river was a long descent. The broadening and
narrowing channel could be seen for miles. A bushy island, beloved of
wild ducks, parted the water, lying as Moses hid in osiers, amidst tall
growths of wild oats. Lily pads stretched their pavements in the oats.
Beyond were rolling banks, and beyond those, wooded hills rising terrace
over terrace to the dawn. Many a sunrise was to come to me over those
hills. Oaks and pines and sumach gathered to my doorway.

In my mind I saw the garden we afterward created; with many fruit trees,
beds, and winding walks, trellised seats, squares of flaming tulips,
phlox, hollyhocks, roses. It should reach down into the ravine, where
humid ferns and rocks met plants that love darkling ground. Yet it
should not be too dark. I would lop boughs rather than have a growing
thing spindle as if rooted in Ste. Pelagie!--and no man who loves trees
can do that without feeling the knife at his heart. What is long
developing is precious like the immortal part of us.

The stoicism that comes of endurance has something of death in it. I
prepared a home without thought of putting any wife therein. I had grown
used to being alone, with the exception of Skenedonk's taciturn company.
The house was for castle and resting place after labor. I took
satisfaction in the rude furniture we made for it. In after years it
became filled with rich gifts from the other side of the world, and
books that have gladdened my heart. Yet in its virginhood, before pain
or joy or achievement had entered there, before spade struck the ground
which was to send up food, my holding on the earth's surface made me
feel prince of a principality.

The men hewed a slab settle, and stationed it before the hearth, a thing
of beauty in its rough and lichen-tinted barks, though you may not
believe it. My floors I would have smooth and neatly joined, of hard
woods which give forth a shining for wear and polish. Stools I had,
easily made, and one large round of a tree for my table, like an Eastern
tabouret.

Before the river closed and winter shut in, Skenedonk and I went back to
Green Bay. I did not know how to form my household, and had it in mind
to consult Madame Ursule. Pawnees could be had: and many French
landholders in the territory owned black slaves. Pierre Grignon himself
kept one little negro like a monkey among the stately Indians.

Dealing with acres, and with people wild as flocks, would have been
worth while if nothing had