rse they left her with us."

Of course Madeleine Jordan, or anybody else who lacked a roof, would be
left with the Grignons; but in that house a hermit seemed out of place,
and I said so to Madame Ursule.

"Poor child!" she responded. "I think she likes the bustle and noise.
She is not a hermit. What difference can it make to her whether people
are around her or not?"

The subject of Madeleine Jordan was no doubt beyond a man's handling. I
had other matters to think about, and directly plunged into them. First
the Menominees and Winnebagoes must be assembled in council. They held
all the desirable land.

"We don't like your Indian scheme in Green Bay," said Pierre Grignon.
"But if the tribes here are willing to sell their lands, other settlers
can't prevent it."

He went with me to meet the savages on the opposite side of the Fox near
the stockade. There the talking and eating lasted two days. At the end
of that time I had a footing for our Iroquois in the Wisconsin portion
of the Illinois Territory; and the savages who granted it danced a war
dance in our honor. Every brave shook over his head the scalps he had
taken. I saw one cap of soft long brown hair.

"Eh!" said Pierre Grignon, sitting beside me. "Their dirty trophies make
you ghastly! Do your eastern tribes never dance war dances?"

After the land was secured its boundaries had to be set. Then my own
grant demanded attention; and last, I was anxious to put my castle on it
before snow flew. Many of those late autumn nights Skenedonk and I spent
camping. The outdoor life was a joy to me. Our land lay up the Fox River
and away from the bay. But more than one stormy evening, when we came
back to the bay for supplies, I plunged into the rolling water and swam
breasting the waves. It is good to be hardy, and sane, and to take part
in the visible world, whether you are great and have your heart's desire
or not.

When we had laid the foundation of the Indian settlement, I built my
house with the help of skilled men. It was a spacious one of hewn logs,
chinked with cat-and-clay plaster, showing its white ribs on the hill
above the Fox. In time I meant to cover the ribs with perennial vines.
There was a spring near the porches. The woods banked me on the rear,
and an elm spread its colossal umbrella over the roof. Fertile fields
stretched at my left, and on my right a deep ravine lined with white
birches, carried a stream to the Fox.

From my stronghold to the