! The thrifty French farmers watched it with delight.

Marie De Ber had been kept very busy since the spinning began. Madame thought schooling shortsighted business except for boys who would be traders by and by, and must learn how to reckon correctly and do a little writing.

They went after the last gleaning of berries one afternoon, when the autumn suns.h.i.+ne turned all to gold.

”O Marie,” cried Jeanne, ”here is a harvest! Come at once, and if you want them don't shout to anyone.”

”O Jeanne, how good you are! For you might have called Susanne, who goes to school, and I have thought you liked her better than you do me.”

”No, I do not like her now. She pinched little Jacques Moet until he cried out and then she laid it to Pierre Dessau, who was well thrashed for it, and I called her a coward. I am afraid girls are not brave.”

”Come nearer and let us hide in this thicket. For if I do not get a big lot of berries mother will send Rose next time, she threatened.”

”You can have some of mine. Pani will not care; for she never scolds at such a thing.”

”Pani is very good to you. Mother complains that she spoils you and that you are being brought up like a rich girl.”

Jeanne laughed. ”Pani never struck me in my life. She isn't quite like a mother, you see, but she loves me, loves me!” with emphasis.

”There are so many for mother to love,” and the girl sighed.

”Jeanne,” she began presently, ”I want to tell you something. Mother said I must not mention it until it was quite settled. There is--some one--he has been at father's shop and--and is coming on Sunday to see mother--”

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